Nothing cracks me up more than seeing Shriners in lil, tiny cars at parades. Imagine my delight when I found footage of this sort of thing on youtube. Teehee

some fashion minutiae

I'm like a one note Johnny about the Audrey Hepburn sewing pattern collection but could someone out there in cyberspace create the series? I guess there are copyright hurdles to cross. It would be cool to be able to make the exact outfits she wore in her films:
The fitted Sabrina "Back from France" wool suit or the fitted Sabrina jumper

The pink Breakfast at Tiffany's cocktail dress (seen on the right in black and white)

A knitting pattern for the sweater from Breakfast at Tiffany's
(cropped with wide collar)

Then there is the cute tailored number from her movie Paris When It Sizzles.
Why stop there?! Mia Farrow's dresses in Rosemary's Baby, Faye Dunaway's outfits in Bonnie and Clyde, Anna Karina's film wardrobe and on and on and so on. Do send me free patterns.

Not many men look as good in their pants as Dick Van Dyke did in his while starring in his show. So much attention is placed on how women look in clothing but not many men can look great in a pair of slacks (teehee) or even jeans. They often wear ill fitting pants. Attention should be placed on men and their pants, it's been ignored for forty or so years. Isn't there a way to make men look good in pants without a tailor? Whatever. It can be done. It was awesome when men wore hats, sweaters, cuff links, ties, nice shoes and looked great in pants. It would be cool if the DVD look came back, teehee. I'm not talking that business class look that is so generic and boring and not at all stylish and often not even a clean look these days. Many guys have ill fitting suits:pants need to be hemmed an inch, sides of jackets taken in, shoulders taken in. I'm talking that cool Italian 60's look, with a nice tapered, tailored silhouette and sharkskin. Stop with the blue, chambray shirt and khaki chinos. Ick! Mix it up a little.


PERSONAL INS
1. Tailored style wool dress suits for women, boxy cut, cropped tops, big belts and pencil skirts. Lots of detail in the tops. Not in grey, navy and black but in various shades of green.
2. Tailored looking Dick Van Dyke pants. Throw out the ill fitting pants!
3. Vintage repro, vintage originals
PERSONAL OUTS
1. Imported synthetic tops

Would be cool if tailors were all the rage and got really competitive with their prices so you could get cool outfits, custom made and all at a reasonable price. Would be cool to see tailors back in business. Would be cool to see tailor shops opening up all over the town instead of the same ole big box shit.

BTW, you can learn to make your own shoes.
Here in Austin you can learn to make your own clothes

Lunar Eclipse

Big deal, it looked like a cloud...yeah, yeah,sour grapes. I wanted to see it but got all confused. For some reason I thought it was BEFORE midnight 8/27. I ended up waking up, for no reason, at 3:07am and then thought SHIT! I missed the eclipse. Then I couldn't get back to sleep. UGH! I should of looked outside, I should have looked outside! Why didn't I just look outside. I woke up just in time. Anyway, whatever...gotta let this go...sigh...poop.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The 1978 musical where Frampton plays Billy Shears. I saw this for the first time when it ran with commercials on some televison station TBS or WGN for sure, it was 1982 or so, and never saw it again until recently. Yeah, I love it. Although, Frampton sort of bugged me as a kid. I wanted to punch his face in after watching for only a few minutes. But , eh, you mellow with age and I could only muster up a cringe this time around.

I remember being somewhat confused when I saw it the first time. I thought the Beatles were in it and watched the whole thing thinking they would make an appearance at some point. I didn't like it at all when I saw it the first time. Yeah, I really enjoyed it this time around.

My aunt wants to know why....

My aunt asked me why Americans still use wood to construct their homes when cement and cinder blocks last longer and withstand anything sans earthquakes. She said all the talk of green building and wood is still being used in the US. She says Mexican homes are energy efficient because of what they are made of, that wood is not, it attracts pests and rots and isn't meant to last.

Why does the US still use wood frame homes? They are nice, my cousins in Mexico all say how cool it would be to live in a Victorian home and how beautiful they are, but then interrupt themselves with how hard it would be to keep the home from falling apart. Then what about cleaning it? In Mexico it's easy to clean a house, no allergens either so long as you dust and sweep. There is a problem with wood and mold. They just don't trust wood.

I would love to live in a Mexican house. So many of the ones I saw looked traditional, hacienda style but many looked so post modern and atomic even (inside and out). Yeah, I wish more homes in the US were built to last like the houses I have been to in Mexico. I wonder how much they cost to build here compared to there. It seems more complicated but would be cool to have one built to last.
Time to leave wood behind?

I found several company sites that are dedicated to the construction of concrete homes. All kinds of elevations too: from a traditional looking American home to something that looks tres 70's space movie set. They are advertised as being able to stand up to hurricanes and tornados and being energy efficient...so do they just cost a fortune and a half to construct?

This exceprt from this blog:
"One of the reasons I want to experience this living situation is that the construction of the house is typical of most of Mexico: partially remodeled old thick-walled adobe and stone, with the bulk of the construction being either poured reinforced concrete or concrete blocks, and these walls are only about 6” thick. "

There are concrete homes being built in the US:
Discover a home building solution that offers a healthier living environment, advanced designed possibilities and lower energy bills; discover a Home with a Difference. The difference is ICF (insulating concrete forms), a building process well established in North America. Approximately 40,000 ICF homes have been built since the early 90's. Currently about 100 distributors and manufacturers of ICF systems serve the Canadian market. For the custom homebuilder, ICF represents a real advantage. It's fast to build, easy to manipulate, and requires a small number of skilled labourers – a real advantage in today's market with the shortage of skilled framers.

Sinatra Sings Sinatra

Going to see Frank Sinatra Jr sing! Yay!

I love a dry heat. I can stand it, I can appreciate it, it reminds me of my childhood.

I can remember one afternoon when I was 10, standing on cracked ground in an empty lot and wanting to play. No one was there, they were all watching Banana Splits. For some reason I wanted to go outside. I can remember vividly, opening the front door and leaving the ac filled house and immediately feeling the heat and hearing cicadas. The street was pretty empty, and I had been en route to our neighbors house but I stopped at the empty lot in between.

I knew our neighbors were not watching television. Nathan and Rebbecca were being raised half Amish. Their mother was Amish. What that meant was no television and only candy from the health food store and all handmade toys and clothing. Since their mother was pretty strict and seldom in a good mood, or so it seemed, not like other mothers who'd invite you in for Tang and cookies and be all smiles, I just stopped at the empty lot. I walked right into the center and spotted fire ants then veered off to the right, closer to our house. No weeds, just dried up dirt.

I used to like to dig for things and would dig in that lot and backyard. It was no easy task digging into that sort of earth. I'd find old trinkets left by "peoples that came before us" per social studies or stuff I had buried a few years before. I remember I just wanted to dig but I just stood there instead and did nothing but stand with my head down. I soaked up the sun I was feeling on my back. I didn't ordinarily get out of the house in the middle of the afternoon. Our day outside would stop at 1pm after playing in one of those collapsible pools and then resume at 6pm. I can't remember what made me stray from the usual ritual of afternoon television but there I was standing in the dry heat.

I remember feeling how my feet were firmly placed on the ground and I could really feel them on the ground and how it felt to be aware of that and the deafening cicadas and be the only one outside on the street it seemed. I thought how insignificant it was to stand and feel and hear under the heat of the afternoon. The sun made my hair hot and I could feel how it crept on my neck and shoulders and then thought how brown my arms would get and how important it was to stand there. I must have looked strange to a passersby if there had been any. All the windows around me had shades drawn. I only saw the Calico stray I was taking care of, slink up our driveway. It was insignificant and silly I thought but I continued because it was also very significant for some reason and I felt compelled to continue. Something I felt I should linger in because I would want to remember it later. I was a very strange kid always thinking of the past and the future when things around me were quiet. I thought one day my feet would be bigger and the ground may have grass or a house on it, wondered if I would ever remember what i was doing at this moment one day, one day my buried things never found again, what would I be and where would I go. It didn't last longer than five minutes before the sun stung and I thought of ants and magnifying glasses.

Then I just started to dig and I remember thinking that it would be more fun at this point to just go read a book or to the library and I went back inside the house leaving a very unenthusiastic little dip in the ground.
First thing I saw when I opened the door were some guppies in a fish bowl we were watching for a friend and that was it, end of memory.

I remembered this the other day when I got into my car after it had been parked in the sun all day. There were cicadas buzzing and I started the car but sat in the heat for a few seconds because it has been a dry heat. I especially liked how good it feels to warm up a bit after being colder than cold in the office. More than anything, lingering in the dry heat has catapulted me back to that moment on the empty lot that is still not a significant moment, yet very.

* I cannot stand humidity, ick, a humid hot- whole other thing...blehk

Shelton's

There is not a single store in this town that carries the entire Shelton's line of food products. Not many stores carry anything other than Shelton's ground turkey meat. UGH! I thought I was living in a city. The papers all call this place a city. Any decent city has great graffiti and carry complete food product lines in at least one store. Austin is still a town (smaller than a city, larger than a village) when I cannot find what I'm looking for in it.

Nothing like watching La Strada, late in the evening, at the Paramount with your sweetie.

A Year Without Made in China....?

Currently reading the book and taking inventory. So far, I have some shirts made in Mexico, USA and India, not so much China. All my vintage stuff is made in the USA: coffee peculator, a few skirts and coats and jackets, sweaters some old Doc Martins I still wear. Our dinnerware is new and USA made...hmmmmm didn't realize that.

I did become frustrated with the book because Sara Bongiorni totally lacked creativity when trying to procure items NOT made in China. Her coffeemaker broke and she never thought to look for an older USA made peculator with a lot of life left in it on Ebay or Goodwill? The time she spent looking for kids tennis shoes and never five minutes spent checking Ebay for some older Chuck Taylor's that were not used or only slightly used. A lamp? Ummm many an old USA lamp can be found but I got the impression she wants brand spanking new always. Well, I'm of the type who wants clean and works or can clean up anything pretty darn good and so if it works, it's good,it doesn't have to be brand new. By the end of the book I didn't like the author. I found her to be trite and her attempt at this project seemed to be one of the deepest undertakings of her life. Her epiphanies were thin. I didn't like page 128. The more status quo you want to be, chasing the Joneses the more Made in China stickers you will find: cell phones, IPods etc.... I encourage going against the grain, live without a cell phone, people did for years and were fine.She has no email address published for feedback on the book either.

But there are many a practical treasure still around not made in China at thrift stores. I have been successful at purchasing USA at those venues. As for big box, last Christmas I avoided them. I purchased from crafty and d.i.y. sites who may or may not have used supplies from China but there was no big box store revenue coming from me.

We still have a lot of Made in China stickers about the house, but when there is an alternative, we take it. It's easy to do in a place like Austin when you have no children. It's a difficult endeavour otherwise per Bongiorni and I believe that however I also feel she made things a bit harder than they could have been.

Incidentally, I have been using only Lion Brand yarn to make the stuff for my website. It's all Made in the USA and Turkey. Also been using wool yarn from Australia and Norway. My crocheting hooks are from Mexico. I didn't even realize this.

Stories? I got stories

1. Ask me how I met my husband
2. Ask me about the time I worked for Mr Natural and Social Security theft
3. Ask me about the time I caught Iggy Pop in 1992

Sadness

Lee Hazlewood
Garth Cartwright
Monday August 6, 2007
The Guardian
In 1956 Lee Hazlewood's song The Fool, recorded by Phoenix country singer Sanford Clark, gave Hazlewood, who has died of renal cancer aged 78, his first top 10 hit. The hits were to keep on coming; in 2003 the British band Primal Scream (teamed with Kate Moss) brought out their version of Hazlewood's Some Velvet Morning (1968), and half a century after his first success Hazlewood released a self-proclaimed "final album", Cake Or Death. His most famous song, These Boots Are Made for Walking, was a 1966 British and US No 1 for Nancy Sinatra. With its offbeat hook and sadomasochistic overtones, the work remains a fine example of the aesthetic that ran through a prolific, if unorthodox, career: his fan website hailed him as "the real creative genius of the popular music scene".

Hazlewood was born in Mannford, Oklahoma; his father was a wildcat oil driller and dance promoter. In 1942 the family moved to Port Neches, Texas. After Huntsville high school, Hazlewood enrolled at Southern Methodist University in Dallas to study medicine, but was soon conscripted. Having married his high-school sweetheart, Naomi Shackleford, he served in Japan as armed services radio DJ and saw combat during the Korean war.
After he was demobilised in 1953, he and Naomi shifted to Los Angeles, where he studied broadcasting and landed a DJ job in the small town of Coolidge, Arizona. In 1955 he moved to KRUX radio in Phoenix, where he championed Elvis Presley. Certain he could do as well as the music he was playing, Hazlewood began writing songs and set up his own label, Viv. Then came The Fool. It was Hazlewood's innovative recording techniques that turned the single (when licensed by Dot Records) into a hit.

Failure to repeat that success found Hazlewood returning to Los Angeles, where he hooked up with entrepreneur Lester Sill. Hazlewood produced guitar tracks for teenager Duane Eddy, imaginatively employing reverb to create a potent sound, and he licensed these to Jamie Records. Eddy's second single, Rebel Rouser (1958), was a US and British hit, and the guitarist went on to enjoy a further 14 US and 25 British hits.

The young Phil Spector was impressed by Hazlewood's sound, and spent time with him in his Phoenix studio studying how he used reverb and other effects to create hits. Spector's early productions appeared on the Trey label owned by Hazlewood and Sill.

Dismayed by the Beatles' success and the "British invasion" of the US charts, Hazlewood announced his retirement in 1964. Yet the following year Reprise Records managed to convince him to reconsider, with the prospect of producing Dino, Desi & Billy - three Hollywood 13-year olds. Having produced two hits for the trio and given Dean Martin (Dino's father) a hit with his composition Houston, Hazlewood was then asked to produce Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy. She had been recording for four years with no success; Hazlewood told her to sing in a lower register and they immediately scored a minor US hit with So Long, Babe.

Later that year Hazlewood wrote These Boots Are Made for Walking and instructed Sinatra to sing it "like a 16-year old girl who fucks truck drivers". The result established Nancy as one of pop's hottest mid-60s singers, with Hazlewood producing all her recordings and writing many of the hits. In 1967 Hazlewood produced Somethin' Stupid, a Nancy-Frank duet which topped the US and British charts. Hazlewood often shared duets with Nancy - Some Velvet Morning was one of the tracks on their 1968 album Nancy & Lee - and in 1971 they scored a British number two with Did You Ever? Hazlewood scored and acted in several films and also licensed his songs for film and TV soundtracks.

In 1967 Hazlewood signed The International Submarine Band to his LHI label. While their sole album Safe As Milk was not a hit, their leader, Gram Parsons, would soon be championed as the pioneer of "country-rock". More recently, that title has been bestowed on Hazlewood, who released his first solo album, Trouble Is a Lonesome Town, in 1963, thus introducing a gothic mix of pop and country that has since proven very influential. Alongside his pop productions, Hazlewood released wilfully eccentric solo albums; all were commercial failures, and his 1973 album Poet, Fool Or Bum received a one-word review in the NME - "bum".

Having settled in Sweden in 1970, Hazlewood released, on average, two albums a year until retiring from the music industry in 1978. Resurfacing in 1993 with the duet album Gypsies and Indians (with Anna Hanski), he then relocated to the US, toured with Nancy Sinatra and was surprised to find himself a cult figure: his albums were reissued by Sonic Youth and Tindersticks, and he was championed by Jarvis Cocker. In 1999 he headlined at London's Royal Festival Hall, returning in 2002, when he was backed by a band of leading British experimental rock musicians. In 1999 he released Farmisht, Flatulence, Origami, ARF!!! and Me..., his first album of new material in 20 years.

Of his cult status, Hazlewood remarked, "Thank God for kids that love obscure things! I never thought anyone would pay attention to those records, and it's a good feeling. It makes me feel like I really did get to do what I wanted to do."

Diagnosed with cancer, Hazlewood gave away his gold and platinum discs to friends outside the music industry and worked on Cake Or Death, released to acclaim in December 2006. He is survived by his third wife, Jeanne Kelly, and three children.

Barton Lee Hazlewood, singer, songwriter and producer, born July 9 1929; died August 4 2007

*We were just talking about him last Friday.

Interupting the minutiae for Minutiae

I've been driving to work tres early and can smell tinges of Fall. Sort of? It's so nice and cool, no need for ac. The sun is still asleep. Been listening to Velvet Underground, Roxy Music and Iggy. It doesn't pierce and collide with the morning either, fits right in and results in pure elation. Same elation I experience with my favorite operas like La Boheme* and favorite jazz pieces.

Watched Wassup Rockers tonight. We thought it was funny. Its good! They have a scene (deleted?) with those Homies toys in it, dug that. I never saw Kids, didn't appeal to me and everyone who has seen it tells me to pass, so I do.

Watched a David Cassidy documentary. Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis guy............he's a guy with a lot of..... I love this guy!! Catching him in Vegas next. In all seriousiteeeeeeee, I do dig his voice.

02%20I%20Woke%20up%20in%20Love%20This%20Morning.mp3

Going to get RxWayfarers. Actually they are just about the only Rx sunglasses you can get these days-the lenses on all the others curve too much. I was actually wanting a pair for a long time, tres vintage, but I heard this is the year they brought back the "original" with all the old style hardware even?! Hm. I also heard they are "IN" again. Really? They were out? The lady at the store emphatically assured me that Wayfarers were indeed out but the young starlets are bringing them back. Starlets? We still have starlets? I always think of a young Ginger Rogers or Lana Turner when I hear the word starlet. Anyway, I'll be so "IN" {insert sarcastic squeal here}. Great.

Hamilton Camp!

*Pagliacci, Gianni Schicchi,Cavalleria Rusticana and La Traviata

Yay!

Enjoyed a gorgeous sunnysunday morning! Yay! sun.

Sweet potato at pancakes at Hoovers rulz.

Stayed up late watching Weird Science. I remember Bobby and Louis going through the entire movie line by line during an entire day at school. They were at "candlewax on the nipples" by 3rd or 4th period. By the end I wanted to watch it over.

Yay!! new bathroom!

Love Mike Nesmith

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All New

So my new cubicle in the newly painted and remodeled office is pretty cool. That whole cubicle wall height controversy/panic (teehee) gave way to walls that were the same size as the old ones and lucky me, I got even taller cubicle walls than I had before. I dig how grey they are but most don't. The office is white and grey with a grey blue accent wall and grey cubicles but eh, I still have late 60's early 70's orange and green chairs. Everyone has pretty colorful stuff so it all even out.

New bathroom: Finally remodeled! Before and after photos coming soon. We were able to save the 1930's tile but the tub had to go and the new one is quite nice. Found out the weird closet space above the shower was held up with 4 nails and was not originally part of the house. That is now gone.

Re-NEWED interest in Velvet Goldmine, I could watch it over and over, it's so pretty to look at.

Re-NEWED interest in procuring an SX-70 but I think this is once again shortlived as they are still not easy to come by in working condition and didn't I swear off Ebay on this blog a few posts ago? Yes, I did and sticking to it so. Poop.

New habit: Eating icebox pies at The Frisco! They relocate 4/2008 so if you like that location take it in while you can.

I don't get this whole new interest in Vincente Fernandez that has been going around. Grew up with his music and movies but it's weird that all of a sudden he is the icon du jour in the hipster circles. I dig mariachi music, Olivia will back me up on this.

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