adrian is rad

I went to Adrian, Michigan recently, fulfilling a ~15 year old goal. Here are some photos!

Before Christmas I made and 3D printed three custom cookie cutters: one of Santa, one of my face and one of Pennsylvania. The outlines were the cutting part and then the inside was meant to emboss the shapes into the dough. They worked pretty well except the dough itself spread out too much when it was baked so it lost some of the resolution. More flour and less butter next time.

To me the crux of the Nelson Mandela story is his time in prison. He went in angry, at his own admission, and deemed a terrorist. He was ill-treated by guards. Long hours of hard labor in a lime quarry damaged his eyesight permanently. But after twenty-some years, he wasn’t broken; instead when he was offered to be freed, he refused unless the other political prisoners were freed as well. And after 27 years, he came out a hero, a founding father and a redeemer. He came out a better man, learning the language of his oppressors to better communicate with them, working to save one of their national symbols, willing to forgive those—both specifically and generally—that oppressed him, even helping give a scholarship to one of his prison guard’s sons. Granted, he was just one man—there were many that worked to change South Africa—and he wasn’t perfect, but what an amazing man, he is.

466/64 was his prison number.

It’s only been a little while since my last mixtape, but really September and October can be seen as part one and part two of the same mix. This one starts out with some soul and then movies into indie rock and folk. It’s a good one…

Go ahead and check out the playlist (below) or the liner notes.

Adrian’s October 2011 Mixtape (zip file, mediafire link)

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You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes (pdf)
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)

(for the iTunes file, simply add all the songs to your library and then go to File->Library->Import Playlist and then select the song list (the txt file). you should now have the playlist 2011October in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).

—

October 2011 mixtape:

1. Raphael Saadiq Heart Attack
2. James Brown Think
3. Charles Bradley The World (Is Going Up In Flames)
4. Adele Someone Like You
5. Otis Redding Security
6. The Womack Brothers Yield Not To Temptation
7. Pickwick The Round
8. Two Sheds Let her dance
9. The Tree Ring Wore It Deep
10. Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love My Ears Are For Listening
11. BOAT Lately
12. The Head and the Heart Winter Song
13. An Heart Dressed Sharply
14. Aimee Mann The Scientist
15. Eef Barzelay In The Aeroplane Over the Sea
16. Leslie Sisson Blues
17. Beirut East Harlem
18. Crooked Fingers Typhoon
19. Low Try To Sleep
20. Delorean Country Clutter

If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them. And tell other people about the artists!

I haven’t done a monthly mixtape in a long time even though I’ve been wanting to get back to them. Here’s my first and if you stay tuned for a couple of days, I’ve got part two of the mix, October 2011, coming up. I hope you enjoy it–there’s a nice mix of music here.

Go ahead and check out the playlist (below) or the liner notes for it.

Adrian’s September 2011 Mixtape (zip file, mediafire link)

—

You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes (pdf)
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)

(for the iTunes file, simply add all the songs to your library and then go to File->Library->Import Playlist and then select the song list (the txt file). you should now have the playlist 2011september in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).

—

September 2011 mixtape:

1. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists Parallel or Together
2. Frightened Rabbit Fuck this Place (ft Tracyanne Campbell)
3. Matt & Kim Block After Block
4. The Morning Benders Last Night
5. Tune-Yards My Country
6. WHY? These Few Presidents
7. David Bazan Eating Paper
8. Fanfarlo The Walls Are Coming Down
9. Bon Iver Holocene
10. Typhoon Summer Home
11. John Statz Tired of Telephones
12. the Wooden Birds Two Matchsticks
13. Fionn Regan For a Nightengale
14. Josh Ritter Good Man
15. Strand of Oaks Ohio
16. the National Think You Can Wait
17. Vandaveer Dig Down Deep
18. A Weather Giant Stairs
19. Explosions in the Sky Look Into the Air

If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.

(by Natalie Kardos)

I went to a wedding over Labor Day weekend with Natalie. I call these my astronaut sunglasses. They’re made by American Optical—Randolph Engineering makes the same model—and were apparently the choice of astronauts (and military pilots and Don Draper).

I wore it (purchased September 2006) until it was fell apart. If you ever see one, buy it and I’ll pay you back.

–

Update: I found out that the style is called a Hooley Hat. It’s by New Era. I can’t find the Oakland Athletics version of it, though. Maybe it’s only available at the stadium (where I bought the original hat).

In the general progression to slowly becoming an adult I’m ironing shirts more often. The above video, from shirt maker TM Lewin, helped me become both better and quicker at ironing. I’ve been using this method for a few months and it’s definitely better than my non-method before.

TW Lewin also has videos on how to press (iron) trousers and how to fold shirts.

Two years ago today I arrived in South Africa.

I’m working on a longer essay about South Africa that I was hoping to have finished by today, but I don’t, so I’ll have to share that with you another day.

I wanted to at least mark the day, though. It’s been a strange, unexpected and often wonderful two years.

Another household tip for you. Don’t use latex paint for furniture.

I was planning on painting my coffee table recently. I described the plan to the guys at my local Ace and they recommended latex paint. I sanded it down, primed it and painted it with two coats. After it had tried sufficiently, I found that it was still tacky.

As it turns out, latex paint is a horrible choice for furniture because it stays tacky for a long time, especially with things resting on it. A month after I’d painted my table, everything from paper to cloth to dust paint was still sticking to the paint.

In the end I covered it with a coat of shellac which got rid of the tackiness, but it may speed degradation in the long term.

A better solution would be oil-based paints or an enamel.

before

after

When I bought my Ektorp loveseat, I found that the white cover ($11 at my local store) was reasonably priced whereas the cover I really wanted, gray ($239) was not. So I decided to see if I could dye it close the color I wanted. I found that similar things had been done before.

Here’s what I did. Time required: about 3.5 hours (though you don’t need to be there the whole time). You may also want to reference Rit’s washing machine dyeing instructions and their tips for success.

Items

• 1 Blekinge white Ektorp loveseat cover—I bought an extra because they were only $11 and I didn’t want to be without a cover if I messed up the dyeing
• 2 bottles black liquid Rit Dye
• 1 bottle navy blue liquid Rit Dye
• 2 cups salt
• 2 tablespoons laundry detergent + 4 normal loads-worth
• A washing machine or four
• 2 cups bleach

Preparation:

1. Split covers into two lots: the main slip cover and the 4 cushion covers. These weigh the same amount (5.2lb by my measure). Do all steps in parallel for both sets. The instructions below assume you are using two washing machines at the same time. You can also do one set of covers and then the other.
2. Wash love seat and cushion covers normally.

Dyeing:

1. With the washing machine empty, start the cycle with the hottest water (usually a ‘white cottons’ setting). Wait until it’s about half full.
2. Add 1 bottle of black dye (8 oz.) to each machine. Add 1/4 cup* navy blue dye (1/4 bottle, 2oz.) to each machine. Make sure to shake well, as instructed on the bottles.
3. Add 1 cup salt to each machine. This apparently helps the color stay.
4. Add 1 tablespoon laundry detergent to each machine. This apparently helps the color evenly distribute.
5. Wait till the machines are mostly full and then add the covers to the machines. (Again: the slipcover to one machine and the 4 cushion covers to the other.) Check that the covers are full submerged in the water. Push them down if necessary.
6. Let the machine run its cycle. Check about half way through the agitation cycle that the covers are fully submerged.
7. The machines are probably stained by this point. Remove the covers from the machines. Run a full cycle with the hottest water and 1 cup of bleach to each.
8. Once the machines are clean, put the covers back in the machines (or if you have access to more machines, you can do this step in two new machines) and wash them normally. Use a cold water setting for this wash.
9. Dry the covers in the dryer in a normal cycle. One idea is to take them out when they are a little damp so they dry in place on the sofa without wrinkles.
10. Put the covers back on the sofa.

*If I had to do it over I would put less navy dye in to give it a primarily grey look, with a slight navy tint to it. I think 1/8 cup (half of what I put in) would be sufficient for this.

So there you go.

dramatized for effect

On Saturday I went to the second strangest party I think I’ve ever been to. It involved fire dancers and women dressed as lingerie angels and demons. But these things I’ve seen before. One thing I’ve never seen before was the baldhawk.

There was a man with a balding head, not as bald in the above picture, but not far from it. His hair, overall, was very short.

But here’s what made it unusual. In an arc to one side of the bald spot (illustrated in black above) was a section of long hair, probably 3-4″ long. But it was only in this thin arc. I imagine sometimes he spiked it up in a baldhawk, but at the time it just flopped down to the side.

So strange.