A hearty toast to the queen of cooking

August 16, 2004 D. H. McKee

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Julia Child dies at age 91.
Her television debut in 1962 was one of the most liberating in the history of a usually tame medium. Julia Child was 50 years old and an uninhibited 6-foot-2, trilled commands in a headmistressy warble that sounded like Kate Hepburn after a pint of gin, played the kitchen like an ambidextrous tympanist and didn’t care how she looked or sounded as long as her ungainly, unbounded joy caught on.
“There was this woman tossing French omelettes, splashing eggs about the place, brandishing big knives, panting heavily as she careened about the stove.” So Child described her first night on PBS in the role for which she was made, even if it took her 50 years to find the perfect part.
By the time of her death on Friday at the age of 91, Child had long since been sanctified as the guiding spirit of the kitchen, and American culture had found a way to appropriate her complete and utter strangeness. But to the last she made it bracingly clear that she was as out of step with modern life in this millennium as she’d been back in the black-and-white days of the last one.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040816/CHILD16/TPEntertainment/TopStories

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As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

Writers often treat the bio like it’s an interview or something. Maybe like they’re having a conversation with you, the reader. While it may work sometimes, the most common way to write a bio is to write in the 3rd person.

I’m like those writers, and I’m talking to you directly, unlike the common way to do a bio. You should see my About page. It makes sense to me, since this is a bit which describes my blog’s website. When I get famous enough that I don’t have time to talk to you, I’ll have an intern write everything in 3rd person. Until then, you get to talk to me.

Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.