Grab a seat

I have in the past, many times, usually to myself, ranted about the price tags attached to certain things. I realize that there is a certain amount of fogey vibe that goes along with bitching about things being expensive, but I feel that certain things are simply unjustifiably priced. A perfect for instance, in my mind, is the Humanscale chair. Humanscale offers all manner of types of chairs and configurations of each type. What they do not offer, is any rational justification for the prices they charge for their products which range from bottom-end ~$200 to top-end ~$1300.

I'll put it this way. If I spend $1300 on a chair I should be able to die a happy man for having the opportunity to sit in it. A chair that costs $1300 should be crafted from unknown materials out of Area 51, upholstered with the hide of the Loch Ness monster, and padded with the down from the goose that lays golden eggs. It should survive nuclear holocaust. I would expect to experience the rapture the moment my ass touched the seat because my cheeks would be resting on the pursed lips of God. The civilization of intelligent cockroaches that survive us on this planet should find these chairs and be able to determine why we ultimately failed as species.

I cannot begin to fathom how it can be said that a new desk chair could be objectively valued at $1300. Was it hand carved from a single piece of petrified wood that somehow survived millions of years of geologic turmoil only to be ripped from the ground and shaved and sliced to meet some artists rendition of the contour of the perfect human rear? No. It was, as the site describes it, "designed by legendary industrial designer Niels Diffrient, who is considered by many to be the world’s greatest chair designer."

Really? World’s greatest chair designer? Is that anything like 'world's greatest dad', or 'world's greatest coach'. Who gives a fuck if they were designed by Leonardo da Vinci or Bob from accounting? They're manufactured on a god damned assembly line like every other mass produced 'luxury' item. If the Venus di Milo had arms and cupped hands for a seat I could see paying $1300 for that. It would be a work of art. An irreplaceable one at that. But I wouldn't sit in it. It would be a conversation piece that would collect dust and eventually be forgotten and unappreciated. Much like the Humanscale chair. It shall pass on to the ages. An aluminum and plastic lament to the wanton consumerism and absurdest quest for style that spawned it.

Sweet Somber Soulful

Ever a breath away, riding on the winds. The taste of laughter, the smell of sorrow, the sound of fear, the feel of...indifference. All of the senses and nonsenses we hold dear and hostage to our self image. Our vision of ourselves will forever be tragically rooted between what we fear that we are and what we hope others believe that we are. In occasional fleeting moments the texture of our being comes into focus; the more sharply rendered the more quickly we adjust the composition so as to create a more obscure perspective. We reduce, reuse, and recycle our emotion, acceptance, empathy, and save, borrow, lend, and purchase outrage, joy, fear, and schadenfreude with our attention. Spans of certainty mar this landscape of doubt. To be certain is not to know, but to not know how to accept what is. Is this the means or the end...are we seeking a destination or have we arrived...does it matter? Truth is what you arrive at when you run out of imagination.