This Week in Awesome (6/4/11)

Yesterday we took the dog for her annual vet visit, got haircuts, did some other errands, and otherwise just enjoyed a beautiful day. Regarding other diversions...

What's that? You say you never get tired of those New York time-lapse videos? Wow, what a coincidence—me neither. This one happens to have a lot of night shots, which is a bit different from ones I've posted before. I'd love to post something similar for Boston or other cities, so if any of you come across such, let me know. (Gawker)

Those of you of at least a certain age will have memories, fond or otherwise, of the "cassingle," a retail music product with a relatively brief history. (Digital Music News via The Awl)

Pictures of cool people being cool. (The GQ Eye)

And finally this week, a cute little computer-animated short that's worth two minutes of your time. (Daily What via b3ta)

Recommended Viewing: Party Down

We just finished watching the too-short run of this unappreciated comedy, which ran for two seasons on Starz (which one could argue is part of the reason so few people saw it). It's about a group of cater waiters in LA who are (mostly) trying to make it in show business.

It's really funny, there are only 20 episodes total, and it's available to stream on Netflix, so you could probably knock off the whole thing in a weekend (if you didn't have any other plans) or a few nights at a more modest pace.

Pizza Face

The Daily Show does it yet again. You have to watch this. Really, you have to, 'cause there's gonna be a quiz. Okay, not really. Just watch the damn thing:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Me Lover's Pizza With Crazy Broad
www.thedailyshow.com

Diving for Boxes

Online shoe shopping is possibly one of the greatest benefits of the rise of e-commerce over the past 15 years or so. (I do miss the full-service, multi-brand shoe stores of my youth, but that's a post for another time.) Sites like Zappos and Endless have far more variety than you could ever hope to find in a single store anywhere, and you typically receive your shoes within a day or two of ordering them.

(If you have VIP status at Zappos, you get permanent free overnight shipping. (They used to offer this to everyone all the time, but cut back a few years ago.) They offer VIP signup days now and then, or you can go to vip.zappos.com and get on the "waiting list." However, knowing what sort of company they are and the emphasis they place on service, I think that if you just called their customer-service number and asked, they would give you VIP status. YMMV.)

The flip side of this convenience is that you don't always know what size you should order, especially if it's a brand you are not familiar with or one that isn't readily available in local stores. With many brands of shoes I'm kind of between sizes, so the right size might depend on whether or not I plan on wearing the shoes with socks, or whether or not the shoes are available in wide widths. I frequently have to order two pairs of the same style to find the right size (which is where shopping in a store can be easier).

It's not really a big deal since most shoe sites offer free returns for this very reason—just pack 'em back up and drop off the box at the nearest UPS Store. But what happens when you order two pairs of shoes and then need to return one of them? It's not always practical to send that pair back in the larger box that arrived containing two pairs. Sometimes it can be extremely awkward. In the past couple of weeks I've had to deal with this situation twice.

Now, I tend to hold onto the boxes I receive stuff in. I have the space (in the basement), I sometimes need boxes for those times when I sell things on eBay or Style Forum, and I have some pack-rat tendencies to begin with, so I grabbed a tape measure and headed down to the basement. One box was easy, but the other was a problem. Plus, since the shoes were from separate orders from two different online stores, they could not go in the same box.

I had ordered some red canvas "tennis shoes" from SeaVees, a newish revival of an old brand that's been producing some really nice retro-looking styles in the past couple of years. Since I ordered two different sizes, and the shoe boxes SeaVees uses are somewhat larger than normal, the box Zappos shipped them in was fairly gigantic—it could easily hold five or six "normal" shoe boxes. When the UPS guy appeared at my cubicle the other day holding the box, I though he had me mixed up with someone else in the office.

I couldn't realistically send back the other pair in the huge box, but I also couldn't find a box in my basement stash that would fit the oversize box. The shoes were still at the office, and we do sometimes have empty boxes around there, so I went back to work the next day hoping I could find something suitable. Eventually, in the copier room, I found a box that had contained copies of one of our publications. It was a couple of inches longer and wider than the shoe box, and tall enough. I also found a large quantity of bubble wrap that I used to fill the extra space.

So now it seems I may need to start hoarding boxes at work, too.

Wednesday Bonus Awesomeness, Sports Edition

I can't claim to be a big hockey fan, but this is all kinds of awesome. (Kristen Kmetetz via Unviersal Hub)

Go Bruins!

A Suggestion for the MBTA

The "train is approaching/arriving" messages we hear on the PA system in the stations are genuinely helpful. However, they are preceded by a tone meant, presumably, to get your attention: "Hey, commuters! Here comes an announcement you're going to want to listen to."

The only problem is that the T uses the same tone before its public-service announcements, thereby getting all of us psyched that the train's arrival is imminent, only to be disappointed by the 3,000th airing of the "see something, say something" advisory.

My idea is for a different sort of tone, perhaps something like a two-note doorbell sound, so we commuters know that the forthcoming announcement does not involve train-arrival information. Just a thought..

Oversize Load

Our long weekend has been split between having fun and getting things done around the house. In the fun department, we saw Bridesmaids last night, and I recommend it highly. Not only is it really funny, but it's also a very honest and realistic story. On Saturday we went to see England's Propeller Theatre Company performance of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors at the Huntington (thanks again, Lisa!), which was all-around excellent.

In the housekeeping department, I'm almost caught up on my laundry, plus I've finished rotating my seasonal clothing into and out of storage. But in the process I did something stupid, and learned a lesson. I have a rolling garment rack in the basement that I use for storing items of clothing that I don't use often. I throw a sheet over it, so it's almost like a pop-up closet. Actually, I already have two of those in the basement; originally I bought this rack to hang drying things, but it morphed into additional storage.

Last year I hung some flannel shirts on the rack, then took them back upstairs when it got cold. Yesterday I took the flannel shirts downstairs and put them on the rack again, and it broke and everything fell onto the concrete basement floor. The rack has a height adjustment at either end, and I suspect it had gotten loose, and then the shirts were too much weight for it. (In between last year and this year I'd added a couple of fairly heavy coats to the rack.)

Amazingly, I was able to balance the cross rod on the remaining portions of the upright poles; the plastic broke in such a way that the pieces left behind are concave, and so they hold the rod in place. This will have to do temporarily until I can replace the rack, but at least the shirts and coats aren't on the dirty floor.

I knew there was a weight limit for this rack, but I never bothered to learn what it was. I'm going to invest in a larger, heavier-duty, all-metal rack with a higher weight limit, so I don't have to worry about this sort of thing again.

This Week in Awesome (5/28/11)

I hope you're enjoying the weekend. The air conditioners went in on Friday, which we think is the earliest we've ever had to install them. Since (hopefully) most of you have an extra day off, this week there's an extra-large batch:

Justin Timberlake hosted the season finale of Saturday Night Live, and in the tradition of "Dick in a Box" and "Motherlover," the Digital Short, featuring the show's musical guest Lady Gaga, was "3-Way (The Golden Rule)."

boston.com has featured their "best doughnut shops in greater Boston" list several times over the past couple of months (including this morning). It's either a ploy to get every local blogger to link to it, or part of a secret plot to fatten all of us up for the impending alien invasion.

Related, sort of: a tumblr collection of out-of-shape celebs. (Thrillist)

What does $1 million in cash look like? (Cockeyed via Consumerist)

Many, many people were hoping this vintage ad was real, but it seems it's a rather elaborate fake. (BoingBoing via Put This On)

And finally this week, Amy Poehler gave a great speech at Harvard's pre-commencement Class Day ceremonies, reminding us again why she is the essence of awesome. (Harvard magazine via Jezebel)

Welcome Back, Stan

Six or seven years ago, I was something of a sneaker fanatic. My overall style was somewhat different back then, and I was always on the lookout for retro styles in special colorways. These ended up being mostly adidas, and I bought most of them on eBay, with a few from other online stores like Classic Sport Shoes.

After a while my sneakerism waned, and I sold several pairs, but I held onto a few. One shoe I've liked and worn for a long time is the adidas Stan Smith. Named after a tennis player, it's one of the most popular and longest-running athletic shoe styles. It's about as plain and simple as a sneaker can get, which is a big reason it appeals to me.

The last time I had a pair of Stans was about three years ago, when I bought a limited-edition version that was made to look just like the shoe when it first went on sale over 40 years ago. I liked that the heel tab was suede instead of leather, and that there was nothing on it—no logo, no branding of any kind. I wore them to work during the summer, but unfortunately the leather had a sort of semi-gloss finish, and the tongues slid off to the sides when I wore them. I ended up selling them on eBay a year or so later.

The original version of the shoe was white with a bright green ("fairway") heel tab, and the Stan is always available in this color, as is one with a navy blue heel tab. If you really want to fly below the radar, logo-wise, you can usually find all-black without looking too hard, and there's an all-white version too. I always thought the shoes would look great with red heel tabs, but I could never recall adidas making one. Then it appeared last fall, along with royal blue (another very logical trim color).

I didn't buy them right away. I'm not sure why. I think I was trying to convince myself that I didn't need them, but I knew that I would get them eventually so it seems silly now. A couple of months ago I noticed that the red variant was 20% off at Zappos, so I put them into my cart and saved them for later. But when I went back for them recently, they were gone—all sizes of that color had sold out.

Of course, these days it's almost always possible to find something you want, so it didn't take long before I found a few sizes of the red-trim Stans left at shoes.com. They sometimes have odd pricing on shoes—you'll see something marked at 5% off its original price like it's a big deal. But then they have sales with another 25% off "all sale shoes," which was the case with these, so they worked out to around 30% off the original price.

These will be going into the summer rotation with my boat shoes, with some leather Pumas I've had for a few years, and with a couple of pairs of canvas sneakers. One odd thing: there are no lace stays on the tongues, something that older versions definitely had. I hope these don't give me problems like the others, or I may end up DIYing it and cutting slits in the tongues.

Shop (Sorta) Locally

The style/responsible consumerism site Well Spent has an interesting interview with the proprietor of WHARF Clothing & Wares, a Rhode Island store (with online shopping) that's about to move to a new location in "downcity" Providence. Good luck to him, and I look forward to visiting the store soon. I really want to check out the house-brand shirts, which are made right down in Fall River.

Watch Wednesday (5/25/11)

It's been three months since I bought a watch, which I consider reasonably restrained behavior. If this one looks familiar to you, it's because I mentioned it about six months ago as something I was hoping to find for less than its full retail price.

The timing of finding this watch was good, since my 20-year-old, beat-up, $20 Carriage (Timex) military-style J. Crew lookalike stopped working recently. Well, it's still ticking, but the hands only move once in a while, so it's no longer usable. I'm not willing to pay $150 for a Timex just because J. Crew sells it, and they are on the small side for my wrist anyway. I'd seen this watch in Nordstrom last year and and could tell it was bigger, but I also felt $100 was a bit high for it.

Timex offers this Originals watch with either a green canvas strap or a Speidel-style metal expansion band. I didn't love either one, but I could live with the canvas one. When I was searching for the watch on eBay, I was only looking for the strap version. I'd forgotten that the two different strap styles meant two different model numbers, but somehow I got reminded of that a couple of weeks ago, and sure enough, there was one for sale with the expansion bracelet, new with the original box, for a starting bid of $50, which turned out to be the (my) winning bid.

At 38 mm the size on this is just right, and it's just a nice, simple, really good-looking piece. I prefer the look of this watch to the J. Crew version: while the lugs are similarly shaped, this one's dial is less crowded-looking (because it's bigger), it has a date window, and the red blocks at the hour positions go nicely with the red second hand and add a little extra punch to the dial. One odd thing: even though the dial has Indiglo lighting, the numerals still glow, which is fine, except there's no luminous on the hands, so you kind of need the light anyway.

The tan leather strap was on the other Timex, but until this watch arrived I didn't know if the strap would fit. The color is just right, I think. I also have one of the one-piece straps that J. Crew sells for its watches, olive with a red stripe down the middle, and I suspect that will find its way onto this watch for the warmer months.

AC on the Bus...

(to the tune of The Replacements' "Kiss Me on the Bus")

Summer's here, I guess.

Fall TV 2011: Make Me Watch

It's been a week or so since the networks started their annual spring ritual of introducing the new shows that they hope people will be watching and talking about come fall. I've had time to watch clips from all some of them, so I can now offer you my admittedly biased, but still fairly TV-knowledgeable, thoughts.

I'm no longer surprised by cancellations; most shows fail, it's just the nature of the business. But I was disappointed that Fox decided not to renew The Chicago Code, because I felt it had finally found its footing and was poised to stretch out and fulfill the expectations that surrounded its arrival. (Update: Show creator Shawn Ryan is talking to other networks and cable channels, so there's an ultra-slim chance the show might find a second life elsewhere.)

Most of last season's freshman class didn't survive, and nothing that did could be considered a breakout hit, so the networks have gone back and reloaded with a new, if not exactly fresh, batch that they really, really hope will catch on.

One thing is clear: the singing, dancing, and weight-losing isn't going anywhere, at least for the foreseeable. The positive side of this is that if, like me, you have no interest in any of it, then that's eight or nine hours of network programming each week that you don't have to be concerned with.

Similarly, there are several new shows that involve or invoke fairy tales, fantasy stuff, or supernatural elements, also highly skippable. One huge gamble appears to be Fox's Terra Nova, about a group of people who manage to travel back in time to a prehistoric era. It's going to be loaded with special effects like computer-generated dinosaurs, and therefore is going to be a very complicated, very expensive show to produce. Fox has a lot riding on this, but my gut is telling me it's going to be a huge flop. We'll see.

Lots of new comedies: eleven are starting in the fall, and several more are planned for next winter and spring. NBC has a solid lineup on Thursdays (even if it doesn't draw the kind of ratings numbers NBC used to), and ABC has established a similarly successful block on Wednesdays, so now both of those networks are looking, logically, to expand their comedy footprints to other weeknights, with two from ABC on Tuesdays and two from NBC on Wednesdays. Some of these look okay, given that any new sitcom is rehashing one of a few by-now familiar scenarios; typically a sitcom will succeed or fail based on the quality of the writing and the appeal of the cast.

In network nods to Mad Men, both NBC and ABC are serving up 1960s-set shows, but that's about as far as the similarities go. NBC's entry is set in the Chicago Playboy Club and has organized-crime elements, while ABC is going with Pan Am stewardesses and pilots, which looks to be the soapier of the two. If you enjoy watching shows like this mainly for the sets and costumes, you'll probably be satisfied, but if you're looking for drama with the weight of Mad Men, I suspect you'll be disappointed.

There are a couple of dramas that have my interest. NBC has finally realized that people miss having a serious show to tune into on Thursdays after the comedy block (see also: two decades plus of success with Hill Street Blues, LA Law, ER), and they are attempting to resolve the situation with an American take on Prime Suspect. It seems like a foolish, even terrible idea, but the production team includes the guy behind Friday Night Lights, as well as one of the writer/producers of the original British series, and they've cast Maria Bello in the lead role, who seems spot-on as the right choice.

For something in the vein of a crime procedural but a bit less traditional, CBS has yet another offering with J.J. Abrams's involvement (he's also producing a show on Fox that will be arriving at some point midseason) called Person of Interest. It's about a billionaire (played by Lost's Michael Emerson) who has (presumably illegal) access to information about people who are about to commit crimes, and he employs a former Special Forces operative (Jim Caviezel) to stop them. A bit over the top, perhaps, but also sort of a nostalgic nod to The Equalizer. On board as a producer is Jonathan Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplays for The Prestige and The Dark Knight.

The CW? Still nothing to see here, at least for grown-ups. I did watch the first few episodes of Nikita last fall, and while I think it's an entertaining "popcorn" show, the story demanded regular weekly viewing, and I just felt like I was already involved in too many other shows, but I'm glad it got renewed. Likewise, it's nice to see Sarah Michelle Gellar coming back to TV, but the plot of her new series Ringer seems too contrived and convoluted to draw me in as a regular viewer.

Overheard: Misplaced Priorities Edition

Saturday afternoon around 4 pm, "Filene's Basement" on Boylston Street, fiftyish couple apparently heading to that night's Red Sox game:

Wife: "Did you bring the iPad?"
Husband: "Why would I bring that to a baseball game?"
Wife: "I have stuff to do."

This Week in Awesome (5/21/11)

Less than an hour left before midnight, but I suppose it's still possible the world could end, which is why I had to make sure I got these posted...

A couple of these are even style-related: first, a guide to tying necktie knots. There are a lot more of them than I realized. (The GQ Eye)

Next, take a trip back through the pages of a (pre-Gap) Banana Republic catalog, when the safari aesthetic was still dominant. (Maximinimus via Put This On)

The Office season finale largely didn't work for me, but this cast photo in the likeness of a famous painting is pretty cool. (NBC via OfficeTally)

If you send this company a favorite photo (and give them some money) they will send it back to you in the form of an enlarged, paint-by-number project. Might make a nice gift for the right person. (New York Times)

And finally this week, the always-reliable Everything Is Terrible entertains us with some classic(ally bad) commercials: part 1; part 2.

Weekend Reading Assignment: About TV

New York Magazine does its annual television issue to coincide with the annual network dog-and-pony show known as upfront week. I'll have more to say about the networks' upcoming contenders in a bit (due to time constraints, I can't do it right this minute), but in the meantime if you are a fan of 30 Rock, Community, Breaking Bad, Grey's Anatomy, Parks and Recreation, The Good Wife, How I Met Your Mother, Justified, Cougar Town, or Sons of Anarchy, I recommend you have a look at these unabridged conversations with the shows' respective showrunners. A peek behind the scenes is always enlightening, and these conversations are far more in-depth than just a peek.

Also, the article about how AMC, the channel that gave us Mad Men and Breaking Bad, is handling its success, is really interesting.

Top Shelf III

I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you about the third semi-annual Top Shelf Flea Market happening this Sunday, May 22. Usual place, usual time, usual coordination and planning by the charming and personable Giuseppe of An Affordable Wardrobe.

And it's not just guy stuff; hit that link for info on all the vendors scheduled to be there, plus the address and other relevant into. And if you aren't from the area, or you are otherwise unable to attend, Giuseppe started up a web store a while back, which he stocks with fresh vintage merchandise pretty much weekly.

Data Blocker

So, yeah, deadline week again, but this time with a twist: first, when I got to work this morning, I got a pop-up reminder for an all-staff meeting that I'd completely forgotten about. We only have these a couple of times a year, so it's not like I can avoid going. It ate up over an hour of time I should have been spending on other stuff, but I managed to recover.

Then at 5:15, after spending the balance of the day in overdrive, I went to the browser interface we use for our database to start uploading newsletter articles. I'd used it for something else about half an hour previously, so the tab was still open. I clicked the "add new content" link and got "Service temporarily unavailable" in my browser window. I hadn't seen that before, ever.

I considered the situation: the databases talk to each other overnight, so the articles had to be in place by the end of today in order for them to be available on our web site tomorrow. The coworker who deals with issues like this, on the rare occasions when they arise, left on vacation yesterday. The support people for that particular piece of kit are in Malaysia, and I might have had their email address, from being CC'd on something two years ago, buried in my filed messages somewhere.

I decided to go home. I knew I could access the database from home, and fortunately whatever was going on had resolved itself by the time I looked at it. I'd copied my files onto a USB drive so I could just upload them from here. So everything's fine now. Let's hope it's still fine when I get to work tomorrow.

My New Favorite Shoes

Since winter loosened its grip and I was able to stop wearing boots every day, I've spent the past couple of months wearing and reevaluating many of my shoes. I have some that I kind of like, or that are at least useful when dressing a certain way, but they aren't very comfortable. I have shoes that are pretty comfortable that I don't otherwise like all that much. Many of these will be culled and either sold or donated.

In the meantime I've been trying to restock the shoe larder, so to speak, with shoes that are practical, good-looking, comfortable, and well-made. This is not easy, particularly with my problematic feet. But I did get a new pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago that are filling all these criteria.

One style of shoe I've been looking for is a tan lace-up that I could wear in warmer weather with light-colored pants. I considered light tan suede bucks, but I already have a pair of bucks in a darker khaki and I decided that I wanted something in leather, not suede. I didn't set out specifically to buy another pair of shoes that's made in the USA, but it's pretty much always in my mind at this point.

I ran across a shoe I liked from a company I'd never heard of, Neil M. In fact, it was a couple of months ago, when I bought those Chelsea boots from Brooks Brothers that I ended up returning, that I first became aware of the company. I was briefly considering getting another pair of similarly styled boots from a different maker, saw the Neil M version of a Chelsea boot while browsing Endless, and noticed that it was made in USA.

Besides Alden and Allen Edmonds, who else is still making shoes in the USA? You have the heritage boot brands: Red Wing, Wolverine, Chippewa, and let's toss Frye in with that group (as I suggested recently). Dexter's still around (along with other brands like Walk-Over that belong to the same parent company), and New Balance is still making some sneakers up in Maine (you can get one style from J. Crew, or custom-order some direct from NB in your preferred color combination and receive them in just a week or two). There are companies like Bates that make uniform shoes. Not much else, though.

Neil M is based in Arkansas and seems to have a connection to the women's brand Munro. Not all of their shoes are made in the USA, and not all their styles are ones I'd consider attractive. but that could be said of almost any shoe brand. I went back to Endless one day to look at some of their other styles, and found the "Wynne" lace-up that's available in four colors: black, oxblood, cognac, and "honey." The honey was just what I'd been looking for. I put them into my "save for later" basket, thinking I'd wait for a discount offer from Endless.

Then, just a day or so later, I happened to be browsing the "Tent Sale" section on the Orvis site. I saw a shoe that looked exactly like the Wynne, in the honey color. Tent Sale stuff gets marked down more every few days, and if you're lucky, when an item hits its deepest discount they'll still have your size. The day the shoes got their final discount, the size 11 had already sold out, but they still had 10.5, so I decided to order them. I was also concerned about width, but this style is pretty roomy, plus the toe box is fairly high, which goes a long way toward making shoes more hospitable for my feet. I ended up with a pair of $200 American-made shoes for $102 including shipping.

Neil M uses bison leather for this style, which I've heard is less costly than calfskin. It has a somewhat more pronounced grain than cow leather, but it's also very soft and supple. The shoes come with removable insoles that have leather top surfaces, and they have full welt construction so they can be resoled if necessary. They also came with cloth storage bags.

I've worn these shoes to work twice since I got them, plus on Mother's Day. I've done an average day's standing and walking, maybe a bit more than average one of those days, and I can honestly say these are probably the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn. I'm seriously considering getting them in another color. And even if I'd paid $200 for them, I'd be satisfied.

This Week in Awesome (5/14/11)

First order of business: the CD release show for our friends The Rationales is TONIGHT at the Lizard Lounge! Tix still available at the door (sez Dave Rationale), and here's a nice review of their album from the Boston Globe.

Here are the nominees for the best airborne police chase videos of last year. Who knew? And who does the nominating? A manufacturer of surveillance cameras, duh. (Jalopnik)

A DIY yard fountain made from kiddie pools. We like. (EPICponyz via The Hairpin)

Did you hear that In & Out Burger opened its first Texas location this week? The line for the drive-through stretched for half a mile at times. If you've had it yourself, you probably understand. (Consumerist) By the way, I happen to know a reader of this blog who lives only a few miles from this I&O, so I'll be expecting a report after it's been open a while and things calm down.

And finally, your weekend reading assignment: a very honest and thoughtful discussion between two writers on the difficulty of keeping up with new music as we get older. (The A.V. Club)

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)