dream come true!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Guess who went camping again!?!?
Me!
So let me tell you how it went.
Thursday I left work early to get some things done, and around 2 my brother, father, and I headed out to our friend Ralph's 200+ acre property in Loomis, NY (about an four hour drive). On the way there we stopped at the Chester diner, which quite possibly was the worst diner I had ever eaten at ever. I'm not even kidding you when I tell you that the cole slaw was bad. I know you're sitting there thinking, who the hell eats diner cole slaw. Well I do. My dad does. Its a thing. My dad tried the slaw, said, "Damn this shit is bad." I said, "Pops, all diner slaw isn't that great," then I tried it. It was so horrible. It was the worst diner slaw that ever existed.
We stopped at a liquor store that a nice old lady worked at. I remember her because she was smiley and helpful and nice, and she had a very well put together hair do. She was from Jersey, as it turns out. We left Chester.
Driving up to Loomis none of us remembered seeing signs for the Panda's Parlor. This kind of put a new level of excitement to the weekend - we were all wondering if the place was still there. I don't know if I talked about that place or not, but in case you're unfamiliar with it Panda's Parlor is an ice cream/carwash/coffe joint. Panda-themed. Heaven.
The first thing my dad did once we got up to Ralph's was get his truck stuck in a ditch.
After that was taken care of, we headed into the trailer for some much needed winding down with some box wine.
Ralph had a sandwich, because pulling vans out of the mud is hard work.
Truthfully, he was going to take us out to dinner, but we had already eaten at that horrible diner.
The next day we woke up to snow, and temperatures quite colder than the day before. We were now accompanied by our pal Jun, and made our way into the nearest town, Walton. Walton has a castle in it. It also has the largest walk in cooler around. I'm inclined to believe they have the ONLY walk in cooler around. You could also purchase girls underwear at the hardware store. I thought that odd. We had lunch at a different diner, which had
freedom toast
But their food was bangin. The locals stared at us for quite awhile when we came in, all eight of them. It was kind of eerie, but I knew it was going to be the last time in 3 days I was going to be inside somewhere and warm, so I stuck it out.
After pickin up a tarp, some groceries, and food from the dollar store we headed back to Loomis mountain and hiked everything up to the campsite in the ATVs. Set everything up, got rained on for a few hours, drank quite a bit. It took us about 2 hours to get a solid fire going. After we finally had the opportunity to warm up and grab some firewood, we realized we had no dinner. Lucky for us, my trusty new cell phone got text message service up there, and we entrusted Ralph Jr. with the task of bringing hot dogs.
Ralph showed up about an hour later, not only bringing hot dogs, but the warmer weather with him. It stopped raining, which made things a bit more comfortable. Ralph and Jun and I at one point headed up to the phone booth at Lake Flappenralph (the phone booth is just a spot on the top of the hill where most people can get cell phone service). There was a bit of snow on the ground, and Ralph decided to do some donuts in it. That is how he flipped the ATV, which you see at the top of this post. We all kind of dicked around for the rest of the day, until the night brought in the fog.
The thick, horrifying, blacker than the blackest black fog. You could not see more than 20 feet in front of you near the fire. When you left the fire, it was basically pitch black. Since we were expecting company soon and Ralph Sr. needed to know when to take the ATV back down to the trailer to pick them up, Ralph Jr convinced me to take the ATV with him back to the phone booth. We honestly could not see a thing. Even with the headlights of the ATV on it was incredibly hard to see. I'm not embellishing in the slightest when I tell you it was exactly like a horror movie. When we got to the top of the hill, Ralph flipped the lights of the ATV off - I was riding on the back -- and I couldn't even see the back of his head. I'm not talking about closing your eyes maybe seeing a little light behind the lids darkness, I mean I can't see my hand when I hold it in front of my face dark. We even got lost on the way back trying to find the entrance to the next field, passing it twice before finally using the light of the distant campfire to find it. I honestly was terrified, and though I usually get scared over the dark and dumb shit like that, this was a kind of darkness that I had never experienced before, and I doubt that many people have ever experienced it.
That night we were joined by a family of four, Ralph's sister in law (ex sister in law? hm) and her 2 kids and her husband. Two more people showed up at about 3am, but stayed in the trailer and came up the next morning.
The next day I woke up to see the trees - which is not supposed to happen considering I have a flap that goes over the top of my tent. Well that flap, and the tarp, were blown over by the wind that night. No one slept well, and everyone was freezing cold. My brother's things and tent were soaked, so he came and sat in my tent while we listened to the state of the art stereo system, which was really just my ipod and headphones hanging from the hook in the middle of my tent. The day was spent trying to keep warm, going for ATV rides, chopping firewood, exploring the rock quarry, and playing DS. I had brought my markers and some plastic to draw on, but it was certainly way too cold to even consider that. It did get nicer over the course of the day, and we spent about an hour that evening trying to track down the sound of turkeys coming from a distant field. Turkeys sound just like a bunch of kids laughing and fighting. Its kinda funny. We never did get to see the turkeys, but that just gives me something to look forward to next time. Dinner was ab fab spaghetti and home made sauce, accompanied by a tasty salad concocted by yours truly.
We got pretty wasted that night.
The next morning we all woke up a little chilly, but the weather was gorgeous. My dad went down and slept in the trailer with Ralph because he was startin to hurt (first real thing he's done since he got out of surgery), so Ricky got to stay dry by sleeping in dad's tent. I was ready to jet - present company was really getting on my nerves and I didn't want to spend six to eight hours stuck in traffic like the last time we came home from Loomis. We ended up leaving around 1. I do hate leaving that place, because its just so damn beautiful, but because of the rain, and the mud, and the snow, and the wind, I just felt horrifyingly dirty. This is coming from a girl who sometimes goes a week without showering. Thats how dirty I felt. And I smelled bad. Not the usual camping woft, but this was some brutal camp fire mud shit smell.
On the way home we DID see Panda's Parlor, so we stopped, but the ice cream place was still closed. I got some coffee from Panda's Java Joint instead. It was pretty damn good coffee! I actually didn't expect it to taste good at all, considering we were in the middle of nowhere and I figured that pot had to be stewing all day long. I was wrong. And it was only a dollar. Plus I got a cup with a Panda on it. How rad.
So thats about it - I'll probably have to come back and amend this if I think of anything else super rad that happened - but in the meantime here is a link to the pictures I took. Can't wait for next time!
Photos of us camping!
Photos of artsy things around Breezy Acres
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
What a funny looking food
The orange I ate today was slightly more deformed than normal.
Also Dan and Mike and I went to see the Pillows and Noodles in NYC on Friday. We had a great time because instead of rushing right to the show we actually had a good amount of time to spend in the village and Toy Tokyo. We ate at a very good Korean restaurant, and Mike paid an extra 4 dollars for his meal to come in a stone bowl, something that he swears was worth the extra money and still is talking about to this day.
I also want to mention something that is not so obvious but impossible to ignore - that the New York City subway is so incredibly fucked. Why is it that Tokyo is so awesome, but NYC's is so horrible? Why is this? Are subways across the earth like this, with Tokyo as the exception? If so, why?
Noodles is my second favorite all girl Asian rock band, but they were not as interesting and pleasant to listen to live than they are recorded. Their songs have a pretty slow pace, and though they sounded tight, I did not get the same kind of satisfaction seeing them live as I thought I would. My opinion of them has not faltered though, I still love them. They were all sold out of L and M concert shirts though, since NYC was their last stop on the tour, which I think totally sucked.
The Pillows basically played the FLCL soundtrack, which I guess was to be expected, but it was honestly a good thing to hear after being such a fan for so long. They sounded great, they had a lot more energy than I thought they would given their ages (their drummer looked like he was late for his blood pressure screening), and the singer was extremely funny to listen to when he talked. He did the kind of things that would sound really silly for me to repeat here, but believe me when I tell you that Dan and Mike and I will be cracking jokes in the singer's fashion for some time to come.
I came home to my house full of people, which was to be expected, but the window was open and the smoke and music was pouring out loudly - at 130am. Some floozy was making out with a boy with his car running and headlights on in front of my house so I could not park.
Needless to say that my brother and I are having some words this week about him not having parties anymore, and relinquishing his house keys when I am not around on a weekend.
Other things that interest me this week:
Bioshock (360), Smash Bros. Brawl, new earrings, my dog knocked over my new shoji screen and broke a panel, Rock of Love 2 written by Steve Revesz (Sara and Steve's house is very awesome by the way), and I'm going camping next weekend with a possible pre-game Saturday.
Also Dan and Mike and I went to see the Pillows and Noodles in NYC on Friday. We had a great time because instead of rushing right to the show we actually had a good amount of time to spend in the village and Toy Tokyo. We ate at a very good Korean restaurant, and Mike paid an extra 4 dollars for his meal to come in a stone bowl, something that he swears was worth the extra money and still is talking about to this day.
I also want to mention something that is not so obvious but impossible to ignore - that the New York City subway is so incredibly fucked. Why is it that Tokyo is so awesome, but NYC's is so horrible? Why is this? Are subways across the earth like this, with Tokyo as the exception? If so, why?
Noodles is my second favorite all girl Asian rock band, but they were not as interesting and pleasant to listen to live than they are recorded. Their songs have a pretty slow pace, and though they sounded tight, I did not get the same kind of satisfaction seeing them live as I thought I would. My opinion of them has not faltered though, I still love them. They were all sold out of L and M concert shirts though, since NYC was their last stop on the tour, which I think totally sucked.
The Pillows basically played the FLCL soundtrack, which I guess was to be expected, but it was honestly a good thing to hear after being such a fan for so long. They sounded great, they had a lot more energy than I thought they would given their ages (their drummer looked like he was late for his blood pressure screening), and the singer was extremely funny to listen to when he talked. He did the kind of things that would sound really silly for me to repeat here, but believe me when I tell you that Dan and Mike and I will be cracking jokes in the singer's fashion for some time to come.
I came home to my house full of people, which was to be expected, but the window was open and the smoke and music was pouring out loudly - at 130am. Some floozy was making out with a boy with his car running and headlights on in front of my house so I could not park.
Needless to say that my brother and I are having some words this week about him not having parties anymore, and relinquishing his house keys when I am not around on a weekend.
Other things that interest me this week:
Bioshock (360), Smash Bros. Brawl, new earrings, my dog knocked over my new shoji screen and broke a panel, Rock of Love 2 written by Steve Revesz (Sara and Steve's house is very awesome by the way), and I'm going camping next weekend with a possible pre-game Saturday.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Kinda gross, hilarious
Sometimes I wipe my boogers on things. Boogers are funny. A few weeks ago, a few days ago, I don't remember when, I wiped a booger on the wall of a bathroom stall. I figured someone would clean it up.
totally still there! Wonder how long it will live there for??
In other news, I've been playing Bioshock. I know I'm pretty late on the train for this one, but fuck is that game awesome. The best part about it? Now I understand all the "little sister" jokes all the video game cartoons had been making.
totally still there! Wonder how long it will live there for??
In other news, I've been playing Bioshock. I know I'm pretty late on the train for this one, but fuck is that game awesome. The best part about it? Now I understand all the "little sister" jokes all the video game cartoons had been making.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Grocery Store Novels
Not much that I find interesting enough to blog about has been happening. I threw a party last week that went alright, I've been doing a lot of cleaning and rearranging of the house, taking care of my dog's ear infection, and also doing a lot of sewing and drawing. Its apparent to me from my drawings that I am very out of practice and I haven't done anything that I'm particularly fond of yet, but you can check out my etsy store to see what I've been up to. Right now I'm working on a commissioned piece for an old friend of mine. I've been getting better at sewing, I finished a skirt that I have to alter, I made a bag that could be better, but my skills are slowly improving. I haven't sewn in over a week because I've been constructing a studio area in the front of my house, but that's irrelevant to this blog.
Mike and I went to the grocery store the other day to get a salad. We are both on a health kick. My doctor put me on a weight loss program that involves vitamin b-12 shots and once a day appetite suppressant pills that are basically amphetamine, and Mike had some blood work done that came back in not the best shape, so we're working on the getting healthier thing. The salad bar was closed when we got there.
On the way out we stopped at the novel section of the grocery store to see if we could locate a book that we saw at a Rite Aid once - Habeas Corpses - which from the title I can only assume you understand how awesome this book probably is.
//sidenote// I was just doing a google search for information on the book to share with you and found out that Habeas Corpses is also episode 8 of season 4 of the television show Angel. Disclaimer: I do not watch/endorse watching the show Angel. //sidenote//
I feel that the cover art of this book speaks for itself:
But here's the Habeas Corpses plot summary just in case that didn't sell you:
How could you not want to read this book? And what kind of person does it take to write this stuff? Turns out that William Mark Simmons, author of Habeas Corpses, seems like a normal dude..
From his wikipedia page:
So anyway, we're in the Giant, looking for this book, and though we didn't find it, I came across some other gems that I thought I would share.
Elle James, the author, is not fortunate to have a wiki written about her, but she does have her own web page, located here. It features a flattering black and white portrait of her with a red rose in her hair, a biography where you can learn about her "military brat" and "exotic bird raising" past and present. She describes her books as
Lastly, be sure to check out her blog: http://ellejames.blogspot.com/ I seriously suggest you head over there, because her most recent blog is about the research she did on cowboys for this novel.
Next we have a set of two from what seems to be a series of baby-romance themed books.
The only thing I am going to say about these books is that one author (from their respective web sites) is from St. Paul, Michigan "with a Bichon-poo who thinks he is human", and the other "knows how to use a credit card as a lethal weapon, and proves it regularly by putting major dents in the household budget. Abby and her family recently moved back to the city after a few years in the country. Watch out, malls, here she comes!" Abby Gaines has also written The Natural
in A NASCAR Holiday 2.
Finally we have
I implore you to read Jade Lee's biography. It features an entire list of ancient Chinese rumors about her family. My favorite line explores the relationship she has with her current family:
Other books by Jade Lee include:
I don't make this stuff up.
Mike and I went to the grocery store the other day to get a salad. We are both on a health kick. My doctor put me on a weight loss program that involves vitamin b-12 shots and once a day appetite suppressant pills that are basically amphetamine, and Mike had some blood work done that came back in not the best shape, so we're working on the getting healthier thing. The salad bar was closed when we got there.
On the way out we stopped at the novel section of the grocery store to see if we could locate a book that we saw at a Rite Aid once - Habeas Corpses - which from the title I can only assume you understand how awesome this book probably is.
//sidenote// I was just doing a google search for information on the book to share with you and found out that Habeas Corpses is also episode 8 of season 4 of the television show Angel. Disclaimer: I do not watch/endorse watching the show Angel. //sidenote//
I feel that the cover art of this book speaks for itself:
But here's the Habeas Corpses plot summary just in case that didn't sell you:
Summary:
[From author's web site] Two years ago Christopher Cséjthe survived a blood transfusion with a master vampire only to discover that he was infected with one of the two viruses that transform the living into the undead. Since then he has survived by his wits as men, monsters, and government agencies have hunted him for secrets his mutated blood may hold.
His personal life is almost as troublesome as the assassins that keep turning up in ever increasing numbers: his bodyguard is a sexy vampire, his jealous werewolf lover can't abide his touch after a silver bullet poisons his blood, and the ghost of his dead wife is being siphoned off by some dark and mysterious force that transcends the grave. The "neighbors" from the cemetary next door tend to drop by every night and someone is sending him grotesque messages in the form of dismembered body parts that are still alive!
Being almost undead has already provided a coffin-load of challenges. But this time around an assassin's bullet knocks Csejthe out of his body and into the afterlife as he journeys through the realm of the truly dead before a final showdown with an evil spawned in Nazi Germany. An evil kept alive through genetic manipulation and nanotechnology and waiting only for Csejthe's blood to overcome the last hurdle to immortality!
How could you not want to read this book? And what kind of person does it take to write this stuff? Turns out that William Mark Simmons, author of Habeas Corpses, seems like a normal dude..
From his wikipedia page:
Simmons has worked a journalist, educator, entertainer, and broadcaster, spending over 30 years in the latter category working in classical music formats and NPR affiliates.
So anyway, we're in the Giant, looking for this book, and though we didn't find it, I came across some other gems that I thought I would share.
Now the lone cowboy had more than his honor to uphold—he had a petite, pregnant powerhouse running his senses wild.
Elle James, the author, is not fortunate to have a wiki written about her, but she does have her own web page, located here. It features a flattering black and white portrait of her with a red rose in her hair, a biography where you can learn about her "military brat" and "exotic bird raising" past and present. She describes her books as
written especially for those who like a little mystery and a lot of edge-of-the-seat suspense.
Lastly, be sure to check out her blog: http://ellejames.blogspot.com/ I seriously suggest you head over there, because her most recent blog is about the research she did on cowboys for this novel.
Next we have a set of two from what seems to be a series of baby-romance themed books.
The only thing I am going to say about these books is that one author (from their respective web sites) is from St. Paul, Michigan "with a Bichon-poo who thinks he is human", and the other "knows how to use a credit card as a lethal weapon, and proves it regularly by putting major dents in the household budget. Abby and her family recently moved back to the city after a few years in the country. Watch out, malls, here she comes!" Abby Gaines has also written The Natural
in A NASCAR Holiday 2.
Finally we have
The emperor has outlawed dragons and dragonborn ordering them killed though he has bonded with a dragon. Natiya is the surviving daughter of two dragonborn whom the emperor had murdered. She dreams of avenging the deaths of her parents while hiding the queen dragon egg she is carrying hidden in plain sight as a naval jewel; one day that Unhatched dragon will live in a sacred bond with her.
I implore you to read Jade Lee's biography. It features an entire list of ancient Chinese rumors about her family. My favorite line explores the relationship she has with her current family:
At home, her husband and two daughters try to ignore her stacks of zen sexual texts.
Other books by Jade Lee include:
- The Tao of Sex
- Tigress Erotic Romance Series (including Cornered Tigress (#5) and Hungry Tigress (#2)
- Miss Woodley's Experiment and
- a book that falls under the category of "Futuristic Paranormal Romance" called Oracle
I don't make this stuff up.
Monday, February 11, 2008
I Went to the Public Library
A lil backstory.
I've been in kind of a personal rut lately, overcome with boredom, unhappy with my appearance and overall having a time that to sum up could be a lot more fun. Long story short I decided to start sewing my own clothes, initiated by the revelation that this spring I will not be wearing any pants, only skirts. Problem is, I'm usually broke, and its hard to find a good skirt these days that I don't have to pay at least forty dollars for. However, its not hard to turn my jeans into skirts or find five dollar patterns and 40% off fabrics at a chain store (see how that plays into the whole money issue? I'm so awesome).
So Saturday in all of my DIY glory after successfully turning two pairs of pants into two skirts that look exactly the same (two different colors, of course, and one of them sewn much better than the other) I decided that perhaps our trusty Hamilton Township Library might have some good DIY sewing books. Its not every day that I think about utilizing the library, but the day before Mike and I had planned on studying there (which we never did) and I have really fond (for lack of a better word) memories of that place from when I was little. My dad used to take me there all the time to get books, and I still honestly believed that the public library is that magical place where amazing things happen that they told me in elementary school.
For some reason before I went I got a coffee. When I got in my car I realized that I probably couldn't bring food or drinks in with me. When I got to the library I walked up to the door with it and saw the NO FOOD NO DRINKS sign like I thought I would and put the coffee back in the car.
Also on the way up to the door (which for those of you who are unfamiliar is a long walk up a hill) I saw two young girls with library books in their hands leaving with their mother. This brought back some nifty little feeling and further induced the notion that this visit to the library after five or so years was going to somehow change my life and who I was. I was completely convinced that I was going to find this treasure trove of information, and I would never have to go anywhere to get any kind of information on anything again.
Its all in my library. I KNOW it is. I FEEL it. Like the young girl feels the cosmos in Katamari.
I go inside, it all looks the same, theres the front desk where you check out, the children's section to the left (I almost walked into it just to remember what it was like to be there), the adult and etc section to the right, and right at the front door the steps to the downstairs area where they have little township get togethers. I took my cousin to one when we were like 11, I thought it would be cool, but he totally thought the dude was lame, it kinda made me feel bad.
So I go to check out the little electronic card catalog and see that every computer except one is being used. I go over to that computer and its just got its windows screen, and I'm pretty much like, fuck this, I'll just browse the shelves, because if memory serves me correctly the crafts are over here near the gardening and VOILA! After about a 10 minute browse by looking like I know what I'm looking for I find the sewing section.
There were about 35 books there, most of them about sewing techniques and making your own patterns. I grab the ones that are about making clothes from old clothes, using your old clothes, making patterns from old clothes, everything that looked like it remotely might help me out without being a technical guide because lets face it, I don't really care how to do special stitching. I took my books, I found a secluded desk, I dropped all my shit, pulled out my notebook and my ipod, turned on some Deerhoof (thanks Greg!) and got excited to have my mind filled with knowledge and ideas.
The first book I opened pretty much set the pace for the next half hour of "research". I was looking at this book, I have the name written down at home i'll update this later, looking at these horrifyingly outdated outfits that I didn't know to laugh at or cry that these things may have actually gotten made in someone's living room. I'll let my favorite piece in the publication speak for itself:
Awesome. Look at that style. Look at that sleeve. Fuckin planets people.
I kind of chuckled and put the book down after I did a thorough front to back scrutiny of what other amazingly horrifying things I could find. There was some great stuff in there; full body jumpsuits, overalls, pure gold.
I kind of got the idea at that point that the rest of these books were going to be as outdated as that one, if not more. My curiosity and my hope pushed me to continue - even though at this very point I realized I was probably doomed.
Something inside of me propelled me to open the Vogue magazine style guide.
I was treated to about 500 pages of this:
sigh.
I spent about 15 minutes leafing through the rest of the books I had - none of them were anything close to what I was looking for - regardless of how outdated the styles looked on everything they were also really tasteless, I mean 70/80s style is one thing, but these were the kind of clothes that Aunt Maureen from Ohio sends you on Christmas that your mom makes you wear when she comes to visit - you know what I'm talking about - you've seen that movie too.
Finally I get up to put the books back, I've admitted defeat at this point and I've decided that while the library might be the place to come for a slew of other ideas for craft projects, gardening, civil war history etc, its just not the right place for fashion tips. The library will have to induce inspiration in me for another project, on another day.
For some reason while I'm putting these books back though I have the urge to look to see if there are any gems that I missed out on, pretty amused by the books I was looking at previously. I find a book called "Make it in Denim". I get excited, half because there has to be some kind of rad 70's outfit in there that I hadn't seen yet, half because I actually expected something good to be in there. What I found was more than I could even hope for.
I laughed out loud at this one. I put it back after I snapped that picture and went back to the car and finished my coffee.
Between the time I sat down to look at the books and the time I got to my car I made it through 12 1/2 of the 13 songs on the Deerhoof album.
Maybe next time, library. Maybe next time.
I've been in kind of a personal rut lately, overcome with boredom, unhappy with my appearance and overall having a time that to sum up could be a lot more fun. Long story short I decided to start sewing my own clothes, initiated by the revelation that this spring I will not be wearing any pants, only skirts. Problem is, I'm usually broke, and its hard to find a good skirt these days that I don't have to pay at least forty dollars for. However, its not hard to turn my jeans into skirts or find five dollar patterns and 40% off fabrics at a chain store (see how that plays into the whole money issue? I'm so awesome).
So Saturday in all of my DIY glory after successfully turning two pairs of pants into two skirts that look exactly the same (two different colors, of course, and one of them sewn much better than the other) I decided that perhaps our trusty Hamilton Township Library might have some good DIY sewing books. Its not every day that I think about utilizing the library, but the day before Mike and I had planned on studying there (which we never did) and I have really fond (for lack of a better word) memories of that place from when I was little. My dad used to take me there all the time to get books, and I still honestly believed that the public library is that magical place where amazing things happen that they told me in elementary school.
For some reason before I went I got a coffee. When I got in my car I realized that I probably couldn't bring food or drinks in with me. When I got to the library I walked up to the door with it and saw the NO FOOD NO DRINKS sign like I thought I would and put the coffee back in the car.
Also on the way up to the door (which for those of you who are unfamiliar is a long walk up a hill) I saw two young girls with library books in their hands leaving with their mother. This brought back some nifty little feeling and further induced the notion that this visit to the library after five or so years was going to somehow change my life and who I was. I was completely convinced that I was going to find this treasure trove of information, and I would never have to go anywhere to get any kind of information on anything again.
Its all in my library. I KNOW it is. I FEEL it. Like the young girl feels the cosmos in Katamari.
I go inside, it all looks the same, theres the front desk where you check out, the children's section to the left (I almost walked into it just to remember what it was like to be there), the adult and etc section to the right, and right at the front door the steps to the downstairs area where they have little township get togethers. I took my cousin to one when we were like 11, I thought it would be cool, but he totally thought the dude was lame, it kinda made me feel bad.
So I go to check out the little electronic card catalog and see that every computer except one is being used. I go over to that computer and its just got its windows screen, and I'm pretty much like, fuck this, I'll just browse the shelves, because if memory serves me correctly the crafts are over here near the gardening and VOILA! After about a 10 minute browse by looking like I know what I'm looking for I find the sewing section.
There were about 35 books there, most of them about sewing techniques and making your own patterns. I grab the ones that are about making clothes from old clothes, using your old clothes, making patterns from old clothes, everything that looked like it remotely might help me out without being a technical guide because lets face it, I don't really care how to do special stitching. I took my books, I found a secluded desk, I dropped all my shit, pulled out my notebook and my ipod, turned on some Deerhoof (thanks Greg!) and got excited to have my mind filled with knowledge and ideas.
The first book I opened pretty much set the pace for the next half hour of "research". I was looking at this book, I have the name written down at home i'll update this later, looking at these horrifyingly outdated outfits that I didn't know to laugh at or cry that these things may have actually gotten made in someone's living room. I'll let my favorite piece in the publication speak for itself:
Awesome. Look at that style. Look at that sleeve. Fuckin planets people.
I kind of chuckled and put the book down after I did a thorough front to back scrutiny of what other amazingly horrifying things I could find. There was some great stuff in there; full body jumpsuits, overalls, pure gold.
I kind of got the idea at that point that the rest of these books were going to be as outdated as that one, if not more. My curiosity and my hope pushed me to continue - even though at this very point I realized I was probably doomed.
Something inside of me propelled me to open the Vogue magazine style guide.
I was treated to about 500 pages of this:
sigh.
I spent about 15 minutes leafing through the rest of the books I had - none of them were anything close to what I was looking for - regardless of how outdated the styles looked on everything they were also really tasteless, I mean 70/80s style is one thing, but these were the kind of clothes that Aunt Maureen from Ohio sends you on Christmas that your mom makes you wear when she comes to visit - you know what I'm talking about - you've seen that movie too.
Finally I get up to put the books back, I've admitted defeat at this point and I've decided that while the library might be the place to come for a slew of other ideas for craft projects, gardening, civil war history etc, its just not the right place for fashion tips. The library will have to induce inspiration in me for another project, on another day.
For some reason while I'm putting these books back though I have the urge to look to see if there are any gems that I missed out on, pretty amused by the books I was looking at previously. I find a book called "Make it in Denim". I get excited, half because there has to be some kind of rad 70's outfit in there that I hadn't seen yet, half because I actually expected something good to be in there. What I found was more than I could even hope for.
I laughed out loud at this one. I put it back after I snapped that picture and went back to the car and finished my coffee.
Between the time I sat down to look at the books and the time I got to my car I made it through 12 1/2 of the 13 songs on the Deerhoof album.
Maybe next time, library. Maybe next time.
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