Mrrranda

Generally speaking: non-monetary commerce, scrap/recycled materials art, temporary autonomous zones, alexithymia, cabinets of curiosities, botched taxidermy, stop-motion animation, making monsters, making messes, unauthorized installations, unsafe toys, unrequited love, unintentional surrealism, the uncanny valley, koyaanisqatsi, beautiful trees, scary trees, sleeping in trees, seed pods, skeleton leaves, bugs that look like plants, psychopomps, milagros, hearts, hands, eyes, tiny organic ephemera, kittens, foxes, bats, birds of prey, little creepy-crawlies, deep sea creatures, lovely March hares, Golden Nature Guides, cicada recipes, horror manga, Drinky Crow, Angela Carter, Joseph Cornell, Ernst Haeckel, Tim Hawkinson, Hans Bellmer, Kiki Smith.

Often a day, occasionally two days, can pass before I read (or am even aware of) PMs or emails. I don't have personal Internet access at work, so Mon. through Fri. I rarely check my email before 6:30pm (Pacific time) or later - sometimes much later. I do try to respond within 24 hours, but please allow two days for me to answer your PMs and/or emails.

Feeling angelic? I got the flakes, and I don't mean dandruff:

• ninjas are sweet from AngieB - partially angel-ed by @vintervilla Sept. 2012! Two more ninjas complete the team...
• Indie Coffee, Music & Art Swap- U.S. ONLY from Mehgan

I still enjoy one-on-one private swaps, especially unique and creative ones, but please note that you MUST send first! Shafted too hard, too many times.

I was never rated:

• by mysterygirl for ninjas are sweet
• by thetestisover for Spread The Word Mix CD Swap
• by SueFitz for Tea swap # 15 - Christmas edition!
• by bunnysmommy for Food around the world
• by greatghosts for "Eat Food" 10-Day Challenge
• by grassbeneathmyfeet for Possible Side Effects ATC

Most overtly religious stuff makes me very uncomfortable - PLEASE DO NOT SEND IT. I do appreciate Inuit, Buddhist, Bön, and some Hindu art on an aesthetic level. Don't wear perfume or much make-up - no need for bath stuff right now either. Not interested in most girly-pastel or cutesy-wootsey stuff, but I get a kick out of kawaii things that veer into insanity (Beer-Chan, Nyan Nyan Nyanko). Love indie and experimental animation, and I like some Disney/Warner Bros., but I can do without all the Happy Meal toys and stickers and related debris (esp. the stuff w/Bugs and co. dressed like "gangstas"... urrrrgh).

If you're getting a journal or story or even a list from me, it won't be a Tourette's-like stream of profanity, but yeah, there might be some cursing and weird slang - unless I'm on the job, I tend to write how I talk.

Yes: Mrrranda, or Miranda. That's with no i and three r's, or one i, one r. If you've emailed me and it bounced, check your spelling!

No: Mirranda, Mrranda, Mranda, Maranda, Mirrranda, Mirinda, Marana, Amanda, Melinda, etc., though my favorite, a mass mailing addressed to "Maranda el Taro," did stay taped to the office door for some time.

I have a ten-year-old longhair tuxedo cat named Mr. Friendly, which he is. Whiskers grow out of his neck. He looks like a sea urchin. He vertically scales my shelves, eats any treat that is offered, destroys every toy he is given, and is living life to the fullest.

For sweets swaps: much love for coffee, green tea, marzipan, dark chocolate, peanut butter, ginger, durian, pumpkin, sweet potato, lavender, rose hips, hazelnut, maple, Meiji Apollo strawberry chocolates, foreign Kit-Kats, Kinder Hippos, boozy cordials. Most big-brand American chocolates don't do much for me, but I like Reese's peanut butter cups and Krackle bars. I like old-school clove gum, too. Please, no licorice or suuuuuper-sugary stuff (Pixie Stix, rock candy).

For tea swaps: lapsang souchong, green (esp. genmai cha), and "sweet" flavored black teas, like vanilla, hazelnut, maple, etc. For fall and winter, I like orange- and apple-spice teas. That being said, pretty much anything except licorice/anise tea would be cool.

Cooking is a lot of fun to me. I love kneading dough, mixing by hand, and food that's meant to be set on fire. Sometimes I set a dishcloth or potholder on fire too - you know, just for yuks. I like Asian (especially Japanese and Thai), Indian, and starchy, buttery "comfort" foods like mac 'n' cheese. I'm an omnivorous opportunist who appreciates food from many sources, though I'm trying to be more conscious of locally-grown and free-range choices. I'm sorry that I got fat - I will slim down. I've happily eaten mealworms and cicadas, and I love durian - yes, REALLY. Not too keen on green peppers, olives, or most fish, though. I have a small but treasured collection of 1950's cookbook-pamphlets, most featuring medleys of once-edible objects embedded in aspic.

Did you guess that I wear a lot of black? Oh, good. Glad we're on the same page here! I also like wine/cranberry/ruby reds, greens (most shades but esp deep/hunter tones), amber, bronze, orange, dark/chocolate browns, earth tones in general.

Foetus/J.G. Thirlwell, Firewater, Calexico, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Colleen, Yma Sumac, Susumu Yokota, Amon Tobin, P. Miles Bryson, The Bonzo (Doo Dah) Dog Band, Martin Denny, Steve Reich, The Residents, The Tiger Lillies, The Misfits, Mandible Chatter, Matmos, Man Man, Gogol Bordello, Gang Gang Dance, The Fiery Furnaces, Big Black, Serge/Charlotte Gainsbourg, 1920-40s jazz, most bands on the Leaf label, most bands on the NorthSide label, the bottle return at Meijer Thrifty Acres, and every single slightly-malfunctioning gaudy automaton at House on the Rock. I have little soft spots for accordions and singing saws, much like fontanelles.

Fun fact: I once charmed my way into a sold-out Sixteen Horsepower show by presenting the band with a fresh-baked strawberry-rhubarb pie.

The Holy Mountain, Cat Soup, Tamala 2010, Hausu, The Mascot, Street of Crocodiles, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Akira, Alice, Conspirators of Pleasure, The Devils, Black Lizard, Blue Velvet, Guy Maddin, Hayao Miyazaki, Ray Harryhausen, Godzilla and his kin. Not favorites, but most recently impressed by Shura: The 48th Ronin and The Cremator (Spalovač mrtvol).

As much as I love horror movies, modern ones like Wolf Creek, Saw, etc. are so mean-spirited and focused on realistic suffering that they really put me off. Sorry, kids - I just don't "get" the torture porn explosion, and it troubles me.

Perhaps incongruously, I dig some brutal art-house offerings and ludicrous Grand Guignol/grindhouse stuff... and that first prison yard fight scene in Riki-O cracks me up every time.

I also don't like movies that expect me to be REALLY @#!% EXCITED by cars.

The Singing Detective, The Venture Brothers, Cowboy Bebop, Kemonozume, The Misadventures of Flapjack, Adventure Time, (the original) The Prisoner, (the original) Iron Chef, Doctor Who, Green Porno, Food Jammers, Food Party, Bob's Burgers, Stairway to Stardom, Twin Peaks. Don't have cable - I occasionally get stuff through TVTorrents, or watch The Daily Show/Colbert Report or anime via Roku. Not big on TV, here.

The Stain (Rikki DuCornet), The Mouse And His Child (Russell Hoban), Thirst for Love (Mishima - very underrated early work), A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil (Max Ernst), The Gas (Charles Platt), Fantazius Mallare (Ben Hecht and Wallace Smith), Image of the Beast (Philip Jose Farmer), Angela Carter, Ray Bradbury, Leonora Carrington, the poet Ai. Hoban's Riddley Walker gives me a vaguely precognitive hinx....

I'm not as voracious a comic book reader as I once was, but I still follow the B.P.R.D. and a few manga (right now Berserk, Goodnight Pun-pun, and Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service). I love much of Junji Ito, Kazuo Umezu, and Hideshi Hino's work, and thanks to the excellent Same Hat! blog my interest in Shintaro Kago has spiked exponentially. When I need a break from trippy, blood-soaked nihilism, I turn to Andy Runton's charming, all-ages comic Owly.

Cookbooks, books on sustainable living and DIY, surrealist and decadent lit are always welcome. As you've probably guessed, romance, mainstream mystery/thrillers, Chicken Soup, and novels about 30-something-onwards women coming to terms with... things... are not.

Mixed media, shadowboxes/assemblage, collage, handbuilt ceramics, dodgy wee beasties, surrealist party games, trepanning, paper mache. I don't crochet, knit, or quilt, and I've put my stuffie-stitching on hold.

I enjoy making ATCs, but usually more than I enjoy receiving them! I might be up for a one-on-one ATC swap, but if you want one from me, feel free to offer other things in trade too.

I'm short on time for making things right now, but I'm certainly up for custom purchases. The Portland area has a couple excellent, large Asian supermarkets. I can get several kinds of Pocky and Pretz, various cup jellies, squid jerky, octopus-flavored chips, durian and pandan items, MANY kinds of furikake... ask and I will look. If you want mainly Japanese stuff (rather than Chinese or SE Asian), it might take a little longer to get as the best place requires a trip to the 'burbs.

I've also found a couple places here that sell UK candy like Coffee Crisps and Aero Bars, as well as Branston Pickle, clotted cream, etc.

And I'm near the exquisite Tao of Tea!

I've had... really bad luck with some "profile surprises," so I strongly prefer to set up swaps for specific items. I'm open to suggestions, but please run 'em by me before sending. Here are some safe bets:

• gift cards to Fred Meyer, Safeway, Walgreens, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods - not a very fun wish, but a sincere one.
• LEDs or short lengths of El-wire suitable for customized light boxes. Or short strings of "fairy lights" like these. Think you have something? Better yet, think you can make me some wall-mountable light boxes? PM me, let's discuss a trade or sale.
• blank CDrs w/jewel cases
• X-acto or scalpel blades, NIP please
• ephemeral oddments from the woods, fields, and sea: seed pods, skeleton leaves, strange seashells, intact insects (or carefully packaged butterfly/moth wings), tiny bones and teeth
• I'm putting together an emergency "go bag" - right now my bag consists of a few Clif Bars and a Leatherman thrown in my purse, so... I've got a ways to go. Let's haggle over first aid kits, portable crank-/solar-powered radios, rain parkas, heat packs, etc.
• field recordings you made yourself, or any unusual field recordings, like the amazing collections of bats, deer, and frogs on the Sittelle label, or walk-throughs of amusement parks or Bangkok markets
• pretty much any of the Asian compilations from Sublime Frequencies
• Stouffer's Dinner Club codes
• Tamala 2010 merch
• Nyan Nyan Nyanko or Neko no Panya stuff
• this stuff too
• or make a donation to the Multnomah County Library or IPRC!

If you live in NYC and you're down with a custom pick-up from New Beef King or Kee's, please let me know! Would be happy to do a higher-end trade for Portland-based stuff or pay you outright.

If you want to do a one-on-one swap, and you have something I haven't mentioned but you think I'd like, just PM me.