this is relevant only to explain just how scattered i feel right now. i think i mentioned in previous posts that i got hired for a temporary job enumerating for the census. (that means i go door to door trying to count/get info on all the folks who didn’t turn in their census form by april 1st.) it pays really well, and i made it through the first week of training last week just fine. (it was kinda boring to have the training manual read verbatim to me, but that’s how the gov’t does it and i was happy to take their $17.50/hr to sit there and listen.) this week has been sort of on-the-job training in the field, as we’ve all been sent out to tackle our first assignments. strangely enough, i’m finding i actually kinda like the work. it’s a little like being a detective sometimes, and since they started me off in my own neighborhood, it’s been nice getting to meet and get to know some of my neighbors. also contrary to my expectations, i’ve learned i’m pretty good at this. i guess my ever-so-brief stint as a paralegal/investigator for the death penalty defense law firm a decade ago taught me a few handy skills after all.

so yeah, i like the census work ok but the hours have slowed down as the week has gone on, because the higher-ups want us all to finish our first assignments completely before giving us any more. quality control, i guess. many of us, including me, have just one or two locations in our assigned areas to complete (can’t find the folks that live there home, keep going back at all hours of the day/evening trying to find them but so far no luck), which ends up meaning that on a day like today, i only get to log in the 10-15 minutes it takes me to knock on each door and have no one answer. i’ll be lucky if i clock in 2 hours of work today, sadly, unless i get lucky later in the day and find them. (that ain’t gonna pay the bills!)

in the absence of census work today, though, i’m finally getting the time to start listening to all the cds that have been piling up on my desk for my music column that was due, of course, several days ago. so far, lots of interesting stuff, including the new kelis album, deluka (which sorta sounds like a uk version of von iva to me), and this really great queer ragtime/vaudeville artist named sabrina chap (who sounds just like ani difranco vocally on several cuts, but her music is more diverse). i hope i can get through the whole stack today and decide what i’ll be featuring, and maybe even start writing.

meanwhile, fae’s son charles is in town for a week visiting – he just arrived yesterday. they are out running errands right now, but, you know, i’m trying to make time to hang out and do stuff with them, too, while he’s here.

and have i mentioned? i have to finish watching about a dozen lesbian/feminist films so i can then sit down and program the film fest for michfest this summer. by the end of may. ugh.

sadly, my crafty life seems a bit on hold at the moment until i get better at managing my work flow and extraneous projects. i did really well at jen’s jazz fest art show, selling lots of t-shirts, several signs and one clock. better than last year, even, which makes me really happy and grateful (thanks again jen!). but it leaves me in a bit of a dilemma, feeling like i don’t really have a very good amount of stock to be heading into the bayou boogaloo on the 22nd-23rd, which is my next and only market i have scheduled before the crippling heat of summer hits us. so i have to find time to strategize about that: make some more clocks and signs, print some more t-shirts, maybe even come up with a new design or two? it’s just one of my biggest opportunities all year to sell a lot of crafty wares, so i’d hate to miss out. but how to find the time?

also, while i’m talking about the bayou boogaloo… some of you will remember that last year the new orleans craft mafia did a wildly successful t-shirt recycling/reconstructing workshop out at the boogaloo. we were mobbed with people excited to learn how to make tote bags, halter tops and skirts out of their old t-shirts, and we got a lot of great press from it, too. plus it was a lot of fun! so how could we not do it again this year? therefore, of course, we are. we’ll be out there selling our eco-friendly and recycled wares, and then also doing two days of free workshops – 12pm-5pm on saturday the 22nd and 1pm-4pm on sunday. we’re looking for volunteers who’d like to help us cut and sew and direct traffic, and we’re also looking for your old t-shirt donations! (now i’m not talking stained and holes-worn-through old t-shirts, but rather stuff you’re not wearing anymore that’s still in nice wearable shape that you’d like to get out of your house and perhaps onto someone else as a skirt or halter or bag!) t-shirt donations can be dropped off early to unique products (2038 magazine street) or whole foods uptown during biz hours or just bring it to the boogaloo – we’ll have a donation box out. spread the word!

so see – what’s a unitasker to do? i really need to be working on ALL these things at the same time, but wow is that hard for me. it’s a major accomplishment that i’ve even managed to update this blog today while doing something else – even if it is just listening to cds. (don’t even get me started on all the various blog posts i want to be writing, on topics ranging from the last few episodes of treme, which i finally found online to watch, to the new police chief in nola, and the goddamn oilpocalypse happening out in the gulf and currently washing up on louisiana’s shores.)

i guess i’ll just keep trucking along, doing the best i can. it’s all i can do.

my stuff on the left, miss malaprop on the right

rebekah and her booth

we then we created a cutting and sewing assembly line for the demo. whole foods, rebekah and some others donated a bunch of t-shirts, and we had three tables in row: one for the shirts and a cutting station, and a sewing machine on each of the others. at first, we had slow business, with only a few folks coming through the line – though those that did were really excited and amazed at the simplicity of the project. but around 1pm, we had an entire classroom full of school kids who had walked over from the audubon park area show up, t-shirts in hand. so for the next hour or so, we took them 2-3 at a time, showing them how to cut off the sleeves and around the neck, and then trim the bottom of their shirts, turn them inside out, and then mallory and rebekah sewed up the bottom with their sewing machines. flip them back rightside out and voila – your shopping tote is done!

mallory showing the kids how to cut and sew their shirts into bags

the kids loved it, and even got really creative with all the t-shirt scraps. cut off sleeves became headbands and visors; the trimmed bottom edge became sashes and necklaces. they were hilarious. once one kid decided to do it, they all wanted to. but they loved their bags, too.

adults came through too!

the rest of the afternoon was not quite as hectic but that was ok with us, as 30-something kids in an hour was kind of a lot! but we had many happy recyclers throughout the day, and it felt good teaching people a usable skill for recycling something we all have too many of: t-shirts.

and now it’s jazz fest. i lucked out and scored a free pair of tickets (thanks again, rachelle!) which i think fae and i are going to use tomorrow (sunday). yesterday, we went about our days as usual, fae trying to finish up as much of her end-of-semester stuff and me piddling around the house. but at around 6pm, we headed over to jen and mary ann’s house for the first night of porchfest 2010, which is how we affectionately refer to our annual porch hangout tradition.

jen and mary ann live a few blocks from the fairgrounds, and on one of the heavier trafficked corners for folks exiting the fest, so we’ve made it a tradition, hanging out on their porch as fest lets out, watching all the people go by. (this is the same location as the jazz fest art show i mentioned in previous posts, which, by the way, is still up through the end of the second weekend of jazz fest.) it’s not quite as much fun as being out at fest and hearing all the music and eating all the food, but it’s pretty entertaining, and a good substitute for those of us who can’t afford or just don’t like to deal with jazz fest every day. and with all the folks jen and mary ann know, along with all their neighbors, it can get to be a pretty big gathering. in fact, tonight there will even be a band playing next door, the all-girl blues band 30×90 (which features my friend sticky t, formerly of blues sister).

my stuff at jen's jazz fest art show

so yeah. it was pretty mellow last night, being the first night of fest. but it was still nice to get out of the house and see folks. we’ll be heading over there in just a little while for tonight’s festivities. and then tomorrow, assuming fae gets all her work done and i’m feeling up to it (not been feeling so great today), we’ll use those free tickets to partake in a bit of jazz fest ourselves. of course, porchfest will still be in effect afterwards, until it’s time to go watch treme of course. tomorrow will be a marathon!

but that’s jazz fest. i can’t believe i used to go every single day, all day, from 11am – 7pm and then do porchfest and even sometimes go out afterwards! wow, i used to have a lot of energy! but no more. now i have to pace myself and take it easy, or i pay for it. but i still love jazz fest time in the city. everyone is happy, there’s music everywhere you turn, locals are all having parties at their houses, and almost everyone has houseguests from elsewhere. (somehow we ended up with none this year.)

not sure if we’ll get to do some of the fest next weekend or not, but i hope so. we’ll see how the week goes. but for now, happy jazz fest!

we ate and drank ourselves silly: hand-cut seasoned fries from que crawl (aka the purple truck), a meat pie, the most delicately-battered fried catfish and crawfish rice from dunbar’s, and a pulled pork w/purple cabbage po-boy from que crawl again. oh and a delightful turtle to top it all off. fae got a yummy daiquiri and i enjoyed a few tasty local beers. it was a good day.

this week, for me, has been all about listening to cds for my upcoming music column. i think i have it narrowed down to a handful, including new ones by sia, pieta brown, a greatest-hits collection from k.d. lang, and a few others. i’ve still got a ways to go, though, on the stack of discs on my desk. fae’s been on spring break, which is nice for her. usually we travel to louisville to see friends and family on her breaks from school, but we just didn’t have it in us this time; that 12-hour drive is intense and with fae having been so sick over the first part of the semester, we just decided it would be best for us to stay home, to allow her to rest, relax and get caught up on school. so far, i’d say it was a good choice. the weather has been perfect, we’ve done some spring cleaning, she’s done some gardening, and i’m hopefully going to turn my music column in relatively on time. yay!

and now it’s almost april, which will be a crazy-busy month. i’ve got tons of markets/festivals scheduled, and of course jazz fest is almost here – my favorite time of year. here’s a brief overview of my schedule, for future reference:

this coming saturday, the 3rd, i will be vending at the freret market, my regular monthly appearance. it’s my favorite regularly-occuring local market, with a good mix of flea, art, craft, and food vendors plus community organizations, free live music, kids activities, good beer (abita!) and just a great general vibe. lots of the new orleans craft mafia gals will be there, so come by and say hello if you are out and about.

the following weekend is french quarter fest and i’m thinking about picking up a day vending at elysian fleas again, as it is well-situated close to the quarter.

the third weekend in april is both the alternative media expo and crawfest at tulane; sadly, i had to make a choice about which one to vend at this year since they are both on the same day, but there was no way i could turn down the opportunity to be at crawfest. i had such a successful day there last year and it was a blast, so that’s where i will be. the craft mafia will, however, be well-represented at the alternative media expo: we are co-sponsors again this year and will be giving out the free swag bags loaded with goodies to the first 100 paid attendees (so get there early!), and several of our members will be there vending. if i could figure out a way to be in both places at the same time, i would.

that friday night, the 16th, is also the opening party for my friend jen biniek’s annual jazz fest art show. this is the fifth year she’s opened up her living room to all her artist friends’ “funky lil art,” as she calls it – small-sized, affordable, eclectic folk art, photography, jewelry, crafts and all other kinds of stuff. i’ll post more details about the opening in a separate blog entry, but pencil it in on your calendar now or at least make a point of stopping by during the two weeks of jazz fest, because it’s quite a sight to behold.

then on the 22nd, which happens to be earth day, the new orleans craft mafia is cooking up a fun event at whole foods on magazine street. we’re still ironing out the details, but it will be both a vending situation as well as a recycling demo, teaching folks how to turn old t-shirts into new funky reusable grocery bags. again, more details coming once everything is worked out.

and then it’s jazz fest and hopefully i get to relax for a bit. i won’t be doing any markets during the two weekends of jazz fest (though my stuff will be up at jen’s) and freret market’s may market has been pushed back to the 8th, the weekend after jazz fest, so as not to conflict. so hopefully i will have made enough $ at all the april markets to be able to partake a bit in jazz fest revelry, if not inside the fairgrounds at least on jen and mary ann’s porch.

i have, however, applied for a job with the census. i go to take the entrance test tomorrow and then find out more details. not sure if it will be a good fit for me or not, particularly since i have so much going on april on the weekends, but i guess i’ll see how it goes and if i can work it out schedule-wise. because goodness knows i could use the money.(i’m all ears for other job tips and offers if you know of anything.)

so that’s what’s going on for me. i’m sure there will be intermittent updates throughout the month, but if you don’t hear quite as much from me, you’ll know why. i’m just busy, hustlin.

regardless, the emptiness of my wallet has led me to decide to, at the last minute, request a booth for saturday at the “soft launch” of the new-and-improved elysian fleas market. i’ll have all my usual crafty/folk art wares, plus maybe some flea type things like cds and whatever else i can scrounge up around here. and it being an off-weekend for BERG practice means fae can actually join me. the weather is predicted to be beautiful – 0% chance of rain right now and sunny all day with warm temps – and the vibe is always pretty laid back and fun at this market.

so. i know there’s a lot going on this weekend, and the gorgeous spring weather has folks itching to get out and enjoy the day. but while you are out and about, stop by and check out the eclectic offerings at elysian fleas and come say hello. there’ll be food and cocktails and music, so why not?

full press release from elysian fleas is below:

Elysian Fleas
Saturday, March 27th
Sunday, March 28th
11 am to 5 pm
527 Elysian Fields
corner of Chartres St.

Elysian Fleas Springs Back to Life as a Weekly Market!

After a short hiatus to prepare for our big relaunch, we’re coming back as a weekly market every Saturday and Sunday 8 ,days a month! Gates open to the public with our soft opening on March 27-28 heralding the Grand Opening on Easter Weekend April 3-4. Hours are 11 am to 5 pm.

“We are going weekly to more fully enjoy the spring,” says James Michalopoulos, who hosts Elysian Fleas in the shady, tree-lined courtyard next to Michalopoulos Studio at 527 Elysian Fields on the corner of Chartres St. “This is a test to see how much fun we can have and how well it will work.”

Launched as a monthly market, Elysian Fleas quickly became a vital part of the neighborhood.

“The Faubourg Marigny and Bywater community so embraced Elysian Fleas,” says Reese Johanson of Artist Inc., which produces the market with the sponsorship of Old New Orleans Rum. “We realized New Orleans would support a regular weekly market like the village markets in Europe. People know they can come and get their cheese from farmer Jacques, and that Claudette emptied her attic and will be selling everything this weekend. It’s not only a place to shop and meet your friends for a drink or lunch. It’s also a community-building experience.”

To take Elysian Fleas to next level, the market hired Prachi Vij as full time manager. A local Marigny gal, Prachi was looking to bring her corporate event planning skills to grassroots community endeavors. “It’s a great match!” says Johanson. “We are so happy to have found her!”

Every Saturday and Sunday, beginning March 27-28, Elysian Fleas will feature a spicy New Orleans mix of flea market trash and treasures; creative art, jewelry & crafts; and delicious food & drink from some of New Orleans’ best al fresco vendors.

Longtime shoppers will recognize old favorites like Sally’s Gourmet Country Foods, Beaucoup Nola (fresh-squeezed juices, snowballs & salads), Straight From the Hipster Used Books, Cree’s Cheap Chic, Righteous Fur nutria-teeth jewelry and Susie’s Vintage Hats. New vendors range from Upper Ninth Herbal Skin Care Products to Le Divina Gelateria gelato to Fang & Feather swamp jewelry and Bridget Callais’ gulf shrimp from down the bayou.

“In the future, we’re looking to add produce, more flea market and garage sale people, perhaps a florist and a wine seller,” says Johanson. “We will have a certain percentage of vendors you can count on, but most of the vendors will rotate so there will always be a variety of fare.”

Always on the menu: Old New Orleans Rum cocktails, Abita beer and a lively grab-bag of street entertainers, from wandering minstrels to jugglers, magicians and fire-eaters. As Johanson puts it: “Expect the unexpected.”

Contact Prachi Vig at prachi.elysianfleas@gmail.com

can you tell they were the sponsors of the fest?

the weather had been predicted to be sunny and 0 % chance of rain. unfortunately, that didn’t really work out. it was mostly cloudy, VERY windy (gusty, even, resulting in greenKangaroo’s tent blowing over during set-up and making us all nervous throughout the day) and threatened rain all afternoon. luckily, only a few drizzly drops made their way to the ground late in the afternoon, though it was sprinkling consistently while we broke down at the end of the day. but no major catastrophe ensued, and the sun did peek out a few times, enough to keep everyone warm and add to the enjoyment of the day.

some of my little beer folk art hanging in my booth

i somehow didn’t really remember to take many photos – must have been all those 2oz samples of beer i chugged down in the first hour or two! i knew i had to sober up by the time i left, so i could drive home safely, so i tried to do most of my beer drinking early on. it’s a strange event, having scores of beer vendors lined up in a row, pouring endless 2oz samples. it’s not enough beer for you to fill your tiny mug and walk away to enjoy it; just long enough to take a few swallows, try to savor each particular beer as best you can, and move on to the next one. after a while, it becomes hard to distinguish each beer.

i do remember particularly enjoying a few beers that i’d never tried before. i checked out all of heiner brau‘s beers, as i’d previously only had (and love) their amber. but they were out of their strawberry beer before i got there, sadly. many folks were talking about that one, so i’ll have to see if i can check that out another time. i tried lots of beers i’d heard of before but never tried – chimay, hoegaarden, several flavors of flying dog and sam adams i’d never tried, some of zea’s flavors i’d never had before, covington brewhouse, some of the lazy magnolia‘s, and nola brewing‘s new hurricane saison (very nice!) – and many new beers, most of which i can’t remember, that i hadn’t ever heard of before. i came home with several keychain bottle openers from budweiser (you can’t ever have enough of them, even if it does say budweiser) and a new green coozy from bayou teche brewing, for their LA31 beer, which is new to the new orleans market. (i liked it!) i drank a lot of beer.

mc auslan's st. ambroise apricot wheat

i can’t say there were many beers i didn’t like (though i don’t ever have to have dixie’s blackened voodoo ever again), but i can say there was a new favorite from everything i tasted today: mc auslan’s st. ambroise apricot wheat ale. i think i could actually drink a whole six pack of that stuff. often, i like the taste of a beer in small doses, but can’t manage to maintain my interest in it for an entire six pack. but this one, i think i can. the smell alone was just amazing. and i don’t even usually like fruity beers! (like, i hate abita’s strawberry beer.)

so yeah, it was a really fun day. fun hanging out with my nocm homies (including mallory of miss malaprop, who helped staff my booth, and her bf dave, who is a filmmaker and took some b-roll video footage of us for future use). i saw a few friends i had no idea would be there, and i got to not only meet kirk coco, president and co-founder of nola brewing company, but he bought my one-of-a-kind “craft beer drunk here” mixed media stencil clock! i’m gonna have to make it over to tchoupitoulas street to take a brewery tour soon, cuz i love their beer and love supporting the local microbrewery.

some of my bottlecap signs

oh, and i was smart enough before i started drinking beer to ask some of the beer vendors to hang on to their bottlecaps for me, so by the end of the day, i had a HUGE grocery bag full of a wide variety of craft/microbrew beer bottlecaps for future folk art/crafts. i don’t know why i’m so obsessed with bottlecaps, but like much advertising and product design, i find them to be tiny little metal pieces of artwork all on their own, that are awesome embellishments and/or materials for signs, folk art, clocks, mixed media pieces, cufflinks, etc. and, well, it’s recycling, too. so now i’m well-stocked for a while. yay!

i look forward to participating in the top of the hops fest again in the future. hopefully they will add more food and crafts vendors, and maybe offer slightly longer hours to partake of all those beers. but otherwise, i’d say it was pretty well done. if this sounds like fun to you, they’ve got another one coming up soon in lafayette, and have plans for greenville, south carolina and i think even louisville, kentucky later in the year. it’s a great idea; wish it had been mine! what a fun job it would be producing these beef fests all over america!

last night, the new orleans craft mafia had our monthly meeting and we spent a lot of time talking about our co-sponsorship and participation of the upcoming alternative media expo. as a co-sponsor, one of the things we do for the AME is put together the swag bags that are given out FREE to the first 100 paid attendees. for those of you who don’t understand what a swag bag is, it’s basically a bag of freebies: product samples (cds, earrings, zines, etc.), promotional goodies (like stickers, buttons, keychains, etc. with company logos on them), or even coupons – all from local (and even some national!) indie businesses and/or non-profits. we provide a fashionable tote bag of some sort with our logo on it (which is great to use year-round for groceries and other shopping!), and then fill it with all the fun stuff mentioned above that we accumulate from our wide-reaching call for swag.

and so, speaking of which, i’m here today to reiterate that call for swag. i’m going to just cut and paste what mallory of miss malaprop wrote for us, below, but please, if you are a local indie biz or even an artist, band/musician, etc. that would like some free targeted promotion, consider contributing to our swag bags for the lucky AME attendees. last year, i made 100 tiny pieces of cardboard stencil art, stamped with my website address, as my contribution… and i’ll be doing the same thing again this year, i think. (either that or making my own DIY stickers to include – haven’t decided yet.) so if i can HAND MAKE something promotional to include, surely you can come up with a button, sticker, pen, magnet or even just print out a coupon for your biz. it’s not that hard and it’s a great opportunity to reach folks that actually support and spend their money on indie and local businesses. do it. do it now.

The New Orleans Craft Mafia is proud to once again sponsor the Alternative Media Expo, presented by Antigravity Magazine.  The Alternative Media Expo ‘10 is scheduled for Saturday, April 17th from noon-6pm at the warehouse in the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA), and will feature tons of exhibitors with comics, ‘zines, fashion, crafts, music, film, design, community activism and much more!

Admission is $5, and the first 100 paid attendees through the doors will receive swag bags courtesy of the New Orleans Craft Mafia: a reusable shopping bag filled with freebies and product samples from various indie businesses. These bags present a great opportunity to get the word out about your business, band, or organization. Vendors exhibiting at the Expo are also highly encouraged to participate in the swag bags and leave a lasting impression on visitors.

Get the word out to this diverse group of customers who seek to support independent businesses by including your product samples in these swag bags. Product samples may include, but are not limited to: CD/DVD samplers, comics and magazines, small jewelry or accessory samples, t-shirts, blank notecards or stationery, sample size soaps or cosmetics, gift cards, or other small samples of your products. If you choose to send in samples, we ask that you send a minimum of 25 samples.

Some swag suggestions include, but are not limited to: coupons, stickers, buttons, magnets, pens, etc. We ask that you do send actual swag items and not just promotional materials such as business cards or flyers. You may attach business cards, etc., to any donated swag, of course. (If we receive ONLY business cards or fliers from you, they will NOT be included in the swag bags.) If you are interested in sending in swag material, we ask that you send in the full amount of 100 items.

The deadline for sending in swag & samples is Wednesday, April 7, 2010. Items may be sent to:

New Orleans Craft Mafia swag bags
c/o Kerry Fitts
P.O. Box 791922
New Orleans, Louisiana 70179-1922

Those interested in dropping off samples and swag locally in New Orleans may bring them by UP/ Unique Products at 2038 Magazine Street during regular business hours (Monday-Saturday 11am-6pm, Sunday noon-5pm). Please make sure your items are marked as being for the New Orleans Craft Mafia / Alternative Media expo swag bags.

For more information on contributing to the swag bags, please email mallory [!AT] neworleanscraftmafia.com