Monthly Archives: March 2005

Concept: Butter Tee Shirts

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At some point after my uncle moved out of my grandma’s house, she gave my family a bunch of Uncle Steve’s old tee shirts. They were all from the 1970s, and they all had a particular quality in common (besides being running themed).

They had been made of a type of cotton or cotton/poly blend that ended up becoming very soft and very thin as they aged. My siblings and I became enamored with the soft clingy shirts with “Azuza Pacific Track” and “Raymond’s Run” written on them. (Side note – Loran still has the Raymond’s Run shirt, and I consider it a long-term loan. He flaunted it!)

Anyway, this love of a teeshirt material not found in 1980s or 1990s style shirts led me to begin shopping at thrift stores. Tee shirts were how is started, but soon I was buying all my clothes (and books, and tchochkeys) at Goodwill, Salvation Army, or the DAV.

I have to admit, I never grew out of this. I still buy most of my clothes at thrift stores. My needs have changed – instead of finding sweet butter tees and long sleeved shirts with designs down the sleeve to wear, I’m scoring Banana Republic pants and Express skirts. (As I think about it, I bet I’m wearing some of my co-workers’ old clothes.)

The point is this: vintage butter tee shirts cling well, are soft, are practically see-through, have great kitschy designs on them, and DO NOT COME FROM URBAN OUTFITTERS! I can tell the difference, and so should you.

Goodwill Hunting

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I’ve been getting more and more excited about making my own screen printed tee shirts. Did you miss that post? I read all of the comments from the original post with instructions, and besides the Modge Podge and Speedball ink, I think I can bankroll this new endeavor entirely through thrift stores. I’ve seen quite a few embroidery hoops in my day, but I never bought them because I never knew I’d be making my own screen prints. Uh, the agony of life.

I’m torn between fulfilling my duty as a volunteer at the Waukegan Public Library tonight by shelving childrens books, and calling in and driving immediately to the thrift store to see if I can find an embroidery hoop or two, some sheer curtain material, and perhaps a shirt or two to print on. Plain butter tee shirts aren’t on my radar because I’ve become too snobbish about them, but now – NOW – they are going to be more precious than, well, $.50 shirts that don’t feel like butter.

Since I don’t plan on actually printing anything yet (I’m knitting a sweater for a very tall brother) I can probably wait. Karmically, I’m much better off.

Actually, I love shelving books. I’m getting up to speed on the Dewey system, and every once in a while, I’ll see a book that stops me in my tracks. Por exemplo, John’s Secret Dreams is a biography of John Lennon … for third graders. I also got distracted by a book about breakdancing written in 1985, but it doesn’t seem to be in print anymore, nor can I find a good link to it. Damn shame, I say.

Dream sequence

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Last night I had lots of dreams. The first one was one of those more-abstract-than-real reflex dreams where I am using Illustrator to design something. I don’t get to see what I create – I think my brain just wants to go through the motions of click – pull – zoom – alter – Ctrl/V or whatever other things I do over and over. I woke up a little, and felt cheated out of a more adventurous dream.

Wish given, I then had an epic dream – thematically much like Jurassic Park. There were a lot of dinosaurs, and they were roaming around a city. OK – I guess this makes it Lost World. In any case, I had to avoid the dinosaurs (I kid you not – there were gory scenes where other people get attacked and ripped apart), and go to the mall to rescue someone. I think it was Lena.

I got to the mall, dashed inside, and barred the doors. Then, in this so-far unoriginal dream, I realized that there were dinosaurs INSIDE THE MALL!!!!

Totally cheesy dream. I was on one side of the mall, at JC Pennys, and I had to get all the way over to Sears. As I sprinted, dodged, and snuck my way through the corridors, I noticed that there were people setting up new stores. I found this odd, what with the amuck dinos, but I stopped, because I had no idea that Dame Judy Dench was starting a signature line, or that next door Jody Foster had taken over the Container Store.

I woke up before I reached my sister. As I awoke, I had a forceful thought:

I must create a wiki page to document my dreams, and link them together when there are common themes or Academy Award winners.

That dream/thought was weirder than the dream itself. Ah well.

My very first lifehack.

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I’m going to my cousin Jason’s third birthday party tonight. I decided that as a newly appointed librarian-in-training, I should get him a book. I’m actually giving him my copy of Harold and the Big Purple Crayon. Plus I think this kid will get enough toys as it is.

I brought it with me to work, but realized (I think I’m rusty at giving gifts) that I should wrap it. He may very well enjoy unwrapping the gift than the gift itself. The Corporate Shill suggested using the comics page from Sunday’s Trib, but someone had already ganked the Public Affairs copy. (Archives, people!)

Then, I was struck by inspiration. Where else can you find paper products that are easily modified in an office setting? Yes, the easy answer would be to print out a image of something using the color printer, but I feel that my solution is much more personal, and much more “hands on”. (No pun achieved.)

My first lifehack
I made two copies, using two sizes of paper – 8.5″x14″ and 8.5″x11″.
I taped them together long-ways, and wrapped the book thusly.

Update action: Cheers to Lifehacker, who picked up this little piece of craft happiness and posted it on their website.

Trickery

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I was perusing my bloglines, and caught up on the latest Snopes busts – the Lebron full-court shot is false, by the by – and I read a Snopes article about a photograph circulating of a military guy shaking hands with Hillary Clinton and crossing two fingers on his free hand.

Apparently, if you go through survival school you know this, but the crossed-fingers thing is a sign of coersion. In this case, the soldier had been ordered to shake Hil’s hand, and used his training deftly. The whole article is interesting – it explains how captives are often paraded around on video or in photographs to prove that they’re alive and being treated well.

Imagine the implications in the civilian world. You’re at a party, and someone who you totally hate and who is totally awful comes up and is all “hey, let’s get a picture together!” and you’re like “mmmmmokay.” Toss in there a little crossed finger action, and your rep is left intact.

Also on the Snopes site about this photo is the Yahoo Personals profile of this guy. I have to say, he’s freaking hot and if I were living in Clear Lake City, TX, I’d be a’calling.

Then again, I’ve already found one internet boyfriend, and I really don’t need another.
He makes a mean quiche.

Same but different

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I was organizing my del.icio.us links, and noticed a site I had neglected to use as I had intended. Musicbrainz takes all those unidentified iTunes sitting there, all labelled “Track 04” and figures out what they probably are. Tonight (having ganked interslice from the neighbors) I started figuring out which of the 28 Weakerthans songs were which.

Here’s the fun part. The program ‘listens’ to the song and uses the sound of each song to match it with the correct information maintained in the MusicBrainz database. So I threw in a bunch of tracks I don’t have metadata for. I have a sweet sweet mixed CD called “Chrisss Mixxx” (it’s legendary, and soon I can post the track list). I spent some quality time a few months ago trying to figure out the artists and track names by listening to the song and googling the lyrics I could catch. Also, I utilized the Mohan brothers. They were better than Google.

Anyway, I’ve been MusicBraining away, and before the program changes anything, you double check the data. Here’s what’s come up for some things I know I have right:

Vulture Shark Sculpture Park by MC Paul Barman : Cette chanson-la by Michel Sardou
Technical Difficulties by Dr. Octagon : Live On Tomorrow by Juliana Hatfield
Twenty Four Hours by Joy Division : Open Bay by Sharks Keep Moving
Travelling without Moving by Jamiriquoi : Mexican Blood by Thin Lizzie
Younger Body, Older Soul by Koufax might as well be the Ramones, White Stripes, Specials, Dance Hall Crashers, or the Forgotten.

Le Piece De Resistance —
A still unidentified Ranier Maria song : The Prince by Metallica, or perhaps I am the Sword by Motorhead.

Overall, not too shabby, and I got a few albums in their entirety fixed without having to go through myself with liner notes. I had to watch Brainz carefully, though. Turn your back for one second and my Doobie Brothers are suddenly the Four Tops. Not kidding.

Easter brunch and noodling

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God damn it, I love going home for the weekend. The weather finally cooperated, and it was glorious. I went to Maquoketa for some methfeather-based bedding (there’s an outlet there that has amazing comforters and whatnot for cheep).

When I got home, I found Jason, Anton, and my dad down in the timber tearing down an old shed. I ran around the timber happily, and we watched some Freaks and Geeks (my parents are hooked, and are watching them all too).

Saturday night we met up with two Lymans and hit the Davenport bar scene. It was mostly scary and depressing, but hey – I did see an old college buddy! We stole bar glasses for Lena, who wasn’t around until Sunday.

We had a brunch for Easter, but for the first time sans Grandma. She’s out with a nasty flu, so we had to function as a family without our matriarch. It’s not that she’s bossy, it’s just that she’s always been there.

All the food was really good – even though we didn’t have some of the traditional dishes that can be counted on for familial meals – but the best part was the bloody mary my uncle Jeff mixed. It was the tastiest version of that drink I’ve ever had. I’m now a bloody mary fan.

After brunch, Dad pulled out a tape of a show he caught on PBS. It was about noodling, and the men of the family (except Anton, who’d seen it, and me, who’s not male) sat around and watched this video of guys fishing for flathead catfish … with their arms. They catch fish by poking their hands into underwater holes. Water moccasins and beavers are also found in these holes.

It was funny, but seeing all the footage of guys wrangling giant catfish got us all antsy to go fishing. Anton, Jeff, and I went down to the pond and drowned some worms. Heh heh.

I really didn’t spend that much time with Jason over the weekend, me acting in an outside cat fashion, and Jason hanging out with the biggest inside cat I know, Leener.

On Sunday night, Jason and I got the honor of bringing leftovers up to Grandma’s house on the way out of town. She shooed us out because it was getting late, and we took the “shorter” but “slower” route through Clinton and Morrison.

Jason and I talked the whole way home, which is lucky, because my tape adaptor doesn’t work, and we would have been left with the hiss of middle-Illinois stationlessness. (It’s similar to the middle-Illinois cell phone lackage.)

Today, I’m out of the office. I’m sitting on Jason’s couch watching Ellen. They have swing dancers on. Oop. Now Ellen is dancing. Wow. Err.

Anyway, I’m going to walk around outside, since it’s gorgeous, and go up to Quimby’s for a big black bag of mystery mags.

You suckers who are all inside working, I’m sorry.

Pez MP3

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Someone threw together an MP3 player using a Pez dispenser. Now they’ve gotten permission to produce it legally.

Good GOD. I had no idea. I’m kind of upset that I didn’t think of it myself, but I guess this just means I need to create something else out of a Pez dispenser. Hmmm.

You may not know this, but I’m a pez aficionada. I started collecting in high school, with my mom. I have about 150 Pez, last I counted. In college, boys would woo me with a Pez dispenser. I’d laugh in their face and say “I already HAVE that one.”

There are Pez in production now, and there are Pez that are out of production. My attentions became fixated on the out-of-production Pez, like the Wounded Soldier (my favorite), or the Pez gun (candy suicide).

I used to have dreams where I’d be in some antique shop or flea market, and find a rare old Pez. See, this happened once – I found an original in an antique store in Welton, Iowa. I bought it for $7, and it’s worth much more.

Anyway, my Pez interests waned, probably because I have the purchasing power to buy much more expensive hobby items. Then again, this has given me a chance to go back and find all the ones that are on the market now.

I still have this incredible knowledge base of the old variations, and some surprising Pez facts. I think that should be another post on another day.