5x VERY BEST OF “FOR SCALE” RANDOM THOUGHTS

A PLACE, A TWIN, A HATE, A LOVE, A PHILOSOPHY

Dear Snoops,

OUR AGENDA:

5x VERY BEST OF “FOR SCALE” RANDOM THOUGHTS

(1) CHESS CLUB

You can now find ten precious issues of FOR SCALE IN PRINT ISSUE 2 at the absolutely toppest-of-tier magazine store CHESS CLUB, amongst their absolutely expansive but only-crucial magazine selection (we bought the latest copies of (1) CINEASTE, (2) TON, (3) AUTRE, and (4) the inaugural Substack-now-also-mag in print issue of

Vittles

).

CHESS CLUB is in PORTLAND, OREGON. All the sneaker designer boys of little Portland brand NIKE go there to remind themselves of BROADER CULTURE, or something, etc. Nine months into business life, CHESS CLUB is already HIGH-IMPACT CORNERSTONE.

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(2) SEPARATED AT BIRTH

The FLOS-produced BIAGIO LAMP (! TOBIA SCARPA, 1968 !): is it the only major-décor-brand lamp where each has a !!!TRUE TWIN!!! ?

CARVED OUT OF ONE CHUNK OF ROCK and then they are separated. It’s sort of heartbreaking in the romantic way? And HIGHLY NARRATIVE. If all these interior designers are so f*cking obsessed with “STORY TELLING” then frankly we’re not sure why a lamp with a separated-at-birth twin isn’t f*cking everywhere.

(2) THE CRUCIALITY OF A GARAGE

We were recently in a RAY KAPPE house in LOS ANGELES-ish, a celebration of something or other, and this RANDOM THOUGHT is a 2-parter:

(a) We think we love RAY KAPPE. Here is a book about his own homescape.

(b) And also, when one arrived to this place, recently renovated (not to our taste or really anyone’s we spoke to, so that was sad - but whatever! we don’t have 2 live there), one was greeted by:

A FASC*ST TRUCK.

So, like, you just keep that to your f*cking selves, please. Roll it back into the damn garage. A HERD of P.R. and nobody interested in the semiotics of that car?

The crowd, by the way, was very divided between sort of a 1% rich energy, and a bunch of us rats from Echo-Park-and-adjacent and also at least one person from Duluth, MN.

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(4) SORT OF INTERESTED IN HOW F*CKING COMPLICATED THIS IS

We’re in Portland (per #1), and staying a TOP 10 “FOR SCALE” friend’s house, in the presence of one of our favorite LOW TABLEs “OF ALL TIME”. The “Hexa” by BERNARD VUARNESSON. And that’s a really f*cking random dude, who seems to have just been into these puzzle-y tables (high and low and sideways) and it’s VERY HARD to be playful and also sort of conservative-elegant but this does it.

So, kudos.

HERE IS ONE IN BELGIUM in kind of a red-orange sorta?

(5) CULTURAL PRODUCTION

It just feels like an important thing to say, because it is said so often but never written down:

In terms of cultural production…

If you start off with money, whatever you then do is simply LESS INTERESTING after your starting-off means have been revealed.

We’re sorry to report.

And this is really a word of encouragement to those that create even just the moderately-impactful, that if you manage this while still having to face some other job etc. etc., then frankly you’re f*cking IMPRESSIVE AS F*CK.

Because that REALLY takes drive, and a personal NEED to do, and if it’s good, then often whatever it is you do feels most urgent, most energized, most human, most dimensional, most relatable (even if niche).

Don’t you agree? Is this true?

(This isn’t to say that we don’t appreciate and admire-love the cultural sh*t of the rich. Just that if side-by-side, we’ll always be more impressed by those that FOUND A WAY.)

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Love and good luck,

P