Ideas

Exhibition Design or Juice?

I am used to seeing a semi-stocked juice graveyard of some sort at the supermarket, but The Tropicana 100% Juice visual display caught me off guard the other day. As a designer, I am one for consistent messaging throughout product lines to instill brand quality, recognition and consumer loyalty, if that really exists. Everything was so perfect that when I noticed a slight imperfection it made me question whether I was in the dairy and juice aisle, at an ironic pop art exhibition or the visual merchandiser has OCD?

Are we consumers paying for the packaging design and message or the juice inside? Will I impress my neighbors with a modern juice carton design? Should I purchase every product offering to complete some sort of collectable one time only commemorative issued Tropicana juice product? Would adding the trendy word “organic” to the packaging have been sufficient?

It was difficult to sort through the no pulp, some pulp, mega pulp, calcium fortified, vitamin D injected offering, because everything was so homogenized (no pun intended). The modern design surely makes it more clinical and less crafted. Who knows? It is just juice right. Well, first it was tomatoes now peanut butter is contaminated with Salmonella. Can we trust in the packaging alone or should we just juice our own?

The regimen of varying juice product from one brand will definitely set a new standard in juice packaging and display, but is it all worth the marketing and design campaign when at the end of the day it is just a commodity?

Happy Holidays and a Wonderful 2009

Lobster $3.99 a lb????

I have not seen lobsters at $3.99 a pound for years. I bought two chicks yesterday for a lobster aglio olio.

My woman left the kitchen, during the quick and painless sacrifice. At least, that’s what they tell me. I boiled them up, removed the meat and sautéed it in a little bit of their own juice, olive oil, garlic, oregano, black pepper/sea salt and crushed pepper. I still cannot figure out how to properly cook with white wine! I either splash too much, splash it on too late or use the wrong type of grape. So no wine!

My father convinced me years ago to add a chunk of butter to the angel hair when done to give it velvety texture and touch. I mixed everything together and topped it off with virgin olive oil and breadcrumbs from a piping hot baguette. Quite sacrilegious, but I sprinkled some Romano cheese for a slightly sharp, yet not overbearing after taste.

There you go! A little bit of local heaven that is finally inexpensive to make.

Lightnin' Hopkins

During the summer of 1990, I worked at an engineering and architectural firm in Salem, Ma USA. One of the engineers noticed that every song I played in the studio was the sound of the blues. I was into electric blues at the time listening to J.B Hutto, Magic Slim and Hound dog Taylor.

The engineer came in one day with personal photos of his mother and a man named Sam Hopkins. His mother owned a juke joint in Georgia in the 50’s and 60’s and always welcomed Sam Hopkins to play a fish fry, while in town.

I never really had the bug for country blues, until I heard Sam “Lightnin” Hopkins. Probably his most popular recording is “Mojo Hand,” but I cannot get enough of “Black Cadilac.”

Check out this video from YOUTUBE and keep these blues alive.

Homemade Gnocchi

One of the many advantages of working at home is that you can always take a break and make homemade gnocchi! My father and I have our own way of shaping them and making them.

My father Sonny prefers to roll them out like silver dollars, whereas I like to roll them on a fork to create a rib like texture for holding the sauce. Sonny likes a traditional meat sauce or as we call it “gravy,” but I prefer either a homemade pesto or truffle sauce with shavings of Pecorino Romano.

We will experiment tomorrow night with some friends and I will let you know which gnocchi stuck to our ribs.

Brockton Bomber

I really want to post a Celt, Sox, Pat or B, but the only New England individual effort I can think of at the moment is Rocky Marciano (Rocco Francisco Marchegiano). Marciano was an Italian-American, born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts USA to Pierino and Pasqualina Marchegiano. His father Pierino was a footwear maker and Rocky was destined to follow his father’s footsteps, until he put the gloves on.

The Rock was the heavyweight champion of the world from 1952 to 1956. The Rock, with forty-three knockouts (87.8% knockout rate), remains the only heavyweight champion in boxing history to retire having won every fight in his professional career. What a maniac! What a Champion! The Rock tirelessly trained only to demolish unfortunate souls to the canvas.

Check out the official web-page, while I write about my favorite pound for pound boxer, Sugar Ray Robinson.

“rockymarciano”: http://www.rockymarciano.net/

The Grotesque

Venus Admiring Mars’ Gun

I came across an article in Juxtapose Magazine profiling artist; Kris Kuksi and I also viewed his work at:

“kuksi”:http://www.kuksi.com

He must be a man of patience, because his 3-d work miraculously composes 1000’s of found objects into intricate, yet harmonious compositions. His figurative and natural work display a command of realism that would personally drive me insane to accomplish!

Kris will have a major solo exhibition in New York City opening November 22nd at the Joshua Liner Gallery located at 548 W. 28th Street Suite 334, New York NY.

"Yes We Can....."

“Yes We Can”

President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama

Photo credit (HYPERAKT)