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Feb 14 2011
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Likeable Things

Be My Valentine, 2011.

For many years, I have quietly chosen a yearly Valentine. Gender is no deterrent. Mostly, I just look in my heart for someone who has done or continues to do something unrepentantly cool that I find really interesting.

(Actually, upon further research, it turns out that every year I ask Wendy Carlos to be my Valentine only to forget and offer up my undying appreciation of her the following year. I love you, Wendy Carlos.)

Anyhow.

Dear Louis Theroux-

What can I say? I’m not trying to be deliberately obscure just because you are about as popular in the United States as I am. You are, hands down, my favorite documentarian, a word I may have created just for you. This should mean a lot because my boyfriend and I watch a lot of documentaries yet, we always come back to yours. The earlier ones are wonderful, silly, and slightly brash. They make me wonder how I wasted my 20s reading about all this weirdness while you spent your 20s mopping it up. While your newer shows paint you as a very human journalist (a difficult prospect, I think) I still could watch your piece on southwestern alien and UFO enthusiasts every day, expertly miming along to Thor Templar telling us that, “you wouldn’t shoot a ghost with a real gun; you’d shoot a ghost with a ghost gun.” It’s my favorite, sir.

So, Mr. Theroux. Be my Valentine. And please officially release your work stateside… so that we no longer have to steal it. And, if you happen to find this while Googling your own name, please contact me. I have some questions relating to the pictures featured on Rev. Bob Short’s walls.

Your friend in Valentine’s Day and TV land-

Liz Novak.

 

 

VALENTINE’S BONUS!

Hear Louis Theroux being interviewed by my 2011 Valentine Runner-Up, Jesse Thorn, on his labor of love and my favorite podcast, The Sound of Young America!

 

But, truthfully, guys, this is how I will be spending my Valentine’s evening:

All curled up and dreaming of scrambling and then unscrambling human speech.

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Feb 06 2011
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Show and Tell

What’s in Your Record-Matic?

Last night, Dave came home with a super-fun present for us: a Record-matic! Are you familiar with the Record-matic system? YouTube embeds can help!

Seeing as our record player is a real, functioning member of our household and not a prop for photo shoots nor a weird item of  fetishization (and thus, never used) it gathers a lot of stray albums in, on and around it. So, a record holder is totally necessary. The bummer is that the Record-Matic hardly works as well as we can assume it did in the 1960s. No domino action here, friend. But in the interest of being nosy and voyeur-ish, let’s peep into the stack.

As I was organizing, the was a startling large Martin Denny content. Even I didn’t realize how many had trickled in! Mr. Denny assures that every wintery, post-snow shoveling pancake breakfast sounds like a Kodachrome island holiday. Endless sun and boozy drinks served in cored fruits! A macaw on every shoulder. He is the namesake of our dear little dog, after all.

So, you can see where this is going.

You know how you feel about whatever current indie band has the coyest and least offensive, thick-banged girl singer? That’s how I feel about Wendy Carlos. Sigh.

Plus a good smattering of Roxy Music, Electric Light Orchestra, and Soft Cell records. I think our preferences have been laid pretty bare. You can call it as you see it; we think pretty highly of our tastes.

 

 

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Dec 16 2010
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Visual Literacy

Gillian Gilbert.

I’ve noticed that a large part of the overwhelming fashion blog world involves the studious study of the “personal style” of other ladies.

I’ve also noticed that these ladies are, infrequently, at all very interesting. Or, as I note to people, “‘Muse’ is not a viable response to ‘Prior Employment’”. But! I have been kind of into searching around through both Got a Girl Crush and Tomboy Style. Both sites feature some good lookers of merit so I’ve decided to add my (so geeky*) suggestion to their ranks.

Ladies? Gents? Can we please give it up for Gillian Gilbert?

You probably have no idea that you know who she is but as the long-time keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist for New Order, her notes probably grace the aural space of your studio or bedroom or car at least once and again (although, we are on a pretty strict everyday schedule at work.)

There’s something so wonderfully understated about her style. She really works the “One-Of-The-Guys”/ “But-I’m-A-Girl” dichotomy. Or maybe I’ve just spent so much time in that space during my life that I’m really sensitive and receptive to it. It’s like you want to be taken seriously or are taken seriously but if you go too far into the femme, you risk becoming a token… and then sexualized… objectified… marginalized… and then it’s pretty much back to the beginning, eh?

I did a little searching, but could never find any evidence of GG talking about her thoughts her place and experiences in music as a lady. I’d love to hear them, if you come across any.

 

*guys! I am actually listening to an interview with post-punk authority Simon Reynolds RIGHT NOW!!!

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Dec 07 2010
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Likeable Things, With Care

Sock Problems?

Finally! My latest winter-y offering: Fancy Arrow Sock Garters!

Vintage, dead stock garters embellished with my favorite copper arrows and finished with a thin coat of resin!

 

Seriously, I am so into these! I’ve been wearing mine around the ankle of my slouch boots since Thanksgiving and they look so good!

 

What else have I been up to, besides making things and then gloating about them?

Eating cheeses and trying to sing like Alison Moyet from Yazoo; low and swooning and sulty.

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Oct 17 2010
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Culture Vulture

Blue Savannah.

My mind is stuck on Erasure’s Blue Savannah. I love you, Andy Bell’s Voice.

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Feb 27 2010
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With Care

Friday Night’s Alright for Workin’


Ah. Would you look at that box top of accomplishment?

Last week, Dave and I bought a new printer/scanner- my first printer purchase since about 2002, his first printer that didn’t come from the trash! I’ve never had a scanner all of my very own, not even in college, so my mind is being blown about every 2 hours more so on weekends when I have time to putter around.) The upside to this is being able to develop some more cohesive designs for presentation and packaging. I’m pretty smitten with my little variants on the original cards.

All this hoo-ha is in preparation for a rapidly upcoming show at Pawtucket’s own cozy nook, Kafe Lila. Work should be up by the 10th and runs through… well.. at least a month. But there are more than just baubles. The show features multiple installations from RISD grad Nora Rabbins as well as a full collection of my unwelcoming cross stitches. I do really need to bang out an artist statement for it. At least then the whole project will be tied together in a way and I can feel like I reached some sort of stopping point, or at least a temporary conclusion.

And then I can devote myself more fully to other ideas that have been clunking around in the old rock-tumbler I call a brain: small print run, a finished website, large scale embroideries tying together the small print run and the God Shave the Queen series. Oh. And a small line of clothes for gents and dames. And summer dresses for me! And more jewelery.

I do other things besides work, you know. Other activities of the past few weeks have included being front row at a fashion show at the local tranny bar, breaking my computer and then having it fixed, shooting bb guns in the backyard (unrelated to the computer incident), filing my taxes, applying for one month’s worth of dental insurance, eating pizza, and listening to the first Human League album as often as I can. Seriously, if you told a 17 year old Liz Novak that in 10 years she would be all about the band that did “Don’t You Want Me?” she would have rolled her eyes really dryly and told you that no one was better than Depeche Mode. But now, I am patiently awaiting the day that time travel becomes both reliable and affordable so that I may zip into 1979 and toss my undies on stage at a 24 year old Phil Oakey. I’m putting a lot of stock in you, The Future!

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