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.

Due to my unpredictable health and schedule, I will no longer be participating in many group swaps from here on in. I still enjoy one-on-one swaps, especially unique and creative ones, but please note that my partners need to be flexible with deadlines!

Active on swap-bot since April, 2007. Formerly active on nervousness.org. Still poking around LiveJournal, now and then.

Last year, I moved to SE Portland, Oregon with my boyfriend. If you live in the area, we would love your advice on getting around, frugal living, arts organizations, galleries, etc. Making new friends would be swell, too. Is it true that there are no fireflies in Portland? That's sad... its giant slugs just aren't cutting it.

Most overtly religious stuff makes me very uncomfortable; I do appreciate Inuit, Buddhist, Bön, and 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.

I have an eight-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 our shelves, eats any treat that is offered, destroys every toy we give him, 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: I'm currently watching my caffeine intake, so I'd prefer caffeine-free herbals or low-caf greens for now. Usually, my favorites are 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 like dinner parties, both throwing them and attending them. 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 tend to 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. I don't like green peppers, olives, or most fish. I have a small but treasured collection of 1950's cookbook-pamphlets, most published by the Culinary Arts Institute and featuring many once-edible objects embedded in aspic.

Yes: Mrrranda, or Miranda. That's with no i and three r's, or one i, one r. Please.

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.

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, 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.

In 1998, I bribed my way into a sold-out Sixteen Horsepower show by presenting the band with a fresh-baked strawberry-rhubarb pie.

Right now my CD player holds Two Suns by Bat for Lashes, The Camel's Back by Psapp, See Mystery Lights by YACHT, Depression Sessions by Carlos Grasso, and the Club Nisei - Encore! compilation.

I would love a mix of good Portland bands, so I know what shows to attend. So far I really like Talkdemonic (got CDs on the way!), Menomena (got plenty!), Sophe Lux, Rollerball, Magick Daggers, and Lost Lockets. Red Fang is steadily growing on me like a wholesome, old-growth forest moss. I am also seeking CDs or MP3s of the following bands:

• 3 Leg Torso
• Charming Hostess
• Der Blutharsch
• Dubmood
• Efterklang
• Hifana
• Hrsta
• Icy Demons
• Khonnor
• Kraken (the darkwave solo artist, not the metal band)
• Messer Chups/Messer fur Frau Muller (anything but Triangle, Dot, & Devil)
• Nerv.Sys.
• Patrick Wolf
• Pocahaunted
• Rapoon
• Set Fire to Flames
• Slonovski Bal
• This Is Your Captain Speaking
• Twink (the toy piano guy, not the gay stoner rocker)
• 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

And I would lovelovelove these albums:

• any Arcade Ambience CDRs ('81, '83, '86)
• Barry Adamson & Pan Sonic - The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion
• Calexico - Aerocalexico
• Deutsch Nepal - A Silent Siege
• Dion McGregor - The Further Somniloquies Of...
• Ferrante and Teicher - Soundproof/Soundblast: The Sound of Tomorrow Today!
• ISZOLOSCOPE - Au Seuil de Neant
• Lucas & Friends - Discover A World Of Sounds
• Mechanical Museum/Musee Mechanique - The Zelinsky Collection Vols. 1 - 3
• nethers. - What The Wind Will Never Tell
• Plaid - Tekkon Kinkreet OST
• The Residents - Diskomo (really just those four fucked-up nursery rhymes, mp3s of those would be sweeeeeeeeeeet)
• Shinjuku Thief - Bloody Tourist
• Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Of Natural History
• any Susumu Yokota recordings made after Symbol/2005
• The Unquiet Void - The Shadow Haunted-Outside
• Trust/Obey - 1984
• Various - Balkan Beats vol. 2
• Various - Sprechen Zie Pop?
• pretty much any of the Asian compilations from Sublime Frequencies

This is kind of harsh, but 90% of what's considered mainstream music - be it pop, rap, "young country" or whatever - doesn't do ANYTHING for me. I honestly can't even tell you what, exactly, most artists mentioned in Billboard charts or tabloid pages (or people's profiles!) sound like, or name any of their songs - because whenever I do just flick around the radio dial, I am often irritated and seldom impressed, so I turn it right back off.

The Holy Mountain, My Neighbor Totoro, Cat Soup, Tamala 2010, The Mascot, Street of Crocodiles, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Akira, Alice, Conspirators of Pleasure, Black Lizard, Blue Velvet, Guy Maddin, Ray Harryhausen, Godzilla and his kin. Not favorites, but most recently impressed by Tokyo Sonata and Moon.

As much as I love horror movies, modern ones like Hostel, Saw, etc. are so mean-spirited and focused on realistic suffering that they really put me off. David Alcalde's 14-min. film "Happy Birthday 2 You" continues to haunt my dreams in an impressive but rather NOT FUN way. Guardedly curious about his upcoming remake of Who Can Kill a Child?, though.

Perhaps incongruously, I dig some artsy giallo and ludicrous Grand Guignol 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 Prisoner, (the original) Iron Chef, Doctor Who, Green Porno, Stairway to Stardom, Twin Peaks. Last year, I got my first TV in about 8 years, when I moved in with my boyfriend. Goddamn! There's so much you can watch! Mostly crap!

Favorite Books/Authors:

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. Been reading Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker before bedtime and it's giving me a vaguely precognitive hinx.

I'm not as voracious a comic reader as I once was, but I still follow the B.P.R.D. and a few manga (right now Mushishi, MPD Psycho, 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, strange materials, dodgy wee beasties, surrealist party games, trepanning, paper mache. I do not 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 other than mix CDs 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, cup jellies, durian and pandan flavored 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 is in Beaverton.

There's a well-stocked Eastern European grocery not far from my apt., with Kinder Eggs and Hippos, MANY flavors of Milka and Ritter bars, gummies, etc. - I like this place a lot but they tend to be expensive (box of Kinder Hippos is $6+).

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

And I'm near the exquisite Tao of Tea!

I can potentially make mixed media pieces, collages, ATCs/ACEOs, and stuffies... hoping to have access to a kiln soon, if not a proper studio.

Added because I'm told I'm hard to shop for. Am I really? Naaaahhhh....

• 5-15 minutes of your time to call or write your Congressional reps to support a public option for health care, or to chew them (Baucus, Snowe, etc.) out for voting against it. Or,
• 30 minutes to write a letter on this topic to your local paper. Seriously. I try to keep politics out of my swaps, but this is much more important to me - and millions of Americans - than anything listed below.
• gift cards to Fred Meyer, QFC, Walgreens, Safeway, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods, or - if you too live in Portland - Burgerville and PGE (the power company, not the stadium). Not a very fun wish, but a sincere one.
• unused postage stamps
• blank CDrs, esp. w/jewel cases
• relatively healthy snacks like dried fruit, granola, or yogurt pretzels
• Annie's bunny-shaped mac 'n' cheese
• Back To Nature "Crazy Bugs" Macaroni & Cheese
• ephemeral oddments from the woods, fields, and sea (seed pods, skeleton leaves, strange seashells, intact insects, tiny bones and teeth)
• ninja, cephalopod, or just plain WEIRD amigurumis
• field recordings you made yourself
• Stouffer's Dinner Club codes
• Tamala 2010 merch
• this stuff too
• or make a donation to the Multnomah County Library or IPRC

Feeling angelic? I was flaked on by one partner in each of these:

ninjas are sweet

Indie Coffee, Music & Art Swap- U.S. ONLY

mix CD tag from ForsakenxVoices

Wishlist tag of envie of pressed flowers from smielybunny22

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!