i’m always making and filling handmade journals and scrapbooks – scrapjournals if you will – i’ve shared some snaps and what not here so you know what i mean
Just adding beat related ephemera to binders, poems to scrapbooks, cards and letters too, sometimes to one scrapbook, sometimes to another, depending on the form and function, music plays in the background – a compilation for Jack Kerouac – all in a historic kura storehouse barn in provincial Japan.
No commentary, no chit chat, just ya know,… hanging out playing with scissors, glue, tape and whatnot.
Thanks Matt T. and Dan B.
Ambient hang out and putting artifacts and items from the Kerouac “On the Road” exhibit in 2021 at Kobe, Japan – along with a dossier of items from Lowell, Massachusetts – into a plain white binder with sheet covers, while listening to a collection of hep songs assembled for Jack Kerouac’s hundredth birthday by Bear Family records while in “Giggling Piglet Studios” in a historic kura storehouse barn in provincial Japan. No commentary, chitchat – just hanging out.
Thanks Matt T and Dan B.
Just hanging out at Giggling Piglet Studios – an historic kura storehouse in provincial Japan – taping and glueing ephemera, snapshots, stamps, postcards etc from a trip to Kyoto for Kominka Summit, plus stops at Gion Post Office and Ginkakuji temple – into an accordion-style scrapbook.
While listening to records by Sonic Youth, Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Husker Du, JFA… maybe something else.
No narration, banter (witty or otherwise) or “action” beyond, playing with papers, scissors, glue, double sided tape and whatnot.
Hang out if you wanna hang out.
You are no doubt not surprised that adorable son Ichiro’s life is widely documented in a series of analog scrapbooks…
One for the days leading up to his birth, another for early days at home, another for cards and letters received, and so on.
And here’s another one made on a pleasant Sunday with his mom and the dude himself with all the arts and crafts he’s brought home from school as well as some “semi pro” photos taken at his great preschool.
Many/most of the arts and crafts are made with paint/ink and his hand prints/foot prints and turned into some other kind of character, often with a seasonal theme.
Within the photos are many with his classmates (so we won’t share here), as well as a *very special visit* from Santa Claus sporting a very fetching and somehow familiar beard.
Of course, was just recently his second birthday so meaning to share some more artifacts from that time… Did I already do that? I can’t really remember.
Anyway, here’s a scrapbook and here’s the dude for now.
Sorting, cutting and organizing scrapbook items – snapshots, insta-photos, fliers, brochures, stamps etc – from trips to Shimane and Kyoto in a historic kura storehouse barn (dubbed “Giggling Piglet Studio”) in Tsuchida, Japan.
While listening to records from Dan Mangan, Bob Dylan, and Courtney Barnett.
No chit-chat, narration or blah blah, just hanging out, playing with scissors, paper, scrapbooks, and cheap cutter knife.
Maybe you wanna hang out too? No big deal.
Very pleasing scrapbook session recently working on an accident triptych in similar type notebooks with similar decorations.
Getting my standard supplies at hand including: several scissors and pinking shears, a few glue, several widths & depths of double-sided tape, Photo corners, straight edge and a crappy cutting knife. Plus importantly, good records, and a phone to the wind.
Topics include: recent correspondence cards and letters; a trip to see money to a museum and aquarium; a trip to Kyoto for a workshop and a temple.Topics include: recent correspondence cards and letters; a trip to see money to a museum and aquarium; a trip to Kyoto for a workshop and a temple.
Assembling the raw material – Postcards, Insta snapshots, a few calligraphies, various business cards, couple of pamphlets and notations from a temple… then choosing a scrapbook that will fit *everything* and somehow connect to the aesthetic of little bit [Note to self and others: don’t overthink]
Then comes much cutting then sort of sort into piles by topics, themes – loosely around chronology, media and colors.
Best kind of mess. Then you start gluing, taping, floating, making little envelopes portfolios inside the notebook. Plus a special cover and back cover and often inside fly leaves, and an envelope to put all the odds and ends don’t quite fit right away.
Final step is writing in bits of narrative just enough to push the story along. In these cases, used various letter and date stamps to give a general sense of place and time.
I made some videos, eventually you’ll see some of them, maybe… Now that I think about this one you can see and I even talk about the letters and put it in the scrapbook so it’s the one before this one if you’re keeping score
Adding recent postcards, cards and letters to an “accordion” style scrapbook with various tapes and stamps in kura barn studio while listening to records (Aztec Camera and Belle and Sebastian) and discoursing on recent trip to Shimane, the role of monarchy in commonwealth countries, importance of friends, fondness for invitations, sending postcards to self, putting everything on casters, discarded records, and hats – many many hats.
As I’m stumbling along on my “healing ramble” series (please watch the intro video for overview and disclaimers, not unusually, finding myself a little bit overwhelmed with all the artifacts, memories, items, even data, to share. So, rather than obsess over it just putting it all out there, even if it’s a bit redundant.
The next “real” dispatches from the series include my “tips for travelling with a chronic illness” (which is rather practical and logistical stuff), plus another entry from Sri Lanka, another from Nepal, a tough one from Pacifica California, more from other places i forgot and maybe I’ll even fill in the missing gaps from Adelaide Australia, Austin Texas, and crossing Canada looking for a home.
In the meanwhile here are the fronts of some notebooks and a postcard which allude to some of the above.
(fuzzy photos of) notebooks of poetry, notes, musings etc – set to transcribe, eventually…
this batch includes a Yukon-made silk screened book – a gift from Bollwitts – plus an assortment of remixed The Royal Tenenbaums books, a handmade Japanese washi book and re-purposed passport.
sometimes i feel like because i am not one of those “writer every day” writers, i don’t get *enough done*, then i tidy up desk adn realized i have a stack of notebooks filled with scribbles, lists, notes, observations, full grown poems, lyrics, letters and so on, waiting for a transcription into another more shareable form. so i stack em up to do so and realize i still havent done the typity-type-type with a stack of others, yet somehow its all ok – art makes the future and all that and all that.
Do you keep boarding passes, maps, itineraries, ticket stubs, brochures, cards, coasters and whatnot? do you make *something* from it all? if so, can i see?
Envelopes of ephemera: Rome, Greece, Arabia, Turkey, Malaysia – i was looking for a home (and trying be lost).
Will eventually be collaged scrapbooks (but need to make some scrapbooks to be the scrapbooks these items go into…)
Also: Nepal, items, various (maps – many, aerogramme, hotel coasters and manifests)
