I did a bit of research after my first viewing and ran into some subsequent videos made about this dynamic duo. There was one that went through the entire chocolate-making process and in it, one of the brothers quotes an article about their business: "there's the easy way, and then there's the Mast Brothers way." At $8 per chocolate bar, I'd think elbow grease would be main ingredient on their label, but it turns out there are just two: cacao and cane sugar. Who knew that good chocolate really can be vegan?
With these images and sounds and sights and phantom scents whirling around in my brain this (extended) weekend, I finally felt the impetus to finish my work on a few super secret projects I've had brewing for months. The fact that it rained the ENTIRE weekend and my mom was away both helped and hindered. My fourteen year old dog despises water and my heart has not yet dessicated to the point where I'm willing to give him the boot so I can romp around LA while he scours the backyard for a dry spot. So it was five days of mostly "indoor fun" as my friend Laura puts it. Oh, and I caught a bitch of a cold. That was fun.
One of these super secret projects I can share: (the others will have to wait until after Christmas, alas.)
My brother came over to hang out and argue with me on Saturday, as he is often wont to do, and after he nixed my (utterly brilliant) idea of getting our mom a ride in a hot air balloon for Christmas, he proposed something almost as good. Are you ready for this? There should be a drum roll.
A FAMILY ROAD TRIP.
Oh, heavens.
You should know that we figured out the last time the three of us traveled anywhere together was in 1999, and that it was an absolute emotional blood bath. My mom took us to Italy in June and I'm shocked that she and I didn't push my brother into the Venetian Lagoon. I'm also shocked we've all somehow managed to forgive one another for the mutual hostility and generous insults flung about. (Well, it has been eleven and a half years and we've never had a second attempt.) Unlike the "women" of the family, my brother doesn't crave far-flung places and look for any excuse to get the hell out of LA. He loves LA. And everywhere else will inevitably be a slightly lesser copy of his magical city. He'll pick us up from LAX at a moment's notice and will obligingly ask us about our travel plans, but the few times we've invited him along since the Italian Extravaganza, he has politely declined.
So when he suggested a road trip and immediately followed it with a grin and "we'll kill each other" I was, needless to say, a little skeptical. Due to his work schedule and Dog, we've decided we can't be gone for more than three days, and since we'll be driving, we narrowed our destination down to two cities.
1. Las Vegas, Nevada. I'd rather extract my own teeth without Novocaine.
2. San Francisco. Yes Please.
At this point, Emil was leafing through some of the block prints I had drying on the dining room table. Awash in my personal sea of (f)unemployment, I've been trying to make the most of my free time and have turned to linocut printmaking with a feverish zeal. It's painstaking, time-munching, frustrating, and precise. In other words, it's the Mast Brothers Way. It's perfect for me. He asked me how long one of them took, and after I explained the process, he said "but that's hours!" Yes. Yes, it is. Then he said: "but you could sell these!" Yes, that's the plan.
Once I made it abundantly clear that no way in hell would we be going to Vegas, Emil asked me if I would consider making a linocut of San Francisco. He promises I'll be able to use it again.
It took me two episodes of Mad Men and the Christmas Comedy edition of This American Life, but thar blows my first proof:
I printed it on a beautiful Italian card and have a hunch Mom will go bananas.
Okay - question which better be answered. If you were to go on a road trip with your family in ONE vehicle, where would you go? And who would be left at a gas station first?
No comments:
Post a Comment