"I Was A Jerk Who Preferred The Sea": Guest Blog

 Jennifer of The Novelista Barista just got back from a vacation in Jamaica, and asked for guest bloggers while she was gone.  I sent her a post about traveling, journals, and my time studying abroad in Spain.  Here is the post I wrote for her, and I'm so excited to see it on her lovely blog!

Quoted throughout most of my journal, and the title of this post:

"Promising Light" by Iron and Wine.  Any surprise I taught myself this other song as soon as I knew the chords?

About a month ago, I was perusing my blog reader when I stumbled upon a post in the Live Journal group jr_nal.  A girl had posted her diary writing and collages from a trip to Turkey, pressed into the pages of a Miquelrius book, known for their soft covers and lightly lined graph paper.

Having grown up as a military brat, I traveled all over the world, keeping pages and pages of scribbles, art work, and scrap book memorabilia to document my trips.  In ninth grade, I lived in Izmir, Turkey, so her mentions of the almost ghostly call to prayer at 6 a.m., and the incessant meowing of street cats written next to pieces of an apple tea container brought back, literally, volumes of memories.

When I studied abroad in Malaga, Spain, in college, I took with me a similar Miquelrius notebook that I bought at Barnes and Noble before my trip.  After reading her post, I decided to pull it out and share some of the pages, hoping to remind myself what it feels like to find everything about a new place wonderful - movie ticket stubs, embossed napkins, postcards, photographs of sunsets - with the thought that maybe I can inspire myself to find a similar wonderment amongst the artifacts of my current daily life.

Here are a handful of pages I found in my Spain diary:

 

As I've grown up I have stopped journaling this way.  I am not sure if this is for lack of time due to work, boyfriends, Gossip Girl reruns, or simply because I do not value spending time alone with myself, a blank book, and the fragments of days I want to preserve the same way I used to.  Trite as it may sound, I often hear Ally Sheedy's voice in my head, when, in the movie The Breakfast Club, she says, "when you grow up, your heart dies,"  which I can't help but feel to be true when I choose more "practical" pursuits over saving the bits and pieces of my day and pressing them into books with the hope of creating something lovely.

I know I do not want that to be true of myself, and that may be the only thing I know for certain at this point of my life, straddling the line of young adult and full fledged adult the same way I used to stand between being a teenager and a young adult, like a person frozen between two railroad tracks with the sound of a horn in the distance.

There are some beautiful inspirations for art journaling in the world, and I mean to revisit these to help me return to a once-favorite hobby.  Dan Eldon, the photojournalist killed in Africa, kept intricate, layered pages of journals that chronicled his travels across Africa's continent.  There are art books dedicated to the beauty of journals, and even friendly tips to be found on how to keep travel and scrapbook journaling part of your writing routine. 

While rereading entries written only a few years ago in actuality, but what feels like centuries ago, can be both embarrassing and humbling, it's moving me to pick up a book with a blank page, a pair of scissors, a pen, and go outside to try and see my day as something beautiful, and worthy of both exploration and preservation.

Guest Post for Jonny Stranger of the Austin Film Society!

Jonny Stranger is the Austin Film Society instructor who comes to teach my kiddos how to do all types of fancy film making and utilize technology.  On Tuesday, he helped a girl start her very own fashion blog, and of course he couldn't get away without posing for a few shots as well.  I did his write up, and you can find it posted at his still shiny semi-new blog. 

Jonny Stranger is the name of a fellow Austinite, who, until now, has been well known as an actor, film maker, wrangler of crazy teenagers in after school programming, and oft-imitated by random non-skaters in Hollywood but never beat in a derby duel manager of the champion Hell Cats Roller Derby team. It is important to note the qualifier, "until now," as this post marks the debut of: Jonny Stranger, fashion icon.

If you don't have your pencils sharpened to take notes on what the artistic Austin elite are wearing, then you best reach for a pen. On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, Jonny is found on the campus of a St. John's neighborhood high school toting a mac book and camera tripod as students trail behind him filming scenes ranging from strangulation to claymation. (Oh yeah! Jonny also writes - he was featured in the Austin Film Society's magazine P.O.V. for an article about Prometheus and the art of claymation).

And since I'm writing this and he's not, can I mention that his You Tube channel has over 300 subscribers and if you aren't one of them then you're missing out? And Jonny, if you cut any part of my guest post out, I know where you work, fair warning.

Moving along - Jonny took a moment of quiet (a very rare moment in a high school) to provide me with a few notes about his ensemble for the day:

Pants: black Rustler jeans, a gift from Brother Stranger
T-shirt: Austin Film Society, free from work, and it rocks because I have a matching one
Undershirt: jail-bird/mime/film noir black and white striped t-shirt from Secret October
Shoes: black Vans with rare black rubber sole, a gift from dad and Barbara
Beret: black, 100% wool, made in India from Banana Bay Trading Co.
Overshirt: Cowboy Wrangler shirt, from Flashback sale rack

I'm feeling inspired to wear my AFS shirt now...

Guest Post on Wicked Whimsy: Tattoo Fashion

The lovely and creative Michelle over at Wicked Whimsy has spent the past week moving, which means loads of work and little, if any internet access, (the horror!).  She is both an Austinite and fellow tattoo enthusiast, and I can not wait to see pictures of her steampunk inspired living room, (Victorian styled fashions and antiquated machinery grind my gears in a good way - sorry, terrible pun).    

Moving along, I was honored when she let me write a guest post for her blog, so here is the piece I wrote for her and her readers:

Tribal Steampunk Tattoo

Inspired by Michelle's post on tattoo etiquette that first led me to discover her blog, (which was double exciting by realizing she's a fellow Austinite), I wanted to continue the tattoo theme in writing about the growth of tattoo visibility in all spheres of the world, including the highly fickle world of fashion.

above: Kat Von D, Megan Fox, Gala Darling

Tattooing has a long history of either being a social pariah, (if you ask Leviticus and a few others, including my grandmother), or a social standard, (look at certain tribal groups, pre-Christian Europeans, punks, etc).  Tattoos have rarely solicited neutral reactions, and in the past they were delegated solely for men, and usually burly ones at that.  With shows like Miami Ink and LA Ink gaining massive followings, tattoos have slowly and shyly been stepping out from the whale's tales and coat sleeves they've been hiding behind.  While people with tattoos seem to often attract other people with tattoos, creating cloisters of tattoo sub-cultures where the non-inked are not permitted, the growing idea of tattoos-as-fashion is breaking down the barriers built by the tattoo needle.

It wasn't that long ago, (or was it?  Maybe I'm growing old), that boys in my high school walked around sporting their tribal tattoo inspired bowling shirts.  This was one of the first major leaps that ink made from skin to fabric, and for better or worse, it's started a domino effect in the fashion industry.

Tattoos are no longer for the burly and pierced, even Italian shoe and "it bag" affectionados have started to merge fashion with ink.  The branding of personal parts with highly recognizable labels was another domino in the path to tattoo fashion that now permeates departments stores, shoe racks, handbags, and even shower curtains.

Ed Hardy, student of classic tattoo artist Sailor Jerry Collins, has brought the vintage tattoo aesthetic off the wall flash of a tattoo shop and made it available to anyone who has ever been a fan of tattoo design but not wanted the permanence of ink work... or anyone who's a fan of trends, as the Ed Hardy brand has exploded in popularity.  I was thisclose to purchasing an Ed Hardy baby-doll shirt from Nordstrom Rack this week, but some sense of indignation wouldn't let me.

As much as I love tattoos, (especially the four I have so far), I can't bring myself to support an industry that takes the personal story and unique art out of the design work by mass printing it.  On the flip side, I appreciate how the popularity of tattoo fashion has helped further propel the public acceptance of visible ink work, especially since I made no attempt to secure future job opportunities when I tattooed my neck and both forearms, (not propelled enough, though, since it didn't stop an elderly Spanish man where I work from telling me it was so sad that I'm going to hell because of my tattoos, since I seem so nice).

What do you think of tattoo inspired fashion?  Is it a trend to keep, toss, or let evolve beyond just the tribal and Sailor Jerry styles?