Hasta La Ideas

Today we welcome Erin Ellia, a writer in transit, as a guest post author. She will be blogging her move discussed in this post at TheHouseAndI.blogspot.com.

I’m preparing for a move — a big one. I’m leaving my husband and our three-bedroom Boston-area house to sublet a furnished room in a Times Square apartment by myself. The soon-to-be-ex and I are trying to do this as amicably as possible, but I have to admit I laughed when he asked if I’d thought about what I might want to take with me. Honestly, the first thought that popped into my head was, “Well, I suppose they sell toothbrushes in New York…”

See, the soon-to-be ex is an inveterate clutterer, and I am emphatically not. It’s been a constant battle through the years. But no matter how Spartan an attitude I’ve always taken toward my stuff, I know it’s not realistic to move to New York without so much as a toothbrush. Is it? No. I’m 40 years old and every thing I’ve ever owned is in this house — there’s got to be something in it I want to keep.

Besides, I’m only renting the furnished room until I get my bearings in a new city. I really will need just a suitcase and toothbrush in the beginning, but soon enough I imagine I’ll be wanting things like furniture. I plan to winnow my half of our bulging houseful down to a minimal, manageable amount, to store in my father’s basement for the time being, until I find the quaint little rent-stabilized divorce-pad of my dreams.

It so happens I’ve done this for two households so far this year. In February, I helped an elderly friend move to assisted living, and last month I cleaned out my mother’s house (she passed away last fall). The way I see it: if I could manage the emotions of both of those fraught situations and still maintain focus on the task at hand, then I should have no problem making rational decisions about jeans that don’t fit anymore, or the broken bunny-rabbit mug I’ve been holding onto since the seventh grade. It’s all about perspective — I’m starting my life over; I’m happy to wriggle away from stuff like snakeskin.

Here’s my strategy:

1. Approach my pile as if it belongs to someone else, as if I’ve never seen that broken mug.
2. Keep only things I can realistically use in a small apartment — a lamp, a chair, maybe a trash can. If there are duplicates, I’ll take just my best or favorite one.
3. Pack a single box each of decorative doodads, kitchen gear, and silly sentimental objects.
4. The rest of the items I plan to sell. Books and CDs are (mostly) easy to replace, or a good excuse to finally get an iPod and a Kindle. And, I need to remember there’s not much chance my divorce-pad will actually be rent-stabilized.

I might just keep the broken bunny-rabbit mug, though, as it has been with me for 28 years — exactly twice as long as my (ex-)husband.

Back to the States for this writer and on to drastically important things, like the news that the Milwaukee Art Museum has been selected as a location for the soon-to-shoot Transformers 3. As the Journal-Sentinal reports, the production will be there the week of July the 12th, closing down the museum for a full day, concentrating their efforts on shooting this “pivotal scene” there, as well as other spots in the area. We have no idea if the museum’s architect, Santiago Calatrava, has been alerted to any of this or if he’ll find himself watching in horror as his beautiful sail-like museum is obliterated in fireballs and explosions by robots from visiting galaxies who clearly don’t have any regard for quality architecture. Though says the city’s tourist bureau’s Twitter feed: “Optimus Prime wouldn’t let that happen!”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Fireflies leaving party in Soho, London last week

On Wednesday the end of a gruelling eight day, 1,000 km bike ride over the Alps will be in sight for the 75 advertising and production people who make up this year’s Fireflies cycling tour. Before they reach Cannes, there’s still time to pledge money for their cause, the leukaemia charity, Leuka…

It’s not easy crossing the Alps on a bike…

Each year the Fireflies Tour traverses the French Alps, from Geneva to Cannes, to help raise money for Leuka. If all goes to plan, they should to arrive at the finishing line at the Cannes Lions on the 23rd. They’re currently blogging their progress at the Fireflies website.

This year, Colnago, the legendary Italian bike manufacturer, has also made a custom Fireflies/Leuka bike for the ride.

The Fireflies Tour was established in 2001 by Sandy Watson Scott, then head of TV at M&C Saatchi, in recognition of relatives and friends’ battles with cancer. The five co-founders, Jake Scott, Adrian Moat, Nick Livesey (directors at RSA Films), Tim Page (head of TV at Y&R) and Chris Haworth set out to cycle 1,000 km in eight days from Lake Evian, across the Alps to Cannes.

Each year new amateur cyclists from the ranks of the advertising and film world have taken up the challenge and, since 2001, the Fireflies have raised £800,000 in aid of Leuka.

2010 is the 10th anniversary tour and the Fireflies are aiming to reach, if not go beyond, their £1 million target. To find out how you can sponsor them, check out the Sponsor Us section of the Fireflies website, or email Laine Lindsay Law at RSA films. More information on Leuka is at leuka.org.uk.

The camp fire grill is a steel grill that can be put over a camp fire, giving your camp fire a spectacular effect. Additionally, you can grill a nice ..

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pemGuest post by Thom Moran/em/p

pDown the street from the Guerrilla Truck Show, the a href=”http://objectdesignleague.org/”Object Design League/a (ODL) put on a unique event in the basement of the old FlatFile gallery. Upstairs, the a href=”http://objectsociety.com/”Object Sociey/a, comprised of established furniture designers, had their second annual show, with new work created by their members over the past year. Meanwhile, in the basement, ODL showcased the results of a two-day workshop called “BAGS” they held a week earlier. Based on the midwestern yard game called bags (or cornhole), the workshop asked eleven young designers to invent their own yard games with a variety of found materials. The results are casual, improvised and even ugly, but, most importantly, they are fun. Visitors were encouraged to play the newly created games, and the result was an energetic, action packed alternative to the typical gallery opening. /p

pCheck out the video and let ODL member (and workshop participant) Peter Bo take you around the show and fill you in on the details. Or, watch a really fast-paced game of Bad Neighbors below./p

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pParticipants included: Peter Bo, Garrett Smith, Jason Chernak, Robyn Carter, Steven Haulenbeek and Caroline Linder, Emily Lin, Elliot Eakin, Ciara Taylor, Bryan Metzdorf and Lisa Smith./p

pA few shots of the installation after the jump. /p

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