Part Animal, Part Machine*

I subscribe to Domino Magazine and also Lucky. I'm OK with that. I'm also OK with Domino as a substitute for Blueprint. There was much kerfuffle over the abrupt demise of Blueprint. Rightly so- it was a good magazine, attached to the Martha Stewart Omnimedia juggernaut. The conspiracy theorist in me says that Blueprint achieved a popularity that Martha Stewart Living hasn't seen in a long time and the plug got pulled for ego reasons. It's a shame because everyone lost out.

I do enjoy Domino for their ideas, recipes, room layouts and stories. I think the most attractive thing to me is that it feels like an amalgam of lists of things. And there is nothing I love more than reading (with pictures!) people's lists of things. Things they love. Things they can't live without. Things they avoid. Things that changed their life. Things they pack on trips. Things in their purses/backpacks/make-up bags/suitcases/lunchboxes. Things they do in a given day and where they go. Things they buy from their favorite stores. Things they wear all the time. Things they are obsessed with.

Both Domino and Lucky meet this need for me so very well. This is most definitely a secondary gain- because first and foremost they want me to buy stuff. Which I might.

But the culling of lists! The itemized details of insignificant stuff! The devouring of other people's lists. I feel like a raccoon in a pile of tin. It can't be just a plain list. It has to have pictures and blurbs of why this thing is important. What does it do? Where can I get it if I wanted it? How much? What do you use it for? Why do you love it? How'd you find out about it? I almost can't read it fast enough. I have to slow down, savor it, re-read it. Dog ear the page and come back to it. So I can read it again. So I can look at the montage of things.

I think it's a form of voyeurism because I have little interest in creating my own lists. I only want to read yours.

*A Henry Rollins thing. I think he meant in a much more uncontrollable intensity/inhuman drive to produce. But I like in it an inoccuous curiosity/repetitive sense. Part magpie/part bike pedal.