w.h.a.m.: courtney e. martin

Courtney
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A freelance journalist, author, teacher, filmmaker and web entrepreneur, Courtney E. Martin has been dubbed “one of our most insightful culture critics and one of our finest young writers” by Parker Palmer.  Her books and articles have covered topics ranging from 9/11 to eating disorders to activism to perfectionism.  She regularly writes for The New York Times, GOOD, The Christian Science Monitor, Poets & Writers, The Village Voice, Glamour, Mother Jones Publishers Weekly, and The American Prospect, among others.  She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, The Today Show and The O'Reilly Factor. 

with business partner Vanessa Valenti
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Martin is the leader of the  Op-Ed Project’s Public Voices Fellowship Program at Princeton University, which helps women academics become part of public debate.  She is also partner in Valenti Martin Media, a communications consulting firm focused on making social justice organizations more effective in movement building and making change with fellow feministing contributor, Vanessa Valenti.   

Courtney at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls
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Martin speaks publicly several times a year at conferences and campuses nationwide. She is a recipient of the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics and studied sociology and political science at Barnard College and later received her Master's from New York University's Gallatin School in writing and social change. She lives in Brooklyn, New York where she can be found walking in Prospect Park, eating overpriced sushi and, according to her website, "creating unselfconscious dance parties with her amazing friends."

*factual content found here, here, and here

**this post is part of the Women's History All Month (w.h.a.m.) series on the blog.  Check back all month for more women profiled.

scenes from a weekend

painting, pizza, park, pooch and yours truly pal-ing around with a friend 


This weekend was gorgeous with minimal rain.  I found myself working on a commission of three paintings for someone's living room, walking Dusty around a beautiful park nearby, and going to a concert in the Grove.

On Friday night, some friends and I also tried our hands at pizza making.  Trader's makes it so easy to make (read: assemble) your own pizza.  They have pre-made dough (the whole wheat is my favorite), tons of cheeses to choose from (we went with goat cheese), roma tomatoes for a song, and fresh basil.  Not to mention a variety of  red and white sauces.  I will definitely be going back for more dough and toppings soon.  We ended the night with brownies and Morning Glory.  It was a fun and much needed girls' night.

It must have been a movie and pizza weekend because on Sunday I found myself grabbing California Pizza Kitchen with an old friend before going to see Friends with Kids.  We both thought the movie was funny, sweet, and worth seeing.  Then Dusty and I got another walk in around the neighborhood.  He is loving that the nice weather means longer walks!

Hope you had a great weekend, too!

w.h.a.m: edna st. vincent millay

edna
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"Her voice is a string of colored beads, or steps leading into the sea."

Those beautiful words came from the pen of Edna St. Vincent Millay, a poet and playwright raised by a single mother of three in Rockland, Maine during the late 1800s.  Millay's mother valued independence and drive, and cultivated this in her daughters.  She also instilled in them an appreciation for music and literature.  Encouraged by her mother, Millay submitted one of her early poems, Renascence, in a literary contest and took fourth place.  The poem was featured in The Lyric Year, and the acknowledgement earned her a scholarship to Vassar and wide recognition as a poet.  The year she graduated, she also published her first book of poetry, Renascence and Other Poems.


Millay's first book of poetry
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Edna spent several of her  her post-college years in Greenwich Village writing plays and short stories. She describes she and her friends at this time as "very, very poor and very, very merry."  Soon after she took a writing gig with Vanity Fair, which lead her to Europe for a time.  She was able to send for her mother at one point during her three year stay abroad and they toured France and England together.  Millay published several plays, short stories and poems and was the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

 Nancy Milford, a biographer who wrote about Millay in a book entitled, Savage Beauty, has this to say about her:  "If F. Scott Fitzgerald was the hero of the Jazz Age, Edna St. Vincent Millay, as flamboyant in her love affairs as she was in her art, was its heroine. Millay was dazzling in the performance of herself. Her voice was likened to an instrument of seduction and her impact on crowds, and on men, was legendary. Yet beneath her studied act, all was not well."
 

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Millay was deeply impacted by the atrocities and injustices of her time and this is reflected in her poetry. Italy's violent assaults on Ethiopia and the German-Russian nonaggression treaty, prompted Millay to pen pro-British and pro-French propaganda poetry. In Huntsman, What Quarry? Millay wrote about the brutalities of Nazi Germany, imperialistic Japan and Fascist Spain. Millay wrote The Murder of Lidice which depicts the German army slaughter of an entire Czech village.

Millay continues to be considered one of the best American sonnet writers of the twentieth century.  She is appreciated for writing about the things that moved her in an uncompromizing, genuine and unflinching and beautiful way.

*factual content for this article gathered from here, here, here, here and here.

** this post kicks off a series I will be doing in honor of Women's History Month entitled, "women's history all month (w.h.a.m.)."  i will be profiling women who are accomplished musicians, grassroots activists, filmmakers, roller derby players, peacemakers, politicians, mothers, slam poets, writers, business leaders, photographers, daughters, leaders, sports newscasters, producers, inventors, and more. check back often to learn more about these female powerhouses.**

vintage find: lamps



my lamps from here and here

  I like a well-lit space as much as the next girl, but have been less than impressed by the quality, value and style of lamps in retail stores.  While not all vintage lamps are inexpensive, you can find many that are sturdy, beautiful and reasonably priced.  Since my apartment does not have any overhead lighting in the living room, I rely on lamps to keep the area lit well after the sun has set.  Here are a few of my favorite handmade or pre-owned lamps.

1) Brass Mid-Century Desk Lamp, ImagineBetty, $39
2) Glass Lamp Modern Lighting Minimalist, LukeLampCo, $109
3) Vintage Marble Lamp, LittleDogVintage, $60
4) Vintage Brasstone Gooseneck Desk Lamp, ThirdShift, $60
5) Pair of Vintage Glass Ball and Orange Base Lamps, oppning, $92.42
6) Modern Chrome Table Lamp, GallivantingGirls, $92
7) Modern Metal Spotlight Lamp, GallivantingGirls, $45
8) Vintage Green Enamel Pendant Lamp, highstreetmarket, $115
9) Vintage Retro Orange Table Lamp, FishboneDeco, $52
10) 1960s Mod Ceramic Ball Lamp, elefantdesign, $22

And, if you're in the market for a lampshade for your new lamp, High Street Market has some quality, but affordable ones in their standalone shop.

inquiring minds want to know: chocolate chip cookie edition

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Sitting in the munch room at work one day, I was finishing my zuccinni mozzerella medley contemplating the profound and mundane.  I felt my thought wander from one topic to the next as I pulled out a bag of two chocolate chip cookies.  Sinking my teeth into one, I suddenly wondered, "who was the beautiful mastermind behind the invention of chocolate chip cookies?  I felt sure s/he had to be a visionary. Chocolate chip cookies have proved a key ingredient in an after-school snack for children everywhere, formidable in the face of a glass of milk, shaped perfectly for dunking.  Heck, they even have a T.V. character whose life revolves around eating them (or did until recently when he decided cookies were a sometimes food).  The inventor of the chocolate chip cookie knew what s/he was doing.  I had to find out more about the first chocolate chip cookie concocter.

Ruth Wakefield
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Ruth Wakefield, a dietician, food lecturer, famous inventor, lodge operator and wonder woman bought the Toll House Inn with her husband and part of her duties included creating recipes and preparing meals for guests.  As the story goes, Ruth was baking cookies and midway through realized she had run out of baker's chocolate (I can SO relate, Ruth).  Forced to improvise, she substituted  chunks of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate for the baker's chocolate, hoping that the chunks would melt into the dough.  When Ruth removed the cookies from the oven, she was surprised to see that the chunks did not melt, but was pleased with the results.

Ruth named her happy accident "Toll House Crunch Cookies."  News of her new cookie invention spread quickly and her "Crunch Cookies" became a huge success around town.  The recipe ran in a Boston newspaper, popularity increased and Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate sales rose.  Eventually, Nestle approached Ruth with a proposition: in exchange for a lifetime supply of Nestle's chocolate, Ruth would permit Nestle to print her recipe on the back of their chocolate packages.  Nestle also bought the rights to the Toll House name, and at Ruth's suggestion, score their chocolate bars so that they would be easier to break into small pieces.  Soon they began to sell chocolate chips and chunks, making it even easier for the chocolate chip cookie maker.  And to think that all of this came from want of baker's chocolate and a little ingenuity.

*the factual information for this post obtained here and here.

artist crush: mark newport

several of Newports Handknit Costumes including Naftaman and Valuesman (third and fifth from left)
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My introduction to Mark Newport began a few years ago when I was looking for ways to spend my eekend, I came across a small write up about an installation called "Self-Made Man" in the Riverfront Times.  The exhibit was being shown at the museum at the Laumeier Sculpture Park, now one of my favorite museums in the area.  The write-up described an engaging exhibit full of Newport's hand-knit superhero costumes, as well as embroidered comic book covers and digital prints which promised to compel exhibit attendees to ponder fundamental questions about masculinity, bravery and courage.  Sign me up.



Batmen
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 When asked to describe the superhero costumes he knits, Newport comments that they “combine [the superheroes'] heroic, protective, ultra masculine, yet vulnerable personas with the protective gestures of my mother – hand knit acrylic sweaters meant to keep me safe from New England winters."* The costumes he creates are life-size, but are not built for the stereotypical superhero with bulging muscles.  Instead, most of of them look like they were made for someone lanky and hang lifelessly on hangers in the exhibit, which Newport did intentionally so that those attending the exhibit could imagine themselves donning the costumes and taking on the persona of the superhero. 



Newport knitting a Spiderman costume
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Newport goes on to say that he did not only draw on images of popular comic book heroes for the inspiration for these costumes but also his "childhood memories of the ultimate man – the Dad every boy wants, the man every boy wants to grow up to be. In these I work to forge the link between childhood experience and an adult understanding of protection, masculinity, and heroism.”

Freedom Bedcover: Zachary (detail). Embroidery and ribbon on comic book pages, 2006
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If you ever have the chance to check out Mark Newport's work in person, dont miss it.  Attending one of his knit-ins would likely be just as cool (and something I regret not participating in when he held at least one during his exhibit's run at the Sculpture Park).  His exhibit remains one of my favorite shows to come to in St. Louis.  I appreciated that it challenged conventionally held concepts of masculinity and laid bare the complex nature of real manhood.

AlterEgos: Practice Digital Print
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Do you seek out exhibits to go to that challenge you to think about social issues?  Do you appreciate art that is visually beautiful, impressive or interesting and has a social mission?

*excerpts from a write-up by Oregon State University on a recent exhibit he installed at the Fairbanks Gallery

dining around town: crushed red



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My friends will tell you that when we go out to eat, I rarely order something just the way it comes on the menu.  I'm often found substituting fish for chicken, asking my waiter to hold the black olives and asking for dressing on the side.  What can I say--I'm a customizer.  Enter a new restaurant made with people like me in mind.



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 I was first introduced to Crushed Red, a new fast-casual restaurant in downtown Clayton, when I read a review by Maddie from City in a Jar.  The restaurant offers delicious made-to-order salad and pizzas that you can customize with toppings including carmelized onions, beef brisket, avocado, goat cheese and everything in between.  Salivating at my desk, I took a look at their website (note: do not read their menu before you've eaten lunch) and determined I would have to check this place out.



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I visited Crushed Red with a friend last week and it definitely lived up to my expectations.  While the restaurant considers itself fast-casual, the comfortable but classy booths, the staff member greeting you as you walk through the door, and the general decor and ambiance suggest that Crushed Red is brings a more sophisticated flair to quick dining than its competitors.  This flair, however, is not reflected in their prices.  I found the cost of my meal on par with or even slightly lower than what I pay when I eat at St. Louis Bread Company.



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My friend and I split two pizzas and enjoyed the flavors of both.  Crushed Red has several sauces and cheeses to choose from, making every pizza unique.  Later in the week I dropped by to grab a salad and found it to be just as delicious.  It actually reminded me a little bit of the Sizzling Salad nights that my college used to host a few Friday nights a quarter, but with more options.  

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If you live in the area and haven't visited Crushed Red yet, stop by and give them a try.  The customizer in you will be glad you did.  You can find their menu here.