Vladimir Kagan's Blog

A Blog for Foodies!

The Importance Of Weight Maintenance

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, April 1, 2016

 

Everyone is obsessed with weight loss; I am concerned about weight maintenance. This is important for sustaining happiness. It is difficult to do under the pressure of the weight-loss movement.

These are my recommendations:

Breakfast: the eye-opener meal - very important to start the day right!

‘Firstly’ a good breakfast is mandatory. It provides you with the energy to get through the day. This is NOT a meal to have on the run. The aroma of fresh brewed coffee and bacon must fill the air to prime you for this major repast. Start with fruit and nuts to provide you with necessary fiber. For the main course, have some pre-buttered toasted English muffins (they must be Thomas’ accept no substitute). Add additional butter to suit. Alternate choice; a New York bagel. Next the choice of a ‘schmear’; jam, jelly, honey, peanut butter creamy or chunky or cream cheese. I like to add Scottish smoked salmon with a squeeze of lemon. For those choosing a more exotic fare, try English Marmite. Add eggs any style. If you are still hungry, add cereals; granola is a good source of fiber – substitute porridge, if you are an Anglo. Linger at the table, it aids digestion and allows you to dip into the jam or honey jars instead of adding sugar to your coffee. You’ll be surprised how energized you will be and ready to face the day ahead.

Nothing like a relaxed lunch with a good glass of wine

 

Lunch. Don’t neglect this. Americans tend to too often ignore this important meal. They swallow down a sandwich on the run, while the ladies tend to graze. Some even skip lunch entirely. Lunch is very important. Eat heartily and don’t deny yourself the satisfaction of a digestive glass of wine. Remember, a noontime meal is easier to digest. In some civilized countries a siesta is mandatory.

You are now primed to survive into the evening and won’t be famished at dinnertime. Don’t think of early dinner, some people eat early in time for the seven o’clock news. The news is always depressing, better to relax with a cocktail; my tipple of choice is a Vodka martini. A late dinner makes you tired and preps you for bed. It’s too late for the theater or movies. People will tell you it’s bad for the digestion to eat too much too late. Ignore that. That’s what anti-acid pills were invented for. If tiredness overcomes you, try a strong cup of coffee; I have a Nespresso machine wherever I reside just for this purpose. Go to bed and toss and turn yourself to sleep. It is subliminal exercise and you will eventually drop off into a heavenly slumber, dreaming of the day’s meals.

A well fed person is a satisfied person - happy dreams!

 

If you are still loosing weight: consult your doctor!

 

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This Blog is dedicated to my kid-sister, and fellow foodie - Tanya

Madness at the MAD Museum

The MAD Museum finally has its MAD show

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, March 27, 2016

The Kagan team - Chris Eitel, my design director - me - Illya Kagan, my son the artist

“I’m just a guy who can’t say no!” I go to every party. I even fly across the continent when sent tickets. But, for once in my life I passed on an opportunity. This time I really regret not showing up for a book signing for Flemish designer Jobs Smeet and his Dutch partner, Nynke Tynagel of Studio Job, My rational? “Who needs another book for my already overflowing bookshelves?”

Sprawling over two floors of the MAD Museum, (Museum of Art and Design) in New York, just opened a new exhibit for Studio Jobs. These ‘guys’ are at the top of the heap of ‘wacky’; a new genre of designer/artists working on the fringe. They dissect, they ridicule, they question the obvious, the rational and the logic. They spew out an obtuse, gobble of kitsch, and “fringe-art”. Smeet and Tynagel are geniuses of the genre.

In this genre you can count Jeff Koons as the most successful, so is my friend Sebastian Errazuriz and now, with this ‘one-man’ show we have Studio Jobs. It’s the 21^st Century version of Memphis. It is high-class camp. The works are magnificently executed.

Stained glass windows, marquetry in precious woods, traditional Belgium cut and tinted glass vessels dominate the exhibit. At first glance, you see heroic tributes to the mundane, but not to be taken seriously, they stick their thumbs at the public and their patrons. The subject matter is as diverse as the imaginations that created them.

When the artists had a romantic break-up, they created a train wreck of painstakingly modeled steam engines colliding head on. A cloud of highly polished bronze smoke is pouring out of the smokestack coalescing into a hammered polished tabletop, juxtaposed to the chaos that created it. The symbolic statement: out their personal chaos comes a darn good business relation that can be successful.

  

A beautifully sculpted horse’s head with flaring nostrils and color-changing eyes is mounted on a perfect replica of a tank vacuum cleaner, a tribute to Jeff Koons. An illuminated 12 foot high tower, Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world is being climbed by a humongous “King Kong” and circled by propeller driven airplanes. It’s symbolic message is ???? A stained glass window commissioned by a Dutch doctor for his office, depicts the creation of life intermingling with Christian symbolism, a reference to the church opposite the doctor’s office. Syringes, a baby with its umbilical cord being cut, test tubes and dispensing bottles of poison. There is an ordinary garden spigot, four times its normal size ridiculing a modern fountain as it drips droplets of water into a pail. Tynagel and Smeet are precise artists, rendering each concept with meticulous details. Their imagination bursts with ideas for their sculptures. They work in a 20,000 square foot studio with 20 artisans executing their outlandish concepts.

 

               

 

I'm thinking about giving up designing comfortable furniture, when I can make much more money designing non-sitable sculpture!

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Notice the sketch shows the Stars and Striped while the model has a Union Jack! Is that political politeness?

The 'Critic' doing the show!

Every work has a message and a double entendre. It’s a formula for a very complex rational. The show will run through August 21. I thoroughly enjoyed it, I hope you will too.