Nothing Witty Doing

I've spent the past couple of weeks riding the bus around town reading The Diary of Alice James and trying to think up something witty to write about brioche. Turns out a harder task than I expected, and my mind keeps drawing a blank. Also it's the holidays and my nerves are totally undone by the spirit of the season. The lights and the snow and the well-wishing and the tamales my friend Sol's family made on Christmas eve I enjoy a lot, but the music everywhere brings me near to losing my mind.

I am thinking about a movie, and I'm still thinking about it. A version of "Humoresque," with a half loaf of brioche in the role of violinist Paul Boray (John Garfield). A jar of chopped cherry jam in the role of Helen Wright (Joan Crawford). And a stick of butter as the ever ironic Sid Jeffers (Oscar Levant). I am also thinking about recreating a classic romantic winter scene on Lake Michigan. Caspar David Friedrich's "Wreck of the Hope," with shattered slices of brioche French toast heaving skyward encased in the massing white and blue striated glassy shards of the frozen arctic sea.

Big plans for 2011. In the meantime the loaves are wrapped well in plastic biding their time in my freezer.