how does anyone feel about making me this bathtub?
feel free to let me know if your down.
2009: The Lost Levels
16 years ago
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Proust Questionnaire
Because this photograph is beautiful...
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
slavery or lovelessness
Where would you like to live?
with someone i love
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
not sure yet
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Laziness or a lack of ambition
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Sherlock Holmes
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Albert "the worker," Grover Cleveland, Ivan Kalita "the moneybag prince"
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
my mother
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
Dominique Francon
Your favorite painter?
Amadeo Modigliani
Your favorite musician?
Scott Sturgeon
The quality you most admire in a man?
je ne sais quoi
The quality you most admire in a woman?
a sense of fun
Your favorite virtue?
Humility
Your favorite occupation?
whiling
Who would you have liked to be?
more than i was
Monday, March 9, 2009
minimal efforts
Emily and I have gone through many, many parallel obsessions. We share a love for legitimate LES punks, comfortable "fat american" clothing, conceptual art, efficient alarm clocks, smoking newports (well i'm a baby and can't really), moccasin boots, kate moss, ebay, driving around, inadvertently funny rap lyrics, body modification, bauhaus, doodling, and sweetie boys. However, nothing compares to the overwhelming drive for minimalism we have been consumed with over the past year and a half.
Someone once said that "minimalism is at constant war with real life;" maybe that's why I like it. It's an impulse born out of anxiety disorders, and on a superficial level creates an environment free from stress. There is a definite high resulting when an OCD or otherwise psychologically warped person is in the thick of an activity directly relating to their problem, and throwing everything you own out is pretty fucking good.
Emily told me that when she was in the first, admittedly violent throes of this spartan phase, her dad asked her if her bare room indicated that she was moving out. I don't like orchestrated minimalism, where there is one flower laid on a steel table, surrounded by mies van der rohe chairs or some phillipe starck shit. I like the kind of minimalism where everything is beat up, worn in, well loved, and with a great history behind it. The combination of old elements and the echoes of a near empty room reminds me of traveling or moving to a new house - change being something that terrifies me, it seems healthy to live with its trappings on a daily basis. Minimalism has also helped me overcome one of the more obvious expressions of my obsessive compulsive disorder, that being my unstoppable pack-rattiness. From the time I was a kid, I saved everything. Almost literally. Throwing things out that I only thought I needed has proved to be incredibly therapeutic.
Orchestrated minimalism, the kind you see in the apartments of Karl Lagerfeld et. al., also distinctly smacks of consumerism to me. It is the tasteful kind - better, i guess, than tacky nouveau riche stuff, but not by much. What is usually the case is that a maid comes in daily to keep the place looking for spotless. For me, the look is less important than the physical lack of things (oxymoron?). When your possessions are few and special, anything you throw together will be beautiful, as opposed to someone who collects crazy knicknacks and just sticks them all over the place with no personal connection whatsoever.
I guess this is why going to new houses always frieks me out. I can't deal with the Lladro angels, fake French toulouse lautrec posters and patisserie signs, ironwork purchased at Home Depot, plastic plants - stuff designed to look intimate and wonderful (and whose origins are definitely so) but that is actually cold, fake, mass-produced, and terrifying. The echo of tiles and space in McMansions doesn't signify transition to me, but rather an emptiness that may never be filled.
But yeah, I hate mindlessness anywhere, and i'm sure it exists in NYC, london, tokyo, africa, the south, Latin America, and everywhere.
things to think about.
Someone once said that "minimalism is at constant war with real life;" maybe that's why I like it. It's an impulse born out of anxiety disorders, and on a superficial level creates an environment free from stress. There is a definite high resulting when an OCD or otherwise psychologically warped person is in the thick of an activity directly relating to their problem, and throwing everything you own out is pretty fucking good.
Emily told me that when she was in the first, admittedly violent throes of this spartan phase, her dad asked her if her bare room indicated that she was moving out. I don't like orchestrated minimalism, where there is one flower laid on a steel table, surrounded by mies van der rohe chairs or some phillipe starck shit. I like the kind of minimalism where everything is beat up, worn in, well loved, and with a great history behind it. The combination of old elements and the echoes of a near empty room reminds me of traveling or moving to a new house - change being something that terrifies me, it seems healthy to live with its trappings on a daily basis. Minimalism has also helped me overcome one of the more obvious expressions of my obsessive compulsive disorder, that being my unstoppable pack-rattiness. From the time I was a kid, I saved everything. Almost literally. Throwing things out that I only thought I needed has proved to be incredibly therapeutic.
Orchestrated minimalism, the kind you see in the apartments of Karl Lagerfeld et. al., also distinctly smacks of consumerism to me. It is the tasteful kind - better, i guess, than tacky nouveau riche stuff, but not by much. What is usually the case is that a maid comes in daily to keep the place looking for spotless. For me, the look is less important than the physical lack of things (oxymoron?). When your possessions are few and special, anything you throw together will be beautiful, as opposed to someone who collects crazy knicknacks and just sticks them all over the place with no personal connection whatsoever.
I guess this is why going to new houses always frieks me out. I can't deal with the Lladro angels, fake French toulouse lautrec posters and patisserie signs, ironwork purchased at Home Depot, plastic plants - stuff designed to look intimate and wonderful (and whose origins are definitely so) but that is actually cold, fake, mass-produced, and terrifying. The echo of tiles and space in McMansions doesn't signify transition to me, but rather an emptiness that may never be filled.
But yeah, I hate mindlessness anywhere, and i'm sure it exists in NYC, london, tokyo, africa, the south, Latin America, and everywhere.
things to think about.
Monday, February 23, 2009
funny boys
I don't do the video post thing, but this... this is too good.
I love guys.
and this:
classic.
I love guys.
and this:
classic.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Word Patterns
More words that I have noticed people use without thinking:
- perfunctory - in regards to an essay, school assignment, etc. You rarely hear someone say, for example, "That was such a perfunctory kiss"
more to come, i always forget to write these down when I hear them. Fortunately (or unfortunately I guess, its incredible to me how easily we allow ourselves to grind into routines so that even our language is rote) (not the correct use of that word) I am sure to hear some in the future.
- perfunctory - in regards to an essay, school assignment, etc. You rarely hear someone say, for example, "That was such a perfunctory kiss"
more to come, i always forget to write these down when I hear them. Fortunately (or unfortunately I guess, its incredible to me how easily we allow ourselves to grind into routines so that even our language is rote) (not the correct use of that word) I am sure to hear some in the future.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Fashion
I hate fashion, because it promotes the idea that clothes and accessories (extensions of your personality) can become obsolete due to the judgement of others and therefore should be purchased and disposed of rapidly (a state of mind which soon imprints itself onto your personality, your way of life, your views on the world, etc.)
The fact that almost all of the clothes, bags, shoes, socks, bras, hats, bracelets, capelets, tank tops, vests, slouchy scarves, sunglasses, sneakers, and every wearable item is produced in a foreign country, where wages are lower, in order to suppress prices, is really sad.
That means companies deprive U.S. workers of good jobs and exploit workers in other countries so that YOU can buy cheap clothes at Forever 21, the Gap, Nike, Converse, PacSun, Hollister, Hot Topic, Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie, Delia*s, etc. One of the reasons I was so excited about the Docs i got today was that they were made in England, before the company started outsourcing.
Everyone talks about eco fashion, sustainability, whatever.
Have you ever noticed how many companies will tell you that the best way to solve our ecological problems is to STOP BUYING PRODUCTS AS MUCH AS YOU CAN?
You will NEVER hear this. Of course not - because then their system would collapse, and we'd all live more frugally, more conscientiously, more intelligently, and probably more happily, with LESS.
Instead of rushing out to replace your old linens with organic cotton towels; instead of getting some random useless thing made in Africa somewhere; instead of getting a teeshirt that says "Reuse, reduce, recycle," consider keeping your old towels, donating money to UNICEF or some other cause, or making a teeshirt that broadcasts your beliefs from materials you already own.
Have you ever gone shopping and gotten high off the rush of buying - for some intangible reason? I used to have thoughts lifted from magazine copy - "I'm going to live my life in these clothes!"; " "This scarf will help me capture the essence of a moroccan souk crossed with a parisian prostitute!"; "Maybe this will cheer me up?!"
In reality, you will live your life in any clothes you happen to be wearing, regardless of their appearance. True adventure is not motivated by skinny jeans, or fake glasses, or whatever happens to be cool at the moment.
Fashion is a language spoken by the privileged, the rich, the young; the majority of the world, including your future boss, will probably not care that the stripes on your shoes are "nautical". They will be much more interested in what you have to say and do. Don't count on apparel to speak for you or communicate your message.
And, to be honest, material things are never going to make you happy. They are amusing, but then you get sick of them because you know how quickly you will discard them - maybe in three months - once you get sick of them?
Think when you go on a shopping spree. Unfortunately, I don't really enjoy it any more, because i see U.S. economic imperialism, poor families working hard, and a pretty messed up system that could be greatly alleviated if the buying populace could cut its irresponsible spending.
We expect it from our government - we should practice it ourselves.
The fact that almost all of the clothes, bags, shoes, socks, bras, hats, bracelets, capelets, tank tops, vests, slouchy scarves, sunglasses, sneakers, and every wearable item is produced in a foreign country, where wages are lower, in order to suppress prices, is really sad.
That means companies deprive U.S. workers of good jobs and exploit workers in other countries so that YOU can buy cheap clothes at Forever 21, the Gap, Nike, Converse, PacSun, Hollister, Hot Topic, Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie, Delia*s, etc. One of the reasons I was so excited about the Docs i got today was that they were made in England, before the company started outsourcing.
Everyone talks about eco fashion, sustainability, whatever.
Have you ever noticed how many companies will tell you that the best way to solve our ecological problems is to STOP BUYING PRODUCTS AS MUCH AS YOU CAN?
You will NEVER hear this. Of course not - because then their system would collapse, and we'd all live more frugally, more conscientiously, more intelligently, and probably more happily, with LESS.
Instead of rushing out to replace your old linens with organic cotton towels; instead of getting some random useless thing made in Africa somewhere; instead of getting a teeshirt that says "Reuse, reduce, recycle," consider keeping your old towels, donating money to UNICEF or some other cause, or making a teeshirt that broadcasts your beliefs from materials you already own.
Have you ever gone shopping and gotten high off the rush of buying - for some intangible reason? I used to have thoughts lifted from magazine copy - "I'm going to live my life in these clothes!"; " "This scarf will help me capture the essence of a moroccan souk crossed with a parisian prostitute!"; "Maybe this will cheer me up?!"
In reality, you will live your life in any clothes you happen to be wearing, regardless of their appearance. True adventure is not motivated by skinny jeans, or fake glasses, or whatever happens to be cool at the moment.
Fashion is a language spoken by the privileged, the rich, the young; the majority of the world, including your future boss, will probably not care that the stripes on your shoes are "nautical". They will be much more interested in what you have to say and do. Don't count on apparel to speak for you or communicate your message.
And, to be honest, material things are never going to make you happy. They are amusing, but then you get sick of them because you know how quickly you will discard them - maybe in three months - once you get sick of them?
Think when you go on a shopping spree. Unfortunately, I don't really enjoy it any more, because i see U.S. economic imperialism, poor families working hard, and a pretty messed up system that could be greatly alleviated if the buying populace could cut its irresponsible spending.
We expect it from our government - we should practice it ourselves.
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