Karen

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End Of August Poem

By in poems

Poems are usually later in the week but I had to get this one in, because it mentions August! And today is the last day of August! Let’s be super literal!! (I always like Louise Glück and this one captures that “throw the comb away” feeling I get at the end of summer.)

Vespers (End of August)
by Louise Glück

End of August. Heat
like a tent over
John’s garden. And some things
have the nerve to be getting started,
clusters of tomatoes, stands
of late lilies—optimism
of the great stalks—imperial
gold and silver: but why
start anything
so close to the end?
Tomatoes that will never ripen, lilies
winter will kill, that won’t
come back in spring. Or
are you thinking
I spend too much time
looking ahead, like
an old woman wearing
sweaters in summer;
are you saying I can
flourish, having
no hope
of enduring? Blaze of the red cheek, glory
of the open throat, white,
spotted with crimson.

Friday Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information 1 Comment

1. I have never once in my 40 years wanted to read Beowulf–it sounded too boring, too full of men making speeches about their bravery–but there is a new translation out by Maria Headley and, at least in this New Yorker review, it sounds amazing:

“Headley’s version is more of a rewriting than a true translation, reënvisaging the poem for the modern reader rather than transmitting it line for line. It is brash and belligerent, lunatic and invigorating, with passages of sublime poetry punctuated by obscenities and social-media shorthand.”

Seriously, this is a speech about a dude’s bravery I can get behind:

I’m the strongest and the boldest, and the bravest and the best.
Yes: I mean—I may have bathed in the blood of beasts,
netted five foul ogres at once, smashed my way into a troll den
and come out swinging, gone skinny-dipping in a sleeping sea
and made sashimi of some sea monsters.
Anyone who fucks with the Geats? Bro, they have to fuck with me…
Now, I want to test my mettle on Grendel, best him,
a match from man into meat. Just us two,
hand to hand. Sweet.

 

2. From McSweeney’s: Frog and Toad Tentatively Go Outside After Months In Self-Quarantine.

Toad changed into his work pajamas.

He reached under a pillow for his laptop and opened up his email.

“I have so much work to do,” sighed Toad.

He set his Zoom background to a picture of his room when it was tidy.

“There,” said Toad. “Now I am professional.”

Thursday Poem

By in poems

I signed up for the Poets.org newsletter about a month ago and they’ve consistently been featuring Black poets. This is from the newsletter; I like how the form is almost a sonnet, but with the rhymes shifted.

ALL Y’ALL REALLY FROM ALABAMA
Ashley M. Jones

…The straitjackets of race prejudice and discrimination do not wear only southern labels. The subtle, psychological technique of the North has approached in its ugliness and victimization of the Negro the outright terror and open brutality of the South.”
            ― Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait (Beacon Press, 2011)

this here the cradle of this here
nation—everywhere you look, roots run right
back south. every vein filled with red dirt, blood,
cotton. we the dirty word you spit out your
mouth. mason dixon is an imagined line—you
can theorize it, or wish it real, but it’s the same
old ghost—see-through, benign. all y’all from
alabama; we the wheel turning cotton to make
the nation move. we the scapegoat in a land built
from death. no longitude or latitude disproves
the truth of founding fathers’ sacred oath:
we hold these truths like dark snuff in our jaw,
Black oppression’s not happenstance; it’s law.

Talking About Pandemic Feelings

By in feelings 2 Comments

I was talking about the pandemic with my therapist and how no one on my team at work has said they’re having a hard time dealing with it. I’ve been having a hard time (feeling unfocused, feeling irritated, feeling like I want to just weep in a corner and then eat cake and buy fabric) and my therapist pointed out that my team members probably are, too, even if no one is talking about their feelings. So when I saw this article last week, I decided to share it in our team check-in….and lo and behold, every teammate said that they’d been feeling the same way and that things were hard. It was a good moment.

The article–Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful–is full of good info (who knew about surge capacity!) and it’s just really comforting to know that 1.) feeling like this is normal and 2.) everyone is feeling like this.

…people are having to live their lives without the support of so many systems that have partly or fully broken down, whether it’s schools, hospitals, churches, family support, or other systems that we relied on. We need to recognize that we’re grieving multiple losses while managing the ongoing impact of trauma and uncertainty. The malaise so many of us feel, a sort of disinterested boredom, is common in research on burnout…But other emotions accompany it: disappointment, anger, grief, sadness, exhaustion, stress, fear, anxiety—and no one can function at full capacity with all that going on.

Fabrics I Have Bought And Now Don’t Know What To Do With

By in fabric

I’ve been trying to be good about not buying any fabric to make office clothes, like blouses or blazers or pants, and instead focus on easy outfits that look interesting on Zoom calls. And I’ve been trying to sew from my stash, which is ample.

But I have always been a sucker for a Japanese print, so when Stonemountain had this samurai dobby a couple months ago, I didn’t think twice about buying it:

Then last month I saw Miss Matatabi had cotton crepe in a traditional print and, um, I also bought that and paid for shipping from Japan.

Then I discovered Fabric Godmother in the UK and saw that they had a line of exclusive fabrics using vintage prints and, while this rayon isn’t exactly Japanese, it has TIGERS and LAVA on it sooooo I bought it too:

I mean, fabric doesn’t have an expiration date, so I don’t have to figure out what to do with these right away. But I love them so much it would be nice to have them on my body. Maybe some jackets to throw on over a t-shirt for Zoom calls? Or to wear outside the house in a distant, rosy future?

Happy Birthday To My Dad, Who Is Brave

By in birthdays

There’s a special rare Saturday post today because it’s my dad’s birthday!

He’s always been the embodiment of “tough”–worked outside, worked hard, could climb a telephone pole, once fell off a telephone pole and broke a kneecap yet kept working–but in the last couple years, in Mom’s illness and death, he’s been more than tough: He’s been brave.

Tough is working hard to support your loved ones; brave is watching your loved one die while showing up for her every step of the way. Tough is ignoring pain; brave is living with pain every day and still making a life for yourself. Brave is figuring out new routines, new meals, new hobbies. My dad is so brave.

He’s always shown us what it means to be strong and live according to “The Cowboy Way,” but seeing his bravery, his patience, and his endurance in the face of everything has been inspiring. Thanks for setting such.an example for us, Dad. I love you.

 

 

 

Friday Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information 2 Comments

1. I’m a sucker for any recreation of a historical personage so I spent a lot of time at the Photoreal Roman Emperors by Daniel Voshart.

Using the neural-net tool Artbreeder, Photoshop and historical references, I have created photoreal portraits of Roman Emperors. For this project, I have transformed, or restored (cracks, noses, ears etc.) 800 images of busts to make the 54 emperors of The Principate (27 BC to 285 AD).

 

2. There have been a lot of jokes all year about “how could 2020 get any worse?!” but maybe we shouldn’t have been asking  because the fires in California seem to have answered that. From photographer Noah Berger (who shot this astonishing picture), a series on what people who had fled California’s Valley Fire took with them: What They Couldn’t Leave Behind.

 

3. And, because everything is terrible (but things are bad enough, 2020! no need to get worse!), maybe take some time to do this end of week check in (first seen on Rachel Cargle‘s Instagram, originally from here):

 

Wednesday Project Roundup: Xanadu!

By in sewing, skating, Tuesday Project Roundup 2 Comments

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.)

100 Years

By in feminism

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.

 

 

 

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