provenance

The greatest thing about antique shops: entering absolutely sacred space. But they always seem to have creaky-crisp floorboards and I always seem to be wearing heels. Bull in china shop!

But it's so sweet: things that used to be common, used to be cheap, but now - provenance!

Frequent visits to Northampton Antiques lately. They have several shoe boxes of old/used postcards. I love the ones which have been sent - the best sort of voyeurism.

Dear Ma,
Got here alright and am having a fine time. I am not homesick because Raymond makes me laugh. I like it here. Louise was surprised to see me.
Your daughter,
Jess
- NYC to Belchertown, MA, March 20, 1912
St. Patrick's Cathedral

Dear Gladys,
This card came from Venice in Italy, don't you think it pretty? Received Mama's letter yesterday and will write at once.
Kiss Norman for me.
Love IS (?) all,
Aunt May
- Medford, MA to West Medford, MA, November 18, 1906
Chiesa della Salute

Ah this handwriting is so lovely! And where did she get that incredibly fine-tipped pen?!

I looked up the distance between Medford and West Medford: 2 miles/4 minutes. Could seem laughable, but it's so endearing! Aunt May knows what's up - always snail mail your friends/family and thank you letters.

librophilia

I'm completely in awe of these places!

Hereford Cathedral Chained Library, Hereford, England

Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

The Long Room, Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland

next big project: hidden desk

How can someone like pink so much?!
So impressed by all the hooks and compartments and crazy organization mmm. If I ever built a similar hidden desk, I'm pretty sure I would just stand there staring at it. Wouldn't you be distracted from work by your cute, space-saving little desk?!

Also, How to Build a Hidden Door Bookshelf at wikiHow!

From Martha Martha

Speaking of chairs

Want this!

Chairs: A History, by Florence de Dampierre

Ol' Arne

This time next year, I am going to be very close to Arne Jacobsen's chairs. Bet you can't figure out how (I'm aware of the fact that I can't pull off mysterious)!

Swan Chair

Egg Chair

(Am I trashy for LOVING the cowhide?)

Series 7

Inspired by design couple Charles and Ray Eames' bent plywood chairs.

Ant Chair

For Sherbu, our possibly late 25-pound feline friend

The majority of the sheep on the left are gazing at something/someone to their (definitely "their" because they are so freakishly collective and One) right, but the sheep closer to the foreground turn their attentions toward the photographer. This one in the very front... eerily human-looking face. A pose that is very confrontational and the only sheep with a fully depicted shadow.

If only this image included birch trees and more prominent mountains, it would really be A Wild Sheep Chase.

My apologies to Tim if I gave you a fright - guess I forgot to sign it

:)

On top of a wonderful day...

... the speaker at Graduation 2010: RACHEL MADDOW!!!!



She's from the Bay Area and is local to Western Massachusetts. Pretty sure we're meant to be great friends.

In any case, I'm pretty excited to witness the uproar from the few FOXNews viewers here HAHAHAHAHA

Catching the Drift; Liquid Origins, Fluid Dreams

I recently started doing bits of research for the Smith College Museum of Art. My upcoming project is on the two artist designed restrooms on the lower level of the Museum. SO EXCITED



Ranked 5th best bathrooms in the States!

____________

Got the day off. Birthday brunch with sweet babies, lots of coffee, $30 lace Valentino skirt... MMMMM!!

utz utz utz utz

Jørn Utzon, in 1967, on the Sydney Opera House:

"[F]inally I found a solution by deriving the forms from the surface of a sphere. The photographs of the sphere model show how I can evolve the surface of the shells from the sphere and systematically construct all the roof elements. One can recognize the silhouette in the entrance shell, the shell over the stage tower and the two shells over the auditoriums – this implies that these shells harmonize with each other, they are derived from the same sphere, are sections of the same spherical surface and have the same radius. When they are spatially constructed, we thus know that they will intersect each other according to certain laws."
- Kim Dirckinck-Holmfield. Utzon and the New Tradition. Copenhagen: The Danish Architectural Press, 2005. 78

After numerous designs, Utzon came up with the universal curvature in the swells. If I hadn't known that they were all derived of the surface of a sphere, I certainly wouldn't have guessed it.

This is so elegant! (Before computers, before AutoCAD.)

My professor (who's from Sydney) was wondering what it's like to grow up in Bilbao. Very early on, we're made aware of the possibilities of architecture and design. Accustomed to witnessing built marvels or dominating styles. This is probably why every San Franciscan I know will always adore Victorian facades. It's ingrained!

kahve

There's a Russian grocery store near my internship AND THEY STOCK TURKISH COFFEE (and dark Turkish coffee, if you can fathom)!!

Tonight is a paper night and I'm going a little crazy with espresso bean chocolate and lots of tea. I don't have a cezve, but nor do I have a demitasse. This is okay. Cute cups in profusion in our room, duh.

Mmmmmmmmmm LOVE IT. LOVE IT!

Over the course of this day, I have seen this girl everywhere. She's tiny and dressed like a fluorescent clown or an otherwise eccentric old woman (you know, who has shakily applied black eyeliner, two perfect circles of rouge, coral lips, and an orange fur coat).

The thing is though, she's not following me - it seems that I'm the one stalking her. She always gets there first:
Walked past her sitting by herself at a table during brunch.
Printed articles after her in the art library.
Queued up behind her to get butternut bisque at dinner.
Finally, I'm in the science library. After ascending the steps and rounding the corner, out of all the rows and rows of stacks, she was already at the end of the aisle I've chosen to walk down, crouching over in a high chair. She hears (knows?!) me coming. Still hunched, she swivels around to confront me.

Surreal. Is she magic? Some reincarnated parrot? At all real, or just imagined?

I am going to have nightmares tonight!


Image: embroidery on photo by Maurizio Anzeri
via Le Zèbre bleu, one of my favorite blogs!
See more of Maurizio Anzeri's work on Trendland

Donald J. Pliner in Esquire

The Donald J. Pliner advertisement on p. 22 of the February Esquire:

At first glance - what does this image have to do with men's shoes?

We know that advertisements are very posed, very edited - pure intention. Notice the girl's little bubble skirt that's been lifted and pushed back. Why do we see the shadow where her inner thighs nearly touch? The suggestion in the shadow is probably more tantalizing than a peak of fabric. I'm wondering how much she's been airbrushed, because her legs look oddly prosthetic or otherwise marmoreal. And why should someone who looks to be seven have her nonexistent waist accentuated with a hot pink belt? The top of her dress is so oversized and stiff on her chest that it rises to meet her chin. An illusion of breasts? The worst part: her bottom is nestled into Donald Pliner's crotch. His legs parted and dangling. Her weak strap falling.

Put her in some fucking cords and silly broad horizontal stripes. What happened to children dressed like happy little elves? Photographer - at least sit her on the chair of the arm. If you want to depict a family man, find some more children to plant into your image.

I hate the crook in his eyebrows, the controlled hair, the suspicious lack of wrinkles on the glabrous gleam of his face. His ornate neck and wrist only look tawdry. Come on, sunglasses indoors? Thin lips, dark eyes. He has a filthy, furtive look about him. Certainly not paternal, grandfatherly, or remotely philoprogenitive. Louche!

Aw man - what if this child is actually related to Donald J. Pliner.

I've never been so immediately repulsed by an advertisement. I know I'm not making too much out of it - there are simply too many indications. What do you think?

He should return to ads with fluffy dogs, yes?

And in the same issue of Esquire, a misleading article on the Supreme Court.

How I wish Domino were still around to bolster non-news/image-filled magazines!

This changes everything!

Things I didn't know but am very happy to know

1.

IKEA lowered their prices. Mmm cheap, short-lived, birch goods!

2.

Henry-Russell Hitchcock, one of the most distinguished architectural historians of all time and the scholar who defined the International Style, taught at Smith for a long time and was the Museum's director from 1949-55?!

I had no idea - even after writing a paper on his 1932 exhibition at the MOMA. I think I need to improve my research skills a bit?

Really wish he had not died and still taught here. Some people deserve a little Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone :)

__

Actually, those are the only two notable things from today that excite me and might excite you. HAHAHAH
But I'll say! - they're pretty major and I'm still reeling from hugemongo Item 2.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So happy! And if tomorrow is a snow day and this paper isn't due... Ahh!! Yes!!

At 75, SFMOMA has doubled its endowment in the last several months. Ambitious expansion. Looking for an architect/design. Yes, SF!

do it yoself: petal cushion

I loved this in a very old Anthro catalog. Clipped it out and kept it in the back of my planner for the longest time. They had a pair at ABC Home back in November, but it was incredibly dirty.

I think the felted woodland scene around the base would work best in a child's room (ELLA!!), so I made a version of the stool with just the seat:


Template, trace, cut, sew. Half an hour :)

Next to the Tibetan-print pillow I took from my aunt's house, it's apparent that we're starting to like red in Room 207:


One of the things Lillian and I plan on selling on Etsy in red and other colors... when it happens...

this summer...

...I'm going to be working in NYC! Ahh!!
Time to suck it up and endure an unfamiliar season.