"zeitgeist"

Zeit·geist (tsīt'gīst', zīt'-) n. The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation: "It's easy to see how a student . . . in the 1940's could imbibe such notions. The Zeitgeist encouraged Philosopher-Kings" (James Atlas).

diamonds are the new deers

All the cool kids are drawing/wearing ironic diamond/bling drawings these days. Have you noticed?

Not to rank myself amongst "the cool" but I have a super-great shirt from threadless by ray fenwick (I think he is from Halifax?) with a HUGE, multi-faceted diamond that says "more more more". Not only does it remind me of that Billy Idol song but I think it is a cool commentary on the ever-increasing desire for ever-increasing bling. It might be easy to say this applies mainly to the hip-hop types but I think all types are prone to it. I bought it as a reminder to myself to curb my material appetites (yep, that noise you just heard was the hand of irony slapping me across the face again; buying something that reminds you to stop buying stuff!! sheesh!! but it does work actually...)

Anyway, this post is not about my t-shirt - though it is awesome.

It is supposed to be about how it is hard to resist the desire to do/draw trendy things in trendy ways. I try not to but sometimes the quest to try to be original feels way too much like putting a big, greasy damper on the fun of living in the moment - the zeitguist (if I'm going to use these words I should know how to spell them - but oh well!!)

I'm not actually very creative or original considering I'm a "working artist". I consider myself more of a visual problem solver. I would like to free up the creative side a little more but I always tend to get into these absurd conflicts with myself about what to do ... then I proceed to do nothing ...

I have trouble "doing my own thing" - even though I am a full-fledged adult. I thought I would grow out of caring about what people think of what I'm doing and be a really bold, brave person by this age. I don't really mind standing out in a crowd/standing up for what I think; the issue seems to be that I still don't know what I think about most things.

I think I don't think much at all.

I feel a bit brain-dead most of the time ... to tell the truth.

Hair Redux

Here is a hair-update for anyone who was wondering.

rolosketch returns

I bet you thought I fogot about these... I have a good excuse, I've been away. Anyway, here's number 4. Inspired by a walk past the new skate park last night. I want to learn to skate. Is 29 too old to start? It seems like it would be almost meditative to go back and forth in a ramp. I was impressed by the diversity of the people at the park... there were even a bunch of "olds" representing. It gave me hope.

"we are going on a summer holiday..."

I didn't take out the camera much on the weekend so this is the only evidence of me having a wonderful time at the beach with my sister and friend.

Today we leave for Ontari-ari-o!! We are going to a friend's wedding (where A will be debuting his new suit!! HOT!!) and then visiting with friends and family. It is always a little nerve-racking to leave town/home when you are a freelancer; "is that 'big job' going to come in while I'm away?!?!" I almost always have to turn something down right before I go away so that I always leave feeling slightly deflated. This time it was for a new magazine I would have really like to work with... sigh...

I would like to confirm that The Rolosketches didn't die after 3 days. I just haven't had time to scan them. I will do a bunch when I get home.

As promised, here is the link to Sheron Goldin's "2 socks on 2 needles" tutorial: http://www.socknitters.com/2circs/index.htm. This is the technique I used to make my legwarmers and the sleeves of the shrug I am currently working on.

Lastly, for the knitters that heard my hair horror story last night:

The crazy case of "hat"head" actually IMPROVED the look of the haricut! ...but you can still see that the bangs were completely jagged (unintentionally) and there is waaaay more hair on the left side than the right (that's NOT just from the hat!!). When it wasn't smushed flat by a hat, it looked like a helmet. It was really horrible... so now I have short hair.