Liner Notes: July/Now We Are Here

In order to fully appreciate the third song in this piece, you need to watch the song as it unfolds in the movie. This isn't the version that appears on the soundtrack nor was it the version that was released for radio. But it exists and you have to really see it to fully appreciate this song. 

A little grainy but you can see the extended version used for the film. What a wild ride it is!

This version doesn't include the full sequence but it's still pretty great. Did you recognize Adolfo Quinones as one of the break dancers? No, well watch it again. You may be familiar with his work in the Breakin' movies (usually credited as Shabba Doo). I miss the time in our collective history where a rag-tag group of friends could unite to save the community center through the power of dance. Or something. 

Anyway, we've finally gotten to "Xanadu," the title song of this soundtrack and movie. The song was a huge hit for Olivia Newton-John and ELO. It's so much fun to listen to and I remember that as a kid, I generally thought adult nightlife was the end of the movie Xanadu. Obviously, this was not in any way what my parents were up to but we lived in small towns near Army bases or in suburban places like Burke, VA. Los Angeles was a different plant and the song "Xanadu" proved it. 

It's the perfect ending to the movie and the perfect last song for the soundtrack. Our hero and heroine are reunited and the credits roll. We've experienced magic, the fall, and finally reached Xanadu. It's perfect. 

When my aunt was here, I was showing her the earlier pieces from Liner Notes and talking about what was coming up. Her response was, "You have very eclectic musical tastes." So accurate, and she's partially responsible for some of those tastes. I love punk. I love ethereal weird girl music. I love rock. And I love really good pop songs. The Xanadu soundtrack is really good pop music, and we need really good pop music in our lives. That's not an opinion...it's a fact. 

Of the three sets of lyrics I embroidered for this month's piece, I think this one looks the best. The silver and gold really pop on the purple fabric. For the last six days of July (I know), I'll be working on a title piece and attaching everything to the actual journal page. It's going to be great. 

July 19

July 20

July 21

July 22

July 23

July 24

July 25

Xanadu

Magic, The Fall, and Xanadu

Here's a little sneak peek at one of the fabrics I'll be using next week.

I hope I can embroider the title onto this tulle. It's going to be fun. I have two other colors of tulle that I'll use to separate each song when I assemble everything. 

I'm also starting to work on the design for the August Liner Notes featuring the Foo Fighters. I think I'm going to expand on something I did in my 2022 piece that was based on the song "The Sky Is a Neighborhood," but I haven't fully committed yet. My two favorite albums of theirs are Concrete & Gold and Sonic Highways, so I think a lot of my inspiration will come from those two albums and two of my other favorite songs that aren't on those albums, "Times Like These" and "Skin and Bones." Any suggestions for the Foo Fighters theme?

Back to Work

I made it through my first week back at work. It was exhausting. I'm glad I was able to take the week at a slower pace and even managed to get my inbox to a manageable place. I definitely have to make some adjustments to my workspace at home. Sitting for too long is uncomfortable so I bought a standing desk topper (arriving today). I need to be better about getting up more frequently even if I'm on a call. It just helps. 

Bea was a little confused by the change in routine, but adjusted to being a fantastic co-worker. I decided to switch to a different laptop bag when I have to go to the office so she now has my other one all to herself. She spent the better part of my first day back at work napping in the bag. She makes me laugh. 

This was on day two - I was so tired after two days back at work and I think it showed. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to react to people at work who ask me, "Where have you been? I've been wondering about you." Ma'am, there was an out of office email message that spelled out exactly where I was. I have to resign myself to understanding that I'm one of like 7 people at work who read things. It's fine. 

It was nice to talk to my team and my work friends. I missed them and it's good to be back for that reason. It's all an adjustment and I need to remember to give myself time to get back into things. 

The other thing I decided this week is to only go to the rec center three times a week for now. It's still keeping active but not overdoing it especially as I'm getting back into a new routine. I'm going to go Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I usually go to the office on Tuesday so that's a natural rest day, and having Thursday as one will help as I'm still healing. I can be consistent and take breaks. Balance. 

WIPs and Other Small Joys

I made a little more progress on the Jonathan Adler bargello piece last weekend during my monthly craft meetup. I would have made more progress, but Bea decided to take over my canvas for a good portion of the meetup. She felt I needed a break, I guess. 

I'm going to try to work on it a bit today. Bea had to get her annual vaccines today and I want to stay home and keep an eye on her. If I don't work on this piece, I may start on the mushroom shadow box piece. 

The second kraken piece has finally made it into its painted hoop. I opted for a dark grey as the base color and added a metallic pewter paint on top. It looks pretty good. The two krakens are currently hanging next to each other on the wall in my studio, but I don't think that's where they belong. I'm considering a complete rehang of all the art in my house, but that's an October/November project, so they can hang out where they are for now.

I treated myself to a little thrift store shopping last weekend as one of my final things before going back to work. I found some great stuff including a few cute dresses, some vintage purses, a new print, and a plate that will work perfectly for an embroidery piece I want to do. I need to finish altering the sleeves on one of the dresses; they were a little too poofy for me. 

This is a poster from a 1970 exhibition of Will Barnet's work. The painting depicted is called Woman Reading. I identify with this painting.

My favorite quote from Erin Morgenstern's book The Starless Sea is "I feel lemony and insane." I've been planning to do a piece featuring the quote and decided to try my own embroidered plate piece including the quote. I've been on the hunt for a lemon plate and this is the one. More to come on this piece in a future post!

I had the opportunity to see Tori Amos in concert again this week. She's on tour for her newest album and played a show at Wolf Trap on Wednesday. We bought these tickets before I knew when my surgery was going to be, so I consider this to be my first big event post-surgery. This is my third time seeing her live, and it was a fantastic show. If you have a chance to see her on this tour, do it. I'm seeing the Foo Fighters next month and Patti Smith in September, so that I'll have seen 4 of the 12 artists featured in Liner Notes live this year. 

This is from Tori's Instagram account. 

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Shoes

Probably the best thing I found at the thrift store was a pair of rhinestone (I think) Betsey Johnson plaid platforms. They were $30 and a size 9 (I'm a size 8) but they fit comfortably and I couldn't leave them behind.

I would describe these shoes as EVENT shoes. When I say "EVENT" I don't mean you're going to a fancy party or something like that. I mean you're divorcing your cheating partner and walking away from their burning car like Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale. Or you just got your degree. Or it's Tuesday and you're going to the grocery. Maybe this only makes sense to me but they're the kind of shoe that you put on and you just feel like nothing is going to stop you. 

Will I wear them? Yes. I'm committing to wearing them to work at least once and I'll find some other EVENT for them at some point in the future. I suggested to a few of my friends that these should be shared shoes, like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants but with platform heels. So if you have an EVENT and you want to borrow the Betseys, I can make that happen. There will be rules since these are shared shoes and the Traveling Pants had rules too. What EVENT would you wear these shoes to? 

Enjoy your weekend! If you haven't seen it already, Jimothy appears on the Roku screen on Roku tvs and there's a fun thing on Google if you Google him. And if you don't know who Jimothy is, well, you should figure that out.