Wasting away with Season 4/ Flea Bitten

Monday I watched Buffy. Yeah, I went to Costco and Home Depot too, but mostly I watched Buffy. Oh, and I was bitten by fleas.

Karen vs. The Fleas

A war against a vicious enemy is being waged within these walls...

How to Kill a Flea:

1. Identify the Flea. Look on your body. Notice pieces of lint. Try to pick them up. If they jump away from you, good chances it is a flea.
2. Do not try to squish it. While fleas are amazingly easy to catch as they are grazing upon your skin, they are also amazingly hard to kill. Attempting to squish them will only result in awe and irritation as you see them jump away from what you thought was a squish of death.
3. Throw it out your window. Since said fleas are impossible to squish, catch them and toss them out an open window. While this is not the most effective treatment, you will find six out of every ten fleas you catch end up where you want them - not in your room.
4. Instead of squishing, roll the flea between your thumb and forefinger. While fleas may be unsquishable, they are not unflaten-able. Once you've grabbed your flea, take it in between your thumb and forefinger and roll it like you might a tineey-tiny ball of clay. After doing this for about five seconds, you will discover your flea has not withstood the trauma and is now dead. Do this until you have rid yourself of all fleas on your body.
5. Detonate a flea bomb. While number four is effective, it is not practical. Who can take the time to roll all of their household fleas to death? Instead a flea bomb will to the trick. After a day to two or trying to kill your fleas in all other manners, you will find the detonation of a flea bomb surprisingly satisfying. If you find yourself muttering "Die fleas! Die!", do not be alarmed. Such mutterings are an appropriate and normal reaction. Remember; flea bombs are toxic. Take the time they need to do their job to relax in a flea-free environment. Most anywhere but your home will seem a good choice.
6. Call an exterminator. As your vengeance for flea blood will have risen to an all time high after finding that a few apocalyptic fleas have survived the flea holocaust, the price a professional may quote will seem like pittance compared your lust for flea lives. Move one step ahead of the fleas and hire the big guns. If you don't the fleas are bound to.

Up close with lightning bugs

Sunday morning I did a whole lot of nothing. I read some books and did some emailing.

Finally, I decided if I didn't get out of the apartment I was going to go crazy. I drove towards the Plaza, and stopped at the World War I memorial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Memorial) . The park was almost empty and so I had the monolith and surrounding grounds to myself. The National WWI Museum, as dedicated by Congress, is under the memorial, and I missed it being open by half an hour. It seems that this is the largest WWI memorial in America. Funny, why is it in Missouri? The 1929 dedication says; "for those who fought in the World War". At the time, one probably could not image what would have passed 20 years hence the date. "World War I is (one of) the most forgotten of this nation’s wars, yet it sowed the seeds of World War II, and as noted, it marked the emergence of the United States as a global power, and as a defender of democratic allies against forces of totalitarianism and aggression. "

I waded in the fountain outside for a few minutes before going up to the main memorial and climbing on the blind seraph-lions. The view from the top is magnificent, and I hung out there for awhile, just thinking. What am I doing?

After the WWI memorial, I drove to Barnes and Noble, where I read magazine and books until I got antsy and left. I did find a neat idea for a sketchbook made out of paint samples. I am going to attempt to make a dozen or so to sell at the zine symposium.

Back at the Pistol, Joe, Tara, and Zack (Zack and Tara run the screenprinting shop downstairs) were hanging out while Uriah and his band practiced upstairs. I chilled with Joe and the crew until Uriah and co. were done. Jared plays the drums in Uriah's band and after practice he invited me to go swimming at his house.

Jared's home is about twenty minutes out from the West Bottoms. He lives with his parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephews. They all pooled together to buy a home that was large enough they could all make it home and it happened to come with a pool. We waded around for a hour or so before getting out and going on a walk.

Jared happens to live near a small wooded area that includes a pond and trails for walking. If one knows anything about lightning bugs, one knows these are the sorts of things they love (woods and water, not necessarily trails for walking). The lightning bugs were out in abundance. Jared was telling me his some of his childhood stories and I admit I was a bit distracted by watching the blinking bugs. They look like little floating L.E.D. lights. At one point on our walk, we were an audience to a lightning bug show spectacular, glimmering over a mini meadow.

Jared caught one and gave it to me to hold. Apparently, lightning bugs are very friendly and let you hold them as they scurry across your hand and blink. My lightning friend and I bonded for a good fifteen minutes until he got bored and flew away. Around one or so I said goodnight and headed home.

Oh, did I say I went to the video store for Buffy season four? Well I did and started watching it before bed.

Case of the Missing Teapot

Saturday started out with me attempting to brainstorm an idea for the variety show in July. I tried to get somewhere, although between Buffy and the growing heat, I didn't. A few sketches were my pathetic result.

Around noon, Cali came back from escapades about town and told me about an up and coming young designer Monkey Wrench Clothing (http://www.monkeywrenchclothing.com/). Cali, being a designer herself, had traded a swimsuit for an adorable dress, right up my alley. I decided to get out of the house and drive toward Crown Center to check out the lady's booth.

Should it have not been raining, the plaza outside Crown Center would have been filled with people celebrating Kansas City Chalk and Walk Festival. However, the downpour had reduced the participants to a soggy smattering. Monkey Wrench Clothing occupied three of the, maybe, seven tents set up outside. I found the clothing to be fabulous, expertly crafted, and just my style. There were few dresses that I would have liked, but none in my size. In the end, the designer took my measurements and agreed to make me a custom dress in a teal gingham print. It pays to be in with local designers.

As it was lunch time, I headed back in Crown Center to search out some grub. Crown Center is built by Hallmark and includes a giant Hallmark store, go figure, Crayola store, as well as a small amount of second tier stores. The only large name I saw other than the previously mentioned was Victoria's Secret. The design is over done and in the end looks like a food court at a theme park. Also, the shopping area is carpeted and in my opinion, that always makes a mall look dirty verses welcoming.

The one thing Crown Center does have is food. There were at least a dozen places worth looking into for a quick bite. The one place that finally claimed my cash, was Fritz's. Fritz's is unique because your food is delivered by train and then conveyed via a weight sensitive contraption straight on to your table. It was probably the coolest hamburger I've ever eaten. Cheap too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDeYFZV4xKE&feature=related)

Come 8ish, Halliday and I went out to the Infoshop, a small venue/used bookstore that reminded me of a place back in Bremerton. I think the claim to fame there, other than shows, is their zine collection. It was extensive, massing together all of the underground zines that Kansas City has produced and any the proprietors could/can get their hands on.

There probably weren't more than 30 people at the show, but because of the small size, that was perfect. Everyone was dancing and getting into the groove. It was wicked hot, but worth staying inside for the atmosphere.

I got a free tank top from Modie Bones, a local guy just starting up, met some neat guys from the Intolerants (from Portland, http://www.myspace.com/theintolerantsband) and ended the night with great, slightly rockabilly, rocking from the Muddy Udders (http://www.myspace.com/muddyuddersband). I offered the Intolerants a place to stay at the Pistol and some dinner if they wanted it, and they took me up on it. Halliday and I showed them the way back around 1:30 after an excellent show.

Back home I started cooking dinner (the Intolerants supplied an apple pie) and Joe pulled me aside. Foundations was hosting a show with three touring bands and Joe had agreed to watch the door. Things led to other thing (purposefully being elusive) and a teapot with two thousand dollars went missing.

Needless to say, drama went down. Halliday left, a chair or two got thrown (Foundation's owner and not at anyone), trash cans were turned inside out, the Intolerants questioned (that made me angry), and the Pistol searched until four am when I told Joe to go to bed - if the teapot was still in the Pistol, it would be in the morning. The touring bands left angry and without being paid.

I took control and had to force the issue of sleep and in the end, that is what happened (I did too after some more Buffy).

Sunday

I awoke the next morning at eleven, and helped the Intolerants get their things together while profusely apologizing. When they left, I looked around the Pistol and all I saw was a mess. There were no clean dishes, a mountain of them in the sink, cat hair and dust threatening to over take the living room, and the actual Pistol still had not been cleaned up since the Sodafest. With a call into Uriah, 12:30 was the start time of what would become known as the deep clean.

For five hours, Uriah and I did every possible cleaning task we could think of without busting out power tools. I sweated to the Hearts of Darkness practicing while I sweeped out the Pistol and rearranged furniture. As I attacked a couch, I found what we'd been looking for. A little china teapot stuffed with money.

The rest of the day included resting (with Buffy), going grocery shopping with Uriah, a nap, and going on an uber long night bike ride with Uriah and his friend Jared. Multiple people commented on how nice the Pistol looked.

*Neat foot note: Jared has a pool and invited me to go swimming. Finally, water!

Monday

Again, I attempted to work on the poster, but 100 degree heat made me start feeling sick. I think I'm going to carry around a gallon jug for drinking water, I need it.

At seven I had a member's meeting at the Arts INKubator. We talked about how to turn some space into a store and how to promote the press best on first Fridays.

I came home, went for a short ride, and finished season three Buffy. What will I do now?

I need to figure out a way to work at the Pistol, the crazy heat thing is making it so I am incredibly unproductive.

I posted this from the Arts INKubator, and I might make a habit of coming down here to cool off for a few hours every night.

OH! p.s. the coolest thing happened last night. Joe's friend Kyle found an old suitcase full of vintage items from the 20's-1940's from a guy named Carl. Some awesome finds included: school notebooks, a school paper, vintage valentines, love letters, telegrams, and drawings. I traded him some Hammerpress for a few key items.

Thrifting madness

Thursday started out with laying down layer three of the poster, a bright green color. However that was all the printing to be done.

Right now Brady is building a new wall in the front of the shop to section it off from the studio, it would seem there have been too many prying eyes wandering too close to the presses. Because of all the noise and mess, there really wasn't time to set up another project.

Instead, I helped Wendy put together a very large order as well as assemble a huge pile o' cards so we are not packaging them as they are bought. To get a card together one must fold it around an envelope and slide it into a cellophane bag. From what I am told, all letterpress cards are packaged this way, by hand, although many large producers outsource to assembly workers. Brady is thinking of going that way to save time for more important things.

I came home to find Halliday working in her studio. Originally we'd planned a night of Rockabilly together, but she needed to finish an order and it was a bit too muggy to get dressed up. Instead I plopped down for some Slayage.

An episode or two of Buffy later, Joe stated that he was in need of some new pants, and "did we want to go thrifting?" When one does not bring enough clothes to wear the answer is always "hellz yeah!". The three of us piled in my car and drove twenty or so minutes north to Smithville, where the "good" thrifting is.

The first stop was not a thrift store but some genius place called Quik Stop where the .49 cent, thirty-six ounce soda is alive and kicking. I splurged and bought one for each of us.

The second stop was another DAV and yet again I was pummeled with excellent prices. I found:
* two dresses
- one red wrap with white feathers, it had shoulder pads, but I pulled them out
- the other a 1950's-like sleeveless number with a yellow and green tropical print
* a black looped belt
* bright pink bloomers with lace and hand sewn bumblebees (1.98)
* a blue and white striped shortsleeve cardigan
* a purple v-neck knit top
total: 21 dollars and change

The last place we hit, because it was getting late and stores were closing was the Salvation Army. My memories of the S.A. are of ratty shelves lined with plastic toys, a few sad racks of clothing and lamps that had died in some 70's reality and returned from beyond the grave. In Bremerton S.A. is a place to go for cheap furniture, not clothes.

This one was not the case. It was packed, overflowing, with clothes. Upon initially walking in, I became overwhelmed and didn't know where to start. I eventually navigated myself to the dresses, but they were mostly 80's styles and the nurse's uniform that could have looked nice dyed, draped funny around my hips. I didn't look very hard through the tops because there were too many to get my head around. After prying myself off an amazing leather jacket, I did find two shirts in the kid's section.
* Orange shirt with number 10 and yellow softball shirt from kids rack
total: 1.50 - green tags were half price.

I don't think there is an item of thrifted clothing in the entirety of Washington and Oregon that is originally priced at a dollar. I left a bit speechless.

As it was nine and all the stores were closing, the three of us went out in pursuit of food. We probably spent an hour trying to decide where to eat until I finally threw down the law and drove us to some Mexican. I did find out that Godfather's Pizza still exists out here and I will have to have some before I leave. It is my very favorite pizza, the only place that makes the crust correctly.

After dinner we drove home and I watched some more Buffy before bed.

Learning my ABC's

Wednesday at work was a great deal of fun. Lots of printing and even typesetting my own poster.

The first task I had was to set four fonts and proof them in black. Their purpose was for Matt to scan and use in computer design work. The fonts were all wood type, some that Brady hadn't even used yet. There was this amazing small and squat tuscan font that I adored, although it was missing a very essential "a" and "d".

Out of the four fonts, three were small enough to fit on one sheet of chipboard. I arranged them in a broadside style, attempting to have both form and function. I surprised Brady with how fast I finished setting the type and printing. He checked out my final result and loved it enough to set me to work on creating an alphabet proof poster using a variety of thick and thin fonts. The poster is very simple and graphic, although completely my choice of fonts and placement. Brady leaned towards a lack of embellishments and focusing on the boldness of the letterforms. He said he'd been meaning to make a type poster and now I've gotten to do it for him.

I almost finished setting the pressbed, but around 5:30 I'd had enough and went home before leaving to put up the Pistol posters.

At home, I ran into Joe. He wanted to join me in my pamphleting rampage, but needed to go to Costco to pick up food for the band playing later in the evening. We decided to compromise and do some poster pining on the way to Costco.

Not many posters ended up being hung, only four out of thirty. I'll have to finish tonight. Costco tricked me into buying two books with their low prices, "Botany of Desire", and "Eat, Pray, Love". "Botany of Desire" promises to be an excellent read.

The second show of my stay started at ten, and this time I did not strike out. There was no waffling in and out of my room or moping in a corner. Instead, I wore my new black dress, put my hair up and attempted to make conversations. Much to my benefit, I was friendly and outgoing. If one acts with confidence, others will assume they have it and react with that in mind.

One fellow who came over cooked a very delicious dinner of tortellinis fried in garlic oil. I am told he is a chef at a local vegan resturant. Occationally Joe enlists him to cook dinner for the touring band. This band, Dead Science, was touring from Seattle and we spent some time talking about Pacific Northwest venues.

The two opening bands were very good, much better than any who played last week. I have a new local favorite, Mannequin Skywalker http://www.myspace.com/mannequinskywalker1. They preformed a stellar live show, and musically fit the venue. There are some bands who's sound lends itself to a loft/warehouse, and there are some that do not. The headliner last night, Deas Science, did not. Their lead singer was among the ranks of front men who sing with a whine that is unappealing and personally, boring. Seems to make sense he's from Seattle.

While they played I went in my room to watch some Colbert Report and an episode of Buffy before falling asleep. It is about time for me to get started on my zine. I have an idea of what I'm doing, now I need to plan it out.

One last thing I did yesterday was the dishes. With that I found that if I am going to live here, there will have to be a cleaning schedule or I will end up doing everything myself. Not because Uriah or Joe don't clean, they do, but because they put it off until one cannot help but need to clean. It isn't everywhere either, mostly the kitchen and the cat hair. The kitchen quickly stacks up with dirty dishes, which can't be a good thing when it get hot, and the cat hair has created small rugs in some places along the walls. I plan to work on a solution more this weekend when I have better time to throughly inspect the apartment and decide what should be done.

Print big or go home

Tuesday was a long day, but with few things in it.

I went to work and finished the last of the packaging. I labeled the last of the rep boxes and put together the last two orders. After all that was finished, I got to printing. More wedding invites. 500 of them (400 hundered and then Brady always prints a bunch extra in case he should ever need them, which is why his back room is bursting).

The invites were olive paper with metallic gold ink. Pretty much the same tones and personally not very attractive. I had a mishap with the printing of them though and screwed up about fourty or so. ***!* when printing take the paper out vertically as to not smuge or smear it, DO NOT TAKE IT OUT AT AN ANGLE or face the consequences ***!* Brady wasn't angry, but looking at the piece further, he decided to print them on the platen press instead.

Afterword I went to the INKubator and reprinted the Pistol Club poster. Due to the emulsion washing out and not drying very fast, I was there til three am. Joe and Halliday called around 2:50 to make sure that I was okay. It was very nice and made me feel like part of a family.

I came home full of energy (odd as I had none when I left) and so watched an episode of Buffy to wind down before sleep. I love Xander.

p.s. something I have forgotten to mention is the weather. Tuesday it down right poored, raining sideways and everything. Sunday and Monday there was more heat lightning in the evening followed/accompanied by a bit of rain. It has been moderately warm with some humidity, but nothing crushing. Occationally the sun comes out and fries my brain, but mostly it has been tolerable.

p.p.s. Brady threw out a bunch of make readies and I dug through his recycle bin. Goodies!!!

"Hello, my name is Karen and I'm addicted to Buffy."

So I'm a little behind.

Sunday, June 7th

I started out the day writing this blog but then I realized, it takes me an hour or so to get everything how I like it, and the day was lovely, what on earth was I doing inside? I dropped what I was doing, jumped in my car and went exploring. That ended up in me being behind, but was worth it.

My first stop was the River Market, an open air combination of flea market, farmers market, and restaurants. What made me pull over was the flea market and I was lucky enough to have the coincidence of the farmer's market being there as well.

The flea market prices were outstanding - twenty-five cents for bright orange mugs, three dollars for a Carmen Miranda head cookie jar. I know what you're thinking; "Karen, you came home with that cookie jar didn't you?" No, I promise I didn't. The only thing that found it's way back to my place was a little ceramic sugar bowl in the shape of an orange.

Around the flea market was a line of shops and a museum dedicated to a steamboat wreck found in the Missouri river. One of the shops was called "Vintiques" and a seductive row of atomic chairs outside the door lured me in. The chairs were a little misleading since only one room was housed an assortment of furniture, however I was wonderfully lead astray.

The glory that is Vintiques is an assemblage store. Wares inside were paper, found items, a variety of embellishments, ribbon, and about anything I could possibly think of to use for altered art. Some highlights were a button wall, vintage travel guides to Latin America, a basket of skeleton keys and a case full of early century door fitting. Although I would have like to walk out with more, I limited myself to a handful of vintage photos and a 50's pamphlet on cooking. The owners said if I wanted to bring in any art I would be welcome since they sell assemblage art on the wall.

Bobby had mentioned the River Market Antique mall as being worth a visit, and so with the directions from the folks at Vintiques, I headed a few blocks away to check it out. I have found that flea markets in the Northwest are depressing. Most items are obnoxious in price, and sellers typically aren't keen on haggling. This apparently is not a running trend in Kansas City. Three stories of a large labyrinth-like warehouse were packed with finds. Not the junkyard sales items made to look like antiques finds, but honestly cool items, at affordable prices.

The dining room set of my dreams and I bonded almost as close as me and a 1940's bathing suit. I would have bought the suit if the color had been something other than salmon and yellow, I almost bought it anyway. A set of atomic era chipboard cutouts of blue collar workers (that could have looked neat on the Perceivers selling table) also almost found their way home with me, but, for what they were, the price was high. I ended up leaving with nothing but had an enjoyable adventure in antique hunting.

Around three o'clock or so, I found myself finished with the River Market district and went in search of my next destination - the Plaza. Some research showed the Plaza is modeled after Seville. I think this would be the case if Seville were to have a love child with Rodeo drive, and that child were fuse with a strip mall, then imbued with the essence of American supersize, dropped in a boiling vat of consumer idealism, then finally served with a side of terracotta colored paint. In otherwords the Plaza is a mildly Spanish (Southern Californian?) themed open air mall that houses the Armani Exchange and Coach stores among others. All the stores are on the higher end, the lowest price ranges being Gap and Barnes and Noble. A trip into Urban Outfitters revealed a great summer dress that I will wait on. Maybe I could treat myself to it for my birthday.

When I couldn't hold off the hunger any longer I grabbed a salad at a swanky "Tuscan bistro" with a fantastic little balcony. Happy hour appetizers were only $2.50 and that's how I unexpectedly had a shrimp cocktail to go with my salad. A table full of self-admittedly drunken 50-somethings chatted me up a bit (amazingly not about how I reminded them of their children) and then I left to seek out my last stop; KCAI.

The Kansas City Art Institute is situated on a little hill flanked by art museums. Next door to the ceramics building is the Kemper Museum of Modern Art, recognized by the giant spider creature out front, and across from the painting building, the city museum and sculpture park. Trees shade KCAI's lush grounds and an old castle-like main building plus gated entrance make it seem like someone's private estate.

With the evening light being perfect for walking, I meandered over to the sculpture park and made it my business to either touch or climb on all of the statues except for the "Thinker" casting (it was too high). I am an avid believer that public art should be touchable, maybe I'm out of line for thinking so, after all I'm no sculptor, but I had fun.

Three things I saw in the sculpture park I'd never seen live before:
* Four, twenty-five foot fiberglass badminton birdies
* A praying mantis, I even touched it!
* A wild bunny

I came home and spent the rest of the evening starting what is now a horrible habit of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Seasons one-three are on Hulu and I'm hooked.

"Hello, my name is Karen and I'm addicted to Buffy."

Monday, June 8th

Monday morning I finished the poster for the show next week, played around with color and placement. Looking back, I could have been more conservative with color, but I learned something new and will be able to use color minimally and to my benefit next time.

Around two, I met up with Jen from work and we went to the DAV thrift store to look for some sweet threads. Again I was amazed by the deals, six dollars being expensive. Kansas City is an actively thrifiting community, but not over crowded. The selection isn't picked through and one can find put together a perfectly decent outfit. This trip was very successful. I scored a little black dress, t-shirt, sweater, belt and jacket for under twenty dollars.

Yes, you did read sweater and jacket. No, I don't have enough jackets (this one is so sweet I can barely describe it, but picture the most perfect 70's track jacket, white with green stripes, and you're close). The sweater is actual vintage, red with little buttons on the collar and shoulder. While I many not be needing it now, eventually I will be in a time or place where it is cold and I will wear it at that point. It will look smashing with my brown pencil skirt. Jen picked up a shirtdress, jean jacket (she has a jacket fetish too) and Asian inspired robe.

I dropped Jen off at her home so she could go to class, then I booked it to the Arts INKubator for a tour around the studio. As there are only eight INKubator Press members I believe it will be somewhat akin to having an entire studio all to myself. The place is large and when I print I can set up on an entire table. The drying racks have too large a grid for me to use, but there is yet another table I am free to take over when my printing threatens to overwhelm my space.

I went home to print off stencils (and watch an episode of Buffy) then returned to print thirty or so band posters. There are two downsides to the INKubator.
1. The inks. Are speedball acrylic based and runny. The bulk red that has been provided is an orange red and when mixed with blue to create purple, simply turns red-brown.
2. The emulsion. This is a huge downside. They have provided some sort of crummy blue colored junk that barely stand up to the hose used to wash it out. I accidentally washed out my screen twice and after about ten prints the stuff stated flaking. I intend to find out what PNCA uses and see if it can be ordered.

By the end of the night I didn't have much progress. I left around eleven or twelve, tired and knowing I'd have to start over from scratch.

I came home, watched some Buffy and went to bed.