sake

For those of you looking for a slightly different "ale" for the New Year's celebration, consider sake.  Wonderful, of course, with sushi (which doesn't have to be with fish, raw or cooked).

Photo credit/Wikipedia, user: Tenmei, Title page of Bereiding van Sacki, by Isaac Titsingh: earliest explanation of the sake brewing process in a European language. Published in 1781, in Batavia, Dutch East Indies.

type city

via It's Nice That - Type City, a website by Dan Cooper, a last year student at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.  He is collecting photographs of lettering around the U.K.   Check out the Funfair stream.  A little London Transport.  London Markets.   No dogs allowed on the city walls.  Rrrff!

in the studio

Rare footage of Brion Gysin at work.  I also tried watching this to the Edward Scissorhands soundtrack at The Insects' Christmas.

contraptions

The Great Lego Ball Contraption. 

vegetarian soups

 

Where else?  Mark Bittman's minimalist soup kitchen, of course.   Now that it's time to loosen your belt before New Year's.  At that link, instructions for creamy, brothy, earthy, or hearty vegetarian soups.  And just when you thought you had finished eating.

* Photo credits.  New York Times/photographer: Yunhee Kim.  Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero.  Prop Stylist: Deborah Williams.

street fashion

Just love this New York Times video, Dandies In The West Village, speaking with random pedestrians about their great sense of street fashion.

the insects' christmas

The Insects' Christmas, a dreamlike 1913 stop motion animation by director Vladislav Starevich. Interestingly enough, he also worked for a Lithuanian natural history museum and is known for his insect flicks.   XmasFlick added the Edward Scissorhands soundtrack while modifying some rougher elements in the original.  Via boing boing with more weirdly wonderful holiday shorts at this link.