friday link love

I was having a ho-hum day on Tuesday, and this totally cheered me up. Just try to sit through it and not grin ear to ear. Muppets, man—they rule.

And then I read this report about Bluefin tuna and was sad again. So back to the happy video I went.

We recently saw Jiro Dreams of Sushi and it is sheer delight. I’ve been thinking, a lot, about the notion of shokunin, which in Japanese means an artisan, a craftsman. Doing the same thing (in Jiro’s case, a lifetime of making exceptional sushi) over and over to perfect your craft is something, in our immediate gratification, impatient world we don’t do enough of. Cooking the same thing over and over, as Judy Rogers notes in the Zuni Café Cookbook, makes you a far better cook (and teaches you far more) than making a few different things across the same time frame. I want to do more of that this year. Make the same thing over and over and over, and observe the changes in how I see the food, as I make it.

This documentary. I loved it, but I walked away with a heavy heart. Seeing these glaciers disappear before my very eyes made me sad and a little helpless. I hope that everyone takes the time to see this film; it’s very relevant to us all.

The humblebrag – huge thanks to Maggy for pointing me in the direction of the article on the humblebrag and also to the writer, Henry Alford, for so astutely giving it a term and calling it for what it is. I’ve been seeing the humblebrag quite a bit across the blogosphere and other social media.

Less – is more. Thank you, Tracy, for this link. It’s hitting that spot.

A1 vs A2 milk – a very interesting (read: geeky!) read – thank you, Elissa!

You write like this; I write like that – fantastic post, and a great reminder that in creating, there are no rules, so long as you do what works for you. So long as you are true to your craft, your voice, your work – that is all that should matter when you are creating. The rest: perception, recognition, following, adulation, even, aren’t up to you. Now if that> concept not liberating, I don’t know what is.

Comparison is the thief of joy
Somewhat apropos. I feel like there’s a theme here, swirling about, in conversations I’ve recently had with others. I am not immune to this either; but I’ve started to check myself at the gate, so to speak, before I enter the “house of self doubt”. There’s a lot of questioning if our voice is good enough, if our food is perfect enough, if we are being genuine enough. This might come out from left field and might rub some folks the right way: but having an authentic voice most likely means you never have to talk about authenticity in the first place. You don’t even think about it. You just are. Period. And for what it’s worth – MJ is one hell of a writer and a human being. She’s exactly the same person on the page exactly as she is in real life. And I love that about her.

And with that, I hope you all have a fabulous Friday afternoon, and a wonderful and restful weekend! I hope you take many restful naps, much like Forrest does. Just look at him above!! Such oblivion and bliss!

Next up, I’ll have a chicken curry recipe for you, but that will come in a day or so. Cheers.