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In her book Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song, Sara Bareilles proves to be just as candid and charming on the page as she is on stage. Whether it's talking about her grade school years, her anxieties, or the true story behind her hit Love Song, Sara is frank, funny, and open about her life, her career, her struggles, and her triumphs. Her very naturalistic, conversational writing style makes her comes across like a friend talking to you at the dinner table or over the phone, equal parts self-deprecating, hopeful, grateful, and humble.

Sara relates her stories in nine chapters - or essays, if you prefer - each bearing the title of a song she's written. (The section also begins with that song's lyrics, handwritten, which is a very nice touch.) As one might assume with a biography, the book begins with her childhood and ends with her current work on the musical Waitress and is lightly peppered with photographs. In-between, we get a glimpse into her early songs and shows, the year she spent in Italy in college, and her first love and heartbreak. Fellow performers will enjoy the details of life on the road, the gigs when she was just starting out as well as the times she performed in large arenas or on television shows, and so forth, but moreover, they will find connection and comfort in knowing the difficulties Sara faced breaking into the business (and the continued difficulties staying there) as well as the doubt, worry, and vulnerability she feels when writing new songs, collaborating with others, or trying to express her truest feelings in music and words.

Mid-way through the book, in the chapter Beautiful Girl, Sara writes letters to her younger self. This is possibly my favorite section of the book, and it serves as a reminder to be our own best friends, to stop putting ourselves down and to keep our chins up, because time and experience can truly make things better and clearer.

This book will be treasured by Sara Bareilles's fans. I also hope it reaches people who perhaps haven't heard her music, who find her through this book first, because what an amazing experience that would be, to be moved enough by this book and these words to go pick up her CDs. I only wish this book contained all of her albums - but, wait, I already have those. :)

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This week I convened a philosophy seminar in Oxford with Kasia de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer. Singer is probably the world’s most famous living philosopher, well known for his pioneering work on the ethics of our treatment of non-human animals, on global poverty, and on many other issues. Less well known, perhaps, is the fact that Singer has recently changed his mind on the question of what really matters. I’m talking here about what matters for individual beings – what makes their lives good or bad for them.

The post Is pleasure all that matters? appeared first on OUPblog.

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Singing like a winner is what every emerging professional aspires to do. Yet there are so many hardships and obstacles; so much competition and heartache; so many bills to pay that more people sing like whiners than winners.

The post Four steps to singing like a winner appeared first on OUPblog.

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“‘There’s probably no issue that’s become more crucial, more rapidly, but is less understood, than cybersecurity,’ warns cyber expert P.W. Singer, co-author of Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know. Cybersecurity has quickly become one of the most defining challenges of our generation, and yet, as the threat of cyber-terrorism looms, there remains an alarming “cyber-awareness gap” that renders the many of us vulnerable. We interviewed P.W. Singer in order to learn more about why this issue is so crucial to our daily lives and how well-equipped our government is to protect us from the risks that lie ahead.

P.W. Singer discusses the growing importance of cybersecurity today

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P.W. Singer talks about the role government plays in regulating the internet

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P.W. Singer highlights the cyber-awareness gap in U.S. government

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P.W. Singer and Allan Friedman are the authors of Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know. P.W. Singer is Director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution. Allan Friedman is a Visiting Scholar at the Cyber Security Policy Research Institute, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at George Washington University.

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The post Cybersecurity and the cyber-awareness gap appeared first on OUPblog.

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The Illustration Friday word of the week is “voice.” So I decided to redraw yet another oldie. I better get off my duff and come up with some new ideas I suppose, eh?

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Everyone did a brilliant job, and now you can see for yourself. I'm so pleased with everyone's work, the production crew, director, the actors were just brilliant ... they make me look good.
Please feel free to leave any comments here, or at youtube. I'm sure the actors and crew especially would love to hear what you think of their work.
If you have feedback about the script, come back and tell me. I'm always open to feedback, to doing better. Also, to hearing about YOUR work.

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When I was four, I watched Peggy Fleming skate to gold in the Winter Olympics, and I wanted to be her. I didn't want to be like her, I wanted to be her, and my poor mother had a devil of a time explaining to me that I could only be myself, and that I could learn to skate, but I couldn't actually be Peggy Fleming. It was in the spring when I took a few ballet classes – probably at the YMCA, where my mother worked at the time. (I'm sure we couldn't have afforded ballet classes otherwise.)

I had a leotard and tights for sure. I'm not positive whether I had ballet shoes or not. I remember trying and trying to stand in first position properly, but my right leg never quite cooperated. Turns out my right hip isn't quite as flexible as it ought to be – it wasn't then, it isn't now, it never has been. And it turns out that I was not a graceful petal, and that ballet wasn't quite my cup of tea, and it wasn't all that long before I wasn't taking ballet classes anymore. I devoted my time to climbing trees and playing hide-and-seek and reading and such. And then, in second grade, I fell in love with the piano and begged and pleaded for lessons – I'd found my personal passion, and it was one I pursued through college. I still play, in fact, although some of my skills are a bit rusty.

I tell you all this by way of saying why I felt such a strong response to Tallulah's Tutu, the new picture book written by my friend Marilyn Singer, and resplendently illustrated by Alexandra Boiger. Tallulah, you see, wants to be a great ballerina. She is pretty certain that the only thing she needs in order to be a great ballerina is a tutu, although her mother wisely suggests that lessons might help.



Tallulah enjoys her ballet classes. She learns the positions and moves. She practices all the time at home. But in her mind, she really wants that tutu – and, of course, she wants it NOW. She's willing to allow for slight delays, but eventually, she gets fed up and decides that if she can't have her tutu, she won't bother to dance. She tries eschewing ballet with a firm hand, but because it really, truly is her passion, she can't help but see it everywhere. In fact, my favorite page in the book may be this one:

But everything kept reminding Tallulah of ballet. Her neighbor's basset hound always stood in second position. The kitchen clock constantly performed ronds de jambe. The serving spoon at dinner was forever doing tendus.

Eventually, Tallulah realizes that she likes ballet too much to stop doing it, whether she has a tutu or not. She is helped in her realization by meeting a little girl who has a tutu, but cannot yet dance. And, of course, Tallulah does get her tutu . . . eventually.

An adorable book about pursuing one's passion, about patience and practice and perseverance (although, thankfully, without that level of alliteration and without being overtly didactic). Recommended for little dancers everywhere – or for any little girl who has found her particular passion. (The extreme pinkness of this book makes it an unlikely choice for most boys, even though there is a boy in Tallulah's ballet class, and her baby brother is interested in ballet as well.)

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While watching a taped concert of John Denver for the third time on WXXI, I was feeling rather nostalgic. I loved his music. I have several of his albums.I play them in the car and in my writing den. So I was wondering about his plane crash. I did a little research on the Internet. [...]

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A thief breaks out of jail to track down the sleuth who put her there – Dinah Galloway. Problem is, the thief is a former actress known as “the queen of disguises” for her cunning costume changes. In Melanie Jackson’s Queen of Disguises, Dinah Dinah knows she’s being stalked, but by whom?

 

Our heroine already has enough on her plate without the addition of revenge served cold: the red-headed 12-year-old is a finalist to sing in commercials promoting beautiful British Columbia. The deal is, to clinch the job, Dinah has to get fit at a wellness retreat on Salt Spring Island. Veggies? Exercise? Yech! Grudgingly, though, Dinah allows that her lifestyle could be a little healthier. Off to Salt Spring she goes, along with the two other finalists: one friendly, the other the last word in sulky. Her buddies Talbot and Pantelli make their usual disruptive appearances, along with Dinah’s ever-anxious mother and cool, elegant sister Madge. Hoping to shed not only pounds but her vengeful pursuer, Dinah learns the meaning of personal best – that it truly is how you play the game, not whether you win.

ISBN 978-1-55469-037-4

$9.95 Cdn

www.orcabook.com

1.800.210.5277

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The update on my quilt is that I've finally finished hand quilting the entire thing, but now I'm planning to add double the number of rows. There are diagonal lines of stitching through each full square, but I'm going to add extra rows so that each full square has an "X" in it.

In the meantime I decided to bind the edges so that while I'm working on it there's no risk of the quilt top pulling apart at the seams. Also it's satisfying to see it looking more finished.
So I have a tip for a binding without bias tape or anything else. I'm not sure how to reference this, but basically I just saw some quilters on tv doing this on their historical quilts. The only difference is that their quilts were much loftier, and their borders were bigger.

So what you do is use the bottom panel of fabric for the binding. Fold it up and over the top and hem it in place with mitred corners. Mine is about 3/8" wide. I decided to stitch it in place by hand as I knew I would never be happy with a machine-sewn finish and besides I had already gone to the trouble of hand quilting. I knew it might pucker or something and I'd just spend more time picking it out.

Of course you only need to stitch the top side, I used an invisible stitch.

Here's a close-up of one of the mitred corners:While I was trying to figure out how to hand quilt I found this helpful tutorial on youtube. I love that people take the time to make these movies to explain things.

And while I was at youtube I found these wonderful vintage Singer commercials: She Caught on Quick, Three Smart Daughters and this one from 1956-8. My favourite line: "Of course I want a Singer, who doesn't?"

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Some close-ups of the state it was in:But now it looks like this:I use mineral oil (ie. baby oil) to clean the outside, which is safe and doesn't rub off any of the gold paint. It turned out the condition of the machine underneath the dust was very good with very little wear to the decorative gold paint and just a few light pin scratches which you'd expect from any sewing machine that's been used at all.

I also opened up areas of the machine and cleaned them with a Q-tip and some more baby oil. It's mostly just dust that collects inside the machine. Then I used sewing machine oil to oil all the points indicated in the manual, on the top and underneath the machine. I found the manual on this sewing blog. Very friendly emails and the manual arrived in no time!

Here's the back:
And a detail of the front:This is a lovely machine. It can basically do everything you need apart from built in zig-zag stitches. Ie. a nice quality stitch, adjustable stitch length, numbered tension, reverse stitching (which not all old Singers have), and it uses regular needles and round bobbins. And it has a nice elegant shape with a spacious gap in the middle (called the harp) which means you have room for sewing big items like curtains.

I've used it already and despite all the neglect there doesn't seem to be thing wrong with it. These old Singers certainly aren't very fussy, just a little bit of attention and they're ready to get back to work.

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Today I finished the last step of refinishing the sewing cabinet. It felt slightly rough after the first coat of polyurethane dried, so I sanded it all over with 220 sandpaper and brushed on another coat. This is what it had suggested on the can.

And it worked really well. Sanding created a bit of a whitish dusty look (which I wiped clean with barely damp paper towel) but it felt much smoother and after the 2nd coat of polyurethane dried the surfaces felt very smooth and nicely finished. I've varnished things before and never bothered to do the "sand between coats" step but I admit now that it really does make all the difference.

So now the cabinet is done and I can show it off. It really doesn't seem like that much work when you look back, it was just sort of frustrating at the time doing the stripping but I think I have the hang of it now. But it's a reminder that I wouldn't really want to try anything more ornate, or too big to rinse in the sink!

As I mentioned luckily it was really only the top that was damaged so the rest is still the original finish and in nice shape. This is the back view:It's funny because in the craiglist picture it really looked worse than it was. Also, the sides were up in the photo and one panel seemed to be sagging. I thought the hinges might need replacing and even had a quick look on ebay and found some listed. But when we picked up the table and moved it, a metal rod swung out and it turns out there's a support for the larger side panel that tucks into the table when it's not in use. And the hinges are in great shape and look practically new.

I used a cream-with-tan-stripes upholstery cotton (a sample square from the Textile Museum sale) to re-upholster the bench. I chose the light colours because it just lightens up the whole set which is a bit dark. Also it matches my new/vintage Bernina sewing machine - but that's a topic for another post. Here's a glimpse of the inside of the bench:
This is the table with the sides out and the drawer open. I didn't refinish the inside of the two side panels so they're not perfect but the polish with mineral oil spruced them up quite well. I did refinish the little panel in front of the sewing machine, so you can see what a nice match the stain was to the original finish.
I'm so glad that the cabinet turn out so well. As I mentioned it would have been less trouble to wait for one in great condition to turn up, but then again it's very satisfying to take something that's been a bit neglected and bring it back to life. Also it was a bargain at $55.

And don't forget that includes the sewing machine inside. That's been brought back to life too, I'll show that next post. Thank you for the comments!

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Hello, all!

So, yeah. A fun piece, a really easy-going art director, and a good addition to the portfolio. A three-pointer! *Swish!

The only bad thing was that this commission came through the day AFTER I had just sent my promo card files to the printer. Drat! This would have made a better one than my choice of the Crisis Magazine image a few posts back. Especially if I had colored it. Ah, well. Speaking of the cards, they just arrived. And I have to say: I am losing my patience with overnightprints.com. Many of the cards were off-center on multiple sides and text was right on the edge of a few even though I had stayed within the "safe area." Grrr. Its really frustrating and luckily I was able to trim some down and still use them. But really, its just more incentive to try the USPS print-and-mail service. Think thats gonna be the way I go for the Halloween mailer.

Another thing I'm considering for the future is using AdBase. We all know how awesome it is and I'm considering subscribing to that as opposed to the ispot. I can only do one right now, and I really can't decide. Decision, decisions. Hopefully, whichever I choose will fund the other. I think I'm going to wait for a bit as my list is freshly updated, and I should be fine for a spell. I want to see the response to this next mailer before I do anything. Don't want to spend money I don't have :)

And that's that. It promotion and drawing this week! Oh, and I'm still working in the spare time between jobs. Its a little harder with Aliyah being home all day, but I must be strong! That, and I'm just getting over a cold from last week so its been twice as hard to get cracking. Nonetheless, I managed to get out another "linear" piece for the site at the last week. Sorry I waited so long to post it:

I like it. The piece is for a community pork cook-off and fair, one of the options given to me to illustrate from Cleveland SCENE way back in May. Its nice to work in full-color as well as limited color. I think one makes the other better. And I think its a good subject to add to the portfolio as its not a typical theme.

All this with web updates, building a small site for my personal drawings, and re-building/updating Aliyah's site has kept me busy. It seems there is always something to do, even though there's nothing to do in this town :) Let's hope the mailer going out tomorrow brings in more work to occupy my time as well. Fingers are crossed!

Enjoy the Day and thanks for reading!
Chris

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This is a repost of an earlier one that Blogger somehow screwed up....

Pocket sketchbook
Here's some more sketches from my pocket sized skecthbook. I have a part-time job in our local shop (for local people), and I've started drawing in this during quiet times....

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