Curious about the current accessibility of debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing after Class 9, I set out to explore the background of and current state of restructuring finance instruments, and DIPs specifically.  Historically, DIP financing has been attractive to banks and hedge funds...

"Dude, if you think that slavery is the only 'sin" America has committed, then you need to do some homework." Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa breaks down the issues surrounding Prop 8 for us all, including: Whom "civil rights" belong to (i.e. not just African Americans). Who is queer: just white men? Why i...

I’m fascinated by how people create. How they make things. Not just where they get their ideas from, but how they harvest the ideas and turn them into straw—and then gold.  Is it part of the human condition, this curiousity about how other people do what they do? So it’s no surpri...

If your first thought was that this year's Costa shortlist for best novel looks rather white, male and middle-aged, then your second should perhaps be that this is itself a novelty these days. Literary prize juries have given so much attention to the first novel in the last few years that one has to...

The Green Gift Fair at the Essex County Environmental Center was fun and successful. People responded nicely to my work, especially the Cardboard Packaging Billfolds and the new Ephemera Surprise Balls. I made more Sewing Pattern Collage Gift Tags this week too and they also sold well. Here's some p...

It's Friday night, and we've got a birthday party to go to. I've worked hard — and I'm taking tonight off the novel. Now to get some soda bread out of the oven and make sure we're bringing enough homebrew......

These super fun ephemera surprise balls are a take-off of the classics usually made with crepe paper. These surprise balls are made with strips of vintage fabric from curtains and are filled with a variety of small toys, stickers, ribbon, and lots of beads. Each ball has the same variety of items bu...

Earlier in the year, I read a debut novel that blew my socks off called The Understory by Pamela Erens. It is the sort of tight, almost claustrophobic, story that I love. Jim Ruland, guest reviewing on The Elegant Variation, captured the essence of the book: The Understory describes Jack Gorse’s e...

Thought you were done with the election? Well, the election's not done with you! The Asian American Legal Defense Fund (AALDEF) put out a press release following November 4, listing many of the problems Asian American voters faced last Tuesday. A study conducted by Filipino American orgs showed a la...

I finished another Waldorf / Punkdorf doll today. This one is a big one, around 50cm (20″) from head to toe. She’s still very wonky with an oddly shaped cranium (think Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Scull) and I just can’t seem to make any improvements on the puckered...