Just so damn cute!

We went to the 90's One-Hit Wonders sing-a-long at the Alamo last night with Dan and his lady. When we first started dating we went to the Christmas edition of one of these things. I realized that night that there are very, very few rocking Christmas songs, most of them are slow and reflective. Anyhow, at the 1-Hit show I realized that damn, sometimes we as a Billboard list nation we have completely shitty taste in music. I call forth MMMBop and Breakfast At Tiffany's as evidence.

We brought props to add a certain Je ne sais quoi to the whole affair.

For Those Who Oppose Beauty Pagents

Here she comes: Saudi's Miss Beautiful Morals
By Donna Abu-Nasar

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Sukaina al-Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. She covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil, so no one can tell what she looks like. She also admits she's a little on the plump side.

But at Saudi Arabia's only beauty pageant, the judges don't care about a perfect figure or face. What they're looking for in the quest for "Miss Beautiful Morals" is the contestant who shows the most devotion and respect for her parents.

"The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants' commitment to Islamic morals... It's an alternative to the calls for decadence in the other beauty contests that only take into account a woman's body and looks," said pageant founder Khadra al-Mubarak.

"The winner won't necessarily be pretty," she added. "We care about the beauty of the soul and the morals."

So after the pageant opens Saturday, the nearly 200 contestants will spend the next 10 weeks attending classes and being quizzed on themes including "Discovering your inner strength," "The making of leaders" and "Mom, paradise is at your feet" — a saying attributed to Islam's Prophet Muhammad to underline that respect for parents is among the faith's most important tenets.
Pageant hopefuls will also spend a day at a country house with their mothers, where they will be observed by female judges and graded on how they interact with their mothers, al-Mubarak said. Since the pageant is not televised and no men are involved, contestants can take off the veils and black figure-hiding abayas they always wear in public.

The Miss Beautiful Morals pageant is the latest example of conservative Muslims co-opting Western-style formats to spread their message in the face of the onslaught of foreign influences flooding the region through the Internet and satellite television.~

Whole article here.

Floating Lanterns

This is Beautiful! C & I tried to make one of our own floating lanterns over SXSW. It involved butcher paper and a tea candle. Hahaha...it didn't exactly work...didn't work at all. But it would be beautiful to do this in a grand Texan field--I'm a big fan of the grand Texan fields.
Can purchase lanterns here.

Collecting of "Marketable Skills"

I'm 26 and I'm starting to think in terms of my "marketable skills", which are frankly rather minimal. It's time I start collecting some skills because right now my largest skill set is sewing. However, I don't want that to be the way I make a living: by sewing clothing or wedding dresses (way too tedious). On the flip side making curtains wouldn't be so bad, which is why I will be taking an upholstery class in the fall. I'm actually quite excited about this because Conner and I have been talking about making some furniture in the future.

I also want to learn web design, graphic design, and photography. After getting all of those marketable skills down pat I will then be a bonafide art director and designer...one who will be able to take the Austin job market by storm!

I've been scoping out other talented people in these fields and have come across some really interesting and awesome artists.

Josh Goleman

Margaret Singer

Amelia Lyon

Lomo Groupies

I got a new camera! Hahaha...to be fair, it was on sale on the Urban Outfitters website and I thought it'd be fun to take on our cycling trip. I was going to get disposable cameras along the way and then send them home to Conner along with the CDs I'll pick up as we go (more about that soon), but then I found this camera. I googled Lomo cameras and there seems to be all these Lomo groupies--it's like Vinyl Groupies but for photography--with hint/tip blogs and it just seems like it would be fun to play around with. I can't wait for it it arrive!

Always seems to come back to music.

I was noticing that everything that I seem to do always comes back to music, or uses music as inspiration. Funny thing is that I have no inclination to learn an instrument for myself. I did have the usual childhood stint at the piano for one year and then violin for two years in middle school but that is it. The violin gig was rather painful for my parents and it left me with a huge weakness for skinny guys who can play the instrument rather well. See attached photo.

However, despite the lack of musical talent I am a large musical connoisseur. This too, took a couple years to fully embrace. In college I hung out with all these people who would trade off "did you hear this really obscure band?"--"oh yeah! they're great. but did you hear this really, really obscure group from New Guinea?". I eventually gave up on trying to stay current with my music knowledge and became a Madonna fan. But now I live in the self-proclaimed music capital of the world and well, now I'm hooked.

I want to do a project where Conner and I travel around the US for a year and study music of America. Actually, it was his idea but I climbed on the band-wagon. I have wanted to do a trip around the states for a while but I thought I would do it after I graduated from grad school, and since that doesn't seem to happening any time soon, I figure now is a perfect time to do it. I'm still in the super early stages of planning and narrowing the "plan". I've been reading a lot of books--like The Rest Is Noise and Struggling To Define A Nation-- and movies--1 Giant Leap, Touching The Sound, Heima, and Surfwise. If anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated. It's the first stage of weeding out ideas that is the most exciting in it's possibilities and terribly daunting.

Life at Typographic Speed

I was doing some research on wedding photography yesterday--for a potential photoshoot--and I came upon Leo Patrone. He has a blog and he posted about a friend of his who did the music for this video...

Robert Longo

I was trying to remember who did the "Men in the Cities" drawings that I vaguely remembered from college. I just think these are amazing--from the skill of drawing, to the idea, to yes, the fashion. I'm a sucker for them.

And I still couldn't remember his name until I came upon this post in a new blog that I absolutely love. Black*Effiel.

She wrote about a music video, directed by Bienvenido Cruz, by CircleSquare that uses the Longo project as inspiration. I dig it.

Dissolving Atoms & Molecules

It's been so slow at work today on account of the rain, and thus I have had ample time to watch TED tv online. Technology, Entertainment, Design is an annual conference that takes place in Long Beach where 5o people each year give an 18 minute talk of their choosing. Kat introduced me to the site and reccomended I watch this one first. Jill Bolte Taylor, brain researcher, talked about her own stroke that occured 15 years (?) ago. Actually really, really interesting in my opinion.

Right brain=all about the "right here, right now". Thinks and feels in images. Cyclical. Community oriented.
Left brain=linear think. Concerned with past and future. Connects current details and moments to future/past moments. Individually oriented.
What she says is eerily reminiscent of eastern religious rhetoric.

I used to be so much more interesting...

I found an old blog that I used to have back in 2005 and was reading it over. I used to be sooo much more interesting! I read so many more books and articles and listen to the radio. I was way more in touch with what was going on in the world back then. I wasn't a bad writer either. I had much more interesting and complex opinion. And I had more interesting journals that had lots of drawings and collages.

I have one journal that I think showcases the "Best" of me. I was funny and creative. That was back in 2003.

But when I think about those times, I wasn't happy. I was lonely, insecure, and constantly dreaming about what my life would be like once I would "come into my own". I had tons of time to spend at home reading, watching movies, drawing, sewing, and writing. But what I wanted to be doing was going out with friends and being girlie and just generally having fun--which is what I'm doing now. I'm infinitly happier now and wouldn't change anything...but I also don't have very much down time. I've been going at full force for a while now and I think I'm just now slowing down and enjoying being boring on a Friday night (I'm always convinced that I'm going to miss something amazing if I don't go out...but I guess that's changing). Maybe that's because I've become lost in boyfriendland or my age or I just need to replenish my mojo for the next round...I'm going to go with boyfriend and mojo depletion--age is a lame excuse.

Going on a bike trip

Many Americans were surprised in 2005 when Lonely Planet guidebook selected Croatia as the world's number one dream vacation site. To geographically and historically challenged Americans, Croatia was a war zone, some far off Eastern European country.Which is a shame, because Croatia is an amazingly beautiful, sophisticated and cheap destination? There are more than a 1,000 miles of spectacular, rocky shoreline dotted with beaches, red tile roof fishing villages, towering mountains and imposing fortresses. It is like the French or Italian Riviera in the 1960s -- one of those rare places that actually lives up to its tourist office billing - "the Mediterranean as it used to be."It is one of six new countries that came from what was formerly called Yugoslavia. The war has been over since 1995 and peace and tourism are flourishing.Hvar bills itself as the greenest and sunniest of all Croatian islands. It's certainly one of the most beautiful with high mountains falling down to the shore.http://www.sogonow.com/archives/2007/01/island_hopping.php

http://001yourtranslationservice.com/travel-Europe/cheap-travel-europe-tour-guide.html

Picture above:Melissani Lake - Kefalonia Island

I went to Bookpeople after spending all day doing research for our trip. They don't have any books on several of the countries that Kat and I are going! There must be travel books for these countries in print somewhere, but they certainly don't have them at Bookpeople. They have Italy, Greece, and a little of Croatia covered. They don't have any information on Slovenia, Montenegro, or Albania anywhere! I couldn't believe it. On the upside though, maybe that just means that there aren't very many tourists and things will be much cheaper...

Things I like

I really like the aesthetic of the 70's. I know it's super in fashion right now but I still love it. I like having a semi-pared down look that has a "painterly touch" (ie. The Sword and the Stone cover). Not too frilly. Is this helpful at all? Or do you need more?

Leaked Finery Photos

Ah Ha Ha! Here's the first photo from our Finery project! Looks amazing! Kat Rabe did the ceramic necklace, I made the clothes, and Christina Schaffel did the photography. Yay! We're going to have an art opening on the 17th. I'll post all the info once we get it more organized.

Ceramic/Silk has got a new name

Kat and I decided upon a new name for our Ceramic/Silk project - Finery. We had the photoshoot tonight at IF+D furniture store where Kat used to work and where the art opening will be on April 17th. We ended up making four different looks out of our original three and we're planning on printing them on poster sized paper and hanging them up around the store.
I think it turned out better than Kat, Christina, or I had hoped. It seems like the last two photoshoots we've done have been way more organized and we've all been much more prepared. This time round it seemed like we were halfway ready but just had to wing the rest of it because the opening is in two weeks and we just couldn't put it off any longer. And we didn't have all our models picked out. Luckily one of the girls who works at the coffee shop- the one that is a daily pit-stop for me on the way to work-volunteered and then Kat's roommate was roped into it as well. All four girls had pale skin and brown hair which I think will tie all of the outfits together really well.
All in all, it turned out amazing. Real photos should be coming soon!

Horoscopes

My favorite horoscope writing man is Rob Brezney. I must confess that I am a big fan of horoscopes and when I'm anxious I turn to them more often than not. Even if the horoscope is dismal for that week they tend to leave off with a sunnier "stick it out till next week and all your hard work will pay off"-or something like that. What I like about Brezney is that he gives you some random story at the beginning and then will explain how it relates back to you only in the last sentence.; like the one from this week for Sagittarians:

"Some Japanese employees receive three days of "heartache leave" per year from the companies they work for. During those times they can recover from sad experiences or romantic reversals. If it were up to me, every company in every country in the world would annually provide workers with the opposite kind of holiday: ten days of "heart-soaring leave." These would be times devoted to cultivating blessed breakthroughs or celebrating great happiness. If there were such a system in place already, Sagittarius, I bet you'd use some of those heart-soaring days in the coming weeks."

How can one not be optimistic after reading this?

Ceramic/Silk-sewing #1

I've been slowly working on this dress for the last week. I spent 5 hours on the bus just to get up to the big fabric store for this. Ugh. Sometimes I do terribly miss my car--especially when I need to do grocery shopping, laundry, or go to any of the big chain stores outside of town (like Joann's Fabrics). Took 2 hours up and 2 back and then I got on the wrong bus for 1 hour. But, it was a rainy day and I had a good turn-of-the-century murder mystery book so it wasn't unbearable.Kat's going to make a big art necklace out of clay that will kind of wrap around the model's head a bit. It's hard to explain but I'm envisioning a nod towards this.

SXSW 2009

I had this grand plan to take the whole music part of SXSW off and just do it up right--see as many free day shows with free drinks as possible and chill out at night. However, I ended up having to work the whole time and didn't get to see quite as much as I originally thought. But it was cool because I did get to see King Kahn (who all wore necklaces of donkey teeth), this Southern Siberian throat singing band (picture below), and my new musical performing hero, Janelle Monae. And I got to hang out with my beau a lot which was fun...we tried to make paper hot air balloons which didn't work out so well--need little paper and a bigger candle. We were getting down at the Monae show while most of the other people weren't and we were filmed! And I got photographed for my Thursday South By outfit--hahaha, I felt like I gained mad hipster points for that! haha...not really, because I did know the girl doing the photographing.

Me & Margot in Mike Harrell's glasses. King Kahn show at Birds Barbershop.

Siberian throat singing group

Blackbeards

Jen Swearington came to visit a little while ago. I have a tendency to adopt slightly older awesome women who I consider as older sisters. Jen's amazing and super talented. When she came to visit we tried to go to the Beard & Mustache party at the Mohawk, but it was too packed and the line was crazy long. So, instead we went to the SideBar and had our own party over some pool.

Night of the Opening

I've learned my lesson--must designate someone to be the official opening photographer. My mom was the only it seems who took any photos, and even then they are not extensive. But this is what we have.

Erin's photos
Me & the Boys

Chrissy & I

John & I

Joy & David

Erin, me, & Em

Em & Ossi

How I see my relationship

Taken by Erin Berkencamp the day of the Don't Bring Me Down shoot.