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Best of Spell

I have seen so many different ways to misspell my name... this is by far my favorite.

I've got this nasty habit of saving little scraps of paper if I think they're funny or have some sort of sentiment attached to them... I think putting them online will allow me to simply throw them in the trash like a normal non-hoarding type person.

A weekend of paint. Happy Labor day...

My housemate and I have spent all of labour day weekend painting and cleaning our entire apartment. Right now we're at the end of a long day of painting and I'm waiting on steam cleaned carpet to dry before I can move anything into my room. I'm thinking about cleaning more... wishing that all of our stuff would just teleport into place. I'll show actual progression soon... meanwhile I wish I had a chair to sit on.

Flickr...

Just an FYI, I'm digitizing my research in hopes that
1. I can dump a few tons of old magazines and
2. I don't have to cry as they dissentigrate because of old age...

I'll be opening an orginized research section on my Design website... soon-ish and I'm putting up back-ups on a new flickr account. 

And now you know.

Heston 1 ; Hollywood remake 0

Charlton Heston was a bit of a nut-bag but he did make some good movies;
A la;  Omega Man, The Agony and the Ecstasy, Soylent Green, Ben Hur... and of course
Planet of the Apes... By "good" I do mean "Awesome".

I think that the supply and demand as shown by Amazon truly illustrates my point;

Heston's Apes released 1965; only 7 copies starting at $8

Hollywood remake crap, released 2001: nobody wants, starting at 42 cents

Seriously Hollywood, give us some rough edges, give us some story telling, give us Charlton pounding the sands cursing those damn dirty apes.  Polished special effects don't make people like movies.  Also just so you know, if you try to remake Soylent Green with some schmuck like Tom Cruise, I will find you, tie you to a chair in front of a giant television and make you watch nothing but Jar-Jar Binks scenes from Star Wars Phantom Menace until you scream out in pain and your eyes are too sore to blink. 
Thanks so Much.

Fail blog...

Stole this from my friend Nick...

(Seen in Vancouver, Canada)

A sewing question?

There is a question I hear all the time... the question really is "would you sew this thing for me because I have no idea of what I am doing?"  Unfortunately this question usually is posed as a series of circuitous questions that make me crazy.
Example; "I was wondering about this cute skirt I bought... I'd just a wee bit small and I was wondering if it would be possible to make it bigger..."  
To which I answer " I suppose it would depend on if there is any seam allowance inside"
Although really the person asking wants me to say "I don't know, perhaps you should bring this glorious skirt in so that I can sew it for you!"
 Inevitably the  answer I give is followed up by something like " I just don't know how you do it... I have a hard time with buttons"

Which reinforces the fact that a simple alteration like letting seams out would be far beyond the asker's scope... Why ask stupid questions like this?  Do you go up to your plumber and ask "gee, I'm thinking about installing a new sink in my bathroom but I just don't know how to make the water go through the pipes..." or do you mention to your chiropractor friend that you're thinking about readjusting your spine but can't quite figure out which vertebrae to crack...? 

Tip #1; just because your grandmother could do this task does not mean it is easy. Don't act like it's something you can just pick up if you only had five minutes and the slightest desire to.  It is insulting to me and to your grandmother and you know it's not true... go practice sewing some buttons.

I just want to tell those who seem to think that I live to sew things and am dying to help with all sewing related problems, that in fact this is how I make my living.  I am a highly trained specialist and it has taken me over ten years to be able to sew as well as I do.   Sure I'll explain to you exactly how to alter whatever you want... but don't expect me to take pity on you because you're clueless and cheap.  If you want me to sew something, just ask me.  I suggest you bribe me with money, food or whiskey... possibly all three.  Even with the lack of money, food, or whiskey I think that someone just asking for help is better than them hoping to entice me to volunteer... it just irritates me to no end.

Say What?

"It's kind of amateur, but I think that's Okay!"
 --Overheard at a Bad show, seen recently. 

Yes indeed 'amateur', I think this show was written by the same creative genius who adapted the Pinocchio I performed in summer camp at age 7.  Did I think it was 'Okay'? ... let's just say I will have to go through life not knowing the conclusion of this masterwork.  I will just have to imagine they ended with a gripping rendition of the song I recall singing in an inflatable swimming hoop...

...By the sea, by the sea, looking out to sea

I see sea, you see sea, sea is what we see...

Patchwork Puppy Blues

I'm lying in bed tonight with a bit of a stomach ache, a little bit of a headache and a bit more of a heartache.  A loss.  A ridiculous longing for a stuffed animal that went missing nearly two years ago.  Every time I get sick I look for it.  I keep thinking I must have missed a random corner here... perhaps I left it in Idyllwild... but every search is for naught.  I look every time I visit and so far no traces have been found.  I have no idea of what could have happened to my old comfort, it's not like it ever went out to the theatre or out clubbing to be forgotten in some dark corner or picked up by some shady character just hoping to sell a stuffed dog on ebay...

Oh dear old puppy, I had you when I was ever so small.  I had you whenever I was ill, I even had my mother fly you from California to my hospital bed in Ohio when I was scary-sick in college... You had the perfect place for my head on your cool back, and I could wrap my right arm around your head to rub your ear between my thumbs... such comfort and now, alas, whenever I am sick all I can think of is how you've vanished into the ether... now I am sick, and sad.   It's odd to feel so lonely for lack of an inanimate object.

Puppy come home! 

Bahnhof der Kunst

I walked into a building in San Francisco today that made me think about this art gallery Alex and I visited in Berlin... It was tall and filled with odd noises... the building in SF is a ferry building turned into a chocolate factory and has a sparseness coupled with a randomness of objects that took me across the globe in a flash...

I recall finding parts of this museum that was once a train station and wondering if we had accidentally left the museum portion of the building. After a few minutes wandering in dimly lit hallway you turn a corner and find something strange hung on the wall with a plaque and suddenly you find that you're ok...

In retrospect I really like the sense of bewilderment that this building gives you, it is an experience in itself, like wandering the woods and finding discarded treasure.

Sadly we were not allowed to wander through the chocolate factory.  I'm sure the oompa loompas would not have approved such activity.

Brevity/sketchy

Tonight I managed to reserve time to go and draw!  There's a fun live model "anti-art" school thing that happens all over the country called "Dr.Sketchy's" and models are usually burlesque (costumed) models... perfect for me.  They call in all different body types and costumes... plus it is all very low key and no pressure.

This was the first time I've ever drawn from a live model (or at least one who knew they were my model) so I was pretty psyched to be able to do it.  I got through arts high school And earned a BFA in costume design without ever having a life drawing class... it's a rather sad gap in my education.

Brevity/recovery

Post Tech (a rather rushed tech full of 12-16hour days) I am left with a disaster of a shop, a car and a house... I am left with that burnt feeling and still work keeps coming, life barely slows down.  Spending the whole weekend cleaning, purging, organizing... bowing out of a canoe trip in order to try and get my feet under me before the next push gets intense.