I’ve been a bizzy beaver (Ken…keep it to yourself, or, better, tell me alllll about it). I know you’re all sitting there thinking, wow, where can I read more of Melissa Lion’s fine writing.

You can do that here –

Culinate

Bookslut

The Mercury (here’s Kiala’s article too)

Bookslut

I don’t know, I thought there was more for some reason. Maybe there is. I know I’m on deadline for a little Portland travel article and something should be up in the O on Sunday. And I dunno, there’s always a book review waiting in the wings.

I also finished one of Steve’s socks. Oh, it is so nice. Socks that Rock, I don’t remember the color. Maybe storm or downpour or rainy day or Portland 362 days a year or something. I can’t keep track of those zany yarn names. I knit it on 2’s and after those Noro socks, which I knit on cat’s whiskers, these socks zoomed. I think Socks That Rock uses Louet yarn (I don’t know that for sure, but I suspect) and Louet is just sumptuous. Such wonderful yarn. I did a plain stockinette sock because STR tends to pool in a pattern and I didn’t want that. Steve and I both tried on the sock and I must say, it’s the most comfortable sock I’ve ever knit and now I’m extremely jealous of Steve.

I am assessing my Christmas knitting and my yarn stash and I have five and a half pairs of socks to knit, plus one scarf. I think I can do it. I say that every year. And every year, my mom says, “Jesus, Melissa” when she opens a present and finds some knitted thing still on the needles. But if all the socks were on STR, then I’d be in business. As it is, that’s my only skein of STR — the rest are Koigu, which isn’t bad at all, but not STR. Whatevs.

I’m thinking of doing a gull wing lace pair, a snicket pair, a whisper lace pair, and if I can get my brains around it, an embossed leaves. And I think I’ll do a stockinette pair in this yarn for someone who asked (but maybe not in time for Christmas).

Finally, Steve and I were talking this morning about the record industry and because we have a three year old, the conversation went like this:

Me: The record industry shut down Muxtape.

Steve: What?

Archer: WHERE’S MY VIOLIN?

Me: MUXTAPE. THE RECORD INDUSTRY SHUT IT DOWN.

Steve: MIxtape what?

Archer: Wook, wook, wook, Mama where is my violin? Wook, wook, wook.

Me: The record industry shut it down.

Archer: OOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWIEEEEEEEEEEEE

Steve: Pandora is next.

Me: WHAT?

Steve: Royal – Archie, are you okay?- ties.

Archer: Woook at my violin.

Me: Really?

Steve: No money.

Archer: YO GABBA GABBA!

Me: Wouldn’t it be interesting — Arch don’t hang on me — if major publishers –Arch want some toast–took the hit? Indie publishing — Archer, please stop– would rise up.

Steve and Me: Ugh. Self-published books.

(And then we stuck our fingers down out throats)

Archer: OOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWIEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Steve: Not the same as indie bands.

Me: Do you need me to kiss something, Arch?

Steve: Suck-tacular.

Archer: My knee. My toe. My elbow.

Me: Blogs. Good writing on blogs.

Steve: Writing not same.

Archer: OWWWWIEEE. Gabba Gabba.

Me: Gabba gabba.

Steve: Oogie boogie.

Archer: I climb you.

And then Steve and I stared at each other and tried communicating with our minds which sounded like this: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Please discuss the rise of indie music while the major labels slowly commit suicide and compare that to the publishing industry. Lord knows, whatever you all come up with is far better than what we did.

Oh, one more thing — I just got a naughty little comment from Monkeythened about how hypocritical I am that I was complaining that I don’t get paid for my writing when I didn’t pay the storytellers at the last Back Fence PDX. What a cute little comment. We provided drinks and dinner for all of the storytellers, if they chose to take it, as well as drinks and dinner for our musical people. We also make dinner and have drinks for the tellers at our rehearsal. Also, the event wouldn’t take place if Frayn and I didn’t spend upwards of 70 hours each on it, not to mention all of the back end stuff. Furthermore, 120 people did not pay a cover. Many of those people were the storytellers and their guests, some invitations and some press were there. As for the take home, we took home a very small sum, but enough to cover the monetary commitment we made, which includes the til, the buttons, our business cards, flyers, and finally, about .04 cents an hour for our work on the event. With that being said, it is our goal to pay the storytellers as soon as it is financially feasible for us. Also, if you have a problem, maybe just email me directly instead of posting your problem on my personal blog.