planetdanika

I stumbled across an article in the Seattle Times today about a woman who has been wearing the same dress every day for the last year. Alex Martin is a local artist and dancer and undertook the personal challenge to wear the same item of clothing for 365 days (today is the last one). Her tagline: “365 days. one brown dress. a one-woman show against fashion.” I, for one, think it’s incredibly cool. Daunting, in many ways, but so simple! When G and I travelled around the world, we survived with just a few changes of clothing. It was certainly more than ONE item, but it was a nice exercise in minimalism.

Some of Alex’s reasons are to combat both consumerism and society’s pressure on us to be image conscious. Again, I applaud her cause. Personally, I’ve taken to buying almost all of my clothes second hand (except undergarments and shoes). I’m sure I still own way too many, but recycling is a lot better than buying new. My money’s not supporting sweatshops, it’s going to charity instead.

Am I going to undertake a similar project? Probably not. Do I think this is an important piece of work? Hell, yes.

If you happen to be in Seattle, Alex is giving a performance tonight which will culminate her “year-long performance project”. If not, she’s got a pretty cool blog, which I’ve spent the majority of the afternoon reading. Check it out, and pass it along while you’re at it.

G and I had a very busy long weekend with 2 weddings and many associated parties. By the time we left Mondays brunch (the last of the lot), we were ready for some major relaxing. And, in fact, the past 36 hours have been pretty much nothing but. Today we slept past 9 am (virtually unheard of) and then I watched an hour and a half of Wimbledon tennis in my robe. Pure decadence.

The festivities began with M and Ks Saturday BBQ at Gas Works Park. We met a few family members, had some food and managed to leave with a 4-pound tray of cooked shrimp (they bought too much). On to the 2nd [non-wedding] BBQ where we were able to offload most of the shrimp. We ate again- ribs, chicken, and potato salad and surrounded ourselves by children playing croquet. Finally, we walked from our house to M and Ks for a cocktail party. Despite a nice chat with some of Ks San Francisco friends, we were tired and left early.

Sunday was the day for weddings. M and K were up 1st with a 3 pm ceremony at GasWorks. A highly interactive ceremony, we enjoyed Ks niece and nephew perform Michael Franti, the dog aka ring bearer, and some of the more touching vows Ive heard. At 4, we made a quick exit and swiftly drove across town to Magnuson Park and wedding #2. We made it in plenty of time as they started late. We sat in the sun drenched Amphitheater and witnessed the semi-Jewish ceremony for S and J. S looked amazing and we were treated to Sean Nelsons singing at the close of the ceremony.

We stayed at wedding #2 for dinner but had to leave before the first [tango] dance or cake. By the time we got back to wedding #1, we had missed the 1st dance, speeches and piata bashing there too! But the band was fantastic and the dancing rocked on until we were kicked out at 10. One of our favorite things about M and Ks wedding was the rental of a photo booth – you know, the kind that spits out 4 sequential pictures. We went through at least 3 times I think there was a line all evening.

There were some folks trying to keep the party going with a bonfire on the beach. But man, all that running around, dancing, congratulating and socializing did me in. So we called it a night and went home to bed. Best wishes and many happy years to both couples!