A Free Chapter of YARN on-line now at FLURB
Don’t know Flurb? Flurb is a webzine of Astonishing Tales edited and produced by Rudy Rucker (mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author of The Ware Tetralogy among many other books).
This issue contains writing by: Bruce Sterling, Ian Watson, Rudy Rucker, and Kathleen Ann Goonan, among many others.
The chapter from Yarn is A Peculiar Fashion Business.
Sarah Wrap
Wigs by Kate Cushack
Lady Gaga and Marie Antoinette eat your hearts out.
Actually, eat just half your hearts, wrap the rest, and store it in your chill chests because your wigs are… wait for it… made of Saran Wrap!
Artist, creative thinker, jewelery maker Kate Cusack has created completely sustainable and environmentally… hmm. Strike that. Clever, beautiful and oh, so wrong wigs of plastic wrap! You’ll never look at leftovers the same.
There is an exciting “a-ha” moment when someone realizes that there is more to the design they are looking at–from sponges to saran-wrap to zippers.
Link: Kate Cushack
Fiber Optic Tapestry Project on KickStarter
It fuses traditional arts, digital electronics, interactivity, and data scraping with contemporary art. It is a new media canvas, woven from information, using fiber optic thread to carry information and data from the internet in the form of light.
Our inspiration came from the idea that the Jacquard loom was the first computer using punch cards. We wanted to expand on this to marry traditional hand-woven crafts with information technologies. The element of the hand is a critical factor through all stages of this project: from weaving on a loom, to the way the electronics are integrated with the fiber optic threads.
Iris van Herpen debuted 10 preview pieces from her upcoming SS 2011 collection “Crystallization” at Amsterdam International Fashion Week
Some unusual if mighty uncomfortable looking clothes!
Illuminated Coat Controlled Via iPhone
Currently in development, The Vanilla Series is a new line of wearables embedded with an LED display (on the cuffs or back of the coat) that can be dynamically controlled via your iPhone.
Vanilla “k” from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.
Sneak Preview of the Cover of the YARN ARC
Thanks to Jeff Vandermeer, we have a sneak preview of the YARN cover. This is the Advance Reading Copy, so things might change, but there it is, in all it’s exploding beauty! What do you think?
Lessons from a Tailor.
Directed by Galen Summer
A great movie about a tailor. In my upcoming YARN, is narrated by Mr. Cedar who is the tailor from GREY. There’s a section where he’s talking about shaping the men who come to him. The same idea here, only with President Clinton!
Clothing That Can Record or Produce Sound
M.I.T. researchers say they’ve developed a fiber that would allow clothing to eventually do those things like record or produce sound with piezoelectric fibers.
The New Dystopians: Jon Armstrong, Paolo Bacigalupi and Scott Westerfeld
I will be reading from Yarn Thursday, July 01 2010, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
The New Dystopians
Jon Armstrong, author of Grey (Nightshade, $14.95)
Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Windup Girl (Nightshade, $14.95)
and Scott Westerfeld, author of Leviathan (Simon and Schuster, $19.99)
Dystopia has been a popular genre since before the word existed. There is little more powerful or indeed more darkly gleeful object of imagination than a ruined corrupted vision of the world as we know it. If the form has seen something of a resurgence in popularity recently, it’s only the possibilities for dissolution inherent in our own lives that are to blame. Well, that and these three authors.
Jon Armstring’s debut novel Grey gives us a brutal, often hilarious future too easily recognizeable to those of us living in chic downtown Manhattan. His America is fractured into vastly wealthy cliques, defining themselves by their allegiance to different fashion magazines. Their decadence, naturally, is built on the back of a viciously poor and despoiled lower class. This was one of our favorite SF books of 2007, and rumor has it that we can expect a sequel later this year. If we plead hard enough maybe we can get Jon to give us an advance listen.
What Would Holden Caulfield Wear?
What Would Holden Caulfield Wear?
John Jannuzzi of Textbook pulls together fresh-off-the-runway, high-fashion looks for fictional characters and historical figures, answering that eternal question: What Would Holden Caulfield Wear?
Via MetaFilter
Less is More and More is Less
In my interview with Jeffrey Ford on my podcast (If You’re Just Joining Us), he mentioned that he was thinking about the less is more idea.
It occurred to me today that the reason that can work is that you (the writer) are allowing the reader to do more. If I give lots of detail, as I sometimes do, I don’t leave as much space for the reader to make it theirs.
A couple of years ago, when I was reading The Terror by Dan Simmons, I remember reading several simple, rather plain sentences, only for elaborate scenes to come to mind and noting to myself, that was amazing.
One reason why I might want to add more detail is because well … who is my reader? When I’m writing, I do think of the reader in terms of story, plot, and character. Are they following along? Is this making them want to read more? Does this make sense? Is this believable?
Maybe I need to add another question (or questions). Have I shown just enough? Have I left room for them to fill in the details.
I think I’ll try that for the next couple of days and see how it feels.
Books with the Same Covers
I was speaking to Jeffery Ford for my podcast, If You’re Just Joining Us, and mentioned that I like the covers of his book specifically the Girl In The Glass, as it’s the one I’m currently reading. It turns out the photograph has been used for another book, J. California Coopers’s Life Is Short But Wide. I’m not a big fan of book covers—I couldn’t begin to remember some of my favorite book’s covers—but there’s something captivating about two (or more) books with the same cover. Has anyone read these two books? Does the cover “work” for both of them?
What are some other books with the same covers? Feel free to comment!
And by the way, they’re not exactly the same. For Jeffery Ford’s book, the boots were removed from the front of the door. As he said, there are not boots in the novel. Are there in Life?
Johanna Blakely: Lessons from fashion’s free culture
The connection between fashion designers and comedians is brilliant.
A Preview of Jon Armstrong’s Upcoming Yarn from the NYRSF Reading Series
I read two selections from my upcoming YARN at last week’s New York Review of Science Fiction. A podcast is available at If You’re Just Joining Us.
What is this image? The reading was held at the
The SoHo Gallery for Digital Art and since there’s not yet a cover for YARN, I got on the internet and well…grabbed some cool fashion images and played around in photoshop.
Eco-Friendly Wedding Dress Dissolves in Water
So a honeymoon near the beach … perfect!
British researchers have developed an environmentally friendly garment that can simply be dissolved in water after being worn. Fashion and engineering students at Sheffield Hallam University developed the wedding dress, which can be transformed into five new fashion pieces.
The dress has polyvinyl alcohol, a biodegradable substance that is used in laundry bags and washing detergents, knitted into the fabric. This enables to be dissolved into water without harming the environment.
Their creation is to be featured in an forthcoming exhibition, titled, a sustainable marriage, which will be shown at the university later this month.
Via: http://www.fashioningtech.com
This Is Cool, But Where’s My Illuminated Suit?
Katy Perry walked down the red carpet all aglow last night at the Costume Institute Gala Benefit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I am going to have to figure out how I can get myself a glowing jacket at least. Seriously, this isn’t fair!
Via: Kim at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art
Two wonderful Hussain Chalayan fashion videos.
I’m reading from my up coming novel, Yarn, tonight and will be showing a few fashion stills, but if you’d like to see some of the master, Hussain Chalayan’s transforming dresses and a short clip of his video dress, look no farther.
I will be reading from my upcoming novel, Yarn, next week!
I’m going to be reading from my upcoming novel, Yarn, next Tuesday the 4th of May for the The New York Review of Science Fiction!
It’s at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art, 138 Sullivan Street in New York City.
The program beings at 7:00. There’s a $5 suggested donation.
Since I there’s not a cover yet, I’ve created a few digital collages just to confuse and amuse folks. This gallery will be displaying them, but here’s one just for fun. BTW, this fake cover uses images taken from the internet. Sorry about that.
Bio-Accessories Breathe New Life into Wardrobes
“Bio-Accessories”, a series of wearable couture pieces that were on display at the Melbourne City Library, offer green fashionistas a chance to wear their hearts on their sleeves—or in this case, a plant-filled contraption on their face. Conceptualized and executed by Australian industrial designers Ben Landau and Brittany Veitch, each Bio-Accessory includes a living organism that not only creates a mobile natural environment, but also fosters a symbiotic relationship. Wearers tend to the animal or plant they don, and in return, they reap the benefits of fresh air, light, greenery, privacy, or birdsong.
Via: inhabatat
Worlds Are Colliding: Fashion and Geek
Tim Gunn, for those who don’t know, is one of the on-air mentors to designers on the reality television program Project Runway.
I’ve been a fan of fashion ever since 1984 when I lived in Japan for a year. Why become interested in fashion in Japan? It was my first experience of urban life (I was a suburb boy) and was just about the time when I was starting to care about what I looked like.
This is just wrong! Dog dressed at Star Trek’s USS Enterprise
I mean, I feel sorry for the poor dog, but everyone knows that Bud Light contains zero dilithium crystal.
Wooden Mirrors – Interactive Art
Daniel Rozin’s wooden mirror and how it works.
Below is a short, silent movie of another of Rozin’s wooden mirrors. This one has an eerie beauty.
Exhibited for the first time at bitforms gallery, Daniel Rozin’s “Peg Mirror” comprises 650 circular wooden pieces that are cut on an angle. Casting shadows by twisting and rotating in unison.
Alice in iWonderPadLand
Whomever made this — slow the fuck down! My god.
But the book does look like something my daughter would love.
The Towel Folding Robot
Watch this robot first study these towels and then go through a rather involved and gentle folding. It reminds me a little of my daughter — although more patient — when I sometimes can convince her to help folding the laundry.
I assume that the people at iRobot are going to come up with one of these soon and call it the Laundiba or maybe the Towel-a-band. Or maybe not.
Our Roomba, the floor cleaning robot, died a while back and although I haven’t thought about it much — there’s been too much dust on the floors to do much thinking — seeing this robot makes me a nostalgic for Roomy. What I remember most of all about the Roomba was the constant cleaning of the brushes and the way I would have to stand over it, tapping it with a foot to get it to clean where I wanted it to go, instead of the long zigzags that it preferred.
Editor Juliet Ulman Talks Editing, Writing, Red Ink, Her Moods, and Yarn
On my podcast, If You’re Just Joining Us, I just posted a very interesting interview with editor Juliet Ulman.
I had met her years ago at a World Fantasy Convention and again at a SFWA meeting, but we hadn’t really spoken. Several months ago, I heard that Night Shade Books (my publisher) had hired her to edit Yarn.
Before the edits even came in, I asked her if she’d talk about editing and editing my book. Juliet agreed and we arranged to talk when I was about halfway through the book — just as I was coming out of the lowest depth of my editing depression!
Interview with SciFi and Fantasy Editor Juliet Ulman on If You’re Just Joining Us.
Yarn is off to Night Shade Books
Yesterday I emailed the final edit of Yarn to Night Shade Books. Then around five in the morning, I woke and started thinking about the beginning and the chapter titles. Had I made that change? Did I have the formatting right? What about that typo I had found toward the end yesterday? Had I fixed it?
Once I was finally out of bed, I considered looking at the file, but said fuck it. I’ll have another chance to fiddle with it in the galleys. It’s done. It’s finished. It’s the best book I could write right now. … At least for a couple of weeks.
Next it’s a week vacation with the family and then back to work on Loom.
This is Just Too Cool: Organ Printing
No, it’s not tattoos on your bits, it’s making tissues for transplant by “printing them.” I’d heard of 3-D printing, which is something I’m waiting for — although I hate to image how much Hewlett Packard will charge for those toner cartridges!
If Star Wars had Facebook
It’s amazing how much Star Wars parody there is in the world and how much is actually interesting. (Just about the only person who couldn’t make funny of the film was Mel Blanc.) I just came across If Star Wars had Facebook. It’s hilarious.
I saw Star Wars opening night with my family. I don’t quite know why I knew I would like it, but I remember reading a rather small if somewhat enthusiastic review of it in Time Magazine. I’ve tried to track down that review. What do others remember leading up to the Star Wars premier?
Helpful Writing Tips from David Mamet
David Mamet’s memo to the writers of The Unit:
THE JOB OF THE DRAMATIST IS TO MAKE THE AUDIENCE WONDER WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. NOT TO EXPLAIN TO THEM WHAT JUST HAPPENED, OR TO *SUGGEST* TO THEM WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. […]
HERE ARE THE DANGER SIGNALS. ANY TIME TWO CHARACTERS ARE TALKING ABOUT A THIRD, THE SCENE IS A CROCK OF SHIT.
ANY TIME ANY CHARACTER IS SAYING TO ANOTHER “AS YOU KNOW”, THAT IS, TELLING ANOTHER CHARACTER WHAT YOU, THE WRITER, NEED THE AUDIENCE TO KNOW, THE SCENE IS A CROCK OF SHIT.
Great advice! The rest it at movieline.com.
Just one observation: usually I can’t stand to look at, let alone read all caps, but somehow coming from Mamet, it works. via http://daringfireball.net/
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
This looks pretty cool. I’m a big fan of Channel’s designs, but don’t know much about her life. As for Stravinsky, I heard the story of the Rite of Spring riot a dozen times growing up. It was one of my dad’s favorite stories.
The only thing that bothers me is the title. Yes, I suppose for marketing that makes sense, but the possibilities! Think of the possibilities.
A few years back, RadioLab did an interesting show about music and the neurology of that premier.
Interview with Karl Lagerfeld, One of the Kings of Fashion
There’s a fascinating interview with Karl Lagerfeld in Viceland Magazine. This except is about celebrity:
You’ve been famous for quite some time, but the whole landscape of celebrity has changed so dramatically in recent years.
That’s part of our life, our culture.Do you think it’s become kind of toxic?
Yes, but you cannot fight against it. There’s a price you have to pay for fame, and people who don’t want to pay that price can get in trouble. I accepted the idea of celebrity because of a French expression: “You cannot have the butter and the money for the butter.”I like that. You have to choose one or the other.
And now I cannot cross the street. I cannot go anywhere.But you don’t mind being alone and isolated?
I have bodyguards. I have big cars.Do you travel with bodyguards?
Oh yes. But I don’t travel commercially. Whenever I go around the world I go on private jets.What if you went to a nightclub or something?
I don’t. I never go anywhere, not even from here to the Quai Voltaire, where I live. Never ever. People wait in front of my house.How long has it been that way for you, with fans outside your home?
For the past ten years. Before that, it was OK. And when I was younger, people didn’t really know me. I had the time to be young and not to be troubled by this kind of thing.
Karl is an amazing designer who inspired not one but two characters from my upcoming novel, Yarn.
Pre-order Yarn and save a whopping 50%
Night Shade Books, my publisher, is having a sale:
It’s that time of year again: sale time at Night Shade Books! We’ve got a lot of big new titles coming in, and we need to clear space in a big way (and pay off a few print bills)! So for the next week, from Monday, March 15 until midnight on Sunday, March 21, we’re offering 50% off all in-stock and forthcoming* Night Shade titles, with a four book minimum order. Just use the coupon code 50NSB2010 at checkout, and we’ll do the rest!
The amazing thing is you can pre-order Yarn! That’s the sequel to Grey, that I’m finishing now! I mean, right now.
Ironing techniques by professional craftsmen (shirt)
As much as I admire the ironing and the production in this video, don’t you get the sense that guy is a real hard ass? Right after this he headed out to some bar, knocked back six Sopporos while smoking twice as many Seven Stars. No, I’m wrong! This guy drinks what they called misu-wari in Japan — whiskey and water.
Notice how hard he presses. One reason he’s pressing so hard is that he’s not got a steam iron. When I fell in love with industrial ironing, back in the 90’s when I was taking classes at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) it was partly the weight, the masculinity of the equipment, and the power of the steam system that made me think, ironing is cool.
If you’ve read my first novel Grey (and I know almost everyone has by now!) that experience at FIT is where I got the idea for the competitive ironing. This video reaffirms my belief. Someday there will be a CIL.
The video was produced Garra, which is a Japanese men’s cosmetics company. It was part of a bachelor’s “how-to” section on their site, including how to tie a tie, mix a cocktail, do magic tricks, etc. The ironing, because of the man and his muscular style, is far and away the best part.
None of them have any speaking, but the ironing because of the blank stage really ends up emphasizing the ironing action in a tea-ceremony way.
Their site is at: http://garra.jp/style/tailored/index.html
Is This a Navigation Device for a SteamPunk Zepplin? Close! It’s an Antique Sock Knitting Machine.
When I saw these images at Old Tyme Stockings it took hundred foot-pounds of willpower not to head over to eBay and start bidding on one of these hand crank-powered antique circular sock-knitting machines. For an idea of how these work and what they sound like, see the video demonstration of a woman using a knitting to make the heel of a sock:
A hundred years ago farm wives purchased these and knit socks for extra money. Now crafters and collectors are buying, refurbing, and using them. I love when previously obsolescent things are rediscovered and given new life and meaning — especially in the world of fashion.
In Grey
The protagonist in Yarn, Tane Cedar, used an imaginary device that was half exercise equipment and half futurological circular knitting machine. Think of it as: Wii Fit meets circular kitter. It’s coming! Just as 3D printers are slowly heading our way, someday we’ll be able to weave and knit anything we want.
Already of course, some manufactures (like Nike) let you customize your sneakers. But I’m talking about being able to design and manufacture our own shoes, jackets, and pants exactly as we wish.
Will an onslaught of DIY manufacturing make all of us islands of our own fashion? I don’t think so. Just as T-shirt printing has created an infinite number of small designers and companies, so we will surely see thousands of small groups or individuals making shirts, jackets, socks, gloves, or underwear.
In future posts, I’ll discuss what Tane knits, who he knits for, and how his knitting could get him killed.
The New Entertainer
I thought I would restart my blog with a video about the remarkable designer and even better showman, Alexander McQueen. (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010).
There has been much written about him and his untimely death by more qualified than I. But more than many fashion designers, his shows represented something that I expect and hope to see more and more. And certainly not just in the world of fashion.
Recently Steve Jobs presented the iPad, and while I think the device is the greatest since the original Mac – strike that – maybe the greatest thing Apple has yet produced, I was disappointed with the show.
What does Apple need? A little more drama. A little more Hollywood. They need some explosions. Yards of sheer silk. Some fake blood.
I’m only partially joking.
In Grey
But my forthcoming Yarn, I have a supporting character who is a great singer and dancer, an astounding fashion designer, an expert politician, and a towering celebrity.
I think this character is partly an expression of the tremendous concentrations of wealth power in this global era. There is little that makes me angrier than reading about some useless CEO floating to earth in his 40 million dollar golden parachute. Or those Wall Street making more money for themselves at the expense of everything else.
At the same time, as a writer and reader, I thirst for disaster. Things suck now. And yet, they’re don’t suck enough!
Grey
Yarn explores the same culturepocalypse, but widens the scope. Up for examination is agribusiness, fast food, the idea that 1 out of 32 american is under correctional supervision, terrorism, and my usual suspects of celebrity, fashion, and corporate malfeasance.
In the coming weeks and months, I hope to write about these and other ideas from the books, share some of the inspirations, and the behind the scenes writing and editing, and the promotion of Yarn.
Join me. And please, help out!
“The September Issue”
“The September Issue” is the anticipated documentary that follows Anna Wintour and her staff at Vogue through the process of creating the magazine’s September issue, AKA the world’s thickest magazine issue.
Tennis ace Sharapova unveils blinking phone dress
So far the marriage between fashion and technology has brought clothes barely worthy of a headline in the goofball section of the news. Say, like this:
Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova presented a prototype dress to reporters that is designed to light up when the wearer’s mobile telephone rings.
What?
I’ve seen other odd offspring like this and it’s discouraging. Is there some designer whose actually doing something useful and interesting. Something some might actually want to use and wear. Will it have to be Apple that leapfrogs over everyone else with the iRGB shirt?
For an uninformative image of the dress see: www.ubergizmo.com/
Golf Swing of the Future
The next year we moved and my golfing ended, but I never forgot that one wonderful shot.
Many years later, my fiance bought me a set of clubs, and I’ve taken up golf and Mindy’s swing again. After finding this forum, I purchased GTTB, and while I rarely play and barely get to the range, I have enjoyed a little more consistency and distance.
A week ago my dad recorded me at a range, and I’ve posted a few videos on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/JonArmstrongAuthor
I’d like to co-opt this for my upcoming novel, Yarn
A ball of yarn takes over San Francisco.
“50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice – ChronicleReview.com”
I’ve never been a huge fan of “The Elements of Style,” which turned 50. If you’re like me and had told to read and study the thing to learn how to write well, only to flip through its narrow pages and wonder what people were raving about.
Geoffery K. Pullum has this to say:
“April 16 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a little book that is loved and admired throughout American academe. Celebrations, readings, and toasts are being held, and a commemorative edition has been released.
I won’t be celebrating.
“The Elements of Style” does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students’ grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of Higher Education.