1970s Indian book cover design

 I used to work in a library and was in charge of the India and Pakistan collection. Apparently, back in the Cold War, the US offered a deal to countries they were afraid would fall to Communism: give us your books (in key subjects like religion and science) and we'll give you food. I think this is how it went down; I don't have any sources but my memory. We had a collection mostly from India and Pakistan, with smaller collections from Yugoslavia and Indonesia and maybe somewhere else, mostly from the 70s. Anyway a great number of these books were pretty boring but as I had plenty of time to shelve them, I spent a lot of time looking at the interesting ones. A lot of the ones below I just liked the design of the covers. I don't know the languages involved or the subjects, but a lot of the more colorful ones look like pulp novels. (It was through this job that I also learned about weather modification, Rabindranath Tagore and Zainul Abedin). I've posted one of these covers before, but here's the whole of my photos.

 Some cool marbelized page ends

 vivid color everywhere

Sorry about the poor picture quality. These were taken with my cell phone camera on the sly!

I'm Afraid, I'm Afraid!

I'm moving! I found a place. Things fell through with my dear friend with whom I was going to find a two-bedroom for the summer, so I looked alone for rooms. I found a ridiculously cheap room in a beautiful three-bedroom in Pilsen, where I worked last year. I know the neighborhood well from working there, and while it's not the most hip neighborhood, it's hardly at all gentrified, which is exciting, and also a little scary. My beloved neighborhood is green and lush and rich and gorgeous, with some cheap-ish student housing thrown into the mix. This neighborhood is Mexican and urban and (a lot) grittier. So I'm living the bohemian dream, I guess: cheap cheap cheap rent, hipster stranger roommates, working-class neighborhood, vintage building.

I'm terrified. Not of what could happen (you can get mugged anywhere, even friends can turn out to be annoying roommates) but of... newness, of change, of losing my intimacy with my neighborhood and having lots of friends right down the street. I think it's the alone, cut-loose feeling that scares me the most. And moving away from the lush green beauty that is my neighborhood. I took a whole slew of pictures of flowers one summer in my neighborhood, this rose is one of a profusion.

But, change causes growth, right? I think I need to re-read the Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera, like Jane posted about the other day. When I first read it I was a little too horrified by the main character's infidelities to care about what was being said philosophically. I also tend to turn away too quickly from a philosophy that seems existential enough to give up on striving to be a better person. But, I the questions, as Jane poses them, really resonated with me: "Should life be light or heavy? Should we pursue untethered freedom or bind ourselves to one another and to place? And can we know which is better when we have only one shot at it?" What a thought for a moving day.

Still Winter

I am trying hard to live in the moment and place where I am. All of my professional training leads me to believe this is a wise course, as well as Annie Dillard who says in Teaching a Stone to Talk that she wants to live by "choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will."

And what I'm given is more chilly gray days in Chicago, and loads of work to do. So ok, so be it, it is still winter. I make myself look at catalogues of winter clothes. I almost tripped when I saw three daffodils in an other-wise familiarly dead bed. I can still see my breath in huge humid clouds. I'm no longer fighting it. I've retreated to muted earthy colors for the most part, simple outfits and sensible, cold- and water-proof shoes. And it works-- I went to a party where I knew only one person and was complimented on "all those earth tones." This very complimentary person told me that I have beautiful skin that would be ruined if I moved to L.A. as I've been threatening to do. Perhaps they're right, maybe I do belong here, quietly hoping for spring and turning more and more translucent. Maybe redheads, even fake ones, really are better off in climates such as mine, and I should embrace my Scandinavian roots!

These beautiful wintery photos are by Swedish photographer Anna Ådén. Check out her blog, too! Unfortunately I can't remember exactly what blog led me to her, but I'm guessing it was Design is Mine.

French Classics

I saw this book, by French model Inès de la Fressange, on the blog A Lovely Being, and images from RDuJour. It's already available in a French version, and an American version will arrive in April. Unfortunately, neither seems to have the clean cover style of the image above, which is upsetting because the cover alone makes me want to buy it. I read style books like this as a guilty pleasure, but unfortunately it is a pleasure that always lets me down. It's all very nice to think of dressing like an ever-classy Parisienne, or like Kate Spade or the people from What Not to Wear, but I don't, and I don't want to.
I guess the premise of the book is that it shows the French classics worn by mother and daughter, who is 17-year-old Nine D'Urso. Perhaps it shows that there is no age limit on being a sexy and sophisticated rich Parisienne? Please excuse my bitter tone.
It's not that I don't think this style is beautiful (except the yellow text boxes, which remind me of my old Spanish textbook). In fact, I think a variation on the classic French style might be a perfect solution for my need for a work uniform.
Maybe not the mini or the cargo, of course, but the stripes, simple shapes and colors, some nice jackets and good expensive-looking fabrics could elevate more a more casual style to be work-appropriate. No?
As soon as it's spring, I am going to wear white jeans to work. Is that ok? I have them, I love them, they love me... but I'm too much of southerner to not get heart palpitations trying to wear them in the winter. Also the slush would destroy them, and that would be sad.

Saffron

I like the color saffron. It's so bright and yellow and rich, and one of the colors of India's flag. I doubt it would look very good with my new red hair, but I don't really care. When I read Midnight's Children, I loved the way Rushdie played with the colors saffron and green, spinning a life of a person and a nation in them.
First image is a book my parents have on their coffee table. I can't get it to rotate!
Second image from The Sartorialist (it's not exactly saffron but it's the right saturation).

This Morning

• Realized only 2 more days of World Cup! What will I do now to procrastinate? Never fear, I can think of plenty of things.
• Saw that it is my mom's birthday in a week. I want to get her something, since she likes presents, but what? She likes Scandinavian design, so maybe these earrings from Madison, WI? Sadly she has very sensitive ears, and is a minimalist about most clothes and jewelry, so more things is not often a good idea.
  
• Sweated bullets as soon as I came upstairs from my blissfully cool basement bedroom.
• Spilled ground coffee all over the inside of the now-broken-in-two-ways coffee machine. Time to get a french press. (Especially since soon there will only be 2 coffee drinkers in my new apartment, instead of 5!)
• Had a PB&J made of bread from a local bakery and the jam that Claire & her very-soon-to-be-husband Mark made with me last summer. It's this kind of good homemade eating that I miss when I go back to the semi-suburbs of home.
• Ate the last of Jess's delicious pumpkin walnut cream cheese muffins!
• Worked on an etsy treasury, inspired by the blue lake picture from my Fourth of July post.
• Got my google reader down from 1000+ to 55! (this took a few days and required unsubscribing to several blogs, goodbye wedding nonsense, thanks minimalist)

The picture is just my room. I am reading: The Psychology of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman, Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Architecture for the Poor by Hassan Fathy which was recommended to me by my good friend Lila and I had to return to the library the other day, sadly. I wasn't reading it straight through, and I was basically done with the interesting parts, so it was ok.

Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

Listening: Besides the dance music of the previous post, I've been listening to some mixtapes online: Kitsune Noir has a recent one with my lover Josh Ritter, Deb Oh's got a good set of them, and a girl in my class has one (at least I think it's hers) on Mixtapes from my Ex. I also like the electro mixtapes from The Music Ninja, like this one.
Watching: This video is of a little boy who got a hearing aid. His parents videotaped his reactions as he hears their voices and his own for the first time. Incredible, made me cry.
Reading: I just finished Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami. I've read most of his books. I'm halfway through Edisto by Padgett Powell which I picked up in the free bin outside Powell's on Friday, only because it's about South Carolina lowcountry and I was going to the Point. On my reading list for the summer: Somerset Maugham, Edith Wharton, and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard which I used read while cat-sitting and never finished. I also never finished Demons by Dostoevsky, but it's been so long since I put it down that I might not finish. I'm so excited to have time to read this summer, hit me with suggestions!
Wearing: today, reversible skirt from Old Navy I think, magenta side out, and white three-quarter sleeve wrap top with black lace. Pakistani flats. BUT, last night I sewed some chain onto a white "wife-beater" tank top that I actually found in the trash can in the laundry room of my old apartment building (it wasn't IN the trash, exactly, it was kinda draped over the edge) and I think it looks pretty cool.
Wanting: mostly a letter or email from Africa. But other than that, I want to sell some stuff I don't want to take with my when I move, and for that I need access to a good camera. These pictures from my computer's camera are no good, and won't woo the etsy buyers.

Listening, Watching, Reading, Wearing, Wanting

Listening: I recently got 2 McGarrigle sisters CDs & Wust al-Balad all the way from Egypt, which I am really stoked about, also, Tina Turner's greatest hits. I would be listening to these A LOT more if I had a working computer to upload them to, which I no longer have.

Watching: catching up on this season's Project Runway, and this crazy video by Charlotte Gainsburg, who is my French alter-ego, and I am just like her only less famous. I wish that being crazy was like this video, and not scary and disorienting like it really is.

Reading: oh, school, you know. Also this book called Comfort Me with Apples, which was lying around and I read to procrastinate, but I didn't finish because I hate reading about infidelity.

Wearing: green t-shirt that I stenciled with trees at the Art in Action community art picnic last summer, old roommate's old tan sweater, the denim skirt that has gone from below the knee (high school-- I think it was a hand-me-down from my cousin) to super-mini as I get older and bolder and the slit tears further, green wool tights from mom, grey thigh-high socks from Target, heavy-duty wool socks that mom gave me, mom's Sorrel boots from the 70s, purple pashmina scarf from Dahab (actually from India), blue beret from dress-up box in back of closet at parents' house, perfect black coat that I got for Christmas this year from my mother and I picked it out at JCPenney, and its perfect because it has two rows of brass buttons and comes almost to my knees, is long in the sleeves and skinny in the cut, yet warm and cozy.

Wanting: to avoid interviews for internships next year; reservations at Ed's Potstickers for Chinese New Year/Valentines Day. Obviously the beginning of the Year of the Tiger is WAY more important that Valentine's Day. To be done with work. A computer that works. For all time to be weekend time.

Draped Skirts

Happy Christmas! Over break I keep noticing these gorgeous draped skirts and dresses.
Bill Cunningham (whose voice I loathe) from the New York Times style video series On the Street, did a video about "the look," which is (apparently) draped dresses and statement heels.Next, I saw a cute one in Lucky Magazine. They feel the need to tell us "how to" wear them with a fitted sweater, but not where the skirt came from. Or, more importantly, what is the incredible background behind this girl? I bet I could find it if I religiously checked street style blogs-- Copenhagen Street Style blog was cited as the credit for another photo in the same issue. Are magazines too cheap now to take their own photos but must cull them from blogs? No wonder print magazines are going under (I know it's a chicken-and-egg question, but still.)

Next! This is from the lovely Alix from The cherry blossom girl. I kinda hate her because her sole occupation seems to be prancing around Paris in "the aura of her loveliness" (I stole that phrase from the last book I read-- Master of the Delta by Thomas H. Cook-- it wasn't very good-- read my review-- but it got me through a 16 hour car ride with my family in winter in a Camry from beautiful South Carolina to snowy miserable Wisconsin) and taking photos of herself looking cute. She might be a "stylist" for photographers, which seems like an unnecessary, if dreamlike, job (no insult meant to any stylists, I am just jealous). Also, final tangent: I lover her shoes and want some heels with a built-in platform. I tried some on in Target and they were the most comfortable heels I have ever put on.
Next is Alexander Wang, via NYT. The only thing I like here is the skirt, but he's pretty cool. The ripped tights, NO. The scary demon eyeliner, NO. The leather vest.... maybe.... NO. Since I'm in a poorly organized, run-on sentence, aside mood, NYT also has an article that claims that understated is the new sexy. As in: the old sexy was the "shoulder-baring voluptuousness of Scarlett Johansen" but the new sexy is tougher, leather jackets, leggings, "down and dirty," etc. More on this later, I'm feeling pressured to do puzzles with my family and am getting very nervous they'll make fun of me.