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.

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!

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.

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.