b l o g o r e l l i

Dog Days

Some weeks, the daily grind makes you so glad that Friday has arrived. I know that my cousin Kris and fianceé Melinda's "puppies" Brutus (115 lbs) and Barklie (70 lbs) agree -- it's time to kick back for the weekend.

WOOF!

Letterpress n' Things

A little over a month ago, I finally got to take a drive out the Northern MA way to visit Letterpress Things. The morning itself was slightly grey and the drive a bit monotonous, but well worth the effort when I met John Barrett, proprietor of all things letterpressed. On certain weekends, he opens his third floor warehouse space up so that typophiles (is that even a word? Well, you know what I mean) like myself can sift through his giant collection of type cuts, presses, cases, and supplies. The Prof and I have tried to make the trip to LPT two times before, once thwarted by other plans and once by a snowstorm. We lucked out this time, though, because the morning we did happen to go to Chicopee, it was just us and John for most of our three hour visit.

John runs a printshop during the week, but LPT is his real passion, and he not only gave us the full tour but also did an impromptu demonstration back in the print shop, where we inked up a press and I got to pull my first print! Luckily, The Prof was there to photograph the whole momentous occasion...

Here's a little description of our process (I'm remembering the best I can, so please excuse if something is in the wrong order.)

Step 1: Pick out something to print
In our case, John chose a kicky little parrot, which we ended up using over my Swiss-looking cut of two children because it had better metal.

Step 2: Lock the type into the case
This step involves arranging a bunch of little pieces of wood to steady the type (or parrot) and locking everything tight with a key.

Step 3: Ink the plate
Pretty self-explanatory, except that the ink was pretty sticky and concentrated. Luckily, I have a light touch.

Ink smear on plate, how very Pollock, no?

After spreading the ink on the plate, you've got to turn the plate and run the rollers over it a bunch of times to get everything coated to the right consistency. John said that it kind of sounded like rolling wet paint onto a wall (it did) and that as a person letterpresses more, s/he knows when the ink is exactly at the perfect consistency by sound alone.

Step 4: Lock in the chase
Basically, we got the whole metal/wood thingy-ma-bob and slid it into the press.

John makes an adjustment to the guides so we don't crush the expensive little pieces in the big metal press.

Inking the type/parrot...

Step 5: The proof
Before you just "take it there", a proof is pressed to check ink coverage and positionng. This is when I first got to see the positive impression of our parrot; I'll call him Morty.

Step 6: (Deep Breath) Pulling a print

Here I am, pulling my first print of Morty. I guess most people don't have a photographer front and center to capture this moment, but luckily The Prof was there. Now we can look at this foto and remember the exact second when I stopped sinking all of my auxiliary money into Catherine Holm pots from Ebay and instead started amassing letterpress things.

Me and Morty; could I look more eerily excited?

Morty immediately after his "birth."

Karate Kid and my letterpress Mr. Miyagi (he said I was a natural.)

I loved my time at Letterpress Things and am planning to buy a press there, a little Kelsey that is in the process Mr. Barrett and start my new hobby -- as an amateur letterpresser. Wootie-woot!!!

Look, we even made the LPT blog! (click on "continue" to read, and look at some more fotos of LPT here.)

Mid-week Boost: Do A DBSK Ditty

Frankie Nacho sent me the link to this infectious video, 'Balloons,' by Korean boy band Dong Bang Shin Ki (DBSK for short) with the subject heading "You're Welcome." The message, of course, became buried in my To Read mailbox for at least a month. But then I finally took a look at the visual pop explosion and, ohmygawd...I was HOOKED.

Perhaps you're having a ho-hum week like old Blogorelli? Watch this video, one time or twenty, and you will feel magically awesome. That's right, I did just type the words magically awesome. These boys do synchronized dances...dressed partially as fuzzy animals! Is there anything more similar to one of my actual dreams? I think not.

Go ahead, play the video's first minute on repeat and I dare you not to learn its catchy routine. I mean, it only took me about twenty minutes to look all Xtina and I was sloppy drunk on red wine that night. The whole thing is a little Hello Kitty, a little (prime) N'Sync, a little 1990's commercial dancing (was that the "Pepsi wave" in there?) and a bunch of...AWESOME?

(Magically awesome, that is)

Since I can't rest once obsessively focused, more research yielded the interesting fact that the group's name is actually Tong Vfang Xien Qi (TVXQ), a Chinese version always used in proper advertising, and Tōhōshinki (or THSK, ahem) in Japanese. I sort of can't believe that Vincent, My Korean Music Muffin didn't have some of this musical heroine on his iPod for me to pilfer. In all three countries -- that would be Korea, China, and Japan -- the name means the same thing..."Rising Gods of the East." Tee hee!

I like the, uh, brown mountain cat(?) one best...because he does a version of the running man and wears elbow pads. They all have nice teeth, too. However, apparently my DBSK hubby is actually:

You have Micky! Micky is the humor person that you'll just like to laugh all day with him. He's fun to hang out and his cute face would make your day a happy one.

OMG, that sounds just like me!!! (Micky, call me. And shhh.)

The Barren Baron

In preparing to cohabitate, my boyfriend has shown himself to be about the most patient person alive. Not only did he endure
- hundreds of emails containing Craiglistings
- rants about horrible apartment viewings that resulted from answering said listings and
- an acute anxiety attack where I said that I maybe-did-not-want-to-live-together-after-all

but he complacently sold all of his furniture that I deemed "un-okay" for our new place.

As a result, he's living a Bedouin-like existence these days. Below, a shot of his living room. Personally, I think the minimalism is refreshing. He's a master Craiglister now...I mean, in a matter of about four days, he unloaded two couches, a coffee and end table, and a kitchen island/butcher block. He had offers for the dining room set and tv/tv stand too, but he decided we need to keep that stuff for now.

And don't give me that look. I'm no dictator. I prefer to think of myself as a "curator"...of our newly combined apartment!

Nuts for Knut

The Anna Nicole Smith overdose coverage is so drab and repetitive, UGH...much like the grey winter months themselves. But it's almost April, and I need some fresh, happy, and uplifting news. Luckily, all (media) eyes are on Knut -- the first baby polar bear born at the Berlin Zoo in 33 years!

KNUT! KNUT! KNUT!

So hurry up, get over to Spiegel and read all about the bear "who captivated Germany" -- before another celebrity baby animal is born into a former Communist zoo somewhere and steals the media's childlike attention span. Or just watch the video -- if only to hear the narrator say in his German accent, "His mother, Tosca, a circus performer in East Germany, rejected him at birth." I kid you not.

(Below: my Knut adoration-themed photo collage)

OkGo :: On Treadmills

I couldn't think of a better way to describe the awesome new OkGo dance routine (!)  besides its given simple title. Some might say that this dance spot is good enough to counteract the negtive response to the band's appearance in the new JCPenney Teen TV spots (click "the spots" on the top bar
click "watch teens' spot" at the bottom)...the backlash of which has been piling up in my email box for weeks now.

Take this comment from Jiminy Cricket, for example:

"I have been wanting to ask your thoughts on Damien Kulash and his little appearance in the JCPenney Back to School commercials. I figure that you are disturbed. But it is amazing how their poster 'comes to life' for the tweens and their back to school needs."

The Mad Hungarian titled his message simply "Sellouts," and was just disgusted that the boys couldn't find a hipper (?) sponsor:

"It's one thing if it's for Target or Apple...but JCPenney?  come on now..."

Now, I have a misplaced affection for JCPenney because I grew up near one in PA. Seeing OkGo in the ads is only a little funny, but not career-crushing (in my humble opinion.) C'mon people, give JCPenney a little break; they're just trying to revamp their messaging to appeal to "today's consumer" and not just women buying orthopedic shoes and getting a Saturday perm in the store's hair salon. And where else can you buy a quality mock turtleneck dickey these days?

Besides wondering who thought of this treadmill dancing idea, I'm also wishing there was an outtakes clip...because you know that this amount of coordination and synchronization was not achieved the first time around with four men.

Now, I once fell off the treadmill backwards and I can't seem to motivate myself to gym it without a workout partner (evidence: I haven't been to the gym since Cho stopped going in her third trimester.) But this video solves both of those problems: it proves that treadmills can be fun (even as fun as trampolines?), and I'd put my workout gear on any day to sweat with Mr. Kulash. Heh heh.

Backyard BBQ and Animal Revue

Well, well...look what came to the InBox late last night:

"From the producers of
New Year's Eve Boston:  Bigger than Jesus,
Tony Bartolucci Freedom Festival and
80's Prom comes
The BACKYARD BBQ and ANIMAL REVIEW

3 Live Bands and 1 Whole Hog. Music, Food, Hot Tub and some Drink provided. Please bring a beverage of your choosing. 2PM to Dark.

RSVP soon so we can arrange for the correct size hog..."

Now, many people may say that little has come of this blog except time suckage, an unnatural obsession with Damien Kulash/the whiteness of my tooth enamel, and entanglement with the raucous Bostonist crew. But I also possibly inspired *two* people to start blogs of their own (here  and here) plus garnered some international attention (Yannick and Jens.)

However, I have never been invited to a pig roast by men whom:
1. like to take photos in silly wigs
2. have a hot tub in their backyard that they installed themselves (they really did...I've been over there before. Ahem.)

This development makes for an interesting mid-June weekend.

(Below: I can't believe I know this person...and that he's going to be a "real" lawyer.)

(Is it unfair to make a Rick James crack here?)

Wake-Up Routine

Because when was cute overload ever a bad thing?

One Thing Leads To A Nothing

This week's long(er) hours at work and puzzling nighttime insomnia have, today, materialized into illness. So I'm working from home. But I would be slacking in my duties if I didn't post and mention - mention? PROCLAIM! - that OkGo is playing at the Middle East in Cambridge tonight.

And whatever I must to do to prop myself up medically, I'll be there.

Cho and I were discussing my pointless-rock-boy-crush on Damian Kulash last night and if I would talk to him after the show, given the chance. The answer? Only if Bobby drags me. Although I did confess to Cho that if, say, D.K. was immobilized on the floor, I would surely do something to his sweaty post-show physique. Or maybe just stand there and gawk.

Sigh.

If you were one of the 4 people who looked at this site during about 2:15-2:31 pm today, well, thanks. And you saw a new banner that I was testing. I declared the experiment flawed after The Dairy Queen pointed out that the photo included a "provocative" (can one use that adjective to describe a cat?) crotch shot of BKP(umpkin) in her Halloween outfit.

Why is it that cats do not like to be posed propped up against couches in costumes?

Anyway, tonight, OkGo...The Gang and I will be there, so come out and support. Even if it only to see the boys perform the Million Ways dance. After all, the video has been downloaded over 2 million times AND landed them on Good Morning America, Jay Leno, and Best Week Ever. Now, get back to work...and I can get back to D.K. daydreaming, I mean, e-commuting.

DAMIAN KULASH IN BOSTON AT RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT AND I CAN HARDLY SIT STILL!!!!

Even typing this is a test in concentration because OkGo is playing in Cambridge tonight and I'm going!
WoooOOOO!

Unlike last time, if we start talking to D.K., I will do more than just stand there and gawk at his fine, fine, uh, defined arms (and other parts) and basically just drink in his total hotness while letting Bobby Crocker pull the weight of the conversation. No, I will not do that this time. I will also not drink so much. I will make conversation. Well, ok, let's not set the bar too high here.

Until I post an update...check out the new PodCast feature on the OkGo site...it's like a little audio love note from you-know-who himself.

Oh, ok...I'll go hose myself down now.