by wire ...

With Summer looming, the verandah at the farm needs a bit more chairing up (as with most spots around our place, need may be a mild exaggeration), and we have been hunting for something to compliment our long-time favorites ...

Of course, the problem is that any new addition has to be vintage, look good, and have a decent pedigree ... oh, and fit our budget if possible.

Today things came together nicely - we were off to Richmond to deliver some chairs and thought we should take the opportunity to check out the recently launched Permanent Collection on Burnley Street.  A great stop all 'round.  The store is stocked with some officially fantastic mid-century pieces, Charles is a lovely chap to chat with, and ...

... a vintage (c.1950) local-production of the sweet Bertoia 420c side chair - quietly waiting for us.  With nicely cracked plastic-coating and just enough rust developing to fit in with the verandah's current set, she's just the thing.

Joy.  So now we just need maybe one or two more nice bits of white wire and ... oh lordy ...

Like Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia's sculptural chair designs from the 40's+50's have become fodder for those 'reproduction' monkeys (MattBlatt, Click-On, Sokol, etc, etc) who are getting low-quality copy furniture SOOOOOO cheaply from China and populating every real-estate brochure and carbon-copy renovated house in the western world.  So we know that for $149 (+ delivery) we could have as many of those $12 (wholesale - check alibaba.com for a laugh) knock-offs as we please ... but does the world really need to put our dwindling resources into turning classic design into disposable, paper-plate chairs?

As for the originals ...

A vision of tomorrow before we humans got together and trashed it!

oh good.

Found in a lake near a nuclear power plant in Argentina - a 3 eyed fish (left) closely resembling Blinky, the fish caught in Lake Springfield almost 20 years ago ...

Plenty of online reports if you want to know more ... 

Not saying the fish would have been any less ugly if he had the standard 2 eye configuration, but it's just not as funny in real life, that's all.

In other news, so far no reports of mutated wildlife in areas of solar power generation.

But we thought she was a good girl ...

Down at the toy shop today we were curious about the new packaging design on the Barbie dolls ...

Not even pink stickers ... we checked with Greenpeace - hmmmmm ...

The video campaign is pretty compelling too.

David Lynch, odd man.

Like that's a revelation.

Was over at Door Sixteen a couple of days ago (a reliably interesting blog, for sure, by a reformed Manhattanite - Anna), and was totally entralled by this commercial.  David Lynch selling his own brand of coffee ...that would be David Lynch Signature Cup Coffee, of course ... and what a compelling ad he has made.

David Lynch Signature Cup Coffee from David Lynch.

Just a glass of water for now, thanks.

return of the mantis ...

Guess it must be the change of seasons - though it kinda feels like summer's still here - the praying mantis posse is once again descending on our garden.

They are definitely the kookiest bugs we see in our neck of the woods ... and a lot less harmful than the locust plague Victoria's being smitten with ...

judging a book by it's cover?

Cath's got this knack of collecting that has a logic all of it's own.  We're currently hunting for a couple more bookshelves to accommodate a burgeoning stack of novels from Penguin Publishing - a stack which gets bigger each time she spots a different logo on the spine ...

We're just waiting for the apocalypse now, so we have a bit of time to hole up at home and read 'em all ...

reptiles again?!??!

Always thought we'd be sharing our love of mid century design on our blog ...
We went down to Morwell see a lady about a sideboard on Monday ... the sideboard's lovely, and has enjoyed a touch of restoration and is on the floor at PRODUCT now.

But the real action came when she asked if we could help out with a lizard problem she was having.  She had spotted a blue-tongue in a tea-chest of old magazines in her shed a week ago, and was too scared to go back into the shed since.

Turns out that blue-tongues move kind of fast when they see a hand coming towards them, so decided to carry the whole box across the road to a bushier spot and our scaly friend was soon off to terrorize some non-humans.

Oh ... if you need to be reminded why we have sent all the politicians off to Copenhagen this week, we recommend a trip down to south-east Victoria ... the views ...

rise of the machines

Say what you will about the growth of the freeway systems in Melbourne (we all have to work together to burn off whatever oil is left in this planet of ours), they have given us all an opportunity to drive through areas we may not have seen before.

We suspect that these guys have been secretly meeting behind their once-secluded warehouse for years, plotting the demise of we pesky humans ("they look like ants from up here!"). Thankfully Eastlink has exposed their lair. If you see a cherrypicker rolling down your street, or pretending to be helping with cable-installation, think sabotage - it's them or us!

Can't afford to be complacent - the machines are talking to each other.