Stencils? Stencils!

So I've been making some stencils lately, and putting them on T-Shirts. Standard DIY fare. They're out of order, but I can't figure out why the Facebook uploader is a stupid ass jerk whore.

This is the back of a peacoat, complete with a Hamlet reference. What is the Hamlet reference? It's a compass with a mark at north-north-west. Get it?

Power to the left! I am going to re-make this in a different color, because black fists are sort of taken by that one group.

Tools of the trade: the four stencils that I've made thus far.

Skele-hands and Jackalope shirt completed.

The beginnings of the Jackalope shirt.

Skele-hands.

This and the next one show the process of stencilin', which is really not worth photographing.

See? How exciiiiiiiiiiiiting.

Colin's skele-hand shirt, up close. Of all the skull hand stuff, this is probably my favorite.

Colin's shirt, again. I never get tired of this stencil. Don't mind that spot on the right side of the hand, that was a drop of water that Colin put on it to get a bit of paint off.

WoMonday

Happy International Women's Day!

It is bothersome that, of the 365 days in a year, there's only one that's meant to commemorate women. True, March is also technically Women's History Month, but that's not as recognized as Black History Month (and hey, did you know that November is Native American Heritage month? I'll bet you didn't). To put it lightly, to represent any minority with a day or a month is more or less a conundrum: "Hey, sorry you've been all oppressed and misrepresented and stuff, nice job still being tough and overcoming obstacles. Can't we just give you, like, a Monday in March and call it even?"

Honestly, I would hate being a white man. You never get the opportunity to be interesting or badass.

Despite my misgivings about the whole "you get one day, ladies" thing, I would like to take this opportunity to point out a few of my favorites, the women that I'd have on my Fantasy Football Except Not Football, More Like Historical Figures Or Something team. If you don't know them, Google them. Learn a little somethin'. Most of these gals should be familiar, though:

Abigail Adams

"Remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation." Basically, yeah.

Ada Lovelace

First computer programmer. Take that, nerds.

Clara Bow

Star of the silent screen, the original "IT" girl, helped re-define femininity and, with her flapper image, helped open the doors for female sexual freedom.

Virginia Woolf

"The story of men's opposition to women's emancipation is perhaps more interesting than the story of the emancipation itself."

Kate Chopin

Wrote The Awakening, possibly the first true work of Women's Fiction in the United States.

Dorothy Parker

Wit extraordinaire, poet, socialite, co-founder of the New Yorker, my personal goal in life.

Marie Curie

First person to win two Nobel Prizes. In case you didn't know.

Mary Seacole

The other heroic nurse in the Crimean War.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

First female senator from New York, first First Lady to run for elected office. Oh yeah, and she was almost president.

My Mom

Quite possibly the best.

Quick Post: Albums That Own My Life Right Now

I don't pretend to be the type that's an expert on music. Usually, I'll love something for its lyricism, or I'll say something stupid like "and then there's this part where the strings go wraaaaaaaaah and it's awesome!" The truth is, for those of us who aren't really musicians (I play guitar, but that's it, and I'm not even remotely good), all we can say about music is what we like, and damned if we can say anything smart about technique or composition. That doesn't mean that I don't know what I'm talking about, just that I don't have the know-how to say it. In any case, here are three albums that are owning my shit, for no other reason than I like them. Look them up, listen for yourself, I doubt you'll regret it. And with the exception of Knives Don't Have Your Back, they're pretty new.

Edited out the parts about France and husbandry.

GIve thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habits as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparent oft proclaims the man.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Hamlet, am I right? Even if it is from the dumbest character in the play, the words themselves are more or less helpful. It seems contradictory at first: do all these things to please people, but be true to yourself! And yet, at this point in my life, it makes a sort of sense to me:

"Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act": Keep your thoughts to yourself, and don't act rashly.

"Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar; The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.": be nice and open to other people, but not too casual, keep your old friends close to your heart since they've been there for a long time and can be trusted, but don't waste your time with new friends who don't know you yet.

"Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in, Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.": Don't fight, but if you fight, you win! I like the phrase "the opposed may beware of thee." Don't beat them, but let them know that you don't appreciate your shit being fucked with.

"Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.": pay close attention to people, but don't make yourself very well known, size everyone up, but don't judge them immediately. A lot of this makes me think of the "every time I meet someone I think of how I could fight them." idea. Listen closely but don't be too loud, don't get into fights but by all means finish them, don't judge people, but size up their weaknesses anyway.

"Costly thy habits as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparent oft proclaims the man." : Don't be tacky. Clothes make the man. Buy LOTS of them.

"Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.": So this is the best-known and most often quoted thing that Polonius ever does in the play. "To thine own self be true" is a pretty heavy mantra, in any case, but I totally dig it. The hard part here is reconciling being true to oneself while also being more or less a spy to everyone else. I think it's perfectly possible.

Pooooooooooooooooem

I am confessing and repeating

(doing what poets have done too long

and too often

and with every metaphor)

My heart is yours to grow.

It will be poetry, for you

it will have assonance

and rhyme with penance

laughing and skipping

behind your shadow,

like a small girl in a blue coat,

so slight her balloon lifts her

off the ground as she goes, so oh!

That will be my voice,

the hopes in my mind,

a breath that will emerge

so light from this heavy frame.

Poetry, mostly love

from a mostly heart:

something shuddering shimmering

off in the water, far out

from where your feet rest,

the sand creeping on your toes,

the sun crawling down.

Books To Get Out Of The Way

Having now read On The Road, the apparent crown jewel of the Beat Generation (at this point, I prefer "Howl", Allen Ginsberg's poem, but whatevs), I can safely summarize it as: meh.

I should go into some detail, just in case someone 1) reads this blog and 2) loves On The Road to no end. I got what Kerouac was doing easy enough: taking wanderlust, individualism, jazz, and a new idea of what writing should be and setting it down to paper. And though Sal Paradise's adventures gave me a serious desire for being out on the road myself, there wasn't anything within the book that struck me as divinely profound (see the "the only ones for me are the mad ones" quote, which may be one of the most common amongst the hipster set). The language, once, jive, was archaic, the motivations less rebellious, the sex and drugs blasé. At it's heart, it was a good story, but in all honesty I don't see what all the fuss is about, so shoot me.

Anyway, this brings me to my big point of this post: a list! List list list. Today's theme is:

The Top 10 Books To Get Out Of The Way Before Graduating High School

Like it says, these are the top 10 books to read before graduating High School. These aren't necessarily the cream of the literary crop, but they do contain all that profound self-realization crap that most teens look for in books, as well as giving them a good idea of just what a good book ought to be. Naturally, most of these books are on school reading lists, if not, then hand-worn paper back copies of them are shared over the lunch table, where sixteen-year-olds declare things like "dude, this book changed my life" or "read this, though really, it's seriously deep shit". And these words ring true when we are young, I remember feeling like my brain worked differently after reading some of them. But then something happens when we graduate and grow up: is it a loss of idealism? The immersion into deeper, more nuanced things? Whatever it may be, when we read these books for the first time after reaching a certain age, the tone shifts, the language becomes sour, and we are left unimpressed by revelations that would have floored us five years before. Like an inoculation, make sure that every teenager you know reads these books before turning 19:

10.

Farenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

9.

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brönte)

8.

The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemmingway)

7.

To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

6.

The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)

5.

On The Road (Jack Kerouac)

4.

The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

3.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

2.

1984 (George Orwell)

1.

The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)