In praise of HBO's Mildred Pierce

HBO is about midway through their broadcast of their incredible mini-series, Mildred Pierce. Without a doubt, it's one of the best period pieces I've ever seen.






Since this is rumored to be a kitchen design blog. I'll start off with a photo of the set for Mildred's kitchen.

Like I said, the production best period piece I've ever seen. Add to the lavish, painstaking authenticity of the set a story line that won't quit and you have a recipe for true greatness.

Three episodes in, HBO's Mildred Pierce is approaching true greatness. Again, because this is supposed to be a kitchen blog, check out Mildred's gas range.

Amazing! I love this series for how different it is from the film noir movie. You see, I have a thing for Warner Brother's 1945 version of Mildred Pierce.

Joan Crawford and Butterfly McQueen chew the scenery in 1945 

In fact, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. Like most people, I saw the original Warner Brothers movie long before I read the novel upon which it's based, James M. Cain's 1941 Mildred Pierce. In the hands of  Warner Brothers and in response to a whole lot of pressure from the Hays Commission, James M. Cain's novel of  eroticism, self-reliance and the Great Depression was turned into a film noir murder mystery. In 1945, murder was preferable to bed-hopping I suppose but the original wasn't a murder mystery. No one dies in the novel (except for little Rae) though I'm sure most of the characters wish they would at one point or another.

As great as that film is (Crawford won her only Oscar for her leading role), it's a very different piece of work from the novel.


James M. Cain's novel from four years earlier is a masterpiece in its own right and I'm thrilled to see it getting the attention it deserves care of HBO. Their mini-series is a painstaking retelling of the original novel as much as it's a nearly perfect period piece.

The last time the US experienced an economic upheaval similar to the one we're enduring now was in the the 1930s. That Mildred Piece's reversal of fortune came at the bust of a real estate bubble makes the story all the more easy to relate to.

James M. Cain was an important novelist and journalist in the early 20th Century. He wrote in what's called the roman noir style, he was all about the hardboiled crime novel. Mildred Pierce stands out in early work in that it's not a crime novel. Rather, it's a novel about perseverance and triumph over adversity. Further, it's the story of a woman and it's told from the point of view of a woman in a time where women's voices and opinions were not heard very often. Add to it that the Great Depression is practically a character in and of itself and you end up with a book that's a Must Read. So go read it. Please!

James M. Cain is one of the great writers of the last century no one's ever heard of but he wrote some important stuff. Three of his greatest works are included the collection I linked to in the last paragraph. The movies made from his novels endure and are some really great films.











As great as the movies are, his novels deserve to be read even more.

In the meantime though, watch the HBO mini-series. The story keeps getting better with each installment (even though I know where the story's headed). If you don't get HBO or live in a part of the world where it's not available, take heart. They spent so much money on this production that it's bound to be released on DVD in a matter of weeks.

Mixed signals as a child leads to furniture design madness

Here's a cautionary tale. As a tale, it's completely made up and bears to resemblance to the life of furniture designer Maximo Reira, whose creations illustrate this story.

Once upon a time, a young boy was born to a set of loving, if confused, parents. The child's parents decided early on that they were going to be thoroughly new school when it came to parenting style. Their son would be able to eat what he wanted and if he ended up a finicky eater who subsisted on chicken nuggets so be it. They decided that when their son had an opinion on any subject under the sun, he could voice that opinion. They decided that when their little darling committed an anti-social act they would refrain from administering the beatings he so richly deserved. No, instead they would banish him to a time out.

So that their son wouldn't feel bad during these times out, they decided that he would take his time outs on a purpose-built bench covered with friendly animals.

After all, just because he made a bad choice didn't mean he had to suffer.

Well, sure enough, their son grew up a finicky eater who interrupted adult conversations and developed an unnatural attachment to furniture shaped like a variety of animals. That he was alone in his attachment never occurred to him because he was raised to believe he was the center of the universe. So, deprived of a degree of self-knowledge and self-restraint necessary to cut it in the world, he started producing these furniture designs.

Parents: Please send your kids clear signals and set real boundaries to avoid a future where all furniture will look like this.

Unleash your inner animal or just get stoned with Cifre

One of the best and most innovative tile manufacturers I saw at Cevisama in Valencia and Coverings in Las Vegas was the Spanish company Cifre. Cifre is one of the member manufacturers of ASCER, the Spanish Ceramics Manufacturers Association that's branded in North America as Tile of Spain. ASCER and Tile of Spain is who paid my way to Cevisama, in the interest of full-disclosure.

With that out of the way, it's great to see a Spanish manufacturer come to the marketplace with a swagger and savvy that heretofore belonged to the Italians exclusively. Those days have passed and the great innovations these days are coming out of Spain.

The big news in North America is the vast improvements in porcelain tile that looks like wood planks and Cifre does a great job with them as shown here in their Bergen collection.

Porcelain tile absorbs almost no water and it can be used outside as things like pool and patio decking, even in temperate climates. Imagine a deck that never fades, never ages, lasts for 40 years and looks as good then as it did when it was installed.

The other big break through that's showing up on this side of the Atlantic is ceramic and porcelain tile that mimics the appearance of stone. Cifre handles that trend beautifully too. I left these images as better-resolution photos. Ignore the slow loads this morning and click on these photos to see them in better detail.

Again, imagine a slate or travertine bathroom that never needs to be sealed and can't stain.

But where Cifre breaks into new ground is their development of ceramic and porcelain tile that looks like hide. Yes, hide. Whether it's cowskin, pony, zebra, tiger or what have you, these tiles have the grain, texture and color of real hide. Again, click on the images to see them in greater detail.

Amazing stuff, all of it. Tile wants to come out of the bathroom and out of the kitchen and into the rest of your home. This hide series that Cifre calls Cavallino is leading the way. Some of these patterns would give a whole new meaning to the term "pony wall."

Remember what I was saying about sophisticated marketing? Check out their video for their Cautive series.

Cautive by Cifre ing from Cifre Group on Vimeo.

Three cheers for Cifre. Look for their products anywhere Spanish Tile is sold.

Further proof that US suburbia is an unsustainable dystopia

In a world where this is the reality of far too many kids in the west.

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And in a country where government is seen increasingly as the root of all evil.

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And in a world where the First Lady's involvement in childhood obesity prevention is a political handicap comes this.

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A suburban, pseudo-governmental Homeowner's Association Volusia County, FL has decided that it's in the best interest of its residents to ban kids playing outside without adult supervision .

The subdivision in question is Persimmon Place in Edgewater, FL and in addition to banning kids' playing outside unsupervised, they seek to ban skateboarding, playing games like tag or using loud toys. [source]

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Every scofflaw who lets his or her kids play outside without adult supervision or who dares to let those kids play tag will face a $100 fine. Persimmon Place is holding a final hearing on 4/27 and for the life of me I can't find a link to that HOA. If anybody does, leave the link in the comments below, I'd love to give them a piece of my mind.

I grew up in a small town without the benefit of an HOA. My grass-stained summers and impromptu games of Kick the Can or Fox and Geese gave me a foundation I rely on to this day. Those neighborhood, spontaneous games are how I learned that other people lived lives different from mine and it didn't matter. We were seven, or 10 or 12 and all that mattered was that we were kids and it was summer and the nighttime world was ours.

Without a doubt, our parents were thrilled with the fact that we were outside and not underfoot. We were outside running off our extra energy and best of all they were inside, alone, and with the rare chance to reconnect. None of us were obese either and the idea of us kids staying in and watching TV was unthinkable.

What kind of a neighborhood bans kids playing outside? Has an orderly, suburban facade really grown so important and oppressive that kids don't matter?

Hey unhappy suburbanites here's a hint. Come back to the urban cores. We may value such foreign concepts as diversity and sustainability, but we also embrace the idea of kids being allowed to be kids. The vacant lot behind my house is the neighborhood soccer and all-purpose field and those kids are out there 'til all hours. Nobody threatens their parents with fines and the kids get to run off all their extra energy and they learn how to get along. Nobody cares that Jean-Luc's parents were Haitian refugees or that Angus's parents are professors at the university. So what if Alain's from France and Pilar was born in Spain? Who cares  Mohammed's family is from Libya and Darrell's mom was born in the 'hood. All that matters is that they're the same age and Jim (whose dad is a city maintenance guy) has a soccer ball.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf at St. Pete's American Stage

Richard B. Watson, Betty-Jane Parks, Matthew Stephen Huffman and Christine Decker in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf at St. Pete's American Stage

Last night, some friends and I went to see the American Stage Theater Company's production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? Wow, what a night and what a play.

Subtle is not something that describes Who's Afraid in any way and if you've ever seen the 1966 movie you know what I'm talking about. What made it onto the screen in 1966 was the scaled back version of this story though. The stage version is as a raw as it is nuanced and the incredible cast at the American Stage kept the play's three plus hours from devolving into a non-stop screaming match.

There's a neediness and something resembling love that undergirds George and Martha's dysfunction and watching Christine Decker and Richard B. Watson explore that onstage captivates as it repulses.

Christine Decker as Martha and Richard B. Watson as George on location somewhere in St. Pete. These two add a horrifying twist to the idea of a power couple.

Nick and Honey were played by Matthew Stephen Huffman and Betty-Jane Parks and their naivete and unspoken dissatisfaction adds the perfect fuel to George and Martha's fully realized volatility.

Bravos go out to the actors and the technical cast. The set and costumes were perfect and the American Stage's new theater was the perfect venue for this production.

If you are in the Tampa/ St. Pete metro area, go see this play. It's running through April 23rd and there are still seats available. You can buy tickets through their website directly and while you're on that site, check out the rest of their season this year and look over the line-up for next season.

Florida has a reputation as a cultural wasteland and in most cases that's not very far from the truth. But there is culture here and I'm fortunate to live in a city where I'm surrounded by it. The American Stage is this area's oldest Equity theater and that it's thriving in a time when arts organizations everywhere are slowly dying is as much a testament to the management of the the theater as it is a statement about the people of St. Pete.

Local arts organizations are an incredibly important part of what makes a place unique and worth living in. If you're not in my area and you can't support The American Stage, The St. Pete Opera, The Florida Orchestra, our many smaller theaters, dance companies and our amazing museums, your community has assets similar to ours and they need your support and patronage now more than ever. Make it a point to go see a play or go see a symphony or go to an art museum. Unpatronized arts groups, organizations and facilities go away and that's nothing short of tragic.

Here's the American Stage's video excerpt from their production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?