October 2016 Playlist: Rocktober
My taste in music is a mess. All over the place. Back in the days of my perfectly alphabetized CD collection, I used to say that Barry Manilow was on the shelf between Madonna and Marilyn Manson.
Arnold Palmer on Style
Arnold Palmer, one of golf’s greatest and most stylish legends, died this past weekend at the age of 87. The New York Times’ online obituary on Palmer featured a video interview from 2011 in which Palmer said some of the greatest words I’ve ever heard about the importance of style.
Ditching the Unnecessary Cost (and Waste) of Cartridge Razors
When Dollar Shave Club disrupted our costly enslavement to expensive premium blade systems back in 2012, the shaving game was turned on its head. Harry’s followed Dollar Shave Club with its own subscription model, offering premium blades and better looking handles. Then Gillette clumsily copied the cool kids with it’s own subscription model with more multi-blade cartridges and hideous handles, calling it “Shave Club.”
I was an early adopter of Dollar Shave Club. As a man with limited means and the creator of a blog that explored sartorial stealth and effective living on a budget, DSC offered a brilliant and very affordable solution. But even then, I was always bothered by the waste and the plastic. We get a plastic container of plastic blade cartridges, which all get thrown out at the end of the month. It seems small, but the waste adds up. If I could be one less person contributing to the floating continents of plastic in the ocean, I’d be a happier man.
I wanted to see if I could cut the cost (and the waste) even more. And I did.
A Photographer’s Uncomfortable Look at the Grim Possibilities of His Future
Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” had a glorious Broadway revival in 1996. I saw it three times. In the play, Agnes and Tobias, a retired well-off couple, are visited by their good friends Edna and Harry, who arrive at their door in a panic, asking to stay. When the hosts ask their friends what’s wrong, Edna can only say, “We were frightened.”
Harry and Edna’s terror is never explained in the play. It remained an unnamed fear. When I saw the play, I was only 26 and didn’t really understand this ambiguous fear. Now, at age 46, I think I get it.
Staying Warm and Looking Handsome in a Topcoat
The topcoat is a fall/winter essential for me. The shorter spinoff of the dressier knee-length overcoat, the mid-thigh topcoat is one of those really versatile outerwear garments that I can wear with suit and tie or jeans.
Goodyear Welted Shoes
My favorite dress shoes are Goodyear welted shoes. I love the way they look, I love the way they wear, I love the way they last. Aside from their superlative construction, they have a classic, masculine look that works with suits, casual pants or jeans. Sturdy and elegant.
What I’d Wear If Bicycle Helmets Became Mandatory
Generally speaking, the world of bicycle helmets is a world of ugly. If you looked to your typical bike shop, you’d think that the only option is that ubiquitous racer/alien-brain design, forcing bicyclists to just accept that this is as good as it gets with helmets.
There are a couple of other bike helmet brands that make reasonably attractive alternatives, but they can’t seem to resist playing the “we’re the fun company with kooky designs and a nutty logo” card, which leaves me searching high and low for the grownups table. I certainly appreciate a dose of whimsy, but since we’re all adults here, let’s maybe embrace and demand some elegance and sophistication.
The Jeans I’m Wearing This Fall
People ask: What jeans are you wearing this fall? My answer is always the same: I’m wearing the same jeans I wore last fall, which are the same ones I wore the fall before that.
That Insane Video for DJ Shadow’s “Nobody Speak”
I think I just found my new favorite music video. Directed by Sam Pilling for the song “Nobody Speak” by DJ Shadow featuring Run the Jewels from the June 2016 album The Mountain Will Fall, the unofficial video depicts some kind of negotiation of international importance between the United States and the United Kingdom. Set to the truly fantastic track, the countries’ representatives are in disagreement from go, lip-syncing rhymes at one another as the meeting quickly devolves from discord to fury to full-on chaos. It’s exquisitely filmed, beautifully stunt-coordinated and lots of fun, and it includes inexplicable (but who cares?) cameos from a pig and a rooster. At a time of intense political and ideological strife, the video is making a clear and colorful statement about white male rage. I’ve survived some intense meetings in my day, but this is holy shit crazy. Enjoy.
Podcast Episode N.37: Watch Snobs, Dressing with Dignity and Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka
In this episode, I respond to some readers’ reactions to an article about a new affordable automatic tool watch that resembles similar watches on the luxury spectrum. I also share a few anecdotes about how dressing with a sense of occasion served me very well. The last segment is about what Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka meant to me as a young boy.