paperandglue.net

So, Stacey was over last night and we were working on stuff, stuff which diverted into an impromptu creative writing exercise that created an imagined controversial and religious-themed southern Manitoba art installation, and thus, an imagined Mennonite name. Stacey told me about how her mom went to high school in Winkler and was the only non-Mennonite in her class. This personal history blossomed into a present-day game where our friend Cam would play a game with her called Shout Mennonite Names!, getting her to announce random Mennonite-sounding names (first and last) on request.

Naturally, this game took on a life of its own. That life included Cam’s boyfriend, Steven Cochrane, making a generator website of the same name.

The site came about in February of 2009 when my boyfriend (who lives in Winnipeg), told me about a game that some of his friends had devised, in which players take turns shouting plausible-sounding Mennonite names at one another. I can only assume that they came up with this in February of another year, when the Winter Crazies were at their peak.

Not being from Manitoba (or, indeed, any other place with an unusually high concentration of Mennonites), my own knowledge of Mennonite nomenclature was far less intimate and far less ingrained than that of the company I keep. I could muster a “Menno Wiebe!” or a “Harry Dyck!” but after that I was more or less tapped out. Still, I wanted to play along, so I wrote a simple PHP script that would randomly combine entries from two lists of common Mennonite given and family names.

The above is from the “What?” section of the site — be sure to read it, because Steven’s work is done with due dillegence and references. He’s got sources.

I myself am not Mennonite, though my ancestors literally lived in villages neighbouring Mennonite ones in Russia. Close, but no cigar. In modern-day Manitoba, being Mennonite is no longer necessarily a religious affiliation — it’s an ethnic one, though of course the Mennonite religion is still alive and well, with several denominations and hundreds of churches in our province alone. I’m trying to quantify why a site like this is so fundamentally entertaining, but I can’t. Maybe it’s just that I’ve grown up in a place where the name “Dyck” (pronounced “dick”) is so commonplace as to not be worth a snicker, where two people named “Friesen” can get married and no one assumes they’re anything but very distantly related. It’s a peculiarity of Manitoba, and I enjoy it.

My pal Mama Cutsworth is a DJ who also has crafty tendencies. “Drop the Needle” is a name she hatched years ago, but now she’s got the event to go with the moniker — a monthly series of music + craft nights at the Lo Pub!

This is the second installment. Unfortunately, I was out of town for the first (though, to be fair, so was Mama C — it was a very last-minute thing she threw together before taking off for NYC for a holiday), but we’re both back in full action for Drop the Needle: the Book-Binding Badge.

Chantale Maynard will drop the book-binding knowledge; I will curate a special set of craft-related music.

Here are the details per Mama C:

Drop the Needle is Winnipeg’s new monthly crafting and DJ party at the Lo Pub!!!!!

This month, learn how to make hand-bound books with paper, needles and thread with artist Chantale Maynard while Mama Cutsworth plays the night’s soundtrack! We’ll have a curated music set with Jenny from CKUW’s The Book of Right-On at 7:30!

We kick off each party around 7pm and feature a mini workshop with a local artist between 8 and 9. Live DJing begins a bit later, dancing and prizes topping off the night!

Bring your friends and your own projects to work on too – any form of handicraft is welcome! Embroidery! Collage! Puppet making! We’ll have desk lamps on most tables to light your crafting. For this workshop, we will provide some materials, but we will send out a note to all attending soon regarding materials.

SUNDAY, February 21st
Lo Pub, 330 Kennedy street
Doors are at 7, the workshop begins shortly after.
Admission is 5 dollars.

Drop The Needle is brought to you by Mama Cutsworth, Kerri-Lynn Reeves, Sew Dandee, MAWA, Kustom Kulture and UMFM 101.5

If you have a business that is interested in sponsoring future Drop The Needles or have a crafty prize to donate, contact sarah at mamacutsworth.com

>>> Facebook event

>>>mamacutsworth.com

>>>thebookofrighton.com

I love Valentine’s Day. I’m one of those people who embraces the holiday as a celebration of sweetness and love in all its forms. I’m spending today with family and friends. We will eat our traditional Valentine’s dessert — cream puffs The are deceptively simple to make (though we make them only once a year. Mom and I are even test-driving a gluten-free recipe in addition to making our traditional variety.

Squirrel Valentine

valentimes  by day at a glance

Martha Stewart Soap

All You Need Is Love by JoshuaRaymund

My Owl Barn

Sunday is for riverwalking. Ruth, Mel, Epiphanie and I tromped down the riverbank and off to the Forks. Along the way, we checked out some of the new Warming Shacks, functional art installations that are new since our last trip down the Assiniboine. They’re great! And, as I see it, a good first step toward Art Shanties in the vein of Medicine Lake.

The river and the Forks weren’t as busy as they were last time, probably due to the clouded-over sky and the fact that it was actively snowing.

Yesterday I was organizing my filing cabinet and found something — well, two somethings — I thought I had lost in a move in 2007.

I thought I had lost it forever, but it turns out it was in my filing cabinet, safe and sound, the whole time.

What was it?

FAT MAP!

The fat map was a project that Stina of chubbluv zine did a few years backk, where she pasted pictures of fat people, fat animals and tasty food onto maps and sent them to you. I treasured this map, and added to it — the colour images are ones I glued on, including the likes of Camryn Manheim and Leslie Hall. This map dates back to 2006 — the days when I first became more into the fat acceptance/body positivity movement. As it is with most people, it’s a process to get to the point where you can say, “fat does not equal bad/ugly/gross/whatever.” For me, the journey started with my high school art teacher, who was fat and amazing and lent me copies of the now-defunct plus size fashion mag Mode. A couple years later, I started ordering zines from the (also now-defunct) Pander Zine Distro. I read the bio page for Ericka, the distro runner, where along with vital stats like name, age and location she also listed her height and her weight (!) with the parenthetical comment “Fat girls represent!” That kind of blew my mind, opening the pathways so I’d be ready to get into chubbluv and Fatshionista and the like.

Nowadays, you can find Stina at no futvre, where she continues to be excellent. You can find Ericka and her beautiful photography at elbfoto.

The second item returned to my possession by this expedition into my files was this strip of photo booth pics. It’s my brother and me at the airport. I’m probably 15ish and he’s probably 13ish here.

It’s surprising to see us getting along so well at this particular phase in our lives. It was before he grew to be bigger than me, nullifying any physical intimidation I was previously able to use to bend him to my considerable will; it was before we made it through the treacherous waters of adolescence, able to finally be friends as adults. Bro, if you’re reading, we should take another set of photo booth pics soon!

Here it is, my monthly video scrapbook, vol. 10. Just two more left! (That is, if I actually quit making them once I’ve done a full April-to-March year like I planned.)

You’ll see a few road trips, lots of quilts, cute kids and wintertime outdoor recreation.

Previously:

• December Video Scrapbook

• November Video Scrapbook

• October Video Scrapbook

• September Video Scrapbook

• August Video Scrapbook

• July Video Scrapbook

• June Video Scrapbook

• May Video Scrapbook

• April Video Scrapbook

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »