I'm always amused or surprised by the neat, contemporary designs at A+R, but this one really takes the cake for me. Go from chicken with olives to flan with a flip of the lid (literally).
November 18, 2010
A Dutch (tajine) Oven from A+R
Smart! For a very Dutch (oven) twist on a tajine, take a look at this terracotta & ceramic, oven-proof slow cooker designed by the young and talented Dutch designer Margriet Foolen, available from California-based design store A+R.
I'm always amused or surprised by the neat, contemporary designs at A+R, but this one really takes the cake for me. Go from chicken with olives to flan with a flip of the lid (literally).
Everything does taste better in a slow cooker...
I'm always amused or surprised by the neat, contemporary designs at A+R, but this one really takes the cake for me. Go from chicken with olives to flan with a flip of the lid (literally).
November 17, 2010
Lalla Links: Intangible Cultural Heritage, The Calligrapher's Secret &Jewish LIfe in Morocco
-If you're in the New York area during the next few months, be sure to check out the exhibition and events at the American Sephardi Federation's "2000 Years of Jewish Life in Morocco".
-Interlink Books, one of the very best publishers in the U.S. for fiction from the Middle East, has a special deal going on now in celebration of Syrian-German author Rafik Schami's, author of both The Dark Side of Love and the recently released (and highly recommended) The Calligrapher’s Secret;, you can download a pamphlet featuring Arabic calligraphy, Schami's essay What I Create Will Outlast Time: The Story of the Beauty of Arabic Script and an excerpt from the novel.
-Yesterday UNESCO announced that it had made its 2010 additions (including those "in urgent need of safeguarding") to its Intangible Cultural Heritage List, including some you've probably never heard of but will find fascinating and others you won't believe took so long to get on the list. For a taste, here's a random selection:
flamenco (can't believe they waited so long on that one), French gastronomic meal (surely in no danger of disparition), the Catalonian Castells (human towers) of Spain, gingerbread craft from northern Croatia (sweet!), the Mediterranean diet (...), several traditions from Turkey (oil wrestling, the sema ceremony (whirling dervishes), the unique Armenian stone crosses, Afro-Colombian marimba music ( :) :) ), and the art of falconry from...Morocco to Mongolia, Spain, France, and all over.
The list only dates back to 2008 and there's a lot of fascinating information of these important expressions of humanity there (photos, video, details) to explore.
Enough for several coffee breaks. Enjoy!
Enough for several coffee breaks. Enjoy!
November 8, 2010
My translation of Fouad Laroui's short story on Words Without Borders
My translation of one of Dutch-Moroccan author Fouad Laroui's short stories, "My Father's Antenna," was just published this month at Words Without Borders.
WWB fills a specifal place in my heart for the work they do in introducing new literary landscapes to a global audience. They're an online magazine focused entirely on international literature in translation, featuring a different theme or region each month. November is a celebration of contemporary writing from and on the Middle East and North Africa -- and coincides with the release of Tablet and Pen, a new anthology of the same.
I was so pleased the editors there liked this story by Laroui, drawn from his collection in the book Tu n'as rien compris a Hassan II. Here modernity comes to a traditional little Moroccan village in the form of a television, and radically changes one family's life -- speaking to wider social change throughout. The story's bittersweet humor, cultural details and well-crafted clash of foreign technology with the domesticity of the Belbal Family and village life are what first leapt out at me.
Here's a little teaser:
Laroui was once again nominated for the Prix Goncourt, one of France's most prestigious literary prizes, this time for his latest novel Une annee chez les francais, a charming and, as you'd expect, hilarious story about a precocious if socially-awkward Moroccan boy transferred to the country's most prestigious school, le Lycee Lyautey, in Casablanca. It's a lovely novel, in some ways practically an ode to the particularities of French education, and I hope it and some of his earlier work (Mefiez-vous des parachutistes, Les dents du topographe, Judith und Jamaal) also get picked up by English-language publishers.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first of Fouad Laroui's stories (written in French) to be translated into English. I hope you'll check out my translation and this month's other stories and articles at WWB.
WWB fills a specifal place in my heart for the work they do in introducing new literary landscapes to a global audience. They're an online magazine focused entirely on international literature in translation, featuring a different theme or region each month. November is a celebration of contemporary writing from and on the Middle East and North Africa -- and coincides with the release of Tablet and Pen, a new anthology of the same.
I was so pleased the editors there liked this story by Laroui, drawn from his collection in the book Tu n'as rien compris a Hassan II. Here modernity comes to a traditional little Moroccan village in the form of a television, and radically changes one family's life -- speaking to wider social change throughout. The story's bittersweet humor, cultural details and well-crafted clash of foreign technology with the domesticity of the Belbal Family and village life are what first leapt out at me.
Here's a little teaser:
"Grandmother watched from afar, hidden behind the door, curious as a cat but fearing the devil and the jinns that hide inside European machines."
Laroui was once again nominated for the Prix Goncourt, one of France's most prestigious literary prizes, this time for his latest novel Une annee chez les francais, a charming and, as you'd expect, hilarious story about a precocious if socially-awkward Moroccan boy transferred to the country's most prestigious school, le Lycee Lyautey, in Casablanca. It's a lovely novel, in some ways practically an ode to the particularities of French education, and I hope it and some of his earlier work (Mefiez-vous des parachutistes, Les dents du topographe, Judith und Jamaal) also get picked up by English-language publishers.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first of Fouad Laroui's stories (written in French) to be translated into English. I hope you'll check out my translation and this month's other stories and articles at WWB.
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