come follow the spam (allstars)

Picking up my friend Laura from the Miami airport last Thursday night, we drove to South Beach's Tapas y Tintos on Espanola Way to meet my friends (and work colleagues) Jessica, Mayur, and Mayur's girlfriend Rebecca. Here's how Rebecca and Mayur met:

Joined by Stuart …

jenne and the elevator trick

With Jenne, even attempts to close doors are elevated to a new level--how many doors remain open for us with creativity...

fresh like frilled linen

The narrator's words in Mrs. Dalloway ("How fresh like frilled linen clean from a laundry laid in wicker trays the roses looked,") fit perfectly at the Pinecrest market this weekend--my friend Jessica turned to these frilled orchids and grabbed my arm.
Nearby, these …

kthread reads: mrs. dalloway

My sister Kat and I are reading one book together each month in 2009. This is February's book; please join us below and in March for Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield.
Last night, I sat with vintage dresses draped across my lap, remembering the moment the bottom seam …

kthread spins: the monster mash

A new podcast to vanquish the vague, unsettled feeling many of us have in this moment. Song list below--some fanciful, others subtly subversive, I've ordered these to work through whispers that have echoed in nearby chambers in recent days.

A note of caution: this is …

twenty-five things about me

I was tagged for this by a few people I care about, so I'm sharing these here and on Facebook.
---
1. I kindly request, if you eat canned tuna in spring water, that you switch to oil in 2009.
2. There are 92,000 miles on my car. I intend to drive it another 100,000 and [...]

kthread cooks: chess pie

On Wednesday, I was in New York for about seven hours (it's a nice day trip from Miami), warming my hands with cider from the Union Square Market and later, sipping hot chocolate with my friend Adnaan (pictures and video of both below). Adnaan and I talked about cities …

year three: there was a star danced

Today, kthread.com turns three. As is tradition (from her first and second birthday celebrations), I've given her gifts: a new verb menu above with a few new pages and a greener header image. More presents to come later in the year.
Thank you for this incredible year …

the salad you have been waiting for

I like Alice Waters best for writing in The Art of Simple Food how she glories in the daily picking, washing, tossing, and dressing of a salad that she then eats with her hands (I do too--more on that another time).
As bizarre as it is to be in the prime of a growing …

a little music for kat's birthday

Kat, I made you a podcast (song details are at the bottom of this post) that is almost as random as the music I played during that rambling road trip we took across the country last spring. You always teach me about music, but I'm hoping maybe the Sin Fang Bous is new …

kthread cooks: tomato soup + american cheese

This week, we make tomato soup. Yes, soup for you.
And let's reclaim American cheese in this moment too, shall we?

Recipe: 2 ripe, red tomatoes (or half a 28 oz. can) + 2 white shallots all cut into 1/2 inch pieces, spread on parchment paper on a baking sheet and …

the month of the scone

On Friday, I marveled at the green, green campus of the University of Miami on my way to a lunch session of Beyond Bootcamp, an intensive media training camp for journalists at the School of Communication.

UM looks slightly different from the environs of the …

kthread reads: the wonder spot

My sister Kat and I are reading at least one book every month in 2009 together. Next month: Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. Join us-
The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
If nothing else, former lovers should give good fodder for brunch …

first Miami food exploration of the new year

I woke yesterday morning to find new flowers blooming all around my Magic Cottage.

I've decided these flowers indicate the time of year when Miami food comes into its own. Driving into Coral Gables, I picked up my weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box from …

kthread rhymes: vim & vigor

Tonight, I sipped goat milk kefir, thought about modern womanhood and Dorothy Parker's witticisms, and wrote this poem (as usual, still a draft):
Vim & Vigor
She shuffles the dating matrix,
dealing deftly for Friday night;
the Cowboy deserves Saturday;
the new guy just …

kthread cooks: the color of collards

In the American South, a bowl of collards = money in the new year. Here's to a prosperous 2009:

Recipe: (for a houseful of people) Add four tablespoons olive oil or 2 pieces of bacon, diced to a large pot over medium. Heat 3 minutes. Add 1/2 small onion, diced, cook 3 …

dreamy music for the end of 2008

I spent the afternoon with big headphones--ones that cancel out the noise--to find that which is not noise for the end of 2008.
In keeping with this year where kthread became (more) eclectic, some transitions are spotty; all songs pertain to a significant person or …

circling san francisco

Great Saturday mornings begin puzzling over vegetables I cannot identify (rutubagas?) at the Embarcadero farmers' market at the Ferry Building in San Francisco:

From the green mystery vegetables, I walked to another bin and studied red rings, convinced root vegetables …

the great portland snowpocalypse

I realized this week that my sister Kat's boyfriend Reid is fearless.
Reid climbs in his spare time, so he likes hanging off of cliffs with his fingernails, but now I know he will also brave a foot of snow to pick up his girlfriend's sister (thank you, Reid) at the …

seedlings in santa cruz

A few years ago, I spent a summer in Santa Cruz. I look back on those full months and the sleepy, strange town where I helped children build bots, learn computer animation, walk through the Redwoods, assume the banana slug posture, and smile.

This time of year I …