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

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.

"peter's axes are totally, like, a thing"

"let's give him a little PR, he's had a rough time lately"

"should i mention that he used to sit next to me?"

"you mean when he bothered coming in?"

"yeah"

"it's not really relevant, is it?"

"i guess not"

http://rlv.zcache.com/mee_ow_postcard-p239757717745542191trdg_400.jpg

...

fwiw i have nothing against peter, he always was always pretty nice and refreshingly un-frothy when we hung out (tho i was mainly buddies w/his ex) - like pretty much every other example on this thread my extreme irritation is not with the subject of the piece but with the way it's written and presented; which details are included, and which ones - like that peter used to edit the op-ed art for the same fucking newspaper that's currently giving him a gigantic PR boost - are conveniently omitted

well that and the apparent diktat given to all style writers to include the rental price of their subjects' apartments

I don't really have a problem with this article, if only because a really nice axe will probably run you a hundred bucks by itself. It's not like he's selling $10000 diamond-studded axes, you could still use these for work.

if you want people to think you're not wearing that flannel ironically, buy that hipster axe

wait

if only because a really nice axe will probably run you a hundred bucks by itself.

No.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?keyword=axe&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&safe=off&q=wood-handle+axe&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=8QQyTIWPHoL88AafuO3ICw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDYQrQQwAg

Dull, made in China with inferior materials != "really nice axe."

http://www.shopatron.com/products/productdetail/Large+Splitting+Axe/part_number=442/235.0.1.1.0.0.0.0.0?

I mean, the Home Depots are probably serviceable, with some attention to sharpening, but anything made with better materials in the US (or Scandinavia) is going to cost more. It probably doesn't apply to the hipster axes, but there's nothing wrong with buying good tools that will last forever and can be passed down from generation to generation.

milo I see your point, but this:

I don't really have a problem with this article, if only because a really nice axe will probably run you a hundred bucks by itself.

vs.

One morning late last winter, a barista at the City Girl Café on Thompson Street who was making coffee for a bleary-eyed Mr. Buchanan-Smith startled his customer by exclaiming, “You’re the ax man!” The barista, who had seen Mr. Buchanan-Smith’s photo in New York magazine, then worked out a payment plan to buy one. (Axes start at $180.)

How much do you think a barista in Manhattan would typically spend on an axe?

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&q=%22using+my+best+made+axe%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=36ec6be010d257f

No results found for "using my best made axe".

Best Made = J Peterman x McSweeney's

i think you'd be arrested in london if you "wore" an axe around like that.

Designers like Mr. Buchanan-Smith don't just have "stuff." They are constant arrangers and vignette-builders. On a window sill: a plumb bob, a bottle of cologne, a moth.

No results found for "using my best made axe".

People buying them in NYC is silly, sure. No more or less silly than buying a $200 watch or whatever, though.

you could actually use a $200 watch on a daily basis, and it probably would keep running and look good for a long time. i wonder how many people in nyc would buy one of the axes just to hang it on a wall?

I'm pretty sure lots of people pay $180 and more for stuff that they just to hang on a wall

you're only pretty sure of it? cmon man, take a stand.

well, I haven't actually done a survey or anything, maybe nobody actually buys all those paintings I regularly see costing more than $180.

are the axes being sold as art or as a quality tool?

I think the part that's annoying to me is I wouldn't mind people who just wanted to hang well-designed axes on their wall as objets d'art, it's that, for these buyers, a well designed axe isn't enough without having a couple racing stripes on it to indicate that it's passed through a design gatekeeper and been marked. But now that it's a SANCTIONED design piece, it's all good to hang on the wall.

why can't it be both?

xp

Color, pattern, and play are the guiding factors in everything we make. Even though it’s “just an axe” it’s a blank canvas with endless possibilities. When the axe is finished we sit down and think of names. The naming process is crucial: it’s where we give the axe the beginning of its story, albeit a very short story (we purposefully do not caption the axes, just give them names) because we know our customers are inventive enough to create the real ongoing story.

that's a bit precious isn't it..

this sort of thing needs a gilbert sorrentino to embalm it forever in a thoroughly devastating snapshot of a ridiculous age, really

/exposure of actual intentions for this thread

you could actually use a $200 watch on a daily basis, and it probably would keep running and look good for a long time. i wonder how many people in nyc would buy one of the axes just to hang it on a wall?

The point is that the people in this article aren't choosing between a cheap axe and an expensive one with the same utility, they're choosing an expensive product with no utility to them.