Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Prints Prints Prints.....Blog Tag

This week on the eVintage Society Blog tag - be sure to check out for her Prints Picks !

The questions for this week's fashion wondering/wandering !
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PRINT OFFERED IN YOUR INVENTORY? Since the father of LSD....just died today....I'm feeling all nostalgic about Acid....So this one on etsy..........

Wild PsychEdelic 60s Vintage Top will Blow Your Mind


WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF NOVELTY PRINT?
I love prints that are real things......chairs, houses, silly flowers......


SIZE MATTERS….
WHEN WEARING PRINTS, DO YOU PREFER BIG OR SMALL?

Oh I'm petite..so I like small prints......No ! I like big prints......I like all prints....

COLOR OR BLACK AND WHITE? -
Both........ha ha!

WHAT DESIGNER DOES YOUR FAVORITE PRINTS?
My favorite is Alex Colman......
Here's some faves !!

Hindu....

Paisley.....



And on we go to Vintage Bulletin . Mmmm, I can't wait for next week's goodies !! on eVintage blog go-round!

Another perspective on Urban Living....

Since Jane Jacobs is the Goddess and Kunstler the God..of all that IS URBAN.....whilst googling...."self congratulatory circle jerk".......I bumbled upon this:

"Dolores Hayden, a professor of architecture and American studies at Yale and a leading historian of the American built environment's relationship to its political integument, offers in Building Suburbia an explanation of how the now-characteristic forms of that environment took shape and of why the problems they cause have proven resistant to amelioration. She writes, her preface tells us, “from the perspective of an urban landscape historian who is also an architect, wife, mother, and suburban resident.” The last term of her self-description hints at what sets this book apart from even the most worthwhile other treatments of the urban crisis: Hayden tells the stories of suburban settlers without condescension and without automatic ascription of their choice of domicile to racism or mindless conformity. She scrupulously avoids both the self-congratulatory tone that creeps into, for instance, Jane Jacobs's picture of her own idyllically bohemian Lower Manhattan neighborhood in The Death and Life of Great American Cities and the wild anger at suburban piggery that pervades James Howard Kunstler's books from The Geography of Nowhere on. For Hayden, the suburbs' growth is not a drama of moral choice but the product of political and economic forces that she sets out to delineate, armed with formidable archival knowledge of two centuries' worth of building practice and with a sensibility alert to the cultural roots and consequences of that practice."

Since Tacoma, or a small group of Tacomans and Tacowomens are all fired up about Urban Living.........I thought you might like to have this tidbit.......Here's what I find most appealing.........that Hayden documents the political and economic forces that brought about suburbs.
Cities are now bringing expensive condos using your tax dollars (a choice !) to middling, sluggish cities as a means to "save them". No it isn't moral.....it's all about money. If it was to 'save them" then truly affordable housing and educational, and recreational venues would be built downtown, rather than the gated communities for the wealthy. If suburbs were to be saved instead of just derided, then we'd be spending our tax dollars on mass transit, instead of roads and cars. Happily Washington voters just defeated a moronic Road and Transit package. Mass transit ridership has about doubled in the last 5 years in our area.
Because it is true that downtowns and compact living situations are best for a number of well-documented reasons, the fact that the poor always get shoved to the periphery of towns and then to the suburbs, as we are seeing in Puyallup, for instance, is more evidence that the packing of downtowns with the wealthy or near-wealthy......has little to do with morals, and more to do with other reasons as Hayden documents.
If the most vulnerable people where thought about at all other than how to get rid of them, then their housing would be nearest to the amenities and services they need in their daily life. It would be a revolution in city planning vogueness,if All the People were thought about and planned for and treated as if they are human beings.
I will never forget Julie Anderson stating in her campaign literature and her speeches that the ...Bums need to be moved away from legitimate business in downtown because they interfere with commerce..........
Well, "bums" are citizens of America.......Just as much as Law and Order Julie.
For the life of me, I don't know why our "leaders" voted to put the New Homeless Shelter on STW....and not up on the south/eastside near the County Hospital and several bus routes. Near Puget Sound Hospital there are groceries, a drug store, and other medical and social services in walking distance and a short bus ride away. I suspect The View from the Hill, doesn't belong to the poor, or the bums......it belongs to people that are rich. Or pretend they are.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Tressie's Excellent Hilltop Adventure

Went for a walk on the sultry Sunday afternoon......started out with my camera to take some pics of the Hotel but decided to walk over to S. J St, to find the place where my vintage pattern

came from. Uh, the hood.
I took tons of pics on my walk. I was a contractor for about 20 years and then a landscaper and I owned an organic farm. A published writer and a practicing artist.
I love to look at Model Homes. My sister Pat was active in the a builder's group in California in the 60s and 70s, and she was married to a builder. I used to build playhouses, dog houses & bird houses from scraps as a child in the trailer park.
Call it House Envy. Or A Machine for Living. Or A Basic Human Right.
(I blame Jesus for that un-capitalistic bias).



As I walked closer towards the Gintz Group 27th Street Station condos, I took more pics.
Here's your new neighborhood!


Strangely vaguely white/black people..you know the kind that aren't scary.


If you knew who I was I doubt you'd let me in your "gated community".

Into the Mouth of the Beast.

Pretty. Shiny. People. View inside from the kitchen.

I scrunched down a bit to take a picture from the dining area.....and looked right at the toilet. Ummm YUMMMY !!!
Since I have a background in building and living in houses, I am an expert at critique.
I've seen it all. Kitchens with 5 doorways. Must have been designed by college-educated morons who have never actually worked in a kitchen trying to get 3 full meals on the table with toddlers hungry at your feet!


I can't believe someone actually has a job at Gintz Group and designed this stupidity!
You're sitting at the dining table eating your Maine lobster pancakes with pea shoot salad and ginger-carrot emulsion...washed down with your Napa Valley Opus One....and you glance up to see the Toilet.
Now this low-class design flaw could have been remedied for about 250. american with a short wall ..a cubbyhole for storage....So I suggest to the renters who the Yuppie Landlord will allow to live in their investment, to buy a Shoji screen ...like at Target.
But I really think that in all the Self-Congratulatory Circle Jerk that is the hallmark of Developers That Are Saving Tacoma....this is what the poor get.
I will lay bets right now that these will all be rentals.



Your view. It's very nice. Seriously.
Lets go meet your neighbors.






“We won’t make a killing,” Gintz said. “But we like taking ugly properties and making them nice.”
Um, yes, I think a profit of about $30,000 per unit (87 units), in my world, is A killing. Roughly that's about $2,500,000. or so, after taxes and selling expenses. And the self-delusional cavalier attitude continues:
“27th Street Station will set the tone for gentrification of this neighborhood.”
“We got panned on one of the local blog sites because of the gentrification and forcing people out of the neighborhood,” Gintz said. “But those people were going to get forced out anyway as rents go up.”

Nobody needs to get forced out as rents go up. that is PURELY a landowner's greed that moves the rent upwards. And could you at least, Gintz Group, practice a little bit of Bullshit Humility
....like at least give me a jar of vaseline before you try to um, you know.

And what of the people that are evicted? What of the people who will be evicted when the other landlords get your Style of Greedy?
I know you don't give a Flying.....
But I challenge you to a little soul-redemption........
How's about you make a BIG Contribution to a Charity in Tacoma that deals with Domestic Abuse....or Low Income Housing?
I suggest A Million Bucks. You have it.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Well, at least your ego does.
Yes this is personal. You are a Grinch. You are not doing affordable housing. So stop Patting Yourself on the BACK before you break your arm !
You're Dickensian. You are Scrooge.
And I also know I am wasting my time.....You will just blow this off because you actually believe you're a Great Person Doing Great Work. Helping out the poor black people. And the rich white yuppies who will buy them.
Your project is just a vehicle to make the rich even richer.
Just calling Bullshit on Bullshit.

If you cared at all, you might do this:
Say: "I know this will cause disruption in the lives of the tenants I will have to evict. I am giving them each $2000. in moving assistance and I am asking the City Council to pass laws that are favorable to renters since I realize that renters are at the mercy of developers. Housing is a basic human right, and folks like me also have a right to make money. "

Saturday, April 26, 2008

I Can Make You Happy !

One of the best things about funkoma vintage is that folks find things here that make them soooooo happy....
Old records they have always wanted....
Record players....
crinolines....
gingham dresses....
vintage t shirts.....
vintage bowling bags....
me !!
I was regalling the sweet Shannon and the jumpin' Jessi......with tales of vintage music......I am nothing if not arrogant about growing up in the SF bay area during the Free Speech movement, Black Panthers, Mario Savio, Bettina Apthecker......Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Country Joe, and Stanford and Berkeley and all that and the bridges.....and It occurred to me recently.

that a Left Coast girl I am and always will be......I will always live in sight of
the Pacific Ocean and near a bridge or 2.

From the saltwater I came and so I shall return....

So may I take you on a little trip today???
(Jerry, I am so sorry I missed your show at the Swiss...I was so f'n tired that night...being a vintage pimp is hard on a girl)
Let's start with Moby Grape....
8:05 remains one of my fave songs....on this vid...you have to zip ahead to 3:30.....but listen to Mike Douglas....
and try to imagine what it was like to be cool and surrounded by squares.
tho Mike Douglas is pretty cool despite all appearances....(The Moby Grapes !!)
take my word for it.....


OK the other thing on my mind is the Surrealist theme for ZeitBike
There will be a public judging of the bikes on Third Thursday Artwalk at the Tacoma Art Museum....May 15
.....which Mark will enter .....
So, when I got the artlist email, I first thought of duh,
Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow !
and Marty Balin is so underrated as a sexy moody evocative singer...
I could listen to these 2 bottom songs below again ....and again....
And then there is the Red Octopus album....which has the classiest song ever that sings of cunnilingus....yeah, I said it....clam dip....muff diving...for pearls...


Now this is music to make love by....a 7 minute song from Jefferson Starship...Miracles
Yeah if you can't get your Happy ON in 7 minutes...check your pulse.....

mmmm, Where's Mark right now ?????

A little Jefferson Airplane....




and finally, It's A Beautiful Day.....yes......and the group.....
Shannon found a serviceable copy....she's a happy girl !!!!




Friday, April 25, 2008

Aliens wear vintage fashions......and sew.....

It goes.......
here's the next pattern I'm using .......
I bought it from etsy seller....... rotarydial


I fell in love because of the little arm bands on the blue dress.....

I think this will highlight my tats....
Ha!
But when I got the pattern it really really creeped me out.....
Not the scribbling on it ....someone was having a Designer moment, clearly...

and it wasn't the Big Big Big Pockets which of course makes me think of erin at DressADay....
tho she's on to shirtdresses!!

No, it's the 3 Alien Sisters......
kinda like the Andrews sisters,,,,,,,,,,but these girls are curiously devoid of all but iris ........
just Big Blue Blobs where their eyes should be......
kinda like this......song....

Good lordy, if I make the blue arm band version .....
would I also have to wear a cord around my neck with an apple glued to it ???

City Arts Love Me Best......

So the Volcrapo won't deliver to me......But I was first to get the NEW City Arts mag in all of Tacoma.
So eat me.
And because I'm a nice person , I saved all the old issues from months back for them.
.......................oh yeah, me and my neighbors are in it.......................
Now I do know that giving away freebies and deeeeep discounts is nice. This is how my day started:
First I read this......Retro fashion guide makes navigating Web easier
in the News Tribune.....(who loves me..since I've been in the paper a few times, as well as my kids and my husband...)
and I know for a fact.....golly Life is Weird ! that at least one of the online ebay sellers she profiles in the article is a crook and a half.......
see, I 've been selling on feebay for a long time and I know vintage clothes and Most Important ! I don't lie.......I have no ability to bullshit you. I'm a very bad actress.
So Can you say IRONY ???
I emailed the writer of the article......and directed her to the link....of the ensuing discussion on the topic of crooky online vintage clothing sellers........I got a lovely reply......Which is more than I can say for the Volcrapo.

And on and on and on it goes.........
So.......
on to new business........
been to Woody's yet? me neither.
But I was out with Gio and pals the other night......
and he said "lets go to the HUB!".......
but we didn't we made plans to go, but not yet.and now the chef and stuff have left...so what the Hey !!!!

Today the effervescent AMY, the lovely JESS and amy's daughter, the adorable x 10 Isabella came to funkoma today.........
Amy & Jess work at Woody's .......
Gio and pals the other day said "Let's go to Woody's!"
and 2 pretty young and sassy Woody's girls came to funkoma today.....
Golly, Life Is Weird!!!!!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Candy ? eVS Blog Tag !

I Want Candy !!


This week on the eVintage Society Blog tag - be sure to check out for her candy picks...

1)The colors of CANDY! What’s your favorite candy colored vintage piece in your collection?

I love this 60s Paisley Peekaboo Mini !

Chocolate with hot orange and candy pink !


2)What’s the sweetest accessory you’re offering right now, or if you don’t have one for sale, tell us about one of your own!

Rich purple leather springolators....

3) Sweet tooth? What’s your favorite candy?

Fair Trade Chocolate.....

4)Ice cream…..chocolate or strawberry, and why?

I like Rocky Road or Jamoca Almond Fudge, each with nuts...because if you're gonna eat ice cream, nuts are very nutritious and denies all guilt ....

5) “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, classic film or Johnny Depp re-make….and why?

I love them both.....The original because of the wild effects from back in the old days....painting small people Orange ! And I love the new one because, it's even more sinister and subversive than the book......

6)Is your personal style sweet or salty? Explain!

I'm Salty......If I can't get you to stare at me....I haven't done my job.


Sugar Rush over to Vintage Bulletin . Mmmm, see ya next Wednesday on eVintage blog go-round!

Wild TO Mild .....


Kinda like my life.....but the 19th Annual Carnival of Old Steel and Oil
the Mild To Wild Car Show....comes to Tacoma....at the newly-birthdayed Dome....April 25 - 26 - 27. Friday at 1, Sat & Sun at 10 am.

The website says :Visitors are treated to a premier collection of hot rods, muscle cars and customs in the Tacoma Dome and custom motorcycles in the exhibition hall. In addition to the very high level of quality cars and motorcycles on display, there is live music, over 50 quality vendor booths, and an area of the event dedicated to over 50 of the west coast’s elite pinstripe and airbrush artists displaying their skills and talking with enthusiasts about their craft.
Tickets are $ 15. Kids under 10 are free.





New in the shop this weekend...
Vintage Overalls...Gingham Betsey Johnson Halter Dress...
Hawaiian Shirts...Sundresses...
Fun Kids clothes....
Big Crinolines...Motorcycle Jackets & Vintage T shirts...

Tattoo T shirt dress...



_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Basketball T shirt dress....



Tuesday, April 22, 2008

It's Earth Day...again

So........For Earth Day I re-read Ecotopia

...Did you know Nixon signed the Clean Water Act, The Clean Air Act, The Endangered Species Act, and started the EPA ?? That was way back in the 70s when Republicans thought that a clean environment was good for everyone, and a conservative value ! The party left me, I didn't leave it...so, I'm not a fan of neo-con Republicans who think of nothing but war and money for themselves. Shame shame shame.

On May 4, 1970, OHIO NATIONAL GUARDSMEN opened fire on American citizens--anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others. On that day, my baby girl was 3 months-old, and we had just marched a few weeks earlier on the first Earth Day.
Which is what I say on my ME page on ebay .....
your new god, Kunstler says: Go plant a garden. And learn some handicrafts.
mmmm like sewing, or knitting, or at the very least,
Stay the Hell outta the Mall........and stop buying new useless crap.....from china.from where ever. You went to college. Use that brain !!! challenge the dominant paradigm ! my college grad class motto......Be The Change You Wish To See.....

Kunstler says a lot of things that us Old Hippies (well I'm a flower child...big difference) have been saying for Decades.
What if the energy programs.......we started in the 70s were still in practice today ?? 25 years of energy conservation....wind energy...solar energy....trains....buses......fewer children....less materialism.......what would your world look like today....and our heroes were folks like the Nearings.....no, it wasn't a paradise.....but it was a good start......Look what was accomplished with a Republican president.....

Also, Mark and I reread........the writings of William Morris......you know the Wallpaper guy........our favorite.......

Useful Work v. Useless Toil

Read this, and you will understand the way of the future....back to the future.......
And I have a few links for greeny living......it's kinda hard to change...but bit by bit......
oh yeah, buy a used copy of Take Back Your Time Day.... Handbook........



Friday, April 18, 2008

IN the shop....Motorcycle...T shirts...Fun stuff...











Thanks for the publicity

When Alan Gorsuch was sued for fraud and misrepresentation in 1999 in the Titanic boat ticket auction, one of the reasons why he was found guilty of fraud and misrepresentation was that it was seen that he misrepresented the possible value of the ticket.
The man who originally sold the ticket to Alan had no clue what the possible value might be. Alan allowed the man to "name his price". He did. Alan auctioned the ticket.
Made bank. Big Big Bank.
How to judge if something was a case of fraud is that a buyer of the widget has to prove they did the best they could to give the seller of the widget a fair price. The court found Alan didn't do that.

When I was taking law classes, in my Litigation class, we studied the Gorsuch case as one that is so Crystal clear about what constitutes legal fraud.

I think about this all the time. I buy stuff. But unlike Gorsuch, I have little expertise in anything but crackpots, liars and vintage clothes.
Oh, I also know a lot about children, gardening, and marriage.
I know a lot about loyalty.
I know a lot about Good Faith.


If you want to read the trial documents and make up your own mind, click the link!
Court of Appeals Division II State of Washington
Opinion Information Sheet

Docket Number: 26013-1-II
Vern Westby, Respondent
v.
Alan and Cheryl Gorsuch etal, Appellants




Pierce County Superior Court Civil Case 99-2-08134-5

Case Title: VERN WESTBY VS ALAN GORSUCH ET AL
Case Type: Commercial
Access: Public
Track Assignment: Standard
Jury Size: 6
Estimated Trial Length: 4.0 days
Dept Judge: 09 SERGIO ARMIJO
Resolution: 12/14/2000 Jury Verdict after Trial
Completion: 03/09/2001 Judgment/Order/Decree Filed

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Rampart.

So after the auction, I met my lovely husband and the effervescent Kelly who did attend and buy a dead man's stuff. I have to say that from time to time. Steve is dead. I danced and sang karaoke last night at the Silverstone, and just missed a crying jag. Also, stayed quite sober (a first for me!)
So..

This is the perfect portrait to illustrate that which was Steve. No wait....This does.

this was Steve. Focused on the penis and hilarious commenter of the passing parade of 2 faced hypocrites. He knew bullshit, was full of bullshit ,and, my favorite. Called bullshit on bullshit.
He used to ask us what Grapes of Wrath car did we drive into Tacoma today.......each time we came up to see him. Funny, Steve. And, um true.
We drive pieces of crap. because we are not materialistic and we are not defined by what we drive. Other than,obviously....we are not materialistic and we are not defined by what we drive.

So,while I was up in Steve's 3rd floor lair, I kept looking at all the stuff we sold him over the years. I kept staring at the bed. To erase the picture of the scene on that terrible day in February, I just kept the good times in my head.
How many times had Steve and Mark and I lolled around on the bed, watching movies, drinking, laughing and cutting up.

It's kinda funny to hear Steve being discussed....I know who knew him. I know who hated him. I'm sure he's looking up/down and laughing and making fun of you.
But not me. He knows Mark snagged the penis. And one of the last perfect "poems" Steve wrote to stupidity and alacrity and mendacity that men do.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Made in China -- Assembled in Tacoma

Tacoma Third Thursday Art Walk

17.4.08

funkoma vintage 306 E. 26th St. noon -- 6 pm

is featuring

Portraits of Your Lifestyle Chinesed Children

A Sculptural Rumination on the Post-Modern Family

What happens when the poison in your children's China-made toys infiltrates your uterus and sperm......

Did you give birth to a child or a pet?








Because you wanted to save money, and didn't read the label, your home is full of poison in the toys from China. Your children play with them. And injest the poisons. And so do you. Are you sure you want another child? Would you be better off to adopt? From China? Why do you want a child? Would you be better off with a pet? What kind of food will you feed it? Food made from Chinese ingredients?
-------- Art ------ Made In China ------ Assembled in Tacoma --------