I’ve always caught bits of Masterpiece Theater here and there over the years, but have become a regular viewer more of late, probably starting with Jane Eyre and the string of Jane Austens last year. On average, the productions are pretty good, although some are much worse than others (hello Mansfield Park). That horrible version convinced me that not all Masterpiece are created equal and that it might be a good idea to read the books before they show their interpretations. I had actually read Mansfield Park after enjoying the movie from a few years back (and liked the Fanny Price of the movie far better than the actual one). [On a side note, I always loved how in Whit Stillman's Metropolitan, Tom's opinion of the book was based on literary criticism, rather than having read the book itself. If you've never watched Metropolitan, I highly recommend it--it still stands as one of our favorite movies, with a yearly holiday viewing.]

I found out last week that Masterpiece Classic was returning with Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Granted, a lot of the books they dramatize are things most people probably read in high school, but I still have a lot of catching up to do. So I went out and found a used copy of the book and spent the weekend cramming it down. I didn’t get to totally digest it as I finished a few hours before the broadcast, but I can easily say the book is much better than at least Part 1 of the show. I guess the problem all book adaptations have is that it is extremely difficult to capture the wording which constructs the picture–you can tell basically the same plot, but that’s often not the only thing that makes a book singular. I also wanted to have my own interpretation of the characters in my head before being tainted by their choice of actors. It’s not even that Thomas Hardy is so luxurious in his language, but there is something nice about putting your imagination to work to form the faces and places that he only builds with words.

Anyhow, here is one particular turn of phrase that I liked (please excuse the very rodent-like qualities of my polar bear!)

So the UK visual arts book publisher RotoVision contacted us earlier this year about inclusion in one of their books. We were flattered and excited and sent them images, but shuffled it to the back of our minds and basically forgot about it. Until today that is. Jeremy happened to think of it and looked on their website to see if there was any news on the book. Imagine our surprise to see one of our planners on the cover! It doesn’t come out until April, so who knows if this is the final cover, but we were pretty stoked all the same. Thanks RotoVision!

It seems appropriate that we should receive our latest release, a wonderful little book of drawings by Martine Workman titled Water and Fall, during a wet winter storm. Water and bodies abound in many forms in this booklet and Martine’s drawings are inspired, spontaneous, and humorous. It’s the perfect stocking stuffer for the art-loving adults in your life!

Thanks to ReadyMade for including our calendars in their Dec/Jan issue. We’re proud to make up 30% of the ten calendars featured! And for all you eagle eyes out there, our building bookmark also makes an appearance on Faythe Levine’s wall on page 54.

As if tons of tasty leftovers (hello mashed potatoes and seitan roast!), a national day of listening, and fur-free friday weren’t enough, we have a brand new book to officially introduce!

Our first book of original work is Jo Dery’s Quietly Sure – Like the Keeper of a Great Secret. It’s a strange and beautifully-drawn trip through six stories and we couldn’t be more excited!

This past week, the Little Otsu Film Diary was a staff pick on Venus’ site and Hello Craft posted a nice Talk Shop feature with us. Many thanks!

Alright, I’m sure you are all responsible citizens and plan on voting tomorrow (congrats if you already have!). It’s so important that we’re closing the store a little early tomorrow (6:30 pm). Let’s get out there and make some good choices!

http://www.yesonprop2.com/
http://www.noonprop8.com/

whew! Thanks for indulging all this vegan food talk this month! Blogging every weekday (and about food at that) proved to be the challenge it was intended to be, but I’m glad we participated. It was really interesting to see the spectrum of vegan food blogs out there and I am in awe of people’s imagination and cooking and photography skills. I’ve definitely gotten inspiration for how to broaden my horizons in the kitchen. As to how it relates to behind the scenes at LO, well food is the fuel! Here’s a last food picture of these cool rainbow carrots we came across yesterday. The red ones were the color of blood oranges. So awesome we just had to buy them! They will be made into something good no doubt.

Ok, look forward to a Q&A with Dan Black next week! Happy Halloween!

from the best halloween house we’ve seen yet

Geez, only 2 days left to go with VeganMoFo and I almost forgot to post today. Well, it’s late, so I’ll make this a quickie. We went to People’s today and since I forgot to take a picture of our previous kohlrabi, I’ll make up for it with this green one which is almost the size of my head!

We also had some minestrone soup and cider from Sip, the vegan food cart out front. They just recently switched from summertime milkshakes to more autumn fare. It made for a comforting little afternoon snack and fell right in line with that fall feeling.

It was a beautiful autumn day today and after going on a bike ride, eating a pumpkin danish, and depositing our ballots (I miss the ritual of going to a polling booth on election day and getting my “I Voted” sticker, but it’s definitely less stressful to have mail-in voting), I felt inspired to make something fall-ish for dinner.

Let’s face it, nothing says fall like winter squash (in spite of the name). I love all the different shapes and colors, but I’m still not terribly well versed in what to do with them. We used to get the occasional squash in our vegetable delivery box and I would like looking at them more than figuring out how to cook them. But luckily for me, I’ve gotten over the initial mental block by realizing how easy they are to work with. You can just cut them in half, take out the seeds (which make a nice snack when salted and roasted) and bake them for half an hour and then you’ve got squash at your disposal. Tonight I decided to add an apple and red bell pepper to the baking pan along with an acorn squash, and ended up with a tasty blended soup. I was never much of a blended soup girl either, but have found that our handy hand blender makes it a cinch and it adds textural variety. Sometimes it just really hits the spot.