The Bricoleur: Making Do

Claude Levi-Strauss used the term "Bricoleur", referring to a maker, of sorts, who makes do with the tools and materials at hand. Terry Frohm, principle technician at the CRRF Chuuk marine laboratory in Chuuk in the early 90s, used the term "Making Do" in reference to appurtenances and contrivances, innovations he cobbled together in creating a functioning laboratory, with a minimum of expensive and specialized equipment or hardware.

I recognized, in Levi-Strauss's descriptions of the Bricoleur, the Micronesian fishermen's use---of necessity---of available materials to solve their own technical problems: Marshallese fishermen used a piece of broken glass or a sharp piece of Aluminum beer can to clean a catch of fish on the beach; spears were fashioned of discarded heavy iron wire from water-tank bands, straightened and sharpened; their slings made from old airplane inner tubes. Goggles were carved from wood---using possibly a kitchen knife sharpened on a piece of pumice that had drifted onto the beach, their glass from a
relict World War II airplane. Gillette's study of Tuna fishing in Tokelau features a demonstration by a Tokelauan elder: trapping an air bubble in the hand cupped over one's eye to provide an air-water interface through which to see fish clearly.

This Blog cannot adequately honor the resourcefulness of those men, but I have borrowed the words of Terry Frohm, to describe the purpose of this proposed collection of solutions and innovations of various kinds. These solutions are embarassingly rich in their reliance on modern materials. The intention is to develop a repository of cheap and easy solutions to problems that are important to me. I I hope it can serve as more than a collection. Rather, by example, a reminder that solutions are often at arm's reach, and not in catalogs.


Saturday, November 2, 2019

Timbuk2 messenger bag review, an update

EDC is where it's at.  How to carry is just as important as what to carry.  Living in the city is different than living on an island.  For example. a pouch was an essential EDC carryall on an island, where a notebook, pen, magnifier, knife, flashilight, wallet, etc., are always handy.  A large pouch was just right.  (My mom did not agree).  The EDC (Every Day Carry) function is served well, almost always: just grab your pouch.  A backpack was another essential component, when larger objects were involved.

In the city, especially in the classroom, the most important pouch functions can be accomplished by a shirt pocket and pants with pockets.  Cell phones are now an essential EDC item, I guess.  Pants pocket (but I wonder whether this habit led to scratches or what the T-Mobile clerk said is a crack).  Pens and small notebooks in the shirt pocket, with a pocket protector.  It's hard to find a good pocket protector.  I have a bunch that bought on ebay for 3 or 5 dollars, but the quality, size, and functionality vary.  I'm on a question to find the best pocket protector.  Someday.  Maybe.  I'm making do with the crummy vinyl ones I have.  For now.  Ideas: magnetic latch to hold it on the shirt pocket, or a snap that works through the cloth. The pocket protector is a much maligned and greatly underappreciated invention, for which several web sites extol the virtues, including a pocket protector museum and a web site about the invention of the PP.

Many EDC objects cannot be held in pants pockets or a pocket protector.  The holy grail is a small bag, an easy tote, with many pockets, a computer protective envelop, able to carry at minimum a letter size folder (probably A4 too) and some books, space for snacks and lunch, ideally, easy access pockets and deep, inaccessible pockets.  Maybe even secret pockets.  Some would like more nerdish features like passport/card security sleeves, cut proof straps.  I like a comfortable strap with a shoulder pad.  It would be easy to carry, and easy to open and reach into when walking.  Walkability.

Back packs hold an important advantage: they are readily available; however their disadvantages are several.  It's almost impossible to carry a file folder neatly; it's difficult to reach in and grab an item.  Any day, anywhere you will see commuters or students carrying backpacks like sling bags, but they don't adapt well.

Some tactical small sling bags are possibilities, but far from perfect, IMHO.

I didn't seem messenger bags coming.  The hybrid slingbag/messenger bags, of which Timbuk2's are---IMHO---the best solution, solving the most problems.

Timbuk2's bags USED TO be the ideal EDC bag for me.  The rest of this piece profiles the apparent demise of the Timbuk2 brand, with a continuing decline in features.  Whether driven by economics, or not, this is an unacceptable and disappointing development. 


I posted earlier about my Timbuk2 messenger bags.  It is time to update these comments, and speak some truth about TB2.  In what may be a trend for the chase for commercial success, the newer "classic messenger" bag still bears the same outward robustness and coolness; but the functionality has been severely compromised.  I ordered a large Timbuk2 custom made bag, when I had a teaching job that required me to tote heavy loads of paper and books.  The cost was staggering, compared to the original small bag I had purchased at REI.  And the features and (I still feel) quality fall short.  In an outlet mall, I found a medium Timbuk2 classic messenger for a remarkably low price, and, because I have long been imagining a medium bag would be a better fit in terms of capacity, I pulled the trigger.  Outwardly, almost identical, but the functionality has even further been compromised that what I remember.

The Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Bag is the most comfortable walking bag I have personally experienced. It nestles in the small of the back, and does not swing around when walking.  It's great.  But what's on the inside?

To be fair, my first Timbuk2, the smaller Classic Messenger, was possibly a special edition.  I haven't seen anything around like it, for years.  It has several fantastic features not found in either of the other two bags I own:
  • A waterproof zipper along the top/back, so files and folders can be quickly stashed and pulled out.  Nice!
  • A nifty arrangement of velcro patches near the corners where the flap meeds the top of the body of the bag, so than when the flap is closed, these velcros automatically pucker up the corner underneath the overlying flap, to prevent any possibility of rain getting into the bag while carrying it.  I don't understand why this feature has been omitted, expecially from the custom "Made in San Francisco" bag costing over 200.00 in 2015.  Nice feature!  Sorely missed.
  • A nice computer pocket, in both large and small bags, not found in the more recently purchased (at a discount) medium bag.  The medium bag has a pretty nice stiffened  central partition that would have made the earlier models easier to use.
  •  Silencers were made available on request in earlier bags, 
  • Inner compartments and front compartments are larger and more functional.
  • A full size side zippered pocket is found in both the smaller and larger models, but the more recent medium bag exhibits the first hallmark of the decline of the excellence of the Timbuk2 bag line: a much smaller, almost useless side pocket.
  • The small (2012) bag was made of robust material, with an excellent strap.
The front pocket leads to a consideration of the feature of these bags that has suffered the most lamentable symptoms of decline:
  • The small (2012) back has three zippered pockets down the front---EXTREMELY useful---along with a toss-in pocket behind them, perhaps for keys for some, for me, some nuts and a bar or two.  Inside, an array of pockets runs all they way across, for pens, a flashlight, backup battery, charging cords, etc.  A zipper all along the top, above these, reveals a similar set of pockets within, and a large storage space.  
  • The large (2015) custom bag has one deep zipper pocket at the front, with a similar toss-in compartment above it.  This was the first disappointment.  There still is a side pocket, similar.  The array of inner compartments does not reach across the full width of the bag.  That's sort of ok, but more would have been better.  The zipper along the top reveals a similarly narrow array of inner pockets, that could certainly be wider.
  • The 2019 Medium Classic Messenger has the initial look and feel of the older bag, but the front zipper pocket is very small, as is the side pocket.  It seems almost ridiculously small.  And the array on the inside is narrower still than the others, with fewer pockets, narrow to the point of dsyfunction, and less thought paid to the function.  The zipper across the top reveals an almost useless array of pockets in a narrower row, and the size of the inner pocket---like the side pocket---is constricted.  
The newer bag shows that Timbuk2 either is selling cheaper models at the Outlets, or is cutting features and functionality.

I am going to turn in my small bag at the factory in San Francisco, for lifetime warantee service. But I doubt they will be equipped to return this bag to its original glory.  Not that it's all torn up, or anything.  I think the normal wear and tear explains the need: velcro wears out, and the waterproof lining is cracking.  But in general the bag is still in serviceable condition.

Timbuk2 has made its name on a fantastic bag, that is no longer to be found in REI, and whose contemporaries are unable to hold a candle to earlier versions.  There must be some economic principle of mediocrity at work here.  You make a fantastic product, develop a clientele and grab some eyeballs, then capitalize on the reputation and start cutting quality and features.

I was told at the outlet that the bag is guaranteed for life.  This is a great thing.  I would at some point possibly buy another Timbuk2, but my eyes are now wide open.
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