29.10.10

democratic truths of the soul




"The furniture is detailed in a refined Rococo manner, carved with gentle aristocratic curves and garlands of flowers. But as the eye moves towards the ground, something unusual comes into view. Where we might expect the chairs to meet a floor which resembled them in tone -- made of marble, perhaps, or highly veneered parquetry -- we instead find rough, unvarnished wooden planks, of the sort one might see in a hayloft...

The manor house proposes a new human ideal, in which luxury would entail neither decadence nor a loss of contact with the democratic truths of the soul, and in which simplicity could be synthesised with nobility and refinement.

If certain subtly balanced buildings touch us, it is because they stand as exemplars of how we might adjudicate between the conflicting aspects of our characters, how we, too, might aspire to make something beautiful of our troubling opposites."









Alain de Botton,
["A balanced building as a promise of a balanced life:
Skogaholm Manor, Närke, c. 1790"]









nickhaus




on etsy


















26.10.10

something about always moving forward (light)































something about giving







dear readers, i've been wrestling with a rather
stubborn head cold for the past week, and i
really think this just made me well again.
(well, maybe it is a vast quantity of
ginger lemon tea, vitamin c, zinc &
starting--24 hrs ago--antibiotics that
finally did it.) but, i swear, this place
could have healing powers. someone should
call them up and get one started, don't you think?












& not to be missed: their link to the eternal aesthete

springtime


is at hand.
when will you ever bloom
if not here and now?
























24.10.10

we write everything small, thus saving time



Mr. Dahl


"The cleverest man in the world is called Mr Billy Bubbler. He can invent just about anything you want. He has a marvelous workshop full of wheels and wires and buckets of glue and balls of string and huge pots full of thick foaming stuff that gives off smoke in many colours. There are old motorcar tyres, baskets of carrots and electric machines and sewing machines and fizzy-drink machines and bath tubs and cow's teeth and rice puddings and old shoes and everything else Mr Bubbler needs to make his wonderful inventions."

roald dahl





(the october issue of
has a swell article called
mr. dahl's fantastic box.
written by donald sturrock,
photos by antony crolla.
read it if you can.)












image: here