I am an advocate against going paperless. Not that I don't love technology; on the contrary, I am a gadget fiend. But I also love actual paper, print, and writing by hand. I have used iBooks for some reading, but I still prefer holding an actual book in my hands, turning the pages, flipping around, and reading in bed without worrying about breaking a device. I also like magazines. Again, it's about holding the magazine in my hands, flipping pages, and not worrying about breaking anything.
Perhaps one of the things I love most about books and magazines is browsing in a book store. Sadly, there aren't any bookstores that are less than an hour's drive from my house, but I'm willing to put in the driving time. Even more sadly, driving an hour only gets me to a Barnes & Noble. To get to a really good bookstore, it's a much further drive. I can, however, get to a pretty good pen store in about an hour.
I collect fountain pens. This may seem pretentious, but allow me to explain. I've always loved writing, both the physical act of writing and the intellectual pursuit of writing. The things I've loved about the physical act of writing have been finding new and interesting writing instruments and using them on different kinds of paper. My father mostly used fountain pens when I was a child. He thought he was state-of-the-art because he used cartridges. I never really thought about fountain pens, myself, until one day when I was in a drug store when I was about 19 years old. I came across the Varsity, a disposable fountain pen by Pilot. I bought it and loved it. I loved the way the ink flowed out of the pen and how the nib looked as I wrote.
Unfortunately, at that time I couldn't afford any high-quality fountain pens. And, since I was going into teaching, it was many more years before I could afford to buy one of my own. Eventually, though, I got a Waterman Hemisphere and a Parker Sonnet. These were my first 2 real (non-disposable) fountain pens. I went on to buy many more and I now have a nice little collection. My current favorite is my Pelikan Souveran 215, although I still use my Hemisphere very regularly. I don't have any antique fountain pens, which is what the "real" collectors love, but I'm quite happy with my pens.
Of course, as soon as I got my own fountain pens, I had to look into inks. This is where things got really interesting. I started by getting a bottle of ink from Levenger, Cobalt Blue. Then, of course, I had to get some cartridges, since most of my pens take cartridges as well as bottled ink. When surfing the internet, I came across Private Reserve Ink, which has a great selection of ink colors. My favorite of theirs is DC Supershow Blue. But my favorite ink company is, without question, Noodler's Ink.
Noodler's has a fantastic selection of colors, and it also has some truly inspired names for them. Currently, I have Dragon Napalm (a bright orangey red, kind of like mercurochrome), Baystate Blue, Navajo Turquoise, Concord Bream (a pale, grayish lilac), and Polar Blue. Next, I plan to get Nikita (a bright red), Eel Cactus (magenta), and Bad Blue Heron.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Sweet Home, Chicago
Last week, I visited family and friends in the greater Chicago area. Already, I am imagining that I can hear those who live in the actual city of Chicago groaning. People who live in Chicago proper sometimes have attitude about those who live in the suburbs. OK, so I was raised in the suburbs. What's the big deal? Anyway, while there, I ventured into Chicago, itself, in order to visit the Art Institute. I have several favorites there, such as Beata Beatrix by Rossetti, and The Old Guitarist by Picasso. But my favorite gallery within the Art Institute has always been the Paperweight Gallery. You can imagine my disappointment, then, when I entered the gallery only to find that many of the paperweights were not on display. Later, I learned that the Art Institute was considering getting rid of them.
[Insert melodramatic scream of "Nooooooooooooo!" while on knees and shaking fists at sky.]
The collection of paperweights at the Art Institute is one of the best in the world. When I lived in the Midwest, I was fortunate to be near two of the best paperweight collections -- the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah, Wisconsin. I can't explain what I find so beautiful about glass paperweights, except to say that I've always liked very small things. Within the beautiful millefiori antique paperweights are very small "canes" and there are often letters or dates to be found on them. I could spend hours looking at collections of antique paperweights because there is so much to see within these little worlds. This is what attracted me to Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars when I was 10 years old. Everything was so tiny! Of course, now the Sanrio company makes normally-sized things with Hello Kitty on them, too many things, in fact. And, it's very hard to find anything with Little Twin Stars. But, I digress.
Oddly, I do not enjoy the Thorne Miniature Rooms Gallery, which is quite near the Paperweight Gallery. I find the miniature rooms to be stifling. I really don't enjoy entire rooms of antique decor, whether miniature or full sized. I like individual pieces of antique furnishings, but not entire rooms. So, a gallery of 68 miniature rooms of antique decor overwhelms me.
The depleted paperweight display was not my only disappointment on my visit to Chicago. I also saw one of the most hideous things I've ever seen. On Michigan Avenue, there is a monstrously large, full-color statue of Marilyn Monroe, Forever Marilyn by Seward Johnson. It's been there for almost a year and it's the ugliest piece of public art in the world. OK, that might be an overstatement, but come on! I'm a big fan of public art and I also love pop culture, but this statue is just an eyesore.
Throughout Chicago, you can find public art by Picasso, Oldenburg, Chagall, Miro, Dubuffet, and Calder, among many others. The architecture in Chicago is also breathtaking, with buildings designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe, among many others. In this setting, the statue of Marilyn Monroe is just an insult. I'm just grateful that it isn't going to be a permanent installation. It's supposed to leave sometime soon.
[Insert melodramatic scream of "Nooooooooooooo!" while on knees and shaking fists at sky.]
The collection of paperweights at the Art Institute is one of the best in the world. When I lived in the Midwest, I was fortunate to be near two of the best paperweight collections -- the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah, Wisconsin. I can't explain what I find so beautiful about glass paperweights, except to say that I've always liked very small things. Within the beautiful millefiori antique paperweights are very small "canes" and there are often letters or dates to be found on them. I could spend hours looking at collections of antique paperweights because there is so much to see within these little worlds. This is what attracted me to Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars when I was 10 years old. Everything was so tiny! Of course, now the Sanrio company makes normally-sized things with Hello Kitty on them, too many things, in fact. And, it's very hard to find anything with Little Twin Stars. But, I digress.
Oddly, I do not enjoy the Thorne Miniature Rooms Gallery, which is quite near the Paperweight Gallery. I find the miniature rooms to be stifling. I really don't enjoy entire rooms of antique decor, whether miniature or full sized. I like individual pieces of antique furnishings, but not entire rooms. So, a gallery of 68 miniature rooms of antique decor overwhelms me.
The depleted paperweight display was not my only disappointment on my visit to Chicago. I also saw one of the most hideous things I've ever seen. On Michigan Avenue, there is a monstrously large, full-color statue of Marilyn Monroe, Forever Marilyn by Seward Johnson. It's been there for almost a year and it's the ugliest piece of public art in the world. OK, that might be an overstatement, but come on! I'm a big fan of public art and I also love pop culture, but this statue is just an eyesore.
Throughout Chicago, you can find public art by Picasso, Oldenburg, Chagall, Miro, Dubuffet, and Calder, among many others. The architecture in Chicago is also breathtaking, with buildings designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe, among many others. In this setting, the statue of Marilyn Monroe is just an insult. I'm just grateful that it isn't going to be a permanent installation. It's supposed to leave sometime soon.
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