Worked and paid our union dues—what did years of that produce?

[sovay]

When I got to Davis Square this evening to pick up a medication and meet spatch for dinner on his half-hour break, a busker with good queer style and an electric guitar was performing the English-language verses of Daniel Kahn's "March of the Jobless Corps." I left money in their guitar case because I spent a portion of this afternoon seriously considering applying for a job that would require me to move half a dozen states down the Eastern Seaboard, which is not my first choice despite a strong ancestral tradition of going where the work is, but there's real money in it and health benefits and I am sick of clearing the rent by an ever-narrowing margin of not being able to afford anything else. I think we exceeded the metaphor of drowning and struggling for breath some months ago and are now firmly in the realm of waterlogged corpse somehow keeps screaming.

Last weekend I patched two pairs of my jeans so that I could keep wearing them. Tonight the zipper on the less-worn of the two pairs abruptly broke. So I guess I get to spend this weekend replacing a zipper. It is not an option to replace the jeans; they have been discontinued by the manufacturer, which infuriates me because they were the one style of 100% cotton, non-stretchy jeans I was able to find in more than ten years that actually fit my body and didn't make me want to peel off my skin. They fit so beautifully that I bought three pairs. I expected them to last longer than two years. For that matter, I didn't expect them to be discontinued within two years. Nothing is made to last anymore and we are always supposed to have the money to buy the next thing.

I rewatched Metropolis (1927) this afternoon, the 149-minute Kino restoration currently on Kanopy that's as close as we're going to get to the full original release without another broom closet in Argentina. I'd seen it last in 2010, accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra. This one had a re-recording of the original score by Gottfried Huppertz, which oddly I feel I paid less attention to except when it was quoting from the "Dies Irae." I love the movie; I did from the time I saw a scratchy videocassette of the butchered short cut in high school; it is still such a weird and beautiful thing. I'd like to write about it properly sometime, but I am so tired that that time is not going to be now.

I am glad to see that HIAS is throwing itself into the border crisis. The Supreme Court decision on gerrymandering really scares me.

I've just been working so much and I want to do something else and instead I find myself thinking about moving to another state so that I can work more. That can't be right.

Comments

[sovay]

Honest to God, when I picture "person who can probably just buy off the rack and have it fit fine" in my head, it looks like you.

I appreciate it. The problem is that I am slender but have hips and this seems to cause some sort of fatal short-circuit in the minds of people who design pants: either the waist is right but I can't pull them up past my hips, or I can get them past my hips and then I have at least an extra size's worth around my waist. It drives me nuts.

[ethelmay]

My daughters are built similarly (and I used to be, though I was also only medium height and plumper than you or they are). But they tolerate spandex better, and I think modern clothes designers rely way too much on various forms of elastic, rather than cutting their clothes to fit properly.

I know people with small waists who swear by hip-hugger jeans precisely because they need not fit the waist. I also know some (one of my daughters among them) who have switched to high-waisted jeans of the type that used to be decried as "mom jeans" and are now marketed under that description. Presumably the roominess that is meant to be for a middle-aged belly also works for accommodating hips, but I suspect an all-cotton version, if there is any, would be baggy in the legs for you.

makeyourownjeans.com has custom fitted 100% cotton jeans for $79. Not in most people's jeans budgets but not a completely unthinkable price.

[sovay]

Presumably the roominess that is meant to be for a middle-aged belly also works for accommodating hips, but I suspect an all-cotton version, if there is any, would be baggy in the legs for you.

That's traditionally been my problem with the concept of "relaxed fit." I really don't tolerate spandex, and it makes modern clothes difficult.

makeyourownjeans.com has custom fitted 100% cotton jeans for $79. Not in most people's jeans budgets but not a completely unthinkable price.

If they really fit and they don't fall apart in three years, they might be worth the outlay, and I hadn't even known they were an option. Thank you. [edit] Have you used their services yourself?

[ethelmay]

Have you used their services yourself?

No, I haven't. And now I look at some reviews they may not be all that great. And see this post about some sketchy business practices. Sorry to raise false hopes, but maybe there is a better company doing something similar.

[sovay]

Sorry to raise false hopes, but maybe there is a better company doing something similar.

I appreciate both the original thought and the follow-up information.