I once brought a girlfriend home whose Dad was someone my Dad knew, and my Mom said: "At last you're going out with a girl of our class." So we had a fight, and I realized I was an anti-snob. Is that the same thing as being pro-shabby?
With all respect, JE, I believe that I might give you a run for your money in that regard. When you look up "white trash" in the dictionary, you see a picture of the inside of my house.
I've been putting off buying new furniture until the kids are old enough that it won't get trashed. And the dog dies. Sheepdogs are pretty long-lived, so we've got a ways to go until we get a couch without identifiable baby-vomit stains.
My aesthetic for decorating is charming and only somewhat ordered eclectic clutter. I once housesat at a house in Berkeley that was basically my dream. It was in the hills and had a view of the Bay. I don't remember perfectly what was in it, just the sense of abundance in the living room with big windows; I know there was a grand piano with a big dusty runner and maybe a candelabra, and lots of objets from all the rich owners' travels, but not displayed like treasured art, but like bric a brac. That's what I like--bric a brac. There was a sense of abundance everywhere; the CD case was filled with music I was interested in. Along the same vein, pantries filled with food I'm interested in are pretty emotionally satisfying. Also, when I went to Ohio to work for a 527 in 2004, I stayed in the vacated room of this rabbi's version of this, although a little too neat. It was filled with beautiful embroidered pillows and music boxes and puppets and wind chimes, and everything was actually gorgeous, not tacky or tasteless at all. I effused to the rabbi about how that room was like fairyland, and how much I loved staying there. Their whole house had that pleasant abundance. When I got there they fed me some yummy olives and some amazing fruit I'd never had before--I don't remember what it was. Although it was all, like the girl's room, a little too ordered.
In my kitchen I have a complete multi-level ecology: fruit-flies, spiders, and spider-hawks. In Taiwan, cockroaches, ants, a wasp nest (solo), a gecko, and a 5" spider.
It's funny how your opinion of your parents' taste changes as you grow up. When I was young, I was embarrassed to bring people over to our house, with our bizarre custom-made furniture, shelves full of antique irons, tables made out of old sewing platforms, modern coptic-iconography-inspired paintings, turned-wood screens, iron-and-glass light fixtures modeled after ones from the nineteenth century, and granite and stone flooring instead of carpet.
But when I was about sixteen, I realized my dad was a genius.
16:
Shit yes, Adam, that was pretty tear-inducing. Hope things are looking more upper-like these days, lad. Whatever happened to that woman? Does she have four shabby kids and a shabby husband?
I read it yesterday; that's some fantastic writing right there.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 07-18-06 9:48 PM
Fascinating. Reminds me of some of the arguments I used to have with my mom about furniture.
Posted by teofilo | Link to this comment | 07-18-06 10:55 PM
I once brought a girlfriend home whose Dad was someone my Dad knew, and my Mom said: "At last you're going out with a girl of our class." So we had a fight, and I realized I was an anti-snob. Is that the same thing as being pro-shabby?
Posted by Adam Ash | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:00 AM
Modern "decorating" is definitively tacky. All these leather sofas, stainless steel crap -- tacky
No way. If I had the money, it'd be steel and stone as far as the eye could see at my place.
And if anyone desires some shabiness, I suggest having a couple kids. Believe you me, plenty of "utilitarian" and "make-shift" will come your way.
Posted by gswift | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:27 AM
Bah. I think Kotsko's having authenticity issues. To the Wolfson-Mobile!
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:40 AM
Kotsko so shabby, he ain't that shabby.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:42 AM
I didn't want to taunt Kotsko, but I am the Michelangelo of shabbiness.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:44 AM
re: 7
With all respect, JE, I believe that I might give you a run for your money in that regard. When you look up "white trash" in the dictionary, you see a picture of the inside of my house.
Posted by Idealist | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:48 AM
My room is pretty shabby. My appearance, sometimes shabby-chic, sometimes just shabby.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:49 AM
I've been putting off buying new furniture until the kids are old enough that it won't get trashed. And the dog dies. Sheepdogs are pretty long-lived, so we've got a ways to go until we get a couch without identifiable baby-vomit stains.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:51 AM
until the kids are old enough that it won't get trashed.
That would be when they move away to college.
Posted by Idealist | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 7:55 AM
My aesthetic for decorating is charming and only somewhat ordered eclectic clutter. I once housesat at a house in Berkeley that was basically my dream. It was in the hills and had a view of the Bay. I don't remember perfectly what was in it, just the sense of abundance in the living room with big windows; I know there was a grand piano with a big dusty runner and maybe a candelabra, and lots of objets from all the rich owners' travels, but not displayed like treasured art, but like bric a brac. That's what I like--bric a brac. There was a sense of abundance everywhere; the CD case was filled with music I was interested in. Along the same vein, pantries filled with food I'm interested in are pretty emotionally satisfying. Also, when I went to Ohio to work for a 527 in 2004, I stayed in the vacated room of this rabbi's version of this, although a little too neat. It was filled with beautiful embroidered pillows and music boxes and puppets and wind chimes, and everything was actually gorgeous, not tacky or tasteless at all. I effused to the rabbi about how that room was like fairyland, and how much I loved staying there. Their whole house had that pleasant abundance. When I got there they fed me some yummy olives and some amazing fruit I'd never had before--I don't remember what it was. Although it was all, like the girl's room, a little too ordered.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 8:03 AM
In my kitchen I have a complete multi-level ecology: fruit-flies, spiders, and spider-hawks. In Taiwan, cockroaches, ants, a wasp nest (solo), a gecko, and a 5" spider.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 8:51 AM
It's funny how your opinion of your parents' taste changes as you grow up. When I was young, I was embarrassed to bring people over to our house, with our bizarre custom-made furniture, shelves full of antique irons, tables made out of old sewing platforms, modern coptic-iconography-inspired paintings, turned-wood screens, iron-and-glass light fixtures modeled after ones from the nineteenth century, and granite and stone flooring instead of carpet.
But when I was about sixteen, I realized my dad was a genius.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 8:59 AM
And, in line with that other thread, writing that comment totally made me cry.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 9:16 AM
Several people have told me that this essay of mine made them cry.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 9:39 AM
Happy Birthday, Adam.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 9:46 AM
It's not that bad.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 9:46 AM
Is Country Living an upper-class, horsey magazine with lots of coverage of the races at Henley? Or is that Country Life? I've seen the snooty one.
Posted by Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 9:55 AM
BG, I think you're thinking of Country Life.
Silvana, Thank you.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 07-19-06 10:04 AM
16:
Shit yes, Adam, that was pretty tear-inducing. Hope things are looking more upper-like these days, lad. Whatever happened to that woman? Does she have four shabby kids and a shabby husband?
Posted by Adam Ash | Link to this comment | 07-20-06 8:06 AM