Surrendering to Materialism August 7, 2006
Posted by KG in Shopping.3 comments
Saturday I took the sister to Towson, which I guess is kind of like Baltimore County’s version of Georgetown when you think about it (rich people, expensive stores, annoying undergrads, bland cookie cutter bars…). It was a trip with ulterior motives — my old reliable walking shoes, purchased on a snowy afternoon in Chicago two years ago, are a few miles past tattered, and since the Islamabad electrical grid decided to have its way with my ancient stereo and my computer’s peripheral speakers I have been sadly lacking in the things-that-make-lots-of-noise department.
This blog is no stranger to indulgent photos of new shoes and new toys, but these particular purchases were very gratifying. The shoes were extremely zaruruth, as the Pakistanis say, and the iPod speaker system is, in a word, fantastic. I heart both — and as the empty places in my heart multiply with the exodus of friends from DC, near-obscene materialism is a bit of a comfort.
I do believe that these speakers are superior to the popular Bose iPod dock, particularly at high bass levels and volumes. The downside is that it is a bit heavier and the remote interface is not as good. In my opinion, fair tradeoffs.
Kilim All May 10, 2006
Posted by KG in FS Life, Islamabad, Pakistan, Photos, Shopping.4 comments
To bring things back to a more positive note, I thought I'd share my latest and greatest purchases here in the IRP. My usual channels for spending money (or, more affectionately, "Jinnahs") are largely unavailable here, and quality antiquities, handmade crafts, and various textiles are far easier to obtain than Oregonian microbrews. The end result? Lots of good decorations for what will one day be a cluttered, schizophrenic home, and a smaller gut (inshallah).
One of my rug-selling friends knows that I'm headed to Uzbek-land eventually, and thought it prudent to tell me he had obtained an Uzbek tribal kilim, an item I haven't seen much of here. Now it graces my entryway, where I see it and often think "I could probably have bought this cheaper two years from now." Still, its unique and I've not seen many other people with them, and that alone makes it a good purchase.
The same dealer sold me this "chobi," a smaller rug that has yet to find its final resting place here. The dealer that sold it to me is a booster of locally made rugs, and this comes from his family's own production line. The cool thing about this rug is that there are no dyes in it. Instead, its all made of different colors of wool (presumably from different sheep, though maybe there's some sort of psychedelic multicolored sheep out here), and these colors will never run.
I've got two pieces I think are nomadic Baloch in origin: a pair of stuffed saddlebags (or probably more exactly, camelbags) and a rug that may or may not hail from Afghanistan. To tell the truth, I'm not sure of the origins of the one on the bottom, as it was a total on-a-whim purchase. Its in my house where a runner should be, since I haven't gotten around to buying one. I haven't found any runners that really catch my eye. Surprising, considering that most everything I've seen has caught my eye here.
I couldn't resist this prayer rug, which is also Baloch. The pattern is meant to mimic the traditional Muslim prayer posture, and in deference to that, this rug has to be somewhere where I can have the head and hands westward, towards the Kaaba. Most Baloch prayer rugs seem to only have a central line of symmetry, but this is the only one I've seen to actually have the shadow of the body as its pattern. Oddly enough, my definitely Moslem housekeeper doesn't seem to get this fact, and whenever he vacuums he gets the placement of the rug wrong.
Finally, a few things that are not meant for (as the good lady pointed out) my still very empty floors. In the back left, a British flask from the WWII era and an Egyptian teapot that from the style and workmanship is at least 50 if not 100 years old. No, neither will be used, but they are nice little additions to my tchotchke collection. In the foreground is my good friend Sri Ganesha, who has been traveling with me since my last trip to the Mother Country. He's sitting on an antique Kashmiri shawl, a piece I still regret showing my friends. Authentic ones are fairly tough to find here and now everyone knows where to get them.
Not pictured here is the rosewood chest I'm having custom made. Its on its way down from Peshawar and should be arriving any day now, secret drawers and all. There's still more furniture to buy, as well as more suits and shirts from my local guy — all with only 10 months left. Sigh. Whenever will I find the time?
Free advice for those who like that sort of thing (free advice, that is): cheap local crap is easy to find, but avoid it. You are far better off with a few beautiful things than a gaggle of cheap knick knacks. The exception is anything that can be classified as disco-esque. More on that to come (ooh, foreshadowing!).
