For various reasons I've been avoiding dealing with the demolition of the Palast der Republik. But today I found a few interesting sources and wallowed a little in the melancholy: a (more or less) daily journal of the process, and a webcam at the DHM that's trained on the Palast.
Just in time for kickoff:
Andrew outdid himself this afternoon by making these out of The New Best Recipe. We think of ourselves as fairly savvy in the kitchen, but we're hoping this cookbook will make us, uh, savvier. Even though we tend to be skeptical when we read the recipes (will this really be better than the way we usually do it?), they've been right so far; the cinnamon buns and the chocolate chip cookies have been definite keepers.
I've been busy. I'm teaching two classes this semester, one of which is brand new to me. I've agreed to write two features for Glasstire. I have two lengthy translations to edit (thank goodness I've at least finished the translations themselves). Then there's a conference paper to write and a panel proposal to finish. And oh yes, I have revisions of my own to do. So I've been lagging behind on the blog front.
I'm doing better keeping up with the reading, though. To get on track, I started by deleting a few things from my list of regular readings because, well, I wasn't reading them regularly. I felt so liberated when I got rid of the entire folder called "Art." I don't like to read art criticism. I know I should do it because it would be both instructive and useful in terms of staying in touch. But I just can't stand it. I don't really like to read it in print, and somehow the immediacy of the call-and-response aspect of blogging just heightens what I already find annoying about art writing. Lots of haw-haw-haw and you-got-that-right-dude. I realize that if I'm going to keep writing criticism myself I need to get a thicker skin. But right now just doesn't feel like the time.
Then I did the thing that feels like a cop-out: I hit "mark all as read." D'oh. The feeds I reset were the ones that are only peripherally interesting to me, anyway (because I keep up with the others), but I hope I didn't miss anything important. You'd tell me, right? And you'd let me know if I wrongfully deleted something I should still be keeping up with?
On Friday I found a few fun things. I was feeling all smart because I got nearly all of the references here, only to be made to feel clueless again by a similar exercise over at Craig's. I tell ya I like the original idea but my brain just goes all swimmy after a couple of those strings of names. They mean nothing to me.
What have you been doing for fun?