Here you are.
- Seattle Urban Farm Company
This month, I’ll be volunteering with the Seattle Urban Farm Company, learning about permaculture and the local food movement.
I mentioned them once before in a post for Worldchanging. Come check them out at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show (Feb 20- 24th at Seattle Convention Center). Look for the t-shirts I printed, (bearing this logo designed by owner Colin McCrate and friends) soon!
In honor of all this, here’s “Farmer in the City,” from Scott Walker’s amazing Tilt (1995).
- AmniOn
Today was my last day at the Interra Project. I’m grateful for what I got to see take place there—something taking off…
Now, I’m on the lookout for more independent gigs (graphic design, web development, branding, marketing, business/nonprofit development) while I finish school, and as other projects move along. Here’s a resume. Here’s a running online portfolio.
Shenandoah recently forwarded me a link to a band called Amnion. From their myspace, I was expecting something noisy. But it reminds me, strangely, of Billy Joel, Elvis Costello… and Kahimi Karie. Pop.
Allegedly, the whole album will be downloadable here until February.
Here’s “aTONn,” and “hEARtbreAThmMAgikK.”
See also: Tenlons Fort
- Bird Girl Bird
My latest designs for Adapt Apparel, the clothing etc. business Molly, her brother and I have begun out of the basement.
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The first printing was on a hemp tote bag:
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Here’s a song to dance to: “Disco 2000″ from Pulp’s ca 1995 “Different Class” (c/o Dj Anderz for my birthday party a couple weeks ago).
- Clothes the Loop
4.5 percent of waste sent to municipal landfills - 4 million tons according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - is textiles ::source
The New York Times magazine has a few slides on handmade recycled clothes.
The recycled T-shirts that are at the core of the Rogues Gallery (of Portland, ME) men’s-wear line are sorted, processed, printed and reworked in a warehouse in Portland, Me., by a crew whose backgrounds have little to do with fashion.
“I’m as proud of this system as I am of the designs,” says Natalie Chanin, the woman behind Alabama Chanin, a line of richly embroidered recycled shirts and dresses that are cut, painted and sewn by hand in rural Florence, Ala. Her stitchers, some of whom quilted alongside her grandmothers, are part of a cottage-industry style of manufacturing in which people work out of their homes.
While difficult to do at a large scale, as far as I can tell, recycling old clothes into new styles can help close the loop on what is typically a wasteful industry. It slows the pull on virgin resources (and crops like cotton are very land and water intensive to grow) and we don’t have to forgo new fashions. We can keep our cake, and eat it again.
According to one source, “over 70% of the world’s population use second-hand clothes.” Indeed, to recycle clothes has become synonymous with donating them to a charity, which will rarely re-manufacture them. If we Americans start recycle our clothing at a larger scale, where will the rest of the world get theirs? Some would argue that this opens up opportunities for local producers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to sell the clothes they’re making for American and European markets locally.
Today I post for you “Indestructible Life!” by Olympia, WA’s Old Time Relijun. Enjoy!
- “crooning the tunes, naming the names”
… Here it
Seems to grow lighter with each passing century.
No matter how you twist it, life stays frozen in the headlights.
Funny, none of us heard the roar.
from John Ashbery’s “Wakefulness”.Before this becomes last year’s news: Ashbery is the poet laureate of MTV. Go watch snippets of Ashbery’s “snapped-off perceptions,” graphically made-up for the kids. Is this just a sad waste of effort, somehow? Or can poets be pop icons, once again?
See also:
•“Invisible Listeners” in the New York Times.
[Ashbery] imagines no perfect unions, in life or art. Instead he stresses the otherness of others and ourselves. But the acknowledgment of otherness is itself a form of intimacy. In Ashbery we learn how to be alone together.
• “Understanding Metaphor“, an essay on Ashbery I wrote back in 2004.
- Neck, and Neck
Here are 2 reasons why Last.fm is among Time’s top 50 sites for 2007.
1) I can now prove to Andres (operating under pseudonym Anderz) that he (through the mix-cd’s he makes) is the source of nearly all of the music I listen to:
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2) My friend Dawn found me on the site on accident because I was (at one point) the top listener of Karen Dalton. Go figure.
Today, in honor of the end of the quarter, I bring you musical love in the form of Animal Collective, because I apparently like them a lot. (see also). The song begs your patience, and pays off with a happy ending.
- Small is the New Big
Small is the New Big is a book of blog posts by Seth Godin on marketing and keeping your story relevant (whether you’re a musician, an entrepreneur, a politician, etc.). Themes I noticed:
Blogging: Do it early and do it often (but not too often) and stay on top of the technology. Blogging is a conversation, he says, and can make or break a brand. It is also a great equalizer, leveling the playing field to the point that only ideas that are “remarkable”-that are worth talking about-get any air time or get spread. Godin has been blogging for a while, and has provocative tips on blogging. He distinguishes three types of blogs:
1) Cat blogs - where you talk about your boyfriend, your cat, etc.
2) Boss blogs - where your audience is clear and limited for a purpose (within an organization, for instance.
3) Viral blogs - blogs that are spreading ideas, linking to each other, and, according to Godin, “changing the face of marketing, journalism, and the spread of ideas.”Metaphoring: Godin doesn’t talk explicitly about metaphor, but most of his posts are themselves metaphors. It’s a great, simple tool for coming up with interesting things to write about. He’ll hear about something interesting or mundane, and then talk about how it or is not like (purple cows) (viral marketing) (authenticity) (marketing wants) (technology) (etc…). So simple. His background and his understanding of business and marketing are solid, but it’s how he tells a new story everyday to convey the same basic principles over and over that makes his blog remarkable. Each post looks at something he’s talked about before from a fresh new angle.
Storytelling: By using metaphors to expose new facets of his expertise, Godin is constantly telling stories. Each post is a story, and connects to the larger narrative of his work. By reading it for just a few days, you feel like you have a pretty good grasp of his voice, his punkish character, and yet you want to keep reading. And storytelling is key for companies in the new economy. Being authentic, being remarkable, and then telling your authentic story in a way that consumers find remarkable is the best way to compete.
Wanting: Over and over, Godin says things like “sell me what I want or I’m leaving.” Marketing is not about needs. It is about wants. It is about finding out what people want and giving it to them, nothing else. People want to be a part of a story. They will want to be a part of your story, if it’s a story worth telling.
- “as the world falls down”
A great overview of the messy world of sustainable fabric I’ve just dipped my toes in: “A World Consumed by Guilt” at the New York Times.
We all make compromises every day. Making them with your eyes open instead of arbitrarily is the best piece of advice I could give.
“Future Fashion White Papers” (via PSFK) may be a good resource for making compromises with your eyes open:
FutureFashion White Papers aims to educate all people interested in sustainable fashion and offers safe environmental practices for the industries and consumers. It is an invaluable and ground-breaking resource that proves how style and sustainability can coexist.
We shall see.
Today’s postsong: Trying to navigate the world of sustainable fabric is kind of like going to masquerade ball after eating a dosed apricot, and ending up dancing with David Bowie… Or not, but either way, today I bring you David Bowie, singing “as the world falls down” from the movie Labyrinth.
- Provenance
I’ve been blogging a lot about “locally grown” clothing, the “100 mile closet“, and other ways the apparel industry can mimic what’s been happening with food systems for several years. The provenance of our clothes—where they came from, through what processes and systems—is just as important as the provenance of our food.
Monocle magazine makes a good business case for why provenance is something businesses should pay attention to (via PSFK):
Provenance became a big issue for brands low, medium and high in 2007. A spate of scares involving Chinese-made products saw the world’s largest toy maker, Mattel, recall 21 million toys due to concern over lead paint. Gap was stung when it was found that children in India were employed to make garments for their Western peers. In the showrooms of many luxury brands, buyers were starting to question if the clothes and accessories were really made in the UK, France and Italy.
In 2008, provenance is going to become more important at luxury goods companies as CEOs decide whether to downgrade their brands (they wouldn’t call it this, but we would) by shutting workshops and moving the work to Asia to improve margins, or take a long-term view and keep investing in craftsmanship, education and maintaining manufacturing facilities above the shop.
The decision should be a simple one. The fake handbag might be made in China, but if 90 per cent of the real thing is made there as well, where’s the point of difference other than price? Against this backdrop, a growing movement for authenticity, craftsmanship and heritage is creating greater opportunities for artisinal companies.
When we start paying attention to ‘provenance’—where stuff comes from—what changes will we demand from the fashion industry? How will we vote with our dollars?
- [and clothing]
“‘In some cases transport is only 20% of the total energy budget of a food’s production’… [D]o not be fooled by the food miles (although they are certainly interesting and useful) and remember to keep the bigger life cycle picture in mind when choosing your food.”
But 20% is still a lot.
