Pause for a Moment: Survival in the Office

Survival in the Office: The Evolution of Japanese Working Women by Risu Akizuki is a comic about the lives of female Japanese office workers. It's a humorous look at office politics and social expectations. While most of the strips are silly fun, some succinctly cover a gender politics and feminism.

The series can be found at Amazon.

click on image to enlarge

from Volume 1

from Volume 4

from Volume 5

Pause a Moment: Ezra Jack Keats

Illustrator/Author Ezra Jack Keats uses mixed media to tell his stories. Some of his books include Goggles!, Peter's Chair, and Snow Day.
Most of his books were written between 60s-70s. The stars of the books were usually African American children living in an urban environment. This was uncommon during this time period. Not only were the main characters black, but they were featured as humans. They were not scene as a foreign species, but as regular children who have real emotions.
Black children were able to see themselves reflected realistically in literature.

For more info on Ezra Jack Keats, please visit the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation.

I have included images of some of his wonderful illustrations. Notice the layering of paint and paper to create texture and patterns.

Pause a Moment: Drawings of Alphonse Mucha

Another book I keep on hand.

Drawings of Mucha
by Dover Publications

Drawings of Mucha collects preliminary drawings and sketches by Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha. I enjoy seeing the development of illustrations.

Pause a Moment: How to Keep a Sketchbook Journal

Staring at a blank page. Staring at a blank page. Staring at a blank page.
The hardest part of starting a sketchbook is overcoming that first blank page. Fear of messing up that first crisp page. Fear of creating an ugly sketch right at the start.

A good resource is How to Keep a Sketchbook Journal by Claudia Nice.
The beginning of the book serves as an introduction for beginners. The first few chapters give the general idea of perspective, values, and breaking down complicated shapes into basic shapes. The book also goes into the basics of sketching with various media; pencil, pen, watercolor, and mixed media.


The second half of the book focuses on different themes you can use for your sketchbook. Travel journal, Reference journal, Gardening journal and several others are included. Each theme is its own chapter, complete with sketches and tips.


The one problem I had with the book was the font. The font used throughout the book is suppose to resemble handwriting. While it enhances the feel of reading a personal journal, it also makes it difficult to read through quickly. Maybe it was the author's intent; slow down and take in everything you see. Each little part is as significant as the next.

To jumpstart your creative juices, How to Keep a Sketchbook Journal is worth a gander.

Pause a Moment: Skim

Experiencing some sort of 90s Revival over here. Heard Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 on the radio. Heard H-Town's Knockin' da Boots. Found a Daria commemorative book at the thrift store. Dug out a 90s slang lesson. I guess this was setting up the backdrop for what I was planning on reading.

Which was Skim.
Words by Mariko Tamaki
Pictures by Jillian Tamaki


Kim 'Skim' Keiko Cameron, an awkward high school sophomore and her classmates come to grips with the suicide of a peer's boyfriend. It's set in 1993.

After I finished reading it, I kept opening the book to look at the drawings. Each frame was setup like a snapshot of Skim and her environment. Not posed pictures, but fluid, organic stills. Jillian Tamaki's excellent use of negative space captures feelings of isolation, loneliness, and misunderstandings (empty spaces can say a ton).


The placement of Mariko Tamaki's words aid in the storytelling. Short sentences are sometimes placed in a large see of white space. Or, words are cleverly spaced to show uncertainty.


This graphic novel evokes the feelings of confusion and rebellion and particularly death in the 90s. Deaths in pop culture that really shook up my generation (Kurt Cobain, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G.).

I really do recommend giving it a look.

Pause a Moment: Jessica Wakefield

Last week we talked about judging Elizabeth Wakefield by her Sweet Valley High covers. Sister Lizzie appeared to be patronizing, passive-aggressive supporting, caring, loving, and a great color coordinator. Today we will judge Elizabeth Wakefield's twin sister, Jessica Wakefield. What can we learn about Jessica Wakefield without cracking open the book?

She has a wicked cold stare.

"Sister Jess, you did steal my magenta lipstick."
*stare* "You're point?"

Jess the Best has a wicked cold smile.

"But Captain Jessica, the last time I was at the top of the pyramid I broke both ankles."
*smile*"You're point?"

She's plain wicked.

"Dad is going to kill me when he sees what I did to the convertible trying to run that cop off the road. Eh, I'll just blame the maid."

The fellas love her.

The local Surfer Dude types love her.


The Tennis Coach types love her.



The Clark Gable types of love her.



The Captain of the Math and Debate team types love.... uh oh.



There's a new Sweetie in the Valley. And, Jess the Less Best does NOT like competition.

"This is suppose to be my cover, Lie-La."
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. My ear is covered by the beautiful cascade of my shiny brunette locks.

Jess decides to run away to drum up sympathy and a boatload of attention.


No one cares. She pulled that stunt before.


How does Jess the Mess Best feel about being replaced as the Sweetie of the Valley™? She probably-
Get it Now! Sweet Valley High's very own Sweetie, Lila Fowler with a new Tell-All book titled Super Star: Lila's Story. She talks about love, life, her endorsement deals, and how she was tortured by outcast thug Jess 'The Mess' Wakefield. Yours for only $2.95 (Canada $3.50). Order in the next 10 minutes and get an autographed 8x10 of Lila Fowler. Autograph is not by Lila Fowler herself.


Oh brother.

Pause a Moment: Faith Thompson

"Sure is nice to be back up north," Dana said sarcastically. "The sun gives a person a tan, maybe snow takes it away. If so, mine'll be all gone before I have a chance to show it off to anybody."
"Not mine," joked Faith, who was black. "Of course, I had a head start on you two."
~from Book 13: Here Come the Boys

Pausing to get to know Faith Thompson. Name probably doesn't ring a bell. She's one of the girls from the series The Girls of Canby Hall. This was another series I devoured as a tween (back when we were called pre-teen). Like the Sweet Valley High series, I don't have much interest in rereading Canby Hall. Instead I'll just learn all I need to know by studying the covers. What can we learn about Faith Thompson?

As with most of these 80s/9os YA series, she's the one/one of very few black kids in the school. Here's our heroine Jodie Landon Tootie Ramsey Faith Thompson.


Aside from that, there is not much else to learn about Faith. She's often relegated to outside edge of her Trio. Her Trio consist of Shelley Hyde and Dana "Jaclyn Smith" Morrison.

Like here, for example. All three girls look cute, but Faith gets upstaged by Dana doing her best Blanche Devereaux Southern Belle impression. If you ask me, I think the Vampire Bottles on the table steal the show. Notice they leave no reflection in the mirror....



And here. New boy on the campus only has eyes for Dana. Sorry Shell. Sorry Faith.


This time it's not Dana making heads turn away from Faith. There's a new PYT on the beach (off-topic...is Dana holding a ShamWow?).

"Oh hell no," Dana said.
"There's gonna be trouble," Faith said.
"Make that double," Shelley replied.

Besides being upstaged (and a love for wearing the color purple) we can surmise that she lives in a city that gets bitterly cold in the winter.
If you live in a cold city you know about the "I don't care if the patterns don't match and if the colors clash, I'm not freezing my ass off trying to look cute waiting for the bus" syndrome. This syndrome primarily hits on the first unexpected cold snap and you realize all of your winter gear is packed away, and you have to piecemeal items together. Then you realize that you have two right-hand mittens, but the matching mitten has a hole. And, that hat is way too small, and that scarf smells like......

Yeah, Faith suffers from this syndrome, too.


Sometimes she is put in the middle of things. Although, the situations aren't ideal.


The more I look at these covers, the more I start to feel sorry for Faith. She doesn't appear to have much of a personality. Her appearances were pretty mundane.

But, what's the most important thing we can learn from Faith's covers?
She totally gets the dreamy hunk at the end!!♥! And, that's all that matters!



Oh yeah, and she graduates......


Now back to the hottie that took Faith to the Night to Remember dance. OMG! He was like sUperAWesOmE!!!!1!
♪♫It makes me wanna dance with Somebody♪♫

Mid June Thrift Store Finds: Oh Deer

The bookends I wanted to get weren't at the thrift store anymore. But, I did find a cute brass deer sculpture. He's heavy enough to work as a bookend. The deer was a bit of a splurge ($5).


I scraped up some new books, too.


Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Carolina Moon by Jill McCorkle
Back When We were Grownups by Anne Tyler

Oh, and 2001 Metra Train pass and Areoport Dorval Montreal receipt were stuck in The Hours.


Damage done: a little over $10. Deer me.