On waste

I’ve been enjoying Mark Bittman’s blog these past two weeks. Today he linked to Chris Jordan’s stunning and shocking work on consumption in the US. Please take a look.

The photo above, Building Blocks, consists of 9 million alphabet blocks. 9 million to depict the number of American children without health insurance in 2007. The piece is 16 feet tall x 32 feet wide — eighteen square panels, each sized 62×62. Astounding. Has anybody seen his work in person? I’m sure the full-scale pieces are much more dramatic.

 

Rescuing leather

About a year ago, I bought my first, real grown-up’s purse. It was an investment, but it suits my needs (laptop, diapers, normal purse contents) perfectly and I love it. About a month ago, I had to run across campus in the rain and dye from my jeans (relatively new, dark-wash) ran onto the beloved bag, leaving some pretty awful stains. After trying gentle soap and leather conditioners, I took the bag to two experienced cobblers, hoping to find someone who would be able to get such a stain out. They both told me it couldn’t be done. Additional research lead me to a really cool leather repair service. They were awesome on the phone and said they could re-dye and fix almost anything but that they wouldn’t even touch my bag for less than $50. Having pretty much resigned myself to paying a lot to re-dye this bag, I did some additional internet research and decided to try one more thing before committing to the re-dye. Sensitive formula baby wipes (which I just happened to have on hand) took all the stains out – all of them, without any damage to the leather. A bunch of websites I read specifically warn against using baby wipes on leather, but here’s what I did: I rubbed the bag gently with the wipes in little circles and followed with leather conditioner – 3 times to get some moisture back into the leather. Bag saved. Alleluia.

 

Uluru upcycles

Have to plug my dear friend Caroline’s most recent success – a write up in treehugger.com about her latest brainchild. Cashmere/silk pieces are hand appliquéd by artisans to produce really unique effect. Uluru’s new partnership with Alabama Chanin just plain works on many levels. Check them both out if you’re not already a fan.

 

Nose bidet

How bad does one have to feel to get over the “ick” factor involved with pouring fluid through your nose to actually try it? About this bad, and pregnant, and hesitant to take over-the-counter cold meds. It’s true what everybody says – using a neti pot is not nearly as bad as it sounds. Mine is cheap and plastic from CVS and came with a bunch of packets of solution to mix in with the water so you don’t have to measure it out each time. Very convenient. And seems to be helping already.

 

Re: 2008

My annual review for 2007 contains too many very boring, very personal, and still uncertain things to be blog-appropraite. Still, it was a very helpful exercise that has helped me think about the things I’m most proud of and the things I want to improve upon this coming year. Rather than writing discrete resolutions, I’m approaching 2008 with a set of goals. Here they are, thematically.

Family
- really engage with the girls during my time with them; quit multi-tasking
- go out with GC more than in 2007; this means getting a babysitter
- take photographs; organize them
- call my grandma regularly – before she calls me
- actively diffuse (rather than even tacitly participating in) arguments with family members

Work
- non-reading (see Pierre Bayard’s HTTABYHR)
- finish book manuscript
- send all revised dissertation chapters (4!) out for review (at least once!)
- prep new undergrad course
- practice moderate overattachment in teaching
- set up new reseach project*
- make documentary*

Commute
- get realistic about the commute; stop underestimating
- download podcasts & new music for the commute
- set phone-dates with friends for the drive home (use bluetooth!)

Hobbies
- cooking (new things regularly; Cooks Illustrated)
- films (more documentaries; especially on topics i don’t know much about)
- only intentional TV watching
- pleasure reading & non-reading (again, Pierre Bayard)

Consumption
- thrift & resale shopping
- reduce mass-produced purchases (for variety try accessories instead of new clothes)
- line dry clothes so they last longer (and to save energy)

Personal
- maintain my language skills; use every opportunity to converse and write in Spanish and Portuguese and invest additional effort in Chichewa and Swahili
- make some friends in Phoenix (meeting people here has been much harder than I anticipated)
- figure out a strategy for navigating church with babies

Productivity
- keystrokes
- schedule breaks, take breaks, use them wisely (short walks, email to friends, etc.)
- get back to using a timer

*It’s still too soon for me to be writing any specifics about these projects, but they’re very real, very exciting; I’m anxious to be free to share more.

 

The case against fast fashion

This is something that’s been on my mind a lot lately, as evidenced by several recent entries on the topic, and a slew of conversations with Please Save Me From Myself about fashion consumption, shopping to fill “that hole,” environmental responsibility, and the challenges facing small designers and their labels. It’s clearly on other people’s minds as well. This NPR clip sums up a lot of the issues PSMFM and I have been discussing over the past few weeks. The Sinful Saint was kind enough to pass the story on to me after hearing it on his way home from work. It’s well worth the 4 minutes of your time it will demand.

Can you believe that, on average, the number of garments a person consumes has risen by 33% in the past five years? That’s really astounding – especially in such a short period of time.

 

Spare me polyester

This article appeared in the NYT’s Thursday Styles section shortly after I wrote about cobblers, which was actually a post lamenting the fact that clothing and shoes have become disposable goods and wondering aloud about how to behave given this reality. The article asks whether supposedly environmentally-conscious customers will be willing to change their consumptions habits to buy less-fashionable but “sustainable” garments – and less of them at higher prices.

It’s easy to brush off the fashion-related moral dilemma as an indulgent, irrelevant, and relatively superfluous one, but that’s not exactly fair. From the trendy fashionista to the “I only shop at resale shops” hipster to the person who honestly doesn’t bother to make sure their socks match (as an academic, I interact with more of a few of these types on a pretty regular basis), we all participate in the “fashion industry” – whatever that is. We all wear clothes and wash clothes and acquire clothes and clean out our closets, and we all use this as a way to cultivate and express identity – even if that identity is something along the lines of: “I don’t care what I look like because I’m too smart to bother with such trivial matters.”

The problem is actually a complex and relevant one that’s not superfluous at all. Cheap garments allow people – especially young people – to change their style easily and often. This is convenient for individuals who are struggling to find their identity and express it through their style of dress. In fact, I suspect that it’s become a truly important developmental step for American adolescents and for teens in many other parts of the world as well. The principle of buying pieces you know you can live with for a long, long time is at odds with the fast-paced changes the fashion industry is pushing and the mass-market model of clothing production that has taken over. And it’s tough to do with a changing sense of who one is, who one wants to be, and the persona one wants to project through their fashion choices.

There is no question about whether or not to make careful investments in basic pieces that build your wardrobe. But what is one supposed to do about the trends: the poncho, leggings, skinny jeans, wide belts, and pointy-toed shoes? A few options come to mind. Just a few ideas, really.
- Reintroduce the school uniform to reduce trend-based consumption among children and adolescents
- Categorically avoid anything that screams “trend of the season”
- Purchase only when relatively certain you can wear the piece out before it goes out of style
- Establish a limit; allow yourself 1 such purchase per season or per year
- Force yourself to wear the trend piece from 3 years ago as punishment for your fashion consumption sins; then blog about that experience

 

The demise of the cobbler: shoes not pie

I’ve done an inordinate amount of traveling during the past two years, and my luggage has taken quite a beating. I recently took my saddest suitcase to the ONLY cobbler I could find in all of Austin City Limits. When I was growing up there were at least four cobblers in our small town, but these days there is just one. Why is there only one cobbler in a large urban area like Austin? Because people don’t get their shoes repaired anymore – or their handbags or their luggage. Why? Because we buy cheap, rubber soled shoes that will go out of style before we wear them out. Then we buy new ones. We treat shoes (and luggage, sweaters, jackets, blouses, trousers, and most other articles of clothing) like disposable goods.

The cobbler thing (lack-thereof) is, of course, just one symptom of larger changes as we’ve become a disposable society. I bet there are still lots of cobblers in places like New York and Buenos Aires and Paris, where people walk a lot and like to wear really nice shoes. Why is it that we no longer invest in pieces that will last a lifetime – or at least a solid decade? Lined jackets that our children will steal from us when we’re not looking and take with them to college. Scarves that get carefully laundered and stored in boxes until the next cold front? Boots that have seen 4 continents and 3 different soles?

I know I want to teach mindful, careful, responsible consumption to CJC – having to do with clothes, food, energy, television, and most everything else. I also want to do a better job of this in my own life. I’ve been weeding out lately and, though necessary, the process is causing me some serious guilt. Expect more posts on this (and closely related) topics in the future.

 

A little bit behind on this whole itunes thing

I bought my first itunes albums the other day. Gifted Queen’s “Greatests Hits” to GC (per shrinking isaac’s recommendation) and Carly Simon’s “Into White” for me. I’m the kind of person who, until now, has always insisted on making the trek to the record store and buying the actual CD. But I read a few reviews of the CS album that made me realize that I had to have it and fast. Since I hadn’t yet taken a shower and since packing up CJC and driving across town to the record store is a little bit of a pain – not to mention the time, traffic, parking hassles, gas, and other pollution involved with doing that, I bought on itunes. There’s probably no going back.

The best part of the whole transaction: I couldn’t remember which password I used for my apple account, so after 3 unsuccessful tries, I clicked on the “forgot password” icon which took me to a page aptly titled “iforgot.” Too cute.

 

Everyone (including sociologists) weighs in on food

It seems that absolutely everyone is talking and writing about food right now. I heard this interview with sociologist Barry Glassner on Marketplace yesterday. His new book promises to be just as good as his old one and way better than The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I really admire the good scholars who make their arguments both relevant and available to the public. I also imagine that he, unlike most academics, makes quite a bit of money from his book sales. Note to self.

Other food-related insights on culture I’ve come across recently-ish:
- Americans are becoming olive oil snobs
- Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson’s book “Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine“
- Silicone kitchen tools (which I already mentioned yesterday in a fit of rage)
- That French Food Bricolage ASR article
- Cotton candy paper – a 10 for creativity, but I’ll pass.
- The author of “The United States of Arugula” on tonight’s The Colbert Report
- My own post on Food Drama in 2006, lest I forget