"Play Time: Waiting on Godot"

i try to get jobs in theater costume shops. theater is considered cool at this time. does anyone have the attention span for theater now? Anyone under the age of forty? Can you sit surrounded by people, unable to twitch around for least two and a half, three hours?

it never occurs to me to consider my own lack of qualifications while reading the requirements for any job. i am young and i believe they should give me a chance. keep the faith.

i manage to get costume jobs, though i can barely plot a straight course on a sewing machine. i failed the sewing portion of home economics in junior high. my only other training is one day spent with my mother who attempts to teach me to put together a simple dress.

teaching is the process of receptivity to imperfection. an act of encouragement; a current sacrifice of perfection which opens the door towards a hopeful, more perfect future.

however, my mother is not acquainted with this philosophy. the sewing lesson becomes a painful six hours. she seethes in exasperation. she must be restrained almost physically from taking over the project herself, overcome by a longing for a missing perfection. she prepares me for a career in the impossible.

i am hired as wardrobe girl at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, while in my fifth year at U.C. Berkeley. i work thirty-five hours per week, eight shows per week; I try to go to school, too. i do quick changes during the show, moments of helping actors get dressed quickly. i iron for a living, i press shirts for the show every night. i have my station in the brightly costume shop by an open door at the end of a pitch black hallway. the actors inform me how comforting it is to see this young woman every evening at the end of this dark stretch. They start work with shirts warm from the iron. pre-show, i nap happily under the clouds of smoke in the Green Room, the actors' waiting room.

the next show “Waiting for Godot”, is a nightmare. I struggle with a giant orb which is supposed to be the moon. the moon rises at the end of each act. this orb rides on a long wire wound on a spool; a spool which rests casually on a nail in the wall. I screw this up more than once, living inches from being fired on a daily basis.

I am fired, in the end, but not over a glowing orb. the management realizes I cannot put a zipper into a garment, and I am out of a job I had grown to love, or at least, before the orb came along.

I move through a string of theater jobs, attempting to better my sewing skills, riding the waves of the lack of budget for costume shops. this budgeting style stems from the old days, when women did not need to work outside the home. many could devote their spare time to sewing costumes, a kind of community work.

"What's in a name?"

or

"What's a Kweejibo?"

or more correctly, what is a kwyjibo? the year is 1989, and a new show, "The Simpsons" is talked about, giggled over... Bart Simpson is admired and reviled, a bratty young thing. one day, while at work at The Wasteland, which can translate to “doing very little and looking very good”, i overhear the conversation of two of my favorite co-workers. Isobel and C.J. talk about an episode of "The Simpsons".

i never witnessed that particular night's episode. Isobel says, "last night, that was hella funny... Bart is playing Scrabble with his family and he goes out, like, he wins...using all his letters, makes one word 'kwyjibo'... you know, man, that's like fifty points right there, plus all the points from everyone's letters, and everyone was just sitting there, like hey, that's bullshit, but they don't have enough nerve to challenge it..." we are crazy for playing Scrabble and The Simpsons. what does that mean? well, Bart says scientifically "a North American hairy white ape..."

i decided on the spot that it would be my company name. who else will think of this name? Isobel cannot remember the correct spelling of the actual word, so i make my own spelling.

the choice is a name that would be obscure for at a while, no trademark infringements, but would gain a certain notoriety from the overwhelming success of The Simpsons. at the time nobody knows what it means; when we make women's clothing, no one is aware of the oddness of naming a women's line after "a hairy white male ape". by the time they discover the meaning, we are onto the men's clothing only; so the meaning merely seems ironic.

i apply for the trademark a full six years later, in 1996, after my store had been running for already three years. no one likes the name at first, too difficult to say. that is, until we start to sell a lot of shirts. and until the details of "The Simpsons" episode become a more commonly known pop-culture detail. my friend, Scott Marcus, is the sole proponent of starting a small men's wear line. coincidentally, he works for Twentieth Century Fox Studios at this era and, occasionally, with Matt Groening, the show's creator. Mr. Groening, amused at the idea of Kweejibo clothing co. offers to sign our store photos.

about MADE : A Trilogy

Part One :

MADE IN OAKLAND

the Kweejibo story, the improbable story of a clothing-maker and merchant

Part Two :

MADE IN BURMA

the Cho family, third generation Burmese residents, an improbable life escaping to and escaping from the Promised Land (the rice bowl of Asia, Burma)

Part Three :

MADE IN SOME JUNGLE

Cho's stories Thailand and Sri Lanka

click here for weekly updates and to return to current kweejibo storieshttp://www.kweejibostories.com/

la Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud et le café, Les P'tites Indécises, June 7, 2012

                                       

la Rue des Trois Bornes, le café Les P'tits Indécises, June 7, 2012

 La Rue Gambey, Outside the Crystals and Sound Healing Shop, June 7, 2012

La Rue Gambey, Outside the Crystals and Sound Healing Shop, June 7, 2012

leaving Rue Gambey June 7, 2012

Rue Gambey June 7, 2012

La Rue Oberkampf, June 7 2012

Paris Pratique, Éditions 2009 Le Voisinage (Neighborhood) de la Rue Ternaux

En Face de Pudding (across from), June 7, 2012

La Brocante, June 7, 2012

la Brocante qui s'appelle Pudding (antique store, Pudding)

En Face de Pudding, June 7, 2012

 les enfants jouent à la Rue Ternaux, June 7, 2012

 la Rue de la Folie Méricourt, (Art Puzzles in wood, cut by hand)  June 7, 2012

Puzzles en bois découpés à la main, June 7, 2012

la Rue de la Folie Méricourt, June 7, 2012

la machine pour découper à la main, les puzzles en bois, June 7, 2012

la Rue de la Folie Méricourt, June 7, 2012

la machine pour découper à la main, les puzzles en bois, June 7, 2012

Puzzles d'art en bois, découpés à la main, June 7, 2012

click here for weekly updates and to return to current kweejibo storieshttp://www.kweejibostories.com/

"Play Time: Waiting on Godot"

i try to get jobs in theater costume shops. theater is considered cool at this time. does anyone have the attention span for theater now? Anyone under the age of forty? Can you sit surrounded by people, unable to twitch around for least two and a half, three hours?

it never occurs to me to consider my own lack of qualifications while reading the requirements for any job. i am young and i believe they should give me a chance. keep the faith.

i manage to get costume jobs, though i can barely plot a straight course on a sewing machine. i failed the sewing portion of home economics in junior high. my only other training is one day spent with my mother who attempts to teach me to put together a simple dress.

teaching is the process of receptivity to imperfection. an act of encouragement; a current sacrifice of perfection which opens the door towards a hopeful, more perfect future.

however, my mother is not acquainted with this philosophy. the sewing lesson becomes a painful six hours. she seethes in exasperation. she must be restrained almost physically from taking over the project herself, overcome by a longing for a missing perfection. she prepares me for a career in the impossible.

i am hired as wardrobe girl at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, while in my fifth year at U.C. Berkeley. i work thirty-five hours per week, eight shows per week; I try to go to school, too. i do quick changes during the show, moments of helping actors get dressed quickly. i iron for a living, i press shirts for the show every night. i have my station in the brightly costume shop by an open door at the end of a pitch black hallway. the actors inform me how comforting it is to see this young woman every evening at the end of this dark stretch. They start work with shirts warm from the iron. pre-show, i nap happily under the clouds of smoke in the Green Room, the actors' waiting room.

the next show “Waiting for Godot”, is a nightmare. I struggle with a giant orb which is supposed to be the moon. the moon rises at the end of each act. this orb rides on a long wire wound on a spool; a spool which rests casually on a nail in the wall. I screw this up more than once, living inches from being fired on a daily basis.

I am fired, in the end, but not over a glowing orb. the management realizes I cannot put a zipper into a garment, and I am out of a job I had grown to love, or at least, before the orb came along.

I move through a string of theater jobs, attempting to better my sewing skills, riding the waves of the lack of budget for costume shops. this budgeting style stems from the old days, when women did not need to work outside the home. many could devote their spare time to sewing costumes, a kind of community work.

"What's in a name?"

or

"What's a Kweejibo?"

or more correctly, what is a kwyjibo? the year is 1989, and a new show, "The Simpsons" is talked about, giggled over... Bart Simpson is admired and reviled, a bratty young thing. one day, while at work at The Wasteland, which can translate to “doing very little and looking very good”, i overhear the conversation of two of my favorite co-workers. Isobel and C.J. talk about an episode of "The Simpsons".

i never witnessed that particular night's episode. Isobel says, "last night, that was hella funny... Bart is playing Scrabble with his family and he goes out, like, he wins...using all his letters, makes one word 'kwyjibo'... you know, man, that's like fifty points right there, plus all the points from everyone's letters, and everyone was just sitting there, like hey, that's bullshit, but they don't have enough nerve to challenge it..." we are crazy for playing Scrabble and The Simpsons. what does that mean? well, Bart says scientifically "a North American hairy white ape..."

i decided on the spot that it would be my company name. who else will think of this name? Isobel cannot remember the correct spelling of the actual word, so i make my own spelling.

the choice is a name that would be obscure for at a while, no trademark infringements, but would gain a certain notoriety from the overwhelming success of The Simpsons. at the time nobody knows what it means; when we make women's clothing, no one is aware of the oddness of naming a women's line after "a hairy white male ape". by the time they discover the meaning, we are onto the men's clothing only; so the meaning merely seems ironic.

i apply for the trademark a full six years later, in 1996, after my store had been running for already three years. no one likes the name at first, too difficult to say. that is, until we start to sell a lot of shirts. and until the details of "The Simpsons" episode become a more commonly known pop-culture detail. my friend, Scott Marcus, is the sole proponent of starting a small men's wear line. coincidentally, he works for Twentieth Century Fox Studios at this era and, occasionally, with Matt Groening, the show's creator. Mr. Groening, amused at the idea of Kweejibo clothing co. offers to sign our store photos.

about MADE : A Trilogy

Part One :

MADE IN OAKLAND

the Kweejibo story, the improbable story of a clothing-maker and merchant

Part Two :

MADE IN BURMA

the Cho family, third generation Burmese residents, an improbable life escaping to and escaping from the Promised Land (the rice bowl of Asia, Burma)

Part Three :

MADE IN SOME JUNGLE

Cho's stories Thailand and Sri Lanka

click here for weekly updates and to return to current kweejibo storieshttp://www.kweejibostories.com/














la Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud et le café, Les P'tites Indécises, June 7, 2012

                                       

la Rue des Trois Bornes, le café Les P'tits Indécises, June 7, 2012

 La Rue Gambey, Outside the Crystals and Sound Healing Shop, June 7, 2012

La Rue Gambey, Outside the Crystals and Sound Healing Shop, June 7, 2012

leaving Rue Gambey June 7, 2012

Rue Gambey June 7, 2012




La Rue Oberkampf, June 7 2012

Paris Pratique, Éditions 2009 Le Voisinage (Neighborhood) de la Rue Ternaux

En Face de Pudding (across from), June 7, 2012

La Brocante, June 7, 2012

la Brocante qui s'appelle Pudding (antique store, Pudding)

En Face de Pudding, June 7, 2012

 les enfants jouent à la Rue Ternaux, June 7, 2012

 la Rue de la Folie Méricourt, (Art Puzzles in wood, cut by hand)  June 7, 2012

Puzzles en bois découpés à la main, June 7, 2012

la Rue de la Folie Méricourt, June 7, 2012

la machine pour découper à la main, les puzzles en bois, June 7, 2012

la Rue de la Folie Méricourt, June 7, 2012

la machine pour découper à la main, les puzzles en bois, June 7, 2012

Puzzles d'art en bois, découpés à la main, June 7, 2012








click here for weekly updates and to return to current kweejibo storieshttp://www.kweejibostories.com/