Kate's Point of View

The Product of Creative Frustration

Month: April 2011

Time for Learning

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On April 13, 2011

In classes

I collect knowledge the way my husband collects mp3s. I love learning new things, I love thew structure of classes and, perhaps a little sick, I love being graded for what I do because it makes me do better. Last weekend I took a cookie decorating class (fail) and am looking forward to glass blowing classes (this is where my sisters insert lots of jokes about me needing classes for blowing) and photography classes. And, whenever the fiasco that is my bathroom ends, banjo lessons.

When my life feels stuck, when I want more but don’t know how to articulate what it is I want or how to go about getting it, I turn to structured classes. They’re a way for me to grow intellectually and creatively, an easy way to meet people and, frankly, a great way for me to check things off my list of goals. It’s my way of spending the summer adding to my collection.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.

Jose!

By

On April 13, 2011

In uncategorized

I enter contests all the time. Seriously, I bet I enter a few hundred a year. I rarely win, but today on this rainy Monday, I won!!! Maggie of Mighty Girl ran a contest giving away some children’s items and I won. I don’t know yet what I’ll do with these children’s items. I need to see the items first but some might find themselves gift-wrapped and at birthday parties or under Christmas trees!

To enter the contest, you had to comment on the post with a childhood memory. Normally I don’t blog about my parentals, but this is one of my favorite memories:

When I was a tween I stayed home sick one day and spent the entire day in my parents’ bedroom on their waterbed watching TV. When my dad came home he brought me 1) my favorite movie to watch (Mine, Yours and Ours starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda), 2) a king-sized Nestle Crunch bar and 3) some movie star teen magazine. It was completely out of the ordinary, sweet and made me want to be sick more often!

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.

100 Things

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On April 11, 2011

In 100 List

In March of last year there was a blogging event called the Mighty Summit. I read about the event and its attendees, many of whom I admire and read daily, and was inspired. One of the activities they did was to create 100 lists, an act that is almost cliched in the blogging world but which I think has merit. I’ve written before of my intention to create my own 100 list. Since I’ve been working on it for the last year, I thought it might be worthwhile to post what I have so far so I could get to checking things off. I’ve selected these items from personal goals I’ve had over the years as well as cruising the internet. I am not stupid naive enough to consider putting an end date on accomplishing these goal. But I do want to make progress towards doing them all.My list

  1. See Stevie Wonder in concert, which, of course, must immediately be followed with all of the other people I want to see in concert
  2. See The Shins in concert
  3. See Neko Case in concert
  4. Have The Features to my house for dinner
  5. See Prince in concert
  6. Go skinny dipping
  7. Go to a topless beach, topless
  8. Watch all of the films in “AFI’s 100 movies … 100 years list”
  9. Hug Josh Ritter … sober this time
  10. Play an instrument
  11. Learn a new language
  12. Visit Antarctica
  13. Fly a plane
  14. Try eating vegan for some period of time … at least a week so that it counts
  15. Go sailing
  16. Live in another country
  17. Go to South by Southwest
  18. Be a professional gift wrapper (a wealthy one is not necessary and a holiday job in college does not count)
  19. Publish an article in something people have actually heard of
  20. Ride a camel
  21. Learn to sew
  22. Dance with my husband for no reason at all
  23. Restore old furniture
  24. Own an old American car
  25. Drink beer in a pub in Ireland
  26. Drink beer from a stein in Germany
  27. Take a photography class
  28. Try pottery again
  29. Go back to school to get another degree and drive people nuts with unnecessary but very wanted education
  30. Take cooking classes
  31. Find a truly fulfilling job that doesn’t require wearing a wrist brace
  32. Listen to 1,000 new bands
  33. Take each of my nieces and nephews overseas
  34. Find a career I love
  35. Host regular parties
  36. Write thank you notes
  37. Visit 50 states (Accomplished 42 Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming)
  38. Visit 50 countries (Accomplished 30: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, Vietnam)
  39. Meditate
  40. Retire at 55 (50???)
  41. Get in shape, be active and have fun doing it
  42. Keep a reusable bag handy
  43. Be a better friend
  44. Get better sleep
  45. Reduce computer time
  46. Attend BlogHer
  47. Reduce TV time
  48. Keep house filled only with things I love
  49. Give yoga a shot
  50. Learn to ride the city bus
  51. Read all of the books in the BBC Top 100
  52. Take more photos
  53. Be a good daughter
  54. Be appreciative
  55. Visit Cuba
  56. Go camping
  57. Attend a TedX
  58. Make grand gestures
  59. Send out a photo Christmas card with cats where most people have kids
  60. Throw 50 dinner parties
  61. Own a fabulous and completely impractical car
  62. Make pasta from scratch
  63. Update blog daily for at least a month stretch
  64. Learn to make gnocchi
  65. Cook every recipe in a cookbook
  66. Go one month car-free
  67. Send a birthday card (on time) to everyone in my life for one full year
  68. Start and finish a 365 photo project
  69. Cook more
  70. Initiate more outings with friends
  71. Take glass blowing lessons
  72. Learn to do screenprinting
  73. Create something using Letterpress
  74. Send notes on hand-sewed paper
  75. Volunteer overseas
  76. Get a photograph published in a magazine
  77. Go on a pilgrimage
  78. Rent a ridiculously fancy car – convertible – and drive down the coast
  79. Achieve my personal weight goal
  80. Run an half marathon
  81. Try 30 new cocktails
  82. Try 60 new beers (more my speed)
  83. Create a scavenger hunt – or just go on one
  84. Go indoor rock-climbing
  85. Leave a waiter or waitress a really big tip, just because
  86. Create an editorial calendar for my personal, and not professional, use
  87. Attend a fashion show at Fashion Week
  88. Visit two national parks to which I’ve never been
  89. Make my own sushi
  90. Pay for the person (people) behind me at Starbucks
  91. Donate hair to locks of love
  92. Get a wild haircut
  93. Hug ten people in a day
  94. Ride a mechanical bull
  95. Write a book
This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.

Guster & Jukebox and the Ghost

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On April 10, 2011

In rock

I see, on average, two concerts a month. I love going to shows. I get pretty good indie cred for the shows I see, in general. Exceptions probably include the 80s cock rock bands I see over the summer, like Def Leppard. There is always one band for which I am surprised by the amount of flack I get for seeing them.

Guster is great live. There are the perfect summer band, and if it’s not summer yet they help you imagine it is. When I tell my hipster friends that I’m headed to a Guster show, they smile as if it’s a good thing but I see their jaws clench up. I don’t get it.

One of the things I most love about Guster shows is that their crowds are awesome. There are always tons of college kids there but the crows also include people in their mid-30s. What makes a band keep some segment of their fan-base from the beginning of them playing but then perpetually stay popular with the the same age group? Ben Folds has the same thing going on. Part of the appeal, I think, is the stoner music. But past that? I have no explanations.

Speaking of stoner music… Last weekend we saw Guster play and it was wonderful. The crowd was better than I ever give Bogart’s credit for and Wonder Boy and I were having a great time. Midway through the show we both headed down to the (disgusting) bathrooms. On our way back we were both hit by it at the same time. The giant wall of pot smoke. Throughout the show it must have been gradually building and we never noticed it. But wow. I haven’t experienced that since a Phish show at the coliseum several years back.

Opening for Guster was Jukebox and the Ghost. Wonder Boy and I saw them play at Midpoint a few years back and Wonder Boy fell in love. I wasn’t completely sold. I heard too much Queen and hints of high school musicals in their music. But this time I thought they were fabulous. Near the end of their set they did a cover of I Love You Always Forever by Donna Lewis*. In addition to being a scarily good rendition, it was hysterical. If you haven’t seen Jukebox and the Ghost, I recommend it.

I also recommend Guster. If you’re too caught up in your hipster status, put on some dark sunglasses so your friends don’t spot you going to the dark side, loosen up and enjoy yourself. As far as I’m concerned, last weekend was the marker for the beginning of summer. And I expect Guster to be around during several hot evening and nights when I’m sitting on my porch drinking a cold beer and listening to good music.

*Have you seen this video before? What the heck?!? Why does she have shoes on her hands?!?

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.

The Kill Team

By

On April 7, 2011

In uncategorized

Wonder Boy and I have both recently been subscribed to Rolling Stone, which means we get two issues every week and we have no idea why. It’s not a magazine I’m terribly interested but a recent issue caught my eye, mainly because Rihanna is on the cover wearing an outfit I wore just last week.

So I was flipping through the Rihanna issue and came across this story The Kill Team, which highlights acts of murder occuring by American solders against civilians in Afghanistan. The artice is pretty horrible and while these types of things might occur in every war, they shouldn’t and it’s an awful representation of Americans.

But that’s not the part that gave me pause. In this article, it is explained the soldiers are taking pictures of their kill and sharing the pictures much like you would baseball cards. Disturbing right? Then Rolling Stone published the pictures to show just how awful they are. The New Yorker also did this when the Abu Ghraib torture stories broke. Seeing pictures of tortured people … dead people … it’s shocking. But Rolling Stone went one step further. They published an image of an Afghani man’s head being held up by an American soldier. Just the head.

And here’s the thing – the fact that anyone took this picture is heinous. But to publish the picture? It’s exploiting the awful act. And I sat there, slack-jawed looking at it and thinking, “Would they have published the picture if the head was from an American?”

I don‘t think so.

This post originally appeared on Kate’s Point of View. © Kate. All rights reserved.

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