She Was Framed
Greetings from busyville. I have a great Summer mix ready to go, but our internet connection is getting dodgy (we’re getting a new modem soon) so it will have to wait. In the meantime, here’s a shot of my unique Pollyanna LitKids print framed and hung in my bedroom! I got a nice yellow wooden frame on eBay, along with a dark grey mat from our local art supply store. I’m not usually one for hanging my own art around the house, but this one is a special exception.
Dumpster Diving Monday
We came across a box of dozens of DVDs one of our neighbors tossed in the trash yesterday. The people who owned them decided to keep the movies themselves and trash everything else, including those supplementary bonus discs filled with “making of” featurettes. We ended up taking the discs, separating the packaging from the inserts, and depositing the rest in our alley’s (usually empty) recycle bin. It was mostly bonus material from Spider Man 2 and the like, but we did get widescreen editions of Finding Nemo and E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. Apparently these neighbors didn’t favor the fancy-pants widescreen movies, either.
Really, why are people so wasteful? And why don’t they know about recycling? We’ve met at least two neighbors who were completely gobsmacked when told that the blue bin is for recycling. Sheesh.
StoryCorps Story Posted
The local TV news story about me and Christopher participating in StoryCorps aired on channel 3 last night. It was very nicely produced! Watch it here, if only to see what we look and sound like in motion.
Our StoryCorps Day
StoryCorps is a unique program in which average people record stories from their own lives. The recordings are stored for posterity by the Library of Congress, and a few of the more intriguing ones are excerpted for broadcast on NPR. When a Story Corps van was scheduled to come to Phoenix, Christopher immediately jumped online and booked us a reservation. He wanted the two of us to talk about ourselves — how we met, the details of our marriage in 2008, and the confusing aftermath of it. To be honest, the whole experience sounded about as fun as a root canal, but he was so enthusiastic about it I just went along (to be a supportive hubby).
We arrived at our local library to find a vintage style Airstream trailer in the parking lot. There was a nice young lady outside who smiled in recognition at our names being given. When it was finally our turn, we were greeted by another nice young lady who led us into the trailer and gave us a basic briefing on the StoryCorps concept while setting us up for recording. We sat in comfortable chairs facing each other in an intimate room with low lighting, a setting which allowed me to relax and just let the words flow. Christopher did most of the talking (of course), but I also got plenty in as well and moved things along in my role as moderator. We even had a few minutes at the end to talk about our midcentury modern designer-named pets, Eero (cat) and Aalto (dog).
After we finished, we stepped outside and found a local TV reporter who had arranged a story on StoryCorps with us. She interviewed each of us on the experience. Our story should end up on the 9 p.m. Channel 3 broadcast next week!
Here’s Christopher’s account of our exciting day.
Anniversary Fox Print
This weekend, Christopher and I celebrate the 16th anniversary of when we met. I made up a little screenprint as a gift for him. The design is based on this vintage ’60s Fox River paper box that I’ve always loved. The print came out somewhat blobby, but I like it:
Craft Fair Day
Salutations, everybody… I’ve had a busy week that included setting up my very first craft fair to sell LitKids prints. This was the annual employee craft fair at Christopher’s workplace. It was fun, I got to meet a lot of new people and seemingly got to recite my spiel on what LitKids are about 100 times. We sold quite a few matted and bagged prints this way, including all of the Laura Ingalls prints I brought. Here are some pics of the table setup:
Back from Paradise
Well, we’re back and completely rested after our October 9-13 trip to the island of Maui. Neither of us has ever been to Hawaii; it met my expectations in several areas even exceeded them (the weather and the mellow, friendly vibe of the locals). We stayed at the Honua Kai Resort and Spa, which was beautifully appointed if somewhat mainstream and white family-centric (I tend to prefer smaller, funkier lodging). The first night, we went out on the beach for a walk and beheld the most gorgeous sunset, framed by the neighboring islands of Lanai and Molokai. The photo above is of the two of us during our snorkeling trip. I loved the snorkeling! It’s like swimming in a giant saltwater aquarium. We also sampled a lot of food, ranging from heavenly to wretched (basically anything purchased in an airport). Everything is expensive, but I’ll learn to live with it until it’s time to pay the MasterCard bill. You can’t put a price on the memories and experiences we came away with.
I’ll post a more detailed trip report — later!
Brownie Points
It’s my 42nd birthday today. I’ve had a nifty neat-o day. The festivities started last night, when Christopher bestowed me with several gifties off my Amazon wish list. He also had the day off today, so we went to the lunch eatery of my choosing. I chose Chili’s, a mainstream chain but I hadn’t been there in years and was salivating for a peppercorn burger, and chips with hot queso dip. We got all that and a free brownie with ice cream on top, accompanied by our server’s enthusiastic “Happy Birthday To You.” I guess he was new and didn’t know about copyright laws.
We are actually going to be away from computers and keyboards for the next few days, so there will be no Weekly Mishmash. Instead, I present an early Mini Mishmash for October 3-7:
- Bottle Rocket (1996). Typical ’90s indie comedy. Normally I hate Wes Anderson’s cutesy, fussy films (the overlapping dialogue heard in this one is one reason why), but this one was unexpectedly sweet. Owen and Luke Wilson were both very appealing.
- Garbo Talks (1984). Going satellite free has allowed us to check out the oddness of our local channels, like the independent station that seems to show nothing but Patty Duke Show repeats and a buttload of never-on-DVD vintage movies. Such as Sidney Lumet’s Garbo Talks. This was a rather glum drama chronicling repressed accountant Ron Silver’s efforts to fulfill the dying wish of his colorful ma (Anne Bancroft) to meet her idol, Greta Garbo. Bancroft’s soliloquy to Garbo was certainly award-worthy; the Manhattan locations and a variety of stage actors in support add a lot to its quirky appeal.
- A Letter To Elia (American Masters, PBS). Should have more accurately been called Martin Scorsese’s Fawning Homage To The Elia Kazan Films Of His Childhood. Luckily the half hour of interviews at the end almost redeems the barfy obsequiousness that came before.
- That’s Entertainment, Part 2 (1976). A sentimental favorite, and I must be the only person on earth who enjoyed the new bridging sequences in this film with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire on a candy-colored set (not to mention Saul Bass’ still delightful opening credits). The clips maddeningly lack context, but years of TCM viewing has deepened my appreciation of certain segments such as the James FitzPatrick TravelTalks montage or the parade of scenes involving songwriters implausibly writing classic tunes in no time flat. Above all, what these clips teach is that Gene Kelly had the finest ass in classic moviedom.
- Troubled Water (2008). Compelling Norwegian drama about a youth, released from prison for murdering a child, who attempts to redeem himself by becoming a church organist. The child’s grieving mother happens to come across the man, then things get twisted. Well made, with nuanced performances and lovely photography. The film turns standard and thriller-like near the end, but otherwise a moving experience.
Curtain Call
About 10 years ago, I found these adorable fruit and vegetable print curtains at a thrift store. Got them home and found they were the perfect size for our kitchen window. As you can see from the photos below, they’re still cute but the colors have faded and the fabric has become threadbare. We’d like to replace them, but we’re having the hardest time trying to find something appropriate. We like retro fabric designers like Alexander Girard, Lucienne Day, Vera, Harwood Steiger — or even Charles Harper, if you applied his print style to cloth. The only limitation is that it has to have some green, since our kitchen is that color. The curtains can be pre-made or just fabric. Any ideas?
Ten Years a Scrubbling Fool
A milestone: this week marks the tenth anniversary that I’ve been doing this weblog. It’s hard to believe a whole decade has passed since setting up a Blogger account so I could have a more dynamic element on my little site — complete with impenetrable web address containing a tilde (the scrubbles.net domain name would come a few months later). Although as of summer 2000 I had already been doing a monthly music review site (coded by hand!), this new venture opened up a completely new world. Before, the web felt one dimensional; after, it was a veritable lovefest of sharing, discussing, giving and receiving. All these years later, it still astonishes me that anyone would be interested in my ramblings on whatever crappy movie/book/album comes my way.
So, here’s to ten years of the bl*g! To celebrate, here are some links to other bloggers’ tenth birthday posts:
- Jason Kottke: Kottke.org is ten years old today (March 2008)
- Brad Graham: The BradLands at 10 (May 2008)
- Anil Dash: Ten Years! (July 2009)
- Gael Fashingbauer Cooper: PCJM Turns 10! (August 2009)
- Kevin C. Murphy: Ghost in the Machine: The First Ten Years (November 2009)
- Cory Doctorow: 10 Years of Boing Boing (January 2010)
- Meggan: Quiddity is now 10! (February 2010)
Related: Eight Years of Scrubbles.net (highlights reel); Seven Years of Unpigeonholable Tomfoolery (a look at the Scrubbles logos from 2000-07).
Living with the iPad
About a month ago, Christopher came to me with a surprise announcement: he was ordering a new Apple iPad. He was thinking about getting something similar to replace our old Dell laptop computer as a simple internet connection for us while going on long trips. As the Apple person in the family, I was delighted with this development — it certainly was going to get more use from me than that crappy Dell.
Now, I’m no early adopter when it comes to new technology, but the iPad really epitomizes what I’d want from a techno-gadget. When the iPhone first came out, I thought “this would be nice without the phone.” Then Apple released the iPod Touch, and I thought “this would be great if it was bigger, so you could read e-books and browse the internet.” Voilà, the iPad! The first generation iPad isn’t perfect; it’s still a bit bulky and the screen could use a few more square inches. However, even after a few weeks I can tell it will be a useful part of our household. We’ve already had a few times while watching a movie when C. will whip out the thing to check on an actor in the Internet Movie Database, a move that would have been not worth the extra work using the laptop.
The first thing I noticed on the iPad is how intuitive the interface is. You move around with the brush of a finger, like on the iPhone but more natural. Typing is accomplished with a small pop-up keyboard. Sure, typing with one hand takes getting used to, but I was able to adapt to it startlingly fast.
The first thing we did was to synched it up to my Mac’s iTunes. I downloaded several free apps, including some news feeds from NPR, the BBC and USA Today. While one could access all three via Safari, I kind of enjoy having them in their own uncluttered state. Browsing on Safari is nice, but the type is a bit too small and I had more than one instance of accidentally tapping the wrong link. As for the controversial lack of Flash, I’ve barely noticed it. Strangely enough, the best app I’ve seen has been MultiPong, a beautifully rendered simple pong game. Speaking of simplicity, there’s also a virtual koi pond app that Christopher immediately gravitated to. I bought SketchBook Pro, which packs an impressive array of features into a measly $7.99 app. At this point I’m just fooling around with it, somewhat frustrated at how I keep accidentally using my fingers to resize my sketches (hmm).
I’ve also explored e-books a little bit with Apple’s iBooks and Amazon’s Kindle app. First off, I think it’s totally cool that Amazon even has a Kindle iPad app. With it, you can see books in color and set the type at a comfortable size, even having pages displayed in brown on sepia (my favorite). I downloaded a cheap copy of Treasure Island with nice color illustrations by N.C. Wyeth; hopefully it’s a sign of things to come that more illustrated ebooks will come along. Although I haven’t explored Apple’s reader, I can already tell that the Kindle has an edge for being able to bookmark pages (if iBooks have bookmarks, I haven’t seen it (note: iBooks does have a bookmark, I now see)). One enormous downside of both is that the type is completely forced justified and not ragged right like in most paper books (remember those?). The font choices aren’t too thrilling, either. Hopefully future updates will remedy that.
Perhaps the most ringing endorsement I have for the iPad is that writing about it here makes me want to fire the thing up and explore more — off I go!
My First Modem
I recently came across a true artifact of its time while cleaning out the garage. This Hayes Accura 1140 modem was purchased after I moved into my first apartment in 1994. Armed with it, a Macintosh IIci, and a new America Online membership, I was ready to blaze the Information Superhighway — at 56K per second! Listen, I even had my place equipped with a separate phone line to enable websurfing and talking on the phone simultaneously (considering my pathetic social life at the time, not really necessary). I’m also not afraid to admit that the AOL membership was mostly used to find dates and look at porn. This was back when it took 15-20 minutes to download one photo, mind you. Thank our lucky stars that the internet has grown up since then, and so have I.
Dig this early AOL commercial from 1995. “A friend of mine told me ‘Try America Online.’ I said ‘Why? I’ve got a computer.’” That line always seemed so bizarre to me, even back then. What, were they selling to complete idiots?
Sunflower Saturday
Every Spring in our backyard, we get a lot of plants randomly growing here and there from the birdseed we throw out every weekend — milo, millet and beautiful sunflowers. I don’t know how it happens (from undigested seeds in bird poo, perhaps?), but we enjoy it a lot. Heavy rains this year have produced a bumper crop of sunflowers, including a couple of massive seven foot tall plants sprouting atop our compost heap. I took some photos last weekend when they were attracting plenty of bees and other flying insects (one of which was caught midflight in the pic below).
In other backyard news, our victory garden is coming along well. We’ve already gotten lots of lettuce which I never anticipated would grow so well in our soil. Carrots and green onions are growing nicely as well. Time to make carrot cookies! We also grew a half row of tomatoes from seeds. I wasn’t expecting much (again, desert ≠ verdant gardening), but the tomato plants have gotten so huge that they’re taking over neighboring crops. Having the garden located in a space that doesn’t get our killer afternoon sun might be helping. At any rate, I’m looking forward to having bunches of tomatoes to go with our lettuce, carrots and onions.
In the Garage
Last week, I went into the little studio we’ve set up for printing LitKids and took some photos to share. I have a nifty little corner of the garage set up with an old drafting table and a few inspirational things hung up on the walls. Things have been moving along okay, if a bit slowly for my tastes. There is so much trial and error involved in home screen printing, especially the method I’m using with photo sensitive goo and light exposures. I won’t bore you by going into too much detail; just want to mention that last Thursday I made the most perfect screen yet — a five minute sunlight exposure with four sharply defined images ready for printing.
Anyway, the photos below show some of the stuff I’ve been working on lately — a screen stretched with a cherished old silk shirt with a comic book pattern (which didn’t stretch right, soaked up too much liquid, and eventually got ripped), a piece with pages from a circa 1900 copy of Treasure Island pasted on, inks, papers, and all that good stuff. Enjoy!
The Cable/Satellite Trap
This New York Post story on how supposedly millions of Americans are giving up their cable and satellite services struck a chord with me. The article mentions that the average cable/satellite customer spends $70 a month on services, about the same as our DirecTV bill here at Chez Scrubbles. With every month that I must fork over that sum, I question why we’re paying so much when we can get the same programs on DVD or online. Do we really use it that much? I still love to watch Turner Classic Movies, but I only record about five or six movies a month on that. We also watch the occasional Modern Marvels or Project Runway, but it seems like everything on cable is about haunted houses, Nostradamus/Bible prophesies, macho men on the job, people with eighteen children, people with physical deformities, people who are grossly overweight, etc. etc. I’m paying for that?
By contrast, our monthly Netflix bill is less than a third of DirecTV’s — and we get so much more entertainment value out of that. Netflix probably hates the way we burn through dozens of movies every month. Now that we have our Wii and wi-fi set up with them, we can watch streamed content on the TV through them as well. I really want to try paring down the satellite to just the local network affiliates for a few months to see if we feel deprived in any way. What do you think?
