A hub for what's out there on the web worthy of love from great artwork to interesting people, cultural events to beautiful photography, good food, great music, good books, fabulous babies and more.


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Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Best Tea in the World

I don't usually like to plug products but I'll make an exception for Mariage Freres tea.  Ever since I visited one of their two tea rooms in Paris years ago I have been a devotee.  They've just come out with a new blend in time for Valentine's Day that sounds nice and one can now order on-line from them directly -which means choosing from a much larger, much fresher selection.  More info is here: Mariage Freres UK site.  They have a number of Earl Grey teas (my favorite) including an Earl Grey Pu-Erh which is touted to lower cholesterol.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle

I'm about to visit Seattle, WA again to see Amber/Matt and my twin grandsons so have an increased interest in that part of the world.  Accordingly, I was happy to find the artist Brian Despain, who is represented by Roq La Rue, exhibits there along with other favorite Pop Surrealism/Underground Contemporary artists such as Mark Ryden and Marion Peck.  Looks like the gallery will be a great place to visit on my next trip!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Lee Freidlander, Photographer

I recently became captivated by photographing textures.  It started by my looking for interesting patterns I could use to enhance other art in Photoshop but has morphed into its own thing.   Often, I find, the patterns one finds in cracked asphalt and reflections off of store windows can be more interesting than the bigger picture - proving the quote "God is in the details" to be true.  Because of my new passion, friend Marsha Armitage Bristow recommended I check out her former Rhode Island School of Design photography teacher Lee Freidlander.   I am impressed!  This photograph is from his 2008 exhibit at SFMOMA.  More info on him can be found at Wikipedia and a sampling of his images can be found at the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Alphabets

Visual Culture's website has a great alphabet video by Alessando Novelli (n9ve.it) where the letters morph into others, each in a different font type.  It's a lot different from my ant alphabet video on YouTube.  Another nice alphabet pick by the Vimeo editors is Alphabloks-Motion Typography by Colin Evoy Sebestyen (movecraft.com).  Sometimes, though, the best alphabets are the simplest - like this upper & lower case alphabet by Melissa & Doug.