born to run

wow! check out this article in the NY times.

i have heard about the tarahumara indians before... showing up to run marathons in arizona and southern california in nothing but wooden soled sandals and taking first place. really cool.

also neat is the fact that my old graduate advisor at the University of Utah is cited in the article! he published the paper the NY Times mentions about the distance-running capabilities of humans while I was working for him (got a front cover in Nature). I think that the Times does a pretty good job of summarizing his and Lieberman's thesis, personally.

i remember at the lab during that time was a large old volume of eadweard muybridge time-lapse photographs (example above). some of the most captivating work i have ever seen

mummies

until the day-that-the-edifices-of-modern-civilization-crumble-to-the-ground-and-mail-is-no-longer-deliverable-in-these-united-states, i will maintain a subscription to three magazines - harpers, tapeop, and national geographic. this month's national geo is really amazing. one article in particular talks about mummified animals that were buried with egyptian royalty three thousand years ago. the mummies themselves are amazing works of art - made all the more improbable and moving by the fact that they have survived in such wonderful states of preservation for such a long period of time! the above photo was the only one available for download, but you should check the rest

here

besides that, fall descends gently and steadily on new york city. soft carpets of bright yellow leaves and the arrival of dusk noticeably early in the cool days

walking with d.v.

Little Compton, RI. population: 3514

so, i have some really talented friends who publish on online magazine called take the handle. It is released quarterly, includes an impressive melange of multimedia art, and is full of writing that lives up to its tagline, "for thinking rascals everywhere". Needless to say, check it out.

The most recent issue is entitled "the hometown issue", and in it an old friend from my high school daze in rhode island wrote a piece on the tiny little coastal town that he is from - Little Compton. Little Compton was (and still is) small enough to not have a high school of their own, so they bussed their teenagers to the shining beacon of public education that is Middletown High School. That is how i met Ben. Ben's piece on Little Compton, which ends up serving as a vehicle through which he engages in some pretty thoughtful introspection, is wonderful. Truly, reading it i feel myself walking along the beaches on a sunny, crystalline late fall day - every shade of red and brown emanating from leafless shrubs and smooth sand bars, encroaching on the iridescent dark blue of the Sakonnet Inlet. mmm.... there are few things out there that beat november in new england. click on the link above and read read read.

at the top of this post is a picture that i took in little compton last year, along with a sketch of a song that i wrote at about the same time.

rhode island rothko's

"swheat" dreams

I have not been to the mccarren park farmer's market in quite a long time, mostly just because i feel that it pales in comparison to its counterparts at grand army plaza and union square; however, yesterday's low hanging clouds, pregnant with rain, and cool temperatures compelled me to go about my grocery shopping a little closer to home, so i made the quick jaunt up to the park with $20 in hand. Though I went to the market with fairly low expectations, i was really happy to find that they had added a bunch of new vendors since the last time that I have been there. One in particular was really exciting - a local mill that is producing freshly ground flours (spelt and whole wheat) and polenta-style cornmeal.

check it out here

I first discovered the wonder that is newly-milled wheat last year,

when my friend's mother in seattle sent us some local NW heirloom

wheat. i was floored by how rich it tasted. it basically made me

realize that all the flour that i have previously eaten in my life

doesn't taste like anything at all. Needless to say, I am really excited

to try some local NY wheat - just in time for baking cornbread and

making pancakes on cold autumn days. Here is one of my favorite seasonal recipes (apple, walnuts and wheat just feel right for autumn).

I made this a few times with the emmer wheat from seattle last year... it was phenomenal!

winter then fall