Entries by Maxens M. Finch

I really don't feel like blogging in french at all. Should change where I host my blog as this one requires me to be bilingual and I don't know whether I'm bilingual enough?
Once I took a bath (well, not a bath) I'll cut my hair. Not to pass but because I feel ready. Not the haircut I thought about for passing. Because of changes and how I once read about how Coco Chanel cut her hair? I don't remember and I'm tired I didn't sleep because I'm too frigging unclean to sleep in my bed. Go!
P. -S.: Also, visit His Black Dress, he's amazing!

So, if Sunday you're free, why don't you come with me and we'll poison pigeons in the park? By the way, I'm back and will try to post more often.
Recently, I made (with other people) and read zines. I read GQ Tales & Mend my Dress. I cut out some pages to pin them on my well, those of Confidence, what a cliché. BELIEVE ME when I tell you I just pinned those because my wall lacked something and it was pretty!
It's nice, if something written in it offend/bother/whatever me I can strike or glue paper on it with something else written on. I could with professional magazines, but the paper is different and it's just not the same, not as personal, not as authentic.
In the last Worn, apart from an article on some really inspiring person with an almost all-handmade wardrobe who also made some kind of "sewing space" (edit: I checked, that's Karyn Valino!), there is an article on gender identity and it's not binary-centered! It's also not from an historical point-of-view, like Sexing La Mode; it all makes me happy and Erika Neilly, who contribute to Worn and was interviewed for the article and took pictures, have other projects on gender identity! I already saw A Study of Underwear somewhere else and didn't even knew it was from her!

I recently found back my old Polaroid, but it's a Joycam and its photographic films aren't produced anymore since a looong time. I just need to find someone to manipulate with my mind so that they buy me a Polaroid 636 and films from The Impossible Project. (I thought about trying to make Polaroid films myself, but I saw a video and it seems so complicated and expensive and maybe dangerous; plus, my Joycam's battery seemed to have been in the films like in some other polaroids if I understand well.)


Everything from Le Léopard friperie except white blouse (La Redoute), skirt (bought at the Halle aux Vêtements in 2008), denim jacket (gift), velvet/denim thingy (bis) and gangar (childhood thing.)
Stuffs I wanted to share: Feminism for real by Jessica Yee, Hacking Couture, Counterfeit Chic (interesting articles as I don't read stuffs from that point of view very often), see links from Counterfeit Crochet.

25 February :

I went to Emmaüs (sort-of a french Goodwill, you buy and give stuffs and money goes to poor people) and bought old Anna and Fait Main from 1982-1996, The Voyage of the Space Beagle, other books, yarn and a necklace that makes me think about archeology. I made a bat barrette in felt and thought about making a necklace representing a bat's anatomy or that of other animals in wood, plasticine or something else? (not the complete skeletton, parts of it and [group of] bones... I get what I'm saying!) A small articulated bat with fake fur and interlining. (I've more ideas totally unrelated to bats and more related to wearable computing and the like, but I have to do some searches first.)
I could make the bones in wood and organs in plasticine.


Last year, same month, I wanted to volunteer for SPFEM's chiroptera group, but it was both too early and too late and I didn't think about it anymore because I never thought about going to the reunions.
I almost bough boots, but these were pink and I thought I couldn't wear pink boots because of all the things associated with pink; since then, I can't stop thinking about those boots and with what they could be worn!
P. S. : I REALLY LOVE BATS!
P. P. -S : Does anyone knows whether Anne Fausto-Sterling is a gread read?

This will be a filler post, oh my! I'm not even supposed to be on that computer. (I sneaked there to rant and rejoice on What is Gender)

For Amber who asked, Klimt & Fashion by Christian Brandstätter is a book about Klimt and fashion (!), the influence he (or his companion Emilie Flöge) had on fashion and, I supposed, Vienna's Modereform. Probably it's also about stuffs after his death, a bit in the end, exposition which were recent when the book was published — in 1998, or it could have been about his influence on Oscar de La Renta in 2008 or about customized shoes (design based on Three Age of Woman, I think it's nice in itself but something got lost regarding the inspiration.)
Next, my skull!
Sorry, too tired to translate the alt-texts :/

Here is a lock :

Also, special bonus to my english speakers, as I'm not out as genderfluid to some of my french readers: I just got my VERY FIRST BINDER. Oh yeah! It's size M Short Velcro Binder from Love Boat Shop, the one that was sold with a packer trunk thingie which I'll give to that one folk from the LGBT community center I guess. So, I think it's a bit large under the binding textile used (am I clear?) and it comes higher than expected (I mean, the collar is just under my neckbones)
I think my bust is 87cm wide, by the way. It works well, though I'm between A and B cups I guess (85A and 85B are sizes I own, it might be 32A and 32B in America.) (I also got No Brand stickers with it, both to advertise and to keep cleaning and washing informations)
I was so happy while wearing it for the first time, though I can still feel my flattened "chest flesh" if I touch my torso firmly with one hand, but it works wonder, though there is a slight "bump" if you look close but it doesn't look like breasts. A large tee or a slim fit tee + a shirt and you don't see anything, less not talk about under a sweater. I hope I don't sound weird.
I'm just scared of feeling heavier dysphoria without it after wearing it for a long time... I'll show it to you next time!

That's what I wore the day before the day before yesterday (first December), which is funny since it's almost like what I wore often in 2008. (the fabrics looks better than in real life!) In fact I actually did own these clothes back then. I've a superpower, making me able to remind where I got into the possession of some piece of clothing, even despite throwing the tag away because these things are itchy-scratchy.
Also, I'll be writing lists in that post and putting crappy pictures in it because FREE SPEECH!!! yeah.

Another thing I wore some day in November :
Habitually I'd wear something else on top. It's wrong. I was gonna say something about Betsey Johnson or Vivienne Westwood or some of these folks, but my being so-over-it 'n awesome kept me from... Ooch, look at what I just did!

I wanted to buy Klimt & Fashion, but didn't have any more money! (bought computer+router+magazine+chestbinder)
I notice the only books in three languages that I own are books about fashion, which is really fucking my mind since fashion is supposed to be shallow and trilingual stuffs not-shallow but serious and smart according to Roman Empire's secular, though symbolical, imaginaire? Is there any Stub-Tex there? Are ethnical ethics (in your attic) subjacents to the Republic? (is any of this meant to make sense? hell no!)
Otherwise, most are partially in Dutch instead of being partially in German which would be more useful to me.
I could just stand by, in Germany, read these in public and say : "Ich hab kein Geld!" and people would believe me instead of thinking it's a catch-phrase I learnt.
Since I tell you my aunt is called Gelda, Ich hab kein Geld! An aunt, kein, I've got, Ich hab, Gelda, Geld ; my aunt Gelda that I've got.
I love my aunt Gelda, so much I drew her this (using watercolor pencils and oil thingies):

So, honestly, I told myself about "ol": that's great, a genderneutral pronoun which doesn't sound gendered and in french no need for a "hir" since the ma and mon designate the gender of that object you own. I forgot parental (or amical) links, in which you "own" persons — my aunt Gelda ; ma tante Gerthe. Even without saying aunt/tante, it sort of implies that Gelda, which I called Gerthe in the french article for sonority reasons, is identifying as female or comfortable with female pronouns! Then, I thought, mo would be a great what-is-this-grammatical-thingy-called, possessive pronouns, to ol.

Books I want :
• Birthrights by Richard Farson
• Youth Liberation: News, Politics and Survival Information by Youth Liberation, Inc.
• Les Jeunes De 1950 À 2000 : bilan des évolutions
A book on youth and youth movements, mostly in France, from the 50s to 2000.
It talks, amongst other things, about Mineurs en Lutte. One dude from the discussion-buissonnière mailing-list sent me photocopies relating to Mineurs en Lutte and the zine Péril Jeune (the first issue, in fact) and I promised (using that word: I promise) to answer him the day before the day before yesterday with a "topo" on WTF was Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor. I hope not bothering him to much as I make him wait. He's writing a book on Youth Liberation movements around the world in history.
• Klimt et la Mode by Christian Brandstätter (obviously there'll be part about Emilie Flöge, but I do hope they'll be more)
• Digital Textile Design by Melanie Bowles and Ceri Isaac, or a book on the same subject. The cover reminds me of books I read when I was kidder. (is kidder a word? well, now it is. thanks.)

List of stuffs I found dying under my bed:
• Introductions to discrete maths by Jiri Matusek: found at the Librairie Kléber during Jeudis de Springer or whatever in 2009 which is an information of no use to you.
The problem with that book, is that if you know more or less what they're talking about in some chapter it all just seem so easy and if you don't know it seems easy, but not precise enough. It's intuitive in that sense but not like James Stewart's books ; my dog ate the first tome of his Calculus and I'd like a minute of silence. I remembered mathematicians' portraits at every chapter's beginning, but I mistaked it for another book linked to economy. Also, do maths not drugs! (ah ah, see lower)
• Lili chez les tops models by Anne Chatel, Florence Crémoux and François Garnier : I just found an excerpt-form advertising for this comic used as a bookmark in the precedent book. Jean-Paul Gaultier now scares me off.
• Journal d'un morphinomane Éditions Allia : a doctor/morphinomane self-observation diary, written in the XIXnth century and reedited in 1997.
I bought it when I was interested in drugs, which date from when I was still schooled and around 13 and I just keep that under my bed why. I guess everything I would say about it would be cliché. The diary doesn't start before he start using morphin : he started it when he was already trying to lower his doses, maybe to help himself. It was kind of boring. I remember reading a lot about withdrawal, and not enough about medicine.
• Les rêveries du toxicomane solitaire Éditions Allia : unlike the Journal, it was written after and in hindsight to the actual addiction; it's also way romancized. Still anonymous, not exclusively about morphine. As the book is more recent (written from July 1996 to February 1997), it often make references to neurology in a light manner. The writer does not talk exclusively about drugs as in the Journal, and less about physical effects and withdrawal from what I remember.
• Drogues & dépendance le livre d'information by the city of Strasbourg in 2007: implies Salvia Divinorum's consumption can be mortal and isn't legal in France, by classifying it in a list of "illicit products" and saying that "most of these plants are classified as stupefiants, (...) their consumption can be dangerous or even mortal." without more information. Though you can totally do something stupid in a Salvia trip and die by error, the book doesn't really give real informations and I believe people to be more likely to do dangerous or unhealthy things if they aren't provided with real, clear and (when possible) precise information, without any lie by omission or anything. If one person think the danger with Salvia Divinorum is that it is toxic (it is not), that person might just not care and end up trying high doses when they have low tolerance to it, with no sober person to watch over them. You can't keep everyone from doing drugs, at least try to keep everyone well-informed so that they act the more responsibly possible if they (already) do drugs/are addicted; provide information about some drugs different effects on, say, teenagers or people who are in depression, because the effects aren't the same to everyone and reliable informations on your country laws.
• I was going to copy there what I wrote after reading back Du Hachisch et de l'aliénation mentale suivi de Recherches sur les aliénés en Orient by Moreau de Tour, edited by Kesselring, but that's all I found :


Yeah, and when I give people smaller samples of my writing, they tell me it isn't that bad and I'm actually faking it!
There is an article in the last MISC about online dealer, they gave me a lot of ideas to launch my own business after cutely asking myself why Azarius wasn't in it: it's simply because they (Azarius) don't sell you stuffs which are illegal in your country, your country-where-you-reside.
Now, I need a grossist for the most addictive of all drugs: the Nesquick.

Great finds :
OMG That Dress
Katie Rodgers
Pattern Observers (currently, it hosts a giveaway)
Fashion Tips From Comic Strips

Also, I received my distance learning courses, made the first assignment/homework of the series, didn't get the enveloppes to send it back. My mom told me I didn't do anything, and when I say I did she asks me what I did, and I'm not comfortable enough to tell her, and she answers: « If you don't want to tell what you did, it means you didn't do anything. »

(written the two December but published lately because I wanted to translate it in english and was too tired )