05 February 10
Don't Say No to Nikki Lynnette
About a year ago or so, @NikkiLynette added me as a contact on Twitter. I clicked over to her account to vet her before adding her back. I then clicked to her website to see what was there since I was aware that she was a real person. I then proceeded to spend the next hour or so googling her, tracking down MySpace song links, downloading music I found, looking at Google images. Yep, for about 1 hour I became some crazed online stalker and all because I was hooked on her music after listening to a 60-second sample of her song “Now That I’m Fine”.
I began following her back on Twitter, and would occasionally get a dribble of a music soundbyte she would pull out of her archives and I’m happy to brag that I heard an early release of a new tune that still hasn’t dropped. I’m not sure what it is but I’ve been hooked on her music since then and have been waiting very impatiently for her first cd to release. Today I saw that she’d released this video on YouTube and jumped up and down during the video. There’s breakdancing! and the requisite 5-mile-long sexy legs on all the women. But these ladies are not video hos, they’d kick your teeth out of this universe if you called ‘em that.
In September, GapersBlock set up a local music showcase at Metro. It was going to be awesome. I’d suggested Nikki’s group a little too late for them to get the original invite. And when people bailed, I convinced Andrew that he had to consider her. And while I was trying to convince her that she was Awesome Blossom and would Like Totally Rock, she sent him a message via Twitter that she’d love to play in the showcase. And she did.
I think I love that her music is a great blend of hip-hop with some metal influences, and just enough of a pop coating to make it go down easy. It reminds me of some of the hip-hop coming out in the mid-80s that blended different genres together in their sound. That’s when I first got into hip-hop so of course I’m partial to music with that blended sense. And I won’t lie when I say that I loved that Nikki’s lyrics weren’t all smushed out about guys. I love that she’s not afraid to say she’s better than that when you treat her bad. There’s not enough of that coming from women’s voices in hip-hop, hell in music in general, hell! in society. So I gotta support it when I can, you know? I gotta.
Good luck, Nikki.
24 January 10
From Old Coat to a New Bag
This coatbecame this bag.
I’m honestly so wickedly proud of this that I cried a bit when I finished it. Not only do I feel like I kept the personality of the coat pretty successfully, but I feel like I gave new life to her old coat. A new life to add to the old life that the coat experienced, not take it away.
There were five buttons on the original coat. I wanted to use all of the buttons on the bag in a way that provided either structure or design, or preferably both. There are two buttons on the left side of the bag, one over each seam. There is one button on the right side of the bag. There is one button holding the flap of each pocket on the side closed. Because the number of buttons along the top of the bag is different on the left and right side, Rachel will be able to tell which way the zipper is pointed just by feeling her bag. A subtle distinction, but an important one for someone who rides public transit frequently and needs to make sure her bag is as secure as possible.
I decided to use shiny gold accents instead of antiqued brass accents because I really wanted them to stand out from the metal buttons. I got these rings in New York and I love them. They’re fantastic and I think they really make this bag shine.
You can see the single button, the flaps holding the side pockets closed, the single seam on the right side, the gathers at the bottom and the pleats at the top. The gathering really makes the bag hold as much as possible.
This is the side pocket. These pockets existed on the original coat. The edges were worn through in parts so I made a new edge. To make the pockets a little more secure, I created these flaps which also permitted me to use these buttons.
This is what the pocket looks like with the flap open.
The original lining of the coat was a black fabric with embossed stripe. It wasn’t going to work for the new bag, but I was lucky enough to find this cool lining that matches it quite closely. I created a zipper pocket to keep lip gloss and other things secure. But Rachel also needed a pocket for her phone and her pen so she could grab them easily.
Thankfully, after I got the bag put together, I still had enough fabric left over to create handles out of the coat fabric. I wanted to make the straps as stiff and secure as possible. Thankfully the loft of the fabric meant that I could get the straps to sink into the fabric pretty easily. Since the stitches sink into the fabric, they’ll have less chance of wearing through which means they’ll wear well and for a long time.
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17 January 10
Boomerang Tote Bag
This bag is available for sale on Etsy.
This barkcloth bag with nylon handles not only has an outside cell phone pocket but it also has a snap closure and a zipper pocket on the inside for anything you might need to keep safely tucked away. The handles are long enough to go over a shoulder, but short enough to not drag on the ground if you’re 5-foot tall. All materials used to make this bag are guaranteed to be sweatshop free and except for the snaps are made in the United States. The outside dimensions of this bag are 13“x13“X4”.
Each of these bags is made from high-quality, sweatshop-free, US-milled, woven, and printed cotton fabric. The bags are large enough to carry many daily essentials, but not so large that you’ll end up with a sore shoulder after a day of carrying your life around. The shoulder straps are 1.5” wide and made from high-quality webbing which will be soft enough to wear against your skin or over a delicate shirt. The fabric is lightly water-resistant and the coloring won’t rub off on your skin or clothing. There is a heavy-duty stiffener sewn between the exterior and interior fabrics which lets the bag stand upright without flopping over.
Exterior fabric: Cotton upholstery-grade fabric
Interior fabric: Lightweight rust cotton
Height/width/depth (inches): 13w” x 13h” x 4d”
Strap length: 28”
Closure: magnetic snap
Pockets: 9“x 6” interior zipper pocket, 5“x10” front slip pocket
14 January 10
Helping Haiti
If you haven’t heard, a 7.0 earthquake struck the capital of Haiti causing an already impoverished city to be reduced to rubble. Tens of thousands of people have died. Tens of thousands of people are likely to die due to injuries, illness, being trapped, starvation, etc. in the days and weeks to come.
I’ve wanted to help and sending a $10 text message seemed like a good idea, but it didn’t seem like enough. So I did what I often do during disasters and times of crisis, I visited the CARE website. I knew they had people on the ground when the earthquake happened so I knew they’d have some information on their website and they did. And that’s when I realized that sending money really is the only thing we can do right now. Unless you have medical training, that’s all most of us can do, just send money. And it’s important that we send it to organizations that have the ability to ramp up under chaotic situations like this to get good works done. CARE is the one I believe in wholeheartedly, without a doubt. They’re a fantastic organization because they don’t just help out during a crisis and leave. They’re all over the world, helping people who want to help themselves but need a little bit of encouragement, education, and sometimes money to be able to do so. And this is what CARE provides. They don’t come in with the opinion that they know how to solve the problems. The find a community and talk to the women of the community to find out what the core problems are and then work with the women to find a solution that the women will be able to make work for themselves.
Because I want to help CARE help Haiti, and because I get matching donations through the day job, I want to give more money to them. But, like many people, money is tight. So I turned to the one thing I do have, my purse shop. I have a number of bags available that are ready to ship right away. I’d already lowered the price on them because I want to clear them out to make room for new bags I’m starting to sew. So I’m willing to donate $20 for the sale of each bag that I make between now and 2/28 to CARE. I’ve already sold one bag that will ship tomorrow. And that $20 will become $40 after I fill out a little form and ship it off to Day Job Headquarters. So if you’re interested in helping Haiti and you need a bag, perhaps this is a good compromise? No need to mention anything special when you place the order (and if you don’t have an Etsy account, just email cinnamon at poise dot cc and we’ll handle the sale another way).
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10 January 10
Custom Order: Rachel
A friend named Rachel purchased this coat in high school and loved it. Wore it for many years. Wore it so long the shoulder wore clear through to the lining. There were a few tears and holes in the coat, but most of the fabric was still in great condition. She asked me if I would be able to turn the coat into a bag that would enable her to carry her Mac laptop as well as normal purse things and a folder or two of paperwork for when she went to meet clients. She also wanted a pocket for her phone, a pen slot, and a small zipper pocket on the inside for keeping small things out of the way.
There were a few things that Rachel wanted to keep that were on the coat. There were four buttons on the coat and she loved them and wanted to have them incorporated into the design of the bag. We talked about it briefly and I discovered a great way to use the buttons so they would create design interest in the bag but still be useful as well.
The buttons are slightly curved up, which makes them easier to use frequently on a coat. However, it also makes them easier to catch on things, which would happen more frequently on a bag than a coat. Since the buttons will be used for more decoration and securing pockets on the bag, they’ll be sewn with the curved side down so they don’t catch on anything and so they hold more securely.
The coat had these huge pockets on the side of the coat where there was plenty of room for a hands and a variety of other items. We agreed that these pockets would make a great design element on the sides of the bag. One of the pockets was still in great shape. The other pocket had a fair amount of wear and would need to be adjusted to maintain durability. Stay tuned for how the bag looked when it was finished.
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09 January 10
How does your influence extend
I’m always surprised to meet someone who has heard of me, or knows of something I’ve done. The internet and meeting most of my friends because of it hasn’t changed that. So I have to admit (cause these thoughts are prevalent lately) that I have no idea who all would miss me if I were to die. This isn’t a cry for people to come out of the work and say “ooh, me!”. It’s not a cry for attention, but thank you if that was our instinct.
After reading words written by literally hundreds of people now about Brad Graham and how much he influenced them, even people he never met in person, I’m amazed at how far his reach extended. I think he might have been, too. I’m sure there are a lot of people he remembers meeting briefly, and remembers emailing with. But I know I can’t remember all the people I’ve briefly met or emailed with in the last year, let alone 10. And I’m no where near as popular or prolific as he was.
I think the moral to this story, if there can be one is two-fold. One, you have no idea who you are going to influence or how. Long before I’d met Brad he left a comment on a post I wrote about an uncle. And this stranger just appearing out of nowhere and saying hello and thanking me for having written it was touching and it encouraged me. Even if I’d never met him, I’d have that memory to think about and reflect on how it has stuck with me.
The other moral, is that our words can and probably should live on after us. This writing we do feels so ephemeral and momentary that it may not seem like much. But these pixels we put on CMSs of various types all over the world are the equivalent to previous generations letters, written missives, chap-books, and zines. Even if something were to happen and the family of the creator decided that those words could never be published, we at least have a record that they existed and that record can be stored in a library or a private collection for anthropologists and historians to use in future referencing of materials. But hard drives can be erased, accounts can lapse and be deleted easily.
Thankfully Matt Haughey and several others know enough to figure out how to make sure that at least for the short term Brad’s main writing will continue to appear online, which I imagine is exactly how he would want it. But if he doesn’t have a will, and if his next of kin finds his “hobby” of writing about himself and his life all over the internet distasteful, they have ownership of the information and can delete it at will.
So, your action item, is to think about what you want to happen to your online legacy (yes, even if you only have 3 readers) after you’re gone. I know of someone who has enlisted a friend to post a photograph of her dog everyday for 1 year after she passes away so that at the end of the year, people will be glad to see the crazy dog lady has stopped blogging. I think she underestimates how many people enjoy seeing pictures of her pup. But what would you like to have happen to your online writing?
I know I want mine to stay. I don’t have a will (something I know I need to rectify), but if a blogpost can serve as my legal wish. I want my site to remain as is for as long as technology will allow. I give Andrew Huff rights to all of my writing upon my death. Should something happen to him, I give these rights to Veronica I. Arreola. Should something happen to all of them, I give these rights to my mother. I don’t list my mother first simply because technology isn’t something that is second-nature to her and dealing with her loss of me will be stressful enough.
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08 January 10
Nil by Mouth
Roger Ebert (yes the movie guy) wrote a piece for the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday about how he will never eat or drink again, and how he doesn’t really miss it.
I’ve seen Ebert recently and he doesn’t look like the hot-blooded and kinda cantankerous guy that he once was that I watched on Saturday mornings as he argued with Siskel about whose opinion regarding a movie that I’d never end up seeing was better. But he didn’t look bad. He’s older than he was 25 years ago and he’s more frail, and he’s slower for sure. But he didn’t seem like he was miserable and just waiting to die. He was at a movie screening, so he is still able to do at least some of the things he truly enjoys.
But I read his piece about how he doesn’t miss eating. After all he doesn’t have to worry about gaining weight and he’s got more time now to do other things that he enjoys. And he writes about how his memories, some of which are food-related, are coming back with such strong force that he’s overwhelmed by them.
I’m blessed to have my health and the ability to make anything I want to eat (almost, really) but I just can’t fathom how he can lose the ability to eat and not miss it. Eating and food is something I enjoy so much that I just can’t imagine saying, “Oh, well since I don’t have to make dinner I guess I’ll just knit for another hour.” Knitting, sewing, writing, nothing, and I do mean nothing, could replace how much I enjoy eating.
After I read his article last night, I just shook my head repeatedly, completely unsure of how he can be okay with this. And then it dawned on me. He didn’t make his life eating and cooking. He made his life watching movies and writing and talking about them, criticizing and encouraging them. If I found out I could never watch another movie, I’d be sad and feel left out occasionally, but I don’t think I’d miss that nearly as much as I’d miss eating.
So eating is to Ebert, what movie-watching is to me. Which is cool, no? But it is especially interesting, since Ebert is writing a cookbook about rice-cookers.
07 January 10
Loss
On Monday, while trying to focus at work and while listening to Scissor Sisters (a little Filthy/Gorgeous to be precise), I read online that Brad Graham of BradLands, aka Must See HTTP://, had passed away. I read the post again. I read the link to the few sentences on the St. Louis Today website. I read them again. I tried Google to see if there was any other information available. I returned to Twitter and posted the link and asked if anyone had more information. I refreshed. I refreshed. I saw people begin to answer with “NOOO!”
And then I called the Repertory Theater where Brad worked. I was sobbing at this point. I could hear it in my voice and I couldn’t hide it and I didn’t care. And I honestly thought, “This must be real if I don’t care if a complete stranger will hear that I’ve been crying.”
“I just read on the St. Louis Today website about Brad. I wondered if you had any more information and I’m sorry to be calling you.”
“You what? Where? Oh my. It’s on the website already? We just found out a few hours ago. People are at his house now, they just left a few hours ago. I’m so sorry you had to find out this way. We’ll post more info on the website.”
“Thank you. And I’m sorry that you’ve lost him.”
And then I cried some more. A lot more.
And I’ve tried to write this, and I’ve deleted it and rewritten and deleted it and I just can’t get over how selfish this all feels. Grief is so self-centered, I’ve realized. Losing a loved one, especially in such a surprising way, just makes you think non-stop about all the things you’ve said and done and laughed at together and you just feel so empty when you realize that great pile of memories will never get any larger. And that’s okay. It’s okay to focus for a while on how your life will never be the same now that this person is gone. It’s okay to remember all the funny (and oh my god were are there a lot) things. And because so many people who knew him, also knew each other online, or at least had small areas of overlap in our personal Venn Diagrams, it’s been easy to read some of these stories with them, and I’ve shared a little, too. And through these stories we all get to add just a bit to the pile of memories that we have of Brad. We get to know him a little bit better through these stories. And even though I’ll never again hear his laugh in person, or watch him smile and wink at Andrew with one eye while looking devilishly to see if I’m watching, or watch him walk up to a complete stranger and make them feel happy and comfortable in 30 seconds flat, I’ll at least have this pile of memories. As long as the Lesser Kudu doesn’t come along and eat them all, I’ll be okay.
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