Open Late, Sponge HQ

Back at the Sponge HQ this Friday night, we got to re-live the MoMA moment with relics and tales from the Prototype for the Phylum Porifera. Live mould castings of polyurethane sponge forms,  bouncy 'till cured and ready for more needle felting - this time it was lavendar wool, with M & J handling the sharps well.

The home hive had ceased to buzz after multiple stresses - building work and a slight location shift amongst them. So Hope harvested and it was a fabulous sight - oozing, golden honey glowing in the evening lamplight and large chucks of strikingly geometric honey-comb heaped in buckets. M & I got to taste it all straight from the hive and it was delicious.

There were lots of folk to chat to as this was a shared potluck and late night with the Portrait as Community students.

Things evolved and all was lovely...

Fall at Maymont

We caught the end of the afternoon sun and it was like dancing through a Merchant Ivory film. The girls curled up in immense trees, like we did as kids in Arderne Gardens, then gathered bamboo for rods to catch fish in the Japanese Garden, thankfully unsuccessfully and finally ran up through the woods to watch the sun set, whilst practicing their Kung Fu - panda style! We screamed as dusk arrived and headed home as the temperature plummeted and the promise of Jamie's bake beckoned.

Baywatch Clubhouse, Phase 1

 ... so when you want a treehouse but your home is temporary, the next best thing is a clubhouse on stilts. Designs are being finalised, modelled on Zuma Beach's lifeguard towers, but with no prospect of David Hasselhoff for the grand opening on M's Birthday. P still has his tangos though!

Thanksgiving turkey

If you're living the American dream then there's got to be turkey at Thanksgiving and it's got to be done according to Alton Brown. So there was the brining... and then the speedy cycle to the shop at 4pm on the given day for a thermometer and finally the roasting... to the desired 161F for the breast meat and voila, the perfect meal for three, plus the man with the Tofurkey!


All was peaceful and quiet down the street.

Thanksgiving fruit

So we flouted convention and thought apple not pumpkin pie and headed for the mountains... In clear sunshine we careered down through the orchards towards the pink ladies and gathered them in until our bags sagged. Then climbed back upwards and lay on a grassy slope recovering and chomping our way through our fruits and offering directions to the other assorted families heading steeply downwards.

M pulled off a great sweet shortcrust when we got home and made this brief introduction to her Thanksgiving table...

Muesli breakfast

A Jamie Oliver + Whole Foods triumph - home concocted muesli NOT granola and utterly delicious!

Only eight year's in aspiration and many boxes of Dorset later. Now all we need is a big IKEA cereal dispenser and we'll be like some Swiss alpine chalet of a morning...

• 8 large handfuls of organic rolled oats
• 2 large handfuls of ground bran
• 1 handful of chopped dried apricots
• 1 handful of chopped dried dates
• 1 handful of crumbled walnuts
• 1 handful of smashed or chopped almonds, hazelnuts or brazil nuts

Date Night

Date night with a bit of Dale (Chihuly!)... wandered the crisp, chilly streets of the Fan hand-in-hand, before exiting the deep darkness for the glow of the VMFA and in its dignified halls. Saw Egyptian little-guy figures and miniature Japanese gold-coated envelopes with tiny flower paintings... my festive gift of choice, if raiding the VMFA was a social norm.

Didn't do the full Dale show - really, $20/£12.60 each!! Plus last visit started (!) with an official reprimand. Escaped notice tonight and sought refuge from the dropping temperature in Mom Siam, ending with crispy banana and sticky rice - content and sleepy we headed home.

El Anatsui, High Line, New York

Early one morning just as the sun was rising I was wandering up the High Line savouring its seemingly effortless gorgeousness when I came across an El Anatsui work being installed. Sadly he was not commanding the team but a man called instructions from behind a bush, while El's assistants precariously lurched across the wall -crumpling or angling flattened tin sheets on command. Broken Bridge II shimmered and gleamed and was perfect in this context.

It's almost a year since I first made this walk with Team Yau-Stephens. This time was faster-paced, very peaceful and a lot warmer though I grinned at the memory of their great company...

Prototype for Preserving the Phylum Porifera, MoMA

I got to relocate to New York with VCU's Sponge HQ. Crammed in a van we absorbed passages of sponge biology, sounds of incisive needle felting from the back seat and much music. Momentum built as we neared the struggling post-Sandy city. With tense focus we unpacked, straight into MoMA and the vast open studio space of our host, Mildred's Lane.  

Out came our distinctive pops of color, landing as Hope's felt rug was unfurled and bright bee boxes found their place. Our materials were seriously mixed, from natural sea sponges – our conceptual starting blocks - to their lurid foam evolutions and glowing bronze and beeswax casts. At hand - giant balls of burnt orange and deep lilac wool.

Children swarmed in, utterly intent on needle-punching sponge forms and, like the best fairytales, someone’s thigh got pricked. Our story continued on screen, looping with shots of the HQ’s beehive, neon tetras and gushing water - immaculately edited and scored, of course. Everything connected – not just the living, breathing turtles wallowing in the Mildred's Lane interior and the Reggio Children’s reef scene - we had dive visuals too, including Kalymnos, Greece - the sponge stores now bereft of native samples and forced to import from the Caribbean.

Interaction was plentiful - yes, some 98 folk stopped by to chat, potter and savor our HQ honey.  We made friends, brewed tea on a massive braided rug (thanks Fritz Haeg),  and lived the gestalt - trans-disciplinary and cross-generational; multi sensory and just plain multiplied. It all happened and we gave gifts – a bronze sea sponge and our best ephemera, all now safely archived.

At the close of the day we got back in our van and headed off for much needed nourishment in the East Village's Banjara.

PS: Word is I'm the front of VCU's Commonwealth Times - cover girl at last!

Post-Sandy Road Trip, Richmond VA to NYC

Super Storm Sandy had left its mark on our route and destination... In New Jersey petrol was restricted to even number plates on our arrival day and we spotted some black marketeering as we squeezed slowly through the back streets of Soho.

Taxis were hard to find, bags of refuse were piled on the pavements, credit card payments were not a given and my Hudson riverbank hotel's basement was full of flood-recovery kit plus the wireless internet was out. Superficially though life was normal and the odd pile of snow melted as the sun came out.

I assumed dramatic power-issues in my room, only to find I needed to insert my key to achieve full light and appliance function - 24 hours of darkness preceeded this discovery.

Down on the river... North Bank Trail

A bit of wintery sun and zen like rock piles right out in the flow of the James... We couldn't reach them but added to our own on the shore and generally paddled about, with no major incident. The water level is incredibly low.

Last day of being 44, for man below.

'

Ashland

Travelling back from Washington, the Amtrak train began trundling down Ashland Main Street (actually Center St) and so I was staring directly into cafes and grocery stores. It was an odd experience being in such a large vehicle passing through a village high-street, and it turns out Ashland is moderately famous for it and they love their track.

Hence there's the best toy train shop in the world, that we lingered in on Saturday with the girls, transfixed by the electric model trains. We also found a old-school grocery store, furniture up-cycling, wine bar and coffee shop. What more could you want - a caboose in the playground - we'll need to go back for that.

InLight, Broad Street

A night of lights down on Broad all thanks to 1708 Gallery and some fab commissioning.

1. A giant projected fun fair was in our car park, complete with hurdy-gurdy soundtrack -  Cliff Baldwin's The Language of Light.
2. Interstitial Transduction was an alleyway tree that if tapped, swung sound and lights across the wall, entrancing us all - Nelly Kate & Dave Watkins.
   
3. In a small, quiet courtyard we found Noms de Pays, an elegiac photographic projection by Devon Johnson.
4. Tannaz Farsi's post-Occupy, neon riot barricade - Crowd Control - was starkly effective and highly charged. 

Friday Adventure, Pocahontas State Park

Crispy crunchy leaves amidst the chill, plus some impressively fallen trees and decent battle worthy boughs - Pocahontas is just the best local wilderness.