Super Aikido Girl

Super Aikido Girl begins the day in meditation aligning all the energies of the universe within herself.  The time taken to do this is a worthy investment because it makes the world clearer.  The colors are sharper.  Her eyes and ears are more observant.  In turn, the universe  offers many gifts.  She catches sights of great acrobatic squirrels in the tree outside of her apartment.  She notices the surprised smile of the CTA worker at the train station when she nods a hello.  People make space for her on the train platform.  When you make space for the universe, the universe makes space for you.  Ahhh, yes, young grasshopper

But it is not all sweetness and light, because I did say she has aligned all the energies that are darker, murkier than others.

She can see pain.  The woman with the scrunched up face on the train.  She looks constipated.  No, she looks wretched.  Super Aikido Girl, acknowledges the wretchedness--there's no worse thing to do that to deny wretchedness.  Whatever you deny will present itself over and over again, louder and bolder and more forcefully until you acknowledge it.  So she does.  And she imagines a smoothing out of the lines on the woman's face.  A release of weight....

Say Something

Here's one of the PSA's that the students created in the Film Institute.

Mak Shau!

So, I've been teaching in a two-week intensive Film Institute at Northeastern Illinois University.  I'm not a film-maker, but someone decided I should teach screenwriting for this project.  So we had 32 high school students, and two weeks.  We divided up into four teams.  Each team came up with a concept for a PSA, wrote a script, created a storyboard, filmed the PSA, edited it, created their credits,  and put together a movie poster.  All the students wrote an artist statement. 

There were eight adults working very closely with the students on everything from acting, filming, editing, and writing. 

Why all these numbers?  Because, supposedly, numbers are concrete.  People like numbers.  They like data.  I can't stand data or numbers.  I can't add.  I can't subtract without a calculator.  Numbers make me dizzy...which leads me to a Beatles reference...

This experience was awesome, but CRAZY.

It reminds me of the Beatles playing in Hamburg to rowdy crowds yelling, Mak shau!  Mak shau!

I think we did it.  I think we made a good show.

Shirt almost done!

All I have to do is hem the sleeves.  I can't believe it.  Pictures forthcoming.

Blouse in progress

blouse in progress
Originally uploaded by kissingninja

So I know it looked a hot mess in the previous post about collars. But it actually looks like it might one day be a shirt, doesn't it? That's the dress form Ange (best friend) gave me for my birthday last year. I feel like I should name her.

Still to come: finishing the collar, sleeves, buttons and button holes--whew!

Red Winged Black Bird

is tres elegant.  He knows how to impress a lady.  He's a sharp dresser.  Elegant in black with just the right amount of contrast on his wings.

Mysterious, small but mighty.  Impressive voice.  He's where it's at, ladies.

Collars?!?

I will never look at them the same way again. How incredibly complicated! I never knew. I'm glad I'm taking this class, otherwise, I'm pretty sure I'd get frustrated and give up. I realize that one of the things that really stumps me in sewing is when two pieces of fabric do not match up. I always assume that it's my fault, that I cut the pieces out incorrectly... I never assume that there's some tricky easing thing going on.

With the collar, there's lots of clipping of the fabric to ease the collar onto the neckline. Who woulda thunk? Not me, that's for sure.

On a different note, sewing offers motivation to stick to one's diet. I started this blouse in September, and was unable to finish. It got put away. Now it's May and after the long hard winter, through which I obviously coddled myself with carbs, I am heavier than I once was. But there's no way that I'm going to work on this shirt and not wear it. Uh-uh.

Besides, I rode my bike this weekend. Bike riding, watching my shirt take shape, and the warm weather should do wonders for my figure.