walking in a holga wonderland

hands away

more holga pictures to come. with real snowing action. hoo ray. speaking of which. ive come to claim the woods behind my house as my own, as no one ever goes there in the winter-- which is a shame, because there is an overabundance of wildlife about. i felt like i was in the pages of audubon society coffee table book. i don't think ive ever seen so many cardinals and robins in one place. not to sound corny, but cardinals were absolutely striking and beautiful against the falling snow. AND i found a vacated beehive, (which upon impulse i wanted to take home, but after some deliberation i feel nature is best left in its intended place), and various happy woodland animal tracks.

i'm starting to know every tree and cave and bend in the river back there. i should charge for tours.

i feel craftier than ever! ive been drawing more, knitting some, taking pictures, and now im learning the art of sewing. having felt somewhat....slighted...by anthropologie's RIDICULOUS prices, i decided to make my own copies myself. it's much cheaper, and i cant help but feel more rewarded by wearing something i made.

case in point: J Crew had the most adorable shirt in their winter catalogue, made of silk taffeta and priced at $135.



mom and i went through books of patterns to find the basic shell. its an incredibly easy shirt to make, or so im told, its just a matter of learning to gather (which is more time consuming than difficult). instead of using silk --which tends to limit the wearer to special occassions anyway -- i opted for flannel, in the same exact pattern. i think i like the flannel better, too.

i'm aiming for its completion by friday, but we'll see.

Pictsy Styx

Yez, this is a poopy. No, I didn't pose it. I swear.

Top 5 Songs

i may get this totally wrong. but ive been thinking about my top five songs. songs that never get old, will never get boring, and always leave me feeling more than i did from when i started listening. i have listened to a lot of songs, but there are always a select few that i know are better than anything else ive ever heard. you may disagree.

1. Suite Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby Stills Nash and Young -- first of all, its four songs for the price of one. and its a song that i always have to push the needle back for (yes, i said needle - that in of itself is a different argument all together, because NOTHING sounds better than vinyl). also, probably one of the most beautiful songs about an imminent break-up that ive ever heard. ("Don't let the past remind us of what we are not now, I am not dreaming, I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are, you make it hard"...."Tearing yourself away from me now, you are free, and I am crying, this does not mean I don't love you I do that's forever, yes and for always.")

2. Bring It On Home To Me by Sam Cooke -- I think I'm a sucker for sad songs. I think it's the voice that makes it such a powerful song for me. The idea of being so desperately, blindly in love with someone that you don't care how badly the other person has treated you, or that things haven't worked in the past.

3. Karma Police by Radiohead -- I don't know a damn thing about music structure, and I can barely read notes, which is a huge weakness for me, but if there ever was a more perfect sounding song to me, its Karma Police. Probably one of the best contemporary songs, which isnt a surprise considering its from the most innovative band of the 90s. And of course, you can't acknowledge Radiohead's greatness on this song without crediting the band they took the piano parts from....

4. A Day In the Life by the Beatles -- call me a cop out for including The Beatles, whatever. I'm actually tired of having the "Beatles are overrated vs. Beatles are the most important contribution to modern rock music" argument. I think that due to every band and their mom sounding like the Beatles, the Beatles themselves lose their importance in people's minds (wtf Oasis?). Ok, anyway. This song is ridiculous and groundbreaking. The lyrics from the newspaper, the orchestral...crescendo....the sampled audio, "paul is dead", etc etc etc.

5. Tears of Rage by the Band -- HA HA! No one can be mad at me for not including Dylan in the list, since it was co-written by him and Richard Manuel. As #1 Sucker for Emotionally Draining Songs, this is like heartwrenching perfection. Tell me you aren't affected by the anguish in his voice. I dare you. No band out there comprised entirely of white men has more soul than The Band. And I SWEAR to god if anyone tells me that Johnny Cash does a better version of "Long Black Veil" than The Band, I will slap them. I'm sure once The Band gets a romantic-comedy-fiction movie, everyone will think they're trendy, too. (disclaimer: nothing against johnny cash, i love him. just those people out there who think that everything he touches is fucking gold and no one can else could ever do any better).

Heer Kitteh Kitteh

Ok so with the onslaught of my LOLcats obsession, I've decided to make a list of all the websites out there dedicated to comedic genius of the cat.

LOLcats -
my favorite link is
I Can Has Cheezburger?
You don't know da lolcatz? Has boolean search?

more funny pictures


Stuff On My Cat
Literally, stuff on cats.


Cats That Look Like Hitler

Pretty much self-explanatory.

YAY! Holga Pictures

Charm City

I have this unavoidable urge to visit every town in every state in America. Today was Baltimore and Annapolis. I've been to them as a child, through the usual elementary school field trips. But its another experience to be completely alone, except for my SLR and my Holga, and wander through the streets at 8 a.m.

I still don't know whether to be sad that I have no one to experience it with, or happy that I don't have anyone to experience it with. I felt both today.

The thing I love about a city is the anonymity. To be able to slip into the crowds, as a complete stranger, and no one cares who you are, what you look like, where you came from. Everyone cares in a small town. Too much.

Here are some pictures I took of both cities as a anonymous observer. I definitely don't claim to be a great photographer, but I manager to have the camera set to manual, at least.

soundtrack

so i just shot a roll of pictures on my holga. im hoping that maybe, just maybe, someoe in the greater frederick area doesn't think that film photography is too asinine-- so i can get them developed real fast like.

in the meantime i discovered the best soundtrack ever for taking pictures in the woods. this of course includes one of the best albums this year, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon.

Boy With a Coin - Iron & Wine
Fireworks - Animal Collective
The Great Salt Lake - Band of Horses
1234 - Feist
Knights - Minus the Bear
Rockers to Swallow - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (this song kicks SO much ass)
Ocean of Noise - Arcade Fire
Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
The Moneymaker - Rilo Kiley (i'm still a little torn on how i feel about their new album. it's a lot poppy-er and dancier, but its catchy as hell. and i cant hate jenny lewis. its impossible.)
And of course, lots and lots of Spoon. I have a new thing for Britt Daniels. And Jeff Tweedy. And Ryan Adams.

I highly recommend listening to these songs if you're ever in the woods.

Pictures soon to follow!

Fried oreos in West Virginia

I don't exactly know what town I went to today, but it was a good three hour drive from Frederick. The ride was beautiful up in the mountains, and though it looks like the leaves won't change until next week, the poison ivy looked beautifully red. I can't help but feel like West Virginia is the Mexico of the U.S....much like the border towns of Mexico are poor examples of the country's true nature and beauty, the border towns of West Virginia are a sorry example of how lovely the state can be.



They were making apple butter from giant cauldrons. I want a cauldron. I think mom and I are going to help out and make apple butter next year.

A few more pictures I took....









I bought some new 120 film so its Holga time. Hooray!

Finally, the weekend.

The best thing about the weekend is watching Pseudo-Apocalyptic-Doomsday Scenario shows on the History channel. Fascinating. As if the media doesn't scare the general public enough with obesity and germs, NOW we have to think about the possibility that ONE DAY there will be a huge earthquake on the west coast that will cause a volcano to erupt and a tsunami to hit the northern california seashore.

I recently acquired Adobe CS2 for my computer and its like Christmas came two months early. Three months? There are a zillion things I plan to design now that I have the software. At the moment, Im finishing up my business card.


Now its onto a website. I love design.

I started knitting a new scarf, because I made too many mistakes on the blue one. It's also a lace scarf, but its gray. I have a problem of stopping halfway through, which I need to work on. Oh well.

we're half awake in a fake empire

There is something about walking through the forest that grounds and inspires me. It might also be listening to Fela Kuti, who tends to have a nice humbling effect. Anyway I got millions of ideas, and I have started a wish list as such:

-pinhole camera
-darkroom
-120 film for my holga and TLR
-more yarn.

I was thinking of making a cheap version of a darkroom in the laundry area. Its dark and spooky enough, though im not so sure about the idea of chemicals stored right by the water heater. ill have to check on that. In the meantime I can make a few pinhole cameras. I'll probably use a can this time - it seems a little more durable than a box - especially if i'm taking it out in the woods.

If anyone feels so inclined or actually reads this, you can go to:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/education/lessonPlans/pinholeCamera/pinholeCanBox.shtml

I wish it was a little foggier here, or cloudier - this morning was pretty dark and I'm mad I didn't have my camera with me. The tree canopy tends to make the trail even darker which provides a really haunting quality. I'd love to go out and take pictures in the middle of a thunderstorm. Might wait on that.


In terms of knitting, I'm in the midst of making my lace scarf. I started getting too sure of myself and of course, began knitting too fast....and of course....screwed up. Hopefully I can hide my mistakes - after all its my first attempt at lace knitting - to the untrained eye.


You can see the leaf pattern, right?!?
I found the pattern from Knitty.com from Fall 2005, I think. It's pretty easy, just a matter of paying attention (!).