My Open Tabs
November 20, 2012 § 1 Comment
1. I hope I’m strong enough to kill wolves when I’m 56. via Gawker
2. I loved reading this piece in The Atlantic. Menschen is the only word that comes to mind, and I’m left feeling all swoontown and righteously fired-up (“Yeah! Right on! Good Dads! No more Dads-as-controllers-of-women-and-children, but Dads-as-equal-partners-and-parents!”).
3. “Before long, a clenched jaw is all she has left”: and The Atlantic on my on-screen girlfriend’s new movie.
4. Carson Ellis has a beautiful new exhibition, Mush, Mush, the Sloping Midnight Line that draws some of its themes and images from one of my favorite books, Kristin Lavransdatter. I wish I lived in Portland & could go see it!
illustration © Carson Ellis
5. All my thinking about wool has been drawing me sideways, into a parallel fiber obsession –I’m dangerously close to going through a linen phase. It seems like wool’s warm-weather / underlayer analog– environmentally friendlier than cotton, more old-fashioned, can be (and is) handspun (although why would you want to?), allows me to believe I’m living in a fantasy novel set both in Classical Antiquity & Northern Europe, and, um, all-around a superior fiber.
Given the recent launch of Shop Fog Linen–it’s not available only in Japan anymore!–I have a feeling that this phase might get expensive (Just Kidding but only because I am the most fiscally circumspect person I know, except for Zac and my parents). But, some thoughts:
- They source their linen in Lithuania.
- Every product is simple and gorgeous.
- I’m in the tablecloth market because it’s nearly Thanksgiving and we’re having a party!
- They sell their remnants at not-unreasonable prices, which is just about as charming as being able to buy cheap offal at the butcher counter (ie, TOP-OF-THE-CHARTS CHARMING). They get it!
- Think I’m going to go downstairs, measure my table, and then buy a tablecloth. (and, sad note: my table was too long.)
- Maybe these breakfast trays?
both photos © Fog Linen
6. If I ever do something very worthy (like, maybe not the full-on megala kai lampra, but maybe some sort of advanced degree?) I will buy myself one of these, never wear it in public, but put it on every morning, look in the mirror and say, “You are perfect and a goddamn genius,” then sit down to work but forget I have it on and wear it out to, like, the post office or somewhere.
Thus I will begin to make my reputation as an eccentric. via Miss Moss
photos © Pomp & Plumage
7. This post on the fighting in Israel and Gaza is acetic, ascetic, and eloquent, and goes unusually radical (Christian? not certain?) places (“Why isn’t all violence illegitimate by default? Why isn’t all life sacred, by definition?”) with a bitterly felt exhaustion. The link at the end is the most savagely I’ve felt the knife twist in a long while.
And then I saw the photos of Israeli children signing bombs (“with love from Israel”) and, the rottenness, does it end?
8. For some right-here-at-home bitterness, no need to look any further than the Times:
As she gave out diapers and cases of infant formula to storm victims, Bethany Yarrow, 41, a folk singer from Williamsburg who has been volunteering with other parents from the private school her children attend, said she was shocked by the many poor mothers in the Arverne section of the Rockaways who did not breast feed. The group, she said, was working on bringing in a lactation consultant.
That sort of response has rankled Nicole Rivera, 47, who lives in a project in Arverne, where the ocean sand still swirls up the street with every passing vehicle. “It’s sad, sometimes it’s a little degrading,”
…
“Why wait for tragedy?” she added. “People suffer every day with this.”
A woman standing in front of her in line interjected. “To be honest, I pray to God I never see these people again,” the woman said. “The only reason these people would be out here again for us is if something like this happens again, or worse.”
8. Some more horrible: trying to make fracking worth it up in Pennsylvania’s lovely mountains. Two summers ago, I was graciously hosted on a farm up in Trout Run while I was stranded for a a week–neighbors of the organic farmers interviewed in the article. I’m sickened. I’m worried for my own home. At least Matt Damon’s making a movie about it?
9. Polishing shoes IS MY JAM (seriously, that is what I did on Saturday night, among other things, like studying for the MCAT. and quilting). Although, cripes, just buy some Kiwi at some endcap at the Food Lion, no need to be too fancy about it.
Actually, no, I take that back. Be as fancy as you damn well please, and I will congratulate and celebrate you.
© Need Supply
I mean, look at that woman. Look at her shoes! Fancy as all-get-out.
10. To end on a happier note, this is such a wonderful game to play (although don’t click too far back in the results, or it gets insulting, and worse). Thanks to my friend Elizabeth for tweeting about it.
I LOVE Kristin Lavransdatter, too, so I was excited to click through and see images (found a gallery, too) from that exhibit. I was surprised how dark and scary they were. I know the story isn’t all sunshine and roses, but I didn’t find it creepy and scary, really.