Back Catalog: Sounds from the SAR Hi-Fi

Welcome to what I hope will become a semi-regular, recurring feature here in my corner of blogville. Music has always played an important role in my life, from my earliest exposure to Motown artists on mom and dad's stereo.

I've been buying my own music—first 45s, then LPs, then CDs—for almost 40 years. I still have a couple hundred LPs in the basement that I didn't immediately replace with CDs when that format took over in the 1980s. Sometimes I come across reissues of albums that were never on CD at all when they were first released, or were but I didn't buy them because I already had the LP.

Recently I was listening to one of these reissues and started hunting around for CD versions of the other albums released by the same band, which gave me the idea for this feature, as well as which band to discuss first. (Note that I'm not attempting to do in-depth histories of bands here, but hopefully this feature will serve to provide introductions to music you may not be familiar with.)

R.E.M. is certainly the best-known and most successful band to emerge from the Athens, GA scene in the 1980s. The B-52's did pretty well too. But what about Guadalcanal Diary? It's the name of a 1943 movie about a World War II battle, and the band took its name from the movie—actually they were from Marietta, but they got lumped in with the others from the Athens scene.

Their jangle-pop certainly resembled what R.E.M. was doing at the time (which may have ended up hurting Guadalcanal Diary more than it might have helped), but with a more prominent Southern Gothic flavor, steeped in literature and history. The very first track on their first album references the Civil War; other songs mention preachers and heaven, and the album concludes with a version of the traditional spiritual "Kumbayah." But alongside their more serious material, GD display a rather offbeat sense of humor on songs like "Watusi Rodeo" and "Cattle Prod."

Guadalcanal Diary released four albums between 1984 and 1989: Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man, Jamboree, 2 x 4, and Flip-Flop. The first three have been reissued in very limited numbers (2500 copies each) by Rhino Handmade, but the first album is the only one currently still available from Rhino on CD, and the one I bought about two years ago; the other two albums can be purchased as MP3s from Rhino.

Used CD copies of the original 1980s releases are floating around; I just picked up 2 x 4 for around $6 on eBay. Given their limited quantities, used copies of the Rhino releases are scarce and expensive; the lowest price at the moment for a copy of WITSOTBM on half.com is $15; the other two discs are currently not available anywhere that I'm aware of. Jamboree seems to be the most difficult to find; I've decided to buy the digital version and keep looking for a copy on CD. (There's also a version out with the first two albums on one CD.)

From looking at the Wikipedia entry for the band I found their web site, and learned that they will be playing a couple of anniversary shows this summer in Athens and Atlanta. Right now the site isn't much more than a placeholder, but hopefully there will be more there in the future.

(with apologies to Thievery Corporation for my blatant appropriation of their album title Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi)

The Over/Under

This is too good to save for the weekend TWiA. It probably won't come as a surprise to you that I'm an Over.

(Infographic courtesy of EngineeringDegree, via CNET's Crave blog, via The Hairpin.)

Note: graphic and link removed at request of EngineeringDegree.

Musical Interlude

Arcade Fire headlined the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival last weekend, and Cyndi Lauper joined them for an encore of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Those of us who were around when the song first hit the charts may appreciate this a bit more than the youngsters.

(FYI: This is a fan video, so the audio is thin and the video is a bit shaky.)

Gut-Buster

Just received word (via UrbanDaddy Boston) that you can now special-order a three-foot burrito stuffed with every variety of meat offered at Anna's Taqueria. I'd say this is both awesome and horrifying, and if you go and read the full description you'll see what I mean.

Bargain Alert: Frye Boots

I think Frye tends to occupy a space below the style radar for many people, and that's unfortunate because they have been around for nearly 150 years and are known for producing some truly iconic styles of American footwear, like harness boots, engineer boots, and what's come to be known as the campus boot. (Depending on your age, you can ask your parents or grandparents what sort of shoes/boots they wore when they were young; chances are, someone wore one of those.)

I have to wonder why Frye hasn't exploited its heritage to inject itself into the minds of fashion editors, especially given the popularity of other boot brands with similar history such as Red Wing, Wolverine, and Chippewa. Also curiously, Frye makes more high-fashion versions of some of its classic styles that unfortunately do not necessarily improve upon the originals.

Anyway, I wasn't intending to critique the brand, but rather to alert you to a very good deal on a particular Frye style that I'm interested in myself. It might be a bit out of season, but that's often when the best deals are to be found. The boot is called the Arkansas, and it normally retails for $200. For an American-made boot, that's an excellent price, but how'd you like to save 40% off that?

Endless is currently offering the Arkansas for $119.99 in three colorways. (Unfortunately they no longer have the black that I'm after.) I did try these on in a size 11; they were too big for me, but very comfortable. They only come in D width, but it's a pretty generous fit, as tends to be the case with boots. Size availability on these varies by color.

Caveat emptor, though: it looks to me like the boots have some of that "burnishing" on the toes that's been popular lately, so I suggest taking a good close look at the photos, and maybe calling customer service if you need to. Of course, maybe you're fine with how they look; if not, it wouldn't be as obvious on the dark brown boots. Endless offers free two-day shipping and, if they don't work out, free returns.

Piperlime has the boots for the same price, though only in what they call "tan" but which looks to be the dark brown. Again, free shipping and free returns, and fewer sizes available, though ordering from Piperlime might be a good bet for you if you were already planning to order something from Gap or Banana, since including shoes in an order gets you free shipping for the entire order.

If you can't find the size or color you're looking for at the bargain price, you can still order them direct from Frye at full price. I have no idea how they ship or what it costs. I thought I might try locating these in a local store, but oddly, Frye doesn't offer this information on their site.

(If anyone comes across the Arkansas boots in black size 10.5 in the $120 range, I'd greatly appreciate a heads-up. And if you have these boots and want to sell them, please get in touch.)

This Week in Awesome (5/7/11)

Happy Mother's Day! I got all of you some internet. You can thank me later...

This truck driver may need some remedial driving lessons. (YouTube via Autoblog)

I hope to some day have enough free time to come up with a diversion as esoteric as a Tumblr chronicle of the watches worn by Fox Mulder on The X-Files. (Kempt)

Corporate logos, reimagined to more honestly depict their companies. (Behance via Consumerist)

GQ did some investigating and found some questions regarding the birth certificate of a certain real-estate developer with tragic hair and presidential aspirations.

And finally this week, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler stopped by Late Night to give Jimmy Fallon a hand with a Jersey Shore spoof. (Hulu via Popeater)

Last-Minute Substitution

Well, I had something else planned for today that didn't quite work out (I'll get to it soon), so I'm just going to do what I should have done this morning, and point to this article from the Boston Globe about a group of New England lawmakers trying to get the military to agree to supply personnel with American-made athletic shoes.

Dinner Plans

Things are going to be a bit minimalist for Mother's Day. My brother has to work and my sister is going to be away on a vacation she planned before realizing Mother's Day fell on the 8th and not the 15th, so it's just going to be the Mrs. and me taking her out.

My mother typically puts a fair amount of thought into where wants to go, and we've had some very nice dinners in years past. This year she ultimately decided she wants to go to the Outback Steakhouse. I haven't been to one of those in probably 15 years or so, coincidentally while visiting my parents when they used to go to Fort Lauderdale for the winter.

I'm not going to complain or give her a hard time about it—it is her day, after all—but I'm not much of a steak eater. I seem to recall that they also had a decent selection of seafood, and was going to look over the menu, but their site doesn't want to show it to me. Why is the online menu thing so complicated? Either make it a PDF, or pay a college kid to figure out how to render it in HTML.

Friends and Family Discounts

If the selection on the flash-sale sites isn't doing it for you (I bought a shirt from Gilt a couple of weeks ago, the first item I've bought from them and kept) or your tastes just tend toward the more traditional, there are a couple of sales happening that may be of interest to you.

Brooks Brothers is having its semi-annual (I believe) friends and family sale now through Monday, offering 25% off everything except cordovan shoes. The online code is 06FRIENDS (there may be more than one code), though I actually received an invitation of sorts in the mail from the manager of the Newbury Street store. I'm not sure exactly why, as I'm not a big BB customer, but I did recently buy those boots from their site (which I returned) and created an account in the process, so they do have my personal info, and I have been getting several emails a week from them. Not sure if I'm going to buy anything, but I'll definitely stop by for a look around.

There's also a Ralph Lauren sale happening during the same dates. There has been a "pre-sale" going on this week with some serious discounts, but RL stuff is seriously expensive to start, so the savings are relative. Still, if you're looking for certain things, you could do a lot worse than picking up some Ralph on sale. In contrast to BB, I have been receiving emails from RL for years, yet I didn't know about this sale until I saw it mentioned over at Put This On, with info about contacting customer service to get a code for an additional 15% off. This may or may not be worth your time, but again, if you're looking for something specific, you could be looking at significant savings.

Update, 5/5: The email from Ralph with the code for the extra discount arrived around 7:30 this morning.

Eat Your Vegetables

We try to do our part to support local businesses in our area, and one place we've been going more frequently is a little produce store called Roberto's on Mystic Avenue, just north of the intersection with Mystic Valley Parkway. The goods are packed in pretty tightly, but the quality is consistently good and the prices are the same as or lower than the nearby supermarkets.

High School Fashion Flashback

I went to high school from 1977 to 1981 at a single-sex parochial school with a dress code. Until that point I'd gone to public schools, so I'd never had to wear school uniforms as such, but unlike many of the other students, I didn't see wearing a jacket and tie as a burden or a punishment.

Button-front shirts were required. Collars were supposed to be buttoned and ties knotted and pulled up into place, but the faculty didn't bother enforcing that one unless a guy left his knot too loose, so we all went about our days with our collars casually unbuttoned and our ties slightly loosened.

Jeans were not allowed, but corduroy pants were, so I recall my school wardrobe was filled with Levi's five-pocket corduroys, which were technically not jeans because they were not denim. To this day I still favor this style of pants, and have about half a dozen pairs at the moment. (No Levi's, though; I don't think they make any in a cut I could wear now.)

We also could not wear sneakers. But we did not have to wear dress shoes, and in fact we were instructed not to wear leather-soled shoes, which I believe had something to do with how often the floors would have had to be polished if several hundred teenage boys were walking around every day in dress shoes, leaving scuff marks on the linoleum. (It probably influenced my general lack of favor toward leather-soled shoes, though that has been changing of late.) So most guys wore crepe-soled shoes like desert boots, or those other Clarks shoes called "wallabees." I honestly can't remember what sort of shoes I wore back then, though I'm pretty sure it wasn't either of the above. Boat shoes, certainly, though those didn't become popular until I'd been in high school for a couple of years.

My classmates filled the spectrum from one kid who proudly carried his books and other belongings in a big brown leather satchel (that, if I remember correctly, had belonged to his grandfather) to guys who had one sport jacket (typically, either tan corduroy or a navy blazer) and one tie (typically, a navy blue or black knit "sock tie" or a hideous striped thing swiped from dad's closet) which they would keep in their lockers and don each day, regardless of whatever else they were wearing, in order to meet the letter of the dress code, if not the spirit. It ended up that a lot of kids were walking around in plaid Western-style shirts with snaps (very popular at the time), with the added ties and jackets looking quite incongruous.

From after April vacation until the end of the school year, the dress code rules were relaxed somewhat. The jackets and ties went into storage until September, and now any shirt with a collar was acceptable, which meant polo shirts on warmer days. The first big moment of popularity for Lacoste and Polo polos was during this period, so there were plenty of those, along with the tigers, knights, and whatever other knockoffs were around at the time. I had a few "alligator shirts" because there was a store that sold them at a steep discount, and I could still fit into a boys' size 20, which made them even cheaper to buy.

We all looked forward to senior year, when, due to space constraints, seniors attended classes at a separate campus a mile or so away from the main school, on a gorgeous piece of waterfront property that belonged to the diocese and housed its seminary. (Later the school expanded the buildings at its main campus and seniors were brought back with the underclassmen, so I consider myself lucky that I got to enjoy that perk.) Also, for some reason that was never clear to any of us, we were allowed to wear sneakers.

Royal blue nylon and suede running shoes with white trim were quite popular at the time, as were Nikes, either the white canvas or leather basketball-style sneakers, or the Cortez, which was more of a lifestyle shoe even back then (and looks remarkably unchanged after all this time). A few of the preppier kids wore Tretorns, but no one had heard of Reebok or New Balance, and I can't remember a single kid wearing adidas or Puma—I wouldn't become aware those existed until I got to college. (Actually, thinking back on it, there may have been one guy who wore Stan Smiths in the traditional white with green trim.)

I had discovered that some of my father's clothes now fit me, and took to wearing a charcoal gray worsted wool jacket that had come from his 1960 honeymoon suit (the pants never fit, as his legs were shorter than mine) and some skinny ties I'd found in the basement. Blondie's Parallel Lines had come out a year or so before, and I'd been influenced not only by the music but by the style of the band's male members on the cover.

I didn't start wearing a black suit, but I had the dark jacket, a skinny black tie with white dots, a white or pink button-down collar shirt, the cord jeans, and white sneakers. There were a few other guys in my class who were into similar music, stuff that definitely wasn't anywhere near mainstream at this time, and they were sporting similar looks around campus that year. Later on, in college, I'd develop this style further and refine it into my mid-80s everyday look.

This Week in Awesome (4/30/11)

Hope you're enjoying the weekend, and that these might make it a bit more enjoyable:

The ongoing quest for vintage city pictures yielded this batch from the archives of the Boston traffic and parking department. (Flickr via Universal Hub)

A Star Wars twofer: first, imaginary vintage-retro-future desktop screenshots (Cult of Mac), then a very clever melding of Star Wars footage and French existentialist writings. (The Awl)

Have you ever seen an ad for an obviously awful movie and wondered who might have written it? Wonder no more. (Onion News Network)

And finally this week, those of you old enough to remember the genius of Spy magazine will rejoice at the information that a significant portion of its output has been digitized into Google Books. For those of you who are unfamiliar: school is in session. The timing of this is fortuitous, since Spy was always merciless to a certain "short-fingered vulgarian" with questionable hair. (Splitsider)

Pulchritude

[Please indulge me in a bit of superficiality admiration of female beauty this evening...]

You all know how I feel about Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan on Mad Men. But what about the other ladies on the show? Elisabeth Moss (Peggy) is cute, and I guess I think of her as a little more of a serious actress, maybe because she's been in London doing the Lillian Hellman play The Children's Hour during the show's hiatus. And January Jones (Betty) is certainly pretty, but something about her doesn't quite do it for me—it may have something to do with the coldness of Betty's character.

But you know who's seriously hot? Alison Brie, who plays Trudy Campbell. You'd be forgiven for not noticing this, given that her character only appears once in a while, and in the constraints of 1960s fashions and hairstyles. But if you happen to watch the very funny NBC comedy Community, where Brie is a series regular, then you've probably noticed it too.

Exhibit A: these two stills from next week's episode of Community (which is the first half of the two-part season finale, and a sequel of sorts to an absolutely epic episode from last season about a campus-wide paintball tournament).

Exhibit B: this photo shoot (and accompanying interview) from last year in Complex magazine. See what I mean?

The Natural

It's cloudy outside and has been threatening to rain all day, but now that we're about to roll into May, which will certainly end much warmer than it begins, the men's magazines say it's time to break out the white pants, particularly white jeans.

I came around to white jeans a couple of years ago, though I much prefer off-white, cream, or "natural" to white. I found an inexpensive pair at Target and have worn them to work and on a few social occasions. The only thing I didn't like about them was that the leg openings were too wide. 9" works best for me with most pants and jeans, but these are 9-3/4", which easily gets floppy. I'm not sure it's worth it to have them tapered below the knees, but I could at least ask Mr. Lee what it would cost.

Meanwhile, though, I found another pair last year on eBay. They're Polo, exactly like the blue ones that I've searched for and acquired over the years, only off-white, and the leg openings are the right width. They were too long, but that was easily fixed by the tailor.

They go with pretty much anything, though I think they look best with a colorful button-front shirt such as a madras plaid or a bright stripe. Also, you need to think about what shoes you'll be wearing. It's probably better to stay away from boots or black shoes, anything too severe; you may see that sort of combo on a fashion-show runway, but it will almost certainly not look as good out in the real world.

I would humbly suggest a loafer or plain-toe lace-up in saddle tan, which is a good warm-weather choice for work outfits, or you could go with a pair of white or tan suede bucks, which are versatile and have had a resurgence in popularity. For nonwork settings, it's hard to beat a pair of classic canvas sneakers like Jack Purcells (you can find a good piece about canvas plimsolls over at Put This On).

Steamed T

Sure, it was nice that it was sunny and warm today, but I didn't appreciate getting on a bus when returning from a lunchtime errand and feeling like I'd walked into a sauna. Is it possible for a bus to be that warm and the driver not to notice? He must have been as uncomfortable as everyone else. At least when I got to Wellington on my way home, the driver had the AC on.

The Ratings Game Has Changed

I've been a big fan of the TV series Fringe since it premiered on Fox in the fall of 2008. It's about a small team attached to the FBI that investigates strange happenings at the... outer edges of scientific reality. (See what I did there?) Yes, it does sound a lot like The X-Files (another show I loved, and stayed with until the end, at least two seasons past when it should have concluded) and for most of its first season it was a lot like The X-Files, with standalone "monster of the week" stories mingling with a larger story arc.

But at the end of season one, the show finally arrived at where it wanted to be all along, and gave us its big revelation of a parallel universe right alongside our own. The two worlds are very similar, but different in ways large and small. (One touching detail: in the alternate universe, 9/11 never happened and the World Trade Center towers remain standing. Also, Eric Stoltz held onto the lead role in the Back to the Future movies.)

At the end of season two, with a small but loyal audience and the knowledge of a third-season renewal, Fringe made an extremely bold (by episodic TV standards) move, swapping the two versions of the main character into each other's alternate universe. (Eventually both of them were able to get back to where they belonged.) Furthering this bold gambit, this entire season has played out in both worlds, with stories alternating back and forth while building to an inevitable clash between the two worlds, that supposedly only one will be able to survive. There are two episodes left in this season.

The reason I'm even bringing this up, since it's fairly unlikely many of you are fans, is because Fringe has become something of a "little show that could." Last season and the first part of this season, the show aired on Thursdays at 9, when my DVR was recording CSI and The Office, so I had to either catch recordings of the show when one of those other shows was a repeat or wasn't on, or (more frequently) watch it on Hulu. (I could have swapped out one of those other shows, and in hindsight maybe I should have.)

Then Fox announced it was moving Fringe to Fridays in January. Fridays have not been kind to network TV shows for 15 years or so—not so coincidentally, right around the time Fox moved The X-Files from Fridays to Sundays. Now able to record the Fringe episodes, I made sure to watch them, knowing that networks now look at the numbers for DVR viewing of shows within the week after they've aired, and factor those into a show's overall ratings. I figured I was doing my small part to help Fringe get renewed for a fourth season.

And it did in fact get renewed; it was announced a month or so ago. Yesterday there was an article in the New York Times about how DVR viewing of TV shows has altered the playing field for marginal series like Fringe. Sure enough, the article cited statistics showing that DVR viewing of Fringe in the week after episodes aired boosted its ratings by almost 50%, making it the show with the highest percentage of added DVR viewers this season. (I imagine the tally for online viewings must factor into this in some way as well.)

Obviously this doesn't mean that all borderline shows will get renewals, but if you're a DVR user and care about a show that's "on the bubble," make the effort to find time to watch it each week. It could make enough of a difference to keep it on the air.

Grooming Garage: Smell Nice

There isn't a lot of middle ground when it comes to wearing fragrance: you either like to, or you don't. If I'm going to work, I don't like to leave the house without it, because you never know when you may be involuntarily squashed against someone on the T, and I'm horrified by the thought that I might smell bad to a stranger, especially during the warmer months. (It's this same reasoning that drives my effort to have mints or Listerine strips on me at all times.)

I generally don't have any interest in department-store stuff, though I have owned and worn Aramis Life and John Varvatos. For the last decade or so I've worn Banana Republic Modern off and on, which you can find these days only at BR outlet stores. I have no idea why they choose to sell it this way, but when I'm near an outlet store I usually grab a bottle or two. I also recently finished a bottle of Burt's Bees men's fragrance, which is distinctive and quite pleasant-smelling. (The Mrs. says it has a licorice note, and I think she's right.)

When I went to New York a few weeks back, one of the places on my list to visit that day was MiN, an eclectic apothecary/fragrance store that opened about a year ago on Crosby Street in SoHo. I accidentally overlooked it when we were there in November, and during the interim I read about a fragrance from Spain that I wanted to sample. It sounded like something I would like, and it's available from MiN's web site, but I couldn't imagine buying a fragrance without smelling it first.

It's called Alvarez Gomez Madrid, and it smells predominantly like lemon. (There are other fragrance notes, but I'm not good at articulating that sort of thing; you can read about them here.) The company that produces it is over 100 years old, and its products are all-natural. This sort of fragrance works well for me in the summer, because it's fresh and not at all perfumey (probably my biggest gripe with mass-market fragrances).

Even if you aren't interested in smelling lemony, MiN is still very much worth a visit. They carry a number of uncommon (and generally much more expensive) fragrance lines from around the world that are not as well-known, such as Acqua di Parma, Penhaligon's, and Santa Maria Novella, as well as several skin and hair care lines (including their own house line), razors, hair brushes, candles and home fragrances, and other sundry items of the sort you might expect to find in such a store. I recommend stopping in next time you're in New York.

And if you happen to end up standing next to me on the T this summer, I'll be the tall blond guy who smells like lemons.

This Week in Awesome (4/23/11)

I know yesterday's late post was kind of lame, but I didn't want to have yet another Friday pass without posting something. I think maybe I need to come up with a regular Friday feature that forces me to concoct a piece each week. Anyway...

Some of my coworkers (and, to be honest, myself) are what would be considered word and grammar nerds. (It goes with the territory of working in a publishing environment.) Among the things we like to read to sate this interest is the blog After Deadline on the New York Times site, which examines grammar and usage issues within the paper's content. Some of you won't care about this at all, others will groove on it—so be it.

Have you ever wanted your own tartan? Now you can create one. (Suits + Boots)

If you've ever been to San Francisco you no doubt noticed that most houses have their garages underneath, primarily due to space limitations. Buildings that predate the automobile were not built with garages. But for almost any problem, there's a solution if you have the means. (Gizmodo via Jalopnik)

For those of you who are celebrating, Happy Easter. Here's a humorous clip to get you in a candy-eating mood. (Videogum) And if you enjoyed that, here are a bunch more like it. (Dangerous Minds)

Setting the Table

Easter isn't a major holiday for my family, but we still go to my mother's in Rhode Island for dinner. A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my mother on the phone, and she said, "I don't think I'm going to make a ham this year."

I was thrilled, because no one really likes ham all that much. So I asked what she was planning to make. She said, "Chicken parmaesan." Good answer, mom.

In the morning I have to get up and head down the street to the Italian deli, and wait in line for some arancini to bring with us. We also went to Trader Joe's tonight for wine.

The most important thing about celebrating holidays: you should spend them with people who are important to you, and you should eat and drink well. Salute...

Music: Response

Cool article in Tuesday's New York Times about the scientific underpinnings of how and why music provokes an emotional response in our brains.

Phone Freedom

Many people have given up their home phones, choosing to have a mobile as their only phone. I am not yet at the point where I'm willing to do this. If I were younger I might feel differently, but I prefer not to have certain types of calls come to my cell phone, things like doctor's office reminder calls, stray telemarketing calls, etc.

And while I want to maintain a home phone, I don't want to have to pay a lot for it every month. Back when we used to live in Somerville, we had a traditional landline through Verizon with additional charges for long distance, until the cable company made phone service available and offered a bundle discount since we already had TV and internet service through them. I think that ran about $25 a month plus taxes for unlimited local and long-distance calling.

[Generational-change aside: the concept of "long distance" and the associated charges seem like such quaint anachronisms now, but I can remember when I was in college how the long-distance rates went down after business hours, and again at 11 pm. My mother used to call me every Thursday night just after 11.]

When we moved five years ago (what?) I decided I could get a home phone line cheaper, and I signed up for VoIP service (phone calling using your high-speed internet connection, but not supplied by your internet provider) with Vonage. At the time they offered an unlimited plan for $25 a month, but they also had a plan they didn't publicize as much: 500 outgoing minutes a month for $15, plus unlimited incoming calls. With taxes it was still under $20 a month, and we didn't make enough calls to worry about ever exceeding the allotted minutes.

But the fees crept up gradually, and then a couple of years ago Vonage raised the cost of the plan, and before I knew it the monthly charge was back up to about $26. I was considering getting rid of the home line, but I didn't really want to. I thought about Skype and Google Voice, but wasn't thrilled with the idea of having to sit at the computer to talk on the phone, or that the computer had to be on to receive an incoming call. (Correct me if I'm wrong about that last part, but I think it's the case.)

Then I heard about Ooma. Ooma is a VoIP service with a difference: you buy a hardware box for around $200, and thereafter you pay no monthly costs except taxes (which Ooma is required by federal law to collect) of around $3-4 a month. You can make and receive unlimited calls in the US (there are additional charges for international calling, but that's not an issue for us). The hardware has the voicemail/answering machine integrated right into it. At the rate I was paying, Ooma will have paid for itself in less than a year.

Ooma will try to sell you a "premier" level of service for $10 a month, but unless you require a second line or some other esoteric features, you don't need it and you're not required to take it. I was able to get the hardware at Costco for $180—the best price I'd seen for it anywhere—and was able to keep our number (there was a $40 fee to port it from Vonage, or I could have opted to get a new number and not pay the fee). Call quality is as good as, if not better than, the Vonage service, and if we move I can just reestablish the service at a different address.

This is not a sponsored post, and I'm not being paid to write about or endorse Ooma. I'm offering it as a suggestion if you want to keep or restart home phone service without another bill to pay every month.

Back to Normal

So Monday's little work-at-home drama spilled over into yesterday, with various behind-the-scenes machinations leading to me spending about an hour late last night making stuff live on the company's web site from home, hence the lack of any noise from over in this general vicinity yesterday.

But that's all behind us now, and I now know that if I need to work on files at home, I should make copies of them and bring them with me. The rest of the week will be normal and highly mundane. I'm really fortunate, because my job so rarely causes me any stress.

Working from Home

I usually take today off, since it's the only holiday I don't get through my employer, and I have an aversion to the kind of crowds the marathon draws, and I have to pass right through that area to get to work. But then I looked at the calendar and realized my monthly deadline was tomorrow.

I guess I'm normally a bit further along in my process, but I got caught a bit behind this month, so there was no way I could take today off. Then I realized I could work at home, which would be kind of like a day off, except I would have to concentrate much harder than I usually do when I "work at home." In other words, today I would need to really work.

And I did. I accomplished everything I needed to, except when I got to the end and started to upload all the files to our database thingy, the files wouldn't upload. I tried several times with several different files, but it wasn't happening. This creates kind of a domino effect, because the files have to be in that database in order for something else to happen overnight, and that has to happen so I can go in on the 19th of each month and make a bunch of stuff live on our web site.

So lucky me, I now have to email our marketing partner and explain why the database sync won't happen overnight. It isn't really going to affect anything too terribly, but it's just not how I would prefer to do things. I thought today was going to be relatively easy, but it turned out to be complicated. Looks like I should have just gone into the office.

This Week in Awesome (4/16/11)

Sorry about being absent yesterday—something unexpected came up at work.

Fellow Bostonians: a new way to check on how the T is running. (Universal Hub)

Also, a slightly more nostalgic view of the T, through animation, in the form of an inbound B line ride along Comm. Ave. in the 1960s. Several other good clips here as well. (YouTube via Universal Hub)

The parade of ridiculous but real products continues: the Slobstopper, which is basically a bib to wear while driving. Seriously. (Consumerist; see their story here.)

And finally this week, a new fragrance just for city dwellers. (Funny or Die)

American Rags

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the sage advice was given to always carry a towel. I find a bandana to be nearly as useful and a good deal more portable. In summer it's an absolute necessity for wiping sweat off my face and neck; it can be handy for wiping stuff off my glasses; and when on the T it's a polite and somewhat more sanitary way to muffle sneezes.

So I try to keep one in my bag. I have a bunch of them in different colors that I've acquired over the years, and they last a long time. Eventually, though, they do start to get threadbare and need to be replaced. All my bandanas have a little "made in USA" incorporated into the design, usually in the lower right corner. But when I went looking for bandanas at Target a while back (you have to look around, but you'll find them near the socks and underwear), I noticed that they said "made in China."

What, we can't even make bandanas anymore? I thought it must be possible to still buy made-in-USA bandanas. I checked that sketchy army-navy store in Downtown Crossing, and the ones they sell are also made in China. I bought a couple of them, but they were terrible. The fabric was rough, and didn't soften with washing the way my older, American-made ones did. In fact, after a few washings the edges started to fray and unravel. I threw them away, wishing I hadn't wasted the $2 each on them (more on principle than because of the actual outlay).

I checked a couple of work-clothing sites I remembered from a few years ago, when I was looking for a Dickies canvas jacket, and found nothing. Duluth Trading used to sell a bundle of half a dozen bandanas, but they no longer do. I even tried a site that sells biker boots and leathers; they now carry high-tech, synthetic, sweat-wicking 'do-rags. Progress, I guess.

A google search led me to two sites, Wholesale For Everyone and Tan's Club, where you can buy bandanas by the dozen or individual pieces. I ended up ordering from WFE, because their shipping was cheaper and because, as I added individual bandanas in different colors to my shopping cart, a quantity discount took effect, lowering the total cost of the order slightly.

It seemed kind of silly to me to have to pay $6 to get a few bandanas shipped from New Jersey, but with the quantity discount the total was around $20 for eight bandanas, which isn't really much more than buying them in a store, and they're American-made. Including the ones I have that are still in usable condition, I should be set for a long time.

Tempting Fate

Yesterday all my T rides were very crowded, but on my way to work I was lucky to get a seat on the Green Line at North Station. A few stops later, while reading my paper, I heard a man's voice say, "You're pretty brave, drinking coffee on the T without a lid on your cup." I looked up and saw an older woman who had just boarded the train, clutching her Dunkin' cup.

I thought to myself that "brave" was probably not what the man really meant. I'm not sure why someone would attempt to do this; perhaps she wanted or needed to drink the coffee quickly, and with the lid on the cup it was too hot? My brain is resistant to further speculation.

A stop or two later the person sitting next to me got off the train, and of course and the woman with the coffee took her place. I glanced over and saw that her cup was still about 3/4 full. I figured it was safer for her to be sitting down, but I was still just a sudden deceleration away from possibly getting that unlidded coffee dumped on me.

The woman with the coffee asked me if I was getting off at the next stop. I replied that I still had some way to go. She offered that she was getting off at the next stop. I nodded and returned to reading my paper. We pulled into Arlington and she got up and made her way out. Crisis averted.

It's Toast

Someone just annihilated the toaster oven in the kitchen at work. I came back in the building from getting my lunch, and I could smell the burned smell all the way at the bottom of the stairs (our office is one floor up). Then I went into the kitchen to fill my water bottle, and got a good look at it. It's amazing it didn't set off the smoke alarms; the front of it is seriously charred.

I seem to remember the same thing happened around three years ago, and they threw the thing away and got another one. But why do we even need a toaster oven? Who's making toast in there anyway?

Bargain Alert: Cheap Jeans from Lands' End Canvas

I thought I was done buying jeans for a while, but lately several of them have been feeling a little loose in the waist. This makes no sense, as I have not been on a diet or anything; in fact, given the time of year, I would have thought it much more likely to have put on a few pounds during the winter, resulting in my jeans fitting a little snug.

A couple of them were a little big in the waist to begin with, and I'd hoped to accomplish a small amount of shrinkage through laundering, but it hasn't happened. Lands' End Canvas is currently having a spring sale, and their jeans are on sale for $29, which is about 40% off their normal price. Yesterday we went to the mall because I wanted to try them on in the store to see how they fit before ordering. To my surprise, the jeans were 60% off at the store.

I tend to forget that Lands' End's retail presence in Sears stores frequently has sales and promotions separate from those on the web site/catalog, and vice versa. Also, sometimes the discount offers I receive via email are valid only in one or the other; sometimes they are valid on regular LE merchandise but not Canvas, or vice versa. You really have to read the fine print carefully, which is frankly annoying.

I've moved toward slimmer-fitting jeans the past couple of years, but it isn't always easy to find jeans that are cut slimmer but aren't low-rise. (For the longer of torso, it matters for sitting comfort and shirts staying tucked in.) The Canvas "straight fit" jeans are somewhat trimmer than jeans from the regular LE line. They also offer them in a slim fit that's a bit too slim for me, but might work for others.

The tradeoff for getting a higher discount at a store is that the store I went to was only carrying three of the colors/washes available, whereas the web site has seven. I went with the basic, unmolested "rinsed indigo" finish, though I was hoping to find something closer to a medium indigo blue to wear during non-work times. But $20 was too good a price to resist, and since I now know how these jeans fit, I will probably order another pair in a lighter finish from the web.

The fabric is reasonably substantial and feels like pretty standard denim weight (I'm not going to geek out on ounces per square yard, because I don't know it and I'm not that much of a denim freak); I suspect they will need a couple of washings to soften a bit. Because these are dark, unfaded denim, there was a label attached about the dye that suggested washing them before wearing and washing them separately (which to me means "only with other jeans") to avoid dye transfer.

There was other Canvas merchandise at 60% off; this probably varies by store. (Yesterday I was at Northshore Mall in Peabody, MA, but in my opinion the men's Canvas section at the Sears in the Burlington Mall is somewhat larger and better-stocked.) There was also a clearance rack marked $6.99 which had mostly shirts in size small, but who knows what you may find at your local store?

This Week in Awesome (4/9/11)

Don't know what came over me—the entire weekend is a blur...

Watch this news anchor convince his coanchor to lick an iPad while on the air. (Boy Genius Report)

This site is nothing more than a collection of screen captures from movies showing (often extremely unrealistic) computer screen interfaces. (Videogum)

Another person with a great deal of time and patience has created something wonderful. (BoingBoing via The Hairpin)

And finally this week, Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner are in a meeting to pitch an idea for a sequel to When Harry Met Sally, but it ends up in a somewhat different place. (Funny or Die)

One More

I have a late update to the black plain-toe lace-up shoe choices. Red Wing has added this black "Postman oxford" to their heritage line (I thought it included only boots). These shoes are made in USA and are available for $220 from Nordstrom.

But there's one thing about them that would be a definite deal-breaker for me: the wedge-style sole. I didn't notice it at first, and there's a good chance it would go unnoticed by others, but I just have an extreme dislike for how this type of sole looks in profile, regardless of the color of the sole or what type of shoe it's attached to. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you, these look like they would be pretty comfortable.

The Alden Aura

For some time, I've been looking for a pair of black plain-toe shoes something like these. I was after a slightly clunky look with nice rounded toes for plenty of room up front, which I think looks pretty cool when paired with darker jeans (and can of course be worn with many other types of outfits).

Seems simple enough, right? But most of what I came across was either cheaply made, or didn't offer wide widths, or was too tapered at the front of the shoe. I could have just bought the Brooks Brothers shoes, but I was also trying to avoid spending $400 (and the BB shoes don't come in wide anyway).

Other options include the Allen-Edmonds Leeds, which runs $550 in shell cordovan but $325 in regular leather, still a bit more than I was hoping to spend. I wanted the shoes to be USA-made if possible, so that excluded the Florsheim Kenmoor, which at $225 seems a decent value (the wingtip version has been quite popular with budget-minded trad bloggers) but is made in India.*

I decided to broaden my search to consider vintage and more recent, gently-used shoes. This would give me a better chance of finding American-made shoes, but meant I would have to more wary and vigilant to avoid buying something that was the wrong size, or simply buying someone else's junk.

I'd been half-seriously looking for a pair of Aldens on eBay and Style Forum for a couple of months, but not really expecting to find any, as the Aldens that come up for sale in my size tend to be styles I'm not interested in. But a couple of weeks ago I spotted an eBay auction for black plain-toe Aldens, and they were the shell cordovan version in my size, wide width. I love Aldens, but they're pricey, and I hadn't even bothered to consider shell, as it's much more expensive than calfskin.

They were a variant of the style, with rubber soles instead of the more common double-layer leather soles, which may have made them of less interest to other potential bidders with whom I share a shoe size. I ended up winning the auction, and even with the shipping, the shoes cost me less than half of what a new pair would cost. They arrived on Saturday, and I took a quick spin around the house in them. They were the right size and fit well. The leather has a natural luster, making the shoes look like they have been highly polished.

Yesterday I wore them to work for the first time. I had a slight problem with the back of the left shoe biting into my ankle (I may be able to fix this with some moleskin), and I'm considering trying a pair of insoles for some extra cushioning, but otherwise they felt good. I'm hoping these can become long-term shoes for me as I try to transition to buying better-quality shoes.

*Re: the wingtip comment—I got that wrong. There is a wingtip version of the Kenmoor, but the shoe I meant to reference is the Veblen, which at $160 is even lower-priced than the Kenmoor, and can be purchased for around $135 with the use of a coupon code. A Goodyear welt on a shoe at this price is unusual, plus it comes in six colors. Too bad I have no interest in wingtips...

A Touch of Color

We usually have some sort of decoration on the front door. When we got married, a friend of the family who had grown up with my sister made us a beautiful decorative wreath. We had it on the door of our Somerville place for years, and unfortunately it faded from the sun, and stuff started falling off of it, so when we moved we didn't keep it.

One year, in lieu of an evergreen Christmas wreath, I bought an artificial holly wreath. It stayed on the door for months, long past its intended decorative period. Last fall I was stuck wandering around a craft store while the Mrs. picked out fabric, and I ended up buying a fall wreath that was on clearance. After Christmas, I took down the holly wreath again and the Mrs. suggested we needed some other sort of non-fall, non-Christmas decorative item for the door.

A few weeks ago she was at another craft store, buying yarn for crochet, and came home with this:

It's a little different from what I was expecting, but that's good. Now that winter is really gone, it's nice to see this flash of colors when I come home from work.

Huh?

Why does my dishwasher gel have a "best if used by" date? What would happen if it was past the date and I used it anyway?

Wrist Wants

I haven't bought any watches in a couple of months, and there's nothing on my immediate radar, which is just as well. Last July, though, I wrote about a Tudor watch that is not for sale in this country and that I'll likely never be able to afford, and at the time I was considering inaugurating a series on watches on my wish list.

I never followed through on that, partly because doing so is somewhat depressing, but I just looked through a slide show (don't you hate these blatant attempts to drive up page views?) of watches shown at the 2011 edition of the Baselworld trade show in Switzerland (where the Tudor was introduced last year) and there were a couple of watches that spoke to me. One is not realistically attainable, but the other is completely affordable.

Breitling has been known for some time for big, studly watches intended for divers, pilots, and the like. But along with a new movement for certain models that was designed and is being built in-house (as opposed to purchasing a movement from an outside supplier), the company is introducing some decidedly more low-key designs that are reminiscent of vintage models. This one in particular, the Transocean, caught my eye:

If you've read my watch collection posts, you may recall that I have a particular affinity for watches with "cross-hair" dials. This type of understated style looks like it could be from 1965; in other words, it's timeless, and will remain that way (though in keeping with modern watch trends, the 43 mm case size is somewhat bigger than watches typically were in the 1960s). It will be available with either a black or white dial (the white is nice, but the black is killer), but unfortunately it's going to retail a bit north of $5000, so it will have to remain on the "if I ever win the lottery" list.

At the other end of the spectrum, I also like Timex watches for their simplicity, durability, and low cost. Timex started a line last year called Originals that borrows design elements from the company's rich half-century of heritage (and got them into some higher-end department stores). For 2011 they will be adding to the line:

Inspired by a 1960s dive watch, this watch looks both retro and modern at the same time. I love the chunky numerals on the dial and the red accents. At a list price of $85, I'll be grabbing one of these as soon as they become available. I don't care for the "rally" style strap (me not liking the strap a watch comes with—what a surprise!), but I think this would look great on a bright red strap, making it a perfect watch to wear during the summer months.

(Images borrowed from Gilt MANual.)

This Week in Awesome (4/2/11)

Was something going on yesterday? Everyone was acting kind of weird...

This guy asks authors to autograph their books with an insult to him. (The Hairpin via Flavorwire)

Here's a kitchen tool for the more precise-minded among us. (BuzzFeed via The Hairpin)

Very funny comics from The Oatmeal.

Some web addresses flow nicely; others maybe should have been reconsidered. (Meme Base via The Daily What)

One of yesterday's best gags. I know a number of people, including some without children, who would buy this. (ThinkGeek via Cult of Mac)

Couth Booth

Remember phone booths? Actually, depending on your age, maybe you don't: they were small box-like chambers made of glass and metal (or, even further back, wood) with a folding door. They had telephones inside that you used by depositing coins. There are still a few public pay phones around, but phone booths have largely disappeared.

I was thinking about this the other day, as I was stuck listening to one side of a deeply personal phone conversation about some very messy family issues* that, not very long ago, anyone with reasonable sense and dignity would have been much too embarrassed to conduct in a public place. (Side note: believe it or not, some people still don't have cell phones.)

The great thing about phone booths was that they enabled a modicum of privacy in public environments, so you didn't have to conduct your discussion of last night's booty call* or your most recent visit to your therapist* in full earshot of everyone around you.

So I humbly suggest: doesn't this seem like the perfect time to bring back phone booths? They don't even need to have phones in them, since everyone is already carrying a phone, so that would make them cheaper to build and install. Say you're walking down Boylston Street and your mother calls to ask how your pre-trial hearing* went. You could say, "Hold on a sec, Ma, I'm gonna step into this phone booth so I can tell you about it IN PRIVATE."

But of course, not everyone would be naturally inclined to do this, since it seems that many people have forgotten what "in private" means. Then how would people be encouraged to actually make use of them? I have an idea for that too: the phone companies could inhibit phone signals in most areas, but make them really strong inside the phone booths, making them the best spots to use cell phones.

But then we'd probably have to deal with people getting into fights over them.

And of course, this wouldn't solve the issue of having to listen to people have conversations while on the subway, either. Should the T enclose a couple of seats in each subway car?

(*All the examples I've cited above are actual, real conversations I have overheard in public places, including subway trains.)

In Perspective

I generally try to avoid getting all serious and, you know, real about stuff around here because, well, mainly because there are so many others who do it better than I ever could.

But of course all of us are concerned about the events taking place in Japan, and about what they could mean for us here in the US in terms of possible exposure to radiation. (It's selfish, but it's also justifiable.) With that in mind, one of my colleagues passed along a link to a very helpful graphic that nicely expresses a lot of information about radiation exposure.

Mad Men Update

Various entertainment sites are reporting that AMC has a deal with Lionsgate for season 5 of Mad Men, but that it won't air until 2012 (not a surprise at this point, given the length of the negotiations).

However, a deal for Matthew Weiner to continue as showrunner hasn't happened yet, and we all know that the show wouldn't be the show it is without him, so let's hope they can reach an agreement soon. Basket of Kisses says they will be speaking to Weiner tonight, so head over there for more.

Day Tripping

The Proper Bostonian and I had a fun time in New York on Friday, even though we were only there for about six hours and it was kind of cold and windy. When I went alone a year ago December, I took Megabus, but this time we took BoltBus. Both are fine, and the longer before traveling you can purchase your ticket, the better the fare.

I found the seats in the Bolt buses less welcoming; the shape of the bottom cushion and the imitation leather surface made it difficult for me to find the a comfortable seating position. Also, the Bolt buses make a rest stop about halfway between Boston and New York, which adds 15 minutes to the trip. Megabus used to leave from Back Bay Station, which would have been more convenient for both of us, but now they leave out of South Station along with Bolt, as well as the Fung Wah and Lucky Star buses.

After we'd made plans to go on Friday, I learned about a J. Press warehouse sale taking place last Thursday and Friday, only a few blocks from where the bus would let us out, so I figured it was worth a look. Neither of us ended up buying anything there, but I could have: there were some very nice, American-made suits in my size, and everything was 70% off the original tagged price. Selection was hit and miss; the PB found a suit she and her husband had seen a few months back in the Cambridge store, but not in his size. They have sales like this a couple of times a year, and unlike some of these events, this one had some seriously good deals. I think the thing to do in this case, if you plan to attend one in the future, is to be there as soon as it starts on the first day for the best selection.

Our wanderings took us down to the Flatiron area for lunch at Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop, then along 23rd Street to the second location of the Doughnut Plant on the ground floor of the Chelsea Hotel. (Yum.) We then stopped at Fishs Eddy and ABC Home, where The Conran Shop now occupies the lower level. I have fond memories of the old Conran's stores (somewhat like Crate & Barrel) that used to be on Exeter Street at Newbury (the site of the Exeter Street Theatre and later Waterstone's bookstore) and in the Porter Exchange building in Cambridge, so I was pleased to check out its new incarnation. (The store had been at a different location in New York, but I never made it there.)

Heading toward Soho for the obligatory visit to Uniqlo (maybe one of these days they'll start selling online here in the US), by pure coincidence we happened to pass the site of the Triangle factory fire, which occurred 100 years ago Friday. I'd been reading the coverage in the New York Times leading up to the centennial, but hadn't expected to pass by the building itself, and definitely hadn't expected to witness a memorial ceremony taking place on the sidewalk. (If you're interested in learning more about this terrible, tragic incident, which is considered one of the key events in the history of the American labor movement and the development of workplace safety regulations, this book is a good starting point.)

After visiting Uniqlo and a couple of other stores, we walked over to St. Patrick's Old Cathedral on Mott Street (now designated a basilica by the archdiocese of New York) to light candles, then we had to hurry back to catch the bus home.

This Week in Awesome (3/26/11)

My sources this week may not be especially broad, but the material's good...

These two go together: people who hold up either a record album cover or a book cover and have styled themselves so they blend in with what's depicted on the cover. Hard to explain, but easy to understand if you just hit those links. (The Hairpin)

Photos of stuff found on the street. (The Hairpin)

You've probably heard about some artist's great album that never got released for some reason. Here's a list of 10 of them (each on a separate page, unfortunately). (Flavorwire) As a follow-up, The Awl discusses a few more (satirically).

Friday Away

By the time this has auto-posted on Friday morning, the Proper Bostonian and I will be rolling along the turnpike (courtesy of BoltBus) on our way to New York for a brief (same-day return) shopping excursion. It was her idea, but I don't need much convincing, especially when the words "shopping" and "New York" are used in the same sentence. More later...

Short-Sighted

It's kind of early in the year to be talking about this, but the fashion designer Tom Ford says men "should never wear shorts in the city." I understand where he's coming from, but I find this rather unrealistic. But then again, Mr. Ford's version of reality is likely vastly different from mine.

(the following is more or less paraphrased from a comment I posted on The Awl's story on this)

I can appreciate Mr. Ford's intent—after all, he's a designer, of course he wants to see men dress better—but somehow I suspect he doesn't spend many 90+ degree July days walking around in Manhattan (or Boston or any other city) or riding public transit there. I imagine his summers are spent largely in the Hamptons or in Europe, lounging on beaches, and when he does have to return to the city for work, he's driven around by a car service and only has to walk from the door of his home to the car to the door of his office building. If that was my life, I'd probably wear long pants in summer too.

What America Needs?

Lewis Black hadn't done a "Back in Black" segment on The Daily Show in over a month, but last night's bit about one of the potential 2012 presidential candidates was hilarious:

The Daily Show - Back in Black - Trump 2012
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

News of the Mad

It's been a while since I've mentioned Mad Men here, but FYI: the DVD and Blu-Ray sets for season four of Mad Men release one week from today, so you can still place a preorder if you're so inclined, or just buy it from a B&M store next week.

You may not have heard, but AMC is still negotiating a deal for the show's fifth season with its creator, Matthew Weiner, and production company. The latest reports say a two-year deal is close to being finalized, but they've been working on it for a couple of months now. What this means to you and me and other fans of the show is that it's very unlikely it will be back in production in time to air in its typical late-summer/fall time frame, so you should prepare for a longer wait for its return.

Tech Schlubs

My attention was directed to this piece on the New York Times site (go read it now, while you can still do it for free) about the sartorial habits of tech entrepreneurs. Disturbing, to say the least. We all know that engineers and programmers and developers generally don't care much about how they look (I worked with a group of guys who proved this every day), but the implication of this article is that Silicon Valley types seem to think that T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers are how they need to dress in order to capture venture capital funding.

Allow me to quote directly from the article: “It seems that if you dress up too much, you run the risk of not being taken seriously,” said Erica Zidel, a Seattle-based Web entrepreneur who attended Harvard around the same time as Mr. Zuckerberg. “There is an unspoken rule in entrepreneurial culture that your look should be laid back.”

That notion is really disturbing. Of course I believe that what a person is capable of is more important than how that person dresses, but business attire represents a sense of respect for the process. I don't like the idea that someone might view a person dressed in a suit and grown-up dress shoes as trying too hard. I guess this is one more reason I'm not a tech entrepreneur.

(This also begs the question: what do the VC's wear?)

Nonetheless, I hope that there are entrepreneurs who are willing to challenge this mindset and dress well because they like to dress well.

This Week in Awesome (3/19/11)

All right, the work obligation has been met, sleep has been obtained, the coffee and leftover pizza has been consumed—what are we waiting for?

My love of die-cast cars goes back all the way to my early childhood, when my parents used to get me Matchbox cars (when they were still made in England) in the little yellow cardboard boxes from a local drugstore, and some of the first generation (1968, I believe) of Hot Wheels. Sadly, my mother sold them all off at various yard sales after I'd left for college, so whenever I see things like this I'm both nostalgic and envious. (Telstar Logistics)

This couple hilariously recreates poses from romance novel cover illustrations. (Oli + Alex via The Hairpin)

From the "more awful than awesome" file, here's a little game for you: start watching this informative, helpful video from Phoenix, AZ lingerie store Mr. Bra. See how long you can go before you (a) feel nauseated; (b) close the tab; or (c) google the number for the Phoenix police department. (The Hairpin via Reddit)

And finally this week, to cleanse your visual and mental palate from the above, Jimmy Kimmel has branched out from late-night host to fitness guru. Here's his first workout, and here's his diet plan.

Stuff to Read (About the Media)

So, I've been working toward the monthly deadline this week, hence the silence today. I don't expect I'll be all that available tomorrow either, so I'm going to suggest a few pieces of reading material to fill the void. (There is kind of a theme here, thought it happened coincidentally.)

The New York Times ran a page-one Critic's Notebook piece yesterday about the growing prevalence of vulgarities in pop music. It might have been a bit more intriguing if the author, Times music critic Jon Pareles, had turned his pen on himself, so to speak, and assayed the connection between the existence of stories like this and the decline of mainstream media (because prudish newspapers won't print naughty words, see?), but it's still worth a few minutes of your time.

Over at Jalopnik there's some worthy coverage regarding The Detroit News's decision to edit the online version of a car review in response to alleged complaints by an advertiser, and the author's subsequent decision to resign.

And in a similar vein, The Awl wrote about some internecine wrangling between AOL cousins TechCrunch and Moviefone. (You'll want to follow the links in that one to get the whole story.)

A Stop Too Far

On my way home last night, the Orange Line train I was on came out of the tunnel after North Station and stopped at Community College station. I was standing in front of a woman who stood up suddenly, so I moved aside, but instead of heading for the door, she craned her neck to look over the other passengers and out the window of the train (she was rather short).

She turned to her left and addressed a woman standing next to me: "Did I miss North Station?" The other woman tried very hard not to smirk and replied, "I'm afraid so." The first woman had been asleep and was trying to figure out how far out of her way she'd gone. She quickly exited the train, probably grateful not to have found herself all the way out at Wellington or Oak Grove.

Adjustments Required

I got the message from Costco yesterday that my glasses were ready. It was sooner than expected; I'd been told seven to 10 business days, and yesterday was the sixth business day, and they had to be sent to the Pacific Northwest and back, so that's a pretty fast turnaround.

I'm pretty excited about these glasses, so of course I went to pick them up last night. No problems with the lenses, but the frames had been altered. Specifically, the temples were bowed outward and then bent back in again toward the back, making them too wide for my head. (They were quite straight when I got them, and fit my head the way I wanted.) I also believe (though I can't say with complete certainty) that the edges of the frame, where the temples meet at the hinges, had been filed down slightly to allow the hinges to open wider, causing the temples to angle outward more before the shaping. I had to have the optician bend the ends in more, and after a couple of tries she got them so they held my head snugly enough.

For someone with a hat size bordering on extra large, my head is kind of narrow from side to side, which is one reason I appreciate eyeglass frames that are offered in a variety of sizes. And I understand the difficulty of making glasses for someone when the lab is thousands of miles away from where the person who will be wearing them is, but I've done this a few times now (had glasses made through an online store, or otherwise in a place far away) and I've never seen frame temples shaped like this.

It seems like a much more sensible approach would be to leave the final shaping and adjustments to be done when the customer receives the glasses. If Costco feels this isn't a feasible option (there was only one person on duty at the optical counter last night, so I can see where this sort of adjustment might not always be possible to do quickly), then offer that information up front and let me decide if/how I want to proceed, such as giving specific instructions not to make any changes to the shape of the frame, or taking them to another optical shop and offering to pay for adjustments.

This issue aside, the lenses were done correctly, and were completed more quickly than I expected.

Now, in last week's post about these glasses, I meant to talk about why I was getting another pair after a little more than a year. So let's make this visual. Old frames (image borrowed from DreamShades):

And new frames (image borrowed from the eBay listing of the frames I purchased):

Before the black frames, I used to wear gray metal-framed glasses that kind of disappeared into my face. This wasn't intentional, but at some point I realized that I wanted my glasses to make more of a statement. Glasses that do this and are a more essential part of one's overall style tend to have a bolder frame, which is what led me to the Ray-Bans.

But ultimately I decided that they were a bit too hipster for me, and I also think they make more sense for a younger person. Given my age, personality, style of dress, and the image of myself that I want to present to the world, the round glasses in the tortoise color are a better fit. The black glasses were also too wide for my head, which is a function of them being available in only two sizes. The tortoise Anglo American 406's are available in four sizes, and these are the second-smallest. And finally, I hated the little Ray-Ban logos on the temples.

So, that should be the last I have to say about glasses for a while. If you like these frames and think you might want some for yourself, may I again suggest you visit Optometrist Attic, where they (and other classic and retro styles of eyewear) are available in a variety of colors and sizes.

Sold

I'm pleased that I was successful in selling the two Seiko watches I posted on Style Forum a couple of weeks ago, and also pleased that both purchasers were happy with the watches. The money has been specifically earmarked to go toward my credit card balance, which was the reason for wanting to sell stuff in the first place.

The nice thing about the forum is that there is a built-in audience. People are members because they are interested in certain things, and the fact that there is no cost to sell is an added bonus. If you post something for sale on eBay, you know that a lot of people will see it, but you also know that you are going to pay a fee if it sells, and the higher the selling price, the higher eBay's cut (as a percentage of the sale price).

On the forum, you can start at what you believe is a fair price, and odds are you will have to lower it after a few days, and generally sellers include shipping in the selling price, but I think that overall there is a higher likelihood of being able to sell items on the forum at prices that make both seller and buyer happy. Heartened by the watch sales, I'm next going to attempt to sell some outerwear.

This Week in Awesome (3/12/11)

I'm gonna blame the hour change for forgetting to do this yesterday, and leave it at that...

I overlooked this last week: a joke liveblog of the iPad 2 announcement. (The Awl)

A roundup of dumb warning labels is always good for a chuckle or two. (Forbes via Consumerist)

This site loves its retro, which makes it worth a look.

And finally this week, in the interest of expanding our cultural knowledge, The UK explained.

Weekend Reading: The Grand Illusion

As we head into the weekend (which is going to be pretty decent around here), have a look at this interesting article over at Time discussing research about how parents idealize parenting in order to compensate for the emotional burden it creates.

As someone who has chosen not to have children, I find this sort of thing interesting. I try to avoid judging or disparaging the choices others make. I think those who want to be parents are to be commended, but I also think that too many people end up as parents for the wrong reasons, or without a serious and thorough consideration of all the ramifications.

English Boots (Almost)

Last week I saw this post on Put This On, about these English-made Chelsea boots that were on sale at Brooks Brothers for half off the original price, with a code for another 15% off because they were in the clearance section. The final price was $224, around 60% off the original price.

The idea of a pair of made-in-England shoes at such an appealing price was very tempting. I added a pair to the shopping cart, pondered it for 30 minutes or so, then bought them, knowing that I could return them to the Brooks Brothers store if they didn't fit.

During the pondering period, I thought about the fact that they were only available in standard (medium) width, which, depending on the shoe, frequently doesn't work for me. I decided to compensate by going up a half-size, which sometimes works.

The shoes arrived on Tuesday, and they were quite beautiful. The leather was soft and lustrous; the heels had a couple dozen small copper nails in neat rows. English shoes tend to have tapered, somewhat pointy toes, and these did, which worried me. But I put them on and found that they felt roomier than they looked like they were going to be. The half-size up seemed to give me enough room up front, but I was concerned about their appearance.

They seemed too dressy to be casual, yet too casual to be dressy. I thought about the situations when I would be most likely to wear them, and the clothes I would be likely to wear in those situations. I wondered how much wear I would really get out of them. I looked down at my feet and thought that the boots looked bad with the dark jeans I was wearing that day.

Ultimately I decided that there was no need for me to spend $225 on shoes of questionable usefulness. If I could buy a pair of Alden plain-toe bluchers for that price, I'd have no hesitation about keeping them because I know I'd wear them all the time, and aesthetically I think I prefer the rounded, slightly blunt shape of that sort of American shoe anyway. The boots were returned to the store.

(By the way, if you're interested in this style of boot, I did find an American-made Chelsea boot for around the same price; the brand is Neil M and the style name is Portland. But I'm not going to buy them either.)

Business Attire

Because of my interest in clothing and style, I tend to notice what other people are wearing. There are seven other males who work in my office, and I realized that they all dress rather plainly. All of them are at least my age and most are older than me, so that may be a contributing factor, but it's unfortunate that more men don't take more of an interest in their clothing and appearance.

I realize that many people have more important things on their minds, and it's not that any of my coworkers dress poorly, it's just that there seems to be a lack of imagination. The thing that strikes me the most is the overwhelming dominance of solids and the general absence of color overall. I rarely see even a striped shirt among them, and there are other, less fortunate choices, like yellow dress shirts and half-zip sweaters.

Sure, I wear solid polo shirts in the summer, but I tend to prefer them in brighter colors, and equally as often I'm wearing a striped or plaid button-front shirt. I've always preferred patterned shirts, particularly stripes. I just find them more visually interesting, and I know the ladies in the office notice, because I've received compliments from them. That's not my goal, but who doesn't like being told "that's a really nice shirt"?

The Virtual Funnies Pages

Just over a year ago I gave up home delivery of the Boston Globe, due to the elimination of the super-cheap add-on rate I got as a New York Times subscriber. But at that point the only reason I was really getting the Globe was to read the comics, so I reasoned that I could do that online.

I do that now, but it's not quite as easy as you might think. Only a fraction of the comics that run daily in the Globe are available on boston.com's comics page, so I was left to seek out the ones I wanted to read elsewhere.

Most comic strips are distributed to newspapers through syndicating services, so those are the sites you want to visit. They are overloaded with ads and slow to load, but they get the job done.

I now read 15 comics daily, and to do so I need to visit three sites: GoComics, comics.com, and Comics Kingdom, which is sort of a portal template that papers can use to customize a comics page; somehow I ended up using the one that belongs to the Portland Oregonian, but you can also access it via the San Francisco Chronicle or the New Orleans Times-Picayune (quite possibly the greatest newspaper name ever).

The Next Pair

I finally made it to Costco over the weekend to visit the optical counter and see about getting lenses put in my new frames. I have a very strong prescription, so having it made into high-index lenses (which are noticeably thinner than traditional polycarbonate lenses) sometimes costs a little more (sometimes it costs a lot more, depending on where the glasses are being made).

The Costco price for the lenses is $110, which is extremely reasonable. They also charged $18 because I was bringing them a frame from elsewhere. I understand why they do this, and I don't find it excessive. The turnaround is 7 to 10 business days, because the frames need to be sent to their lab in Washington state, where Costco is headquartered.

I asked if the company has its own lab, and the person assisting me gave me the rundown: the lab makes glasses for all the Costco optical locations in the US, and only for them. She told me it's the size of a Costco warehouse building, but two stories, and they make 5,000 pairs of glasses a day. (I meant to ask how they get the lenses into plastic frames, since they don't screw together like metal frames do, but I guess I can do that when I go back to pick them up.)

I'd also like to mention that the person who helped me was polite, friendly, and knowledgeable. In fact, I've never encountered anyone working at Costco who wasn't all those things.

This Week in Awesome (3/5/11)

Quite a decent weekend we're having, feels like winter is over (or at least close to over). The melting has progressed to the point that yesterday was the first day I could walk from our house to the bus stop without having to walk at least some part of the way in the street. Meanwhile, back on the internet...

I was reluctant to bring attention to anything related to Charlie Sheen, but this meme of New Yorker cartoons captioned with quotes from his interviews felt suitably removed from the fray. (BuzzFeed via The Hairpin)

This video serves as a cautionary tale, but the more significant question remains unanswered: how did the truck get there in the first place? Given the outcome, maybe it's best we don't find out. (StreetFire via Autoblog)

There's a good chance those of you on facebook have already seen this, so I offer it as a public service for the rest of us. (The Daily What; actual origin point unknown)

And finally this week, a clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live that affirms Tom Hanks's status as one of the greatest people ever, regardless of what you think of his acting. (TV Guide)

The Switch

My mother pointed out to me that Daylight Savings Time begins a week from tomorrow. I understand why the government changed the yearly start and end points several years back, but I don't like it.

I miss the gradual lengthening of the days we used to experience during March, before the hour jumped ahead in early April. Now it's getting dark just before six, and CLICK! it's shoved ahead an hour.

It also means it will go back to being dark when I get up for a few more weeks, which bothers me more than darkness when I leave work (which seems to bother more people). And the first week, when I'm adjusting to the change, usually frazzles my brain pretty badly.

And this all makes me wonder why we don't just switch to permanent DST. At this point we're already on it for two-thirds of the year. I'm sure there's DST info out on the web, but I haven't had a chance to look.

(TWiA will arrive later today.)

The Show Is Free

On both my morning and evening subway rides today, the other riders and I were treated to some bonus entertainment:

As I was getting on the Green Line at North Station, a commotion erupted behind me. Two women got into an argument about being pushed; it seemed like each was accusing the other of pushing her. It had happened just as I'd turned my back to sit down, so I didn't know who was right or wrong. Interestingly, they both went toward the front of the car, where they continued their argument. (I would have expected them to go in opposite directions so as to avoid one another.) I could not see them, but I heard another voice intervene and get them to stop shouting at each other, and that was that.

On the way home, I got on the Orange Line at North Station and came face to face with what I first took to be two drunk locals. After a few moments it became clear that it was one drunk local and his friend, who was in another category altogether. It was more like he was bipolar and in the midst of a manic episode. He was talking continuously, and though not all of it made sense, some of it gave me the impression that he was fairly bright.

Since the train was crowded I had no choice but to stand near them, so I turned to face the other way. They were silent, but after a few moments, I felt a finger touch the back of my hat. I turned around to look at them, and the drunk one pointed at the manic one, who grinned and shrugged. I gave him a glare, removed my hat, and turned back around. They had a laugh at my expense, and the manic guy went back to his babbling.

But this was the best part: drunk guy happened to use the word "asshole." Manic guy said, "Hey, watch your language: there are kids on this train." (I'm not sure if that was true, but it's likely there was at least one.) And then he added, "I manage to say all my crazy stuff without swearing." Well said, dude. But seriously, don't be touching me like that. Not cool.

Made in America

You all know I feel strongly about buying American-made stuff when it's realistically feasible. ABC News is doing a series all week on this subject, and it's worth watching.

The Tuck Rule Revisited

Gentlemen of greater Boston: I'm seeing way too many of you walking around with your pants tucked into your boots. DO NOT DO THIS, regardless of what you may have seen on fashion-show runways or in GQ.

Because—think about it, and I really shouldn't have to point this out—you are not on a runway, you're on the subway. Okay? You look like you're five and your mom has just dressed you and sent you out to play in the snow.

You want to roll up your pants so we can all see how stylish your boots are? I'm not personally down with that look, but it's definitely the lesser of these two evils.