A Tale of Three Blogs (and some great stuff for sale)

Raul has 2 of the Eames plywood chairs for sale for $500 each.

This is a story about coincidences, writers, unexpected friendships and the best neighborhood in the world. It started when I emailed Porcelain at Design Boner about her excellent blog. She and I knew that we both lived in Chicago. No big deal, right?

But wait, there's more. We quickly discovered that we also both lived on the north side and in the same neighborhood, Edgewater Glen (which is, empirically, the best neighborhood in the world). Strange, huh?

But there's even more. We actually live on the same block and across the alley from one another. Whoa! (BTW, if you haven't already, check out Design Boner. It's smart and beautiful and interesting and gentle somehow (with great weekend photos every Monday).

So when Porcelain's friend, Raul, wanted to sell the vintage Eames DCM he bought at Scout (for the killer price of $100 - exactly what he paid for it), she remembered a post I'd written about my Ebay DCM score, and she asked if I wanted to buy Raul's so I'd have a pair.


An Eames table in good condition - $80.


A Hans Wegner daybed. Available for $2000. In person, it's really really great.

I setup some time to visit Raul and his wife, Molly's apartment. Immediately, I was intrigued by the space - bold colors, classic mid-century furniture, an actual typewriter (!) and best of all, the entire space was bright and sun-shiny with a gorgeous garden view out their large living room window. When I complemented them on their taste, they told me that their house had been featured on Apartment Therapy, another one of my favorite blogs. So there you go, three people brought together by blogging.

Raul is selling some amazing mid-century furniture pieces, but he'd rather not go through Craig's List or Ebay, so here are the goods. If you're interested, email me, and I'll introduce you to Raul.






The Eames DCM. Originally purchased at Scout, this chair is for sale for $100. The chair has been used, so it needs a little work, but it's a great opportunity to own a classic piece for a relatively small amount of money.


The Jacobson side table - $300.

Blogs I Love . . . DWR

While I definitely prefer independent blogs, I have been enjoying DWR's. An April 8th post shows the "X Lounge" by Mark Wentzel. According to poster Bradford Shellhammer, the grotesque bloating of the sleek Eames lounge is a comment on America's consumption of products. But my interpretation is that the piece is a critique, in part, of stores like Design Within Reach. Am I wrong?

Blogs I Love . . . Decorno (or, Thoughts on Consumption Part 2)

Does the sight of these logos nourish your soul?

"If Decor is your porn, this is your blog," says the smart and witty creator of Decorno, one of my favorite design blogs. Lately, Decorno's been exploring a topic that's I've been thinking about and which has been coming up in conversations with friends - why is consumption so important?

What's worth spending money on and what's not? Decorno loves her shoes; I love furniture - we all want something, but when it so clearly hurts harms our souls and poisons our environment, why do we want everything ?

Am I toiling away in an unsuitable career because it's so important that I drink Starbucks every day? That I drive a fancy car? Or in reality, aren't I drinking the Starbucks in order to help get me through the day, to tolerate the life I live, the job I have in order to afford these things? It's the ultimate self-perpetuating loop



Corporate America has a pretty sweet deal.

- It divides us up into different populations, because you can sell so much more to four distinct people with distinct interests than to a nuclear family that essentially functions as a single unit.

- It convinces us that the car or the house or the coffee or the TV is going to make us happy, so we voluntarily agree to indentured servitude, working long hours at jobs we hate in order to afford these things, which will lead to happiness, right?

- Wrong. We find that things don't actually make us feel any better, but we wonder if we just don't have enough things, so we buy more, create more debt or take on a higher mortgage payment, not understanding that we've just reached through the cell bars, locked the door and tossed the key across the room.



Amazingly, when I started blogging, writing and taking photos, I stopped needing things in the same way. I was filling my soul with something other than things - I was actually creating something (it's not the Sistine Chapel, but it's something).

So I need to take some steps, but I don't know if I'm ready yet. We're all suffering from a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, loving our captors and fearing true freedom.

For more of Decorno's thoughs about the subject, click here or here.
And for some of my thoughts on the recession, click here.
For an interesting Salon magazine article on recession, click here.

What do you think?