Alessi for me

A watch is a simple thing perhaps.... or perhaps not when you think of all the tiny mechanisms and movements at work (analog or digital, there is still a lot going on).

I myself wear and collect watches like some women do jewellery. Some are in heavy rotation for a year or two and then a broken strap relegates them to the back of the jewellery box, which of course, I use for watches more than for jewellery.

My favourite new watch though is definitely something to write home...or should I say "a blog", about and will probably be in heavy rotation all summer if not fall.

It is the Alessi Kaj watch. I bought it in New York a few weeks ago, but although that adds to its souvenir-like aspect for me (ie. a nice memory of my trip), I think it can be purchased almost anywhere.

Why I love this watch?

1. It was cheap. $85 cheap.

2. It reminds me of clocks from the 1970s, the ones that plugged in and sat on your parents' bedside table. I chose a brown one, which totally adds to this nostalgic appeal, as does the orange hand.

3. The whole band and casing is made of one piece of some-kind of rubber. This makes it really tactile -- you just wanna grab it-- and it makes it seem indestructible (it's one of the only watches I let my 11 month old daughter chew on, literally). I also have a Lexon alarm clock that I love for the same reasons and because it is deep matte turquoise.

4. It is super chunky and thick, very much like one of those toy watches you got in loot bags as a child whose display was some sort of hologram. But this one has the real time on it. It's like a very practical adult toy, and who doesn't love those? (see ipods, Dyson vacuums, Kitchen Aid mixers and anything by RIM.)

When I googled the watch for this blog, I discovered it was designed by Karim Rashid, which brings up mixed emotions in me because a) it's cool he's Canadian, but he did leave quickly to set up shop in New York, b) he wears all white all the time, which seemed neat 5 years ago but now seems cult-like, c) he left his wife, a super-chic, thin model-ish woman, for yet another super skinny, younger, actual model wife and d) He wrote a book on design called "I want to change the world," which I find simultaneously admirable and obnoxious.

But none of these mixed emotions will stop me from wearing it. A week after I bought it, a salesperson at the Umbra store complimented me on it and thought it was designed by Philip Starck. Not that it matters to me, I love my watch regardless if it has a name behind the design or not (in fact it would be better really if there was no name behind it, proving you don't need a big name to achieve good design.) Nonetheless, Starck was the one who said "we have to replace beauty, which is a cultural concept, with goodness, which is a humanist concept." I think this statement is a step-down in obnoxiousness from "I want to change the world," and although it seems un peu idealistic, I think it's also a step in the right direction n'est ce pas? (Note to self: Future post on green design??)

BGL's "Nowhere 2" takes me somewhere good

South of Queen St, on the Don River, at a spot you can't see easily from the street, but easily from the bike path, floats a 25 foot model of a cruise ship with the name "Nowhere 2."

From where I was walking on the bike path the boat came as a surprise even though I was looking for it. In this part of the Don River trail, any "surprise" that doesn't involve gruesome garbage or things that look like crime scene remains usually evokes an internal sigh of relief. Nonetheless, this artwork was a really nice surprise... it ranked right up there with seeing a pair of swans a few minutes before. The swans reminded me that the river can still sustain wildlife and the boat . . . well , firstly it looks cool. The art group BGL that conceived it wisely made it black, so it seems to be almost one with the river (yep, the black river...hmmm). Secondly, while the Don IS kind of "nowhere" these days (certainly, the swans notwithstanding, it has lost its destination as an ideal spot to observe nature) it perhaps can continue to be a spot of contemplation. And not just the "what am I doing with my life" kind, but also the "what are we doing to the city and its natural environments?" kind of contemplation.

On a decommissioned bridge above the boat hangs a second piece by BGL, a hugely oversized life preserver with the words "Don River" on it. While I applaud the '"Save the Don" message of the piece, its aesthetic leaves me cold. It's a bit like looking at a huge McDonalds sign hung in a forest, albeit a kinda dirty forest next to a freeway.... But maybe that's the point, to create such an aesthetic clash and strong visual statement that you are made to look, and think, twice.

BGL's project on the Don River shows until June 29th.

Lucaffe --- Too hip for T.O.? Or just too racist?

Every time I walk by the coffee shop Lucaffe, at Queen and Boulton, the "Uncle Remus-like" white-toothed, barefoot, smiling chubby black guy that part of their icon (his image is on everything) makes me cringe. It's like walking by a black lawn-jockey statue, but seriously worse because it is so huge and obvious. Okay, the company is Italian, so Italian in fact that the English on their site is well...less than perfect. I'm guessing that the mascot from the Italian perspective is either a) considered hip and kitschy, political correctness be damned or b) is the original logo from eons ago and they think that it is now hip and kitschy, political correctness be damned.

Either way, it doesn't play out well here in East Toronto. The fancy schmancy place (they have put a bundle into it) is a ghost town... always. On a strip where a new coffee place opens every few months to standing room only, this is unusual. I think we'll be saying "Ciao" to Lucaffe in the next few months and maybe I can walk by this corner without embarrassment once again.

"Pick Yourself up by your Bootstraps."

Does that mean suck it up and take hold of your life? Or is it, like someone once suggested, actually counterproductive, wherein pulling up on your bootstraps while wearing your boots does nothing?

Maybe kinda like blogging?

Oh well, I'm hoping it means the former and I am making an attempt to get my career and life on track. If it's only the latter, that's okay too. At least it's a place to vent.