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Tuesday , December 14, 2010
Laura Jane's Addiction: Notebooks, Notebooking, Self-Indulgence
I was under the impression that regular readers of nogoodforme.com are hip to every dimension of my existence (except for business that involves other people, since, like, I respect their privacy and shit). I am a big fan of "airing my dirty laundry in public"- I'm like an exhibitionist, only with my SOUL. A few days ago, howevs, I realized that you poor puppies are naive to the most crucial aspect of my whole entire self! Me! All of me! From tip to toe! Laura!
Notebooks. My notebooks are my babies, my progeny, an extension of myself. They are my phantom arm. If I ever lost a notebook, it would destroy me, but I would never lose a notebook, because I always check. I take care of myself. I take care of my notebooks, my fam.
I have notebooked like crazy since I was a kid. I do it because a) I do it, b) I'm used to it, c) it's something to do, and d) I never want to lose touch with the physical, visceral act of writing. When you write with a pen and not a keyboard, you write slowly, and so are forced to really consider your words, to write carefully and decisively.
Right now, my notebook is the one in the upper left-hand corner of the image below, with Ray Davies and a ripped-up Gunta Stolzl print-out and "LSD" with a pound sign for the L and a $ for the S. I started it one and a half weeks ago. By the end of today, it will be over. It has few pages, and they are made of thick good sketchbook paper, so it looks deceptively bigger than it is. Also, I wrote a lot these past eleven days. This all sucks so bad! This notebook was one of my favourite notebooks of my entire life, and I consider it a whopper of a tragedy that we will have to part ways so soon. Ours was a brief but passionate love affair- oh, Ray Davies Notebook, I hardly knew ye!
This post is an Ode to My Notebooks. Seen above is a composite image of all the best ones I've ever had. I will now say a few words about them:
TOP ROW: At left is the heartbreaker of the Ray Davies one I use now. Next to it, the black and white Mead, is a relic from my being sixteen. The image at bottom right is of Cecily Brown at some snooty party. You can see that I pasted in a pale pink ribbon to use as a page-marker, which is a cute way to be smart. Trevor and Laura's Team Notebook is the notebook my ex-boyfriend and I kept together when we first fell in love, as babies. It's classy; I would never apply such restraint to a notebook of my own. I like FLASH. Next up, Laura Jane with A Billion Hearts, dates back to my sophomore year of college. I manically doodled the hearts (they are also on the back cover) while hyped on Adderall in "Small Business Enterprises" class. I got an A in "Small Business Enterprises." LBJFK lasted me all of last summer. It features a picture of Robert F. Kennedy, and my spirit animal. It was a good, solid notebook of mine, but dragged on for eternity, so I grew to resent it a bit.
BOTTOM ROW: The Goat's Head notebook belonged to Spirit Animal House-era Laura. It says "SAVE LAURA JANE- Whoopsies! I mean, LAURA JANE SAVES," which is the exact type of joke in this world that I think is funny. Moon the Loon is from last September and October, when my Fashion Concept/Life Concept was "Keith Moon's Girl Twin Sister." The Muppet Babies picture is ripped out of a colouring book from when I was a babe, so the cover was actually a collabo enterprise between 23-year-old Laura and 3-year-old Laura. The brown Beatles-y one is the one I had last winter, when I was in LA, so it will always remind me of that. The Beatles pic is from a 1964 Beatles mag, it is captioned with Ed Sullivan saying "Do you think if I practiced really hard, I could play like you?" which ties into how I Letrasetted "IT AS IT IS, AND AS IT ISN'T, IT AIN'T" underneath. I generally like to Letraset life lessons I should be mindful of onto my notebook covers, because I look at them constantly, and might as well be reminded of handy adages while I'm at it. The same principle can be seen on the cover of Restrain & Persist, which is the one that precedes Ray Davies/LSD. I ripped the dictionary-looking pages out of a book called "20,000 Words"; they are the head pages of the "L," "J," and "F" sections. Get it????
__
Every time I get a new notebook, I undergo a laborious process wherein I read through my entire old notebook, and painstakingly copy down all pertinent information into my new notebook. It is called "Notebook Switcheroo," and has been for as long as I can remember. It's weird how major of words these are to In-My-Head-Laura, but, before right now, I don't think I've ever said them aloud. "Notebook Switcheroo" is highly symbolic for me- it's always indicative of my beginning a new chapter in life. Perhaps this is why I am so frustrated about my Ray Davies notebook living so fast and hard. I went through Notebook Switcheroo a mere week-and-a-half ago, I really have not grown very much as a person since then! Oh well--
HAPPY NOTEBOOK SWITCHEROO DAY, LAURA JANE!
Tags: airing my dirty laundry in public, Ed Sullivan, getting to know us better, Keith Moon as spirit animal, Laura Jane Faulds, Laura Loves The Beatles, Muppet Babies, Notebook Switcheroo, Raymond Douglas Davies, writer dames, writers, writing
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9 Comments!!
Your notebooks look very, very awesome :)
What exactly do you put in them?
By Eileen on June 2, 2009 1:41 PM
were you, like me, also an ardent fan of harriet the spy as a child?
i think everything you wrote about your relationship to your notebooks also applies to my relationship with my notebooks, except i never had the genius idea of "notebook switcharoo." i think i have to start doing that right now!!
By mary on June 2, 2009 3:28 PM
hey lj, from another cancer laura!
i've been trying to write a lot more, but i just kinda DON'T. it's not like i don't want to, it is just something i do not usually sit down to do more than once or twice each day. how often do you write in your notebooks? i've had the same one since i was 12 years old, (i am now 15) because i write very small in it and force myself to only write one page each time. recommend me some ways to write more!
also your notebooks are lovely, and i am a big fan of you in general. we're kinda soul sisters.
By laura louise on June 2, 2009 5:19 PM
I, too am an obsessive notebook keeper; I've kept notebooks since I was nine. Whoah, six years of notebook taking! I lost a notebook once: it was perhaps one of the saddest days of my life. My notebooks often drag for a while, because I'm a fan of those thick, classy Molskines, which fit so nicely between my Latin textbook and my English binder...perfect!
Also! You! Person above me! At first I was kind of annoyed that you were stealing my annoying fifteen-year-old thunder, but you seem rather cool, so all is well. Plus, we're quite similar: for example, my name is "Clara Louise" and yours is "Laura Louise." Trippy...
By clara the annoying fifteen-year-old on June 2, 2009 8:40 PM
i've been keeping a notebook lately and it's been really good for me. i think maybe i was partly inspired by that time you asked me for a glue stick when you were in my house.
& the notebook switcheroo is genius indeed!
By Liz
on June 3, 2009 9:50 AM
1. EILEEN- The content of my notebooks is a combination of scrawly ballpoint written, to do lists written in this dumb text thing I do, non-cool semi-psychedelic doodles, and pasted-in things like finished crossword puzzles and this one brand of Chinatown cigarettes I always pick up off the street.
2. MARY: I was a bigger fan of "Harriet the Spy" the movie than "Harriet the Spy" the book, but yes. It is tragic what a loser Michelle Trachtenberg grew up to be.
By Laura
on June 3, 2009 1:29 PM
3. LAURA LOUISE: What a sweet, lovely comment! My advice to you would definitely be, stop forcing yourself to only write one page! Write a million pages! Write down EVERYTHING!
4. CLARA LOUISE: There is definitely room for two NON-annoying fifteen-year-olds with Louise middle-names on nogoodforme.com comments pages! I will occasionally use those fat Moleskines too, but I generally prefer spiral-bound notebooks, since they are more "ergonomic."
5. ELIZABETH "YOPU" BARKER: All I ever do is ask people for gluesticks. Laura Jane "Asking For A Gluestick, or Tape" Faulds, that's what they call me. I'm glad I could be of some help to you.
By Laura
on June 3, 2009 1:34 PM
I've been notebooking since I was four, when I asked my mom to teach me cursive so I could write down everything and no one would be able to read my innermost. It worked-looking back at my four-year-old cursive, it is completely indecipherable!
By Brooke Alexandra on June 4, 2009 1:19 PM
I've been notebooking since I was four, when I asked my mom to teach me cursive so I could write down everything and no one would be able to read my innermost. It worked-looking back at my four-year-old cursive, it is completely indecipherable!
By Brooke Alexandra on June 4, 2009 1:20 PM