Stuff I finished recently

Big catchall post.

I recently finished #100wikidays, a personal challenge in which you commit to write a new Wikipedia article every day for 100 consecutive days. I did all biographies, mostly women, as usual; looking over the list, there were only two that I’d even heard of before the day I wrote their article. (This is how I usually work; if I don’t previously know anything about the subject, then I can’t say anything about them without a source. It still helps to know something about their historical context, of course.)

There were at least a dozen African women (because I was also doing the Africa destubathon for part of the time); a couple of Cornishmen (because of the West Country Challenge–sensing a theme?); two blind organist/composers from Philadelphia; one mother-son pair of artists; a lot of North Carolinians (partly because the NCPedia is online, unlike a lot of state historical encyclopedias); a few Guggenheim fellows, and a bunch of US women active in the peace movement. I even wrote two of the articles in a hospital bed when I needed an emergency surgery for a kidney stone. Here’s my whole list of 100 new articles. It was fun and I’d recommend it.

I also, recently (as in today), finished my contributions for the Yarn Bombing Los Angeles installation “California Yarnscape”, which will happen at the Autry Museum in spring 2017. Here’s my crocheted “Sequoias”, inspired somewhat by 1930s WPA posters for the national parks:

Also, somehow, I made two Halloween costumes this year; my son’s was the more ambitious, a rolling tarantula of funfur and pantyhose and wire and so much duct tape…

Mine was four pretty easy pieces (but I love the elaborate hat); an alien priestess costume, based loosely on the Sisterhood of Karn in old Doctor Who.

Finally, look for Jake and me in this flashmob video made at Venice Beach last Sunday. You’ll need to look closely; I’m in a black hat and red dress; Jake’s in his blue Convaid chair. This was also a lot of fun to do.

“You couldn’t stand to spend a weekend there”

Consider this “My Appalling Birthplace:  Seventh in an Infinite Series.”

This clip is old, it’s from the campaign last fall.  But we actually saw it last Sunday on a rerun special.  We happened to be at the end of a WEEKEND IN SCRANTON, in horrible hot sticky weather, in a hotel room that smelled like old fried food was being stored under the beds.  When he says the line, “You couldn’t stand to spend a weekend there!” (when there’s about 5:45 left in the clip) well… it was a real highlight of our trip, to see the Scranton tirade IN Scranton.

Now it’s real

It wasn’t, not even close, when this spot was made….but it is now. Aaaaaaaaaaaah, I can finally unplug the pollster.com IV and stop worrying all the time.

Molly Ringwald!

I may dig out an old pink prom dress and cut my hair asymmetrically just to celebrate her appearance in this fine ad:

Azucar!

Today is the birthday of Cuban diva Celia Cruz (1925-2003).  In this vintage video, the bra looks ridiculously uncomfortable, but Celia is rocking that lamé dress….

Unofficial No on Prop 8 Ad

Bonus video this week–h/t to Ron Buckmire (first saw it on his blog).  I’ve added a No on Prop 8 button to my hat, and have two No on 8 signs in the yard.  Vote No on Prop 8.

Video: Ore Ska Band, “Hana no ska dance”

J-Ska, public transit, and candy–what more could you need?

[Video description:  Japanese all-girl ska band in video for Pocky candy.  The band members park their bikes, all wearing white shirts and black ties, and board a train, where they break out their instruments and start a party.  People of all ages are dancing and eating candy.  The video ends when the train comes to its next stop.]

Heather asked for this….

A polka-style version of The Office theme on accordion:

How about steel drums:

Or maybe you prefer marimba:

Let California Ring

Well, California’s seldom in play for the presidential race, so we don’t get too many of those ads, but they’re usually kinda boring anyway. What we get instead are ads about the statewide propositions, and they can be more interesting. We’re loving this one, against Prop 8:

Same-sex marriage is legal right now in California (yeah!), and the polling looks good for it to stay legal after November (double yeah!), because folks are more likely to vote No on propositions than Yes, all things being equal. But I’ve heard there’s a Yes on 8 yardsign campaign coming September 22, so we’re ahead of the game–our “No on Prop 8” sign is already in the front window.

[Update 9/28:  BWAHAHAHAHHAAAHAHAHA!]

In other political news, someone at school today asked “where did you get that cute Obama t-shirt you were wearing the other day?” Uh, I made it. She looked disappointed, she was hoping to get one for her mom, so I said to bring me two old t-shirts and I’ll make one for her too. Maybe I should throw a shirt-making party? (When I was looking up that link, I found this reverse-applique Obama tote, with tutorial–cool!)

Video: Promise and the Monster, “Sheets”

I have about 4000 songs on my iPod (not counting podcasts). They’re loosely organized into all kinds of playlists, but sometimes I just let all 4000 shuffle and run. I like the juxtapositions and the surprise. When I do that for long enough, I generally find a song or two that I don’t remember hearing before–something I probably picked up for free someplace like music.download.com, in a batch of “hmm, let’s see what this sounds like” tracks, and then never quite paid attention to it again. This was one of those lost songs, until yesterday. Now it’s haunting me, and I keep replaying it. The singer (Billie Lindahl) is Swedish, but the lyrics are in English. (Visual description: black-and-white, closeups of singer’s head interspersed with images of her walking downstairs, outside, and near an old building–there’s an effect that makes all the light tones smear in vertical bars. Partway through, the singer is dripped upon by something dark, like paint; she spreads the paint around her face like a mask.)