Good Reads (Gone): Domino Magazine is No More

Domino magazine is ceasing publication, it was announced today. The March issue will be Domino's last.

There have been rumblings that the magazine was in trouble for awhile -- and plenty of other home-design titles have been shuttered recently due to this piss-poor economy -- so it's not like the news is coming completely out of the blue.

But still, I'm speechless. And sad. I guess I'll have no choice but to console myself with $9 imported copies of Living, Etc.

Where will you be getting your shelter porn now?

Good Reads: Lisa Solomon on Poppytalk

Speaking of blogging more about the design scene in our own communities, I wanted to point any Bay Area locals who may be reading over to Oakland artist (and huge art crush of mine) Lisa Solomon's guest blog this week on Vancouver, British Columbia's divine PoppyTalk.

Lisa is giving PoppyTalk readers a tour of her favorite homegrown shopping haunts, including San Francisco's Urban Burp, Oakland's Article Pract, and Berkeley's Tail of the Yak.

Check out Lisa's PoppyTalk posts right here -- and see her amazing artwork here.

Images courtesy of Lisa Solomon and PoppyTalk.

Sound Off: Another One Bites the Dust

First House & Garden shut down, then Blueprint was shelved. The dust seemed to settle for awhile, but then Home magazine folded, and in quick succession O At Home was shuttered. Now, barely a week after word that the mighty Oprah's shelter spin-off is no more comes news that one of my very favorite "nesting" magazines, Cottage Living, is ceasing publication. (There have been rumors -- quickly denied -- that Domino is in trouble, too.)

Blame the economy: Ad pages are way down at shelter publications. And despite the $5 or more you fork over for the latest issue at the checkout counter, advertising is what any magazine survives on.

But is there something more behind the demise of so many beloved home-design titles? Is the internet killing print? As much as I love a stack of shelter mags on a quiet afternoon, I do find myself reading them less and less. (I still buy them all, mind you -- but more often than not my magazines gather dust while I surf the web.) What used to be 100+ shiny pages of new products, fresh ideas, and drool-inducing "home porn" now often feels like old news, since I've already seen much of it on the blogs. Many of the homes featured in the big magazines are either clearly scouted from blogs (including this one) or have already made the blog rounds before the ink on the pages is dry.

I think blogs have also democratized design to a certain extent. These days, I'm far less interested in how Manhattan millionaires with top interior designers on speed dial live than I am in seeing the homes that cash-strapped artists, designers, and creative civilians from Seattle to Stockholm have made for themselves. And that kind of aspirational (but still attainable) inspiration is where design blogs excel.

That said, I do think we're losing something major with each home magazine that closes its doors. Consistently good writing for one, and original content for another. (And for me personally, work. I wouldn't trade writing this blog for the world, but it's not exactly paying the bills the way magazine editing and freelance writing used to.) So many bloggers simply paste up pages from the current issue of their favorite magazine, with little comment or insight that adds anything new. I'm not pointing fingers; I've done it myself.

What will we all blog about when there's nothing left to crib? Maybe, with fewer magazines as source material, we'll be more motivated to go out and create original content of our own, offering readers a more authentic reflection of our own lives and those of the artists, designers, shopowners, and creative nesters in our own communities.

That's pretty exciting. But still, I'll miss Cottage Living, just like I mourn O at Home, Home, Blueprint, and House & Garden. Curling up on a rainy day with a cup of coffee and the laptop just isn't the same.

What do you think? What's behind the recent rash of magazine closings? Are blogs a factor? What do blogs do better than printed publications, and what will you miss most about these departed shelter titles? Post a comment and let me know.

Good, Uh, Reads: Obscene Interiors

Here's some decorating pornography with an emphasis on the porn: In Obscene Interiors: Hardcore Amateur Decor, author Justin Jorgensen has collected images from online personal ads (e.g., craigslist's unintentionally amusing postings from lonely men looking for some quick, no-strings lovin') featuring "shockingly explicit amateur decorating action!"

No worries -- the naked men unashamedly displaying their wares have been obscured so that you can focus instead on the truly cringe-inducing interiors in which they've posed, and on Jorgensen's tongue-in-cheek commentary evaluating these "graphic displays of aesthetic perversion."

A sneak peek:

This just might be the perfect, umm, stocking stuffer for the design-addict-with-a-sense-of-humor on your holiday list. (Hey -- it's respectable enough that designer Todd Oldham penned the foreword, and literary darlings Dave Eggers and Chuck Palahniuk, plus all-around genius Amy Sedaris, gave the book a thumb's up.)

Obscene Interiors is $15 including shipping right here.

Good Reads: Tracey Falk in Home Magazine

Hi everyone -- just popping in quickly here before we head out to Stinson Beach for the day to offer a huge congrats to former More Ways to Waste Time House Voyeur tour guide Tracey Falk, whose lovely home-office nook is featured in the new (and perhaps last?) issue of Home magazine.

Photo from Home magazine

Check out the article right here -- and see the rest of Tracey's amazingly creative and drool-worthy Vancouver, British Columbia apartment here.

Photo by Tracey Falk

I'll be back on Monday morning with lots of new posts (including another great House Voyeur tour). Thanks so much for standing by while I took a much-needed breather this week!

Bad Blogger

I'm sorry, you guys. I am just totally fried from work and lack of sleep and can't manage much fresh eye candy (or coherent eye candy commentary) right now.

So, umm, go here and have a good laugh.

Good Reads Redux: Project RunGay

Kittens, report here immediately.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here for my slobbering love letter to TLo of the brain-meltingly awesome Project RunGay -- and the equally hilarious Tom & Lorenzo, where they dish on Shear Genius and (soon!) Top Design 2, among other things.

P.S. And if you're following Flipping Out, don't miss the show recaps (and Jeff Lewis psychoanalysis) over on Scented Glossy Magazines.

That's Random: Look What Leslie Made

OMG, people, I am so over the whole "Keep Calm and Carry On" thing.

It was vaguely charming at first, but that poster has become so ubiquitous -- like the pink "For, Like, Ever" prints that suddenly seemed to pop up everywhere -- that it's become a cliché. (Please don't hate me if you have one hanging on your wall. To each her own -- and if it makes you smile when you see it, then, well, carry on.)

So when I was scrolling through my daily blog reads just now and saw this on one of my new faves, Reclaiming Miss Havisham (authored by the refreshingly snarky and occasionally acid-tongued young Miss Leslie King, who tends to like things darker and weirder and isn't afraid to thumb her nose at prevailing decorating trends), I spewed the coffee I was drinking all over my computer screen.

Right on, sister. Because sometimes, y'know, you just feel like a smartass bitch -- and during those times, Reclaiming Miss Havisham is the design blog for you.

P.S. Leslie, where can I get mine?

Cool Tool: Who's Your City? Maps

Have you heard about the book Who's Your City: How the Creative Economy is Making the Place Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life?

The book makes the somewhat self-evident case that "place exerts a powerful influence over the jobs and careers we have access to, the people we meet, our 'mating markets,' and our ability to lead happy and fulfilled lives." (Full disclosure: I haven't yet read it myself -- though I have noted its author, demographer Richard Florida, popping up in a number of articles, like the recent New York Times piece on the arty-folks connection between Brooklyn and the Bay Area.)

Anyway, because I'm a total sucker for anything that promises to reveal the most perfect place to live, I was clicking around on the Who's Your City website and came across these interesting maps depicting various spots around the country through the lens of creative population, real estate prices, available singles, average education level, and so on:


Obvious take-home: Go west, young woman. (Though, despite its seeming surfeit of available young men, San Francisco might not be the best place to seek a mate ... )


This one is my absolute favorite. New York City is the neurosis capital of the nation? People are friendly and outgoing in the Midwest and the South? California tends to draw those flaky types who are forever searching for new experiences, and ultimately the true meaning of life itself? I never would've guessed!

Still, I have to admit that it's awfully fun to see your regional stereotypes and suspicions confirmed in a simple visual representation.

Check out the Who's Your City maps right here.

Good Reads: The East Bay as Brooklyn West?

Yesterday's New York Times featured an interesting article called "Sisters in Idiosyncrasy." The piece described how the Bay Area -- specifically East Bay cities like Oakland and Berkeley -- share a sort of cosmic, arty connection with Brooklyn. Says author Noam Cohen, "There is a young, earnest population that is beating a path between artsy, gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn and their counterparts in the Bay Area, especially East Oakland and the area south of Market Street in San Francisco, or SoMa."

Now don't get me wrong, I love The New York Times (and, in fact, I have written for The New York Times, not to mention having lived in Brooklyn). But I'm always amused by its signature arch -- although still somewhat breathless -- reportage on trends and social phenomena. As if the newspaper is the first to notice such things, and is doing a thoughtful and charitable public service by filling in the rest of us cretins on whatever it has so astutely taken note of. Like, "Wow -- there's a 'creative class' here in the East Bay, kinda like the one in Williamsburg and other arty, gritty Brooklyn 'hoods? I had no idea. Thanks ever so much for enlightening me, New York Times!"

I also love how the Times never fails to see everything through its New York-as-Center-of-Universe prism, as depicted by the classic New Yorker cover, above. Of course Oakland is the corollary of Brooklyn -- because, I mean, rather than having its own unique identity, every other place in the United States is simply aspiring to be a little more like New York City, right?

Anyway, give it a read and let me know what you think.

Wanderlust: Your Lovely Places

A few weeks ago I got an email from Sylvain Louradour in France, who has a genius blog called Your Lovely Places that collects and chronicles people's favorite spots on the planet. Sylvain asked me to contribute mine, and I was happy to oblige.

I chose Notting Hill, London. It is lovely, to be sure, but I really chose it because that part of the world has a special emotional resonance for me.

I lived in London for two years after high school (ostensibly, I was going to college -- but what I was really studying was English Bands, with a minor in English Guys).

While I was there. I spent more weekend mornings than I can count in the throngs at the Portobello Road Market. My friends and I would nosh on steaming vegetable samosas and spend hours trawling the stands, poking through bric-a-brac in search of buried treasure, before retiring to the pub for lunch and a bit of liquid fortification. That time was just a really happy, exciting, and carefree period in my life, and one that I'll always cherish.

About a year ago, I was lucky enough (thanks, Mom!) to be able to share this lovely neighborhood, with its sherbet-colored houses and dusty antiques shops, with my husband and children (those are our kids in the picture above). The trip was a bit melancholy for me, since both London and I have changed much in the years that have passed. But it was also wonderful to return to the locale that had meant so much to me -- and that still holds a very special place in my heart -- with the people that I love most in the world.

Anyway, it's fun to peruse the other favorite spots that Sylvain has collected, which range from someone's bed at home to far more distant shores. Take a look:

The Basque Country

Kaufbar, Berlin

Teluk Bahang, Malaysia

The Marais, Paris

Hôtel Luna Convento, Amalfi

Check out Your Lovely Places right here -- and if you'd like to join in, email Sylvain with a photo or a drawing as well as a brief description of your lovely place.

Good Reads: Project RunGay

Confession: I could care less about fashion.

That might sound strange coming from someone who hyperventilates over things like paint colors and the exact placement of the painstakingly procured accessories on my coffee table. But, y'know, I have two kids. I work from home. We never go anywhere worth getting dressed up for. And, let's just be honest here: Skinny is but a fond memory. (Or, as my offspring take great delight in reminding me -- as often as they possibly can -- my ass is "the size of the sun.")

Basically, I live in sweats. Maybe if something is a really big deal, I might pull on a pair of jeans and put something other than my trusty flip-flops on my feet for the occasion (but I'll wear the flip-flops if I think I can get away with it). Seriously -- give me $100 and a half-hour at Old Navy, and I'm pretty much set for the season. Sartorially speaking, I am a horror show. (Does that shock you? Don't hate me because I'm a slob ... )

So why, you might ask, do I eagerly await the latest episode of Project Runway every Wednesday night?

Two words: Project RunGay.

It's true. I'm not big on TV in general, and am even less-keen on reality shows. But I tune in to the wildly popular Bravo fashion competition for one reason and one reason only: So I can then read the wickedly hilarious blog devoted to it. (OK, fine -- two reasons: So I can read Project RunGay, and so I can coldly declare "You are OUT" every chance I get, in ode to a certain steely Teutonic blonde.)

I didn't even bother to watch the previous seasons until I discovered PRG, and then I went back and Tivoed the repeats just so I would have a point of reference for the catty commentary that blog authors Tom and Lorenzo (TLo to devotees) gleefully dish up every week.

Because, OK -- working from home can get a little lonely sometimes. I miss the proverbial water-cooler banter. I miss the funny, bitchy repartee from the office's resident 'mos. Plus, Tom and Lorenzo are really freakin' funny. Brilliantly, geniusly funny. And mean -- but in an endearing way.

I reality, I am nowhere near as fabulous as I would need to be to qualify as this longtime couple's devoted fruitfly. (Besides, that distinction is reserved for Season 3's elegant Laura Bennett, who's been known to have TLo over to her mindblowingly ginormous Manhattan loft for intimate little soirees and such.)

But in this fantasy world otherwise known as the blogosphere, I can log on and pretend that we're BFFs and that I'm chuckling into my martini during our weekly PR viewing party while TLo call me "Kitten" and toss out one scathing bon mot after another, dissing Golden Boy's tiresome draping fetish; dubbing Princess Puffysleeves "a hyperactive hamster on meth"; sticking up for poor, sweet, underappreciated Sissy Bear; mocking VictorYA's delusions of grandeur; and noting Buellerbot 3000's total lack of facial expression.

In actuality, I'm sitting in front of the computer in my pajamas the morning after, ignoring both my whining kids and the work I really should be doing, choking on my coffee and wiping away tears as I read. But whatever -- insignificant details.

Which is all just a really long-winded way of saying this: TLo, I think I love you.

Check out Project RunGay right here -- and don't miss TLo's other brilliant (though currently woefully neglected) blog, Tom & Lorenzo. (Guys, please tell me you'll be dusting off Project: Top Design and the Shear Genius thread on T&L when the sophomore seasons of those shows hit the airwaves. Please.)

Good Reads: Trends That Are "So Over"

All photos by Raeanne Giovanni-Inoue for The New York Times

There's an interesting piece in today's New York Times on the big decorating trends of 2007 that are due for demise -- at least according to prominent designers like David Netto and Celerie Kemble, tastemaking editors like Domino's Deborah Needleman and Metropolitan Home's Donna Warner, and the doyenne of design bloggers herself, design*sponge's Grace Bonney.

One of the most intriguing reasons given for certain trends playing themselves out is the so-called "democratization of design." With the proliferation of companies such as CB2, West Elm, and even Design Within Reach interpreting high-end modern design for the masses -- and so many design bloggers out there writing about them -- these designs are destined to lose their exclusive cache.

Though the statement comes off sounding pretty snooty (I mean, if just anyone can be savvy to -- and possibly even afford -- things like baroque mirrors and geometric rugs, then of course those things are no longer desirable), the author does have a point. When we all see the same thing over and over again, of course we're bound to grow weary of it -- no matter how fresh the concept may have seemed at first. Even good ideas, like eco-friendly products, eventually inspire design fatigue when everyone jumps on the bandwagon, writer Penelope Green asserts.

Among the decorating fads on their way out?

Antlers

David Hicks-influenced design (that means you, Jonathan Adler)

Suzanis

Cowhide rugs

Flatscreens over the fireplace

Ironic takes on "Hunting Lodge Chic"

Over-the-top Baroque Modern and Hollywood Regency style

"Green" products like bamboo sheets

Check out Ms. Green's article right here -- then tell me what you think: Do all of these trends deserve to be relegated to the design dustbin? Are design blogs and the burgeoning interest in design among the hoi polloi (that would be me and you, people) causing trends to cycle in and out ever faster?

Post a comment and let me know.