Adventures

I was in San Francisco the shortest I’ve been in almost every city so far… Also the first time I’ve catered to an exclusively teen audience! Okay, so it was advertised as a teen event. But as you can see, it was a still a very mixed crowd there at the public library.

In the end I was most impressed by my superstar trio in the back: Amy, Juan, and Emma. Amy was my lovely model for the demonstration, but meanwhile, her friend Juan was busy following along, making her a shirt with contrasting lacing at the sides and neck. A young designer in the making!

Before I was shipped out to Los Angeles, got to grab a quick bite to eat with my friends… Nothing beats a banana and Nutella dessert crepe. Yum. Thanks for coming out Celia and Damon!

So read my fortune cookie message from the Vietnamese place where I ate lunch today… I enjoyed many an adventure that afternoon, so it’s hard to tell to which new friend it referred. My day started early with a morning show appearance with host Denise, who proudly refashioned a halter top on air!

One of my favorite stops today was at the Elliot Bay independent bookstore. What a place. For someone who finds bookstores to be especially magical places, this one definitely makes my top ten. It was a special stop for me since, if you turn to pages 94, 138, and the last page in the color insert in the book, you’ll notice the Double Crosser skirt is made from none other than an Elliot Bay T-shirt! (Mind you, the shirt made quite a journey in getting to me—I originally bought it off eBay along with a few other hand-me-down tees.) The sisterhood of the traveling T-shirt? Hm. Very full circle. I love it. I met Peter, the owner of that fine book establishment, and he indulged me once more with a new T-shirt to make into something special… Now, what will I do next? Any suggestions?

The book event was lovely. We refashioned a few tees, handed out free scissors, and then I even got to play in the photo booth—one of my favorite pastimes—there in the bookstore. (Right next to the giant chess board.)

After my totally adorable model, Bailey, was kind enough to stand on a chair for twenty minutes while I refashioned her a tank top, she was kind enough to make me feel like a rockstar by having me sign it. I think this may be the first T-shirt I’ve ever signed—thanks Bailey!).

My bookstore host for the evening even made her own version of project #31 Queen of Braids. Fantastic! I love it!

PS: A big Happy Birthday to Luke from the other side of the country! I couldn’t be farther away right now…

I finally hit the west coast. Just flew in to Seattle from Portland on a tiny little plane. I almost missed my flight tonight, after chatting with all the lovely Portland peeps for a little too long! I had the most marvelous welcome—when I first stepped off the plane, I came face-to-face with a copy of Generation T in the airport Powell’s Bookstore!

And then—how awesome—more than 50 people showed up to rock it out at Powell’s proper (on Hawthorne) that night! (Including my friend, Gary—so nice to see a familiar face!) Unfortunately, my camera’s juice ran out, so I have no photos from the actual event to share. Sad. Portland was a special stop not only because it was my first trip to the great city, but because my favorite member of my favorite band happened to be touring through my new favorite Northwestern city. Give up? He also happens to be my favorite brother. That’s right, folks, the World/Inferno Friendship Society (and my big bro Franz) are touring down the west coast at the same time I am! Driving around with my media escort, Marilyn, I looked up to see this lovely omen of my strange west coast family reunion, this rotating bread loaf in the sky:

Turns out, “Franz” is the name of a local family of breadmaker. Marilyn pulled a U-turn, and we drove up next to the “Franz Bakery Outlet” (who knew bakeries had outlets?). Well, this one does, and after I took pictures of everything in the store, they even gave me a couple of mini-loaves as a token of my visit. Sweet. I love free stuff. Plus, my brother usually doesn’t get enough food when he’s on the road, so it’ll be a nice snack. He and I should be overlapping again in San Francisco. So how’s this for a plan: Refashion a T-shirt during the evening and wear it out on the town that night. Good, I’m glad you’re in. Another fun stop today was the big Powell’s bookstore—the original—it’s both incredible and incredibly huge. Check out the great titles on their staff pick list. Here’s a book by Jeffrey Yamaguchi, a cool Brooklynite who likes to get his creative on, too.

After a late wake-up yesterday (it’s hard work hanging out late night with poets and rockers!), I wandered around to explore South Congress. Walked the length of Congress from my hotel, met Matthew who scooped me some ice cream at another Amy’s (stop 2)—as I described the surreal night I had had, he filled me in on the awesome scoop (pun intended) on Trent Resner—how he’s a DIY god. I filled him in on the awesome scoop (another pun, totally intentional) on Saul Williams. And then I had the famous Mexican Vanilla mixed with the Dark Chocolate crushed with heath bar crunch. Yum. Here’s a fairly tame shot from my traverses along SoCo.

From old T-shirts to old tires…I was quite taken by these sidewalk planters that are made from slashed up old tires. I stayed with my-friend-Lily-from-Brooklyn’s family Saturday night, attended some local theatre (Lily’s sister Jessie-sometimes-called-Beanie is quite the actress. I can’t wait for the day I get to say I knew her when…), went to a farmers’ market and bought some hot grilling sauce. And then I stopped to smell the roses. Literally. Lily’s mom grows some sweet smelling roses. I also met an ill-tempered cat named Blanca, and a droolly dog named Gracie.

Sadly, I missed my friend Ellen’s bachelorette party last night, but I was there in spirit. Her maid of honor, Emily, and I refashioned an outfit for her to wear out that night.

The city of Austin has been so talked up by natives and visitors alike, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It is home to what is now my favorite independent favorite bookstore (thanks, BookPeople!). The staff were so helpful —even gave me a checklist of things to do during my “extended stay” (read: 2 days!) here. Amy’s ice cream, circle lake tour, Waterloo music, South Congress and all it has to offer (I could just set up camp in that store Uncommon Objects)… They didn’t even make (too much) fun of me when they saw me taking pictures of the sign outside that had my name on it—it’s one of those movie house display signs. So I felt like I was a movie star (until I remembered that I wasn’t).

We had a fun Tee Party—a very creative bunch—and I got to meet a second cousin of mine who happens to live here! He showed me around the UT campus where he’s a professor, ate some local grub, and helped me check Amy’s ice cream (stop 1) off my to-do list. Yum.

And, as if it couldn’t get any better… Today, my favorite poet/spoken word artist in the whole world, Saul Williams, happened to be doing an event at BookPeople for his new book, The Dead Emcee Scrolls. I told the folks at BookPeople I’d be back, and I there I was! The place was packed. Frame of reference: I had 30-plus in attendance for my event. Saul had 300-plus. But that’s Saul.

Got to meet him afterwards—he signed my book, I signed a copy of Generation T for him, then I convinced him to take a picture with me under the BookPeople sign that displayed both our names.

THEN, he invited me to the show that night where he was opening for Nine Inch Nails. I know, a poet who opens for a mosh-pit, crowd-surfing scene show….it was insane! And I moshed it up with the best of them.

Met up with everybody backstage, talked poetry (you see, I had another crush before my obsession with T-shirts, and it was poetry), and ate chocolate and dried mango.

A little reverse in my travels west had me cut back to San Antonio, TX (via Las Vegas, yet again!?) today. We had a super fun live segment this morning, where three hosts simultaneously transformed no-sew projects from the book—the Twisted Sister halter top, the Pleasantly Punk tee, and the Broken Hearted tee. Here are two of those ladies, looking positively delightful in their creations. But I didn’t stop there.

Texas is a big state, and I had many a T-shirt to recycle, and as they say here, don’t mess. By the way, in case you cared to know, the phrase “Don’t Mess with Texas” was introduced as a slogan promoting environmentalism in the Lone Star State (i.e. “Don’t litter because that messes up our fine state.” But conveniently, they shortened it and made it catchier.) So in that spirit, pick a T-shirt up off the floor, and—don’t toss it!—reuse it. Save some space in that old landfill.

Tee Party tonight in Austin!

A brief layover in Las Vegas (en route from Tampa), and I’m in Phoenix. After a slew of morning shows, I got to relax at a coffee shop to meet and chat with one of my very favorite crafty gals Kathy Cano Murillo (who, by the by, just came out with a new book—it’s called Art de la Soul—check it out!). She is, as I suspected, quite darling in person, and we discovered we both share an affinity for Frida.

Now, getting ready for the Changing Hands Bookstore event, I’m looking forward to catching up with one of my best friends from growing up–Hannah and I were in playgroup together up in rural NH! Anyway, she was able to TiVo one of my morning appearances. How painful to watch oneself on screen. And I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever been TiVo’d before. Weird to be TiVo’d. And what an enthusiastic crowd at Changing Hands—a number showed up to the Tee Party already sporting gussied up T-shirts…a skirt with a pleated ruffle, a tied up halter top….

What a schedule this tour has me on! I was off the plane at 9:15 a.m. yesterday and in a car by 9:30, on my way to a local live television segment that aired at 10:00! Yipes, we were cutting it close. After a few media pit stops, we made time for a few local secondhand clothing stores to stock up on some more tees for the live demos. Thrift store shopping—is this really part of my job?? Sweet! The B&N event last night was a whirlwind of fun—and the event coordinator herself was my lovely model for the day. I refashioned the Outer Lace tank top live for the audience—and people followed along in their seats. And what a turnout! We’re setting records all down the east coast.

And, then, just as quickly as it started, I had to run out at 7:30 to catch a plane to the next city. At 7:37, I was hightailing it out the door—literally running. On my way out, though, I just had to stop at a table where a young lady was still working on her project. The whole evening I had seen her stitching away, off to the side, with her needle and thread…and sure enough, rather than follow along with the Outer Lace project I was demo’d for the rest of the group, she was tackling Cover Girl—the aptly named halter featured on the front cover!

Congrats, little miss thang for coloring outside the lines. What an overachiever!

PS: On the TV segment this morning, I shared the stage with a giant in the ice cream tasting business. Not only are this fellow’s taste buds insured for 1 million dollars (something like just over $900 per bud), but he invented the flavor Cookies ’n’ Cream (in 1982, in case you were curious). Unbelievable!

A nice mixed crowd of dudes and ladies came out to play tonight at Books & Books—arguably the hottest bookstore in all of Florida. Seriously, the architecture of the building is amazing. The store is arranged in a square with an outdoor café/bar in the center courtyard. After being there all of 15 minutes I announced that I had to live there. And I meant, literally, in the bookstore, surrounded by all those oh-so-romantic sliding ladders along the floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Amazing. And thanks to the few, the fierce who made it out to a bookstore on a Monday night (during spring break, no less)! A special shout-out to Melissa-transplanted-from-Brooklyn who gets the prize for the longest trek—she braved the public transport system (the what?!?) of the greater Miami area to make it out tonight. (I feel nothing but love for the F train after hearing her adventures.) Onward—next stop Tampa!