Well, grams of the times. Some Instagram stuff lately:
“Drink of Summer 2020” by Alessandra Olanow
Seen here; no source for original tweet
Art by Mike Shine
Seen here
Well, grams of the times. Some Instagram stuff lately:
“Drink of Summer 2020” by Alessandra Olanow
Seen here; no source for original tweet
Art by Mike Shine
Seen here
Please allow me to share many photos from a shoot Doc indulged me with for an Instagram challenge, because they are some of my favorite photos of myself EVER:
Skates! Pink and orange! Ombre! Pegasus earrings! Magic light! SHINY!!
The Instagram challenge was to sew something to skate in and use the hashtag #sewandroll. I dithered for a long time about participating, but about two days before the challenge I was at JoAnn and saw their dance spandex and realized I had the ideal pattern:
This is the pattern I added pants to for that dino print jumpsuit, but for this I made view B as drafted. I cut the fabric crosswise to preserve the ombre fade, which meant I had to add a seam to the center back, but that was the only “tricky” part.
I had a great time making this and modeling it–many thanks to Doc, who is truly a talented photographer and made the shoot really fun and relaxed. We’ll see if I wear it again. Maybe disco night at the roller rink? (Assuming we can ever do things in a crowd again, of course.)
Today is the hundredth anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing white women the right to vote. That seems like an alarmingly short time; at the same time, all women weren’t guaranteed the right for another 50 years:
Among those necessary laws were the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943 and the adoption of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the 24th Amendment in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, along with its amendments of 1970 and 1975.
As that Times editorial goes on to say, “In other words, the 19th Amendment was one step in a long, racially fraught battle for voting rights that seemed secure a few decades ago but face a grave threat today.”
Every time I vote, I think, “People have literally been beaten and arrested so I can do this.” Don’t let anyone take it away. Get your ballots in early.
David Leibovitz’s “moelleux of summer fruits,” more underwear (still trying to find that perfect pattern; these are not it but they used up some lace scraps), Smitten Kitchen’s summer squash pizza. It cooled down enough to use the oven!
1. If you, like me, thought Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree was bullshit, this is for you: The Tree Who Set Healthy Boundaries
2. Ausitn Kleon pointed us to a Spotify playlist if you’re lucky enough to be by a (private) pool this weekend: Poolside ’86
3. I am Too Old to really get/get into vloggers but this young man listening to Nina Simone for the first time is all of us (music starts about a minute in).
I went to
the gym
and got a new PR
for deadlift this morning
I pulled 185 with mixed grip
despite taking 6 weeks off
and dropping a weight
on my foot
Forgive me
William Carlos Williams
but I am so proud
and will be so sore
I know there are poets who think a poem should be anything but nice–challenging, beautiful, monumental–but I like nice ones. And by nice I mean “kind” and “reassuring,” but not simple: This one could be pretty dark but it makes you feel better in the end.
For the Sake of Strangers
Dorianne Laux
No matter what the grief, its weight,
we are obliged to carry it.
We rise and gather momentum, the dull strength
that pushes us through crowds.
And then the young boy gives me directions
so avidly. A woman holds the glass door open,
waiting patiently for my empty body to pass through.
All day it continues, each kindness
reaching toward another—a stranger
singing to no one as I pass on the path, trees
offering their blossoms, a child
who lifts his almond eyes and smiles.
Somehow they always find me, seem even
to be waiting, determined to keep me
from myself, from the thing that calls to me
as it must have once called to them—
this temptation to step off the edge
and fall weightless, away from the world.
I’ve had to go into the office a couple times for client meetings, all masked up and spread out, but, you know, meetings mean talking. The Craft Passion pattern I was using before tended to slide down my nose when you moved your jaw (a requirement of talking) and that wasn’t going to work.
So when I saw pattern designer Marilla Walker talking about a “boat mask” on Instagram and how comfortable it was, I thought I’d try it out. Her post I linked has a pattern you can draft but I found one ready to go at Aplat and tried that–it fit perfectly and was indeed amazingly comfortable.
The flaps at the top and bottom give it a 3D effect, which keeps it tight at the edges but leaves a lot of room in front of your mouth. I wore one Sunday for family visits and it stayed in place perfectly, even with lots of talking.
Since mask wearing looks like it’s going to stay around for the foreseeable future, I made these versions more FASHUN than neutral. The ties are bias binding for some color (I’m a big fan of a mask that ties around your head vs. ear elastic). No reason we can’t be stylish while we stay safe, right?
1. If you haven’t read Patricia Lockwood’s essay about surviving the rona, do it. It’s equal parts hilarious and terrifying (she was never hospitalized but had delusions): Insane After Coronavirus.
My mind had moved a few inches to the left of its usual place, and I developed what I realised later were actual paranoid delusions. ‘Jason’s cough is fake,’ I secretly texted a friend from the bathtub, where I couldn’t be monitored. ‘I … don’t think his cough is fake,’ she responded, with the gentle tact of the healthy. ‘Oh it is very, very fake,’ I countered, and then further asserted the claim that he had something called Man Corona.
2. This is accurate:
3. This is helpful: