I have a small, close group of friends with whom I discuss media and entertainment a lot. We have shows we watch together and we enjoy critiquing whatever happens to be the subject of the moment. It has become a long running joke that my contributions often start with "I heard (insert accomplished creative name) on Terry Gross and they said _________." What I have come to realize though, is that what is different about Terry Gross and some others (Charlie Rose) is that their interviews generally center around how a person rose to prominence and often the setbacks they faced. If one were to simply watch "interviews" on Late Night and the Tonight Show, one might assume that superstars were destined for fame, they were simply fulfilling a destiny.
One of my favorite interviews from recent years was with Jason Segel of How I Met Your Mother (you can listen to it here). He talks a lot about how he experienced early success after high school of being cast in Judd Apatow's network dramedy Freaks and Geeks only to have it canceled mid-season and did not work again for years. In light of his success over the past five years, most of his fans probably never imagined the years he spent questioning if he was wasting his time chasing his dream. What shows like this highlight is that often there are many, many setbacks before success and it's the people who grow from failure and persevere that are likeliest to experience success.
Here is another good thought from This American Life host Ira Glass about creativity and sticking with it:
Cupcakes!
Kyra has been working around the clock to keep up with all the business that the media buzz has created. Lucky for us she took the time to appear on a local news show AND give us one of her amazing recipes for Champagne Cupcakes! Here it is, just in time for New Year's Eve!
Cake:
8 oz (1 C) butter at room temperature
16 oz (about 2 C) sugar
4 large eggs
2 ¾ C all purpose gluten-free flour mix*
1 ½ C champagne or sparkling wine
Champagne French Buttercream
3 oz egg yolks
8 oz (about 1 cup) sugar
2 oz water
10 oz (1 cup + 4 TBSP) butter, at room temperature
1/3 C champagne
Make the cake:
Preheat oven to 350˚ Fahrenheit.
Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.
Using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue creaming until the color of the butter mixture is several shades lighter.
Add the eggs one at a time, stopping the mixer in between each addition to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Once the eggs have been combined and the batter is a uniform texture, add the flour mix in 3 additions, alternating with the champagne. Make sure to stop the mixer and scrap down the sides of the bowl so the batter is evenly incorporated.
Evenly fill the cupcake cavities 2/3 of the way full (using a large ice cream scoop is the best way to make sure the cupcake batter is evenly dispersed).
Bake until the cupcakes are done and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 14-18 minutes.
Remove from oven and place each cupcake on a cooling rack until completely cool.
In the meantime, make the Champagne French Butter Cream:
Put the sugar and water in a small sauce pot and boil until a candy thermometer registers 248˚.
Meanwhile, in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whip attachment, beat the egg yolks on high until light, fluffy and tripled in volume.
Slow down the mixer to medium and slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the whipping egg yolks.
Once all the sugar is in, turn the mixer speed back up to high and whip until the yolk mixture is no longer warm to the touch.
Add the room temperature butter in chunks and mix until fully incorporated, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times.
Add the champagne slowly and mix until combined. Frost the cupcakes and decorate with your choice of garnish. Enjoy!
Temple Grandin
Last year I discovered Temple Grandin. She is an author, doctor of animal science at Colorado State University and she is autistic. Her remarkable story was made into an HBO movie starring Claire Danes (I highly recommend it). She grew up in the 1950s at a time when Autism was barely even known and as a result of the devotion of her mother and teachers, she was able to harness her genius and become one of the most renowned livestock experts in the world.
She's written numerous books, two of which I am currently reading Animals Make us Human and Thinking in Pictures. The latter is her memoir about growing up with Autism. In 2009 she did an interview with Terry Gross, you can listen to it here. I am equally fascinated and awed by Temple Grandin's story. Her insight has been invaluable to understanding the thought processes of Autistic children. Give the TED talk or her interview a listen and I guarantee you will come away inspired and entertained, not to mention a little smarter.
She's written numerous books, two of which I am currently reading Animals Make us Human and Thinking in Pictures. The latter is her memoir about growing up with Autism. In 2009 she did an interview with Terry Gross, you can listen to it here. I am equally fascinated and awed by Temple Grandin's story. Her insight has been invaluable to understanding the thought processes of Autistic children. Give the TED talk or her interview a listen and I guarantee you will come away inspired and entertained, not to mention a little smarter.
Christmas Mittens
When my father was a boy, his mother started knitting these snowflake mittens. She would use wool yarn for the body for warmth, and a synthetic blend for the cuff, so that it would maintain its shape better. When she became a grandmother, she began to knit tiny snowflake mittens for her grandchildren. My brother, cousins and I had collections of all sizes and colors of these mittens. A few years ago, she knit a pair for each member of our family for Christmas. I got a red pair, as you see in the photo above.We took a photo on the stairs of our entire family wearing our snowflake mittens. I like to pull it out and show it to friends from time to time with the simple statement "and here is my family." Without the slightest hint of humor at how cheesy the picture is. They always stifle their laughter until I smile and acknowledge the fact that most people do not have a picture of their entire extended family wearing mittens.
When it came to domestic matters, my grandmother was a brilliant baker and crafter. But she was also quick witted and honestly a little bit of a hard-ass. She didn't like complaining and she valued hard work above nearly all else. Sometimes I think about how much she did before noon in her most active days that I can remember. This convenience world that we live in requires very little actual "work" in the physical sense. We can "work" all day at a computer without creating anything tangible. For some reason, around the holidays, I get this urge to create, whether it's cooking or knitting a scarf. Maybe its the cold weather, or maybe it's a way to honor the generations that came before that did these things each day.
Merry Christmas!
Call Me a Duck
UO's all male singing group, On the Rocks recently appeared on the NBC show, The Sing Off. While they did not win, they did release this little gem to the thousands of students and alumni that love them so. They're no Supwitchugirl but they are pretty good!
My Christmas List
Here are a few things I'd be thrilled to find under the tree this year. None of these are realistic, but perhaps that's half the fun.
A cattle dog pup! I fell in love with the two sweet cattle dogs that belong to some of my friends over the summer. A dog isn't in my near future, but look at that face!
A tropical vacation
A great new job
What do you want for Christmas?
A cattle dog pup! I fell in love with the two sweet cattle dogs that belong to some of my friends over the summer. A dog isn't in my near future, but look at that face!
A tropical vacation
A great new job
What do you want for Christmas?
Scary Claus
Over the next 10 days I'll be doing some posts about my favorite holiday traditions. Since the holidays can be a stressful time of year as well I thought it would be fun to talk about something I did NOT like as a kid about Christmas.
When I was a kid, I was terrified of Santa Claus. My mother was never one to make us do things we were afraid of, but she did occasionally ask me to go see Santa every other year or so. I would oblige, probably because I thought I wouldn't get any presents if I didn't. I would dread the event and always feel an immense sense of relief when it was over.
In my experience, there are generally two types of Santa Claus'. The first is the general mall/strip mall Santa. This guy looks like he hasn't slept in weeks and had a beer for breakfast. His suit is ratty and his beard resembles tangled fiberglass. I.e. the Santa from A Christmas Story. The second type of Santa is the Macy's Santa. This guy is actually an old dude with a white beard. He looks more like someone's grandpa than a guy that just got off a 5 day bender. He might be a little jolly around the mid-section and his pop-culture equivalent is the Santa from Miracle on 34th Street.
It seems that most of my childhood memories of visiting Santa more closely resemble the former version. The worst was at a strip mall in the town adjacent to where I grew up. He was scary, fake beard, and not the jolly old elf he was promised to be. As I walked up the cheesy candy-cane lane, that seemed a mile away from where my mother stood and waited, I could feel my heart beat quicken. I turned back and mother waved and smiled. I looked ahead to "Santa", sitting on his ply-wood and spray painted throne, hunched over and looking hung over. He perched me on his knee and asked the obligatory question, halitosis overwhelming his words. I blurted out the first thing I could think of, American Girl doll stuff and hoped that it would soon be over. We took a quick snapshot and my mother was given a Polaroid in a card stock frame.
The next time, we went to Macy's and stood in the impossibly long line to see Santa. I'm sure it was supposed to be better. After all, Santa actually was a jolly old man this time. He wasn't in a strip mall, his digs were far superior, but somehow it didn't matter. This visit was just as bad as the one before.
While an adult can make the distinctions between the two types of Santas, kids don't bother. And why should they? At the end of the day they're sitting on a stranger's lap either way. When you think about it, taking a child to sit on a strange man's lap in a mall is a bizarre and legitimately scary thing. When you take away the illusion of the spectacle, it's easy for adults to see why this could be such a terrifying event for a child.
Words to Live by
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
-Soren Kierkegaard
-Soren Kierkegaard
Mighty Oregon
I defended our team, because being a duck isn't about rankings, high profile boosters, or even how many uniform options you have. It's about the feeling in the air as you walk across the footbridge to Autzen Stadium on game day, a feeling that can only be equated to an adult's version of Christmas morning. It's about being on the other side of the country and seeing someone wearing the "O" and shaking hands. It's about supporting the PAC-10 as we consistently try to shed our underdog status. And it's about building an empire.
The state of Oregon has 1/10 the population of California. We have a small number of universities. Our economy has struggled, even when the country has experienced prosperity. I'm glad to see our great state be in the news for being among the best of the best at something. I believe Chip Kelly has kept the heads of our players on straight this season. As we rose in the rankings and continued to be undefeated he reminded them that can all change overnight. So thank you to Coach Kelly, to all the players and to Mike Bellotti who laid the groundwork. You've given us so many reasons to be proud to be ducks this year. The road has been paved for future teams, now it's time to build.
Holiday Books
I am nearly done with my term at school and have found the past few weeks were such a whirlwind I wasn't able to get much writing done. Well, actually I did a ton of writing. I was just writing a 20 page literature review and 3 other papers instead of writing for this blog. I am looking forward to this week and getting back into the habit of updating.
When I was young I loved to read and I always looked forward to bringing out the holiday books at Christmastime. Here are a few of my favorites:
The Starlight Bride by Paul Owen Lewis
This book is beautifully illustrated by Pacific Northwest author Paul Owen Lewis. A prince must find his bride and one true love before Christmas.
Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett has some of the most intricate and beautiful illustrations. The mittens in this book look a lot like the ones my grandmother used to knit for our family.
Kirsten's Suprise was a book based on the American Girl doll who had come to America with her family from Sweden. I still love this book because it is all about blending old traditions with new during the holidays.
This year I'd like to add Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien to my collection!
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