esprit de l'escalier

Finished baby blanket

I have finally finished a baby blanket for my cousin Helene's new baby. She had a baby girl, which she named Claire Josephine, just over a month ago. It is so wonderful having new little ones in the family. I'm really excited to meet the newest Claire in the family. I like to think that our sharing names makes me a sort of guardian over this little one. I have been dragging my hands (as it were), finishing this blanket. I just haven't been working on it. I decided to call it finished this weekend though. It's about the size of a small bath towel, and I hope it's big enough. I'm wishing now that I made it wider, but what can you do? It's really soft, made with a baby alpaca. It's my first foray into nice yarn, as opposed to just JoAnn yarn. I used a basic, open chevron stitch. Now I need to get going on another blanket, because I have another cousin due in early April! Which means I need to figure out what I want to do and commit to some yarn. Any crafty people out there have any suggestions for stitches or books to check out?

I spy with my little eye...

Listing a bunch of links as a blog entry is kind of lame, so I try not to do it too much, but I'm going to make an exception tonight. I'm filing this under "I am a nerd" because I started that category as a place to put my nerdly crushes and this is a list of my current crushes in many areas of my life.

The artistic types that I admire
(and/or those from who I have recently purchased little treasures from)
Mati Rose-- I recently purchased a copy of her "Chicago, Alright" print. I love the colors and the swirls.

BoyGirl Party--I think Susie Ghahremani is wonderful. Her little birds are so expressive. I have her owl cards (which I can't seem to part with to send them to anyone), her mini cards (which I'd like to have matted and framed together), her owl pins (because I have been collecting little pins lately and putting them in letters I send people, but again, these are too cute, and her chickadee card. I found her originally through the Tiny Showcase website. Check out her illustration page as well.

Port2Port-- Recently I've been enjoying the discussions about art over at Mav's place. She also always has some lovely printed cards for sale at her Etsy shop.

The Carrotbox-- Alice, the great woman who runs this shop, is allergic to metal but loves rings. She had a hard time finding one place to buy non-metal rings so she decided to fill the niche herself. She has recently started selling prototypes of glass rings she's made. A while back I bought this dark pink plastic zinnia ring that is my absolute favorite thing I own right now. I thought I lost it for a day and was devastated. I love Alice and her site.

My couch potato ways...
I've always had couch potato tendencies, that tend to be strongest in the winter. These are some of the shows that I've been watching a lot recently.
Project Runway-- the season is almost up and I've been trying to stay away from spoilers, but not very successfully, though I don't know who has won yet. Natasha and I have been entertaining a bunch of ladies on Wednesday nights to watch and we are planning a party for the finale on March 8th. I bought some cookie cutters shaped like a dress, a shoe and a purse and we're going to have people decorate their own cookie couture. Yes, we're nerds, but it should be fun.

Rollergirls-- This is my second reality show weakness, and I love it. Natasha and I have our favorites (Sister Mary Jane being top on our list), but these women kick ass and don't (seem to) act for the camera and it chronicles a lot of good, real drama.

Bleak House-- I am officially hooked on Dickens. I am really enjoying this series and can't wait for the conclusion.

New magazine
Fast Company-- My friend Sharon recently recommended this magazine to me. It is geared towards entrepenuers and focuses a lot on how new media is creating new opportunities for innovation. It took me a while to pick it up after I bought it, but once I did I couldn't put it down. So much of it fits in with what I'm studying at the moment. It's cool to see how new media is affecting areas that I don't normally think much about.

The Evening Vaudeville Show News Hour

Have I said how much I'm enjoying my class on Old Media, New Media? I really love being back in a classroom, and I find this class to be very stimulating. This week was the first in two weeks' discussion of how journalism is changing (and has changed).

This evening we talked about how public sentiment for journalists keeps declining and how the news organizations keep making themselves more and more into cartoons of their former selves. We talked about the arrogance of the analog news services, especially the NYTimes. (Which I have to say I enjoyed more than I should have.) We talked about how news has become this vaudevillian display where news stories aren't actually told, but incredibly slanted spectacle is given as if it has some meaning. We watch a lot of clips in class, and this is usually a lot of fun, but being forced to watch 3 hours of tv news clips underlined the reasons why I don't watch tv news. It all makes me a little ill. I don't want to see how straight news gets gussied up only to have the lede and important information buried for the sake of marketability.

One thing that we watched that was really amazing in its arrogance was a documentary the NYTimes created and sent to journalism schools to show how real news is made. Thomas Friedman explained the three step process to writing: 1) Collect as much information as you can about the subject; 2) Cross off what you don't believe; 3) Write up the rest.

Let's focus on #2. There was once a time when the basic rational powers of people were respected, but I guess we've moved light years away from the Enlightenment, haven't we? Why are people leaving mainstream media? Arrogance and paternalism. Hello? Cross off what you don't believe? Isn't that slanting the story? The media is all about directing people's thoughts on any subject. Giving two "talking heads" a chance to screech about each side of an issue isn't being balanced. Can we move away from the corporatization of the news or are we too far gone? (I think I could say that about the country, actually.)

Anyhow, for more angry ranting about what a mess the media is, please see Lance.

Discussion of weather very unlike February

"Since it was a very hot night and the paperboys went by with placards proclaiming in huge red letters that there was a heat wave, wicker chairs were placed on the hotel steps and there, sipping, smoking, detached gentlemen sat. Peter Walsh sat there. One might fancy that day, the London day, was just beginning. Like a woman who had slipped off her print dress and white apron to array herself in blue and pearls, the day changed, put off stuff, took gauze, changed to evening, and with the same sigh of exhilaration that a woman breathes, tumbling petticoatson the floor, it too shed dust, heat, colour; the traffic thinned; motor cars, tinkling, darting, succeeded the lumber of vans; and here and there among the thick foliage of the squares an intense light hung. I resign, the evening seemed to say, as it paled and faded above the battlements and prominences, moulded, pointed, of hotel, flat, and block of shops. I fade, she was beginning, I disappear, but London would have none of it, and rushes her bayonets into the sky, pinioned her, constrained her to partnership in her revelry."

--from Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The Fullness of Life

Sunday evening I went to see Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story with my friend Allison. It was hilarious. The premise is it is of the making of a film version of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, the novel thought of as being completely unfilmable, the first post modern novel before there was any modern to be post of. It's very cheeky, and in a couple of places it drags a little, but for the most part it's very funny. It pokes fun at how movies are made and the egos of actors, and the round about way Shandy's life was told. Or rather, I'm getting ahead of myself. Actually, that's key to the whole idea of the book, so it seems to my illiterate mind who has not read it. There is a quick scene of a scholar (played by the ever enjoyable Stephen Fry), who says (and I'm paraphrasing), that Shandy's whole problem was that life is too full for art to fully capture it. The novel, which was supposed to tell of Tristram's life, ends with his birth. There was too much going on that he couldn't get in, that he never really got to his life. That idea of life being too full resonated with me. I think art's goal is often trying to pin down pieces of life, to try and show some truth in the fragments we can catch and put to paper, or canvas or song. (The whole cast is marvelous. My favorite scene, being as highbrow as I am, was one in which Steve Coogan drops a hot chestnut down his pants.)

Anyhow, chestnuts aside, this idea of life being too big for art to truly capture it resonated in part, I think, because I was reading Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (I just finished it about an hour ago). I love the way her prose floats throughout the day, alighting briefly on the consciousnesses of the characters. I think this novel shows that art doesn't fully capture life, but that there is truth in the small slices. I reallly, really loved this book. I just felt like I was floating along with the stories. I feel like it's a book I will come back to and read it differently each time.

(An aside: I feel a little repetitive in this post, but hey, I think it's a natural by product of both of the pieces I wrote about this evening...)

Vegan delights and a French thriller

Today after work I went out with my friends Sharon and Pat. At Sharon's suggestion we went to Karyn's Cooked, which is the newest offshoot of the raw food/vegan empire of Karyn Calabrese. Now while I'm no huge fan of the raw/vegan diet for a lifestyle, it's not for me, vegan food can be really great. Collins, the dorm I lived in in college, catered to vegans and vegetarians, and one thing I miss are the chocolate vegan cookies Jim Beeson used to make. (Actually, Kathy F.'s Wednesday Food Blogging often has me reconsidering my diet, or just possibly adding more tofu and seitan to it.) Anyhow, Karyn's Cooked was excellent. (Alix, next time you're in town, I'm taking you, you'll love it.) I had the Jerk Tofu wrap, which was delicious. Sharon had her "usual" (though it was her second time at the place), which is the Southern Comfort. I had a bite of the greens, and it was good. Pat had the lasagna, which looked good. I wished we had time for dessert, because we sat in front of the case full of beautiful looking cakes, but we were running late for our movie.

We went up to the Music Box to see Caché, this French thriller starring La Binoche and Daniel Auteuil. It's a fairly disturbing, and extremely ambiguous film (and extremely French as Pat pointed out), about a family who starts to get video tapes of their house. It was creepy, but well done. Their apartment was amazingly beautiful and simply modern, with tons of windows and natural light. Besides the terrorizing stalker, I was ready to move in.

Oh, I just remembered something. While we were eating, a family came in and waited to be seated near where we sat. The little girl, who was about three or four, had on this white puffy down coat. Her mother, or someone, had appliqued felt birds and trees to it. It was totally adorable. I wish I had had a camera to document it. It would be really easy to recreate and would add a great sense of whimsy to a coat for a little kid.

À bientôt!

The Night Heron

I've got another shameless plug for my friend George. He's directing a new play that's just begun, it's called The Night Heron and it's by an Englishman named Jez Butterworth. I went to see it last night with his lovely wife, Elaine. Normally I have more of a clue what to expect, because I usually have more in-depth conversations with George about the play he's ramping up to do. This time all I knew was that it was British, there was a specific accent from Cambridgeshire that I found amusing, and it was about a friendship between two men, much like Of Mice and Men, which is being played in repertory with his play. I'm really glad everything came as a surprise, well not quite everything (thanks for *not* telling me about the full frontal, Elaine). The story and suspense built really well and the acting was excellent. Steep's space is very intimate, and while sitting front row isn't usually my favorite spot (I like a buffer zone), I felt really engaged with the action and characters.

If you are in Chicago and are interested in a darkly funny play, go see The Night Heron at Steep Theatre Company. It's playing Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm now through March 25. Check it out.

I heart Joey Cheek

This morning, I heard on NPR how Joey Cheek won the gold in the 500 meters speed skating competition yesterday. I don't pay very close attention to the Olympics and am a little sad this year that I haven't, but this news didn't really catch my ear until I heard why the story was really being covered. It turns out that Mr. Cheek is not only speedy and apparently very easy-going and likeable, not mention mighty cute, but compassionate. He's donating the $25,000 of prize money to an organization that will help Sudanese children. That's amazing. And from what I heard on NPR, he's trying to get some sponsors to give money as well, and so far Nike said it will donate $30,000 in equipment. What kills me about all of this is that besides on NPR, I neither heard nor saw anything about it. I had to search on NYTimes, and even then, I don't think it said that the charity he was targeting had to do with Sudan. What is with that? I know there are lots of stories at the Olympics, because many hopes are being realized and broken, but can't we take a moment out of the news cycle to showcase a selfless act?

So, Mr. Cheek, congratulations on your win, your country is proud of you. You have a fine spirit, thank you for sharing it with the world.

Hooray for love!

When I was 16, my Dad gave me a couple of jazz cds, one of which was Ella Fitzgerald: The Best of the Songbooks, and I used to listen to it when I got ready to go to dances. "Hooray for Love" always put me in the right mood, and it's fitting to share it today.

It's the wonder of the world, It's a rocket to the moon It gets you high, it gets you low, but once you get that glow...

Here's to my best romance, Here's to my worst romance
Here's to my first romance - ages ago
Here's to the boys I've kissed, and to complete the list
Here's to the boys who said "No!"

Love, love, hooray for love
Who was ever too blase for love
Make this the night for love
If we have to fight, let's fight for love

Some sigh and cry for love
Ah, but in Pa-ree they die for love
Some waste away for love
Just the same - hooray for love!

It's the rocket to the moon, with a touch of "Clare de Lune"
It gets you high, it gets you low, but once you get that glow...

Some trust to fate for love,
Others have to take off weight for love
Some go berzerk for love
Loafers even go to work for love

Sad songs are sobbed for love
People have their noses bobbed for love
Some say we pay for love
Just the same - hooray for love!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so it's not the greatest thing I've ever made, but it's the best I can do today.