Archive for the I do stuff! Category

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Too Legit (To Update This Blog)

Posted in Advertisements, I do stuff!, Muzak, Pop with tags , , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2011 by effingjro

(The best thing to happen this week.)

I’ve been MIA of late, since I’ve started doing a bit of blogging and writing for Out magazine. That’s awesome news for me, but it means I have a lot less time to muse on my own personal favorite things. I’m going to set aside more time for that, but until then, here’s some stuff I put together over the past few weeks (much of which would have ended up on here instead, except with more curse words):

A review of Colson Whitehead’s awesome zombie apocalypse novel, Zone One.

A preview of the prelude to Lady Gaga’s newest music video (very One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).

A slideshow of the images from Benetton’s new, controversial ad campaign, with lots of world leaders getting kissy kissy.

Shame on you if didn’t see the latest episode of Glee. But if you didn’t, you can read about it here.

A little info on a particularly badass queer graffiti artist.

A slideshow of all the best abs in Immortals (don’t pretend you paid $12 to see anything else except muscles).

An interview with indie punk band Hostage Calm, who got more than 3,000 signatures on their petition to end the gay marriage ban in NY state.

Lots and lots and lots of gay weddings.

Alright, see you soon. Oh, and go to out.com 500 times a day please – gotta keep those numbers UP!

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Channeled Whelks In The Cape May Canal

Posted in Food, Found Item, I do stuff!, Photos with tags , , , , , , , , on August 17, 2011 by effingjro

The other day I took a walk with my housemates and our dog Odin along the Cape May Canal. Nothing too miraculous happened, but since I can’t walk along the shore without my eyes glued to the sand, I noticed the rounded tip of a big shell poking out of the ground. When I pulled it out, I discovered this:

It’s called a Channeled Whelk, so named for the spiral gully that runs along the top of the shell, I’d guess. The fact that I found a Channel Whelk in a canal gets me jazzed in a nerdy linguistic way I have to mention, if only in this sentence. It turns out the New Jersey state shell is actually the Knobbed Whelk, which is a bit more spastic looking. I’d been calling these animals ‘conchs’ all my life. In fact, conchs live in mostly tropical water and feed on vegetation. Whelks are carnivorous, cold-weather mollusks.

There it is in all its slimy glory. The calcified, mussel-shaped thing over the snail is called the operculum, or, more colorfully, the sailor’s toenail. When whelks lay eggs, they come in long strings called mermaid’s necklaces. No one’s going to mistake this for a land animal.

Due to overfishing of conch in the Caribbean, several restaurants in Cape May have switched over to using whelk, which has a similar – though slightly tougher – consistency. Italians, which call the snails scungili, have been eating them forever in salads and pastas. While not as glamorous as calamari or eel, scungili used to be one of the go-to dishes during the Christmastime Feast of the Seven Fish.

Here’s one in action, courtesy of Trinixia.

 

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Congress Hall Veranda – Cape May, NJ, 1870s

Posted in ART, Found Item, I do stuff!, Photos, Vintage with tags , , , , , , , , , on August 9, 2011 by effingjro

I recently discovered a great blog, Vintage Everyday, which had a post on animated gifs of old colorized stereoscope cards of Japan.

I really wanted to try one of my own, as I’ve heard making a gif is easy as pie. Here’s the original card I used, featuring the Congress Hall veranda circa 1870 (courtesy of Don Pocher).

And here’s the gif I was able to make. Not quite as polished as the Japanese ones, but a good start. Especially if you don’t have the stereoscopic glasses necessary to view these cards in 3D, as they were intended…

And just for reference, here’s Congress Hall today (one of the poshest spots in town).

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Why Copy Editing Counts

Posted in I do stuff!, Role Models, Stylez, Writing with tags , , , , , , , , on August 3, 2011 by effingjro

Because otherwise, when reading an interview with a restaurateur, you may come across one of these…

A Sioux chef! While I’m sure many of these do in fact exist, the usual spelling is sous chef. Special thanks to my friend Dan for making this mistake. I’m thinking about making a whole bunch of these little drawings with commonly mistaken homonyms – thoughts include The Boar War and A Television Ceres. If you have suggestions, put them in the comments.

Side note: You know, I have no idea how the Sioux dress, so you could argue this is insensitive, but not as bad as those damn hipster “Let’s-dress-up-like-Indians parties.”

Shit is wrong.

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Snap, Crackle, Rock.

Posted in Found Item, Hotties, I do stuff!, Man Appreciation Post, Muzak, Photos, Pop, Role Models, Stylez, Vintage, Vinyl with tags , , , , , , , on March 8, 2011 by effingjro

(This is a pretty hi-res image, so if you want an up-close-and-personal view of Elvis’ suggestive post, go ahead and click the photo.)

I’ve been using my record player a lot now that my favorite radio station has basically stopped broadcasting. I’m listening to a lot of Rimsky-Korsakov (random, yes), but I also found this “Jailhouse Rock” single and I couldn’t resist ripping it to my computer.

And here’s my favorite part of the song:

Number 47 said to Number 3
“You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see
I sure would be delighted with your company
Come on and do the Jailhouse Rock with me.“

I have a real talent for picking out the gay subtext in anything. He does seem awful happy to be behind bars though, right?

And, as a bonus, I leave you with the B-side of the record, “Treat Me Nice,” along with a pic of Mr Presley looking especially foxy.

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Optics

Posted in Authors, Hotties, I do stuff!, Photos, Role Models, Soul-Crushing Materialism, Stylez, Uncategorized, Vintage with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2011 by effingjro

You know, the last time I bought glasses I was 16. It’s definitely time for an upgrade. I just ordered a box of sample frames from Warby Parker, which is my recently discovered and now favorite purveyor of eyewear. For one thing, they make relatively cheap, not-too-obnoxious retro frames ($95 with the prescription), and for another, for every pair of glasses you buy, they donate a pair to someone in the world who needs them.

Which, if you think about it, is way better than one of those ‘Buy one pair, get one free’ deals at Lenscrafters. I mean, how many pairs of glasses do you need?

And without further ado, here are the five frames (they have evocative preppy names that I will riff on to distract from my face)…

The Felton: These guys are really square, like an architect’s glasses. Kind of like that cute engineer from Love Actually that “Just Judy” never gets to sleep with. Not the worst association to go with.

The Pierce: Like the Felton, but a smoky gray version, with those fun metal rivets on the side. President Pierce never wore glasses like this, but he looked damn fine on a horse.

Now on to our third selection…

The Preston: These are pretty much Clark Kent glasses, which is awesome, because there’s nothing I like more than pretending to work for a newspaper while on the sly I’m performing heroic, muscle-flexing feats of bravery.

The Roosevelt: A front-runner, along with the aforementioned Preston. I like the color and the shine on the frames, and they’re mostly square, which is good for round-faces (me). If you were to ask me, I’d say the my favorite Roosevelt wasn’t Teddy OR FDR – it was Eleanor.

The Webb: I think these glasses are way too small. I feel like Truman Capote and while that’s fine when I’m writing, I’m not taking my fashion cues from that guy. Also, aren’t glasses supposed to stop you from squinting? What is up with my eyes?

And yes this is the most vain post ever, but if I keep these glasses as long as I’ve kept my last pair, I might as well get a few opinions. Plus, hey! Polls!

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You Can Fly!

Posted in Films, I do stuff!, Vinyl with tags , , , , , , on February 7, 2011 by effingjro

 

I’m trying out SoundCloud for the first time – seems pretty convenient right now! I ripped this off an old vinyl of Disney favorites. Judging by how easy it was to get online, expect various other tracks to show up on here soon enough…

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The Remette

Posted in Films, Found Item, Hotties, I do stuff!, Muzak, Soul-Crushing Materialism, TEEVee, Typewriters, Vintage with tags , , , , , , , , , , on February 6, 2011 by effingjro

Well, nothing has proven to me the efficacy of the portable typewriter as much as my experience yesterday, lugging a “portable” (read: still way too heavy) typewriter through the streets of Philadelphia. The Philly Type-In was a whole lot of fun, and I really liked meeting some fellow typewriter enthusiasts (at best, most people just sort of raise their eyebrows when I talk about typewriters, then make some comment about getting their fingers stained, so this was a nice change).

What I learned, though, was that I need a lighter typewriter, and one that types faster. Today I found both in one – meet the Remette. Funny thing is, it’s the oldest of all my typewriters, and it also works the best.

What’s that, you ask? Is that a cedilla on the lower right? Hell yes it is. I don’t even know how to make a cedilla on this computer. ¸ OK, that spot you just saw is technically a cedilla, but it looks nicer on this key…

And, to see how it writes, check on my typecast below (it writes really well).

A barely related update: Nope, didn’t watch any of the Super Bowl at all. Did hear Christina fumbled the words a bit during the anthem, and it was Fergie, not Lea Michele during halftime. Frankly, no one is listening that closely to the words in the anthem anyway, but I’d say old Xtina needs to lay off her pipes a bit – to me they sound ragged, especially at the end. Bummer.

A postscript: I know I haven’t been updating much lately, but stay tuned for some vinyl I’m putting online, some great pictures from old issues of LIFE and LOOK, and generally a lot of other stuff that happened before I was born.

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This Is Typecasting

Posted in Authors, Found Item, I do stuff!, Photos, Typewriters, Vintage, Writing with tags , , , , , on January 17, 2011 by effingjro

I may be out of school, but that period just before Christmas through mid-January still has me convinced I deserve a hiatus. Plenty of interesting stuff happening though, lots of which I’ll share soon enough. For now, here’s my first foray into typecasting (which, for those of you not in-the-know, is just about the most anachronistic form of blogging around – you draft it on a typewriter, then scan and post it online (stay tuned for my clay tablet post, which I shall call cuneiformcasting)).

Just kidding, though. I’ve been reading a lot of typecasts lately and becoming completely obsessed. The next one I put up will be scanned, not photographed all slipshod.

If you care to see what I wrote a little more clearly, click the image to enlarge it. If nothing else, check out how the lines in that last paragraph splay out toward the end like threads unravelling. THAT, my friends, is the charming imperfectionof a typewriter.

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Rorshach Santa

Posted in ART, Found Item, Hotties, I do stuff!, Role Models, Vintage with tags , , , , , , on December 20, 2010 by effingjro

Or, Claus Gets Lost In A Snowstorm…

Tonight I spent a lot of time with an antique printer’s block, a paintbrush, and some sub-par ink.

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Calling All Cards

Posted in ART, I do stuff!, Stylez with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 5, 2010 by effingjro

One of the things I miss about college was having a schedule with huge gaps between classes and activities, so I could diligently do my homework. Or mess around with arts and crafts. Luckily, I now have Christmas as an excuse. Usually I spend a ton of time making a card stencil, then never get around to making/distributing the cards (see: Valentine’s Day 2010). I should do better this time around.

I figured, what’s more Christmas than a Christmas tree? Now I remember that some people don’t celebrate Christmas, but so much for being PC. Another post-collegiate discovery: there’s usually way less religious diversity in your hometown than there was in your college town.

Card Attempt 1:

At first I wanted the branches to interlace and flare like fish scales. Except that was really hard to make happen. For two minutes I tried to work out a Golden Ratio of increasing branch size, to no avail. Yes, the ‘Joyeux Noel’ is pretentious and unnecessary. Yes, I lost interest.

Card Attempt 2:

This one has cleaner cuts and keeps up the fish scale thing, but it ended up a little too geometric and symmetrical. Plus I wanted garland and ornaments and spangles (don’t try to tell me Christmas isn’t campy). Which brings us to the final version.

Card Success:

Cutting out round ornaments with an X-Acto knife wasn’t the easiest project, and now that I’m done my index finger is numb and I wish I’d used a hole punch instead, but overall I think this one is cooler (and who wants their tree to resemble a fish, anyway?). Now to pick up some spray paint and reproduce the hell out of this guy. If I get real crafty, I’ll make another stencil to layer on top with some text (it won’t be in French though, I promise).

Speaking of text, here’s my attempt at Cyrillic:

That means “Happy Birthday.” And I’ll be the first to tell you I went overboard on the leafy curlicues. Here’s the envelope, which I cut a little spider out of. The recipient thinks spiders are harbingers of good news, so I thought it would be cute to add. I think all spiders should be killed, but I’m open to the perspectives of others.

 

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Only A Car

Posted in Advertisements, I do stuff!, In the News with tags , , , , on December 5, 2010 by effingjro

So for various reasons (most of them boring), I’m a 23-year-old without a driver’s license. This wasn’t a big deal when I lived on a campus, or when I spent summers in Brooklyn and Philly. But now that I’m back in the sticks, it makes me a weirdo who’s tethered to a licensed driver at all times. Today I parallel parked three times without incident though, so things are looking up. Soon I can drive to all the farmers markets I want, just like that happy housewife up there.

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Card Season

Posted in ART, I do stuff! with tags , , , , , , on October 22, 2010 by effingjro

While I’d like to take credit for this stencil, I found the design on Skull-a-day, which, you guessed it, features a new skull every day. I definitely like how it turned out, though I’ll be curious to see how it looks when I spray paint the stencil. I’m also thinking of losing the skull and just doing a raven and roses. That sounds like a good Halloween aesthetic to me.

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One Thing That Does One Thing

Posted in Advertisements, ART, Critical Theory, I do stuff!, Photos, Soul-Crushing Materialism, Vintage with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 19, 2010 by effingjro

It’s no small secret that I’m joining the ranks of the typewriter-obsessed. You should have seen the warning signs early, when I started making posts about record players and FM stereos. I’m getting all swept up in analogland and I can’t say I mind. I was trying to explain this to my friend the other day. “Why would you buy an old, outdated piece of equipment?” he asked me. “Because it’s beautiful and it’s also a radio,” I said. “Well, my phone plays the radio. And movies. And games,” was his response.

And uh, that’s a pretty good response. It’s obvious that technology is moving in the direction of loading one device with a billion capabilities, instead of producing a billion devices with one capability. It’s kind of a death blow if you’re a hardcore materialist, and all the sudden all your media and communication needs are met by a toy the size of a pack of playing cards.

What, for example, am I supposed to put in my room besides an iPod, iPhone and iPad. A whole lot of surge protectors? No way! I like stuff! Stuff like this:

It only does one thing. But it does it really well. Also, it happens to be from around 1955. Show me an iPad that will still function 55 years from now.

This is (duh) a Remington typewriter. The same company that produced the first widely-available typewriter in the US around 1887 according to Christopher Latham Sholes’ design. I can assure you that it is NOT a Quiet-Riter, despite the snappy moniker. It’s loud. But unlike Lou, the margins work just fine on this one, and since there’s a fresh ribbon in there, I don’t have to worry about ordering more online just yet.

This is where the magic happens. It’s called the “type guide.” Also, there’s something called the “ribbon vibrator,” which raises and lowers the ribbon when a typebar flies up. Vaguely kinky, I know.
So a little cursory research indicates that my new (favorite) typewriter is colored “Mist Green.” Other options included French Gray (because everything is better in French), White Sand (evoking beaches, perhaps?) and Desert Sage.

The Mist Green one looks vaguely military, and I’ve already made a crack or two about it looking like somebody used it in WWII. I’m naming it ‘Patton’. Anachronistic, I know, but what about this blog isn’t?

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Arachnidz

Posted in I do stuff!, Photos with tags , , , , , , , on October 5, 2010 by effingjro

We are harboring some monstrous spiders on the porch here. One of the spiders, camwhore that he is, set up a web right in front of our porch light, so he looks great in pictures. I kept a cautious distance at first…

Then I swallowed my fear and embraced the macro lens.

It was a very fun and gross foray into bug portraiture.

Damn girl.

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