> Fun fact: “Akari” means light in Japanese, both as illumination and as lightness.
Wow! I love it when two languages have matching homonyms. I always wonder "what does it mean ?". Like, in English "second" to mean the unit of time and the place after "first" feels like two distinct usages. But it's the same in Spanish ("segundo"), which points to a deeper connection (and isn't so unsurprising given the shared roots of the languages): the unit of time is called that because it's the second subdivision of an hour.
The two usages of "light" in English are so distinct I'm quite surprised it's like this in the entirely unrelated Japanese language. Is this just a big coincidence, or does anyone know any deeper reasons here?
So that example fails to support any reason for akari matching light in English. But for the sake of argument here is another one: じゃり (giari, read as "ja-ri") in Japanese means gravel and in my dialect almost the same sound (giarin, "ja-ri-n") also mean gravel. Go figure.
So I was wondering if the same applied here. My initial reaction is that "light" meaning "illuminated" and "light" meaning "not heavy" is that this is just one of those coincidences, since I can't see how that one word relates the two concepts. But given that Japanese also does the same, it makes me wonder if maybe there is some sort of relationship. Maybe it was a common belief historically that the sun was not very heavy or something like that. Or maybe not and it's just a rare double coincidence!
And because I hate to have only LED lighting, I stick good old (but brand new) incandescent bulbs in my "ice cube" lamps: such bulbs go by many names and can still be found (they're either for ovens [where they can sustain insane heat], for warming terrariums, for heating lava lamps, etc.).
Just having one or two incandescent bulb in the living room, in addition to LEDs, works wonder to give a cozy ambiance.
I'd say it's a bit sad to have lamps from the 70s but then stick cold LED bulbs into them (and, yes, even "warm" LEDs do feel incredibly cold): put incandescent bulbs and experience them at they were meant to be (once again: no need to replace the entire house with incandescent bulbs, just two or three here and there shall work wonder).
In addition to these also a huge fan of Anglepoise desk lamps, Lotte lamps and Mantis sconces.
It's an Ikea Torchère: kinda old now, just halogen, but I've always kept a spare "bulb" for it somewhere - replaced it every 10-20 years. I still like the weird pattern on the ceiling. :P
If you browse sites like 1stdibs or Pamono, you're going to see dramatically inflated prices, but I don't see why anyone would ever buy there. Ebay, Selency, Vntg, etc. are more likely to sell at actual market prices.
Brought me joy as Kondo would have said
It's a beautiful space though. He did a great job of cord management on his desk.
I found it when looking for a lamp that doesn't expose the bulb itself, which is exactly what it was designed for.
I guess would it make a noticeable difference to put an LED faux filament bulb in here? Or is it just not as fussy as I'm imagining?