It’s time to take stock, clink glasses, and set up for 2011. Hang your calendar! We’ve been a fan of the Stendig Calendar for many years, but we’re conflicted this year. Pentagram’s wall calendar gives Stendig a run for its money. For those looking to make a physically, smaller statement, how about Noa Bemibre’s calendar?

Here’s a recipe:

MANHATTAN COCKTAIL

40 ml Rye or Bourbon Whiskey

20 ml Sweet Red Vermouth

2-3 dashes The Bitter Truth – Old Time Aromatic Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon peel.

Product information: “The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters are the first celery bitters to be offered commercially in decades. This cocktail ingredient, which had already existed in the 19th Century, enriches cocktails with unusual flavors. At first, the celery flavor is dominant, but leads to more complex notes of lemongrass, orange peel, and ginger. It’s ideal for traditional “corpse-reviver” cocktails such as the Bloody Mary, as well as Martini Cocktails and the Gin & Tonic.”

The whole set of unusual flavors:

[Photo, Lohar Wolleh] 

Artist Gerhard Richter’s schedule [via Daily Routines, via the New York Times] 

He sticks to a strict routine, waking at 6:15 every morning. He makes breakfast for his family, takes Ella to school at 7:20 and is in the studio by 8. At 1 o’clock, he crosses the garden from the studio back to the house. The grass in the garden is uncut. Richter proudly points this out, to show that even it is a matter of his choosing, not by chance. At 1 o’clock, he eats lunch in the dining room, alone. A housekeeper lays out the same meal for him each day: yogurt, tomatoes, bread, olive oil and chamomile tea.

 After lunch, Richter returns to his studio to work into the evening. ”I have always been structured,” he explains. ”What has changed is the proportions. Now it is eight hours of paperwork and one of painting.” He claims to waste time — on the house, the garden — although this is hard to believe. ”I go to the studio every day, but I don’t paint every day. I love playing with my architectural models. I love making plans. I could spend my life arranging things. Weeks go by, and I don’t paint until finally I can’t stand it any longer. I get fed up. I almost don’t want to talk about it, because I don’t want to become self-conscious about it, but perhaps I create these little crises as a kind of a secret strategy to push myself. It is a danger to wait around for an idea to occur to you. You have to find the idea.” As he talks, I notice a single drop of paint on the floor beneath one of his abstract pictures, the only thing out of place in the studio.