yes, it really happened

Amitabh Bachchan came to town for the red-carpet premiere of The Great Gatsby at Lincoln Center. Tickets were invitation only, but quite a few of his fans went to the red carpet to support him. I head that we made so much noise that the media initially thought DiCaprio had arrived. Some of the "EF" ("Extended Family," the fan group from his blog) arranged three meet-ups with him, and I was in one of the Saturday groups. It was only ten of us, sitting in a circle with him in a meeting room at the Carlyle (where he was staying). He spent about half an hour or forty-five minutes with us, mostly answering questions. Then everyone got pictures taken and autographs signed, and gave him all kinds of gifts. (I made him a turquoise bracelet, and an agate-and-carnelian necklace for Jaya, who was in the city but not at the meet.

It was nice to meet some of the other EF. Rochelle and I were the only white girls there, and most of the rest were men. Everyone was quite lovely. Some had traveled from Atlanta, Rhode Island, Florida.

Amitabh was quite friendly and pleasant. It didn't occur to me until later, though, that he didn't ask anyone about themselves. I think he truly loves his fans but in an abstract way; he requires the ego boost, but has no intention of having particular friends among the fans. There are some he recognizes and knows of, those who comment on the blog and tweet with him every day. I've been somewhat absent over the past months, but quite a few of the EF knew who I was. I don't believe there are any other "Jennifers" in the crowd, and I certainly don't look like any of the others. He did pause in his recent blogs to say how much he appreciated seeing us all. We're a mirror where he sees what he likes. Still, it was no small thing to have met him, and it was nice that he created a relaxed atmosphere. Most of us were quite nervous beforehand.

The rest of my life goes well, busy. I passed two years at my job and got a nice raise. I'm traveling a little this month - to Jannah's over Memorial Day weekend, and the weekend after, to Philadelphia to see a staged reading of a play my father wrote. My uncle arranged the whole Philly thing, and is paying for our train fare and hotel. Joyce and Joe are also coming, which is really nice.

It turns out that one of the EF, Nimmi, lives in Yardley, so we'll keep a lookout for each other at the Memorial Day parade, although Jannah is not fond of Indian women. (She says all of their husbands beat them, and they permit it. She has certain views that I do not share, to say the least.)

It's going to be nice to get away. And I'm taking vacation the first week in July, just to have a break, and to take advantage of July 4 - one week's vacation for only four vacation days.

The bad news is that I have another bad trigger finger, and am seeing the doctor on Wednesday. The treatment for the thumb and pinky is usually a cortisone shot (which worked well on my pinky), but this one is a middle finger and I'm afraid it may require surgery. Bummer. I'm drawing a blank on any pain associated with the last surgery, but I sure do remember wearing the little brace and going for six weeks of OT (occupational therapy).

I've been back at making jewelry of late - had some repairs to do, and a few commissions, and I'm starting to gear up for the November crafts fair. The last one was so successful that we're doing it again.I gave myself six months last year, and the same this year. I had pretty much laid off for a few months after the holidays, but I'm really enjoying it again, although keeping wire and headpins stocked is tricky.I can easily use 60 headpins in a "fringe" necklace, so buying 100 doesn't even last two projects. I'm using only silver-filled pins now, and moving to silver-filled wire. I want to stay with sterling clasps as much as possible but am looking into filled and plated as well. Even though I'm charging healthy prices ($75 each for the two fringe necklaces I'm making), the cost of silver is pretty frightening. Even with the silver-filled wire, I'm measuring the pieces I cut, rather than just eyeballing them. Fortunately, I still have a LOT of beads, and a decent stock of earwires. I'm also using a little more gold-filled, since I have some sitting around and it's a nice look for earrings. Chain is a problem because there just isn't a lot of nice silver-filled chain around. I bought a foot-and-a-half of sterling chain for $23 some months back, and I'm totally hoarding it. The days of lavish silver chain-based bracelets and necklaces are a dim memory. I do still have plenty of shorter bits of silver chain for earrings, and I'll just have to wait for better silver-filled chain to come along.

That nice piece of sterling chain will probably become a necklace, dripping with some larimar nuggets I changed to find at a very good price. Larimar is obscenely expensive. I have a couple dozen faceted larimar beads I've been holding on to for dear life. I own a very few pieces myself: a small cab in a silver bracelet I bought in St. Croix in the 90s; a big pendant given to me by an old boyfriend in the 80s (he has family in the Dominican Republic, which is the only place larimar is found). And I have a pair of big heart-shaped stud earrings that my stepmother was nice enough to bring me from the Caribbean when she and my dad were on a cruise.

Well, the bad finger is nagging me, so it's time to relax a bit. I worked until eight tonight, so I'll have to finish the second necklace tomorrow night (it only needs about an hour). I was planning to ask the hand doctor to try cortisone, but I'm starting to think it's going to be surgery. The finger aches all the way down to my palm.

still somewhat short on time

The TV is now 100% hooked up. We get the best possible quality from our Verizon box (and can watch 3D movies on demand), we're connected to the internet by wi-fi so we can watch Netflix, and we're wired into the computer so we can watch DVDs from the computer's player, movies from my hard drive, and pretty much anything else you can put on the computer. Saturday we watched "A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas" (pretty funny) and "Django Unchained" (excellent). Please don't ask me how I managed to watch "Django" at home. Suffice it to say that a lot of awards screeners are floating around the internet, and one floated onto my computer.

Other than that, I've been eating up back episodes of Nip/Tuck on Netflix. Such a great soap opera with nifty guest stars. Now I dream about handsome plastic surgeons instead of "Dexter."

As I walk around with my great new phone, I'm figuring out what's most useful to me and what I like best. I text with a few people, though I'm still one-fingering the keyboard. What I'm really loving right now, apart from being able to take and send pictures, is bringing the phone with me at bedtime and listening to Pandora. Pandora is a music-streaming service that will create a channel around an artist you suggest (in addition to having standard category channels like Delta Blues, 50's Blues, 50's Oldies, 80's Oldies, Bollywood Oldies, etc). So I have Roy Orbison Radio and Lyle Lovett Radio and Adnan Sami Radio. But my current favorite at bedtime is Django Reinhardt Radio. (It remains to be seen if Barry will tolerate that one, since he's a real jazz-hater.)

I'm going away this weekend to visit my aunt Joyce (my uncle Howard's first wife) in the Poconos. I haven't seen her since my wedding, 12 years ago. She's only about seven years older than I am, around Barry's age, so we've always been pals. (I also adore my uncle's second wife, who recently brought me a mess of Venetian glass beads from...well, from Venice.) I'm somehow not as anxious as I usually am when traveling, which seems like a good thing. I'm looking forward to getting caught up with her, to being out of the city, and to being in the Poconos - I was last there about 15 years ago, just a couple of months before I met Barry.

I'm into bracelets lately, knotted on silk. The top one is white keshi pearls, which I'm keeping for myself and wearing right now. The 4th, 5th and 6th down from the top were given away as holiday gifts (they are grey "dot" pearls, tan pearls with vintage Swarovski crystal, and Peruvian pink opal). The amber (bottom) is going to be remade as a double strand, to order. I'm still hoping to start on Etsy around the end of the month.

too much to do, not nearly enough time

My crafts fair success, plus the fact that a first-rate photographer has offered to photograph my work, means I'm going to open an Etsy store. I was going to set up my own website, but started poking around online to find out about web hosting and web hosting software, and felt like I was drowning. Etsy is much easier, to start. Eventually, I want to sell OAK (one of a kind) items at Etsy, and have a website with my basic designs which people can custom-order in different stones and lengths.

But I have to make quite a bit of new jewelry, since I sold a lot of my best pieces at the crafts fair and after. Also have to make holiday gifts for Judy and Lucie.

Also - someone planted the idea of reselling beads in my head. My idea here is to do it on Ebay, to specialize in fancy cuts and hard-to-find stones. I've been checking Indian bead websites, and there's some pretty eye-popping stuff that can be broken down into smaller lots and sold at a profit. I think I'll start my selling some of my own overstock - I have a bunch of big rhodochrosite tabs and have never figured out what to do with them. And since I got a very generous bonus from work, I have some seed money for starting to buy from overseas.

And I'm also getting closer to knuckling down and writing the novel that's been floating in my head for a few years. My problem with writing a novel is to come up with a plot which is not too embarassingly close to my own life. I've been floating an idea with a couple of characters based on people I've known (and one kind of like me), but a plot very dissimilar to my actual connections with those people I've known.

One of the people I plan to borrow from is W., and I don't think I've ever discussed him here, and that will take another chunk of time, when I get around to it.

I'm madly excited about getting service on my new phone on Saturday, I've already started to enter some contacts. I'm just happy every time I turn it on, and look forward to being a textin' fool, getting a cool ringtone, taking pictures, and so on. (I'm going to try to do the bead photography on my own.)

I recently read an amazing book, Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, and recommend it wholeheartedly. I wish I still had that Amazon widget or could figure out how to get it back. I'm definitely confused with all aspects of "monetizing" my blog, although I guess I do have some ads on here. I doubt I've made a dime, but that's not what I'm here for.

glad news

The last post was supposed to be sad news and glad news, but I ran out of time or energy or something.

So here's the glad news: the crafts fair was monstrously successful, both for the school and for me personally. I sold way more jewelry at than I ever had before in a single day, and made a big pile of money. Almost everything I sell is sold to friends, so it's always at a low-end price. But at the fair, I sold at a more real price - more than I would ask from Robin or Jannah, but a price that was still a decent bargain for handmade.

Of course, most of the buyers were faculty and candidates with whom I've been friendly, who have seen some of my work on me for a year and a half. But I actually tend to wear more staid examples of my work, except for earrings. (I often tell people that the reason I began making jewelry is that I could never ever afford to buy all the earrings I want. And that's somewhat true. Plus I always have the luxury of special jewelry for special occasions, often something made for a particular occasion or outfit.) The point is that a lot of people showed up with the firm intention of buying something from me, and I think some of them were surprised by how much they ended up buying. (Luckily, we accepted checks and credit cards.) Judy also decided to continue selling some items out of the office until the end of the term, and I've sold about half again as much since the fair.

It was also a successful day as far as my job; I was co-chair of the event, and Judy was good enough to mention that it raised more than the last two fundraisers combined. My measure of the success is that we're doing it again next year.

I kept 60% and gave 40% to the school, and even so, I made a pretty good sum of money. And now it's nearly all spent. I was of course thinking about what to do with my money before the fair, depending on what I earned. I actually managed to buy pretty much everything I wanted:

A Galaxy Lightray (Galaxy ii) smartphone. A 32" Vizio TV. A pair of jeans and some undies for Barry. Jewelry supplies: 25 feet of wire in three gauges. Headpins in two gauges. Five hook clasps. A string of jade beads, two of lapis, one of baroque pearls. Three different gauges of beading wire (in additional to the metal wire).

I'm waiting on an auction for some black Morrocan cotton pants, and if I win those, I'm also buying a tunic that goes well with black. (If I don't win the pants, I'll probably buy the tunic anyway and wear it with my grey pants, and spend the rest on some good cologne.)

It's a very mixed feeling, being able to buy so much stuff that I've wanted and needed, but also seeing so much money disappear so fast. When the idea of the fair was first floated, all I really thought about was being able to replenish my supplies. As it ramped up, I was hoping to be able to buy the TV and maybe a lesser-model smartphone.

I ended up with the exact TV I wanted, within a reasonable price range (under $400), and ending up with a Galaxy ii rather than a Galaxy iii was not such a big deal. (Especially since I bought it slightly used, at $160 below retail.) I figured, with the TV and phone, that I didn't want to outgrow the tech in a hurry. The TV can stream from the computer wirelessly, and can even do 3D. I did a lot of homework on both.

Now, the phone has a pretty good camera with flash, and if I can get get reasonable photos of my jewelry, I'll set up a website or Etsy store pronto. I suppose the fair has also increased my confidence, and all of the new pieces I made for the fair have given me a pretty good appetite for the work.

I made the decision to try to move to using some silver-filled materials rather than sterling. Silver-filled is coated with sterling, and the coating is 500 times thicker than silver-plate. Silver-filled basically looks and behaves exactly like sterling, and costs what sterling did five years ago. I don't like working without a good stash of materials; I absolutely hate being in the middle of making something and running out of chain or wire, or having to change a design because I don't have what I really want. It's much better to have the luxury of all materials at hand than to have to be miserly because of the price of sterling. For now, I still intend to use all sterling clasps. I'll use sterling where it makes a difference. But it's too expensive to use sterling exclusively.

I've always used gold-filled, when I work with gold. For one thing, gold wire is way too soft to use for most of what I do; even 10K is mushy. Gold clasps are just plain ridiculously expensive, except for the occasional small lobster-claw or box clasp for pearls. I use vermeil clasps when I can (silver heavily plated with 22K gold). But I really prefer silver for the kind of work I do. I don't wear that much gold myself.

It seems I have a lot of cheerleaders and support when it comes to making jewelry. I've never done that well with consignment, but I sell pretty well in person. And I'm finally carving out something of a visual profile, a handful of styles I repeat with variations on details like size and stones, that has my fingerprint. That's taken a long time, given that I'm self-taught and have experimented pretty widely. It's kind of a big thing for me. It's like handwriting. It's like the way all Stephen Dweck pieces look like Stephen Dweck, the way you can always tell an Elsa Peretti or a Chan Luu.

The fact that I make most of what I wear has cut down considerable on my lust to buy other jewelry.

Rings excepted; I can't make the kind of rings I want to wear. Over the years, I've bought two rings that I consider really good and valuable, including The Ring That Waited For Me.

I used to work a couple of blocks from an antique jewelry store with a very friendly owner, who would spend a lot of time with me and let me try on anything without being the least bit huffy if I didn't buy, which was most of the time. And to backtrack a bit - for a lot of my life, I thought that men should be buying me good jewelry, with no prompting, which meant that I had very little good jewelry. (Having boyfriends who weren't too well-off didn't help.) But after I got clean and sober, I realized that I could get myself gifts - and since I was no longer putting a lot of money up my nose, I could afford to do so. I bought a lot of reasonable rings, silver and garnet or silver and amethyst, and lots and lots of baseball cards. (I think I've mentioned that I have the collecting gene.) Then I upgraded a bit and bought a white gold art deco rung with a big amethyst (though a light one), at the aforementioned store. Then I traded up a little, swapped the ring and more cash for a gold, peridot and amethyst ring (better amethyst this time).

But I was in love with a ring in the window that cost about three times as much as the then-current ring. It was also deco, yellow gold with red enamel and three rose-cut diamonds. It always reminded me a little of a cigar band. It was right there in the window. I visited it often. I tried it on. I'm not sure if I remember this correctly, but it stayed in the window for eight years; it may have been five years, but no less than that. It just waited and waited. So I finally turned in the peridot and amethyst ring, and started paying around $20 a week toward the new ring. It took me about a year, including a payment of $100 provided by a then-close friend for my birthday. I've had it for nearly 20 years now.

I also made a more impulsive, less costly buy at the same store not long after, almost equally beautiful and a lot more rare: a small tsavorite garnet in gold. A tsavorite is a green garnet that looks exactly like an unaffordably good emerald. They're rare and only found in one place on earth, and they're usually small. They're also a lot sturdier than emeralds. Emeralds can chip, as easily as opals can, but garnets are good and hard. I don't know the weight of the stone in my ring, but it's about the size of a 1/4 carat diamond. The photo in this article is about the same color as mine; like amethysts, the darker ones are better, and mine is an excellent color. A lot of them look like peridots, so what's the point?

A note: a lot of jewelers sell pale amethysts as "rose amethyst," but that's kind of horseshit to me. An amethyst is just quartz; the color makes it an amethyst, and the color you're looking for is purple. Yellow quartz is citrine; you wouldn't call it "yellow amethyst." (This is different from stones like diamonds; even the color variants are still diamonds, and often rare and desirable. Tourmaline is most often seen in pink or green, but there is blue tourmaline and red tourmaline...I do kind of call bullshit on black tourmaline, which doesn't do much for me. Sapphires, also, are most commonly seen in blue but come in a lot of colors. Most of the topaz you see is blue, and heat-treated to get that color. Really, natural yellow-orange topaz is called imperial topaz, and that's the good stuff. I have a killer pair of topaz earrings that belonged to my mother. Even good citrine doesn't come close, in my opinion.)

Anyway, enough yakking about rocks. I clearly have rocks in my head - and a hobby that's stuck for longer than any of the others.

...and then there was a hurricane

What lifted the burnout was some serious jewelry-making time. Making that shift from verbal to visual language readjusts me drastically. And if I keep at it, amazing things start to happen.

Usually, I have about half a dozen designs in mind at any given time. When I first sit down to work, I almost always start with one of them. And maybe three or four of those ideas actually get made (some more successfully than others), I start to get better ideas as I make those first couple of pieces, and once in a while, something totally unexpected gets created. Last night, from out of nowhere, I made a big amethyst necklace, with some faceted black labradorite (leftover stones with no glow, but a beautifully faceted black oval nonetheless). Have to remake it though: the crimp didn't hold. I think I have to redo it on strong thread with clamshells or knot cups, and I really want to do it before Saturday. But weeknights are so sucky for for doing jewelry. Not much time, and tired time at that.

One necklace that was planned and amazing was a choker of huge, very clear blue apatite chunks knotted on blue silk, with an elongated toggle. (I found a treasure trove of old forgotten necklaces recently, and took the clasps off almost every one of them, giving me once again a decent selection of good-sized toggles and s-clasps.) I rarely make chokers because I don't wear them. Most of the jewelry I make is something I would and could wear myself, even when I'm not making it for myself. I made three chokers by request for the Village Scandal (more on that later), and there was nothing else to be done with 15" of outrageous stones that had to be knotted and could not share a necklace with any other stone. (Apatite is quite soft and needs to be knotted.) It is the most spectacular necklace, and one I would surely wear.

I still haven't made the necklace I want to wear to the Crafts Fair. Which is Saturday. Plus I have things to schlep to work like a brand-new earring carousel and gift boxes. I decided to buy the carousel when I realized that my space will be limited, and I had a whole passel of old, simple earrings that I wanted to sell at $10, 3 for $25. So they go on the carousel. I have three little one-pair earring stands for a few fancier pair of earrings, and two busts for the two best necklaces.

There was a hurricane last week. Enough parts of New York City got clobbered so that Barry and I were both home for a week. I did a little work from home, and all kind of work things had to be canceled and postponed and pushed back. So it's the same hellish crush that the rest of the fall term was going to be, but with a week less to get everything done. And the crafts fair is coming up on us fast.

We were lucky in that we did not lose power or have flood conditions in our neighborhood. Lower Manhattan lost power for days, Staten Island got clobbered, and so did Coney Island and the Rockaways. I'm still a little too dazed to register it. Most of the people I know had some power loss or no problems at all. But I'm hearing that at least 20,000 people need shelter (some have intact homes but no heat), and it's horrifying. Obama and Romney are in a dead heat the day before the election, and that's horrifying too. I feel like I'm moving by remote control...I'm functioning but deadened. And feeling kind of cut off from people.

The Village Scandal has had three chokers (made at the owner's request) and two pair of earrings on consignment for six months. I have been trying to contact the owner for two months to get my money or my goods. She doesn't answer voice mails to the store (and no one ever answers the store phone), her cell phone has no voice mail, she's never there when I go to the store, and doesn't respond to messages I leave there. Last time I was there, I took a good look, and the chokers are in her showcase, but I don't know where the earrings are. I would like to show those pieces on Saturday. But then there was a hurricane. I'm going to have to try to stop down there this week; maybe I can catch her on a lunch hour.I'm seriously pissed off, which is how consignment deals so often end.

I'm very scattered, I guess, and I'm glad to have my routine back even if it is horrendously busy.

you asked for it: jewelry pix

Lapis, azurite-malachite, kyanite, rhodochrosite, Thai silver clasp.

Sleeping beauty turquoise. Fine American turquoise is named for the mine where it was found. Sleeping beauty has no veining and a very beautiful color.

Three kinds of jasper, bullseye agate, silver beads. I made the clasp myself.

I may have mentioned that until puberty, I was a big science nerd, and it became somewhat reawakened when I began making jewelry. I always wanted to know exactly what materials I was using, and I've become pretty familiar with semi-precious stones.

(Though I must admit, I can never remember the names of all of the jaspers I've used. In the past several years, a lot more types of jasper have turned up, with a lot of different names. I've bought some where neither I nor anyone in the store knew the name. I'm familiar with most of the usual suspects: poppy jasper, brecciated jasper, Indian jasper - also called "fancy jasper" - ocean jasper - found only in Madesgascar - and so on. So a certain level of geology has followed and developed with jewelry-making. In fact, when I used to spend a lot of time at bead stores in the city, there was only one guy in one store who knew stones better than I did. The jasper thing was a huge pain in the ass when I worked at Dweck - Stephen would pick up some odd jasper in the bead room and design with it, then ask me to source it...and neither of us knew the name of it. I'd sometimes have to take a bead to a wholesale bead shop and try to match it.)

I just bought myself some colored aluminum wire, which is pretty thick and soft, and I'm going to see what I can do with it. It's just too fucking expensive to work entirely in sterling silver any more. A nice toggle clasp that used to cost $4-6 is now $10-12 or more. I'm going to have to make more of my own clasps. Any tiny bit of money I have to spend now on supplies goes to silver headpins and wire. I've been cannibalizing older necklaces for the clasps. Luckily, I have a decent stash of earring hooks and a ridiculous stash of beads and pearls and Swarovski crystal. I used to find crystal too loud and obvious compared to natural stone, but started to use it a few years ago...I'm kind of a sucker for the colors. I've even managed here and there to mix a little in with stone.

These pictures are all items I've made for the crafts fair coming up - have I mentioned that I'm co-chairing a fundraising crafts fair at work next month? I have about ten other people making knits, pottery, paintings, gift cards, etc. Each crafter is giving part or all of the sales to PPSC. I actually started making my goods in July, just in case I started having finger problems. I'm digging out some really nice beads from my hoard, so I can charge at the high end of my price range. I'm keeping 60%.

The entire crafts fair came put of an idea of Judy's, to help me make some money. I'd given her earrings for the holidays and a necklace for her birthday, and she asked me one day if I ever sell my jewelry. She proposed that I do a fundraising sale with my jewelry, which the Board expanded into a crafts fair. Because fundraising is starved for committee members, Judy and I ended up co-chairing it. It's the most responsibility I've had in fundraising, although I do the lion's share of writing the twice-annual fundraising letter.

I've been keeping a particular eye on the jewelry worn by the faculty, in particular, and there's a real taste for natural stones and ethnic-looking jewelry; it's exactly the customer base for my stone jewelry, at healthy prices. It looks like my center pieces are two Y-necklaces: one in gold rutilated quartz, and one in cape amethyst. Most of the materials in the pieces pictured are fairly premium stones, except for the jasper/agate (although I don't often make double-strands).

For the past few months, I've pretty much made two pieces of jewelry each weekend. I had a bunch of fairly simple stuff (earrings in particular) that I'll sell relatively cheaply, and I'm making fancier stuff for higher prices. I'm still trying to figure out prices. I want things to fetch a good price, but I don't want to ask so much that it won't sell well. I'm going to sell the simple earrings at $10, $25 for three, which will get the bargain shoppers, but I want some of the fancier necklaces to go to $150 or a little more.

Must leave the computer...my neck is hurting today.

the queen of anxiety

These past few weeks have just been killing me. Students and faculty are back, school is pretty much in session, and I am being crushed by work. This is the time of year when I come in and find 25 or 30 emails waiting for me, some of which I answer right off the bat, others requiring a posting on a to-do list that often has nine or ten items. Then add in the almost constant worry about money. I just have a lot of days when I'm very anxious and a lot of nights where I'm something of a vegetable. I just don't feel like doing much at all.

I did recently watch "Marley," the documentary about Bob Marley, and found it quite wonderful.

I haven't had much to say about old Amitabh lately. The truth is that I'm finding him to be rather pompous, with a lot of rich-guy problems, very insecure and needful of constant praise. And some of the other fans just lather it on way too strong, and I'm talking about straight men, here. The whole thing has gotten a little icky for me, though I still do love his movies.

I've pretty much planned out the necklace I'm going to make from Raghu's popped guitar string. The center bead will be an Indian bead, coral, self-capped with silver which has small coral and turquoise cabs inset. It's actually the first bead I ever bought, before I started making jewelry. I saw it in an Indian store and had to have it. The rest will be chips of green American turquoise I've been hoarding for about 5 or 6 years. And I have some silver-colored ethnic-looking spacers. I've been concerned about the closure because of the nature of the wire, but I'm going to try a loop and button. I have an extremely pretty pearl shank button, about 28 mm, round, and I'll make a loop from the actual wire. My plan is to use a crimp bead and then wrap around it with gold-filled wire for a good hold. Let's see if that works. Then I promise to get a picture taken, somehow.

Saw Tamsir the other day for the first time in eons, maybe since January. He came to the office and fixed something, took a couple of laptops home to work on. Love to hang out with him. Tamsir, if you ever have the time to read this blog again - I love to hang out and talk with you!

jewelry

I have started getting ready for the Holiday Crafts Fair at my job, which is November 10.  (Judy kind of put it together around me and my jewelry, and I'm co-chair of the committee). It's a fundraiser, so I'll split my intake with the school. I figured I'd start early so I'd have a good number of excellent new pieces.

I have been looking at the jewelry on the female faculty and board members very closely. So I know my audience. "Earthy" is fine, but not too crazy and fairly elegant. As it's a fundraiser, and as materials prices have gone sky-high, and as this particular audience has money, I'll be charging as much as I can get away with, so everything has to look just right. For instance, I'm going to have to restring a necklace I made after me because I can't stop thinking about two sets of beads that should have gone on in the opposite order.

I'm reusing some of my old designs, coming up with others, and taking inspiration from jewelry I see. I'm also kicking out all the stops with my materials, and breaking out some of the higher-end stuff I've been hoarding for years: some big faceted apatite, peach pearls, gold-thread quartz, shaded faceted hessionite (garnet that runs from maize to root-beer brown), some big faceted Oregon sunstone, some handmade Venetian beads, and so on.

When I talk about "my old designs,' they're pretty much in my head. I have names for some of them. Some of the ones that didn't work aren't active in my mind, though I'm sure I have a few examples around. I didn't invent the Y-necklace but I've made quite a few (in fact, that's what the round - not sure if they're 8- or 10 mm - gold-thread quartz is becoming, on gold-filled wire with a vermeil clasp; I have a big piece of irregularly faceted gold-thread quartz for the first drop).

I've "invented" designs and later seen similar techniques in beading magazine. On the other hand, I sometimes see a design in a beading magazine and give it a try, though never with the same beads and often altered. I would say I learn technique from those magazines, rather than cribbing their designs.

I have acres of beads; the materials that get used up are headpins, wire, chain, and clasps (what you'd call, collectively, "findings"). They are getting outrageous in sterling, which is mostly what I use. I've been compromising by using silver-filled headpins. Headpins don't really show, and I use dozens of them in some of my designs. One earring I make uses around 28 or 30 headpins for the pair, and silver headpins now cost around a buck apiece. ("Silver-filled," like "gold-filled," is a much finer product than plated. About 10% of the item- the entire exterior, of course - is gold or silver.)

It's kind of exciting to be immersed in it again, and I actually have about six projects lined up. (I actually wrote them down.) I dearly wish I had some money just to buy a few new beads...even one good string of tourmaline.

If I make enough money at this shindig, maybe I can put of it back into materials.

But it's very energizing and consumes me in a way that nothing else does. I never look at the clock before I start, because I'm too busy getting myself to the table and getting my materials in order. So I'm never sure how long I work at a time. I think it's usually about two hours at a time but sometimes three, and sometimes I'll do two sittings in a day. Most other things pretty much go away.

the insomniac ramble

It's almost one-thirty am. I went to bed at midnight. Cannot sleep. I had a lot of trouble with insomnia and sleep disturbances right after I got sober (nearly 26 years ago), but I've basically had it licked via (safe) prescribed meds. One of them, an antidepressant with the side effect of sleepiness, is the one that permits me to stay asleep through the night once I've fallen asleep. That's the lifesaver. If my mind is so busy that I will have trouble falling asleep, I add a (safe) prescribed anti-anxiety med. Nothing worked tonight,and I am following one of the anti-insomnia rules of getting out of bed.

I did have a busy mind, but the med did not put a dent in it. I sort of mentally narrate to myself some events of my life that I feel the need to revisit. I'm not sure if these narrations are writing (though some of the topics will subsequently turn up in this blog or something else I write) or imaginary therapy sessions (would that I could go more than once a week!).

Oh, hello, some of my newer friends...did I mention that I'm in therapy and suffer from depression and occasional anxiety? I wonder if the boom in treating mood disorders in the US isn't somehow related to the increasing complexity of life here. It's kind of what it's like when I spend a weekend in Pennsylvania and then come back to New York - it's a lot of effort to live here, pretty hard work. You always have that near-unconscious routine of noting suspicious or oddly acting people, handling cash discreetly when you're in public, and so on. It eats up quite a lot of energy, negotiating a crowded sidewalk. It's actually pretty calm where I live, but when I get off that train and them am launched into Penn Station (which is built under Madison Square Garden making things even more hectic), then a block of midtown street, then the subway. And a lot of people outside NYC have cars and their own houses, which also brings oodles of stress and bad financial surprises.

Our parents kick us out of the nest as soon as possible, so we don't have the support of mother, siblings, grandmothers on a daily basis. I admire the way Indian families live. (The Chinese also keep the generations close.) My remaining parents (father and stepmother) are very remote, not welcoming and generous. My mother was the exact opposite, but she died when I was 22; and my stepfather had no intention of complying with her wishes, so there was no more emotional support, no "home" to go back to, and not even the security of a few extra dollars.

My father has been so adverse to spending an extra dime on my brother and me that he actually makes excuses when he and my stepmother do things like go to Bermuda for a week. I guess the idea is that if we know he has enough money for a vacation, HE SHOULD GIVE US SOME. So he'll say things like, "You know, we booked this three months ago and got a very good deal, and we haven't gotten away in a year, and some friends of ours are going to be there..." C'mon, just say "We're going on vacation." I promise not to ask you to buy me something or take me along.

Actually, I did sort of do it recently. They were going on a Caribbean cruise, and I asked them if they could pick me up some larimar stud earrings set in silver, if they were not insanely expensive. Larimar, which is a little whiter than turquoise and has chatoyance (cat's-eye quality), is only found in the Dominican Republic, and is hard to find and pricey over here. I really did stress that the cost might be too high and they should only get something very reasonable. (I was thinking about something dead simple, like studs in a 3 or 4mm round cab, or similarly small in an oval, in a plain silver bezel, period.) What they came back with were BIG heart-shaped studs, really substantial pieces of larimar, and a story. They found the earrings in the very last store on the very last island on the very last day; they had a hard time finding any anywhere. But this store didn't take credit, so they had to scrape every last cent out of their pockets to buy them. This was a rare act of real generosity, and I think Mary really drove it.

My relationship with Mary has improved immeasurably, believe it or not, because of the internet. She speaks in a kind of acerbic, non-warm ways; so when she makes a joke about something I've mentioned, it always seems as if she's making fun of me in a mean way. She just has that affect. But when she and I started emailing, she was extremely nice, and I started to see her as truly affectionate and sweet. I think I finally became 100 percent sure that she didn't dislike or resent me in some way, after 30-plus years.

And back to jewelry...I have two other pieces of larimar. One is a big old pendant, roughly pear-shaped, that was given to me by an old boyfriend who had family in the DR. The second is a silver wire bracelet with a small oval cab near the clasp (it's a design called the "Cruixian Hook," with a hook clasp worn on top). I bought that in St. Croix in 1995. I also have about 40 larimar beads (faceted rondells, 4mm I think), which I've been hoarding for years. (There are some beads I sit on for years, waiting until I think of a design that does them justice. Some beads just demand it.)

I actually started working on a pretty elaborate pair of earrings today, the first piece for the crafts fair in November, but I ran out of thin enough headpins. I had more headpins, but they were a thicker gauge and wouldn't go through the stones I was using. I almost never let this happen, and it's really frustrating.I'm going to have to go back to them and get myself to that same level of concentration and careful work. I'm capable of working fast, but these pieces will have pretty healthy price tags, and they've got to be just right and not sloppy in any way. The price of silver has become murderous, so I always dread running out of headpins, wire, clasps, earring hooks, and so on. (I've actually broken up some old pieces to reuse the clasp.)

One of these days, I will come up with some way to photograph my jewelry properly. Or have someone else do it.

I think I'm gonna try bed again. Good night, and thanks for keeping me company.

lyrics and nail polish

And before lyrics and nail polish: due to yet another trigger finger, my blogging may be somewhat limited until I can have something done for it. I had one treated maybe eight months ago or so, and I seem to have two more, although one is much worse. I had something called a percutaneous trigger finger release and physical therapy last time, but maybe I can just get a shot of steroid for this one. It's hurting a lot, and I really don't want my hand laid up for as long as it was last time. I'm seeing my primary doctor on Monday.

V. used to say that he could never consider a song to be good if he didn't like the lyrics as well as the music. I think I've decided to disagree. The sung party of a song has its own rhythm and (often) melody line that can be quite lovely even if the lyrics are ordinary...or even, say, in a foreign language one doesn't understand (see what I'm doing, here?). So I'm breaking with V. on that one.

Even though I gave up being a big slob a couple of years ago, and pay a lot of attention to my clothes, accessories, makeup, etc., I am WAY far from being a follower of fashion. Can't wear and don't like most of it. On the other hand, I do seem to be oddly tuned-in to color and style. And somehow, even though I've had ugly, plain, picked-at nails for most of my life, now that my nails are neat and polished, I have somehow plugged into the nail color cycle. All of a sudden, I'll start thinking about a color I must wear, and then I realize that women all around are starting to wear the exact same color. This changes two or three times a month. Today I put on a slightly greyish light blue, like a stormy sky, and it is just perfect. Orange was perfect last week, and a light mint-green the week before. I still have a sort of shamrock green on my toes. So glad it's spring.

My jewelry color sense is still somewhat hooked to the seasons, but I'm going to have to wait and see when I can start making jewelry again, because my hands are not up to it now. Sigh.

Satte Pe Satta, jewelry, whatever else I think of

I started watching Satte Pe Satta last night...I can rarely watch a whole Indian movie at one sitting during the week. (Indian people: these movies are considered quite long compared to US movies, which are generally 1-1/2 to 2 hours.) This is an Indian remake of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and so far, it translates beautifully. Kishore Kumar sings for Amitabh, and Amitabh is very, very funny. I may have said this before, but as concerns his early movies, I think I like the funny ones better than the "Angry Young Man" ones.

I finally spoke to Wendy at The Village Scandal a couple of days ago, and she said that she would like to hang on to my jewelry, that there's been some interest but that they are too long for most of her customers. (The necklaces are 16-17".) So I went down yesterday and brought her a 15" necklace I had made in the same style, and offered to shorten the others over the weekend. So I took the other two necklaces home. She sounds quite optimistic about being able to sell them, which is pretty exciting.

Did I mention that I volunteered to work at the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island this year? They contacted me recently, and it looks like I'll be selling merch in a booth, which is perfect for me. Not only am I good at that kind of thing, but it means I won't be standing out in the sun all day (and it's been extremely hot and sunny every time I've been there). And I believe I will get a Mermaid Parade Volunteer tee shirt, and how cool is that? (Although I don't wear them very much any more, I adore tee shirts, and often can't afford the ones I want, which is why I don't have a single one from the Mermaid Parade. When I did music reviews, I used to beg shamelessly for tee shirts. I still have a Michael Hurley one from 1994 that I very rarely wear, so it's still in excellent shape.)

delinquent blogger

Haven't posted in over a week...brought to my attention by a faithful reader. (Nice to have a faithful reader!)

The big news here is that Barry started working last night. He's working for Ohel, as a caretaker in a residence for developmentally disabled people. It's an overnight shift, which will be an adjustment for both of us. He works 10 pm-8-am on Sundays, then 11-8 Mondays-Wednesdays. Most of the shift, he has very little to do (and makes a very low wage for those hours). Around 6:30 am, he's responsible to wake and dress etc one of the residents; they pay a higher rate for the "awake" hours.

The other thing that's truly wonderful about this is that Barry has always been uncomfortable around people with physical and mental disabilities, so this is a huge thing from him. Frankly, I was a little surprised that he applied for it at all. It's a big growing-up thing.

I'll hit my one-year anniversary here in two days. I do like my job. It's varied, and the people are lovely. I get a lot of positive feedback. Recently, I helped a group with two lectures they put on, which is part of my job (we have about half a dozen groups here that put on seminars, lectures, etc), but I guess they thought I went above and beyond. The leaders (faculty) gave me a $150 Visa gift card as a thank-you!

Then, of course, I had this gift card, and a zillion ways I wanted to spend it. I do think it's right to keep my bonuses and gifts for myself, except that we were in a dreadful financial squeeze. So I went to an Indian clothing store on 8th Street (it's at 51 West 8th, I forget the name, but it's a great shop), and bought a top, a skirt, and some pants for a total of $50. Then Barry and I went to Shop-Rite on Saturday and bought $60 worth of groceries. And I still have $40 left. Pretty fair, I think.

Money will of course be a little easier now that Barry is earning, but it won't be close to what it used to be. Still, I'll be glad not to have these months where we become flat broke at the beginning of each month. We really haven't been making it on my salary alone, and have ended up selling things (unwanted jewelry, stereo speakers, etc) to make ends meet. It's humbling and sometimes wrenching.

Having said this...we may get ourselves a fourth cat. Patricia, the cat rescue lady who tables across from Union Square, likes me and generally lets me hold the cats (a no-no for most people). Last week, I came up to the table and she handed me a half-grown orange tabby, who cuddled in, rubbed his face against mine, and purred. I brought Barry the next day and he held him, and also immediately bonded. We've only ever had female cats, but this male is extremely sweet. Patricia tend to balk when it comes to actually turning over a cat (we had an incident where we waited weeks for her to make up her mind about a calico kitten, and simply gave up because the waiting was killing us). I hope she'll give this cat up more easily, since it's way harder to find a home for a 6-8 month old cat than for a tiny kitten. Of course, we have already named him: Vijay. It's partly in honor of the character name Amitabh frequently uses.

No word yet on the jewelry I've had at The Village Scandal for over a month. I've been trying to call the owner for a few weeks now to arrange a time to come down, but she never returns calls. I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

I started making myself an anklet last night, because it's that time of year. (Amber and apatite, golden yellow and ocean blue.) I've also started thinking that maybe what I need to do is find a store where my jewelry goes with the clothing, and then try to place some pieces there. If I can find the right match, maybe I can do some regular selling.

Since I wrote last, I watched 3 Idiots, with Aamir Khan. If it were an American movie, the title would indicate something shitty, along the lines of Dumb and Dumber. But this was actually a wonderful and not-stupid movie. I'm not sure if I wrote about the Tamil film Nanban, but it was a remake of 3 Idiots. (I'd actually made a point of watching Nanban first, since I assumed the Hindi film was a remake; good Tamil and Telugu films are often remade in Hindi versions.) The film is about three pals in their college days, and a surprising reunion later in life. It's basically a buddy movie, though one of the guys does have a romance (who is, of course, Kareena Kapoor...it seems to be illegal to make an Indian film without her these days). Khan's character, "Rancho," is as compelling as Vijay's similar character, "Pari," in the Tamil version. It's a great story about friendship, and the actors are quite compelling. Quite a few peeing jokes, for some reason.

Two American films this weekend: I watched a camera-copy bootleg of Hunger Games, since I'd just finished the books (wonderful) and was anxious to see the movie. The movie was quite good, although so much gets edited out, and I found the male leads to be kind of so-so. Jennifer Lawrence was very good even if she was 22 playing 14 or 15 or 16, can't exactly remember.

The other was Shame, which was quite good. It's a strong portrayal of the bottoming-out of a sex addict, although frankly I found the plot with his sister a little distracting and not needed.

Oh dear...I did have a lot to catch up on here. And there's probably more that I'm not thinking of.

There's a new Ram Gopal Varma movie, Department, opening next month, and Amitabh is one of the leads. I've probably mentioned how much I like RGV's films - he's a big fan of American genre movies and steals from them quite liberally. He also uses Amitabh beautifully. I'll have to make a point of seeing it in the theater.

I'll end it here for now, and there will doubtless be postscripts dribbling in...

books!

The exclamation point is because I finally remember what I'd been meaning to write about last week: what I've been reading.

I'm not sure I believe in the idea of "guilty pleasure" books. Maybe that could be the enjoyment of a truly trashy book. But I gave up trashy books a long time ago - life and reading time are both too short. But I guess there's a certain divide between commercial books and literary books, or scholarly books and non-scholarly books, or even more challenging and less challenging books. But there's nothing I read that I'd be embarrassed to be seen reading (if indeed the Kindle had book covers).

So what I read were three Douglas Preston books (I think two were Preston and Lincoln Childs) in a row: Gideon's Corpse, Riptide, and The Codex. All really excellent, although I believe the Gideon book is part of a series and not the first one. I've probably mentioned how much I've enjoyed the (many) Preston/Childs Agent Pendergast books. Even if the characters are not tremendously novel (a lot of similar protagonists and love interests), the plots tend to be vastly interesting and always include a lot of science, archeology, art, and some pretty compelling descriptions of the trappings of wealth. This is all wrapped in mystery, suspense, adventure. Maybe not the most challenging reading, but very enjoyable.

Right now I'm reading The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld, recommended by Bob Steiner. It's a murder mystery set in 1909 New York City, imagining that during his NYC visit, Freud helped to solve a crime. So far, it's not quite The Alienist (a great work of historical fiction set in the same general era), but it's a very good imagining of the Freud/Jung/Ferenczi New York visit.

Still waiting to hear about the job for Barry - he was told about a week ago that they were going to send him for fingerprinting and do a background check, which is what happens right before hiring. But this place moves very slowly.

I called Wendy at the Village Scandal on Monday and she hasn't returned my call yet. I'll try again tomorrow.

Our home computer was on the fritz - seemed like it caught a virus so big and bad that my anti-virus and anti-malware products couldn't stop it. It seemed like a hard-drive hardware problem, so we took it into the shop, but all they had to do was wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows. We got it back yesterday, and I downloaded anti-V and anti-M again, plus Firefox and Adobe Flash, and was going to do the others tonight - except it died today and Barry had to take it back to the shop. Burns my butt. At least I have a computer here at work, cause I'd be losing my mind otherwise. I know I lived without the internet for some 30+ years, but I have no idea how I managed.

what AM I up to anyway?

I just don't know what the hell I've been up to for the past couple of weeks. I was writing to Shiva, and couldn't come up with it. Part of it, I think, it's that I've been really tired lately, so instead of staying up to 12 or 1 and watching YouTubes and Indian flicks, I've been crashing around 10. This eliminates a good chunk of my free time.

Sleepy this weekend too. I did watch The Iron Lady, and while I wasn't surprised by Meryl Streep's acting, I was surprised that I liked the film so much. They managed to make the politics go down kind of easy. And as always, I loved Jim Broadbent.

I sat down to make some jewelry yesterday, and just pulled a blank. Wendy wants opaques, but I was looking at my box of jaspers and nothing seemed like a spring color. I did make some earrings from unakite chips (spinach green and salmon pink) on Saturday. I guess I can make a green necklace, but I just wasn't feeling it yesterday.

I feel like I dodged something of a fast-moving bullet of late. Sometimes even a little flirty is way too much. It would have been too easy to leap without looking. I have slowed the bullet down and will look some more.

Barry seems to be very close to getting a job with Ohel, working in a group home for developmentally disabled people. He would be on an overnight shift, so it would essentially be a safety-net role and not well-paid. But it's full-time and it's a job. I'm actually surprised he even considered such a job, since he was never any too comfortable with DD or any differently abled people. But this could end up being a decent field for him.

Barry's been very stressed, so I've been sticking close. I wish I could say that I'm back to 100% since we fought, but I'm really not.

So things look kind of grey here. Mostly what I look forward to is getting some jewelry ready for later this month; to my one-year anniversary at work in mid-April; to mid-May, after which work will be much quieter. I think I'll take a week off in July.

Of course, if Barry gets work, I'll look forward to being less squeezed for money. It's been a little more relaxed recently since we sold some old jewelry for the weight of the gold and silver, and since I made $150 selling my own jewelry in Pennsylvania. But that's not real, steady money. I'd love to see at least a little steady money from the jewelry, but that won't happen right away.

no Super Bowl content whatever

I really have to remember that no matter how much I love reading Amitabh Bachchan's blog and even leaving comments, most of the commentors (the "EF") are totally insane.  Or some are totally insane, many are partly insane.  Anyway, I am often stupid enough to let some of them bother me, and often it's an issue of snub or neglect rather than attack.  Still, I let someone get to me over the weekend, and I let it make me feel lousy.  And then -- whoop, mood swing! -- I saw something this morning on Facebook that tickled me no end.  Only takes one nice person to counter a dismal mood.  I'm lucky enough to have a lot of nice people in my life, so the nasty ones can just take a hike. I only have to remember not to let myself be bothered by them.  I'm so oversensitive sometimes.

I made one more of the Village Scandal necklaces this weekend:  8mm lapis beads, with dangles in white "rice krispie" pearls, 4mm round blue agate, 4mm lapis barrels, 4mm iolite saucers.  (For those of you scratching your heads:  dark opaque blue, white pearls, translucent medium blue, dark opaque blue, transparent dark blue.)  The blue and white looks very fresh.  I think the third one will be pink and light green, which is pretty much my favorite spring color combo.  I have some round 10mm faceted cherry quartz that's been sitting around for a while, and I have insane numbers of all kinds of green beads.  And I think some little pink pearls.  For some reason, I have way more green and yellow/orange stone beads than any other colors.  Way lower on the pink/red, blue, and purple.

I did make the move to silver-plated headpins.  It didn't hurt too much.  They're sooo much less expensive, and they look fine.  And it's really nice to work with material where I don't have to feel stingy.  I bought 500 headpins for around $8.

It looks like my PPSC holiday jewelry sale is going to go ahead, except it's been morphed into a crafts fair, which means I'll be alongside other sellers.  It'll be small, so there won't be other jewelers, but there may be a potter, a painter, etc.  I'm slightly disappointed, because I really wanted (and expected) to have the showcase all to myself; and I'll certainly earn less money.  But it's a big vote of confidence and a great opportunity, even a little diluted; the Board of Directors voted to go ahead with it on Friday, so I really have no cause for complaint.  The Board rocks, really.  I used to take minutes at the Board meetings at NYU Law School, and man, that was a dull group and a dull meeting (although the lunches were pretty good).  The PPSC Board is smaller and way less formal, plus I can even make some suggestions or comments and it's OK -- sometimes even very much welcome.

The people at PPSC...well, we all understand that they have professional training that I don't, but no one uses that to put themselves above me.  They all act as if we're all talented and useful, just in different areas.  No one assumes that I don't know things.  When I worked at Tarcher, the editor-in-chief, Mitch, was (and is) a very bright guy, but he tended to assume that other people were not, especially people in lower positions than he was (like me).  Once we were coming out of a sales meeting, and he said, about a sales guy in the meeting, "You know, Hal Fessenden's brother is this really crazy avant-garde movie director."  I said, "He's Larry Fessenden's brother?"  And Mitch said, "How do YOU know about Larry Fessenden?"  Pardon me, but fuck you, Mitch.  No one would ever do anything like that here...not only that, but they're always quick to give me credit, and always welcome new info and new ideas.  It's not just that I'm a little older now and not someone's kid assistant; the people here don't really have anything to prove, and they're mostly pretty warm, kind folk.

I guess I'm counting blessings right about now.  Financial need has been twisting my life in a truly miserable way over the past year, with no end in sight.  But I work for and with nice people, and I have some very wonderful people in my life.

Apart from making that necklace, I spent a lot of the weekend watching Downton Abbey.  Highbrow and addictive.  I watched the entire first season on Netflix over a couple of weeks, and then totally cheated and downloaded the entire second season and have now watched all of it.  So they'd better hurry up and make that third season!  I'm reserving my opinion on HBO's Luck; so far, a lot of good actors, and a whole lot of horse-racing jargon.  That guy Gary Stevens is in it, an actual jockey who was also in Seabiscuit.  In fact, looking at the IMDB, it seems he won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey award in 1996 before playing George Woolf in Seabiscuit in 2003.  You can't get much better trivia than that!

Although...speaking of trivia...I've kind of come late to the game concerning LMFAO.  I guess Party Rock Anthem was a huge hit last summer, but I've just discovered it.  Those guys are awesome.  And here's the cool trivia part: not only are they uncle and nephew, but they're the son and grandson of Berry Gordy! 

So I guess I must...


http://youtu.be/KQ6zr6kCPj8

http://youtu.be/MBg1SxfCCM8

http://youtu.be/HnhGU-J5MxE

well, I decided

I decided to do a small, special line for the Village Scandal.  The woman had said she was interested in a necklace like the one I was wearing, but in a choker length.  I made one, I'll make two more.  Then I came up with an earring where I put about a dozen beads on headpins, put them on a jumpring, then chain and an earring hook.  Kind of a play on a 1960s cocktail earring.  Since this store does a lot of vintage-look stuff, it should be perfect.  Made four pair of the earrings, and I think I'll make one more, and maybe one for myself.  I've done that style some, only without the chain.

Apart from making four pair of earrings this weekend, I watched The Dirty Picture and Senna and a few episodes of Downton Abbey.

Downtown Abbey:  had to see what all the fuss was about. Dear Lord, it's Upstairs Downstairs again, and with Maggie Smith in it!  You had me at "Ring for tea"!

The Dirty Picture was probably one of the better mainstream Hindi films of 2011.  Vidya Balin was excellent, and I always like Naseeruddin Shah; I actually know him from western movies too.  It's awards season over there, too, of course, so you get a pretty good idea of what was mainstream in the past year.  (Also, I watched those Indian showbiz programs on Saturday morning, and that's all they're ever pushing.)  So, there'll be a lot of prizes for films and people in films like Don 2, Ra.One, Bodyguard, Desi Boyz, and so on.  Vidya Balin should win some prizes and there were a couple of first-rate songs in The Dirty Picture.  But it's gonna be all Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.

Where was I? Dirty Picture.  Some of the plot was just really bizarre, and I find that in a lot of Indian movies.  Sometimes I must be missing something...other times, it's probably just bizarre.  In this movie, I couldn't quite figure out why the Abraham character (Emraan Hashmi) became the enemy of Silk.  I got that he didn't like the idea of using sex to sell movies, but I didn't get why this made him feel he had to destroy her.  It just seemed like an insane overreaction.  And then there was this business about how he both liked and and hated her, and since I couldn't figure out why he hated her, it wasn't working for me at all.  But the overall rise-and-fall plot was just fine.

Senna was a very talked-about documentary last year, about a Brazilian Formula One race car driver who was very successful and well-known in the mid-80s until his death (crash) in 1994.  Not being much of one for car racing, I had no idea that they put cameras right on the cars, so there were big chunks of the movie where you are actually watching a race from Senna's seat, which is pretty amazing.  But I was also acutely aware of the construction of the film, that what was shown was very carefully chosen to create only one opinion about the man and the events.  No distractions, no uncertainties.

This is going to be a murderous week at work -- classes starting tomorrow, and I've somehow found myself with three interns.  Learned just this past week that I would have to take a high school intern along with the two college interns I already have.  I feel like I'm going to spend all my time finding things for them to do.  And I'm going to have someone in there with me almost every working hour, which feels a little stifling.  But I'll just take it as it comes.

Do I distract myself with never-can-happen imaginings?  Well, yeah.  Having a small life day-to-day doesn't mean I can't have a big life in my head and my heart.  I don't suppose there's anything wrong with doing the daily things right, as much as possible, and dreaming big dreams.

not great & not funny

"Not great" was the movie I watched last night, Dark Matter.  About a Chinese grad student, used (in an academic sense) by his faculty mentor, then discarded when his work threatened to supersede his mentor's...the change in the student's behavior seemed very sudden, and I have no idea what Meryl Streep's character was doing there.  I guess the character -- a wealthy, well-meaning woman fascinated with Chinese culture who tries to make the Chinese students feel welcome -- was made to represent the overall cluelessness of the Americans interacting with the Chinese students.  And the wonderful Bill Irwin, who played the husband of the Streep character, had absolutely nothing to do.  If you're going to bother to put Bill Irwin in a movie, at least give him something to do involving dance or body movement (see My Blue Heaven or even Eight Men Out).

Not funny:  this idiot writer.

I made a necklace last night, just for the new store: a rosary-link choker with drops between the joins, mostly carnelian with a little citrine and a couple of pearls.  And now I find myself out of headpins.  I may have to make the move to silver-filled, since silver is just way too expensive.  But I think I have enough pieces now to bring to The Village Scandal this week.

more jewelry news, for one thing

Robin and I went out Wednesday night for Indian food (something we've been doing for many years, way before my Indian film/music mania).  Good food, and there are a man playing a sarangi, which was quite wonderful.

But before dinner, she took me to see a little accessories store that had hats she liked, called The Village Scandal.  It did indeed have a lot of nice hats and other accessories, kind of faux vintage.  We ended up at the counter looking at jewelry and chatting with the owner.  Robin mentioned that I had made the earrings she was wearing, and I showed off the necklace I was wearing, and the woman said, "I could sell something like that in choker length.  Do you ever sell your jewelry?"  So it looks like, without trying, I'll be doing some consignments there.  I wasn't even trying.  Very cool; made me feel great.  So even though nothing of mine is there yet, please do visit The Village Scandal, at 19th East 7th Street (I believe it's between Second and Third Avenue), New York City.  Or tell your friends in New York.

I actually made my first-ever consignment deal some years back on another night that Robin and I were in the east village to eat Indian food, at a store called Back from Guatemala, a south American craftsy store that also had nice jewelry.  On a trial basis, they took a Y-necklace with oval ocean jasper...funny that I remember the exact necklace.  I was going to do more business with them, but the manager got sick, and then the store closed.  Robin seems to bring me luck as far as jewelry sales. 

Robin has of course always been a huge supporter of my jewelry, but she's always worn very simple, petite pieces, so that most of what I make didn't suit her.  At one point, I made maybe half-a-dozen pair of earrings for her with a simple, one-small-bead drop.  But she's decided to get more adventurous, and I gave her a couple of necklaces for her birthday and she's wearing them a lot.  One has amethyst up one side, citrine up the other, and a kyanite drop in the middle.  The other has tiny fluorite beads with a big Thai silver orchid pendant.  I actually have a reasonable photo of the former at home and will post it here.

The other thing I did on Wednesday was buy bangles.  I swear I'm not an Indian wannabe, but I've been looking at women in Indian movies wearing piles of bangles, and it's a great look.  I never used to be too crazy about bangles because I was afraid I'd squeeze into one and not be able to get it off...which didn't stop me from eyeballing jade bangles down in Chinatown.  (I still wouldn't mind having one of those.)  But between an accessories store near work, and a Tibetan store in the east village, I ended up buying about 30 bangles in silvertone, goldtone, and some blues and greens.  They don't hurt my wrist when I use a mouse (which some bracelets do).  They are super-wearable and comfortable, they look great, and they jingle when I move around.  I LOVE them.  Now, of course, I need red ones, and some other colors.  (What I really need is more storage for my jewelry.  The big jewelry box I've had for many years is stuffed, several other little boxes are stuffed...I probably need an entire shelving system to keep it all.

My past and near-past office intern, Sarah E., just said goodbye, and it's truly heartbreaking.  She interned for me last summer, and called a couple of months ago to say she'd be in town in January, and did I need some help?  She was here for a few weeks, and not only helped a lot, but was wonderful company.  Very sweet, very smart, very sane.  I'll miss her a bunch.  She'll be back from Smith for spring break in March, and said she'd be in touch.

It's supposed to snow tonight, and I'm looking forward to a nice weekend indoors, making jewelry and watching a movie or two.

Since the friend who's fallen in love with Amitabh is waiting for her copy of KANK, I decided to rewatch a little of it last night.  It's actually kind of cheesy and silly.  Interesting to see my own reaction compared to the first time I saw it (around three years ago) and the second time I saw it (about two and a half months ago).  I'm starting to think I may have overestimated Abhishek...although I did like him in Delhi 6.  I don't think I can bear to watch Dostana, which apparently involves a couple of guys pretending to be gay to get girls or something -- I mean, ew.  I'd like to see him try his hand at remaking one of his father's films (he might have to tie up SRK and Hrithik to get the roles), and then we can see if he's got the goods.

Ram Gopal Varma has been posting some very sexist and negative tweets of late.  My friend Shiva said something about RGV being or seeming drunk...and that must be it.  He thinks like a drunk.  On the other end of the spectrum, I've been following Anupam Kher, and he seems like a wonderful man.  As soon as I can scrape up $30, I'm buying his new book.

SOPA/PIPA:  Bad.  Indian government not protecting Sir Salman Rushdie:  Bad.  Italian cruise ship captain ordering food after the crash:  Bad.  Johnny Otis and Etta James dying:  Sad.  Sorry to short-change you on news and politics, but it's not really my forte.

end of week and mostly good news

In the good news department:  Judy called me in yesterday, and floated an idea for next year's fundraising.  She proposed a pre-holiday sale of my jewelry, where I would split the money with the institute in some percentage.  She was thinking about a private sale within the PPSC community, and then opening it up to the entire analytic community.  She also said that there were some photographers in the community who would probably be glad to photograph my work.

When I gave her some earrings as a holiday gift (and also sent home a pair for her wife Lee), she was very effusive about my work.  Lucie tipped me off that Judy's birthday was on New Year's eve, so I picked out a very nice necklace for her, which she really adored.  She asked me if I sell online, and I said I occasionally sold to friends, but that I wasn't properly set up to photograph my jewelry. (This is an old story...I've tried to photograph my work numerous ways, and even bought a digital camera, but the camera couldn't shoot close up enough.  Plus it's difficult to light jewelry properly.  I looked into it, and what's recommended is a "light cube," where the jewelry and camera actually go into a plastic cube with special lighting, and the piece is lit all the way around.)

I'm really excited about this.  The analytic community is exactly where my jewelry is going to sell.  I can't tell you how many faculty members I've seen wearing ethnic/handmade jewelry.  It's a lot like Jannah and her friends-- same age range, more or less the same sort of style.  Plus, analysts are often not poor, and it'll be a fundraiser, so I'll be able to charge healthy prices, and will do well even if I'm donating half.

I did say that I might need a little money ahead of time to buy supplies, particularly silver, and Judy said, "Oh, we'll give you a budget."  So that's that.  This can potentially lead to special orders, private customers, and even photos so I can sell online.  That's a win-win.  Judy is just the best.

My intern from last summer, Sarah, offered to come in and help out for the month, before she goes back to school, so a lot of projects are getting cleared out.  I finally had the breathing room to clear up my poor cluttered desk, and I actually seem to be caught up.  Plus it's great to have Sarah around; I like her a lot.

Here's the news that isn't great and somewhat perplexing:  I mentioned that Rochelle (of the "EF") offered to take me to some of the Raj Kapoor movies on her membership at MOMA.  I responded in the usual spot (the comments), thanked her, said I would love to, and gave my email address so she could get in touch.  And she never did; the festival has already started, and she posted yesterday about seeing the first film.  I mean, WTF?  I'm not at all sure what this is about.  Her offer seemed genuine and generous, but she's either way low on social skills, or maybe just trying to seem genuine and generous.  I suppose it's not a secret at this point that I'm a little sensitive to being snubbed when I reach out to people...and this time, it was her reaching out, and then dropping the ball.  I'm very tempted to comment in the blog or to get in touch on Twitter, but I'm far from sure I want to pursue this.  And even if she made the offer publicly, it doesn't mean it's right for me to bring it up publicly.  But I'm disappointed and a little hurt, and I guess I'm not sure I can bring it up "in front of" others and be nice about it.  It just kind of sucks to be in this position.

One more comment about my blog stats.  For some reason, a post I put up in October 2009, about summer camp and theater, has twice as many hits as any of my other posts.  I have absolutely no idea why, since I wouldn't tag it as one of the most interesting things I've written, not by far.  Another great mystery.

Yaarana, K3G, and a nice start to the new year

Between last night and this morning, I watched Yaarana (1981), which I found to be a very sweet and entertaining movie, despite the confusing and sometimes bizarre plot.  So many of the Indian movies I've seen focus on family, but this was different: all about friendship.  There is something very old-fashioned about the movie.  Early on, Amitabh plays the country-boy-in-the-big-city, which I like just as much as the angry-young-man.  His relationship with his best friend's son is charming; he works really well with children.  And he looks so very handsome in this film.  I've also become very fond of the song "Sara Zamana."

I also finally finished watching Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (2001), which was very much to my liking.  Since Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was the first Indian movie I ever saw, that became something of a baseline for me, as far as "masala" movies (that is, Indian movies that mix comedy, drama, romance, and a lot of music).  KANK is packed full of wonderful stars, a lot of color, and some great music.  K3G is very similar, with some of the same stars.  And I cried a lot at the end.

For those of you who are reading this for the film-related content -- I wanted to mention that my number-one online reference is the Internet Movie Database.  If you need the year of a movie, the name of a cast member, and particularly to see what other movies an actor or director has made, you can't do any better.

This has been a great long weekend -- unexpectedly long, since I didn't get the OK to take today off until Saturday night.  (Email issues.)  I've taken some long walks, watched some movies, and have been generally calm.  My mind seems to be free of static and of bad thinking.  Terrible how badly I can upset myself with the junk between my ears.

I made eight bracelets yesterday.  In looking for some cheaper materials to conserve my supply of silver, I went back to memory wire bracelets.  I made a set of three with soft fluorite nuggets (which is green and purple), a little amethyst and a few Thai silver beads, and then a set of five with small faceted round rock crystal and smokey quartz.  I love wearing bracelets, since bracelets and rings are the jewelry I can see best on myself; I can see and enjoy what I'm wearing.  I'm also a fiend for earrings.  I wear fewer necklaces because sometimes they just seem too busy with printed tops and being so close to the earrings.  But that's just me.  I also love anklets and can't wait until they're back in season again.  But it's December...I'll have to wait a bit.

Also -- right under the wire for 2011 -- Barry's gotten himself a bit of work.  Our lovely downstairs neighbor, Johnny, who died some weeks back, was on disability; since the landlord doesn't live on premises and this building is too small to have a super, Johnny was kind of Carmine's assistant.  He did things like put out the garbage, washed the floors in the hallways, let the meter-readers into the basement and let Carmine know if there was any problem in the building (blown light bulbs, etc.).  I had suggested to Barry that while he isn't working, he could ask Carmine if he could take over these tasks.  I didn't know if Carmine was paying Johnny anything (although I guessed that he was), but I figured it would at least be a goodwill gesture.  So Barry is now the new Johnny, and will get $100 a month from Carmine, off the books.  Even though it isn't a significant amount of money, Barry will feel good that he's doing something and bringing something in.  I'm very glad about it.

Oddly, I haven't heard from the "EF" woman who offered to take me to the MOMA movies on her membership, although I posted my email address some days ago.  Don't think I can afford any $12 tickets if I don't hear from her -- $5 is hard enough, this time of the month.

I've also decided to pinch pennies even more and join the gym -- there is a Lucille Roberts in the building where I work, and it doesn't get more convenient.  It's under $30 a month, which even I can afford.  I dropped my Filesonic membership, which I mostly used for downloading ebooks (I have more now than I'll be able to read for years and years), which puts another $9/month back in my pocket, and will probably also drop Pogo (the casual-games site I subscribe to, also around $10 a month).  I'll make it work.