dessert à la Dodo

 

Claes Oldenburg, Pie à La Mode 1962, 

Muslin soaked in plaster over wire frame painted with enamel

50.8 x 33 x 48.3 cm

Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art, LA. The Panza Collection © Claes Oldenburg

 Dear After Dinner,

This is just too delicious an article not to send you to!  If you aren't already on the Atlas Obscura and Gastro Obscura email list, you should consider adding them to your inbox- the are always interesting!

Collections I

 

A good one.

Dear Part Two,

Now where were we?  Oh yes, "Have a good one," she said.  Whenever I hear someone tell me this, often it occurs on the telephone, it feels like a little tear, a rip, in the script we are performing:  I am saying thank you, they are saying thank you, then they say have a good one, and I say you too.  But I am really all agog at what, exactly, I just wished them one of.

Let me expand on my (a)gog.  I have a multifaceted response to being told to have this 'good one.'  I feel wary, because who is this smart aleck to tell me what to do?  And I feel a kind of delight at the sheer absurdity of having a good one: A good what, do you suppose?  And, then, there is also the weird authenticity of the wish- I am struck by the speaker's sincerity and certitude; they earnestly wish me a 'good one.'

In conclusion, there is no where to go but here:  Have a good one, dear reader!

Bonus track.

The Collections

 

Dear Boxes, Tins, and Jars,

I took some really fine collections from my shelves and I scattered them to the winds, figuratively, and in some cases, literally.  Before they were hucked and lobbed, I took some photographs to record their loveliness.

There will be some images in the days to come.

Harvest Time

 

Dear Fields and Crops,

Look at this fine Rothko of red apple skin.  I got this unusual and delightful apple from a pal, who got it from a branch, on a tree.  And the green grass grew all around, all around, and the green grass grew all around.  Enjoy the bounty of the season, friends.

Red and Pink on Pink, Mark Rothko, 1953.

Meet me in the middle.

 

Dear Sisters,

Here is your song for the day.  It's good for a lot of days, actually.  You may have already had a day where you needed this song, and there will come another day when you will need it again.

When I used to hear this song, the other pop station version, I always thought it expressed a beautiful clarity regarding communication.  I loved it's plaintive quality and its candor.  I love this version, even more, for the inversion of gender relationship, and the stripped down, ethereal, Norwegian Wood, & lamenting qualities of the arrangement.

And don't forget, even if I am too too hard to find, it doesn't mean you ain't been on my mind.

Another one.

 

Dear Love Song Collectors,

Here is your song of the day, another beautiful declarative song from Tom Petty; a love song to file between Brian Wilson's God Only Knows  and Billie Holiday's I'll be Seeing You.  When my Mom dies, I am going to have I'll be Seeing You played.   For my own memorial, I will have Paul Simon's American Tune.  

Bonus feature.