Category Archives: Reviews

Culinary Destinations: Mexico City Food Markets, “Great Food Everywhere”

From a CityLab.com online article:

Juana Lomeli at Jamaica Market. Clemente Dadoo LomeliThe city’s great unifier and appeal is its cuisine, especially the street-food: corner quesadillas, fast food tents outside of subway stops, stews served over hand-made tortillas, deep fried chicken tacos, tacos topped with rice served from street stands or a make-shift diner in the back of a van. In Mexico City, one can find great food everywhere at any price-point and at any time of day.

Among the hundreds of markets in Mexico, every person finds the one best attuned to their needs and desires. In 52 years, I have visited my markets hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. In that time, my father passed away, as did the fisherman from the now defunct El Barco in San Juan, and, recently, the woman, who sold me lush, grainy yellow morel mushrooms. When I told my daughter about her passing, she too felt a pang in her heart. She can crystalize her image from memory; the tight, white braids, the rebozo she used to lay out the mushrooms and the fact that if those mushrooms made their way into our supper, she knew exactly where they came from. I courteously called her “La señora” for so many years that I now question if I knew her name to begin with.

To read more: https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2019/08/mexico-city-travel-food-market-cuisine-taco-best-cdmx/597034/?utm_source=newsletter&silverid=%25%25RECIPIENT_ID%25%25&utm_campaign=citylab-daily-newsletter&utm_medium=email

Top Art Exhibitions: “Homer At The Beach: A Marine Painter’s Journey” At The Cape Ann Museum

From a Wall Street Journal article:

Winslow Homer’s Sunset Fires (1880) PHOTO THE WESTMORELAND MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ARTThat’s how I felt while visiting “Homer at the Beach: A Marine Painter’s Journey, 1869-1880,” an intimate exhibition at the Cape Ann Museum. The show is handsome, historically rich and perfectly positioned here at this harbor venue, which devotes galleries to regional maritime and fishing artifacts, local decorative arts, Gloucester sea captain Elias Davis ’s house and the works of the renowned illustrator and marine painter Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865), a Gloucester native with whom Boston-born Winslow Homer (1836-1910) had much in common.

An illustrator and painter, Homer is chiefly celebrated for his mature paintings of life on or near the sea. “Homer on the Beach” was never intended to be a gathering of Homer’s greatest maritime works. Therefore, it does not contain those revered later masterpieces such as “The Life Line” (1884), “The Herring Net” (1885) and “The Gale” (1883-93), but it lays their foundations and illumines the first leg of his voyage. Curated by William R. Cross, a museum consultant and chairman of the Advisory Board of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, the show focuses on Homer’s artistic formation as a marine painter.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/homer-at-the-beach-a-marine-painters-journey-1869-1880-review-flotsam-jetsam-handsome-11567249200

Profiles: Malika Favre’s “Spectacularly Modern” “New Yorker” Covers

From a CommArts.com online article:

New_yorker_web-1200x1638-24fpsFrom the top floor of a 1920s building in Hackney, in the East End of London, Favre’s confidence is at a peak. The bold, graphic style she has developed over the last fifteen years attracts prestigious projects. When she was invited to design the poster for this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival, held every summer in Switzerland since 1967, she became part of a group that includes Milton Glaser, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Her poster is full of female silhouettes dancing, the negative spaces between them forming instruments.

 

New_yorker_web-1200x1638-24fps_2Favre is a French artist based in London.

Her bold, minimal style – often described as Pop Art meets OpArt – is a striking lesson in the use of positive/negative space and colour.

Her unmistakable style has established her as one of the UK’s most sought after graphic artists. Malika’s clients include The New Yorker, Vogue, BAFTA, Sephora and Penguin Books, amongst many others.

New_yorker_web-1200x1638

The above is from her Website: https://www.malikafavre.com/

 

Top Art Exhibitions: “The Impressionist Pastel” At Art Institute Of Chicago

From Art Institute of Chicago online release:

Two Dancers, c. 1893–98 Hilaire Germain Edgar DegasThis focused installation features pastels by four artists whose work was shown in the Impressionist exhibitions: Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Eva Gonzalès, and Berthe Morisot. Their subjects range from scenes of modern life, such as ballet performers and a woman working in a hat shop, to depictions of intimate moments of bathing and women with children.

Although Impressionism is most closely associated with oil painting, during the late 19th century, Impressionist artists increasingly began to exhibit and market their prints and drawings as finished works of art. In fact, prints and drawings made up nearly half of the works in the eight Impressionist exhibitions held in Paris between 1874 and 1886. Pastels in particular became increasingly sought-after by collectors.

Art Institute Chicago logoPastel, a medium used to draw on paper or, less often, on canvas, is made by combining dry pigment with a sticky binder. Once artists have applied the pastel to the surface, they can either blend it, leave their markings visible, or layer different colors to create texture and tone. Pastel portraits had previously gained popularity in France and England in the 18th century, but fell out of fashion with critics when pastel was deemed too feminine; not only was it used by women artists, but it had a powdery consistency similar to women’s makeup. The Impressionists rejected this bias and instead embraced the medium’s ability to impart immediacy, boldness, and radiance.

Website: https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9400/the-impressionist-pastel

Visual Artists: Samir Belhamra’s “Mesmerizing Meadows From Soaring Perspectives” In Provence

From a MyModernMet.com online article:

Samir Belhamra Visual Artist - Valensole by Night, South France, Provence 2To many nature photographers, no muse is quite as magical as a field of flowers. This tried and true subject is particularly popular with aerial photographers, whose atmospheric shots allow us to explore the mesmerizing meadows from soaring perspectives. One photographer taking this trend to new heights is Samir Belhamra, a visual artist whose love of aerial photography landed him in a lavender field in France.

Situated in Valensole, a picturesque town in Provence, this field of flowers blankets the golden landscape in shades of purple. In order to capture the extent of the site’s sprawling beauty, Belhamra begins his video at ground level. Slowly, he directs his DJI Mavic Air drone toward the sky in order to showcase the perfectly organized and seemingly endless rows of flowers from various vantage points.

https://grafixartphoto.com/

To read more click on following link: https://mymodernmet.com/lavender-video-samir-belhamra/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_term=2019-08-29

Top European Events: 30th Anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution In Berlin On Nov. 4-10, 2019

From a SmithsonianMag.com online article:

“History is best told at the original locations,” Moritz van Dülmen, CEO of event organizer Kulturprojekte Berlin, says in a press release. “To better understand the Peaceful Revolution and to celebrate the anniversary of the fall of the Wall, we will recount the events of 1989/90 precisely where they took place.”

his November, Germany’s capital is set to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall with a festival featuring large-scale video projections, concerts, open-air exhibitions, an augmented reality app that temporarily resurrects the fractious barrier between east and west, and a floating art installation made up of 30,000 handwritten messages.

https://mauerfall30.berlin/en/#

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/berlin-will-mark-30th-anniversary-walls-fall-week-long-arts-festival-180973018/#dFgCcckczBeP5Zxo.99

Technology Innovations: Inmergo Headphones By Rocco Giovannoni – “Like You’re Inside The Song”

From a Dezeen.com online article:

Immergo Headphones Rocco Giovannoni websiteGiovannoni describes it as “immersive omnidirectional” sound with richer bass. “It feels like you’re inside the song,” says one wide-eyed subject in Inmergo’s user testing video.

Water rather than air carries sound in designer Rocco Giovannoni’s Inmergo headphones, which promise rich audio even for people who are hard of hearing.

A 2019 graduate of the Royal College of Art’s MA in Design Products, Giovannonidesigned the soft silicone headphones to improve upon current bone-conduction audio technology.

To read more: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/09/01/inmergo-headphones-rocco-giovannoni-design/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Dezeen&utm_content=Daily%20Dezeen+CID_ea960a6d9fc2f1bafc2e4790608c91f1&utm_source=Dezeen%20Mail&utm_term=Water-filled%20Inmergo%20headphones%20by%20Rocco%20Giovannoni%20allow%20immersive%20listening

Boomer Interviews: Singer Patty Smyth Talks About Her Nearly Four Decade Career (Podcast)

From a Cincinnati Public Radio WVXU interview:

Patty SmythPatty Smyth & her band Scandal will appear on PNC Pavilion‘s stage with Rick Springfield and Greg Kihn on Friday, September 6th at 7:30 which also features a pre-show wine tasting.

Elaine began their conversation mentioning that she saw Patty (now 62)on tour with John Waite many years ago.  They discussed the members of her band, multi-generational fans, and a new recording that’s coming out in January.  Patty also mentioned that she calls New York City home with her kids and husband tennis legend John McEnroe.  They also mentioned her self-titled 1992 album (that went gold), the song “Hands Tied,” and covers of “Whole Lotta Love” and “Piece of My Heart” that she probably won’t be performing this tour.

To read interview: https://www.wvxu.org/post/patty-smyths-tour-rick-springfield-greg-kihn#stream/0

Top Photographers: Christian Vizl Shot The World’s Oceans In Black & White For Three Decades

From a MyModernMet.com online article and interview:

Silent Kingdom A World Beneath The Waves Christian VizlI have always loved the ocean and also photography. I started taking pictures as a teenager and was very inspired by black and white masters like Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson, but didn’t combine these two passions until 2010 after a dive I did with an underwater videographer friend. During this trip, we made an immersion when he suddenly gave me his camera and left. After a while, I turned it on and loved the feeling of having a camera underwater. That’s when I decided to buy my first underwater camera…

Award-winning underwater photographer Christian Vizl has been inspired by the ocean since childhood. Born in Mexico City, his career spans more than thirty years and in that time he’s earned an international reputation for his artistic documentation of life underwater. In particular, he’s recognized for his powerful black and white underwater photographs, which harness light and shadow to reveal different aspects of marine life.

https://www.christianvizl.com/index

In his new book Silent Kingdom, published by Earth Aware Editions, Vizl shares his vision of the underwater world. Schools of fish, sea lions, jellyfish, and manatees all get equal treatment in the book. Vizl manages to capture the elegance of life below sea level by using his keen eye for symmetry and composition.

To read more click on the following link: https://mymodernmet.com/christian-vizl-silent-kingdom-underwater-photography/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_term=2019-08-29

Top Restaurants: Winvian Farm In Connecticut Is “Seed-To-Table Dining”

From the Winvian Farm brochure:

Each dining area is dramatic in contrast and each is designed to harmonize with thecuisine created to suit that space—breakfast on the sunny Terrace, tasting menus in the Private Dining Room, light snacks in the casual Solarium to name a few. The Seth Bird House and The Smith Ell are freely accessible to all of Winvian’s guests, whether to play some games, sit by the fire with a hot toddy or chat with like minded souls.

Winvian Farm Restaurant Connecticut exterior

Far from the madding crowd, in the Litchfield Hills, lies a quiet getaway. Set on 113 acres and bordering extensive woods and lakes, Winvian was created to recharge and indulge. A place like this is difficult to describe for it lacks nothing. Winvian aspires to host you with no airs but graces, no extravagance or opulence, only warmth and treats. The  cuisine, the wines, the spa and the team are as unexpected as the experiences that
one ultimately enjoys.

Website: https://www.winvian.com/