My crystal ball has lately been energized, feeling the need to make a prediction…..

Groundless it may be (at this point), but here goes:

Video games for xbox, wii and playstation.

IPhone stuff.

Plasma TV’s.

And, handcrafts. In particular fleece throws, scarves, hats, mittens. Fleece. We will all be warm this Christmas.

How do I know these things? Well, the electronic stuff is nearly a given; and with plasma tv’s on sale at the lowest prices of the century, everyone should be getting one. Now is the time. So, that seems like a given to me as well.

Nielsen did some online buzz tracking and their stats mirror pretty much what I’ve just said. Check here for actual numbers.

As for the handcrafts….the New York Times just did an article on how well craft stores seem to be doing for the season with people preferring to make their own stuff or even buying handcrafted items and why not? With the gild totally off the lily for stuff coming out of China…we have been saturated with poorly made representations of the real stuff. It’s a need I think the populace in general has.

Something real. Something from the heart and not the fabrications we have been being fed for so long, no one knows any longer what their real worth is.

For me 2008 was a search for the authentic…and for 2009, it will be a search for Rockwell. My nostalgia for all things American has gotten to me. Perhaps because we are so much in danger of losing it all.

My trip to Barnes and Noble revealed a similar kind of nostalgia…books on local interest (here, St. Louis), the Clydesdales, an actual book called In Search of Rockwell and Peppermint Mocha Hot Chocolate.

With that in mind, I hope you have a very merry Christmas for all of you who are believers, and to everyone a very happy new year. May 2009 bring with it all the hope we have put into it.

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It was date night for me Friday night. Me and PBS, since Bill Moyers had a great interview with 2 New York Times columnists about what happened with Wall Street’s meltdown and the author, Kevin Phillips, of a book, Bad Money, he is recommending as a must.

The bottom line after all of the I confess heavy thought processing is that who knows? But Phillips has been forecasting this for awhile and goes back as far as both the Clinton and Regan administrations to find fault with even today’s situation. His point being, mainly, that all along the way finance was something Washington found in favor and never popped the bubble to take the bitter pill.

Doesn’t much look like we will today either with a $700 billion bail out, but hey, I guess it’s better than taking the rest of the world off a cliff with us.

Needless to say when Casablanca came on I was thrilled and it found in me a total willingness to cast my fate to the Marrakesh winds for the night, along with Bogie and “Play It Again, Sam” Sam.

So much water over the bridge this season, so much from real to metaphoric I wax nostalgic for simpler days.

Since there are so many references to Morocco these days, I went in search of Casablanca still shots because I saw so much in the movie that I am seeing in production now, not the least of which was an incredible room divider seen in Rick’s Cafe Americain that had the most delicious fretwork. But it was the doors to Rick’s Cafe that really got me. Maryam Montague of MyMarrakesh blog fame has really brought to life the doors of the region: these big heavy wooden rounded doors (image by Maryam).

Sigh.

So, the stills I found from the movie (though fantastic) didn’t bring me much in the way of product relief (except Maryam’s door!) but did bring me a boatload full of good posters and trivia surrounding the movie along with some of the most famous quotes ever…..go visit. You won’t be disappointed. But better yet, get the DVD, now that you can’t afford to go to the movies.

It wasn’t a simple time in the movie, but somehow even with the corruption that existed in Casablanca (the movie’s title city), the protagonists emerge heroes and overcome their cynical and selfish motives to somehow rally around a cause greater than themselves. It’s pure poetry and a tonic for our times.

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Patterns In Design, Art, and Architecture by Petra Schmidt (Editor), Annette Tietenberg (Editor), Ralf Wollheim (Editor).

I do like coffee table books and this may be one, but one I’d recommend.

In starck contrast to a contemporary and minimalist movement came the New Baroque movement. Flourishes, leafy patterns, stripes, polka dots, and pattern all appear on bedheads, wall papers, lamp shades, chairs or entire rooms. This book shows how new looks at old ways can produce fresh alternatives to the minimalist movements.

Using examples of contemporary work by internationally renowned designers such as Tord Boontje, Michael Lin, Olaf Nicolai and Sauerbruch & Hutton, the diversity of colours, shapes and applications are laid out before the reader, illustrating the impact and influence of technical innovations such as laser engraving and digital milling on patterns and our perception of them.

Often humorous, very colorful, and rarely plain the movement may be showing signs of maturity but I think it’s always important to see where we’ve been to also know where we are going. Not to mention that the technology factor they bring out has been a tremendous feature to this movement and is probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we will be able to accomplish as a consequenc of new technologies.

The book is available in both hardbook and paperback at amazon.

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I confess I’m a little late to this party…..Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman, authors of A Perfect Mess, launched their book in mid December 2006 but as a testament to a core argument of theirs, I came across it a few days ago by not looking for it and discovered for me at least right now, A Perfect Mess is in fact my perfect answer.

In a previous post on Trendbites, I confessed to being a clutterphile and thus a pile person. By Abrahamson and Freedman’s standard that puts me on the creative edge of things. While I know that, the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily function by that criteria. In fact, in researching the net about the book, it caused quite a stir for the wrong reasons to my mind when in fact it hit a nerve for the neatniks of the world. Take for instance this interview (if you didn’t see it) by Matt Lauer on the Today Show in January 07 ….he had a noticeable reaction to the images of the clutter and is a self professed clutterbuster. But he isn’t the only one; it seemed to bring out a true confessions moment (read the comments section if you visit this link) for those on both sides of the neat vs messy fence.

The essence of the book lay more with management systems than with clean desks per se, but if I may, the messy desk was/is just a great introduction to the theory that having a more messy (read not so tightly controlled) management organization will lead to greater creativity and then they proceed to show nothing but example after example of how this theory is borne out.

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Webkinz. As Alison Zisko reported 2.11.08 for trade journal Home Furnishings News, “For the uninitiated, Webkinz, manufactured by Ganz, are small plush toys that come with a secret code that unlocks a secure Web site, enabling children to take care of a virtual pet online. It offers games, trivia questions and all sorts of ways for children to mind the health and well being of their pet, as well as create and decorate rooms for it on the computer. Webkinz are introduced periodically. Introduced in April 2005, they retail for around $12.95 apiece.”

The article further states ,”“We sold almost half a million dollars in Webkinz last year,” said David Calcaterra, vice president of Thrifty Florist, which operates 16 of the combined flower and gift shops in the metropolitan Detroit region. “People bought other things. In the month of December, it made a