design, signs, questions, and the Atlantic Project

Following a link that said “what’s the cost of being a nerd?” I landed at the Atlantic.Project–which looks to be a new package for the Atlantic. Set up as a series of questions, there’s a cute little video for each and links to “conventional” articles and blog posts. The whole thing looks great! Screenshot (click to embiggen):

Each question gets written out in neon in some wonderfully ordinary place, on the street, on the steps of the library, in a diner, and people are standing and sitting near them when talking in the videos.

The opposite of the neon lights though, are the questions written up to camouflage with the rest of city signage:

These are the most beautiful. The mimicry is spot on, and to see these in the city would be such a sweet, private moment of being disarmed. They remind me of my favourite Steve Lambert work:

Winter in Vancouver

This is what it looks like here, right now.

craftrant

I went (with my friend Katie and roommate Kurt) to the BUST Holiday Craftacular craft fair a few weeks ago, and came away really disappointed. Lots of vendors doesn’t actually mean betters stuff, and the cool things seem to blend into this overarching sea of same-ness. Knit things, charm bracelets, silkscreened t-shirts, peacock feather headbands, more knit things, more charm bracelets, some silkscreened hoodies, and MORE PEACOCK FEATHER HEADBANDS. I bought one letterpress postcard and then left.

I think that my real disinterest is because all of it seems to be about adorning objects with the images that are currently in the zeitgeist. Birds, vegetables, pirates, ninjas, raccoons, whatever. The tacky crafts are the ones that say “hey, I’ve got some things cut out of a magazine and some bottlecaps, what can I glue them to? How about this picture frame! How about this notebook?” The stuff at the craftacular was much much nicer that that schlock, certainly, but it’s the same kind of idea, even if it’s putting a beautiful drawing of an octopus and printing it on an American Apparel t-shirt. Or putting birds onto charm bracelets.

Say you have a sister, and she’s really into mermaids. You’ll buy her pretty much anything that has a mermaid on it because you know that she’ll like it…but why are you buying that particular thing? The best craft stuff are things that are made because their object-ness is important. Like handmade furniture. This is what I think of when I think of craft–useful objects made in the most beautiful of ways. And so I like the things that are made because the maker is skilled at making such a thing–I find myself buying prints or postcards or flat things, because if I love the image, I don’t necessarily want it on my chest.

The booth of the kids who had made their own t-shirts in great colours and shapes–they totally prove the rule!

I like pottery. I respect soap. I bought beautiful hand-printed fabric at Brooklyn Flea many weeks ago that is now being incorporated into the secret quilt project.

I like objects (they become part of collections, which is something I’ve been thinking lots about and will write about later). I think that you should love the object you have because they either work well (you should have seem Emily’s face when she was explaining how great her square measuring spoons were) or because they are beautiful (I have some tea towels that I’m very very fond of, and not because they dry dishes better than others). I think people should make beautiful things, and make things beautiful. But so much craft feels like it was done because it could be, and lots of it starts to feel very cafe-press-like, with your design on a t-shirt! a tote bag! a mousepad! a thong! and not about lovely things at all.

Regarding collections, here is the assemblage of things on my living room wall. Since this was taken the colony of objects has grown a fair bit…

And regarding craft: Look! The yellow octopus apron came true:

new secret project

I’ll keep my thoughts on gentrification to myself, for now.

I’m posting this because I’m in a good mood so it amuses me more than anything else. Photo snapped in the subway system somewhere (42nd street, on a Q to 2/3 transfrer, most likely).

It’s the end of my semester, celebrated with a good mix of academic awesomeness (in the form of a Critical Urbanism conference at CUNY, beer and potato salad, french onion soup and Settlers of Catan, Contra dancing, egg creams, and tomorrow’s crafternoon. Now that I’ve emerged from the coccoon of idea-arranging and time-bound-thought-thinking, shitty magazines are somehow amusing again.

tired. cranky. busy.

This is what the end of a semester looks like.

gastrophonic stimulation

I’ve been telling all of you about this, but coming up soon–December 9th–is Gastrophonic Stimulation, an evening of music and food at the Bowery Poetry Club.

(click photo to embiggen)

I’m making latkes, so is Shira Kline, Leah Koenig and Avigail Hurvitz-Prinz are making Eggnog, Avi Fox-Rosen and a large assortment of wonderful individuals will be playing music. It will be an evening of serious sensory overload. It will be awesome.

Tuesday December 9th
10 pm
Bowery Poetry Club
$12
(here’s the facebook link if you’re into such things)

I’m making a new apron for the event, using this pattern from the Purl Bee, and this Heather Ross fabric:

Just so you can visualize what this is sort of going to look like, here’s a snap of me making waffles at Thanksgiving last night:

and then we all held hands, and no one was afraid

I’ve always liked this song:

academic excitement

I just cited my first “forthcoming” article in a paper! This thrills me to no end.

hand-turkeys

Tomorrow is thanksgiving! My first American thanksgiving! I am going over to the lovely Emily’s house, and making savory waffles from the Rebar cookbook. (I made them once, about 4 years ago, and swore I’d never do it again, they were so time consuming…).

And yes, while I like to pretend that I don’t really understand how America works, I do know that waffles are not a traditional thanksgiving food.

But my favourite favourite thing about thanksgiving…Hand Turkeys!

Look at this photo, from the big brunch party here on south fourth street a few weeks ago:

See how Jon and Rachel are comparing the size of their hands? This activity was either right before or right after Jon made his first Hand Turkey. It was a thrilling moment.

A quick google of “hand turkey” brings up these fine results:



That last one, of course, is from the often brilliant Toothpaste For Dinner.

Here are more pictures of the brunch party because this holiday is all about eating delicious things with people you like.

Even cats going to grad school can’t spell worth a damn.

departmental bowling

Columbia Urban Planning went bowling the other night, against Pratt and NYU. I didn’t make it, choosing to stay in Brookyn and play home made Apples to Apples. My dear housemate Kurt went bowling with his department the other day. It’s the season for rented shoes, I suppose.

And then today I discovered this bit of info on the Berkely Planning website:

Ph.D. Bowling League: Robert Putnam observed that “The most whimsical yet discomforting bit of evidence of social disengagement in contemporary America that I have discovered is this: more Americans are bowling today than ever before, but bowling in organized leagues has plummeted in the last decade or so.” The Berkeley Planning Bowling League sponsors a regular happy hour for Ph.D. students in an effort to counter this trend and rebuild social capital. They have yet to go bowling, but it could happen some day.

friends in high places

Either Marty Markowitz is really on Facebook, or this is a cute joke, like when I was friends with Coffee on Friendster. Given the mutual friends, I’m venturing it’s real…

in my neighbourhood

Can someone please tell me what Cancellation Shoes are?

secret project revealed

Today my friends Leah and Yoshie are getting married! Before I put on my dress and leave the house, I want to show you the images of the quilt that I made them. It’s been finished for a while, but I didn’t want to post pictures until I gave it to them.

Appliqued vegetables, squares of all sorts of things from my stash, imperfectly aligned. Border is an Urban Outfitters tablecloth that I’ve also made a dress out of. The back is the “I like you” apple fabric. There are small rock pockets on the back in the corners so that it can be weighed down if used as a picnic blanket.

I am so so so happy that it’s done, and that it’s in the hands (on the bed) of people I love.

left and right

I totally didn’t realize when making them that the republican/democrat oven mitts are entirely consistent with all the “on the other hand” mittens that I’ve made for people over the years. I am repeating my craft tendencies without even noticing.

(old shot of ironic/sincere mittens for reference)

electoral crafts

I bought this fabric over the summer, and had been holding onto it, not sure what its highest and best use was…and then it occured to me:

Oven mitts!

Pattern is from the Lotta Jansdotter Simple Sewing book, fabric from the Oneonta Norwich WalMart.

I’m kind of charmed by From 52 to 48 with love, a Ze Frank project about bipartisan collaboration. Or, well, the support for the idea of bipartisan collaboration. I think the mitts count—I mean, both of your hands have to work together, right?

see-saw

I hadn’t thought it through before I read the paper this afternoon, but seeing the articles about Obama and victory right next to the articles about California and Proposition 8 (banning gay marriage)…I honestly feel more dismayed and unhappy about california passing this regressive ballot measure than I feel exited about president-elect Obama. It seems as though we can imagine that this country voted for “change,” but when faced with one very concrete thing about making things actually better for people without harming anyone else, they couldn’t do it.

I was out on the streets of Brooklyn on Tuesday night, celebrating in the throng of people dancing and waving flags and playing music and hollering and hugging and having a great time. I think that this is exciting, but I’m so wary of thinking that this is a period of overwhelming and unprecidented awesome.

Anyhow. Here are two pictures of my feet.

are we gonna get new bicycles?

On Halloween, we carved these pumpkins:

Somehow Halloween, the NYC Marathon, and the election seem inexorably linked. Next year there will be halloween and a marathon with no Sarah Palin Costumes and it will seem odd. I guess the first time you do anything (like live in America) seems like the “right” way.

Anyhow, happy election day, everyone.

speaking of apples

Here’s a small piece of a totally secret craft project I’ve been working on it. It involves this amazing fabric with these hilarious “I like you apples.”