Food Art: Taglioni Violi, food photography by Alessandro Boscolo Agostini

Published by Thursday, May 23, 2013 Permalink 0

 Food Art: Taglioni Violi, food photography by Alessandro Boscolo Agostini

 

Bio of Alessandro Boscolo Agostini

Bilingual English/Italiano

My first love for photography started with a little theft: as a little boy I stole my father’s Vöiglander and I started taking pictures on my own, just using my instinct. At that time my father’s camera seemed to me the best camera possible in the whole world, until I reached junior high school and I gave it up for a Bencini all my own. But my little theft came all back to me; my girlfriend to whom I had lent my camera never gave it back to me: that can be considered petty theft, no?

Growing up, I robbed again: in high school I stole time I might have devoted to photography and dedicated myself to my other passion, music. I studied drums and played jazz music. But it was just an infatuation, because I went back to my first love and never left it again. And as a pledge of love, I gave up my history studies in college, causing great distress to many people, but not to myself.

Today, I rob with no qualms, and I confess it with no shame. My spoils are my sensations, emotions, lines, colours, compositions: I catch everything that stops in front of my camera, I catch it with a click to close it in a graphic cage. It doesn’t matter if its a catalogue or a magazine. What I’m really interested in is the look, my view of the world. In the millions of images that pass in front of my eyes every day, that go on around me, that chase me in my silence. For this reason I  photograph subjects of any kind and still do it every day without specializing in anything in particular. From a luxury hotel suite, to the sexy transparencies of Murano glass. From art exhibitions to a ballet. From a golf course to actors on a stage. The list can go on and on, while this bio must finish here. I hope that I haven’t once more been a thief, that I haven’t taken up to much of your time. If this was the case, please don’t report me to the police, because I will give myself immediately up: I’m Alessandro Boscolo Agostini!

Il mio amore per la fotografia ha inizio con un furto: da piccolo rubai la Vöiglander di mio padre e cominciai a scattare così, d’istinto. All’epoca quella mi sembrava la macchina fotografica più bella del mondo, almeno fino a quando, in prima media, non la tradii per una Bencini tutta mia. Ma il contrappasso per il piccolo delinquente che ero arrivò molto presto, perché una fidanzatina a cui la prestai, non me la restituì mai: di fatto, anche quello fu un piccolo furto! Crescendo, ho rubato ancora: ai tempi del Liceo ho sottratto tempo alla passione per la fotografia dedicandomi per alcuni anni al jazz e allo studio della batteria, altro mio grande amore. Ma è stata solo una gran bella bionda di passaggio, perché alla fine sono tornato dalla mia “vecchia” per non lasciarla più. Anzi, come pegno d’amore, per lei ho mandato a quel paese gli studi storici con sommo dolore di parecchie persone, ma non certo il mio. Oggi, lo confesso, rubo senza più sensi di colpa. Il mio bottino sono sensazioni, emozioni, linee, colori, composizioni: ciò che si ferma davanti al mio obiettivo lo faccio mio, lo catturo con un click, magari per rinchiuderlo in una gabbia grafica. Non importa se è la gabbia di un catalogo oppure quella di una rivista. A me interessa lo sguardo, il mio sguardo sul mondo. Sui miliardi di immagini che ogni giorno attraversano la mia vita, le scorrono intorno, mi seguono in silenzio. Per questo ho fotografato di tutto e continuo a farlo, senza scegliere di dedicarmi a un settore soltanto. Perché tutto può essere immagine, una buona immagine. Da una suite di un hotel di lusso, alle trasparenze seducenti di un vetro di Murano. Da una mostra d’arte a uno spettacolo di danza. Da un campo da golf, agli attori su un set di un film. L’elenco potrebbe continuare, mentre questo scritto si chiude qui. Spero di non aver compiuto l’ultimo furto di questa storia, ossia di avervi rubato troppo tempo. Se fosse così, non denunciatemi, perché mi costituisco subito: sono Alessandro Boscolo Agostini!

 

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Geneva and Lausanne: Sustainable Living Resources in Switzerland

Published by Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Permalink 0

Geneva and Lausanne: Sustainable Living Resources in Switzerland

This is a new list for sustainable living in Geneva and Lausanne and we’ll be adding to it and updating it on a regular basis. We will extend it to other French-speaking cities as we add to the list.

Free WiFi in Geneva and Lausanne

 

 

 

GENEVA

The city of Geneva is in the process of setting up free WiFi hotspots in and around Geneva, referred to as “GeSpots”. The project is a long-term project, but terminals are already available at the locations marked in green. Click here to see the map.

LAUSANNE

Free WiFi hotspots are available in the following locations in Lausanne: Saint-François, Riponne, Flon, Palud, Montbenon, Navigation, Port d’Ouchy and at the Service des Automobiles automobile registration and inspection office and the Blécherette aerodrome.

Farmers and Open-air Markets

Sandrine Chapuis’ own mesclun, mixed greens from hills of Geneva

 

 

 

 

 

GENEVA

This site lists all the markets by day. A handy map is included with each listing so you can see where it is located in Geneva.

LAUSANNE

The Marchés Lausannois site lists the weekly markets:

Downtown/Center of Town Markets

Wednesday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.
In downtown pedestrian streets: agricultural produce and products
On Place de la Riponne: bakery, butcher, fowl, mushrooms and non-food products

Nettles

 
 
 
 

Marché de Chauderon / Chauderon Market

Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Flea market

Marché du boulevard de Grancy / Boulevard de Grancy Market

Monday and Thursday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Marché des Chômeurs

Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Place de la Riponne: flea market and miscellaneous other goods

 

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Food Poetry: Organic Fruit, by Diane Lockward

Published by Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Permalink 0

Organic Fruit

I want to sing

a song worthy of

the avocado, renegade

fruit, strict individualist, pear

gone crazy. Praise to its skin

like an armadillo’s, the refusal

to adulate beauty. Schmoo-shaped

and always face forward, it is what it

is. Kudos to its courage, its inherent love

of democracy. Hosannas for its motley coat,

neither black, brown, nor green, but purple-hued,

like a bruise. Unlike the obstreperous coconut, the

avocado yields to the knife, surrenders its hide of leather,

blade sliding under the skin and stripping the fruit. Praise

to its nakedness posed before me, homely, yellow-green,

and slippery, bottom-heavy like a woman in a Renoir, her

flesh soft velvet. I cup the fruit in my palm, slice and hold,

slice and hold, down to the stone at the core, firm fist at the

center. Pale peridot crescents slip out, like slivers of  moon.

Exquisite moment of ripeness! a dash of salt, the first bite

squishes between tongue and palate, eases down my

throat, oozes vitamins and oil. Could anything be more

delicious, more digestible? Plaudits to its versatility,

yummy in Cobb salad, saucy in guacamole, boldly

stuffed with crabmeat. My avocado dangles from

a tree, lifts its puckered face to the sun, pulls

all that light inside. Praise it for being small,

misshapen, and durable. Praise it for

the largeness of its heart.

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Food Art: Tiramisù, food photography by Alessandro Boscolo Agostini

Published by Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Permalink 0

 

Food Art: Tiramisù, food photography by Alessandro Boscolo Agostini

Bio of Alessandro Boscolo Agostini

Bilingual English/Italiano

My first love for photography started with a little theft: as a little boy I stole my father’s Vöiglander and I started taking pictures on my own, just using my instinct. At that time my father’s camera seemed to me the best camera possible in the whole world, until I reached junior high school and I gave it up for a Bencini all my own. But my little theft came all back to me; my girlfriend to whom I had lent my camera never gave it back to me: that can be considered petty theft, no?

Growing up, I robbed again: in high school I stole time I might have devoted to photography and dedicated myself to my other passion, music. I studied drums and played jazz music. But it was just an infatuation, because I went back to my first love and never left it again. And as a pledge of love, I gave up my history studies in college, causing great distress to many people, but not to myself.

Today, I rob with no qualms, and I confess it with no shame. My spoils are my sensations, emotions, lines, colours, compositions: I catch everything that stops in front of my camera, I catch it with a click to close it in a graphic cage. It doesn’t matter if its a catalogue or a magazine. What I’m really interested in is the look, my view of the world. In the millions of images that pass in front of my eyes every day, that go on around me, that chase me in my silence. For this reason I  photograph subjects of any kind and still do it every day without specializing in anything in particular. From a luxury hotel suite, to the sexy transparencies of Murano glass. From art exhibitions to a ballet. From a golf course to actors on a stage. The list can go on and on, while this bio must finish here. I hope that I haven’t once more been a thief, that I haven’t taken up to much of your time. If this was the case, please don’t report me to the police, because I will give myself immediately up: I’m Alessandro Boscolo Agostini!

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Ethical Coffee: How far can one go to suit customers and remain ethical?

Published by Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Permalink 0

When Ethics and Business Meet

When you choose a coffee shop, do you think about ethics? How far are you willing to go to remain ethical and natural? Should it be natural pure cane sugar, recyclable cups and napkins, and ethical coffee beans, or can you throw in a little artificial sugar and refined sugar so that everybody is happy? What are your thoughts?

These are just some of the questions raised by Chris MacDonald on Canadian Business.

 

Roasted coffee beans Español: Granos de café tostado (natural). Bahasa Indonesia: Biji kopi alami yang telah disangrai. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Roasted coffee beans Español: Granos de café t...

 

 

 

 

 

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Food Art: Breaking Bread, watercolor painting by Thomas Needham, 2012

Published by Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Permalink 0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New Series on The Rambling Epicure: Food Art: Breaking Bread

Click here to read more about Thomas Needham’s contemporary paintings and biography, for sale on his website.

 

 

 

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Food Vocabulary: What’s a Femivore?

Published by Monday, May 13, 2013 Permalink 0

by The Femivore’s Dilemma

Are you a Grist? This word was recently added to the Urban Dictionary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Origin of the Term “Femivore”

The word was coined by Peggy Orenstein in her essay “The Femivore’s Dilemma” for today’s New York Times Magazine, says Natural News, and is obviously inspired by the term “locavore.”

Educated career women, or “femivores”, all over the U.S. are choosing to give up their careers and go back to the farm (sometimes an urban farm) and back to the kitchen — often the same women who refused to take anything even vaguely similar to a Home Economics class, much less a class in agriculture. DIY, raising chickens and gardening are back, and there is an abundance resources available on the Internet for those who are new at it offering detailed how-to’s and recipes for all of it, with popular DIY sites such as Mother Earth News, Middleground Farm, and Mother Earth News. Femivores often reach out from their newly chosen isolation through blogs and social networks, and share their discoveries, successes and failures with other femivores, such as writer Esmaa Self on Middleground Farm or “backyard eggs”.

This became the subject of a heated debate a few weeks ago when Michael Pollan’s book came out. On Is Michael Pollan a sexist pig? Emily Matchar questioned whether Pollan was a “sexist pig” in saying “we need to get back in the kitchen,” since “American women cook 78 percent of dinners, make 93 percent of the food purchases, and spend three times as many hours in the kitchen as men.”

 

 

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Reference Reading: Food Art at the Frieze Art Fair in Manhattan

Published by Sunday, May 12, 2013 Permalink 0

The Rambling Epicure loves Food Art of all kinds and the Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island, Manhattan, and two artists at the Soho Restaurant FOOD have recreated the menus. When artists become foodies…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more about it in The New York Times Diner’s Journal, “Celebration of Food and Art,” an article by Elaine Louie.

 

 

 

 

 

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Reference Recipes: Melissa Clark’s Small-Batch Pulled Pork

Published by Saturday, May 11, 2013 Permalink 0

by

With summer on its way, you may just want to have pulled pork for smaller family weekends, before all the big summer festivals start. Here’s an easy video recipe from Melissa Clark at Pulled Pork, for Crowds Large or Small.

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Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, May 10, 2013

Published by Friday, May 10, 2013 Permalink 0

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, May 10, 2013

by Simón de Swaan

A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. He must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate, from the palate to the finger’s end.–Walter Savage Landor

Walter Savage Landor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walter Savage Landor was an English writer and poet who lived from 1775–1864. He wrote in both English and Latin, but much preferred Latin, which put him at a disadvantage in terms of readership. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, “five volumes of imaginary conversations between personalities of classical Greece and Rome: poets and authors; statesmen and women; and fortunate and unfortunate individuals” (Wikipedia), and the poem “Rose Aylmer,” but the critical acclaim he received from poets and reviewers such as John Milton, T.S. Eliot, and John Butler Yeats was not matched by public popularity.

 

 

 

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