Gas Prices, Berkeley, CA Aug. 29, 2008

Need a humor break?

When you need a humor break, plug some headphones into your PC and go to this link:
Not Much dot Com archives

and listen to Part C where Bil Lepp talks about his neighbor and his friend Skeeter, from the archives online for the NPR show "Whad'Ya Know?" with host Michael Feldman (who always SOUNDS to me like Bob Newhart).

Lepp's own website is Buck-Dog dot com.

-- R

Kumihimo (Japanese braiding)

The Oakland Museum recently held a "textiles day" with live demonstrations. I took photos of smocking and kumihimo until my camera battery ran out. This elaborate loom, worked in a way I had never seen before, was quite impressive. If you'd like the fullsize originals emailed to you (they're about a megabyte apiece for four pictures), please email me.

After I first posted this, Michael Hattori emailed and said that he's the braider in my photos (and that I had a typo on the site, now corrected). His "loom" is called a takadai and the pattern he wove, Kikkogumi. He is part of a kumihimo listserve on Yahoo Groups. The other braiding demonstrators at the museum were Richard Sutherland and Anne Rock. -- Rachel Holmen

Sixties Light Show

My friend Linda was one of those 60s pioneers who performed light shows on screens behind rock bands. Here she is with her gear, at the end of a sixties party held at a friend's home. The two sets of platters hold different colored liquids; light shining through them was then reflected onto a screen -- last night just a sheet -- from the back, for the audience to enjoy.

-- Rachel Holmen

Baby Mittens

I'm through with the knitting on two thumbless baby mittens. I just need to find some nice ribbon to thread through the wrist eyelets so the mittens have some hope of staying ON the child who will wear them.