quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

nope, it's the NYT. coverage of freegans only.

i tutor in an after-school program on the west side. weirdly i have never encountered one of these freegans.

Soon everyone was rifling through the clothing. “I haven’t worn underwear in eight years,” declared Tim, as he clutched several pairs of boxers with a grin. “I am feeling fancy as hell!”

Horseshoe, stop by the Freegan Mansion and tell Tim that he can probably pick up some free underwear the next time he goes home to do laundry.

ha! maybe we can take the kids on a field trip to study this way of life in its "natural" habitat.

One morning, after I had been hanging out at the mansion for a few days, we were about to have breakfast when someone noticed that all the forks and spoons were missing.

“What happened to all the silverware?” someone asked.

“They got turned into a wind chime,” someone replied nonchalantly. Sure enough, moments later, we could all hear the sound of forks clanging in the breeze.

One evening, a foraging party visited a nearby bike path and gathered several hundred snails. They stuffed them into mushrooms and cooked them in butter. Occasionally the menu at the house also included roadkill like duck, deer or raccoon. Tim was fond of this cuisine. His father told me, “It just hurts his heart to see an animal lying on the road not being consumed if it’s already dead.”

:O

i'm irrationally irritated that this is the story about Buffalo life that showed up in the times. the West side is an awesome neighborhood; it would be cool to hear about how the various recent immigrant groups are getting by in some detail.

― horseshoe, Tuesday, June 8, 2010 7:20 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

I guess this is the reason why:

Tim worked with Garrett and a local community organizer named Aaron Bartley (who is a friend of mine), and they appealed to the bank to forgive the lien.

h8 wearing shoes so much f the man

Not a perfect fit for this thread, but I often kept thinking of it as I was reading this article. Not that the greater point isn't someone valid, that there's too much internet distraction out there and maybe it's ruining our lives, but uh, maybe picking someone who doesn't seem to have such a great life might be a better story...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html

Not alot of freegan love on ilx!

I was in Detroit a few weeks ago and went to a mansion like this, except most people were reasonably hygienic and it was more orderly than this article makes freegans out to be. For instance there were chore wheels up on the wall, notes (which were followed) to wash dishes after you use them, lot of local kids and adults stopping by to sell their arts & crafts, trade homegrown foods, make some music, etc.

Good thing too, because we walked to the nearest diner (30 minutes away) and the scene on the way was desolate, mostly shut-up buildings and out of commission union locals. I bet freegans from wealthier families really are a different breed altogether....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/26/nyregion/26hospitals.html?scp=1&sq=manhattan%20birth&st=cse

http://www.bestweekever.tv/bwe/images/2008/07/Shrug.jpg

I dunno, I have more sympathy for the freegans than I have for just about any of the other "iconoclasts" that the NYT has focused on.

otm

yeah, i think i just had an irrational reaction to that article because of my experience with the west side.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/garden/01peter.html?_r=2&src=twr&pagewanted=all

This was both irritating and pleasing to Mr. Buchanan-Smith, who says that he constantly worries that he’ll be perceived as “just some design hipster kicking it old-school selling some chic tools to a handful of other hipsters.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/realestate/27cov.html

the axes are fucking stupid

The buyers of these apartments, which range in price from $2.5 million to $7 million, are not typically people with five or six children; they tend to have two to four. But they want a bedroom for each child as well as a guest room, a family room or a home office. Maintenance or common charges for these larger apartments range from about $3,000 a month, for a three-bedroom, to $6,500 a month for a seven-bedroom.

I'm gonna have to save up to afford this new fad

It's amazing how that one and the birth/hospital story above seem to start from the assumption that everyone else in the city is at best a sideshow. Fewer births from gentrifying neighborhoods! Why? Not, maybe, because the people who were having more babies and using the hospitals are no longer in the neighborhoods, but because those hospitals aren't good enough for the people who took over the neighborhoods.

No one should pay more than $40 for an axe.

"Their apartment’s most appealing feature is its 1,000-square-foot kitchen. 'Not even many houses have kitchens that big,' Ms. Davie said."

That's twice as big as my entire apartment!

I'm also struggling to relate to this:

"Last summer Irene and Oleg Davie moved into a five-bedroom apartment at 225 East 74th Street with their son, now 11; their infant daughter; two Havanese dogs; a live-in nanny; and a live-in housekeeper."

If the Davies are on trend, according to this article, "want a bedroom for each child as well as a guest room, a family room or a home office," I do wonder whether they are making the nanny and the housekeeper share a closet.

Expensive is the new black.

Irene and Oleg share a room, each kid and each dog gets his/her own room, and the nanny and the housekeep take turns sleeping in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Which to be fair, is about 300 square feet.

They should do a story about hipsters who rough it in bushwick but still go to mom's to do their laundry.

I went to a house once where the maid slept in the wall - a tiny door opened to a space barely big enough to fit a bed, it was about 4 feet high, no windows.

I just found my dream home on a high-end realtor's website, but to be fair it's way the hell in Brooklyn and it's not "New York Times"-expensive (although it is expensive).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/garden/01peter.html

this caption: With “authentic” becoming a buzzword for selling handmade products, Peter Buchanan-Smith, a graphic designer, can become a mini-star.

can't wait for the roving bands of hipster scavengers fighting it out with 'authentic' axes in the ruins of williamsburg over the last working macbook

jesus these people

“It was like an invitation to this world I wanted to create. The world of making things where notions of courage and fortitude are associated with it, but also playfulness and levity.”

“Peter is like a regular guy with an eccentric way of thinking, and he’s interested in things that function. You know he loves a Shaker table. He probably loves a yellow pencil or a bar of Ivory soap or a paper clip or a well-designed tube of toothpaste. It’s all about stuff that’s what it is. That’s an idea that’s really popular right now.”

lol @ the idea that a $185 axe sold in NYC boutiques "is what it is"

He jumped up to show a reporter his rope ladder, and a stiff canvas satchel made by an American company, Archival Clothing, “that I could see passing down to my son,” he said.

"Honey, what did your dad say about this bag again?"

"God knows. Put it on the donate pile."

his son is going to be very disappointed by his birthday presents

And then he himself will wonder why he got the Z-grade nursing home robot in future years.

... so I murdered an axe marketer

Win

+1

this dude is totally just some design hipster kicking it old-school selling some chic tools to a handful of other hipsters.

"It’s all about stuff that’s what it is. "

this sentence is kind of blowing my mind right now

aieeeee i know that guy

feel the writer of the article is A+++ though, I love how he just slips this in 3/4 into the article:

Meanwhile, Mr. Buchanan-Smith’s marriage had foundered. Maisie, the border collie, was diagnosed with a rare brain disease and had to be put down. The immaculate Victorian had to be sold, at a $100,000 loss, and emptied of its contents.

aieeeeeeeeeeee!

I can only imagine what my UHB college classmate with the five pretentiously-named kids is doing for an apartment right now.

guess what the article doesn't mention????? that this guy used to be the illustration editor of...... the new york times op-ed page.

trebles all around

Gonna drop them in it? That's skeevy.

huh?

Think they ought to declare an association in the clarifications and corrections dept.