It’s time to make like a bear and hibernate.
The nights are getting longer so we all get an extra hour of sleep on Nov. 6 when we turn back the clocks. The idea of Daylight Savings Time was first proposed in 1895 by a New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson. The Kiwi thought it a smart way to make better use of daylight. But it was the Germans and their WWI allies who first adapted the practice in 1916. Their idea was to conserve coal during wartime. Some studies indicate the practice still does cut back on energy consumption.
The annual “fall back” or “spring forward” always reminds me how hopelessly out of touch with nature we are in our everyday lives. We follow the 9-to-5 schedule like clockwork until it obviously doesn’t make sense. And then we switch the clocks.
But the long dark nights are all the excuse I need to focus on beautiful lighting. The work by photographer and light artist Michael Bosanko above is inspiring. But I’m pretty sure I can’t read by the light of the neon guy in the wingback chair. I love the crazy Graffiti light by Corbett Lighting. The overhead light is made up of strips of silvery metal that seem to have just burst out from one of those party poppers. It like having a wild party on a ceiling.
The graceful curves of the Gravity XL by Creative Systems Lighting and Discus by Troy have timeless appeal. Both put one circle of glass within an another for a look that is part Saturn space age but still classic. (Pictured at left is the Gravity.)
Another super simple but beautiful light fixture is the Norwell available at Chown Hardware. The opaque glass cylander sits in a chrome base looking a bit like a candle on a candleholder. I’m pretty sure that waking up with one of these on either side of my bathroom mirror would make me feel better even if I still looked the same.
The space age also inspired the three-tiered Skyport ceiling light fixture available at Rejuvenation Hardware. The shiny finish and flying saucer shape is very George Jetson.
Lights out.
