It's Back........

Halloween!!!
The only holiday worth it's weight!!!!!!
For me, everyday is Halloween...But today, I go the extra mile and become another person.....Today I'm Marie Antoinette...The party starts at 8 pm......
This morning I'm me...but this afternoon I'll transform into The Queen Without A Head....
So appropriate don't you think......Madame Deficit....Revolution....The changing of the country's leaders....tho this time without all the blood come November 4.



And in fashion and my whole life's philosophy......If it was good once, let's use it again.....Style Recycle.....and Don't ya know.....now is the time you want to save money and get something new...nothing better than buying vintage.
We work hard to be sure what you find on my racks is stylish, clean and ready to go!
About men's fashion: Why yes I have tweedy jackets, sweaters, and checked pants....

From the NYTimes is this cute slideshow showing modern revival of 70s fashion.....The GOOD fashion of the 70s....




And an article about of A Revival of Good 70s Fashion.....Yes, Carter was right...Be good, Be Kind, Wear a sweater and install solar panels on the White House.....


And about the Mom/Daughter fashion steal....I remember these years....but I also stole from my kids.......a cute article from the Times also.....

What's Up Buttercup?

I closed down the New Frontier.....that bartender thinks I'm a troublemaker....but I was hardly tipsy.....just real happy and so funny to be there with you kids, and Mark and Murph.....I live just across the railroad tracks ya know.
So we're sitting there enjoying the very nice Martinis in the squatty glasses....and who do I spy......my swell pal, Michael.....so to get his attention, because clearly yelling "Michael" wasn't working fast enough....
so I starting slinging micro-milliliters of vodka at him.......all I had left in the bottom of my glass was the tiniest bit of alcohol in there along with the lemon twist .........
then the bartender came over as if a great wrong had occurred....."Do you need a wipedown? he asked. No, I got it.......as I pulled a slightly used tissue from the bottom of my purse, and dabbed the table dry. Geez, buddy, trust me, I can be much more entertaining......on a lot less booze.
I was dancing to the jukabox, but I wasn't table dancing..I save that for the gay bars, because they know a Queen when they see one.........
The New Frontier is very pretty and glossy and rough and mixed up. I'm a bit tired of Old Corporate Logos as Ironic Design Elements.......
While Mark and I were at the shop on Friday cleaning and moving stuff around, who did my wandering eyes spy? Bender!!!
It's so much fun for us old-timers to run into each other at places that are not "events" .....I expect to see ya'll at a Big To Do......it's the everyday stuff that makes me happy.....
So, Halloween party at the shop.......
And save the dates......
I expect to be a doing the Tacoma Winterfest on Dock Street in mid December, 13/14......
And.....
Heidi and Fewster have consented to come back and play for Us and You at the shop on December's Artwalk evening......whatever day that is.....
now, some pretty pictures.......

Biden In Tacoma Surrounded by Women Leaders

today.....While McCain says that Gov. Sarah Palin is "a direct counterpoint to the liberal feminist agenda for America." I guess Mc forgot that the "liberal feminist agenda" is what got Palin elected in the first place.............Mc just gets dumber and weirder with each passing day. Did he have a stoke?
Here's Biden with Gov. Gregoire, Senator Patty Murray, and Senator Maria Cantwell......

Yes, Mark, Tressie and John were there.....pix later. We were just left of the big American flag. The crowds were enormous.....it was fun! It was 13 yr old John's first time at a campaign rally. He will be a great citizen! He figured out the next presidential election will find him still 17, and not turning 18 until 2 weeks after the election!!


And about That Socialism....I believe it's been the Republicans and the MBA types that support the redistribution of wealth to The TOP 1% while the real workers of the world have to live in fear, in poverty and without proper jobs and wages, without health care and without a sense of hope for the future.
Joe Biden said today, from a News Trib article:
Biden defends Obama tax-cut plan in Wash.
By MANUEL VALDES ; Associated Press Writer
Published: October 19th, 2008 05:46 PM | Updated: October 19th, 2008 06:42 PM
....Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Sunday that a Barack Obama administration would help the middle class by cutting its taxes, answering Republican claims that Obama's plan represented redistribution of wealth.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Saturday likened Obama to the socialist leaders of Europe, saying the Democrat wanted to "convert the IRS into a giant welfare agency, redistributing massive amounts of wealth at the direction of politicians in Washington."

In response, Biden on Sunday repeatedly linked McCain to President Bush's tax policies, saying that the wealthy and big corporations have received millions of dollars in tax cuts that could have gone to the middle class and small businesses.

"It's not just because it's fair, it's what makes the economy go. The rich do fine when the middle class is going," Biden said.

"John McCain has been a party to the most significant redistribution of wealth in American history and it has been all the wrong way," he said. "There's not one fundamental economic issue that John McCain disagrees with George Bush on."

He cast McCain as someone who believes in "trickle down, government is bad, markets are right" economics.

"What John is proposing and what's been going in the last eight years are virtually no different," Biden said.
*_*_*_*_*_*
Biden also said that 60% to 80% of jobs in America are created by small business.......(not by big mega-corporations)
It is the Middle Class and the small business owners, like ME, that drive the economy here folks.
*_*_*_*_*_*
and from a Seattle Times report:
"And Biden rebutted recent Republican concerns about redistributing wealth, saying that rich Americans have become richer under Republican policies. They have been redistributing wealth, "and it's been all the wrong way.""

Further bolstering the argument that small business creates the most American jobs .....
"The best way to get people spending again is to create good jobs at good wages. Over the past 15 years, small businesses created over 93% of all net new jobs. That is almost 22 million new jobs. In fact, during the first four years of this century, large businesses have already shed over 3.6 million jobs. Today, small businesses make up 99.7 percent of all employer firms. The best engine for job growth and the economy continues to be small business."
so says, Fred P. Hochberg is Dean of Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy and was deputy administrator and acting administrator of the Small Business Administration from 1998 to 2001.

We came home and started making some homemade Obama T shirts.......
and I'm working on some other projects now also.......for Obama.

White women of the Baby Boom a prized voting bloc

wth? You're joking right? That's me. This link is to an Associated Press article about gals my age.
Since I am a spokesmodel for gals my age.....On the eve of the Joe Biden visit....who wrote the VAWA........
I must tell you a bunch of stuff to save you from yourself.
If you wanted Hillary...and who didn't......
HILLARY wants you to vote for OBAMA>
Do I really have to tell you that McCain has not a single solitary thing in common with Hillary....or Obama. DO NOT be fooled by Sarah Palin. Just because she has a vagina, does not mean she is pro-woman.....or pro-child...or the least bit intelligent...She is.....sadly, quite stupid. She does not speak for blue collar women, unless you are a Drool Case....

I'm 54. My whole adult life has been constrained by Republicans that have wrecked the economy for the working class. Those of us who work for a living..the blue collar worker...have been screwed by the monied class. I didn't get my BA until I was 52, and what a fliggn' waste or 25,000. bucks, clams or bones.......
NO ONE would hire me for more than minimum wage....which would not have paid my student loans and allowed me live in anything roomier than a car.
So, I went right back to doing what I was doing before I got college-edjubicated.
This. and That.
I remember the salad days of the Clinton Years.....I was making Bank pulling weeds. (landscape design)
Blue Collar work. I'm OK with that....I like doing. I was a Painting Contractor before that. I know how to do everything a house requires, inside and out, but for changing out an electric box.

Why any woman my age, who has just seen their 401K plummet into the toilet, (I don't have one) or any other savings, or watched their home value dive bomb, (I don't have one).....would vote Republican.....I am stunned. Listen Menopause Sisters........
Don't Be Stupid!!

Don't you remember the good ol days of the Nixon and Carter admins? Don't you remember when money grew on trees?
When life was good? When Life was easy? When you only had to work part-time? When you had time to do art projects with your kids in the middle of the day?

Now, what is your life......Full time job, take care of parents, raise your kids, etc etc.....some of you went to college young. Huzzah.
So you may think that the system works for you.
No. While women's wages have been rising since the days of "Pin Money".....your husbands wages have dumped......Why?
Outsourcing mostly, and the war on Unions
have done a number on women's and men's jobs and wages.
I'll be back to revisit this issue ...this post with facts and links and stuff that will convince you to VOTE OBAMA.......don't be stupid.

Sarah Palin is not a role model for you. Unless you are stupid. She is a tool of old money woman-hating capitalists. She is like a donkey dancer in Tijuana...She performs the anti-family, more stress, shove your kids off to unqualified daycare.....and act sexy crap that dumb men (and not all men are dumb, I am no man-hater)
Want women to do....She is carrying water for The Establishment.
Jeez, don't you remember that our generation was gonna change the world??
Sarah Palin is the the worst aspects of of a throwback culture......
From the article:
"If you're aged right in the middle like me, it's hard to decide," said Deborah Nance, 56, of Wilmington, Del. "Go with the seasoned guy who might get in there and die the next day, or go with the young guy who you really don't know all that much about."

Do you have kids? How old are they? 29? 35? 37? pushing 40? They are pretty smart right? Obama is pushing 50.....don't you remember how much smarter you became between 40 and 50? Like you knew a lot at 40....but my god, the stuff you knew at 50....and it just keeps getting better right?
Well Palin and Obama are nearly the same age..she's a bit younger.....but she has been sliding by on Looks and Sass...
While Obama has had to prove himself.....
Let me illustrate....
You probably have a woman boss, who thinks she invented Smart.
But she's dumb. And what a bitch!
She does things and takes credit for it......Her bosses love her!
She's pretty, huh?
You are a worker bee. Prompt. Hard working. Probably don't look like a model. ..or a Beauty Queen, or a Cheerleader.
Sad to say, pretty women can get by on looks. It's the way the system still works, mostly.
White people can get by on skin color a lot of the time.
Working class women.....and people of color have to work harder to achieve.
But it sure seems like the pretty people get ahead tho they are often dumb as a box of hammers.
Hillary had to work so hard to get where she is today.
Obama had to work harder to get where he is today.
John McCain just showed up. Even if we forget for a moment that he comes from an influential family, a military family, he has an automatic Way In ......
Oh, and he ain't no Maverick.
He is as mainstream as they come. So sure the system seems to work for him....and it does. The system is made to work for the few. The rest of us have to work and try to get by on merit rather than a Golden Ticket.
He loves everything about Bush, Cheney, Rove, etc etc.....
Oh sure he likes to tweak their noses once in awhile.
But 99% of the time he marches in lockstep.
Obama want the pie to grow larger...so everyone can have a piece of it.
McCain wants you to get some crumbs of pie, but the pie should be given to the deserving.....and the deserving isn't the working class. It's the monied class.
Face facts. You are working class. Embrace it!
You will not get rich.
You do depend on the common good......streets, hiways, schools, infrastructure, national and city parks......etc etc.....
The common good has all but been destroyed in the last 8 years.
Falling Bridges, crumbling roads, failing schools......
Where has your tax dollars gone to?
The war in Iraq for one thing.....


Like I said, I'll be back to finish this post.......

Home Is Where The Cute Stuff Is.....

I spend too much time e-chatting with my ebay vintage clothing boardies.....but one needs community....I love chatting with my real life neighbors on Broadway....the Best, The Quirkiest block in Tacoma......tho 6th ave is catching up.....

One of my boardie pals is Holly aka Lucitebox.....If I win the lottery I'll spend half of it with her..she has fantabulous stuff......
My favorite vintage jacket is an amazing late 40s number in gray wool with millions of silver studs.....It's Joan Crawford meets Vivienne Westwood......
I bought if from Holly about 2 years ago.......
I get massive compliments when I wear it and I'm so thrilled to have bought it from someone I admire and like a lot......
So I was so thrilled to find out via DressADay that her stunningly cute apartment is featured now on Apartment Therapy.....
take a peek !

I'm about to start a new decorating project....paint first....then some new furniture.....oh Boy!! This is Good clean fun.....

You Can't Go Home Again.....

Napa Valley was built on and fortunes made from, the sweat and labor of illegal immigration for decades....that fine wine you drink was made possible by Mexicans coming up and picking the grapes.....How do I know this? I was raised in the Napa Valley...Yountville specifically....where my parents were homeowners, landlords, business owners and politicians. We have ICE right here baby....we have illegals right here baby...


The Napa Valley Register, a fine fish wrap newspaper that I read during my formative years, has just endorsed McCain.
You know McCain ...the Secure Borders/Make Illegals Pay For the Sin of Being Exploited by Agri-business.
MC wants a bio-metric ID card/documents for workers...opening the door to a National ID card....wants the illegals to pay all the back taxes and a fine,etc....How are they gonna do that? Sounds scary, unworkable and mean-spirited.
Obama's plan does much of the same thing without forcing the poor to pay more of what they don't have...and moves the process along so we can have Guest Workers to pick our food/wine products so we can enjoy a nice American life without guilt and shame. Oh, NO bio-metric ID Card required....
This is from MC's website:
Comprehensive Immigration Initiatives for a Secure Nation. Once the borders are secure, John McCain will:

Prosecute “Bad-Actor” Employers. John McCain will implement a secure, accurate, and reliable electronic employment verification system to ensure that individuals are screened for work eligibility in a real-time fashion. John McCain will use this new system in conjunction with other Department of Homeland Security resources to identify and aggressively prosecute employers that continue to hire illegal immigrants. The Electronic Employment Verification System will:

* Establish a user-friendly system employing a limited set of secure documents that contain biometric data and are electronically verifiable to check a worker’s identity.
* Institute targeted auditing by Department of Labor in order to weed out employers abusing the system.

Can you spell Irony? The Napa Valley gets rich on the backs of the desperate poor, and no one notices the work force is illegal (much of it) and the major newspaper of the Valley endorses the presidential candidate that wants to hold Employers responsible for breaking the law.....and punish the illegals too, and start a bio-metric ID card/documents....you know Big Brother...

Currently employers have to check documents to insure no illegals are being hired....checking for valid Social Security numbers...most of this is online!! Funny how so many aren't doing that......

Yes the party of Limited Government Except in Cases of Major Financial FuckUp Due To Unregulated Credit Swap Schemes Based on Fraudulent SubPrime Mortgages That Have Nearly Destroyed The Economy Of The Planet Earth....
wants to
a) Make criminals of rich agri-business (Napa Valley's reason for existence)
b) Make scapegoats/indentured servants of poor workers (Napa Valley's exploitation of the working class-McCain's insistence illegals pay and pay and pay)
c) Establish a mandatory worker bio-metric ID card/documents (Do I have to explain that one also?)

and just for more info/diversion....please click my Spychip link over there --->
Also on this page of MC's.....I don't want to fail again to achieve comprehensive immigration reform.
Oh no! Shades of The Big Lebowski......
and the Little Urban Achievers.....and those who fail to achieve....

About the illegals here now.....MC says: lets make em pay back taxes and a fine!! Fuzzy proposal on a fair worker system for temporary work status, and deny them a green card for years....which will effectively shut down our food/wine development system, so MC further states:
* Low-skilled agricultural workers:

o Reform the H-2A visa program to provide a non-bureaucratic, adaptable, useable program that is reflective of market needs and protects both the immigrant and US workers.

Address the Undocumented. John McCain will address the fact that we have a large number undocumented individuals living in the United States and working in our economy.

Assure that the remaining undocumented immigrants learn English, pay back taxes and fines, and pass a citizenship course as part of a path to legal status.

---------Still with me? --------
Obama offers a clear path with details......Obama says:

Voted YES on establishing a Guest Worker program.

Voting YES establishes a guest worker program with a path to citizenship for illegal aliens who have worked in the US for 5 years. The bill:
• Increases border security and enforcement
• Makes it unlawful to knowingly hire, recruit, or refer for a fee an unauthorized alien.
• Establishes a temporary guest worker program (H-2C visa) with a three-year admission and one additional three-year extension; and issuance of H-4 nonimmigrant visas for accompanying or following spouse and children;
• Provides permanent resident status adjustment for a qualifying illegal alien, and family, for aliens who have been in the US and employed for five years.

-----------------------

In a nutshell, pay a fine, learn English/citizenship, get to the back of the line to get a green card, work with Mexico, establish a Guest Worker program, make employers follow the law and pay legal wages.
I'm not (believe it or not.) comfortable with making employers Of all sizes and crimes..uh, Criminals over this matter. I'd prefer a HUGE fine and other disincentives coupled with sensible humane guest worker programs.
With Obama, I don't see anything about a Bio-Metric required ID Card/Documents...that would be the Republican position. You know...papers..can I see your papers??

It's My Birthday....So Sing Along !

So I just wanted to remind you that I hate landlords...but for Riley. Here's some Tressie music.....
Enjoy. Happy Birthday Shayne, my beloved son. And Miles, you lucky kid.
I'm the same age as um, Lucinda Williams...Oprah! Matt Groening, Harvey Fierstein, Michael Moore, Marsha Warfield, Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Kathleen Turner, Stevie Ray Vaughan...
so when I feel like telling the Straight World a big wet FU...Well I just listen to these songs....and right now, I feel like telling all the rich people a big FU!!! and send me cash....American Cash....
The UWT MBA Fight Song:





don't ya just love Charlie Watts and that little fn ting ting he does on the high hat.....


My eternal question....


And is there anything scarier to straight people than people lovin' SEX !