Sagmeister

This is self indulgent but I feel it is justified since it’s a follow-up to a topic I wrote about nearly a year ago. Tonight Stefan Sagmeister the graphic designer came to KC for a lecture event on his book tour. A and I went because I’m a big fan. Afterward he signed my book and this happened.

To explain why this happened I need to say that a few friends/co-workers have mentioned in the past that I bare a resemblance to Sagmeister. Two of those people happened to be standing near by. If anything, I think he bares a resemblance to me.

So Long, No Depression Printed Magazine

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19246307

This was a magazine I loved. It covered the type of music I play and listen to. Then like everything in my life I took it for granted and sort of ended up ignoring it. I guess I’m part of the reason it’s discontinuing it’s printed version. But I will probably always hang on to the copies I have because my bands are featured or blurbed in a few of them. And that bolstered my ego and made me feel good. That attention sort of validated what I was trying to do as a musician even though I wasn’t making any money at it.

“We Brought a Pedal Steel Player with Us”

This past October I toured with the New Amsterdams from Lawrence, Kansas for six days. It’s been a few years since I’ve done anything like that since now I have a jobby job that I like. But since I was a hired gun I for the trip, I was able to take unpaid leave from work. That’s a rare thing.

Because I’m vain, I’m posting a youtube video from that tour (this one’s from a Boston church) by a New Ams fan.

New Amsterdams myspace.

flickr images of the tour.

DAX Madness

Early 1950s Eames DAX chairs of Zenaloy (D = dining height, A = armshell, X = four point rod leg base)

These came from a Catholic elementary school here in town. I made an offer initially thinking that they were replicas or knockoffs of Herman Miller Eames chairs since I couldn’t find the HM logo molded on the bottom. After the buy and doing more research specifically about these chairs I now think it’s very likely that these predate the HM logo* and are real Eames chairs.

I had two nearly simultaneous “Oh, shit” moments. The first was in realizing that these were probably real Eames chairs and that I got them for a great price. The second was in that I may have dissuaded the elementary school teacher from her first thought that they were real Eames chairs. I told her that I wasn’t for sure if they were real but in my experience the real items had Herman Miller branding. We both looked and she took my first offer based on that assessment. And even though I was operating under the best information I had at the time (which wasn’t much), I now wonder if I need to let her know that I bought six chairs from her for less than the price one chair would fetch on ebay. (Please know that I’m not bragging here.) In that case, I’d probably end up with one chair.

Is it narcissistic to feel this kind of guilt? Or is that question a way to justify my feeling better about this all? It seems we both brought to the purchase the knowledge we had at the moment and used it honestly.

I’m told that I “just stumbled on (my) first mid-century modern find. That kind of thing does happen.” Clueless, dumb luck might be more like it.

* I don’t know when the HM logo did or didn’t go on similar chairs but eamesoffice.com and ebay both show models with and without the logos

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Guilt aside, now I see why these chairs have endured. Not only are they sturdy and weighty but they also seem to defy gravity! The skinny legs are surprisingly solid and the fiberglass seat seems to floats above them. After more than 50 years these chairs live both in the 1950s and today effortlessly. Though, for some reason, when I became more aquatinted with these I could only think: laundromat.

Does this chair seem dated to you?