The Outdoor Museum and Things That Can Be Vintage

On the way to a bank something attracted my attention – a rather strange poster*. I could see that it was a bit odd for the 21st century – first of all somebody must have drawn it (nowadays they’d just use a photograph), secondly it was quite colourful (nobody would choose those colours for a poster now) and thirdly it just somehow reminded me of the old illustrations I’ve seen in history books.

My eyesight isn’t very good, so from the words, I could just about see, I gathered that the poster is ‘advertising’ (I guess a more appropriate word in this case could be ‘educating’) cleaning! Hmm… Since when is anyone interested in how clean our houses or yards are? I must admit I would always support the idea of towns without rubbish and dirt, but I’d never agree that the best way to achieve this would be - hanging posters.

Being more curious than an average cat I made a special detour, just so that I could see what the poster really said. It was offering 10 ways to keep everything clean and it had been released for the week devoted for fighting with tuberculosis*! That’s definitely odd. This must be from the past… tuberculosis is no longer a threat, we have moved on to HIV* and even bird flu*… Then suddenly I noticed an URL, where hopefully I’d get some more information of what’s that all about – http://www.outdoormuseum.lt/

It turned out some enthusiasts have started up a project that they call a museum under the open sky. Their aim is to show old Lithuanian posters to a bigger auditory, to evoke interest in the history of posters and advertising, to present the museum where these posters are kept and to make sure that they are preserved well for the coming generations. Don’t know if they are going to succeed as I’m not sure how many people in Lithuania are interested in keeping track on our past and history. But maybe the interest in vintage things has finally reached Lithuania? If so, I’m really glad it did!

I’ve noticed that the rest of the world seems to be experiencing the vintage craze (have a look at the most common blogs, browse through ebay) and as I imagine the situation here, in Lithuania - we have just a handful of enthusiasts who admire and know the value of old things.

Where did the word ‘vintage’ come from?

It looks like this word has been borrowed from wine terminology. There it’s used to describe the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product. So a vintage wine is the one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. But it seems that here an incorrect usage of the word vintage had been born – now the term is applied to any wine that is perceived to be particularly old or of a particularly high quality – and speard into other spheres.

These days you can have: vintage clothing*, vintage cars*, vintage dance* or even vintage base ball*! Well pretty much anything can be ‘spiced up’ by adding the adjective ‘vintage’, which straight away suggests that the thing is valuable or of good quality. Here are the main reasons why people are thought to be attracted if they hear something being described by this magic word:

- Unique or almost unique: most items were custom made, and others were manufactured in small quantities only.
- Good quality: things were designed to be used for years and passed on to other family members.
- Fine materials: many of the unusual older materials are no longer manufactured, or are now prohibitively expensive.
- Value for money: vintage things sell for a cost far below similar new modern things.
- History: an appreciation of the past, the roles of previous generations and the skills of respected manufacturers.
- Detailing: hand finishing, unusual, ornate details.
- Style: offers an enormously wide range of imaginative styles.
- Investment: some people buy vintage things for their collections.

‘Something from the past’ doesn’t mean ‘bad’, it’s just a step we’ve taken before we got here. You can’t move forward before you know your history. So my advice is to turn back more often for inspiration and join the ‘vintage craze’.

P.S. More old Lithuanian posters can be found here: http://www.outdoormuseum.lt/

P.P.S. For the people behind this project – thank you for sharing!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Poster - any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly textual. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and convey information. Posters may be used for many purposes, and they are a frequent tool of advertisers (particularly of events, musicians and films), propagandists, protestors and other groups trying to communicate a message.

*Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or Tuberculosis) is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs (as pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, the gastrointestinal system, bones, joints, and even the skin.

*Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus (a member of the retrovirus family) that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections.

*Bird flu refers to ‘influenza’ caused by viruses adapted to birds.

*Vintage clothing is a generic term for new or second hand garments originating from a previous era. The word vintage is, as a more elegant-seeming euphemism for "old" clothes. Usually clothing which was produced before the 1920s is referred to as antique clothing and clothing from the 1920s to 1980 is considered vintage.

*Vintage Base Ball is baseball presented as being played by rules and customs from an earlier period in the sport's history. Games are typically played using rules and uniforms from the 1850s, 1860s and 1880s. Vintage baseball is not only a competitive game, but also a reenactment of baseball life similar to American Civil War reenactment. Players dress in uniforms appropriate to the time period, and in fact many teams are direct copies of teams that existed in the late 1800s. The styles and speech of the 1800s are also used while playing vintage base ball. The game's name is typically written "base ball" rather than "baseball", as that was the spelling used before the 1880s.

*Vintage car is commonly defined as a car built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930.

*Vintage dance is the authentic recreation of historical dance styles. The term is also used specifically to denote re-creation of the dances of the English Regency (1795-1820), American Civil War (1860s), Victorian, and Ragtime eras.

Reading Habits

While studying at university statistics* was the subject that sent shivers down our spines. After hearing the “good” news that our bachelors’ paper would have to be based on data obtained using one of the psychological research methods, which basically meant that the data would have to be processed using statistical techniques, we went through a small shock. Terms like ANOVA, Students t-test, correlation or regression analyses used to cause a state of fear that could easily be equated to the one experienced by an arachnophobic* after he/she has been shown a huge spider. I guess that’s why I was so happy to hear somebody say – statistics is a science for fools.

But is it really? Because if it’s not, some information, that is presented by Lithuanian sociologists, is very disappointing. According to them in Lithuania only less than one third of the population read books! 34% of the people who took part in the 2007 survey for identifying reading habits of grownups* said that they read no more than 3 books a year, 31% - not even a single book! Only 10% claimed that they conquer more than 15. Is the situation really so bad and can it be true that internet and television are being preferred to a book?

According to the people, who took part in the mentioned study, the main reasons for not reading books or even newspapers are those: lack of time (nearly one third of respondents), insufficient funds (25%), watching TV is a better alternative (21%), too tired for reading (28%). I must admit nowadays time runs quicker and we all tend to try and pack as much as possible into the same 24 hours available to us each day. So I agree that people get stressed and therefore too tired, which leads to them getting involved into some more superficial activity than reading. But there must be a limit to how many banal TV shows you can watch?

I hope that all book lovers would agree that reading you can get to a different world that will offer you comfort and relaxation, that will boost your knowledge and exercise your imagination. At the moment our bookshops offer a very wide selection of all sorts of books. And if you decide to read the newest releases you don’t even have to be able to speak a foreign language – professional translators have never been so busy.

I guess if you really want to get out of reading you could say – ‘books are extremely expensive’. Yes, they are, but then what about the very old invention – libraries (the first ones are believed to have been established by the Sumerian civilization - 6th millennium BC)? In the study that I keep referring to almost 75% of respondents claimed that in the last 12 month they haven’t borrowed a single book and only 17% admitted to have been using public libraries – I bet that if we asked them how often, the answers would disappoint me once again.

Anyway, knowing as much as I know now I just have to draw the conclusion that reading books is no longer important in Lithuania. To cheer myself up I could at least try to believe that the saying - there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics – is correct, but at the moment I’m just not sure…

P.S. Did you know that 2008 is National Year of Reading? Yes, it's comming to an end, but you still have at least two month for trying to change your habits. Don't be in that 2/3 of the population who have nothing to do with books!

P.P.S. A good place to start with for those who speak/read English: http://www.yearofreading.org.uk/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. Also with prediction and forecasting based on data. It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, from the natural and social sciences to the humanities, government and business.

*Arachnophobia (from Greek arachne (αράχνη), "spider" and phobia (φοβία), "fear" ) is a specific phobia, an abnormal fear of spiders. It is among the most common of all phobias.

*2007 survey for identifying reading habits of grownups can be found on this website: http://www.skaitymometai.lt/ (in Lithuanian)