Twist and Crawl

A lot is going on at the moment, but I had to take a moment to share this with you guys!

I found while going through my vinyl collection - a letter from a self-proclaimed skinhead living in San Antonio, Texas. I guess I never bothered to look inside the sleeve of my copy of "What Is" - a compilation of hits from The English Beat. Ol' Dave is pretty thorough, I think:

Skinhead Times,

Hello, I'm Dave A. and I 've been a skinhead for a few years now and in the time that I've been a skinhead, I've heard quite a bit about your magazine. I just recently got a hold of your address and I'm really interested in your magazine. It is really hard to get magazines and music from the United Kingdom here in the United States.

The Skinhead scene here has really grown in the past couple of years. I think it would be a lot better if we could get things like your magazine. I don't know much about your magazine (or how I could get it). If possible maybe you could write me or send me something I could subscribe from. It would be neat if I could get some order forms, so we could get your magazine going in our town.

I play in a local Oi Band and I'm working on a Ska band. We play at a lot of klubs and we all work on keeping the SKINHEAD scene going here. Ska is getting really big here so everything is getting a lot better. A lot of the racist skinheads are going 2 TONE. Me, well I'm just a traditional SKINHEAD, We all believe in Oi!!!

If you can please send me an order form and maybe a sample of your magazine (and an ok to make copies of your order form for promotion.) If you can it will be great. Hopefully with your permission I can get copies made of your order forms and put them in the music stores and clothing stores and give them out at shows, so please write me and I'll write back and send you money for a regularly subscription. Thank you for taking the time and reading my letter. Oi!!

Oregon - Thursday

I want to write all of this shit down before I forget and the memories get hazy or what not. . . this will be edited and made more smooth in the coming days, so just consider this a rough draft!

Ryo and I left Columbus in separate planes - her flight time was MUCH shorter than mine and I'll admit feeling a little twinge of jealousy at not getting to ride with her and get to PDX as soon as possible. We parted ways, and before long I was in Chicago for one of my first layovers. As I sat there in the terminal, in a sea of empty chairs I saw a man approach from the corner of my eye and sit down right next to me. This made me super nervous, as there were plenty of other seats to be had but here he is, practically sitting in my lap. I glance over, only to find that it's my friend Brandon who is making his way out to the Goonies Anniversary shindig as well! It was a great start to the trip and was really nice to see a friendly, familiar face.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful - I slept fitfully throughout and when I touched down in Portland, I was sore as hell and hungry to boot. It's pretty bad when someone as short as me has trouble with the leg-room situation on a plane. Yeeesh!

I was met at baggage claim by Mikey and Ryo and while we waited for my baggage to show up, we talked about delicious food - it wasn't helping my hunger in the least and I fear that Chris, a Mancunian Goonie who we were also traveling with, thought that I was some deranged food addict that would stop at nothing to om nom nom her way through the city. Well. . . that's pretty much true. I won't lie.

From there, Mikey took us to a lovely restaurant (insert name here) and I had a healthy serving of mini corndogs and the best ever veggie burger. Seriously - so fucking tasty. From there, talk turned to Voodoo Doughnuts and we were all shown a very flattering video of a gentleman by the name of Rheiner who was sucking raspberry blood from a voodoo doll doughnut.

Now, while the doughnuts were absolutely fresh and amazing and fantastic - the taste soured a little in my mouth when Mikey thought it was a good idea to show us all "Puppetry of the Penis". I don't really think that I need to elaborate on that. It was so gross but I couldn't stop watching!
Packed up the car, headed back to PDX to meet up with the English Contingency. It was SO good to see everyone - even Merk who I'd just seen a few months back! Anyway him, Giuseppe, Red, Shaz, Jut and Angie (who isn't English, but still pretty awesome) were all in one place and it was great to see everyone. The twilight drive out to Cannon Beach was beautiful. Looking into the enchanted forest as it speeds by always leaves me with such striking feelings - At once, I understand and am mystified by it.

Once in Cannon Beach, we met up with the rest of the people that were staying in our house. Again, really lovely to see old faces and meet the new ones. Here's the part where I would say I cooked all of the weary travelers a wonderful meal to fill their bellies. . . but that would be a complete lie. All that was open was a small convenience store. I made a mess of some ramen noodles and am so, so ashamed.

truth movement

I am in love.

More to follow - still a bit knackered from my recent trip to Oregon. . . honestly the best trip of my entire life. I'll be playing catch-up with that and doing some posts here in the near future on my experiences there. In the meantime, enjoy this

Handbook for the Recently Deceased

My dog's are absolutely barkin' after yesterday's Zombie Walk through downtown Columbus!

I decided to go against the grain a little bit and wear my Miss Argentina costume. It's really hard to believe that I made that thing back in 2007. It took me about an hour to get into, with ample help from Ryo. I will say that doing the makeup is still a pain in the ass. . . I really need to work on mastering that set of skills. We met up with Pat at work, where he'd spent a good part of the day working on the layers of his zombie makeup. He did a great rushed job on Ryo and Carlos.

The walk was a lot longer than I had anticipated, but a really fun experience. I was a little nervous about wearing a non-zombie costume, but it was really well received and made my day.

doodles and drawings

I draw just about every day - I find it very centering and a refreshing change from my normal creations. I'm not on any deadline, I'm not creating for someone else, I'm on my own and all of these very simple things make for a change that's quite energizing. It's ok if I mess up or they suck or are never completed - because they're not for anyone but me. They rarely see the light of day and I'm ok with that.

Group 7 Clearance

So. . . if you're a Tron fan, you should mosey on over to Flynnlives and get yourself one of these kick-ass badges.

There you can upload a photo, enter certain pertinent information and the fine folks over at Flynnlives will send you an awesome laminated Encom International i.d. badge to help you to infiltrate the greedy corporation's network.

The lanyard just makes it that more official-looking :)

Zip-zap

I feel like I'm on a roll here - using up all of this stuff that I've had laying around for ages feels great! I've had these old brass zippers that I purchased in September of 2001. Now, the only reason I can recall such an inane detail is because this was the very first thrift store I went to when I moved to Columbus. Ah. . . memories.

I chose 2 white, 2 gray, 2 blue and 2 navy zippers and proceeded to cut off the stops at the ends. I removed the pulls and cut the zippers into various lengths. From here, I simply rolled them up into different sized circles and stitched them together. The lazy person in me wanted to stop halfway through and make this into a bracelet, but I persevered and came up with this little necklace.

Shrug It Off

I had a seriously messed up nightmare the other evening. . . I dreamed that I was shot 3 times - once in the breast and twice in the stomach. I was working at a derelict factory with a close friend. We had just gotten off of work and were enjoying each others company as we exited the building. Our laughter attracted a gang of 4 men that seperated us and mocked our good moods and then shot me. I died in my friend's arms as the gang ran off, laughing to themselves and congratulating each other. I have never dreamed that I died, let alone being murdered.

I like to try and suss things like this out, but I'm stumped. I woke up with a pain in my stomach which may or may not have been imagined and I couldn't fall back asleep. My feeling of unease about the nightmare continued well into the next day. . . I thought that your brain simply couldn't handle you dying in a dream and that such a thing wasn't possible.

To help shake the mood, I did a bit of sewing. I'm able to lose myself in the finer details of construction and the little jacket I created did just the trick. I made myself a sunny little shrug of vintage fabric and buttons that I've had forever.

Double Down

We made a pact to try this together - KFC is currently featuring a chicken sandwich called the "Double Down". The sandwich features 2 Original Recipe boneless chicken breasts (you can opt for grilled, but why bother?), 2 strips of bacon, 2 slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack "cheese" and is topped with a white, creamy substance that KFC refers to as "Colonel's Sauce".

Our original idea was to split one of these and eat nothing else the rest of the day, but we somehow came around to ordering one apiece AND having sides and drinks. Phew!!

It was freshly made and the initial bite was hot and juicy. The soft bacon was a bit lost among all of the other flavors, which was a shame. Maybe if it'd been crispy, it would have added to the texture and I would have noticed it a bit more. I was unable to distinguish between the pepper jack and the Monterey "cheese" - they kind of just blended together into a melty miasma which was highly processed (no surprise there) and not really cheese-like at all to me. As for the Colonel's Sauce - it was very salad dressing-like. . . almost like a peppercorn ranch that was all pepper and no ranch. I suspect this was added to the sandwich to help coat the throat and make the whole thing slide down your gullet without complications.

All of this being said, it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. Certain improvements could be made - Pat and I both agreed that adding a honey mustard sauce in place of the Colonel's Sauce would be a step in the right direction. Perhaps adding a bit of crunch would help - I know the coleslaw that I put on a couple bites improved it for me.

It didn't sit in my stomach like a rock and didn't put me into a food coma - of course, I didn't feel like reading up on the nutritional information on it. . . I'm sure that would have had a worse effect on me than eating the sandwich.

Wonderland

Fifer, her friend Amanda and I attended the Wonderland Community Launch - it's really going to be an amazingly creative space when it's complete.

For those of you that don't know, Wonderland is located at the former Wonder Bread factory down near Italian Village. The project will take the sprawling factory and transform it into a studio space/exhibition space/workshop/recording studio/performance venue/rehearsal space/office and retail space for artists, musicians and other various creative types. It's a massive project and I really cannot wait to see what they come up with.

The community launch invited the public to come see the progress that has been made and view the future plans for the space. There were many acoustic performances by local bands and it was great to see the huge turnout.

Flotation Walls played a energy-filled set - watching the crowd get into their performance was show all on it's own.

The costumes got filthy-filthy from all of the machine dust and grease and such. It's going to be a treat to clean them! Wish me luck

Down and Dirty

I spent the day out at my friend Sidley's house, working on our vegetable garden. Sidley had tilled the plot twice, but the grass clumps were so very stubborn and had to be removed before we could start sowing seeds. It was a great day for it and Jeff came along to help out. I played with worms and was completely filthy by the time the sun went down. Sid had a lovely chicken and vegetable soup waiting for her hungry farmhands. I ate two huge bowls and promptly fell into a food coma.

At the end of the day, roughly 1/3 of the patch had been planted. We've got beans, peas, carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers, leeks, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, watermelon, rhubarb, summer squash, okra and zucchini.

I can't wait until stuff starts sprouting and there's a bounty to share!

Lunchtime Feast

another lunchtime bento!

This time around featured turkey dumplings, red pepper and broccoli stir-fry and rice. Supplemented with some ramune, everyburger, caramel corn and hello panda treats!

Sundress and FloWalls in Cincy

Jessie and I rode together to catch the show at Northside Tavern - the only bar I've ever been in Cincinnati. All of the elements came together and it just made for a great evening. The music was good, Pat's pants were up to scratch, Taco Bell/KFC didn't fudge the order too badly, the friends were friendly, the dancing was fun and sweaty and there were smiles galore. I love seeing people smile so much!

After the Sundresses killer set, we all spent the night at Mackenzie's lovely home. . . It's nerdy to say, but I really felt as though I were in Middle Earth, staying at the Last Homely House. It was comfortable as hell and after getting a belly full of beer and homemade spaghetti chili, I slept like a fat little Hobbit.

Just a fantastic time, all around.

Please check out The Sundresses and Flotation Walls - some of the best music I've ever heard

Pants of Yellowness

Phew! I really do apologize for this spam-like mass posting of entries - I was incredibly busy sewing, working and cooking!

Pat has been back playing with Flotation Walls now for several months. He asked that I make him a set of pants for their show in Cincy. While I had the noble intentions of completing the ENTIRE costume and not just the britches, these pants proved to be pretty labour-intense. Also, I'm a terrible procrastinator!

These are proper yellow man-jeans. . . 5 pockets, fancy topstitching, a waistband with belt loops, back yoke, crazy raised knee-action, serged seams and a proper fly. I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out and I hope to find more of the same fabric to do the same for the other lads as well.

For those of you that aren't familiar, this time last year I was tasked with creating costumes for Flotation Walls. You can take a look at them in my flickr set

Muppet Egg Bento

Another bento. . . I know, I know - I just posted about one!

Whatever - deal with it. That egg is super-cute and there's no denying you love his adorable, squished little face!

Other contents: green pepper slices, strawberries, some poorly constructed kappa maki, pork and mushroom dumplings and rice with furikake

Parcels from Far Away

I have a nice flickr friend who knows my great love of all things Cheese and took it upon himself to send not one but TWO parcels to me.

The first one contained a postcard and some lovely assam tea and the other had some English Cheddar and mustard! I'm in heaven. . . I can't decide what is better - the contents or the amazing packaging! I'm a nerdy sucker for foreign postage.

Thanks so much, Carl!

Tiny Tigers

Here's another installment of the weekly bento that I make for myself and my best friend/co-worker. I got the idea for the tiger faces over at justbento.com. The tiger faces were awfully fiddly, as I don't own any nori punches just yet. I like a challenge, though!

My quick little recipe for white chili:

1-1.5 lbs pork, cut into bit sized pieces
1 can of diced green chilies
2 cans of great northern beans, drained
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 can of chicken stock
a little cornstarch
cumin
1 chicken flavour bouillon cube
salt & pepper
red pepper flakes
cayenne pepper
sriracha sauce

In a large skillet, fry the pork and onion together in a little bit of olive oil. Season with the cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until pork is just done - don't overcook it as you'll continue to cook it as it simmers with the beans and stock.

Dump the beans into a large pot and simmer over medium heat. Stir in the pork/onion mixture and the can of chilies. Add red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper to taste. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the chicken stock and whisk in a bit of the cornstarch. This is what I use to thicken the mixture up. Add this to the beans and meat, along with the rest of the can of chicken stock. You may have to adjust the level of cornstarch added to get the desired consistency. . . I usually just wing it. :D Now's the time that you'll also want to add that bouillon cube for a little extra kick of flavour. And of course the sriracha to taste

Simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes or so. It's ready to eat, but like most chilies and stews and such, it's better the second day.

I serve it with grated cheese, chopped cilantro and a dollop of sour cream!

Pink Spiders

It's been a bit since my last entry and I've got a lot of catching up to do!

This is one of the projects that I've had stewing in the back of my mind for some time and it's finally come to fruition. I've had this fabric in my stash for aaaages, but never knew what I wanted to do with it. I think it works nicely in this little ruffly-tiered dress that I've concocted, even if the large print of the spiders gets a bit hidden.

I didn't have enough of the spider fabric to make all of the tiers the same, which bummed me out a bit. The pink band still looks a bit odd to my eyes, but I'm considering adding some black bias stripes to it to help break it up a wee bit.

I'm pleased with the fit, even if strapless dresses aren't great for the top-heavy.

Bikes, Books and Bento

My car's been out of commission for a bit now, so if I have a day to myself and want to get around, I usually wind up riding my bike. It's a purple beast from the 1960's - I love it, but it's really, really difficult to ride it up some of the long, sloping hills around my place. Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to take a trip to my local, awesome Japanese grocery store. Easier said than done! I was feel a bit under the weather, was totally dehydrated. only halfway there. . . there was nothing for it - I had to have a bit of a lay-down at a busy intersection. I was cursing the bike for it's lack of gears to help my fat arse get up the hill.

After 25 minutes of being sprawled in the grass, praying that no one would think that I had collapsed and lost consciousness and call an ambulance, I managed to catch my breath enough to make it the last leg to the store. I picked up some supplies to make an awesome bento lunch for me and my best mate Pat, who also happens to be my co-worker.

Later that evening I was quite restless, and I wound up staying up a lot later than I should have. I think it was well worth the effort - my tamago turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. I am looking forward to making bento lunches a weekly thing and improving on my skills.

Pat also brought me some things to occupy the free-time that I always seem to have on my hands. A novel of "Papillon", several anime that I've yet to see, Jim Henson's Storyteller, some Neil Gaiman graphic novels - it should keep me busy for a bit.

The Courtesan

I've been having such vivid, lovely dreams at night here recently and I'm kind of amazed at how that's been helping me to sleep better. I guess that if I thought a bit longer on the subject, it probably makes more sense that if one is having a wonderful dream, then one wishes to stay asleep as long as possible.

I did a short set of photos to help try to capture one of these dreams - I tried to fill them with as much emotion as I could and I really do hope it comes across. I'm not a professional model or photographer by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, an amateur with a lot of spare time, a meager point-and-shoot camera and very limited photo-editing skills. And lucid dreams to use as inspiration.

If you care to take a look, the photos can be viewed here. I'm always looking to improve my skills, so please feel free to give me some (constructive) criticism!

Here I am and there You are

I'm feeling a bit galvanized, so here I am. Going to have a fresh go at doing the things that I love and sharing them with you.

For those of you that don't know me, you can expect to see a healthy smattering of sewing, costuming, drawing, random videos, food, music, and adventure. Just a big mess o' stuff!

Cheery-bye 'til next time!