Apart from being an interesting and insightful breakdown of the most recent episode of Mad Men that has the decor set in a dizzy tizzy, former Domino magazine executive editor Kate Bolick notes:
"...we are locked in constant battle with our own stuff, hating ourselves for possessing so much of it, as if the objects we’ve bought somehow snuck into our homes by nefarious means..."
"There’s a song called “Taste,” by the very 21st-century band Animal Collective, that captures this fearful ambivalence with a single, plaintive refrain: Am I really all the things that are outside of me? Would I complete myself without the things I like around?"
Read the rest of Kate Bolick's The Fainting Couch for Best Supporting Actor and get ready for more insightful observations about our favourite TV series, alongside commentary about the decor landscape of the era (and the present).
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I actually really like that fainting couch, not in pink, though.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
Interesting and weighty thought! I often find the people who have the most stuff (including all that stuff boxed up or in storage or a garage) sometimes DO the least in their lives. I think of George Carlin's bit about the cycle of bigger house, more stuff... more stuff, need a bigger house... for more stuff. On defining ourselves with things outside of ourselves... here's one to ponder...
A woman will change her hair length, change it's style, change it's color, shape her eyebrows, even color them or shave them off completely and pencil them on. She may even tattoo them. She may use eye liner to frame her eyes, blush to color the lids, mascara to thicken her eyelashes and an eyelash curler to curl them. She may even put false eyelashes on to make them bigger. Maybe a colored contact to change her eye color. Foundation on her face sometimes, blush for her cheeks sometimes, plus assorted things like shadowing and making her nose look smaller. She changes the color of her lips, gets her teeth whitened, hangs ornaments from her earlobes. She might even get plastic surgery, botox injections...
what is she hiding from?
view Laughing Tiger's profile
and they're still absolutely adorable. Unless they bite.
view Laughing Tiger's profile
Back to the quote, I agree but I still regrets things I didn't buy.
view hrhprincessfiona's profile
We lived in a tiny one bedroom with no garage or storage space. It was tight and irritating, but all our possessions fit in there. We moved to a house. Small by some standards but big to us. 1100 sq feet with a large basement....our home is uncluttered...but the basement is FULL!
Granted we are in transition with renovating. We have building materials, furniture waiting to be repurposed, a dishwasher, sheets of drywall, plywood, insulation, etc all waiting to be installed. But seriously it feels like our stuff was a popcorn kernal that popped as soon as we moved!
I can identify with this quote. And I look forward to getting past this transition stage to where we have just what we need.
view ammanda's profile