What d'ya think he's writing about?

You've probably seen a few of these before but they're still a fun collection of old photos with some interesting ones I've never seen.


http://www.redditmirror.cc/cache/websites/www.rgbpicture.com_b3z9v/www.rgbpicture.com/wtf-photos-from-the-past.html

Awesome Pocket Knife of Antiquity

I use to always think that the past was progressively not as sophisticated, innovative, civilized, or even as populated as we are today as you reach further and further back. Funny thing to realize in college that I only thought that because that stuff we see from the past - like buildings, tools, clothing, jewelery, artifacts in general - don't have that new shine and integrity it once had. And neither will our stuff give it only 50-100 years. It's a trick. Really, cities just like the ones I've lived in have always existed and there were probably ones more technologically and philosophically more evolved then ours. It doesn't seem true but it makes more and more sense the more you learn about different civilizations. With the exception of specifics of materials, geography, social constructs, et cetera we have and always will be the same old beasts.

In this mind frame I love to look at artifacts from other times in history and art museums. I like to squint my eyes and imagine what objects looked like before they became more worn with use and time than my cellphones have yet to endure. The objects we get to see from hundreds of years ago are the things that were built well enough to last. Wonder what kind of objects these people made that we not meant to be as durable. What was their equivalent of a styrofoam cup, cheap shoes, McDonald's throwaway prize?

Check out this Roman pocketknife and the article in the Daily Mail. This thing was built not only to be highly functional but also to endure travel and battle. And that's why this little piece of craftsmanship is still with us today. For a society so obsessed with youth, beauty, immortality, hell even vampires wouldn't you think that we would want to make the stuff we use last as long and look as great as this utility knife? Why doesn't our obsessions spill into craftsmanship?

Fantastic Mr. Stuffed Fox

I just Stumbled upon this website called Crappy Taxidermy. The name of the site is all wrong. It should be called "Really Super Fabulous Taxidermy." If you like taxidermy then this site will really knock your socks off!

What Once Was Creepy and Juvenile Is Suddenly Loved... Dolls

In all this blitzkrieg of inspiration that I have been getting from Lolita fashion and it's Lolita lifestylers I have been looking at dolls. Wow, and it's still surprising for me to say that and mean it!! I have never really been into "cute" but somehow into twenty six years of living I have embraced little girl pink aesthetics. There are a lot of really cute dolls.

First off are the cheaper ones- Pullip Dolls are pretty affordable and not entirely an insane interest at around $110. The only problem is that they look a little bit like those Bratz dolls with those humongous noggins. But look at how cute their special dolls are like the Princess Ann/ Roman Holiday one! The website is also horrible to navigate. I have tried a few times to find a doll that I like based on it's face and it turns out that the doll is a stupid cos-play anime thing (no offense, just not my thing).

A little more, or rather, a lot more expensive are the Rosette Dolls. These suckers are about $475-$575 a pop naked. Forget clothing, wigs, and everything else you can get for these pretty things. I imagine these things set you back $1,000 FAST. But look at how pretty they are. Armeria is my favorite. And! These dolls have artists who paint up there faces and make them fancy clothing and sell them as custom dolls.

Blog Songes de Poupees spotted this beautiful custom pair. They are done by CoCoon possibly, but I am not sure. This is what I really like about this beautiful doll scene. My mom made me little fairies when I was little that had handmade little leather skirts and doll hair and hand sculpted faces and extremities and they were just so magical. These dolls are like those fairies my mom made taken to a whole other level. So much detail with their uniquely painted faces and fancy outfits!

Now the creme de la creme! These dolls have been floating around a while on Stumble but I was just thinking about and revisiting them. For a few thousand dollars Enchanted Dolls by Russian artist Marina Bychkova are custom made. They are porcelain and Bychkova customizes them with tattoos and body mutilations. They have realistic looking genitalia and their ball and joints are as beautiful as their faces. Everything is regal and ethereal about these magical creatures of art.

Another Song Added to the List of Songs I Learned to Love Because I Heard It A Million Times At Work

New Plaid Dress

 

I spent nearly a day and a half working on this dress and wore it to work yesterday and got three separate compliments!! One of my co-workers asked if I bought it at Anthropology. I'm feeling pretty good about my sewing skills! It was my first time doing interfacing. It was a little bit of a bitch.

I love BurdaStyle. If you like to sew and want some stylish free- to cheap patterns to print at home go there. It's the only site that I have found like it! They are very supportive of people who like sewing clothes at home that you'd actually want to wear. Forums, tips, pictures of finished outfits based on the patterns, etc! It's great! I made this dress this last week off a pattern I got on there. Coffee date dress something or other.

Lolita Inspired Petticoat

I have been looking at a lot of Lolita fashion websites and getting inspired. It's funny, there seems to a general opinion of Lolitas that you have to have the "right look" which has never worked for me in any style. I like the idea of mixing western Annie Oakley with Lolita. So I really wanted a petticoat but it needed to be shorter. This happens to be a huge no-no for Lolitas- skirts need to be close to the knee. So I did a little research and made my own. I didn't use a pattern and I decided to have the side stay open tied so that I can wear it higher tied at natural waist line of lower depending on the skirt I am wearing it with. I am really happy with the outcome! The most inspiring source for Lolita-ness is the bubblegum flick "Kamakaze Girls." I watched it on Youtube and I keep thinking about buying. It's pretty much a big ad for the Lolita clothing store "Baby The Stars Shine So Bright." The lead girl is super cute and makes you want to wear her doll like look.

My Kinda Restaurant, I Think

Over Thanksgiving dinner two friends who just recently went to Milwaukee spoke about their short trip and the places they went. The main item of conversation and ravings was "The Safe House," a restaurant downtown themed to the extreme on spy movies. Rumor has it, you walk up to a imports/exports door which leads you to another door that you need a password to get through and you pick up a phone to get the password... and so on to get into the dining room just for beginners. In the lady's room in a naked picture of Burt Reynolds (that I imagine is the image he did for Cosmopolitan) that if you touch his crotch region rings an alarm throughout the restaurant letting everyone know what you were up to in there. All kinds of shenanigans are happening here from what I heard and I really want to go! Check out this travel blog for a little retelling of a personal experience like the one I heard and see a couple more pictures.

Around My Neighborhood In Chicago

I am loving my neighborhood. It reminds of what a tour guide had casually told me about herself in Rome. She said that she loved her city because everywhere you go there is something old and interesting around every corner. While Chicago is pretty daisy fresh and young compared to Rome, I love walking around and looking at the old buildings that are all one of a kind. I love seeing old faded ads on the sides of buildings. I like the newer signs that mimic old signs, or are badly painted updates? I like the haphazard buildings that could either be someone's apartment or someone's garage. And I like the different trees here. I am used warmer climate plants. A lot of the trees I walk by I have no idea what they are. I think that this tree might be a cherry tree?

Winter Booties

It's getting a little chilly. I knocked these slippers out of some faux fur that my mom was kind enough to give me. I really want some Uggs to wear in the house but these are pretty warm! They might just do and they are an original design! I just traced out the shape of my feet and sewed them up and added ties that I had sewed for a project that I never saw through.

Halloween Is Creeping Up

I just went to the used bookstore that is close to my hood, Myopic in Wicker Park, and picked up two Halloweeny sort of books, "Rosemary's Baby" by Ira Levin and "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson. I am always way into this time of year. I love the chill to the air and the holiday spirit that occupancies it that is a mix of neighboorly kindness and horror... free candy bars and morbid decorations for the benefit of those people around you that rarely talk to otherwise. I like the parade of little kiddies getting to dress up for once any insane or cute way they want to express themselves. I love doing the same if I find a place to show off the tremendous amount of thought and work that I put into every excuse to do so.

I find it really interesting that topics that normally I find really discomforting become temporarily something I want to examine and even, in a way, embrace and celebrate. Death, horror, the supernatural, creepiness... Like Dio de los Meurtos is embracing that life is made wonderful because of death, I think that it's healthy to recognize the morbid for a month too. By thinking not only about death but also about murder, horror, serial killers, and all the things that give us nightmares we can reflect that most of us have it pretty good, not to have these things as a part of everyday life.

Sorry, I am getting a bit deep.

I am not a fan of the organization of mentalfloss.com but they have some really cool posts if you can figure out how to navigate through their site. Here is one Halloweeny one on post-mortem portraits that I can't stop thinking about. It makes sense that at the time photography was availiable enough that nearly anyone could have their photo taken but not as easily available that you would likely have had your photo taken before a sudden death. Still, it is creepy and hard to understand a family propping up a dead family member for one last Kodak moment.

Internet Photo Find D'Jour

How badass are these boyscouts? I love their boots! Clothing use to be so much cooler before globalization and when people would dress utilitarian authentically and looked bitch'n on accident.

Bang Bang

Okay, trying to get back into some sort of made up world of normalcy. Having time to be inspired, intrigued, and to just mess around with the internet in general.

Do you love the covers of those dime store/ pulp novels where you buy them and it never even crosses your mind that the book might be readable. Look at these radical photos posted at http://1dak.com/art/models-made-out-of-books-44-photos/!!


This is one of those ideas that is so simple but so great that I asked myself "why couldn't I come up with this before this person did?" and "where are those pulp novels in my book collection... could I emotionally handle cutting them up?" I am trying to think of where I could sit one of these up and questioning if it would look good outside of lighting and photographing them to look even grander then they already are.

Grievances

Go to this site, Fed by Birds! It is everything I wish I could be in a blog!

If anyone is taking notice right now I am not posting too much because I am busy to the max getting ready to go to Chicago. All my notebooks are all packaged up and all. I do have other things I want to put on here that are concept ready so to speak but I just keep not getting to it. But hey, I will say that I hate it when people say that they wish there were more hours in the day. Hours are really arbitrary and just a system, not a reality. What is reality is how you choose to spend your time and to that effect you just have to do your best. I so the past couple and next couple of weeks may only hold one here and there magical appearance of a post on here.

Fav Picture Ever

This is a little vain. Full story is what really makes it, at least as a great personal story. I was, and still kinda am, obsessed with The Great Gatsby, and was messing around with friends in high school putting on wigs and playing camera time. I jumped into the car and was crying out, "Oh no, Myrtle! I didn't see her." And then I guess I found the bb gun and this was taken. Still looks like and feels like a good time to me.

Garage Sale Tomorrow

Haven't even got to the garage sale part but it is already draining me. I know I need to do it but I hate it and dealing with people being cheap because it's the one social situation where you can take cheapness to its highest level. But still, I kind of like garage sales, a lot. Especially when I am on the other side, spending the money and then leaving. All the discarded stuff that are usually items held on to for a long time and then it suddenly dawns on the person that it isn't needed for whatever reason. Like nostalgic items. Or items that for one promised a thinner and more handsome physic no more. Or former projects never quite gotten to. All kicked to the curbside.

I found this top piece of paper in high school and that's all I remember about it. Besides that I really liked it and still do. But it wouldn't be as cool if I knew the exact reason why it was drawn, though a general idea is easy enough to assume. These other two, well, I don't know what to say about them. Don't remember making them and can't remember what I am babbling about in them. But I like them too.

See America Right

I "stumble upon(ed)" this very cool flash type website that I find very pretty. Very much up my alley. Its called The Book Of Numbers.

If you don't know what I mean by "stumble upon" google it and add it to your firefox tool bar!

Documentation

I am getting more and more happy to open up my iphoto each scanning session. It is always fun to reexamine these pages just as it is with anyone's personal diary or journals. For me, they look great put together to be surveyed all at once.

Eyes

Have you ever watched footage of eyeball surgery? You know, just the regular old better eye sight stuff? Complete horror show stuff. In high school in physiology we were warned that watching child birth makes some a little squeamish but did not receive the same courtesy for eyeball retina flipping action. And that is what I find really disturbing. Who are we without our eyesight? How traumatic is it to lose? Admit it, when you meet a person who is blind it causes some level of discomfort that is above deafness or other disabilities. You get something in your eye and you curse ever taking the health of your sight for granted. I am a big fan of eyeballs, and they also terrify me. I respect them.

Celestial Ash

The Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles is having what looks like a very rad exhibit titled "Celestial Ash: Assemblages from Los Angeles." It is reportedly inspired by assemblage artist extraordinaire Joseph Cornell and features one of his works. Source Link Here.

I really like what is conjured up emotionally by these works. For me, it's in part documenting in the first a snippet from everyday existence, a sort of clue that someone has been in this spot but is not there anymore. What you want to assume about the person who occupies this space can be done so through what is left behind. And the other is very victorian ephemeral scrapbook collage with an interest in science, eh, entomology. And to be simple, they give great aesthetic.