Off to Philadelphia!

I'm going to Philadelphia today with the rest of the Pub.Art kids to look at Philly's mural program.
It's really impressive and as a kid who grew up outside of Philly, I'm even more excited to meet the people who have worked and are comntinuing to work on the program.

Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but I think the makeup in this commercial is gneius. I particularly can't stop laughing at the fluttery hair when the pinata man turns around at the end.

the jet! the jet!

too tired to string many words together- here are pictures of my plane for Crystal City. Although today one of the artists working on their plane had never seen me working on mine, and said "I thought there was some guy working on this one!"

I didn't know what to make of that comment. Um...thanks? Girls aren't supposed to like space or robots? Mine involved minor carpentry? Whateves. I'm really happy with it.

HOLY CRAP!

My eyeballs bugged out of my head then I readthis

We are reaching a new low

Two weeks ago, FOX debuted two half hour episodes of a new Amy Sherman-Palladino show- The Return of Jezabel James. I'll admit, there's a hole in my life from the void of Loreli Gilmore. I had avoided that show like the plague (and really, all one-hour programing until about 6 years ago) because i thought it looked too "chick-lit" but the fast banter, non-stop coffee consumption and XTC and Siouxsie Sue references kept me coming back.
So I looked forward to seeing the new project (Parker Posey is attached!) even though I was a bit doubtful (oh, lauren ambrose is also in this...)
It wasn't great. It wasn't dreadful. It did lean more towards bad...but it doesn't matter...it's canceled.

Maybe this will free up the palladino's to work on something better? Something with more Ed Hermann? In this case, it's probably better to have no Amy Palladino that that show.

Speaking of guilty TV things-



Really? Oh Tyra...is there no business venture you won't attempt?

Next time, could we suggest a few? Like a Rebecca doll that collapses on her own? A Tiffany doll with a string that when pulled says "That bitch poured beer on my weave!!" A shandi doll that will make out with anything?

dorky art

sometimes i play Bingo with friends at the VFW on the hill (i know, it's a very fancy life i lead...)
I have finally found a use for my losing bingo cards!

Sooner or later, your legs give way you hit the ground

When I was in college, I was really (really) (really really) involved with the radio station. It was nice to have another world to retreat into when theatre got too mucky- as it often did. But I passionately love and believe in radio. Even today. Mostly my dial takes solace in 103.9 WRNR when I can pick it up in my car because of moments like Tuesday when they played the English Beat.

And once, they played not one, not two, not three, but FOUR songs by the Jam.

Those tiny magic pockets of radio are enough to keep me going.

Your two cents!

Ok, so since December or so, I've really been contemplating a name change. I hastily chose Magpie DC because I like shiney things, but also because I was hurrying and couldn't really think of anything good. And I think my name sounds clunky.


A few months ago the words TIGER FLIGHT got stuck in my head along with a very clear idea for a logo.

I like TIGER FLIGHT for a number of reasons mostly because it's not tied geographically to a city that I'll admit, I'm giving hard thought to leaving.
It's likely not going to happen any time soon, but at this point, I'm pretty sure it's inevitable.

So, you'll see a poll to the right.
I can either make a clean switch entirely, make a new etsy shop where more people won't buy my stuff, keep the etsy shop name but change the banner and all my stuff to 'tiger flight'...you get the idea.

my humour gauge is off I guess

Is this supposed to be a parody?


if it's real, it makes me sick to my baby-less stomach

Reading

I finished Joan Didion's 'The Year of Magical Thinking' last night. I'll save you a review, except to say that I....liked isn't the right word...felt for her maybe. I could see where the book walks a fine line of emotionally engaging and overly privilaged. But it's as elequent and spare a reflection of devastating loss as I think I ever want to get.
This morning I'm changing gears and started this:
Interviews with Jonathan Adler and Lotta Jansdotter. So far there's been some good advice. Some of the um...prose between interviews and tips is a little too precious (i.e. "it's not uncommon when you ask a gal where she got the baubles strung around her neck for the answer to be a business card and a handshake" - I'm paraphrasing (slightly) there but it's still too precious)

I have a headache that's one part sinus, one part coffee-deprivation.

Attempts to make some art this weekend were moderately successful.

stuff to do: next few weeks

For your ears:
This weekend, Bob Mould is playing an early show at the 9:30 club. Doors are at 6:30. I haven't decided if i'm going or not. Right now, the needle is pointing to 'not likely' because of my morning/afternoon plans and the fact i *really* need to haul ass on my plane.
For your eyes and brain:
One of my favorite writers Elizabeth Crane is coming to DC for a reading at the Dupont Circle Olsson's on March 31.

For your eyes and closet:
The Adamson Gallery on 14th street is showing photos of the coolest/best/most humbling fashion-y blogs The Sartorialist. I want to go to this show *so* badly, but I'm too afraid to- with my glaring lack of personal style.

Maybe that's why i love the sartorialist blog so badly. It's all about the vicarious living sometimes.

There are a bunch of other great shows happening soon too- the mountain goats, jay reatard, les savy fav....
and on the 26th of march the new Night Marchers record comes out- from the ashes of Hot snakes and Rocket from the Crypt although, I've heard the leaked preview and it's slightly more hot-snakes than RFTC. it's great.
They're playing May 10 in Baltimore at the Ottobar. Nothing's keeping me away from that show. Nothing, no-how.

Oh yeah....

I forgot to show any pictures of the show i worked on with sondra!

here's our wall from the Peace Now! show at the warehouse...it's before we put the barbed wire on the top

Color finally on the plane

On saturday, I finally began laying some color on the plane-


Hey, it's a start. I have to thank the super nice people atGlobal plastics for agreeing to wave their $60 minimum order and sold me just one dome so i can make a 3-d robot for the plane and then cover the whole shabang with a clear dome. I'm most excited about that!
Right now the half-moon for the bottom looks like this:


Although it's in my dining room. I found wire to slice all the way through, but it's pretty fragile so it keeps breaking. Hopefully it won't rain saturday and i can yank it back outside and finish cutting it in half.

Bunches of stuff

I moved things around in my spare/craft/crap room to see if I could get better wireless reception (RCN? you stink. On ice) And I re-found this:


This is a rock I painted for my grampa. Probably I was 4-ish. When I was growing up, my dad let us paint on the sheet-rock walls in his studio where he threw pottery. He painted (in my mind) a magnificent scene of a train emerging from a rock bridge/tunnel. My grandfather was a huge train enthusiast and I tried to emulate my father's work on a river stone for him.
It sat on his mantle for years until he moved to the Rydel Park retirement village outside of Philadelphia and it went with him. Infact, my cousin threw that fact in my face over some petty spat where she made it a point to mention he brought it to his tiny room and proudly displayed it for years.

When my grandfather passed away 5 years ago (in two weeks it will be 5 years) I asked my Dad if I could have it back. it brings me a lot of comfort actually.

And actually? My renditions of trains haven't really changed that much

more on the missing garfield

I really, truly, think that is genius. The aforementioned Garfield without Garfield. If for no other reason, I never before noticed how much apparent trouble John has with pants.

I had a super crafty weekend, I began knitting a cool-patterned scarf, made a creature with big thums and toes, and oh yeah, worked on that public-art thing I need to have finished by the end of the month.

Good thing I was uber-dorky and photographed it all. I'll post them soon.