BUYER'S REMORSE & OTHER ILLNESSES: On Saturday, I went on a furniture shopping expedition with my pal Mal to find two items: a coffee table and a tv armoire for my new apartment. I started my search at Intaglia, a hip store in Midtown where I bought my gigantic couch and chaise lounge. I knew the armoires were going to be out of my price range, but I figured a coffee table would only set me back a few hundred.
Not only did Intaglia not have a coffee table I really loved, they were all $300 plus and not what I really wanted. Apparently, the new trend is to make the coffee table as functional as possible. They had a number of them at Intaglia with removable trays and cushions so they could be used as extra seating. They weren't very attractive and not the smooth, clean lines I was hoping for. I was a bit disappointed, so we headed for Pier One.
I usually hate most of the furniture in Pier One. It's all a bit too rustic and bamboo for my taste. The only piece of furniture in my loft that came from Pier One is a trunk my parents gave me for Christmas ten years ago. However, about two years ago, Pier One got a new line of furniture in that was really classy. All dark wood, distressed in just the right places, a little expensive. I have lusted after the tv armoire in this collection and when I went into the store, I gravitated right toward it. Still beautiful...still expensive. Sitting near it was the coffee table of my dreams - simple lines, dark wood, distressed. Before I even knew what was happening, I was at the checkout counter buying BOTH! There goes my bank account.
Mal tried to remind me that this wasn't really impulse buying, since I had wanted the tv armoire for years. But I had buyer's remorse the rest of the afternoon. We went to see Todd Solondz's (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness) latest film, Palindromes, which was good, but not great. His stories are so sexually twisted, but funny as hell, and it also gives Jennifer Jason Leigh the chance to continue her string of slut/whore/incest victim roles that she's based her entire career on.
After the film, I dropped by Sal Brownfield's new work/gallery space in Midtown. It's in a crumbling old house, but Sal's art looks great on the walls. He's planning a new series of paintings on Atlanta's poets and already has me in mind. It's an honor. He is a brilliant artist and anyone who saw his series of breast cancer survivors last season at Galerie Timothy Tew, knows this man will be up there with the American greats one day. He's that good. Not to mention he's a generous, kind, man. We need more Sal's in the world. I also got a chance to hear more of Eve H's adventures in Paris at Cecilia poetry workshop. Oh, to be in Paris in the springtime...
Yesterday, I woke up early and had a headache. By mid-afternoon, I had a fever and was nauseous. I wound up missing Cherryl Floyd-Miller's Language of Bones poetry reading at Oakland and also Java Monkey. I laid on the couch and watched The French Connection, which is still one of the best crime-dramas ever made. Gene Hackman is fab. Right after that, another Hackman film, The Quick and The Dead, came on. I started feeling a bit better by 10 p.m. and then just went to bed.
I came into work this morning still feeling a bit under the weather, but we're in production so I had to make an appearance. I also met Dan Veach at Spelman College for the official signing of the documents for the Fulton County Arts Council grant for Poetry Atlanta. When I got back and checked email, there was a note from Creative Loafing suggesting that yet another response from Mary Grabar is forthcoming. Suddenly I feel nauseated again.
Not only did Intaglia not have a coffee table I really loved, they were all $300 plus and not what I really wanted. Apparently, the new trend is to make the coffee table as functional as possible. They had a number of them at Intaglia with removable trays and cushions so they could be used as extra seating. They weren't very attractive and not the smooth, clean lines I was hoping for. I was a bit disappointed, so we headed for Pier One.
I usually hate most of the furniture in Pier One. It's all a bit too rustic and bamboo for my taste. The only piece of furniture in my loft that came from Pier One is a trunk my parents gave me for Christmas ten years ago. However, about two years ago, Pier One got a new line of furniture in that was really classy. All dark wood, distressed in just the right places, a little expensive. I have lusted after the tv armoire in this collection and when I went into the store, I gravitated right toward it. Still beautiful...still expensive. Sitting near it was the coffee table of my dreams - simple lines, dark wood, distressed. Before I even knew what was happening, I was at the checkout counter buying BOTH! There goes my bank account.
Mal tried to remind me that this wasn't really impulse buying, since I had wanted the tv armoire for years. But I had buyer's remorse the rest of the afternoon. We went to see Todd Solondz's (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness) latest film, Palindromes, which was good, but not great. His stories are so sexually twisted, but funny as hell, and it also gives Jennifer Jason Leigh the chance to continue her string of slut/whore/incest victim roles that she's based her entire career on.
After the film, I dropped by Sal Brownfield's new work/gallery space in Midtown. It's in a crumbling old house, but Sal's art looks great on the walls. He's planning a new series of paintings on Atlanta's poets and already has me in mind. It's an honor. He is a brilliant artist and anyone who saw his series of breast cancer survivors last season at Galerie Timothy Tew, knows this man will be up there with the American greats one day. He's that good. Not to mention he's a generous, kind, man. We need more Sal's in the world. I also got a chance to hear more of Eve H's adventures in Paris at Cecilia poetry workshop. Oh, to be in Paris in the springtime...
Yesterday, I woke up early and had a headache. By mid-afternoon, I had a fever and was nauseous. I wound up missing Cherryl Floyd-Miller's Language of Bones poetry reading at Oakland and also Java Monkey. I laid on the couch and watched The French Connection, which is still one of the best crime-dramas ever made. Gene Hackman is fab. Right after that, another Hackman film, The Quick and The Dead, came on. I started feeling a bit better by 10 p.m. and then just went to bed.
I came into work this morning still feeling a bit under the weather, but we're in production so I had to make an appearance. I also met Dan Veach at Spelman College for the official signing of the documents for the Fulton County Arts Council grant for Poetry Atlanta. When I got back and checked email, there was a note from Creative Loafing suggesting that yet another response from Mary Grabar is forthcoming. Suddenly I feel nauseated again.
Comments
GAV
(BTW, I hope a productive exchange surgfaces from the Mary controversy.)
-D.