experiment: jewelry design

"The Indo-European root of the word 'art' is 'to arrange' or 'fit together, join.' In this light, art can be pared down to its most simplistic form. We begin by collecting, then playing with the materials or objects, organizing them in a variety of ways, making new combinations, trying things, then observing the arrangements we have made." -Ker SmithMost jewelry doesn't really enthuse me. So I thought I'd try my hand at making some that does. After all, if all art is is collecting and arranging and rearranging the arrangements, who says I can't clew my talents, throw the output at the wall and see what sticks. This wall turns out, is the interweb.Here it is in stage one...

experiment: ebay

after i bought $2000 bucks worth of jcrew wares for $200 at that discount sale / college reunion, i decided to unleash my entreprenurial spirit on the internet world. lord knows my boyfriend and i only need so much cashmere in our wardrobe before we turn into this.so i did what like-minded americans have been doing for over a decade: decided to try this thing called ebay. i've never bought or sold anything off ebay before, but the interface was pretty intuitive and within an hour i had created a profile and listed the following four items - brand new italian cashmeres and lambswools - in total retailing about $400.and to my delight, it worked! people wanted all but this...

experiment: femalery

1)i'm generally not obsessed with my appearance.unbelievable, i know. i still remember about 5 years ago the moment i made the decision to ditch the concert tshirts and jeans and tie dye and neon adidas sneakers (okay, so i still have these last ones) and start dressing more like a Girl. i wasn't like Paula Poundstoning it or anything, but I wasn't very femme. and you can only be told you resemble a "street urchin," "bag lady," and "war refugee" by your relatives so many times before it shames you into making a drastic change. plus no one wanted to date me.2)i am kind of obsessed with eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. i have been since my first viewing, back in 2004....

experiment: character analysis

so there was this guy I was into my freshman year. a real hip guy. so hip, in fact, that at first, I mistook him for retarded.pardon my political incorrectness, but let’s call a spade a spade for a minute. and let me be candid here, those were my exact thoughts the first time I saw him – “is he hot, or retarded?” So if you are uncomfortable with that term, just substitute “extra righteous” in its stead.but really though, the line is fine between the two. there seems to be some recent character rule that whoever the hippest is, also looks the most handicapped. this is not always the case, but there is some undeniable correlation. it actually becomes a little silent game I...

experiment: friendly persuasion

or: what advertising has taught me about politics.i still don’t know who I’m voting for in november. really.in hopes of maintaining as much objectivity as possible, I’m trying to sort through all the hype and SNL skits and meaningless statistics and mudslinging and get to the meat of the situation. the issues. and I’m having a hard time contextualizing just about anything. just about every “fact” is contradictory. though it might seem unpopular or unwise to even still be considering a republican candidate, I don’t see any reason I shouldn’t still try try try to garner facts late in the game. though mccain has a crazy lazy eye and palin sounds a bit folksy and uneducated,...

experiment: graduate school

are you ever sitting somewhere, in some present or ongoing situation and thinking, "mis-take." or "esoteric bullshit." (pardon my language, but c'mon, if you don't use at least four four-letter words every hundred or so, what sort of creative writer upholding the face of academia ARE you!?) if you've felt these feelings, then you, friend, will know of my troubles. well, troubles no more.using disgusting amounts of agency, i withdrew from the MFA.yep, that's right. didn't even make it a semester. and it's too late to apologize. too late. rather, ladles and gentleminds, i offer you this promise."Shine on you crazy diamond!" you yelled.I've heard your call. and i've heeded....

experiment: new york, new york

here it is. my one thousand word photo-essay of the city where i lived, i loved, i learned, i alliterated. it was difficult to narrow it down to an image that captured the city as I saw it and would like to remember it, but this one really slams it on its enormous, schizophrenic head. trying to reduce new york to just one image initially seemed impossible. but what is more improbable is trying to do the place justice. you know how awesome it is, you've been there, you've seen, you've experienced how it felt, and how, inexplicably you just feel different there (assuming you didn't spend all your time in midtown). i don't need to harp on about it or list all the reasons it's...

experiment: hip hop ononomous

so there's this friend of mine--a state champion, collegiate gymnast. she can do things with her arms and legs that i consider impossible for most bipeds. she recently came to visit and wanted to check out a dance class while in town."dance class? that sounds fun! like ballet? argentine tango? highland jig?. . . . hip hop? . . . . um. . . . you know, on second thought, my doctor advised me against putting undue lateral pressure or movement on my ankle, so i may have to pass." (pansyfied truth, but truth nonetheless.)justified, right? hip hop is one of the few genres i feel completely debilitates me. i'm at a dance party, i'm going strong to some inxs or css, and then ...

experiment: botany, or Why I Can't Have Nice Things

plants are fascinating, aren't they? little green disturbances that annoy as often as astonish. annoy because you spent 3/4 of your life picking weeds, and the other 1/4 mowing what seemed like acres of parched kansas lawn. using a hatch-job lawnmower. and with a discman duct taped to your sweaty teenage torso.don't get me wrong, i like plants as much as the next person who doesn't like plants. that is, to say, i enjoy the scenery. i've even recently voyaged to the bowels of brooklyn to enjoy the botanical gardens in all their rose colored glory. and i'm partial to showers of romanticism and dream about a future in the oregonian rain forest, establishing homestead in the...

experiment: contesting

how couples in closely related fields manage to avoid the pitfalls of competition is always astounding. the notion of “group work” is anathema to me. (too many cooks! get out of my creative kitchen! Don’t even think about touching my grilled cheese!) however. however. i’ve realized, because of those twin towers of intransigence and arrogance, i’ve actually missed out.see, jared won a very cool contest, accompanied by laud and a bag o goodies. we were able to work on much of this together and i honestly think we (and the project) were the better for it. but still, it was him that won. he reaped the fruits. and yes, i was genuinely excited for him, and yes, i do want a talented...

hypothesis: the internet sucks (creativity)

i venture there is a direct inverse relationship.(i just lost 5 points posting this. but it was done in the name of science...

experiment: missionary

aka the longest blog EVERi went street contacting with the missionaries on saturday in times square. it was scary and exciting and cool. as someone who hates being approached by pretty much everyone, i also hate approaching people who are strangers and asking them for a minute of their time. (i have the utmost respect for those who do this long term—shout out to alex, my brother in argentina!)no doubt you’ve seen the Mormon missionaries around at least a few times in your life – white shirt and tie (men) and modest skirt/dress (women) and tried to avoid them or walk a bit faster so you don’t have to look them in the eye. c’mon, i know how it is. well on saturday, i volunteered...

experiment: pudding on the gross

what i have learned:if, lazing on a sunday afternoon, you feel the urge to try to cheat the recipe and just cook rice and cook pudding and throw the two together, all you get is chocolate rice. i actually hypothesized as much, but just couldn't bring myself to break the sabbath and get the needed ingredients. obedience sometimes tastes a bit chalk...

experiment: identity change

aggen.why do people call me this? how and when and where did it start?i suppose at first it was for utility’s sake. it’s hard having more than one adrienne around. and since adrienne and i have been bosom friends since we were 10, and now are roommates, at some point along the way it happened to be easier for those around us to refer to us by our last names. that’s my theory, anyway.well, to be precise, it started with soccer nicknames. two adrienne’s on the shamrocks was a lot. i think i’ll credit jeff thornburgh (or one of his daughters) with coining “Ace” and “AA,” for her and i, respectively—nicknames that passed in a sporting environment, but didn’t really fly elsewhere....

experimental art(s) 2007

Consumer Reports: Faves and Raves and Fuzzy pants guh-loreThe danger in these lists is A) that my long term (meaning a year) memory eludes me, so that instead being of a fully true annual representation of what moved me and what I moved, I fear it becomes relegated to whatever I saw and did in Q4. And B) you sound like an accidental braggart. Or in some cases a very obviously intentional braggart. Guess which kind I am! You got it, totally intentional! Maybe as you read this entry I typed using my goldplated iPhone with a Zac Posen designed skin while listening to that Panda Bear covering Husker Du covering the Wiggles Japanese import on my portable walkman/turntable/vhs/cash...