FPM: I Really Am Reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol

It's not just for show. I'm reminded again what a terrific writer Dickens is--at the level of the sentence, even. Who cares if A Christmas Carol has been done to death in a myriad of performing arts iterations. Who cares about the story's moral which you can see coming from a mile away. Reading it is a completely different experience.

I write this after hearing some disappointing news. I feel like I should be discreet, but recently I have been thwarted in my job search. It's not an easy time to be looking for any job, and it's even worse, I suspect, in my industry. I'm trying to be hopeful; I'm trying to not wish I weren't so old. It may be awhile before something I am qualified for comes around again. Sigh.

The first photo here shows a woman wearing a stretch sequined hat (under headphones), and tights with differently colored legs. Also, look really closely at her boots and you'll see stylized line drawings of cats! I love that. Other photos depict some weekend images from my community garden and just outside the garden.

Other than that, we were hit with a fantastic storm over the weekend, but not big enough in my opinion. I wanted to be completely shut in for days. I wanted the city shut down. I would have finished the Dickens by now.

As for the holidays, we will be here. We had tried in October to get tickets to Salt Lake City but some key flights were already sold out, and what was left was rather expensive. There are some siblings I will be missing terribly. And I'm trying to fight being sad on the day. I rather hate Christmas Day, much preferring the Eve.

What about you? What will you do? What will you wear? And I just don't ask this to ask this, but what have you been wearing?

FPM: Untitled

I sat next to this person who I at A.'s weekend work, and finally worked up the courage to ask her if I could photograph her. (It was particularly when I noticed her brown boots.) She was on her way to the WFMU record fair, and so it was fitting (pun kind of intended) that she was wearing this fabulous vintage coat. Or at least a coat with vintage styling. She's been in NYC 14 years by way of Dublin, and had her accent still clung to the edges of her words--I always enjoy the Irish accent. Anyway, my main regret is not asking her about what she wears. Next time. (AND I hope to do more of this kind of "up close and personal" street fashion reporting.)

I'm late this morning, so really quickly, the next photo I took on Saturday night while sitting in a dress rehearsal of Richard Foreman's new inscrutable play "starring" Willem Dafoe (at the Public Theater). Can you see him all tiny in my photo? Don't you just love him? Did anyone see that apparently excruciating Lars Von Trier film he's currently in? Do you consider Dafae an unwitting style icon? I know I think so.

The rest of the photos I think are from the Tompkins Square Park annual Dog Halloween Parade. My photos aren't great, but give you an idea of the spectacle. The little dog dressed as a scarecrow was surrounded by a bevy of photographers, all with big expensive cameras. I couldn't get her/him to turn my way.

I'm wearing something now that I'm going to change out of. But I will put back on my old/new refurbished boots. More on this next week.

Oh, also--I've been noticing people around the city wearing head-to-toe black. What about you?

FPM: You Can't Get It Here

It's kind of incredible that it took me over a week to collect all of these images, especially since I've been doing a lot of street fashion rubber necking. I've been slow on the shutter. The big news this week is that my sister Shelley is in town from Portland, and she's noticed a lot that my jaded eye seems to have missed, like the women who stroll down the sidewalk on a Saturday afternoon in high heels, something one would never see in Shelley's new town, Portland. More New York sartorial observations from Shelley include ugly '80s Bananarama pants, high heeled boot shoes.

What you can see here are two Shelley Turley vacation photos fromher widely advertised Meet 'n Greet in Tompkins Square Park on a Sunday evening that was enhanced by a refreshing sun shower. The dress she's wearing is from Pin Me Apparel on Mississippi Street in Portland, by the way. In other words, you can't get it here.

Photos here from MOMA, the lower east side, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the subway stairs, etc etc. Go see the James Ensor show at MOMA!

FPM: Forward!

I tried to photograph ensembles this week that were maybe a little fashion forward, as fall is approaching as much as I hate to admit that, and i feel like I should take that back because I am summering in a very traditional, old schoolish fashion on the edge of a lake in New Hampshire, which is really not my natural inclination. My natural inclination is to loll in urban grime, and so from New Hampshire, I'm giving you fashion which you may not see anywhere else but in very urban settings, at least not with the ubiquity I saw it this week. (Please examine the fashionably punkish, old schoolish tears in that young man's sport coat.)

I wish I could have photographed the middle-aged (like me) woman standing across from the New Museum. She wore two coordinating slip dresses--the top one she had hand painted with fluorescent slashes, and she wore shoes in lurid yellow.

Also, there's another stray photo in here from ALA. Speakng of which, I changed my status on informational forms I fill out from the decidely dowdy "unemployed' to the more fashionable term: "job seeker."

FPM: Librarian Fashion Live from ALA Chicago! [IN PROGRESS]

I'm really tired. Not sure what to say. ALA is really overwhelming, but I left yesterday really excited and inspired, which I guess is the point, although right now I can't remember what I did, saw, read or heard. Right now I'm in a Library Instruction Round Table event, and not loving it, but LIRT sounds kind of cool as a sub-org of ALA. I've been learning about all the ALA sub-orgs over the past few days. I know many librarians don't even belong to ALA and I'm still trying to decide what my level of involvement should be and if getting heavily involved will help me stand out in the job search. I really have no idea about this. Your thoughts?

Chicago is beautiful, astounding, and is my new secret boyfriend. I love the elevated trains, how industrial and textured they make the streets seem. I'm spending as much time as I can in the parks stretching along Michigan Avenue, like Grant Park which was the site of the '68 Democratic National Convention protests (where Abbie Hoffmann, et al was arrested).

In this collection, you'll see some outstanding librarian fashion. Neutral tones--black, grey, tan, etc.--seem to be prevail. The women in the first photo are teen librarians from Los Angeles who had put up a manga poster session. (I also learned what a poster session is at this conference.) You'll also see a photo of Elizabeth Crane, who I saw read (a zombie post-modern lit fiction story yesterday in the exhibition hall. A Chicago native, her latest book's published by Punk Planet. I wince a little writing this, as I became her superfan and embarrassed myself somewhat. :-) I also scored Lorrie Moore's latest novel this morning!

FPM: MY THOUSANDTH POST BLOW-OUT!!!!!!!!!! (Now with more exclamation points than Sarah Palin's resignation speech!!!!!!)

Yes, it's true. This is my THOUSANDTH POST. Are those tears? I started this blog a bit more than five years ago. And it has been something of varying importance to me, and it's taken far longer than I once thought to get to my thousandth post. ONE THOUSAND!

This past week has been full of activity and surprise. We took my Izzy up to sleepaway camp and I miss her terribly. On the way, we stumbled into the compound of our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge. Who knew he was the only US president born on the 4th of July. I didn't!

What else? We drove through Vermont, had awesome room temperature water at the food co-op, and several days later, A. and I went to a free rock show with a bunch of youngsters at the South Street Seaport. We saw Bachelorette and Here We Go Magic. A and I mostly sat on the boards of the pier and read things, but we very much enjoyed the music. Here's what I saw among the audience: leggings, vests, '80s layering, lace, boots with dresses, dresses with decorative belts (accent belts are big BIG!), beat up boots for summer, jumpers, leotards under skirts, '70s and vintage patterned skirts--knee length, wedged-heeled shoes of recent vintage.

Oh, speaking of vintage, you MUST go see the latest installation--Black Acid Co-op--at Deitch Projects on the corner of Grand and Wooster. The little "back to the land" paperback image here is from that piece which is really an entire compound the artists built in Deitch. One small piece of it replicates Drop City.

And there's one photo from Gourmet Garage wedged in here. This thousandth post is a mess, really.

And this thousandth post opens with scenes from a drawing studio we attended on the 4th of July. The entire family drew models in colonial wear in tableaus tailored for the holiday.

It closes with photos of this guy who dispenses advice in Union Square park. I do love his sign.

How many words begin and end with "th?"