Chez Panisse at 40

40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering by Alice Waters and Friends

It is a good thing Alice Waters decided to celebrate 40 years of Chez Panisse with this beautiful book. In words and pictures, it recounts the story of how a little restaurant on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley helped change the way people eat in the United States. Before the terms ‘locavore,’ ‘artisan’ and ‘seasonal’ became staples of restaurant menus, Ms. Waters and her collaborators prepared the freshest most local food they could find with simple precision. Chez Panisse borrowed from the food culture of Provence to create a place with a sense of community. Friends could gather at the restaurant for good simple food, good wine and great conversation. They could also revel in the artistry of beautifully illustrated menus, exquisitely prepared flower arrangements, and gleaming furnishings in the Arts and Crafts style.

‘40 Year of Chez Panisse’ celebrates the restaurant, Ms. Waters and her influences, and the power of collaboration. It is amazing to see how an idea became a movement. 

Library Building Boom in New Orleans

Congratulations to the people of New Orleans.  The city will open one library this week and three more within the next month. Click here to read the full story.  If you would like to support the New Orleans Public Library, please visit the Friends of the New Orleans Public Library or the New Orleans Public Library Foundation.

Jonathan Gold: LA Weekly to LA Times

The Great Gastronome of the West, Jonathon Gold, is the new restaurant critic for The Los Angeles Times. His new piece ‘Los Angeles’ reflections in a plate’ lightly traces the way  Susan Feniger and Sue Milliken (owners and chefs of Border Grill) incorporated the city’s great diversity into their menus at City Restaurant in the 1980’s. Gold’s best line sums up the true magic of Los Angeles:  “But this is Los Angeles, where you hear a hundred different languages on the streets and smell the cooking of a thousand different food cultures, a city so diverse that the study of postmodern urbanism is often called the L.A. School for short, …”

Here is the extensive archive of Jonathan Gold’s feature stories and reviews for LA Weekly.

BITS AND PIECES

Doctor, professor and writer Atul Gawande explores the benefits of coaching in the professional world in this week’s The New Yorker. Listen to him talk with Neal Conan on Talk of the Nation about the article and the ways coaching can enhance performance throughout a career. Read the article here.

Marc Maron has a great job. He talks to comedians in his garage about their careers and what inspires them. Comics share their stories and comedy lore. Who knew that Jonathon Winters and Dick Van Dyke regularly visited an elderly Stan Laurel in his tiny apartment to listen to him talk about the golden age of silent movies and vaudeville?  Maron’s guests have included Richard Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, Louis CK, Amy Poehler and Ken Jeong. Get the WTF podcast here.

Hard Work, Deep Focus and Persistence

From planting over 35 million trees in Kenya to teaching really tall teenagers how to win basketball games (10 NCAA titles), there are opportunities to achieve incredible success in almost any walk of life. Wangari Maathai did it with the Green Belt Movement and John Wooden did it as coach of the UCLA Men’s Basketball team.  

Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

John Wooden on True Success



Music and Television: My Favorite Band is a Work of Fiction

The band I want to listen to everyday only exists in the fictional New Orleans of the HBO show ‘Treme.’ Antoine Batiste and His Soul Apostles bring the funk to every soul who craves it. When Ms. Wanda Rouzan, a goddess of New Orleans R&B joins the band, they cannot be touched by any band, even one in the real world.

Anotine Batiste and His Soul Apostles, Slip Away

Artist at Work: Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas is an artist who re-orients the perspective of the nude portrait.  In her work, the scene is depicted from the model’s point of view; she watches the viewer watching her. The model  is a dark skinned black woman. She exudes self –awareness. This is not the traditional nude. As Jon Berger notes in Ways of Seeing, “The nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for one ’s self. A nude has to be seen as an object in order to be a nude.”

Thomas also incorporate rhinestones in her portraits, a modern touch dramatizing the way women enhance themselves.

Watch Mickalene Thomas talk about her process.

More about Mickalene:

Mickalene Thomas

http://mickalenethomas.com/index.html

Lehmann Maupin Gallery: Mickalene Thomas

http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/#/artists/mickalene-thomas/

In the Studio: Mickalene Thomas

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/30446/mickalene-thomas/