“Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?”
“Yes.” Billy, in fact, had a paperweight in his office which was a blob of polished amber with three lady-bugs embedded in it.
“Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”
~ Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
As one becomes an older woman it is easy to fall back into memories. In my mind are images of “amber moments” caught. I am like a praying mantis perching on a flower. I see so much. I am like my dad who we often caught standing behind us observing someone or something. We would tell him to “stop spying on others dad.” He had a sensitive nature and would have been a great writer. He was an excellent storyteller.
One such amber moment calls me lately. The Scotland Yard is a pub we use to visit a lot. The place was a motif of the larger punk scene I grew up in. The characters came forward as memorable ones. I miss the place dearly now.
One enjoyable amber moment goes like this.
Sitting on the stool and with pint I noticed Garrett at the back door. He was sitting filling in as bouncer pub jerk. The music was good. I subtly watched him check IDS. The door behind him was a place where he put his cigarettes while smoking. He sat partially inside and outside the pub. Up on top of the door he placed his cigarette as he walked away. He walked away often. I watched him do this a few times.
So, with amusement walked over there unaware by anyone and took his cigarette. There was not much left, so I smoked it outside and went back to my stool. When he came back, he went into his normal routine. He reached up for his cig and it was gone. He looked down and around. Nope no cig. Then he looked up and from about 20 feet he caught my gaze. We both smiled. He put his head to the side and lit another one. I love that memory of buds at the local pub.
I was planning to sale some t-shirts through Printify. I love the idea of Print on Demand. From my perspective one orders a t-shirt from anywhere and a local company or small business completes the work. The order is then shipped.
A done deal. If you order a shirt in California a local company does the work or if you order a shirt in France a local company or business does the work and mails it to a person in France. All local print on demand. It is a brilliant concept that works with the artist, company, mail carriers and local person who buys a shirt. I do that with all my Amazon Print on Demand books.
Yet not all Print on Demand companies work the same. Printify does not. So, I am looking for another currently.
With Printify how the process of receiving the art, silk screening the product and mailing the product are way off my goal. I found out it took 3 days to process the T-shirt and almost three weeks to mail/ ship my shirt. My shirts were processed in Hong Kong nicely but then the mailing took too long. It is not the business model I want to work with.
So here is a sample of my shirt from Printify… it looks good, but it is only one sample until I find the type of company or small business I want to work with.
T-shirts capture amber moments too. This shirt represents over 42 years since I designed this cover. Within the margins of 40 years of celebrating the genre known as punk rock. Flipside, Black Flag, The Damned and Fear had a prodigious part in our punk history. A story of many hubs and amber moments to be shared. I like that. Still a work in process.
Sarcasm or not… I think so…