Obsolescence Project

Day 170 – Screenz sieve

Screenz

Screenz (patent pending) table top sieve.

Not sure if this petit objet has nefarious purposes or not. Mr. OP purchased a box of stuff at a garage sale and this treasure resided within.

It has the word “Screenz” in a very scripty font on the one side, with pat. pending stamped beside it. I pride myself on my googlitis skills, but a superficial (usually enough) search was unable to find a result.

Screenz

Status: Borrowed. Find out how old it really is. Is it from the swinging 70s, or did it belong to a dear chemist’s shop in the fabulous 50s? Or is it from the Wall Street era 80s?

Kill-ratio:38: 2 / 19:1
Pesky little object to photograph, it won’t stand up on its own.

Alt-title: Untitled Sieve No. 170 for a pending date with a chemist.

As per usual, a shout-out thanks to Richard, and to John, for inspiring the Alt-Title Untitled post gablle, and to Ben for the jokes format.

Posted on by Deanne in Objects

Day 169 – Hellyer’s Encyclopaedia of Plant Portraits

Book - Encyclopedia of Plants

The Encyclopeadia of Plant Portraits. Compiled by A.G.L. Hellyer, 1953. Original price: 21s net. London, W.H. and L. Collingridge Limited, Transatlantic Arts Incorporated, New York.

I think this is the UK edition because of the price.

Book

Book

Dust jacket exists, in not so fine condition. Pages must have gotten wet at some point, as some are slightly stuck together. They come apart however, with no damage to the images. Of which there are 1,110.

Book Inscription

What interests me is the inscription/signature in the book.

Inscription

The signature was originally penciled in, with fancier script, and then erased out. The eraser marks and traces of pencil remain.

Book Inscription

Tried to photoshop it to bring up the pencil more.

Status: Another borrowed item. My quest will now be to photograph that inscription page in better light and see if I can reveal the full pencilling underneath.

Kill-ratio: 38:4 ( I don’t count images I caption). ~10:1

Alt-title A: Untitled Signature No. 169 for Harro

Alt-title B: Untitled Book No. 169 for Untitled Plants

“Hey Untitled No. 169, did you see my Untitled Book No. 1100 anywhere, I need to know if that plant I just ate is poisonous  — no rush”

There is a project devoted to book inscriptions.  This one doesn’t truly count towards that project, as it’s only a signature, but the gesture of carefully erasing and then filling out with nice blue ink, using a different style “H” captures my imagination as much as if it were a love letter.

As per usual, a shout-out thanks to Richard, and to John, for inspiring the Alt-Title Untitled post prattle, and to Ben for the jokes format.

Posted on by Deanne in Books

Day 168 – Datsun Stamp

Datsun Stamp

Datsun “Rubber” Stamp. Only it’s not rubber. I don’t know what they call it in the stamping world.

I knew nothing about Datsun’s. Other than they evoke the type of American car you see in old movies. Nissan is reviving the Datsun brand, which began in 1931. Here are two sites full of arcane history – DatsunHistory and RatDat, the latter has heaps of vintage ads on its site. The original brand was Datson, to distinguish the car from the existing larger size car the Dat. It was changed in 1933 when Nissan took over the company, as “son” means loss in Japanese. As well, sun honours the sun of the national flag. All this is available almost verbatim at Wikipedia, but I wanted you to stay here to read these sweet facts.

Datsun Stamp

Ending off the week with another small square object. What will Monday bring?

Status: Borrowed from Mr. OP. Suggest production of a limited series of Datsun prints.

Kill-ratio: 6:2 / 3:1

A quick and lazy day. Not quite, it was part of a large shoot yesterday, but I’m not going back to reshoot today so needs must…
 

Alt-title: Untitled Stamp No. 168 for a Discontinued Model

I want to be lounging by the sea like this.  Postcard http://www.datsun.org/fairlady/Oct2001.htm

As per usual, a shout-out thanks to Richard, and to John, for inspiring the Alt-Title Untitled post twaddle, and to Ben for the jokes format.

Posted on by Deanne in Objects

Day 167 – Twilight Zone Toy

Twilight Zone Tv

Miniature tv that lights up and plays the Twilight Zone (1950s Sci-Fi TV show) theme song when you click the old fashion button for turning the tv on.

Twilight Zone TV

It still works, even though it’s fallen down a few times. I went through a spate of collecting little toy things. There are a few (okay more than a few ) still hanging around. This might even have been a keychain, I can’t recall.

Twilight Zone Tv

Dust.

Status: Do a miniature quick time of the song looping. Is there an episode I could cull from and crush the little toy to pieces with a flourish of joy, finally ridding myself of all these little things.

Kill-ratio: 33:3 / 11:1

Alt-title: Untitled TV No 167 for The Twilight Zone.

The episode list only goes to 156, gosh darnit. Otherwise a perfect Alt-title would have presented itself.

Thanks to Richard, who coincidentally is basing all his post titles right now on Science Fiction Books, and to John, (who has a great blog title : Notes to the Milkman) for inspiring the Alt-Title tomfoolery.

Posted on by Deanne in Objects

Day 167 – Modern Addresses

Modern Address

Modern Addresses. Pocket sized address book. Vinyl cover.

Modern Address Book

I had another address book, pretty much brand new, which was a gift, that I gave away as part of this project.

This little one enjoyed more use, although there are still a lot of blank pages, which either speaks to me knowing a lot of folks with the same first of last name (for a while I went through this phase of entering everyone by their first name) or not knowing that many people.

I felt a little sentimental pull when I dug this out. It’s status as obsolete is incontestable though.

Modern Address Book

The little blue bits on the cover are not paint, but a disintegrated rubber band which used to hold it together.

Status: Find the inner strength to discard. Might mean photographing the pages. Read that in a decluttering book.

Kill-ratio: 28:2 / 14:1

(Images I put captions on I don’t count towards they ratio – they are there for more descriptive purposes)

Alt-title: Untitled Book No. 167 Ode to Old Friends

“but let’s not talk of love or chains and things we can’t untie,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye.”

Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye  — Leonard Cohen.

Q. Hey, I thought you said two days ago no more LC references, what’s up with that?

A. This little book is so sentimental it called out for such a song.

Alt-title, as per usual thanks given to Richard, John for this Untitled foolishness.

RIP to those killed in Colorado. Tragic.

Posted on by Deanne in Books