For the past few months, I have been in a program with LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) learning about museum collections management, authentication and conservation.
This program has been breathing life into me and I am inspired.
While I have been continuing my studies in art history and will soon be pursuing a graduate degree in the subject, I am also a vintage reseller and the care and attention that is given to ancient artifacts and textiles at a museum level can be and should be applied to our vintage items. After all, these garments are pieces and fragments from the past and they will not survive without proper care and attendance.
I have found that a lot of the ways I have been able to connect firsthand with what I’ve been learning in the LACMA program come from my experience with handling vintage and antique items. Some of which that have passed through this very website=)
In an effort to implement some of the things I have learned through this program, I have decided to exclusively use archival tissue for shipping out pieces. Okay so, what is archival tissue and why is it important? Archival tissue is acid-free and pH-neutral. The acid-free aspect of this tissue is important because it helps prevent items from yellowing and breaking down over time. This applies not just to textiles but paper too! pH-neutral paper is important because it aids in preventing color transfer between materials and helps maintain an item’s vibrancy.
Aside from these important aspects of preservation, this tissue paper is eco-friendly aka reusable! I urge you to continue to use it to wrap your garments in. .
For a long time, I was sewing little muslin bags and shipping pieces out that way. While those muslin bags were reusable, there were no preservation benefits, so I am happy to pivot how I’ll be wrapping your garments.
I stepped away from uploading items to the site for an extended period and am currently still taking a hiatus from selling at markets. I was personally feeling overwhelmed with being constantly sold to whenever I logged onto social media and I was having a really hard time coming to terms with where TSL stood amongst all the chaos of capitalism. Therefore, I decided to pause because I was unsure how to approach online selling and communicate without feeling like I was contributing to the very source of my anxiety.
My break helped me clarify my intentions and approach to this special company. I want people to be happy with their items and it is important to me to offer timeless pieces that can live life with you through the many stages of your life.
The idea is to become more selective with the pieces we buy and to take care of the ones that we decide to let into our world. And with that being said, it is so important to properly take care and respect those items.
I just recently finished Isabel Allende’s novel, House of The Spirits and I am still on a high. House of The Spirits is Isabel Allende’s first novel. She wrote it when she and her family were exiled in Venezuela after having fled Chile when a military coup overthrew the government. Allende was a young journalist at the time and her political beliefs were well known, so for her life’s safety, she fled the country. During that time away she found out that her grandfather who she was extremely close to was terminally ill. She decided that she would write a letter to him and one year later that letter had turned into a manuscript. She was thirty-nine when she wrote House of the Spirits and forty when it was published in 1982.
The story unfolds the history of four generations of a family. The book has a little bit of everything in it -family history, love, lust, abuse, magic, drama drama drama, politics and revolution. The book is written in a multi-person narrative which makes all the layers of the book come alive in such a rich way. Throughout the entire journey of the book, after having been so closely connected to the characters for decades , following them them through life and death, the book really ends up being about the personal evolution of Esteban Trueba, the family patriarch and the love that he and his granddaughter Alba shared. Obviously, this conclusion is sooo overly simplified and there is so much life and adventure and heartbreak and love that fills all five-hundred pages; but that is what makes this book so groundbreaking, intense and magical. And knowing that Allende first started this book as a letter to her beloved grandfather, it makes sense.
20/10 recommend this book.
I joked with one of the Swans about quitting twitter to tweet on Tumblr. Fact of the matter is, my intention was to claim Substack as my next vice and to write blurbs & essays “seriously” *rolls eyes at myself* …well, I tried to write an essay about my grandmother dying and….fact of the matter is, I’m a shitty writer. So, I decided to properly bring back this blog to get off my thoughts and writing here.
So, whoever has found themself here, thanks for taking the time to read. Nice to meet you =)
“When we’re most intense—who’ll flinch?”
- Arthur Rimbaud, from Selected Poems & Prose; “Phrases,”
Name: Jamison Rockmore
What do you do for work?
Filmmaker & Gardener; my husband says I need to “get a job.”What is your relationship to cinema?
Cinema celebrates our humanity— it has allowed me to better understand who I am, and made me more empathetic to other people’s stories.
What is the last good movie you watched and where were you when you watched it?
The last “good movies” that came to mind are from the pre-Covid, pre- industry strikes and subsequent Hollywood collapse. [Insert rant about late-capitalism destroying the film industry.] I’m holding out for the indie renaissance, but alas, two screenings from 2018 came to mind:
Climax - Gaspar Noe: Saw this at Arclight (R.I.P.) on a date not knowing anything about the film beforehand. About ten minutes in, it was clear we were on a ride that was going places we could not imagine… Gaspar Noe is a sick fuck but I love it.
Phantom Thread - Paul Thomas Anderson: Okay this one is kinda brag-y but the film screened when I was in school at AFI, and PTA gave an intimate Q&A afterwards. If the movie wasn’t breathtaking enough, Paul is the most humble, low-key brilliant person. Truly an inspiration.
What films have inspired your work and/or your life in general?
Found myself answering this question with four queer-leaning bangers! It’s no surprise these iconic films have inspired my life and work, each for a different reason. I’ve listed them in order of when I saw them (all before film school).
Y Tu Mamá También - Alfonso Cuaron
This movie is a masterclass in the power of cinema. Watching this as a teenager blew me away. The dynamic way Cuaron weaves history and political messaging through a modern coming of age story has been hugely influential in my work. I am still in awe of this film today. Complex, sexy, emotional, and leaves one with profound and lasting thoughts.
My Own Private Idaho - Gus Van Sant
I’m such a fan of GVS. When I saw this film, I realized that making a movie could be like writing poetry. It broke all the rules of commercial filmmaking. The honest depiction of trauma through symbolic visuals resonated with me deeply.
Weekend - Andrew Haig
A really simple film that takes a raw look at intimacy and desire. Weekend perfectly captures the beauty and pain of ephemeral romance. It hammers right to the heart. I’m usually drawn to more over the top and stylized films, but the realness of Weekend disarmed me. I felt immersed in the story, and have since tried to bring that feeling of intimacy to my work.
Serial Mom - John Waters
John Waters is a great example of how far you can take something. His dramatization of domesticity is laugh out loud funny. The only thing more absurd than a John Waters movie is the absurd world that he is satirizing. Coming from a very traditional family, this film strikes close to home for me. Love how campy and relevant it is 30 years after its release.
What film(s) are at the top of your watchlist?
Fallen Angels - Wong Kar Wai
El Topo - Jodorowsky
The Room Next Door - Pedro Almodovar
Thank you for taking the time to talk about films with me, Jamison <3
ig: Jamison Karon
Pavielle took this of me at dinner on one of our trips. I bought those glasses earlier that day at Langunilla.
Name: Jody Lu
What do you do for work? I’m an artist
What is your relationship to cinema?
Every bit of intention and nuances in cinema are what's so special to me. I like that in film, it can
help you see (in a literal and metaphorical sense) through someone else’s mind and the way it
can evoke feelings –oftentimes empathy. I find beauty in us(viewers) willingness to sit, listen,
and watch a film for a duration of time – the act of noticing any and all details, that's the magic.
As an artist, I'm constantly inspired by all aspects of this world but somehow the glimpses of the
everyday moments are most impactful to me.
What is the last good movie you watched and where were you when you watched it?
I'd have to say 35 Shots of Rum (2008) and I recently watched it at home. This was such a
beautiful way of showing the bonding between people in sharing their own journey in relation to
loss and grief. There's this kind of gentle dance between the father and daughter that aren't met
with so many words but shown with many unspoken emotions – the sense of missed moments,
ike two ships passing.
35 Shots of Rum (2009) dir. Claire Denis
What films have inspired your work and/or your life in general?
Millenium Mambo (2001) dir. Hou Hsiou-hsien
A few films that have inspired me are YiYi, Vive l’amour, and Millennium Mambo. These films
have inspired me in different ways during different times in my life –the familiarity of
environments, objects, and sounds. I’m becoming more inspired by films that are quieter (in a
iteral sound sense) with minimal dialogue and mundane moments, which has the ability to
remind us (viewers) to slow down and challenge our outlook on day to day life.
Yiyi (2000) dir. Edward Yang
Vive l'amour (1994) dir. Tsai Ming-Liang
What film(s) are at the top of your watchlist?
Some films that are currently on my watchlist are Earth Mama (2023), La Notte (1961), Monster(2023),
Ugetsu (1953), Totem (2023), What Do We See When We Look at the Sky (2021)
Thank you for taking the time to talk about films with me, Jody <3
I didn’t realize how much of an impact this book would have on me when I first decided to read it. Reading through each page was like drinking an ice cold glass of water on the hottest day of year. The detailed descriptions of each character, dinner parties, setting, etc. was intoxicating to me, I couldn't get enough. I love how sophisticated and steady Nedra was. How perfect she was at hosting, how she smoked cigars and held a steady, quiet confidence about her, how she found herself in her laters years and didn’t judge herself and gave herself grace for taking so long to make real changes in her life; and how as she grew into the later years of her womanhood, younger women admired and wanted to be around her, spend time with her. I am inspired by her just like those younger women in the book. I am also inspired by James Salter's straightforward style of writing. Simple, dialogue short but profound and the romantic world but devastatingly realistic world that he created in Light Years. I am hungry for more of his work. No wonder why he has been called a "writer's writer". I feel strongly about him the way I feel about Lucia Berlin. Their words bring out a feeling in me that I don't quite know how to describe yet. When I figure it out, I'll circle back.