I Heart Bookshelves

Another tip of the hat today, this time to Bookshelf Porn, the online photo collection for people who *heart* bookshelves, i.e. erotica for book-obsessed individuals like myself. (A big thank you to my art historian friend, Roberto, for sharing this fantastic find.)

Below are a few examples to whet your appetite. More are added to the Bookshelf Porn site daily. By all means, if you have a bookshelf to show off, submit it!

 And I can't resist this one - a rule by which I try to live (she says as she completes her entry for the day). Ah, the contradictions of modern life.

Staying on subject, here's one of those fun intersections of life. I came across this book last week while browsing the shelves at Paper Skyscraper (which is incidentally the best design bookstore and best gift shop overall in Charlotte): Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books.

Featuring bookshelves in the offices or homes of starchitects like Tschumi, Williams Tsien, Toshiko Mori, and Michael Graves, the book offers what everyone knows to be the truth about a personal book collection: revelations of heart, soul, and mind. Of course, despite all those big architecture names, it's really the scholar's list I want to see: that of Michael Sorkin, also in the book and a potential subject for a future "I heart" post.

I Heart Engravings: Never trust an octopus

Of all things I love, books are at the top of my list, right next to millinery, engravings, sea monsters, and all things baroque. Webster's Pictorial Dictionary offers all of this to me within the bounds of a beautiful kiwi green hardcover, complete with gilded title block and sea monster illustration (okay, it's an octopus, but we all know what those can do. I'll just refer you to It Came From Beneath the Sea and King Kong vs. Godzilla. Enough said.)
Ah, rejoice my heart.

And for all of those octopus-defending types - you know who you are - who go on and on about squids being the true culprits of aforementioned crimes:

Case closed.

2010 Color of the Year

The color of the year is...(drumroll, please): Pantone 15-5510 or, in layman's terms, Turquoise. Now I know I'm behind on reporting this. It was announced last December, but lots of other color-focused companies (Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, London's Global Color Research) are jumping on board.

Now forgive me, but really? I find the choice a bit uninspired. Don't get me wrong, turquoise is actually one of, if not my absolute favorite color. It can be simultaneously earthy and airy, rich and whimsical. Its variations conjure up sea-green glass bottles, tropical water, and heirloom hydrangeas. The stone for which the color is named happens to be my birthstone. Suffice it to say that I have an attachment to the color.

My question is when was turquoise not a color of any year? It has somehow transcended decades of fashion, design, and popular taste to remain a happy, beautiful color in everyone's book. I think it deserves a better title than color of a single, stinking year.

Ah, well. Here's to you, Pantone 15-5519.

Ode to Ovation

A simple ode to Ovation, the cable channel that exists for the pleasure of the nerdy few. It is no Bravo - no omnipresent, handsome gay man or beautiful rich bitch. How it stays on air, I don't know. There can't be that many people interested in things like a honky-tonk singer turned opera performer or the design origin of greeting cards, but I don't mind minimal company. So here's to a few favorite Ovation moments:

Designer People - Ovation, why didn't you come to me before Amy Devers? I'm so much cooler (though I'll admit my wardrobe isn't).

Later with Jools Holland - Here's to musical talent and small venues but why 4AM?! Another reason to have TiVo.

Bathroom Divas - That honky tonk singer I was talking about? Episode 3.

Reality TV - About up and coming photographers, dancers, musicians, artists, and designers. Sure Project Runway started it all, but Ovation took into disciplines other channels wouldn't dare.

Documentaries -  On every artist, architect, musician, and designer worth mentioning and beyond. I celebrate a channel whose core content is built on these sorts of productions.