Ms. Darby

I pick up the phone AT MY HOME, and say, “Hello. Hello? Hello?”

Only to be met with a recorded voice, telling me that THEIR TELEMARKETERS are all busy right now and to please hold the line.

Let me try and ingest this one more time. You call my home, unsolicited, make me run across the house to grab the phone, and you’re trying to sell me something, but when I pick up, you tell me to HOLD THE LINE?

This happens, by the way, at least three times a week. Not to mention the other unsolicited calls. Those poor people who have to actually MAKE those calls. Er, wait…computers and previously recorded messages make those calls. Oh.

Filed by darby at 10:52 am under rants
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On the left, a knock-off of the Arco original, shown on the right

I have been TOTALLY enamored with this lamp since I was a child. Of course, at the age of eight, I did not realize it to be an Achille Castiglioni Arco lamp, but I was drawn to its eight foot arch and graceful presence.

Now, having learned that Italian born and educated Castiglioni was an architect, forced to think on a smaller scale due to limited major architectural assignments available at the time, I am not surprised that I am drawn to his design. Architects that “do” furniture are tops. Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer, Arne Jacobsen, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh all come to mind, but the list could go on forever. A deep connection exists between architecture and furnishings for buildings and homes, while gifted architects work to preserve the psychology of space within a structure.

The original Arco costs several thousand dollars, but one can find some knock-offs like the one above from around $150-400. And every once-in-a-blue-moon, I have spied this and other classic originals and knock-offs in off-the-beaten-path city thrift stores and furniture shops. (think Chicago, Atlanta, and Portland, for starters.) Happy classic-design spying and finding! (and if you’re lucky, buying…)

Filed by darby at 5:11 pm under Arts, raves
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While perusing a local decorative hardware store yesterday, I came across these beautiful knobs by Providence Artworks, Inc. Part of their Ivory of Tagua Collection, these handcrafted, individual pieces of art come from Palm Trees. Their weight and feel truly mimic ivory, but are sustainable and help to provide an economic base for various rainforest communities. The down side is shipping these beauties from so far away (and the natural resources used therein), but the size and weight help to compensate a bit for fuel usage during shipping.

Also available, from a San Francisco shop committed to sustainability named GreenSage Store, come recycled glass knobs, and lead-free pewter knobs and pulls.

As we continue to look to nature to lead us in both design and sustainability, the natural, organic, and elegantly rustic feel of these forms entice the purist in us all.

Filed by admin at 3:11 pm under Decorative Hardware
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It seems that last week’s Greenbuild in Chicago, sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, has been the catalyst for the organization’s new web launch.

If you missed Greenbuild, there is a great recap at Energy Priorities, an online “platform for information, ideas and commentary on smart energy”.

Even more impressive is USGBC’s launch of their Greenbuild(365), a video archive and education center accessible to all, as an invaluable addition to their site. Its founding sponsor, United Technologies, has developed a really cool interactive piece, as well. It looks as if this archive could likely be the one place to share our “Green” best practices and integrative methodologies.

This kind of open source collaboration is precisely what the “sustainability movement” needs. Kudos, USGBC!

Filed by admin at 4:45 pm under Resources
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The first question I was asked at 9AM this morning was by a guy named Tuck. Tuck sized me up and asked, “so, you afraid of heights”? I explained to him as confidently as I could while watching power saws, nails, and boards being tossed up to a second story roof, that I was actually more afraid of widths. As in, the higher up I am with the least amount of space for my feet is what really scares me. But heights…hmmm…I guess we’ll see how it goes…

I decided it was high time to do something good with myself, instead of look for and then try and land a paying gig, potentially without meaning. With the full and always incredible support of me man, I set off to help build a Habitat for Humanity house today. There is nothing like hammering nails at an angle and affixing OSB to a wooden frame at 30 feet up and on the edge of a roof to provide both perspective and balance, literally and figuritively. I now feel like a new woman.

And all the while, Wilco is inspiring me, even at 30 feet in the air and on shaky footing. But isn’t that always when one needs inspiration, and often when one finds it the most? I found myself humming “When You Wake Up, Feeling Old” whilst I attempted to get my balance, taking in the vistas of pine trees and spanish moss, with blue skies forever and this lowcountry’s mild autumn sun.

When You Wake Up, Feeling Old
When you wake up
Feelin old
At this piano filled with souls
Some strange purse
Stuffed nervous with gold
Can you be where you want to be?

Walk down any street
You can find
Look at any clock telling time
Sing some strange verse
From some strange song of vines
And you’ll be where you want to be

I know I can’t sing
Until she brings the song to life
And I blend with kings
Wouldn’t ever change a thing

Who knows anything
I don’t know
There are so many things
I must leave alone
Some strange person is calling you their home
Can you be where you want to be?

Can you be
Where you want to be?
Can you be
Where you want to be?
Can you be
Where you want to be?

Filed by darby at 5:43 pm under General
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In a slightly weird twist of fate, I am listening to Neil Young’s epic After the Goldrush whilst I am sitting down to the keyboard all inpired by Wilco and their first studio album, A.M.

But that is just the thing. Listening and seeing (albeit on tha TEE VEE) Wilco on a Saturday night is so good that I find myself going and listening to great albums of masters past well into late Sunday evening. And like all great music, it helps me to realize and appreciate other great music. I am by no means a music afficienado nor expert…I leave that to some of my other friends…yet, this isn’t about all that. This is more about how Wilco inspires me, and then, potentially, how they inspire you…

So let’s get to it, shall we? (right now, Neil sings “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”…temporarily reminiscent of “Should’ve Been in Love”…temporarily…)

A.M., released in 1994, twangs me into some part of my nostalgiac, somewhat sad, broken-hearted period of loves past from the first note, and even more so while Tweedy sings “Should’ve Been in Love.” Ghosts of relationships past provide perfect and lovely muses for all songwriters, and didn’t Vonnegut say to only ever write about love, god, and politics, cuz that’s all there is, anyway? (I think that reference is hazy and will have to look into a bit more later…it might’ve been Dylan…)

The title of this album is perfect, and as a musically obsessed, VERY young child, the A.M. stations of my youth served up some great 70’s fare. Bands like America, Seals and Crofts, and Buffalo Springfield were presenting L.A’s (Laurel Canyon) music scene to the midwest and beyond. Wilco’s A.M. has layers of that, too, as I am sure the entire band also soaked up those A.M. tunes while staring out the back of their parents car as I did, a couple of states over. Tweedy and Wilco make it their own, though, and while they soaked it up, they haven’t wrung it out into this plastic groove.

Somewhere, too, is the feeling of a road trip of that era, as if the listener begins her travels from the present day alt-Nashville, then up to Detroit for the forward bluesy rock of “Casino Queen” on track 2. Along the way, it seems the car spent a little longer than expected in Athens, GA and soaked up some R.E.M. It’s subtle, but in there. (Interestingly, Wilco will play with Minus 5, a Peter Buck side project, many years later…)

I am a sucker for the Pedal Steel, too, and there is plenty of that weaved through this album. Tracks like “I Thought I Held You” are made around it, and I can see the hula girl on the front of a ‘75 Cutlass Olds Supreme swiveling her hips to the hawaain beat and gently picked banjo as I write.

Jeff Tweedy’s voice is young on this album, but doesn’t sound all THAT different than it does now. Having never really dissected Wilco like I am now, I am seeing all kinds of things, like how John Stirrat’s lyric’s and delivery on “It’s Just That Simple” are very reminiscent of how Woody Guthrie writes a song. Only then, as perhaps comic relief from the heavier “…Simple”, the drunken appreciation of a sober, car owning friend on “Passenger Side” is just what the listener needs. (and what I surely appreciated, too, as a young, um, drinker).

Can you take me to the store and then the bank
I’ve got 5 dollars we can put in the tank
I’ve got a court date comin’ this June
I’ll be drivin’ soon
passenger, Si-ide…
don’t like ridin’, on the passenger side

“Dash 7″, the albums 11th track, must have inspired Red House Painters and Mark Kozelek somewhat. This song sounds like the pre-cursor to the entire Old Ramon album. And with all this talk of other people and other people’s music, cuz that’s the only way I know how to talk about music (I am a total amateur, see? I told ya so…), I forgot to mention the troubled beauty, raw authentic yet sophisticated stylings, and clear window into the next 13 years of what Wilco would be sharing with us. Or, that’s what I thaught i knew at the time, at least.

I am gonna make myself pick a favorite song, which goes against everthing I believe in, but I am gonna try it and see what happens.

Track 9: Should’ve Been in Love

Filed by darby at 11:23 pm under Arts
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Treating your audience like thieves is absurd. Anyone who chooses to listen to our music becomes a collaborator. People who look at music as commerce don’t understand that. They are talking about pieces of plastic they want to sell, packages of intellectual property. I’m not interested in selling pieces of plastic. -Jeff Tweedy, in a Wired interview

Having just watched Austin City Limits tonight, which featured (dare I say, the best American rock band presently playing) Wilco, I am inspired, again, and moved, as always.

Sky Blue Sky, their most recent album that came out in mid-May, makes me laugh, sometimes weep, and always swoon. It fully engages me, that creative masterpiece of an album.

In the spirit of inspiration, music, pursuit of passion and doing what you love, I announce a Wilco appreciation week. With 6 studio albums under their belt*, I think I will look at one album a day. The weekend can serve as, perhaps, a Wilco-inspired, art producing collective – open to all that care to produce art and share it – inspired by Wilco. Or something…

The present members of Wilco are:

(The 2 original members)
Jeff Tweedy – lead singer and guitarist
John Stirratt – bassist

(and the gloriously talented additions)
Nels Cline – guitarist
Glenn Kotche – percussion
Pat Sansone – multi-instrumentalist
Mikael Jorgensen – pianist

and YOU, the listener

*not including their live album, and Mermaid Avenue’s collaborations w/ Billy Bragg, collaboration w/ minus 5, and various EP’s.

Filed by darby at 12:17 am under Arts
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