Make A Fashion Statement.......I Do !!

While I have often said: I dress like Miss Havisham.....another of my style mavens are the Beales..or the 2 Edie's. ONe of the joys I hope to impart to you all is to dress like you feel.dress like you are having a party..dress like Life Is Gay...
Here's some YouTube vids to entertain you while I work one more day to put the shop back together for your Holiday Shopping Pleasure !

How Not To Be A Fashion Victim....

1. Ripped tights are last decade...and punk...but on older people they merely look unkempt....instead of edgy (not the look you were hoping for, I guess)
...so do not buy these from Anna Sui .......just diy if you must.

via fashion police blog

and while we're on the subject of Anna Sui, and we are, boycott her altogether.
Yeesh....
her whole designer life/career is using fashions of the past......
and lately  she based her Spring collection on BIBA...
rips off punks for the ripped thing.....
and then she files suit against other designers who are turning out
clothes similar to hers!
Can you say IRONY ?!?!
and here's a Law blog that discusses this penchant that designers
 have for using others for inspiration...in detail so I don't have to...
great minds think alike !

Water Water Everywhere ...

Now I don't have 10 feet of water over me....
The Tacoma Escape Clause....otherwise known as I-5....
But because someone didn't admit that the basement will flood at funkoma worldwide headquarters......we were caught with our waders off...and our basement flooded.
Small irritant...we didn't lose our home like so many in our area, but it's enough of a Peezer.
So, if you need a funkoma fix, check my ebay listings...Heres a peek....

40s Beaded Wool Coat

50s Beaded Bombshell Knit Dress

60s Mod Faux Fur Tiger Coat

Bonnie Cashin, Vintage Party, Cashmere, VBO, ebay

...and Cashmere and Sweaters

VBO right now !

Bonnie Cashin Leather * Emma Domb Vintage Party Dress

Lavender Cashmere Sweater

Beaded & Ribboned Sweater

Pink Mohair Sweater

It's Time to Reduce Recycle and Be Kinder

Well that's always been in style, doncha know !
and the major philosophy behind the M&T non-corporation partnership known to you all as funkoma vintage.....We like to take old stuff and resurrect it, re-wreck and re-store it and give it a new purpose....we've been living off the Trash of the Land for a long time....we were born this way.......picking up junk & castaways, and doing something with it..........

We did internships with Take Back Your Time Day.....which is a thinly-disguised attempt to de-consumer, get green, and subvert american-style capitalism and move this culture towards community values and thinking for the long term not just the next corporate quarter........
we've been photo'd and interviewed on the subject of this all...this re-do re-make and have a great life ......if I had more time I'd direct you to News Tribune archives to read all about us, and then there's the Organic farm I used to own and the features and gardening column I used to write for Tacoma Weekly and stuff......and I'll scan those articles and post them here as time goes by......
So !!! I am so thrilled to find this:freerice.com
Yup, play a game....feed a hungry person....Come on ...you're sitting there goofing off anyway......make it count for something......use your corporation's resources for a little Monkey Wrenching......

And once again... I took some time off and didn't return messages quick enough...and Niki Sullivan called me to chat about an old friend Dave Norton



....Mark and I dubbed him Bongo Boy....and he hates that name.....don't go there with Dave... We don't ........we still honk at Dave when he's out there.......we don't get to see him much....now that we don't live anywhere near the North End anymore...but we run into him now and then, and we shared a sweetly nostalgic meal a while back.
And Dave is out there..........Dave is a Genius............remember, you heard it first here. Dave was doing the Art Thing long before anyone one else in Tacoma......
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Also, a Cute article in the News Trib about the most darling shoe style ....the classic Mary Jane... find a few here in the shop...all in excellent condition..from sizes 6 thru 8

The Trains In Spain Fall Mainly on The Sane

chug chug
this link is about last year's open house concerning the train crossing at Pacific and SWT so while not technically current, I find it hard to believe that Sound Transit has anything good up its sleeve....
Riding the coattails of Good For Greening the Environment, they are shoving trains down our throat......and I'm a huge fan of public transit....um, European style.

Here, in Tacoma, I don't trust that anything will be done right....The thinking went: Ok, we need 20 million in new money to circulate in Tacoma....so let's build CONDOS CONDOS CONDOS .....and now, they look like prisons or mental hospitals, or just plain ol butt ugly.

I've blogged on this before.....Portland did it right.....WHY? because when the pioneers crossed to the West Coast, the light and lovely stayed in Portland, while the bangers and the alcoholics went North, stopping in Seattle long enough to pee, and then on to Alaska......It's a forbidding mindset around these parts....

So now I don't trust any decision that is made by the Powers that Be in T Town...the idea that the city council allowed the MM bridge to go for so long....no one was "on it", and now, it is a Pyhrric victory to be able to blame the State for Bridge Neglect.

Hey, put me in charge of Pretty In Tacoma...but alas, I actually have to work for a living...so unless you are willing to pay me to do alllll the research that will be done (if we're lucky) by a Consulting Firm, and then the Powerful Choose The Best Idea.....well it will look Just Laughably Ugly....

Is no one going to stand up to Sound Transit, and say: Just because you think you are Friendly, doesn't mean you get to ruin a beautiful and heavily traveled neighborhood.
And come on ! Diesel is a dying technology. Even bio d. has its big problems.

I stole this pic from Kevin...the link is above. It shows the ugliness I fear that is coming to a T-Town near you !

Here is another link to a lovely view of the Pearl

And the history .....the blueprint....that Tacoma should have paid attention to.....but chose not to........

It may well be that the Pearl District will be the country’s best re-creation of Jane Jacobs’ idealized central city. With its short blocks, high density, pedestrian friendliness, mixed usage, restricted-income rentals, architectural variance, lively street activity, and the older buildings that survive, it has become a favorite object of study for planners and developers throughout the U.S. Ironically, it is the Pearl’s considerable economic success that is causing the greatest concern, as the trend toward off-the-chart rental/sale costs has the Pearl District rapidly becoming an exclusive enclave that is beyond the reach of average Portland residents and independent retailers. There are many concerns that the gentrification of the Pearl will result in weeding out the very diversity that makes the area so attractive.
from tndwest.com/pearldistrict.html

Bridge Neglect ! Talbert States the Obvious !

Since Today is the Anniversary of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse !!

Ok, well like I told ya a few posts down there...it's prima facie evidence that the state's decision to close the MM bridge is an admission of Bridge Neglect ! Bridge Neglect is a serious dilemma facing the public today !!!!!
And folks we got trouble...Right here in Tacoma city....

Let's recap ! State of Washington seizes control of the Murray Morgan Bridge
let's quote Walt Crowley's (rip) HistoryLink.org website:

The House Memorial notes that Murray Morgan was born in Tacoma on February 2, 1916, during a snowstorm. It reads in part:

"WHEREAS, Murray Morgan's penchant for meandering around the Puget Sound region, the Northwest, and the world on a shoestring and on the drop of a hat, and often with his wife of fifty plus years Rosa, has given rise to his historical tomes on Tacoma, Seattle, the Olympic Peninsula, the Columbia River, Grand Coulee Dam, the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company, the Alaska gold rush, the 1962 World's Fair, and his most favorite topic, the Aleutian Islands; and

WHEREAS, by conveying his many interests and adventure in both written and verbal mediums, Murray Morgan has brought the world to Tacoma, and Tacoma to the world...

Man that's poetry...OK, today the state is awash in money thanks to the artificial support provided to the military/industrial complex otherwise known as Boeing/China/Iraq War that channels billions of dollars through our mud-slogged state and some of that chunk of change drops into state coffers......
Therefore, when Rick Talbert says: “It’s their bridge and it’s their neglect that put us in this position” , as the Tribune quotes from Tuesday's meeting.
I say:
Rick, that statement is as profound as saying that you have a nose in the middle of your face !!
There is no reason that the bridge should be torn down.....it is unique on the planet being a 1,748-foot steel truss vertical lift-span bridge that crosses the Thea Foss Waterway at an angle WOW ! Certainly that qualifies as a tourist attraction as wow-inspiring as Chihuly's Bridge of Glasses. This state has the money...this is a worthy thing to spend dollars on because it is HISTORY !!
You may say, oh sure funkoma vintage is history-obsessed.....Look at their name for crying out loud !! They are just vintage -festishists........and you would be right!
We are history obsessed. It was better in the old days for many things....not that slavery thing or those Reagan years that about killed me.

Old things, like the MM bridge, were built better with real ingredients using the human brain and the human muscle. All it demands is maintainence folks ! You know maintainence.....that's the thing that is opposite of The Throw Away Society we dwell in today. You know, make it in China with slave/exploited labor eerily similar to work conditions here in America about a hundred years ago, then ship it across the sea, harming the environment and upsetting the orcas and sell it at Wal-Mart where (because of its shoddy workmanship and crappy materials) it wears out and breaks and gets tossed in the landfill within a year of its manufacture date.

Unlike the MM Bridge, built in 1913 of real stuff as noted above, and BUT FOR a wee bit of maintainence, it would look pretty and be totally functional......But No !
Instead, Paula Hammond closes the bridge, and Lonergan fumes (but does not use the F*Bomb like Dick Cheney and Tom Stenger) and Jake Fey cracks wise while ribbing Lonergan and Talbert, who is Late to the comedy routine ensuing at Tuesday's Comedy Show, also known as Tacoma City Council Meeting, Talbert pipes up!
Yes, Rick, I could not agree more, and I already said it !!!!