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Event: Indulgence
Date: November 3rd until December 31st

A Christmas exhibition is to be held at Walford Mill in Dorset over the coming months, it has been announced.

The Indulgence exhibition will be held from November 3rd until December 31st and will see selected skilled workers show their craftwork at the mill which is believed to date back to the 16th century.

According to Dorset Visual Arts, Indulgence is a selling exhibition where visitors can browse the stands and perhaps stock up on early, beautifully produced Christmas gifts. The exhibition will include a mixture of contemporary craftwork from local and national makers, including textiles, ceramics, wood, jewellery, glassware and more.

On Thursday November 29th visitors can enjoy mulled wine and mince pies in the Philip Goulden Gallery at Walford Mill. Currently, the gallery is exhibiting Rag Rug Revival, a display of unique rugs handcrafted by the Nicholson family.

Related Links > http://www.dorsetvisualarts.org/index.php/dva/news/128.html

For many cultures and Catholic communities around the world, the Christmas season is not complete until Epiphany or Twelfth Night, when tradition says the three kings, or wise men, came with gifts for the newborn Jesus.

In fact, January 6 used to be the day when gifts were exchanged and children opened presents, before Santa Claus took over the holiday. Even today, in Spain, children put out shoes stuffed with hay for the Three Kings’ horses, so the wise men will leave gifts in exchange for the hay. And in Mexico, children still write letters to the wise men, sending the notes up in a party balloon on the evening before Epiphany, when gifts are found on their beds the next morning.

For food lovers, though, the most important part of the January 6 celebration may be the cake, called a king cake in New Orleans, a rosca de reyes in Spanish and a galette des rois in French. In any language, all these cakes have a small charm, coin or figurine tucked in the dough, though the style of the cakes differs.
 
In North County, many Latino bakeries sell the rosca de reyes, an egg bread baked in the shape of a crown, flavored with lemon and brandy, and decorated with candied fruits (representing jewels) and flaked nuts. One such bakery is the Baja Foods Mercado at Quince and Ninth streets in Escondido. Luis Perez, the baker at Baja Foods for the last five months, said he has been baking rosca de reyes for days. The store offers a 9-inch diameter cake ($8.99) and a 16-inch wide, slightly rectangular cake ($34.99). On Saturday, he said, they will sell hundreds of the cakes to customers.

Perez’s cakes are flavored with cinnamon and orange, and filled with different fruits and Bavarian cream before being molded into a large wreath and decorated with candied citron, cherries and figs. And tucked inside every ring, of course, is a small white plastic baby figurine representing the baby Jesus.

“The person who gets the slice with the king has to make the tamales,” Perez said, referring to the tradition that besides having luck all year, the person finding the figurine is responsible for hosting a party (and providing tamales) on La Fiesta del Monito, held on February 2.

This date is also called Candlemas, the day celebrating the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of the infant Christ in the temple. Candles are traditionally blessed on this day.

In France, the 12th day of Christmas is known as La Fete des Rois, more a national holiday than a Christian one. During that day, and throughout January, galettes des rois (kings’ cakes) are bought and enjoyed. Just before serving, a small feve (figurine) is hidden in each cake. According to tradition, the person who is served the piece containing the feve is crowned king for the day. This is believed to date to pre-Christian days, when during the winter festival of Saturnalia, a mock king for the day was chosen by finding the special bean from a cake. Danes still hide an almond in rice pudding, and in medieval England, as well as in Burgundy, France, a couple was chosen by placing both a bean and a pea into the cake.

Throughout France, there are numerous styles of galette, though the most common these days is the Parisian version, a puff pastry tart filled with almond paste and pastry cream. Others, particularly in the south of France, are made with brioche pastry dough, shaped in a ring like a crown and covered with candied fruit.

Local French bakeries, such as Le Rendez Vous Bakery in Oceanside and Champagne Bakery in Encinitas, sell French almond butter cakes at this time of year, complete with a paper crown, a small white baby figurine and an explanatory card. Shaunny Abeyta, manager at Champagne Bistro in Del Mar, said she has not noticed much demand for the cakes. But, she said, those who know about the tradition order theirs in advance, sometimes two or three at a time.

King Cakes, as they are called in New Orleans, are available in bakeries starting January 6 through Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent. Receiving the piece with the figure means good luck all year and also brings the responsibility of buying the cake for the next party. Many citizens of New Orleans ship King Cakes all over the country to friends and family.

Encinitas resident Kathy Melican is originally from northern Louisiana and orders her cakes from Randazzo’s in New Orleans. “Last year was the only year I missed because of Hurricane Katrina. They were harder to come by and triple the price, so I made one at home,” she said. “I will never do that again. The kids said it wasn’t the same.”

This recipe, can be turned into a typical “three kings” cake:

Almond Butter Cake
Puff pastry (use the frozen kind available in supermarkets), thawed

For filling:
1/4 cup pure almond paste (2 ounces)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 whole almond or a dried bean, such as a lima bean

For glaze:
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar for dusting

To make filling: Puree almond paste, sugar, butter and pinch of salt in a food processor until smooth. Add egg, vanilla, and almond extract; puree until incorporated. Add flour and pulse until incorporated. Transfer to a small bowl and chill, covered, to firm dough for at least one hour.
While filling is chilling, roll out half of puff pastry on a well-floured surface with a floured rolling pin before placing in a tart or pie pan.
Put an oven rack in lowest position and another in top third of oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In small bowl, stir together egg and milk with a fork to make an egg wash. Set aside.
Roll out second half of puff pastry. Using a plate as a guide, cut dough into a round the same size as the tart pan bottom. Using tip of a knife and a smaller plate as a guide, score a circle 2 inches smaller than the diameter of the dough. (If at any time, pastry becomes too soft to work with, chill until firm.) Cut a 1/2-inch circle in center of round to serve as steam vent, then score curved lines close together in a pinwheel design and lightly brush pastry all over with egg wash.
Mound chilled filling in center of dough in tart pan, spreading to about 1 1/2 inches from edge. Bury almond or bean anywhere in filling. Slide second pastry round gently over filling, scored side up, and press edges of rounds together to seal. If desired, cut decorated notches, 1 inch apart, around sealed edge of galette.
Using a fine-mesh sieve, dust top of galette with confectioner’s sugar.
To bake galette, bake on bottom rack of oven until puffed and golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer galette to upper third of oven and continue baking until very puffed and deep golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes more. Transfer to a rack to cool slightly, 5 to 10 minutes (galette will deflate slightly). Serve warm. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

YOUR ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR’ VIDEO

It could have been Dick Clark’s “rocking” New Year’s Eve show, a Japanese version, until the moment on nationwide TV that dozens of backup singers and dancers suddenly appeared nude.

A Japanese hip hop perfomance of song that continually implored “Bounce with Me” took an unexpected turn just after the two-minute mark with the females doffing their tops and then their bottoms and the men also stripping to their undies. The wild performance continued for another minute or so, followed by a host’s giggling and then a kind of apology.

The females certainly appeared nude but a Reuters’ report suggests that perhaps it was an illusion: “A troupe of dancers in skin-colored body suits had Japanese national broadcaster NHK apologizing to viewers of its New Year’s Eve music special for what seemed to be a full-scale Janet Jackson-style wardrobe malfunction.

“The dancers, who all appeared to be topless and wore skimpy bikini-style bottoms and feathered head-dresses, covered the stage during a performance by singer DJ OZMA, prompting about 250 viewers to phone in and complain. ‘The dancers were wearing body suits, but we apologize for any misunderstanding,’ a presenter announced.

“‘I guess it looked a bit too real,’ local media quoted the singer as telling reporters after the show, which regularly tops viewer ratings on New Year’s Eve in Japan.”

Judge for yourself (real or spandex?):

Japan TV apologises for “topless” New Year’s Eve shock

A troupe of dancers in skin-coloured body suits had Japanese national broadcaster NHK apologising to viewers of its New Year’s Eve music special for what seemed to be a full-scale Janet Jackson-style wardrobe malfunction.

The dancers, who all appeared to be topless and wore skimpy bikini-style bottoms and feathered head-dresses, covered the stage during a performance by singer DJ OZMA, prompting about 250 viewers to phone in and complain.

“The dancers were wearing body suits, but we apologise for any misunderstanding,” a presenter announced towards the end of the 57th annual “Red and White Song Contest”.

“I guess it looked a bit too real,” local media quoted the singer as telling reporters after the show, which regularly tops viewer ratings on New Year’s Eve in Japan.

“A Christmas Story” fan restored the film site, leg lamp and all.

Ralphie Parker never slept here. He did, however, take aim at imaginary nemesis Black Bart from his perch on the kitchen sink. And he was spotted through the front window once, caressing a tarted-up leg lamp.

This is called A Christmas Story House, the real Cleveland home that housed the fictional Parker family in the beloved 1983 movie A Christmas Story. Now, it’s Cleveland’s newest tourist attraction.

San Diego resident Brian Jones bought the house in February 2005 and has poured his heart, not to mention $240,000, into renovating it to make it resemble the house in the movie. He’s opening it for tours and has created a gift shop and a small museum in a house across the street.

In reality, A Christmas Story House is only part of what viewers remember as the Parkers’ home, the place where Ralphie pined for a Red Ryder BB gun. It’s really the house’s exterior that stars in the film; with the exception of the aforementioned scenes, all the interior shots were filmed on a set.

The house is in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, in a working-class cluster of closely spaced homes dating to the turn of the 20th century. Drive through the streets, and you half expect to see the characters created by the late author and monologist Jean Shepherd, Ralphie and his buddies, darting down the sidewalk, fleeing bullies Scut Farkus and Grover Dill.

The house is instantly recognizable to fans of the movie, thanks to the meticulous restoration of the exterior and the iconic leg lamp glowing in the window. Gray vinyl siding was removed, rotted sections of wood siding were replaced, and the porch was largely rebuilt. ICI Paints matched the exterior paint colors, so the yellow siding and green trim wear the precise shades they did in the 1983 movie.

In the backyard, the shed that was swarmed by Black Bart’s gang still stands, overlooking a gray vista dominated by a steel mill. A new board fence surrounds the yard, not so much for appearance as for security. Inside, the match is less exact. Although Jones, 30, said the set was designed to roughly fit the house’s general footprint, the rooms were bigger and the set had features the real house lacked, a dining room, for example, and a staircase with two landings.

So Jones hired Mike Foster, a contractor recommended to him by the Cleveland Restoration Society, to renovate what had been a duplex and make it resemble more closely the interior of the Parker home. It’s more a suggestion of the movie set than a replica, but Jones and Foster have taken pains to re-create it as faithfully as possible.

The construction crew took out a first-floor bedroom and cut a hole in the ceiling to put in the stairs, and a fake fireplace was installed to mimic the one in the movie. A bathroom was gutted to allow for widening the kitchen, which is outfitted with a brown-painted wainscot, the same model of White Star stove that appears in the movie, and a sink with doors below, just like the ones Ralphie’s brother, Randy, hid behind.

The crew even cut the 12-inch-square, brown-and-white linoleum floor tiles down to 9 inches to match what would have been available at the time the movie was set, around 1940. “We’ve done all kinds of crazy stuff to the place,” Jones said.

The house is gradually being furnished, largely with donations from fans. Someone even ponied up a spherical silver shot-glass set, just like the one that sits atop the Parkers’ floor radio.

Part of the house is private, a tiny apartment that Jones occupies during his stays in Cleveland. The house’s curator and director, Steven Siedlecki, looks after the business day to day. “Me and my wife have kind of tossed the idea [of moving to Cleveland] around,” Jones said, “but it’s cold here.”

It was Jones’ wife, Beverly, who alerted him to the house. A U.S. Navy officer, she was headed to the Middle East aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard when her captain told her he’d seen the house for sale on eBay. She thought that might amuse her husband, a fan of the movie who sells leg lamps, so she casually dropped a mention into the e-mail she sent him four or five days later.

Jones was more than amused. He e-mailed the seller immediately and offered $150,000 - $35,000 more than the high bid at the time, if the seller would take the house off the auction block. The seller agreed and even honored that deal after someone else called and offered $200,000, Jones said.

He’s convinced his investment will pay off. Fans flock to the setting of Field of Dreams, “and that’s out in a cornfield in Iowa,” he said. A Christmas Story House is in a city with plenty of tourist draws, so he figures it’s another reason for people to come to Cleveland.

For some fans, it’s the only reason - such as the carload of college-age youths who showed up not long ago after a nine-hour drive from Tennessee. Jones let them into the house, and one of the young women was so excited that she phoned her mother to report, “I’m in Ralphie and Randy’s bedroom!”

Jones also bought a house across the street to serve as a ticket-sales center, gift shop, and museum. Here, visitors can browse a collection of A Christmas Story memorabilia that includes Randy’s snowsuit and toy zeppelin, a reproduction Red Ryder BB gun with a compass and sundial in the stock, photos snapped during filming by neighbors and actors, and framed reviews of the movie, not all of them complimentary.

A display of blooper scenes points out such goofs as the visible trampoline that boosted Black Bart over the backyard fence.

Visitors can also take home mementos from the movie, from a $6 Little Orphan Annie decoder pin to a $595 painting of fictional Cleveland Street by artist Paul Landry. Among the other items for sale are bars of Lifebuoy soap, jars of Ovaltine, copies of the script, T-shirts, posters, and Higbee elf hats crafted and signed by actress Patty Johnson, patterned on the one she wore in the movie.

And because the leg lamp figures large in the film, there are leg lamps in every conceivable form, ornaments, night lights, light strings, and the full-size replicas that Jones sells through his company, Red Rider Leg Lamps.

A Famous House in Cleveland
A Christmas Story House is at 3159 W. 11th St., Cleveland. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Starting Jan. 16, the house will be closed Wednesdays as well as Mondays and Tuesdays.
Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children younger than 12.
For more information, visit the Web site at www.achristmasstoryhouse.com or phone 216-298-4919.