We love immersive experience, when the story telling jumps off the screen and into your face.  Also dressing up like your favorite characters lets you shed the pretense and burden of being yourself for a while!  As far as immersive pop culture events, there is no better team of performers and producers than the folks at BBQ films.  So when we got an email about a free Twin Peaks tribute we had a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.

The Email read:

To celebrate the highly anticipated premiere of David Lynch’s groundbreaking series, Flavorpill has teamed up with the immersive wizards of BBQ Films to create a Twin Peaks world both wonderful and strange ahead of the premiere of Twin Peaks Sunday, May 21, on Showtime.Enjoy a damn good cup of coffee at the Double R Diner, explore the mysterious Twin Peaks Lodge, and interact with a variety of quirky — dare we say suspicious — characters from this quaint northwestern town, brought to life by the beauties of The Pink Room Burlesque. Come in costume to enter our Miss Twin Peaks Pageant; the prizes could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good hot black coffee. You’ll just have to compete to see!It is happening again. And you are invited.

Juliette came dressed as the wise Margaret a.k.a. the Log Lady, Cooper was Dr. Jacoby.  We had the pleasure of attending with our good friend and costume maven Stef Kruzick. She came dressed as the incomparable Audrey Horne. Va-va-voom!

We ran into our good buddy Cesar Kuriyama who was enjoying a damn fine cup of coffee at the Double RR Diner.

The night got stranger and stranger as burlesque dancers titillated the audience in the Black Lodge and karaoke singers bared their souls with favorites from the Lynchian musical library. We were quite impressed with Nadine Hurley’s rendition of “At Last”. She may be missing an eye, but she had a full set of pipes!

This venue at so many mirrors! Cooper couldn’t help but be “self-reflective”.

Costume Contest!

Suddenly we were all transported to the Black Lodge for the Miss Twin Peaks (costume) contest.  Everyone looked amazing, it was hard for the judges to pick the top three.  Audrey, The Log Lady and Dr. Jacoby were all honored as finalists.  Much to her surprise Juliette got runner up!

It was a helluva night!  Can’t wait for the premiere on Showtime this Sunday.

Update: Here was Gothamist’s take on the night.

We were quoted on Salon! An excerpt:

A New York filmmaker named Cooper Miller, who was attending the event dressed as Dr. Lawrence Jacoby, explained the appeal of the evening to me like this: “People in New York especially love to take on other identities. Sometimes the modern existence is so dependent on your identity. Everyone has to portray themselves a certain way. I feel like these are moments where you really get to let loose and get weird and have fun and be someone else other than yourself. These are the moments that make the New York scene kind of distinctive.”

His wife* accomplished partner and Director of Content at Carrot – a VICE Company, Juliette Richey, who was dressed as the log lady, added: “And ‘Twin Peaks’ is a particularly great show for that. Every character on that show is like the weirdest character ever — whether you’re a detective or a log lady who lives in this town.”

*our correction

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What was so impressive about the CHOW exhibit in the Museum of Food and Drink‘s pop-up space was the way that the Chinese restaurant in America was contextualized as an important expression of the immigrant experience. It powerfully demonstrated how a rich immigrant culture combined exclusionary tactics of the dominant society can create a thriving sub-culture.

Chinese Food History

When you walk into the space your senses are overwhelmed with the smell of blueberry infused fortune cookies baking.  On display are original cooking tools and vintage menus of Chinese restaurants from across United States.

The first craze of Chinese food was in the early 1800s when Americans were eating a dish that they referred to as “Chop Suey”.  This dish was likely a stir-fried mixture of animal innards and vegetables tossed in a soy sauce.

In the middle of the exhibit a fortune cookie machine is on display.  Here a visitor can watch all the steps to the process of making a fortune cookie on a mass scale.  Best part, eating unlimited cookies!

The machine is a part of MoFad’s Twitter campaign #ProjectFortune. It’s an interactive experience! Each cookie contains a custom fortune submitted via twitter with the hashtag, or entered into the kiosk here at the museum. Getting them printed and cut to size must be a chore!  The cookie recipe changes every so often, currently they use blueberry and raspberry extract, which we have never tasted in a cookie before.  The cookies are addicting!  Luckily you can take even more home with you in a take-out box.  We also learned that they donate the excess to a food pantry.

There is also a space that features cool smell generating machines called the “Smell Synth”.  You can mix fragrances together to create smell recipes.  Cooper got creative and mixed up some stank like a olfactory DJ.

Time to Taste!

Our favorite part of the exhibit was the Chinese food tasting from a professional food consultant.  The custom printed chopsticks were a nice touch.  We also loved that the bamboo bowls were biodegradable and they use NYC Dept of Sanitation’s new curbside organics collection bin to collect food waste.

This might be a small museum but it packs a lot of history, fragrance, and flavor!

P.S. Demonstrous Productions helped them out with a fundraising video, they deserve a bigger space!

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The weather, the trees and the people were all celebrating the beauty of spring.

Mono No Aware

The Sakura trees are said to embody in the Buddhist concept of mono no aware, which is the awe found in impermanence, since they bloom at once and for only about a week.

What is exceptionally fun about the festival is that it also celebrates the panoply of Japanese culture, past and present, including drumming, dancing, gaming, martial arts, manga and Anime Cosplay.

The festival is great fun for kids of all ages!

Of course it was rife with photo-tunities!

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This weekend we extended our Valentines celebration into March by visiting the Raaka Virgin Chocolate Company. We took a tour of the space, were educated on their bean to bar journey and then we were able to make our own bespoke chocolate bars. While on our tour we learned about the whole bean to bar organic vegan chocolate process.

Happiness is Unroasted

The tour explained how Raaka cacao is gathered from plots of land in a forest in a technic referred to as agroforestry.  We watched a video that showed the harvesting, fermenting and drying process. Raaka sources most of their beans from the Dominican Republic and Tanzania.

Our tour guide took us through one of the most important steps to getting to those seeds. Winnowing is a procedure that cracks open the cacao and separates the husk from the nib. We tasted them, and Juliette thought they were smoky and kind of pecan like. Cooper thought they had the after taste of Twizzlers! Raaka has built their own custom winnower, a combination of a standard juicer and shop vacuum that sucks up all the lighter husks. They also donate these discarded husks to schools or urban farms to be composted.

Bump and Grind (MIX)

The next stage of the process takes 3 days. During that period the coco nibs are put in vats with large stone melangeurs that are constantly spinning and grinding. Each day the nibs break down in the next vat and release cocoa butter, gradually mixing and creating a smooth consistency. We tasted a sample of chocolate that was just in it’s second day of chocolate emulsion: it was sweetened with coconut sugar but very gritty and crunchy. Not quite ready to be tempered. It’s the third day that the large milling machine is used to really reduce those grainy, crunchy particles that we were tasting and to give the chocolate it’s silky texture. Finally, the chocolate is transferred to the tempering machine where it is cooled to 85ºF then warmed back up to 130ºF back and forth to form molecular crystals.

Bespoke Vegan Chocolate Creations

We had a blast choosing additional ingredients to add to our bars before they went into the cold storage. There were coconuts flakes, dried bananas and peaches, and pine nuts and candied ginger. While we were waiting for the chocolate to cool we got a chance to taste five different chocolates.  There was one with pink salt, one with coconut milk, and Cooper’s favorite had ghost peppers!

We had a great time making and tasting their vegan chocolate!

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Vegan Shop Up has partnered with Pine Box Rock Shop many times and you can keep tabs on when the next event will be held by following their updates here. This was the first time we had attended the event and when we arrived just about 30 minutes after the start time the place was packed.  There were so many bodies you could really empathize with livestock!

I’m Dreaming of White Pizza…

I immediately found the Screamer’s Pizzeria stall and quickly ordered a white pizza. The pizza is made with almond ricotta vegan cheese, oregano and oil drizzle. The dough of the pizza was perfect. It was salty, garlic-y and soft and crispy. The cheese was so creamy and at $5 a slice I was very easily sold.

Cooper spotted our local vegan cheese shop Riverdel Cheese and the hearty looking grilled Havarti cheese sandwiches. The sandwich is made with vegan havarti cheese, pickles, and dijonaise on a thick country bread

The line for Peaceful Provisions doughnuts snaked through the whole space. You could hear ravenous vegans asking, “Is this seriously the line for the donuts?!” over and over again. The popularity peaked our interest so we begrudgingly joined the line and began making friends with others and chatted about all of the options while we waited for the sweet treats.

By the time we reached the front of the line we were able to order the coveted Cannoli and Key Lime donuts. The Cannoli doughnut is filled with decadent cannoli vegan cream, and topped with chocolate icing, crushed cannoli shells and powered sugar. The Key Lime doughnut is filled with lime cured and topped with a bruleed fluff.

These beauties were absolutely worth the wait.

We just had to share a picture of these gorgeous macaroons from Sweet Maresas, even though we didn’t try any.

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Reformed Church Cemetery History

The Flatlands Reformed Church was established in 1654, and this greek revival style church building was built in 1848. The Dutch Reformed Church was formed in the Protestant Reformation, its first church (now called the Marble Collegiate Church) in the Americas was in New Amsterdam, now Manhattan.

We brought tulips to the church cemetery since they are often associated with the Dutch.  While researching this post I discovered that the association has everything to do with a historical event called Tulip Mania.  It is the story of the first known economic bubbles, when the price of tulip bulbs became unsustainable in the Dutch market.  This occurred during the Dutch Golden Age (1568–1648) in 1636, this church was founded less than 20 years later.

A spooky mist rolled through the graveyard while we were there.

Reflections on American History

It is tragic when memorial sites are desecrated like those in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia this week. This kind of religious persecution is why so many Europeans came to the New World in the 17th century. America was for centuries the land of opportunity and freedom, now it is beginning to look like so many other failed states that no longer protect their most vulnerable citizens.

Having a claim to three centuries of ancestry in the United States does not give one the cultural claim to this country. Escaping oppression is often the burden of the oppressed, yet we also must all overcome the desire to become oppressors.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

History repeats itself regardless of our memory, often by those who studied it the hardest. They are the scratch in the record that we refuse to take off the turntable.  It’s time to make new music.

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This Sunday transform your my bathroom into a spa-like sanctuary. Light a candle, que up your favorite tranquil playlist, and relax your mind. In an effort to make this tub session more luxurious, I have made my own natural bath salt and mask recipe using two of my favorite fragrances, lemon and lavender.

Winter in New York makes my combination dry/oily skin go crazy. My face and body become excessively dry, and if I apply too much daily moisturizer I find that I have acne flare ups. Lemon and lavender are natural ingredients that I like to use to soothe and treat my skin.

Below you will find all the ingredients needed for this Self Care Sunday sesh.

Self-care Sunday – Lemon & Lavender Recipes

1 sealable container

2 cups Epsom Salt

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

5 drops of lavender oil

Food coloring

Lavender flowers or sprigs

Directions: Combine the epsom salt, lavender oil and lemon juice into a mixing bowl and hand mix. Add a few drops of food coloring to the mix for a pretty color. Take the lavender flowers or sprigs and rub vigorously in your hands to release their natural fragrance. 

Lemon & Lavender Face Mask

3 tablespoons of honey

1 teaspoon of coconut oil

5 drops of lavender oil

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Directions: Combine all ingredients and hand mix well. Bring the mask mixture with you and set near the tub. Apply generously to your face or skin for about 15 minutes. Then wash and rinse in the bath water. If you have oily skin you can add more lemon juice. Or you can also omit the coconut oil if you have very oily skin.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

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I have struggled with a casein allergy for most of my life and I have completely cut it out of my diet for 3 years now. Since casein is a protein found in milk, I can’t eat cheese, which is in almost everything on an Mexican food menu.  My casein allergy is nothing like lactose intolerance which affects the gastrointestinal tract.  If I eat milk, yogurt or cheese my lips will swell and my throat closes.

I ordered a three course vegan meal that I will probably be thinking about for weeks. I usually can’t ordered these options at other Mexican restaurants and I have to tell you that everything was delicious.

Esquites: Mexican Corn – Vegan Menu

The first course I ordered was a classic Mexican street food snack called Esquites. This is one of my all time favorite appetizers, and I haven’t had it in a very long time. Generally, it is prepared by boiling fresh corn in water and then it is sautéed in butter, onions, chiles and salt. It came to the table in an adorable small pot, topped with lime juice, chile powder, vegan chipotle mayo and vegan queso.

Mushroom Taco with Vegan Queso

The mushroom taco was by far my favorite dish. This taco had a very balanced umami flavor profile and had a meaty and creamy texture.  The mushrooms were perfectly sautéed in a pasilla salsa and were topped with vegan crema and queso. I could have eaten two more of these.

Mole Enchilada with Squash Blossoms and Vegan Crema

My main entree was three enchiladas filled with squash blossoms and topped with a classic mole sauce and vegan crema. The mole sauce in this dish is customarily made using a mole poblano pepper. Depending on the amount of fruit and chili pepper added, a mole sauce can be characteristically bitter and smokey. The vegan crema was a perfect paring for these enchiladas.

Cooper and I were able to take advantage of Citrico’s happy hour (Goes till 8:00pm) and both ordered some very strong and tart margaritas to go with our meal. Cooper ordered blue corn tortilla fish tacos. It isn’t vegan but it is tasty and pretty.

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I am skeptical about buying gem stone jewelry online. Holding a stone in your hand and feeling it’s textures is a meaningful part of the process when choosing the right gem for you. After spending a good amount of time examining all of the stunning jewelry I began to narrow down my favorites. There was an abundant amount of agate and amethyst. I found a delicate amethyst bracelet with a magnetic clasp and had to have it, it was so easy to put on.

Amethyst stones are described as being meditative and calming. They are believed to promote balance and peace. I use them as an emotional healing stone and believe that it will help bring a sense of stability or inner strength when I am wearing it. I love the rich and diverse color of amethyst stones, and think this sweet little bracelet will be a perfect everyday statement piece for me.

The quality and craftsmanship of BOBO Jewelry is outstanding. I was impressed to see a wide range of more rough/organic and fully finished design styles. Now that I feel confident in their artistry I will for sure be visiting the website for more one of a kind jewelry pieces.

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This tweed cap is 60/40 wool & polyester so it is very soft. My new cap is distinctly British yet was made in Italy.  The ear flaps are very important in a winter hat since I have large ears that often get cold.  I tried on at least 3 other hats before I was certain that this one was “the one”.
The Winter Hat That Got Away

My new hat style is similar to a wool winter hat I had over a decade ago. I believe I bought that one at Irish Design Center in Pittsburgh, PA.  I lost that hat at the 2004 Whitney Biennial in a dark room featuring the seminal artwork of Anthony McCall “Line Describing a Cone” 1973.  It is a 30 minute film loop of a white line being drawn on black.  Smoke added to the room extrudes the light coming from the projector into a cone.  I sat in that room for almost the entire duration, I took my hat off and lost it in the dark and I have regretted it ever since. (I imagine a savvy museum patron walked away with it.)  Finally I have a replacement that I will cherish for years to come.

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