Rob Walker's Blog, page 41
January 8, 2010
$774.04 and other updates
With 21 auctions closed, our total sales for Volume 2 are at $774.04. Looking good for 826 National! (Shop here.)
In other news our Facebook Page got its 500th fan the other day. As a reward to Fan No. 500, we offer a public shout-out of thanks and admiration to Paul Greer, who keeps a very cool Animated Journal at his site Burning Fence Post — check it out.
January 7, 2010
Smoking Man Figurine
Object No. 25 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Vicente Lozano, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
This little smoking man did not appear in Inglourious Basterds. But he came close.
Back in 2007, during development, Quentin Tarantino was visiting the Santa Monica bungalow of Kimberly Van de Hoeven. She had art directed an update of Amazon Jail and several other movies Tarantino admired; he wanted to...
January 6, 2010
Dive Mask
Object No. 24 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Gary Panter, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
I wanted to create a monster hoax out at Century Lake, like the guys in stories in Boy's Life. I had notebooks full of illustrated plans and lists of items I would need to effect three pranks. That was the most fun: plotting and scheming and list-making.
Big monster tracks were easy: twenty-inch-long reptile ...
January 5, 2010
Fortune-Telling Device
Object No. 23 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Rachel Axler, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
10/12/91
Q: Does John like me? A: TRY AGAIN
Q: Does John like me? A: TRY AGAIN
Q: …Does Alex like me? A: YES
11/27/91
Q: So I asked John out, and he said okay after only a little thinking, and we went to the movies and it was great! Actually, it wasn't great, but we definitely went to the movies. Three times! I...
Categorical Imperative
Rob Walker (or is it Josh Glenn?) analyzing SO data
The holidays are over, and here at Significant Objects we're back at work, assiduously analyzing the data from our project's experimental phase. Last month, we finished up our quantitative analysis; in 2010, we'll focus on a qualitative analysis of our data set.
We've been tagging the 100 stories from Significant Objects v1 thematically: from "adolescence" and "bad parents," for example, to "thievery," "third-person omniscient narrator," and "...
January 4, 2010
Dolphins Box
Object No. 22 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Jenny Hayes, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
I reach into my jacket pocket, rolling the dolphins around in my hand, the way I used to when I was little. My fingers remember every curve and dip of their ceramic swirls. I had this same jacket on the day I left for college, stuck the dolphins in the same pocket on impulse before leaving for good. The...
January 1, 2010
Happy New Year!
Significant Objects will be back after the holiday. In the meantime, please enjoy the following significant-object poem, titled "The Things," from the Jan. 04, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. It's by Donald Hall. Reprinted here without permission.
When I walk in my house I see pictures,
bought long ago, framed and hanging
— de Kooning, Arp, Laurencin, Henry Moore —
that I've cherished and stared at for years,
yet my eyes keep returning to the masters
of the trivial: a white stone perfectly round,
December 31, 2009
"World's Best Father" Figurine
Object No. 21 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Jason Reich, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
It had been gifted ironically, natch. His friend had spotted it at the mall, and wasn't it awful? The grotesque smile and bizarre skyward eyeroll. And what was up with those pants? "You'd think someone qualified for this award would be smart enough to buy pants that fit," his friend said, and they both...
Quick update
As of yesterday, we've closed 17 auctions in Significant Objects Volume 2, with total sales standing at $653.04. So we're on pace to make a nice donation to 826 National when it's all over. Thank you for the bids! Keep 'em coming!
Meanwhile two recent links of note:
i09 digs Margaret Wertheim's Owl Pincushion Story in a post here.
And Predictably Irrational author Dan Ariely assesses our project, here. (Regarding our hunch about stories adding value to things: "They were right.")
December 30, 2009
"Memories" Trivet
Object No. 20 of 50 — Significant Objects v2
[Bid on this Significant Object, with story by Gabe Levinson, here. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.]
Mom was thrashing so violently the night she died that she broke through her straps; her head repeatedly smacked the table while her muscles went renegade. By the time I saw how messed up this situation was, it was too late. I was in a fit of hysterics, the laughing kind, and I was helpless to save her.
Jus...
