It’s been a shopping week. Two of my favourite possessions passed away this week: my Italespresso caffettiere’s plastic melted when I left the element on too long, and my messenger bag finally gave up the ghost. Both were souvenirs of 1999-2000, a good year in my life. I got the original caffettiere from a small market in Iseo, Italy on the recommendation of Gianmarco, and I bought the messenger bag in Toronto in late 2000 based on Lars’ and Mike Ang’s style suggestions.
So now I have two shiny new pieces of technology: an ultra hightech iPod video, and an ultra lowtech caffettiere. They both represent pinnacles of design, to my mind. The caffettiere is the simplest possible machine to produce such high-quality espresso, has a very elegant form, and yet costs less than $30. The iPod has not yet perfected simplicity to the same extent, but it does a much better job than the competition, and it’s definitely stylish in form. I still enjoy looking at the iPod accessory market and seeing endless docks with digital +/- buttons for the volume: most electronics makers still don’t understand the advantages of the iPod’s jogwheel, and only mimicked the visual design features of the iPod while ignoring the functionality improvements.
I’ve caught up to rest of the world by buying in to 2001-era audio technology. All I need is a cellphone, cable TV and a car, and I may just be able to rejoin the modern world. Okay, I’ll pass on the last two, but I think I will get a cellphone before the year is out. And a new messenger bag. Does anyone know any Manhattan Portage retailers in Vancouver?
Oh, and I might just add one note: my favourite caffettiere reference ever was in the Pedro Almodovar film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, where one of the women is dressed in ultra-80s style with miniature caffetieres as earrings. Now that’s hot.