Tuesday, September 09, 2008
What's Not to Love?
Last night was my first writing workshop with Jonathan Ames.
And that 1a.m. weepy bourbon-soaked tweet was purely of the “holy crap how did life get so amazing?” variety.
marshmallow = me.
Write anything more and I’ll just embarrass myself.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Personism
A good word, and a great blog. Fauxcabulary.com — my slow and steady accumulation of newly formed words that reflect the changing things we need to describe before they’ve officially been coined — got a nice mention on Personism today. Teehee, she said it was “charming.”
Consider my day made.
The Fauxcabulary link is in good company. Do check out the House Industries video link about spelling, presented flip-book style by 102 year-old Ed Rondthaler.
Elsewhere, lots of rehashing of the NYT article about “ambient intimacy” and human closeness in the age of digital networking. Finally, it explains the appeal of twitter (and the cumulative building over time) better than anything else I have read, particularly that you can’t just read a page-full of updates once or twice and get the point of twitter, “Yet it is also why it can be extremely hard to understand the phenomenon until you’ve experienced it. Merely looking at a stranger’s Twitter or Facebook feed isn’t interesting, because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel.”
Me, I dig the ambient intimacy.
Friday, September 05, 2008
In My Country, We Do Not Burn Books
Everyone likes mayors who threaten to fire librarians who do not “fully cooperate” with their book burning plans.
I’m hoping this lady doesn’t stick around long enough for society to coin phrases like “beyond the Palin.”
AT&T cooperated with illegal governmental pressure, and look how well that went.
You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair.
I Bruise Like a Grape
When Daffy Duck repeatedly said, “Watch it, I bruise like a grape,” my skeptical young mind was troubled by the “like a grape” part. Bananas and apples were far less reliable than grapes in my book. With grapes, your primary concerns would be choking and eating seeds.
[In case of choking on a grape alone in the kitchen because you came home from the pool for a quick snack and tossed one into your mouth like you’ve seen your big brothers doing: immediately stop trying to breath, throw your ribs over the back of a kitchen chair, and simultaneously cough hard. Rejoice that you have fabulous instincts for beating death. Tell no one.]
You could say I bruise like a grape. Tickle me and you’ll find fingerprints, but technically I’m more like a peach. My bruises are so regular and colorful I’ve started appreciating them like sunsets.
From a distance, everyone thought my tae kwon do bruises were tattoos.
Indeed, armfuls of deep and serious bruising are what ultimately made me go from never wanting tattoos to wanting these bruises, these livid colors, on me forever. I liked how those TKD bruises felt like they signified something more than my inability to navigate a 3 dimensional plane.
As much as I love the color of bruises I’d probably avoid that final yellow, opting more for the bright blues, greens, purples, and pinks of a 2 or 3 day old injury. Now just how to weave those colors into the imagery I’d want.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Handmade Nation
The Movie:
“Handmade Nation documents a movement of artists, crafters, and designers ... historical techniques, punk, and DIY (do it yourself) ethos ... influenced by traditional handiwork, modern aesthetics, politics, feminism, and art. Handmade Nation explores a burgeoning art community that is based on creativity, determination, and networking.”
Wow.
Contrast and Compare: The Gender Card
Last night the Daily Show did what I love best — showed the same person talking out of two sides of their mouth. On political experience, on teen pregnancy. One way for Hillary, another for Palin.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Putting the Craft in Writing (or, I Think He Needs a Mustache)
This morning I signed up for a class on Narrative Embroidery at the Etsy Labs here in Brooklyn. It’s going to be so fun!
In this class, we will combine the crafts of embroidery and writing to create one-of-a-kind hand-stitched love notes, letters, banners, and/or embellishments for clothing and decorative objects. We will explore the use of text as a graphic element, and as a means of conveying narrative.
We’ll begin with a demonstration of a handful of embroidery stitches, starting with the most basic and graduating to more complex and decorative stitches. Students will practice these stitches until they feel comfortable incorporating them into art, design, and craft projects.
We will then explore the craft of writing. We will talk about artist books, and the instructor will provide examples and ideas for incorporating hand-embroidered text into art and design endeavors. We might participate in a group writing exercise. more on etsy’s class.
Yay!
People ask me about Etsy all the time because I carry a tote bag (that gold squid really catches the eye) from their 2nd anniversary party that I attended with Tina, awesome crafter, and co-coiner of the word “procraftination."
Most of “Etsy” exists an online craft/store community of craft-sellers, but their offices and lab (studio) space is in the nearby Dumbo neighborhood.
Super W00t are their virtual labs and resources which anyone can enjoy from near and far, without having to compete with me for all the good apartments.
Wonder what I’m gonna make. Who knows where my brain will be after a week of school, and what materials I’ll have on hand. Unfortunately there is no chance my camera will be fixed by then, so it’s just these camera phone pics for now. I meant to introduce this little guy ages ago.
This bunneh is the most recent Craft zine inspired “plush monster” I made, with my fried brain and unwearable old clothes, after the end of last semester.
It’s very relaxing and fun to have only a vague plan. This bunny guy turned out all “hon hon hon” laughing all French-like, with his hipster neckerchief and chasing of weeemens. Any project that allows thoughts like, “I think he needs a mustache” are very, very good in my book.
First class is tonight! My internal monologue has been reduced to the urgency of Indigo Montoya “Buttacup is marry Humperdink in leetle less than half an hour! SO! All we need to do ees ...”
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Morphing into Creatures
I’m thinking of today as the first day of school, though I don’t have class until tomorrow night.
Today I’m going to the Strand bookstore to pick up 5 of the 9 books for Jeff Allen’s lit class. Then I’ll swing by J.C. Casey’s stamp shop because I owe the man money (I have such a stamp addiction!). Might swing past a client’s office too, but I feel gross because the hot water stopped working yesterday and hasn’t come back (probably couldn’t get repairs done on the holiday).
The previous post bothered me all weekend and I want to take it down.
And I can’t resist sharing the work of artist Jeremy Mayer as featured in Wired magazine, because he uses his materials from his collection of antique typewriters to create sci-fi looking sculptures of humans and animals. I miss the elephant sculpture and Remington Portable typewriter, I left back in D.C..
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