So in the middle of the movie there is this scene where one of the characters is falling for another character and he puts on Barry Manilow’s “Can”t Smile without You.” An obviously sentimental song that brings some comic relief to the movie. But it’s still  a movie about a demon fighting bad guys, except that when the credits roll we get to hear the Barry Manilow blasting out. Again Yes, it was funny but it seemed so, ah, incongruous.

So it’s been a superhero holiday season.  Hell Boy on New Years and we watched the Dark Knight on Christmas Eve. I suspect I’ll be watching the Incredible Hulk on Valentine’s Day.

Oh and I suppose it is happy New Year to you all. I look forward to continuing a supply of misreadings and fascinating insights.

Why does NASCAR care? Well, not for the obvious reason that they spew untold and pointless pollution into the air during their races and practices. And not because their plans for a NASCAR track at the North Pole would be foiled.

No, it’s because sea levels will rise and and flood places like the Florida panhandle, Georgia and Alabama and thus displacing the majority of NASCAR fans. The furture of the sport might be at stake.

If they are so worried  about sea levels rising, maybe they should come up witha  strategy to combat ice melt. Maybe they should go green. Convert all race cars to electric. No more pollution.

I know it sounds silly, but remember that car companies gain great deals of knowledge from car racing in designing new cars in respects to aerodynamics, horse power and so on. So it might stand to reason that car companies could learn a great deal about electric motors and batteries and the like from racing electric cars. 

 And if NASCAR doesn’t want to go green, I say we nationalize it and force it to go green. That way NASCAR could benefit all Americans, not just those in the Florida panhandle. And then from all the technological advances that occur we can design the new People’s Car and then we can nationalize Chrysler and have them make the new People’s Car.

Brilliant!

I am pretty sure I will buy some before the holiday season is over. The good thing is the pack of 12 will probably last until spring as I will resort to eating them only when I have a severe sweet tooth and there is nothing else to satisfy the craving.

Kind of like I buy eggnog every year except that I really like eggnog.  But it’s so rich I can only drink a cup of it and I assure it will not last until spring. I’ll still buy some.  Though this year I am going to have a backup drink.  I was at a party a couple weeks ago and had some hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks.  That was good. Maybe a little too good.  And I didn’t even put any booze in it. And clearly much less filling.

And for those of you who love chocolate or know someone who does, Linda introduced me to BT McElrath a few years ago.  Just amazing.

http://www.btmcelrath.com/

I thought I saw a product this morning that instead of raging against this behavior, seemed to embrace it. My nephew was making some breakfast this morning and saw he was going to make some sausage. I saw the box across the kitchen and was sure the box said “Sizzle and Seizure.” I thought, now that is embracing the spirit of the mega breakfast. No apologies.

The product name was actually “Sizzle and Serve” but we all know “Sizzle and Seizure” is more accurate and we accept the marketing ploy as the norm. Marketing. What a powerful thing. I was going to say that marketing is the opiate of the people, but that’s not quite right. But it is the something of the people for sure, I just haven’t put my finger on the right word. Maybe it’s the breakfast sausage of the people. Who knows.

I do know I made my nephew make me some breakfast while he was at it and so was in no ways deterred  by the overt or covert message of the “Sizzle and Seizure” sausage.

So I saw a panel truck today with a logo on it that read “BJs Wood Services.’  Nope, I didn’t misread it.

That’s it. I’ve got nothing.

A saw a sign on an exit ramp  somewhere between Bismarck and Fargo. I thought it said “No Survivors.” And as I looked to my right and saw a couple run down farm building, I thought, “Perhaps.” The sign actually said no services, which is obviously a common sign on exit ramps in North Dakota. I wondered whether No Survivors meant “if you’re looking for someone they are probably not here” or “if you take this exit you may not survive.”  I few years ago it was probably the first thought. But with oil booming and windpower growing the state has become a decent energy exporter with the state budget surplus this year over a billion, maybe they’re just trying to keep the opportunists out.

Then upon approaching Fargo I saw I a billboard that said “Industrial Medicine Services.” I wondered if this was an alternative to managed care. Kind of like industrial equipment, maybe.  Like the difference between a hobbyist table saw and an industrial table saw, or the difference between a $50 Black and Decker paint sprayer and a $4000 paint sprayer. The cheaper smaller equipment can be used by most anyone, can be set up quickly and kind of works for your needs and is efficient for small jobs. Whereas the big equipment probably takes some training, requires more setup and so is best used for big jobs and  pushing lots of units through.

Hey, hold on. That sounds just like managed care. See they thought they could pull one over on me. No siree. Whoever they are.

Oh, I did see a good sign out front of a Walmart in North Dakota.  In front of a cage filled with X-mas trees I saw a sign that said “Christmas Trees are Free.” Alas it really just said “Christmas Trees are here.” Then I thought maybe a new priceless Visa commercial could go “Christmas is free. Enjoying it is not. Visa, it’s everything you want Christmas to be.” But that is so cynical.  Come on, the Whos proved you could enjoy Christmas without presents. I mean, all I need is some eggnog and a battered copy of The Ref.

This is the story of the  four lamps and the evolution that occurs from the first to the last. Or perhaps it is devolution that occurs.

It all started with some scraps of wood sitting around that were too small to make into anything substantial. So I thought I could make some funky table lamps out of them.

Lamp 1. So I made a bunch of 4×4 squares of cherry about one half inch thick and started stacking them in different configurations. Once I had stacked them ad nauseum I started to narrow the options down to what I could string a lamp cord through (I know that seems like such a creative-limiting move but since i didn’t want to install a battery powered light fixture and since I don’t know much about the transferring of electricity via microwaves I accepted this limitation).

You will see that what I ended up with was a simple rectangular Base with the rectangles cascading linearly in a backwards direction (or forwards depending on how you place the lamp). Creates kind of a nice offset feel while retaining some pleasing lines. Almost has a grand staircase feel to it.

Lamp 2. Second verse same as the first. Almost. But we throw a twist in there to break up the lines. The swirl creates some sense of motion, more like a spiral staircase. The twist carries the plane away from us then brings it back a little. Perhaps keeping us grounded.

Lamp 3. If one is good two is better. Here we try to add mixed motions (or maybe mixed emotions).  If one spiral staircase is good, a second will be even better, especially if they seem to be dancing with each other, or perhaps juxtaposed. I sometimes think it has that Ziegfeld follies synchronized swimming swirling feel to it. Or maybe a tango dance as someone has suggested.

And you’ll notice here the wood lamp shade.  I decided that since the lampshade can be such an integral part of the  lamp experience, why leave it to chance. So we created here a nice geometric design with a subtlety patterned paper to diffuse the light.

Lamp 4. Then we decided to take the idea horizontal and have the spiral come out at us and attacking the new plane from a different angle. Not only does the spiral come out at us it also dips in slightly, due to the walnut squares being thicker on one side than the other. The movement is very subtle and is difficult to see in the photo. The slight dip creates a bit of an off-putting feel about it and throws the lines into a slightly different place than you expect. It also manages to make sure that nothing about the piece is level.

Which takes us to the lamp shade, which is square and level.  This opens up options on how to situate the shade.  In the photo the front lip of the shade is level but is raked slightly forward, like a fedora raked slightly forward. You could also set the shade level on all sides or you could set it level to the top of the post, creating challenging  reactions from the people viewing it.

The few reactions I have had to it so far have been hard to guage. Linda said it looked like a wild animal. I think it looks like something sprouting from the earth.

So I guess this kind of what I mean when I say my style is evolutionary. Hard to predict, hard to explain, but I think easy to look at. I can’t imagine how anyone would not want an evocative lamp like one of these.

Why and where did this disturbing rift in my psyche occur, you might ask. Well, it began with the tapioca. Yes, the tapioca. The tapioca that did not quite set right. Half set into slightly too firm lumps, the other half runny cream. I needed a knife to cut the one, a cup to drink the other.  Don’t get me wrong. It tasted good, since really bad things would have to happen to make that much milk sugar and vanilla taste bad. So why the issue. Because half the joy of eating tapioca is smooth, creamy, puddingesque textual sensation combined with the sweet creamy flavor. And I was robbed of that and I will not let that stand because I know how to make tapioca.

You see, it all started a couple month ago when I was cooking something and somehow I managed to break my tablespoon. I have no recollection of how it broke, though I distinctly recall thinking no big deal, I don’t cook that often or that precisely. In fact there are few things that I cook the same way twice. But despite being an erratic cook, I do know that there are certain things that need to be precise: baking and obviously now, tapioca. So since I am a minimalist at the time of the tablespoon breakage I decided there was no need to panic and buy another tablespoon and in fact it was one less physical possession that I would have to deal with.

Wrong! Obviously a tablespoon can be a good part of your life, since in making the tapioca I had to approximate the tablespoon amount and clearly got it wrong and therefore I suffered because of it. I mean, Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons so there clearly must be something there.

So that’s why I am putting a tablespoon on my Christmas list. And I am changing my definition of minimalist from zero possessions to zero possessions plus one tablespoon.

Lately I have been working on some new table lamps. And so a nice artsy lamp needs a nice artsy shade. Now if you know anything about lampshades, you know that the right one can be fairly expensive. In fact often its the shade that makes the lamp.

So not being able to often find the right shade or justify the expense, I have ventured into experimenting with making shades. The task is exciting and challenging, since I can in theory design the shade just so but also know that now I have control over the entire lamp and cannot blame a less than perfect shade on not being able to find or afford one.

But that’s not the point. The point is that as I was working towards a recent lamp shade design, as I was sitting alone in my house, as I was sitting with one light on in the living room, as I was sitting in with no sounds disturbing me the name “Ed Gein” floated into my mind. The infamous Ed Gein, who among many disturbing things in his insanity had made a lampshade out of human skin. 

I had to take a break form working on the lampshade. There are things that are not good for creativity. Not good at all.

I am going to blame the episode on the approach of Halloween and will return to making the lampshade, which I assure you is made strictly from paper and wood.

And you can probably even look at the object and pick out what gives it elegance. Elegance does have a definition, or many definitions, though they seem to press the play button on the quote attributed to Pontius Pilate “What is truth?” What is elegance?

One definition is “Grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.” I think that works for me.

I know you’re asking why am I interested in the definition of elegance. Perhaps it’s because I want my furniture to be elegant. And yes, sometimes that is true, though clients sometimes want different qualities. But it’s mostly a need to get my hands around this for when that client wants something elegant. Where does one begin?

So we come back to “What is elegance?” First off, I need to know what that means to me. Second, I need to figure out what that means to the client.

To me elegance begins with movement and all the ways one can achieve that. Sometimes that means simple. But introducing simple into the equation just adds more abstractness to something we are trying to unabstract. I had a client who said she wanted something elegant and to her elegance was paired with simplicity. I had to ask whether simple to her was uncomplicated or was it minimal. It was minimal, which was a characteristic I could chase but probably not define.

I did find a definition of elegance that I liked though I think it actually was referring to an ecosystem or ecology. “Elegance denotes the minimum activity that is necessary and sufficient to produce the desired outcome.” I like this probably because it confirms it some way may initial gut feel on what makes elegance, and that was movement. Activity. Movement. Perhaps activity is movement with a goal.

So in order to achieve elegance with movement I need to infuse that movement with a goal. Movement for movement sake may or may not churn out elegance and most likely becomes artifice instead of art. Which believe it or not takes me back to my main belief about what is required to elevate art, any sort of art: Intention. What is the intent?

Though perhaps harder to achieve than elegance, intention may actually be easier to define and describe, assuming there is intention in it. So, you have to ask yourself, what is your intention? Do you have one?  Do I have one? That, I suppose is the question.