Summer's best treat: gelato/ice-cream/frozen yogurt

Let’s face it, ice cream is the sin of gluttony in the summer. It’s fresh, it’s fast, it costs little and combines the tastes of the sea and holidays. And best of all, it’s tasty! We choose it as a snack, and sometimes as a replacement meal, but almost always we want it as a dessert at the end of the day.

So what is the story of ice cream?

The ancestor of ice cream was born in China around 2000 BC. and it was prepared with overcooked rice, spices, and milk; everything was then introduced into the snow to solidify. Subsequently, desserts made of frozen fruit juices were also born, with or without milk. In the 13th century, various types of these sweets could be bought on the streets of Beijing and sold on carts. In the 1300’s, frozen milk and fruit appeared in Italy, imported by Marco Polo, thus creating Italian ice cream.

Around 1533, when Caterina de' Medici married the future King Henry II of France, she spread across the Alps a semifreddo (semi-cold) dessert made of sweet cream that looked a lot like today’s ice cream. Until then, ice cream was food for the wealthy, due to the difficulty of keeping ice in the summer. But around 1560, a Spanish doctor who lived in Rome, Blasius Villafranca, discovered that, by adding saltpeter to snow and ice, anything could be frozen much faster. The discovery gave a great boost to the production of ice cream.

In the 19th century, ice cream also spread to England and America thanks to the Italian emigrants who sold it on the street. The ice cream vendor was called "hokey-pokey", a transliteration of the Italian “Ecco un poco” (Here's a little).

At MSA, we definitely enjoy this cold treat and have shared the following: our favorite gelato/ice-cream places in the Bay Area.

p.s if you wish to treat your dog with a nice ice cream, Gio Gelati and Little Giant Ice Cream provide dog ice cream 🍦🐶

Art while in quarantine: paintings and statues that come to life in our homes

In times like these, getting distracted is essential: having something to do that gets us through the tough times is a cure-all solution.

Since museums, galleries and fairs have been closed for a while now, the longing to appreciate classic art is greater than ever. To continue giving oxygen to those of us who love art, there are alternative opportunities we’ve found to creatively do so. A social campaign born couple of months ago by J. Paul Getty Museum challenged the online community to recreate famous paintings. The rules are simple: choose a work of art and recreate it at home, using everything you have for the mise en scène.

 We, at MSA, had fun replicating our favorite paintings and sculptures, transforming ourselves into living pieces of art!

 

 Flower Thrower by Banksy, 2003

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, 1665 ca

Surrealist landscape scene By Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

El Zulo by Víctor Ochoa, 2003

Two apples on a table by Paul Cezanne,  about 1895 ‑ 1900

Marilyn by Andy Warhol, 1967

A trip around the world

Traveling during a global pandemic is near impossible, but fortunately we can still explore and travel virtually by using both technology and our imaginations, even while staying at home.

 

From Bali to Venice, from Chile to Puerto Rico, the digitalized world has now shortened the global distances between adventures.

 

Here are photos taken during MSA’s adventurous times traveling around the world. While waiting to visit some of our beloved cities and admire the splendid landscapes of our planet, we can console ourselves by traveling with our eyes through the sensational shots taken in the past. At any moment, they can take us to the most crowded metropolises, or into the wildest nature nestled within remote corners of the Earth.

Thank you for traveling with us 😊

 

Venice, Italy

Lake Atitlán, Guatemala

Giza pyramids, Egypt

pRAGUE, Czech REPUBLIC

Paseo del Morro in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Hawaii, USA

Pinecrest Lake, California

Crater Lake, Oregon

nusa penida, Bali, Indonesia

Ninh Binh, Vietnam

Portillo, Chile

Documentary Addict: MSA best selection of docu-films

With museums and cinemas still closed, many of us are wondering how can we entertain ourselves?

Fortunately, we are in an era where the web offers many alternatives to going out. From Netflix to Amazon, those platforms offer many TV series, films, and documentaries to comfortably enjoy a journey through history, nature or the life of others.

So here are ten documentaries, between old and new, cult and not to be missed, for your social distancing days.

 

The Imagineering Story

By Leslie Iwerks

Behind the magic of every Disney theme park lay mud, sweat and fears. Creating happiness is hard work. For nearly seventy years, a unique blend of artists and engineers - called Imagineers - have cultivated an impossible notion from the mind of one man, Walt Disney, into a global phenomenon that touches the hearts of millions. Given unprecedented access, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, Leslie Iwerks, leads the viewer on a journey behind the curtains of Walt Disney Imagineering, the little known design and development center of The Walt Disney Company, to discover what it takes to create, design, and build twelve Disney theme parks around the world.

March of the penguins

By Luc Jacquet

At the end of each Antarctic summer, the emperor penguins of the South Pole journey to their traditional breeding grounds in a fascinating mating ritual that is captured in this documentary by intrepid filmmaker Luc Jacquet. The journey across frozen tundra proves to be the simplest part of the ritual, as after the egg is hatched, the female must delicately transfer it to the male and make her way back to the distant sea to nourish herself and bring back food to her newborn chick.


Abstract, Art of Design

By Scott Dadich


This series, made of eight episodes, follows leading designers operating in different industries. There are episodes dedicated to Ingels, Devlin and Crawford, as well as graphic designer Paula Scher, automobile designer Ralph Gilles, Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield, illustrator Christoph Niemann and photographer Platon.

This documentary really spoke to me as a designer. It really broke down the process of creativity and execution in so many different ways from professionals in the industry. It shows how art and design affects every aspect of our lives and how it shapes humanity.

13th

By Ava DuVernay

A documentary that looks at the mass incarceration of minorities following the passage of the 13th amendment. As the documentary points out, it is not just ingrained cultural racism that results in the widespread incarceration of African Americans and other minorities.  There’s a financial incentive as well, and it’s good business to lock people up. 13th systematically goes through the decades following the passage of the 13th amendment to show how black people were targeted by the media, by the government, and by businesses to create a new form of slavery.

Rivers And Tides

By Thomas Riedelsheimer

I recently re-discovered a cherished one from many years back about the artist Andy Goldsworthy called “Rivers and Tides”. Andy Goldsworthy is a contemporary artist who works with natural materials such as stone, branches, and leaves. This documentary focuses on several works that incorporate the element of water, both as liquid and ice. His works are often ephemeral, with the process of their destruction part of the artwork’s expression. I find his work inspirationally poetic and I likely connect with them because so many of my favorite memories involve the stacking of rocks. As a young adult I spent countless hours building rock terraces and whirlpools while camping along an alpine river. My hiking days are characterized by using rock cairns as trail markers. The Bay Area is fortunate to have several of his works, my favorite being “Wood Line” in the Presidio, which is a sinuous curve of tree trunks along the ground in an eucalyptus forest.

Free Solo

By Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin

 

This film is about Alex Honnold’s freakily dangerous free solo attempt in 2017 at El Capitan, the 3,000ft-high rock formation in Yosemite Valley, California. Honnold specialises in the most mind-boggling and gasp-inducing “free solo” climbs – without a rope, up sheer rock faces,

The documentary also takes in the views of the camerapeople who are recording his climb – climbers themselves, going up ahead of him or behind him (with ropes) or sometimes deploying drones.

I enjoyed it because I had no idea anyone would or could do this. Or better yet, want to do it!

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

By Ken Burns

The National Parks: America's Best Idea is a six-episode series produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan and written by Dayton Duncan. Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska - The National Parks: America's Best Idea is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.

It Might Get Loud

By Davis Guggenheim

This American documentary explores the careers and musical styles of prominent rock guitarists Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White. Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos--The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artist's musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play.

Watching these three music legends do a jam session is not to be missed.



The Biggest Little Farm

By John Chester


The Biggest Little Farm is a 2018 American documentary film, directed by Emmy Award Winning director John Chester. The film is a testament to the immense complexity of nature, The Biggest Little Farm follows two dreamers and a dog on an odyssey to bring harmony to both their lives and the land. When the barking of their beloved dog Todd leads to an eviction notice from their tiny LA apartment, John and Molly Chester make a choice that takes them out of the city and onto 200 acres in the foothills of Ventura County, naively endeavoring to build one of the most diverse farms of its kind in complete coexistence with nature.

180 degrees south

By Chris Malloy

The film emulates the 1968 trip made by Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia, but rather than by land, Jeff Johnson travels by sea from Mexico and south along the west coast of Chile. The film opens with original home movie footage as taken by Chouinard and Tompkins, and then continues with Johnson's own footage, in which he includes surfing, sailing and climbing as the film follows Johnson signing on with a small boat heading for Chile, his being delayed for several weeks on Easter Island, his meeting travel partner Makohe, and in his reaching Patagonia, Johnson meeting with Chouinard and Tompkins. The film concludes with his attempt to climb Cerro Corcovado (the Corcovado volcano), an attempt that was halted 200 feet from the summit out of concerns for safety.

I thought this film is perfect for those with an adventurous spirit. I was inspired by traveling to far and away places to climb, surf and sail. It was amazing that Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins made their own equipment to climb Patagonia before climbing gear was even mainstream.

5B

By Dan Krauss, Paul Haggis, Rupert Maconick, Brett Henenberg

5B is the inspirational story of everyday heroes who took extraordinary action to comfort, protect and care for the patients of the first AIDS ward unit in the United States. 5B is stirringly told through first-person testimony of the nurses and caregivers who built Ward 5B at San Francisco General Hospital in 1983, their patients, loved ones, and hospital staff who volunteered to create care practices based in humanity and holistic well-being. The result is an uplifting yet bittersweet monument to a pivotal moment in American history and a celebration of quiet heroes worthy of remembrance and renewed recognition.

Our pandemic favorite readings

How many times have you ever dreamed of spending a nice relaxing day at home, without having to go out, and just curling up in your favorite chair with a book?  

For some, many.  

There’s an advantage in sheltering-in-place. Since we’re not endlessly going from one destination to the next, we have this unparalleled opportunity to breathe and take it slow. We have more time to read, to reflect and connect with ourselves.  

Even if we don’t have piles of books at home, there are several other ways to enjoy a good story.  With a little research you can find: publishing houses that offer free e-books or discounts on paperback books, writers who read their work on social media, and even podcasts of various literature. Also, rereading some classics that have been collecting dust on your shelf for years is certainly not a bad idea.  

Here are some of our favorite books that we at MSA recommend to expand your reading list.  

Ps. Let's go back to buying books as soon as possible to support our local bookstores!

 

Trout Fishing in America

by Richard Brautigan.  

The book it’s an unusual collection of thoughts and observations taking place in the context of late 50’s early 60’s San Francisco North Beach and West Coast with a lot of analogies and references to trout fishing. The novel is organized in a manner different from Brautigan’s other novels and from more conventional examples of the genre. For one thing, it has no easily recognizable plot structure. Rather, it weaves together (with apparent randomness) about forty episodes in the unnamed narrator’s life and juxtaposes these with a few miscellaneous sections that illuminate the chapters in their vicinity. One thread of the story deals with the experiences of the narrator’s boyhood. From these the reader gains a sense of his unusual personality—especially his separateness, vivid imagination, and highly individual way of viewing life.

BLINDNESS

By Jose’ Saramago

A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weaknesses-and man's ultimately exhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man's will to survive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature.

 
 

Lone Survivor

by Marcus Luttrell

This is a story of great sacrifice and incredible strength of the human spirit to survive.

This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, SEAL team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history. His squad mates fought valiantly beside him until he was the only one left alive, blasted by an RPG into a place where his pursuers could not find him. Over the next four days, terribly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell crawled for miles through the mountains and was taken in by sympathetic villagers who risked their lives to keep him safe from surrounding Taliban warriors.

 

CROWDED

by Christopher Sebela (writer), Ro Stein (artist)

Ten minutes in the future, the world runs on an economy of job shares and apps—like Reaper, a platform for legal assassination. When the apparently average Charlie Ellison wakes up one day to find out she is the target of a million-dollar Reapr campaign, she hires Vita, the lowest rated bodyguard on the Dfend app. Now, with all of Los Angeles hunting Charlie, she and Vita will have to figure out who wants her dead, and why, before the campaign’s 30 days—or their lives—are over.

 

Sapiens

A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Naoh Harari

Homo sapiens rules the world because it is the only animal that can believe in things that exist purely in its own imagination, such as gods, states, money and human rights. Starting from this provocative idea, Sapiens goes on to retell the history of our species from a completely fresh perspective. It explains that money is the most pluralistic system of mutual trust ever devised; that capitalism is the most successful religion ever invented; that the treatment of animals in modern agriculture is probably the worst crime in history; and that even though we are far more powerful than our ancient ancestors, we aren’t much happier.

 

Shantaram

by Gregory David Roberts

Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who escapes maximum security prison in Australia and ends up in the streets of Bombay.

As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals.

The novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.