Studio Sessions
Discussions about art and the creative process. New episodes every other week.
Links To Everything:
Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT
Matt’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT
Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT
Matt’s Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG
Alex’s Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG
Studio Sessions
30. Objects with Soul: Exploring the Art of Everyday Things
We explore the changing nature of shared cultural experiences, from the era of must-see TV to today's fragmented media landscape. This led us to ponder the value of communal viewing experiences and how streaming platforms might evolve to foster more connection.
We then dove into a fascinating discussion on design, art, and the objects that surround us. Inspired by Bruno Munari's book "Design as Art," we contemplated the intersection of form and function, the concept of "quintessence" in everyday items, and the importance of creating beautiful, purposeful objects. This naturally flowed into an examination of our own collections, particularly focusing on typewriters.
We wrapped up by reflecting on the emotional connections we form with certain objects, whether due to their design, provenance, or the memories they evoke. We considered how surrounding ourselves with meaningful, well-crafted items can fuel creativity and spark joy in our daily lives. Ultimately, we celebrated the beauty found in both the cutting-edge and the vintage, recognizing that true artistry transcends time and medium. -AI
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a rating and/or a review. We read and appreciate all of them. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Links To Everything:
Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT
Matt’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT
Matt’s 2nd Channel: https://geni.us/PhotoVideosYT
Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT
Matt’s Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG
Alex’s Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG
It had been a golden afternoon and I remember having the familiar conviction that life was beginning over again. With the summer it's over.
Alex:It should. Everything's over it should. Do you want to kick the door down? No, and grab your stick. I need the lid Because I'm always so led Shit. Now I see Matt needs his close-up light.
Matt:Where's my? Can we soften it up a little bit?
Alex:Too harsh.
Matt:Need to round the edges here, buddy.
Alex:We do actually probably need to Pull that out a little bit. You are looking a little Crispy.
Matt:A little edgy.
Alex:Close enough.
Matt:Good enough for government work. Bug it, bug it Okay.
Alex:Here we go, thursday, fresh off lunch yes a table full of shit.
Matt:A whole of drinks and crap um elephant in the room no elephant in this room yes, there is. Do you know what it is?
Alex:is there an actual elephant in the bag? No, no.
Matt:All our viewers are noticing right now. Our listeners are not. Our listeners have no idea about this.
Alex:Oh, Should we just not reference it?
Matt:Maybe not.
Alex:All right, let's just move on.
Matt:That was it, that's it. That's it. There's an elephant in the room. It's just going to stay there.
Alex:All right, there's an elephant in the room. It's just gonna stay there. Yep, all right, there's an elephant in the room.
Matt:A couple weeks ago too so it's fine there sure was um studio sessions podcast and then we're your host, matthew and alex this is our 100th episode?
Alex:Nah, it's not. I feel like we got some new energy. This is good. Yes, good Thursday afternoon energy.
Matt:We're both feeling a little, a little spicy.
Alex:I was feeling a little burned out.
Matt:Really.
Alex:A couple weeks ago.
Matt:Like life burnout or podcast burnout.
Alex:I think life burnout is podcast burnout. Oh right, I think it's just because that's what we talk about yeah, we just dump our burnout into the podcast like if the episodes suck, we're probably that's gonna be the new title going through some burnout dump anyways, spit take, we're gonna let's I'm interested.
Matt:What's in the bag?
Alex:um, and then maybe do we just jump right into you and it's all right, sorry, watching the wire. The wire is really good. Yeah, I'll uh enjoying that a lot. Can't believe it took me this long to get to it yeah, the wire.
Matt:I avoided it, uh, not on purpose or anything, but I just have not felt the pull I think I've started the first episode like two or three times, yeah, and I just haven't.
Alex:I don't know what happened. I did start it at one point years ago. I don't know what happened, but I just didn't, yeah, catch it. Like I've watched the Sopranos a couple of times, I've pretty prestige TV is pretty, at least you know pretty, you know breaking bad and bad and pretty.
Matt:I mean really one of the shows that ushered in, you could say the, that sort of that era of um, yeah, I don't know, the long form cinema. In a sense, you know, like the these, these epic series, that uh are you know three four, five, six seasons uh, cutting edge, really great storytelling um that maybe we don't have quite as much of right now yeah, I think there's a lot of show like.
Alex:I think that typically gets bankrolled pretty easily. Yeah, I just don't think the level of like like with the wire or with the sopranos, maybe more so even with with the wire it's like they were just trying something and just happened to get an opportunity to try it. They weren't like, oh, we're gonna make this tv series and do. They were just like we have. We're gonna tell this story and then, you know, do it over x amount of seasons, whereas now you have a lot of shows that are just like we're gonna make a tv show, because TV shows are very profitable and they might have a good idea Like there's a good concept, but it's more from a market right Commerce yeah.
Alex:From meeting the meeting, the opening in the market, rather than just like let's make something incredible. Yeah, which I'm not saying, you know, maybe that was a stupid move on behalf of the wire to try that, but God, I'm only I'm a few episodes in, but it seems like it the hype is real that way, cause I've always heard like, oh, the greatest TV show of all time, no doubt it's the wire.
Matt:Yeah, it's definitely come up in a lot of conversations about television shows on my end as well and I, it was um, it was um, it was out before I was. I didn't think I had HBO back then. You know, this was obviously before streaming and all that, but I didn't have HBO so I didn't watch it. Same thing with Sopranos, and it wasn't until I don't even think I really I don't even think I really picked up on HBO until it you could have it streaming. And then it was, you know, trying to go through the back catalog of all the stuff I had missed over the years, um, because it was quite a bit. But those shows I remember you know um, with hbo releasing one every week and I don't know what day the wire was. I hbo's big day was always typically sunday. Sunday nights friends in my circles in la and all that stuff you know, would always reference those shows.
Alex:Yeah, as you know, sort of the week's conversation, and then come back the next week I remember like I remember, because my mom would always her and her sister would get together for sopranos oh nice, it's like six feet under, and then sopranos, yeah, six feet.
Matt:Yeah, six feet under. We we watched, but I think we had to Netflix the DVDs. Oh yeah, gotcha, I think that's how we got into six feet under.
Alex:There's something. There's actually something kind of nice about like that ritualistic, like we get together, we watch this show every. I think that's something the streaming platform should actually do more of, and I know that some of them actually do this. Hbo still does weekly releases, yeah, which I think it's just because they understand.
Alex:Hbo has always had a premium product right. They've never been at the yes, they kind of had that cable format but they didn't have standard commercials. It's always been a gather round to around to watch. So I think they understand that better than a lot of these companies that are going from cable over and they're just like oh, binging is popular some shows binging is probably fine. But, like like you, when I watched madman, you went you were talking to me about how, like how, it felt to wait every week yeah, I never.
Matt:I never experienced that with madman. I I got to wait every week.
Alex:Yeah, I never. I never experienced that with madman. I I got to like the end of breaking bad. I got to experience that, yeah, um of like waiting around every week to kind of see that that last season or two, I guess, they broke the season in half.
Matt:Yeah, I I think those last few seasons I had the same thing we had we watched it as it aired versus, yeah, the first few seasons that I caught up on after people talked about it so much. I think I pulled it up on netflix when I was still living in la and prop my eyeballs open till two o'clock in the morning. I can do one more, one more episode breaking bad was bad about that.
Alex:Yeah, mad men was too yeah but um, the wire has been. The Wire has been really cool, though, like I said, we're trying to do it less aggressively. Yes, I think yeah, you know like, okay, let's.
Matt:We can watch it all in a weekend, yeah.
Alex:Like we've been doing like one episode a night, yeah, and for our schedule that works really well. Well, because it's like you get up, do your morning, have your day, you know, kind of wind down, eat dinner episode of the wire and then sit with it for a while you know, that's one thing I like about shows that come out every week.
Matt:You know, especially in the age of youtube, I really like watching certain content creators videos that talk about the episode yeah, after it aired, versus you know stranger things, for example on netflix releasing the entire season and you can watch it in a day or two. There really isn't any. You know, I think they water cooler talk. There isn't like that kind of conversation about that show after it airs, because everybody watches it all. They sort of get the answer quickly.
Alex:I don't want to like hijack our conversation too much away from where we're going, yeah, but I I'm interested in your opinion on do you think that, like, because there's no large-scale water cooler, like there's no societal water cooler like there used to be? Yeah, but it kind of x is for sure, but I'm just saying like there there's not an opportunity. Like you said, hbo every sunday they had their shows. I like there's live sports is really the only still large scale like national water cooler kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you watch a football game or something and you'd be like oh, do you see that? Like, and that still applies.
Alex:But for dramas or for more, you know artistic shows or you know just, yeah, just, you know television or film. I almost think it's more now, it's more the responsibility of the group. Yeah, so you find your group and then you make it um, audrey's been getting together with friends to watch some show for a couple of weeks, and I mean for the last five weeks or so, yeah, and um, it's just, it's, that's kind of cool Cause we don't not avoid, you know avoid spoilers.
Alex:get together Right.
Matt:When you go to work. If, if you go to work, most of us, you know a lot of us will work, work remotely or in our world where, maybe self-employed or doing our own thing, we don't go to an office where everybody watched the same thing, cause there were only three shows that night ABC NBC.
Matt:CBS. Which one did you pick? Everybody was watching this one, and we're all talking about it the next day because we didn't have all these options. And granted, there was cable back then, and all that stuff too, but just the dilution of our attention across many things the Internet, social media, traditional media, all of that, movies, whatever. Um, we don't have as many shared experiences of having watched, uh, the same thing, and so it's nice to think about creating that structure yourself and almost tasking your friends that are interested in the same type of show to watch it and then talk about it.
Matt:Yeah, uh, whether it's you actually have like a get together, go out to drinks, go grab coffee, come over to the house and watch it together and talk about it. You know, show club yeah tv show club or something I think there's.
Alex:I think there's something to networks. Like you know, we've kind of moved away from television networks, but I think there's like a new world that's kind of starting to come out of that, where it's live events or live broadcasts on these platforms. Like you know, you go to watch something live on netflix, you go to watch something live on, you know, peacock or hbo, and I think there's a there's actually a market for that. I think it's not going to be as big as it was in 1995 or in 2005, um, but I think, if you put things out almost, I'm thinking of like the youtube premiere feature where it's like, yeah, the video releases, but it's also just a live, like you can watch it as a group and everybody's at the same point, including maybe the creator.
Matt:Yeah absolutely.
Alex:I think there's something to that. I think that's worth kind of holding on to.
Matt:And I think that connects.
Alex:And I think platforms are going in that direction also. So I'm not like, oh it's, we've lost it.
Matt:Like I think it's actually going to come back a little bit. Yeah, I think we have to sort of learn what we've lost by letting that pendulum swing to one extreme where, you know, every show is just released and we all binge it, and then we're kind of done with it and we talk about it for a little bit and then okay, when's the next show coming out? And then, okay, when's the next coming out? I think we all crave that community around a shared experience, especially, you know, what we consume in the arts or at the movies or whatever.
Matt:Yeah, and you know, I think we don't that the movie theater is hurting a lot of times. I think it comes from, obviously, our attention is spread across multiple opportunities to consume something, whether it's still books or all the way up to streaming television. You know when's the last time someone went and saw a movie that was a new release and the word of mouth was so strong amongst your friend groups that you were compelled to go see it, versus on your own volition, having watched the trailer? Or it's a the newest Francis Ford Coppola movie and he hasn't had a movie out in decades, you know.
Alex:I remember.
Matt:I remember when I was young I would be like I'm not going to go see that movie. And then like six people would be like oh dude, we went and saw it, it was so good, you have to go check it out. Just like you're doing with the wire Right or I did with bad men.
Alex:I do feel like go see it. Yeah, I wouldn't say that's lost, like two movies come to there's definitely. I want to differentiate between whatever this idea is and just hype all out, hype right things that get completely overhyped. I tend to avoid. So like what is the everything everywhere all at once. All it, yeah, whatever the um, I forget what. I'm sorry if I butchered that title but everything, everywhere, all at once, is it every?
Alex:it seems I feel like there's another something on there. Anyways. Um, I never saw that, because the hype was so big and then I was just like this isn't? I remember parasite was like that.
Matt:I didn't see that either.
Alex:Um, and I eventually saw that and it was fine. It was a fine film, but it wasn't like the greatest thing of all time by any means. I mean again, it's kind of a subjective thing, but I, you know, when everybody's like this is the best thing ever, I'm typically like, okay, maybe I don't, but like, drive my car. I remember that um kind of word of mouth. It did its way back to me and I went to see that. I loved that movie. Um, and then poor things. Recently that's probably one of my favorite movies, that I of the last decade. Yeah, um, and I really enjoyed that that kind of word of mouth. I, because that wasn't something that I would have been like.
Alex:I'm going to see that for sure what I like I'd seen some of his other stuff and what wasn't really a fan, and this is kind of different from some of his other stuff.
Matt:So and when I, when I was younger and you know this was obviously even much more potent when our, you know our parents were younger and their parents, but I feel like I remember everyone talking about it. Yeah, you know the sixth sense, like everyone was, yeah did you go see it?
Alex:did you see it? Yeah, yeah, and it would made sense because it you know the six cents, like everyone was. Yeah, did you go see it did?
Matt:you see that, yeah, and it would made sense because it you know, it was a movie back then that went five weekends in a row with over 20 million in box office, which was a big deal. That was a big indicator of yeah, long-term staying power, and obviously some of these movies would stay in theaters for months and months and now you know it doesn't happen anymore. So it was just.
Matt:It was just cool to feel like there was there was things going on where it felt like everybody was talking about it, and I think sometimes that does happen to a certain extent here, but it tends to be more politics or, you know, a big sports, for sure A new story. You know and obviously you know a big sports for sure, a big bloody news story. Yeah, you know, and obviously you know we all can be impacted by that.
Matt:And there's certainly other people that I've talked to, where something was kind of big news across the news media and certain people I know are like, oh, I hadn't heard about that. They like literally don't pay attention to the news.
Alex:Yeah, so it's just strange.
Matt:It's just strange to be.
Alex:I feel like that's me most of the time. I mean, like I pay attention to like on a big picture, yes, um, but I don't really pay attention to like, yeah, like the day-to-day stuff, and I'll just be like, okay, all right, like that's whatever exactly so you know, maybe the olympics captured that.
Alex:You said sports, obviously they thought some people on social media I do feel like all of my and then like again, it is niche though. Um, every year the tour to france, um, there's like a large, you know, quadrant of my friend group. That's like dialed in like, oh, do you watch the tour? Yeah, but I mean, it's never more than like a group text. Um, you know, like NFL, you have like friends in a fantasy league or something. Everybody's did you see that. Oh, that was crazy. Like the Nick Chubb injury last year, like everybody was like, oh, that was brutal, it was awful.
Matt:So I wonder what that's like then. You know you're younger than me, obviously, so is it possible that you haven't actually experienced a movie or something? You know something, uh, a movie or tv show that you felt like everyone was talking about?
Alex:it. I mean, I'm not, you know, I'm young, i'm'm young, I'm young, but I, like, I'm still alive, in the like I was conscious, in, like the early you know, late nineties, early two thousands, like right, and yeah, I mean I definitely remember that you know sensation. But part of me just kind of disagrees with the concept of like cause. I think now, knowing what I know, I look back and like a lot of that just feels like manufactured by a PR firm.
Alex:It's potentially you know, like that's everybody's talking about it, it's the. And then it's like, yeah, everybody's talking about it. But that's because they did. Everybody watched the morning news and they, you know, ran it down their throat on the morning news four times and then on the afternoon news. It was, you know, it was in all the newspapers and that was more.
Matt:Yeah.
Alex:And I feel like part of the death of that is that there's not as much of a stranglehold with, like those, you know, yeah, those high-end pr outlets so like it used to be. You put out a press release and it would cover everything and it seemed like that's the whole world yep like and then you know the, the, the eight shows, yeah, and it feels, it feels like it's everywhere.
Alex:And that still happens with certain things where it just feels like it's everywhere. And that still happens with certain things where it just feels like it's everywhere, but that's only to certain people, because most people have fragmented their consumption. The internet fragmented everything and most people, probably 50 and under, are fragmented enough to where it's like there is no more, just like that's the only.
Alex:Thing which is great. I think that, like decentralizing, that is a really good thing, and I think the sensation that we're talking about of like this loss of oh man, I just might be more of a nostalgic, you know perspective rather than an actual good thing that we lost, cause I think it's, I think it's nice to have the I think I think I agree with you and the decentralization thing.
Matt:I will say, just as someone that remembers things like the six cents or the Jerry Seinfeld finale or twin peaks.
Matt:It was fun to have everybody talking about it, and I don't mean the news outlets are tuning in, because that certainly was happening and you're right, you know pr firms and let's get this out there. Let's just keep it at the top of the yeah, cultural zeitgeist as much as possible. But there was something cool. I felt like if I went to a one of my cousin's birthday parties and all the adults are talking about a movie, yeah, like that was cool, that's still like because it would. It was it had a linking for. Oh, yeah, I saw it you know you feel human.
Alex:Everybody's connected to people where there was separation.
Matt:One one parent is a mechanic, the other one's a teacher, this one's whatever. They don't have a lot of things in life that they can talk about, but a movie or a tv show could sort of bring them all together to talk about their experience of this shared experience. And so if there was one little piece of the, the greater pie of that whole dynamic, that was something that it was cool.
Alex:I mean, I just remember thinking, wow, everybody's talking about this movie yeah like that's really neat it almost like Trins just had more time to wash over everything, because I do think a couple of what was it? Squid Game.
Matt:Yes.
Alex:Or like Tiger King yeah.
Matt:I've never watched either of those.
Alex:I've never seen either one of them either, but I remember everybody talking about it, but everybody, it consumed everything for a while, the bear for a little bit, um. So I mean, I feel, I feel like it still happens. It's just more honestly, I wonder if this has anything to do with it. This, this, you know, might just this is just a logical um jump, but both both you and I are kind of like um counter quote, like you know, I think we're kind of like oh no, like I don't want to do that because it's like that's pushed a characteristic of both of us zeitgeist.
Alex:It's almost like there's a desire yeah, and I wonder if, because I mean there's plenty of people who, um, you know, there are things like that in the zeitgeist Like Tiger King was like the only thing that I'm sure large groups of people talked about. You know, squid Game what was that show? Duck Dynasty, you remember that? Like the Bachelorette.
Matt:I just heard a news segment on the radio at an upholstery place. That said something about the bat floret last night.
Alex:I feel like there's still these things that are culturally consuming and maybe we're just less tuned into them.
Matt:Well, when you mentioned Squid Game and Tiger King and all that, my memory of that being in the zeitgeist was in social media, especially Twitter, but as far as my friend circle goes, nobody was talking about that stuff yeah, other than maybe referencing. Why is everybody talking about this?
Alex:why is everybody talking about yeah, yeah like confusion versus participation.
Matt:You know for sure so you know that stuff is interesting. Again, I don't think anything's necessarily better or worse yeah, I don't think like oh, humanity is missing something, because we're not all, because 87 million of us aren't watching the seinfeld finale yeah, yeah, like that's a cool thing the super bowl, obviously, but I was like I don't, I don't know that yeah that, that I would go back to that and most people like lose the super bowl, still watch I.
Alex:I like, yeah, everybody day after the Superbowl, you and I are going to probably have a conversation about the Superbowl. Absolutely, I feel like that's a safe prediction. Yeah, um, and like I'm sure I will with you know, 10 other people in my life Like so there still are some things like that, things like that. Yes, I think it is just a little more fragmented and part of that's just because everything is more fragmented.
Alex:Great, like you can go on youtube and, you know, dive into any rabbit hole you want, oh yeah, and any of your like many interests, and so maybe you're not as inclined to be sitting on the couch at eight because the seinfeld season finale is on, or something like that.
Matt:Yeah, um, and I've definitely felt like stuff's out there to watch and I'm like I'm kind of want to watch these vinyl hunting videos right now I'm like, yeah, hard on vinyl hunting. Like it's. This is just. This is just where I feel the direction I feel pulled.
Alex:I remember everybody Dune too. It was the big thing. This everybody's like you gotta see dune, it's. I still haven't seen it. I still haven't seen it. Like you know, everybody was very high on it. Yeah, I, I did go see alien romulus though. Yeah, yeah, um one bite. Everybody knows the rules.
Matt:What?
Alex:the pardon one bite. Everybody knows the rules, like what's your rating out of uh?
Matt:to me it is one of the best executed soulless movies I've seen. It is like superb. We need to get you some signs. Excellent storytelling, Like as far as plot you know, and all that complete craft yeah. Great ideas, Very ingenious ways to do stuff you know, to kind of do cool new things with something that's had eight movies or you know what, though, a lot of old hollywood is like that and I love it, so I if.
Alex:If we got more of that, I think I'd be. I think, all in all, it would bring up the level, yeah yeah I I prefer soulless craft than soulless crap yep 100.
Matt:Yeah, absolutely um, and then you know, there's just some stuff where I'm, you know, a huge fan of those movies, um, and aside from the execution and what I felt was a little bit of soullessness, and I don't know if I need to explain that we don't need to go 10 minutes on alien romulus, but to me it was like I don't know, I just felt like alien had so much soul, especially just in the feeling of the movie and how real it felt.
Alex:Yeah.
Matt:And then aliens had soul with the characters, like all these characters that normally you wouldn't, you wouldn't fall in love with and be um upset when they die, uh, and then of course, you know just the, the, the deeper story of Ripley and motherhood and the parallels it has with the alien and all that stuff. It just felt like it was so rich. Yeah, it was. Also, you know, the director's cuts to two hours and 40 something minutes long. So he, you know Cameron, just takes his time. Two hours and 40 something minutes long. So he, you know Cameron just takes his time with it to develop all of that Um, and then you know this, just like man characters I don't care about a couple I have some sympathy for, like, oh, I'm a little bummed that they died, but none of them, even if I watch it over and over, I'm going to um, some cool stuff, definitely some ingenious stuff, but just, I just didn't feel the soul of it.
Matt:And maybe it's because I'm old watching these and those movies I watched when I was a kid and when you're a kid a lot of stuff has everything's like magical.
Alex:By the way, we'll have to do a running report. Matt and I had we had when we talked yesterday about one of Matt's daughters is kind of finally reaching the point where she can kind of track with a film.
Matt:Yes, or a piece of quality content. She can really hang with something that isn't just like stimulation. Yeah.
Alex:And so we were thinking about like I would actually love suggestions on this too yeah but we're thinking of like okay, what are some good?
Alex:I feel like the generic response is like what are good? Like, oh, they're kind of edgy, but you know we'll show them any. But that's not what I mean. I I want movies that are like very visually stimulating and almost to a point where you know they're amazing as an adult, but I think they would be like truly magical to a child. Yeah, um, so, like I, I Fantasia came to mind but then comes to mind. Yeah, wizard of Oz, um, but then I mean, um, we, oh, we named a couple yesterday. Tales of Hoffman.
Matt:Yeah, you mentioned a couple that I don't know about.
Alex:What was? There was another one, Just some of these like high art but very visual. I'm sure there's more, but yeah, If anybody has anything like that, I'd be, but you'll have to do like a running report about what did you think like was it? Yeah, a magical. I I love listening to scorsese talk about some of the movies that he saw before he was, like you know yeah, he was eight, nine years old for that, when they really start those formative years, yeah, and he's, you know, he's not watching it through the lens of, like you know, director scorsese.
Matt:He's just yes, he's just a kid.
Alex:Yeah, wow, this is like completely magical. This is actually like touching something in my soul and spiel if you watch the spielberg fablemans.
Matt:Yeah, spielberg had I forget the movie, but with the train wreck and all the great, uh great, train robbery, yeah, and that just what's assumed him, or um?
Alex:no, it's not the great train robbery, it's um. It's the circus movie, it's the um, the, the greatest show on earth greatest show on earth, yeah greatest show on earth, yeah, um, which is a magical movie.
Alex:I mean, that's like the closest that we've come to. I think that's the cool, the at this point, the circus doesn't exist in that format anymore. Yeah, and so watching that movie, like you know, despite what you think of the circus, that's the. It is absolutely a unique piece of time that will never be able to get back. So I think that movie's aged well, um, it's not the best movie ever, but it's definitely, yeah, catches something. Before we move completely forward. I just so.
Alex:I just finished this book last week yes, design as art, uh, and it's bruno um munari I not, he's italian, so munari, munari yeah, if you do this, yeah, it helps um, so he's a uh, he's a designer and um, obviously, uh, and the book was written. When was it 19? First published in 1966, like um, so he's, and he's like an older guy at this point he's just critiquing contemporary art. So contemporary art in 1966, but yeah, I highlighted the hell out of it. But there were just a couple of things that I didn't do that, alex, do I not?
Alex:oh no, no, I'm the one you don't write the right light, but don't write. I highlight yeah, but don't write, copy that um god, I mean, should I just like read some of these quotes and then maybe just maybe what if I don't even discuss it? What if I just read the quotes? Yeah, and then we just move on.
Matt:Well, I think this, think this is going to transition into what I was wanting to show you.
Alex:Okay, I mean, there's a lot of quotes, so maybe I just take the first couple I mean, so I haven't gone through this this is completely spur of the moment.
Alex:I just found this you made me think of it with our discussion that we were just having, and I'm like man, when I was highlighting some of these, I'm like these would be interesting for discussion. So maybe you'll just drop them and we can. Maybe, if something catches earworms, we can catch on a different episode or whatever. Um, uh, and I'm just gonna read nothing more than the highlight and I'm just gonna move on. So they've realized that at the present time, subjective values are losing their importance in favor of objective values that can be understood by a greater number of people. And if the aim is to mass produce objects for sale to a wide public at a low price, then it becomes a problem of method and design. The artist has to regain the modesty he had when the art was just a trade and instead of dispensing and instead of despising the very public he's trying to interest, he must discover it and discover its needs and make contact with it again.
Matt:Yeah, that to me has echoes of the episode we did, where everything just looks the same. Yeah, you know it's like let's just get stuff that's objectively pleasing.
Alex:Yeah, pleasing, yeah, well, and so the title design is art. Um, he basically traces through, you know, all these art artistic movements approaching 1966 and he's like um, we've become a commercial society, so, like, commercial facing design is the new art. And yeah, he's. Essentially he's just saying like we need to stop, despite like, oh, I'm a genius and I have to make shit, and's just saying like we need to stop, despite like, oh, I'm a genius and I have to make shit, and instead just be like okay, well, how can I make this? Like what is, what does this need? Approach it like you're making a great painting or something.
Alex:And then every the quality of everything goes up, instead of having the separation, which I think is great advice.
Matt:I think yeah, which I think that is really encapsulated by. Is it Braun, the German company in the sixties that was doing the all that industrial industrial design? Yeah?
Alex:Like beautiful stuff. Um, there should be no such thing as art divorced from life, with beautiful things to look at and hideous things to use. If we, if what we use every day is made with art and not thrown together by chance or caprice, then we shall have nothing to hide.
Matt:I think that echoes my what I'm dealing with right now and consuming all this stuff and buying old typewriters and stereo equipment and listening to music and getting all that like I just felt like so much of what I had was devoid of that.
Alex:Yeah, and I am you just, of course, swimming, literally just moved us into yeah I'm swimming in this stuff now, so it needs to be edited down. Yeah, but yeah, that's what's going on when the objects we use every day and the surroundings we live in have become in themselves a work of art, then we shall be able to say that we have achieved a balanced life, that's and that's exactly what I'm saying Now you might look at my space and and see chaos or see, um, you know, this is not my aesthetic, or I don't like the feeling of having all this stuff.
Matt:Uh, I, I have thought that several times in the context of I am manifesting in the world. This is an externalization of what is in my brain, right, like what is me, like my soul, whatever it is, and I need to be surrounded by these objects of great beauty and art and function as well to do what I do. Yeah, and I felt very devoid of that for a long time.
Alex:You're out of balance. Yeah, yeah.
Matt:Because I, just you can't, I can't build that on my desktop, on my Mac, and I don't mean my physical desktop, I mean like on the computer. Sure, I can put up a cool wallpaper, yeah. Or maybe I can get some app that lets me make the folders.
Alex:Different colors even matter, it's just not I need to.
Matt:I need to have it. Yeah, I need it to be around me yeah, absolutely, this is.
Alex:I'll do like a couple more and then we can. We can move forward, but it is beautiful because it is just right. An exact project produces a beautiful object. Beautiful not because it is just right. An exact project produces a beautiful object. Beautiful not because it is like a piece of sculpture, even modern sculpture, but because it is only like itself. A thing is not beautiful because it is beautiful, as the frog said to the she frog it is beautiful because one likes it. That's right.
Matt:And that brings us back to Ruben. Well, do you like it? That's all that matters. Yeah, I like this.
Alex:Yeah, okay what is um? What does fashion actually do? It tells you a suit made of a material that could last five years and as soon as you've bought it, tells you you can't wear it any longer because the newer one has already been created. The same principle can be used to sell anything. The motto of styling is it's out. As soon as one thing is, they must invent another to supersede it.
Matt:Yeah, Cause if they make great stuff that is timeless and people want to wear it for 10, 20, 30, 40 years, they don't make any money no more money. And then add that they've got to make it with shit, um, ingredients like whatever these Levi's are made out of, kind of denim and some spandex or whatever and we talked about this before but they, they, they literally fall apart after two years and unless that's the look you're going for, you got to buy a new pair.
Alex:Yeah, yep, which I've had to do Subtract rather than add. This rule must be understood in the sense of reaching simplicity, getting at the essence of the object by eliminating anything superfluous until no farther simplification is possible addition by subtraction, and that was, um that just popped into my head one of the episodes of the bear this season.
Matt:The main character was working under the head chef and the head chef, you know, sees his plate and he tells him subtract, take take away, take away yeah, there was, and and the plate already looked incredibly simple maybe five ingredients and I think he's like no too many.
Alex:Yeah let's see, I've got two, two or three more that I uh. Sorry if this is just killing people, but when one studies something characteristic of a people, it is wise to look at it at its best side, at least if one wants to learn anything. Ugly things are ugly in much the same way the world over. Only the best can teach us and the best of anything is individual. Each country excels in some things and in the rest is just the same as other countries, mediocre.
Alex:so looking at talking about like cultural yeah like unique pieces of you know, cultural contributions to art. Um, all right, there's one other, there's two that I want, but let me see, put you in vision. This diversity is a sign of life as it is actually lived. The internal structures adapt themselves and give birth to many diverse forms, all of the same family, but different. Oh man, there's like one that just wrecked me. Gotta find it. And then there's this one I always talk to Audrey about this when you just see something that's gaudy. We were in Miami recently. We were staying in like you know, kind of a finance area and it's just like Ooh, like everything is just hyperclinical and just you know more money than God but everything looks like shit in a way, yeah and um, I thought about this.
Alex:When a lot of money comes along before culture arrives, we get the phenomenon of the gold telephone. And when I say culture, I don't mean academic knowledge, I mean information, information about what is happening in the world, about the things that make life interesting.
Matt:And then I'll have to snag this a copy of this.
Alex:Yeah, it's a quick read, it's good. I have one more. Let me see if I can find it, and I'll give myself a time limit. I know, like, like I have an idea of where it is because I remember where I was when I read it, but I don't.
Matt:Flip through every page. This is good, just wearing in the book a little more, right? Yeah, just break that spine, destroy it. The listeners are just yeah, they're like wow, we're, we're listening here listening to a guy flip through a book so we can read us passages.
Alex:Is that it? No, it's not it. Okay. I'm going to do one more. Yeah, this is it Okay. Art that is too defined, conclusive and limited to one aspect of a thing leaves a man of today standing isolated and apart. Either he accepts the fate of company or he gets nothing from it. There's very little actual participation involved. Everything that does not coincide with a particular version of the artist has to be excluded. But in an open work of art, a person participates much more to the extent of being able to change the work of art according to his state of mind.
Alex:We've talked about this several times yeah open-ended art you know we talked about this with the movie, one of your favorite movies right apocalypse now it's more open than some of the other ones, and so you can apply your state of mind to it, that's right. I just think that I would highlight that 150 times yes print it around. I think that's the most important thing. Um, you know, it's a little vain to just create from your vision. Cause what is your vision? Um, to the world Right, but anyways, those are my, those are my quotes. Let's uh we can.
Alex:We can move. I want to see what's in the bag. Should we do that?
Matt:Well, it's not that, no, it's out here.
Alex:Oh, it's outside yeah.
Matt:So the transition into this goes back to the soulless thing, and you brought out that book.
Alex:Design is Art and I think that there's an element of that as our desire for objects to have the things that we have, to kind of have a soul or a spirit.
Matt:It's a nice book too. Just, yes, beautiful way to go. Penguin, yeah, knocked it out of the park, um, and we were talking before about, uh, provenance and quintessence and the object I'm going to bring out so before, yeah, provenance.
Alex:Do you want to give me any context?
Matt:I've never really heard this term okay, well, let's let's do the dictionary definition. I mean, I know what it is, but let's just do that real quick.
Alex:Um, so we just have it, uh, exactly, uh, maybe we should define quintessence too, just what we think of as quintessence?
Matt:So provenance, the place of origin or earliest known history of something, okay, and I'll circle that back to when the object comes, because this thing had great, I was greatly attracted to it because of what I know it is. But then it's provenance, which the people made me stay there and wait to hear the story of it, then added so much more depth to the piece that you know it's something I'll never part with and it's oddly applicable to you. Know what you and I do as people trying to make work. Um, so let's do quintessence, which we really got kind of kicked up on because jerry seinfeld talked about it in his episode of the gq series. Like, was it?
Alex:like 10, 10 like 10 things you can't live without, or something like that, and I feel like I've looked up. Go ahead and read the definition. Let's see the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class yeah, and so how I look at it is like something that is perfectly itself that's just what bruno said like going to yeah, like going to perfectly. Itself talked about bagel bin on the podcast before. It's just perfectly.
Matt:Yeah, you know what did Jerry say to like in the show, the big pan or something, some one of the objects he said?
Alex:I mean all kinds of yeah he just like just things that are not. They're not trying to be anything else. They function perfectly.
Matt:Yeah.
Alex:They're perfectly themselves.
Matt:Yeah, I think the addition by subtraction. They're not complicated.
Alex:There's no all this gingerbread on it, it's just it's yeah, it's exactly it only and it, like you know, it's not going to do 10 things right of us if there was a little bit of a separation and we both have an admiration for things you know you got me on the typewriters.
Matt:You love your Leica cameras. There's lots of stuff in your studio, I think even these flip cameras. There's something about them that is sort of so simple.
Alex:And they just work, and they just work, yeah, right.
Matt:That you might be the one who's drawn to quintessence. Yeah, and not that you're not drawn to provenance.
Alex:But I mean, I'm with you. Some people like I have friends and I have people who I follow also, whether it's in watches or cameras or YouTube or whatever.
Matt:Yeah, watches or cameras or YouTube or whatever.
Alex:And um, the the history of the thing is the most important. Yeah Over anything. Right, it can be quote unquote. I might look at it and be like that's the ugliest thing I've ever seen.
Matt:Right, but the story but the story gives it yeah.
Alex:I don't care about that, definitely. Yeah, I mean I don't care about that, definitely yeah. I mean I don't not care about history, right, but I'm definitely more function oriented. And then through the function is like, how does the design serve the function? Yeah, I think I'm more aligned with. Yeah, right. And I might see, it's an interesting observation that you just made, because it might be.
Matt:And again, not that I'm not drawn to quintessence and that you're not, you're not.
Alex:I think it's hard to draw.
Matt:It's hard to draw like a hard line and put it on a different side, but definitely you know there's going to be, um, you know it's a semi permeable membrane, like we're going to have some flow back and forth. But, um, I think that you know, like, with your coat that you had tailored, it's entirely possible that if you knew who the person was that bought it, how they got it, did they go to Italy? Were they this person? Did they have this job? You know, like, did they wear it at this place? You know, those things might enhance your experience better.
Alex:Yeah, right.
Matt:But you wouldn't, you know, buy and then have tailored a coat that you didn't really really like. Yeah, because of the story, now I might be more susceptible to that. I'm like I don't love that coat, but god, that story is amazing I just want to I want to wear that story. Yeah, for sure, you know, for sure all right now. I don't think what I'm going to bring out is that, um, but I'll stumble through the opening of the door here to get it I'm just gonna for to for the visual.
Matt:I'm going to describe it.
Alex:Matt's standing up out of his chair. He's opening the door. It's a tight squeeze because we've got the typewriter over in the corner. He's stepping out of the door. He's grabbing an object, slowly bringing it back in. It is a typewriter, so it appears to be. Um, it is a very oh, that's a plastic case. No, it appears to be a like, maybe, an aluminum case. It's very light, feels plasticky. It's not, it's not a heavy metal. Okay, he's opening no, no it says hawaii, usda, hawaii travel maybe he's opening it.
Alex:This is this is hunter thompson's typewriter.
Matt:I'm just kidding um he just gave it to me. So what we have here is, uh, a hermes baby, right, not a big like huge revelation.
Alex:Alex is overwhelmed with jealousy. Alex is overwhelmed with jealousy.
Matt:Well, I have two of them now. Alex, Of this exact.
Alex:Alex's jealousy has subsided greatly. Alex is planning his afternoon to go to Matt's house. Okay, so I'm putting a piece of paper in here, alex is planning his afternoon to go to Matt's house. Okay, so I'm putting a piece of paper in here.
Matt:Yeah.
Alex:So Matt can give us some ASMR. This is beautiful, so it's funny. I went to the shop the other day the antique shop with armies 3000. And I just I was like he's not gonna sell that thing for as much as he has it listed for. There's just no chance oh, at the at the shop downtown, old market 951. Yeah, there's no way but um. So this is a um, it's a small typewriter, it's a journalist typewriter. It seems like um.
Matt:Ultra portable.
Alex:Ultra portable. Yeah, Built like a freaking industrial weapon.
Matt:Yeah, it has the gullwing ink ribbon cover.
Alex:Yep metal.
Matt:These need to be reformed a little bit, because on my other one they click in.
Alex:You've got to send this to my guy to do the full service.
Matt:I'm kind of a'm, I'm, I'm, I'm see this is the difference you want to try to I I like to leave you know I clean them up, of course but I like to leave them yeah part of it is it's he, he won't replace any of the parts, yeah part of it is the cost.
Alex:But he, he'll take it apart and polish every one of them, yeah make it all nice. Anti-rust coating, things like that.
Matt:To me. The Promenade makes me want to just clean it.
Alex:See, that's interesting because I got the World War II typewriter last year and I was like I got to get this thing functioning.
Matt:So you've said two things in your observation. You said journalist and you said World War II. So I took this up.
Alex:So I was this isn't world war two, is it no?
Matt:So I was at um it looks a little later than that. I was at uh um, yes, this is. I believe a late forties baby but it still has a connection to world war two.
Alex:Um God, the Swiss can make something that looks nice, so this is, yeah, Swiss made typewriter.
Matt:and technically it's my third because of that um Montana Viking that I bought, which is a Hermes baby that was acquired by the Eaton department store of Canada and then rebadged and painted as a Montana Viking typewriter. So I have three of these. Give us a little clicky clap. This has like something on it. It works Great. Sure does something on it. So it works great, sure does the one I bought off ebay for 70 without the lid completely gunked up, the keys barely moved up it was a major clean job to get it back up and running, but it works great and I and I use it, uh.
Matt:so I went to, uh, the Dodge County or something Historical society arranges, I guess every year this big um, essentially like an indoor garage sale, a big swap meet. I don't even know what you call the swap meet or flea market.
Alex:What the right?
Matt:word is. But all these people that are part of the historical society bring in their stuff that they want to contribute to raising money for the society. I believe that's what it's for. So people have books and records and glassware and old radios and all kinds of stuff in there. And I went because I wanted to check if they had any cameras. I wanted to check if they had any records and then cassette tapes, vhs, stuff like that, that media. So when I went in I beelined it to the records. I went through a bunch. I probably pulled 30 or so records they were a dollar each um through the cassettes and got those, um got those going, uh, and then some vhs tapes and so then I'm walking through because there was it was inside an old cvs, it's a huge place. I'm walking through, I look over by a big royal typewriter. You know a big monster desktop royal typewriter. I'm like, oh cool. And then I look to the right of it and I see this typewriter in its case and I gasped out loud.
Matt:I was like yeah I'm like I know what that is, so I go over to it, I push the top buttons, pop it open and um and uh see that it's a hermes baby. I was honestly hoping it was a hermes rocket, yeah because I don't have that one and I was hoping it was the green and all that, but that one came in like a brown leather case and then I saw the price tag of 25, 25 bucks.
Alex:Yeah, and I'm like well, this is coming home, not a 25 typewriter, yeah, no, no, uh.
Matt:Is it like a thousand dollar typewriter? By no means cleaned up.
Alex:I mean, this is actually really good condition. This is probably like a 250, yeah 150 to 250?
Matt:I think absolutely, and the provenance might help it if I can show some connection. So, as I'm sure you're all waiting for the provenance, I take this, all you know, all my stuff up to the checkout and the woman goes oh, that typewriter, this woman here has a story about it and I'm like I'm all ears. She had some stuff to do. I actually went back and pulled a couple more records. She was finally done and she starts telling the story. She gets two lines in and I'm like I'm not going to remember the details of this. Is it okay if I record your voice telling the story so I can listen to it later? And I'm so glad I had that instinct because I would have forgotten the gentleman's name and I don't know it right now. Yeah, but she essentially told a very simple story.
Matt:This isn't some big elaborate thing, but the gentleman who owned this was a photojournalist and he was a famous photojournalist who documented World War II. She gave his name Again, I forget. So I'll put it in the show notes and I'll be trying to do some research on him and his background. Add that to the show notes too. Yeah, and so he used again, I think this is mid to late forties. Um, I don't think that he had this actually in world war two. I I don't believe Hermes had the baby out that early in the cause. He would have had to have had it in the late thirties or like right then in the early forties. Uh, I would say it's possible, but I'm pretty sure this is the late forties. So you know, he may have acquired this after the war. Maybe he was when he was stationed over there during you know, the cleanup and all that stuff.
Matt:He got his hands on it and brought it home, but then here in Omaha he used it and he inscribed the lid with Travel and Transport Incorporated Omaha, Nebraska, which is the company that he started here in omaha after world war ii, so I'll have to look up travel, yeah, but you know he, it's inscribed in here and that's, you know, awesome and a great part of its story.
Matt:Obviously, you know, with us trying to make work in photography and documentary and all that while we don't do you know true journalism. Um, to a certain degree, you know, this is definitely connected to what we're interested in and what we're excited about. So if I can go back and find his photographs.
Alex:This is a. This is a very quintessent object as well.
Matt:Yeah, this is a good and that's where the intersection is right, like I feel like this typewriter is a symbol of quintessence, and then you also have the addition of its provenance. Now its provenance is much more meaningful to us because of photography. Yeah, you know, my grandpa's a world war ii veteran.
Matt:I've always been something I've been interested in and the Nebraska connection the Nebraska connection, all of that stuff, and then it was just sitting on a you know a table at a dead CVS and now I get to keep it and and use it, it and the other hermes baby that I have, uh, which is great and works wonderfully, and all that. It doesn't have as much emotion with it because I just bought it on ebay yeah, absolutely what's interesting is do you know what made me buy it? It was watching ripley on netflix did they use a hermes?
Alex:yeah hermes.
Matt:Yeah, I'm like, what's that typewriter? Yeah, beautiful typewriter. Yeah, so for 25,.
Alex:what a find what a find Can you give us? Can you give us some ASMR, just like type type?
Matt:Oh sure.
Alex:Do the, do the typical here We'll do. Sorry for the. This is probably terrible.
Matt:I wonder what's the margin set to? Let's shorten the margin a little bit so we can get a ding on there. See how it sounds. Margin release I don't think it has one. I think right there is this?
Alex:no, that's backspace. Is that a margin release? That's shift. That's this is lock and that's shift. Yeah, there's got to be a margin release somewhere.
Matt:This seems low to them. I don't know that my other one is this low, but maybe I'm misremembering. I like this typewriter, especially because we talked about this. Yeah, we talked about this before. Very cool certain typewriters are really easy to get a like, a like a musical rhythm to when you use it, and I have some that I'm like it's like all out of beat. I can't get the rhythm with it the way the keys are whatever it just doesn't gel.
Matt:This one really does, um. And then, speaking about typewriters, I was out in atlantic yesterday and was um was out there because jim the giver was supposed to hook me up with some horror VHS and a bunch of vinyl.
Matt:Just tell the beginning of the story, jim the Giver yeah, and a bunch of killer tapes yeah, a bunch of killer tapes. My wife and I went to Atlantic Iowa on Saturday this past Saturday with my kids. We just like to go to small towns, find a place to eat, grab some ice cream, walk around, check out playgrounds, and if there's thrift shops or antique shops, I'll go in and just look for vintage clothing, records, cameras, anything like that, typewriters, of course. And so there was a sign for a garage sale and I'm like you know, we just on the spot, decided to go check it out.
Matt:We pull up, there's two older women inside like a big, like utility utility garage with a really tall garage door, and I go in there and start looking through some stuff. Found some VHS, nothing that I bought. Found a few cassette tapes, a couple of vintage sweatshirts. So then a gentleman pulls up in an orange truck and his name's Jim, and I start asking him you don't by any chance have any like records or VHS. He's like like, oh, I've got a bunch of vhs back at the house, bunch of killer movies. And I'm like what do you mean by killing movies, where someone's always trying to kill everybody?
Matt:and I'm like horror movies, like yeah, yeah, I got a whole bunch of them and I'm like, oh boy, this is the best description of a horror movie horror movies are impossible killer movies he's like got a whole mess of record albums too, just a bunch of a bunch of them, and he's like, and he's like uh, if you come back on wednesday I'll bring it all down here, yeah, and I'm like done, I'm coming back on wednesday and this atlantic's like a 50 plus mile one way drive about an hour so I go out there.
Matt:I'm like, jim, how's it going? You bring that stuff down. He's like, yeah, check it out. It's in the back of my truck. He's got an orange like a, a construction company's truck that they didn't use anymore. He took the graphics off and he just bought it and it's like a box with maybe 20 records in it. No vhs, a bunch of dvds, yeah, and some cassettes.
Matt:I'm just like so crestfallen because I have an hour out, but I get to hang out with jim the giver for a little bit longer and the giver quite the character, so I was able to pick up a few things and then move on to some other spots in atlantic and it all worked out uh, especially because I went to this antique shop that I was at previously where they had a hermes rocket, the, the newer version of this. That is, uh, green and with the green keys, like the iconic hermes design, but the guy wanted like 150 bucks for it, which is about retail for one that's good and cleaned up and ready to use was this one in rough shape no, it was just dirty, yeah, so totally in good shape.
Matt:It had the leather case, the zip up leather case, everything was there. It is by all means, I think, worth 150 dollars yeah I can't do it. I can't, I can't spend 150 bucks on it.
Alex:Yeah, we can go to.
Matt:It just needs to be cleaned. But he also had two olivetti lettera 25s yeah now these aren't like the most sought after olivettis, they're 70s plastic. They are beautiful, though, in my opinion, very light. They were really oriented towards like college students, sort of like the ibook or, uh, you know, yeah, macbook. All of those were written on the, on the letter on the letter is 25. Yeah, yeah, so beautiful gold one yeah, this one's just sort of that sort of off-white plastic.
Alex:It's honestly a lot like this.
Matt:Yeah, it's definitely a portable. It's not as small, of course, but it's the smallest Olivetti I have. But it literally was like new old stock.
Matt:The case is perfect, other than being a little dirty. You know it's a plastic kind of vinyl case Nothing split, everything works. You know it's a plastic kind of vinyl case nothing split, everything works. It's soft it. You know the handle locks with it, everything's great. And the typewriter itself. I'm like, other than maybe just blowing some compressed air and doing a little bit of a wipe here or there. I don't need to do anything to this.
Matt:It looks brand new yeah, and I typed with this morning, got the rhythm. I'm like, yeah, this typewriter is special, it is quintessence. Object yeah, and there's no provenance other than I bought it at an antique shop.
Alex:This one's cool, though, I think you know. Clean this one up just enough, and then yeah, I'll take it apart.
Matt:I'll take this very easy to disassemble, fortunately, um so I'll pull the top off, take the bottom as he probably did. You know, could have yeah 20 times you know, obviously it types beautifully, so it's not all gunked up and all that I just want to clean it so that it's and and you know you use some uh lubrication on it and all that stuff just to have it ready to go. But even the the ribbon is newer yeah and works, so someone was using it recently yeah, and I might tweak these gull wings so that they lock into place like my other carriage.
Matt:Yeah, double check on that. Yeah, I think that's normal. Yeah, mine does that too. Oh, is it? Yeah, cuz it's a carriage shift instead of moving this up?
Alex:yeah, the basket doesn't go on us. Yes, right, carry it. I forget what they call. Oh, is it? Yeah, cause it's a carriage shift.
Matt:instead of moving this up, yeah, the basket doesn't go up, that's right, carrot, I forget what they call that, it carries something, but I just, I, you know, I I feel like so much of my creative life was moving, was surrounded by tech and shortcuts and macros and speed and efficiency and output and productivity and all these things that just were sort of soulless and you know, you introducing me to cameras and the typewriters and all of this, and I know we've talked about this too much. Part of why I'm not wearing not wearing a black shirt and sorry we weren't going to talk about it, but I'm going to talk about it is because all of that stuff comes back, because I'm surrounded by design as art yeah, you're.
Matt:Inspired and it awakens something I think about, um, I thought about this a couple of times. Uh, there's this moment in Excalibur, one of my favorite movies, um, from the eighties. Uh, king Arthur, you know all that, where you know it's sort of the dark ages for Camelot and King Arthur he's sickly, you know, the kingdom's falling apart, all that stuff and um, and literally Camelot comes back to life and King Arthur comes back to life. Plants are growing. All this stuff is returning, um, to beauty and and and richness and fullness, uh and uh, you know, I know it's corny and I'm I'm sort of that romantic type that that latches onto those things. But that's what I see when I'm overhauling my space and connecting with these, these objects that to me, have a soul, they have quintessence, some of them have provenance Um, and they are pieces of art to me that I can surround myself with, to then let all of that fuel the work that I do I think I'm.
Alex:There's part of me that looks at everything a little differently, like um, in addition to the design is art book and you just kind of talking about this. There's a great Steve jobs lecture called um the objects of our life. I think.
Matt:Oh really.
Alex:I'm not sure if that's it, but I think that's it's available on YouTube. It's him when he was. It was probably mid to late 70s okay and um, you know basically the. The conceit of that lecture is that the computer's here, yeah, these companies are gonna buy it, everybody's gonna buy a computer. Now, we can make it look like shit or we can make it beautiful.
Matt:It's going to be a piece of furniture in our home.
Alex:Everybody's going to have one and it can look like shit or it can be beautiful and that's up to us. And I think you know, I think too, just in the you know, late 19th century, early 20th century, commercial design was kind of its own thing. It was kind of separate, was kind of its own thing. It was kind of separate. Like you had artists and then you had commercial designers. But the commercial designers took their trade just as seriously and a lot of them probably could have been amazing artists, but they chose to, they chose to go after the commercial design.
Matt:And it might be because they had to earn a living.
Alex:Make the thing. But I mean, I don't think it was even like a, it wasn't even like they were giving something up to do it.
Matt:Sure yeah, and it was, that was their passion.
Alex:And I think, over time, there's a couple of things that have happened. One we focus like a lot of great design is going on in the digital world, not so much in the physical world. But I think also that you have a lot of people doing commercial design now who do see themselves as failed artists, or there's a narrative that like, oh well, you're in commercial art, you it's because you couldn't make it as like an artist. And I think until we lose that, until we lose that kind of thinking, and until we start to look around and be like, like I want everything that surrounds me to be, you know, as beautiful as I can, as it can be yeah you know whether that's the product labels.
Alex:I like the topo chico bottles, good, like it's just pretty to look at. Yeah, um, maybe even prettier if it was painted on and says um, it's cheaper to do stickers cheaper to do stickers.
Alex:Do stickers, and I mean I get it, but like if we could remove that stigma that all of these commercial designers are just failed artists. Instead it was like the pursuit. I think everything would look more beautiful. And it's not like you don't have beautiful design and beautiful, tangible design, beautiful outside of the digital world, but I do think you have less of it, um, and in my observation, you have less of it now than you know in the late 19th, early to mid 20th century, all the way up to the you know eighties I think the eighties is kind of when we fell off the cliff, yeah, um, I mean, but there's still cool stuff that came after that. Don't get me wrong me wrong.
Matt:Yeah, and we might sort of rediscover it at maybe what they're not rediscover it, but sort of look at it with clearer eyes as more time there's more, you know there's more time and space um I do think there's a lot of just copycat and kind of uncreative things.
Matt:Well, I think in the world nowadays, playbook yeah, continues to get um, iterated upon and everybody just sort of like knows like these six things you have to do to sell an object and get x amount of millions of dollars. You know like you have to do these things in the manufacturing process. Oh, don't put a. Put a sticker on the bottle. Don't hand paint it. Do this in the manufacturing process to save money. Yeah you, you start answering to that master more than than another one.
Alex:Uh, you know, again, designed as art versus it's going to take some bold moves selling shit from some companies too, to differentiate themselves in that manner. And, um, I mean, the market is like, if you, if you had some companies that made that move, though to focus, I mean it is kind of funny, because you do have one company that puts a lot of focus into it and they're one of the biggest companies in the world.
Alex:You know they still carry that vision of like we're going to, everybody's going to have them. You might as well make them beautiful.
Matt:Right.
Alex:To the point where it's like almost become an unbeautiful thing, like it's almost circled around. Now you look at the iphone and the mac or whatever and you're just like, oh, it's so, like it was novel at once and then everybody copied it and it seems but yeah, yeah, I mean just making things beautiful, and I think that's like the, the early mac, the early. Oh yeah, they're still really cool. Yeah, just as a piece of industrial design, they're really cool looking.
Matt:Yeah, um, I don't know where we are on time, but I was just gonna yeah we can wrap it up, yeah I was gonna bring the typewriter thing a little bit to a coda, but yeah, you know a lot of.
Matt:I think I have probably 17 typewriters right now and I do not intend to keep 17 typewriters. Part of this was going. It's taking a bunch of stuff into the changing room and going what do I like? What fits me best? I have to experience them to figure it out. And this morning I was sitting in my studio and I have sort of the typewriters that I can use the easiest all on my shelving and I'm looking at all of them and I'm like this 1940 Smith Corona, which was branded as a tower commander, the Remington quiet writer, like I don't feel pulled towards those typewriters. Um, even after using them, even after liking how they type, I'm not drawn to them. I look at the Olivetti typewriters and I'm like these speak to me both in how they make music when I use them and the beauty of their design. And I had that. I spooled up the ink on the letter of 25 and did a little round of typing with it and I'm like this is fantastic. The studio 45 that I have. A wonderful. The studio 44 that I have. Love it.
Matt:One little quibble though. All of Eddie's carriage return. Arms are very fragile, yeah, and there's a little metal linkage piece of linkage that lets you, that lets the carriage, you know, return when you cycle it. So both of those it's broken, yeah, and doesn't return properly the the spaces that you want it to to return. So I have to send them off to get them fixed. But it's worth it to me. But this letter at 25, it works perfectly. So I went through. I'm like, oh yeah, it's when, but it's worth it to me. But this letter at 25, it works perfectly. So I went through. I'm like, oh yeah, it's when it works, it's great, yeah, so, um, so I will edit down that collection. But I am the type that's like, okay, well, I let, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do a lot of judgment of this thing in the moment, looking at it on the rack. Okay, that I mean like I like it, grab it, grab it, grab it, grab it go, try it on.
Matt:Uh, oh yeah, nope, nope, that one's out, that one's out that one's out, and then you end up having I'm, which for me might be more than the normal person. You know. I might come away with four things that I buy out of the 25 things that I tried on yeah uh, and that's what's happening with the typewriters.
Alex:I feel like that's the natural progression for most things, like yeah, yeah, you just get. You know when you're first getting into it, you have to learn what you like that's right exactly and it takes a while, because you have an, you have a notion of what you like, like an intellectualized version of what you like. But it's not an intellectual process, no, it's a very, it's a tactile, um visceral.
Alex:Well, you, you used a word where you were just like you're drawn to it yeah and it's like I don't know what you would describe as the backbone to being drawn to something right but that's not, yeah, it's not a very intellectual it's just like a gravitational pull, like I just look at it, I'm like, oh, it's almost like. It's just like a gravitational pull, like I just look at it and I'm like, oh, it's almost like it's its own force, exactly, exactly Right.
Matt:And I saw that letter at 25 and the Hermes baby too. And I'm like man, I kind of already have two Hermes babies. It's not the same color but it's the same exact physical machine.
Alex:Yeah.
Matt:I'm like, eh, this letter, yeah, like 50 bucks for that thing, yeah, and that's what he sold it to me for. Yeah, and I'm like this is going to, this is perfect, yeah, and like I'm never gonna get rid of it, yeah and I'm looking at the other ones. I'm like remington quiet writer. I got for 12 bucks at dude um habitat for humanity restore. Yeah, don't sleep on that place. Yeah, they got a couple of good they have. They have more than just furniture there.
Alex:They have records, they have yeah, well, there's a new stuff, there's a new place that opened, or maybe this is not, maybe it's not new, but um, in blackstone yeah it's like an old church. Okay, and so you're driving. What is that road? Arnham, the main drag through blackstone? No, it's one road up yeah uh, away from dodge. Like you're going behind. Yeah, yeah, like you're going behind. Uh, harney, is it harney?
Matt:yeah, it's on harney yeah and it's just an old church and there's a sign on the door that says thrift shop. Yeah, that's evergreen thrift shop is that evergreen?
Alex:oh yeah, buddy, I've been through there on numerous times.
Matt:Yeah, so that place is cleaned out. Where your tv came from it, was it really? Yeah, yeah, good stuff for a dollar very cool.
Alex:I'll have to check it out then.
Matt:Yeah that's good. They have a ton of records got me. Yeah, this guy recently yeah, that was from the other lutheran thrift shop yeah, a little guy very cool.
Alex:Yeah, that thing is gnarly looking, isn't it?
Matt:maybe not the best looking thing necessarily, but it is kind of its own. It is kind of you know, I know, I know some of this stuff. It's like that's what I mean by time right yeah at the time you might be like, this functions the way I need it to function yeah, and then, 30 years later, you're like I kind of like it. Yeah, I think it's kind of beautiful, I think it's kind of cool. I think it's kind of cool.
Alex:Yeah. Okay, here's the other part too, and you know this is a good tie up, but you know we're kind of like counter-cultural about things and we have this, like, you know, anti-authority attitude or whatever anti-consensus attitude towards some things, and I feel like it's like most people think that's an ugly piece of shit. Yeah, and that kind of makes me pumped to be like exactly I kind of like it.
Alex:Yeah, it's kind of nice. It works great. It's fucking cool. It sounds good too. Yeah, it sounds really good. It's hype with audrey was in the other room the other night and I was just, you know, banging away at it. She's like that's. She's like sounds amazing music sounds really nice because it's just like. It's like a clicky, it's. I mean it's like clicked keyboard essentially, but anyways good show Good, episode yeah Good talk Good one, good talk, good talk.
Matt:It had been a golden afternoon and I remember having the familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
