And Their Eyes Were (Making) God's (Eyes)

As noted the other day by Keren Richter, this puny economy has certainly encouraged me, and many of my comrades to pinch pennies and find new more cost-conscious ways of entertaining ourselves. I've always enjoyed entertaining in my home, and recently Leti inspired me to host a craft night, which I hope will be followed with more.

How to have a CRAFT NIGHT:

1.) Make some snacks!

2.) Have everyone bring work materials/refreshments; Set up work area with materials, refreshments, and example.

3.) Get to work!

**Some people might want to make costumes. This is okay.

** And some people may want to work on other projects. This is also allowed.

4.) Show off your work in an exhibition.

5.) OPTIONAL- Go to a party afterward to celebrate your hard work!

Heart to Hand

Hopefully there will only be a few more frigid weeks to winter, but no matter the weather I always tend to constantly be wrapped in a blanket when couch-potatoing in front of the tube anyway. Rather than opting for the couch potato's BFF, the SNUGGIE (Gross!), I stick with an old quilt made by my mom's aunt. 

I've always loved old quilts and the stories they tell. Women used to make them from rags and ragged clothing to keep their family's warm when they had no other choices. They were also made from the clothes of different family members and gifted to new babies as memory items.

I have one hanging above my bed given to me by my mother, and sewn by an unknown person in my family. This one was just made as a decoration:

Recently, I ran across Julie Floersch's sculptural quilts, and found them to be really intriguing and beautiful. Her work truly makes you appreciate the art of the needle. You may experience her work for yourself and all its tessallated goodness at Jan and Aya in Greenpoint, Brooklyn until March 1st.



Remember the movie, How to Make an American Quilt starring Winona Ryder (pre-klepto days)? They were making a wedding quilt in that one.

OOOOH BONUS TRIVIA: A group of people making a quilt is called a quilter's bee!

Take Me To Bed Or Lose Me Forever

I made these delicious chocolate truffles for Mike for Vday. The flags note all the reasons why I think he's awesome.

RECIPE

Grenache (The Middle):
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 small chai tea teabags (I used orange and spice tea)
2.5 Tb unsalted butter
3 Tb alcohol or extract (I used Blue Mountain Mist, which is AMAZING, but I think you can only get it in Jamaica or online-- You can use Grand Marnier, Kahlua, Almond Extract, Peppermint Extract, etc.)

Coatings:
Cocoa Powder
Confectioners Sugar 

Place chocolate chips in a medium sized heat safe bowl. Set aside. Heat cream with tea bags to a low simmer. Remove from heat and steep tea bags for 5-6 minutes. Remove tea bags, and add butter. Heat again then bring to a boil. Immediately pour boiling cream over chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth. Add liqueur. Cover and place in refrigerator until truffle mixture is firm (This will take several hours or overnight).

Once grenache sets, place powdered coating in a bowl. I used plain cocoa powder, and a mix of cocoa and confectioner's sugar. Using a melon baller, spoon, AND YOUR HANDS, form the chocolate into roundish bite-sized balls. Immediately roll the truffle in the coating and place on tray. Cover and place in the refrigerator until firm. Makes approx. 30 small truffles.

I also think this fingerprint jewelry by Imprint on my Heart is totally adorable without being too mush-mush.

HERS?

Sterling Silver Fingerprint Vertical Tag with Initials $375

HIS?

Sterling Silver Long Vertical Tag $425, shown with rough finish

See more HERE. 

VDAY: What's the V stand for again?

I'm not one to really buy into the Valentine's Day hype of cheesy heart-shaped boxes of cheap chocolates, but I love to make things for people at any occasion, especially my most special person. I found these simple vegan Vday treats made by The Discerning Brute and Todd Oldham, and thought they were shareable (though I'd probably still put some real butter and milk in that cake! I come from the Paula Dean school of thought!)


DBTV Valetine Special: TODD OLDHAM HEARTS YOU from The Discerning Brute on Vimeo

After that I got to thinking about Todd and his House of Style days, but couldn't find any real crafty tips. I did find clips from his more recent show, the total snore, Handmade Modern, including this hilarious one where Amy Sedaris appears to be making Todd nervous while terrible muzak plays over their craftmaking:



Then this lead me to Amy's appearance on Chelsea Lately to promote her book, I Like You, where she (along with Todd) give Vday a whole new meaning.

The Late, Great Silver Jews

I apologize for the tardiness, but I'd like to have a moment of silence for the Silver Jews who played their final show 2 days ago at Cumberland Caverns (an underground cave!) in the quaint town of McMinnville, Tennessee. Some past Jews members were in attendance and played alongside the band including founding drummer (and former Pavement drummer) Bob Nastanovich, but unfortunately not the third founding member, Stephen Malkmus (most notable for fronting Pavement.)
REVIEW OF SHOW

Please gaze upon the below photo taken by Dave Black of final permanent band members Cassie and David Berman whilst you ponder such great albums as American Water and Tanglewood Numbers.



And here is a mesmerizing video of a girl belly dancing to "The Wild Kindness" off of American Water.


SIDE NOTE: Years ago I happened upon some work by (the now sadly deceased) Jeremy Blake called "Sodium Fox" in a gallery in Chelsea. David Berman is one subject of this work, and narrates a video included in the exhibition. Post-Silver Jews, I hope he continues to participate in this medium, though Berman noted on the Drag City message board that he plans to concentrate on "screenwriting or muckraking"-- whatever that means.

that's me in the spotlight

THE CLOISTERS, NYC

that's me in the corner

THE CLOISTERS, NYC

Handmade.

Check out this video made for Etsy on the wonderfully imaginative comic artist and writer, Leslie Stein.



I met Leslie years ago when I found myself at a party at her house for the release of the comic, "YEAH IT IS!" I have no idea how I ended up there, but every time she sees me, we laugh about how there is a random photo of me standing in her kitchen (Guess you had to be there.) I have yet to see this photo.

Read all about her, and buy her comics and crafts here:
Handmade Portraits: Leslie Stein

And you can also catch her playin' the gee-tar for Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson-- well for another 2 days anyway
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/146510-castanets-miles-benjamin-anthony-robinson-tour
11-24 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's *
11-25 Boston, MA - T.T. the Bear's Place *
11-26 Brooklyn, NY - Union Hall *

Hallo?

Photo by Dave Johnny

I was:


BF was:
Check out the last minute construction of our costumes in the video a few posts back-- HERE

Katherine was Bad Sandy, Catherine was I dunno-- a 50's housewife or something. The only other person in that group I know is the guy on the end, Nate(Click the image for full view.), and he is Steve Aoki.

Creativity Central!

Being that my email is marylouise@gmail.com, I get TONS of misdirected messages to other Marys, Louises, Mary Lous, and of course Mary-Louises. It usually happens when someone forgets to tack on the last name. I've gotten everything from a hate letter from a woman to her sister to party invites in Georgia to photos of people's kids and their weekend getaways. I even had one woman incessantly argue with me when I wrote her to simply tell her she was sending her ridiculous chain letters to the wrong address.

BUT today I received this little gem of a forward from Miss Mary Pattie Butters. Such a cute name, and also interesting because there IS an aptly-named company called Mary Louise Butters who make brownies. Maybe she thought I was the brownie lady?

Anyway, I digress.

Now presenting...MR. CRAYOLA

Don Marco..... The Master Crayola Artist

Don Marco was born in Northern Minnesota in the late 1920's. His interest in art was evident even before starting school. As a young adult in the Army Air Corp, he began his life's career in Air Traffic Control, which continued until his retirement from Honolulu International Airport in 1973. Much of his spare time was spent as a professional artist.

Before retirement, Don started developing a technique to create fine art, using Crayola Crayons. Shortly after retiring, he published his first print. Living in Southern California, his work was in demand, including commissions from Burt Reynolds and a one-man show at his Dinner Theater in Florida.

Hard to imagine these are done with crayons!!!

(In addition to being the Bob Ross of the 24 pack, he has a dinner theatre in Florida where he PERFORMS! Woah.)






Burt is my favorite, but if you wanna check out more see Sandy's Thoughts in Houston, Texas

Oh, and here's his website:
THE MASTER CRAYON ARTIST

Prepare Yourselves...

Because it's gonna be a SCRRREAM! MUAH HA HA

CM-NoWAY!

While everyone in NYC is going crazy over CMJ right now, I figured I'd update about some musical happenings beyond.


1.)

Below are the dates for the first ever Electric Owls (Members of The Comas) Tour. All dates are supporting Bishop Allen (As seen in the so cute you could puke, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and even though Electric Owls will be touring sans drummer like the fictional opener in the film 'The Jerk Offs', they sound nothing like that band. Here, just check out the myspace for songs, sheesh! http://www.myspace.com/electricowls)

BA tour:

Date Venue
11.01 Black Cat DC
11.0 Local 506 Chapel Hill NC
11.05 Opolis Norman OK
11.06 Bash’s Rip Rock 2
11.07 Hailey’s
11.10 The Loft @ UCSD
11.11 Echo LA
11.12 Independent San Fran
11.14 Kilbey Court Salt Lake
11.15 High Dive Denver
11.16 M-Shop Idaho?
11.17 Subterranean Chicago
11.18 Bear’s Place
11.19 Horn Gallery
11.20 Middle East (Downstairs) Boston
11.21 Olde Clube
11.22 Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn
11.23 Music Hall of Wiliamsburg Bk


BEFORE the tour though (This is for all of you folks in Crack-a-lacka who don't read my blog.) is a free show in Asheville in support of BARACK OBAMA:

http://mergerecords. com/news. php?month=Oct+2008

Asheville, NC
10/28 @ The Grey Eagle
Bands start at 8pm

The Reigning Sound 1030
Tift Merritt 10
Chris Stamey (dBs) 930
Portastatic 9
Greg Humphreys (Hobex) 830
Electric Owls 8

2.)

Now other friends are on the road playing shows too, and they're trying to win this contest from Taco Bell, so they will get free tacos for a year or some such thing, so vote for them. Hymns from NYC.

feed the broke


*You might recognize some other folks you know on there, but trust me, these guys need free tacos worse than anyone else. I won't go into details, just trust me.

3.)

And back in NYC: The BF is playing drums Saturday night for a band. Go to the show.

Start Time:	Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 7:00pm
Location:	Leo Kesting Gallery
Street:	812 Washington St at Ganesvoort St
City/Town:	Manhattan, NY
	Google MapQuest Microsoft Yahoo

8 P.M. "Beach Bummed" by Sebastian Ischer starring Love as Laughter and This Frontier Needs Heroes (Comedy)
9 ~This Frontier Needs Heroes live electric band!
~ "The Good Life" by Matt Goldman (Homage to italian cinema)
10 ~Elizabeth Harper and the Matinee
11 ~Living Days

Really Special DJ's (Which means, probably Ivan and Sam Jayne or something)


Okey Dokey. Back to work.

Cool Points

While googling images of my newest favorite cheap Rose to send a friend today, I somehow ended up at nymag.com, who is running a story entitled Punk Like Them as part of their "Summer Issue." In this story, journalist Alex Morris follows a gaggle of rag tag kids who hang out/live on St. Marks on a night of merrymaking and self-destruction to see what the new old-school punks are up to. What did Morris find among these Colt 45 guzzlers and corporate cafe haters? Looks to me like a bunch of typical teenagers.

Choice quotes:

“I heard about St. Marks in a Casualties song,” he says, “so I’m like, ‘Wait a second, I want to hang out there.’ ”

“Hey, what’s up?” he calls out to a girl walking past in plaid pants and a Casualties shirt. She pauses long enough for him to know he might have a chance. “You’re really hot. Come over here.”

“Yuppies are assholes,” Miquel agrees. “This is St. Marks. They should go away.”

"I don’t discriminate,” Suvy reasons, grinning at Mariya. “I hate everybody besides punks.”

“No one has a right to tell anyone else what to do,” Greg says. “Like, it’s your life, you should be in control of it. I don’t pay for anything—just drugs. They don’t tax drug dealers.”

“I want to die young. Once I hit like 30, I want to start being really self-destructive and just see what happens. Like ride around in cars really fast and do crazy stuff—even though I already do that now, so I can’t really say I’m going to do it.”

“Eric, you lose cool points for taking me here,” says Greg.

Of course, Morris could be twisting this to make these kids look immature, but then I find myself pondering the question: How long does that kid have to panhandle to buy enough Aqua-Net to get that mohawk to stand-up high enough? At least he can use his hair product to get high, as well as increase the crown of his coif, I guess. Kill two birds with one stone, right? Hopefully, he doesn't kill himself in the process. Secondly, since when was supporting Colt 45 (whose brand is owned by Pabst, Budweiser's key competitor) NOT supporting "the man" any more than Chipotle or Dunkin' Donuts. Everybody has their vices--and consume too much of either and you're likely to get FAT and/or DEAD! No "cool points" there, dude.

I understand the appeal of the lifestyle. Disagreement and unrest with the government is common; Wanting to live without rules is legitimate; Self-destruction and the desire to get fucked up is a pretty good way to disappear from the world for awhile. Unfortunately, it's a pretty negative, naive, and cowardly lifestyle. Using the music to vent can prove to be positive, but mixed in the pot with live fast, die young and foolish is pretty silly. My stepbrother spent his late teens and early twenties in sweet rebellion, hating his parents, my mom, school, the world, in general. At some point, he abandoned all and hopped trains from North Carolina to New Orleans. He disappeared for a long time, but to my knowledge, was squatting while down there, battling heroin addiction, and gaining some gnarly tattoos (one in which looks like someone just took the needle and scribbled on his arm for an hour or so--He gained some beautiful ones too, though.) Somehow he made it back to North Carolina, ditched the drugs, refuses to watch any movie that references them (i.e. Trainspotting), and married a woman, who later became a stripper and the mother of his child. Phew! Now they are divorced, and I haven't see him in 8 or 9 years. He contacts my stepdad occasionally when he needs dough. Fuck corporations, fuck the man, fuck comfort, fuck eating, fuck living, yuppies suck. Good ideas. I'm sure his daughter feels that way.

**I do love the collection of photos by Mike Brodie, documenting trainhopping kids and squatters. I always think of my stepbro and Woody Guthrie when I see them, and part of me longs for the adventure.

Cheesesteak Out!

fung wahhh?

Pepto-Abysmal

My Neck My Back

Last summer my friend Matt and I went on a mini-roadtrip in North and South Carolinas.

Videos by Matt. Photos by me.