I am not a fan of the preciously twee but twee in leetle-beady doses is okay by me. As spotted at Watson Kennedy in Seattle this past week:

1.  A dozen completely fabulous file folders which of course will by themselves naturally organize my 77 boxes of paperstuffs into neat little piles.

2.  A very cute 2″x4″ hardback that reminds me of leafing through old women’s magazines at Ball State University’s Bracken Library.

3.  Umm, packing tape that looks like measuring tape. Duh.

I know, I know: that which counts cannot always be counted, and what’s counted doesn’t always count. But still!

If you are ever in Seattle, I highly recommend stopping by Watson Kennedy. The location I was at was at 1022 First Avenue; (206) 652 8350.

Wish list:

• A trio of mini-notebooks by Cavallini & Co.
• Telephone thank-you cards by Cavallini & Co.
• Keep Calm & Carry On rubber stamp (a reminder to higher-ups!)

From Olesha’s “Speech to the First Congress of Soviet Writers” delivered on August 22, 1934:

Every man may suddenly feel in himself the appearance of some double. This phenomenon is particularly acute in an artist; one of the most amazing things about him is his capacity to experience other people’s passions.

In every artist the seeds of an entire range of passions, bright and dark, are implanted; he knows how to make them grow and turn them into trees…

… I step through the archway, look at myself and see that my youth has returned to me.

Youth has suddenly and for some unknown reason come back to me…

I have come to the conclusion that my greatest wish is the right to preserve the colors of my youth, the freshness of my vision, to defend that vision from assertions that it is not needed, from accusations that it is vulgar and worthless.

It is not my fault that when I was young the world around me was horrible. But it would be absurd for me not to make use of the colors on the palette of my youth for that reason…

… In this country the first new generation, the first Soviet man, is now emerging.  Being an artist, I pounce upon him.

“Who are you? What colors do you see? Do you ever have dreams? What sort of things do you long for? What do you think of yourself? How do you love? How do you feel about the world? What do you accept and what do you reject? Which is stronger in you, reason or emotion? Can you cry? Do you know what tenderness is? Have you understood all those things that used to frighten me so, that I couldn’t comprehend, that bewildered me? Tell me, what kind of a person are you, young man of the socialist society?”

Perhaps these are the questions we, ultimately, ask of everyone in our lives.

What sort of things do you long for?

- – -

Matty Charles & The Valentines’ “Where They’ll Bury Me” — fabulous track about getting older and wiser

I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.

– From Joan Didion’s essay “On Keeping A Notebook”

Quoth the MoMA catalog:

Each of the three notebooks in this set features 64 blank, lined, or graphed pages. The three covers are adapted from Tadanori Yokoo’s works: Poster for a Noh Play (1969), Post for National Bunraku Theatre (1971), and Untitled (graphic image) (1974). comes with a stylish slipcase. 6″h x 4.25″w x 1″d.

• Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem contains “On Keeping A Notebook”
• Yokoo notebook set > at MoMAStore.org, $18.95; $15.16 for MoMA members
• Yokoo notebook set > at Velocity, $18.95

Bonus: you can keep on nodding terms with Japan’s early seventies’ design aesthetic, too.  !