the story of kweejibo clothing co., a men's shirt maker and shop, all locally manufactured
we will be publishing a small portion of this ongoing series every couple weeks--this site is updated weekly--
pages 19 to 21
"MADE IN OAKLAND", every shirts says proudly. made in the U.S.A. is not enough. more local than local. beloved Oakland. we cannot sell in Oakland. at this time, Oakland, the Rockridge, is sleepy. it does not have the rivers of currency that run through San Francisco, as yet. San Francisco, the town where i grew up and love in a different fashion, is not so bad a place to show the product. as a child, i revered these little shops which manufactured as well, that i seem to find only in books; the little hat maker, little dress shops, even little shoe repair.
customers echo this "made in oakland" with pride. a man can present himself with a certain fortitude, wearing a shirt manufactured in the "murder capital of the world", as Oakland is touted at this time.
no disrespect for Oakland. i live there for ten years, starting in my college days, well into my first five years of Kweejibo. In 2012, bay area people know Oakland is a great place to be, but in 1992, many San Francisco types miss out on this down-home stylishness. all the style, and none of the attitude.
in the early days of the store, a young girl asks me why my dresses cost $120.00 instead of $60.00. my explanation falls on deaf ears. she expresses with disgust at the obvious error of my ways, "uhh! i don't understand why you don't just mass-manufacture in some little country and sell it here for cheap!" the attitude will bring us into the economy of the future, into a country that makes less and less, eliminating its own jobs. in 1992, we still have jobs selling, if not making. and the Internet is waiting to take over the selling sector also.
"amazing grace"
the amazing Alice, speaks her own dialect of English, a fluent pidgin; she calls and delivers a discourse in a flood of words. i know so little of construction technique, so I let her educate me; i just let the words flow over me, i try not to take it too literally because it is not altogether identifiable as the English we generally know. i listen the way one takes in a different language, in the way children do...
i relax the rational processes, i let her just talk to me. linguists say children listen very loosely,
they look more for general story line, general concept and ideas. they care not for specific words
or phrases as adults do; they learn organically, unhurriedly.
they hear sounds, and let those sounds trigger
meanings, parts
of their subconscious, attach themselves to ideas and images.
a child's lack of bias towards sounds, is helpful in hearing sounds of different languages precisely exactly as they are, unfamiliar vowels and consonants, tones.
adults hear an unfamiliar sound in a different language and replace it with a more familiar similar sound in their native tongue.
i do not worry over her bizarre word compilations or my lack of technical manufacturing knowledge,
challenged further by the Orations of Alice.
i let her talk and am better informed, possibly changed. occasionally, i interrupt
and deliver some translations of her dialogue.
she verifies my translations, she elaborates further.
Alice's talent for listening is remarkable. it verges on telepathic.
I hope that osmosis will transfer this skill to me.
i start to adopt her
pidgin, noticing the benefits in our communication,
the increased smoothness. my production assistant, Austin, giggles. he says,
"you bring to mind the word
ludicrous, and i don't mean the gangsta rapper".
Austin wears the tightest jeans i have ever seen. he competes in this field with his girlfriend, Jadis, as well as practically every other tight-jeaned girl who works with me. and his t-shirts and leather jackets are even tighter over biceps tailor-made. he has no piercings as they are not as de rigueur as they used to be. but tattoos are still fun, signifies the angel on his left bicep.
i love Austin like a son. he moves through situations with emotional indefatigability. he is unphased to be a man, straight and pretty, and uninterested in the hordes of men who chase men in this city. he possesses a double-strength force field composed of hip worldly wise mixed with a kind of impregnable innocence. he is unfailingly in his belief that everything is going to be all right. a great ally, both he and the force field.
we will be publishing a small portion of this ongoing series every couple weeks
--this site is updated weekly--