First we had slow-motion gelatin, now we have a video profile by Gestalten of the british duo Bompas and Parr, who kicked off their career thanks to gelatin. Sam Bompas and Harry Parr made a splash by creating a gelatinous version of St. Paul’s Cathedral, or at least that’s the first place I had heard of them. They still to this day work with gelatin in interesting ways, but they also focus on food experiences. For example, they turned a giant batch of gin and tonic into vapor, so that a room full of people were literally breathing the stuff. Not sure how drunk they got, but the alcoholic vapor was being inhaled straight into their blood stream. The video is a bit long, coming at 12 minutes, but I assure you that it’s quite fantastic and inspiring. If they can make an entire career out of gelatin, you could easily do the things you’re passionate about.
This is the first part of a two part gelatin combo post, which I happened to find after I found the first video, make sense? I wouldn’t say I’m a big gelatin or Jell-O fan, but it certainly does make for an impressive video when you shoot it at 6200 frames per second. It’s kind of shocking how things look when you slow them down, it’s just not something that our eyes can perceive. I’m amazed by how the gelatin can completely flatten out, be almost entirely squished, but still retain it’s shape.
Can anyone explain why gelatin’s molecular structure is so amazing, but in layman’s terms? While I think the aesthetics are pretty, I think it would be cool to discuss why gelatin can be so malleable. Let’s learn something rad today!
As you will (probably) tell from the content this week on The Fox Is Black, Bobby and I are soaking in the afterbirth of all things Seattle. The trip was a blast and we had a hoot at many different places. We both loved Ballard and the Gas Works, two very interesting points in town that made zero sense but made 100% sense. I–surprisingly–hated the Space Needle, which reminded me more of the Tower of Terror and its rickety elevator instead of a World’s Fair attraction. We were also surprised by the amount of counter cultural people–some would call these people “hippies.” But, one thing stood out to us most, even more than any neighborhood, the Space Needle, the people, or the cold and rain: the food.
This, my friends, was something we were not expecting and it was a chorus to the vacation song we were singing: good food overshadowed everything. Now, let me preface this by saying that were not actively seeking out “fresh” or “extraordinary” places to eat. Instead, we were simply looking for convenient, cost effective places to settle our mouths down for a bite. Some were planned while others were off the cuff. Nevertheless, we did not go to the city to consume the food. It was a very happy accident. It was an accident so effecting that Bobby and I demanded we post about it.
In order to ease writing this, let me break these places down from the most remarkable to the most extremely, ridiculously, run-don’t-walk remarkable. We hope it helps you decide where to swing by when in Seattle!
Hong Kong’s history as a port city and duty free mecca has often resulted in the view that it is a city of manufactured copies and international imports with little space for local creative endeavours. This is, of course, far from the truth. At the vanguard of Hong Kong’s local movement is HK Honey, “an organisation of Hong Kong beekeepers, artists and designers that aim to communicate the value of bees and benefits of locally produced honey.” A small network harvesting honey in the tight urban confines and roofs of Hong Kong is not necessarily an idea that would instantly come to mind when thinking about the city, which is what makes it so inspiring – not to mention admirable.
Going behing the scenes with founder Michael Leung, a product designer and beekeeper, the video by Kiku Ohe for Nokia’s E7 Success Redefined global campaign sheds light on the ethos and aesthetic of the organisation, their approach to fostering community, the concept of breaking down the division between producer and consumer and the manner in which the environment of Hong Kong impacts on production. It is a fascinating and uplifting journey.
A special thanks to Charis Poon for kindly passing on the link to the video.
I tend not to be the biggest fan of blatantly branded architecture projects, but there are times when I’m willing to pretend the logo on the wall is just a portrait of someone’s favorite shapes. Besides, architecture is almost inherently a branding tool used by cities, museums, universities, corporations, et cetera. Why not a company that makes vacuum cleaners? Such is the preface for telling you about this Electrolux pop-up restaurant. One thing I particular like about the project is the project’s contrast to the older structures it will perch ontop of as it migrates around Europe like an aluminum pterodactyl. Initially in Brussels, the project will land somewhere in Italy, Switzerland, Sweeden and Russia before it goes extinct.
The gist of what she wrote is that here in North America, and surely in other parts of the world, high-end vodka like Grey Goose or Belvedere is so distilled that it effectively tastes like nothing. Zip, zilch, nada. So when you order, say, a vodka Red Bull, you’re basically drinking an alcoholic Red Bull that still tastes like shitty, cough syrup. In her own words:
A vodka martini ought to be renamed “I like being drunk” because that is its only purpose. Whereas the pleasure of sipping a well-made Manhattan is its own fun, the slight buzzy inhibitions of alcohol, just a pleasing side effect. Why wouldn’t you want your drink to taste like anything?
But it’s not fair to compare a silly, boring drink like a vodka martini to a flavour bomb like The Manhattan. Even worse is the dirty vodka martini. If your desperation for flavour has you drinking olive brine, just drink gin. Please. Gin is vodka’s smarter, classier, more worldly older sister. Vodka wants to go clubbing and hook up with Johnny Redbull, that hot guy she met last week (who’s not actually that hot and wears too much cologne). Gin wants to have dinner, a little wine and really talk about stuff, like politics and indie rock.
I totally and wholeheartedly agree with what Jen is saying. I drank vodka when I was 19 because I didn’t know any better… like 10 shots in a night kind of not knowing any better. Eventually I discovered gin and my world was transformed, simple but still flavorful, just garnished with a bit of lime. Though I have to say that even gin has had the same thing starting to happen. For a while I was making my gin and tonics with Hendrick’s, but honestly, it’s so filtered that it doesn’t really taste like anything to me, either. So I stick with Bombay Sapphire which has just the right amount of flavor.
Now, clearly this point of view and Jen’s article doesn’t take into account flavored vodkas, or vodkas which aren’t filtered and could be from a different country. Say, If you add some rosemary and some sage, and hell, some bacon into some vodka and let it infuse, I’m sure it would taste awesome. That’s not being contended. But, if you drink artificially flavored vodkas like Smirnoff blueberry or watermelon, well, that’s still pretty gross in my opinion.
Anyhow, the point of all of this is simple. Drink alcohol that actually tastes like something, don’t waste your money on vodka that’s marketed as being better just because it’s expensive. You should also check out the Black Hoof’s drink list, they’ve got some pretty legit looking cocktails on there.
