Lydia Ricci’s art
“Tiny sculptures made from the scraps of daily existence.”
Newsstands
From Trevor Traynor: Newstands, 100 photographs.
Groceries emoji
I can describe what I’d like to see: a brown paper bag, appropriately dented in two or three places, with a loaf of bread, a box (perhaps of cereal), and a head of celery jutting from the open top. A cliché, of course, the groceries people used to carry in on television, though the emoji need not be in black and white.
Rituals and talismans
The Washington Post reports on ballet rituals and talismans.
The Museum of Everyday Life
The New York Times visits the Museum of Everyday Life.
xkcd : “Work”
Everything gets designed.
“Ordinary, thrown-away things”
Joel Meyerowitz on photographing objects in the painter Giorgio Morandi’s studio.
Everyday carries
Pez, candy cigarettes, &c.
Tube Benders
A 99% Invisible episode about neon.
Fordite
Rocks, sort of, from car factories.
A pink ashtray
One of the pleasures of visiting my grandparents as a child was seeing the objects of their households, “the totally familiar,” always the same: a tiny porcelain boot with a penny in it, a dinner bell (for show not use), Hummel figurines, little bamboo cups for drinking a liqueur before Thanksgiving dinner. And this ashtray.
Force of Evil
Telephones, pencils, and notebooks, oh my.
Burt Shavitz (1935–2015)
The Burt behind — or at a distance from — Burt’s Bees.
EDC
So much to carry!
Joseph Mitchell the collector
Poster for a 2009 exhibit.
Joseph Mitchell and things
Bricks, posters, forks, insulators, menus, matchbooks, hats, jars, vacuum cleaners.
Recently updated
Gamewell fire alarm, now with an approximate date.
Gamewell fire alarm
Old fire alarm, still on duty.
Radiolab, “Things”
Elaine said that I had to listen to the Radiolab episode of that name. Our daughter Rachel, too, said that I had to listen. So I did.
Tiffany telephone dialer
A perfect mid-century gift, immortalized in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Recently updated
New York in fifity objects.
New York in fifty objects
From the New York Times, a history of New York in fifty objects.
Refrigerator inventory
A soon-to-be-published book on material culture and American households suggests a possible correlation between the number of magnets on a refrigerator and the amount of stuff in a household.
The Clabber Girl Museum
A delight for anyone interested in American material culture
A junkie’s pockets
From The Mystery of the Wax Museum (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1933).
Orange toothbrush art
Orange plastic, black bristles
Pockets and purses
New York Times slideshow -- what's inside pockets and purses
Serendipitous searching at Big Lots
Kleenex, tea
The doctor's bag
What's in one?