Tell me why I don't like Mondays? Because they remind me that I have so many open browser tabs left over from the Friday Freakout I didn't do, I start out the week feeling behind.
So let's just clear the deck:
- First off, is this The Onion? No, it's Psychology Today, where an actual psychologist actually attempts to diagnose Unhappy Hipsters--the tumblr--to show that Modernism causes depression. All those damn, greys and "muted colors," empty spaces, and "matte, bare surfaces." [psych today via unbeige]
- OK, first, the idea that Modernism=minimalism=bare spaces and surfaces is a photo stylists' fantasy. So in fact, if Modernism makes its inhabitants/admirers depressed, it's only because of the impossible expectations foisted on them by design/lifestyle magazines.
- And the idea that Modernism=greys and white is a mid-century misreading of black&white Bauhaus photos, compounded, perhaps, only very recently by too many West Elm catalogues. Go buy a red leather Ikea sofa, and you'll be consuming your way to happiness again in no time. Your 50 minutes are up, see you next week.
- And anyway, this other article in Psychology Today says that it's not your architecture that makes you depressed, it's your parents. And your grandparents. The family that gets depressed together stays depressed together. [psych today]
- Eh, cell phones probably don't cause brain tumors, say international researchers who won't let their kids put cell phones near their heads. [washington post]
- Children are once again permitted to make noise in Berlin. Except at night and on Sunday. [bbc via dt reader dt]
- "So if you are pregnant the 3 types of music that you must avoid are Rap, Grunge and Hard Rock." I might have to start a new regular feature that highlights the greatest advice expecting parents get. dreams and lullabies]
- TV and the Internet will ruin your kid's ability to think and understand, says some curmudgeonly old Baroness who can't get past the second level of Little Planet. [birth to thrive]
Fortunately, the design/lifestyle magazines are all out of business, so all we have to do to ameliorate the effects (affects?) of a depressing moderenist palette is to adjust the gamma on our screen. May I suggest marketing a rose-colored screen filter for depressives?