Design, life & music

I didn't really know this about myself, but I was in a design mode before I actually did it for a living. The Bizarre Love Triangle and the arrow (pointing to love) tell me I was problem solving and communicating. Oh, and the music! I don't know what happened to this cassette but am so glad I saved the label. My most favorite of this compilation? KD Lang's cover of 'Black Coffee."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Gba61V2nQ

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Social media is what the information world is all about these days, but I watched something very basic, and very comforting today, that reminded me of the power of real human connection.

My living room has a picture window and late in the afternoon I sat down for a brief break from chores to enjoy the view of the fading day. Across the street, a red truck pulled in to my neighbors' driveway. Everyone got out and the younger folks dropping off my older neighbors stayed to chat briefly. Conversation, hugs all around and the kids drove off.

What struck me was the connection and the communication: The wrapping up of the day in the driveway at the end of an obviously nice afternoon, the warm body language.

No Facebook or any kind of online connection will ever replace the social bonds of spending time with people you love and like. There is nothing nicer than spending a dinner hour or a long weekend, cooking, eating, talking, walking with the people who occupy your heart.

So, I had coffee with a good friend this morning and wandered about the little mall we met at after. There is an Anthropologie store there, which I love to wander in just for the design. How cool is it to use embroidery circles as a design feature? Pretty darn. The picture is of a dress with a scarf. That I would have loved to have bought. Perhaps after Christmas!

Wednesday Whimsy, 10/13

(Experimenting with a new name. Stay tuned.)

As we are based in Pittsburgh, and just to get it out of the way, general congratulations on the 50th anniversary of the Pirates beating the Yanks in the World Series.

(Crickets chirping).

OK then.

A couple design points for discussion.
Point 1. An underappreciated, or more realistically, not-appreciated, form of design, metallurgy, in the function of the manhole cover and other doors to the underworld. The name East Jordan Ironworks is on many such covers hereabouts. And many of them are, in addition to being so heavy, durable and constructed from valuable ores and metals/ores as to be worth stealing, very cool looking.
One is above, I love how the water has oxidized the metal differently between different thunderbolts of the lid.

Point 2. When form rules all. My friend and colleague James Hilston and his bride, Amy Chapman recently visited New York City and splurged at Rice to Riches. Whereat customers shell out for rice pudding in lovely, beautiful plastic bowl and utensil sets. Which are, when empty of rice pudding, thrown out. Why? Why? Why? Especially with all the love given to the vessels on the company's Web site. And those colors! Is there any combo better than green, brown and red? Not for my money. (OK, lavender, green and tan are up there, too.)

Last word: Rice to riches has a nice sales design concept. But their sustainability, unless, I am missing something, is nil. Therefore, as pretty as their company, business model and packaging are, if that pretty packaging gets tossed after one use, RtR gets a totally failing grade.

Last last word: Sirius in the western sky early this a.m. Beautiful planet in a silent morning.

Shake Up at La VieC!

I’m sitting in my living room, thunder rolling outside in a very rainy dusk. Power is out, but the laptop has a full battery. Still daylight-ish, and I am wishing it was a Saturday or Sunday morning (as it was not when this was written) so I could be snuggling under the bedcovers and drowsing to the symphony of thunder and rain. Another wish: I wish I had another good day for every day that I wished time away.

(Warning! Another paragraph beginning with “I” to follow.)

I have been mentally constructing a new direction for this blog. I do fairly well, usually, writing off the cuff, but off the cuff has no structure. So, new direction means “topics,” as the Mackenzie Brothers of Second City TV called them. Structure means schedule and so I will address each of these topics in a Sunday and Wednesday posting schedule. Posting every day, I have come to realize is unrealistic and exhausting.

This list will be edited down for expediency, but as of now, here are the subjects I want to cover:
*Art and Design
*Birds and Dogs (birds, with help from family, dogs, mostly mine)
*Family and Girlfriends.
*Pittsburgh (My Mom was born here!)
And the occasional piece of whimsy, craziness and/or sarcastic humor. That last will be a challenge. I (think I) have become a more compassionate/less critical person thanks to therapy but I hope I have not lost my very precious prickliness (VPP).

Shall I call it Katy And? No, there will be no voting on the name. None of this community crap. I will decide, you will read.

Love and air kisses.

Kate