Home Ec Project #16: Fabric Storage Cubby.

Gah, making this was terrible. It’s so much harder than it looks. I was using my brother’s digital camera while he was around to take pictures of all my projects, but now that he’s gone back to school in another country, I’m (as you can probably tell) going to have to learn how to be creative with my PhotoBooth until I can afford a digital cam of my own.

Poetry Baby.

I have become completely obsessed with these two videos… I’ve watched them several times a day for the past couple days. Poetry is wonderful, but somehow it sounds even more beautiful and profound coming out of the mouth of a three-year-old. I’m totally inspired by this little babe to start memorizing poetry, and I’ll probably encourage my future babies to do so as well.

Home Ec Project #15: Cushion Pillowcase with Piping.

Home Ec Project #14: Plushie Toy.

This little guy is supposed to be a bird. I tried to make bird legs but it just wasn’t happening, so now the little fella kind of resembles an alien-esque, pseudo-amorphous blob. Next time I’m going to make a dinosaur.

Home Ec Project #13: Jersey Wrap Skirt.

This is probably the first Home Ec project I’ve done that I haven’t been super jazzed about. I love jersey material (so soft!) and this was a pretty easy project, but these kinds of skirts just aren’t flattering on me. Oh well, I can make gifts out of them for other people!

Music Video Monday #19: Radiohead’s “No Surprises.”

Such a simple video, which despite the title, has lots of little surprises. Thom Yorke’s little smirk at the end is kind of unnerving, but this song is just so beautiful.

Happy Monday!

Home Ec Project #12: Resizing A Dress.

This is one of my favorite dresses, handed down to me by my mom. It fits great in the hips, but is pretty baggy in the waist (aka the story of my life), so I’ve always had to belt it when I wear it.

See what I mean? Ill-fitting shapeless blah. I look at this picture and I hear Pete Campbell from Mad Men saying “If you pull your waist in a little bit, you might look like a woman.”

But look at it now! It fits so perfectly and shows that I have curves. I am eternally grateful to the Home Ec ladies for teaching me how to do this; I have to buy so many articles of clothing that don’t fit me right because no one makes clothes for girls who are shaped like me. But now it doesn’t matter, because I can make the clothes adapt to me, instead of the other way around.

Book vs. Film: How To Tell A Story.

This may be common knowledge, but seems to be a general rule that movies based on novels are not any good. I can only think of one movie that did any sort of justice to the novel: Atonement. The rest I’ve seen, however, have been near blasphemous. I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo last week, and as soon as I finished it, I watched the film version and was so disappointed. I also went and saw Eat Pray Love on opening weekend (which I probably wouldn’t have done if a friend hadn’t wanted to see it, and definitely wouldn’t have done in hindsight), and though the book was only average, the movie was horrendous.

Why is it that movies based on novels are so awful, and take so many liberties with the original story? I think it mostly has to do with the difference between the two mediums of storytelling. Movies are meant to be watched in one sitting, which means that the entire story has to fit into the span of two hours, three hours at the very most, whereas books can be read in intervals over the course of several days, or several weeks even. Movies are targeted toward the mass public, whereas books are targeted toward a much smaller population of people who will actually put in the work to read it. In my experience, I can’t form an opinion about the value of the film until I’ve seen it through to the end, whereas I can tell pretty quickly whether or not I’ll like the book I’m reading.

I read a book a couple years ago about the making of the film The Bonfire of the Vanities, which was made in the early 90′s and based on a book by Tom Wolfe that was widely regarded as the quintessence of the 80′s. The film absolutely bombed, and before it was filmed, as Wolfe was signing away the rights to the story so that it could be made into a film, he was asked how he felt about the idea of his book being turned into a movie. He basically said that he didn’t care one way or the other, because even though the film was based on his book, it was still going to be it’s own artistic entity, and if it did poorly, it wouldn’t take anything away from his book.

I find this statement very interesting, and it’s something that I try to remember when I see movies that are based on books. It’s like everyone (myself included) wants the experience they had reading the book to be directly translated into film version. Which, if you think about it, is near impossible. There is so much interiority in novels that is really difficult to convey visually, and so much that seems to be of less importance has to be cut out because of time constraints. And the way I see it, there are some stories that are just meant to be told in a particular way. A book that is meant to be a book is not going to make a good movie, and vice versa. I mean, could you imagine if The Catcher in the Rye was a movie, or if Inception was a novel? It just wouldn’t have the same effect, wouldn’t have the same impact on people in an alternative form. I don’t think I could say that one medium is always better than the other, but I think I can say that one is better than the other in the context of how a story should be told.

Home Ec Project #11: Zippered Pencil Case.

Oh, zippers. It’s like they were specially created to make me frustrated and pull my hair out.

Death According To Sparks.

“Granny Green has gone,” said Miss Taylor.
“Ah yes, I noticed a stranger occupying her bed. Now what was Granny Green?”
“Arterio-sclerosis. It affected her heart in the end.”
“Yes, well, it is said we are all as old as our arteries. Did she make a good death?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were asleep at the time,” he said.
“No, I was awake. There was a certain amount of fuss.”
“She didn’t have a peaceful end?”
“No, not peaceful for us.”
“I always like to know,” he said, “whether a death is a good or bad one. Do keep a look out.”
For a moment she utterly hated him. “A good death,” she said, “doesn’t reside in the dignity of bearing but in the disposition of the soul.”
Suddenly he hated her. “Prove it,” he said.
“Disprove it,” she said wearily.
– Muriel Spark, Memento Mori