Retro Video Unit (9/16/11)

I realize it's already Saturday, but I was quite busy at work yesterday and couldn't get around to posting this. (Maybe I should find some of these videos and bookmark them ahead of time?)

When my monthly deadline happens to fall after a weekend, most of the work has to be completed before that weekend (or during it, and we know that's not going to happen), for arcane reasons having to do with how the various databases communicate with each other.

Last weekend I went to the latest installment of a music show called Mixtape. Local musicians and bands come together to perform songs from a given year; this edition was all songs from 1978. I turned 15 that year, and I listened to the radio all the time, so these were songs I knew well: the Bee Gees, Styx, Billy Joel, the Grease soundtrack.

But then one of the bands came on and did "Take Me to the River" (by Al Green, but covered significantly by Talking Heads in '78) and "Stay Free" by the Clash. It got me thinking about how this was right around the time when I was starting to discover that there was other music out there beyond what was popular and got played on the radio.

I saw Talking Heads on Saturday Night Live in 1978, and their second performance that night, of the song "Artists Only," was nothing like their earlier rendition of "Take Me to the River": the music was jerky and angular, and David Byrne was sweating and twitching around the stage like a guy having a controlled seizure. I was spellbound, confused, and intrigued.

Unfortunately Saturday Night Live doesn't seem to allow its music clips to be posted on YouTube (at least not the ones I've looked for), and I'm fairly certain there was no official music video for this song, so let's go with this: a live performance of "Artists Only" from May 1978.

Back Pocket

I don't tend to think about my wallet much, until I need a new one. Then I go nuts for a while looking for something different, because I don't like the standard horizontal-opening style. A long time ago I used to use a trifold, until I realized that it was just too bulky from those extra layers of leather.

I don't carry as much in my wallet as some people I've seen, but I need a certain minimum amount of space. For the past decade or maybe longer, I've had two or three examples of what I guess you could call an L-fold or flip-fold style wallet: it opens vertically, like a book, and there's another section on the left that flips up. I kept my less frequently used cards under the flip and the everyday-access stuff on the right.

When I noticed recently that my wallet was looking worn, I started to think about what I might want to replace it with. I've seen some very nice wallets that are meant to be kept in the inside pocket of one's suit jacket. I sometimes wear a sportcoat, but not regularly, and what would I do with the wallet when I was just wearing jeans or shorts? I needed to stick to a wallet that would go in my back pants pocket.

The Mrs. offered to buy me a new wallet as a birthday present, so I gave her some basic guidelines. We were in a Marshalls a couple of weeks ago and she found what I had described, but it turned out to be the exact same wallet I've had for the past six years, even made by the same company. I realized that I didn't want to simply get another of the same thing.

I tend to get wrapped up in searches for things that are very difficult to find, and I was off on another one. I looked just about everywhere I could think of for something suitable yet different enough to be interesting. I've seen some very nice products from companies like Makr, Tanner Goods, and Chester Mox that make leather goods in the USA from quality leather. But I was disappointed that I couldn't find a wallet from any of them that would work for me.

Eventually I found a Fossil wallet from Zappos. (It also came in black, which is what I got, but it has since sold out.) It opens like a book, but instead of the flip-up flap, there is a dual-sided ID window that is attached to center of the wallet so that it flips from side to side like a page in a book. It turned out to be a little bigger than what I really needed, but I still liked it and decided that it was a good enough choice that I could stop searching.

Treats, Human and Otherwise

A couple of years ago I wrote about some mints I liked from Newman's Own Organics. My post was discovered by the company's PR representative via a Google keyword alert. She contacted me and offered to send me a sampling of the company's other product offerings. I accepted, and later wrote a bit about those products as well. I still prefer their pretzels because I've found them to be the tastiest and they have a reasonable amount of salt, but not too much.

A few weeks back, the same PR rep contacted me again to tell me the company was introducing two new flavors of cookies, and offered to send me samples. I thanked her and accepted her offer. The new cookie flavors are ginger snap and oatmeal chocolate chip. The cookies are bite-sized and crispy, perfect for snacking. I'm not a big fan of ginger, so I didn't get around to trying those, but the Mrs polished off the bag so I assume she liked them. I enjoyed the oatmeal chip variety and would certainly buy them myself.

The rep also included some of the company's new dog treats. They are hard and very crunchy, baked and biscuit-like in form. They come in four flavors; we got samples of two, beef and vegetable and lamb and barley. London, who is kind of a fussy dog when it comes to treats, has gone fairly nuts for these; she gives them four paws up. (The beef ones are almost gone already.) Also, the hard composition of these makes them helpful in cleaning a dog's teeth while it snacks.

So all the members of the SAR household were satisfied, and purchasing Newman's Own Organics products continues to be a smart choice.

Watch Bargains

J. Crew has been offering exclusive-to-them Timex watches for a while. There are now four styles, ranging in price from $150 to $195. I don't know if you've priced Timex watches lately, but that's a hefty premium over "ordinary" Timexes.

They're nice watches, especially the diver-style with the dark blue face and bezel, but frankly they just aren't worth the asking price. Also, the military-style watches are on the small side, and don't quite have the appropriate presence on a larger wrist.

There are other watches around that come close to the look of the military watch, like the one I picked up a few months ago. But even that one retails for $95, though I paid much less. But what if you just want a decent-looking facsimile of a military watch and don't want to spend more than $50?

Now there are options, direct from Timex. They launched this line of "Weekender" watches about a month ago, starting at $40. Some of them come on striped nylon straps, just like the ones J. Crew sells for $20. You don't get to choose which strap you get, but if you want to switch it up, you can find straps like this online for much less. (Some of the other styles have very cheesy, plasticky-looking straps, so you may need to plan on getting something different anyway.)

There's also a variation on the basic military style that comes with a slightly larger case that sports a tachymeter bezel (you can use it to measure the speed of things, if you're so inclined; if not, it just looks good on your wrist). I also like this variation (also available in a somewhat smaller ladies' style), which doesn't have the military look but does have a nice color-fade effect (called a degrade), particularly on this black-to-gray version.

These are good-looking watches, and if you happen to live near a Target, you may find them stocked in the watch department. I saw almost all of these at my local Target last week, and they look just as good in person. Even better, Target's prices are about $5 lower than the prices shown on the Timex site. Or you could use that code on the Timex site and get 20% off; order two (at these prices, you might as well) and you'll probably spend enough for free shipping. Any of these watches is going to be a solid, dependable, stylish choice at a great price.

UPDATE, 9/14: Overstock appears to have many of the Weekender styles available, priced between $27 and $36 (one metal bracelet style is $40). Well, what are you waiting for?

Universal Language (of Annoyance)

I guess the 21st-century equivalent of annoying those around you by blasting your music out of a boombox is annoying those around you by playing your music through the tiny, worthless speakers built into your cell phone.

I believe this started with people choosing not to answer their phones when someone called, so they could listen to whatever song they had chosen for a ringtone, but it's gone beyond that now. Do you really think your music sounds better coming out of those flimsy, half-inch openings than through headphones?

(This is another behavior I have observed twice recently, and the Rule of Three will also have to be applied, if it gets to that point.)

This Week in Awesome (9/10/11)

Buckets of internet this week...

Slightly nostalgic, part 1: a brief history of portable audio tape formats. (J&R)

Slightly nostalgic, part 2: Looking back at Star Trek, which premiered 45 years ago this week on NBC. (space.com)

Slightly nostalgic, part 3: vintage ads from Boston department stores for the 1949 back-to-school season. The formatting is a little wonky, but it's worth looking at. (Shopping Days in Retro Boston)

Work on building your vocabulary with these esoteric insult words. (Neatorama via The Daily What)

Apple is coming down hard on that iPhone prototype thief. (Conan via Cult of Mac)

And finally this week, I feel really bad for these kids, but I do have to question why their parents would have allowed their attempts at a little parlor trick to escalate so far. (Videogum)

Nostalgic for Nosalgia

Even for someone like me who watches a fair amount of TV, and reads a lot of stuff about TV, it's simply not possible to see everything, or even everything I might be interested in. Shows get overlooked, or they don't seem like something I'd want to watch, or maybe they get canceled before they have a chance to catch on and build an audience. Actually, that's what happens to most new TV shows, at least the ones that air on the major networks.

Once in a while, one of these gone-too-soon shows ends up overcoming oblivion and goes on to become a cult classic. Even more rarely, a show canceled too soon goes on to become a cult classic and also becomes the foundation for the successful careers of several of its stars.

Can you tell that I finally got around to watching all of Freaks and Geeks? The show premiered on NBC in the fall of 1999 to critical acclaim but abysmal ratings. Eighteen episodes were completed, which more or less constitute a full season, though the show was officially canceled early in 2000 and not all of the completed episodes aired back then.

Freaks and Geeks tells the stories of two groups of high school students in suburban Michigan. Lindsay is a good student who is tired of being seen as just one of the smart kids, so she starts hanging out with the freaks, who gradually accept her. Her younger brother Sam and his friends Bill and Neal are misfits who are just trying to get through a day at school without getting picked on or beaten up. The episodes take place during the 1980-81 school year. This happens to be when I was a senior in high school, so the show was directly on target for me in so many ways: clothes, music, hairstyles, cars. We didn't use the term "freaks" though; where I grew up we referred to those kids as "burnouts."

The creative minds behind the show were Paul Feig and Judd Apatow, who have both gone on to highly successful careers as producers and directors of movies like Bridesmaids and Knocked Up. The cast included James Franco, who's gone on to do just about everything; Jason Segel, who is one of the stars of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother (about to begin its seventh season) and has starred in movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the upcoming Muppets; Linda Cardellini, who went on to play nurse Sam on ER; Seth Rogen, who is a regular in many of Apatow's movies and is also in the upcoming 50/50; Busy Philipps, who is a star of the ABC sitcom Cougar Town and has a role in the upcoming I Don't Know How She Does It alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Christina Hendricks; Martin Starr, who appeared in Party Down (another show that deserved a better fate) and has done many other shows and movies; and John Francis Daley, who's on the Fox drama Bones. Not bad, huh?

The show had a few missteps: I felt the storyline about one character's interest in disco was a couple of years too late (disco's popularity had started to fade by '81), and for a show that was supposedly set in Michigan, there was a glaring absence of snow; in fact, I don't recall seeing so much as a winter coat. But really, these are just quibbles. The strength of the writing and acting overcomes such inconsistencies.

Freaks and Geeks has been running in what seems to be a continuous loop, one episode per week, on the cable channel IFC for at least the past year, probably longer. I wanted to watch the episodes in order, so I checked the schedule on IFC's web site to figure out when the first episode was airing, and started recording them back in the spring. If you're interested in the show, the bad news is that it's not available to watch through Netflix streaming; the good news is that the cycle of episodes is starting over next Monday at 6 pm Eastern time on IFC, so set your DVR to "record all episodes." You can always go the DVD route, but it's kind of fun to watch one episode per week, like in the old days of TV. It's well worth your time.

Time for an Upgrade

A few months back, my home computer started behaving very sluggishly. Web browsing was painfully slow, sometimes reminiscent of the bad old days of dial-up internet connections. It also had a sudden difficulty in holding onto its wireless connection. Neither of these things had been a problem previously, and I suspect it had something to do with one of the Mac OS updates, but I didn't have the patience to go back and uninstall it; I wasn't even sure that was possible.

The computer is almost four years old, and I would have loved to simply replace it, but I could not justify the expense just now. I knew the RAM was upgradeable, so I looked into that. Back in 2007 Mac minis came with 1 gigabyte of RAM, which was adequate, but over time it had become less so. They can take as much as 4 gigs, and it isn't terribly expensive: $60 to max it out.

There was one hurdle, though: the procedure to open up a Mac mini of that vintage and install the RAM is a huge pain in the ass. I watched an instruction video on the site of the RAM vendor; it began with sanding down the blade of a putty knife to slide into the bottom of the case to separate it from the top, and got into much more complicated things like having to detach cables. It was way beyond my comfort zone.

(New Mac minis are much easier to open and upgrade, but if you still have CDs you want to load into iTunes, you have to buy an accessory external drive, which sucks. iMacs have a little RAM access compartment on the bottom edge.)

Having the RAM installed at an Apple store or other authorized service center would certainly cost enough to negate the notion of boosting the computer's performance on the cheap. I back-burnered the idea for a couple of weeks, until the computer's torpor got annoying again.

Then I had the idea to ask our IT guy at work if he had experience doing this sort of thing. He did not, but he knew someone else who did. I made it clear that I was willing to pay something for the person's time, but he said that wouldn't be necessary. I ordered the RAM, and when it arrived I brought my computer into work (its small size definitely made that easier), where our IT superhero took over and brought it to its appointment with Dr. Macinstein.

In practically no time the upgrade was complete, and my Mac mini had quadrupled its RAM, which made a huge difference in precisely those areas that were problematic. I still can't install the Lion OS, but based on what I've read so far, I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

Corn Again

On the way to work this morning, I saw ANOTHER person eating corn on the cob on the train.

For BREAKFAST.

It must have been cold, right? Blech.

One more and I'm officially required to notify the Globe so they can do a trend piece on it.

Reset

After my week off, plus the extra day of the long weekend, it was back to work for me. Last night I dutifully set my clock radio's alarm before going to sleep. I even checked to make sure the volume was high enough and it was tuned to an actual station instead of just static (it's an older clock radio, with rotary controls on the side that sometimes get bumped).

This morning I woke up to no sound. I rolled over and looked at the time; it was almost an hour after the time I normally get up. I sat up and took a closer look at the clock radio, and saw what I'd missed in my pre-bed fatigue the night before: The alarm was set correctly, but after our ten-second power outage last weekend, I had reset the time incorrectly, so it was in PM instead of AM, and since I hadn't needed it all week, I hadn't noticed. Oops.

As I jumped out of bed and headed toward the bathroom, I thought to myself that even though this was not a fortuitous way to start my first day back to work, I felt great from the extra hour of sleep I wasn't supposed to have gotten.

Mall Malaise

Last week, while the dog was having the growth removed from her paw, we had several hours to kill while waiting for the vet to call and tell us when we could go back and pick her up. We could have gone home, but we would have had to drive back. The vet was near the mall, and I had an errand I needed to do there anyway, so that's where we spent our afternoon.

I hadn't been in a mall in at least a couple of months. With the end of summer upon us, I figured this would be a good opportunity to check out the first arrivals of fall clothing, but I came away more disappointed than anything else. The Proper Bostonian hates malls, and I'm starting to feel the same way.

As much as I love shopping online, I also enjoy shopping in stores, for several reasons. You can inspect things up close and check on construction and fit, you see colors more realistically than on a monitor, you may get ideas about ways to wear certain items from what they are displayed with, and in a setting like a mall, there's a wide assortment of merchandise to see in the various stores.

The problem was that, in store after store, nothing interested me. There seemed to be a lack of differentiation, a lack of variety. Most of the smaller stores skew too young for me these days. If you're in a mall with two or three major department stores, they all have more or less the same stuff from the same typical department store brands. These days the prevailing trends seem to be beach bum, Jersey Shore, and fashion-dude.

In department stores I've never been hesitant to shop house brands, which used to offer viable alternatives to the Ralphs and Tommys. But as profits have become harder to realize, store chains have cut back on house-brand offerings. Now everything available is bland, lowest-common-denominator stuff that's meant to appeal to the widest possible audience.

Even Nordstrom, a store I've always considered a cut above, let me down. There's a much heavier emphasis on the young men's section than I would have expected, given that their prices are typically higher and younger men typically have less money to spend. And the stuff for the middle-aged guys skews toward logo-laden Faconnable (once independent, how a house brand) and what some people refer to as "restaurant shirts"—you know, those brightly-colored striped shirts with contrasting inner cuffs meant to be worn turned up. Ecch.

As I walked from store to store around the mall, I kept thinking how much I still miss Martin+Osa, which used to have a store in this particular mall. Their stuff really hit a sweet spot for me in terms of style, fit, and value. But American Eagle pulled the plug on the brand a year and a half ago, and the stores finished liquidating their remaining stock about a year ago.

Since then I have more or less replaced them with Lands' End Canvas, but LEC seems to be treading water, and this fall's offerings aren't impressing me. Ditto for L.L. Bean Signature, which has been scoring points with the menswear bloggers but doesn't seem to have much to offer me.

J. Crew has been my go-to brand for some time, and there is always something there that interests me, but the stores often don't have the space to stock a full collection, and while I have to credit the men's-only store in Copley Place for the breadth of selection in a relatively small space, it has no sale merchandise.

I've gone through phases like this before, when I felt like there was nothing out there of interest to me. This is typically when I'd turn to eBay or Style Forum in search of elusive pieces from years past. I'll probably do some of that searching, but the truth is, there's very little I need at the moment, so maybe this is a good time to take a break from shopping. It might be difficult, but if there's nothing to buy it will be slightly easier.

This Week in Awesome (9/3/11)

Okay, so I took a bit of a break there (I was on vacation this week, after all), but not to worry...

Remember Sniglets? This site is sort of a brainier version of those. (The Hairpin)

In another instance of too much free time, a collection of photos of cars that are the same make, model, and color parked adjacent to each other. Silly, but also kind of entertaining (YMMV). (Jalopnik)

If that wasn't obsessive enough for you, how about this insane, ridiculous, full-on wedding album of a doll wedding? (Glamour Weddings blog via Hairpin)

And finally this week, proof (not that we really needed it) that in general, people are exactly as stupid as we believe them to be. (Salon)

Addendum: Oops, I forgot one. Dr. Hackenbush sent me this about a week ago, and it had dropped down toward the bottom of my inbox: carefully rendered depictions of events that took place in familiar locations, but in alternate realities.

Thwarted

—A raspberry turnover for breakfast is almost like having pie for breakfast... maybe better?

—Those sneakers from J. Crew? Not comin'. I had a feeling something was up when almost a week had passed since my call to customer service and I still had not received a shipping confirmation. Yesterday morning I got an email with the bad news.

I know that inventory fluctuates with the sale and clearance stuff, but when I called I was told they were definitely available. I'd rather not be lied to; just tell me there's a chance I might not get them. I wouldn't even care so much if they weren't to replace the initial two-right-shoes pair.

Anyway, I know a guy, maybe he can help...

Vet Adventures

Our dog has had a wartlike thing on her right front paw for a couple of months now. We took her to the vet to have it looked at, and she told us there was no immediate need to remove it, but to keep an eye on it.

A few days ago the dog started licking the growth, and wouldn't leave it alone. We had to resort to bandaging it and using the muzzle we received when we adopted her. On Monday I called the vet's office and learned she's on vacation for two weeks. There's another vet on duty that could have examined her, but we would have had to wait until the regular vet returned to get the growth removed.

We decided to take her to a different vet, and got an appointment for today. They were able to remove the growth today, without anesthetizing the dog, which meant she didn't have to stay there overnight. (It also means it cost several hundred dollars less.) She was sedated, so she was a bit woozy at first, but she perked back up quickly and even had some food, a sure sign that she's feeling better.

She has two follow-up visits, one to have the bandage removed and one to remove the stitches. She just turned ten a couple of weeks ago, so it's a relief that something like this could be resolved quickly, and we're hoping we don't have to start dealing with more of these issues.

Two Rights? Wrong

Last week J. Crew was having one of their periodic extra 30% off sale merchandise offers, so I ordered a couple of things, including a pair of Spring Court canvas sneakers. They were only available in whole sizes, and I had read that they run big, so I ordered size 10.

When they arrived at work, I was happy to find that they fit properly. I took them home that evening, and took them out of the box to show the Mrs. That's when I noticed that there were two right shoes in the box. Oops.

Fortunately they still had some left in my size, so a replacement pair is on the way. I was assured that they would be inspected before shipping to make sure I got a proper pair with one left and one right.

That Wasn't So Bad

So, Irene blustered through over the weekend, and while there was damage and inconvenience, it sure could have been worse. Our electricity went out for all of about ten seconds, then it came back on and stayed on, so we were able to use the internet and TV, but even if we had lost our power I would have been content to read a book by daylight or candlelight.

I'm on vacation this week, and we have a couple of things planned, but nothing major, just not being at work and relaxing. I'll try to stick to a normal schedule here.

This Week in Awesome (8/27/11)

Good morning, and welcome to this special wind-and-rain edition of TWiA. Obviously we have power, so let's hope it stays that way. The Mrs. took the dog out around 7:30 this morning, it will be my turn some time later this afternoon. Moving along...

Some clever wag mashed up Top Gear with an old children's cartoon. (Jalopnik via ?)

Have you been checking out Grantland? It's sort of a sports site, but there's lots of other great stuff there too. (Don't ask me what the name means; I must have been absent that day.) Solid writing all around, and quite entertaining. This is just a silly collection of YouTube videos that various writers liked.

How To Be A Retronaut is a site full of cool old things. (Gilt MANual)

And finally this week, I wasn't going to bother with anything storm-related, but then I saw this photo. I mean, you have to wonder what this person was thinking. (Jalopnik via New York Daily News)

Retro Video Unit (8/26/11)

I'm about to leave work for a week off, so I thought I'd send this week off with two videos.

"Vacation" by The Go-Gos would be a bit too obvious, so how about "Our Lips Are Sealed" instead? It was fairly popular back in the early days of MTV.


(By the way, that's a 1960 Buick that they're tooling around Los Angeles in.)

I've been holding onto this one for a while, but today seems like a good day for it: "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors. I imagine most of you will be familiar with this song, but I don't think the video is as well-known (of course, I could be wrong about that).

Uh-Oh

Yesterday at our weekly office breakfast, a colleague sitting next to me commented on my outfit. (I was wearing my red shorts with a blue-striped seersucker shirt.) She said I looked "very fratty," and I was mildly horrified at the idea that someone might associate me, however innocently it was intended, with anything frat-related.

Another coworker, sitting on my other side, took note of my reaction and attempted to come to my defense by saying, "I don't think he's the frat type."

The first person explained that she had been shopping with her son, who is about to enter his sophomore year in college and is in a fraternity. He told her that these were the styles his fraternity brothers were wearing, and he wanted them too. I offered my shopping advice, mentioning where I had gotten my clothes, and pointed out that since summer is almost over, she might be able to get them on the cheap.

So, does this mean that red shorts have reached their tipping point? I guess I'll have to wait until next summer and see where things are.

Not So Packble

I decided to suck it up and bring along my rain slicker today, since it sounded like things might get windy, which can render an umbrella rather useless.

When a clothing retailer describes a so-called "packable" jacket as able to stuff into its own inside pocket, they don't bother to tell you that the resulting wad of nylon is more or less the same size and shape as a beach ball, and is about as easy to fit into a shoulder bag.

Music of My Life

Yesterday's New York Times contained obituaries for two important pop music songwriters. Interestingly, Jerry Leiber and Nick Ashford both died on Monday, on opposite coasts.

Leiber and his writing partner Mike Stoller were responsible for songs performed by Elvis Presley, The Drifters, former Drifters lead singer Ben E. King, The Coasters, The Shangri-Las, Peggy Lee, and many others.

Ashford, along with his wife and songwriting partner Valerie Simpson, wrote songs for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Chaka Khan, and more.

I'm of an age and upbringing where I was exposed to songs co-written by these men from an early age, and with frequency. My earliest musical memories involve Elvis and Motown, and encompass nearly all of these other performers. This was the popular music of the day, and while it's not my aim to disparage any current artist, when I look at what's popular today it makes me sad.

This short list of songs will give you a glimpse of the gifts these two men shared with the world. The first six are Leiber and Stoller compositions; the other five are Ashford and Simpson compositions.

"Hound Dog"
"Jailhouse Rock"
"On Broadway"
"Spanish Harlem"
"Stand By Me"
"Chapel of Love"
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
"You're All I Need to Get By"
"Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"
"Solid (As A Rock)"
"I'm Every Woman"

Filling the Void

I forgot to post something yesterday. Oops. I mean, no one says I have to, but I've been trying to post something every weekday unless work or some other obligation (or brain lapse, apparently) keeps me from doing so.

Anyway, I just went to the salad bar like I do most days for lunch. The salad I came away with is somewhat smaller than what I usually end up making. Like, two dollars smaller. This isn't terrible; I could stand to eat a little less in general.

But what does it say about me that my first thought after paying for the salad was, "After I'm done eating this, I guess I should go get something for dessert"?

This Week in Awesome (8/20/11)

Friday was deadline day, and yesterday we attended a family event in RI, so... here we are.

Since everything is mashupable these days, how about this combo? (Warming Glow via Videogum)

If you've watched Parks and Recreation, you are familiar with the awesomeness that is Ron Swanson. Some of his gastronomic preferences have inspired artistic expression. (Jonny etc. via Vulture)

Staying in the food vein for a moment, the Tumblr site Aspic and Other Delights collects bizarre food images and advertisements from the past. (The Hairpin)

Fake iPhone apps, courtesy of David Byrne. (Cult of Mac via BoingBoing)

And finally this week, the site FlavorWire complies lots of top ten lists, and they recently did several that fit nicely with my recent music video posts, with all the discussed videos conveniently embedded: videos that predate MTV, outdated videos that are still cool, and once-popular videos that are actually terrible.

Orphaned Tech

On Thursday HP announced that is is ending production of its smartphones and tablets that run the WebOS operating system. HP acquired WebOS when they bought Palm last year for $1.2 billion. That's a lot of money to spend on something to throw away so quickly.

WebOS is a great platform, but the available hardware has always held it down, and consequently app development has been almost nonexistent. You know that if a company like HTC had been developing phones that ran WebOS, they would have been better, and would have appeared more frequently.

My current phone is a Palm Pre that I've had for about a year and half. There's a lot I like about it, and some I don't. Every time I hear or read about a cool new app for the iPhone, I find myself thinking that's probably what I will end up getting next. The iPhone's arrival on Verizon earlier this year pretty much solidified my feelings.

I really wanted Palm to succeed and survive, and when WebOS was first announced I thought that could do it for them. But now it's over, and my phone is an orphan. There are mumblings that HP may try to sell WebOS, but the chances of that are very slim. The next version of the iPhone is rumored to be arriving in late September or early October, coincidentally right when I'm eligible for an upgrade.

More Things on the Way Home

Another interesting trip home, though not like the other day. I dropped off a package at the post office on MIlk Street, and was walking along Devonshire toward State station when I saw one of those costumed Revolutionary actors from around Quincy Market walking toward me, with tricorner hat and all, talking on a cell phone. Bit of a historical disconnect there, for just a moment.

Then, down in the T station, a young lady approached and stood near me. In the faintest of voices, I heard, "Excuse me, sir?"

Expecting to be asked for money, I turned and said, "Yes?"

"Do you like watches?" Figuring she'd looked at my wrist and seen that I was wearing a nice one, then wondering if someone who knows me might have been playing some sort of joke, I hesitated for a moment, then answered "...yes?"

"Because I have one I'm trying to sell, would you like to buy it?"

Edging away slightly: "No thank you, that's okay..." Fortunately the train was arriving at that very moment, so I got on as quickly as I could.

What A Strange Trip It Was

I had a very strange commute home yesterday...

When I leave work, I have several options for how to get home. Which way I choose to go depends on the time, the weather, and the information I get from the T's web site (now with banner ads, yay!) about how the buses and trains are running. I also use MBTAinfo to check the ETA for certain bus routes.

The CT2 takes me over to Ruggles station on the Orange Line, but it only runs every half-hour or so, so it's not always the best option. Yesterday it was on the way when I was leaving work, so I walked up to the corner of Huntington and Longwood to catch it.

When the bus came, it went a bit past the stop before stopping. One person got off, and one other person and I got on. The bus was totally packed, so we really had to squeeze in. The driver told us that's why she'd gone past the stop; she was implying that if that one person hadn't wanted to get off at that stop, she wouldn't have stopped at all. While I sympathize with the driver's predicament, when a bus is approaching I can't necessarily tell how full it is. (Those of you with better vision may be able to.)

We made it to Ruggles, and I headed inside. At the fare gates the guy ahead of me did something I've never seen anyone do since the T installed the Charlie card system: he put his card in the turnstile to his left, instead of the one to his right. As soon as he'd done it, he realized he'd made a mistake, and slipped through the gate behind the person ahead of him. This threw off my timing, and as I tapped my card and started through, the gates closed on me before opening again, giving me a pretty good whack on my upper arm (those things have sharp edges).

When I got down to the platform it was much more crowded than usual, but there were no announcements about a delay, so I waited a couple of minutes and a train came. I always board at the very front of the train because at Wellington the only exit is at that end of the platform, and in a rush-hour crowd not having to walk that extra distance and navigate through the crowd can mean the difference between making the bus and having to wait 20 minutes for the next one.

When I got on the train, a woman with a baby in a stroller was taking up three seats, using her backpack on the third one. She told me I could not sit there. I asked why. She pointed to the window behind her, which was cracked in several directions. I asked why she was sitting there. She said she was a T employee, she was off-duty but was taking the train somewhere when the window was damaged a few stops before Ruggles and that had delayed the train. (That explained the crowd on the platform.) She was attempting to keep people from using the seats because she believed the window was going to shatter.

I apologized, explaining that since she was not wearing a uniform or anything else that would have obviously identified her as a T employee, I just assumed she was a typical T nutjob. After talking to her for a moment, I realized that I had seen her once before, in uniform on another evening train, talking to another T employee. At the next stop I was able to get a seat nearby, and spent the rest of the ride reading and listening to her warding off other would-be sitters. The window never broke, but the cracks did get larger.

There was also a minor altercation of some sort around Downtown Crossing, where a woman on the platform rather rudely told the person ahead of her to push into the train so she too could fit in. They both managed to squeeze on, and there was some additional back-and-forth verbal sparring, but I wasn't close enough to hear it. Too bad; it probably would have made for a nice "Overheard" bit.

At some point I realized that I would have been better off going home a different way. It's not often that the Green Line seems like the better option, but yesterday was definitely one of those days. Of course, I still would have had to transfer at North Station...

Get in the Van(s)

Until a couple of weeks ago, I'd never owned a pair of Vans shoes. Like a lot of people who didn't grow up in California, my first exposure to them was seeing the checkerboard slip-ons on Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which came out almost 30 years ago (bonus: there's your feel-old moment for the day).

I was the right age at the time to think they were cool, but back then my taste and eye for clothing were not yet quite so well developed. Fast-forward to today, when I know just what I want but often have trouble finding it amid the dross of mass-market stuff.

I prefer things that are simple and unadorned, which is why I stay away from modern athletic shoes that have a tendency to look like spaceships. I was looking for plain white canvas casual sneakers, and was leaning toward Converse Jack Purcells but I have never cared for the rubber toe cap. Somehow my online meanderings led me to Vans. There were dozens of styles and colors to ponder; I considered ordering a customized pair, but when I saw that they would take 5 to 7 weeks I ditched that idea.

Further browsing presented me with the idea of the classic Vans Authentic in leather instead of canvas. At Zappos they happened to be cheaper, only $3 more than the canvas version; the slightly off-white hue looked more appealing compared to pure white, and I thought the leather gave them a slightly... well, "dressier" obviously isn't how I want to express it, so let's go with "nicer"... look.

When I first put them on I was surprised at how light they were; it was almost like not wearing any shoes. They are plenty wide enough for my problematic feet, and are easy to wear. They have no arch support whatsoever, but the insole is a half-inch of foam padding so they're fine for the amount of waling I do on a typical day.

They're also moderately priced, generally $45–50, making it feasible to have several pairs if one so chooses. I'm not saying that's going to happen; at this point I have enough other summer sneakers to rotating among that I'm fine with this pair, but I may want to add some other colors down the road...

Rain Gear

On days like today I'd like to be able to just wear a rain jacket instead of fussing with an umbrella, but I get too clammy. It doesn't matter how "breathable" the material is supposed to be; I have a Gore-Tex rain slicker, but wearing it when the temperature is above 60 is like wearing a rainforest.

Do other people have this issue? How do you deal with it?

This Week in Awesome (8/13/11)

Whoops, forgot all about this...

See the softer, more disturbing side of Sears in these scans (two sets) from a 1973 catalog. (The Hairpin)

Etsy hath wrought many things, including this collection of dogs reluctantly modeling things made by their owners. (Racked NY)

A gallery in New York has a show of album covers and promo posters from the punk/new wave era. Graphic design sage Chip Kidd chose a few of his favorites. (MTV Hive via Gilt MANual)

And finally this week, Jimmy Kimmel accompanied Jessica Alba to her birthing class. (ABC via Hulu)

Retro Video Unit (8/12/11)

As I was saying in one of the previous installments, with many of the bands from the new wave era, there are no official music videos of their earlier songs because they predate MTV. That's the case with the band I've chosen to feature today, The Motels.

I could have selected "Only The Lonely" or one of the other, later clips that gave The Motels some deserved recognition in the 1980s, but I became aware of them in 1979 and prefer their first two albums to their later material. I did find a live performance clip for the song "Total Control" from their first album, which nicely captures the band at an early stage.

More than 30 years on, Martha Davis's is STILL one of the most distinctive voices in all of rock, and she appears to be sporting the man's-suit-with-no-shirt look about ten years before Madonna wore it in the "Express Yourself" video.

Go Fish!

As anticipated, I had a food truck lunch today. I didn't go where I had originally planned, mainly because I wasn't sure that particular truck would have something I wanted. Instead I headed down to the plaza outside the Christian Science building across from the Prudential Center to try the Go Fish! truck.

I opted for the grilled tuna Caesar salad wrap, which was delicious if a little messy, even with choosing to take it back to my desk to eat. Instead of croutons there are smoked onions, which gave it an interesting bit of pungency.

I will definitely go back, because there are at least a couple of other items on the menu I would like to try, like the lump crab salad sandwich and the cod and chorizo sliders. There are also weekly specials, and the proprietor is emphasizing local and seasonal choices whenever feasible. I could definitely see myself becoming a regular customer, but I want to try offerings from other trucks too.

I noticed a smattering of small tables under the trees along the edge of the plaza, so it would be possible to visit the Go Fish! truck and eat outdoors on a nice day.

Watch Wednesday (8/10/11)

It's been almost three months since the last WW, and one new watch per quarter seems a more appropriately restrained level of consumption.

I like the appearance and functionality of chronographs, and I have a few. On the ones I have, the subdials either blend in too much with the rest of the watch face or stand out from it too much, so I've been looking for one that falls in the middle. I found a Japanese-market Citizen on eBay several years ago that was just right, but it was over $300 and I couldn't justify spending that.

A Seiko is always a solid choice: they make hundreds of styles that are well-made and reasonably priced, so it's a value purchase you can live with happily. I found this watch on eBay while browsing Seiko chronographs. I'd never seen this style before, but it caught my attention right away. The rings around the subdials are the sort of accent I was after, and it's not too big or too flashy. On the wrist this one comes off looking a little dressier, with a hint of resemblance to a TAG Heuer Carerra.

This watch came on a really ugly metal bracelet, and this strap is just a cheap one I happened to have around that is the correct size, but I found a source for straps (also on eBay) that I was not familiar with, Holben's Fine Watch Bands. They have a nice selection of quality straps at very reasonable prices, so I will be upgrading this one soon. My plan is to go through all my watches, figure out which ones need new or better straps, and get a bunch of them at once.

Making Lunch Easier

I liked the piece on boston.com today about food trucks. The city is making some effort to encourage these small businesses, to the extent that they have created a page on the city of Boston web site that shows the schedules and locations for the trucks. This way, if I'm feeling like I want to try something new for lunch, I can check the web page and see what truck is going to be closest to where I work. I'm planning to try one of these later on this week, probably Thursday.

Short Sleeves

I'm fortunate that I can wear whatever I choose to work. In summer that means shorts and short-sleeve shirts. There are corners of the internet that frown on this, but frankly I don't care. If I was going from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned office, I'd probably wear pants. But instead of "car," for me that middle section is "public transit." Unfortunately the climate control on public transit is a huge variable; I never know how comfortable my ride is or isn't going to be.

The T has come a long way since I arrived here for college in 1981, when the only "air" on buses came through sliding windows and the air conditioning on the Green Line trains only worked in the front halves of the cars, but even in 2011 I still can't be certain that the bus that I board in the morning will have AC, or will have it on. (There seem to be some drivers who prefer to be warm, and I also believe that some of them leave the AC off intentionally, just to make riders suffer.) Therefore I need to dress for comfort in warm weather.

I like the look of button-front short-sleeve shirts. I also wear polo shirts, but the button-front shirts look just a bit more dignified without sacrificing comfort. (I've tried wearing some of my lighter-weight long-sleeve shirts with the sleeves rolled up, but they still tend to be too warm around the arms with the multiple layers of rolled fabric.) For the past several summers I've worn the same small group of shirts because it was very difficult to find any new ones that I liked. For a long time the prevailing style of short-sleeve shirt was the laid-back, Tommy Bahama-ish print with a straight bottom. Even though I wear my shirts tucked in, I hate shirts with straight bottoms and won't buy them, and I hate anything by TB anyway.

This year things were much better. Many of the places I like to shop had short-sleeve offerings in colorful, attractive plaids. I also found some inexpensive seersucker shirts in nice, bright colors at JCPenney in their American Living line, the one that's designed and produced for them by Ralph Lauren. When this line started a couple of years ago, most of the clothes were slapped with a gaudy eagle logo, but more recently I've noticed that they have toned that down, and now more of the pieces seem to be logo-free, which is great for people like me who hate logos.

I also got shirts from Lands' End, J. Crew, Brooks Brothers, and even one from Old Navy, where I rarely find anything I like. I don't like to spend a lot of money on my summer clothes, because I know they are going to get worn fairly hard and washed more frequently. But if I have enough clothes to rotate through, they are likely to last longer, and by buying stuff that isn't trendy, I'll be more likely to want to hold onto them as long as I can.

This Week in Awesome (8/6/11)

Yesterday's post really should have appeared on Friday, so I bumped this back a day too. Enjoy...

It's a rainy, lazy Sunday around here. If you're looking for something to do, you might try working on some of these lovely paper dolls based on TV characters. (Flannel Animal via Videogum)

Don Cheadle (perhaps taking a cue from his character in Boogie Nights?) is branching out to explore other business opportunities. (Funny or Die)

I know many of you have been thinking, "We really like those time-lapse videos you find, but how about some other city besides New York?" I hear you, and I have you covered. (Vimeo via The Awl)

To the ongoing argument about why people have to get a license to drive a car but can do so many other things without any prequalification whatsoever, add this: the internet access filtration test. (And click here to see what happens if you get the question wrong.) (Defective Yeti via The Daily What)

And finally this week, a very funny video explaining the origin of the dreaded hipster. (Glove & Boots via YouTube)

Burger Guys

Five Guys opened in Medford back in June. Somehow we had managed to not try any of their other area locations before (not on purpose), so we checked it out early in July. It was right before we went away, so I never got around to mentioning it.

We stopped in for a second visit recently, and the place was humming along as though it had always been there. The burgers are tasty, and there is a long list of toppings and condiments, including grilled onions. The fries are of medium thickness, which gives them a pronounced potato taste. When I eat fries at all, my personal preference is for thin ones.

When you order a burger, the cashier yells "two patties!" back toward the grill area. On our first visit we quickly learned that this means a standard Five Guys burger is a double. That's a lot of food, and their patties are a little thicker to start with. You can order a single, which they call a "little burger" (possibly to embarrass you into just ordering the double?). On our second visit I went with a single-patty bacon cheeseburger, and found it less overwhelming and more satisfying overall.

The biggest surprise to us was that they don't offer typical burger accompaniments like onion rings or shakes, though they do offer hot dogs, which I don't eat anyway. In this respect I have to give Boston's Uburger the edge, because their burger-shake-thin cut fries combo is one of my favorites, and also because their burgers are flatter, which I also prefer. These things just kind of go together (as long as you don't think too much about the gastrointestinal ramifications).

Of course, if Boston got a Shake Shack I'd have to split my burger consumption between them and Uburger. And I don't even dare dream of In & Out—that's best left for West Coast visits.

Grooming Garage: More Still Isn't Better (For Me)

I've been using my Schick Hydro 3 razor for a little over a year now, and I really like it. In fact I like it so much that I stopped using the older Schick razor I had, even though I still had several months' worth of blades for it. (I still feel a little guilty about that, but not much.)

Recently I ordered some stuff from drugstore.com, and when the package arrived there was a free bonus inside: the five-blade version of the Hydro. I don't find that these extra blades are of any benefit to me, but I figured I should at least try it out.

Nope. The experience was about the same as when I tried the Gillette Fusion ProGlide after they offered to send me one last year. The extra blades make the head awkwardly oversize, which makes getting to the tight spots that much more difficult. (Even the Hydro 3 is a little too large compared to the older Xtreme 3.)

More importantly, I just don't feel any difference between the three-blade and five-blade shaves. There's more irritation, and no difference in how long it takes my beard to grow back. So I'm glad I got the chance to try the Hydro 5, but I'm sticking with the Hydro 3.

1,000!

So yeah, this is my 1,000th post. I'm as surprised as the rest of you, kinda.

When I started doing this almost five years ago, I wasn't thinking about how long it might last; I was just trying to summon the discipline to express myself on a somewhat regular basis. I found my way, tentatively at first, and got to where I was posting something about every other day. But then around two years ago, without any specific intent on my part, the pace picked up to nearly every weekday plus my Saturday link roundups, and half of those 1,000 posts have come in about the past 20 months.

It's an interesting circumstance to be in, because I enjoy doing this as much as ever, if not more so, so I look forward to it, but at the same time I feel a certain sense of obligation to produce regularly and consistently because I know people are visiting (at least, my list of followers continues to grow, which you will have to take my word for because for whatever reason Blogger doesn't feel like displaying it). It can be tough to balance work and life and find some time each day to produce something that will be worth your time.

So I'm (hopefully uncharacteristically) going to give myself a little pat on the back, and at the same time say thanks for reading and commenting and otherwise reassuring me that I'm not doing this in a vacuum. Now it's off to J.P. Licks with some coworkers to celebrate the last day of a summer worker. Coincidence? I don't think so...

Track Your Package

The office where I work is located inside a building that serves various functions. When I started here, packages were left in a mail room on the first floor, but after we moved within the building four years ago, new delivery procedures were established: the regular delivery people for UPS, FedEx, and DHL know that packages addressed to our specific business entity are to be brought to the front desk inside our main door. Generally this works very smoothly.

Some of my recent Zappos orders have not been delivered directly to our office. This is a bit unusual, and the tracking info for a shipment I was expecting today claimed that the package had been left at "front desk" and signed for by a name I did not know. I went around the building and checked with other likely destinations, including the front desk, and found nothing.

When I went into my Zappos account information to look up how to contact customer service to initiate a trace, I noticed that my shipping address was not correct. The street address and business name are there, but the qualifying piece that we use to indicate our specific office area had been changed. Shippers don't like this address because it does not conform to what the postal service thinks our address should be, and sometimes they take it on themselves to change it to what the USPS tells them it thinks it should be.

At least it's likely that the package is in the building somewhere, so I should be able to track it down soon.

Brain Is Confused

Have you ever witnessed something that made no sense at all? I had a moment like that this morning.

I was on my way to work on the Orange Line. The train pulled into Sullivan, a couple of people got off, a few people got on. The car wasn't too crowded overall, and before the doors closed I happened to look across and out onto the platform, where a maintenance person was wet-mopping the concrete and the rubber warning strip.

Wait, what? My brain might as well have made that noise when a needle gets shoved across a record. I mean, I'm all for the T trying to keep stations clean, or at least as clean as possible when thousands of people pass through them each day. But what's the point of mopping down a platform that's outdoors? Unless someone had barfed there a few minutes before the train pulled in? Okay. Otherwise, as Don Draper said to the London Fog people, "It is going to rain."

If I see anyone waxing the concrete, the T's gonna have some 'splaining to do.

This Week in Awesome (7/30/11)

It's been a little more challenging lately to cull the good stuff from the internet, but I keep at it, because you guys deserve it.

Did I hear someone ask for more Community bloopers? (Well no, of course I didn't, you can't hear through the computer, silly. Must be the dog talking to me from the other room...) This is your lucky day, then. (Entertainment Weekly via Videogum)

A creative person has applied a kaleidoscopic effect to Google Maps satellite images. (The Daily What via Waxy)

Did you happen to see those bizarre Summer's Eve ads (since pulled by the company)? If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry: Stephen Colbert gets you up to speed on the whole thing. Seriously, just watch this.

And finally this week, to mark the 30th anniversary of the debut of MTV, TIME has compiled a list of the 30 greatest music videos, not in any particular order, but split more or less evenly between the three decades of MTV's existence. Some of them are no-brainers while others are debatable, but that's why such lists exist—to be debated. If nothing else, it's a nice nostalgia trip for those of us who spent a lot of time zoning out to MTV back in the '80s.

Retro Video Unit (7/29/11)

I seem to be posting these every other Friday, which seems like the proper frequency for them.

Seems like a Clash sort of day, and I wanted to post the "London Calling" video, but embedding is disabled on it, and it turns out the sound quality in this one is much better. So, all hail The Clash, "This Is Radio Clash."

This appears to have been shot in New York, which is cool (I would have expected London). What an aesthetic these guys had—the epitome of lo-fi years before the term was even coined.

Laced

Okay, I see from the comments that at least two people are following along. The first one came through around 7:30 this morning, so thanks for early-rising blog readers.

PB, to answer your questions: no, I was not wearing the shoes like this (a little credit?), and they were not aligned exactly—it was a very impromptu decision to take the photo. The lacing of the shoe on the right is what prompted it.

When I buy shoes, if they come with the laces already in them, they are almost invariably laced like the sneaker on the right, with the lace going across the bottom over the lace holes. I've always thought this looks wrong, so I've always switched the lacing so the lace goes under the bottom holes. This way, you get nice, even rows of lacing like the shoe on the left. (I was in the midst of changing the laces on these sneakers when I started thinking about it, and the "in-between" picture seemed like a good way into discussing it.)

As far as comfort and wear, I don't believe there is any difference between one way of lacing and the other. It just makes me wonder why, when "my" way seems to me to be obviously more visually appealing, I don't find more shoes laced this way out of the box. I've also never seen this topic come up anywhere else, leading me to think that my personal obsessions are not nearly as significant as I believe them to be...

Pop Quiz

Speaking of the red sneakers, have a look at this (unintentionally too dark) pic:

Notice anything? Think about it, and I'll be back to discuss it tomorrow.

Red Dilemma

I first became aware of "Nantucket Reds" when I read The Official Preppy Handbook 30 years ago. At the time I had lived a fairly sheltered life in middle-class suburbia, had not done much traveling, and definitely had not yet developed anything resembling a personal style. I never had occasion to encounter the sort of old-money folks who were the ones wearing Reds at the time. Even setting aside their class associations, I definitely could not see myself wearing them.

In fact, I've never owned any red pants; the closest I ever got was a pair of rust-colored Levi's cords that I wore in high school. [Hm... brain disagrees, has unearthed memory of buying vivid red wide-wale cords at Filene's Basement in college as "joke pants."] I enjoy wearing red, and have my share of red shirts, sweaters, and outerwear, but I've never been able to cross the line to wear red pants, shorts, or shoes—until this year.

I've been circling around the idea of getting red shorts for a couple of years, and I got drawn in by Lands' End, who for at least the past couple of years has offered chinos and shorts in "vintage brick." I still can't see myself wearing red pants, but at least with shorts there isn't as much surface area. And Lands' End has become a go-to for me for shorts because they offer an 11" inseam, which I prefer. So for $20 I had myself a pair of red(dish) shorts.

After I got them, I realized something I hadn't even considered: because of their color, they are a lot trickier to coordinate with than my other clothes. Most people would just choose a white or navy polo, or maybe a light blue oxford shirt, but I don't own any of those things. (I do have a blue end-on-end shirt, but it's long-sleeved.) Most of my summer shirts are plaids or seersucker stripes, or polos in bright solids, and none of it went with the red shorts. I did eventually figure out that my blue striped seersucker shirt or my cream-colored polo would work.

I ran into a similar situation with those red SeaVees sneakers. They are a much darker red, almost maroon, but they're definitely not what one would consider a neutral shade, as most shoes tend to be, and I was still somewhat self-conscious about what I was wearing with them. After a bit of trial and error, I decided that keeping the rest of my outfit as close to neutral as possible, and staying away from anything else with red in it, were the best guidelines I could follow. It is summer, after all, when there's a bit more room for creativity and boldness in dress.

Breaking Mad Men News

For anyone who hasn't already gotten on board, all four seasons of Mad Men will finally be available for streaming on Netflix starting tomorrow. I don't know if that means "at midnight," but you could stay up and find out.

Future seasons will become available on streaming shortly after they air. Again, I don't know if that means after each episode airs or after the season is over, but I would guess the latter.

Take It from Me

Pro tip: when you buy eye drops, it's probably a good idea to remove the plastic safety seal immediately. That way, when a little bit of airborne debris finds its way into your eye, and you reach for the new bottle of eye drops that you just bought, you will be able to actually use them instead of fumbling around half-blind trying to remove that safety seal.

Oh, and... related: there's a lovely mist of fine, gritty, airborne debris coming out of the air vents in our office.

This Week in Awesome (7/23/11)

Wait, what day is this? It's already Sunday? Yikes...

30 years of the space shuttle are beautifully encapsulated in this clip. (Gizmodo)

Here's an enlightening documentary about the watch manufacturing legacy in the town of Waltham. (boston.com)

There's a bizarre fascination to be found in watching government-mandated safety crash tests of vehicles. Consumer Reports has gathered a bunch of them. (Consumerist)

If you're a fan of the brilliant NBC sitcom Community (and if you aren't, why the hell not?), you'll want to check out this preview of the bloopers that are going to be included in the season two DVD set. (Entertainment Weekly via Videogum)

And finally this week, the funniest thing I have seen in some time: a superbly snarky blend of Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves and (the unfortunately dormant for nearly a year now) Look At This Fucking Hipster, I give you... Hipster Puppies. (The Trad)

Overheated

Today's post is post-poned (ha! see what I did there?) on account of it's too damn hot. My employer seems to be holding back on the AC on purpose, in order to conserve energy and put less of a burden on the grid. The entire office is hovering at around 80 degrees, which is downright unpleasant. It's like what they do in offices in Tokyo, or so I've read.

I'm in the process of finishing up my tasks for today, after which I'll be clearing out of here a bit early (I racked up several hours of comp time on that last project anyway) and finding somewhere to cool down. I hope all of you are able to do the same.

Grooming Garage: Shoe Defense

In the summer, I like to go sockless. It sure looks better with shorts, and it's just nice to be able to discard a shackle of male adulthood for a few months out of the year. Of course, if you have ever looked around at the men's style portion of the interwebs, you have doubtless noticed that there are plenty of guys who will wear any sort of shoe without socks, at any time of year, in any climate.

I am not one of those people. I have specific shoes that I wear without socks, and only without socks. I do have one pair of shoes that I have been wearing this summer that I also wore during the rest of the year, with socks: my L.L. Bean blucher mocs. For only $69, I could theoretically have two pairs of these, one to wear sockless in summer and one to wear the rest of the time.

Maybe that will happen at some point, but for now I have just the one pair, and I'm trying to take care of them. Of course, since it's summer my feet sweat along with the rest of me, and sweat tends to shorten the useful life of shoes, especially when you're wearing them without socks.

I'd been powdering my feet each morning with Gold Bond before putting on whatever shoes or sneakers I was wearing that day, but that's tedious and messy. A month or so ago I saw an article in the New York Times Style section about powders for men. It was mainly about keeping one's nether regions dry and comfy, which is certainly a good idea on days like today, but many of the products featured in the article work well on the feet too.

I ordered Dry Goods spray-on powder from drugstore.com and I've been using it for about two weeks now. The spray comes out of the nozzle angled a bit to the left of where I'm aiming it, but I've been able to correct for that and it's been working great. It feels cold when it goes on, which took a little getting used to. It keeps my feet from feeling clammy during the day, and is helping to protect my shoes.

Checking in with Ralph

Last Friday I had a quick errand to do after work that brought me over to Newbury Street. I don't have occasion to shop in the city that much anymore, so I decided to walk around for a bit.

One store I enjoy stopping into every now and then just for the atmosphere is Ralph Lauren's plush, overstuffed townhouse. (Trivia: way back in 1988 I had a job in the building next door, but there was no Ralph store there at the time; I have no recollection of what was, and it may not have even been used for retail space.) Turns out Ralph was having a pretty good sale, with selected items an extra 25% off the already-reduced prices.

I don't buy or wear a lot of Polo clothing, mainly because of the gaudy logos, and truthfully, for the past year or so I have paid very little attention to what they were selling. (I think this is also partly due to the fact that I hardly ever go to Macy's or Lord & Taylor anymore.) But I do like some of the stuff Ralph does, and it never hurts to look.

As it turned out, I found a nice shirt, blue with a white and red check pattern, that had a button-flap pocket with no logo. The flap-pocket thing has been having a moment of sorts (not just workshirts with two pockets, but also casual sport shirts with just one), and I kind of like how it looks. It was already marked down to almost half of its original $125 price (really, who pays full price for this stuff?) and the extra 25% brought it down to nearly 60% of the original price. That's how I like to shop.

(FYI: if you're looking to take advantage of the extra discount and happen to be looking for something in particular, some of what's on the Ralph web site isn't in the stores, and vice versa, so check both if you can.)

Ralph also used to have a smaller store in Copley Place that I used to check out when I was in that vicinity (typically passing through on my way home from work). One particular thing I liked about that store was that they carried a small selection of clothes from Ralph's RRL line, which has kind of a rugged vibe that I like. RRL is pretty difficult to come by—department stores don't generally carry it, and it's not available on the Ralph web site. That store closed last year, and I was surprised to find that there's no RRL representation in the Newbury Street store. I mentioned it to a staffer, who said the Barneys in Copley Place carries a very small amount of RRL, but he and I agreed that it's negligible.

There are a couple of free-standing RRL stores in New York, on Bleecker Street in the West Village and on Prince Street in Soho. Both stores are fairly tiny spaces, but the line isn't that big anyway. I stopped into the Prince St. store on my visit a couple of weeks ago and generally liked what I saw, except for the prices. It's kind of a drag that there's nowhere in this area to see RRL gear in person, but according to a post about chinos on Put This On last week, word is that RRL will be going online soon. I guess the desire to sell product has won out over the perceived exclusivity of limiting its availability.

Eating in Public

At this very moment I'm looking at someone eating an ear of corn on the cob.

On the Green Line.

What.

The.

FUCK.

A Lunch-Inspired Gripe

For lunch, I usually go to the cafeteria in the hospital next to my office and make a salad at the salad bar. The salad bar can be accessed on two sides, but a lot of people don't seem to realize that. I prefer going on the "back" side because it's less used, and I like to take my time so I'm less likely to be holding up the next person. I try to be considerate in that way, but not many others do.

But if I go too late, the back side gets blocked off so the staff can replenish the tasty veggies, and I have to use the front side, where I am inevitably hindered by the slow, clueless people making salads ahead of me. I just stood behind a woman who spent two solid minutes picking through the lettuce and carefully choosing pieces for her salad. It's iceberg lettuce—how much variation did she really think there was? (Besides which, iceberg has basically no nutritional value whatsoever, but that's another topic.)

If I ever lose it and start attacking people, I hope some editor has the presence of mind to call me the Salad Shooter...

Time Demands

This job thing can be tricky sometimes. I had two projects due more or less at the same time (one's my normal monthly deadline), made worse by the fact that I took some time off. (When I made plans to take the days off, I didn't know the second project was coming.)

So I spent a decent portion of the weekend working on one, and several hours at home this evening finishing the other. Everything will have evened out in another day or two, but it makes me wonder if it was even worth it to go away.

This Week in Awesome (7/16/11)

Last week was just a bit on the crazed side, with some extra stuff going on at work before I left, and the general scrambling to get ready for the trip, so there just wasn't any time to get a TWiA ready before we went away. But now you can all relax. What's that British slogan from World War II? Keep calm and carry on...

Have you ever quit a job and wanted to let your boss know how you really felt? This one's for you. (Consumerist via WIVB-TV Buffalo)

Gag reels are often as funny as the movies they are associated with. As it happens, I have seen all ten of the movies on this list. (Unreality via Videogum)

Hey, check it out, I think NPR kinda likes you. Yeah, it made you a summer playlist. (NPR Music)

You know how there's a new Muppets movie coming out at Thanksgiving? Well, Disney commissioned an album of covers of Muppet-related songs. (Stereogum) Be warned, though: the trailer contains the worst song of all time.

And finally this week, nicely wrapping up the sort-of music theme, do you remember back in the 80s when MTV used to run those "Rock Against Drugs" PSAs? Got some right here. Ah, nostalgia. (FlavorWire via The Awl)

Retro Video Unit (7/15/11)

Oh yeah, this one's perfect for a summer Friday afternoon. Plus, it's the original music video that was made for the song. Since it's roughly 30 years old, the video is quite fuzzy, but the audio quality is pretty good. (And to think I once had a 12" single of this which included a German version, and I didn't keep it...)

So sit back and relax, and take a ride down memory lane with Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)."

Downtown Accommodations

I've been to New York City more than two dozen times in my middle-aged life. We used to stay with a friend of the Mrs. who lived in Brooklyn, but eventually she got married and moved to a smaller apartment (and now they have a toddler and live in New Jersey), so we started staying in hotels.

I've stayed in a dozen different hotels in Manhattan. Some were very nice; others were merely places with a bed and a bathroom. On a couple of occasions I was alone and only there for one night, so where I stayed didn't matter so much. Nowadays, though, I tend to make hotel choices pretty carefully. I like comfort and privacy.

This is preamble to me telling you about the hotel where we just stayed, which we both felt was the best overall hotel experience we have had in Manhattan. It's called Andaz; it's a stupid name, but a great place. Andaz belongs to Hyatt Hotels, and is meant to be their equivalent to boutique hotels like Starwood's W brand. We stayed at the W on Lexington Avenue several years ago, and found the room small and mediocre, plus there was a definite cooler-than-you vibe among both guests and staff.

The Andaz Wall Street is nothing like that. It's warm and welcoming from the moment you come through the revolving door. In fact, there's usually a hotel staffer there to turn the door for you, which is especially helpful when you are maneuvering luggage. There isn't a front desk per se; there is a counter in the middle of the lobby, but staff may be found on either side of it, or roaming around.

We arrived earlier than expected, but checking in early was no problem. We were checked in while sitting on a sofa off to one side of the lobby by a staff person with a small netbook computer. (I asked about iPads; he said they are getting them soon.) Then we got a brief introduction to some of the amenities Andaz offers at each of its hotels (at the moment there are only five locations; one of those is in London, the others are in Hollywood, San Diego, and in Midtown across from the New York Public Library).

There are free newspapers, and a little "pantry" area at one end of the lobby with some complimentary snacks (cookies, apples, candied walnuts), sparkling water, orange juice, and a barista station. Yes, there is a person there whose job is to make coffee for you. So instead of a gunky in-room Mr. Coffee or a vat of industrial-solvent coffee that's been sitting for who knows how long, you get a freshly made cup of coffee, espresso, tea—whatever you feel like. There's also free wifi throughout the hotel (as I'm sure you know, one of the most obnoxious gouges of the hospitality industry is that, typically, the higher-end the hotel, the more likely it is that you will have to pay an outrageous daily charge for wifi).

The clerk went to the desk to make our keys, then escorted us up to the room and showed us around, because there was more good stuff to come. The word "minibar" can send even the most seasoned business traveler into a cold sweat. Some hotels leave a bottle of sparkling water on the desk as a "welcome gift," but if you drink it they charge you $8. Some hotels have sensors in their minibars that record a purchase if an item is merely moved, when maybe you just had some leftovers you wanted to store in the little fridge. At Andaz the in-room snacks and drinks are free, except for alcohol. So you can relax and drink a bottle of water, eat a chocolate bar, nibble on some Terra chips.

There are a couple of cool tech bits: there is a control panel next to the bed for the lighting, with settings that adjust the various lights in the room accordingly: work, relax, night light, etc. There are also buttons to lower or raise the window covers, which is really cool and fun to watch.

And the room? The standard room is about 350* square feet, larger than some hotels' upgrade rooms. (Where we stayed back in November was a nice enough hotel, but there was barely enough space in the room to get around the furniture.) The added space makes a big difference. There was a nice comfy chair between the bed and the window, with a reading lamp next to it. The bed was extremely comfortable. There were cushions on the windowsill so you could sit and look out. The bathroom was huge by hotel standards, with a four-by-six-foot (yeah, I measured it) walk-in shower with one of those rainfall heads.

The location is only a brief drunken stumble from South Street Seaport, and there's a new (only partly open, at the moment) waterfront park along the East River in the same general area. A few short blocks to the south is Battery Park. The subway lines are to the west relative to the hotel, but the closest one is only two or three minutes away, and you can walk over to the others in less than ten minutes. (Wall Street is pretty short.) And the financial district is a lot less crowded on weekends than, say, Soho or Midtown. The hotel even hosts a farmer's market on Saturdays.

As more people are choosing to live in lower Manhattan, more amenities are appearing. The city's ubiquitous Duane Reade drugstores have been getting a serious makeover, with better designs and product selections, and things like fresh produce. There's one directly across the street from the hotel, but they also just opened a ridiculous, kind of awesome 22,000-square-foot store a couple of blocks up Wall Street, where you can get a shampoo or a manicure, plus there's a smoothie counter, a prepared food section, and a sushi bar. This stuff is geared toward the thousands of folks who work in the financial district, but visitors can certainly benefit from it too.

I got an excellent deal on this stay through Jetsetter, which is the travel arm of the flash-sale site Gilt (if you're interested, you can sign up here). I paid about half the standard rate, but you can frequently find decent rates on the travel site Oyster, along with lots of real photos, not ones taken by hotel-hired pros or PR people.

(*I got this number from the hotel's web site.)

Summer in the City

You may wonder why we would head to New York City at the height of summer, and you'd definitely be justified in wondering that. As it happened, a very good deal on a hotel presented itself, and with the Mrs. getting ready to embark on grad school in September, we weren't sure if/when we would be able to take another such trip, so we just decided to go ahead and do it. After a few short hours in the city, though, I found myself thinking that I probably want to avoid going back there during the hot months unless there's a good reason.

At home, my approach to dealing with the hot-and-humid is to be outside as little as possible, which, thanks to the advent of things like GPS bus tracking, works pretty well when commuting and working in a nicely chilled office. But in Manhattan, you tend to do a lot of walking, and even when it is possible to avoid the heat, you inevitably find yourself heading down into a subway station at some point, which is a lot like being parboiled in asphalt.

We spent a fair amount of time ducking into stores to cool off for a few minutes, but I was somewhat surprised to find that many places have rather feeble air conditioning. Nonetheless we persevered, going back to the hotel to take showers before heading back out to get sweaty again.

I thought about my previous visit, the day trip I took in March with the Proper Bostonian. It was just below 40 degrees that day, and walking down Fifth Avenue toward Washington Square we were pummeled by a stiff wind. I know this makes me somewhat odd, but I prefer the bluster and cold to July's slow-roasting.

Brain Fail

Middle-age forgetfulness is creeping up on me in earnest. Today I discovered that I left my phone charger at the hotel. It's inductive, which means you don't have to actually plug it into the phone; the phone's back rests against the face of the charger and is held in place by little magnets. That's cool and all, but it also makes it easier to forget about. I picked up the phone off the desk in the room and ignored the charger.

I called the hotel, but they didn't have it. Housekeeping probably just thought, "another stupid tourist forgot their charger" and threw it away. Fortunately, my phone has been discontinued, and a quick look at the Verizon web site showed that I could get a replacement for only $10, which is interesting because direct from HP (Palm) it's $70. Guess which one I chose?

Bonus embarrassment: when we left my mom's last night after picking up the dog, I left my phone on the kitchen counter, but realized that after we'd been on 95 for only a few minutes.

Did You Miss Me?

We're back from our trip, so you can expect regular (whatever that means) programming to resume shortly. I had access to a computer at the hotel, but I guess I was more concerned with things like where we were going to eat.

Overheard: Musical Taste Police Edition

Have you noticed that when a car is blasting loud music, that music is generally not what would be considered good music?

This leads, sort of, to an anecdote. (Those of you on the facebook thingy may have already seen/heard this; I'm relating it primarily for the rest of us.) Our friend Dave (he of the Rationales) was driving around on a recent night, listening to The Smiths. While stopped at a traffic light a car pulled up next to him, and someone inside yelled, "Hey! No Morrissey in East Boston!"

I guess the good music will go unappreciated by the philistines anyway.

About Time

Hey, guess what? Watches are cool again, now that the New York Times Style section says so. What a relief to be told that my interest in them wasn't a waste of time...

Rays

As someone who is very pale, I'm no fan of the sun. A very deeply tanned woman (wearing a white dress to show it off, of course) sat next to me this morning on the T, and it creeped me out a little. But it reminded me of something else.

Back in the first half of the 1980s, before there was a significant public-health effort to educate people about the dangers of sun exposure, I spent my summers between college years working at city hall, in the tax collector's office. One of the full-time employees was a sun worshiper. She was probably in her mid-40s at the time, though she did her best to give the impression that she was younger than that.

Each day at lunch, weather permitting, she would go out to her car, take a folding lounge chair out of the trunk, set it up, and lie in the sun for 30 or 40 minutes. It was obvious that she'd been doing this for some time, and also obvious that she spent her weekends at the beach. Her skin already looked leathery, so who knows what became of her down the road.

As for me, I try to limit my time outdoors when the sun is high and bright, and I'm more conscientious about wearing a hat than I used to be. I'll be packing one with me for our trip.

Days Off

Reflecting on the holiday weekend, we were pretty busy and had fun, but it wasn't particularly relaxing. Saturday we got haircuts and then drove down to RI to my mother's for some grillin' and potato salad and such. Sunday evening we were invited to dinner at the home of friends, Monday we were invited to lunch at the home of some other friends. We had some down time earlier on Sunday and got to sleep in all three days, but that's about it.

Oh, and we saw Bad Teacher last night, which I enjoyed. Bridesmaids was more overtly funny, but this movie was certainly not a disappointment. It's worth it for the car wash scene alone, and Lucy Punch, the British actress who played the adversary to Cameron Diaz's character, was really good too. BTW, bonus points to the producers (or whoever makes such decisions) for using the classic Rockpile song "Teacher, Teacher" during the opening credits.

Normally I would have taken off the Friday before a long holiday weekend, just to make it a longer holiday weekend, but New York beckons yet again—we're heading down Friday morning, and since I'd already planned to take three days off I didn't bother with the Friday. But Labor Day weekend will definitely be stretched to four days.

Festive Attire

I was watching the fireworks show on TV, and noticed that many people were wearing festive, red-white-and-blue outfits. I don't begrudge anyone who enjoys dressing up like this, but my only sartorial acknowledgement of the holiday was a red polo shirt.

Also, you would think there would have been one person in the staff of the production who would have noticed that a guy with the build of Michael Chiklis should not be wearing a black three-button suit (I thought those had faded away, but I guess not), and definitely should have told him not to button all three buttons, and ESPECIALLY not the bottom one. It's all Alec Baldwin's fault.

This Week in Awesome (7/2/11)

I hope you're enjoying the long holiday weekend. (I also hope you get a long weekend to enjoy.) I was thinking I'd line up an extra-large batch of goodies to keep you entertained, but it didn't quite work out that way.

An article in the style section of the New York Times about powders for men led me to this funny, spoofy commercial.

Update, 7/5: I had bookmarked this site at work and forgotten about it: a blog that digs into the history of shopping centers and malls from decades past.

And now we're just going to move right into the thematically-appropriate entertainment portion of this week's feature: first, cameras mounted on fireworks (BuzzFeed via Gizmodo), followed by fireworks explosions captured with a high-speed camera (Gizmodo via PopSci). Happy 4th, stay safe out there.

Retro Video Unit (7/1/11)

While banging around in YouTube's dusty basements and attics, looking for clips to post for this, I've discovered that many of the late-'70s new wave artists that I liked never made music videos for their singles, or if they did, they either didn't survive or haven't been dug up and posted.

Such is the case with today's featured band, The Records, so this performance clip, which seems to be from a UK TV show, will have to suffice. It's certainly better than those clips that have nothing more than an image of the sleeve from the original 45, or of the 45 itself. Enjoy the music...