objects: buttons and what they say
this came to me when i was matching my buttons to my sweater right before leaving the house - who doesn't do it, right? the buttons/pins/ (brooches?) i have do somewhat stand for the almost careless way i've been going through life in my canada years.
yes, my collection of buttons was started from scratch in canada.already in my first days at UBC i had somehow amassed about five "prism mag" ( the in-house magazine) buttons, through no effort of my own. the others were found in the street, or (this time in a more aware fashion) at the "urban empire" on commercial drive, a place that i still miss very much after all this time.
some remind me of my part-time diner job - i used to wear my "service may vary according to my mood and your attitude" button pinned to my apron at work. (i found, literally found, that one in a bookstore!)
some are -maybe- trying a bit too hard- maybe?? i find that everytime i wear the "being weird is not enough" button i have to EXPLAIN it to someone. which leaves me confused.
some are real brooches, gifts i got and i cherish and i wear - like the chair from sonja and the dragonfly from lora.
and a good button-gifting anecdote : i got sonja a button from berkeley that said "comfort the disturbed, disturb the comfortable" - pretty standard fare, yes? and she says to me, "what makes you think i want to disturb the comfortable? i'm trying to be comfortable myself, i don't want to disturb anyone."
then, in montreal:
i remember my first button-buying day distinctly, because it was one of those days when everything happens and then it gets mythicized to high heavens. in my case, this late may evening was the first time i met my ex-boyfriend. and then i was walking around the lower plateau neighbourhood because:
1) i was happy and just enjoying my happiness
2) there was an IMPORTANT hockey game going on, and i didn't want to watch it, but i wanted to know the score. the whole city was watching, anyway, so by just passing by bars and terraces i could hear what was going on.
so at some crucial, close-to-the-end-of-the-game part, i enter this shop on duluth that was selling mostly hippie-style (hemp!!) clothing, and i start pretending to look at the buttons, as the only financially accessible to me bit of merchandise. after talking to the guy for half an hour (in french!) and witnessing the final score together (we won!) i felt compelled to buy stuff.
then i got out and it was already dark but the air was so soft and the world was wonderful. i'm not even kidding.
later, i developed an obsession for the "farine five roses" logo and had to have it on a button AND a shirt. i discovered good button shops on bernard/st. viateur.
i bought some buttons as possible gifts and then kept them for myself.
in toronto in 2011 i discovered the metro stop buttons, which is a great idea, why does montreal not have any of those?????
i remember that at the bookstore in harvard (well, is that harvard really? the closest tourist bookstore to there) they had buttons with writers' names, of course. i ended up buying none because of stupid allegiance-type ideas/conflicts i had (like, a curtis sittenfeld button made perfect sense, but would you wear a coleridge button? what does that say about you if you do? would coleridge turn in his grave? etc.)
i have no appropriate ending for this. to paraphrase someone, there is no end to button stories.
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| buttons bought in : from biggest to smallest - vancouver, montreal, toronto |
yes, my collection of buttons was started from scratch in canada.already in my first days at UBC i had somehow amassed about five "prism mag" ( the in-house magazine) buttons, through no effort of my own. the others were found in the street, or (this time in a more aware fashion) at the "urban empire" on commercial drive, a place that i still miss very much after all this time.
some remind me of my part-time diner job - i used to wear my "service may vary according to my mood and your attitude" button pinned to my apron at work. (i found, literally found, that one in a bookstore!)
some are -maybe- trying a bit too hard- maybe?? i find that everytime i wear the "being weird is not enough" button i have to EXPLAIN it to someone. which leaves me confused.
some are real brooches, gifts i got and i cherish and i wear - like the chair from sonja and the dragonfly from lora.
and a good button-gifting anecdote : i got sonja a button from berkeley that said "comfort the disturbed, disturb the comfortable" - pretty standard fare, yes? and she says to me, "what makes you think i want to disturb the comfortable? i'm trying to be comfortable myself, i don't want to disturb anyone."
then, in montreal:
i remember my first button-buying day distinctly, because it was one of those days when everything happens and then it gets mythicized to high heavens. in my case, this late may evening was the first time i met my ex-boyfriend. and then i was walking around the lower plateau neighbourhood because:
1) i was happy and just enjoying my happiness
2) there was an IMPORTANT hockey game going on, and i didn't want to watch it, but i wanted to know the score. the whole city was watching, anyway, so by just passing by bars and terraces i could hear what was going on.
so at some crucial, close-to-the-end-of-the-game part, i enter this shop on duluth that was selling mostly hippie-style (hemp!!) clothing, and i start pretending to look at the buttons, as the only financially accessible to me bit of merchandise. after talking to the guy for half an hour (in french!) and witnessing the final score together (we won!) i felt compelled to buy stuff.
then i got out and it was already dark but the air was so soft and the world was wonderful. i'm not even kidding.
later, i developed an obsession for the "farine five roses" logo and had to have it on a button AND a shirt. i discovered good button shops on bernard/st. viateur.
i bought some buttons as possible gifts and then kept them for myself.
in toronto in 2011 i discovered the metro stop buttons, which is a great idea, why does montreal not have any of those?????
i remember that at the bookstore in harvard (well, is that harvard really? the closest tourist bookstore to there) they had buttons with writers' names, of course. i ended up buying none because of stupid allegiance-type ideas/conflicts i had (like, a curtis sittenfeld button made perfect sense, but would you wear a coleridge button? what does that say about you if you do? would coleridge turn in his grave? etc.)
 |
| the black-and-white "my relationship is impossible" buttons, pinned together to this day on my black jacket: one is of two cosmonauts kissing in space, the second is of the metro stop (sheppard-yonge) i used to wait for my ex at when we met during my visit to toronto. |
i have no appropriate ending for this. to paraphrase someone, there is no end to button stories.
 |
| some of these are romanian! the pin with the black character and the red one is a gift from giulia to me and a metaphor for our relationship. |
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