Flipping the Flippers on May Day

...arbie movie without putting on any makeup. This first episode of their new series focused on the affluent life of the hosts as they moved between suburban pool parties and their bland office. But what fascinated me most was what the show obscured: the immigrant workers who do the construction of their projects. You never see the worker’s faces, only their backs, arms and sometimes just the tools they hold. You never hear them speak or anything abo...

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More DIY Furniture: Grid Beam and Open Structures

...Your Own Living Structures, relies on either wood or metal with a regular series of holes drilled to accept bolts. Grid Beam is modular and you can use the method to make chairs, tables, beds and rooms. Pieces can be taken apart, reused and reconfigured. If you want to try it you’ll definitely want a drill press and a jig to make the holes uniform and square. Thankfully you can find many used drill presses in the wild as they are a common tool in...

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The Rain Got Real

Our home city of Los Angeles is in the news for a series of heavy hitting winter storms. While we’re on high ground and in no danger of flooding, our under-framed old house made ominous creaking sounds throughout the night. Reliably, the Cosanti wind chimes on the front porch start clanging before the approaching storm. I checked on our rain garden late last night (excuses for the bad photo) and the water level was the highest I’ve ever seen it....

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Acedia Part II: An Internet of Narcissism

...h Coulam toy with his employees and go on dates at the Olive Garden with a series of 20 something women that he meets online on a site called SugarDaddy.com. Coulam’s shameless and humiliating treatment of these young women reminds me of this passage in The Culture of Narcissism, Sade imagined a sexual utopia in which everyone has the right to everyone else, where human beings, reduced to their sexual organs, become absolutely anonymous and interc...

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