Tag: miscellany

It seemed like simple job: Replace our old shower head with a nee one. Seemed, unfortunately, was the operative word.

I managed to get installed petty quickly, but I may have overtightened one of the connections, causing a small leak.

When I disconnected the new shower head, I found that the shower arm — which connects the main water pipe in the wall to the shower head — had a sizeable chip in it. That meant that I’d have to replace it. After a last-minute trip to Home Depot, I attempted to remove the old, chipped shower arm — which had fused to the pipe and then snapped.

Now I have to bring someone in who actually knows what he’s doing, like my friend Ryk, and our main shower is now off-limits until we can get it taken care of.

This should be no surprise to anyone who knows me. I am home-repair challenged, especially when it comes to plumbing, this despite having some good teachers on this (Annie’s brother and dad). In better economic times, I try to bring the experts in, but with money being tight, we go for the savings, which ultimately costs more.

So, we are left with a busted shower and my busted pride. Then again, what else is new.

Seems my post on our little shopping trip to Jackson today to the Coach outlet was misconstrued as 1) criticism of Coach accessories or 2) of Annie. Neither was intended. Rather, what I found interesting was the obsessive quality to the trip — the long line to get into the store, with people waiting a half hour in the cold, and the women with four and five bags on their arms.

My criticism is of the way we have allowed ourselves to be sucked into the brand-name game. We pay extra for the name and then wear the name, literally, on our sleeves and breast, becoming walking billboards.

Consider the way pop stars and actors sponsor their own clothing and perfume lines — not because clothing design or pefume fulfills some creative need, but because it extends their personal brand, allows them to diversify as if they were some massive corporation. Which, of course, is what they have become.

As I said in my original post, there is a marked increase in quality when you buy something like a Coach purse and get rid of the knock-off or discout brand, as my wife did, or when I spend $100 on a pair of Brooks running shoes instead of paying half for a pair of inferior sneaks at Target.

Quality, however, is not what drives a teenager to refuse anything but Coach or Ed Hardy or Timberland. In that case, it is all about the name.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

I found this piece on the late, great David Levine interesting, if only because the illustrators/cartoonists mentioned — his peers and followers — are the great left-liberal illustrators of our day, drawing for The Village Voice, The Nation, etc.

Levine was a great illustrator with a keen eye and his impact on the somewhat staid New York Review of Books cannot be underestimated. He will be missed.

I’ve spent the last few days in a self-imposed bubble, taking advantage of some days off to work on some poetry, watch some movies (I recommend Syriana, which I watched on DVR today, and Sherlock Holmes, which is a real thrill ride — though Holmes purists might disagree), and play with the dogs.

I also have studiously avoided the news because too much of it is focused on year-end wrap ups that do little more than regurgitate stories that we’ve read before.

I’ll hit the blog with some thoughts tomorrow — my annual musical wrap (what was it I was saying?), some thoughts on health care and more.

Right now, however, I’m going to bed.