754.
My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -
And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him -
The Mountains straight reply -
And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through -
And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master's Head -
'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's
Deep Pillow - to have shared -
To foe of His - I'm deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -
Though I than He - may longer live
He longer must - than I -
For I have but the power to kill,
Without--the power to die--
***
... I think it is a poem about possession by the daemon, about the dangers and risks of such possession if you are a woman, about the knowledge that power in a woman can seem destructive, and that you cannot live without the daemon once it has possessed you ...
Adrienne Rich
***
Photo: a mugshot of Emma Goldman.
9.30.2008
my life had stood - a loaded gun -
to do a magnanimous thing
1699
To do a magnanimous thing
And take oneself by surprise
If oneself is not in the habit of him
Is precisely the finest of Joys —
Not to do a magnanimous thing
Notwithstanding it never be known
Notwithstanding it cost us existence once
Is Rapture herself spurn —
***
So, you might be wondering what kittens have to do with magnanimity ...
My sister is a friend to all little creatures, and about two months ago a stray mama cat had a litter of three kittens under her porch. Kind person that she is, my sister has been looking after the little guys - brushing their coats, washing their faces, and making sure they have clean water and good food. Now we are trying to find them good homes. If I wasn't violently allergic, they would be coming home with me.
If you are interested in helping a morsel of kittendom find a good home, email me: evencleveland (at) gmail.com.
the distance was between us
863
That Distance was between Us
That is not of Mile or Main —
The Will it is that situates —
Equator — never can —
Image from Ffffound.
the morns are meeker than they were
12.
The morns are meeker than they were—
The nuts are getting brown—
The berry's cheek is plumper—
The Rose is out of town.
The Maple wears a gayer scarf—
The field a scarlet gown—
Lest I should be old fashioned
I'll put a trinket on.
Image: Frick Park from Stephen Grebinski's Flickr stream.
she dealt her pretty words like blades
883
The Poets light but Lamps—
Themselves—go out—
The Wicks they stimulate—
If vital Light
Inhere as do the Suns—
Each Age a Lens
Disseminating their
Circumference—
Emily Dickinson
It's the goal, isn't it - that we each create some small spark of illumination that carries forward for those that come after us?
Post title from 479.
9.29.2008
tender buttons
I discovered Grainne Morton's jewelry through Bricolage.
The way she juxtaposes the ornate whimsy of old buttons and trims with linear shapes is very appealing to me.
always now slowly I understand it
There are many that I know and I know it. They are many that I know and they know it. They are all of them themselves and they repeat it and I hear it. Always I listen to it. Slowly I come to understand it. Many years I listened and did not know it. I heard it, I understood it some, I did not know I heard it. They repeat themselves now and I listen to it. Every way that they do it now I hear it. Now each time very slowly I come to understand it. Always it comes very slowly the completed understanding of it, the repeating each one does to tell it the whole history of the being in each one, always now I hear it. Always now slowly I understand it.
Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans
As strange as this is, this is how I feel when I read. I think it's because I read so voraciously as a kid - I was constantly bumping across things I didn't always understand, and when I didn't understand, I read it again. Even now, I'll read the hardest books over and over, then step away to allow the things I don't realize I am absorbing to percolate up. It can take a while. It's a process of circling, of approach and retreat. If I am lucky, there is a bright flash, and I see something wonderful, something hidden.
Painting: The Companion, by Joseph Alleman.
i like a thing simple but it must be simple through complication
After Picasso, 2006. 5,024 spools of thread, stainless steel ball chain and hanging apparatus, clear acrylic viewing sphere, metal stand.
Devorah Sperber's works play with the science of how we see:
'Using ordinary spools of thread, Sperber creates pixilated, inverted images of masterpieces, which appear as colorful abstractions to the naked eye. When viewed with optical devices, however, the works becomes immediately recognizable as the famous paintings. The thread spools works are hung upside down in reference to the fact that the lens of the eye projects an inverted image of the world onto the retina, which is corrected by the brain. A clear acrylic sphere, positioned in front of each work, functions like the human eye and brain, not only inverting but also focusing the image so that it appears as a sharp, faithful, right-side-up reproduction of the famous painting.'
Detail:
After Picasso (Gertrude Stein), 2006. Swarovski crystals, black velvet. Images created by dividing the original portrait along the vertical axis and mirroring each side to create two symmetrical images
gertrude
Clarity is of no importance because nobody listens and nobody knows what you mean no matter what you mean, nor how clearly you mean what you mean. But if you have vitality enough of knowing enough of what you mean, somebody and sometime and sometimes a great many will have to realize that you know what you mean and so they will agree that you mean what you know, what you know you mean, which is as near as anybody can come to understanding any one.
Gertrude Stein, Four in America
Sidenote: All of my posts today are riffs on titles & quotes from the formidable Ms. Stein.
I am aiming, as always, for the vitality enough of knowing enough what I mean. I hope you will agree that I mean what I know and what I know I mean.
Painting: Gertrude Stein, 1906. Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973).
9.28.2008
sunday tune #38: neutral milk hotel - in the aeroplane over the sea
If I had a time machine, I would go back and time and see a Neutral Milk Hotel show.
9.27.2008
9.26.2008
take off
Be free.
Dwellers of the Cleve can:
- acquire fine prints
- meet Ms. Grapette
- gorge on the work of theatrical geniuses, like this one or this one or this one or this one
- try to understand a woman is a woman
- chill with Franz and the gang
Photo from ffffound.
boarding passes
This is an invite that my parents got for a local political fundraiser.
The wood planes were the favors.
I am totally going to use this as inspiration - can you imagine how cute this would be with a bright red plane and a gocco-printed boarding pass?
(PS - the candidate in question is one of the best people I know ... I hope he wins!)
flight test
The journey of a paper plane thrown from the 31st floor of a building in Manhattan's financial district.
9.25.2008
pssst
Lingg (a.k.a. my favorite jewelry store in the Cleve) is having a sample sale.
20% - 70% markdowns ... and Anthropologie is across the street. Can I stand the temptation?
I think not.
art brut
A little Art Brut can go a long way, but I'm enjoying them today. I love the broken heart on his blazer ... maybe I need to get crafty and make myself a patch ...
And after all, you have to love a band that has a lyric like"people in love lie around and get fat ... I didn't want us to end up like that ..."
Good stuff.
for hanging up high pictures
I am 98% sure I would fall wearing these.
Does that make me not want them? No, no it does not.
Rachel Comey Poe Handpainted Wedge Clog.
in anticipation of october strolls
I think Rachel Comey's Mr. Warms needs to come home with me. I decided once I saw that detachable vest.
I can just see me strolling about Tremont in this beauty, with scruffy corduroys and natty wingtips, a well-worn volume in hand and a pipe between my teeth. Of course, Mrs. Warms is pretty fetching too.
Available at Bird.
one i want for my wall
An Effect of the Sun, Normandy, Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820 - 1882) c. 1856.
I've never been to the place where this was taken, and maybe time has changed it beyond recognition, but for whatever reason, I feel it belongs to me.
hanging up
The lovely Hila tagged me to play a little game where I share some glimpses of things on my walls, so here we go ...
My office:
I love old stereopticon images.
Some Cleveland pride:
I also love photobooth snaps. This is one of me and a dear friend around my 16th birthday.
Next: the hallway. My chalkboard wall always has a poem. I need to write a new one up - it was Dover Beach forever because I couldn't bear to erase it.
This piece is one of my favorites - it's from Hatch Show Print (I dream of working there).
A glimpse of one of my living room walls ...
A milagro my mother gave me (I collect talismans and lucky charms):
This good luck hamsa we got as a wedding present hangs over the front door, no matter where we live:
My kitchen - it has no storage, so the walls hold everything:
A collection of letters - seeing folks' handwriting makes me happy.
Prints on top of my kitchen cabinet.The one on the left is Picasso's 'Kitchen' - I thought that it was funny to hang it in my actual kitchen.
And my very favorite last. This hangs in my bedroom - it's a woodblock print by Joshua Rome, and Sean bought it for me from my favorite Cleveland gallery one green winter when I was missing the snow.
So. There you have it! A little peek into the life of me.
If you want to play, consider yourself tagged - just leave a comment so I can see your treasures.
(And thanks, Hila!)
9.24.2008
scattered
Neeta Madahar, Cosmoses 2005-2007.
From top to bottom:
Cosmoses White IV (Positive), 2005
Ilfochrome photogram
Cosmoses White X (Negative), 2006
Ilfochrome photogram
Cosmoses Black IV (Positive), 2006
Ilfochrome photogram
Via i heart photograph (such a great, great blog.)
stopping time
An old-timey name for asters is 'farewell-summer' because they bloom when fall starts. I was Google-image searching 'farewell summer asters' and came across these beautiful images by Craig Cramer. They are flowers from his garden that he arranges and scans. It's an interesting twist on the old tradition of pressing flowers.
I think they are beyond gorgeous. I am dreaming of designing a non-traditional floral repeat using one as inspiration. There is something about the contrast of black and color, and the orderly chaos of the arrangements that really speak to me.
marking the seasons
Claire Nereim's Wildflowers Calendar - a hand-pulled print illustrating each month with a seasonally blooming flower.
Via Lena Corwin's blog (did you see her picks in this month's Domino? Good stuff.)
remembrance
I like the idea of buying one of these rings to remember a particularly beautiful summer.
Daisy rings by Carla Nuis. Spotted a while back at Oh Happy Day and more recently at Dear Ada, and apparently not for sale anywhere on the interweb.
(Edited to add: Erica found a price list at this site. Yay!)
9.23.2008
raw materials
I'm pretty sure I could make something great with this.
Lobster and Swan Estate Sale Lot 12: Peacock.
(Really gorgeous blog, too.)
colored light
Luminodot is an evolution of the Lite-Brite, a jaw-dropping, eye-popping update with 1600 pegs in 12 colors, and a programmable backlight that makes your designs come to life.
I want one.
Spotted at Shape + Colour.
secret messages
Jonathan Ben-Tovim's Encoder Rings 'began as an investigation in how to store precious or personal digital information. The result is a series of rings that are decorated with tiny blobs and holes, that actually represent letters in binary code.'
The ring can hold messages up to 64 characters long. Definitely more interesting than your standard love-token.
Via NotCot.
ordered disorder
Stained glass crib quilt top with backing, ca. 1890.
It looks surprisingly modern, doesn't it?
form + content/just be good
Pithy words from Paul Rand to start the week.
My takeaway: 'Don't try to be original, just try to be good.'
I'm giving it a whirl.
(Discovered at 3daintyDELIGHTS, my latest blog crush.)
9.22.2008
obviously, people have low expectations
I can't believe the 'yes' is winning in this poll.
After I saw that, I needed cheering up. This made me laugh.
little books for long nights
I need these miniature TankBooks in cigarette cartons - that way, I'll never be caught without quality, pocket-sized reading material.
Via The Dieline.
against the coming chill
I'd like one of these wood stoves in my living room for chilly fall nights.
for happy dreams of apple orchards
I recommend making apple sauce in a slow-cooker overnight. Your home will smell delectable, and you can have warm, fresh applesauce for breakfast (the leftovers freeze for later use).
Mmmmm.
hello fall
Asymmetrical buttony goodness. Stewart + Brown Ladder Stitch Cardigan.
(Pretty sure I discovered this via Mrs. French ...)
farewell summer
We spent yesterday morning picking raspberries in a friend's truck patch garden. They are probably the last ones we'll get this year, and I almost hate to eat them.
Farewell summer. Hello, fall.
9.21.2008
sunday tune #37: magnolia electric co. - a little at a time
I looked for a video performance of 'Doing Something Wrong' - my current favorite - but no dice. So here's another one to watch instead.
sunday tune #36: magnolia electric co. - hard to love a man
I am currently obsessed with all things Jason Molina - Songs: Ohia, The Magnolia Electric Company, and Magnolia Electric Co.
He's originally an Ohio boy.
9.20.2008
fun with chalk, part 2
Check out the work of Robin Rhode. I saw a terrific exhibit featuring his work in Boston, and he uses chalk and charcoal in many of the pieces - they remind me a bit of hand-made, temporally collapsed riffs on Eadweard Muybridge's time lapse studies.
I was also really taken with his video work. My favorite is 'Candle'.
(This is a good overview of the Street Level exhibit, in case you are interested. The show catalog is good stuff.)
fun with chalk, part 1
I can't find out who made this, but I think it is pretty darn rad.
(I have chalk on the brain today, because I am going to the Chalk Festival. Yay!)
9.19.2008
one more thing
Isn't this lovely? It's a cut-paper animation directed by Marco Morandi for Dustin O'Halloran's 'Opus 23.'
Now, happy weekend for real.
this weekend
This weekend, you can:
- ride for Miles
- play with chalk
- feel boozy and bluesy
- shop the craftsters in Tremont
- visit open studios
- hang with the horsey set (I l.o.v.e. this event.)
- tour the first Usonian home in Ohio
- watch Fatih Akin's latest jaw-dropper
I found this smudgy rainbow on my sidewalk. I'm taking it as a good omen. Happy weekend!
each one is like a tiny party waiting to happen
It's Friday!
(I found this cocktail color wheel on Bright Lights, Little City - it's for a line of goods they make using cocktail umbrellas. Very festive, no?)
working on: learning to fly fish
My great expedition yesterday (the one requiring fashionable yet rugged boots) was to Deep Springs Trout Club. I was meeting my dad for a fly-fishing lesson.
Boy, did I have fun.
Fishing is a family passion, and among his many other talents, my father is an excellent angler and often works as a guide. When I was small, with my saucer eyes peering over the edge of the table, I would watch him tie flies, attracted by the beautiful feathers and iridescent threads and overall tininess of the enterprise. Through the years, I have only gone out fly-fishing with him twice - the first time in a fit of teenage romanticism brought on by reading A River Runs Through It (which was promptly squelched by an outing to the stream during a snowstorm in March) - and the second time in Montana on a miserable 95 degree day where the fish had gone into hiding.
Still, fly-fishing beckoned. So I asked him to take me out again, and he graciously agreed, and even kitted me out in some of his nice gear - a vintage Paul Young bamboo rod and a Tibor aluminum reel.
Here's me in action, concentrating on a 10 to 2 casting motion, using the arm and not the wrist, keeping the rod tip down, and stripping the line in quick, jagged motions to approximate the movement of a water bug (yes, it's a lot to keep straight):
Success! One on the line. Keeping the tension just right is tricky - too much and you break the rod, too little and the fish gets away. Which happened. The fish getting away, that is. Repeatedly.
I managed to only hook the deck twice and myself once, and ended up catching four rainbow trout for dinner. It's a pretty thrilling feeling, after all that concentration.
Afterwards, we had a delicious lunch in the club restaurant - trout pate on crackers, salads, smoked filet sandwiches, and corn fritters with maple syrup. So good.
As for the fishing, I can't wait to try it again. It's a beautiful exercise I hope to master. And any excuse to spend time with my dad is pretty great, too.
9.18.2008
boots needed
I am going on an expedition today, and stylish, rugged boots are called for. I wish I had these ones. Or maybe these, in canvas.
(If it goes well and I can get decent pictures, I will tell you about it tomorrow ...)
style + content
To me style is just the outside of content, and content the inside of style, like the outside and the inside of the human body. Both go together, they can't be separated.
Jean-Luc Godard
new york herald tribune
I saw 'Breathless' on the big screen a couple of weeks ago (due to the Cinematheque's feast of Godard movies). I was reminded of how much I wanted a New York Herald Tribune t-shirt, so I could try and be as hopelessly cool as Jean Seberg.
Lo and behold, you can order one from Neighborhoodies. In a word: yay!
It's a futile attempt, though. Just look at her. So, so beyond.
imaginary outfit: odile
I think this movie had a more profound effect on me than I realized, because, truth be told, this outfit is not so imaginary for me. It's pretty close to normal wear. I have always been a partisan of plaid skirts (probably due to my wish to be delivered from the horrors of public school to the imagined oasis of a private one), old-fashioned hats, and slouchy sweaters.
Maybe the shoes are the key. Perhaps if I found the right pair, spontaneous dancing would occur ... hm.
I think I better work on the steps. Watch out, bars of Cleveland!
bande à part
Bande à part is playing at the Cleveland Cinematheque tonight.
This is the famous dance scene from the movie set to Nouvelle Vague's 'Dance With Me.'
To say I massively adore this is an understatement. Oh, Anna! That hat - that kilt - I want it all in a smoky French bar.
no one can do everything. everyone can do something.
'WE ADD UP is a global campaign using organic cotton t-shirts that literally “counts you in” in the fight against global warming. Every shirt is printed by hand with a unique number. YOUR number represents your place in the sequential global count of all the people who are taking steps to help stop climate change. As the count grows, we demonstrate to the world that “WE ADD UP.” On the back of each shirt is a word or phrase that describes an action almost anyone can take to reduce their carbon footprint - the contribution their lifestyle makes to greenhouse gases - such as, Unplug, Lights Off, Carpool, Hybrid, Bike, Buy Local, and 18 others. You choose which action you are committed to doing and get counted in. No one can do everything. Everyone can do something.'
This project was started by a pair of Clevelanders (well, Cleveland-area-ers.) In addition to the shirts, they also offer nifty tote bags.
Pretty brilliant. I hope they sell millions.
(Thanks, erock!)
9.16.2008
commute
I am in love with Fast Boy Cycles. Wood handlebars! Whoa mama.
I would think about getting more jobs if I could get this little number for the commute.
imaginary outfit: going to the office with katherine hepburn
When I was little, Katherine Hepburn made having a career seem like the most glamourous and exciting thing going - whether she was the head of research, a crusading lawyer or a feminist reporter, she always had such relish and joy in what she was doing that it made me anxious to grow up and go to work, too.
I dreamed of days filled with the rackety clang of typewriters, the murky hum of dictaphones, and the insistant buzz of an intercom; important decisions convincingly conveyed; well-cut wool suits and tailored silk blouses; egg salad sandwiches for lunch and cocktails at the end of the day to take the edge off.
I've never managed to find that office, but I keep looking.
If I was Kate Hepburn's gal Friday, this is how I would kit myself out - all crisp tailoring and luxe textures. All day long, we would work like fiends, slaying co-workers with our sharp minds and sharp skirts, before knocking off at five o'clock to get ready for glamourous after-dinner soirees.
If only.
investment letter, april 1983
I found this in an old copy of Sophie's Choice that I picked up at a used book sale.
At my last office job, I processed quarterly earnings reports for companies, so I came in contact with many documents like these, but never one that included an epigram from ee cummings.
supplies
This past weekend, I ended up buying office supplies with interesting typography. The stapler, hole-punch and ruler are from my favorite secondhand place, and I picked up the glue stick at the McMaster & Storm stand at the Country Living fair. It is the very best-smelling glue stick I have ever had - it's almond scented.
I couldn't walk away from McMaster & Storm without a few more little treasures - teeny tiny gilt cupcake papers, vintage icicle paper, and a bunch of teal velvet Czechoslovakian poppies destined for a headband. My mom and I were completely smitten with their stuff, and now I am planning a road-trip to their store in Greenville to stock up on dresdens, vintage trims and French notebooks.
office jobs
At first the work had been tolerable from its novelty, but now it grew irksome; and when he discovered that he had no aptitude for it, he began to hate it. Often, when he should have been doing something that was given him, he wasted his time drawing little pictures on the office note-paper.
Somerset Maugham - Of Human Bondage
... I now think it was constructive to learn so early in life that I would never fit in as an office worker, anytime, anywhere.
William Styron - Sophie's Choice
I have been thinking about jobs today - all the ones I have had, and the ones I might be able to get.
Image: The Business Man by Robert Dickerson.
9.15.2008
grains
Hordeum distichon. Two-rowed barley. Karl Blossfeldt.
This reminds me of feathers, almost. It would be cool to use as the base of a repeating print for fabric or wallpaper.
mills
A Wolverine Mac Dutch Mill sand toy. 1930s.
Steam-powered windmill. Late 1940s.
Bing Tin Toy Windmill. 1923-1932.
Thinking of harvests got me thinking of grains which led to thinking of mills. Now I am coveting a collection of toy tin windmills. Apparently, many were made as accessories for toy steam engines. It's hard to believe they was ever such a thing, isn't it? It makes a BB gun sound positively safe in comparison.
to reap
I saw these during a drive in Geauga County. I find them quite lovely. It makes me glad to think that even in our world of mega farms and agribusiness, there are people who still remember how to create something like this.
Someday, I would like to see a field of these.
to keep summer's last memories
The long, linear inclusions of rutilated quartz remind me of the tall grasses in a sun-bleached meadow - it's one of my favorite stones.
L.B. Valentine locket.
the harvest moon
The flame-red moon, the harvest moon,
Rolls along the hills, gently bouncing,
A vast balloon,
Till it takes off, and sinks upward
To lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon.
The harvest moon has come,
Booming softly through heaven, like a bassoon.
And the earth replies all night, like a deep drum.
So people can't sleep,
So they go out where elms and oak trees keep
A kneeling vigil, in a religious hush.
The harvest moon has come!
And all the moonlit cows and all the sheep
Stare up at her petrified, while she swells
Filling heaven, as if red hot, and sailing
Closer and closer like the end of the world.
Till the gold fields of stiff wheat
Cry `We are ripe, reap us!' and the rivers
Sweat from the melting hills.
Ted Hughes
Image: 'The Harvest Moon.' Etching by Robert Walker Macbeth (after an unfinished painting by George Hemming Mason.) If you have deep pockets, there is a copy for sale here.
(Tonight is the harvest moon.)
9.14.2008
sunday tune #35: bonnie 'prince' billy - i gave you
Songs about lost love today ...
I gave you a child, and you didn't want it
That's the most that I have to give.
I gave you a house, and you didn't want it
Now where am I supposed to live.
I gave you a tree and you did not embrace it
I gave you a nightmare and you didn't chase it
I'd give you a dream and you'd only wake from it
Now I'll never go to sleep again.
I'd give you a treasure and you'd only take from it
Look at the hole where jewelry had been
Baby oh baby
Why must you escape from it?
This love that we once called our friend.
I gave you my body and you ate aplenty
I gave you ten lives and you wasted twenty.
Now I'm standing empty, helpless and bare, without a morsel left of me to give
And you, you have vanished, into the air
The air in which I must live.
sunday tune #34: bon iver + the bowerbirds - lovin's for fools
This is a cover of a song by Sarah Siskind. Here's the lyrics:
Crazy how I feel,
living without you
Inside this house that we built.
It seems like the windows
Finally open
Letting the memories out
Go on and love her
Love her forever
I will not tell her
I told you to
You’ll never notice
How much I love you
Lovin’s for fools
Love is for fools
Maybe you’ll find me
Walking in the garden
Looking for something pure.
Roots that are growing,
Deeper and deeper
Maybe you’ll pull them too.
Go on and love her
Love her forever
I will not tell her
I told you to
You’ll never notice
How much I loved you
Lovin's for fools
Love is for fools
It slays me.
9.13.2008
9.12.2008
this weekend
Go where the people are:
- HOUSE partying
- seeing Don Harvey's new works (@ Zygote)
- visiting the Lost State of Franklin
- finding antiques
- meeting Amy Butler
- hanging with Phil Donahue
the man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there
Steelworker, Pittsburgh. W. Eugene Smith, 1955.
Post title from Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth president of the United States: 'The man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.'
let the ruling classes tremble
I don't think they are trembling anymore.
(I would like every title in the Penguin Books Great Ideas series. A feast of thought, and the cover art makes me giddy - each one perfect.)
9.11.2008
worried
This is scary.
I am saying prayers for friends and family and pretty much everyone in Ike's path. Let's hope it's not as bad as they think it will be.
pinching pennies
So, no retail therapy for me in the offing ... I'm saving for this and this (#9).
Ha! I will probably be able to afford it by 2092.
Did you notice how the water from the swimming hole spills over the top onto the pebbly surround? Wow.
to document purchases
Superheadz Blackbird, Fly. Don't they look fun? And they shoot on 35 mm. Can't wait until they are available stateside.
Spotted at NotCot.
for a long day on your feet
The perfect footwear.
I have a bit of a moccasin obsession. I have three pairs in rotation, and a new pair stashed away as backup. I owe it all to my parents. They dressed me in beautiful hand-beaded pairs as an infant, and I must have developed my addiction then. The fact that they are so popular right now means I can stock up on many pairs for future use. Yay!
Right now, I covet these beauties from Manimal. Each pair is handmade, and they come in the most glorious colors. Plus, my sources tell me they are beyond comfortable - perfect for a long day walking from store to store.
accessorize
I adore Anne-Marie Herckes accessories. These two brooches are perfect encapsulations of what I will be wearing this fall.
She has designed some special edition key rings for the colette x Gap pop-up store. I'll be in New York at the end of the month and am hoping that one of these fellows will be making the trip back to Ohio.
(Sidenote: I stopped shopping at the Gap several years ago, but have been tempted back recently. There is some good stuff - not boring, not trashy, affordable and pretty well-made. They should give Patrick Robinson a raise.)
imaginary outfit: let's grab coffee and go shopping
This was inspired by one of Ez's ideas, and was supposed to be a budget-friendly ensemble for a day of shopping with the girls (because a day of worshipping at the altar of consumerism sounds just about right to me) ... but I slipped. Oh, how I slipped. I just couldn't resist adding this bag and once you factor in an $877 bag ... well, the budget is blown. Since I have to resist temptation all the time in real life, I just couldn't make myself toe the line in fantasy-outfit land. A girl must have a vent.
So!
Let's pretend we are in meeting for coffee this morning at the little place around the corner. After grabbing a chewy oatmeal-coconut cookie for fuel, we're off, hitting store after store, magically finding everything we adore on massive markdown. The crowning moment of the day comes when I score a pair of these boots 75% off (ha!).
9.10.2008
autogenesis
'Seizure' by Roger Hiorns - London flat encrusted with copper sulphite crystals.
An excerpt of his statement at ArtForum:
Once we found the location, the production itself was conceptual: I wanted to introduce a material that was anathema to the building itself. Crystallization is always, for me, a kind of claiming—I say “claiming” because the process is so amplified here as to be a kind of obfuscation of the building. I’ve encouraged an alien aesthetic, one quite contrary to its vaguely modernist history (with its roots in Le Corbusier’s designs). The building has a certain sort of governing rationality; by introducing these crystals, I’ve introduced some irrationality. The process also allows me to remove myself from the equation; crystallization is an autogenesis, and its results are an auto-aesthetic. I get to become an objective viewer of my own processes, at least to the extent possible. It’s a psychological position to take, to try and obsolete myself within my own realm of activity.
Photo by Sarah Lee/The Guardian. Spotted at It's Nice That.
herkimer diamonds
Herkimer diamonds are actually rare quartz crystals with two ends and six sides. They were discovered in Herkimer County, New York.
I covet Erica Weiner's Herkimer diamond solitare. Of course, I have a bit of a thing for Herkimers.
Via The Daily Obsession.
imaginary outfit: particle physicist
So, if I was one of the top particle physicists at CERN, anxiously awaiting the results from the start of the Large Hadron Collider, this is what I would wear - something a little dressy, since it's a historic moment (it's only the biggest, priciest scientific instrument ever - 17 miles around with 9,000 magnets). Something structured and smart and ladylike, and I wouldn't worry too much about the cost - after all, the project itself cost $10 billion, so what's a few thousand on clothes? Especially when the international press is swarming around. Besides, if I happen to be lucky enough to locate the Higgs bosun, I can always wear it again to accept my Nobel Prize.
she blinded me with science
Note the motorbike with sidecar. I also like the deranged scientists playing with bubbles in the yard.
industrial chemistry
'Mctega is a collaboration between scientists. Using mass production techniques of industrial chemistry on a much smaller scale, they are creating one of a kind pieces out of materials known for their ubiquity.'
I could not love these necklaces more if I tried.
one for your home lab
You can't find dark matter at home, but you CAN grow your own rock candy strings!
are we still here?
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
The Large Hadron Collider is supposed to be active as of today. I can't wait to see what happens. This video is a short explanation of what it is supposed to do.
Amazing photos here.
9.09.2008
master
I have been fascinated by Robert Lang ever since I read this. He has been so successful at origami, he left his job in 2001 to fold paper full time. Who even knew that was a career option?
wrappers
Love this idea - using the shiny foil and printed wrappers from candy bars as bookmarks. I already store all kinds of paper oddments in my books - I can't believe I didn't think of this!
Spotted at the sadly defunct Bluelines.
creased
I saw this lovely origami the other day at Dear Ada, and it inspired me to search for all things bent and beautiful.
'Stars in a sky of hexagons' by Andrea Russo.
folded
Folded letters by Tyrone Ohia.
His process: 'Each letter is made from a folded sheet of A4 paper, which is then placed on a lightbox. The dark areas that form the strokes are where the paper folds and overlaps, therefore letting less light from the lightbox through.'
Rad. Via Ffffound.
9.08.2008
field trip: allen memorial art museum
On Saturday, we headed west to Oberlin, Ohio, to visit the Allen Memorial Art Museum. It is a fantastic small museum with a penchant for interesting exhibitions - right now, they are showing protest posters from the May '68 Paris student uprising, among other things. Since it is only about a 30-40 minute drive out of the city, we try to visit often.
One of my favorite parts about the AMAM is how accessible they make their collection to students and the community - they have an art rental program where students and members of the community can borrow two pieces from the collection every semester. People camp out overnight to get a spot in line. A Picasso on my wall, even for a few months, is almost enough to make me consider moving to Oberlin. That spirit of accessibility extends to the exhibits - I love looking into a case of carefully arranged objects and seeing that it was assembled by two college juniors. It makes the collection feel like a living thing, open to an infinite array of new interpretations.
I also love that they have racks of folding stools, so you can situate yourself in front of whatever catches your eye.
After this feast of high culture, I recommend several rounds of Ms. Pac-Man to restore your equilibrium.
Downtown Pizza is the place to go - instead of tables, they have five sit down arcade games, with just about any old school game you might want to play. I also endorse the mozzarella sticks.
I love a trip to Oberlin.
we sit late, watching the dark slowly unfold
Jeff Yost is one of my favorite Cleveland artists. Several years ago, I stumbled across his booth at an art show, and was stopped dead in my tracks by his dreamy landscape paintings. They are incredibly beautiful in person, with deep, subtle, layered color - it's one of those things the internet cannot do justice to. Ever since, I have wished for one (or several) of my own.
I bought my parents one of his pieces as a gift last Christmas. It was difficult letting it leave my house.
Above: Turner's Field. Below, from the Nocturne series. His Transmissions series is also gorgeous.
september
We sit late, watching the dark slowly unfold:
No clock counts this.
When kisses are repeated and the arms hold
There is no telling where time is.
It is midsummer: the leaves hang big and still:
Behind the eye a star,
Under the silk of the wrist a sea, tell
Time is nowhere.
We stand; leaves have not timed the summer.
No clock now needs
Tell we have only what we remember:
Minutes uproaring with our heads
Like an unfortunate King's and his Queen's
When the senseless mob rules;
And quietly the trees casting their crowns
Into the pools.
Ted Hughes
9.07.2008
9.06.2008
paper dolls
I am swooning over the work of Lisa Perrin, an aspiring illustrator from Long Island who sells the most gorgeous paper dolls as Le Lapin Triste on Etsy. The Farewell dolls (above) are my favorite. Aren't they ravishing? I think they should get starring roles in their own stop-animation movie.
commercial art
So, these are technically commercials, but my golly, they are beautiful, so I am posting them. Both are the work of Jamie Caliri, and I think it's some of the loveliest papercut animation I have ever seen.
The one above is 'Heart' and just debuted this summer - I love when the little bird flies through the empty space in her heart. 'Dragon' (below) came out in 2005 and I never get tired of seeing it.
9.05.2008
illumination
Isn't this beautiful? Thai sky lanterns. Have a happy weekend.
(P.S. I found this at Smitten, a new relationships/life/love/stuff blog being written by the ever-awesome Joanna Goddard of A Cup Of Jo. It's a new gig for her with Glamour magazine. I can't wait to read more. Hooray, Joanna!)
escape
Two, three days at most.
This weekend:
- the teachers' work goes up on the bulletin board
- aux barricades!
- get breathless on the New Wave
- finish your writing assignment so you can have a clear conscience (wait - that's just me.)
removal
Noriko Ambe does beautiful, destructive things to books, cutting holes and edges through the pages to construct new images with a strange, mutilated topography.
Top: Artists who make pieces, Artists who do books. Cutting Book Series with ED Ruscha. 2008.
Bottom: Water Works. Flat Globe Cutting Book Series. 2006.
Found @ Ffffound.
writer's rooms
Through Una Mosca en la Luna, I discovered that The Guardian has a series of photos and statements about writers and their rooms. The above belongs to Martin Amis - I covet that leather chair. Here are some more favorites.
Seamus Heaney.
George Bernard Shaw.
Virginia Woolf.
Rudyard Kipling.
Roald Dahl (I especially love the pattern of the linoleum floor).
blocked
'We can't be as good as we'd want to, so the question then becomes, how do we cope with our own badness?' - Nick Hornby
I have something to write today, and the computer is making faces at me. *sigh*
Typewriter sculpture by Jeremy Mayer, via NotCot.
9.04.2008
for some reason i never saw this
I can't believe that this was up for a WEEK on YouTube before I saw it. I better turn in my keys to the interweb. High holy wow.
Wilco and Fleet Foxes covering 'I Shall Be Released.'
Thank you, Stereogum!
possibly the best news i have heard all week
I'm voting for the Lips. Pretty stiff competition - who knew?
for kicking leaves
on your shoulder
Tatty Devine 'Birdie' leather brooch. I like the idea of using this to fasten a chunky scarf.
imaginary outfit: naptime on the sleeping porch
So, it's still unpleasantly hot here but cool days are coming. I can't wait for jeans and corduroy and scarves and blankets. And as long as I am imagining cool weather, I'm also imagining a shady old screened porch laced with leaf shadows, an old army cot and a shelf of ratty paperbacks, and an afternoon with nowhere particular to be. Inside the house, I can smell someone baking apple crisp, and I am filled with happy anticipation for dinner later. I kick off my moccasins (always a footwear staple for me, fashionable or not) and curl up under a cozy shawl, preparing to lose myself in A Girl of the Limberlost for the thousandth time until I fall into a nice drowse.
cradle
Just imagine, piled with pillows and a stack of good books beside it waiting to be devoured ...
From scubadam67's Flickr photostream.
sanctuary
Isn't this wonderful? It's a sleeping cabin designed by Tim Prentice. I found it on Materialicious during an internet image quest for sleeping porches inspired by this.
In my dream house, there is always a sleeping porch - somewhere screened with a cozy cot or daybed where I can sleep on cool nights or taking lazy afternoon naps under wooly blankets on brisk fall afternoons.
9.03.2008
this would do, too
Right now, I am wishing I could hire Blake Dollahite to renovate a house for me. His place is featured in this month's Dwell, and it was featured on Design*Sponge back in the day.
I love this quote from the Dwell piece: 'While I hoped the house would be modern and striking, I wanted to rely on recycled materials to help it feel warm and familiar. I didn’t want my grandma to feel like an astronaut when she visited.'
Right on! (And boy, I love that blue sink - something most people would shudder at and immediately junk turned into something amazing.)
All images from Blake's company site, Rural Theory Design & Build.
home
I love this painting by Michelle Ramin. It looks like the houses in my neighborhood, with jolly, oddly-spaced windows and plain siding and demure little porches.
Someday, in the far distant future, when Sean and I finally buy a place, I am going to have its portrait painted. One of the best wedding presents we received was a painting of my apartment building by a friend. It was the first place Sean and I lived together when we were married, and I love looking at it and thinking of those early days.
the road back
We ended our trip with a couple of quiet days visiting Sean's parents in Delaware near the seashore. On the drive home, we saw someone in an ultralight taking a sunset fly. I think that's when I started dreaming about flying home on the wind. It seems much more magical than a prosaic drive.
vacation: storm king/beacon
On the way to the Catskills, we stopped at Storm King Art Center, 500 acres of land and postwar sculpture. It's amazing, especially the monumental works. Seeing pieces appear on the crest of a hill or in the dip of a valley is a completely different experience than viewing them in a gallery, or as public art in a city. In the photo above, you can catch a glimpse of part of Richard Serra's Schunnemunk Fork. We saw the large exhibit of his works last year at MoMA, but while the pieces in the gallery take on an austere, severe monumentality, outside, they become almost organic, like bones of the earth breaking through the surface. It was very striking, and one of the most successful pieces on the site, to my mind.
On our way out of the Catskills, we stopped at Dia:Beacon. First - if you live anywhere nearby - Boston, Philadelphia, New York - go. It's worth a visit.
It's rare to visit a place and feel everything in harmony - the building, the landscape, the interior, the purpose. I loved the austerity of the exterior, and the small tufts of grass growing up through the paving blocks. Walking inside felt like walking into somewhere holy, like a clean bare chapel presided over by a spirit of beauty and contemplation and thought and aspiration. I wish I could go there every day. And the collection was pretty good, too (ha!). Tacita Dean's installation was particularly breathtaking (for a true description, read this review) but we were smitten with too many things to name.
Once we were sufficiently mind-blown, we wandered to the end of Beacon proper to see the Electric Windows installation and eat Thai food.
Some nearby street art:
Afterwards, we bought glass bowls and ate gourmet popsicles from Zora Dora's Paletarias and walked up and down the street, seriously considering moving to Beacon. After all, New York City is only short a train ride away.
Hm. Temptation.
vacation: the catskills
After four days in Boston, we headed to Callicoon Center, New York, to visit Sean's aunt and uncle. We arrived just in time to see the pearly dusk settling over the lake.
After dinner, we headed to town, where the Callicoon Center Band was closing out its summer concert series. They have played every summer for the last 74 years. At the fire station across the street, you could buy a slice of homemade cake and a cup of coffee, or enter a raffle for homemade pies. We loved it.
The next morning, we woke up and took a walk around the lake.
Sean found blackberries and blueberries, so we took a slight detour.
After we filled our basket, Sean's aunt took us on a tour of some local pottery studios - Duke Pottery and Earthgirl Pottery. We found treasures at both, and had the best time talking to the artists.
Jill (a.k.a. Earthgirl) let me take some snaps of her amazing barn, which is full of pieces displayed in and on old dollhouses, cooking ranges, and antique chairs. I especially liked this stack of children's chairs. (Sidenote: she is going to be a vendor at the Country Living Fair in Columbus, Sept. 12-14, so I'll be posting more shots next week as the date draws nearer. I can't wait to go!)
After a full morning, we headed back to the cottage for naps and swims and time by the lake, and the next morning, it was time to hit the road again.
Right now, I am wishing I was back here.
Perfect.
vacation: boston
Boston was lots of serious playing and serious eating - barbecue at Blue Ribbon, pizza at Regina, and noodles at Wagamama.
Fittingly, I kept noticing this stencil all around the city.
Ha. It did not stop us from sampling the wares at Kick-Ass Cupcakes. I can recommend the strawberry shortcake and the blueberry with cream cheese frosting. Mmm-mmm.
In between all that eating, we rode the T, visited the ICA (always great, and especially fun with my three-year-old nephew), shopped Newbury Street, admired gorillas and rode carousels at the Franklin Park Zoo, hunted for bugs, flew kites, made chalk drawings, and tried to stay quiet during nap time. Best of all, we got to meet our six-month-old niece for the first time. She was very sweet and very funny - all curly baby toes and chortling baby-chuckles. She was especially taken with Uncle Sean, and it was a sight to see him carrying her all over the house and pointing out things for her to look at.
As always, it was sad to leave, but are already looking forward to our next visit (and future cupcakes!)
9.02.2008
let's go fly a kite
One of my favorite moments from my vacation. My little nephew and me, flying a kite on a hill high above Boston. Every time the breeze would ebb, he would puff his cheeks and blow, trying to make more wind.
for conveyance
Swaine Adeney Brigg. If you are going to travel by umbrella, you might as well get the best. Each one comes with the Warrant of the Prince of Wales engraved on the collar.
Fun.
umbrella traveller
Then the shape, tossed and bent by the wind, lifted the latch of the gate, and they could see that it belonged to a woman, who was holding her hat on with one hand and carrying a bag with another. As they watched, Michael and Jane saw a curious thing happen. As soon as the shape was inside the gate the wind seemed to catch her up in the air and fling her at the house. It was as though it had flung her first at the gate, waited for her to open it, and then had lifted and thrown her, bag and all, at the front door. The watching children heard a terrific bang, and as she landed the whole house shook.
P.L. Travers, 'Mary Poppins'
I adore these books. They are much sharper and funnier than the movie, enjoyable as it is. Caitlin Flanagan's New Yorker article on the contrast between the two is a good read.
Side note: Mary Shepherd did the original illustrations fresh out of art school, when she was only 23 (her father was known for drawing Winnie-the-Pooh and the Wind in the Willows). I think I need to scheme to get that cover blown up for my wall.
blown home
So we have made it home from all the visiting and visitations in one piece. I'll be spending most of today trying to catch up on things, and hopefully will be up and running at full steam tomorrow. Oh, the unpacking!
Isn't this a lovely illustration? I think it looks a bit like me and Sean. It's by Jayme McGowen and is featured in the latest edition of Small magazine (always an absolute trove of wonderful things).
I wish I could travel by umbrella.
