Delicious Shoes

The red one looks a bit like candied apple.

[shoes by Dieppa Restrepo via Vain and Vapid]

Today I am thinking about

1. Lessons learned from exes.

2. Appetite.

3. Dancing to Big Rude Jake with Karl on the streets of Edinburgh.

WANT

[via Urban Outfitters]

Love

[Pamela Love via Bona Drag Boutique]

black tie material

Bregje Heinen for Karen Millen Fall 2010

[via Fashion Gone Rogue]

Die Happy

[sequined silk-chiffon dress by Stella McCartney]

LOVES

[from Alabama Chanin]

搜神記

魏景初中，咸陽縣吏家有怪。每夜，無故聞拍手相呼，伺，無所見。其母夜作，倦，就枕寢息。有頃，復聞竈下有呼聲曰：「文約何以不來？」頭下枕應曰：「我見枕，不能往。汝可來就我飲。」至明，乃飯臿也。即聚燒之，其怪遂絕。

摘自 搜神記

In the middle of the Jingchu era in the Cao Wei Empire, strange events occurred in the home of the magistrate of Xianyang. Each night, inexplicable sounds of revelry could be heard; however, nothing can be observed despite lying in wait. The mother of the magistrate was up one night until she became tired, whereupon she rested her head on a pillow. After a while, there came a call from under the stove: ‘Why do you not come as arranged?’ The pillow beneath her head replied: ‘I am being used as a pillow, and I cannot come. You could come and drink with me here.’ In the morning, the rice-scoop was discovered to be the pillow’s interlocutor. They were gathered together and burned, after which these strange occurrences ceased.

excerpted from In Search of the Supernatural (4th Century Chinese Compilation)

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A friend of mine felt that perhaps a pillow and a rice-scoop are symbolic. My inclination is to say that they are more akin to tsukumogami ('artifact spirits'). According to Wikipedia:

Though by and large tsukumogami are harmless and at most tend to play occasional pranks on unsuspecting victims, as shown in the Otogizōshi they do have the capacity for anger and will band together to take revenge on those who are wasteful or throw them away thoughtlessly. To prevent this, to this day some Jinja ceremonies, such as the Hari Kuyou, are performed to console broken and unusable items.

It is said that modern items cannot become tsukumogami; the reason for this is that tsukumogami are said to be repelled by electricity.^[1] Additionally, few modern items are used for the 100-year-span that it takes for an artifact to gain a soul.

Another story in a different compilation of supernatural stories I came across features an old pillow (belonging to the ancestors of the protagonist) which has assumed human form. This human figure has no facial features (presumably because pillows are flat and featureless). This pillow got burned too - because someone said that it is evil and will be murderous (the idea is that the longer you leave these objects they older and more powerful they become?).

My general impression of tsukumogami is that they are rather ambivalent - they can be good or bad. So maybe burning them is the safer option.

The idea that objects have life and feelings and don't like to be wasted reminds me of this Spike Jonze IKEA advert.



The idea that the new one is much better is obviously quite consumerist. Are tsukumogamis everywhere crying for the little lamp?

Bird Rider Pendant

I bought this beautiful pendant from Sarah Ogren on Etsy. It arrived in the post the other day and I put it on a bit of ribbon. I've been wearing it ever since. It makes me happy.

I wish I could ride a bird side saddle, like this rabbit.

Dream Come True

I am now a shop owner! Thanks to hours and hours of hard work mainly done by Topher (who kindly photographed every item in my shop), and a pile of unfinished course stuff, my etsy shop is now up and running.

Please come and buy something at Show & Tell Vintage!

3 cheers for free things

Nothing like Freecycle to help furnish a new place. A couple of WANTED posts later and we have an iron, a table top sized ironing board, a bag of fresh cut lavender, and several lots of clothes hangers waiting for us to pick up.

The idea is so simple - give a little and get a little, with no money changing hands. It is in a way, the anti-consumption.

Just join the local group (on yahoo or whatever), and start reading OFFERED and WANTED postings. People give away all kinds of crazy things, and if you don't see what you need, you can always ask...

Who doesn't want to be little red riding hood?

Little red riding hood is sexy: innocence cloaked in a colour suggestive of lust, wandering through the dark and ominous woods, hunted by the (undoubtedly salivating) big bad wolf - and what that signifies I leave to your imagination.

Don't believe me? Chanel No. 5 knows that sex sells.



This train of thought lead me onto a search through Etsy - lo, ask and ye shall receive.

A real life little red riding hood from I Like You. Irresistibly simple and true to the character I had in mind. Except for the zipper, perhaps - but what modern girl would balk at the convenience?

Also available in black - though I think that would take something away from the quintessence of the piece. At 80 percent wool these little numbers should be comfortably cozy. Hood is detachable, which is a nice extra. The fastener which folds over the front of the collar is also a nice detail - though it's not visible in this photograph.

$120 (not bad, but slightly outside my impulse buying price range)

Fairytale skirt from Made with Love by Hannah . This one is a conversation piece - bound to attract attention & comment. I also really love textiles which are printed to the garment. Maybe Hannah would be able to do this in red? (speaking of red, check out Hannah's scherenschnitte skirt.)

The cut is so simple and flattering, both to the figure and the design. Would look really good with a white shirt tucked in and wrapped around, the way Audrey Hepburn wears'em.

$62 (available in 8 sizes!)

Prefer to think of the little red riding hood as an innocuous children's story? Then these hand-carved stamps from Craft Pudding may be a little more appropriate.

The creative possibilities of stamps abound. Though the wolf does admittedly look more like a cute dog. It could almost be wagging its tail. I quote, from the seller's page, that this big "bad" wolf loves red riding hood. The cuteness overload here is akin to the effect of Japanese kawaii characters - but from Wisconsin.

$25 (hand-carved stamps at that price? bargain)

But honestly, real justice would be little red riding hood taking matters into her own little blood-splattered hands. Such as demonstrated in this cigarette case illustration by Sweet Heart Sinner. Sin on, baby!

Perhaps this is the ending of an empowered, feminist re-write? I particularly like her disdainful expression, and the fact that she was careful enough to have left the cover on the basket to keep granny's biscuits from acquiring extra flavour.

$9.99 (you can't quibble with that kind of price)

So - all that I'm missing now is a good knitting pattern for a riding hood. If you know of any, pleases do share.

More desire...

Once upon a time I dated someone in Edinburgh whose father is a jeweler. I bought some amazing pieces from him, including a brooch in red enamel, set in silver, with gold flames dangling from it. I have since lost this brooch (I lose alot of things). The other day I saw this ring on line, and it reminded me of my brooch so much.

It's ok to miss physical things intensely, right?

It's a shame that this ring is far too expensive... $215... with my track record it'll be lost for good in no time.

But looking at things I like does please me to no end - and that, at least, is free.

Frocks on the blog and what it indicates.

If I post pictures of frocks here, it's because I'm working, and I want to have a break. There's something about pretty pictures of pretty clothes that makes it seem alright for me to sit and read more of Piers Plowman. Same goes for pictures of Audrey Hepburn, which makes bad things ok, and ok things good.

I love the rich raspberry colour of the empire waist dress from Necessity is the Mother (and I love the name of the shop!). I do have reservations about the fit though - my bust is what would be described in Chinese as "airport like" - think runways. Hm. Still, nothing to stop me from looking at it and feeling like the world is that much better for having beautiful things in it.

The same goes for the pinafore dress from Victorian Bird. I am very taken with alot of their designs - and their prices are really very very reasonable. Not being a wasp shaped girl, I've always found higher waistlines flattering to my figure (ditto for the raspberry dress). I'm not sure what it is about the pinafore design - but I love it. In fact, this photo of it I've got totally doesn't do it justice. Please do visit Victorian Bird and look at some of their other things to fully appreciate the simplicity and perfect balance (strange, I know - but that's how I'd describe it) of their cuts.

Sometimes I wonder whether I really do want to go and do this M.St. degree. I do love medieval literature - but there is a part of me that really would like to think about nothing but frocks all day. Will I ever gather enough courage to abandon the safety of esoteric intellectual pursuits...?

For now, though, Piers Plowman bloody well ain't gonna read itself.

Temptations returned

Just because I am in Edinburgh and living a more ecologically conscientious lifestyle doesn't mean I am far from temptation. Thanks to the good internet I can work more efficiently and slack with likewise efficiency.

I am supposedly reading and taking notes on Piers Plowman (a lot of rats and mice appear around line 146 of the Prologue. Random or what?). But I take breaks to look at blogs, and to take note of beautiful things which I covet. Though it is technically slacking, I find that it increases my over all productivity because it allows me to return to the text with, er, greater degree of concentration... yes. (not thinking of frocks, I assure you).

Still - things, things, things. Here I am reading a text which has definite spiritual aims and I am thinking of frocks. Particularly this one, from My Favorite Vintage. I mean, look at the flat neckline - I think that would be quite flattering on someone like me, who has broad shoulders. Also, the detailing on the back of the neckline, in green velvet, is really, really nice. Usually I am not much for yellow, or for this kind of 50s print and cut - but I'm willing to make an exception.

So who wants to buy me a dress? Go on, it's not even the most expensive one in the shop.

There are things that money can't buy...

People sometimes ask me whether I enjoy living in Taipei or Edinburgh more. It is of course a slightly unfair comparison, since I have far more friends in Edinburgh, having lived here for 4 years of my adult life, and only 1 in Taipei. Either way I have worked out a simple formula to explain what the major difference is between Edinburgh and Taipei, at least for me.

In Edinburgh, the good points are the things which money can't buy: good air quality, good amount of green space, good healthy life style, etc. For everything that one has to spend money on, Edinburgh is not so great. Expensive, and you'd never really get too much bang for your buck.

In Taipei, the good point is that I always feel like I'm getting my money's worth. Because I was working, I could afford to eat out, take taxis, buy a stupid amount of shoes and clothes, and have fresh flowers at home when I feel like it. The real difference is not that I am employed in Taipei a student in Edinburgh, but the fact that one simplest gets a bigger bang for one's buck in Taipei - things are cheap closer to the manufacturing heartland of the world, I guess.

However, in Taipei, those things which I consider to be public property, such as good air or green space, are horrendously thin on the ground (comparatively). This is frustrating as it's not something I can do anything about as an individual - and moreover, not something I can simply buy.

Of course there are some things which don't stand up to much comparison. In Edinburgh people piss all over the fucking town. Yes, I mean that. If you walk around town and detect a foul odour of piss, it's not cats - it's the drunks. But then again, this town has charity shops, which are always worth a good rummage and can turn up some cheap & cheerful surprise bargains.

Over all though, considering my consumption tendencies, my conscience rests easier in Edinburgh. I get my food from the East Coast Organics farm delivered to me in the form of an ecobox once a week (highly recommended if you live within delivery range). I buy the rest from independent organic shops such as The New Leaf and Real Foods (expensive, but comprehensive). I cycle or walk absolutely everywhere (the number of times I have been in a car in Edinburgh can almost be counted on one hand - if you happen to be a mutant with 20 odd fingers on one hand). But most importantly, I don't consume a huge amount of new, mass produced, environment destroying goods. Instead, most of my material desires are satisfied by way of vintage shops or charity shops - all second hand.

So yeah, it's nice to be back here where I feel like the natural lifestyle I adopt brings me closer to being the person I want to be. Where I am not continually and sorely tempted by cheap mass produce consumer goods, and not likely to consume too much processed foods or fast snacks which are high in sodium and MSG.

But... I do miss the temptations.

Blogs, Guilt, and why I am (in part) a Medieval Monk

I've been getting really into some blogs since I discovered the ease of setting up and receiving updates through GoogleReader. I keep meaning to try some other programs for feed gathering, but haven't really gotten around to it yet (sound familiar?). Google tends to recommend blogs which may be of interest to me. I discovered that my blogs fall into 4 general categories:

1. Fashion & Style
   
2. Crafting (predominantly knitting)
3. Issues (commentary on current affairs & others)
4. Personal blogs (like this one)

It's got me thinking about blogs - their significance and the importance of this (relatively) new medium.

If you're expecting me to come up with something clever, you can stop reading now. It did strike me that the medium of web publishing will dramatically change how we understand literature (this being on the forefront of my mind because I am a literature major, or was and will be again soon). Still, it's a little premature for me to be gassing about web based literary theory, since I haven't devoted enough grey cells to the matter just yet. So I'm mainly going to gibber.

My old (both as in "older than me" and "my previous") dance partner once asked me why I blog. I got the feeling that he didn't really see the point of the thing. What's it to me? Well, I've always fancied the idea of writing/keeping a journal/scrapbook - but all that's lead to is a whole bunch of journals/diaries/scrapbooks with half-filled pages before I cave and buy another one. The ever present desire to consume gets the better of me. When I move, I debate with myself whether I should bring all these half written journals in case if I want to add a new entry. Well, I debate no more - because my blog is a journal and a scrapbook and it's fully mobile. In that sense, the purpose of keeping a blog and a journal is the same: I enjoy scribbling, taking note of things, venting my feelings, and perhaps most importantly, to be able to look back on them a while later and discern changes in myself during the intervening period.

In another way, a blog is much, much better than a paper journal. Though it doesn't have the physical presence of, say, a journal bound in Italian leather, my blog is out in the open for anyone to read. This means that people who care (friends and family) can communicate with me - but it also means that I have a chance to speak to people I don't know at all. It's like broadcasting my voice into nowhere in particular: and the surprising responses, positive or otherwise, are like slivers of gold found whilst mud-larking on the bank of the Thames. I am sure that the sense of surprise and pleasure I get is universal to bloggers - and perhaps the desire to forge relations with people we have never met is part of the drive to blog.

But doesn't it freak you that strangers are reading about the details of your personal life? (asked my old dance partner - or rather, he may have done, I don't remember). It would of course be a little freaky if a stranger was spying on me - but through my blog they can only access what I choose to disclose. You may think that I am very forthcoming (or not) on my blog - but I do practice self censorship in one way or another. There are often things I'd like to say (but don't) and it sometimes occurs to me that I should get a completely anonymous blog (though I haven't, because it kills the first part of the purpose of having a personal blog - i.e. for friends and family). I could of course limit the people who have access to this blog - though that would prevent me from casting my net wide and far. So I settle for a compromise. I refrain from badmouthing people who may be reading this, and I try to keep my mouth shut about things that I'm not sure I'd like to share. The rest is free.

It's no surprise though, however, that blogs devoted to a particular topic tend to draw a broader and more devoted audience. I don't flatter myself in thinking that many would care about the cryptic messages I leave for my future self in the form of indecipherable blog entries, or even that they would care about what I had for dinner (though I have found myself becoming interested, strangely, in the minute details of quotidian lives of strangers - but usually not for long). Unless one can make one's life extraordinarily interesting (I can't), readership will likely be limited.

So that leaves me with blogs that are actually about something. I have a little voice of snobbery in me which always asks "ah, but is this really worthwhile?" This voice tends not to crop up when I read The Far Eastern Sweet Potato (political commentary) and Opinio Juris (discourse on international law) - as these, at least to me, are self-evidently "worthwhile." The same goes for most of the crafting blogs, such as Cotton & Cloud, and BrooklynTweed - they serve a purpose for people with a common interest. The question tends to plague me when I sped hours looking at girls & their frocks on Only Shallow or Liebermarlene Vintage (of course "Only Shallow" is already a commentary on itself) - the pleasure of browsing pretty pictures is somehow accompanied by a twinge of discomfort and guilt.

I realize that here I am touching on a rather well-worn point - is fashion frivolous? Can't the same be asked of art? One could argue that a girl who has a blog devoted to her outfit, with a picture everyday, is vain, shallow, and frivolous; however, the purpose of said blog is to feature this facet of her life, so to judge her thus would be one-dimensional. All I can safely assume of these people is that they have a penchant for pretty things, perhaps mostly sartorial.

Maybe what troubles me more is the fact that looking at pictures of people in pretty frocks makes me want to consume. Yes, that's it - it's the materialistic nature of these blogs which makes me uncomfortable. Looking at them too much is like having a surfeit of consumption: shoes, handbags, dresses, accessories (a catch-all term that is verily loaded with potential consumption) - all of them things, things, things. I have gotten to the point of considering my predilection for pretty pictures of frocks (now easier than ever to access for free! Ohhhh I never used to be able to justify spending money on Vogue and the like) an addiction, with associated guilt. If not guilt arising out of some kind of moral/intellectual snobbery ("Don't you have better things to do? Shouldn't you be spending your time on something more important? Isn't this frivolous?"), then at least the guilt of wanting a new frock, which immediately makes me think of the environmental impact of production & consumption.

In all honesty I don't quite understand why I have such an insatiable hunger for things. Topher, for instance, seems to get by fine on much less materialistic things than me. I begin to question if my mild obsession with buying loads of cheap and plentiful shoes/clothing/accessories in Taiwan is really healthy. But would I really consume less if I looked at less blogs with pictures of pretty things? Or does it in fact work the other way around?

All this non-productive back and forth debate leads me to a few conclusions.:

1. A part of me is very definitely a medieval monk - I self-flagellate (albeit only mentally) when I find myself prizing the material over the spiritual (being sadly devoid of true spirituality of the religious sort, I settle by lumping all things immaterial, i.e. intellectual, into this category). In other words I can't feel at equilibrium unless I spend some of my time being serious and pondering what I consider to be serious things (cue The Far Eastern Sweet Potato & Opinio Juris), in order to balance out my appetite for frivolous things (cue Only Shallow, Liebemarlene Vintage, Bluelines). But I confess, the amount of time I spend on these two categories (shall we call them the material and the spiritual?) is entirely disproportional. There are 25 unread items in my GoogleReader under Opinio Juris, and 0 unread items in my "Style & Fashion" folder. What does my inner medieval monk say? mea culpa (I am, after all, just a poor sinner).

My second conclusion actually brings us back full circle to the first list, so I've taken it out of my conclusions list (which makes a list with only one item). The kind of hunger, or compulsion to consume, for me, can be fulfilled equally by creating. What I mean is, if I really really want to go out and buy a frock (but feel guilty about the implications), the urge can somehow be assuaged if I look at a knitting pattern and start on a new pair of mitts, or at a tutorial on how to convert an old t-shirt I have into a skirt. So in a way, I guess my "Style & Fashion" folder is balanced by my "Craft" folder. Similarly, my environmental conscience is appeased when I craft by using materials I already own, rather than going out to feed into the ever growing stream of consumerism - even if all that I buy are craft materials.

Either way, this leaves me where I started: at work, reading blogs about frocks & shoes, whilst knitting. It's a wonder that they haven't fired me already.

Yellow roses, anyone?

I saw this on the Bluelines blog (yikes! though it's Martha Stewart, the blog has so many pretty pictures that my allergies to Martha has been conquered) - and it seemed to me like something that a bit of crafting could copy? There was a while when fabric roses like those were really popular in Taiwan - everyone made them and sewed them onto everything. Ok - maybe not everyone and everything... but you know...

Not sure that I would wear this particular dress - yellow doesn't suit me as a colour generally... especially not in such a large quantity. Still I quite liked the simplicity of it. At 251 pds though, it's quite firmly out of my reach.

Little black dress

I found this dress on Etsy (from a vintage seller based in Sacramento) while I was at work last night.

I was initially really tempted to just buy it right away, but now I am having second thoughts (mostly after Toph said he didn't like it). On seeing it again the lapels do look a bit big. Is it far to 80s? These are things that are a bit difficult to decide unless I get to try it on. I was thinking of wearing it with with some nice fishnet stockings and a little black hat. I think it might have potential.

So, what do you think? Should I go for it? Was I really just so tempted to buy it because I was at work and desperate for distraction? Leave me a comment and tell me what you think of it. Of course it could get sold before I even decide - then it wouldn't be a problem any more...