IKEA on the Brain

I’ve had IKEA on the brain for awhile now — first I moved into an unfurnished room, which required that I supplement the few pieces I had acquired with actual real furniture from IKEA: a bed and mattress, additions to the shelving unit, a couch, an armchair, two more dining chairs. Fortunately they deliver. As it always is with IKEA, I picked up lots of other small stuff and had to make multiple trips. Assembly wasn’t always straight-forward; some things had to be returned. Anyone who’s familiar with IKEA shopping will know this as the drill.

While looking for information online about couches and assembly and what have you, I ran across a number of websites all devoted to that Swedish furniture warehouse and various IKEA hacks. In the meanwhile, the NY Times published an article about IKEA “repurposing” projects shared online and the 2008 catalog was released. A friend came over last night and spent a good three hours explaining how she planned to furnish her new apartment, catalog in hand. Seems I’m not the only one obsessed with the big blue and yellow.

On This Day in 1961

The Berlin Wall was erected. Actually, in the very beginning, it wasn’t a wall at all — it was simply barbed wire. It lent itself to scenes like this, of East German border guards easily escaping to the West. It’s been 46 years since then, and we continue to blindly build walls, thinking it will solve our conflicts (see Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Israel or Iraq). Of course, a wall has never solved a conflict, only delayed and complicated its resolution.

Perhaps in November, on the anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall, I’ll write more about this, one of my “favorite” subjects. But until then, you’ll have to make do wondering, like me, how middle-aged Swede Eija-Riitta Eklöf-Berliner-Mauer celebrates today. Ms. Eklöf-Berliner-Mauer, a self-described “objectum-sexual,” claims to have been married to the Wall since 1979. That makes today her hubby’s birthday. Do you suppose she bakes a cake? (If you have access to a library, you can read more about objectum sexuality in the short, original article, “Relations with Concrete Others: (or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Berlin Wall)” by Dominic Pettman and Justin Clemens.)

I wanna live in a treehouse

When I was young, I saw the movie version of Swiss Family Robinson. I remember pretty much nothing about the movie or its plot, beyond the vaguest outlines, but I always remembered, vividly, the treehouse. And I’ve wanted to live in one ever since, probably even before.

Are there people who aren’t fascinated by the idea of living in a treehouse? I mean, besides people who fear heights, or people who already do, or, you know, weird people. It certainly seems there are a lot of people interested in the idea besides me, at any rate. Because of this darn BBC article about a Bangladeshi man who has built a relaxation platform high in a tree, where he goes to read every day, my interest in treehouses was rekindled.

Now I am plagued, I tell you, plagued with the knowledge that there are, in fact, a variety of treehouse resorts and retreats, in places as exotically exciting as Australia and India. Not to mention the companies that would be ever so willing to build me a treehouse of my very own. Take my advice, don’t look at the pictures. Don’t! Look away! Or you’ll end up wanting one, too. Some of them have turrets!