Posts Tagged ‘Submissions: Guidelines and How-To’

That’s right! We’re writing the book on the first 25 years of Lip Service! But the story won’t be complete without the most important part …

YOU!

We’re dedicating an entire chapter of our upcoming coffee table book, 25 Years of Original Cult Fashion, to Lippy Fans and Addicts so you have a chance to tell your part of our story!

So …

We’ve had lots of great milestones along the way and know you’ve had great milestone moments in Lip Service, too. We want to include them, too.

Was Lip Service there …

… at your wedding?
… your graduation?
… a landmark moment in your life?

We want to see it and read your Lip Service story!

Send us your photos, your memories, your stories to complete the history of 25 years of Lip Service.

So far, we have collected lippy tattoos, lippy weddings, lippy kids and closets full of lippy clothes! And we want MORE!

Do you have a kick-ass story about some amazing, funny, or utterly crazy thing you did in your Lip Service gear? Send us that too! If you have photos, even better!

Have a killer pic of your multi-generational Lippy Addict family? A photo that brings the early days of Lip Service to life? We want those too!

There are no hard and fast specifics. Just like Lip Service, this story is not bound by pre-conceived limitations. It is our story of 25 years … yours and ours … 25 years of fashion freaks making kick ass clothing for their fellow fashion freaks! Help us tell it!

To submit photos and stories, please email 25years@lip-service.com.
Any questions? You can email us there, too.

We can’t wait to relive it all with you!

Oct. 1, 2009

Wow, I can’t believe people actually find me interesting!  First off, I want to thank Mich for the AWESOME announcement on the website – I was expecting my name and maybe a little picture, at the most :)

Today was definitely a day when the cameramen would be plotting fake dramas to spice up the show, were I to have my own reality crew following me around.  Highlights are as follows:

12 Noon

I show up at Lip Service’s bargain basement, after sitting in the parking lot called the Los Angeles freeway system for far longer than anyone should EVER be in traffic.  Felt a little out of place walking in, as today was the first day of my new part time job teaching violin at an elementary school, and was thus carrying a giant violin case and dressed like… well, a school teacher.

Nonetheless, after narrowly escaping being trapped inside a pair of legging-like pants from the Psycho Circus Act III line, I walked out of the warehouse with the most awesome set of blue vinyl pieces for my show tomorrow night, a benefit for the Support the Troops organization, who sends care packages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2:08pm

I arrive at the elementary school I am to start teaching at.  This school happens to be in a rough part of LA, and a famous home base for gangs, so understandably I’m a bit nervous.

So nervous, in fact, that when I see parents crowding the school’s lawn, watching intently for their offspring alongside a few police officers, and children being escorted out in single-file lines, I immediately panic and call the school to inquire if everything’s ok.

Too bad I forgot that 1)I’m teaching an after-school program and 2)there are quite often officers monitoring various aspects of public school workings, these days.

An awkward meeting with the school principal (who answered the phone moments before) ensues.

5:13pm

My dog encounters a rock garden on our evening walk.  I spend the next ten minutes trying to introduce him to the large rock in the center of said garden, as he scrambles to run, terrified, from the big scary rock.

10:34pm

Now, as I write this, my insane puppy (who often prefers playing games on his own) has thrown his current toy of choice under the couch and is frantically digging for it.  Delicious vegan peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream is churning in the kitchen and I’m getting ready for a long weekend.

Oct. 3, 2009

I AM LOSING MY FUCKING MIND.

Before elaboration on that statement, our show on Friday night was AWESOME.  We raised our goal of $500, and had a blast partying with some awesome people!  Earlier that day, my amazing friend Laura Kaye came into town with her son, Elijah, on business with their company, Wood Violins (who I rep for).  We recently picked up two new artists, Jesse Spencer (House) and  (Smashing Pumpkins), two amazing musicians and all-around people, and Laura came down to personally present them with their instruments/see Jesse’s show tonight, with his band, Band from TV.

Back to my brain.  I volunteer at an animal sanctuary, and, as of late, they’ve lost one of their three employees.  All of the volunteers are back to school for the year, so I went from volunteer status to full-time employee, temporarily, as the other half of the staff is manning a booth at the LA County Fair.

Breathe here.

I didn’t go in today thinking the other employee would be running the shop, so I could make a gig at 3:30pm and Band From TV at 9pm.  Turns out, he didn’t know he was supposed to go in, and has class at 3pm.  So, no one’s running the shop.  Then, on my way to my gig, I find out I have the date wrong, it’s TOMORROW (and no one else can run the shop then either).  I feel like Stuff Smith, one of the first electric violinists, who was said to have only been on time to a gig once – but was a week late!!!

However, I’ve only seen Laura and Elijah for a couple minutes so far, when they stopped by to get some presents from me (clothing, Universal Studios ticket/coupon, a LS catalog ;-P), and now I have time to go to dinner with them before Band From TV tonight!

Oct. 5

With “Dr. Chase” and Laura Kaye!

So, first off, Band from TV was certainly not disappointing, and Jesse’s new Sabre violin sounded awesome – everyone kept complimenting him on his tone (and he was definitely not too shabby himself)!  Laura was thrilled because, even though Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) wasn’t there, she got to meet hottie James Denton from “Desperate Housewives”!

Sunday was a blur of giggingness, as I played nearly 2 hours straight in 5 inch stiletto patent gladiator sandals on the marble stairs (with VERY uneven and ankle-breaking runners) of an enormous mansion in Beverly Hills.  The staircase alone was most likely the square footage of my house!

As for today, at the animal sanctuary you meet some very interesting people.

Last week, I had the pleasure of a seemingly homeless woman falling into the back door screaming, “SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!”  That help, of course, was because she was completely insane and couldn’t calmly tell me that there was an infant squirrel in a box in her car (who I got to hold while being bottlefed later).

Or the guy who ran in, screamed, “KITTIES!!!”, ran out, then ran back in again to throw chicken nuggets at the cats before once again dashing off (yes, he was an adult).

Today, a Beverly Hills Bitch came in and demanded to know where all our dogs were.  I informed her that we were split between the shop and the LA County Fair and were temporarily housing our animals in foster care, to which she replied, “Why don’t you just go to the pound and stock up on animals?”, as if they were merchandise.  This led to her babbling to me and the dog: “What does it do?  SIT.  SIT.  Why doesn’t it do anything?”

When I explained that she was hit by a car and couldn’t use her back leg and thus couldn’t sit, she commented on how animal sanctuaries were just so much more convenient for her than the pound, but how the Bel-Air animal sanctuary actually had GOOD animals, they must get top-of-the line pick, whereas we get the leftover “junk”.  Fortunately for her, someone stepped in to tell her about all the pedigree animals we’ve rescued, as I probably would have otherwise strangled her with a leash until her fake boobs and Botox exploded.  She then ran from a shop, as a cat had touched her (she’s afraid of them, even though she has one).

Tomorrow is the new job I dread, as my 5^th grade violin students have a behavior level less mature than the 4 year old class I used to teach (of which one boy refused to take lessons without wearing a Superman muscle suit, which had a hole in the crotch, something he wished to point out quite often).  Must prepare so I can go in tomorrow and take charge!

In closing, I leave you, dear readers, with the final event leading towards my dog’s official breed name becoming “Pinchehuahua” (“pinche” is Spanish slang, and translates roughly into a colorful adjective in the English language rhyming with “trucking”):

Thank you again to Alyson for letting us follow her around for the week!

Next week, On the Road with Stretch Fuck’n Jeans goes to Europe to hang out with Kevin Preston and Prima Donna, while they tour Green Day!

See you then!

Want to submit your writing, blog, review, or article to the Lip Service Webzine? Here’s how!

CLICK MEDIUM IMAGES TO VIEW FULL SIZE!!!

First: use the link at the top of the webzine to register for an account.

Once you’re registered, you can log in. If you’ve lost your password, you can use the link marked with the arrow to have it sent to the email you entered when registering. Here’s where using a good email address will come in handy!

Okay … now you’re ready to post!

There are several ways on the Dashboard to do it. The first is the quick-interface menu at the very upper right of the Dashboard screen. Use the drop-down to go to the New Post screen or Log Out.

You can also use the Dashboard Menu on the left sidebar of the screen to go to the New Post page.

Or, if you’re a WordPress veteran, you can use the QuickPress interface at the top right of the Dashboard area. Note the quick-upload icons above the fields which you can use to add images and other cool media to your post.

If you’re just starting with WordPress, though, the Full-screen NewPost page will be the easiest and most intuitive to use. Type in your title and begin your post. If you are adding an image to the post, you can use the Upload Image icon marked with the red arrow. See notes below for more info about includng images in your posts.

Okay! Now you’ve finished typing your post!

Please always use the Preview button to double-check your post before submitting. If your post is riddled with necessary corrections, we will not publish it, period. Do your proofreading and increase your chances of success!

Once you’re happy with the post and think it’s something we’ll love to read and publish, click that big, blue “Submit” button! Blacklist columnists, you can use the Save button to start your columns, access them later as you wish to add/edit, and work on your columns through the week.

Important: If you are not a regular columnist, please do not hit SUBMIT before your column is what you want us to see. Save and Edit are only available to our regular columnists. Our best suggestion is to create your post/article for review in a word-processing program, do your edits until it’s publish-worthy, THEN copy and paste, preview, and submit.

We can’t wait to see what you have to send us!! We’re always open to new articles, columns, and whatever kick-ass stuff you want to share.

So, what are you waiting for, SUBMIT TO LIP SERVICE!

You want to add a photo to your post? Here’s how:

Remember that red arrow earlier pointing to the “upload image” icon? Click that icon … really, just click it! This will open the Upload window, which looks like this. You will most likely be adding photos from your own computer, so make sure the far left tab (the one highlighted in the photo) is showing. Click the Browse button to select the location of the image file on your computer. Once it is found and selected, click the Upload button to add it to our image library.

Once your photo is uploaded, the options will expand to look like this. Here, you can give a name to your image (PLEASE!!! No super-long titles, no spaces in the file name, and no symbols other than – and _.) , add a caption which will appear beneath the photo onscreen, include a description, and even determine the size of the image which will appear and where it will be located inside your post. Always make sure to click the “Insert into post” button once you’ve added the information. This will add your image to your post exactly as you want it.

Depending upon which viewing option you have chosen from the tabs at the top right of the post window (see where there are tabs marked Visual and HTML), your image will appear in your post window in two different ways. Below, is an example of the image code within the HTML viewing option. As it is situated, with copy after the coding segment, your text would appear after the photo (in this case, because of the left alignment selection, to the right of the image).

In the Visual viewing option, which is probably the easier for WordPress beginners, you will see the photo as it will appear with the text in the actual post. Though this view is easier for beginners, veterans should be careful to remember to switch to HTML before adding coding to the post.

Want to know more cool stuff you can do? Here’s some useful info about things you can add to your post to get found on searches, allow other Fashion Freaks to interact with you, and … last but not least, make our webzine editor’s life just a shade easier (and she LOVES that!)

Want to add tags to your post to make it easier to find on search? Use the “Tags” menu, also on the right sidebar to add appropriate tags to the post. Please keep them relevant and in a reasonably low number for better search. Once you have your tags, just click the add button.

Then, you will see the tags you’ve applied and can double-check them for typos, eliminate bad tags, and determine if there’s a great tag you might have missed.

Near the bottom of the page, beneath the post window, click the “Allow Comments” box so other Fashion Freaks can add their two cents and give you the adulation you deserve for your killer post!

You’re close, but not quite done yet! Use the “Categories” menu on the right sidebar to select an appropriate category for your submission and make our ‘zine editor want to kiss your face. Blacklist Columnists should always select only their column category.

Sure, we’ve shown you how to pimp out your posts … but what about filling everyone in on who you are and what you’re up to? Want to juice up your profile or maybe change your password, display name, or email contact? Here’s how!

Once you’re logged in, at the very left of the screen, beneath the image of “Desktop” is your profile menu. To add more details or change information (except your user log-in name … that must stay the same. If you want a different name displayed, there is a way to change it by entering your profile!). You can also change your password here.

This is the interface for your names and identity on the ‘zine. Your user name cannot be changed, but you can add your first and last name if you’d like. Also, if you’d like a different name, other than your user name, just use the “nickname” field to create a new name. Use the drop-down display menu to select how you want your name to appear with your posts and comments.

In the Contact area of your profile, you can edit your email address (make sure to use a current one … if we love your posts, we might just want to invite you as a regular columnist and wouldn’t want you to miss out). This is where notifications and lost password emails will be sent, so make it a good, active one. You can also add IM contacts, your own home page link, and other ways to find you on the web.

Want everyone to know more about you and the cool stuff you’re up to? Fill in the Bio section and give us your story.

Want to change your password? Use this interface to to so. Make sure to pay attention to the Strength indicator below!

Right beneath the password interface is the bit most everyone loves, an opportunity to upload your own avatar! Just click the browse button and select the file from your computer. (PLEASE make sure the file size is no more than around 10k maximum!) Select the image you want, then click the “Update” button. Yep, it’s THAT easy.

Any other questions of problems posting? Please drop a line to the webzine editor.