Too buzzed to sleep, daydreaming about the Oak Park makerspace that I have no time to create. I want it to be SFF-themed, at least somewhat — kind of a Meow Wolf vibe. I want a room dedicated to soft making, to textile art, with sewing machines and looms, and the walls and ceiling are hung with fantastical knit and crocheted creatures for inspiration. I bet if I put the word out requesting that people knit those for us, I could get a few hundred creatures sent here by Christmas, no problem.
I want a coding studio, but also one that teaches video game design, and stop-motion animation with Legos, and making geeky fan vids. I barely know what fan vids are, but I know they’re a thing, I know there are entire conventions dedicated to them, and it’s an entire art form that has no current place in the academy and someone should be fostering it. Also, I want Google and/or Apple to sponsor it, so we can extend extra services to low income folks, including things that might lead to jobs.
I want a bookstore cafe / wine bar, a lot like Volumes’s current space, actually, that wouldn’t have a ton of books but where I and my friends make sure that all the books that are there are good AND there should be a way that you could buy ebooks and audiobooks through us in the store, in case that’s the format you prefer, and we get a cut. I don’t understand why that isn’t more prominent in bookstores these days.
Go to sleep, Mary Anne. You already have four jobs (professor / writer / parent / politician), and you aren’t willing to give up any of them to do this right now, so you can’t do it yet. You just can’t. Hush.