My brother proposed a theory to me the other night on the phone. He said that the Internet had slowed cultural change. Specifically, I think he said something like, “Things haven’t changed much since 1995 when everyone got online.” His feeling was that people are spending their time on the Internet and participating in online culture, and they’re not out in the world developing new trends in fashion, music, film, etc.
You know, I felt skeptical the moment he said it, I thought–well, things are certainly different than they were in 1995. Then the last couple of days I’ve paid a little more attention to songs on the radio and to fashion in the media, on blogs, etc, and I started to question my own skepticism. Some things may be different, especially if we go back as far as 1995. But what if we consider say, just the last decade when many more people have been actively participating in online culture.
The music I was hearing called “new” and “innovative” on all of the year in review shows and new for 2010 shows on the radio didn’t sound all that “new” to me. Granted, my tastes may have changed, but I’m not saying I didn’t like the music, I just wasn’t struck with a sense of newness.
When is the last time you saw a new fashion trend that seemed really different? I know fashion is often about revisiting popular ideas of earlier times and re-invisioning them, but I was just reading a round-up of various “favorite” fashion blogs and while I liked a lot of what I saw, I was struck mostly by their sameness.
I’m not actually advocating change for change’s sake, I’m just curious–do you think that the Internet could have caused a cultural slowdown?
because I’m a big fan of Lynne Barr’s book Knitting New Scarves. Lynne’s innovative and clever approach to knitting continues in this book. The book begins with a section on “faux crochet,” where Lynne was inspired by crochet’s ability to go in different directions. But she didn’t try and copy crochet stitches, she used the concepts of crocheted lace as inspiration to come up with innovative new knitting techniques. I especially like the stitch “tilted,” which is a bit like a lacy open entrelac in that you’re creating discrete little sections of knitting. There are nice step-by-step photos in all sections to get you through any tricky bits.
by Neil Gaiman. We’re really enjoying it. I’m looking forward to listening to Gaiman’s reading of the book. I love how he narrates most of his own audio books. His recording of his book 
is one of our favorites, the kind of story you can listen to over and over and not tire of it. I’m going to be reviewing a couple of audio books in the coming days, and I have a couple to give away too, so start thinking about your favorite books to listen to.
. It’s like having a new cookbook. I’m the kind of person who reads cookbooks cover to cover, and I’m getting that same pleasure from Clara’s Book of Wool. I’m still in the introductory chapters reading about wool growing, gathering and processing and Clara’s prose makes it a pleasure to read. If you don’t know anything about how wool gets from sheep to yarn it’s a fabulous introduction, but I’m enjoying it even though I’ve visited farms, festivals and done a fair amount of reading already about wool. I also love the illustrations and photos that bring everything to life. I’m not rushing it, since it’s such an enjoyable read, but I’m looking forward to getting to the patterns too.