Design Observer: Vicarious Thrifting, via Twitter
Vera Neumann, Spice Jars dishtowel (via Ship + Key)
[F]or the past few months, I have found another outlet, and other eyes on Twitter. There a lively thrifting community lives, states and a continent away, Twitpicking and Flickring each other images of glasses and scarves, posters and tea kettles for instant reads. Zeisel or junk? Rand or dog-eared summer house paperback? I don’t know any of these people, but they seem to be the new connoisseurs, picking through the Goodwills and estate sales, collecting for themselves, for each other (everyone has a particular designer passion) and for their Etsy stores.
More about how fun it is to follow the thrifters (and a link to design:related’s thrifting list) here.
Is the Blogroll Over?
Ever since I started this blog, 16 months ago, I have regretted not being able to figure out how to have a blogroll. All those sites that tell you how to increase your traffic insist upon it.
But yesterday I had to put one together for this blog’s big move (news on that very soon) and it felt totally beside the point. Most of my choices were banal to the point of unnecessary, but on the other hand, including only quirky small-scale blogs I like (but only visit occasionally) felt overly revealing. I was conflicted, as I have been every time I adopt (very late) a new technology, about how best to present myself in this new form. Indeed, all my worries about the template for my Tumblog seem silly, now that me and everyone I follow reads Tumblr via the Dashboard.
It felt like the new reveal should be a rotating list of who I follow on Twitter. When I started Tweeting I went to the Following lists of friends and just copied, semi-wholesale, to get myself started. (There’s probably an application for that.) To say I read 15 blogs seemed strangely concentrated and reduced, since the beauty of Twitter is that cloud of information from everywhere and nowhere. To commit to 15 felt so old school.
