Thing-a-day.com

the wavy edge of hand made paper is called the “deckle edge”. i made it at dieu donne papermill on broome street in soho when i was a teenager and shopped with my friends for cool vintage clothes when broadway still had them. this has to be at least 10 years ago
i asked my uncle if there were any cutters to create the lacy edges of old photographs. he searched all over shanghai and finally found one through an old photographer. the cutter has a green faux marble print base, is about 6 inches by 4 inches and three quarters inch high. i cut white decorative edges for my digital prints. i am a lucky only child
the meniscus edge between someone’s finger and a piece of paper, when you notice the texture, shape and sweatiness of their finger for the first time. (i know meniscus usually refers to liquids)
the edge of the covers of books you love reading, fingering the hardcover edges without the paper book jacket, because you already know the title so well. placing the edges carefully in drawers, or replacing the edges carefully in their right places on bookshelves, books that reveal different insights with each reread
the edge between his heart and yours, which would form a line shaped like the most comfortable fit between two organs, between which there is no space
also, the place where his shoulders ended and the air started
the edges of glass v cake crumble v sponges. the way different materials cleave
dovetail edges. no nails needed
drop off steep edges, chasms in the style of hudson river valley religious paintings, or the landscape photography genre, especially of the grand canyon or that pass where everyone died
edges are for people who notice them

Today I spent 12 hours reinstalling winblows and all my apps. I can’t wait for the day I can run Mac OS on my BOXX. I want to sent Billy Gates a bill for the months of my life wasted fixing his crappy products. Anyway I’m posting a screen shot of my newly installed system. Thats all folks.

This seemed like it would be a quick little project, but….

I have not done any calligraphy for years and forgot many of the simple techniques that would have prevented me from having to start this five times including: counting spaces and letters when centering lines, making sure the paper is not so porous that the ink bleeds, making sure that the paper is porous enough so that when you erase your guidelines you don’t erase your work, to stop thinking about anything except the current letter. and so on.  Well at least it is inexact enough that people will not think I cheated and just used a computer font…

This is a saying that my dad had hanging in his basement for years and I always loved it.  Now I am thinking I need to do an entire series of subversive calligraphy –  maybe some mildly rude stuff in pseudo latin…..

(and yes, I did cut the mats off-kilter on purpose. In my twisted mind I thought that was funny)

this story has many versions, and is told around the world. I am not sure who wrote this first, but my sister was the first to tell me this story.

Just a little old-fashioned something for today.

A portrait of one of my favorite wordsmiths and thinkers, J. M. Coetzee. I’ve been loving his writing even more than usual lately.

Thing a Day 13

Originally uploaded by emberlexi

“Edge”

Inktense Colored Pencils on Moleskine.

Day 14 was a wash. (although there’s one hour left). Vday, Arts League meeting (I’m on the board), catching up on articles leaves little time for the fun stuff..

Ah love ya!

After our hot date full of good food and live piano, we came home and watched LOST.  (WHAT??!!) I colored a picture from the coloring book my dad got for my bridal shower (long story involving very concealing pajamas and making sure I know I’m still his little girl).  (Awwwww….)

Time spent: about a half hour.

These socks were a gift from my sister. Inspired by this post by dyslexia, I decided to use the cute valentines socks my sister gave me as arm warmers as well. I like them better as cuffs. I simply cut and hemmed the end.

The Lincolnshire Poacher + Black Flag, interviewed + John Bonham + Um Jammer Lammy’s sweet heavy gtr = PURE AUDIO MAYHEM.

A collage/remix piece. Short, full of grace, pulling pillows over yr face. Not for the ill-at-ease. I call it 39715.

For reasons which will become clear as you listen.

The MP3 is here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?esfhtjdlbtg

Update: On Feb. 14, a MetaFilter contributor posted a link to the very John Bonham outtakes (from the In Through The Out Door sessions, 1979) that I exploited to make this tune. They’ve been floating around the Interweb for at least a couple of years now, and they’ve been sitting on my laptop’s hard drive in a RAR file for well over a year, just waiting to be used for something cool. I’d previously played with snippets of one of the outtakes in Sept. 2006, layering them over a tune (Huge) from the Amplifier Worship album by Japanese noise-rockers Boris. But I never finished that tune and it was a casualty of a hard drive crash last year. Oh well.

So anyway, this Thing is completely unrelated to that MeFi post, but the synchronicity is interesting.

1 hour on a bad hair day.

a magnet thank you, made out of those same old road trip contact sheets. Because of the weather, I couldn’t get my car from the shop, and had no way over the mountain home. So thanks Stacey! I got to camp in Allentown and have good food, good drinks and many laughs. (And, as special thanks, I did not photograph the inside of your medicine cabinet just to fulfill the ’spying’ theme on thing-a-day)

I got this idea late one night last Winter when my friend my friend Rob Z. threw one of these at me, ninja style, on the dance floor of Alibi Room underneath the Pike Place Market in Seattle.  Rob is all about the goodness of old but great things.  He DJs dance set’s with nothing but funky found 45’s and one of those old turntables they used in public schools when I was a kid.  Rob makes these things cool again.  Or maybe these things are just cool?  Same Same.

I had a boring meeting today. When that happens, I doodle to keep alert. This one, on the back of a spreadsheet (you can still see the spreadsheet cells though the page in spots… meh), is of Steve Priest, the bassist for the Sweet.
If you remember (and how could you forget, really), the immortal glam rock anthem “Ballroom Blitz”, Steve is summoned forth in the opening line and contributes memorably psychotic rants throughout the song. Rock stars were fun in 1973. SP was spectacularly good at being bad: I would venture punk rock before punk rock happened - except that he could play. He wore clothes that could make your eyes bleed. He had (has - still does) purty red hair.