Male Model Boxing

This is what was going on the other week in the loft across the street from me. I had a lot of fun taking these pictures - I was totally caught up in the moment of the fight and hardly noticed that I was being pushed and shoved by the big boys with big cameras.. everyone up against the ropes trying to get the best shot. So, this is what some people do with a big empty loft... sell cheap alcohol, drill together a makeshift boxing ring, give a bunch of male models gloves and make them fight each other for sport. Sweet.

Those Naughty Victorians

Food Movement

Its true that recently, in foodie land, a lot of attention has been given to the notion of cutting down the amount of "stuff" (handling, processing, time etc) between food at its source, and food in our mouths. Everyone seems to have a freshness radar which is now keenly used among some of the more traditional criteria to conclude on which dishes at which restaurants are best in class. Which begs the question...who is doing this, or more importantly who is doing this_ best?

My first experience with this kind of eating, aside from scoffing mulberries from a tree as a kid, was at Blue Hill in the West Village of NYC. Blue Hill is affiliated with Stone Barns Farm near Tarrytown in Westchester NY. A significant portion of the menu is created from the produce of the farm - vegetables, meat, dairy, everything. Basically, if no animals were killed that day, there is no meat on the menu...kind of thing. I have had, possibly, the best egg I have ever tasted at Blue Hill which was featured on the 5 course tasting menu, along with its mother, the chicken, beside it on the plate. Sounds like a cult suicide, but was delicious! The dish was quite simply called 'this morning's egg'.

I sat on the plane to Sydney around Christmastime last year chatting to a photographer (also apparently talented foodie/ author) about this and he whipped out a sample of his love project - Harvest to Heat. It explores the concept of farm to table, sustainable eating with some of the most sought after culinary minds in America, the likes of Mario Batali (Babbo), David Chang (Momofuku) and Eric Ripet (Le Bernadin) to name a few. The book embodies my love and lust for food, beautiful recipes and goregeous photographs in the raw and modern context of sustainable eating - which is not to be confused with humane eating, as the book includes a tongue in cheek interview with a fois gras artisan.

Now that I survived the hot and sticky summer, flicking through H2H has me reinspired to get my ass back into the kitchen and over the stove this fall!

Oishiiii

And the winner is.... not telling! The best meal of the last two weeks was tonight, in a cute area I discovered in Tokyo this trip. Attention to detail is this: You sit down at a place with no english menu and ask the people who don't speak english to bring you any 3 dishes. Every dish is presented so that you don't want to ruin it by eating it, and every ingredient on the plate, bowl, cup tastes great on its own and put together is even better. Everything put in front of you is explained by the waiter or chef with a japanese - english dictionary, even though they can barely speak english. Wow.


Of course I forgot my camera but here are some quick snaps from my blackberry.

Soup and Tofu

Sashimi - Bonito, Horse Mackerel, Squid

Fish Broth - Steamed Bass, Shitake, Chicken

Chicken

Japanese Bean Ice Cream

Green Tea and Grapes

Under the Yurakucho Railway

Whether I'm staying at a 40 buck per night hostel and asking how to get to a restaurant where I will spend 400 bucks on dinner, or I'm at a 400 buck per night hotel and asking how to get to a beer joint underneath a railway track, I always get strange looks from hotel staff. Now I have a thick skin for that kind of judgement and I do what I want cos yes, sometimes I'll feel like fois gras and sometimes I'll feel like a Big Mac, so to speak.

Wandering around underneath the Yurakucho railway track on a sweltering Tokyo evening is an interesting experience. I saw my first homeless japanese person while the smell of miso and garbage wafted around me. I peeked into one Izakaya after another while trains clattered across the track above, trying to decide where to eat. In the end I settled on a place where some old guy was clapping at me to come in. I sat at the wooden bar with a big draft Asahi and ordered tofu, sashimi and korrokke. The waiter told me that was enough for 3 people but I didn't care....and ate most of it. Mmm. The rest I took for the sleeping homeless guy on my way back. Itadakimasu!

Hard work... I mean, hard to tell if its work?

Look what I found at the beach today....
(I really am here to work)

Sleepless in Asia

Piano

I have consulted many people, with different muscial backgrounds, on the question of creating music and whether they were producers of electronic music, DJs, jazz or other classical musicians one message consistently rang clear which was 'stop thinking'. A few weeks ago I did that and this is short piece is what my fingers decided to play. An intuitive young man I have recently had the pleasure of getting to know better told me that it reminded him of the rain. Its the first original piece and maybe the last. Either way a broken barrier for me, so thank you to all the people in my life who have shared their passion for music with me, especially mother dearest who tirelessly sat through the tantrums and lessons and gave me these fingers (Sorry I broke one of them :/)! Hope you like it.




(All the people who have influenced and encouraged me musically will know that I am a classical pianist - a puritan one? If that makes sense

Usually these days, if its not me playing, I hear classical music faintly floating around the lobby of high end hotels I stay in while I have my travelling consultant hat on. Gone are the days where I heard it loud and chaotic in the room next door or crashing on 10 pianos at once walking down a hallway of the Conservatorium. Another lifetime.

Listening to it clears out the clutter in my mind. But it has also been a sort of a prison. As time passes, I think more about how things should evolve and the concept that evolution should be organic. But the very thread of classical training is technical and rigid - ironically, musicality is mandatory in order to play something well ... but "you must pay attention" to the italian written on the manuscript that tells you whether you should crescendo (gradually increase volume), play dolce (sweetly) or use rubato (abandon tempo). In my mind, can still see my piano teacher gesticulating over me while I played. Sometimes she would grab my elbows in the heat of the moment to get me to 'use big arms' which would just make me screw up and have to start all over again.

Anyway just a stream of consciousness I was mulling over)

LES Sightings

There are some parts of the LES that are becoming more gentrified but this corner is a gem for LES weirdo sightings. I could go there anytime and find something or someone interesting. Just to test my theory, I went to stand there for a few minutes one afternoon and after about a minute and a half of loitering on the corner here's who rolled by in a wheelchair.... matching red shirt and pants, black gloves, big black earphones, gold john lennon shades, gold guido chain.... bingo.

Places and Faces

This is a collection of pictures I have taken over the years except for the one of the marines in Iraq. I put the marine photo in there because I think its interesting. When this guy sent me this picture of him and his friends I looked at it once or twice and then put it away because there was something about it that made me uneasy. I recently saw part of a documentary on young people in the U.S. military and the adverse effects it has had on them physically and mentally - I think it articulated the reason behind the feeling I got when I looked at the expressions on their faces in the picture holding their guns. Anyway, I digress... I was looking through some of my archives and realized that even though I never spent a lot of money on cameras before, I still liked how a lot of the pictures turned out. Sometimes the camera's imperfections make the picture more interesting

New York City, USA

Iraq

Miami, USA

Havana, Cuba

London, UK

New York City, USA

New York City, USA

New York City, USA

Sydney, Australia

Paris, France

New York City, USA

White Desert, Egypt

Home Sweet Home - New York City, USA

Home Sweet Home - New York City, USA

London, UK

Not sure where

Queensland, Australia

Krabi Province, Thailand

NSW Royal National Park, Australia

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Frogs on a Stick, Thailand

Bugs on Star Fruit, Thailand

Mount Sinai, Egypt

The Nile, Eygpt

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Luxor, Egypt

White Desert, Egypt

White Desert, Egypt

Chiang Mai, Thailand