One trend that I enjoy is the DIY, retrograde make it yourself, and crafts that have become popular over the years as a way of dealing with the ever increasing pervasive consumerism and buy everything all the time. I suppose that it's a good thing that instead of going all Project Mayhem on American Society the dissidents have decided to yarn bomb and build their own furniture.

Which is why I found this article to be really enjoyable.

But while I was reading this I was struck by how this looking backwards seems to be more an urban movement. One of my parents'friends raises chickens (lovely, lovely beautiful chickens that move around like teeny tiny feathered dinosaurs),and, unlike everyone else, wasn't surprised that I was thinking of raising some of my own in Brooklyn. Her inspiration for getting chickens had been after reading books written by city-folk who were keeping them in their backyard and she had plenty of space to keep "her girls." But my rural chicken raiser is one of the few people I know who is rural who participates in the DIY movement whereas in the city it's weird if you don't have your crafty quirk. Okay, and maybe that's just Brooklyn and I still haven't figured out if it's a demographic thing (that Brooklyn attracts certain types of people) or that it's more a need (that being in this type of environment is overwhelming and people try to find "real" things that they can cling to) although it's probably a combination of the two.