speaking of fashion for living life, my friend domini the clothing architect is featured in this NYT article about Style Wars, a unique fashion design event held in NYC last weekend that forces designers to create outfits out of scrap in 4.5 minutes:

A red-haired artist and designer known only as Domini, a wildcard entrant who had lost the San Francisco and Los Angeles competitions but was brought back for the finals because of her enthusiasm, seemed to be the underdog...

...Karelle Levy, a Miami-based designer and performance artist, slashed into her multicolored knit jumpsuit for strips of fabric, while throwing a hot pink shawl over a skirt of bubble packaging she had spun around a model’s waist and legs. Domini used badminton rackets covered in T-shirts as wings for one outfit and turned an old suit jacket into a pair of jodhpurs by having the model put her legs into the arms.

Art of Shade used a Chinese lantern to create a skirt festooned with white flower-shaped lights and white wallpaper. One judge said the outfit was more “Home Depot than fashion.”

Domini made it to the final round, but lost to Ms. Levy, who, working to the theme of “Wed or Dead,” used sheets of X-ray film as a top, strategically placed cotton pads on the model’s hair bun and high heels, and turned surgical gloves into a large flowerlike shoulder appliqué in what proved to be an innovative use of medical supplies.

domini is certainly one of THE most enthusiastic people i know. about everything. keeping up in a conversation with her is difficult. she spews more ideas every 30 seconds than most people have in a week. congratulations to her for making it to the final round - next time i bet she won't be the underdog.

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Your life is an occasion. Dress for it.


inspired by: mr. magorium

i will most certainly use this to punctuate something.

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stop trying to be cool and instead try to be great.

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(3:00p saturday afternoon --> 1:00a monday morning)

the destination was only 45 minutes away
but inertia was powerful force that day
a slow start complicated by bagel runs and oil changes
pickups and dropoffs
finding things and losing things
missed directions and confused rendezvous
somewhere there was a vortex
inescapable even after we got in the car and drove up the highway
because we drove right past davis
oblivious and in our own worlds
until we saw the sacramento skyline looming before us

back down, turn around
a cozy but long saturday night
livingroom floors and blacklights
a couch on the grass just like college
the cops came at 3:30 am and then
we slowly settled down
into a tent on an urban lawn

a few hours later it was up and about
unlike our usual casual sundays
this was a marathon day
that started in the central valley
with wind warm and the air springlike
the smell of earth everywhere
walking, walking, walking through redwood trees
wandering the tie-dyed crowds
enjoying ice cream and world music
and the shared belief that we can be the change we wish to see.

and then it was off down the highway
over 2 bridges to the edge of the sea
after a few wrong turns on the mountainous coastline
just before sunset
we arrived to find a most twisted gatsbyish scene
cocktails on the lawn of a great victorian house overlooking the ocean
but kickball with a keg for 2nd base isn't quite so refined
we hiked to the beach where in the cold wind i watched the waves crash on the black sand
and thanked the universe again
then the mad tea that as darkness settled
turned all into laughter
we left as it stopped making any sense (if it ever did)

and headed over one more bridge to san francisco
where our old friends of many years
where reuniting for a night of jazz on valencia street
only they seemed to forget it was sunday,
musicians without day jobs,
and took so long to take the stage
that it was nearly midnight before a song was played
and by then we had collapsed into exhaustion

there was a wall
and we hit it

jay flew the white flag and retreated off to sleep in the car
while i sat with eyes closed on a couch in a dark corner
i just needed to hear that jazz for a few minutes
listening to the horns blow familiar refrains
wondering why i pushed so hard

perhaps it was a bad decision
going so many places
doing so many things
committing to so many people
staying so late
refusing to accept that energy is not infinite on a sunday night
after a few too many glasses of wine
a little too much fresh air
a few too many walks across lawns and beaches
a few too many miles in the car
a few too many wrong turns
a few too many conversations
a little too much life for one day
and i do feel bad that jay was so defeated
his tired self waiting for me to give up
there's just a line sometimes that you cross
and it seems there's a battle to be won
and that any sign of weakness will result in defeat
or at least regret
life is too short
you'll sleep when you're dead
and i held out just to know i'd been there
and that i finished the list

but thinking of all the places my mind and body went those 30some hours
all the friends i saw and hugged
of the landscapes and climates my body rubbed against
of the shared candlelight moments deep into saturday night
of the ducklings in the park in davis
of the incorrigible players on the shore in marin
of the penetrating trumpet in the mission that lulled me off to sleep
i have no regrets for pushing it

early into monday morning
i went to sleep exhausted, just like i like to be.

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my lord it's been a long life
and the universe seems to flux so quickly
i swear i can see the slipstream

do you ever have those moments when your eyes can't focus
the lines shift
and the carpet goes all psychedelic, purely out of stress from being mortal?

i don't need drugs to see the wind
or feel the earth move under my feet

my balance is off from all of this shifting
i hear the hum of the universe
i smell the particles and waves
my chest vibrates

i breathe all of this in and so often i forget to let it out

there is no bright line between here and there
you and me
him and her
right and wrong
black and white
love and lust
hate and jealousy
the spectrum is like a labyrinth
and i keep getting lost

i spend all day swimming in my mind
and sometimes all i want is a body.
my body, your body, his body, her body.
please - just some flesh and blood.
i long to feel the light trace of your hand
a solid 5th line rooted through to the ground
and a dark sweaty dancefloor
to work it out

a night without fitful sleep
and a passionate kiss
lighter than the sun
would do me a world of good right now.

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on top of putting on a 2-day training seminar for work for the past 2 days and all the other events and things going on in my life, early yesterday AM i got a text message that jason & jiwon, some of our very BFFs, had gone into labor shortly before midnight (e.g. labor started on 5/7) with their first child. i got periodic updates throughout the day yesterday via txt, and it just kept going...all day long i kept trying not to think about it and focus on the work conference, but every time my phone beeped i jumped. as of 9:30 pm last night - 22 hours later - still no baby. i was worried. i've never been worried about a birth before.

while numerous friends have had babies, i generally wasn't involved in their lives at the time or very close friends, so it was never really something i was invested in, and to be bluntly honest i've never really been that excited - it's always been a little hard to have the expected amount of mothering-instinct excitement/empathy when i myself am childfree by choice and plan to remain that way. but we've been part of this pregnancy all along, and jason and jiwon are some of our closest friends. this is the closest i've ever come to being an aunt, and might possibly always be, as my younger sister doesn't have any children either. or as close as i may ever get to being a mother, for that matter.

finally! after 27.5 hours of labor, this morning, baby shin-strauss was born, mom and baby both healthy.

jason and jiwon are going to be some of the most wonderful parents ever. they are both so smart and curious and compassionate and full of wonderment and love - they gave so much to the world even before they were parents, i can only imagine how amazing this is for them, and how fun it's going to be watching them be parents and be a part of it. it's an incredibly lucky little girl, and i wish all the blessings in the world for them.

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thurs may 1: dinner with dr. kiki and mr. marshall who are back in town - yay!

friday may 2: helped ms. orangethang move (again) and then had a suprisingly yummy dinner at Parea wine bar (valencia @ 19th) - some seriously delicious food going on there. highly recommended

saturday may 3: 2.5 hour haircut with my friend brian jensen @ suite 5 salon (and it's still not really done; he cuts hair like a sculptor chips marble....slowly. precisely. with great amount of forehead crinkling.), then off to alxndr's birthday party, then to zante's indian pizza for dinner.

sunday may 4: how weird street faire, which was not nearly as weird as some previous years. the new financial district location seemed to have dampered the weirdness. or maybe it was the freezing wind chill. or maybe i'm just not as weird as in previous years. anyway, just not that into it.

(noted things missed/not done last weekend: meeting up with lisa b saturday night, maker faire, public displays of hooping (video))

monday may 5 after work: vera's birthday party!

today after work: evolution: the musical!

tomorrow/thursday 7-9: work!

friday 9: Never.Enough.Hope@the.Uptown

saturday 10: Whole.Earth.Festival + afterparty in davis!

sunday 11: afternoon birthday party + colin.stetson/ transmission@ amnesia!

monday 12: maybe i can get some sleep!

this post will have to suffice for real blogging for the next ..... while. see above.

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i've posted a few of faern's photos from the BadUnklSista performance @ 2nd skin @ the Exploratorium that feature my eyeballs on my flickr account

- thx so much faern for YOUR wonderful eyes

+

warren@after5media has wonderful sets of both 2nd skin and of the alchemy fashion show.



more about this past weekend blahblahblah etcetera later. have super busy week on all fronts this week. the biggest news is that i got about 8 inches cut off my hair. no suitable photos yet, but soon.

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my friends and their crazy gas/fire/circuitry shenanigans aka False Profit labs are featured in this Wired article on Maker Faire:

"What I'm looking forward to most is the camaraderie of being in the company of a bunch of DIYers who've been working in their garages until 1 or 2 in the morning getting stuff ready," said Brett Levine, co-founder of video software company Dovetail and a contributor to False Profit Labs, which has two exhibits at the Faire. "I have this feeling that there are all these garages right now with the lights on, drills humming, lathes turning, far and wide across the Bay Area."

Both of False Profit Labs' pieces -- Pyrocardium, which uses a stethoscope to send flames dancing in time with a person's heartbeat, and the Hydrogen Economy, which features exploding bubbles of hydrogen inside a clear plastic enclosure -- are being funded by Burning Man, highlighting the connection between the two events.

"Both have that breakaway spirit of, 'I can do this better if I do it myself,'" Levine said.

go brett!

Brett Levine and Stephen Trichter of False Profit engage in some innocent, bubble-bursting fun in Levine's garage with a piece of their Hydrogen Economy project. Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

see also: SF Chronicle article which features a video of Brett's Hydrogen Chamber:
Brett Levine demonstrates his "Hydrogen Chamber" at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field. The chamber first makes highly explosive hydrogen bubbles contained in a clear chamber as spectators stab at the bubbles with electronic tipped rods, exploding the bubbles, followed by a bright fireball in front of their faces.

want to get creative? maker faire is this weekend in san mateo and features all kinds of amazing projects, from DIY robots to virtual games to fashion.

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~e.e.cummings

happy beltane!

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