more book excitement

I couldn't get a good picture of the book cloth, but here is the lovely end paper:



My email is currently not working (damn IT) so what can I do but blog? The exciting news for today is that I got new bookbinding supplies in the mail. I really have to practice before I use any of it because it's all spectacularly beautiful. My favorite is some bookcloth that looks like linen and is a pale bluish-green (the color is called "endive" which is probably why I bought it). I also got some wicked cool decorative paper for end pages. Oh, and a very sharp knife that I will most likely cut myself on many, many times. I know you all probably don't care about any of this, but oh well. Later today, when I am at home with my camera, I will post pictures.

my first book

I just wanted to announce the arrival of my first book. Unfortunately, not a book I've written, but I book I've made.

I decided to take a book binding class, something I thought about doing as an undergrad, but never got around to. I made a deal with myself in January that because I had purchased a new kitchen mixer, I couldn't buy any books until March. I've done well at keeping my resolution, but now I'm just spending all my money on materials to make books. It is a very expensive hobby. I also already have too many hobbies. Oh well.

So, here is the unveiling of my first book:





The book has many flaws, but hopefully they aren't visible in the pictures. Yesterday, as I was doing the finally gluing of the book, I was cursing myself for thinking that because I like to read books I would be good at making books. Bookbinding is essentially a complicated craft and I have never been very good at crafts. But I am hopeful that I will eventually figure out what I am doing.

grizzly man

Has anyone seen this movie? Wow. I rented it the other night and it kept me up until 3 in the morning and I can't even explain why. I didn't know much about this movie except that it was about a man who lived among grizzly bears in Alaska and who was eventually killed by a bear. From this, I assumed that Timothy Treadwell, the title character, was a scientist of some sort--a biologist or an ecologist. I didn't know that he was a novice, a lost boy, a manic Mr. Rogers with a bandana instead of a sweater and a neighborhood full of grizzlies. When I first started watching the movie, I thought I couldn't finish it because Treadwell was so saccharine, so absurd.

But I got caught up in the narrative, the strangeness of it all. I started rewatching it the next day, but I didn't think I could handle it all again. I think what kept me up was thinking about how confused we are about the natural world. Here's a man who feels so out of place in the world of people that he decides to retreat to the wild. But he doesn't fully understand what that wild, animal world is all about. He talked often about how the bears could maim and kill, but he didn't really seem to believe it. Or he seemed to believe that it wouldn't happen to him, that he was somehow different, that he was somehow a bear. One of the men who helped with the recovery effort for Treadwell's body said that Treadwell seemed to think that the bears were just people in bear's clothing. That seemed an accurate assessment. I understand his need to retreat into wild nature because we have removed ourselves inappropriately far from those wild places and creatures and I think in doing so, we lose something of ourselves. But in the removal, I think it's easy to forget that wild nature is, well, wild and grizzly bears aren't fuzzy friends that we can call Mr. Chocolate.

the disorganization vortex

I've realized that the one thing that would dramatically improve my work life would be a bit more (ok, a lot more) organization on my part. Then, instead of frantically scrambling before class to find the right handout, I would just go to the place where I knew it would be and then I could relax and read/write blogs (instead of ignoring the clutter I should be organizing right now in order to blog). Life would be sweeter, I would be calmer. The problem is I am so disorganized that I don't know where to start. And I fear that in the process of organizing my current clutter I would just get behind on the things I should be doing now and then that will just lead to a me that is even more stressed. I think that I'll just have to wait until summer, but then I realize that some of my clutter is left over from the other summers where I attempted, but failed, to get myself organized. My brother suffers from the same disorder and he told me the other day that he hired a consultant to organize his studio. He figures that if someone sets up a system for him, he can follow it. This is what I need. Sadly, I don't make as much money as my dear brother does, so I am stuck with my own inability. Unless someone wants to volunteer to be my consultant. It's a good cause. MB? Anyone else have a knack for organizing?