August 9, 2022

"Deep greens and blues are not the colors you choose, but he’s painted your entire apartment in a mind-bending swirl of them anyway."

From "Why You Shouldn’t Room With James Taylor" by Jenn Knott (The New Yorker).

I love James Taylor and the referenced song, and I'm not saying the whole humor piece is great, but it's there and it might amuse you if your quirky sense of humor aligns. I'm blogging it because I can imagine feeling so bonded to James Taylor that deep greens and blues would be the colors you choose, and because I've been thinking about the trend these days to drain color out of everything. Here's a TikTok I ran into yesterday, from Interstellar Isabellar, complaining about chromophobia in interior design:
@interstellar_isabellar Replying to @EliZabeth ik this was messy but tell me your thoughts🥑💭! Here is dr Truesdells video: @Nicole Truesdell Nothing against minimal interiors or digital nomads themselves! It’s bad when it’s….everything. You know what i mean? #minimalism #coffeeshop #cafe #digitalnomad #tech #startup #riseandgrind #hustleculture #hustlecultureistoxic #minimalist #aesthetic #color #interiordesign #architecture #realestate #neoliberalism ♬ Energy Manifestation - Stock19
ADDED: Even as I do not endorse the entire New Yorker humor piece, I am not endorsing the political and economic analysis in the second half of that video. Don't let it aggravate you any more than it needs to. That is, don't read an Althouse endorsement into it. I'm interested in the design trend that goes against color.

25 comments:

Roger Sweeny said...

Oh my god, she believes that sh*t.

Of course, if coffeeshops were full of colors, she would say that is part of a conspiracy of the capitalists to make us feel better and not see our oppression. The political equivalent of creationists.

Carol said...

Just looked at a condo yesterday with the odious white/grey flipper makeover. Open concept! Luxury vinyl plank!

If it's not that,it's the heavily textured red or blue walls from the early 2000s.

Guess we'll just stay where we are.

Heartless Aztec said...

At least James isn't painting his fake nails black much less "deep greens and blues."
You Tube search - James Taylor Nails 101.

Freeman Hunt said...

I hate the paint everything gray aesthetic. Good to watch black and white movies, not live in them.

Michael said...

In the dark all cats are grey, but now in the bright sun all cars are also grey. Someone wrote a piece recently about how all new cars come in the same palette the Navy uses for its warships: battleship blue, battleship grey, battleship white, etc. You can walk down the block and see five or six parked cars of various makes and models, but they're all the same (absence of) color. Why? Perhaps people have become so intimidated by social media, etc., that they are terrified of standing out.

tim in vermont said...

Have the blues and the greens been recently cleaned; are they seemingly new?

Ted said...

From the millennial-style silliness of this humor piece, it seemed more fitting for McSweeney's than The New Yorker. But it turns out that the writer is actually a frequent McSweeney's contributor. (Was this yet another attempt by the New Yorker to appeal to younger readers? If so, maybe they shouldn't be making fun of songs released half a century ago.)

rhhardin said...

HIs apartment looks normal to me.

gilbar said...

James Taylor? The Driver from Two-Lane Blacktop? That movie was GREAT!
I liked the mechanic, but The driver did have the best lines.

gas station attendant: "396?"
the driver "454"
gas station attendant: "No SHIT! How fast we she go?"
the driver "depends on who's around"

William50 said...

James Taylor, the Perry Como of the baby boomers.

SCTV Perry Como Still Alive

Michael K said...

I like James Taylor but he is psychotic. Weird family.

h said...

Friends tell me that in DC neighborhoods there is an exterior repainting option that is so widespread it is known as "Gentrifying Gray".

William said...

I have a vague memory that back in the eighties there used to be a lot of restaurants with butcher block tables and potted plants everywhere. I never connected it with Reagan or Thatcher. I didn't think they were into restaurant decor....Do women think that James Taylor has aged well? He went bald and there's not much smolder in his glare. There's nothing wrong with being dull and non-magnetic after you hit seventy. There's something wrong if you try to bring it after a certain age..... Madonna should give it a rest. Be like Olivia Newton John. Be an unravished bride of quietness and don't subvert the silence and slow time of a good memory with tassels on your tits.

n.n said...

Phobia's fear or aversion through projection in the select style guide.

Carol said...

"I like James Taylor but he is psychotic."

He didn't exactly try to hide it. I mean, his first hit..

stephen cooper said...

"the political equivalent of creationists"....
There are some "creationists" who are very skilled, with deep and accurate knowledge of animals and plants and numbers and statistics, and there are some "anti-creationists" who are basically "I love science" caricatures from the Dilbert comic strip.

Mr Wibble said...

I have a fondness for that song. Mom used to sing it to me when I was a kid, and I love waltzes in general.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Once again - everything BAD BAD BAD can be blamed on Thatcher, Reagan, The Koch Brothers, and Trump.

Even interior design that is naturally cyclical with no relationship to Ronald Reagan or the Koch Brothers. Trends. She should look it up.


The past 5-6 years (or so/give-take) the rise in gray everywhere gray gray gray (with blue and white accents) is designer group-think. Where does group-think come from? oh yeah - Communists and neo-communists.
So blame your side, honey on tik tok and blow it out your ********

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

This tik tok moron has never seen the inside of Trump's residences? they are not white and concrete. They are gold and colorful. Like life itself!

It's the left who want us to be drab and cold - like dirty air day in Beijing.
It's the left who sell the propaganda that China is a free country.

Look At Nancy just yesterday. Holy crap - the robot is broken.

gpm said...

I like some of James Taylor's songs, but have never been a big aficionado. His brother Livingston hosted a talent show at our 25th Harvard reunion in 2000. He was great! I was totally unaware, but apparently he and other folk like Bonnie Raitt were playing at Passim in Harvard Square (where we never went) back in the day. He made some comment to the effect that he would have been in our class, if he had actually gone to colleg

--gpm

P.S. I gave Harvard a relative ton of money over the years (though not nearly as much as my Jesuit high school in Chicago) because I got a good deal and wouldn't be where I am today without having gone there. I have now cut them off completely. My college friends/roommates (mostly STEM types) are lefty, but not nearly as insane as the current student body.

I Use Computers to Write Words said...

I appreciate your addendum about the TikTok video. I strive to focus on the positive and ignore the aggravating in life, but I confess I was getting increasingly annoyed by her arrogant statements of ignorant opinions as facts while waiting for her to get back to something even moderately interesting. I began casting my eyes around in frustration and saw your note and immediately stopped the video when I saw you call that the "second half" and felt liberated to just stop. A good reminder to just take the interesting parts and not waste time on the rest.

I actually rather like the industrial look, though I wish there were more variety in décor, so people who like garish 70s coffee shops can go to one. And I don't work in coffee shops, though I have a job where I could. Who works in a coffee shop? Too distracting.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

According to the tik tok nitwit - you're a "neo-liberal" designer if you give us white industrial colorlessness. Ha. The far left progressive soviets are now abandoning "liberal"
I'm OK with that.

AZ Bob said...

I thought the piece by Interstellar Isabellar was satire. I guess I was wrong.

Baceseras said...

When James moves out, she should get John Sebastian to move in. He'll paint rainbows all over your blues.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

How does one bend a mind? Are minds normally straight and therefore can be bent? I know they can break (as in going mad) so if you bend a mind too far, does it necessarily break? Or are some minds like accomplished yoga practitioners or those circus show freaks that can bend in extreme (for a human body) ways and not break?

I'll have to think some more so I can wrap my head around this whole idea.