Art in the 'hood
So, in Miss Conduct's neck of the woods, there are some excellent art and craft fairs. If you haven't finished your holiday shopping yet, check these out: support local designers, often working with recycled and/or sustainable materials, creating unique and beautiful things for you and your family and friends. If this is what "shopping" looks like after the recession I'll be all for it.
The Harvard Square Holiday Crafts Fair at the First Unitarian Church right in the Square is a longstanding tradition--and happily, this year, they've got some new vendors, too. It was getting a little samey there for a while. (Isn't "samey" a good word? I picked it up from some Australians. I do love Aussie slang: its literary allusiveness, sexual innuendo, and tendencies toward infantilization--"footy" for football, "sunnies" for sunglasses--rather suggest an episode of "Deadwood" produced by Teletubbies.) My favorite stall is run by a woman who makes clocks out of things that aren't clocks: I'm covetous of a clock whose face is a Chinese Checkers game, though I can't think of where I'd put it if I got it.
There is also Sign of the Dove, in the Garage. This one's a little more upscale and not so much to my taste, but one often has to buy gifts for people whose taste is not one's own, so it might come in handy. Or perhaps your own style is more upscale and mature than Miss Conduct's. It's not a high bar to clear, really.
A new favorite discovery is Design Hive, at the Baldwin School on the corner of Sacramento and Oxford. This is much more youthful and funky, and there is a live DJ providing music while you shop. A very fun community experience (they even have a blog!). Their final day is this Saturday.
Anti-materialism is all the rage these days, understandably enough from both a moral and financial perspective. But there can be a legitimate joy in buying, a joy in giving, a joy in having. I've got a couple of posts planned for early next week on "what makes a good gift" and "in defense of stuff." These local fairs exemplify, I think, the best kind of materialism: a delight in the material world, in textures and colors and shapes, a delight in the creativity and skill to manipulate materials, a delight in the empathy required to look at that scarf, that hand-thrown mug, that irreverent refrigerator magnet, and say, "Oh, this would be perfect for so-and-so."
Also, they have cookies. You think you can do better on the snowy Saturday before Christmas?
Who is Miss Conduct?
Robin Abrahams writes the weekly "Miss Conduct" column for The Boston Globe Magazine. Robin, who has a PhD in psychology from Boston University, has worked as a theater publicist, organizational-change communications manager, editor, stand-up comedian, and professor of psychology and English. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, which are given annually for achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.
