"somewhere between eccentric and esoteric," i offered, describing to my mother my latest interests.
"even as a child, you were eccentric, into eccentric things," she agreed.
we were talking about my recent fascination with finding the ultimate pen for me. all i know is that it's a fountain pen, and in the last few weeks, i've acquired two relatively cheap ones, received a vintage one that doesn't work as well as i'd hoped, am waiting on an inexpensive vintage in the mail, and as of yesterday, won two more; new Parkers, on ebay. alright, alright...i just bid on a new Waterman, but i swear i'll stop searching after that--i'm pretty sure that one of the Parkers will be the one.
the pen discussion was my lead-in to my new fascination--a return old school shaving. i want a straight razor, the strop, the badger brush and all that. i hadn't seen Dale in quite awhile, but ran into him at the bar last night and he was quite knowledgeable on the subject. he told me about the world of shaving creams and necessary accessories, then sent me a bunch of websites to check out. i don't think he was fucking with me, but upon checking out these sites, i realized he sent me to the high end of the highest-end products out there(see my wishlist).
i'm more into finding quality things without paying full price, which often means restoring things.
sometimes there's compromise and i end up paying full price for quality things--kitchen knives and conga drums are two immediate examples in my house. functional things that have withstood the test of time make apparent their quality. i like heirloom-quality things. ironically, i'm more and more doubtful that i'll have any children to which i can leave these things.
it wasn't a conscious decision, more like a natural motion toward eliminating disposable things in my life. i wouldn't tag it with the cliche 'going green,' i'm not really eco-minded, just quality minded, and this is the result. it doesn't apply to everything in my world, but there are several instances of this in my world. i predict that one day i'll be going through this same process in search of a sewing machine...kind of surprised i haven't already now that i think of it. i'm sure i'll talk about it when it happens.
"even as a child, you were eccentric, into eccentric things," she agreed.
we were talking about my recent fascination with finding the ultimate pen for me. all i know is that it's a fountain pen, and in the last few weeks, i've acquired two relatively cheap ones, received a vintage one that doesn't work as well as i'd hoped, am waiting on an inexpensive vintage in the mail, and as of yesterday, won two more; new Parkers, on ebay. alright, alright...i just bid on a new Waterman, but i swear i'll stop searching after that--i'm pretty sure that one of the Parkers will be the one.
the pen discussion was my lead-in to my new fascination--a return old school shaving. i want a straight razor, the strop, the badger brush and all that. i hadn't seen Dale in quite awhile, but ran into him at the bar last night and he was quite knowledgeable on the subject. he told me about the world of shaving creams and necessary accessories, then sent me a bunch of websites to check out. i don't think he was fucking with me, but upon checking out these sites, i realized he sent me to the high end of the highest-end products out there(see my wishlist).
i'm more into finding quality things without paying full price, which often means restoring things.
sometimes there's compromise and i end up paying full price for quality things--kitchen knives and conga drums are two immediate examples in my house. functional things that have withstood the test of time make apparent their quality. i like heirloom-quality things. ironically, i'm more and more doubtful that i'll have any children to which i can leave these things.
it wasn't a conscious decision, more like a natural motion toward eliminating disposable things in my life. i wouldn't tag it with the cliche 'going green,' i'm not really eco-minded, just quality minded, and this is the result. it doesn't apply to everything in my world, but there are several instances of this in my world. i predict that one day i'll be going through this same process in search of a sewing machine...kind of surprised i haven't already now that i think of it. i'm sure i'll talk about it when it happens.