literary tease

I was thrilled to find this video on YouTube this morning:



I have two typewriters in my living room just waiting to be demolished. Today is the day. Wish me luck!

I am proud to be working with such a great organization! I recently received a grant from PASA to teach jewelry design at Roger Williams Middle School. It's way intimidating, but it's amazingly great fun. It's so rewarding to see how excited my students are to be making jewelry, and I bet I'm learning more than the students are, since every single class is different. It's so fascinating that what works great with one group of students won't be as successful with another group. The way the personalities of the kids mesh in the classroom completely changes the dynamic of every single session. Yesterday I went to class expecting the same 5 kids from the last class, and instead I had 12, only 2 of whom had been in the first class! I do my best to learn everyone's names in the first session, but lord knows if I got 'em all yesterday. I was worrying about having enough supplies for everyone and managing the time so that every student could finish in time. It's hectic, it requires me to be "on" every second that I'm in the school, it probably takes more time out of my day than it should (I spend, on average, 2 hours of prep time for every 2 hours of class!), but I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

If you'd told me when I was miserable in Greensburg two or three years ago that I would move to Providence and become a teacher in the after school programs here, I would never have believed it! In fact, it all started with a love of crafts and being in the right place at the right time. (More about that another time. Right now, I'm supposed to be planning our lesson on earrings!)

This is pretty damn fabulous, so I just had to post it.

Not a whole lot of crafting has taken place in my new craft studio here in Providence, but things are just getting started. By the end of January, I hope to be offering weekly crafts classes in a sort of open studio format. This week I've been working on Polymer Clay Pendants, and as soon as I figure out where I put my digital camera, I'll upload some pictures of my fabulous creations. I was experimenting for a week or so before Christmas with glass beads medium and acrylic paints, but let's be honest: jewelry is where it's at. I keep meaning to crochet something, especially since my sister specifically requested I make her a hat, but I never quite get around to it. I'll have to soon enough; I have enough yarn to crochet a scarf that stretches from here to, say, Boston, including some beautiful silk / merino blends that beg to be touched.

So. Here I was innocently blogging, and the upstairs neighbors decided that today is techno day, meaning that my desk is currently vibrating from the horrid thump, thump, thump of crappy techno. Yuck. Even my stereo cranked to the loudest setting can't cover the bass that makes me want to rip my hair out... or, better yet, the hair of the person with loudly bad taste. Sing just a little louder, won't you, Jim Morrison? Turn it up, Joan Jett.

Wow. This is totally the weirdest thing I've ever found online with my name in it:

It's on a website under a message post called "My Most Treasured Possession":

Heading: last year of school

"Text: I went on a date with Moira Richardson and we spent the whole evening kissing with tongue outside the dentist's. She gave me a Human League sticker and I slept with it in my palm all night thinking about her.

I moved away after school, but I still kept a memento of that romantic evening. Not the sticker, which I lost, but Moira. She's chained up in my cellar as I write.

(frankspencer, Fri 9 May 2008, 13:15, closed)"

I assure you that I, Moira Richardson, am not currently chained up in Frank Spencer's cellar, nor have I ever been. I've also never tongue kissed anyone outside of a dentist, and while I may very well have given away a Human League sticker at some point in my past, I'm positive I've never been on a date with anyone named Frank.

I feel bad for the Moira Richardson who is chained up in the cellar, and I'd rescue her if I could, except I never want to meet another Moira, or I'm pretty sure the universe will implode. Sorry, Moira.

This is my face:



Because I just got this in the mail:



Dorks unite! Thank god I don't have an office job anymore -- not that I didn't love the people I've worked with in offices! As this show so obviously demonstrates, the people working there are the only good thing about working in an office. All the other stuff like eye strain, back ache, extra fat hips from all the delicious food, interoffice politics, sheer mind-numbing boredom... that stuff? Not so great.

Wow! I was just doing some research, and I found one of my Campus Connection columns linked on
the main page of Providence Online. The story was published in June, so I have no idea how long it's been linked on the site. Very cool. Here's a direct link to the article: When Statues Come to Life.

My writing career is really flourishing here in Providence. My move to Rhode Island was definitely the smartest thing I've ever done. It was hard to leave everything I knew behind me in Pennsylvania and step forth into the unknown, but it was definitely the right choice. I'm currently writing freelance for three magazines: Campus Connection, the Newport Mercury, and Providence Monthly. I'm also doing some paid blogging for College On The Record. My portfolio is strong at this point, and my next step is to start pitching to the big guys, like Rhode Island Monthly and other glossy mags.

I'm also teaching jewelry classes in a few afterschool programs during the school year, selling my jewelry in a local art gallery, and holding periodic jewelry sales in my front yard (a misnomer really... front concrete in more accurate). I have three fabulous roommates, a super awesome landlord, and a cute artist boyfriend to boot. Life is grand!

I'm doing researching for an article I'm writing for Providence Monthly, and I came across this great website called Learning to Love You More. Here's the details:

Learning to Love You More is both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. Yuri Ono designs and manages the web site.

Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience.

Since Learning To Love You More is also an ever-changing series of exhibitions, screenings and radio broadcasts presented all over the world, participant's documentation is also their submission for possible inclusion in one of these presentations. Past presentations have taken place at venues that include The Whitney Museum in NYC, Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, Aurora Picture Show in Houston, TX, The Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, WA, the Wattis Institute in San Francisco CA, among others.

Since LTLYM inception in 2002 over 5000 people have participated in the project.

The current assignment is:

Assignment #68
Feel the news.

Go to http://www.democracynow.org/streampage.pl and watch the current show. When the segment is over, choose someone from the news who made an impression on you. Imagine that you are them, and act out a moment of their day today. Choose an ordinary moment, one without dialogue, when they are alone - maybe the moment after they hang up the phone, or before they go to sleep. It doesn't matter what they are doing, only that you try to feel what it feels like to be them today, given what you know about their life right now. Take a picture of this moment, with the help of a self-timer or a friend. Don't bother dressing up like them, don't worry if you aren't the same race or gender as them. (And don't choose going to the bathroom, everyone else will do that.) Send the caption for the photo in an email - it should include the relevant news, for example:

Monday, August 13, 2007: After Resigning as Presidential Advisor, Carl Rove Looks into The Refrigerator

Or: Monday, August 13, 2007: Kim Kyung-ja, One of Two South Korean Hostages Freed In Afghanistan Today, Takes Off Her Shoes

Learning to Love You More

For Prince Seaweed...