Jack's Guide (the Renaissance Person's Guide to Survival in a Shaky Economy)

Take my advice......

To complete the title of today's post: "Take my advice- I'm certainly not using it."  That would be my advice about having a semblance of a routine, and sticking to it.  And today, having let myself sleep in, I missed attending my regular Saturday morning assemblage of like-minded guys.  That's faux-pas number one.  Number two is the fact that I have not posted here for several days, a shortcoming which I vowed to myself to not succumb to.  We do what we can.  I trust everyone (including myself) will get over it.  My reason for this delinquency: I have work!  And I'm talking paying work!  It appears I will be occupied for most, if not all, of the summer working on an airport wayfinding project, and, as often happens, the primary architects on the job have neglected this aspect of the project until the last minute.  This usually results in a mad flurry of activity on the part of me and my client, and brings to mind another aphorism:  "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."  Unfortunately, this rarely proves true. 

So forgive my absence, whilst I take the easy way out and fill up this space with a couple of creative design links, as is not an unusual (and expedient) thing for me to do.

For those aficionados of urban living, you may enjoy this Broadway (as in NYC) penthouse, by architect Joel Sanders:

I like design with a sense of humor.  Like this coat check chair.

Yes, those are coat hangers. 

The Worst that Could Happen

I have a foible that I am resigned to live with, and need to confess.  I know without checking that I am not the only one afflicted with this defect.  I regularly attend gatherings of a kind of loosely but effectively organized support group/asylum/spiritual retreat, where many of the attendees share this shortcoming.  In fact, the general idea behind the group is to help each other learn to live with such character flaws, and to rise above them.  Everyone has heard the adage about pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps, and the metaphor kinda applies, in more of a group sense. (Except that this goal is attainable, unlike the physical act the saying refers to, which is, if you stop and think about it, physically impossible.)

Enough prologue, already. (If you haven't figured it out already, I like my syntax slightly tortured, and drawn out.  Why say in three words what you can inflate to forty-two?  I mean, it's not like I'm being paid to be brief.  Come to think of it, I'm not being paid at all, so I'll write what I jolly well like.  How's that for stretching a point?)  No, gross verbosity is not the problem to which I refer.  It is, rather, my tendency to find, without any effort at all, the worst possible outcome to whatever life situation I find myself in.  I don't tend to dwell on these invented outcomes, but their shadows constantly haunt my outlook. Despite the fact that I act like a confidently positive person, I keep in my secret heart the expectation that I will be out of money, friendless, living under a bridge and waiting for an unlabeled terminal illness to claim me. Plus I'm running through molasses and can't find where I parked my car.

When I find myself in the grip of this monster, about the only thing I have to resort to is this little bit of logic:  What's the worst thing that could happen to me?  Death?  If and when that happens, I'll have nothing further to worry about, right?  I'll either be facing sublime nothingness (which I sought with a vengeance during past years of hedonistic abandon), or I'll transmogrify to that "better place" that no one yet has a clue about.  In the meantime, I practice acting "as if". See earlier posts for additional details on this mystical procedure, which boils down to this: if I act "as if" I am a happy person, and continue this odd behavior on a regular basis, sooner or later I will actually be a happy person.  Hence, if I act as if I am fearless and have faith that all will be okay......, well, I'd imagine you can take it from here.  Anyway, take my word for it, this is like magic.  And, like prestidigitation, the results are quite unbelievable.

I love wood, and am an enthusiast of things made from it.  I found this little compendium of wooden things on the blog/website dezeen.  (Do look further into the burnt-log stools . . . . very clever.)

(if you too are a wood freak, and find this interesting, you should check out my sister and bro-in-law's website)

Design highlights

As I'm caught up trying to finish out my rental space, time has been at a premium.  Thus, I have missed a couple days postings, and am essentially borrowing today from several other sites.  Here are a few nice design examples from a site on my blog reader.

Exhibit design for the Exhale pavilion, Miami:

The Exhale pavilion is a dynamic, interactive environment in which evening programs such as performance art, video and DJ dance programs will occur. The site of the installation is 25,000 square feet and consists of seven miles of hanging illuminated ropes that sway with the lovely Miami breeze.

Read more: http://design-milk.com/exhale-pavilion-by-phu-hoang-office-and-rachely-rotem-studio/#ixzz17L3mnJtz

 

Chapel of the Carmelites of the Assumption, Paris, France:

John Doe, the design studio created by Grégory Lacoua and Jean Sébastien Lagrange, has designed the new decor for the Chapel of the Carmelites of the Assumption in Paris, France.

And finally, from Capellini and Disney, the TRON armchair.  I don't know if I could sit for long in it, and without actually putting my butt in it, I have no idea how comfortable it is, but it looks cool......

Thanks to Design Milk for the items to post.

 

Homecoming, IKEA cookbook, funky furniture

One of the problems with leaving home for any significant period of time, regardless of how homesick one might become, is that one usually suffers more than expected on the return to the reality of everyday existence.  I arrived home yesterday from a quite enjoyable week of visiting, work solicitation, family/historical research, foliage ogling, and assessing relocation options.  It sounds like a lot to cram into a mere week's time, and I suppose it was, as the time seemed to pass quickly, and I found myself quite ready to get back to my digs in Atlanta.  The suffering part of my return began when I walked in the door, having forgotten the refuse and havoc left from the yard sale of a few weeks ago, that I hadn't yet dealt with.  Then there's the impending matter of my rental unit (being vacated this weekend by my tenant of five years or so) and having to exact repairs and upgrades quickly, in order to get a satisfactory new renter as soon as possible.  There was a message regarding one of my job possibilities; the potential client has decided that they aren't yet ready to get a consultant (me) involved.  And the coup de gras- my Jeep locked itself in "Park" in the parking lot of the local Kroger, refusing to budge.  The good news?  It didn't do it in Ruth, NC, or Spartanburg, SC, or some other place equally as grim and/or inaccessible.  Oh, yeah, and my gas was turned off while I was away- not my fault; they were working on the gas lines during my absence.  I sit here writing as I wait for the water to get hot again, so I can wash away the stress.  I actually gave myself a couple of hours to freak and fret, then took my own advice (as I have loudly espoused in this blog), and got into action.  The yard sale stuff is at least partly stowed, I've answered several calls from interested potential renters, the gas is back on, the car has been towed to a garage, and I'm addressing yet another work proposal.  And I'm posting to my blog, secure in the feeling that doom is not descending on my head- all will be well, and my so-called "problems" are of the highest quality.  As I have previously claimed, if I act "as if" everything is okay, it probably will be.  Worst case scenario? I may have to alter some previously laid plans, rearrange my schedule and/or immediate priorities, and get on with life.

I have to admit to being a fan of IKEA, the oft-dissed Swedish outfit that offers affordable, assemble-it-yourself home furnishings and accessories.  I find their designs clean, utilitarian, and (usually) easy on the eyes.  When I saw they had published a cookbook, I was immediately interested.  It's called Homemade is Best, and I'm wondering if they manage to communicate the baking process in the same fashion that they use diagrams and illustrations to tell us how to assemble the furniture. Here's a preview and a link (first is the cover, then a picture of ingredients for a recipe and a final photo of the result):

   

Homemade is Best

Speaking of furniture, I found this skeletal design for a table, which I thought was pretty cool.  I don't know if I could live with it, for fear that come nighttime it might centipede itself over to me and suck my vital fluids, but it certainly caught my eye.  Designed by Martin Gallagher (link below):

Martin Gallagher

Odds & Ends-

Interesting use of a new (to creative applications, as far as I know) material, concrete reinforcing cloth:

link to concrete cloth   and to the article on DesignMilk

Other gearheads might be interested in this- "Bicycles and Tricycles; an elementary treatise on their design and construction":

and a link to see more

Is that odd enough for ya?

Furniture Design

When I was a kid, I used to love to go and visit our cousins- the ones who lived but a half hour away. (The other cousins weren't as accessible, location-wise, but we were closer in other ways.)  My uncle, my mom's brother, was a physician, and the only close relative whom, as kids with our limited understanding, we considered to exist above the middle-class standard of living which the rest of his siblings had attained. They'd always had tennis courts, a swimming pool, vineyards and horses, and whenever we went there, it was a bit like calling on royalty.  I never felt we were condescend to, I think primarily due to my aunt's warm and caring way.  I always got the feeling from the cousins, though, that they knew they were somehow better.  But we were always welcome, and I loved to visit.  Those gatherings had much to do with my ultimate decision to become a designer.  

The house they lived in had been designed by the Dean of the School of Architecture I was later to attend. He was renowned as a student and apostle of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies Van der Rohe, and the house reflected the influence of both, combining Miesian simplicity with strong horizontal lines, spaces that wandered into each other, and furniture and fixtures designed as part of the whole. Some of the furnishings, beyond those built as part of the structure, inspired my early admiration, and included Mies' Barcelona chairs and Charles and Ray Eames' molded plywood chairs and lounge chairs.  I could never afford the "real thing" as manufactured by Herman Miller, but I did finally manage a couple of "knock-offs" that I was proud to have in my home.  I became a huge fan of these designers and so many more, and continue to be amazed at their productive output.  I still am discovering work that was done while I was still wet behind the ears.  I saw this amazing film years ago, and recently came across it on a design blog.  The writer was marveling that she had never seen it, and I was inspired to include a link to it here, in case anyone reading this blog has never seen it.  Even if you have seen it before, I hope you enjoy it again.  Just click on the link:

Powers of Ten

In addition to the film, I came across this carbon-fiber bench by designer Peter Donders:

 

Here's a link to the feature on Design Milk, and I have added a link to his website in the right-hand sidebar:

Peter Donders Carbon-fiber bench

Tomorrow is World Egg Day, established in 1996 in Vienna Austria in an attempt to raise awareness of eggs.  Strange, I wouldn't have thought there were that many people still unaware of the existence of eggs. Sad, ain't it?  It so happens that tomorrow is my brother's birthday, too, so Happy Birthday, bro!  Have an omlette.  You make 'em with these oblong white things....