Archive for the ‘Rouge Awakening’ Category
Rouge Awakening #10 – You Wish You Were Red
Thanks to Papermag, I discovered this gem of a tune. I love the kaleidoscopic light show and the moody, atmospheric video. Beaucoup rouge! That’s how I’m rolling today. Continue Reading
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CommentRouge Awakening #9 – Seeing Tango Red
After going black for a site overhaul – seriously, the only color you could buy was black – lululemon is roaring back to life with a new site and lots of color. Especially red. Awesome! Continue Reading
Rouge Awakening #8 – Robe Rouge
I’ve had Paris on the brain lately, what with The Moment’s announcement of Jewish real estate mogul Alfred Akirov’s purchase and planned renovation of the storied Hôtel Lutetia (where I spent my birthday the last time I was in Paris), Amy Thomas’ article in this Sunday’s Times Travel Section about her impressions of a “real” Paris gleaned from her experience living her Parisian dream, and the fact that I have literally been dreaming about Paris for weeks. This morning, eking out the last of my precious store of Robe Rouge, my decision was made – it’s time to go to Paris. To stock up on tea if nothing else.
Robe Rouge is actually a Chinese blue tea from the august Parisian tea house Mariage Frères.
“Red Gown”, called Da Hong Pao on Wu Yi Mountain where it is grown, is extremely rare.
A tiny estate on a steep slope with sandy soil near a spring provides the tea bushes with morning sun but protects them with cool afternoon shade. The tender buds with red reflections thus benefit from ideal conditions, enhancing all their qualities.
Just after picking, leaves undergo a bold oxidation that releases a highly woody taste specific to the soil. Its thick, concentrated liquor and its grand aroma, halfway between chestnut and hazelnut, last long in the mouth.A masterpiece envied by connoisseurs the world over, it has been valued since the Ming dynasty for allegedly favouring a long life.
At 75 euros per 100 grams (roughly 3.5 ounces), Robe Rouge is precious indeed, and I have tried to make my tiny packet last as long as possible.
Mariage Frères is one of my favorite places to visit when I’m in Paris. While their flagship is in the Marais on the rue du Bourg-Tibourg and they have several tea salons and emporiums throughout the city, I prefer to visit the location at 13 rue des Grands-Augustins, a charming, authentic 17th-century building on the Left Bank. On the second floor there is an open, airy tea salon and restaurant – a marvelous place to pause for an afternoon snack after a day of wandering the city. Downstairs is the tea apothecary, which is absolutely magical with its rows of tea canisters and collection of all sorts of treasures related to tea. On my next visit I will be sure to have a fat enough wallet so that I can bring home one of their exquisite tea pots. I’ve never seen anything like them.
If you go, whichever location you decide to visit, you should try the delicious pastries and tea sandwiches and get yourself a copy of The French Art of Tea
Rouge Awakening #7 – Girl Crush, Mandy Coon
The Moment spotlighted designer Mandy Coon recently for a little side project she’s working on called the Fashion in Film – Designer Inspiration Series. It seems that Mandy is co-hosting the first evening of the three-part collaborative event, organized by Kelly Virtue.
I just like her red pixie.
Rouge Awakening #6 – Dreaming of a Studio
Since I moved from a two-bedroom to a one-bedroom apartment I’ve been without a home office. When I had an office office that didn’t seem to matter as much, but now that I’m back to working at home and am trying to spend more time writing, I miss having a dedicated space to work, with my cinema screen set up and plenty of room to spread out. I’m sure that with some input from one of my friends a bit more interior-design minded than I am I’ll be able create that space here in my, well, space. In the mean time, I’m dreaming of a studio.
Henri Matisse, The Red Studio, oil on canvas, 1911 (MoMA)
Rouge Awakening #5 and Other Monday Mish-Mash
I awoke to a particularly chilly – albeit bright and sunny – morning and this put me in mind of scarves and cashmere and other comfy things. It is September now and Autumn will be here before we know it. Mornings like today are little pokes to say get ready for it. I also thought it was time for a bit of red, so I went off in search of a nice image of a red scarf to be today’s Rouge Awakening.
This lovely painting by Georgia-born artist Casey Baugh perfectly captures where my head is this morning. Not only for its red scarf but for the model’s short haircut. I’ve been thinking all weekend that I want to cut my hair. Personality wise, I think I’m just a short-hair person and all of this tedious hair-growning-out nonsense is a lot of hard work to achieve a look that isn’t really me at all.
By the way, Casey Baugh will be having a solo show in December at the Wendt Gallery in New York. Road trip anyone?
You do remember where you are, right? Cloud of Chaos? Okay, just checking, because my thought patterns are about to get more circuitous. Please try to keep up if you can.
While Google searches turn up much information about Casey Baugh, who is something of a wunderkind darling of contemporary painting and the “Bridge Art” movement, I discovered him on the blog 2 Blowhards, “in which a group of graying eternal amateurs discuss their passions, interests and obsessions, among them: movies, art, politics, evolutionary biology, taxes, writing, computers, these kids these days, and lousy educations.” You just have to love it! Sadly, after an incident with a fried motherboard and an irresponsible web host, the owners of 2 Blowhards decided to retire from blogging back in July. They’ve left the blog as an archive of their work, so we can still enjoy it for a little while.
In a more fortunate turn of events, my other new favorite blog – My Favorite And My Best by Jenny Andrews – is very much still active and updated regularly with beautiful interior design ideas and anything else that strikes its author’s fancy. As Jenny says: “MFAMB started as a way for me to share my favorite things (duh). Only my goal was to be bigger and better than Oprah. Only two days into blogging I realized the majority of my favorite things were interior design related. And now, a year and a half later, I am practically an interior designer and one job away from true awesomespectacularness.” Indeed.
I was introduced to MFAMB by Erin at Elements of Style and was immediately enamored with Jenny’s blog design and irreverent humor. In just the way that you don’t have to have children or even like them much to find humor in the mommy blog Dooce, you will laugh out loud at MFAMB even if you live in an apartment the size of a pill box and your idea of satisfactory interior design is a collection of mismatched towels adequately devoid of mold. Trust me, you’ll like it.
I got out of bed today at an hour that seems unreasonable given that it’s a holiday and all and even after blogging it’s still quite early. I might take my bike and buzz around to see who is serving breakfast today. Sofra in Cambridge perhaps? I think I can make it given the incentive inherent in their serving best egg sandwich on the planet!
On a les rouges aujourd’hui!
A Rouge Awakening #4 – Posting from the Beach
My brain is in vacation mode and the best I can do is to share this wonderful photo (borrowed from Jessica at Daucus Carota), which so captures the essence of summer holidays on the beach.
I need to find a Red scarf like this to wind around my salt-water tousled hair.
Kisses from Martha’s Vineyard!
My name is Angela Eloise and I am a freelance writer. That sounds as if I am copping to an addiction. I am. In addition to writing this blog, I also write a column about social media and I am at work on a series of essays that I hope to see in print some day. Cloud of Chaos was born from my desire to dance with the absurdity of life, to create a space where I could write and share all of the gorgeous, fun, snarky deliciousness I find spinning around me every day. What does a spinning cloud of chaos have to do with writing? Everything, as it turns out.
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