Still working on my blog books

Posted on April 30, 2009 by ruthek

I am still working on the China book. I had to get more printing paper. I want to try reprinting some of the photos that did not make me happy, and I still have to finish printing the book. All this time I've been mulling over the binding. I began by thinking of some Chinese silk scraps I've had for a long time; Scrap of Chinese silk finally decided it was too fancy.

I thought about using some olive green binding cloth, first wrinkling it, then coating it with lacquer with graphite or ink mixed it to give it some dark areas. This didn't please me either. I keep thinking about China as dusty and a little grimy. Xian, being near to the loess plateau gets a lot of dust blown in. And the sky always seems to have some gray in it, even on sunny days. There were always people cleaning, but the dust was ground into all of the crevices and never seemed to go away. Making the book too fancy or elegant seemed contrary to all of my feelings about China.

As I thought about it more I decided to try to use the bag I carried with me all through China and Japan. It had the dirt of China (and Japan) on it and I hadn't used it since I returned home.

I'm the one with the large bag. It was big enough to carry all of my usual necessities along with that folding cane I used for stairs. I bought it in Target for $15 or maybe $19; I don't remember. Of course, it was made in China–very appropriate. It was very well made, and except for the dirt, held up very well and not easy to take apart. Here is the front with all of the pockets.

Unfortunately, it's too large. The large pocket would fold around the binding board and I don't want that. It would be very clumsy. I've removed all of the pockets and will sew the smaller covered one back on and put some things in it.

It has a green lining that I'll use for the inside of the covers and do some decorative stuff in the empty spots.

Japanese art in Ohio, with a Native American embellishment

Posted on April 21, 2009 by ruthek

I took Charna to Oberlin for a college visit on Friday. She went to a couple of classes and spent the night there with a friend; Robin and Steve picked her up Saturday. I went to see a show of Japanese prints at the Allen Museum. The show didn't live up to the promotional email I got about it, but it was OK. More interesting was a show I found out about accidentally: wonderful kimonos by Itchiku Kubota. The show is in Canton Ohio, about an hour and a half from Oberlin, on my way home. I was really awed by the show. Each kimono was an astonishing work of art. I think there were 15 individual pieces and an installation of 30 placed in a semi-circle, each kimono relating in a unique manner to the piece next to it. The designs were created by a kind of stitched tie dye process and embellished in some areas by direct brush painting.

I took an audio book with me for my return trip from Oberlln: The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich, one of my favorite authors. To my amazement there is a story about a woman, MLB, who kept handkerchiefs with tears carefully marked with the occasion for the tears. The first time I heard about this was in the Wintersong blog, which talks about it here; more bits of information about this strange custom.

Tuesday in New York

Posted on April 8, 2009 by ruthek

Renee and I walked to the Met yesterday and spent a couple of hours there. It seems to get more crowded each time I go there. We looked at some drawings from India, a show sent from the Korea National Museum, and the Late Interiors of Bonnard. I wasn't turned on except for some of the Indian drawings. In the evening we met my friend Mary for dinner, then went to a book signing at Dashwood Books. The photographer/conceptual artist I met in Japan, Jacqueline Hassink, has just published a new book, Car Girls. This was more like an artist opening than a book signing–I'm not sure how many books were signed, or sold–and it was fun to be there. Going to openings was a constant part of my life for many years, but not at all for the last few years.

I posted a brief summary of blog class 3 at Silver Streakers.

Tax and another frustration

Posted on April 7, 2009 by ruthek

I finally did my income tax Sunday; started and finished.
I've been doing work avoidance on it since January. I think I didn't want to
know how little income I had last year. I will get refunds this year from both
state and feds. I'd rather pay the tax and have the income. I think my work
avoidance also kept me from posting very often. I promise to do better from now
on; I really have a lot to say.

Instead of buying TurboTax this year, I went to IRS.gov and
found a list of free (or cheap) tax software. I used TaxSlayer. TurboTax was a
little easier, but I now have a better idea of what the numbers are all about
and the whole thing, including e filing and my state return was free. Thank you
Tax Slayer and irs.gov for saving me more than a hundred dollars.

I printed out most of my China book with results that made
me unhappy. Some of the pictures that I know aren't wonderful, really look much
worse than on the computer. I stopped
printing about two thirds of the way through and I'm trying to decide whether
to buy a new printer. I have two of them already. One was a comes with
and it's at least six years old. The other was a so cheap I couldn't resist when
I bought my iMac. You get what you pay for, as I constantly remind myself. Both
printers have relatively new ink cartridges, which makes me want to use them,
but mostly I can't figure out what to buy. Even the supposedly high quality
printers are cheap enough; it's the ink that's the killer.

Book details

Posted on January 29, 2009 by ruthek

We have had quite a bit of snow (and rain) the last few days and I've taken the opportunity to mostly stay in and work on the China book. I now have 85 pages going through October 26, including pictures, emails and chats if they were not about my firewall troubles. I've started another file with information about the places I visited that I've copied straight off the internet. There are about 12 pages in that file. This book could have 250 pages. I have even more pictures from Japan. I don't want to think about that yet. I'm using Adobe InDesign to lay out the book and Photoshop to resize the photos. While I was in China I used Picasa on my toy computer, which had a Linux operating system. Now they are on my Mac and I am using iPhoto to manage them.

I have also started to think about the cover. I never found any fabrics in China and I really regret that, although I have some things I bought in 1982 when i visited the first time. I'm just not sure I want to cut them up. I bought two obis and a beautiful old kimono in Japan. I suppose it won't matter if I use some of that fabric. Or, I may have something else stashed away.

Congratulations to my friends in Chicago on your new governor. How did Blago ever get elected twice anyhow? I remember him from when I was still living in Chicago. I suppose I would have voted Socialist Labor again. I kinda remember the choices weren't great.

Revisiting the week

Posted on January 25, 2009 by ruthek

This afternoon I went to the fifth lecture in five days. Each one was different, not only in content, but even more in presentation. As a former Toastmaster I found this fascinating. The first lecture, on healthcare, used Powerpoint as a guide for herself, to make sure she covered all of her points. She went so quickly on some of them I didn't have time to finish reading.

BTW, the New Yorker has an excellent article about healthcare by Atul Gawande in the current issue. Even though I have been working for a single payer system his argument makes tremendous sense to me.

The second lecture, on government regulation, used no visual aids but gave us several handouts: one of her columns; a memo from Rahm Emanuel about regulation sent out on January 20; a diagram of the regulatory process; and information about her book, The Regulators, all interesting and useful.

The third lecture, about our foreign policy, used some very old, stained and faded overhead projector slides, along with bad jokes and lots of sarcasm. A professor who has won several teaching awards probably felt the need to entertain us. Do you get that I hated him, jokes and all?

Friday afternoon, the fourth lecture was given by a retired general. He was wonderfully organized, very pleasant and gave a good lecture about stuff I never thought about. Can't ask for more than that.

These lectures were all part of the Osher program at Pitt. Today I went to a presentation at CMU (Carnegie Mellon), the other big one here. This was about Arthur Szyk, (pronounced shick) an almost forgotten artist who lived from 1894 to 1951, and who created amazing illustrations of books from the bible and equally amazing illustrations responding to events of World War 2. There is an excellent website about him here and more illustrations of his work here.

This lecture was held at the Tepper Business School at CMU in a room with a monitor in front of each very comfortable chair. The illustrations appeared on each of the monitors as well as a large screen at the front of the room. It was a wonderful luxury to be able to look closely at each of the pictures.

Most people have never heard of Szyk, or never heard his name pronounced so didn't realize who he was. I was always looking for beautiful books, even as a child, and remember seeing his Andersen's Fairy Tales and Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam, as well as his Hagaddah. I wish I owned copies of them.

Need help putting photos into blog

Posted on January 18, 2009 by ruthek

I've spent most of these freezing days continuing to work on my China book. While I make the book using Adobe InDesign I am also proofreading and adding photos to my original posts. You can see them up to and including October 18. I am appalled at some of the errors I found and even more appalled by the problems I've been having putting multiple photos into that WordPress.com blog. There is something called a "Gallery" that I don't fully understand and can't find adequate documentation for.

I was planning to use WordPress when I teach the blogging class, but I'm having second thoughts. I can't teach something I don't fully understand. I don't seem to be able to use individual pictures and a gallery in the same post; the individual pictures show up in the gallery, also. I have so many photos I want to use just a few large ones and smaller ones for the rest. I'm sure I can put in each picture, large or small, one at a time. There is a feature allowing uploading of many pictures at one time. But I can't figure out how to get them in the post without putting the entire gallery in. Can anyone help me with this?

One of the things I like about this Typepad blog is the ability to create photo albums. I will probably take advantage of it to post my garden pictures from Japan. You've only seen a few of them.

Back in Pittsburgh, thinking about Door County

Posted on September 21, 2008 by ruthek

Five hundred and three miles from Carol's house to Robin's house. It took me about nine hours this time; there was a big delay in Chicago where they hadn't finished nightly work on the highway, and I made more stops than usual. The trip was otherwise uneventful with another audio book: Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China, by Phillip P. Pan, which I didn't finish. It's much longer than the first one and I listened to NPR for the first two hours I was on the road.

My visit to Door County was wonderful, easily the most satisfying four days I've had in years. Anita was the perfect hostess; the environment was beautiful–a great house near the waves on Lake Michigan singing to us; old friends making good conversation and a spacious studio where we could work and talk and listen to music; no cell phones and only occasional internet access. We came together to make artist's books, or it's a good excuse, anyway.

We arrived in the middle of the afternoon, Tuesday, after a pleasant drive. Some of the little towns up here are just lovely. I jokingly said I'd like to live up here and was almost laughed out of the car. The thing about being with old friends is that you can't kid them. They all know how much I need the big city.

Kathy and Frank joined us for the great dinner Anita made. Afterward, we had a lively political discussion. I think we outnumbered the Republicans, but they seemed to make more noise. Fortunately, we did not discuss politics very often.

I have lots of photos and much more to tell. Tomorrow is another day.

Driving all day

Posted on September 10, 2008 by ruthek

It only took a little more than eight hours; now I'm in Chicago. The trip went very well. My book on tape, The Man Who Loved China, was fascinating and the time passed very quickly. Joseph Needham was an amazing man. I regret I never met him or paid any attention to his writing. Now I'd like to read all 18 volumes of his Science and Civilization in China.

Dunhuang was one of the first places Needham visited in China and the book has a lot of information about the caves and the manuscripts found there. I went to Dunhuang in 1982 as part of my tour of China. I really knew nothing about it, just that it was on the silk road and sounded more exotic than the other tour choices I was given. In fact, I learned very little by going there. The information from this book was a great addition to my knowledge.

When I finally cruised through downtown Chicago, the book completed, I was able to adequately admire the skyline and again notice all the new buildings I know nothing about. There was a time I felt I knew every bit of this city. Eleven years later I relearn it each time I arrive.

On the road again

Posted on September 9, 2008 by ruthek

Tomorrow morning I'm into the car and away to Chicago. I'll be gone about 12 days, and I've got plans for every single day including after I arrive tomorrow night.

It's an eight hour drive. I have as company a book on tape about Joseph Needham, he of the eighteen volume Science and Civilization in China. I've been listening to the first two CDs as I drove around yesterday and today. I think this will be great company for my long trip.

In addition to all my friends and relatives I'll be getting my Japan Rail Pass, which I almost forgot. Making plans for both China and Japan has been challenging. I'm sure it would be better to make two trips, but I don't have that kind of money, or stamina for two long plane trips.

After six days in the city I'm going up to Door County with Raja and several other friends who all go back 30 years or more. Should be a great reunion.

100 Books Before I Die

Ruthe Karlin

Category Archives: Books