Obsolescence Project

Day 213 – Book Who’s Who of Jazz

Who's Who of Jazz

Who’s Who of Jazz, by John Chilton. First Edition. 1972.  No Dust Jacket.

Such a treasure trove of information. All replaced by this bulging beast of the interwebs. Such books make me think of Sherlock Holmes sitting in his parlour with a pipe reading up on his latest client.

I believe the first entry below is for Dewey Jackson. I should have compared entries before we donated this. Alas.

Who's Who of Jazz

Status: Donated (yesterday!)

Kill-ratio: 29:2 / ~14/1

Alt-title: Untitled Book. No 213 For Referencing a Lost Giant.

Careless Love by Odetta for those of you outside N.A. Yes, more blues than jazz. She was simply the 1st singer that popped into my mind when I thought of a jazz singer. There are too many others to mention.

The usual shout out to Richard and John for inspiring this Alt Title obsession. Read John’s post about titles for the initial impetus.
And I direct you towards Ben for jokes at the end of posts.

And anyone who knows how to code html will I hope appreciate the alt title sensibility.

Dewey Jackson, referenced above.

Posted on by Deanne in Books

Day 212 – Salt and Pepper Shakers

Salt and Pepper Shakers

Salt and Pepper Shakers.

Their obsolescent state is only that one of them is broken. And what’s a pair of salt and pepper shakers if only the salt works?

I saw these at a friend’s house and coveted them. Next time we visited they gave a duplicate set to us. Sweet. And I forgot them there. They lived in another city, so not quite so easy to get. I ended up buying them at one of those kitchen shops.

They worked well for about a year or so. Then gradually the pepper (which gets the most use) started not being so easy to fill and the grinding went ever so slowly slower.
Till it stopped working and I lost incentive to attempt to fix them. Besides, my infatuation with the modern design had passed.

Salt and Pepper Shakers

They aren’t nearly as cute as the hen and rooster  pair.

Salt and Pepper Shakers

Status: They have already left the building. Hooray. Seek out another set that doesn’t cost a fortune.

Kill-ratio: 28:3 / ~9:1

Alt-title: Untitled Objects No. 212 For Raising and Lowering Your Cholesterol.

The usual shout out to Richard and John for inspiring this Alt Title obsession. Read John’s post about titles for the initial impetus.
And I direct you towards Ben for jokes at the end of posts.

And anyone who knows how to code html will I hope appreciate the alt title sensibility.

Posted on by Deanne in Objects

Day 211 – Box

Box for Perfumed Spice

Box for Crumbly Perfume.

I wanted to call this Spice Box as that is what it suggests to me. But I know it held scent, of which there are traces, like breadcrumbs.

This box is all about memory. I was given it as a gift by someone I don’t know at all now. There were a peripheral person in my life and yet this gesture of kindness ( a sympathy gift of sorts – not a romantic relationship) gives them a different status in my memory. And I remember all kinds of details about their life that I probably don’t even remember about my own family.

Box

Or they are false memories. Who knows.

Box for Perfume

Status: Rephotograph with better lens and shoot the traces of scent.

Kill-ratio: 23:3 / ~8:1

Alt-title: Untitled Box No. 211 for Storing and Retrieving Memory No. 317.

The usual shout out for Richard and John for inspiring the alt-title flights of fancy. And to Ben for the ” joke” format at the end of posts.

p.s. Oddly enough when I went to save a draft of this, I got a weird error and all the words I had typed didn’t save. So I had to retype and remember what I had said – which of course I couldn’t thus reinforcing the ephemerality of memory for me.
This also didn’t get published on time, even though it was ready. WP is conspiring  to break my obsessions.

Posted on by Deanne in Objects

Day 210 – The World’s 1000 Best Poems

Book of Poems

The World’s 1000 Best Poems  – Volume 6, Kingsley Meredith.

“Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.”
– Henry Longfellow.

There’s nothing quite like setting yourself up for an expiry date than the declaration of being the Best.
It reminds me of “Men in Black” when Will Smith mocks the army guys “We’re the best of the best of the best, Sir”.

Still there is something poignant about such a strong statement as well. As though these poems could contain the universe and stave off decay.

Book of Poems

Status: Borrowed from Mr. OP. Find out publication date, if only vintage or antiquarian. If latter, persuade him to sell.

Kill-ratio: 18:2 / 9:1

Alt-title: Untitled Book No. 210 For Savouring the Best of the Best Poems.

The usual shout out for Richard and John for inspiring the alt-title flights of fancy. And to Ben for the ” joke” format at the end of posts.

Posted on by Deanne in Books

Day 209 – Cable Splitters

Cable Splitters

Cable Splitters. For the television/internet cable.

We had this ~30ft roll of white cable hanging about, which might be in a storage locker, or might have been chucked. It’s only for this project that I miss it now.

The odds of us needing one, never mind two, cable splitters are pretty slim. Yet here they are so shiny and tidy.
I was only pitching to Mr. OP the other day to sell one of our two tvs. It is a flat screen, but small by today’s standards (32″) and not essential. Easy to say in the summer when the days are long and full of promise. Come the rainy season I will be begging for extra channels.

Cable Splitter

Cable splitters

Math for splitting signal

Equation for signal split from informit.com

There’s a lot of math involved in cable splitting.

Status: Let the sea monster have a sniff.

Kill-ratio: 33: 3 / 11:1

Alt-title: Untitled Objects No. 209 For Signal Sharing

Alt-title 2: Untitled Equation No. 209 For Dividing the Empire.

The usual shout out for Richard and John for inspiring the alt-title flights of fancy. And to Ben for the ” joke” format at the end of posts.

Posted on by Deanne in Objects