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03 March 2012
Objects of desire What's yours?→[More:]Most of us have some kind of object that our attention can glom onto. Sometimes it's a short infatuation, sometimes a life long orientation.
For me currently it's:
- shoes. I was talking to some friends from my university days. And somehow the three of us came away with a predilection for expensive shoes. Either British or Italian. There's some class snobbery involved there I think.
- fountain pens. I don't write that much by hand. But somehow I'm captivated by very good Japanese fountain pens. I look at websites for an embarassingly long time and then possibly order one.
- gear. I got a DSLR camera to take pictures of my daughter. And have been resisting temptation to upgrade my lens. Gear is an especially dangerous category because marketeers create a an endless stairway of gear where the one you've got always has a deficiency that the more expensive one doesn't. That deficiency is a matter of perception of course partly instilled by marketing.
1. Manual typewriters. The design, the sounds, the no-electricity-required, I love them. I'm especially fond of 1950s and 1960s designs. My precious typewriter is an Olympia SM 3, made in West Germany around 1957, and easily the best thing I've ever found at the Goodwill store. I writer letters on it, and sometimes do a little journaling. I've also got a couple others that need a little work. Only the fact that manual typewriters are large and heavy keeps me from filling the house with them.
2. Radios. I'm reluctant to count how many, but I think I have at least a dozen, both new and vintage. My favorite is my Sony ICF-SW7600GR shortwave radio. I also have two radios that don't play radio signals but stream internet audio instead. Radio is so much better than tv. Although, thanks to the roku player, my tv is also a radio.
3. Books. I have many many, and I always want more. I have an embarrassing number of books I haven't read yet, but I'm not getting rid of them. I was so so happy recently to get a copy of this beloved art book from my childhood -- I must have checked that out of the library 20 times. Libraries and bookstores are my favorite places in the world. I think about getting a Kindle sometimes, and while I certainly see the appeal, I don't think I'll ever give up the wonderful hunter/gather-ness of physical books.
I like old cameras, especially the Voigtlander ones. Still hoping to get a Voiglander Superb with a Heliar lens. I have one with a Skopar lens, but really want that Heliar. The Superb is a mechanical marvel made in the 1930's: ≡ Click to see image ≡
I have plenty of others though, including some old folding cameras, and a couple of beautiful plate cameras. The green leather Bergheil with the Heliar lens is awesome. Then there are the Soviet era cameras, in particular the Zorki, which is a copy of a Leica. I have a Zorki 4, and Fed, and several lenses and finders to go with them. I have more lenses to get for them though. I do have a DSLR, but it's a tool, and I'm not so enamored of it, so I'm not all concerned about gear beyond it's function, so I don't have much to go with it. 3 lenses and a flash. It doesn't do it for me like the old film cameras do.
One thing I'd love to have some day if I lived in a house large enough is an Eames chair and ottoman like this one:
Ha, eekacat, you should have a conversation with my 82 yr old father. He had a Zeiss-Ikon folding camera (6x9 cm negative), Rolleiflex (6x6 cm) and a Voigtländer 36 mm.
My most current one is a shiny metallic security briefcase, the kind Mcguffins in action movies are always in. I want to buy one and sulk around looking conspiratorial.
I also have a life long love of haversacks because they are indestructible.
I'd love to, jouke. My wife and I will be in the Netherlands in September most likely. We'll be pretty busy visiting family and being tourists, but who knows! (My parents grew up in Holland, and are of the same vintage as your parents, though my father has passed away. I'm sure I grew up with many similar stories as you did, though I grew up here in the USA.)
Books are always #1. The more escapism the better so I've settled on romances and fantasies as my poison of choice. And I especially love used paperback books. I also have a pile of unread ones that I have to read before I'll consider deposing of them. And going partially digital has helped with space issues but so not with the "number of unread books" one.
Crafts are #2. It started with cross-stitch, plastic canvas needlepoint and crocheting in elementary school, a bit of dabbling in other forms of needlepoint and tatting, and a serious focus on crochet and knitting in the past 7 or so years. Another area where a good purge is needed (as I haven't touched my cross-stitch supplies much since I got the cat in 2005) but I just can't.
Guitars. I'm not that great of a player, but having to play left-handed because of amputated fingers, the supply of instruments for me is very limited and mostly of the budget variety (read: crappy).
I have yet to find a source for a left-handed five-string banjo and that has been my lifelong grail. Because this instrument is asymmetrical, I cannot simply flip a right-handed version over and restring it.
≡ Click to see image ≡
My Grandfather's Retina II. It was my first serious camera and I used it for 3 or 4 years at the end of the '70's before getting my first SLR. The rangefinder sticks now. Still, I should run a roll of film through it just for nostalgia's sake.
In my "someday when I have the money and time" file: a vintage (70's-ish) Triumph Motorcycle. They make my knees melt. But I would absolutely need to learn how to work on bikes before I got one.
Right now? Bacon cheese fries!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 03 March | 10:11
This is why you should never ask a pregnant lady this question.;-)
As for me...
- I have it on the brain right now that I want a tea set: a teapot, sugar bowl, creamer, and cups that match, and also a tea tray to put them on. I've vowed once I get it I'll learn to make tea properly rather than the usual Canadian way of "throwing a tea bag in hot water". I'll serve tea and homemade biscuits to guests in retro gracious hostess-style and we'll sit by fire and sip.
- I too would love a fountain pen. I recently was very happy to find the one I bought when I was 14 or so, but it doesn't work that well anymore sadly.
- Silk stockings. The lace-topped "ho hose" kind.
- Peridot jewelry. My birthday is in August, and after about thirty-five years of hating my birthstone, I suddenly clued in to how good that spring green looks on me, and to how well it goes with my autumn palette wardrobe. And now I collect peridot jewelry. First I thought I'd just buy a basic set: earrings, a ring, and a necklace, but then I after I'd bought those pieces, I found myself still searching on Etsy for more pieces. At present I'm up to three necklaces, a ring, a pair of earrings, a brooch, and a bracelet... and I still want more.
- Also, jewelry in general. My jewelry collection has been wiped out twice by buglaries, and it seems to have triggered a reaction in me that I'm just going to buy as much jewelry as I want, to the point that I've got more than I have ever had. I just bought a Art Nouveau blister pearl ring.
- Books. I've got more than six bookcases full in my house, and I've always got a list of the books I want.
- Swans. I collect them, but I am picky about what I buy (most swan stuff is horribly tacky!) and I have a rule that each item must useful and have a suitable place in my home, so my collection has stayed small.
My list is old school, isn't it? My TV doesn't get any channels, I don't have an iPod or a cellphone, and my computer set up is an eight-year-old hard drive and a CRT monitor, and here I am scheming to get a tea set and silk stockings and a fountain pen.
- Blue Hill pottery. Rackliffe (their site is down at the moment) still produces similar pieces, but most of mine is older styles and colors from Rowantrees; my grandmother kept in around for second- or third-best and gave it to me when I moved out on my own. I've collected lots more pieces since and we use it as our everyday dishes. I never go into a junk store or Goodwill without combing for Rowantrees pottery. Every so often a family member will give me a piece for Christmas, but those are mostly the little-used things: sugar bowls, creamers. I even have a cheese dome I found for [a buck? fifty cents?] My brother gave us plates for a wedding gift. My mother scored at a yard sale and picked up four soup bowls for a dollar. AWESOME.
- I have a weakness for fabric, though I rarely sew these days. I do have a great sewing machine, hand-me-down from a true master of the art who upgraded. I need to oil it and put it someplace more useable.
- bookcases. I am always eyeballing bookcases in shops, in catalogs, in store displays. If you see my eye stray to a store window, 4 out of five times I'm eying the display case.
- Friday I helped my mother pick out a coffee table. While we were looking, I fell deeply, disastrously in love with a deep red loveseat and ottoman set. I WANT IT SOOOoooooo MUCH.
I have recently acquired several barometers, because they're so cool. When I renovate the bathroom I want it to be industrial/steampunk.
I really want brass number/letter stencils. just because.
I want to replace the Laurie Colwin, John Brunner & Margaret Drabble books that were lost in the Great Enfloodening. I always want books. I want more time to read.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
