Mostly, I'm impressed with Fallon's Young impression

My friend is about to turn 21. I made this image to go on the invite to her birthday gathering, and I think I'm justified in giggling every time I see it:

Paper Doll

So, I like paper dolls. I mean, studying costume design, I suppose it's natural. However, I'm tried of all the thin, idealized bodies the dolls have, so I made this one:

I realize it's still idealized, but at least it's not the idealized form we see all the time, right? ...Right? Herm.

And if she looks familiar, it's because I referenced one of my favorite paintings (and by referenced, I mean blatantly copied):

I love my town

The Portland Mercury recently blogged about some youth journalism made in part by a friend of mine. The videos remind me of how much I love Portland, and also make me want to own chickens. Because I'll take any excuse I can get to have another pet. I also want to volunteer at CHAP, an organization that brings kids to art, and when that's not possible, brings the art to the kids.

I live in an impressive city.

You can watch all the videos here. (My friend worked on the first video. In case you were wondering. And of course you were.)

I do not want to sleep. Why sleep when I could paint?

Summer

It is hard to work during the summer. I am unmotivated to do anything that originates outside myself. So here I sit at Starbucks (yes, I have heard Starbucks is evil, but they have wifi now and don't care how long you hang around) with my black tea. I have work to do. I have a paper to finish. I've been working on it since early July, and it only has to be four pages. That's time management for you.

The reason I've been working on it so long is as follows: Whenever I sit down to work on it, something distracts me. Like the internet. (Perhaps wifi isn't such a good thing.) I started out looking at Pixar's website. Anyone know how to become a concept artist? Their website doesn't delve into that and they don't leave any e-mail adresses. After that dead end, I found myself looking for tea houses in the area. (This tea thing is becoming an obsession, and I'm not that fond of the tea they serve at Starbucks. Apparently there's a tea house on Alberta. There's also a paint-your-own-pottery place up there.) And now I'm blogging: Sending words out into the ether. At least I'm typing something.

I appreciate this, though I have perhaps become too comfortable in being alone. There is joy in company and that is something of which I should remind myself, especially over the long summer.

This video gets better at the end when they realize the camera should stay on Mary.

At the End of the Earth

This is great.

Wait. It's July? What?

Okay, cool.

"When a character is born, he at once acquires such an independence, even of his own author, that the whole world can imagine him in innumerable situations other than those the author thought to place him in."

-Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author

I am Intern

So, I have this internship. I have the title of "Costumes Intern," but when it comes down to it, my job is to make order out of a stock room that looks like this:

This is not actually a picture of the stockroom. Rather, it is a random picture I found when I did a google search of "messy closet." (I found it here by the way. Do not worry, I'm not trying to poach other people's pictures of messy closets. Credit where credit is due!) The photo is nevertheless quite accurate. After hours of lifting heavy coats high above my head and slouching over pants to measure their waistlines, my shoulders hurt. I am a grumpy monkey.

Grumpy monkey found here.

Oh, hot cereal

The Oatmeal is both horrifying and wonderful.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/failed_experiment

Tumblr

I have decided to start a Tumblr. It will be the place I dump all the images I find, so I don't have to inundate this blog with them. It is therefore named The Deluge. Visit it at crowlivia.tumblr.com.

Babies Babies Babies

I just saw the film Babies and I highly recommend it. Here's just about my favorite clip:

Soaping out my brows

Today, I had a little fun with hair and make up and managed to make myself look like this:

The eyebrows were the tricky bit. I have thick, dark brows, and so even after I soaped them (like it sounds, I used soap to flatten my eyebrows to make them easier to cover over), used coverup, foundation, and powder over them, they were still there. So, I penciled the new brows over anyway and used photoshop clone stamp (otherwise known as photoshop's gift to the world) to fix it up.

So now you know.

Ode to Joss Whedon

Just watched Serenity again and remembered that it was incredible. It also made me think of a speech Joss Whedon gave:

(To jump straight past Meryl Streep, go to 1:50)

A Couple of Reviews

So, my semester is over. Yep, on Friday at 3:00 pm I walked out of my last final a free woman. However, finals week doesn't actually end until today at 4:00, and a great deal of my friends are still in the process of finishing their work. To ward off boredom, I have been reading a lot of books and watching a lot of movies. In the last three days, I have read 750 pages, and watched eight and a half hours of video (not including the countless number of YouTube clips). In this time, I have discovered two gems, which I would like to share with you, readers:

MOVIE:

BUBBA HO-TEP

directed by Don Coscarelli

I'm going to paraphrase what my boyfriend said about this movie: If someone were to tell me that there was a movie about Elvis (played by a B movie actor) living out the end of his days at a retirement home because the impersonator he payed to switch places with him dies before they can switch back, AND THEN old Elvis fights a mummy in cowboy boots that threatens the souls of the elderly at this retirement home was going to be subtle and heartfelt, I would laugh and not believe it. Sure, I might believe it was campy, ridiculous, and good fun, and I'd probably have a strong impulse to watch it.

The thing is, it is campy, ridiculous, and good fun, but it also manages to be subtle and heartfelt. While the parts with the mummy are about as campy as any B movie could get, the rest of it adresses getting older, lost dreams and families, regrets, patronizing nurses, and illness better than any movie I've seen in a long time. And even though juxtaposing this with images of Elvis fighting an enormous scarab beetle with his walker, bed pan, and a fork sounds like a horrible idea, it works.

I think this is one of those perfect movies. It set out to do something, and it did it. If this were gymnastics, it would have stuck the landing. I didn't find any of it superfluous, the dialogue rubbed me the wrong way, and I don't think I've met a better cast of characters in years.

BOOK:

FIRMIN

by Sam Savage

This book really surprised me. When I saw it at Powell's Books, I knew right away I was the target audience. See that white chunk on the right side of the cover? It's a literal chunk taken out of the book. As though I rat had nibbled it. On the back, it said it was a book about Firmin, a rat who begins by consuming literature, but soon finds it consumes him. It's about a rat who loves books. Perfect for me. So I bought it, guessing it would be a fun, cute summer read, with little substance.

It isn't cute, and it certainly isn't lacking in substance. Rather, it is a beautiful exploration of a lonely genius. I couldn't help but identify with Firmin the rat as he navigated the human world, separated by his lack of voice and the fear most humans hold for rats.

The cast of characters is rounded out by a bookshop owner, a compassionate (but probably off-his-rocker) sci-fi author, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (who are residents of Fermin's fantasy life), and hundreds of books. In his isolation, the books Firmin reads become his companions, adapting to fit into his world. Perhaps my favorite line is the following:

"And I introduce people. I put Baudelaire on the raft with Huck and Jim. It did him a lot of good."

I loved it only a few pages in, but I also realize that I would probably find it pretentious if it wasn't about a rat. As it is, it's the perfect balance between profundity and humor--very dark humor.

More StumbleUpon

Here are more things I found in my days addicted to stumbling:

1. Artists are an amazing and sometimes insane bunch:
   
   
   
   Check at more of his work here.
   
   
2. A couple in Kyloe, Northumberland bought a church a while back and turned it into their home. While I don't think I would chose to live in a church, the renovation is beautiful and I certainly wouldn't mind living in a part of the world with that kind of landscape.
   
   
   
   
   The best part is probably the stained glass in the bathroom.
   
   
3. There's this guy in Finland that is trying to collect one million hand drawn, hand sculpted, hand made giraffes. It's a world wide project, and it's pretty amazing how many people have contributed. You can read that stats here. Help him out, guys! I did:
   
   
   
   My giraffe: http://www.onemilliongiraffes.com/?id=9550
   
   
4. I read this interview with British philosopher AC Grayling. He called it "This Much I Know." I rather like it. Some of my favorite things that came out of it are:
   
   

   I'm a vegetarian, but I wear leather shoes. Some people say that's a contradiction; I say I'm doing my best.

   Life is all about relationships. By all means sit cross-legged on top of a mountain occasionally. But don't do it for very long.

   Every professor of philosophy needs a nine-year-old daughter.Mine has a habit of saying, "Daddy, that is a very silly idea." She is always right.

5. This series of photographs someone found at a flea market is both beautiful and haunting. It's strange to think about the little pieces of evidence of our own lives we leave around, and how they reflect upon us.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   
   

This is what I want to do with my life:

When I was little, this show was on PBS. My parents made the genius decision to record it, so I've been enjoying it for years. The artistry is incredible, and I this is what I'm going to do this summer (when I'm not interning it up in the costume shop of a local theater.) Yep, me and stop-motion animation in my basement for weeks on end.

Well, this is surreal

End of the Semester

Tech weekend is over. I spent 24 hours in the theater last weekend as we slowly worked out the wireless microphone bugs, figured out lighting cues, and organized the horde of students that volunteered to be on crew.

I counted up the hours I spent in rehearsal last week and they totaled over forty. That means I am working a full time job (and putting in overtime) in addition to being a full time student and working a part time job in the costume shop. Nevertheless, I got through the week relatively unscathed and not very behind, and I somehow think the week of dress rehearsals and performances is going to be a lot less stressful, even with finals right around the bend.

I want a weekend.

Best SNL sketch in years

Stumble

I used StumbleUpon for over a year. It was unhealthy, so I gave it up as a New Years resolution. I took the button out of my toolbar, and haven't looked back. I still have the bookmarks, however, and have been looking through them for my favorites. Enjoy a few of the ones I've found:

1. Silhouette Masterpiece Theater was created by Wilhelm Staehl, and almost every image brings me joy, but especially this one:
   
   
   
   http://silhouettemasterpiecetheatre.com/
   
   
2. WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL:
   
   
   
   http://www.cabanonpress.com/Gallery/gallery20-Noisy.htm
   
   
3. This is great, but a little NSFW:
   
   http://osocio.org/message/explore_but_protect_yourself/
   
   
4. Some people just have amazing faces, so Simon Hosberg searched New York City for the faces that affected him most.
   
   
   
   http://www.simonhoegsberg.com/faces_of_new_york/index.htm
   
   
5. I'm a big fan of Subnormality by "Winston Rowntree" (not his real name, as he readily admits, but Ruth Little isn't mine, so there you go), but I found this use of comix to be pretty inovative and extremely affective:
   
   http://www.viruscomix.com/page474.html

Printers That Do Not Print

"How can even the perfection of a work of art, its being finished, be conceived? Whatever else is made or produced takes the criterion of its perfection from its purpose, ie is determined by the use that is to be made of it. The work is finished if it answers to the purpose for which it is intended. How is one then, to understand the criterion for the perfection of a work of art? However rationally and soberly one may consider artistic ‘production’, much that we call works of art is not intended to be used, and none derives the measure of its completion from such a purpose. Does not, then, the work’s existence appear to be the breaking-off of a formative process which actually points beyond it? Perhaps it is not at all completable in itself."

-Hans-Georg Gadamer

In “The Retrieval of the Question of Artistic Truth,” Hans-Georg Gadamer proposes that a “work is finished if it answers to the purpose for which it is intended.” And for most objects, that purpose is to be useable, and until it can be used, an object is incomplete. A pair of shoes is not complete until the soles are put on. Until then, they are not useable. Sharp rocks would tear up feet, socks would get wet walking through shallow puddles, hot cement in summer would burn heels. A printer is not complete until it has ink in it. Until then, it is not useable. Sheets of paper would go in blank, and return blank. Sheet upon sheet would pass unchanged through whirring machinery. A shower is not complete until the drain is put in. Until then, it is not useable. The water would clean, the water would rinse, the water would pour—and it would fill the shower, climb up the walls, into the nostrils, down the lungs.

Hans-Georg Gadamer does not ask art to be useable. Hans-Georg Gadamer writes, “Much that we call works of art is not intended to be used, and none derives the measure of its completion from such a purpose.”

So, what then of shoes that do not protect? That invite cuts, scrapes, burns, calluses? What then of printers that do not print? That spill papers onto the floor and into wastepaper baskets? What then of showers that do not drain? That choke and drown and spill over and down the hall and over the stairs?

There are galleries of masterpieces in garages, at yard sales, in the corners of basements, in a spare kitchen drawer. Here are the piles of objects sent to stores with missing parts, whose blades were bent, who lost their screws, who never really worked at all. Here are the piles of objects without a use. But perhaps they still have a purpose. Perhaps they are art.



(Assignment for Expository Writing. My Professor responded, "OK I'll buy that--esp. the 'perhaps' at the end." Big compliment coming from Hosh.)

I wasn't even trying

My friend just posted this on facebook. I didn't even have to look for it. I swear I don't just sit around looking for anything involving Stephen Fry.

Give me one good reason Jeeves wouldn't be a panda!

Here is a little cartoon I drew of Jeeves and Wooster using things I found on my boyfriend's desk.

Minus the teacup. The teacup is fictional.

And for your cultural education:

This amused me no end.

"Aren't you a little curious...?"

"No."

Leaving a building on campus, I found an ice cream sandwich on the ground. It was still in it's wax paper wrapper, and though it was raining, it looked clean. I knew where it had come from. It had come from the buffet lunch going on inside. It couldn't have been there for more than 15 minutes. I wanted to eat it.

So, I picked it up. It was still cold. It hadn't melted.

However, I didn't want the people sitting against the wall to know I was going to eat an ice cream sandwich I had found on the ground. I walked purposefully across the street to the trashcan a hundred feet away, pretended to drop it in, and went around the corner. Then I ate it.

It was delicious.

I will not apologize for loving this song. And I don't need to apologize for loving this scene:

Oh, take me back, my darling!

I love black tea. Earl Grey, Irish Breakfast Tea, Chai. And when I drink my tea with milk and a spoonful of sugar, this is what I sip:

But now, caffeine gives me headaches. I went without for the last month and a half, but Thursday, I made a cup. And today I made another. And damn the consequences.

I really wish I could go see this artist's work in person, because photographs limit the impact. You can learn why here.

A-wooooooo!

"That boy's cheese has slipped off his cracker."

-Trace Adkins

"Freedom is a very good horse to ride, but to ride somewhere."

-Matthew Arnold

So, you ever had a conversation that went terribly wrong?

Well, I'm in a play. And there is a short scene where the script calls for me to be naked. After first rehearsal, my director asked me to stay behind to talk about that scene. She asked me what I felt comfortable with, suggesting a little pair of panties seen from the back, and I told her it came down to body issues, rather than modesty, and as I am more fond of my top half, said I would rather show breasts than my thighs. This was agreed upon, and I imagine that it will of course be something tasteful like this:

rather than something like this:

So far, the conversation went just fine and dandy, but as I was getting up to leave, I said, "Yeah, people tend to assume I'm a prude, but I'm really not."

Did I really need to prove this to her?

In her calm and collected way, my director responded, "I wouldn't presume anything about you."

So, of course, I decide to dig the hole a little deeper.

"Yeah, well, there was this one guy that once said, 'Wait, you're not a virgin?'"

Oh yes. Let me dig this hole. Now, I realized I had probably said to much (and please imagine I am saying all of this in a really nervous, hyperactive, impulsive way...blame the ADHD while we're at it) and in an attempt to climb out of the hole, or at least throw away the shovel, I tried to keep telling the story (which isn't really a story) and ended with an awkward chuckle.

Oh me.

You know, I can be pretty cool around people I know, but around semi-acquaintances, I feel like this:

Only instead of saying nothing, I babble.

But, this is how I make bread

Yesterday, I was bouncing around my parents house singing nonsense words. Laughing, I said to my mother, "I wouldn't be surprised if I had ADHD."

"Oh, you do," she replied.

Well, that explains a lot.

Lemur, lemur, lemur!

You're such a tall drink of water, Mr. Fry!

Okay, so I promise one day to post a real entry instead of just posting other people's videos. But that day is not today. I saw this video yesterday and thought it was pretty funny, but when Stephen Fry tweeted about it, it became blog worthy.

Also, this is Stephen Fry:

The 1940's are most remembered for rise in the number of men with foot fetishes.

No.

Someone who knows someone I know posted this on his facebook wall with the subheading, "Because your dog isn't hipster enough."

Baby Rib Dog T | Pets | Shop American Apparel

Again. No.

Some Kind of Wonderful

I just watched this movie. It had all the angst and none of the charm of earlier John Hughes films. However, my love of Mary Stuart Masterson is unwavering.

I mean, look how cool she is even in a film like this one:

Also, if you haven't seen Fried Green Tomatos, you should. Jessica Tandy. Mary Stuart Masterson. And if that doesn't convince you, there's this fabulous photo:

It was also the cause of a ridiculous controversy. Some felt there were lesbian themes, and therefore wanted to give it a higher rating, even though it contains pretty much PG, perhaps PG-13, material. I think it's partly a case of, "Oh no! Strong female characters! They must be gay!" But that's beside the point. Rating a film higher because of homosexual content is to deem homosexuality objectionable. Now, I realize that it is objectionable to some people, but so are traditional housewives, and they're still in plenty of PG films.

Also, this is the raciest "lesbian" scene in the movie (sorry for the bad quality):

Hmmm. Personally, I'm pretty sure those two women are in love, and I only wish they'd made that more obvious.

Now, if you aren't convinced you should see this movie, there's also this scene:

Ba ha ha...

Oh My God!

PBS has Masterpiece Theater online now!

Masterpiece | PBS Video

I'm going to sleep...stop looking at me like that!

(cuttlefish)

"But this long run is a misleading guide to affairs. In the long run we are all dead."

-John Keynes

Wow, Wednesday was boring...

An an effort to be a better and more interesting person, I have made this list:

1. Reading books is a wise use of my time. Looking at books on amazon.com is a poor use of my time. (But seriously, look how cheap these are!)
   
2. Doing homework is a wise use of my time. Complaining about homework is a poor use of my time.
   
3. Drawing, painting, sewing, creating anything is a wise use of my time. Staring vacantly at craft blogs is a poor use of my time.
4. Singing and playing guitar is a wise use of my time. Spending an hour trying to find the tabulature for "Make My Heart Fly" is a poor use of my time.
   
   
5. Being outside is a wise use of my time. Sitting in my room, bored as the dickens, is a poor use of my time.
   
6. Cleaning my room is a wise use of my time. Moving around piles of dirty clothes, books, papers, and receipts while attempting to find lost spoons is a poor use of my time.
   
7. Writing letters is a wise use of my time. Journaling is a wise use of my time. Blogging might be a wise use of my time. Practicing my signature is a poor use of my time.
   
8. Enjoying good TV (aka 30 Rock) is a wise use of my time. Surfing hulu in efforts to find anything watchable is a poor use of my time.
9. Going to the gym is a wise use of my time. Looking at the lint between my toes is a poor use of my time.
10. Making dinner is a wise use of my time. Sneaking into the kitchen to eat chocolate chips is a poor use of my time.
11. Watching bad movies with my friends is a wise use of my time. Watching bad movies by myself is a poor use of my time.
12. Spending time with friends is a wise use of my time. Spending time wondering what my friends are doing is a poor use of my time. Attempting to discover what my friends are doing via facebook is an extremely poor use of my time.

I suppose I should start putting this list into action, but I could also look at the lint between my toes...

I'm sick. I half been going at half speed all day, except for the last two hours. When I have been going at no speed. Since around 6:30 pm, I have been lying in bed. It feels kind of good to be lazy, and I would totally enjoy this if it weren't for the searing pain in the back of my nasal passage. That's not so nice.

Maybe I should go read a book.

I couldn't sleep after that either

I recently watched Sleepless in Seattle and decided it would be better if they had taken out Meg Ryan. Suddenly, it becomes a masterfully crafted film about a father dealing with single parenting after the death of his wife. And it could be done pretty easily. There are very few scenes in which Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan actually interact, and you end it about five minutes sooner, just after Tom Hanks reunites with his son (who, by the way, is a little demonic). The only problem would be some of the sound editing in scenes that switch back and forth between the Meg Ryan and the Tom Hanks storyline, but I feel certain it's possible. And it removes all the whole creepy stalker issue that is Meg Ryan.

This isn't the same thing, but it's almost as good:

In a perfect world, I would spend the day drinking obscene amounts of tea, reading Orlando, and cuddling. But this is not a perfect world.

Damn.

A New Blog

I already have a blog, so this may seem a little redundant. However, my other blog fulfilled a very specific purpose: it recorded study abroad adventures. It told sometimes funny (but usually not) anecdotes about my time in France and included as many photos as I could bother to upload. Everyone wanted to know about France, so I handed out the URL to every Tom, Dick, and Harry.

And to my grandmother.

Now that I'm back at college, I have no more need for a study abroad blog, but I am compelled to write down my rambling thoughts, record strange experiences, and introduce my favorite links to others. And sometimes these things will be funny, sometimes pathetic, and sometimes ridiculous, all in the arrogant hope that someone will find it mildly interesting.

But I don't want that someone to be my grandmother.

The last thing I want to feel is censorship. There were times in France I worried over a sentence or link because I knew my grandmother would see it. And I knew she was easily shocked. For that reason, I have created a blog with some semblance of anonymity. It's not because I'm ashamed of anything I have to say. Not at all. I don't really care if you know who I am. I don't really care if you connect me to this blog.

As long as you aren't my grandmother.