9.30pm
When trying to turn my life around, I am handicapped by two bad habits; addictions in fact. One is tobacco which I am going to describe and document how to give up over the next few weeks.
The other is caused by the debilitating power of the electrical television box.
Rather than going for a run or going to the gym, how much easier is it to just lay down and turn on the TV?
I would like to have as a guiding motto:
Invest your time in something worthwhile.
It might not be very original and indeed may even be considered a cliche but I hope it isn't.
It is, however, rather grand for how can I justify watching on TV some of the things that I do?
I was brought up in a home where TV was almost considered a guilty pleasure.
Most of my childhood was spent without much TV at all. In the jungles of Borneo we had no television for a while and then only limited stuff like The Waltons and Giant Robot. In The Gambia, I don't think there was even a broadcaster apart from our neighbour Radio Gambia, and while I was at boarding school, I never watched TV although it was available.
When we were back in England as a family, TV was certainly not turned on until after dinner in the evening.
Nowadays, when I do watch it, I feel almost guilty for having done so. However, I try and justify it by telling myself I am allowed the occasional distraction and moment of relaxation.
I am from time to time rewarded for my viewing, this evening being one such case in point.
The documentary, Charles and Ray Eames: The architect and the painter (review), was only released at the end of 2011 but I was lucky enough to be able to watch it on terrestrial TV here in Finland.
I am passionate about good design which I put down to having been blessed with my parents; an architect and a sculptor. As well as exceptional artistic genes, I have also found myself surrounded by beautiful things and have therefore developed an eye for the exquisite.
I hunted out a supplier of the Aeron Chair while I was in Japan and had one my size shipped in from America. Although not an Eames, it is produced by Herman Miller, who Eames designed all his chairs for. It is also on permanent display at the museum of modern art.
I have known of Eero Saarinen and his famuos Tulip Chair but I had always thought he was Finnish and developed his skills in Finland. What I learnt tonight was that he in fact moved to the US at the age of 13 and became a naturalised American in 1940 and went to college with Charles and Ray. He worked with Charles on The Bridge House which was later to become the Eames House or Case Study House No. 8.
The film included interviews with some of the designers and other staff who worked with Charles and Ray and some memorable lines from the documentary were with reference to working in the office, 901.
It was described as, 'a delicious agony' like 'digging your brains out and kneading it on the worktop.'
Charles was eclectic in his work; he was an architect, a designer, a film maker and many other things. He earned a living from doing things he didn't know about. There is a limit to earning a living from your knowledge whereas one's ignorance is an unlimited commodity; the journey of not knowing to knowing was his work.
How great is that?
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