going all in.
—
“do it with passion or not at all.”
– Rosa Nouchette Carey- British writer
Apr29
with passion.
Tag Archives: passion
Apr10
passion.
Sep21
transforming.
kinders transform with hands, finger paint, foil, and joy.
—
“the goal of life is rapture. art is the way we experience it.
art is the transforming experience.”
— joseph campbell
Dec15
love’s labours.
Behold: The World’s Largest (Three-Ton) Gingerbread Village, GingerBread Lane.
The village becomes larger and more elaborate each year.
The day after Christmas is typically a time for relaxation and reflection after a harried holiday season. But not for Jon Lovitch—December 26 is the day he gets started on next year’s Christmas miracle. Driven by visions of Yuletide glory, he hits up stores’ post-holiday sales and stocks up on the sugar, candy and other sweets he’ll use to build his next GingerBread Lane.
The 39-year-old chef has been building gingerbread houses since he was a teenager. But Lovitch is no run-of-the-mill gingerbread aficionado. GingerBread Lane, which is on display through January 10 at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York, recently broke the Guinness World Record for world’s largest gingerbread village. For the last three years, he’s won the title annually, beating out villages in Norway and other countries.
Made using 682 pounds of homemade gingerbread dough, 775 pounds of candy sourced from more than 11 countries and 3,900 pounds of icing, GingerBread Lane weighs in at around three tons and takes up 500 square feet of space. Between buying supplies, making dough and icing from scratch and decorating each of the 1,102 buildings right down to their gumdrop-speckled rooftops, the completely edible village took about 1,500 hours to construct over the course of an entire year.
“I’m a chef by trade and a food purist, so I don’t believe in using ingredients that are inedible,” Lovitch tells Smithsonian.com. “Sure, it would be much easier to build if I used Styrofoam and glue, but Guinness mandates it’s built in such a way, and that’s the same way I’ve always done it.”
When Lovitch isn’t hunched over his oven in his cramped Bronx apartment, he serves as executive chef at the historic Algonquin Hotel in Times Square in New York City. Because of space restraints in his home kitchen, he can only work in batches on nights and weekends. He makes about three pounds of icing at a time and stores his creations in a spare bedroom. As a result, his entire home smells like a Christmas bakery year-round.“By the end of summer I can’t even smell it anymore,” he says, “but whenever I have friends over, they always comment on it.”
Lovitch’s schedule increases in intensity once July rolls around. He does the bulk of the baking during the summer. It isn’t until fall that he begins work on each structure’s details, from the intricate candy-coated rooftop of the S.C. Kringle & Co. Department Shoppe to the lifelike stonework on the exterior of a row of gingerbread brownstones. Lovitch even uses specially ordered coffee-flavored gum from Japan to simulate brown bricks.
“I try to make my village as lifelike and detailed as possible—it’s a cross between something in a Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and a Tim Burton movie,” says Lovitch. Kids aren’t the only people drawn to the delicious intricacy of his gingerbread creations, he says: “Seniors are also really into it.”
GingerBread Lane’s appeal is widespread, but it can’t last forever. After several weeks delighting kids of all ages, Lovitch must dismantle GingerBread Lane on January 10. Rather than throw his creations in the trash, he invites visitors to come to the New York Hall of Science and take home buildings for free on a first-come, first-served basis. “Taking it apart can be gut-wrenching,” he says. “You realize as you give away each piece that you’ll never see it again. Just like Christmas, it’s an ephemeral thing. A brief, fleeting moment in time.”
—
“and I had but one penny in the world. thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.”
– william shakespeare, Love’s Labours Lost
—
credits: smithsonianmag.com, jennifer nalewki
Jun27
chasing fireflies.
just at dusk
fireflies
flit
and
a
gaggle of grandies
trying to catch up with them
fly.
—
“i began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life.
he taught me that if you are interested in something,
no matter what it is,
go at it at full speed ahead.
embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it
and above all
become passionate about it.
lukewarm is no good.
hot is no good either.
white hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”
― roald dahl, My Uncle Oswald
Jun5
my crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy. – william shakespeare
and so it began
another summer
had arrived
and
it was kicked off
in a larger than life way
with
martha reeves and the vandellas
giving a free concert
outisde on the street
and
it brought people of all kinds together
to
dance in the streets
and
sing
and
remember
and
celebrate
the season
and later
i had the chance to see
my co-worker from school
in a very different role
acting in a
powerful production
of one of my favorites
‘rent’
held in a beautiful old theater
with voices booming and tears flowing
and i couldn’t have asked for a better way
to be welcomed into summer
but with music and passion.
Jun2
that thing you do
—
image credit: ziggityzoom
Feb24
making the turn
headed out to the gym yesterday to workout and watch the big game. the university of michigan wolverines were playing basketball against our instate rivals, the michigan state spartans. i figured i’d serve myself up a little pleasure with my pain.
as i got closer to the gym, i noticed that it was surrounded by an astounding number of opposing choices: taco bell, burger king, cottage inn pizza, noodles, mcdonalds, gourmet garden chinese, castle liquor store, subway, zingerman’s roadhouse. i could almost imagine my chalupa and mexican pizza and a cold beer.
or, there was –
the gym.
it would have been so easy to accidentally turn into one of those other driveways, and then the next hour would be spent indulging in food and drink heaven instead of in gym hell.
i made the turn.
and when i found myself in the gym, i was not disappointed, and knew i had made the right choice. there were father/sons, couples, singletons, and people of every shape and size and color imaginable. what we all had in common, was the turn we made to get there.
the familiar maize and blue home team shirts were everywhere, and people cheered while on the elliptical, treadmill, with weights, and bars, and balls, and machines. it was a great first half. and while i can’t say where everyone went for the second half, the wolverines played a magnificent game, and we won in the end. go blue! sometimes, it’s just a matter of choosing the right driveway. and if i happen to turn into the taco bell driveway next time, so be it.
One might as well try to ride two horses moving in different directions,
as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory sets of desires.
Robert Collier
—
image credits: michigan daily, oldtowneast.com, sweethorseranch.com
I didn't have my glasses on.... 