Form vs function

I receive catalogues from many different sources, for products that I have absolutely no interest in.  Furniture vendors in particular.  I guess I clicked on something one day and BAM, I was on their radar as a sucker potential customer.  Now I do like (soft) contemporary architecture and furniture, but much of it just looks downright uncomfortable.  Obviously (to me) whoever designed it placed form over function.

Exotic automobiles are often conflicted by this "form vs function" conundrum, too.  Lamborghini's are decidedly gorgeous, sleek cars....

....but have you ever tried to get into or out of one?  *groan*

The Amish, by contrast, don't even recognize the concept of "form".

Some people are impeccably stylish.  You rarely see England's Prince Charles in anything other than his trademark double breasted suit, and then he's either wearing his polo attire or one of his dress military uniforms.  Do you think he ever just puts on some shorts and a t-shirt and gets in a quick game of croquet out back with the guys?

Donald and Melania Trump's New York apartment is I'm sure considered by many to be Architectural Digest perfect, but if he invites Sean and his pals over to watch the game, where would they sit?  You think he has a man cave no one ever sees where he goes to let his hair down?  (pun intended)

Most of us fall somewhere in between.  We like form, but we like function, and comfort, more.  I can't imagine buying a sofa or a chair from a catalogue.  I insist on sitting on it first.  If it isn't comfortable, I don't care how good it looks, I'm not buying it.  I have an old, decidedly worn looking oversized leather chair in my den.   As I recall it had a pleasant "form" when I purchased it 20+ years ago, but since then it has decidedly conformed nicely to butt, making it's original form almost unrecognizable today.  It will probably join Archie Bunker's chair in the Smithsonian some day.  *snort*

As I look around our apartment I'd have to say I lean 90% +/- toward function.  I own very little that anyone would consider "stylish".  Not our furniture, not our "art", and certainly NOT my wardrobe.  My car, a Mazda, is currently parked in our garage between a Mercedes and a Maserati (no joke).  I wonder if either of those people ever say to themselves, "Doh....I coulda had a Mazda!"  (They probably do, actually, when they're looking out the window of their respective dealer's service departments and see me puttering by.)

How about you?  I'm not saying there's anything at all wrong with being stylish.  To some it's worth the effort.  How would you rate yourself....be honest now....on the "form vs function" scale?

S 

Life is easy again

My friend Joe Hagy recently posted an entry on his blog (you can read it here), the gest being that things that might have interested you when you were younger no longer seemed important when you got older.  Your grand plans when you were 25 become just meh when you're 65.

Joe, being a few years older than me, and therefore probably a few years wiser, really nailed it.  It's probably just human nature to aspire to have "more better" stuff.  First you buy a "starter" home, then a "move-up" home, and eventually a "luxury" home.  You buy your first new car, lets say a Chevy or Ford, then you move up to something with a more impressive nameplate (Caddy, etc) and finally to a Lexus or Mercedes or such.  Your Seiko might work just fine, but you have your eye on a Rolex or an Omega.  Then, speaking for myself, and apparently Joe, too, you reach an age where you realize all that is pretty much meaningless.

I had my first home when I was 23.  It was larger than I needed and had a HUGE yard.  I was suddenly a member of the landed gentry!  Then later, with a family of five, we moved into a larger, nicer home, on par with what our friends also had.  (Ahhh...the joys of peer pressure.)  Eventually I had an even larger home, still on a BIG city lot, but now just for the new Mrs and I.  (Have I mentioned how much I hate yard work?)  Eventually I hit that inflection point in my life when that big home seemed more a liability than an asset.  By then I didn't care about impressing anyone, I just knew I was tired of messing with it, so I sold it.  Now we have a small but comfortable maintenance-free apartment.  Life is easy again.

I once wanted a fancy sports car so much I lost sleep thinking about it.  A Porsche 911 to be specific.  I almost bought a new one in 1972 ($9,500 back then), but chickened out when I learned how much it cost to maintain.  Later, with three kiddlettes, I moved on to fancy American land yachts.  Now that I might (?) be able to afford the kind of car I dreamed of as a young man, I don't want one.  I couldn't enjoy going out for dinner or popping into Target for a few things without worrying what a$$hole was parking his klunker next to me and was right then banging his car door into mine.  *the horror!* Now I just drive my modest little Mazda to the car shows and take pictures of all those exotic cars other people are having to pamper and worry over.  Life is easy again.

I once wanted an expensive watch.  I worked my way up through Bulova's and Seiko's and got as far as a TAG Heuer when I learned a dirty little secret about luxury watches:  They don't keep very good time.  They make a great "statement", but they don't keep very good time.  Mine were always needing adjustment every few weeks because they had lost a few minutes.  To a punctual-aholic like me, that was tantamount to a Cardinal Sin.  And, as with my cars, I was always paranoid about bumping into something and scratching my precious "statement".  "Screw it" I finally said.  I still have that TAG in a drawer somewhere, but now I wear a cheap, solar powered Casio that receives a magic signal every day from an atomic clock in Colorado and is guaranteed accurate to within .00001 seconds per century*.  I can live with that.  *wink*  Life is easy again.

At some point in your life, if you're like me at least, you might realize that living easy is more important than living large.  If people aren't impressed with me, living in an apartment, driving a Mazda, showing up on time thanks to my cheap Casio watch, dressed in my retirement wardrobe (jeans and a T-shirt), then I don't need 'em.  My dog seems to like our lifestyle just fine, and he's more important to me than those people are anyway.  :)

S

*slight exaggeration

Auto Show debrief

Yesterday my friend Neil and I had a good time at the Dallas Auto Show.  We rode the light rail to the convention center, avoiding all the traffic and parking hassles....easily worth the few bucks it cost, and we arrived ahead of most of the crowd.  Much to my delight and surprise the show was NOT dominated by Bubba trucks.  I was rather disappointed that there weren't any wild concept cars.  None.

Of course I was immediately drawn to the European exotics:

Like this 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish.

Of course I ordered mine "Well Equipped".

After gawking at this more proletarian Vantage ($150K) for a while I was invited inside the velvet rope and assigned my own personal advisor, Aaron Stephenson IV*. Before long I had one of his high-dollar catalogues and was calling him "Biff" and picking colors and accessories.  He's probably still waiting for me after I excused myself for a rest room visit.

Maserati Gran Cabrio

McLaren MP4-12C

The new, soon-to-be introduced Jaguar F-Type.

I didn't say there weren't ANY Bubba trucks there.  This was some kind of "wrap" treatment you can cover your truck with enabling you to hide from ducks and deer and such.

I'm not a big Range Rover fan, but I must admit the Evoque ($58K) was rather impressive.

There were some vintage oddities stuck over in one corner, like this Datsun 2000.  It was quite a screamer back in its day....

....as was this '71 Datsun 240Z.  As a college student I lusted for one of these.  ('Course, I lusted for all kinds of things back in my college days. ;)  As I didn't have $34 dollars back then, much less $3400, it became another of my lost loves.

Awwww, my little Fiat 500 Abarth.  Innit cute?  One of these days I'm gonna convince K it followed me home.

One thing I took away is that cars are getting ridiculously expensive.  A decent BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, Infinity, etc, is just more than I want to pay for wheels.  They're for those who want a "look at me" experience.  Or Lottery winners.

What I found was that Subaru and Mazda in particular have some quite good cars at very reasonable prices....mid-upper $20's.  Even Volkswagen's are getting pricey, although the new GTI @ $33K still seemed like a good value.  Chrysler products seemed way behind the curve, and poor GM seems to be in a continued slow decline.  Ford, however, had some good small world-class cars worth looking at.

The Geneva or Frankfurt or New York show it wasn't, but all things considered the Dallas show was worth the effort to attend.  Oh...and the "booth babes"?  Not a disappointment, either.  ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On today's "to-do" list?  I asked K if she wanted to go to the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade and Alcohol Soiree, but she said she'd rather take a bullet to the head.  I guess that's a "no".   At this point I'm just hoping for lunch out.

Have a great weekend everyone.

S

*not his real name