How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

May 13, 2019

...l know how these “influencer” nightmares play out. If you’re looking for a book about how to be more productive in a world of Facebook notifications, text messages and endless emails How to Do Nothing, despite the deceptive subtitle ain’t that book. But, perhaps, that’s the point. Maybe the problem with our culture is the need to “be productive,” to live in the myth of endless growth on a planet with finite resources. Central to Odell’s book is Wa...

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Spider Bite!

Mr. Homegrown

December 4, 2017

Pests

10 Comments

...rom the ER and it looks exactly like the Long-legged Sac spider in the NHM book. Don’t worry, he later released it to the hipster wilds of Echo Park. Unlike the Brown Recluse, Long-legged sac spiders employ reputation management consultants to keep their nefarious activities out of the news. They live in the corners of rooms and even, according to the NHM book, take up residence in household appliances. So dust out that Vitamix periodically! Lest...

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Acedia Part II: An Internet of Narcissism

Mr. Homegrown

June 21, 2024

Thoughtstylings

...ch my friends helpfully provided just for this purpose. Harpo goes at this book with gusto, shredding the remaining pages and tossing the book off the shelf where it thuds to the floor and scares the cats and the dogs. Lasch had the same fury in his critique of the self centered culture of the 60s and 70s. I suspect much of the revival of Lasch has a lot to do with the fact that the social media that dominates our lives is nothing more than an obs...

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Sensuous Space: How to Create Romantic, Seductive and Sensuous Settings

Mr. Homegrown

April 21, 2023

Design

1 Comment

...e see our first hot tub. The power nexus of the erotic panopticons in this book are, naturally, your disco control centers because your house must have its own private discotheque. I don’t know how you keep the blow from gumming up the electronics. Of course, such idiosyncratic spaces are the domain of the ultra-wealthy who can afford serial remodeling. Reznikoff notes that many of these spaces are second homes. A particular class of nouveau riche...

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I Built a Set of Gerritt Rietveld Crate Chairs and So Can You

Mr. Homegrown

November 30, 2020

Design

3 Comments

...shelf, can be made with a few hand tools. The rest of the projects in this book would require a table saw and varying levels of skill. The book contains measured drawings for all the projects and tips on how Rietveld did the joinery as well as colors and finishes. If I had a modernist house or office I’d go crazy and make everything in this book. Pro tip: learn even a modest amount of carpentry skills and you can have furniture by famous designers...

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