Shorty

I'm making shorts for P. I wanted them to be seersucker but he said no freaking way. I snuck some into the pockets anyway.



I used a pattern I found at Scavenger's. I've sewn from a lot of vintage patterns, but this time I felt like I was in a time warp. Something about creating the same kind of trousers I used to rifle through racks of at thrift stores....

I had to take them in about four sizes, shorten the crazy long waist by about half, and nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to figure out the pocket installation but otherwise, it's been a lovely experience.

A sad sight

Did you know a dead whale washed up on the shore of Jones Beach a couple weeks ago? This isn't a freak occurrence, apparently: sometimes whales get killed by ships. And then we bury their bodies in the dunes. So there are enormous whale skeletons in the dunes at Jones Beach. Isn't that sad, and spooky? And bizarre?

Photo and story courtesy of Gothamist. (I'm not a fan of Gothamist, and I'm not sure why. Occasionally those cats report on stories like this, or on horrific bike accidents in the middle of Union Square, more immediately and reliably than other news sources. I know, I know. But I still don't like them.)

You talkin' to me?

The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.

"Urban Anthropologists Andy and Carolyn London interview some of New York City's more overlooked citizens."

Enjoy.

Responses to 6/15/10 post

I DON'T DRINK. I WAS PLAYING IN THE SUN. DAMN FOOLS.


WHATEVERRR.

Montréal est doux

The best ice cream in the world is in Canada's fair city of Montréal, at a place on Rue St. Denis called Meu Meu ("Moo Moo" in English, ha ha).

P and I went up for an extended Memorial Day weekend, hosted by P's intrepid bridge partner, friend, and philosopher Sari, who was back in her hometown attending a philosophers' convention. (It was fun to come home to a living room full of pontificating thinkers every night.)

Photo by "Aïch of the clan" on Flickr

I wasn't able to photograph this breathtaking and inspiring place because when I was there I experienced heart palpitations and blurry vision, trying to narrow down my choices of the many sweet and/or savory flavors (fromage ice cream, anyone?) that change (and are made fresh) daily. The grapefruit sorbet was particularly vexing. This wasn't some reach-into-your-deli-freezer and get some Haagen Ciao Sharon's Bella Dazs Sorbet sorbet. I don't even really like sorbet. But this grapefruit stuff! I was laughing and weeping and shoving heaping spoonfuls of it into my face, no kidding.

OK, collecting myself. Deep breath. I love you, Meu Meu. Let's move on.



A pee detour! And look, someone knocked over the sign to take it! (Not me, I swear.)

Little pee-wee eggs! Aw!

One not-amusing thing was my inability to track down Julie Doucet, as planned, and convince her to get back down into the coal mines and start producing her brilliant comics again. I didn't really put much energy into the search, it's true. We stopped by the Drawn & Quarterly bookshop so I could stare bitterly at the finite number of books she's put out. Dammit, Julie, you're driving your fans nuts! Also, my brother wants to marry you. (Seriously.)

By the way, cats in Julie Doucet comics say "Miaw, Miaw."

I almost had a heart attack one night when I walked into a unisex bathroom in a restaurant and saw an enormous buffalo head on the wall.



What the...?!

It was the kind of thing you walk over to very carefully, in case your assumption it's fake is wrong. But the fur was acrylic. A tell-tale sign of fakeness.

We passed this feline many times on the way back and forth to Meu Meu. He is impressive, no?

I also loved Le Pick Up, a great cornerstore/lunch counter that serves an amazing Halloumi sandwich: grilled cheese, except the cheese itself is grilled and then layered with freaking tasty coleslaw. And Laika, a cafe named after the first dog in space with an after hours club vibe. It has an industrial interior and comfortable modern chairs falling apart from overuse, there's always cool music playing, the grub is delicious and the service is charming but lousy. You can sit around for hours wondering why your evening turned out the way it did and whether you should go home to sleep, out to breakfast, or just get up and dance again.

We were too lazy to ride any of the new public bikes you can rent cheaply for the day or hour. I nodded at them appreciatively, instead.

Photo credit: Mark Evans

Montréal est la bombe.

Cats in the house

Trey told me I don't post enough about my cats. Dawn, though, told me I post too much about them. (Dawn made this observation awhile ago, though, so she might not think so anymore.) Hell if I can tell. If I had my druthers I'd travel the world in search of weird and wonderful little eels and this blog would be exclusively about my findings.

Anyway, Beatrix is doing fine.



Olive, on the other hand...

Moss-covered art and super dope style

Neil Van always posts fun and fascinating stuff on his blog, but recently, two images from a couple of his posts have been especially beguiling to me.

How cool is this sculpture in artist Tim Fowler's garden? I would love to have or make something that could stand up to the weather and welcome the encroaching moss as gracefully as this guy does.



And how awesome is Beatrix's style? No, not this Beatrix. This one:



Sites like the Sartorialist would be more compelling to me if they featured more images like this. We've seen enough women snapped while walking down the streets of New York and Milan. Capture some shots of fashionable individuals going camping in the rain, will you?

Anyway, clearly, I love everything about this woman's style (Especially that skirt!). Rock on, Beatrix. And thanks, Neil!

Zzzz

So apparently if you don't leap into bed after having your nose one inch from a bright computer screen, and if, in the morning, you make your shades ricochet up immediately so the sun radiates directly onto your face, you will get onto a "normal" sleep schedule and stop moaning to anyone who will listen about how you've always slept like a log and don't understand what's happening to you, etc., etc., blah blah blah.

You can read all about this interesting and plausible-sounding theory here. This article also contains a link to a free, downloadable program called Flux that alters your computer screen light, so it's more natural and less harsh. So you can still read fascinating articles, Google(TM) important things like "Mrs. Meyer's hand soap refills" and answer urgent emails just before nodding off, because you know you were never going to be able to cut that out.