Custom fit

The other day I took in a blouse for a friend. Not hard. Had her try it on, tried folding different seams until I found the ones that would give the best fit. Pinned and marked it, ripped two stitches and put in two new ones. Transformed a shirt that made her look pregnant into one that fit properly.

This kind of stuff is easy to do. I've done it a couple of times for friends, though I've never done it for myself. Why not? I can take a two dollar thrift store shirt and in half an hour or so, custom tailor it to look fantastic.

It's funny to think that until the 50s or so, pretty-much everyone got their clothes custom fitted. It was just part of the service on buying clothes. Another thing mass production has taken away from us, I guess.

Anyhow, I think I need to remember I can do this and use those eyes when I shop. I should be able to pick up thrift store fare and make myself look better for cheaper than buying new clothes.

The Devil and DRM

During the summer I read Faust and a couple of variants of it. The basic premise is a guy makes a deal with the devil, gets a fabulous life for a while and then is whisked off to Hell.

Last night, while talking with a friend, I realized that really happens.

In the 80's, a lot of rock groups signed contracts with record companies. They got an expense account and could live like rock stars. Fame, fortune, getting puking drunk every night.

But then the devil came to collect on their debts. A lot of times, the record company over-produced albums and the rockers never saw a dime, they went into debt with the record company and that debt had to repaid in their own sort of living undead Hell, doing concerts in lousy places in the midwest, rehashing old songs that you've played a hundred times before, growing slowly older, stuck with the lyrics you wrote just out of highschool, they become the living dead. Poor bastards. I mean, they're only people and I'm sure there are some that like guys that used to play football, they still think they're gods, but imagine if it were you... Would you want to be rehashing your art from when you were 19, wearing the same clothes you did in highschool?

( On a slight tangent, a question about the devil. )

Anyhow. Enough rambling. I just thought the parallels between Faust and the RIAA were interesting and might be worth making into another retelling of this story.

Samples

egypturnash: [links to a WIP]
DigitalVG: It's nice but the palette clashes badly with the music I'm listening to.
egypturnash: Aaaw. What's playing?
DigitalVG: Ashy lent me some of John Oswald's Plunderphonics.
egypturnash: Oh god. I don't think ANY palette goes with THAT.
DigitalVG: Maybe a Jackson Pollock painting... If you could put it on the floor and just roll around on it.
DigitalVG: I like it though. :)


I may have to turn it off for now. I'm finding it very hard to program and listen to this at the same time.