An illustration from Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat," 1871.
I’ve got one more maritime themed entry to share. All winter long we’ve been busy around building not one, not two, but three fantastic little sailing boats designed by the phenomenally talented Eric Blake with a big knot of friends, in anticipation of summer… (...Please continue reading...)
An image from French artist Sophie Calle's "Voir La Mer."
Artist Sophie Calle is someone whom I hope I’ll have the chance to meet somehow before one of us is no longer. I mean, that kind of thing can go wrong—you meet the admired person after so many years of admiring, get disappointed, etc. But… (...Please continue reading...)
A sketch of Shelley's double-masted Don Juan and Byron's schooner Bolivar, part of an exhibition at the New York Public Library.
I love a certain kind of macabre /fetishistic museum show, like “Shelley’s Ghost,” currently on at the New York Public Library. In conjunction with the Oxford University, curators have gathered together ephemera and relics from… (...Please continue reading...)
Horn players and drummers of the old Turkish military bands were the forerunners of modern marching bands like the avant-garde What Cheer Brigade.
I haven’t had as much fun as I had at the What Cheer Brigade’s show since I don’t know when. This 18-piece marching band out of Providence, RI, is a horn-blaring, drum-booming riot, just… (...Please continue reading...)
Cut-book artwork by Alexander Korzer Robinson. How beautiful it is…
I am swooning over Alexander Korzer Robinson’s artwork, featured in The Guardian. It’s like my heart is breaking. I love it!
“My creations have been made by cutting into the books, cutting around some of the illustrations and removing others,” the artist says. “The… (...Please continue reading...)
"Ce Moment," in lucite, by artist Lisa Benson.
My great friend Lisa Benson (a New Zealand artist) gave me one of her recent works—a small transparent red lucite card, like a thick credit card, with the words “CE MOMENT” cut out. She likes to hand them out to interesting people she meets, in a bar… (...Please continue reading...)
All the Encyclopedias so far…
I didn’t realize how fun it would be to see Encyclopedia of the Exquisite printed in foreign languages. German. Dutch. Korean. Lithuanian. With complex and simple Chinese characters to come. Would love to see it in Arabic… (...Please continue reading...)
A page from Casanova's original manuscript, The Story of My Life, now on display at the Bibliotheque Nationale.
I would just love to see Casanova’s handwritten memoirs, “The Story of My Life,” now being shown at the Biblioteque Nationale in France, where more than 3700 pages of his papers are kept. “Worthy or not,” he wrote… (...Please continue reading...)
Jacques Pépin demonstrates his controversial new omelette making technique in the New York Times.
Master chef Jacques Pépin has changed breakfast around here, and has challenged Encyclopedia of the Exquisite‘s entry on omelet-making. After reading this article in the New York Times, the ground shook. Unlike Julia Child, who gently tossed her eggs… (...Please continue reading...)
The grand beekeeping tradition.
All summer long I’d been meaning to write about how much I love beekeeping. We got a hive in July and I could sit and watch those little ladies dart in and out with their bags of pollen all afternoon long. We started too late in the season to harvest any honey… (...Please continue reading...)
Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, Jessica Kerwin Jenkins' first book, published by Nan A. Talese, includes
100 entries, each exploring a different way to be happy, whether that means wearing a top hat, eating a luscious pear, luxuriating in a bath full of warm milk, or keeping a singing cricket as a pet.
It's a lifestyle guide for the Francophile and the Anglomaniac, the gourmet and the style maven, the armchair traveler and the art-lover.
The author's search for the exquisite continues here. Please enjoy!
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