Just found at Ikea: Varme teapot

I picked up the Varme today (in black) on my gajillionth visit to Ikea in the last few weeks. How I did not ever notice it before is unbeknownst to me, because this teapot is HOT. The slant in the design also aids in pouring, which makes me like it even more.

$9.99 at Ikea.

Are you Green or just Greener?

I am obviously all for taking steps to 'green' my life by substituting ecological questionable for better ones. But in an era in which appeals to 'greenness' have become another marketing strategy for corporations whose practices are less than stellar, I can't help but wonder if any of these new patterns of consumption, which are still consumption after all, are making a difference.

A few observations:
1. The new 'green consumption' is more often than not a way to make the consumer feel better, trendier, and more sophisticated/socially conscious about their choices. It is only truly "green" if it is a practice that you already do or a product you already consume. If you don't use dryer sheets now, using "green" dryer sheets because they are "green" (i.e. not AS BAD) for the environment, probably contributes to the destruction of the planet via increased consumption of resources and additional waste. This means we have to make smart choices about what to consume, and eliminate other products entirely from our consumption. Shifting from paper towels to reusable towels, or swiffer sheets to a reusable, rewashable mop, is probably much more important than buying an (extra) set of organic bamboo sheets.

2. Unintended consequences: I'm no Heiddegarian, but I am persuaded that attempts at environmentalism often have unintended consequences, sometimes in pretty serious ways. Take, for example, the automobile, which was intended to offset the environmental impact of horse manure, which accumulated as a result of horse-drawn carriages and threatened environmental and public health. Decades later, the consequences of driving cars far outweighs the impact of the manure. What unintended consequences might our new actions have? Corn plastic and ethanol production are already impacting things like global food prices.

3. Marketing strategy or the real deal? This is the ever-present problem of the new trendiness of environmental consciousness. Even Clorox has a line of supposedly 'Green' products, and furniture companies appeal to this sensibility by designing products with 5% organic materials and calling them 'Green."

My best advice to do as much yourself as you can. Buying a simple castille soap and using it in a lot of your cleaning endeavors cuts down on waste at multiple points in the consumption chain. Re-purposing materials is also great, because we all know we have too much stuff that we don't use anyway.

The Convertible Desk, revisted

I posted last week about the Crate and Barrel Convertible Compact Desk.

Since then, I've noticed similar designs at a few other places, though none as practical and useful as the original.

Notably, though, the new Ikea catalogue features the Gustav desk. Available only in black-brown (hopefully just for now), the Gustav is a simple wooden desk with a pull-out option, much like the Convertible Compact Desk from C&B.

A few things about the desk are striking:

First, the "pull-out" desk addition has been around forever, or at least as long as desks were specially made with those keyboard things that rolled out that no one really uses for keyboards anymore. Adding it to the side, however, enables the addition of a drawer that pulls out to the front. The drawer resides in the negative space of the desk pullout, making the design both functional and chic.

Second, despite appearances, the total work area provided by this desk is enormous (about 50 inches).

Third, both the desk itself and the "pull-out work surface" have cable outlets--meaning you could put a printer on one of the surfaces, or even share it with a friend.

Mad Men

I've been meaning to write about the AMC original series, Mad Men for a few weeks. If you haven't seen it, it is a period piece about an advertising agency in the late '50's/early '60's that highlights how different life in the U.S. was not so long ago. Mad Men is probably the smartest show I've seen in awhile (which is saying a lot given how much television I watch).

There is a lot of buzz about the show's mid-century aesthetic in the blogosphere. While that particular style of furniture is still very much present in modern homes and offices, finding sofas in the proper colors, countertops with the retro metal siding (like mine, in my 1950's kitchen), and other various room details must have been quite an endeavor. The show demonstrates the tension and transition between an era of more classical, even Baroque design (especially in shots of upper east side Manhattan apartments) and a new mid-century modernism based on cleaner lines and geometric shapes. The clothing is also genius, but that is a discussion for another day.

Most of what I'd otherwise like to say in the way of synopsis or social analysis has already been said, and I'd recommend Alex Carnavale and Molly Lambert's analyses at This Recording. I will say a few things, though. While the social cues are subtle, the characters' behavior toward women and minorities is stark. Women seem to balance the opposing drives of absolute submission to their husbands and being on the cusp of resistance. As Lambert puts it, the show demonstrates "why the fifties were an era that begged to be rebelled against later on in the sixties." Attitudes toward race were also much more complex than many of our generation can even begin to understand. In a time in which Jewish or Italian Americans were considered non-White, the world of White privileged society was exclusive in ways that are very foreign to us now. Most people do not know that there was a long period of struggle and assimilation that led White Americans to socially think of Jewish and Italian immigrants as members of "their race." I won't get into the history of that now, but it is worth mentioning that the show captures this dynamic perfectly, especially in Don Draeper's affair with Rachel Menken.

In season two, we learn that Paul Kinsey, one of the advertising execs, has an African American girlfriend. He is accused by an ex-girlfriend of using her to demonstrate that he is "cultured" and "interesting." The girlfriend's character (I wish I remembered her name--they barely mention it) is significantly one of few African Americans present on the show. Of these few, most are men who work in the office building as elevator controllers or janitors. The only other African American women on the show are hired domestic workers (referred to as "the girl" by Draeper) and friends of characters with "fringe" behavior, such as Kinsey and Draeper's mistress, Midge. The show attempts to demonstrate the careful relations between White Americans who relate to racial minorities in unorthodox ways (for the time) and does it quite brilliantly, with each interaction causing the slight discomfort of some of the characters and causing cognitive dissonance.


I was really afraid that the show would focus too much on the valorization of the period (Pleasantville, anyone?), but it is, instead, like a careful eye watching the mundane actions of privileged people, watching them flinch as the times are changing. It is incredibly successful in its silent observation, allowing the stark difference of the era to speak for itself. There are a lot of other things that I could say, and probably will write about as the second season unfolds, but for now, if you have not seen it, rent it immediately.

Bo Concept Sleeper Ottoman

The Bo Concept Sleeper Ottoman, in a stylish black and white print pattern, featured today on Apartment Therapy, is THE small space solution for anyone who regularly has guests from out of town often, or even for someone who wants to fold up their bed during the day and hide it away in a corner.

On the one hand, this thing costs as much as my large blue sofa, but on the other hand, it is 100x more intelligent than my sofa, so it is totally okay. If only it came with other covers...

Veg*n Brunch: Saba Pasta

I cannot believe that I've never written about the veg*n brunch at Saba. Let me say right off the bat that I don't like the actual food that Saba serves Monday-Friday. I've never really had anything there that struck me as terribly successful, and I still miss Burrito Art, which is what occupied the Village location before Saba. Generally, when I want to go to this kind of pasta place, I go to Figo.

That said, they have amazing brunch. I happened to have it when they took us there for a grad school interview weekend, and I've been back nearly every Sunday since then. The menu has a lot of options--omelettes, French toast (including a vegan version), biscuits (vegan and non), and a bunch of other things. What I usually get is the Scrambled Tofu plate. For $5.95, you basically get a very large amount of protein: a big serving of scrambled tofu, 2 soysage patties, a biscuit, and grits. The scrambled tofu is cubes of fried tofu (not that mushy stuff they serve at Crescent Moon), in tamari sauce with roasted red peppers and broccoli. It alone is the reason I eat brunch at Saba. The biscuits are also very good (vegan and non, I've tried both). Saba is the only place that gets me to actually eat grits. I find them very creamy and filling there.

The way the "plates" work is that you choose 1, 2, or 3 eggs however you like them OR the tofu scramble, and you get your choice of: wheat toast OR biscuit, grits OR potatoes, and bacon, sausage OR soysage. A very large amount of food for under $6.

Service: Saba is one of those places, so popular now in the city, where you order at the window but get tableside service for the rest of your meal. I've found that the service was better at the Village location than the Decatur square location, where I went yesterday for the first time. Decatur seemed to not get a lot of brunch guests, as I was the only person in the restaurant for the first half of my meal. It makes sense though, because the square has so many other brunch places that no one would think to go eat at the new brunch place.

The food tasted exactly the same as the other location. The only complaint I had was that it took forever for my grits to come out, and I almost didn't think they were going to because the waitress never mentioned it. In fact, I had finished my whole meal before they came out, but I didn't mind so much because it meant that I ate less of them and that I had a really nice end to my meal. I attributed the lateness of the grits to the fact that they had to make a portion just for me, since no one else was there.

I actually very much prefer the decor in the Decatur location, now that I have seen it. They seem to have ordered these large red wooden chairs en masse, and used them not only at the tables, but to decorate the restaurant by hanging a few from a wall. This works very well with the brick wall on one side, that the restaurant shares with Birdi's, and the other rustic art that adorns the space. The tables are large and spacious, and there is even a very large "family style" table in the middle of the restaurant, perfect for large groups. I'd be willing to give the real food there a try sometime just because I think the place looks nice, so that says something.

Nature's Path Organic Instant Hot Oatmeal

I don't even like oatmeal usually. It makes me so hungry after like 30 minutes, unless I eat a heavy protein right before it. Recently, though, I was making a care package for a friend and decided to include a few packets of Nature's Path Organic Instant Hot Oatmeal. I kept a few packets for myself and ate them for breakfast. Eventually, when I ran out of it, I got so grumpy that I drove to a far away store just to buy it, even though I'd recently been grocery shopping.

It is amazingly satisfying and delicious. The oatmeal, which only takes about a minute to cook in the microwave, is topped with cinnamon, soy nuts, flax seeds, and dried blueberries. It is barely sweet, but smooth and creamy, especially with a bit of added soy milk. It is also vegan and fully organic. It could use some more protein, but the overall carb content is relatively low considering that it is oatmeal.