OLD SOUL INK: still life

Emma Alvarez Gibson

I write copy that hits just the right nerve--be it as simple as a bio or as intensive as a whole new campaign.

Some other things about me: in my quest to pack several lifetimes into one, I have: produced a zine, which sold at a big-name bookstore in West Hollywood; created an online magazine for teenage girls (Lulu Magazine, now defunct); started a theater company; written, produced and performed original theater; written, sung and recorded music with the band Agent Vertigo; and sold my handmade goods via my Etsy shop. I am married to the best man on the planet, with whom I share a delightful 3-year-old boy; I quite enjoy typography and gin; and harbor a fervent desire to a) speak every language in the world and b) move to New Zealand, despite my intense and disproportionately loyal love for the City of Angels.

In No Particular Order: Things To Do Before Shuffling Off

1. Own and live in a big house by the ocean
~~2. Sing in a band~~
3. Tend a prolific garden of my own
4. Live in New Zealand
5. Publish a novel or book of short stories
6. Sing onstage with Neil Finn (preferably the song Nails In My Feet)
7. Become fluent in French
8. Learn conversational Japanese
9. Make more money freelancing than working for The Man
10. Visit Paris
11. Own a Labrador (this requires owning a yard as well)
~~12. Record music with a band~~
13. Earn a degree in linguistics
14. Send spiritual/emotional support regularly to people who are incarcerated for religious beliefs, as well as financial support to their families
15. Get really good at practicing peace
~~16. Learn to look my fear of my own anger in the face, and dismantle its power~~
17. Return to Italy and England
18. Visit Antarctica
19. Hike regularly
20. Meet Clint Eastwood
21. Be a buyer for a store that sells amazing, beautiful, strange wonders
~~22. Find the haircut that suits me best~~
~~23. Find and marry a man who is handsome, clever, strong, sensitive, tough, independent, loving, kind, handy, a good cook and treats me like a queen~~
24. Have the bulk of my diet be whole, healthy, organic foods
25. Be free from diabetes
26. Be free from headaches
~~27. See some of the equipment from Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic voyages~~
~~28. See (and touch!!) Frank Worsley's notes from the Endurance voyage~~
29. Visit Ireland and sing a traditional song accompanied by musicians in a pub

The Best Parts.

"Given that we can only live a small part of what there is in us--what happens with the rest?" Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
"She is entirely a creature of fees, adamantly short-term, no managerial skills whatever." Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
"Those who have an orphan's sense of history love history." Divisadero, Michael Ondaatje
"Was this what came from thoughts of time running out and death: that all of sudden you didn't know anymore what you wanted? That you didn't know your own will anymore? That you lost the obvious familiarity with your own wishes? And in this way became strange and a problem to yourself?" Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
"Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places." Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
"He was thin, like some lost animal, some idea." Anil's Ghost, Michael Ondaatje
"There remained the big envelope. Katie opened it slowly. Inside was a beautiful pink satin heart with lace edges. She sucked in her breath and turned the card over. No name was signed. Who--? Katie stared around the room. And saw Edwin Jones just looking away, the tips of his ears bright pink, as pink as the satin heart. So! Katie John let out her breath. There was a silly prickling around her eyeballs, and she blinked her eyes quickly. No one gave satin hearts to tomboys." Depend on Katie John, Mary Calhoun
"My God, don't they know? This stuff is simulacra of simulacra. A diluted tincture of Ralph Lauren, who had himself diluted the glory days of Brooks Brothers, who themselves had stepped on the product of Jermyn Street and Savile Row, flavoring their ready-to-wear with liberal lashings of polo knit and regimental stripes. But Tommy surely is the null point, the black hole. There must be some Tommy Hilfiger event horizon, beyond which it is impossible to be more derivative, more removed from the source, more devoid of soul. Or so she hopes, and doesn't know, but suspects in her heart that this in fact is what accounts for his long ubiquity." Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
"This was sunstroke or dengue fever or malaria. When they got back to Colombo she would have tests done. 'It's the sun,' Sarath murmured. 'I'll buy you a bigger hat. I'll buy you a bigger hat. I'll buy you a bigger hat.'" Anil's Ghost, Michael Ondaatje
"To be able to part from something, he thought as the train started moving, you had to confront it in a way that created internal distance. You had to turn the unspoken, diffuse self-understanding it had wrapped around you into a clarity that showed what it meant to you. And that meant it had to congeal into something with distinct contours." Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
"There is a great history of people being given the wrong book, at some key moment in their lives." Divisadero, Michael Ondaatje

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Secret Garden

Emma Alvarez Gibson

THE INTERVIEWS

Reader Favorites

In No Particular Order: Things To Do Before Shuffling Off

The Best Parts.

ARDENT ENJOYMENT

HELPFUL CLASSIFICATIONS

THE ARCHIVES

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Secret Garden

Emma Alvarez Gibson

Subscribe To

THE INTERVIEWS

Reader Favorites

In No Particular Order: Things To Do Before Shuffling Off

The Best Parts.

ARDENT ENJOYMENT

HELPFUL CLASSIFICATIONS

THE ARCHIVES