wiggle frock

i bought these two beautiful cottons at vogue fabric. there are a few yards of each, and i'd like to make dresses, even though these colors aren't typical of what i'm wearing right now. (lots of minimalist, structured black, white, and gray.)

the dress envisioned would have a modest, slim cut, which would contrast with the exciting orange and yellow wax print, or the peach and blue shibori. once in a while, in a thrift store, i come across a 1950s-cut dress in this gorgeous african textile, usually with short sleeves. when i was staying in london, my host (a jamaican-born teacher) took me with her to church, and i saw a bunch of ladies whose prim silhouettes were enhanced by knockout colors. 

i haven't drawn up a pattern, but that's the next step. count on narrow sleeves, knee-length pencil skirt, with maybe a slight origami-fold bustle. wasp waist, collar-bone neckline. form follows fabric, and this isn't draping gauze or slouchy knit. suppose they should be lined, too.

another idea would be to make a dress in ...black... and use the brights for contrast paneling, like over the hips, but that seems kind of tame.

m.yeates

the girl that drove me from birmingham to new orleans (and back) said she really liked my sweater, so i did this watercolor for her. i'll be sending it, as a postcard, in the mail, with a thank you note.

stems, draft 1

my legs: booted, stockinged, and frocked, to be painted-in. hesitant, because i like the bare lines a lot. should there be sky in the background? treetops? should i dense-ify the outer line, poster art style?

carry-on for birmingham

is pain anachronistic?

my note-to-self continues:

"...speaking pace is measured, deliberate. That Hopkins, Ryder, and Oldman play reincarnated versions of themselves - the maiden, the clergyman, the lover/warrior. The feel is earnest, but the quality of the images is... arch. Violence is immediate but not pleasurable. When Dracula lunges at the cross and it pours forth blood, it is a dark miracle that transmutes eternal life death."


basically, my love for this movie should bring on a bout of chagrin, but there's too much enthusiasm in me to leave room for real shame.

le bonheur est dans le pré

my typical weekend rolls from wednesday to friday. after a lovely dinner party on wednesday, kyra and i took the southshore line up to my mom's farm. we needed to get out of the city and be somewhere that time passes a little differently.

i'm taking a little credit for kyra's outfit, since that's my suede jacket, and later, my red scarf.

both pairs of amazing duck boots belong to my mama. these are about three sizes too big on kyra, (and two sizes overlarge on me) but there wasn't really anything else suited to canoeing and general mucking about.

middle lake. we'd been rowing against a strong current.

big ben at dusk. 

the true PYT is doing feathers for the season.

i'm glad to be back in the city, eating lunch at work, but i really look forward to visiting michigan again soon. kyra hadn't been up since my fifteenth birthday, which was too long ago. it feels wonderful to bring new guests.

to make a cave of your body

i want:

no. 13 

half a whisper

i spent last night making up a crossword puzzle for a friend. the clues are based on some of the more unusual words they've recently used. they are a fan of cryptic crosswords, and although i've never even attempted one -- and this wouldn't qualify as such -- it was fun to think of quasi-puns and mini-riddles.

it seems to me like the puzzle would be easy to solve, but my format could be perceived as sloppy, or the wordplay inconsistent. part of my problem with poetry, when i studied it almost ten years ago, was my pretentious tendency to encode. how do you know when something is clear enough to be understood, not too muddled by your own set of allusions? 

any reader is invited to attempt the crossword, despite that it is replete with personal in-references; unfortunately, my cel phone didn't get a sufficiently sharp picture of the numbering system. let me know if you want a re-drawn version.

won't know for at least a week if the principal recipient can figure it out.