I was surfing Aimee Bender’s website, since she is one of my favorite contemporary authors.
On her link page, I found Locus Novus, which she is published on. It serves as a literary magazine, except that it’s multimedia and online. It’s a totally different reading experience. The background moves, and you can, in a way, turn the page to read the next section of the story. The music and movement force themselves on the piece, affecting the way you read it and picture it in your head. But it’s interesting nonetheless!
I found another website featuring digital storytelling, but it’s more interactive. Dreaming Methods
I’m writing a novel. I spent the last ten years telling myself I couldn’t do it, that I’m not the type, that no one reads anymore. BOO YOU KANYE WEST. What’s worse, selfishly dreaming up your own American novel, or writing a crappy book of cliches for money and self-promotion?
I’m reading Ulysses by James Joyce right now and when I read it, I get the itch to write. But when I read Wicked, which I’m also in the middle of, I wonder if I could ever imagine worlds like that. And I’m reading nonfiction southern starlet Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and wondering why I even try when such good writers create beauty out of reality.
I feel so lonely about this novel. I have about 5000 words. I think about it a good chunk of my day. Why do I get that lonely pit in my stomach when I think about actually writing it?
And I’m stealing stuff from my life. In fact, everything is stolen from my life and American culture and other writers and their ideas. I think that is okay, though. I do take a Woody Guthrie view on life. We gotta stop this idea-individualism. It’s not just my life, not my own idea pond. You gotta know how to fish those ideas correctly. And you gotta go deep.
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you have to go deeper.” David Lynch
Sometimes you throw fish back for other people to catch, sometimes you eat the fish for dinner.
In the 19th century, painters would copy other painters to learn their technique. This not only taught them how to paint, but it gave them income, because originals could only be copied in this way. Sophia Peabody, wife of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, painted copies of classic pieces until one day, when she got one of her migraines. With that terrible migraine, partly from her exposure to mercury as a child, she got incredible imaginative ideas for paintings. She painted her own original work from her mind.
The pain involved in creating art, along the amount of copying and adopting and tracing and thinking it requires, is age-old and normal. I am not special and it makes me incredibly happy. My contribution to the literary world will only ever be microscopic, but dangit, I AM here in this pond!
I’m freezing up. I don’t know what to write. I feel I need to read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, buy Moby Dick, read that too, swear off the computer and write in my notebooks by hand. Or take some narcotic that will mess with my brain.
Last fall I started this blog out of boredom at my internship, but it turned into a place for me to voice my opinion. And it was a time to have opinions. I was in Chicago when Obama was elected. My blog posts were charged with a life force other than my own, and tons of people were reading them and commenting. That has died down, and my skepticism always holds me back from getting so enthusiastic, out of fear that I could be wrong.
Since graduating college with a bachelor’s in English, I’ve felt my only career choice was writing, that it was my only skill. In college, the advisers always said you have to be a good writer but just as important, you have to know something else–so you can write what you know. It has to be married with something else.
But what? There are so many topics to choose, so many audiences to address. Adolescent girls, vacationers, tree huggers, job-seekers, taoists, evangelicals, liberals, hippies, pregnant women. I could write about other cities, my own city, musicians, books, photos, websites, recipes, mantras, Bible stories, Muslim culture, glass candy dishes, antique shopping, bicycles, land use…I could write about how my head is swirling like a Philip Glass soundtrack and how the scenes in my dreams are going by too fast and all the flame-thoughts burning in my mind, eating away any complete and tangible thought until I’m frozen and glassy eyed, red veins pulsing but no blood pumping….
But I think I already have the answer, Glinda. I think I need to live my life.
Poet Mystic Jack Ridl, my poetry professor in college, told me that writing is his last priority. Everything in life but writing wins over writing. Writing is our tool, not our life. Some people are ridiculously talented with this tool, and we could get jealous of them. Or we could focus inward for awhile and reprioritize:
1. Life
2. Writing
Taoists tell us to live in the moment. “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life,” says Omar Khayyam. I have to stop. I have to stare out at a sea. I have to wash the dishes to the best of my ability and focus on my hands, the water, the gorgeous bubbles, the smooth glass. I have to listen to what others are saying. I have to listen to what my mind is saying. My mind is trailing off in dreamlike patterns, to places I choose to ignore when I am internet-writing.
I must chase those storm patterns. I must be silent and listen before I can speak.
Kind of a random topic, but as an owner of two PedEggs and two very very calloused feet, I feel I have authority to answer this question.
The simple answer is yes, but not as well as a razor.
Yes, a razor. My friend Kara told me last year that she uses a razor to exfoliate her feet. I was confused and frightened by this notion, and didn’t try it until yesterday.
I “shaved my feet” in the shower, near the end when my feet were wet and soft. Layers of skin came of. Large pieces of dead skin that had been hanging out on my feet for months came right off. Compare this to the PedEgg, which you must rub on your feet like sandpaper for fifteen minutes to get a little bit of your callouses off.
So, if your feet need an overhaul like mine did, skip the $10 PedEgg and just designate one of your disposable razors for your feet. Also, at Target I saw a Dr. Scholl’s foot package that had something similar to the PedEgg along with pumice and lotion, and it was only $5. And remember, don’t overdo the exfoliation all in one day. Raw feet are no fun!
I have already known that David Lynch is the coolest man ever, but maybe you haven’t.
He has directed some of the greatest films out there. He likes dream logic and run-ins with other realities. He created Twin Peaks. And he does Twitter. And he has collaborated with many people. And he’s always doing something cool. Right now, he’s working on a series of interviews of people across the nation. Nothing special about the people, it’s just to hear their story. The episodes aren’t long and will only exist online, I think.
You can subscribe to his website for other cool stuff, too.
Just a gush-post. Love him. Love following him on Twitter. Love all his movies (except Inland Empire, I only like that one). Love the way he dresses and does his hair. Love his taste in music. Love the way he talks. I have a huge mind-crush on this man.
Here’s episode 2 of the Interview Project!!!! Click HERE!
I have continuously bought Cosmo’s and Carmindy’s favorite mascara: that pink and green kind that everyone swears by. But I hardly wear it anymore. it always ends up running and I get raccoon eyes. I’m also a contact wearer, so mascara in general doesn’t get along with my eyes so well. Too much contamination.
So lately I have been finding ways to make my eyes pop without mascara, even though I am a dishwater blonde so my eyelashes are light brown. Here’s what I do:
Curl them: eyelash curlers make your eyelashes stand up higher so they’re actually visible, without the cruddy goop of mascara.
Use eye liner, or eye shadow AS eye liner. I take darker colors and smudge them on the lash-line, not unlike Carmindy does on What Not to Wear. I don’t even do the entire lash line: I stop about midway to the nose. It’s only the outer edges that need that definition. The skinny angle brush is perfect for this job. Wetting the brush before applying makes it last longer.
Lighter eye shadow: I use browns and cream colors. The cream color goes all over the eye and the brown/bronzes go right in the crease to define the eye. Highlighting eyeshadow goes on the brow bone and on the inner corner of the eye. Invest in some good brushes in various sizes.
Blush: Not an eye thing, but blush is my new best friend. It makes me look more polished and poised and, I think, completes the non-mascara-yet-still-pulled-together look. I think it also slims down my face. Use the biggest brush you can find for this.
Gillian Welch is my favorite musician. With her albums Revival, Hell Among the Yearlings, and Time (The Revelator), she has created a country style that is honest, authentic, and unobnoxious. She wrote a gospel song, “By the Mark,” that sounds like it’s been around for a hundred years.
Lately, Gillian Welch has been busy with her and David Rawlings’ (her musical partner) own new record label, Acony Records. It’s a great name and she knows how to create a sound. She has signed and produced and album with The Whispertown 2000, whom I saw perform two years ago when they opened for Jenny Lewis. The Whispertown 2000, aside from having a long strange name, is fronted with an obnoxious-sounding singer pushing out clever songs with a whiny voice and impatient guitar playing. They, along with Jenny Lewis, seemed to be trying to add on to the “alternative country” or “indie country” scene that has been growing.
Indie musicians, like Laura Veirs, Neko Case, and Jenny Lewis, like to put out at least one country album for fun. The country always seems to come out contrived. It is trying to be “smarter” then Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette, avoiding subjects like cheating husbands. They also avoid the “Nashville Sound,” a style of country from Nashville in the 1960s featuring background vocals and strings. All of this is probably their attempt to create country music that doesn’t sound like the stuff on the radio these days.
Jenny Lewis’s country album is the worst of the three I mentioned–her misfitted lyrics and barely-country sounding songs are preachy and the more upbeat ones aren’t catchy enough to create momentum in the album. These attempts to get away from cliche and cheesy have created boring, un-catchy tunes.
I listen to some of The Whispertown 2000’s songs and remember the one time I saw Gillian Welch in concert, where she was opening for Bright Eyes, another indie musician trying to cross over into country, and I’m disappointed. I wonder why Welch is choosing this route. For all she’s done for country music, especially with the epic American-history-oriented song “I dream a highway,” she shouldn’t be opening for young Conor Oberst, who goes on stage drunk most nights and sings like a goat; he should be opening for her.
Perhaps the current country scene, which idolizes Taylor Swift, singer of pop-with-a-twang, has not given Welch the respect and support she deserves. Alison Krauss has seen incredible success, which is well-deserved, but her friend Gillian seems to be forgotten. The music piracy problem also hasn’t treated her kindly (see “Everything Is Free Now from her Time album).
I think back to Oh Brother Where Art Thou, a film she contributed to greatly, and wonder how she fell out of that golden, sepia Coen Brothers world into the pretentious indie scene. Her latest album, Soul Journey, hasn’t been received as well as her first four groundbreaking albums. Songs like “One Monkey” are confusingly dark, and the album as a whole has lost the quiet, strong melodic pull her other albums feature.
This happens to every artist. She has to grow and change. But I think I speak for all her fans in saying that she will always be home to us–her songs will live on, echoing like an unending Beulah Land anthem. I will always be grateful for this orphan.
Amigurumi is quite the microtrend. Unlikely for me. I used to hate any trend that tried to make crochet or knitting “cool” again. Like those atrocious scarves that were all furry and scratchy. Ick. Anything that’s well done is nice, and you are the coolest person if you can knit a nice-looking scarf.
Anyway. Amigurumi creatures take about 2 or 3 hours to make. I didn’t even know how to crochet, and still don’t know how to crochet a scarf or anything that requires squares. I learned from a YouTube video how to crochet a ball, and the rest is history. YES I’m 22. I had an amigurumi apple, snowman, chick, and meatwad on my desk all semester at Hope College. My roommates were likely weirded oooouuuut. They were juniors and I was a senior. They were so eager to be mature, especially the one getting married.
I can’t seem to choose hobbies that are normal. Every hobby I pick up alienates me more from everyone else. Bluegrass? Amigurumi? Knitting? I was in knitting club at Hope. Last semester we met in a very public lounge where people would walk through to get to the snack bar or the ATM. We had a lot of sneers, rude comments, and weird looks. Dear me. For a college that celebrates spring by pushing each other in shopping carts around campus, and getting all emotional over a tug-of-war, they were sooo judgmental about a productive and age-old craft such as knitting.
What is up with people? So quick to call people weird. To question what people are doing. It’s not going to stop us weirdies. It’s just annoying. They look at us strangely for knitting and then turn around and read Twilight? A series about vampires? College girls watching High School Musical? Do these people really have anything on us?
But anyway, I know somewhere over the Rainbow, or across Lake Michigan, there are cities with hip 20-something women going to amigurumi classes and making their own greeting cards and buying vintage clothes simply because they like them, not to be “indie” or hipster. Life. There’s so much you can do. You can make curtains out of sheets. You can write a blog. You can write! You can learn to crochet from YouTube. What a world, what a world.
I made a frickin’ owl out of some yarn and polyester fiber fill. What did you ever do?
I pretty much copied the owl from Amigurumi World even though I’d love to own that book and I don’t. I still don’t know how to follow patterns, I just kind of wing it. Sorry for the pun!
This is a cartoon character, if you’re wondering why I made this weird ball-dude.
This is Tacky Kitch the Penguin. He’s missing a wing. I cut them out of felt and have yet to sew the other one on. I’ve been using black round beads for eyes but apparently you can buy eyes that snap on and are only half-spheres online. These would work a lot better, since this poor penguin has kind of bug-eyes. If you want a free pattern for a legitimate penguin, go here.
I spent a lovely morning with my mom and grandma at the garage sales. My mom found a GREAT find…an old etching of a painting which we estimate to be worth ten times what she paid.
My finds:
Bottle of Glass Beads: 75 cents.
Glass Box: Free.
Cute Leather Chair: Three Bucks.
WOOHOO!
Handkerchiefs
I am a converted fan of handkerchiefs, ever since my roommate kindly lent me one last year, when my nose was on constant drip mode. It was perfect for the two-hour meeting about signage (oh city planning…) and seemed less harsh on my nose. I also like how pretty they are and how much waste they prevent, as well as saving the energy that goes into making kleenex, on top of the money saved from buying a box a day, because I’m pretty sure that’s how much I’d use on a bad winter day! When I have to sneeze, I just pull it out of my pocket and I can catch all the germs a lot quicker than pulling a flimsy tissue out of those little bags with the round sticker to keep them shut. I don’t swear of Kleenex completely…when my handkerchiefs get too wet I use tissues. The only thing I can’t reconcile is the germ factor. Disposable things make it easier for us to keep germ-free. But handkerchiefs are super easy to wash.
Where to find handkerchiefs: I had so much trouble finding them in stores! I found mine at Meijer (Jewel-Osco equivelant) by the men’s belts and wallets. They are a men’s accessory. You can find some pretty flowery ones online, but for a higher price. I cut them into fours–MUCH more manageable this way.
Nose-rinsing
I first-off have to admit I got this idea from Oprah. But I swear by this!!! Most websites about nose-rinsing will assure you that you need to buy a Neti pot, but you can use a small pop bottle or an old teapot as well, anything with a spout that will fit in your nostril. Just clean it first with warm soapy water, rinsing well. The water used for nose-rinsing should have half a teaspoon of salt per eight ounces, and should be lukewarm. Too-cold water will make your sinuses shrink back, too-hot water will burn them.
1. Mix the water and salt (and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda if you like) in a measuring cup and pour it in the pot.
2. Tilting your head to the side, pour the solution into one nostril. I was so scared to do this the first time! But it didn’t hurt, it felt familiar to swimming and getting water up your nose, except more comfortable because the water is lukewarm and salty (unlike Lake Michigan, always cold and fresh 
).
3. Keep your head tilted to the side. You’ll feel it going up through your sinuses and it should drip out of the other nostril within a few minutes.
4. Plugging the nostril you poured the solution into, gently blow through your other nostril.
5. Repeat with the other side of the nose, going back and forth 2-3 times until your nose is clear.
I’ve heard his is good for on-going sinus issues, too, but I’d suggest asking your doctor about it first. The day after trying this last year, my nose was pretty clear, and I didn’t have the constant drip anymore. Yet I still had a fever. This tells me that the nose-rinsing did something right for my sinuses, even if it didn’t cure me of my virus. I could breathe!!! I didn’t have to wake up with a sore throat from constant mouth-breathing!
So, leave the Kleenex and nasal decongestants in the store. Go Home Remedies!!! What do you swear by when you get sick? 
Honey
My manager at work preached honey as a natural antibiotic for poor sick college students last year. I drink it by the tablespoons when I am sick. Not only am I not sick for very long as a correlation (or causation?), but the honey is a natural way to get some comforting sugar into your system. Make some lemon or apple spice tea and pour in the honey. Just don’t give it to babies.
Lotsa Honey. It doesn’t really go bad.
