Week of culture

The week before last week went from ho hum to full speed ahead and has now continued for another week. I had been enjoying a peaceful life when all a sudden my social calendar filled up. A few highlights:

Wednesday:

First event was attending PopArt the musical. The music was written by one of my Mizzou friend's boyfriend. The show was part of a festival aimed at previewing as many new musicals as possible. So it wasn't like the Broadway musicals, smaller theater, less flash, but it was really good and the singers and musicians were talented.

Thursday:

A coworker IM'd me at the end of the day wondering if I wanted to attend a concert in Williamsburg. One where the headliner would go on till around 11pm. Hmm.. well I got talked in to going to see !!!, who? !!! (if you are wondering how to pronounce that it is chk, chk, chk) The show turned out to be a lot of fun. I'm not sure how to describe the music but there was a string section, occasional horn action, and major danceability. The lead singer had an adorable dance that I could of watched all night.

Friday:

For my second concert of the week I headed back to Brooklyn with a friend to see Mark Geary and Marketa Irglova (you might know her from Swell Season or the movie Once). Mark's music was fun folksy irishy (I'm not a music critic) while Marketa's was more soft, slow, and deep. It was in a cute "art space".

Out my window

I haven't posted a good "out my window" picture in awhile. But this sunset last week deserves to be seen!

MetroCard holder

I mentioned the other day how at the Maker Faire they had a demonstration on how to make a MetroCard holder, but it was really more an infomercial for a set of tools (large punch, adhesive machine, laminator, etc). However I liked the idea and new it could be done with things I had in my apartment. Well this week my old holder, which I had gotten for free at this arts festival from the Whitney Museum booth approximately 3 years ago, completely came apart.

How to make your own MetroCard* holder

Supplies: Scissors, clear tape, notecard, and MetroCard to determine size. I also used my old holder as a pattern, but it isn't necessary.

You can use a piece of card stock or a post card as well.

Cut your paper to the appropriate height and fold in thirds. I made one flap a lot bigger than the other so that the grab hole (I just made that term up) wouldn't be on the two sides.

Then trace and cut out your grab hole

Then I just used clear tape to tape the sides together and put a piece across the bottom. If you have clear packing tape it might be a good idea to just cover the whole thing to protect it a little.

front

back

my MetroCard ready to go

*Same process can be used to hold any type of card

I'm done!

I finished my afghan. I figure it took me about 25 hours or so.... I think I'm pleased. To me the charcoal stripes don't really fit in as well as the other colors, but doesn't stick out enough to tear it all out.

As I mentioned it is a travel blanket, so here it is rolled up.

And with the handy dandy straps to keep it together. I didn't have matching buttons, but these are close enough.

Maker Faire

Today I went to the Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Queens. Make is a project based magazine that is pretty sciencey. Think less building a bookcase and more building a magnetic stirring machine. However they have a sister magazine, Craft, that is more my thing (although some of their crafts are quite nerdy as well... think firefox necklace, light up clothing, robot notecards).

Day of tickets were $25 (I could of saved $5 by planning ahead), but I ended up spending 5 hours there and got some free stuff so it wasn't too bad of a deal. My day started out in the crafts for sale area. Everything was high quality and included jewelry, soap, printed t-shirts, plushies (my newly learned name for stuffed animals), and stationary.

I then moved on to the craft demonstration area and saw how to make a stuffed hedgehog. It was cute and a well done presentation, but I didn't really learn anything new (make a pattern, cut it out, sew, stuff, whip stitch....)

I did love her pretty pink sewing machine

Next door was the Martha Stewart Living booth. I was a little disappointed by her crafts. When I first went by they had butterflies to cut out and attach to a dowel rod with a ribbon.... They were also making giant paper mache bones and taking pictures of people in front of a fall background. I was able to grab the October Living magazine.

Martha wasn't there

I went back by her booth later and they were handing out cupcakes decorated with gum paste cut out by a cricut machine. I've seen these machines before for paper, but was surprised to see them used for food. The results are pretty, but I can't help from feeling like its cheating.

I headed on to the Craft make tent. Inside there were several demonstrations and lessons.

Outside was this car with a knitted cozy.

Lion Brand and Red Heart Yarn brands both had booths inside. As I walked up to the Lion Brand booth they were starting a knitting lesson, although I already know how to knit the allure of free yarn, needles, and project bag was too much and I grabbed a chair. To my surprise I learned something new. I taught myself to knit from a CD my mom got me one Christmas. That is where I learned to cast on, I had no idea there were other ways! Today I learned the "knitted cast on". I picked it up pretty quickly, an advantage is not needing to know how long of a tail you need when you start casting on.

Some of the cute projects they had made up

Lunch of Paella (the shrimp was whole and messy)

After lunch I wondered over into the other areas of the fair. And wow. There were people all in gold riding gold horse bicycles around, there were Steampunk people (victorian science fiction), there was all kinds of soldering, and some crazy jet fueled 360 degree swing of death (that was really loud).

One of the cooler things I saw was these two guys with a bunch of bottles of diet coke and mentos. Not only was there diet coke flowing everywhere they guys gave a great explanation of what happens and how to do it yourself while being charming the entire time.

Explaining how different variations affect the effect

During the grand finale-- better than the fountains in Vegas

There was also this crazy guy giving haircuts. Ummm I didn't go near him.

I never go to salons that require my eyes to be taped shut

Overall it was a great fair. One suggestion... make it less child friendly? They had special children areas, but no special adult areas. The kids were everywhere and hey, I would of liked to tried and tested a few more things, but I never like making a kid cry.

My first attempt at stop-motion video

I recently got a new computer.... my other one was over 5 years old and quite slow... and then it came down with something. With my new speed and creative ability I decided to try making a stop-motion video. I always think they look so cool. I looked up some instructions, and found some here.

I then started drawing and taking pictures. When I was done, I had over 300 pictures to upload. After fooling around with a little iMovie software I came out with the lovely movie below-

Next time if I'm drawing I won't use paper that is so transparent (New York magazine's September 27th Facebook article shines through). I also need to invest in a tripod (any suggestions on a good one?), my left hand started cramping. Next time I'll try to be a bit more creative, any ideas?

New York this morning

I had to get up for work early this morning. As I opened my blinds this morning I saw the moon setting over Manhattan.

There have also been a ton of Coast Guard boats in the East River this week protecting the United Nations from Pirates (I assume). There are several of these bigger boats, but my favorite are the smaller raft like boats with the big guns and gunner up front. I was caught in the traffic jam this morning that the UN General Assembly always creates and got to watch some of the gunner boats escort EPA ships down the river.

All these boats made me wonder why they couldn't find a place to put the UN that would be a bit easier to secure.