Then there were the puppets. (See below.) I suggest Folkmanis as your source, as opposed to, well, this. Folkmanis doesn't make the white chickens any more, though. (Visit the chickencam! Go to the Chicken Store! Knit a chicken hat! Don't forget the chicken car, while you're at it.)
An ebbing-and-flowing interest of mine is the graphic narrative (also known as comic art). (I recently joined Friends of Lulu.) Periodically, I re-read Neil Gaiman's Sandman. I also like Alison Bechdel, Carol Lay, John Allison, Carol Tyler, Heather McAdams, Love & Rockets, Ben Katchor, Akiko, Chris Ware (who may be totally obscure and depressing, but the concept is so damn great), Nina Paley, Steve Lieber (who is married to my friend sara ryan), Action Girl, Flaming Carrot, Optic Nerve, Ellen Forney, Dan Clowes, Graham Roumieu, Craig Thompson, Phoebe Gloeckner, Tintin (not underground, just cool), Jessica Abel's Artbabe, and (though this is slightly embarrassing) Omaha. Visit Fantagraphics, First Second, or Drawn + Quarterly to fulfill the jones. (Read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics to make your brain hurt.) If you're a noir fan, I suggest City of Glass, part of Avon's abortive Neon Lit series. (That was a blatant plug for David Mazzucchelli.) If you are anyone, get Bryan Talbot's The Tale of One Bad Rat. For other comix suggestions, read The Comics Journal, ask my truly obsessive friend Tom, or the almost-as-fixated Calvin Reid. (And now, you too can be a superhero!)
Although I don't take pictures, photography has always fascinated me, too -- especially photojournalism. I've belonged to the International Center of Photography for years. A few links to start with (for me, and you) would include Elsa Dorfman, David Bailey, Helen Levitt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Tina Barney, Edouard Boubat, Robert Capa, Mary Ellen Mark, Walker Evans, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Elliott Erwitt, Diane Arbus (who was Howard Nemerov's sister, by the way), Stephanie Chernikowski, Gered Mankowitz, and Richard Aaron. More to come as I find and code them.
(Whenever I don't know what else to do, I make a pot of tea, order and eat extremely good chocolate, smoke, watch documentaries, play with my chemistry set and blow stuff up, drink Diet Mountain Dew [I have participated in the Coffeethon], buy and eat novelty candy, go out for sushi, eat condiments out of their jars with a spoon, imitate Cookie Monster [I do not think "a cookie is a sometimes food"], curse, go to a planetarium, an aquarium, or a zoo, watch other things in the dark, drink iced coffee, visit an online museum, use Bioré strips, eat British and/or Canadian food, look at things in 3D [it's a long story], go to historic diners, consider sea turtles, sleep, devour boxfuls of pralines or fudge or butter tablet, drink tea, think about owls, procrastinate, smoke, eat salt water taffy [but only from the one supplier in Utah], wonder if I should indulge my high school-era 1960s fetish, travel on public transportation, eat various varieties of weird candy, do puzzles [in pen], learn more about the space program, go to the dentist [I have had thirteen root canals -- and, as I code this, a massive toothache], drink chai [with soy milk], smear myself with Marshmallow Fluff, eat HoneyBells, or have a nice cup of tea and a sit down while I chain-smoke.)
That said, I do have a few life goals.
I keep telling myself, "I am finally finished with clothing! I have enough!" but this is a total lie. Since I hate to go shopping, I love catalogs and of course the nice internet. I started with hanna andersson, which is lovely if you want to look like you are eight. (Psychoanalysts: this happened right as my mother died.) After I maxed out on Toddler Chic, I turned to J. Peterman; yes, they went out of business, but now they're back. (Other catalogs/websites I have patronized or at least considered include the very "Englishe" Past Times, Lush, Victorian Trading Co., the Vermont Country Store, Lands' End, Burt's Bees, Garnet Hill, Monroe Salt Works, Flax/Angelheart, bliss, Sephora, Oilily, The Territory Ahead, Kevin Simon Clothing, J.Jill, Zappos, Boden, eGnome, Wrap, Jo Malone,
Macy's, Orvis, Gudrun Sjödén [if I spoke Swedish, it would be easier], April Cornell, Peach Berserk, Sundance, Dadadie Brücke Mod Fashion, the Peruvian Connection, The Body Shop, Viva Terra, CB I Hate Perfume, Soft Surroundings, Acca Kappa, The Perfumed Court, Deva Lifewear, enokiworld, Norm Thompson, Isabella, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts....)(And let us not forget our enabling friends at eBay and UPS.)*
Did you know that the UPS logo upside down is "sdn"?
I didn't consider jewelry terribly important until I saw the work of the remarkable Elise Matthesen. Just about all of her pieces are named, and many writers have used them as creative inspiration. Check out her page as well as her LiveJournal.
I own an Easy Bake Oven. It cost me $20.00. (As opposed to $1,400.00.) After years of procrastination, I finally baked one underwhelming sugar cookie. Mission accomplished. (The Easy Bake Cotton Candy Maker is also, unsurprisingly, a big lose.)
I often wish I had a vending machine at home, as well as slugs to feed it and someone to service it.
Three of my favorite sites are Cunts Corner, The Hatebook and The Law of the Playground (a twisted version of the work of Iona and Peter Opie, which I also love). Go cartoonlike vitriol!
An ongoing obsession is slang -- especially UK slang. I also wish I could speak Welsh, but it is too complicated. Instead, I listen to Radio Cymru without understanding a word. It is very satisfying. (I feel the same way about Yiddish, which was my mother's first language. However, I do know a bis'l.)
I listen to The Archers online, which my British friends think is either charming or demented. But anything that has been on the air since 1950 deserves some notice, I think, and I am learning a lot about cows.
Because Diana Wynne Jones's book Howl's Moving Castle was made into an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, I've been watching a lot of his films. My lovely author friend Christopher Barzak, who was at the time teaching in Japan, went to the Ghibli Museum and bought me some great souvenirs.
I love MetaFilter, Wikipedia (which makes me laugh unexpectedly), and the New York Public Library's online book reserve system.
Lately I have been doing crossword puzzles like a demon, and have just joined the National Puzzlers League. Perhaps I shall attend the next American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
I have also embraced the fact that I will probably be having extensive dental work every ten days until I drop dead. Three titanium implants, coming up!
Stacy Horn's Cyberville pushed me over the edge into joining Echo. It's a very cool BBS in Manhattan, and has proven definitively that the world is entirely too small. I seem to be indirectly connected to most of the people there.
What I like best of all is stories -- about self, about family, about the
past. (This is one of the many reasons why I am an editor.)
I am determined to eventually get a scooter and/or a miniature bull terrier. (Or maybe combine the two: AIBO!) For now, I share my apartment with a very nice cat.
*(Needless to say, all of this stuff takes up a lot of space in my apartment, AKA the smoker's dumpster full of my mother's clothing. I am not what you would call a housekeeper. One of my ex-roommates said it best: "You're worse than a straight guy.")
This is Harriet. She is alive.
Eyes? What eyes?
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