90minutemixtape

I know where but I don't care because there's no such thing as an original sin

2006-08-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

I'm Not Angry : Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Today I woke up with $8 in my pocket and a lot of free time on my hands. So I took a little walk to The Studio (it really was little. I think the entire trip took me 5 minutes.) and bought a skein of white Cascade 220. I tried dying cream before, and it was okay, but I don't see anything wrong with the white. It took the colors. There are some white spots, but I really like that.

Anyway, here's what I did today.

Then I moved it around a bunch and took more pictures with my SLR. My neighbors must think I'm a fucking loon.

Pictures!!!

2006-08-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Modelling my Malabrigo scarf. I don't remember the exact colorway, but it's really nice browns and blues. I used the Multidirectional scarf pattern and size 8 needles.

Close up of Multidirectional Scarf.

More Malabrigo for a scarf for my boyfriend.

Branching Out close up!! I used Dale of Norway Baby Ull and I think size 6 needles, but I can't remember.

This is the start of Andre for a friend. I'm having trouble working on it because I hate the feel of Wool-Ease.

I'm using the Dream Swatch pattern to make a scarf for a friend. It's pretty fun. It's Cascade 220, and size 8s.

I dyed this yarn myself with Kool-Aid. I have mixed feelings about it, but I'm keeping at it to practice more with DPNs, since the Knucks I made are too loose at the joins. Size 8s.

Rios de la Plata scarf for boyfriend's mom. 3x3 rib over 15 stitches, size 8 needles. I am really in love with my size 8s lately, I am just realizing.

Icarus! I'm using a 50/50 alpaca/wool blend I got from ebay. It was ridiculously cheap, so I'm a little wary, but it seems to be holding up so far.

Yup. A lot of the scarves. Some out of necessity (scarves for boyfriend and I), some for fun (Branching Out), birthday (Andre), and Christmas (everything else). I decided to make scarves for everyone, but to use a nice yarn and/or interesting stitch pattern to keep the interest level up for everyone.

And a sketch. Charcoal on newsprint.

Any day now, any day now, I shall be released

2006-08-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

I Shall Be Released : The Band

Lots of things have happened since I abandoned my blog. I stopped going to college for three months and found out that I am never doing that again. I need to take summer classes or something so I don't get so bored and latent here. I moved in with Larry. Oh, and I quit Hobby Lobby and got a new job. And I got a new obsession: knitting.

I tried knitting before, and it just didn't work out. At all. I used acrylic yarn and aluminum needles and cursed myself for ever bothering with it. Then I bought some Dale of Norway Baby Ull and fell in love. And then I got sick of my aluminum needles and bought some bamboo needles. And I haven't stopped knitting since. I think I have knit every single day. I love the way everything feels in my hands. I can't get enough of knitting.

Anyway, I think I'll start updating regularly and turn this into a knitting blog. Yeah!

It'll even be complete with pictures next time.

And the dawn don't rescue me no more

2006-04-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

It Makes No Difference : The Band

This song is such a JAM. It's pretty sad, and has absolutely nothing to do with how I feel right now. It is just that good.

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY I got into photography. I had to jump through hoops. I guess I'm not allowed to take it until sophomore year as fake art major. I have to take foundation drawing, foundation 2D design, and foundation 3D design first. I am taking 3D design and photography fall semester. YAY YAY YAY!

My art professor this semester (who is the bomb) is a pretty sweet dude. He said I should switch majors and be a studio art major and then get a masters in education instead of going through the art education program here, which is through the education department and not the art department. So I pretty much have to jump through hoops.

BUT NOW I FINALLY GOT IT! EYES ON THE PRIZE!

The only thing I have to say...It's been a good year for the roses

2006-04-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

Good Year For the Roses : Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Maybe I'll re-do that. I saw Bob Dylan last night with my superfriend, maybe I'll put one of his lyrics up instead. Then it would look like this:

And when we meet again, introduced as friends, please don't let on that you knew me when...

Just Like A Woman : Bob Dylan

or even the whole last verse of "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright".

If anything, the show was anti-climactic. Disappointing. Not what I'd hoped for. We got there at intermission, and promptly got teased by the usher for missing Merle Haggard. Oh well. Saw two acquaintances from years ago, who I used to be close friends with but now I'm not. I hate seeing them; it always reminds me of what a terrible person I can be/was when I was 15. Maybe the Dylan title would be more fitting.

I wish I could say he was better than okay. I wish I could say he was great. He was better than when I saw him two years ago, but he is still with that keyboard. I kept thinking, "Does he even have hands?"

It was still a very good night. I really do love my boyfriend. He makes me laugh and laugh and laugh until no more sound comes out of my mouth and I'm doubled over doing that not laughing but not not laughing twitch.

I think it's that time of the month. I am kind of depressed. PMS? Probably. Dear internet, welcome to the contents of my uterus.

I am nineteen now. For a blog about college, I haven't really talked about college at all. Lots of things have been happening, important and no. Here we go!!

Last month, I watched a murder trial. I helped put somebody behind bars and I cried on my dad's shoulder immediately afterwards about how I'd forgotten some of the things I wanted to say and that I had failed. Over the course of the day, I realized that I didn't fail at all and it was better that I didn't say the things I wanted to say. That made me faceless, nameless, ordinary, and nothing too special. It was just fine, since I (in my mind at least) was representing the hundreds of kids who went to all the shows and never knew him.

Also last month, my roommate dropped out of school, reapplied to another college, moved out of the dorms, and right into my old house. I am still furious about that.

I had my birthday last Thursday. My dad took my sister, my boyfriend, his best friend, and I to Chicago last week so we could go to our first hometown NHL game (Blackhawks against Red Wings! Too bad Blackhawks lost.), go to a Cubs game (both of which were on my birthday!), so we could galavant around the city, and SO I COULD RIDE ON A FUCKING ZAMBONI. That's right. For my 19th birthday I rode on a zamboni at an NHL game. I fucking RULE. So does my dad, for setting this all up in secret.

My best friend got me Charmed Thirds. You know, the third book in the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty. It made me want to start keeping a journal again. Yikes.

I fucking hate the Eagles.

2006-03-26T12:56:00.000-08:00

Or: Genetics Really Can Be Blamed for Everything.

Job satisfaction is at an all-time low (working seven hour shifts as a cashier three days a week is not my idea of a fun time), but occasionally I get some crazies along with the bitchy people who want their sharpies half price ("But there was a 1/2 off sign right in front of them!" "Yes, I realize that. But the sign said that watercolor and colored pencils are on sale, not sharpies." This happened twice yesterday.) and overwrought soccer moms.

On Friday night, a middle aged man came in and had some things framed back in our framing area and brought them up to me to check out. One was an autographed picture of Helen Hunt. The other picture had five men on it, and it was also autographed.

Rach: Oh, who's this?
Guy: Oh, that's the Eagles band! Have you ever heard of them?
Rach bites her lip.
Rach: Yeah...I've heard of them.
Guy: Yeah? I'm impressed. What did you think?
Rach: I'm not really a fan.
Guy looks crestfallen.
Guy: Aw, that's a shame. Still, I'm impressed that you've even heard of them. Most young people haven't. What didn't you like?
Rach: Oh, well, I've been bred by my family to HATE the Eagles.
Guy: Oh...well, don't drop it out of spite or anything. HAHAHAH!

Jesus.

We listen to Muzak at work, too. Not regular elevator or dentist office Muzak. This is Muzak on crack. It is church songs. On any given day, you will hear three different renditions of "Ode to Joy" and "Amazing Grace". It's pretty terrible. Given my 9 or so years of Catholic schooling and 14 years of Catholic upbringing (I stopped going and practicing when I was 14), I can recognize songs as church songs but not know what they are. It drives me crazy. Friday was particularly awful, and I ended up asking the customer in my line, "Are you Catholic? Or did you go to catholic school? Because I can't think of what this song is, and it's driving me crazy." She turned out to be Methodist, but they sing that song at their church too. It drove her nuts that she couldn't think of it, either, so she told me she'd ask her mom and the next time she came in she'd tell me. She came back two hours later and said "Rachel? That song is called 'Seek Ye First'." and then left again.

That's what working at Hobby Lobby is like. At least I get Sundays off.

I'm the son of rage and love

2006-03-13T08:48:00.000-08:00

Jesus of Suburbia : Green Day

At the ripe age of 18, I like to think of myself as a music conessieur. We all know that isn't true, but let me have my dreams. Anyway, Green Day has been around for as long as I can remember. I listened to the pop station from the time I was eight until I was about thirteen, so they were always in and out of that. I loved them from the time I was about fourteen on, but I didn't really start paying much attention to them until this year. For me, they were kind of like Outkast. I loved hearing them on the radio, but I never really bothered to go get any of their albums. I think it was that goddamn "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" that kept me from actually getting an album of theirs. I can't fucking stand that song. I even wore my Green Day hoodie everywhere. My (now ex) step-brother had gone to their concert and bought the wrong size, so he gave it to me.

The truth that has been staring at me since I was 14. GREEN DAY IS FUCKING AWESOME. They went through a slump in the late 90's, but they are coming back, and it's great. I make fun of him for it, but Billy Joe really does look kind of cute with all that eyeliner on.

This song in particular (all 9 minutes of it) is really great. It's Green Day, so you don't really think of their songs in terms of their lyrical quality, but there are some great subtleties in this song that you don't catch on the first listen. The best example I can think of is "while the moms and Brads are away". The rest of the song is great because it's so typically teenaged. It isn't whiny in the "my life is sooooooo unfair oh woe! alas!" way. It's furious.

And they're really fun, too!

I remember in my junior year of high school (much of the summer before had been spent at 7-11 getting slushies), I borrowed a friend's copy of International Superhits. I told her that I still had it at lunch one day and told her I'd bring it back tomorrow. She looked mortified and later told me (kind of angrily), "I can't believe you said that in front of everyone." I didn't and still don't get what the big deal was. Why was it okay to like Green Day in private but not in public? So what that they're poppy. So what that that they were in a slump.

I don't understand guilty pleasures much, but I did just recently come flying out of the Bon Jovi closet, so I guess I should just shut up and go to class.

She likes her hair to be real orange

2006-02-28T08:13:00.000-08:00

She Don't Use Jelly - The Flaming Lips

This is kind of scary. I'll be nineteen in two months, and I already get teary-eyed and nostalgic for being 16. This very well may only be my period talking, but the summer when I was 16 was the best summer of my life. I started thinking about it when I read MetroDad's post that started off with a quote from Stand By Me. I think it's pretty far back. That's kind of creepy. I was just bored. I've been thinking about that quote, anyway. It's this one:

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"

I didn't really have friends when I was twelve. I was going through some rough times and hated everyone around me because they weren't up to my intellectual standards and the ones who were hated me, so I was pretty lonely. The summer I was 16 was full of punk rock shows and friendly kids, hanging out and doing absolutely nothing and being happy with it. It was hot and humid, but I wasn't miserable for once. I had another summer like that this past summer, minus all the punk rock shows. That quote always makes me feel nostalgic for 16.

Being an elementary/middle school kid in the mid to late 90's was AWESOME. Today I downloaded a bunch of Backstreet Boys songs and felt awesome about it. I've seen them in concert. I saw Britney Spears in 1999. I collected Beanie Babies and Tamagotchi's. I was so excited when the new ones came out two summers ago. I remember when it wasn't cool to like Green Day because they weren't popular (by my school's standards they weren't, even though it was the late 90's and they were actually very popular. If you weren't listening to rap, you were SQUARE.) and now it's not cool to like them because they're too popular.

I like my musical progression throughout the years.
0-6: Whatever my parent's listened to (this trend continues for a lot longer), and I adored "Pop Goes The World" by Men Without Hats and "We Are The Champions" by Queen. The Queen is a direct result of being taken to Blades games as a young child.
7: I bought "CrazySexyCool" by TLC. I still love that album. I was also really digging the Beatles, Wings, Warren Zevon, and the Moody Blues.
8-10: Elton John. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Don't Shoot the Piano Player" where what I listened to along with the pop radio station and classic rock with my parents. And the "Grease" soundtrack.
11-12: HANSON. SPICE GIRLS. BACKSTREET BOYS.
13: Rammstein, Bon Jovi, Guns n Roses, The Doors, Kansas
14: The Ramones, Coldplay, Joey Ramone, REM, Live, Smashing Pumpkins
15-16: The Cure, The Clash, The Flaming Lips, AFI, Nine Inch Nails, Culture Camp, When Good Robots Go Bad, DiSH, Tanka Ray, Cursive, a renewed interest in the Beatles, At The Drive-In, Pixies, White Stripes, Tsunami Bomb
17: The Velvet Underground, Nico, Cat Stevens, David Bowie, Carole King, Moldy Peaches, "Pretty In Pink" soundtrack, John Lennon, Shoukichi Kina and Champloose, the Killers, Interpol
18: Elvis Costello, a renewed interest in Warren Zevon and The Moody Blues, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jonathan Richman, Temptations, the Knack, Boston, Bruce Springsteen, New York Dolls

I pretty much still love everything listed. I sorted it by the age I first got into the band.

Awesome.

Home accents? More like home ACK.

2006-02-26T00:03:00.000-08:00

So, I got a job. I am a cashier at Hobby Lobby now. It's alright. I think I'll bore you, my grand total of no viewers, with stories about work. I work at the Hobby Lobby in my old neighborhood and the neighborhood that my high school is in, so I see people I know quite a bit. It can be fun, it can be hectic.

I managed to ring things up wrong all day today. I don't know what I did. All of our Valentine's Day stuff is 90% off, and an old woman came with 5 tubes of $1 candy. It ended up being $1.07 or something like that, but somehow I managed to ring them up as $947. I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED. Or why I kept doing it all day. I just don't know.

People also kept forgetting their stuff. Today three bags were sitting on the floor next to me all day waiting for their owners to come get them. One woman had other stuff in her cart, and left her small bag of knitting needles. Another woman had a toddler and forgot her ugly iron stuff, and I forgot to give to to her because my dad and sister were in line after her and I was too busy trying to look good. Another woman had two carts (TWO CARTS!) full of stuff and so I'm not very surprised we forgot her bag. It took forever to ring all that up!

Kids are pretty cute, but Jesus Christ. Parents, who also don't read this, watch your kids. I know you can't be 100% all the time, but good lord. Recovering the store is bad enough, but I found out the first day, the part you have to really look at in every aisle is the kid level part. And oh yeah, if you changed your mind about something, DO NOT throw it down anywhere in the racks of stuff by the register. Hand it to me, say "I changed my mind", and I will put it in a basket and someone else will put it away. Today I said the f-word in front of kids. OOPS.

PUT YOUR LANCE FACE ON

2006-02-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

There is a poster overlooking the plaza. It is Lance Armstrong's face, and it says "PUT YOUR LANCE FACE ON". He is making a generic "STARE AT THE CAMERA AND BE INTENSE" face, and it is 8 stories tall. It is also what I wake up to every morning. Since I hate Lance Armstrong, I also HATE this goddamn poster. It's so dumb.

So then I hatched a project involving it. It might turn into a zine. I don't know.

More later.

I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love

2005-11-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

While My Guitar Gently Weeps : The Beatles

I submitted some pictures (photographs? whatever.) into the student art show. I hope they get in, then I will feel validated that yes! I can be creative!
Here are the ones I submitted:

I took this one last year for photography. I was going around Kansas City and taking pictures of places I love. Another picture of mine won the class competition. I was so proud of myself.

This was so frustrating. I was drawing with my left hand and using my right to take the picture. It was difficult getting everything just right.

This is my friend Aaron. When I showed this picture to another friend, she told me to go see an exhibit at the Kemper museum. I did that today.

KC downtown at night.

That's me being goofy.

So, I went to the Kemper today and it was great. They have a Nikki S. Lee exhibit up. I'd never heard of her before, but it was worth it to find out. She morphed between subcultures and personalities and took self-portraits the whole time. It was neat to see.

Here are some of my favorites of hers:

MORE!!!

Then you listen to the music and you like to sing along, and you want to get the meaning out of each and every song.

2005-11-01T18:26:00.000-08:00

The Guitarman - Cake

I am a casual Cake fan. I thought I hated them for a while, but I came to realize that was only because the only song the radio ever played was "The Distance." When I was a junior in high school a friend made me a great mixtape as a present. We'd both been going through a lot, and we decided to have The Best Day Ever. So he gave me a tape to commemorate it, and Cake is/was his favorite band. The songs were great! The songs tugged my heartstrings and made me want to sing along! What?! I hate Cake! Nope, not anymore. I sang along. I fell in love with "Commissioning a Symphony in C" and "Open Book", but I remained a casual fan. Not really caring if they were there or not. This lasted for a couple of years, and then the ultimate.

Pressure Chief came out. Now, instead of playing "The Distance" every goddamn minute of the day, the radio switched to "No Phone". My Cake hatred was back on, full steam ahead. HOW could this happen? Then I heard "Carbon Monoxide", and it just made me want to dance all over the place and sing.

Lately, the radio has been obsessed with "The Guitarman". It is so good that I thought that it was an old song. Then I remembered, "Wait, this is the radio. This can't be an old song." And it turns out it wasn't. What a pleasant surprise.

Now I'm listening to Jesus Christ Superstar, finally. As I was going through my records looking for it, I found my copy of Doolittle out of it's cover. Roommate, I doubt you read this, but if you do, yes, I am definitely talking about you. FIND A DUST SLEEVE IF YOU CAN'T FIND THE RECORD COVER AND THEN FIND THE GODDAMN COVER. IT IS IN THE BIN. OR YOU CAN'T USE IT ANYMORE.

Anyway, I love Jesus Christ Superstar. It's kind of funny, because otherwise I'm not really religious at all. I like the spin Andrew Lloyd Webber put on the ol' tale. Judas is essentially a good guy; he is only a pawn of Jesus, who is only God's pawn. I used to think that Judas being the only black castmember was promoting not-so-subtle racism, but lately I've come to realize that Judas is black because Judas has soul. I've seen a production where Judas was white. No, that didn't work at all. I also saw a production that modernized it. It took some getting used to, but then I realized how great it was. The song at the market had stock tickers hanging in the air. Herod's palace was like a casino. He was wearing magenta sequined chucks, and women were dancing behind him in magenta sequined dresses. The singing was fantastic, too.

Fergie ain't got nothin' on me.

2005-10-31T09:47:00.000-08:00

That's right. My lady lumps are way lovlier than our favorite Black Eyed Peas songbird's.

So in an effort to revive my blog that I so dutifully started at the beginning of college, I'm going to talk about a topic that means an awful lot to me: celebrity gossip. Everyday when I start up the internet, I look at my favorite gossip sites: Dlisted, The Superficial, Truth, Beauty, Love, and Elisa. Hilarious. I love seeing celebrities and their crazy hang-ups. I love reading about who dumped who and whose nose is full of blow this week. And then I think about how much I want people to read my blog, and if I want them to read my blog, I should write something on it. Anyway.

So today I was thinking, it's time to restart the ol' blog! The one I abandoned after a week, with nothing on it except me whining incessantly about hurricane Katrina. I deleted that post, because it really is only incessant whining. But what do I have to write about? I racked my brains and realized, CELEBRITY GOSSIP!!! I love it! Ali told me to maybe examine pop culture along with it, but really, I don't know much about it. I only know what the gossip tells me, and "My Humps". I love that song.

Then I started thinking, why do I love celebrity gossip? I don't know celebrities. I don't particularly care about celebrities. I actively hate some of them, like Mischa Barton. She is the Keds girl, and I want to be the Keds girl. I don't want to pay $30 for my Keds. FUCK YOU, Mischa. I would be a much better Keds girl. But I digress.

Celebrity gossip is just like gossip in high school. It's mean, it's catty, and it's designed to hurt somebody's feelings. Sure, maybe celebrities are asking for it by putting themselves on a pedestal, but I know if I were a celebrity, I would steer clear of the internet. My self esteem would probably be shot to hell if some of those things were written about me. Therein lies a beautiful thing. I can gossip to my hearts content, I can say terribly mean things, I can laugh at even meaner things, and I know that I won't look over my shoulder and find Fergie crying because I laughed at how dumb the phrase "lovely lady lumps" is. It is guilt-free for me, even though it probably shouldn't be. I don't have to worry about it getting back to the person, I don't feel bad for spreading public knowledge, and it gives me an unfeeling scapegoat for any scathing remarks. A personal assistant won't whisper in Brit Brit's ear, "Uh, ma'am? Rachel K said you married a dumbass."

And that is why I love celebrity gossip. And a bunch of people who devote blogs to it are often hilarious, and I love to laugh.

I'm here!

2005-08-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

Look out college, here I come!
Today I finished packing and moved into the dorm room I am going to share with Blue for the next nine months. It's nice enough. I had a marathon clean and it was a long, long day. My dad wrote me a poem that I'm not ready to read, it's going to make me sad and homesick. Oh, gosh.
I'm going to sleep.

I know I shouldn't be raising my hopes so high

2005-08-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

Party Girl - Elvis Costello and the Attractions

Well, Girl's Night was a smashing success, but now I feel like I have the flu. I don't think I'm going to do that again.
I think I've decided on a tattoo. I knew the place I wanted to get it, but I couldn't settle on anything. I want a cassette tape done somewhere, but that just didn't seem the place. Emily said The Giving Tree, and it sounded perfect. So I think I might do that.
I have to do all of my cleaning and packing tonight, I kind of suck about doing that on time.

Goodbye, blue monday!

2005-08-15T23:49:00.000-07:00

Breakfast of Champions : Kurt Vonnegut

I couldn't think of any names for this, and Ali oh so generously thought of this great title. Encompasses my love for mixtapes and ridiculous movies.
This is my "serious" blog. I kind of hate that word. Journal? I guess. Anyway, I hope to keep it throughout college so I can document my time here. I like the way I set up my old one, though, where I started each entry off with a song lyric and then the name of the song and artist or band. I think I'll keep that up.
I'm so serious that I'm using proper English grammar. This shit is B-A-N-A-N-A-S!