Jaglom

I watched A Safe Place yesterday and remembered how my best friend and I were so curious about Jaglom in high school. We watched Always, But Not Forever, Someone to Love,  New Year's Day and then got together the summer after our first year in college to watch Eating and then I forgot all about him until yesterday. 

In A Safe Place, beautiful Tuesday Weld effortlessly portrays Susan/Noah the woman child. I never knew really knew what a talented actress she was until I saw her in this role. The DVD shows other actresses auditioning for the part and it seems as though no one came close to portraying the complicated character as richly as Weld. Her character was simple minded, sexy, sensitive, even innocent and yet vicious, aloof and tawdry. I thought of Mia Farrow and Sandy Dennis in the role and decided that they couldn't be as sincere as Weld. The editing and music chosen for the soundtrack added to the little surprises in this film that ends vaguely. I seem to favor films that end this way.

When I discovered Cassavetes, Jaglom went into the "toy box".  I began to think Jaglom's  films were fragmented, diluted and weak interpretations of better works done by writers and directors more talented and experienced than he was.  However, I look back and can see I was watching very adult films at a young age. I thought myself quite sophisticated at 15 having watched Jules and Jim  at 13, had just started to read Nin and long Russian novels and I tuned into Thirtysomething every week.  I had no clue what complicated people we all grow up to be.  I had yet to experience all the complicated feelings, relationships and world we come into when we finally grow up. So all the muck that bored and confused me was just over my head. I never watched a Jaglom film after I turned 20.  Twenty years later and  maybe Jaglom has more to offer? I'll re-watch a few of his films and finally watch Venice/Venice. Maybe A Safe Place was just a really good film.

The Anarchy Irony Hat...ahem, my Anarchy Irony Hat

 Debbie Stoller's
Stitch-N-Bitch Crochet:
The Happy Hooker

I was forced to take a look back at one of my creations. It is always a headache when someone decides to challenge the copyright. It is a gripe I have shared with Debbie Stoller. Now, I am being accused of not even creating the design or the pattern.

I went  back to look at the book this afternoon and found my name printed on page 123 with photos of the hat on page 122. They were just as I had left them when I last went through the pages. I always feel a bit giddy when I see these pages and it never ceases to just make me smile. Still, the printed pages offer no proof to a stubborn woman in England who has shut her eyes to this and insists on stealing a design and pattern and passing it off as her own creation.

However, I can't help but think that maybe the joke could be on her. Anyone can check the book out of the library or buy it themselves and either make or have someone make the hat for them for less than $5(acrylic yarn) or better yet, drop some hints and receive it as a gift. It has been a very popular gift for sons, boyfriends, husbands, nephews etc.. and I love that. Darest I say that I have noticed in recent years they don't do all that well on Etsy. Sort of one of those things that is out there for the taking so no need to purchase.

In fact, with not too much crocheting projects on my plate these days, I will be more than happy to make one for you, just email me :> There is no need to purchase it off Etsy for $30 from Jarg0n or any other seller, the fun is in making it yourself or receiving it as a gift. It is a tres easy pattern. My goodness, when I sold  it on my website years ago under the label One Tough Monkey,  I only asked $16 for it (included shipping and made out of mohair) and $20 for the waterproof wool version (included shipping to anywhere in the world).

When I submitted the pattern I wanted to share the design because I thought it was fun.  I didn't think it would become so popular with everyone. I have been pleasantly surprised over the years.  I spot it on Flickr.com from time to time or on someone's blog as crochet projects for loved ones, gifts in the making. While a lack of creativity and imagination has driven many so-called crafters to steal the designs of others, at the end of the day I am the one in the book, the original.  That is just too satisfying for words, no matter what my lawyer advises.

I can empathize with those I know who discover their creations copied and being sold on Etsy or at Claire's or Urban Outfitters. It is something you loved very much in the  hands of some stranger. The stranger just didn't work as hard as you did to come up with the finished product. They have no idea.

In the past I posted an entry addressing this very same issue. It was prompted by another woman in England who wanted to make and sell the hats there. She didn't ask very nicely. The design has been big in England. In fact, 25% of my sales were to England when I sold the hat online.  Purple Kitty Yarns offers an excellent and  concise explanation of copyright laws in regard to crochet patterns.

Taken from Debbie Stoller's
Stitch-N-Bitch Crochet:
The Happy Hooker

The Legend of Lylah Clare

I caught this film after it already started, I never saw the beginning.  It was the middle of the afternoon  and  I was home ill. I was never really certain if having the flu (the 1994 avian flu epidemic) colored my impression of the film or if it really was that wonderfully bad. It had that gothic camp feel that The Killing of Sister George had and no wonder it was directed by Robert Aldrich, how delicious. I don't think this film is officially available on DVD. There seems to be a bootleg copy for sale on a website. I just found out that the whole movie is now available on youtube.com. Just last year or so when I searched for info on the movie, not much was available in terms of clips and trailers. Now you can watch the whole thing in bits and pieces. I'm not going to watch it until I can get it on my tv at home.  It does stand up well as isolated, campy clips. I think it is worth watching from start to finish if you like camp.
The film The Unguarded Moment (1956) sort of pointed me in the Aldrich direction. Harry Keller directed it and he had an interesting career starting with westerns then went on to Tammy pictures and then Stripes. In between he did The Unguarded Moment. Rosalind Russell wrote the screenplay and it's Esther Williams' first dramatic role...it all just comes together in a style that would appeal to me and lead me down the road to camp, for some reason.

Who was your favorite person to ever sit at a typewriter?

Las Cabañuelas

The other day my Grandfather told me about las cabañuelas. It is a system of predicting the weather for the entire year in the month of January. It is something he said the old timers would do and it's been going on for  ever. This is how he said it was done: The first twelve days of January correspond with the twelve months. During the first twelve days you write what the weather is like on that day: raining, sunny, if the temperature is average or above or below average.  I looked this up and read it is a system that was  passed from generation to generation since the Mayans. There is more to it but my Grandmother said the rest is so repetitive and it's all right there in the first twelve days, "Just pay attention,  Mija, and write it all down, everything."

So far, February will have a mild northern wind so it will still be cold here, mostly sunny days. March and April will have rainfall and milder temperatures than normal but increasing to average temperatures towards the end of the month. So it seems we'll have a nice Spring with rain. What is exciting is an arctic blast  is heading our way on those days that correspond with September-December. I might just go ahead and use the entire month to record the weather and do it correctly just as an experiment. It isn't complicated, just have to "write it all down, everything".

Toyland

Terra Toys has expanded. I can't wait to see how they'll fill the new space. My brother and I went by today and spent an hour wandering about. I love the children's book collection, the Steiffs, miniature doll houses and all that is bright and plastic. They have  agreat selection of wooden toys here too. This toy store reminds me so much of the toy shop we had downtown in Del Rio when I was a kid. It was filled with toys by a company called Creative Playthings Inc. What I truly enjoy about Terra Toys is the fact that I can be in a toy store and buy anything my heart desires. Sometimes. Almost. We'll see.

I discovered the Golden Half Camera and now I so want it! I don't know why though. I have so many cameras, what I don't have is time to fully utilize them all. In a perfect world I'd have all my cameras strapped across my shoulder...anyway, more toy cameras please. See what happens when you deny your kid toy cameras in childhood.

Wait, there's more. Like this awesome toy video camera that looks like an old 110 camera but shoots grainyliscious, nostalgic, 8mm looking movies.

Sign

Dia De Los Muertos

I wish the Pogues had done a Dia De Los Muertos song. I have had our altar up since we got back from the beach but we celebrate tonight with Mexican hot chocolate and champurrado. I'll miss the pan de huevo. I just got a Gorky hot chocolate pitcher at the Melissa Guerra store in San Antonio. It has been quite effective and makes using the molinillo so much easier.

Saturday was full of light bulbs

On Saturday morning my friend and I went to Gruene to attend the Texas Clay Festival. It was really inspiring and I fell in love with the work that was all around me. Really awesome artists with unique designs pushing the boundaries of the medium.

Clay hasn't been inspiring to me since 1991. In college I received Cs in ceramics and really didn't understand why. I felt I just didn't get it. Looking back I can see the art classes at that school were grossly neglected. Now they have a well supplied building dedicated to studio art. When I attended this college all the art courses were in portable buildings on the edge of campus. In my ceramics class there was only one dye available for use and it was cobalt blue. It was gone before the semester ended and so most of my work is just bone white. The one potter's wheel didn't run as smoothly as the wheels used in the demos at the festival. The only one I had access to would stick and grind. There was also a long list to use it.

One classmate who received constant praise for her work and made an A (there was only one A and one C) would drive to the other side of town to use a wheel at a ceramics studio and bought her own dyes. She made perfect bowls, mugs and vases. I didn't have a car or the money for that sort of thing. Besides, I loved using different textures to make up for the lack of color or to make cobalt blue more interesting. I'd throw clay as hard as I could against stone walls in the dorm to get a texture I liked.  It was all about the textures for me and I loved playing with the clay. I never made a single a bowl or mug in that class. That accounted for  5% of the C. I made a cup without a handle out of the clay thrown on walls though. My Mom has it and some of other things I made. I trashed a lot of it. There was only so much my Mom could decorate with and I didn't want souvenirs from a bad experience and a bad grade.

At the festival I could see that most of the artist could have been C students in my old ceramics class because their work was along the lines of what I had wanted to do and was trying to do. Not one attended that school. After seeing their work I felt I finally made peace with those grades. I felt I was on the right track, maybe. I almost felt inspired to buy a block of clay on the way home but I have no tools. I threw those out just last year when I decided it was certain I'd definitely NEVER work with clay again.

Later that evening I stopped and visited with Mr. Gage and we looked through old photo albums. Lots of old photos of the English countryside, old  manors and the families he came to know during the war. There were many photos of these families gathered around a piano singing. The pictures all looked like movie stills to me. In looking for the albums we came across old sketch books. Inside one of these books were several essays and writing exercises Robert did in high school. I read them and was floored by his talent when he was only a teen.

Mr. Gage then said he wrote in the evenings during the war when he was in England. We found those writings and I was able to read several of them, enough to see Robert as a gifted writer. I asked why he didn't write more and he said he thought he wasn't any good at it and felt his stories were "corny".  I told him I thought they were good and he chuckled. They really were good. The character development, the plot, the point of view, the structure and diction...all the narrative strategies were clearly in place and at work in such a way I thought I was reading something by Flannery O'Conner (O'Conner was only seven or eight at the time). When the war was over and he came home his writing stopped. He just thought it wasn't any good and did it to pass the time. Outside of his high school teacher, no one had ever seen his work. When I asked him if his teacher encouraged him when he wrote in school, he said she said nothing at the time. Most of the exercises were rainy day assignments but he enjoyed writing at the time and would write when at home for fun.

On the way home I began to think of all those hidden talents we all posses. How we don't always recognize our own abilities and can innocently hide them so well from ourselves and each other. How limited  we think we are. Sad is those who think they posses no talent at all.  We all have oodles of it lying untapped. How do we begin to mine it all?

C is for Crain

Lionel came monogramed. I was finally able to get a picture  to prove it.
He is a sweetie and I knew that from the start but I can't get over his marking shaped like a C. That did it! He is one magical lil kitty.

Lupe





Christmas Children's Books

Some cute Caldecott Christmas books. I love the artwork in these children's books. I spotted eggnog at the grocery store.

Through a View Master

Every now and then I have to bring out the View Master and get lost in the still stereoscopic world of Hawaii's Tropical Gardens circa 1950 or California in the 70s. It was a trippy toy when I was seven and it's still a trippy toy.  I had several growing up. I remember breaking one trying to get the reel to project onto the wall using the viewer a magnifying glass and a flashlight. All I managed to get was a tiny upside down image. What was I thinking I wonder. I was so in love with the images through the View Master viewer.  

Check out Vladmaster. I've ordered the Franz Kafka Parables Vladmaster Set and can't wait to receive it! If you want to see your own world through a View Master (and have money to burn) there are places like Studio 3D that can make this happen. There is a View Master set for everyone. Wish Kenneth Anger would do a set. In fact, I could think of several artist I wish would make special View Master reels. The best place to get new packets is through this store. If I ever find this set I know exactly who would love it.

Would be awesome if LOMO could start making the stereo camera and cutter again.

Boo!

This weekend we watched the film And Soon the Darkness (1970). It opened with total cornball, 70s, incidental Muzak and I didn't have high expectations for it. I was surprised later at how it kept me on the jumpy side. I didn't think it was a stinky film but the reviews are bad. Speaking of stinky...

Dolls do not scare me. I have never been spooked by any doll, ever in my life, until today. This morning Mr Gage showed me a box of vintage toys and dolls he had found in the attic that he had put aside for me to go through. He then started to take the dolls out one at a time. I approached it with nothing but excitement because I spotted two Charlie's Angels dolls right away but I froze and my heart skipped a beat when my eye caught this ugly and tragic thing:

Her mouth is creepy, look at how her tongue seems to be sticking out and hanging over what should be her bottom teeth (she has top teeth). Her eyes never opened. She looks murdered. Not only did she creep me out but she stunk. This doll smelled like vomit. Mr Gage said it was probably rotting plastic. She did look, feel and smell like she was rotting away. EEK! I suggested we bury her and sprinkle holy water over the mound but quickly took back that bad idea because of the damage to the soil. All that plastic and rubbery ilk seeping into the ground...HORRORS! The chances of one day helping Mr Gage plant flowers and finding that little red wig, UGH!

Mr Gage said she probably belonged to someone in his family but could have been part of some white elephant box from an estate sale years ago. How to go about disposing of her properly is still up in the air. She cannot be sold or given away because handling her left our hands smelly and gross. She's a creepy chemical hazard. Maybe a biohazard as well.

Real Native Funk and Flash

I'm really into the Native Funk and Flash book I found by Alexandra Jacopetti. I looked up the author and found this website. The company she started is still around today and it's an online business. In fact one that I have frequented in the past for their cool retro dress patterns. She is, to this day, still called on to talk about the book. I looked up many of the people featured to find that they all continued living creative lives. Some became better known than others.

 

I brought the book into work the other day for show-n-tell and it was a hit. Today a friend of mine brought in his own personal hippie collection. He brought in a shirt and pair of jeans he would wear (and embroidered himself) and some tea he and his friends would all drink, some fragrances some jewelry and incense. It was really awesome! I love his embroidery skills, everything is so symmetrical and perfect. He just held on to this stuff all bought between 1971 and 1974 and I found that hard to believe until I remembered that I have quite the stash myself.





I love it when people hold on to things like this. I wish my mother had because she lived in San Francisco in the late 60s but she only kept our baby clothes and some ephemera but nothing from the life she had before us. I think everything was tossed before I was twelve because I remember trying on some of her old clothes and finding that they almost fit me.

To this day she isn't big on thrift or antiques only items from family members who have passed. I remember she had wonderful paintings she did in school and gorgeous, plaid, wool skirts and mini dresses I wanted to wear one day. She had a wonderful pair of brown, leather, platform T-Straps that were made in Spain. Nothing would have fit me though, the shoes would have been a size to large and she was a tiny lil thing. She's still a tiny, little pocket Mom with big feet, I can't share clothes with. 

I have put away quite a bit in my own personal trunk from the past:

1. The last pair of leggings I bought in 1990

2. Doc Marten combat boots

3. Skirt I made with my mom to wear with fishnets and the combat boots

4.  My signature black lace shirt and a waist length Jordache denim jacket (I loved pairing that with my Mexican skirts and ballerina flats).

I had a carton of the very first clove cigarettes I bought for an REM concert but threw them out two or three years ago. I found them in the pocket of an old purse I was tossing. Then there are all the mix tapes. Maybe one day I'll be dragging these items to work to show some interested younger co-worker. We are all time capsules.

It's only been a week

Driving into Austin the other day I realized what a difference a week made. There were tons of acorns and leaves on the ground. I noticed more pumpkins on porches and at stores and caught the faintest hint of that holiday cinnamon apple scent. The holidays are here and I'm most excited about Halloween and Dia de los Muertos while listening to Christmas music through earphones. I am very discreet because I know how that music can rub some people the wrong way. Already looking for a tree farm we can all picnic at the day after Thanksgiving.

Friends of mine have been saying that so many acorns on the ground so early in the season in Texas means a mean winter is upon us. Goody! Because that could mean time off from work, ice and sleet days, perhaps snow.... An old co-worker who moved to DC and then Virginia a few years ago was telling us of her winter snow stories and how wonderful it is to shovel snow when you have spent your whole life in Texas. She's only had a few winters of snow shoveling. Honestly, being born and raised in Texas with a longing for snow my entire life, spending a Thanksgiving or Christmas here and there in shorts or having to turn the ac on in March and keep it running through October, I can say I probably wouldn't tire of shoveling snow for a long while.  My ideal climate would have four solid seasons, nothing terribly extreme and snow for Christmas.

The Rio Grande Valley had plenty of Dia de los Muertos decorations. I spotted sugar skulls being sold from trucks and cars parked along the highway and around highway fruit stands. It's time to bring out my altar and maybe make a few new doilies for it this year. We'll start drinking Mexican hot chocolate and won't stop until after The Epiphany. It's exciting because this year Austin is experiencing a really pleasant autumn, in fact, it's just cool enough at night to start lighting the chiminea. I think I'll do that tonight.

Replay

Last Sunday William and I drove down to South Padre Island to spend a week on the beach. It feels like we were gone longer than just a week. Just postcards, no computers, no contact with the place we left behind. I missed my kitties, bunny and chickies but they were in excellent care so I couldn't worry. All we had to do was relax and take it in.

While we were on vacation I realized that no matter where we are books and vinyl are a constant. I found an awesome book called Native Funk and Flash by Alexandra Jacopetti for $1.75. This is a truly awesome book and if you Google it you'll find more than enough on it. William found a buzillion awesome, rare and long wanted records at an antique store and all 50% off. Treasure hunting. We stopped at the local book store where I bought a few books by local authors on SPI and sea shells. William bought a copy of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by Kerouac and Burroughs. We brought on our own books but it's hard to pass on the new and interesting.

The beach, the waves, the gulls and the dolphins will be carrying on as they always do. Tomorrow I'll be back at work thinking about them all. I'll miss Mayola's, this place had the best Mexican food I've had in awhile.  Better than Cha-Cha's in San Antonio and they were pretty awesome. Mayola's food was fresher than fresh and a Mexican soup of the day was served with every meal at lunch. Thinking of their chips and salsa right now is making my mouth water. That is just their chips and salsa!

We couldn't stay away from The Light House Square in Port Isabel especially this cute lil flea market tucked between the boutiques. They had gorgeous Oaxacan art work from San Bartolo, lovely pieces of jewelry and beautiful stones from Mexican mines.

We accompanied Scarlet and Rozzie on their pontoon boat in search of their dolphin friends and found them. I have never seen dolphins in person and they were all around us. Scarlett opened the Dolphin Research and Sea Life Nature Center in Port Isabel and I wish she were my new boss. I'd love to see dolphins every day! There was love and cuteness waiting for us at home. We couldn't help but wonder what kitties on the beach would do.


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The water became crystal clear the day before and seemed
even clearer this morning when we left.

 

Whirlingturban

I discovered Whirlingturban in 2003. The dreamiest dresses can be found at Whirlingturban. In fact I have one very similar to the dress in this photo. It is truly well constructed, the sort of dress you can even heirloom. What I love about my dress is I always feel like I have walked out of a glamorous Hollywood film circa 1946 every time I wear it.

I was the vintage dress queen in the late 1980s early 1990s. My supplier was a warehouse in Del Rio that would somehow procure clothing by the barrels and unload piles of delicious vintage clothing, sometimes with tags still on them, onto  a smooth concrete floor that was rarely seen.  People would walk all over these mounds and mounds of clothing, find a spot, then proceed to dig for several hours. Everything was sold by the pound and on the weekends that was ten cents, twenty five during the week. My friends and I had a blast finding dead stock sheaths with yellowed Neiman Marcus tags still on them and pristine shirt dresses from the 1950's. We really didn't know how lucky we were to find vintage clothing so cheap, clean and in really great condition. 

I came to Austin with a wonderful collection of vintage dresses and accumulated more in town from low priced vintage stores. Dressed to Kill was an awesome store on The Drag that would often hold an attic sale and sell gorgeous things for $1 a piece. I procured gorgeous cocktail dresses in mint condition from these sales.

One day in 1997 I decided to unload my collection and made quite a bit of money. It didn't take long to regret it. I comforted myself with the idea that I'd slowly build a new collection of vintage dresses. However, vintage dresses were not available like they had been and when I happened to find one they were always falling apart. Whirlingturban provides several different vintage styles made from quality fabrics that are so authentic looking you'd think they were dead stock.  What really makes a vintage dress is the construction, they had a tailored fit, darts, nice metal zippers and made to make you look great. Whirlingturban is more than impressive in their creations and totally fill my vintage dress void.

Creem

Remember the letters in Creem magazine?