Blogorrhea Junior

Back to the Academic Trenches

Well, this will be interesting. I've just been hired by the College of New Rochelle, whose programs are now much like Chatham's but at a Catholic university, to tutor in their writing lab a couple of days a week, and possibly to teach one of the remedial classes, which may in turn lead to a more regular teaching gig. They seemed to think I was grossly overqualified to tutor in the writing center and fairly anxious to offer me an adjunct gig, which sort of surprised me. It's not like Ph.D.s aren't going begging. Hmmm.

Seems a bit more conservative than other places I've taught (not surprising, since it's Catholic). Mild dress code that the women ignore and men observe by wearing a tie. Much professor this and Dr. that in the introductions, which may be just because I'm new. But everyone seemed very friendly, and I'm older than both of the people in the department who interviewed me, which was weird.

The gig is at one of CNR's satellite campuses, this one in the South Bronx, a mere bus ride away. Very easy to get to, not horrible hourly pay (though the adjunct pay for 9 weeks pretty much sucks, as usual), and nice people. The students, I suspect, are going to be rather different from even the people I taught at LaGuardia, but most of them are adults, which is a plus. And it's a big plus to teach at a 4-year again, rather than a community college. It'll be a nice way to ease back into teaching, too. Keep you posted.

Buffalo Small Press Fair

Small press fairs, how I love thee. Let me count the ways.  Or not.  I'll spare you that. I missed this year's NYC small press fair (now the Independent Press Fair) but I might make a trip upstate to go to the Buffalo Small Press Fair. It's a one-day affair, on March 22nd (fitting, since this is Small Press Month), at  Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, Porter Hall, 453 Porter Avenue in Buffalo, NY. They're still taking vendor applications, but they're filling up fast, so get on it if you're interested.

A description from the site:

The book fair is a one day event that brings booksellers, authors, bookmakers, zinesters, small presses, artists, poets, and regional cultural workers together in a venue where they can share ideas and peddle their wares. Tables will be available at the event where people can showcase and sell their work. Poetry readings, performances, discussions, and related lectures are also scheduled to go on throughout the day. Best of all, the event is FREE to attend and open to the public!

Small press fairs are always interesting, because you never know exactly what you're going to find. The term "small press" covers a lot of of ground, from DIY zine publishers and book artists to presses that put out mass-produced hardcovers and paperbacks, but only a few a year, like Soft Skull and Small Beer, and includes people like me, who do one-of-a-kind or limited edition hand-bound work. And to my mind, people running small presses, whatever they produce are putting out some of the most innovative and risky literary and artistic books around, stuff you're not going to see (much to their loss) on Amazon (except at hideously inflated prices, if at all) or Sheds & Commoner.

I hadn't heard about the Buffalo fair before, and stumbled across it at the Western New York Book Arts Collaborative site in a Google Alert. They also have some great workshops themselves, including one on zine publishing and a Fontlab workshop that's making my mouth water (I have a secret yen to design fonts). If you're in Western New York or around that area, it's worth checking them out, too.

New Paper!

The Coptic project proceeds apace. I went out to Blick Arts and picked up a couple of pads of 18x24 Strathmore 400 series 80 lb. drawing paper in natural white which makes nice book blocks, and found four sheets of very fun wrapping paper, made by Whimsy Press, that will make great covers.  It's a nice, heavy weight, not flimsy like a lot of wrapping paper is, but I don't know if it's acid-free (doubt it); not that I think it matters all that much for this project. They are "FSC certified paper and also contain 30% post consumer fiber," which is great. And the book blocks are acid free; that's what really matters.

The fun thing about this paper is that it's double sided, so it's like buying cover paper and endsheets all in one.  Here's what I got (click thumbnails to enlarge):

Crayons & Stripes	Chinese Lanterns & Stripes
Bamboo & Fortune Cookies	Cupcakes & Bonbons

(And my ampersand paperweight.) Pretty! Bright! Colorful! The bamboo and fortune cookie paper not only has the cookies themselves but little strips with fortunes on them, like "take responsibility for your greatness," "none of us as smart as all of us," "share your happiness with others today," and "accept compliments and give praise." Don't forget to add the traditional "in bed" to the end of each. Hmmm, there's a little project waiting to happen. . . .

The cupcakes just completely cracked me up, but they'll all make fun little journals.  I'm going to try sewing them with some of the millions of yards of embroidery silk I've got. I have a hunch it'll be easier to work with than the linen thread, but we'll see. Keep you posted.

52nd Feminst Blog Carnival

Hey! My rant about women's work and crafts is in the 52nd Feminist Blog Carnival, over at the group blog Figure: Demystifying the Feminine Mystique. It's a great blog all by itself, so go over and take a look. The Carnival includes pieces on violence against women, media, body image, sexuality, politics, another arts & crafts piece besides mine, and a section on choices, which covers more than just abortion rights. Lots of great stuff out there. Get a cup of your favorite caffeine and settle in for a nice read.

Maine Pottery

Meant to post this earlier too, but there you go. Just before I went up to Maine for Christmas, I busted one of my favorite pieces of pottery that I was using for a pencil holder. I've had it so long I'm not even sure where I got it now, but it has gone to the landfill, sadly. So I was on a mission in Maine to get a new pencil holder. What I came back with was (L-R; click for enlargement) a new art pen holder, a new sharp things holder, a new cup, and (front) a teeny tiny box into which I've put my spiral paper clips. Lovely, huh?  I'm so excited by the cup on the left, especially. It's a deep blue and has spirals on it (see above): what could be better?

And so inexpensive! The first two items I bought directly from the potters and it was like they were giving them away. Even the last two items were not that expensive. I luff them, so they were worth every penny. As Kath says, everything is worth what you pay for it, providing you get what you want.

Here's a little closeup of the the two small items I bought, the box and a little clamshell-shaped PUBO (Pretty Useless Bauble Object, per Rob). Note the detailing on the edge of the little box (click for larger images):

Heath Ledger, 1979-2008. RIP

I don't often get all teary when somebody famous dies; the last time I did it was Jim Henson, because I felt I'd personally lost a childhood hero and brilliant storyteller. I think part of that reaction is, of course, what the actions and life of this person meant to us, but since we don't know them personally, it's really some part of our own life that we're mourning: what they represented to us.

Not sure what it is about Heath Ledger's death, besides the tragic quality of its early arrival. I've liked him as an actor since I first saw him in "Ten Things I Hate About You," almost ten years ago. He was funny, adorable, and obviously a talent to watch. His performance in "Brokeback Mountain," one of my favorite stories, was clearly genius. I'm still looking forward to seeing him as the Joker in "The Dark Knight" for the quality of the performance, but it's going to be hard to watch, now.

There was a photo in the Times last night of the EMTs wheeling him out in a body bag that was absolutely horrifying in that train-wreck kind of way. A finality that doesn't seem real, especially when the figure is larger than life. It looked like a scene from a movie or TV show, one we've seen often—especially if you watch "Law & Order"—blurring the line the way we do when something is too painful to contemplate. And like that kind of death, it seems wrong that everything else in the world keeps chugging on. One of my friends just lost her dad a little while ago, and we talked about how wrong that seems. I had the same reaction when  Nick died: the trees were still blooming on St. Mark's, and that just seemed wrong somehow.  Everything should be equally blighted and devastated as we are, at least for a little while. No wonder the Greeks associated winter with the bereavement of Demeter. Winter is the landscape of death: blasted, dark, barren, bereft.

Maybe that's it, that the circumstances remind me of Nick, of the waste of dying at 28 or 29. It reminds me of all the other young stars who burn out early: River Phoenix, James Dean. So much ahead of him, so much potential and talent never to be realized. I wasn't a fanatic follower of Heath's, but I liked to think of him making a good life for himself in New York and getting on with what should have been, and could have been, a truly brilliant career. When word of a new movie he was in cropped up in the news, I was always glad he was working. I liked the risks he took in his roles. His work gave me a great deal of pleasure and happiness and now it'll always be a little melancholy, even when it's funny, like "A Knight's Tale."

I hope it wasn't suicide.  I hope he wasn't that unhappy before he died. I hope he wasn't scared or sick or miserable. An accident is tragic enough.

RIP, Heath. My heartfelt sympathies to your family.

Back in the Intertubz

Holy Crap that was really unpleasant.  I haven't done a system reinstall in years and hope I don't have to do one again for a while.  It only took two days.  Only.

On the up side, I ended up losing very little data: just my stash of old emails, and that only because Microshaft is so paranoid about having their software copied that they locked the Windows folder, where the mail is stored, out of the total system backup I did before I wiped the C drive. My drive is partitioned, so the D drive wasn't even touched, but I had to reload all my programs. And that gave me a nice opportunity to do some weeding, including a lot of the old reference programs I'd been using when I had dial-up. So I've got a lot of space on my internal HD now, and a new anti-virus program that has already caught two beasties PC-Cillin missed. And it's free!  Bless Mrs. Hamill for recommending Avast!

On the down side, I've lost the copy of Word 2003 I had through AKRF, which means I have to buy a new one. I love giving money to Microsnot. Not. Could have been much worse though.  And at least I don't have to wait until the 6th to have Intertubes on my desktop again. And everything is more or less back to normal, otherwise, except for my Advanced Font Viewer, for which I've lost my registration. I think I probably have a few fonts to reinstall, too, and my monitor color to reset, but I think everything else is working now. Phew.

More Coptic Notebooks

Here's the latest attempts, with varying and gradually improving success.  I think I'm sewing them too tight, mostly, and I'm not yet happy with how the final cover goes on, but sewing signatures is much better than sewing individual sheets, if you've got a lot of them. (Pardon my ignorance while I state the obvious: it makes a more even book.) I'll definitely make a few more, and pick up Keith Smith's Non-Adhesive Bindings, Vol. 1, which has kettle stitch in it. I've got Vol. 3, but it's not quite what I want yet; too advanced for the likes of me, at this stage in my skills.

The little book was the first hardcover I sewed; the marbled paper cover was the last.

Above, the front covers. Right, front covers with the very inexpert stitching. Below, the endsheets. The marbled book has the same endsheets as the cover. The white one in the middle alternates endsheets and cover paper on the front and back and the front cover paper is made with spinach.
	Click on the thumbnails for larger images. One thing I learned the hard way is that you always need more thread than you think you do. I've taken to adding not just a length for each signature, but for the covers and one "for the pot." That's about right. I'm going to try one with embroidery silk, too.

I Have a Big Box of Crayons and I'm Not Afraid to Use Them!

I have a weakness for the bright and shiny (yes, I am part magpie; shut up, pals), which manifests in my love of color and my recent obsession with suncatchers. My apartment in Brooklyn was a floor-thru that faced east and west, so it was always full of light. My newish one in the Bronx has a mostly northern exposure, so it's less bright. When I moved in, the last thing I wanted to do was cut off the light with curtains or blinds, so I started collecting suncatchers, which would obscure or at least distort the view and give me a little privacy but still let in the light. I had a couple already, and added some Gelgems to them, then picked up one on ebay, and one in Barcelona, and then friends started buying them for me, and before you know it, I had a windowful. Here's how it looks now:

You'd think that would be enough, wouldn't you? But no . . . never enough shiny for the ferret, er, magpie. So I got all excited when I saw this post at Cottage Corner on melted crayon hearts. I was one of those "deprived" kids who never got to do this (though I did get to press fall leaves between wax paper, which I loved), so I'm making up for lost time, now. I have the Gargantua-sized box of Crayolas and I'm not afraid to use them.  In fact, I've been looking for something to do with them. And I don't care if I ruin my iron, either. I can't remember the last time I ironed clothes with it anyway. I'm not even sure I can find it. What else are household appliances for anyway, if you're a DIYer? Paper pulp in the blender, melted crayons on your iron . . .

And I'm sure there are other interesting applications of this to book arts.  Covers? End papers? Hmm, there's an experiment. What's the pH of wax paper?

Japanese Paper Art from Shin Tanaka

Massive and yet indelibly cute in that Japanese anime way, like "My Neighbor Totoro" in 3-D. This will be on view at the Kennedy Center in DC as part of the the JAPAN! Culture and Hyperculture festival that runs Feb. 4-17. Tanaka will  be making one live on Feb. 5 at 6:00 PM in a free Millennium Stage Performance, at Kennedy Center. Here's a sneak preview: