a whirlwind of a summer. so many new things springing up -- where do i begin?

*wanderlust*

today i booked my tickets to LA to attend siggraph, conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques. isa gordon of psymbiote invited me to work on the production team of the siggraph cyberfashion show and to help out in the guerilla studio. diana will also be there with me, styling and dressing and debugging in a blaze of glory. i heard there will be a soldering party at the kickoff meeting. i can only imagine the sweet, sweet smell of that event.

anyway, i'm so psyched... elise co! cutecircuit! CAM jewelry! i wonder what the mit media lab entries will be. i should know but i don't... [hmmm...]

anyone have tips and tidbits for a week's stay in LA? i will probably be slaving in the conference center all day, but perhaps it'll be possible for a quick coffeebreak jaunt into the summery smog. i also think diana and i will also get to do some fashion designery things while we're there, too. *insert secret, knowing smile here*

ALSO...

niknak and i are heading to nyc this thursday for the first ever 21f gathering, hosted by the ever-enthusiastic and happy technologist, alison lewis. 21f is an online community focused around electronic textiles and computational clothing. yay for the east coast. yay for actually meeting some people from the mailing list in real life! yay for show and tell. details can be found here.

we'll be staying with diana. hopefully i can find time to visit some sample sales and christine-in-a-candy-store places in the garment district on friday. i have my eyes set on mood, habu, and b&j fabrics.

*home sweet home*

so we finally found great roommates (kudos to craigslist, naturally) to round out the new apartment! i'll be moving in fits and spurts in the next couple weeks. moving is one of the most terrifying activities i can ever think of doing; i absolutely hate it. the whole lifting heavy things in august weather + unearthing things in my room that should have been forgotten + losing/breaking precious things + packing my entire life into a few boxes = gives me the jibblies.

what's even more challenging is that i have *no* furniture whatsoever (since i've only lived on campus until now) and i don't have a car. oh yeah, i also have no money to buy stuff after all my travel expenses these days. le sigh. i think an ikea run is in order in any case. i will make myself comfy between the adorable umlauts!

*fashion show overload*

so on sunday night, nak and i went to the p�r ourge� fashion show at parrisboston, another production by robert "bob" gatti at 280studios. remember, the last 280 show we attended in wintertime, skin, was a huge motivator in our whole seamless show embarkment. we were basically like, "this is cool, why can't we put on something like this?" now, on the other side of the spectrum (having been on the production side), nik and i wanted to go to see the 280 show from a new perspective.













from start to finish, in our opinion the show was a complete flop. it was atrociously executed -- and i wonder if we would have felt the same way if we weren't in the same shoes.





some things that stuck out:

1. i ordered my tickets online; it was just a will-call thing. $20 each, mind you, not exactly small fries. when we got there at 8pm (time stated on all publicity materials), a huge queue of people, ticketholders and non- waited in a single, stagant line as two ticket managers clumsily looked up names on a laptop and applied wristbands and a hand-written '280' on our hands. each attendee to the show almost took a minute to get through the bottleneck. how difficult would it have been to have two separate lines? they knew people were coming!
2. i can attest that we waited in our chairs for approximately 1 hr 45 minutes before anything happened. there was a dj (who had the treble up to an ear-screeching level) and a projected visualization but everyone was just there, captive, in their seats. no one had any idea when the show would start. the time stated on the tickets was 8pm, and they didn't even begin until nearly 10pm. they should have said 'doors 8, show 9:30' or something; the audience has no clue. therefore, we all amused ourselves and stared at each other for an indeterminate about of time.
3. extending the previous point, there was absolutely no communication or back-and-forth between the production and the spectators. it's all just thrown at you willy-nilly, at their beck-and-call, and the audience has no control or knowledge over anything. there's no program, no announcements, no posted list of designers, nothing. we're just expected to sit, wait, and watch. how stupid do you think we are? argh.
4. i love the designers, and i am all for showcasing independent work. however, i think the event was way too enmeshed in sexual shock value (another girl wearing bodypaint? breasts clad in liquid latex? ooh, that's so avant-garde!) and there wasn't much substance behind it. we wanted a narrative, a collective, a story. we wanted fashion ideas and construction. the plotlines were, for the most part, thin and disorienting. this isn't discrediting the designers at all; i feel that the styling and scripting are more at fault with this aspect.
5. puma cricket gear. kinda amusing. deserves a mention.
6. at the end, the announcing of designers and crew names was absolutely horrifying. it was so crass, rude, disorganized (the guy came out with a laptop since he didnt have the energy to print out the list of thank-yous beforehand?) and completely disrespectful to the designers (i felt). maybe it's just not my style of doing things, but i think a sincere introduction and thanks to the designers are the least one can do to show appreciation for their hard work.
7. speaking of lighting, it was difficult to actually see the details of the clothing since the projected images fell on the models as they were walking, and the poor house lighting (there were no spotlights) made everything sort of fuzzy. which might have been the effect, perhaps, but i would imagine that a major focus of a fashion show is the clothes themselves. crazy, right?
8. my favorite piece in the entire show was a little capelet/poncho thing, in simple cotton or twill and decorated on the edge with colorful jigsaw puzzle pieces. i can't explain it, it was absolutely perfect. adorable, sleek, clever, playful. the designer (i have to look it up, it's jessica something, i would know if they listed the designer names somewhere!) also did an amusing 'electronic' piece with a polka dot dress with those large touch nighlight lamps stitched onto them. the lights are huge, like 4" in diameter, but it was definitely a cute idea, and a great visual on the almost grotesque scale of things. LEDs for giants!

at any rate, i don't mean to rant or discount any of the effort put into this show. i imagine it took a lot of work, and the model styling (hair was great!) was notable. however, i think it's good to see what can be worked through and improved with these sort of things: designing the dynamics between designers, producers, models, and audience; how to best tell a narrative through physical display; and how to make things progressive and artistically daring without veering into the tawdry and pretentious.

we also got VIP goodie bags (since i pre-ordered the tickets). there was a tshirt and a necklace and a plastic alien inside, but i think the best part of it is the bag itself. it's a simple frosted plastic tote, but it's miniature and green! green!

*knitting*

hey looky here, it's the theresa sweater! she's been in hiding from the blog, but working behind the scenes. to refresh your memory, it's from DB junior knits, and done in knitpicks shine to please the discriminating palate of my niece (where palate == pink, hello kitty, and princesses).













right now i've completed the entire body (including the adorable ruffled edging), and am in the homestretch with sleeve completion. one christmas gift almost done!



















check this out, i actually figured out how to pick up stitches the right way. on the theresa back collar, you can see how the picked up stitches line up perfectly with the back piece stitches. i didn't really pay attention to this when i did the charlotte sweater ribbing, so sometimes it lined up, but more often than not it was misaligned. small detail, but it looks so much better when they line up!


*OTN*

so my debbie bliss cashmerino aran arrived. the ebay auction said it was 'pale pink' but upon real inspection i would call it more a dusky lavender or pink heather. imagine if you mixed a pink easter m&m with a purple easter m&m and ate a lot of bunnies. yeah.

what is this for, you ask? well, you should know from my teva durham obsession that it'd be one of her designs. i've started the ballet pullover from IK summer 2004. it calls for some weird acrylic/nylon yarn (plymouth napa), but since i never wear sweaters in the summer anyhow (no matter how light or airy the fiber is, with the heat i get uncomfortable in anything more than a thin tshirt), i decided to do it in a soft pink wool yarn. i got the cashmerino at a huge discount since it's a discontinued shade, apparently. though looking at the page on cashmerino aran on yarndex, i would say the best match is the 'dusty pink', color 603, or 'mauve,' color 604. i don't know for sure since the yarn came to me unlabelled. anyway, ballet-color it shall be called from now on!

i'm holding two strands of the aran together to make it bulky, and using a 15 (!) needle. it's actually to gauge, and not terribly shapeless. i made incredible progress last night, going from the collar through the yoke and i'm about armhole/bust level right now. i love circular needles; i even do flat projects on them. i think it's the even weight distribution that goes down and around instead of straight out to the sides.

i've poked around the blogosphere, and most people who made this sweater seem to have found it not to their liking (sizing issues, and strange shapings, see libby and hi!katie), though i'm curious how knittergirl ended up liking hers. her stitches are so neat!

whew. writing big blog entries wipes you out, though not unpleasantly, like sighing contentedly after eating a sizable platter of spicy buffalo wings and a burger for dinner. ahh. *dreams of the chicken wings at shay's* anyway, i'll be blogging through the week and at siggraph and my travelings. stay tuned.