I quite often like to work on DIY clothing projects. Seeing ready made jackets with nonsensical slogans on them always makes me twitch because it is easy as hell to work on your own jacket. This was originally a pleather jacket that I got off of Killstar for very cheap on clearance. I don’t think they even have it on their site any longer. Some people would probably give me shit for buying the brand, but I wouldn’t be able to get a pleather jacket this solidly constructed for a cheaper price. The ones I’ve seen in stores are made of thinner material and are more expensive.
It is very easy to paint on pleather and leather jackets. The first thing I did was use some deglazer just to get any surface dirt or coating off of the jacket. You actually can probably skip that step, but this was my first time painting on pleather instead of leather so I did things by the book. Next, I bought an Angelus brand leather paint kit. It’s an acrylic type paint that is made to stick to leather/pleather surfaces. Also, I add their brand of 2-Hard adhesive to the paint I am working with, because it bonds the paint to a hard surface even better. I add half paint and half 2-Hard since the hard surface I am working with is hard yet flexible. I have painted on regular leather before without adding an adhesive so you only have to really do that while working with pleather.
I go over the paint several times to make it stand out more. Also, when I want to paint colours I have to put said colours on top of a white surface, because they will not show up on black very well on their own. So, you always have to paint your design starting out with white paint. I used stencils with this jacket, but I probably could have done it by hand. Since my jacket is post-apocalyptic themed I didn’t want it to look perfect, because for me that just wouldn’t look right. So messing up some outlines on it was not a big deal to me.
So get out there and create your own jacket! Put bands, drawings or whatever you like on it; let it be an extension of who you are.
Somebody added the music from Blade Runner to this drone footage of San Francisco covered in the smoke from the fires in California. This almost brought me to tears because it is just that beautiful. I did not make this.
This looks like it would be fun to play in. Just saying.
I never thought I would say this but I actually miss going to malls. Where I currently live there has never been a mall. I think the last time my husband and I went to one was when we stayed in Portland Oregon on a road trip to go visit my mom and we went to a mall that was located downtown. I remember finding a Portland city shirt there that featured zombies on it so it wasn’t a waste of time at all.
When I was around 19/20 years old I used to drive down to Santa Clara from Fremont, which was about twenty miles away, and hang out at Valley Fair Mall with my best friend Sheri. Before the internet there really was no way to meet up with like minded people if you lived in suburban America. Unless there was a goth/punk club that let the under 21 crowd in you were totally fucked. I remember her and I going to the late great Cactus Club in San Jose on a disco themed night and having a blast! The only problem was that such things cost a good chunk of change and you also had to pay for parking. The only thing that was cheap to do was to go to the mall and cross your fingers that there were other weirdos there with the same idea.
No, we weren’t mall goths. This was in 90/91 before the Hot Topic invasion of American malls. The only store in that mall that somewhat catered to weirdos was Contempo Casuals. Their clothes were reasonably priced and would last forever. I bought a pair of black crushed velvet leggings that lasted me almost ten years from there. Oh, and they always sold really cool looking baby-doll type dresses. It wasn’t an embarrassing store to shop at like Hot Topic has always been. A lot of weirdos got at least some of their clothing from Contempo Casuals back then.
What has made me go on this nostalgia trip? I frequent a Reddit group call Dead Malls that features, you guessed it, dead malls. Here is the link if you are curious. https://www.reddit.com/r/deadmalls/ In it people share the photos and videos that they have taken inside dying or dead malls and frequently they talk about the subject as to why malls are dying a very painful death.
Rest in peace mall, rest in peace.
It’s really easy to figure out why a lot of the malls are dying. Shopping for things online is often cheaper than buying them in person so many people just stopped visiting them. A huge factor, that isn’t talked about as much, is the fact that starting in the 80’s too many malls were built in the same areas. Remember, the 80’s was the decade of conspicuous consumption so city planners, along with mall management companies, thought that there could never be too many of the same stores in one area. If a small city could support one mall, why not build a few more to give people a choice? The final nail in the coffin for most malls has been the arrival of the covid virus pandemic. People no longer feel safe going out in public, especially while there are others out there that refuse to socially distance themselves and wear masks.
The only type of malls that seem to be doing well right now are those that cater to the very wealthy. Ironically the mall that I used to visit with my friend, Valley Fair, is now jam packed with luxury type stores such as Prada and Cartier. How long though before this way of life, and lavish spending of money, becomes a thing of the past? It can’t last forever. Maybe wealthy people will start living in housing that is attached to the mall so that they don’t have to encounter people who openly look at them with destain. Something similar to the film Land Of The Dead, but minus the flesh eating zombie hordes?
I think I’m sad about malls dying because for my generation they became a place to meet and socialize. You didn’t even have to spend any money while there. The teenagers of today do not have an equivalent mass experience like this. Now almost all socializing is done online, which has both good and bad aspects to it. It’s good for people who live in isolated areas where meeting people to socialize with is difficult. It’s also bad though because there are people now who literally don’t know how to socialize with others in a public setting.
Hello everybody! I hope all of you are having a very good day and that things are fine in the location of the wasteland that you call home. Having issues with zombies or mutants? Remember, things could always get worse! I’m joking…or am I?
Years ago I ran a horror film blog. It got a lot of attention and I had a lot of fun writing articles and connecting with the people who read it. In fact it is because of that blog that I met my husband. Towards the end of its run I had a horror film blogger guy, jealous of my success, doxx me. It was then that I realized that running that blog was no longer any fun so I moved on. A few years back I started a post-apocalyptic/dystopian themed blog, but I soon lost interest because my field of discussion was way too narrow.
So, basically I have created this blog because I have a whole lot to say about different topics: music, films, current events, history,etc… I knew that I would get bored really fast, just like the last time, if I started yet another blog about only one subject. If you can write about only one topic that’s cool, I just can’t do a blog with that kind of format. Also, I chose blogging rather than vlogging because it is more easy for me to type out my thoughts rather than voicing them. Plus, I really can’t be bothered to look ‘good’ for the camera. I know that not everybody cares about their image, but the pressure is there just the same. It would end up pissing me off.
Right now we are living in very perilous times. There is an actual world wide pandemic taking place, the effects of climate change is killing the planet, and there are multiple right wing politicians quickly leading their countries down the road to fascism. As a fan of both the post-apocalyptic and dystopian genres of films and books I feel like I am living in one of them, and I know that I am not alone in this. I think that it is very important to have your voice heard right now during this time in history. I would love this blog to be discovered in one hundred years time and it be a reference as to what life was like right now.
I really hope that all of you enjoy this blog and find it interesting enough to interact with. In the wise words of Sarah Connor from the Terminator series of films “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.”.
