drupagliassotti @ January 6, 2012 # No Comment Yet
Yesterday I wandered into a local antique store and spent an enjoyable time poking around at all the interesting vintage items and jewelry there and talking to the proprietor about steampunk decor. I mentioned to her that I’ve been thinking about selling my antique Amberg filing cabinet, which I don’t need now that I’ve gone [...]
drupagliassotti @ August 31, 2011 # One Comment
This is an extended quote from Sherry Turkle, found in part two of the three-part interview Henry Jenkins conducted with her on his blog: Evocative objects are objects that cause us to reflect on ourselves or on other things. Put otherwise, they give us materials that help us to do this in new and richer [...]
drupagliassotti @ March 5, 2011 # No Comment Yet
Many minimalists have tried to describe the perfect minimalist wardrobe, although of course one’s choices will be affected by job and climate. Based on The New York Times’ recent article on “The Power of Apparel — A Look That Conveys a Message,” it seems that variations on the jeans-and-black-shirt uniform currently has the lead … [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 27, 2011 # One Comment
I just finished a thought-provoking pair of books: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, by Laura Vanderkam, and The Winter of Our Disconnect by Susan Maushart. Both address the question of how we spend our time, 168 Hours by pointing out that we have 168 hours in each week, and that assuming [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 16, 2011 # No Comment Yet
Is our economy stagnant because there are no easily obtained resources to exploit anymore or because an affluent population has turned from primarily materialistic to primarily ephemeral pursuits? NYT Op-Ed columnist David Brooks asks this question in response to Tyler Cowen’s book The Great Stagnation. It could be that in an industrial economy people develop [...]
drupagliassotti @ January 23, 2011 # No Comment Yet
The Everyday Minimalist posted this and I watched it with wry appreciation. The video’s creator, who practices voluntary simplicity, suggests a new term — mediumism; or, to use more philosophical phrases, the pursuit of the Golden Mean or of the Middle Way. For my more moderate take on some of the ideas raised in this [...]
drupagliassotti @ October 22, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Today we’re dedicating the new building in which my department is housed, the Swenson Center for the Social & Behavioral Sciences, which is my university’s first LEED-certified building. Here it is in the mist at about 7 a.m. — yes, I really do get there that early. Early-morning classes are the price you pay to [...]
drupagliassotti @ October 21, 2010 # No Comment Yet
It’s tough to admire minimalist decor and the steampunk aesthetic at the same time. Victorian clutter and open spaces just don’t mix! Every time I look at images of steampunk rooms or minimalist spaces on sites like Apartment Therapy or The Steampunk Home, I find myself torn between two design preferences. I definitely don’t like [...]
drupagliassotti @ August 17, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Yesterday I mentioned that commodification is a form of sympathetic magic. That is, telling someone that if they buy designer clothes they will be considered as desirable as the celebrities who normally sport the stuff is akin to telling someone that if they put on a wolfskin belt by the light of the moon they’ll [...]
drupagliassotti @ August 16, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Unclutterer wryly pointed out the commodification of voluntary simplicity going on in tandem with the release of the movie Eat Pray Love. I appreciated this post, because I’ve talked about the power of the consumerist ideology in a few of my classes ever since the release of the magazine Real Simple ten years ago. Real [...]