Monthly Archives: November 2015

Mama Tried: Traditional Italian Cooking for the Screwed, Crude, Vegan, and Tattooed

Cecilia Granata grew up cooking with her family in Italy. As a vegan, she learned to adapt her favorite recipes to be animal-free while retaining the flavor and feeling of true Italian home cooking. She shares her commitment to ethical and artful eating in this alphabetically-arranged volume with over 100 recipes, ranging from traditional favorites from across Italy to homemade liqueurs to aphrodisiacs—all “senza sofferenza”—without suffering. The recipes are lushly illustrated with Granata’s food-inspired tattoo art.

Rampant Media Consumption – September and October 2015

basically this is usInput inspires output! Here’s what we’ve been taking in this month:

Thea

Scoped these concept albums

Saw the BBC special about cycling, Victorian women, and healing through exercise. 

Enjoyed reading Anne Elizabeth Moore‘s newest comics journalism on food & tradition

Meggyn

The new Alpine album makes me want to treat myself to a nice vegan pasta dinner. The title has no indication of the sound. It’s glorious. 

I started reading Notes on the Synthesis of Form by Christopher Alexander, but I stopped when they referred to all designers as “he”. Debating on diving back into it.

Also thumbed through Fingerprint No. 2: The Evolution of Handmade Elements in Graphic Design for some inspiration. 

Taylor

Been reading this

And this.

Elly

I read two books on vacation: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (rumor has it that one of her earlier novels, All Over Creation, was inspired by the real life of the author of our book Maps to the Other Side) blew my mind. It’s about nature, quantum physics, japanese youth culture, and an anarchist nun. 

Then I thought that Jo Baker’s Longbourne was going to be totally silly lite reading but it’s a really good book. Think class-conscious Jane Austin fanfic. Yup!

Love Letters to Cities: An interview with Alexander Barrett

alexander barrett with puppyAlexander Barrett had only lived in our city for a year when he wrote and illustrated one of our most charming books, This is Portland: The City You’ve Heard You Should Like, telling the real story of just how weird things are here…much weirder than as shown on the television show Portlandia, thank you very much. Later, he moved to China for a short time, and the result is the just-as-charming book about a very different place: This is Shanghai: What it’s Like to Live in the World’s Most Populous City (which, by the way, comes out this month!). He took a minute to answer some questions about his work and plans and where he’s at right now in San Francisco. Readers of This is Shanghai will recognize one important theme from that book which has stayed with him…as illustrated in the photos here.

1. Where are you *right now* and what is the most important thing to know about what’s going on around you there?

Right this second, I’m in a sunny edit suite in San Francisco, working on a short documentary about a street sign and getting ready for Beer Feelings, a show of illustrations I do in San Diego every November. But most importantly, I’m hanging out with a super chill puppy.

2. I know it’s crass to ask, but when you aren’t making charming illustrated books about places you’re getting to know, what exactly do you do for a living?

I used to know, I think. I used to be a copywriter at ad agencies. Now I’m kind of a copywriter and mostly a regular writer at YouTube. I guess I’m trying to put okay things into the world for a living.

alexander barrett with another puppy3. What’s your favorite book that you’ve read this year?

This year I finally finished Raymond Chandler’s oeuvre. And that’s the first time I’ve ever typed “oeuvre.” I wish I could say I read The Long Goodbye this year, but I have to be honest and say Farewell, My Lovely, which is also incredible.

4. What’s next for you? Will there be a This is San Francisco? And finally, the question on everyone’s mind: Where will you live next?

With Portland and Shanghai, it took a year to realize I had enough stories to put a book together. I’ll see if that happens with SF. For the first time in a while, I’m not thinking about where I’ll go next. In between the Portland and Shanghai books, I lived in three cities. Three cities that didn’t inspire books. I’m really excited about being in one place for a while. One place with super chill puppies.

alexander barrett with people and puppies in china

This is the latest in our series of author interviews. The previous interview was with Our Bodies, Our Bikes contributor, Bikeyface.