As our little blue/green marble takes its final staggering steps of its orbit around the minor star on the edge of the spiral arm of our minor galaxy in the infinite expanse of space, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on what a sucking chest wound 2008 was. It wasn’t quite as bad for me, personally, as 2004, but it pretty much sucked. The never-ending presidential campaign got dirtier and nastier, ending with the election of the smartest guy in the room, a result made possible only by the utter loathing for the current administration by 99% of the planet. In this respect, Bush/Cheney is like my ex-husband, the Anti-Christ. If they weren’t so corrupt, so evil, so mind-bogglingly sociopathic on a monumental scale, the American public might not have recognized that our last, best hope was a man with a foreign-sounding name and a skin color not traditionally associated with the presidency. But the utter terror of the prospect of another four years of Bush/Cheney lite was enough to send voters to the polls in record numbers, all with just one thought: CHANGE. And for that, MizShoes is grateful. For everything else those two have perpetrated in my (and your) name, I wish only for a special prosecutor to try them for war crimes. It’s too late for the high crimes and misdemeanors and impeachment that should have come.

The economy crashed and burned this year. We’ve tightened our belts so much at the Casita des Zappatos that the next round of economizing is going to include a WWII-style victory garden and a clothes line. I’m even unplugging the computer to save on electricity.

But I went to Arrowmont, and had a blast learning about felting. I got my beads and baubles in a shop, even if nothing sold for Christmas, it costs nothing to leave everything in the case and hope for Valentine’s Day sales. The RLA got a second, and then a third, teaching gig. I haven’t been able to sell the old VW, Zelda Bleu, but I was able to get the Smart Car, and it also costs nothing to hold on to the VW and wait for better days.

There will be better days, I’m sure of it. The future starts tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see what happens.

I try not to make New Year’s Resolutions, because I love making lists and checking off the things I’ve accomplished, and New Year’s Resolutions tend to be lists wherein nothing ever gets checked off. But this year, I’m going to try. Mostly, this has been inspired by the wii & wiifit that the RLA and I bought each other for Chanukah. I got on it yesterday and it kicked my ass. I actually dripped sweat, something that I rarely did all those sessions on the treadmill at the gym and/or with Nicolas Cage, my trainer who decamped with my money. Those little wii miis were banging their fists on the ground in frustration a couple of times, and the RLA kicked my ass when it came to running, but I beat him senseless in the hula-hoop exercise, and all those years of aerobics and step classes paid off with me being able to follow the little pink foot prints during the basic step. Awesome.

So, inspired by the wii, this will be my year to lose some weight. How much is a mystery, because I would rather have my face eaten by weasels than tell anyone how much I weigh. I won’t even let the nurse at my doctor’s office weigh me. I tell them that I am overweight and they will just have to guess.

The second resolution is to make 2009 the year that Mild Burning Symptoms finally goes live. MBS is my virtual garage sale. It’s still in development, but feel free to take a look and leave any comments you may have about it here.

The third and final resolution is to make 2009 the year that I get back to the sewing machine. I have been consumed with knitting for several years now, and my skill level has improved considerably, so it’s time to tune up the sewing skills. I have a good dress-maker’s mannequin, a wonderful machine and a separate serger, lots of fabric and lots of patterns. I intend to put them all to good use in 2009.

What’s on your list, or don’t you have one?

PS: I’ve added a list of our cast of eccentrics, over there on the right, where it used to be a lame “about me” page.

The Girlcousin sends me the best stuff.

This is what I’ve been knitting, lately.

I ran across this the other day, and I am fascinated. Aquariums that look like landscapes. It’s an aquatic variation on bonsai forests. But with fish. Swimming over the mountains. The Japanese have kicked our asses once again in the realm of the fantastic. And miniature. And tripping. Check this out, it’s the number one aqua forest in the world.

This is number 15. Awesome. Everyone seems to use neon tetras, but I could never get the little bastards to live and reproduce.

Geeky goodness, non? For those of you who, like me, were graphic designers in the dark ages before computers, I bring you the Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies. I think I have used everything in there, except the green eyeshade. I certainly still have a jar of Super White, a pack of rubylith, X-acto knives and blades, some of those exact Design markers, and sheets of press type and Pantone paper. I once had my house painted by handing the painter two sheets of Pantone and telling him to figure out the house paint equivalent. In case you are wondering, it was a conch-shell pink with aqua trim… PMS 270.

Finally, my college boyfriend who went on to do well, as opposed to the others who went on to drop off the face of the earth, has sent me a press release, and because I have a soft spot for Bruce, I’ll pass it along:

Los Angeles, CA— Turner Classic Movies will feature on Sunday, January 18 at 9:00pm (Pacific Time) the world television premieres of the new 2K digital restoration of Manhatta (1921, Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler) and the new photo-chemical restoration of N.Y., N.Y. (1958, Francis Thompson) on “Sunday Silent Nights.”

This TCM milestone broadcast of two abstract-experimental films restored by Bruce Posner and Anthology Film Archives, New York, will be followed on Monday, January 19 at 8:30pm (Pacific Time)  at REDCAT with the Los Angeles premiere of Manhatta and N.Y., N.Y. as well as seven other restored film treasures at the Roy and Edna Disney/Calarts Theater in Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles.

The REDCAT screening will be presented by archivist, curator and filmmaker Bruce Posner, who will introduce the films and discuss the process of preservation and digital restoration for images at Lowry Digital, Brubank, and Cineric, Inc., New York and for audio and music at Chace Audio, Burbank, and Trackwise, New York.  Posner was a recipient of a 2005 Special Citation from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for his restoration of “Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-garde Film 1893-1941,” the groundbreaking film-dvd retrospective released by Image Entertainment. 

I saw this the other night and knew that as soon as it came on youtube, it was going to go on Girlyshoes. Do you think that Bob Dylan would be hurt to know that he is fast being replaced by Keith Olbermann as my imaginary boyfriend? I’m not having naughty dreams about Keith, that’s still all Bob, all the time, but geez, can Keith do some righteous indignation.