The Visual Cacophony
The phrase I like to use in describing my interior decorating philosophy is visual cacophony. If I have done my job and decorated a wall properly, your eyes will be assaulted by color and overwhelmed by a collage of images. In addition to rearranging and augmenting the decorations in my bedroom and the Mountain of Love's bedroom/the guest room, I have decided to add some flair to my backpack, Big Red. For years and years I wore on old Army surplus backpack, the ubiquitous Army Bag. Army Bag was a good soldier and served me well through nine years on campaign until eventually succumbing to the ravages of age. (I still have Army Bag, but its straps are broken and, as they are made of an odd plastic, unsalvagable; so, today Army Bag is used for long term storage.) It is unfair to compare Big Red to a living legend like Army Bag, but in our two years together Big Red has never let me down. Almost from the beginning, Big Red bore two inscriptions: "The Last Angry Man" on the lifting handle and "The Rebel Black Dot Society," of which I am still the first and only member, on the outermost pocket. As of yesterday, three patches have joined the festivities, creating not a visual cacophony, but at least a visual bruhaha: a pirate flag, a gift from the Mountain, on the outermost pocket; Guster's Little Friend on the left strap (an idea I stole from the Mountain's backpack); and the shield of the Second World war-era American Volunteer Group (Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers) on the right strap. I'm quite pleased with the overall effect.