Out of the dork closet.

Long time no blog. A sad habit, but I just can't bring myself to write everyday. Late nights, early mornings, a lack of initiative, it all adds up to sporadic updates, so no long will I pretend that this will be updated daily, but instead everyone will be surprised when out of no where I post random and extra long going ons of my days.

Recently, I've been coming out of a funk. The last few weeks I've been pretty low. Maybe it has to do with restarting at the Gap, or the weather (probably both), but I can't waste time sitting in my bed watching hulu. I've got to get up and make the most of my time here, because it keeps seeming like it isn't nearly long enough.

So what have I done since I last posted....

- Started at the Gap. The Wednesday after the anniversary show was my first day. I've been getting a whole bunch of hours and due to chatty co-workers have found that my work situation it pretty nice. I have a higher pay than most of them and I work Visuals (dressing mannequins, setting up product) rather regularly which many people want to do, but haven't been able.
On that note, being part of the visuals team has been great. Very fulfilling, well as much as retail can be. There is much potential to be moving up the visuals ladder and so far have been getting progressively complicated tasks and left to work somewhat independently.
Oh, the Gap I work in is three stories and has all departments including a Baby Home. I feel like if I work at a different Gap, I want to manager/key holder position. I've found I know a ton about the brand and I feel like it is about time.
- First Friday. hung out at Hammerpress.
- American Royal Barbecue (First weekend of October). The world series of barbecue, no joking. five hundred plus people come from around the country to compete in cooking. There are four meat divisions, two side dish and one dessert. There really isn't anything for the wider public to do at this event except wander around and look at RV set ups and oil drum grills, well unless you play it right.
A friend had some wristbands, so Joe and I didn't have to pay the eleven dollar cover. We wandered in real casual like both on Friday and Saturday (Sunday I was BBQ'ed out). If a person is real friendly, preferably with a girl, and talkative it is very likely you'll find yourself swimming in free meat and beer. Since the judging only calls for six pieces, almost everyone has meat to spare. The only question is if they are nice enough to share it with your poor-ass self wandering around like a homeless puppy staring at their platters of pulled pork.
There are two types of people at the American Royal. Those who are serious competitors, and have been invited - they are in the front parking lot, and those who love to drink and cook - they are in the back parking lot, or the "darkside".
In the front parking lot I found: "The Party of the Year", one plate of pulled pork sandwich, frat boys, grumpy wives of bbq cooks who didn't want to share their meat bounty.
In the "darkside" I found: free margaritas, an oven mitt, beer, homemade potato chips, crazy delious grits side dish, more beer, brisket, ribs, makers mark, local and organic bbq, a dj laying down sweet beats, pulled pork, more potatoes, mexican bbq, more beer.
I think it is obvious where the fun was.
- Zombie fashion show. Saturday night (of American Royal) I joined Halliday's crew, donned some of her sexy fashions and drove to Lawrence, Kansas for a zombie themed fashion show. Lawrence has been described to be as the only place in Kansas worth visiting. It's a college town, and although I only saw part of it, at night, it seemed pretty interesting. I plan on going back before I leave and look around. There seems to be some shops worth a look, and somehow, Lawrence has all of the good-looking guys in the general area of Kansas City, or at least an unfair population.
The fashion show went well and the MC's outright said that Halliday had the best models. (We all had zombie make-up and walked like we were dead). The only thing was that night was the first night of the ultra cold weather we have been experiencing.
- Basement letterpress. The Hobbs building, a warehouse on the other side of the tracks, has been turned into artist studios. For sometime is has been growing in reputation along side hosting an insane amount of weddings on the first floor.
A while ago Joe showed me the basement where there is a letterpress studio - Kansas City Center for Book and Paper Arts. I finally took it upon myself to hound the guy who runs it and find out what he is about.
Turns out that KCCBP is a co-op. I can come in, pay an hourly fee and use whatever I please, which includes two Vandercooks, six cases of type (one that is all wood and cowboy fonts, yes I fainted) paper cutters, and soon a working platen press. The only catch is there were was no ink except red to begin with.
So for two dollars an hour, or the purchasing of letterpress ink, I am free to work there whenever I choose. Calvert, the guy who runs it, and I have even come up with a system where he leaves the keys and I can work in the middle of the night if I so choose.
I know, this sounds like a dream right? A letterpress, literally three minutes away. There is even a guy who is working as a tech, Greg, who bought ink and I am free to use it in exchange for showing him a thing or two about vandercooks. He's even going to take me shopping for huge linoblocks at an artstore in Westport, oh and help me dehaze my screens. Nice.
- Zombie Prom. dressed up in a blue wig and the swing dress my mom fixed and sent to me(thanks mom!). Was disappointingly like real prom. All couples, bad music. Some indie film trailers were screened, but I feel unimpressed. Just a bunch of guys just out of college, riding the coat tails of Quentin Tarentino. I had great skin that night though, I don't know how that happened so well.
- Bike riding - all the time, everywhere. Except the Gap.
- Picture taking with Joe - Joe is back into photography and I am officially his assistant.
- Dollar taco Tuesdays in KCK - best Tacos anywhere, period.
- Jared moved in - awesome mix. He's been an incredibly welcome addition to the Pistol. He's helping me refurbish my bike (which I've still yet to name), bought me potatoes, and took care of me when I got sick. We plan on having craft nights, but we've yet to start them. Tioo much bike polo for him and too many late nights at the Gap for me.
- Got sick
- Tuna and greenbean diet has turned into baked potato and greenbean diet with a side of queso fresco and yogurt.
- KCK library. who would have thought the best library would be in Kansas?
- Pistol shows. You and Yourn
- Hobbs open studios. I've never seen so much free food and beer, well, not since three weeks ago at American Royal anyway.

So that is my last three weeks in a nutshell...
More to come, I've got to go to target for some boots.

Joe just broke it to me that I am not a secret dork, apparently I'm rather blatant about it.

Week in Review

Thursday, September 3rd/ Friday, September 4th

Thursday at work was spent packaging more orders.

Later on Adam called and picked me up to go to Kurt and Cody's cousin's house in Overland Park; a Kansas suburb of KCMO.

Adam was incredibly jealous of my digs at the Pistol and probably would have jumped me for them had he not been on the first leg of his two and a half month roadtrip.

I went over to Kurt and Cody's Aunt's. Adam, the twins, their cousins, and I hung out until late sitting around a bonfire telling stories and shootin' the shit. Adam and the twins are on a few month roadtrip across the U.S. From Kansas City they went to Saint Louis to Chicago and on into Michigan.

I ended up spending the night and after a large, well made breakfast, Adam packed the van and the guys took me home. They reiterated how jealous they were of living at the Pistol and we tried to imagine the greatness that could be if such a place existed in Portland (at that rental price of course, ha, a girl can dream)

The rest of the day was spent in bed since I was sick as a dog, but I did pry myself out for a few hours to enjoy First Friday with Halliday.

Free Range

Thursday

Most of the day was spent carving out a pointing finger linocut. I learned a thing or two about transferring images and am excited to use the idea when I return to PNCA. The mood of the office was super relaxed.

Carla from school stopped by to see me and talk to Brady about the possibility of interning for a month until she heads back to PNCA. I'm not really sure how that will work as a new girl is starting up on Monday and I can't figure how Hammerpress will handle many more interns. Free work though, I'm sure Brady can't find too many reasons to turn that down.

At the end of the day, I had an excellent talk with Brady about how I am doing. Since it is midsummer, I wanted to know if I was fitting in alright and doing my work well. Not only did he say that I was, but he told me it took a year for Bobby to be allowed to use the platen press I've been using the last week or so. In otherwords, I totally fit in and have been learning quick enough that Brady feels confident in my skills.

We also chatted a bit about art print ideas. I asked him if I could print my zine cover at Hammerpress. Brady said yes and that I could start it Friday if I wanted to since he and Lindsay were leaving town for his parents. Eek!

Thursday night was laid back as well, and I hung out while Uriah's band practiced for their First Friday gig. Their sound is excellent and sets a good tone, but the singer kind of mucks it up with her whiny voice. Later, Jared and I watched the Colbert Report and talked for a bit before it was time to go to sleep.

Friday

Work was completely fun. The whole feeling was like we were already on holiday. Since Brady was leaving town, Hammerpress was not going to be open for First Friday and thus the usual First Friday jitters were absent. We could relax and enjoy our day.

When I arrived, Brady had cleared one of the presses for me to work on and I dove in. Jen took the day off and Bobby printed some notecards and then dabbled with an insert for awhile.

For my zine cover, I decided to start with Pecos Bill and print about as many as my tolerance and attention span would let me. I cut down 300-ish pieces of chipboard to start with. I'd been itching to try the upside down woodtype effect and so I found some pieces that Brady had tossed aside and assembled a background. I was able to print the white layer and a few orange before I was done for the day. I also assembled my title and a tag for some milagros I am going to sell at the Zine Symposium.

Joe stopped by before we closed and checked out my progress before heading out to First Friday festivities. I feel incredibly at home printing and have had about a million ideas burst through my head. I hope I have enough time to get them all down.

Around five-thirty I went home to change. I wore my 1950's reproduction dress that I'd found at the DAV with Halliday - sleeveless with yellow and green foliage. I added my wide black belt and heels and must say I looked smashing. I got many compliments.

I met Halliday at Hammerpress and we wandered around looking for Uriah's band, which we didn't find until their last two songs. There had to be at least ten other bands playing outside and every time I heard one, I would have sworn it was them, but it wasn't. On our search we ran into Ron, the guy who commissioned the EX Post Facto poster. He was hanging them up everywhere he could and even had printed some smaller versions for handouts. The poster looked pretty fabulous, even though it was just black and white.

Halliday's dad found us at Uriah's band and we went out from there. We looked at art until the galleries kicked us out. Personally, the display was much more interesting this month around. Maybe I was too quick to judge Kansas City's art scene. While there was still alot of craft, we did see some excellent paintings.

Halliday was interested in hitting up some Karaoke at the Brick, and that's where we spent the rest of the night. I didn't sing anything, but I did dance my pants off.

Oh and the exterminator came while I was at work. Hopefully this means less fleas....

First Friday

I finished the packaging! No more rep boxes for me.

I packaged until 4:30 ish, at which point we started getting ready for First Friday. Hammerpress is one of the stops on the First Friday circuit, so naturally Brady wanted the shop in top shape. We sweeped and scrubbed and priced for about an hour at which point Bobby, who I finally met, went to get beer and the party was started.

Hammerpress did indeed get busy. The garage door was opened and people came streaming through. Outside, Lindsay, Brady's partner, set up her vintage, 1950's, snowcone trailer much to the delight of the crowd. She was swamped from the minute she opened to when she sold out later in the evening.

Around seven Halliday and Joe came by and I joined them on a walk around Crossroads. Eventually Joe drifted on his own, and Halliday and I went to go see some of her fashion line, which was part of a photoshoot Sicon gallery was premiering. The art of Kansas City is very crafty. Metal sculptures, quilts, eccentric fashions, and assemblage art were popular. There was a fair amount of photography as well. I was told by one that Kansas City was weird, but really, I think I've seen lewder and wilder things in the galleries of Portland. I'm just not phased so easily. I guess T.B.A. does that to a person.

One difference between Portland's First Thursday and Kansas City's First Friday is the party atmosphere. I feel like Portland is saturated with art, and thus First Thursdays really aren't that big of deal. Yeah people come to look around, but not throngs of people. I know myself I've thought "oh, I'll be able to see that later when there aren't so many people around." Here, alot of venues open just for First Friday. Art isn't in every coffee shop, and most of the city doesn't encounter it on a day to day basis. The people that showed up to party, weren't just the "artistic" types. It seemed like the whole city came down. Beer flows freely and bands are playing out on the street.

We wandered for probably two or three hours before calling it quits. Halliday had to grab some shirts she'd made for a store and I was getting overwhelmed by the crowds. We parted ways and I went back to Hammerpress to grab my stuff. I was waylaid when I arrived and helped ring people up for a bit. The night started settling down and I bowed out for the evening.

Bobby invited me to a potluck tonight. I'm not sure what I'll bring. Maybe lemon squares. The Hammerpress crew will be there around 9 to ten, which is the perfect time for dessert, but then if I bring lemon squares, it will seem odd for me to bring them to work one day.... The 18th Street fashion show is also today, at sundown. Halliday has a dress that will be part of it, I'm excited to see it walk down the runway! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5464304 There is great promotion with having work in the show.