Start the New Year off right!

My mother has a family saying: whatever you do on New Year' Day you do every day of the new year. So you gotta make it good, right? a little champagne, a kiss, whatever will make your day for the next 364 days.

One thing that will make you feel good, and help others, is to simply Click to Give. Make The Hunger Site one of your home tabs and every day when you go onto the Internet you are reminded to give. It takes about 20 seconds to click on all the pages: The Hunger Site, The Rainforest Site, The Breast Cancer Site, The Children's Literacy Site, The Animal Rescue Site. Thirty seconds to feel good about yourself for hte rest of the day.

And it's a great place to shop
Happy New Year!

What to do...

when there is no "work?" It is hard for me to self motivate sometimes. I procrastinate through a system of guilt and despair: I feel guilty that I am doing my own thing instead of the housework, so I clean before I work. Then I despair that there is no more time left, as I have been cleaning for so long...

What is your favorite way to procrastinate?

Let us resolve to do more of what we want to do in the new year!

Catwoman-we loved you

I have just found out that Eartha Kitt, legendary songstress and actress, passed away on Christmas day, just shy of her 82nd year. Singing Santa Baby all the way, no doubt.

This news was doubly saddening for me, as my own Eartha Kitten passed away this summer after struggling for a year with various kitty ailments.Eartha was named after Ms. Kitt before I knew that my little kitten was a he, not a she! He carried his name with grace and dignity, however, for over 17 years.

To both Eartha's, I wish to say that there will never be another like you, and you will be missed very much.

I'm sorry not to be able to post a picture of the fabulous Ms. Kitt. Having worked with copyright regulations in a former temp position for many years, I am very aware of the allowable use of images, and I try very hard to follow the laws governing creative property usage.

Merry Christmas

The insanity that is Christmas! That is what I am experiencing--I am obsessed now with those woven Swedish Christmas hearts, and stayed up late last night playing around with ideas. I decided that a great way to use those old Christmas cards that are around would be to repurpose them into Swedish Heart gift tags.




Also, cards can be used as decorations on the tree or in windows. I was lucky enough to find a box of inexpensive cards that all featured Christmas trees. I glued 2 together (the same front & back)and cut out the shape I wanted. I coated them with Mod Podge or watered-down glue, and threaded a hanging loop through. I edged them with a metallic gold pen.



Easy! I did this for my first Christmas away from home. I was broke and homesick, and this was an easy way for me to cheer up my apartment.

I love to re-use, especially at Christmas when paper items seem to be required at every turn. A gift tag, wrapping or card is not going to turn into a family heirloom, even in my pack rat family tree. But it is likely to be remembered if it is special and unique. So craft away, my friends!

And for those cards that don't suit your creative purposes, recycle them through St. Jude's program: http://www.stjudesranch.org/help_card.php

In it for the Art

If you are interested in just how much a musician makes on the road, or selling those cd's, this article will certainly enlighten you.

Johanna Schlegel, Editor-in-Chief of Salary.com, interviews Mike Errico, a former temp, about the struggle to make it as a working musician.

Weather Update

This current Blogcast is being interrupted by an emergency weather update: For those of you with no windows, there is a blizzard outside!

Winter Wonderland: The Final Chapter

...I left off as I was waiting to meet M. by the playground on 43rd St. By now the magical falling snow had turned into freezing rain! I ditched the "meet me on the corner" plan, and I ran into Bread Factory, to buy a giant muffin and to get warm. M. quickly followed suit.

We finally made it over to the Mike Errico performance, after ducking out of the freezing rain into a cozy upscale-diner style joint for dinner. Anyone who is not familiar with Mike Errico's music needs to give it a listen. Of his latest cd, All In, Lisa Heffernan* writes, "With a voice akin to Dave Matthews and a style not unlike (Pink Floyd guitarist) David Gilmour’s, Errico has created an acclaimed 12-song disc that has already graced numerous radio playlists."

My friend Adam LeBow took me to see Mike play, oh, about 10 years ago, at the Bitter End. The place was packed, the energy was festive and friendly, and the performance was great. Just Mike and his guitar, singing about love; disappointment; and TEMPING! I immediately connected.

I took my friend M. with me to a show, and we soon made a tradition out of going to his Christmas Omen show every year. So I was very happy to be going this year--M. is going to India soon for 2 years, and I am going to miss her very much.

The Zipper is a great place, intimate and with good acoustics. Mike played some new stuff, some old, tuned a lot, and, as always, told some very funny stories. He can play big sound, and then takes it down to a very quiet place that just pulls everyone into his space. And then, it was time for the Christmas Omens! Apparently throughout the year Mike collects items that speak to him, and through him they are distributed to the one soul in the universe for whom they will have a fortune about the year to come. This year I pulled out BLING, what can it mean??? I had my own idea about that, until I noticed the chunky Versace-esque head hanging from the gaudy gold beads: I felt immediately the spirit of Bacchus emanating, and my suspicion was confirmed when M. noticed the letters between the beads, spelling out his name (yes, sometimes fortunes have to be spelled out for you!). So obviously the gods are telling me to party a LOT more next year! We examined M.'s omen, a bag of Senora Suerte's incense. Well, obviously the incense ties in to her move to India, and I know the bag does not lie: in India M. will find Amore, Sante, Succes y Abundancia!

I hope that your new year brings the same.

*lipulse.com

Winter Wonderland: Lots to Tell

Yesterday turned out to be a magical day for me. It didn't start out that way--I sat in limbo (aka: my studio) waiting for my friend to get out of surgery so I could go visit her, and also for my temp agency to call and confirm some work for the next few days. I was a little worried on both counts, and couldn't really get into any of my projects. I conversed on Facebook quite a bit. My friend K. had posted some haunting photos of Kunst und Wunderkammer. We discussed them a bit, and I sent her a link to Lisa Black's Steampunk taxidermy pieces. I wondered if that was how my friend's neck would look after her surgery...It was a kind of dark, disturbing day. It turns out we were both overly optimistic about the time it would take for my friend to pop back--she was in "recovery" all day, and I didn't get to visit her after all. (She is fine, though, and headed home today) So I headed downtown, and as I stepped out of the building snowflakes started to swirl around my head, tickling my nose and otherwise delighting me. It certainly pulled me out of my doldrums. I started to get excited about the evening ahead. My friend M. and I have a tradition of going to the Mike Errico Christmas show every year, and we were going to have dinner first. But first I had an errand to run downtown...

Winter Wonderland: lots to tell! Part 2

By the time I got out of the subway at W 4th St. there was a good solid layer on the ground, and it was still falling. I wandered up 8th St., peering into windows and planning what I should buy for Christmas presents. I went up to 10th St. and was startled to see a beautiful church, with gorgeous stained glass windows all lit up--how had I never noticed this lovely church before? I walked further, peering shamelessly into the windows of the brownstones, checking out the Christmas trees and enormous chandeliers that seemed to be present in every residence. I basked in the glow of the lights hung on wreaths and wrapped around railings, and was transported to a Victorian Christmas land (OK, I know they didn't have electric fairy lights, but this is my fantasy) and could almost hear the clip-clop of hooves pulling carriages along the street. I walked toward the Jefferson Market Library, and at the corner I was amazed to see a display of...Wunderkammer! Speak of the Devil; Wunder indeed! My interest in this sort of work was stimulated by Steampunk research, wherein I discovered many examples of shadow box art incorporating science and technology.

Turns out that the Ansonia Pharmacy was displaying an exhibit of works by the artist Robbii Wessen. An amazing artist whose works combine elements from nature with technical and industrial findings, resulting in a lovely blend of form, color and texture. I can not do them justice with words, so here are some pictures I took:





The exhibit is called Foundlings, and is at 6th Avenue and 10th St. until Jan. 27.

I then rode the bus up Sixth Ave, amazed by the number of lights Macy's had put up, and admiring the falling snow effect of some of them. I got out at Bryant Park, and wandered through the stalls of the Christmas Market. I felt like I was in Vienna: all that was missing was that mug of mulled wine!

But by now the snow had turned to rain, and I was getting pretty cold, so I wandered over to meet my friend. I noticed that the Henry Miller Theater facade has been uncovered. I hadn't seen it for years, I think!

I took a few shots of my playground on 43rd St--it always looks beautiful to me in the unmarked snow. Then I met M., and off we went to The Zipper Factory to see Mike Errico!!!!

Secret Santa

I have a group of about 14 friends that get together every month or two to have drinks at a fun bar or pub somewhere. My friend Megan is great at cutting through the scheduling bull and getting us all together. This month she had a great idea--a holiday dinner at The Mermaid Inn in the East Village. On Wednesdays they have a fish fry special, complete with $2 cans of PBR! Yee Haw! She also asked that we all draw names for a Secret Santa exchange. Because of the financial crisis (finally I started a global trend!) she suggested that we each give a card that tells what we like about that person, or maybe what we wish for them in the New Year.
So, things being kind of quiet at my last gig, I was able to poke around for ideas and came upon the Jule-hjertet, or Yule Heart, a lovely Danish tradition of weaving paper baskets to fill with sweets for presents. I decided that I would make one for my Secret Santa gift. I had some red and green construction paper--you can also use metallic papaers, or I bet even red and brown craft paper would be nice.

After a few tries creating a pattern that worked (there are many that you can download off the internet, too*) I wove a heart that was presentable. I added in a little Christmas tree for fun. I then cut out many little snowflakes and on each one I wrote something I liked about my friend, or something that I wished her for the New Year. And on one I wrote my name so that she would figure out who her card was from. Finally I made her a whole string of friends to remind her how loved she is by us all. This was a very simple idea, but I think that she liked it very much.

* http://haabet.dk/users/julehjerter/english.html
* http://permo.homepage.dk/hjfig-01.htm

About this Blog

I am a costume designer, and I also temp in between gigs to supplement the fortune that I make designing. Temping is a strange thing: people expect you to be able to walk into an office, use some arcane equipment that should probably be in the Smithsonian instead of on someone's desk (especially in a Fortune500 company)without dropping a single call or sending any blank faxes; file their extremely important papers in a system obviously developed by an out-of-work CIA coding specialist who really wanted to specialize in torture; and otherwise run their life for them, while the person who has had 15 years to learn exactly how to do that is out of the office. Fortunately, I can do that.
When it is not absolutely crazy, hectic, frantic and humiliating, a temp job can be a quiet, peaceful opportunity to reflect on future plans and aspirations, design ideas, professional advancement strategies, internet bargains, weird news stories, LOL kittens, etc. I am hoping that a blog will provide a creative outlet for some of the thoughts that pop into my head in these situations, and also allow me to share some of what I do when I do not have temp work at all. Enjoy!
Viviane Galloway