From the Desk of Miss U.

Oh bloggggg.. it's been so long! For no other reason than that I managed to parlay that whole post-holiday lazytimes jam into an entire month. But! I'm back in action.
First up:


I try to keep busy in the print shop. I just printed a batch of biz-cards for a tattoo-pal.. front and back, one by one. A nice way to spend a cold, rainy day.


And we went back to the mountain! I am slowly regaining some lost shredding skills. And am reminded of the fact that most people look like little kids when they put on this much clothing, which is why teenage boys accidentally try to flirt with me when we ride the chair. I actually told one young lad that 'my bones were too brittle' to join him in the terrain park.

Let's see.. what else?


Tamala is coming to visit on Monday! Direct from LA, ready to tackle the Shelton thrift scene with me. Good times!

Sanctuary

There's this great thing happening in blogg-land! I mean, of course it's an attention-getter for album promotion, but an extremely generous and worthwhile one..


For every blog that posts a link to Neko Case's new single, 'People Got a Lotta Nerve', her record label Anti will donate $5 to Best Friends Animal Society. The most amazing sanctuary I plan on visiting in March! Here's the link to the free download:
http://www.anti.com/media/download/708
That's a huge fundraiser!! Makes me incredible happy.

Bodysurfin'

That's what I'm talkin' about:


STOKED!

My Infinitely Flawed Mitts

The other evening my friend Themba and I had a mutual bro-down about this phenomenon: If we don't make something with our hands everyday, we go kind-of bonkers. So, this is what I kept busy with on January 17th, 2009. A 5-color silkscreen experiment in the works.. is it patches? flags? a decorative chamois??


Lion Triangle Zigzag Thingy, in progress.


Do you get high off of color? Cuz I do. PUPILS DILATE!


I'm gonna slap some Mint Green and Mars Black on this sucker before we're done.

Dreamcruisers

I love love love spending my day in the realm of graphic communications:


A screen I just burned. What will I make with it?? The possibilities are endless.


Zines to the maxx. I feel like I've sold a lot of these over the past few years, have any of you learned anything from it? I'd love stories.


And Devon's flyer is done! To the Olympia Party Safari peeps: Jesspo will be in town with Devon this weekend, watch out for wicked GOOD TIMEZ.

And lastly, a bittersweet report from the desk of Margaret: The P.T. Cruiser is offically dead. Which means I will never realize the fantasy of getting 'upgraded' at the Avis desk, only to have them drive out this golden dreamcruiser:


INCA GOLD, my friends. Inca Gold.

Bits n' Bytes

Random things I want to tell you about, circa TODAY:


Magic Kombucha. Brewed right here in Olympia by the fabulous Rachel Carns, dispensed in many different libation and beverage forms at QB, and available for purchase at the Olympia Food Co-op. Truly, it is 'The Champagne of Kombuchas'. Bonus: If you live in Olympia, and are interested in saving the 24 hour free-flowing Artesian Well (from which this tasty Kombucha is born), i.e. the dispensary of delicious water that fell as rain in nearby foothills over 2000 years ago, join Rachel and myself at the Downtown Library this Saturday, January 17th, 2:30 to 4:30 pm!


NEW SHOOZ.


And look what showed up at the door last night! Justin with a headwound. Don't worry, it's just a theatrical re-enactment. He's taking a class that certifies him as a 'Wilderness First Responder', sort-of a mountain medic. Each day the students take turns role playing possible trauma situations.. this is 'Man Falls Out Of Tree While Foraging For Wild Mushrooms'. Not Kidding. Then J.T. was all 'And I have internal bleeding, too!'


OUCH.

Makin' Copies

Remember the stupid SNL skit from the 80's/90's where that guy would go 'Makin' copies.. copyrama.. Ran-dyyy! The Rand-man! Alright! The Rand Old Opry, makin' copies..' etc.? Sometimes I feel like that guy. When I'm hanging tough at Kinko's, making flyers for shows:


Ever since I was a teenager I've been skulking around copy shops. I'm just a little bit old enough to remember the times before Photoshop/Illustrator, when zines and stickers and other youth propaganda was made by hand in the middle of the night at some strip mall Kinko's. Reading copies of Cometbus and staying up all hours jacked-up on unlimited refill sodas from Taco Bell, making awesomely terrible collages of 90210 mixed with the Melvins. Only now it's the afternoon, and I'm battling 3 other luddites over the remaining few dinosaur copy machines. Still good times, just less resources for us copiers. Not to mention that every time I hang there, they play 'It's a Cruel, Cruel Cruel Summer' which always makes me sad/nostalgic/melancholy.


Which brings me back to Community Print! It's a luddite's paradise. Here's Phase Two of the Devon Williams letterpress poster; today I'll go back in and do a third color around the edges. Full report to be filed tomorrow.

Handmade Weekend

Studio visit with Faythe Levine! Of the aforementioned Handmade Nation book tour..


.. seen here working the crowd at Orca Books with her RAD poncho. If you haven't already watched the trailer for the upcoming Handmade Nation documentary, check it out here. Massively inspiring!

So inspiring, in fact, that I jumped back in the letterpress studio this weekend and started Phase One of a flyer for my L.A. buddy Devon Williams' upcoming Olympia show:


Set the type.. check. (Ed. note: this crazy quick-and-dirty method of letterpress setup has also been known as 'Jazz Style'! I have no patience for doing things the super picky way.)


First round of printing.. double check. Today I'll go back in the studio and do a second color overlay, and then a third color for the border.

Oh! I also wanted to share some of the homemade gifts I bestowed upon Justin for xmas:


Gnarly Mountaineering Tea©! For the Old-Style Mountain Climber in all of us. I took photocopies of classic climbers and altered a box of chamomile teabags with these little laminated guys. It was a hit! Inspiration came from a post a while back on Design Sponge.


And some homemade t-shirts! I recently took a silkscreening workshop at Community Print, and made these designs with J.T. in mind. The first is a nod to our nautical 'hood, and the second is a totally nerdy geology joke, as in 'Don't take this gneiss chert for granite'! Oh man..

Making It Awesome

Attention Olympians!


Tomorrow night, Saturday Jan. 10th, Faythe Levine will be at Orca Books with her fabulous creation, Handmade Nation!


Join us for the afterparty at QB, where Dj Books and myself will be crafting a wicked set of tunes out of our towering wall of vinyl! We will knit together choice Funk, sweet Soul, silky Slow Jamz, and all the odds n' ends of the musical scrap pile. 10 pm till close, first set in almost a MONTH!

Barbizon

Stella Marrs, Olympia ex-pat and master of the graphic postcard since way-back-when, just emailed me to share this set of short interview clips with lady pals talking about Barbie-doll memories. Part of her thesis project. I've got a bit in it, along with Anna Oxygen (hilarious Barbie Bag Lady© jingle), Nikki Mcclure, Kanako Wynkoop and lots of other rad women. Check it out here!


I've been having some wicked adventure dreams lately. Early in the A.M. I had one where I was walking down the forest trail with the dogs, but entered an underground tunnel. Five wild animals were chasing me, but the one that could almost catch me was some sort of Wolverine-Ewok hybrid. Luckily I found a wooden door to pull shut in the nick of time!


All of my dreams are about houses, apartments, hotels, doors, and wild animals. Interpretations?

Y2K09!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


I am ready for change. Like having a car that isn't broken. So, if all goes according to plan, my car will be working later on tonight with a combination of a jumpstart from Justin's truck while simultaneously aiming an extension-corded hair dryer at the car's ECU (computer thingy). This is what I've spent my day hatching. Do the goggles make me look CRAAAAZE?

ed. note: I promise that I will return to posting fun art things and pictures not relating to snow-accessories. Just as soon as I can get out of this house and into town. The hairdryer plan will work.