I can predict the Futuro Futuro

Futuro Futuro is an Italian manufacturer of really slick kitchen ventilation systems. They appeared on my radar about four years ago when I was first mastering the art of Italian-inspired minimalist design. This is their Jupiter hood that was the beginning of my great and enduring love for Italian range hoods.

It doesn't get more minimal than this. I can't vouch for how well they work, but man-oh-geez is this thing gorgeous. It's on sale right now for around $1700 and while that's in no way inexpensive, compared to their competitors that price is a bargain to end all bargains. Here it is in a room setting:

Well, I'm thinking about range hoods again because my terrific sister-in-law's terrific sister asked me to design a kitchen renovation for her last weekend and I've spent the better part of this week hatching a plan. I need an island hood to replace an ill-advised pot rack and my mind went immediately to Futuro Futuro's Europe Station which I'm showing below.

That thing's 72" wide and at $3500, it's priced to sell. I don't know how successful I'll be with that sale, but doubts never stop me. But really, isn't that a lot more attractive than a pot rack? For the life of me, I'll never understand the appeal of a pot rack.

In the meantime, take a stroll through Futuro Futuro's website. They are one of the few businesses who will sell directly to homeowners when it comes to this sort of thing and their site is chock full of pretty pictures and jargon-free technical information. I recommend them as often as I can.

An apolitical political video

This made me laugh with haughty abandon.

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I added another design blog to my blogroll

I found Susan Palmer Designs by way of Kelly Morriseau's Kitchen Sync. Susan Palmer Designs has a great website and she maintains a design blog there. Check it out. Susan's blog is another great site for design ideas and advice that's specific to kitchens and baths. Her blogs are good-natured and informative. Her passion is palpable and her design sense is impeccable.

So between Kelly at Kitchen Sync, Richard Edic at Richard Edic Designs, Ann Porter at KitchAnn Style, Susan Palmer and me, there are five resources run by designers who blog and maintain a web presence as a public service. This is a pretty cool development. Feel like doing some research? All five of us maintain pretty extensive archives. Want to ask a specific question? Ask!

Between the five of us too, there's a wide diversity of opinion and experience. Each of us works different ends of the market and in locations from Honolulu to Naples, from Northern California to Upstate New York. Imagine, five great minds at your disposal. Ain't the Internet cool?

Amusing video

A friend of mine sent this to me yesterday via MoveOn.org. I have been howling ever since. Watch through to the end and there are instructions on how you can get one of these for yourself.

First person accounts of the Great Depression

Now, before I get accused of spreading panic, I don't believe we're on the cusp of another Great Depression. Although to use the parlance of the day then, hard times is comin'. I doubt I'll find myself on a breadline any time soon but it's good to keep in mind that the economic growth and stability that the US has enjoyed since the end of the Second World War is both unprecedented and a historical anomaly. Hard times are the usual course of of events, not peace and prosperity. We're incredibly fortunate to live in the times we do and it does a body good to review what life was like for the people on whose shoulders we're standing. 

With that said, the online magazine Slate has a finance-themed spin off site called The Big Money. The Big Money got their hands on a diary written by a Youngstown, Ohio attorney named Benjamin Roth. Roth started keeping a diary in 1931 and did so until his death in 1978.

Benjamin Roth was born in New York City in 1894 and moved shortly thereafter to Youngstown, Ohio. He received a law degree and moved back to Youngstown after serving as an Army officer during World War I. When the stock market crashed in 1929, he had been practicing law for approximately 10 years, largely representing local businesses. After nearly two years, he began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, and in June 1931, he began writing down his impressions in a diary that he maintained intermittently until he died in 1978. His perceptions and experiences have a chilling similarity to our own era, and The Big Money believes that Roth's words—though they are 75 years old—have much to teach us today; we'll be serializing several excerpts.

The Big Money ran the first installment last week and you can find it here. The second installment posted this week and you can find it here.

Despite my Steinbeck-fueled romantic notions of that era, it had to have been a horror to live through. It's interesting to read Roth's usually dispassionate descriptions of his daily life. Check it out and count your blessings.