Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Hey Watch it.....I'm Crafting Here........

well Here ---->>>actualy
The eBetty DIY Files

Cute Stuff Like This...and More projects...
something new every Thursday evening...Like: Somebunny Loves U, The Burtonesque ReConstituted
Frankenstein Happy Friendly Warm Winter Friend Maker Scarf,
Fun Phunny Soft Sweater & Fabric Monster Dolls...


I take revenge on the ugliest sweater I can find.....
and turn its EVILness into a Source for Winter Goodness.....
Well, here is an ugly 80s sweater…..and you may disagree.
You may say, "I LOVE that!!!" And that is good.
To each his own…

Visit Now!

......................

Proud Founding member of the Evintage Society



Click to Visit

Monday, February 11, 2008

New Theme song.....Hard to be Humble.......

when you're a Diva like me !!!!!!

BFF's, Twokoi, Old School Tacoma and You

another lovely dinner at twokoi ....this time with Murph and Amber........earlier on sunday the 10th we went to see Doyle and Jen and family out in the boonies and got to drive over the Big Bridge again and lose 3 bucks.
why do i send people to twokoi and not to other "new" Tacoma restaurants, etc? twokoi has worked hard not to be snotty and snooty. The food is FAB-U-LOUS ! the staff is always friendly and well-trained (tho sunday evening there was a cavalcade of goofiness...and the servers had a great sense of humor about it all!)
(there are many other newbies that also work it, but I'm just limiting it to twokoi in this post)

Just because you opened a restaurant in Tacoma, or built some housing, or "promote" Tacoma doesn't mean you are entitled to a meaningless Happy Face sticker.
I have wanted to move to downtown Tacoma for at least 10 years. I had conversations with tons of people about why there is no "affordable housing" downtown other than halfway houses and sect. 8 housing, and I'm glad they are there and I'm happy low-income people can live downtown or out in the boonies or wherever they choose.
But of course true affordable housing did not come to downtown. Expensive housing came. No artist live/work space. And what can be suitable for live/work is big $$$ ...and an up and coming artist can't live there unless you are already a Chihuly or have another pays-well day job.
Often artist live/work space in cities is a bunch of hooey. There is some affordable live/work space in Seattle, but who wants to live in Seattle?
I got to thinking about this again, after the sunday nite visit to the Silverstone and looking at the condos .......(and surrealisticaly, watching Amy Winehouse (my girl) on the Grammy's at the Silverstone)
Patrick didn't know Mark and I had an interest in Rampart.....gently one of the recent pioneers of commerce downtown and we certainly did all we could to support business down there long before it was fashionable.
Sitting at twokoi, Murph told us tales of working at the motorcylce place that was in the old Tacoma Ice bldg. that burned down. And it's that sense of history that makes the transitional time we Tacomans are living in........bearable.
The stories of our history is the real Tacoma bridge. Not the ones of glass, tho pretty. ...not the concrete and steel ones, tho impressive.

I love Union Station. I love UWT. I love all the old bldgs that have been repurposed.
A lot of the new bldgs, the condos are just unartful. But not all.
There is a definate attitude of New is Better and meh for history and for the people that have lived here for a long long time. Alan & Cheryl have stuck it out downtown and are they respected for it? I do wonder.

There is a war of words about the new v. old. That's fine. Here's what I see:
I see many old school Tacomans checking out the new stuff. We do this every few years when some new thing blows into town.
I see some of the new folks starting up things and thinking they have a blank slate here in T-Town. And being quite snobby. And assuming we didn't know we have world class views and mountains, and water and sailing.......that we were too stupid to see it. We saw it. We just didn't feel the need to gloat.......

Since I did grow up in California which is size-wise and sophisticated-wise, is like growing up in France/Spain/Germany.....I have to wonder ....
How did some renaissancers miss the fact that a thriving town was already here?
sure we weren't shiny and fast-movers........but we had a town. I think, since my friends have almost all, been here for at least a decade, if not their whole life, are just wanting to be treated as if their opinions matter.

Coming soon is the 150th anniversary of the murder Chief Leschi and likely-murder of Quiemuth. From the press release:
In reality Chief Leschi won the enmity and hatred of Issac Stevens for
refusing to sign the Treaty of Medicine Creek of 1854 and for warning other
tribal leaders not to go along with the treaty. The treaty took away
millions of acres of land from the tribes and restricted Native Americans to
reservations. The original treaty removed a good many of the tribes from
access to their rivers and their fishing livelihood. Chief Leschi and his
brother, Quiemuth, spoke and acted for the dignity and survival of their
people against the greed and ethnic cleansing that the governor was
fostering among the settlers.

Whether you see it or not, trust me on this. A lot of old-timers, a lot of working class, a lot of folks round these parts are feeling very displaced and disrespected.
It does not have to be this way.

That's why I send folks to twokoi.......a new kid on the block. They have always made Mark and I and our friends feel welcome. Even when we show up late and Jonathan has a calculus test in the morning and needs to get home to study.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Quicker Than That !!

well, I am liked in blogworld.....but Gals Who Sew......know a good sassy girl when they see one.....
I emailed erin at DressADay about this pattern...I knew she'd love it....
It has the notched neckline and a great full skirt....
Ha! Sold! before I even finished my first cup of coffee this morning........

Obama Wherefore Art Thou ??

waaahhhh Obama won't come to Tacoma....no way am I driving that far to see him. Bill is coming to UPS at 9am Fri morn. No No NO.
I might get up that early to see the Second Coming of John Lennon......but not Bill Clinton. I'm still mad about Welfare Reform.
X-(



~Re-elect Al Gore~

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Julian Bond. My Hero. Obama. The Flag Bearer.



When I was about to graduate from The Evergreen State College in 2003, I pulled my app to graduate mainly for one reason. Amy Goodman and the lily-livered student body that did not vote for Julian Bond to come and speak at MY graduation.
Therefore, I chose to wait another year and we got Derrick Jensen as our speaker in 2005.
Also Joe Carr and many other smart folks were in the 2004 graduating class
Going to college was a hard road for me. It wasn't easy for me at all. It was easy for you. You had support. I didn't. I built that path, by myself, stone by stone.
And since Julian Bond is one the worlds greatest treasures and I was soooo disappointed in the white myopic bubble-dwellers that make up the majority of the Evergreeners, I refused to graduate until 2005, and there were other reasons, but this is all you get. Today.

So Julian Bond was there from the beginning. He is a nearly flawless person. And since I have said since Day One.......and Obama is walking in the path of the Great Ones....that moves the American culture forward against their will........
NO NO NO Hillary......Her Hates Are Too High..........she's a classic backroom politician.
I am an Obama Girl for the same reason I was a Kennedy Girl (all of 'em).

Are you old enough to have really marched in the Vietnam era anti-war protests? Did you politic to get the correct people elected? I did. Sadly I don't control the world!
The fathers of all my kids are Vietnam Vets. I am old enough to have been there.

From my lofty perspective, as an elder, I had a very disturbing deja vu !
I grew up in Cali and I knew what Reagan would do to the country, .......the same as what he did to Cali. Bad.
And George Bush. (All of them)
Saw. It. Coming.

This is why I write. Because I am not In the Mix, or In the Middle, I see things from a diff perspective. I'm not middle class and I don't want to be. I'm not as white as you think I am. And aint that a Good Thing !!!
*****************
And I have a great Bullshit Detector. This is why I am always in trouble. Oh well.
Yes, I'll go see OBAMA Friday in Tacoma. Yes, I will close the shop. Hooray. OBAMA !

OBAMA ! OBAMA ! OBAMA ! OBAMA !
****************
Julian Bond

In 1960, Bond was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and served as communications director from 1961 to 1966. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities in Georgia.

Bond left Morehouse in 1961, returning to complete his degree, a BA in English, in 1971. He helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a public interest law firm based in Montgomery, Alabama, along with Morris Dees. He was that organization's president from 1971 to 1979. Bond remains a member of the board of directors of the SPLC.

In 1965, Bond was one of 8 African Americans elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. On January 10, 1966, however, the Georgia state representatives voted 184-12 not to seat him because he publicly endorsed the SNCC's statement of opposition to U.S. policy in the Vietnam War and his sympathy for persons who were "unwilling to respond to a military draft," [1]. A U.S. District Court panel ruled 2-1 that the Georgia House had not violated any federal rights. In 1966, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 9-0, in the case of Bond v. Floyd (385 U.S. 116), that the Georgia House of Representatives had denied Bond his freedom of speech and that it was required to seat him.

From 1965 to 1975, he served as a Democratic member in the Georgia House for four terms. He went on to serve six terms in the Georgia Senate from 1975-1986.

During the 1968 Presidential election, Bond led a challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Here, unexpectedly and contrary to his intention, he became the first African-American to be proposed as a major-party candidate for Vice President of the United States. While expressing gratitude for the honor, the 28-year-old Bond quickly declined, citing the constitutional requirement that one must be at least 35 years of age to serve in that office.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Bond is at present Chairman of the NAACP while continuing to write and lecture about the history of the civil rights movement and the condition of African Americans and the poor. He is President Emeritus of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He hosted America's Black Forum from 1980 until 1997. He remains a commentator for the Forum, for radio's Byline, and for NBC's The Today Show. He authored the nationally-syndicated newspaper column Viewpoint. He narrated the critically-acclaimed PBS series Eyes on the Prize in 1987 and 1990.

He has published A Time To Speak, A Time To Act, a collection of his essays, as well as Black Candidates Southern Campaign Experiences. His poems and articles have appeared in a Who’s Who list of magazines and newspapers.

Bond is a supporter of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered rights and marriage equality.

from wikipedia.


************************

Civil rights activist and politician Julian Bond was born on January 14, 1940, in Nashville, Tennessee. He and his family moved to Pennsylvania, where his father, Horace Mann Bond, was appointed president of Lincoln University.

In 1960, Bond was one of several hundred students who helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1965, Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. He was barred from taking his seat due to his outspoken statements against the Vietnam War. In December 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor and he served four terms as a state representative and six terms in the Georgia State Senate. During the 1968 presidential election, he was the first African American to be nominated for vice president of the United States. He withdrew his name from the ballot, however, because he was too young to serve. Later, Bond hosted America's Black Forum.

Bond continues his tradition of activism as chairman of the NAACP. He also serves as president emeritus of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Bond is a distinguished scholar in residence at American University in Washington, D.C., and a faculty member in the History Department at the University of Virginia.

Bond was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on April 21, 2000.


Tuesday, February 5, 2008

rich people suck, or stupid people suck ...or something....

From a Vancouver CAN blog, The Commodified, a compiler of street fashion......
comes this disturbing post......
and informative too.

80s "fashion" is a joke. I hope you know that. It is funny to see it recycled!!
Those puffs. Those poofs. Those shoulders. That twinkle. That that stupidity!
So ......fashion does define you whether you know it or not.
If you're in Mall-purchased dark wash designer flare jeans and mid heel pointy toe flats with a little jacket.....hmm, you are playing it safe. OK.
If you are in sporty Nike polarfleece and running shoes when you are not on the track ! you are wanting to be fit and trim and maybe not quite making it. Dunno.
If you are dressed from hither and yon, in lace and leather (or vegan for you neo-hippie types) you are an arty type with an open attitude.
If you are dressed in the latest hipster fare: Short dress, bright colored tights, slouch boots, babydoll or shrunken little boy jacket, you are (hopefully) in your teens or 20s and are cool and probably share an apartment. Sweet.