Showing posts with label kent chadwick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kent chadwick. Show all posts

Friday, June 02, 2023

45 Years of "Darkness on the Edge of Town"


45 years ago today, Bruce Springsteen released his highly-anticipated fourth studio album “Darkness On The Edge Of Town.” To celebrate the anniversary, fans can now dive even deeper into the sonic world of “Darkness.”

Listen to a new 20-song live playlist from The Darkness Tour '78 — all previously unavailable on major streaming platforms — including performances of every song from “Darkness On The Edge of Town” and a trove of bonus material from that period.

Tuesday, August 02, 2022

Cherries Jubilee for Two (L'Affaire Cerises Jubilé)

 by Gregg Chadwick


My brother Kent called me last night while he was dining with our parents because he had a question for me. “Do you remember the name of the French restaurant in La Jolla where they would not serve me Cherries Jubilee for dessert  because I was underage?”

We laughed and chatted for a while and all I could come up with was Chez something. Fortified by a double espresso this morning I began to think about that meal and the wonderful times we have had as a family dining out, traveling, and learning about art, history, culture, and food. 
My first thought was to check in our collection of matchboxes from our travels over the years. I vaguely remembered a picture of the Eiffel tower on the matchbox and maybe the menu. It was the early 1970’s so likely there was a hand drawn feel to the menu and signage. I was studying French in Junior High and my brother was learning it in High School so we had few problems with the menu that night. We had visited Paris with my parents when we were younger, so we had an appreciation for French cuisine. Around that time I was painting my first oil paintings with a definite nod to Cezanne, Monet, and Renoir. 



Gregg Chadwick
Pink Chair
30”x20”oil on canvas 1972 
(The artist was 12 years old)

It was Kent’s birthday and the meal was great fun. I started with an order of escargots. That I do remember. The waiter asked if we would like some as it was a house speciality. The look on his face when I said, sure I would like an order of snails was priceless. “Bon choix” he said. 
They were delicious with just the right amount of garlic. It was fun using the two pronged fork to pull the snails from the shell. 


Eugéne Manet
Sketches of Snails, Flowering Plant
1864/68
Watercolor over graphite pencil on cream laid paper; 198 × 126 mm
The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Robert Allerton, 1923.1057


I would often order fish as a main course so I most likely had the sand dabs. How do I know? Well, I discovered a menu for sale online while taking up my gorgeous and brilliant professor wife’s suggestion that I search for French Restaurants in La Jolla during the 1970s. First I found an article in the La Jolla Light with reminiscences from food writer Leslie James - "I can still taste the buttery, garlicky escargots at Chez Françoise.”  This looked promising, Chez Françoise could have been my brother’s birthday restaurant. The chef at that time was Pierre Lustrat. 



Chef Pierre Lustrat


An article in the San Diego Reader describes that "when La Jolla's Chez Françoise needed a chef, Pierre Lustrat jumped at the chance, taking charge of the kitchen from 1972 until 1975. While he executed the menu to everyone’s satisfaction, he longed to buy the place and to prepare his own dishes, in his own way, with the skill and imagination that his years of training had brought him.

When he finally claimed the restaurant as his own, he renamed it L’Escargot (the snail), redecorated it, and — most important — revamped the menu.

'When people first came here, they ordered escargot always the same way — with garlic and butter. Well, I thought up four or five ways to serve them, including en croute (in pastry dough).’”



After reading about Pierre Lustrat’s life as a chef, I pulled up images from the Chez Françoise menu from the 1970s. Pink paper. Hand drawn text with a quote from Chef Pierre - “ La bonne cuisine a besoin du temps et patience. Si vous l’avez, vous pourrez savourer un bon repas.” 
In English - "Fine cuisine requires time and patience. If you have it, you can then enjoy a good meal.” Our family had time and patience that evening as we dined. My Dad would have ordered the onion soup for his main course and Kent had the special which he remembers as Beef Wellington. Interestingly, Beef Wellington (named after the Napoleonic Era English Duke of Wellington who enjoyed the dish two or thee times a week if stories are to be believed) or Filet de Bœuf en Croute, is still served in French restaurants around the globe despite the Duke of Wellington’s devastating defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. At dinner that night because my father was a career military officer and the rest of us were history buffs, we would have discussed Napoleon’s final battle while referencing our memories of the battle charts laid out in my dad’s A Military History & Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars by Vincent Esposito and John Elting at home in his library. The National Army Museum in the UK describes the final moments of the battle:

"Defeat of the Imperial Guard
At about 7pm, in a last bid for victory, Napoleon released his finest troops, the Imperial Guard. They marched up the ridge between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte, but had chosen to attack where Wellington was strongest. Under a withering fire from British guardsmen and light infantry, the Imperial Guard halted, wavered, and finally broke.
Their defeat sent the rest of the French into panic and eventually retreat. This continued all night, with the French harried by the Prussian cavalry. Napoleon lost nearly 40,000 men killed, wounded or captured. The Allies suffered 22,000 casualties.
Napoleon was defeated. He spoke of fighting on, but was forced to abdicate when the Allies entered Paris on 7 July. He spent the rest of his life in exile on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic.”

My Dad and Mom had visited the battlefield at Waterloo when they lived in Paris during their Julia Child years after the Korean War. I was taking a photography class at La Paz Junior High in Mission Viejo at the time of our outing to the French restaurant in La Jolla and I was actively printing my Dad’s old negatives including the monument at Waterloo. I can still smell the photo chemicals and see the glow of the red safe light  in my memory. 







The Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, 1815
‘My heart is broken by the terrible loss I have sustained in my old friends and companions and my poor soldiers. Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.’
Duke of Wellington, 1815
Lithograph after 'Wellington at Waterloo' by Robert Alexander Hillingford, 1815 
National Army Museum, Study collection



Manet’s Still Life With Brioche
photo by Gregg Chadwick


As the night moved on that evening in La Jolla we talked about the future. Kent would soon finish High School and leave for college. Where? 
He wasn't sure yet. The mystery of our lives had just begun with many new chapters to fill. Our main courses were finished. The plates would be cleared. And then the menus reappeared like magic for a discussion about dessert. My Mom would have Mousse au Chocolat and my Dad would have his traditional Crème Caramel." "Brulèe please” my Dad would ask and then add - “Almost burnt.” “D’accord”, said the waiter. Perhaps, I had a lemon tart. I don’t remember because I soon was going to watch my brother’s birthday triumph reach a culinary Waterloo. "I will have the Cerises Jubilé, s'il vous plait”, said Kent. “Non. Monsieur - you will not” said the waiter firmly. We were all perplexed. Were they out of cherries? 




No, the dish was made in a traditional style at the table with flaming brandy. And my brother was too young to drink. But the alcohol burns off someone protested. No monsieur, you are still too young for some things the waiter seemed to say. We all were young then. The news of Watergate was just breaking and the Vietnam War was ending. I was reading film director Jean Renoir’s biography of his artist father Paul Renoir at that time and my Dad would ask me why I enjoyed the paintings of Renoir so much. The answer was easy - though I didn’t know it yet. Renoir’s joy of being alive appealed to me. 
Renoir often painted the simple pleasures of modern life in a way that spoke to me. In paint Renoir captured the beauty of sharing a meal with family and friends. Soon we would move back to the East Coast and I would stand in front of Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC. 
Kent would be off to college at UC Davis.

L'Affaire Cerises Jubilé would remain in our memories. Today looking at the old menu from Chez Françoise I found under Desserts proof that this was my brother’s birthday restaurant: And there it was - Cerises Jubilees (pour deux) - Cherries Jubilee for two 
Next time we visit with Kent and his wife Cathy at my parent’s house, we need to make things right for Kent. We will light the brandy on fire and make Cherries Jubilee in style.  


Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC
photo by Gregg Chadwick









JULIA CHILD’S CHERRIES JUBILEE

Here are Julia Child‘s directions for Cherries Jubilee:

Drain the cherries (save the juice), and toss in a bowl with the lemon rind, sugar, cinnamon, and kirsch or cognac; let steep until needed.

[At serving time]

Blend a tablespoon of arrowroot or cornstarch in a bowl with the cherry marinating juices, then beat in a few tablespoons of canned cherry juice. Pour into chafing-dish pan and stir over heat until thickened, adding more cherry juice if needed. Before entering dining room, stir in cherries and heat thoroughly. To flame, set over chafing-dish flame, sprinkle with 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, and add ½ cup (125 ml) cognac. Heat, then set afire with a lighted match. Spoon up the flaming mixture until blaze dies down; serve over vanilla ice cream.” [1]

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Cross Currents: Don't Forget the Water - Salish Sea

by Gregg Chadwick



Gregg Chadwick
Salish Sea
30"x24" oil on linen 2014 

Two years ago on a technicolor blue day, I stood on the deck of the Wenatchee ferry cutting through the choppy sea from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. The vessel was named for the Wenatchi people who originally lived in the shadow of the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers in Eastern Washington State. We are riding on a ship of memory.



In the Yakama language, wenatchi means "river flowing from canyon." The Wenatchee River was home to a vibrant salmon run prior to the damming of the Columbia River which impeded the salmon's journey. Like the fish, the Wenatchi tribe was also blocked from its ancestral waterways as the US government rounded up the Native Americans in Washington State and collected them in reservations far from their native lands. 



I often think about the rivers, lakes, towns and cities we have named after the original Americans. The absence of most of their culture in our increasingly mini-malled landscape points to the brutal erasure of Indian tribes across the United States. The dominant culture in America seems to continually romanticize, while at the same time ostracizing, the rich history of Native Americans. The writer Sherman Alexie will have none of that, thank you. Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington before graduating from Washington State University. Alexie is a major player in contemporary writing. His well-received novels, Reservation Blues and Indian Killer helped pave the way for his foray into film with Smoke Signals and The Business of Fancydancing. Alexie writes with courage about his experiences as an Indian in a white culture. Alexie also writes, as Andrea Vogt in Washington State Magazine reported, with "brutal honesty-some might even say disdain-about ignorance, alcoholism, and other problems on the rez."  

The Business of Fancydancing leads Gene Tagaban (Aristotle Joseph), Michelle St. John (Agnes Roth), and Evan Adams (Seymour Polatkin), with writer/director Sherman Alexie.photo by Lance Muresan
Courtesy Washington State Magazine
For Alexie and other Native American activists ignoring the problems exacerbated by systemic racism in the US is out of the question. With that in mind, for over 20 years an annual inter-tribal Canoe Journey has been held on the Salish Sea. The Salish Sea is a 6,500 square mile ecosystem consisting of the Puget Sound Basin (US) and the Georgia Basin (Canada). 
Canoe Journey 2016, Paddle to Nisqually, continues the inter-tribal celebration and annual gathering of Northwest indigenous nations. The website for Paddle to Nisqually goes into great detail about the history and significance of the event:
"Canoe Journey gatherings are rich in meaning and cultural significance. Canoe families travel great distances as their ancestors did and participating in the journey requires physical and spiritual discipline. At each stop, canoe families follow certain protocols, they ask for permission to come ashore, often in their native languages. At night in longhouses there is gifting, honoring and the sharing of traditional prayers, drumming, songs and dances. Meals, including evening dinners of traditional foods, are provided by the host nations.
When Europeans began exploring the region, the tribes were used to meeting and welcoming strangers who arrived by boat. Sadly, the Europeans did not understand the hospitality culture of the coastal tribes as the tribes were displaced over the next two centuries. The canoe culture, as practiced by the Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest, had all but disappeared until the Canoe Journey events began to grow in the 90’s. Techniques of canoe making and use had largely vanished and fewer and fewer tribal people knew how to pull a traditional canoe. Now...a new tradition is well into the making and a cultural resurgence is underway."
The Salish Sea is a 6,500 square mile ecosystem consisting of the Puget Sound Basin (US) and the Georgia Basin (Canada). 
The theme for this years Canoe Journey is "Don't Forget the Water" in honor of the Nisqually Tribe's Mountain story.  



The Nisqually Tribe finds hope in the annual canoe journey and its focus on community building:
"The Nisqually River Council’s Nisqually Watershed Stewardship Plan (NWSP) recognizes that community wellness is a key component of creating a sustainable watershed. We embrace the people who live in the Nisqually watershed, their sense of identity and responsibility that has existed for generations. Strong communities require, among other things, access to the arts and high community health indicators. Paddle to Nisqually represents a unique opportunity to highlight the many efforts the Nisqually Tribe makes to promote community wellness, including a culture free of drugs and alcohol, access to traditional and healthy foods, and close ties to Nisqually heritage."
Looking back now on that day on the ferry, I see things through the veil of my painting and the complicated history of the region. There is an accumulation of memories gathered in this Salish Sea as the Wenatchee ferry carries its passengers towards their destination. How many canoes over the centuries have traversed this same path?
In my painting Salish Sea, who is the rider on the bow of this ship of memory? 



Gregg Chadwick's Salish Sea is on exhibit at Saatchi Art through September 29, 2016 in the group exhibition Cross Currents. There will be an opening on Thursday, July 21, 2016 from 6-9pm. For more info and to RSVP please visit:  
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/cross-currents-new-works-by-la-artists-presented-by-saatchi-art-tickets-26159942091?aff=fb


CROSS CURRENTS
New Works by Los Angeles Artists 
Saatchi Art, the world's leading online gallery, presents new works in celebration of LA's first citywide Public Art Biennial, Current: LA.
July 21, 2016
6–7pm VIP Preview
7–9pm Public Reception
Featuring special musical guest
POWDERCOAT
1655 26th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404
RSVP by July 20

CROSS CURRENTS is a new exhibition on view at Saatchi Art in Santa Monica. Curated by Katherine Henning, Associate Curator, and Jessica McQueen, Assistant Curator, the exhibition continues Saatchi Art's series of shows around the world.
The exhibition highlights the work of 14 emerging artists represented by Saatchi Art, the world’s leading online gallery: Gregg Chadwick, Fabio Coruzzi, Charlotte Evans, Art van Kraft, Chase Langford, Koen Lybaert, Lola Mitchell, Harry Moody, Relja Penezic, Kelly Puissegur, Stephen Rowe, Erin Tengquist, Dean West, and Naomi White.
The exhibition is on view from July 21 through September 29, 2016 at Saatchi Art, located at 1655 26th Street, Santa Monica, CA. Gallery hours: Monday through Friday 10am-5pm and Saturday by appointment. Please email to schedule a visit during gallery hours. Gallery contact:curator@saatchiart.com.
All works are on sale at the exhibition and online at Saatchi Art: saatchiart.com/show/cross-currents
#CrossCurrents






Sunday, September 25, 2011

Krazy Kat Caught in an Alley by Kent Chadwick: New Poem Published in Pontoon by Floating Bridge Review




Krazy Kat caught in an alley 

By Kent Chadwick


                        ________
                        ________
                        ___   ___

            Krazy Kat Caught in an alley
                        caterwauling
            night in Garwood
                        New Jersey
            moonlight on the sagging
                        back landings
            drinking men stripped
                        to undershirts
                        ribbed with a
                        working day’s sweat
            the viscosity of bourbon
                        poured into shots
            patterened thump of
                        ball against wall
                        ball against wall
            sound of speed
                        from the street
                        rubber friction
                        gas combustion
            the swamp coolers shake
                        the swamp coolers drip
                        against the heat

“Fireflies don’t come no more.”

            blue auroras stream
                        from each T.V.
                        out window screens

“Turn it down!”
           
            one house shines
                        in new siding
            chain links the brown
                        block’s backyards
                        right angles and shadow
            no sirens tonight
            a kid laughs
            some woman hums
                        the dishes away

“Sit for a week, even this’ll look good.”

“That’s whiskey talking. Throw me a beer, Jake.
It’s all in your head.”


This poem was included in Pontoon, published by Floating Bridge Review (Seattle), Number Four, 2011

All the poems in Pontoon were chosen from manuscripts submitted to the 2011 Floating Bridge Press Poetry Chapbook Award.


Pontoon is available from Floating Bridge Press

Photo: Painter & Poet by Margaret Chadwick

Gregg Chadwick
Detail of Jimmy Buffs
72"x96" oil on linen 1982--1992
Collection: Kent Chadwick

Sunday, August 22, 2010

For My Brother: Bruce Springsteen - Spirit in the Night - Live 1973 in Los Angeles





Sometimes music is the balm that soothes our pain. I am remembering my lost nephew Luke one year after his passing and sending musical empathy to my brother Kent Chadwick and his wife Cathy.
Peace

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Spreadsheets Can Save Him

Spreadsheets can save him
by Kent Chadwick

Where’s the pattern? What ratio will show
he’s getting better, that he’ll breathe again
on his own? The ventilator pushes
puffs of warm air through our son’s trachea
every time his brain asks for oxygen,
into his second set of lungs, damaged
too soon by pneumonia, scarred and stiffened.
The machine ka-shooshing eighteen or more
times a minute to make Luke breathe when he
needs, and it graphs his breath, reads his volumes,
scoring the resistance—centimeters
of water pressure—ready to alarm
and warn of dangers, displaying seven
variables in LED orange
with each breath, repeatedly—and I stare.
My hope has fallen to this new machine,
that maybe, maybe its gentler aid
can coax Luke’s lungs into recovery.

What numbers, what ratios show progress?,
something the doctors no longer expect.
Is it peak pressures to tidal volumes?
89 to 760
Or his diaphragm’s nerve activity
to the ventilator’s support level?
62, 70 to 1.5
What is significant? What is just noise?
So most every night at ten I write down
forty numbers, take them back to the room
where we are staying that evening—hotel’s
or friends’—enter them into tables, graph,
color, and label them to find something
that the intensive care doctors have missed
and I could show, “See this! He’s improving.”
Spreadsheets can save him.

But Luke gets annoyed
when he sees me staring at the machines.
He mouths, “Stop looking at those.” But he means
“Look at me.” He doesn’t hope in numbers.
And the truth’s blurted out, when Luke crashes,
by the respiratory therapist bagging
him, pumping up his oxygenation
with her hands, squeezing life into him for
another day, worried, focused on him,
forgetting I’m in the room, forgetting
all the euphemisms: “His lungs are bricks.”

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

A Photo Essay on "A Celebration of Luke Chadwick's Life: Lean On Me" at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, Bainbridge Island on September 6, 2009

Saffron Hugs at Luke Chadwick's Memorial
Saffron Hugs at Luke Chadwick's Memorial

Luke!
Luke!

Programs at Memorial Service
Programs at Memorial Service

General Chadwick USMC
General Chadwick USMC

Semper Fi
Semper Fi

Luke's Graduation Photo at Memorial Service
Luke's Graduation Photo at Memorial Service

Mom & Dad
Peg and Bob Chadwick

Ali Chadwick Plays for Her Brother
Ali Chadwick Plays for Her Brother

Honoring Luke
Honoring Luke

Post Service Hugs and Greetings for Cathy and Kent Chadwick
Post Service Hugs and Greetings for Cathy and Kent Chadwick

Thoughts of Luke Hover in the Chapel
Thoughts of Luke Hover in the Chapel

Cathy's Flowers and Dana's Badge
Cathy's Flowers and Dana's Badge

Cathy, Kent & Ali
Cathy, Kent and Ali at the Celebration for Luke


Bainbridge Fire and Rescue Workers Gather to Honor Luke at the Memorial Service

Gazing at the Bainbridge Sky After the Memorial Service
MarySue Gazing at the Bainbridge Sky After the Memorial Service

Cassiel , Grandma and Grandpa
Cassiel , Grandma and Grandpa

Flowers for Luke
Flowers for Luke

Evening Glow After the Memorial With Luke's Obama Sticker
Evening Glow After the Memorial With Luke's Obama Sticker

Cassiel
Cassiel With Dante

100 Years of Hallelujahs
100 Years of Hallelujahs

SunBreak for Luke
SunBreak for Luke

Saffron Hugs
A photo essay onA Celebration of Luke Chadwick's Life: Lean On Me at Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, Bainbridge Island, Washington on September 6, 2009
Photos by Gregg Chadwick

Luke's Celebration ended with a recording of Frank Sinatra singing New York, New York



Luke, Buon Viaggio!