Contemporary Sweatshirt Hell

Spending $110 on a plain gray sweatshirt is so crazy that this post should probably just be an Affluenza entry, but I've found myself falling in love with the look and the very IDEA of this Buzz Rickson set-in sleeve four-needle sweatshirt:

http://historypreservation.com/hpassociates/detailpop.php?uniqnum=176

I'm dead serious when I say that the copywriter of this ad is a straight-up genius who knows exactly what buttons to push in a person who is susceptible to being convinced of dropping a C-note on a sweatshirt. Not only does he know how important authenticity is to us--eighty year old looms! identical down to the label!--but he also speaks directly to the root of our sickness with lines like this:

"A Buzz Rickson's sweatshirt is for real men, not hip-hop kids or those with a build they want to hide. Take a bite of old-time machismo and see how true sweatshirts used to look and feel."

Oh god, yes! Yes! I CAN'T AFFORD *NOT* TO SPEND A HUNDRED DOLLARS ON THIS SWEATSHIRT!!!

Affluenza: March 12

When I first saw "Campfire by Klein/Reid" pop up in my RSS reader, I was excited, sure that we'd have a new entry for An Open Flame Is A New Bowl Of Rocks.

Sadly, this doesn't feature an open flame, but nevertheless it's still mindblowingly stupid:

http://www.unicahome.com/p34601/klein-reid/campfire-by-klein-reid.html

Okay, remember a few months ago, when I was talking about "organic minimalism," where rocks and twigs are used as decorating motifs? Klein/Reid just took it to a whole 'nother level: now you can decorate your home in overpriced and meticulous CERAMIC REPRODUCTIONS of rocks and twigs.

Bravo, Klein/Reid...you truly have transcended the dominant paradigm.

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More fake wood:

http://www.moderndose.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_38&products_id=227

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Now this is more like it. It's A Log You Idiots, part of a continuing series:

http://www.teori.co.jp/tdw/collection/index15.html

From the same company, I looove these bowls:

http://www.teori.co.jp/tdw/collection/index03.html

Imagine how great they would look filled with Boo Berry and chocolate milk...

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Ornamental Drain Catchers:

http://www.theornamentedlife.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=34

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Double-walled bottle by Roman Gauthrot:

http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Double-Walled%20Bottle_10451_10001_47071_-1_11451_11628_null__8J102

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Marimekko's spring 2008 pattern collection was just released:

http://www.marimekko.fi/ENG/interior/fabric/etusivu/frontpage.htm

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Remember a couple weeks ago when I featured those weird candles that were in the shape of a classical statue and oh yeah also eight hundred dollars?

Here's the crayon version. For some reason.

http://www.helihietala.com/evari.htm

So are neo-classical statues a new trend? I suppose we'll see, but how tacky if it's true. Guess I'll break out my Beethoven bust and put a pair of Ray-Bans on it. That always KILLS.

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All the design blogs have been going ape over this plastic moon you hang on your wall, but can I remind everyone that it's basically one tiny step above putting glow in the dark stars on your dorm room ceiling?

http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1208005

How hard would it have been to put a digital clock on the back so that it automatically knows what phase the moon is in?

"Shines just like the real thing." Oh really, Resto? It reflects the light of of the sun?

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Another thing the design blogs have featured prominently this week is this stamp, and I don't get it:

http://www.raredevice.net/item.php?item_id=608

At first I thought it was a pretty hilarious dis, like you'd use that stamp when someone was being inappropriately TMI with you. Like if someone sent you a letter all about their relationship troubles, you could just hit it with the stamp and send it back to them. Pwned!

But I don't guess that's what this actually is. Maybe it's supposed to be used on thank you cards, but who says "thank you for sharing" after they get a gift? The wording is awkward.

Or maybe it really IS for when someone shares some personal information with you, and you want to thank them for that. But is a rubber stamp the way to go about it? And wouldn't the recipient assume you were being a sarcastic asshole?

So I ask you, readers: what is the point of this thing?

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Aruga, by R-evolution:

http://www.fromeurope.org/tips.php?cis=1525

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The Endless Nile table by Karim Rashid:

http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2008/03/05/infinite-loop-of-style/

Also from Karim Rashid, the self-watering planter:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzz/Self-Watering_Planter

Trivia: Sportscaster-turned-designer Karim Rashid is the ex-husband of Phylicia Rashid, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

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"Fornello a gas mobile Glas Gib Gas"

http://www.youngdesigner.it/trentino-alto-adige/fornello-a-gas-mobile-%E2%80%9Cglas-gib-gas%E2%80%9D/

(Uh, I think it's a single-burner cooker.)

Haul Out the Old Cliches, It's Time to Shoot an Author Photo

This article, about why author photos are always bad, is fifteen years old now, but still just as true and enormously entertaining:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEEDD1F38F931A25751C1A965958260

Exposed To D&D Early In Life

A charticle!

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/03/09/opinion/09opart2.ready.html

(Note that the 'no' answer basically has you inseminating the 'egg' in the center of the diagram. Clever!)

The Life And Death Of An Urban Recluse

"One quiet day the weight of the collected mail and newspapers pushed open the inner door and the papers slithered down and spread out across the hall floor. There was now space for more."

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Life+and+death+of+an+urban+recluse/1135234722129

David Simon on blogs

David Simon, creator of The Wire, on criticism that this season's focus on journalism didn't mention the effect of blogs:

"If you're saying that there needed to be scenes of the Internet interacting with journalism and bringing down journalism, I will now write you a scene: Interior, garden apartment anywhere. A white male, mid-30s, sits at a laptop computer in his underwear, linking to a Baltimore Sun story. He then scratches his left testicle until satisfied and continues to type commentary about that story onto his blog. Cut to drug corner, and on to the next scene."

Security Patterns

An "on-going project to collect and organize envelope security patterns from around the world":

http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephking/sets/72157594547931731

The Salinger Of Indie Rock (their title, not mine)

"At the end of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea's final song, you can hear Jeff Mangum—Neutral Milk Hotel's singer, songwriter, and all-around mastermind—set down his guitar and walk off. And that's exactly what he did":

http://www.slate.com/id/2185219

"What if Mangum is just being honest? What if he poured his life into achieving musical success only to discover that it wasn't going to make him happy, so he elected to make a clean break and move on?"

La Géode

La Géode is one of the largest geodesic domes in the world, measuring almost thirty-four feet in diameter. Created in 1983 by Adrien Fainsilber, a French architect, it was built two years later by engineer Gérard Chamaillou. La Géode sits in the Parc de la Villette, just behind the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, and houses a 1000-square-meter hemispheric IMAX screen and the world's only 12:1 sound system.

Pretty boring, huh? Oh, hey...did I mention that La Géode is CHROME-PLATED!?

http://flickr.com/photos/cyber_chof/1246303241/sizes/l/

http://flickr.com/photos/cyber_chof/1309443039/sizes/o/

http://flickr.com/photos/ranopamas/537615905/sizes/l/

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:La_G%C3%A9ode

Sense And Sensibility

This is the thread where I'll be posting notes as I read Sense And Sensibility. Here's the permanent address of this post:

http://babyruthless.blogspot.com/2008/03/sense-and-sensibility.html

As before, you can either bookmark it or subscribe to the post's RSS feed. If you'd like to read along and join the discussion, you'll find the reading schedule I'll be following in the first comment of this thread.