Carl's Theme.

I didn't remember beading to be so time consuming.

Since my last entry, I started working on the pink tropical print shirt I posted a pic of. I was planning on letting my needle take me where it did, but decided that if I wanted it to look fantastic a little planning would be required.

Got a Sharpie, a tin full of seed beads, and a sketchpad.

The plotting is almost as consuming as the actual work; I'm glad I just started the 2nd season of Miami Vice.

The season's a little more twisted than the previous one... rape, incest, heroin... and this is just 4 episodes in. It's nice background for when I'm working.

Bought some more champagne, but this time I went for the cheap stuff. I'm pretty sure it's technically considered "sparkling wine", but whatever. I won't tell if you won't.

My site is coming along slowly... I'm using whatever little coding and html skills I have and I'm pretty much tapped out. Made some buttons, a banner heading, and successfully completed the required "About Me" page, but now I need help.

There's only one person I can think of that will have the skills to give me what I want, but I don't know if she'll do it. Meh. I'll see what I can do.

I was kidnapped and partied it up Friday and Saturday night, rested most of Sunday but still got some beading done... I learned how to screen print so I was distracted for a moment...

It's all coming together.. and it feels good :)

It's gotta be a sin.

Just checking in on all my lovely visitors cross the globe... How are you guys doing?

This week has been pretty insane. I spent most of today building my website from the ground up. Rest assured that I'll link you guys over to it when it's done :) It's not published yet so if I give you the link now it'll be nothing but advertisements...

My 2nd hat project has been more of a pain that my first one. Changed the color scheme, but I'm having a problem with the color staying. I would hate for someone to be wearing one of my works and see it fade right before their very eyes... not acceptable.

Let me make one thing known: I hardly ever watch television. I'm not home often, but when I am it's not parked in front of the TV. That said, I've been watching the 1st season of Miami Vice on DVD. I never saw it during its original run. One word: AWESOME. There are cameos in it I never would've guessed... a Thai ninja was one of the bad guys. They even had an original cast member from Scarface! (that first Columbian dealer Tony dealt with; the one that got Angel in that gruesome shower scene) Tubbs and Crockett have stolen my heart.

I guess you can see from the clothes I chose below that the show was an influence...

There is absolutely nothing wrong with tropical prints.

I like loud colors. My clothes and hats are for someone that doesn't mind being a centerpiece. These are just the before pictures.

Wait until you see the afters :)

These are just 2 of the 20 pieces of vintage I picked up today and plan to rework.

That's enough entry for now. I ran out of champagne and I'm kinda bitter about it. I can't believe it!

Here I am in the midst of one of the worst depressions ever, spent a ridiculous amount of money on one bottle of champagne and now it's all gone!

I suppose I can make it through through next few days. Send me your prayers.

Universal Traveler.

I'll be making a regular post soon, but I just purchased my domain name for my stand alone web site this morning :) Excited!

There's so much work that goes into site design, but it's one of those necessary evils... I can just think of my upcoming trip as a reward for my hard work :)

Need to get a new camera ASAP because my current one is shit..

About to leave in a moment to pick up some more supplies... still recovering from the Hard Rock last night.. How the hell do I do this?

Might be wearing the top you see above... The purse however is up for grabs.

Toodle-Loo Loves,

M.

Rocket Queen.

Today before my workout I decided to watch It Should Happen To You. I dig old movies and it was short; I figured I'd watch something light-hearted before a grueling yoga session. First and foremost, I have to say that the title character made my skin crawl. It wasn't her looks, but her personality. Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday, pictured above) is some strange bird from upstate New York who wants to be famous. Her angle? absolutely nothing. She just wants her name known. The scene above is when she meets the love interest, Pete Shepherd (Jack Lemmon) in Central Park.

After their chance meeting, she sees a blank billboard in Columbus Circle and gets the fabulous idea to advertise herself there. The sign is simple; there's nothing on it but her name (business acumen: +1, though adding a ph# or contact info would've been more effective) Problem? a soap company wants the space and they're willing to do just about anything to get it.

After a few rounds of negotiation, she gives up the space in exchange for six signs across town (business acumen +2) and one is electric (+3). All of a sudden she's the buzz of the city.. "Just who is Gladys Glover?" She goes from being Jane Doe from Podunk, U.S.A to being the spokesmodel for the very soap company that bought her out.

This of course leads to other deals, like for the diet pill she's plugging above.

This scene is not part of the movie, I just thought the picture was cool.

What initially started out as a light Sunday morning movie turned into so much more. Immediately I thought of the slew of other people that exist in this world that are famous, and got famous, for absolutely nothing:

Angelyne (who flat out took this idea and ran with it)

Tila Tequila

The White House Crashers

EVERYONE on a reality TV show

The Balloon Boy Family... the list could go on and on.

What is it about fame? What is it in your life that's missing? Are you really so unique and cool that you think the world needs to know you? What kind of impact do you have on the world, and what impact will you leave when you die? I just don't get it.

It almost seems hypocritical for me to write about this given that I have a public blog, but I value my anonymity. You guys might never see a picture of me. I haven't decided if I want to reveal myself just yet.. if ever.

I won't lie though, I think it'd be an interesting experiment to test this out and rent a spot in the city with my name. Maybe I'll call some places. I know some prime locations that are blank right now...

In the movie, Gladys loses Pete because of her quest for fame. He's not so much against her being famous, he's against the fact that it's for nothing. I am too. If you want your name known, do something worthy of attention. I know plenty of people that act the way these reality show kids do that don't have the benefit of a film crew capturing it all... and are possibly the better for it.

Speaking of which, the dad of the "Balloon Boy" kid just got out of jail today.

It's nice how everything wraps up in a neat package.

Il Secundo Giorno (Instrumental)

Aside from my random arts & crafts, another one of my hobbies is collecting old cartoon memorabilia.

After a frightening mix-up in the mail (it took over a month to get to me), I finally got my Kewpie pens. The one pictured above is Magical Angel Creamy Mami. With the exception of one, all the pens I got were from series I'd never heard of before. Because I have a disturbing affinity for office supplies, each pen will probably get its own entry in due time...

Long story short, Mami is about a 10 year old girl that transforms into a 16 year old pop star with the help of a magic wand given to her by cat aliens... Um yeah. Here's some more info on the series if you're interested. It's kinda like Big meets Jem.

I just thought it was cool that my pen would have a magic wand on it. Almost every writing utensil I own has a character on top :)

I got up kind of early and decided to watch the first episode online. I was expecting it to be so saccharine I'd have to turn it off after a few minutes, but it was surprisingly interesting. It evoked a feeling of natsukashii* (see bottom) ... the good old days of watching Voltron, Urusei Yatsura, and Project A-Ko. It almost felt like I should be watching it in footie pajamas and holding a bowl of multi-colored milk with rapidly deteriorating Froot Loops inside.

It's not all for fun and games. Anime plays a huge part in helping me stay current in my Japanese (I was really proud of myself for being able to translate the original title, 魔法の天使クリィミーマミ, without help)

Three months and counting... I can't wait!

BONUS! - Here's a YouTube clip of the transformation sequence. (I still geek out over these after all these years...)

* nostalgia