Nermo

Post holiday excess, I’m going to tone it down for a month or two and ramp-up my artistic production, because 1. I need to and 2. I’m toying with the idea of starting an MFA program in 2013, so I need to get my portfolio back on point this year.

Here’s the plan:

1. Build out my new Portfolio Website. It’s mostly photography at this point, but that’s a good start.

2. See more art (galleries, museums, installations, art walks, opening parties, etc.)

3. Make more art (photos, illustrations, sculptures, design projects, writing, etc.)

4. Stay in more evenings and spend as little money as possible.

5. Eat healthier.

In case you didn’t click the portfolio, here are photos I took from the plane on my way home from Denver:

I finally finished the illustration for this year’s Lunar New Year Dinner Party.

Here’s what’s held my attention of late:

While home for the holidays, I spent some time with my dad in the carpentry shop, where I made a french rolling pin for a dear friend who is starting her own cookie business, and a muddler for the guys behind the bar at Anvil Bar and Refuge in Houston.

Oh yeah, I drove through Texas over the holidays, starting with ten days in Vermont and 36-hours in NYC (one great night at Prime Meats and Bourgeois Pig). I was supposed to spend New Year’s in Manhattan, but I got a call at Christmas asking if I wouldn’t rather celebrate in the middle of nowhere, than attend the usual fete at Death and Co., so I flew to San Antonio, where I was driven through the night to a little town called Marfa.

We spent New Year’s Eve in a little honky-tonk called Padre’s watching Jimmy Dale Gillmore and Butch Hancock play to a sold out house of about 120 people, then David Byrne walked in around 11 o’clock. He seemed like a nice guy! He said hi to me when he walked in and waited in line for a drink like everyone else.

From there, we drove to Austin to see friends and Houston for a couple nights to visit the above-mentioned Anvil, to experience “Fancy Cocktails in Plastic Cups” at Fitzgerald’s and to linger well past closing with the gorgeous ladies behind the bar at Grand Prize.

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What else? I got a new glass water bottle from Takeya that I love.  Drinking from glass is great because it never tastes off, and this model is slim enough to fit in any cup holder and has a wide mouth.  I also think their glass tea makers would be great for infusing spirits and making liqueurs.

Caligraffiti
The Skitch clothes hanger design opens me up to the idea of a hangar that holds a whole outfit, but rather than the creepy punk skeleton motif, I’d like to see something classier that holds a pair of pants, shirt, jacket and even socks, boxers and an undershirt.  The idea of just grabbing one hanger in the morning seems amazing to me, and it would save space too, so I may prototype my own design soon.

Strelein Warehouse by Ian Moore Architects

I would like to live here, or build my own little modernist hide-away. I’ve been into very small homes of late and wish I had a tiny plot of land on which to build.

This video amuses me, even if I don’t wear scarves.

My new favorite group dining experience was thrust upon me last week over the best Thai Food in the Richmond District. Quite simply, everyone piles their phones in the middle of the table at the start of dinner, face down. The first person to reach for their phone – before the check comes – buys dinner.

The year of the Rabbit is coming to an end and the Dragon is upon us, so I should throw another party.

I generally invite 20-30 people to my tiny apartment and serve 8-10 courses over the span of the evening. This year, I would like to get out of the kitchen, so we are going to shake it up a bit, but be no less ambitious.

1. Since it is a Water Dragon year, there will be several interstitial liquid courses, and by that I mean shots.  Between courses, we’ll have a palate-cleansing round of Red Dragon Shots, Golden Dragon Shots, etc.

2. All of the utensils and dishes will be compostable, because I don’t wanna do dishes.

3. Food will be prepped to the heat-and-serve level. Nothing fried, as it requires too much attention.

So far, the menu is looking like something like the following:

Braised Bunny Banh Mi

Red Dragon Welcome Shot

Dragon Roll (sushi with some combo of bbq eel, cuke, avo, tobiko and tempura)

Dragon Buns (steamed bao full of bbq gator)

Dragon Ribs (probably just my OMG ribs again, but grilled instead of pan-fried)

Potstickers

Green Dragon Shot

Noodle Bar with lots of customizing options

Golden Dragon Shot

Magic Dragon Puffs (profiteroles filled with something fun)

Orange Slice Jello Shots

Looking back at previous invites, I also realized that I must craft another absurd illustrated invitation.  Hmmm… something with dragons and current events… Occupy Mordor?

Thoughts, questions or suggestions?  Please comment below!

I’ve recently started contributing to HeardAbout, and along with my writing and photos of some of my favorite foods in San Francisco, they will also soon be featuring some of my favorite cocktails.

From the HeardAbout website:

“HeardAbout features one delicious dish each day handpicked by our community of passionate local food bloggers, chefs, and restaurateurs. Occasionally we provide offers to try featured dishes for less – this is free to the local businesses (we take no commission or fee) and the offers are free for users to claim. Our goal is to provide authentic recommendations and to motivate locals to try the great food their city has to offer. Every so often we’ll run a sponsored feature (we do have bills to pay, after all) – but we promise these will be relevant and may even include fun offers as well!”

Update: I’m finally posting this midway through the month, and I am doing better than usual, but I’m no saint.  I’ll try to push through with this until I head to Portland at the end of October.

My plan is to spend the month of September spending as little money as possible.

This will likely lead to a lot of time at home, which I will try to spend simplifying my life, ideally:

• Getting rid of things I don’t need
• Finishing projects that remain incomplete
• Cooking and eating healthy
• Give extra attention to those who mean most…that’s a lot of people, so a few at random every month
• Digitize 30 years of notes, sketches and scraps of paper.  I have a lot of scraps of paper
• Hydrate!
• Respond to concerns as they arise, immediately and in the moment
• Generally don’t procrastinate on anything
• Pick three projects, one personal, one professional and one creative and attack them like a hungry piranha
• Deep breaths while commuting… unless the train smells bad, which is often
• Do one thing at a time
• bias toward action!
• Organize, compartmentalize and itemize (label)
• Read the several months of backed up papers and magazines. Don’t renew subscriptions… except NYT
• Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe (I’m on a lot of email lists that I delete without reading)
• Don’t make so many damned lists

If you have any advice or words of encouragement, feel free to share, and if you feel like buying me a drink, call me in September.

On a lark, I used mywebsitevalue to see what nermo.com was worth, and the estimate was $40,660.

If anyone is interested, I’ll give you a deal. I’m selling for a measly $40 grand!

I paid $20 for it, so a 203,200% increase is pretty darn good for less than 3 years.

If you are looking for an investment, I’m here to make your day.

Seriously, what kind of math is this guy using?

I know, I know! It’s all I’ve posted about lately, but I promise to stop talking about Mac and Cheese soon. SF Food Wars just uploaded these pics, among others, to their Flickr page, and I wanted to post them here for nostalgia, and for anyone else who wants to see them.

Here are the pics of Team ¢#€€$€ (because my mac is money) and “The Crusty Vermonter”.

This is kind of cool!  the SF Weekly Foodie Blog posted a feature on the SF Food Wars mac and cheese battle, and there is a whole paragraph about my mac! My only issue was that it was prosciutto and homemade chorizo, not bacon.  Bacon is soooooo 2009!

“The Crusty Vermonter,” submitted by the ¢#€€$€ team, was another standout. Sweet apples, sharp cheddar, and salty bacon mixed it up in a balance both hearty and subtle. It was served with little sides of pickles (unnecessary) and mild slaw (good for texture and crunch). This one got the People’s Choice Honorable Mention. A gasp rippled through the crowd after the chef’s big reveal: The cheese sauce was 40 percent Velveeta.