Category: Life

Monday, February 20, 2006

With a bit of work last week and over the weekend, Buendia and I have produced a new website – ’Architect Babies‘.

The tagline pretty much says it all, ‘For parents with more taste than money’.

Buendia describes the conundrum well:

Why is baby-related gear designed (or rather over-designed) to offend creative parents, and appeal to people who think ‘more is more’?

It’s a chore to find things that are safe, and practical, and affordable and NOT UGLY. The aim of this site is to share with people some of the things I’ve found that fit those criteria.

You don’t have to be an architect, of course. You might be a graphic designer, or an artist, or anyone whose house is not furnished from Oak Express.

There’ll be more posts arriving over time, and we hope we might even cover the hosting charges with some Google ads. Check it out: www.architectbabies.com

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Thursday, January 26, 2006

So Buendia got me a turntable for Christmas, and I’m having much fun converting my vinyl to MP3 format. The records seem to have survived 18 months in the garage without too much trouble.

I’m struck by the way technology has influenced the creative process. Albums used to have sides, and artists would use the limitations of the medium to their advantage. So you’d have an up side and a more reflective side, or you’d have to make sure you started side 2 with a killer track.

Often, when I’d first buy an album I’d spend a couple of weeks just listening to the first side, to allow myself to really get it before turning it over.

And now all this analogue mechanical stuff is being filtered through my trusty PowerBook at home, and ending up on my iPod and the Mac Mini in the office. When we tell Finn that music used to come as an object, not just a data file to be accessed whenever and however we like, she’ll just laugh. But then I’ll show her the vinyl.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

The news that fewer Americans are now buying SUVs is welcome – especially in these parts, where the 400-year-old roads aren’t built for Chevy Suburbans (so called because they’re the size of a small neighbourhood) or Nissan Armadas (named for the fleet of ship required to bring all the petrol they need).

But the cars people are buying instead are fugly.

Exhibit A – the Chrysler 300.

One of the more successful US-produced cars of recent years. It looks so square and squat it suggests it was sat on by a giant elephant.

Exhibit B – the Dodge Magnum.

There’s no angle from which this doesn’t look clumsy and malformed.
Plus it’s named for a choc-ice or a cheesy 80s detective, neither of which are that good.

Exhibit C – the entire Cadillac range.
The CTS, DTS and STS all look a lot like those fake luxury-barges Kia and Hyundai make. You know, the ones that if you squint at them in the distance you can see the Mercedes and Lexus shapes they ripped off, but when you get close you see how all the changes they’ve made have ruined the lines and overall effect. But the cadis are super expensive.

Exhibit D – the Buick Lacrosse.

Only old people buy Buicks (except in China, where they’re seen as hipster – go figure), which explains why you have to be partially-sighted to think they look good.

Special mention has to given to the estate or wagon versions of many of the US-produced cars which are even worse than the saloons. The 300M in particular resembles nothing so much as a hearse. Not such a stylin look. Add in the usual complaints about interior quality, hulking inefficient low-tech engines and problems going round corners, and I’m not sure why anyone would want one.

The US motor industry has partly been sheltered from reality for last few years while people bought big SUVs and didn’t care about fuel consumption. But now petrol is more expensive (relatively) here, European (and espeically Japanese) car markers must be rubbng their hands (except for VW, who can’t seem to buy a sale of their cars over here recently, for some reason).

Next year we’ll probably get a second car – Fionnuala will need increasing amounts of fetching and carrying, and we each have jobs to go to and all that – so I’m beginning to look at whats available right now.

For a start, we know it will be small and a hatchback – say the size of a Golf or Peuogeot 307 – which makes us weird here, but whatever. The new Golfs (available in Europe for some time) won’t make it here until the New Year, but I’m not so sold on them. But there are still a few options for something that looks less like than the back of a bus.

The Mazda 3 looks smart and is getting great reviews, while the Audi A3 4-door hatchback they’re offering here looks fantastic, if pricey: 2.0 litre turbo engine generating 200HP, great auto/manual transmission with paddle shifters, bombproof interior and great handling.

We’ll see what eventually happens, but one thing is sure. We’re not getting a Yankowagon that’s taken a bit hit with the ugly stick. And don’t get me started on Hummers.

(thanks to NewCars.com for the images.)

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Regular readers will know my passion for The Archers, the long-running BBC Radio 4 drama (or soap, if you’re being nasty). That I can listen to it over the internet is a Very Good Thing.

But yesterday I was struck even more firmly by the distance-destroying impact new technology has had on ex-pat life. I was sitting in the office listening to England winning the Ashes, just as I would have been if I’d been working in Wycombe or Dublin (that’s cricket, and a rare victory over the mighty Australians, for those on this side of the water).

CMJ, Jonathan Agnew and Bill the grumpy statistician – all in my office on E. Palace in Santa Fe. Fantastic.

Then I’m home in the afternoon for my stint of Fionnuala watching. With Finn asleep, I’m wandering through the channels and there’s West Ham vs Villa live – the Monday evening Premiership match (that’s footbal).

Which is all a roundabout way of saying that it’s much easier to feel connected to life in the UK or Ireland while living in New Mexico than it was even seven years ago, during my spell in Kansas. And then, it was much easier than it would have been five years previously.

Obviously, spending all my time immersed in sport and media from back there would be pretty unhealthy, but being able to dip in every now and again – especially when England are just about to reclaim the Ashes – really makes a difference.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

I’m beginning to think Douglas Rushkoff has it right, I’m afraid:

What those who are afraid of civil society breaking down don’t realize is that civil society has already broken down! This is not a civil society we live in, but a profiteering, every-man-for-himself, oligarchy. The democratic process is broken if not rigged; the largest-ever redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich occurred over the last six years under the guise of economic stimulus; fear and disinformation were used to put the poorest of Americans onto a battlefield under false pretenses; those who seek to engage the current administration in meaningful dialogue are terminated.

Watching Shrub this morning talking about how much love he’s showing for the victims in the Gulf area didn’t help.