Watch Wednesday (3/7/12): Orient Mako Review

Update, 3/10: I finally got around to taking some pictures. I could have borrowed some from the Orient website, but I thought my own shots would give a better sense of the watch.

I've been wearing the Orient Mako watch for about a week and a half, so it's time for my review. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll remind you that Orient Watch USA sent me this watch to review and keep. But it's a watch I would confidently spend my own money on.

The Mako is a dive-style watch that's available with either a metal bracelet or a rubber strap. Dial color choices include black, deep blue, orange, and yellow (from looking at the Orient website, the yellow seems to be available only with the metal bracelet). All have a black ratcheting coin-edge bezel, except for the blue dial, which is available with either an all-blue or a blue-and-red bezel. The case measures 41 mm in diameter, and takes a 22 mm bracelet or strap.

The Mako's dial has its own distinctive look thanks to the squarish numerals at the 6, 9, and 12 positions. The look of these numerals is one of my favorite features of the watch. There's also a day/date window at 3. The second crown above the main one adjusts the day of the week; to use it you first need to unscrew the collar, which keeps it from getting changed accidentally during normal wear. The main crown screws down as well.

The watch is hefty and feels substantial, but not too heavy on the wrist. The construction is impressively solid, especially the adjustable bracelet. On many watches competitive with the Mako, the bracelets, and especially their clasps, can feel flimsy. The Mako's bracelet has a foldover locking clasp and a pinch release; both work flawlessly and feel very sturdy.

One distinction that separates Orient from many other watch companies, including some of the top Swiss brands, is that they manufacture their own movements. The Mako, like most other Orient watches, is powered by an automatic movement that keeps very accurate time. I've worn this watch approximately every other day since I received it, deliberately, to monitor its power reserve. That's the amount of time you can expect the watch to keep running after you take it off. Orient claims a reserve of 40 hours, which is right in line with my personal experience. If you take it off before going to bed and skip a day, the watch will still be accurate the second morning.

In normal use, I encountered only one minor issue, and it's really rather subjective: all Mako models have a silver second hand with a red tip, which against the orange dial is sometimes hard to see. But when checking one's watch to see what time it is, reading the second hand is secondary to the hour and minute hands, which are plenty easy to see. Those hands, and the hour markers, glow in the dark if first exposed to light.

The Orient watch reviews I've read online focus on value, which is justified. In the 1970s Japanese watches began to gain attention and acceptance in the marketplace, and took sales from both American and Swiss brands by offering comparable quality at lower prices. As of this writing, the retail price of the Mako on a metal bracelet is $215, or $180 on a rubber strap. However, Orient Watch USA has generously offered me a discount code to pass along to readers, so if you are interested you can save 30% by entering "someassembly30" at OrientwatchUSA.com.

The Orient Mako is an outstanding value for an automatic watch, and while it's not a particularly dressy model, it could work nicely with a leather strap substituted for the rubber one (one of my favorite watch modifications, as readers probably remember). There is a community of Orient owners and fans at www.orientalwatchsite.com/forum/ which includes a section of straps for sale.

Silver Screen

Movie buffs, take note: this year marks the 70th anniversary of the release of Casablanca, one of the most beloved movies ever. The actual anniversary date falls in November, but according to HitFix, Turner Classic Movies is presenting a one-day screening of Casablanca in several hundred theaters nationwide on Wednesday, March 21st.

It's described as a "new digital transfer" so I'm not sure if that means the showings won't be on actual film (and I'm going to leave that argument for the hardcore cinephiles), but I think what's important is the fact that it will be possible to see Casablanca on a big screen. I've seen the movie several times, but not for many years, and I honestly can't remember whether or not I ever saw it in a movie theater.

Here's the list of theaters showing Casablanca. In the Boston area, you can see the movie at the AMC Fenway and Framingham, the Showcase Cinemas in Dedham and Revere, and several other locations.

Footwear Flashback

This ties into my long-standing appreciation of penny loafers, and has a kind of Mad Men vibe too: over at Ivy Style there's a nice collection of vintage ads for Bass Weejuns.

This Week in Awesome (3/3/12)

Going to Target is not an especially exciting way to spend a Saturday evening, but in our defense, we had run out of several things, plus we are boring. This is what happens when you've been married a while...

Did I hear someone in the back say it's been a while since I linked to a time-lapse video? You are correct, so how about a whole bunch of 'em? (Mashable via NPR)

And while we're at it, how about a big-ass mashup of a bunch of movie car chases? (Jalopnik)

The New York Times started a tumblr (I know, right?) to showcase photos from its archives. (The Hairpin)

Paul Rudd was on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon promoting Wanderlust, which led to this gallery of posters for fake buddy movies he and Jimmy purport to have made. (Videogum)

And finally this week, radio host Jesse Thorn (who is also the founder of men's style site Put This On) shares his wisdom about finding ways to do what you love and make money at it, too. (Transom via PTO)

Back Pocket

I avoided Levi's for a long time, but I've gradually come back around and currently have three pairs. I've found that I have a slight preference for the traditional straight-fit, zip-fly 505 over the button-fly 501. In my size the leg openings are very similar, but the 505 has a slightly higher rise in the back, which is more comfortable when sitting and bending over.

Recently I was ordering a few items of basic furnishings (socks, underwear) from JCPenney, and decided to get another pair of 505s. Jean prices have gone up over the past year of so due to higher cotton costs, so Levi's don't go on sale as often as they used to, meaning it was just as easy to include them in this order as to get them from somewhere else for the same price (I've ordered the last couple pairs from Zappos). Also, I liked that JCPenney did not back down when confronted with that hate-filled business a few weeks back regarding the choice of Ellen DeGeneres as their new spokesperson. Vote with your wallet, right?

A decade or so ago, Levi's changed the shape of the arcuate (that's their word for the curved stitching on the back pockets of their jeans), making the center deeper and, to my eyes, ruining it. It was one of the things that soured me on them temporarily. When these new jeans arrived, I was very surprised and pleased to find that the arcuate was shallower, much more like the way it used to be.

I have no way of knowing if this is a permanent change, or only something temporary, or some sort of accident or fluke. Since I didn't go to a store to get the jeans, I didn't have the benefit of seeing lots of other pairs around, nor could I find any specific evidence of a change anywhere online; on the Levi's website and others, the only arcuate I saw is the deeper version, though it's also possible that sites don't know that a change is being implemented and are still using older images.

You know, I may be overthinking this...

My first instinct was to order another pair right away, but that wouldn't be the most economical reaction. I'm considering attempting to contact Levi's PR to see if I can get some sort of official comment.

Back to Class

If you can stand another bit of TV-related news, Community returns to NBC's Thursday night comedy lineup in two weeks. From that point it should run until the end of the season in May, uninterrupted, 12 new episodes. No word yet on a possible fourth season; it's still very much up in the air, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Fingers crossed.

Change Partners

Speaking of public service announcements, the "one month until the Mad Men season premiere" mark slipped past me unnoticed over the weekend. To atone for this oversight, here's a fun little chart put together by Wired that details all the show's sexual goings-on, including some imaginary hookups they'd like to see. At this point, we kind of needed this to keep track anyway. (The Hairpin)

Privacy, Please

Public-service announcement time: those of you with Google accounts may want to read this information provided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation about clearing your Google search history, because as of Thursday it will be linked to other data Google collects on you through its other products, unless you remove it by following the instructions.

Perks of Blogging

This blog does not have a vast readership, so I don't get invited to fashion shows or vodka parties. But sometimes there are benefits to operating on a smaller scale.

Documenting my interest in watches led to me being contacted by a representative of Orient Watch USA. He offered to send me a watch to review, and keep. Naturally I accepted. I was given a range of models from which to choose, and my selection arrived Friday. I started wearing it Saturday, after removing some links from the bracelet so it would fit properly. I plan to wear it for at least a week, so I'll be posting a full report some time next week.

This Week in Awesome (2/25/12)

I skipped TWiA last weekend because I didn't have anything good to share. But things are better now:

Check out this collection of large-scale photos using groups of people. (Colossal via The Hairpin)

Have you ever seen the Patrick Swayze movie Road House? It's hilariously awful. Here's a sample. (The Daily What via Videogum)

Build your kids bunk beds like this and score some major cool-parent points. (Instructables via Autoblog)

Here's another craft project that has nothing to do with kids. (The Awl via BoingBoing)

And finally this week, an enterprising college student started a service offering other students rides home after their one-night stands. That's amusing enough, but then she went and made an ad for it. We have definitely not heard the last from her, of this I am sure. (Jalopnik)

Retro Video Unit (2/24/12)

Sometimes I get inspiration for these posts by looking through the artists and songs in my iTunes library. Today that led me to the title track from Kraftwerk's 1977 album Trans Europe Express.

This black-and-white clip predates the official music video era, but it's no surprise that the German electronic-music pioneers were creating visual accompaniments to their songs before most everyone else, as they were ahead of their time in pretty much every other way as well.



Remastered versions of the band's albums were reissued in 2009; I have this album and Autobahn, and they are well worth acquiring. Careful listening reveals how their influence has echoed through the ensuing decades in many different corners of music. In the most obvious example, the song's signature melody was used, albeit with its pitch and tempo altered, in the 1982 funk/hip-hop milestone "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force. See for yourself:

Spring Options

Spring isn't that far away (if you've spent any time outside in Boston yesterday or today, you'd be excused for thinking it had already arrived), so it's time to start thinking about some new pieces for your wardrobe.

Chambray workshirts have been back "in" for a few years now and will probably be sticking around, which is fine with me. But sometimes you want a slightly more refined look, and chambray fabrics are conveniently migrating to nicer casual shirts.

Lands' End has adapted the style to a sport shirt with a button-down collar and a single chest pocket in both solids and stripes, but to me it doesn't look right. At the opposite end of the casual-dressy continuum, you can find tailored dress shirts with cutaway collars in chambray fabrics, but these aren't as useful for everyday dressing and are probably best left to someone with a very specific, highly evolved personal style.

My favorite of what I've seen so far this spring is from L.L. Bean Signature. It has the button-down collar and single chest pocket like the LE shirt I mentioned above, but the fit is going to be a bit trimmer than those. Also, the pocket has a buttoned flap, a nice little detail which gives it a bit more panache. LLBS has been using this detail on its shirts (of which I have three) since the line started up a couple of years ago, so it feels like it belongs here. It also references trad mainstay J. Press, which has been offering oxford shirts with a flapped pocket for decades. Add a wool or knit tie and a corduroy or tweed jacket and you've got the urban professor look nailed.

Subterranean Bus Stop Blues

I now know that it takes 25 minutes to get from Harvard Square to Sullivan Square on the 86 bus during the evening rush hour. That's a bit over two miles, so that means the bus was averaging about 13 miles an hour. Yay.

Also, I didn't know that the stop for the 86 had been moved from in front of the Johnson gate at Harvard Yard (where the 1 bus picks up) to the underground busway attached to the Harvard T station, so I spent about 15 minutes waiting for a bus that the MBTAInfo site said was due in one minute. Eventually I noticed that none of the bus route signs at the stop had 86 on them, and managed to figure out where I was supposed to be from the T's website. Can you tell I haven't spent much time in the Square lately?

Late

I hadn't intended to take today off from posting. I know it was technically a holiday, but I wasn't planning on using that as an excuse. However, the Mrs. has been diligently working on various assignments for the bulk of the weekend, which means she needs to be on the computer for long stretches of time.

I don't really care for creating posts on my iPhone, because typing on the onscreen keyboard for more than a few lines is tiring. She did purchase a small laptop back in December, but its hard drive failed after about a month, and it had to be sent to New Jersey to be repaired. It does have a decent keyboard, but I haven't used it for more than a few minutes.

As it happened, the repaired computer arrived today (why is UPS delivering on a holiday?) but we had to go out for a while, and sometimes the rest of the day just gets away from me. Even now, as I'm writing this, I should be sleeping.

This week is much less cluttered than last week, with the exception of tomorrow, so hopefully I can get back to whatever is passing for normal these days.

Breaking It Down

A Proper Bostonian left this comment on my post from last night:

Um, can you please explain this one? Loafers and jeans... and a winter coat. What's the problem?

Glad you asked.  First, the shoes. This is more or less what the loafers he was wearing looked like (image borrowed from the Allen Edmonds website):

This is not a shoe I would wear, but that's fine; I know people who wear shoes like this. My first issue with these is that they are very dressy loafers. They're kind of European, and tend to go with much more dressed-up casual outfits. They aren't really meant to be worn with a suit, but sometimes people do, and if you have enough personal style to begin with, you can occasionally get away with crossing that sort of line, depending on the situation. These shoes in tan, with a summer suit and no tie, on the right person, in the right setting, would work.

The guy I saw in the T station wasn't wearing anything else dressy, which was my first problem. Wool dress pants or trim-fit pressed khakis in a darker color would be all right. Jeans are iffy. The guy's jeans were a darker blue, but they weren't the sort of really dark denim that can sometimes be dressed up. They were just jeans, and they were boot-cut, which was my next problem. The wider leg of a boot-cut jean is just too casual to wear with shoes like these, regardless of the jean's color.

On top of everything was the jacket. I tend to pick on North Face jackets because I hate clothing with logos, but also because every other person I see on the streets and subways in the winter is wearing one. It's the lowest-common-denominator winter outerwear for people who don't care about clothes and just want to be warm, or people who want to project an image of being outdoorsy. And no one has any business wearing dressy shoes with such a jacket.

People who care about style always say details matter, and it's absolutely true. What people sometimes tend to forget or overlook is that the details matter both on their own, and in the context of the entirety of what you are wearing. You have to think about how everything is going to look when combined into an outfit. That's why this guy caught my eye, and that's what really bothered me about his outfit.

There are several outerwear choices that would have looked fine with these shoes, and might have allowed me to overlook the jeans: a peacoat; a traditional wool overcoat, in knee or 3/4 length; a trench coat; a hip-length leather coat; even a Barbour, which is borderline but I think could have worked if it was navy or black. Most of those lean toward the dressier side of the outerwear spectrum, and that's the key. You can't combine something dressy (in this case, the shoes) with something as overtly casual, technical, or sporting as a fleece or soft shell, regardless of what brand it is.

You want to wear your North Face? Fine, wear your hiking shoes with it. You want to wear those fancy bit loafers? Fine, get a nicer coat. You want to wear boot-cut jeans? Fine, get some boots. Details matter.

Remember Me?

It was pretty much the kind of week I expected it to be, but now here we are at the long weekend.

On my way home this evening, I noticed a guy in the subway station wearing a gray North Face jacket, boot-cut jeans, and a pair of black bit loafers—you know, the kind that have little metal decorative things on them. I'm not sure what sort of look he was aiming for, but whatever it was, he missed.

Geek Tragic

For the iPad user who can't sit still, there is now a wearable iPad desk/carrier thing. Can't wait until I see someone wearing/using one of these on the T.

This Week

This is a tough week for me: due to the upcoming long weekend my monthly deadline falls earlier (I need to have things squared away by Friday), plus I have several other items that will take up chunks of my time. As such I don't have a high degree of confidence about my availability.

As I've done in similar past situations, I'm going to offer some suggested reading. Today there's an interesting article in the New York Times about the current state of television in Russia.

This Week in Awesome (2/11/12)

Snow? What snow? It's supposed to approach 50 again on Wednesday. The Winter That Wasn't...

Well-known dance moves from movies and TV in poster form. (I Watch Stuff via Videogum)

A dog-sized exercise wheel. (The Daily What)

I read about this video Chipotle had made to promote their sustainable farming efforts. The message is delivered in a distinctive style, and the Willie Nelson version of Coldplay's "The Scientist" is pretty cool too. (New York Times)

Video footage of a 1979 Clash concert in New York synced up to independently recorded audio of the same show. Unfortunately this isn't a whole song but rather only excerpts of a few songs, but it's still amazing to experience the band in its prime. (Dangerous Minds via Kempt)

And finally this week, Canada's Virgin Radio is sponsoring a Fake Film Festival in which entrants recreate a favorite movie in 60 seconds. One notable entry is this unconventional take on the dark drug-addiction story Requiem For A Dream. (The Daily What via Filmdrunk)

Retro Video Unit (2/10/12)

Sometimes the video I have in mind for a given week isn't the video I end up posting. This time around I was hoping to find "Discovering Japan" by Graham Parker. I didn't find an official video for that song, but I did find "Local Girls" from the same album, and that led to this Rockpile cover of Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk."

Pass the Cheese

There are always bits of pop culture flotsam that slip by in their moments. It's impossible to keep track of everything, even today with the info overload available via the internet. Back in the 1980s it was even more difficult.

During that decade I was a college student and then a young college grad, trying to get by while figuring out what I might want to do with my life. My energy and free time were largely focused on music, and I spent very little time watching television. In college we mainly watched late-night stuff like David Letterman and Twilight Zone reruns, so I was largely unaware of what was going on in prime time.

From our vantage point here in 2012, we know that the 1980s will not be remembered as one of the great eras of prim-time television anyway. But being otherwise occupied meant that I was missing out on some of the egregiously, hilariously bad stuff too, stuff that's worth knowing about precisely because of its awfulness.

One night a couple of weeks ago, I was flipping through the channels (something I rarely do) when I came across an episode of the craptastic 1980s cop show T.J. Hooker. As is often the case with things of this nature, I could not look away (or, in this case, change the channel). Within five minutes I was howling with laughter at the dialogue, which involved a female detective who was secretly using cocaine while trying to solve a series of murders (and what a very 1980s plot that is).

I've watched a few more episodes since, though I don't want to make a habit of it because I'm slightly afraid my brain will cease functioning altogether. It's difficult to watch even a couple of minutes of a T.J. Hooker episode and accept the notion that actual adults were paid to write them. I'm imagining a much more plausible scenario, in which a bunch of eighth-grade boys were rounded up, sent to live in a house stocked with Hostess snack cakes and a swimming pool filled with Mountain Dew, and told to write a cop show. Or it could have been the proverbial bunch of monkeys with typewriters. Regardless, it has to be a contender for worst TV series of all time.

It is also not very surprising to learn that the man who created T.J. Hooker went on to grace the world with Walker, Texas Ranger.

Treat Yourself

Last week I mentioned a reference to the show Parks and Recreation. What I was really trying to find was a post I remembered seeing on a men's style blog that referenced the same episode, where Tom and Donna spend the day treating themselves (hence the expression "treat. yo. self."). But it had been a few months since it was on, and I never did locate the post, or even remember conclusively on which site I'd seen it, so I gave up.

Instead I'm going to toss up the original clip from the episode introducing the concept and the phrase (check out the cupcakes):



And by the way, the whole "treat yourself" thing reminds me of a scene from Twin Peaks: "Harry, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret..."



(And if you stop to think about it, it's pretty amazing that I was thinking of a brief scene from a TV show that aired over 20 years ago, and I was able to find that EXACT scene via the web in less than a minute. We're so spoiled...)

Wait Your Turn

Oh, mankind, will you ever cease to surprise me with your behavior? Probably not...

This morning I was in the cafeteria getting coffee. You fill your cup, pay at a register, then go over to a sort of circular island where the cream and sugar live. It has a two-tier surface, with the aluminum containers of milk and cream on top, and a lower level where you can place your cup while you add your preferred fixings to your coffee.

Like most people, I add some cream to the coffee and then taste it to see how close I've gotten to getting it right, and then I usually have to add a little more, because adding too much milk or cream ruins it. (I have done this once or twice, and have had to go back into the serving area to add more coffee to my cup; the staff don't seem to mind, but it's a pain.) There's a period of a few seconds where I'm tasting the coffee, and I put the cream container next to me on the lower shelf of the island. After I'm done, I put it back on the upper shelf where others can reach it more easily.

So this morning as I'm doing this, an arm reaches across all the way from the opposite side of the island for the cream. The Unspoken But Agreed-Upon Etiquette of Self-Serve Coffee is that you wait for a person to be finished with whatever they are using before taking it to use it yourself (or, you know, ask if the other person is finished), but apparently this person was visiting from another planet where such behavior is not the case. I put my hand on the container and looked up at the guy and said, "I'm not finished with this yet."

When I was finished, I made a point of putting it back in the middle of the upper shelf instead of handing it to him, so he could understand how things are done in places where people have learned how to be patient and wait their turn.

Overheard: We've All Been There Edition

[The Mrs. beat me to this by posting it on her facebook page (justifiably, as you'll see), but since our online existences don't overlap that much, I think it belongs here too:

Saturday night, in the beer aisle of one of the only Stop & Shops in MA that sells liquor (this is an antiquated notion to those of you who live in normal places where all supermarkets sell alcohol): "Remember that time I drank a case of [brand of beer, indistinct] and lit my hand on fire? Ha ha ha..."

This Week in Awesome (2/4/12)

Are you ready for some football? (It's rhetorical, you aren't required to answer.)

Take a look at what goes on behind the scenes in preparation for a Super Bowl broadcast. (Deadspin)

Did you hear that story about how new Apple employees are sometimes assigned to fake projects while their trustworthiness is evaluated? Here's another look. (Joy of Tech)

Comedy nerds, take note: here's a nice breakdown in infographic form of TV actors who cross-pollinate each other's shows. (Grantland via IMDB)

And finally this week, Breaking Bad reimagined as a primitive video game. (CollegeHumor via Uproxx)

Hoodie Dilemma

Of course I'm very excited about the Super Bowl, but I do have one problem: I'm conflicted about what Patriots gear I should wear. I have a few T-shirts (I prefer the throwback Pat Patriot logo to the newer "Flying Elvis") and any of them would be appropriate, but that isn't the issue.

See, I went to my first (and so far only) game at Gilette back in 2006, and while I was there I bought a red hooded sweatshirt. (The Pats' home jerseys used to be red, another throwback touch I like.) For the next year or more, I always wore it on game days. You'll recall that during the 2007 season the Patriots won all their regular-season games, so I figured the hoodie was lucky and kept wearing it.

Then came Super Bowl XLII, and Bill Belichick wore a red hooded sweatshirt instead of his usual gray or navy, and we all know what happened. (I'm pretty sure I was wearing mine that night, but I'm not 100% certain.) After that I still wore my hoodie, but not on game days. A couple of weeks ago I was going through a bin of cold-weather clothing and found the hoodie where I'd packed it last spring. I decided to wear it to watch the Ravens game, and the Patriots won.

A couple of days later, I saw a bit on TV about Belichick's red hoodie. It said that his girlfriend made sure that it got burned. That's some serious stuff, right there. And it leaves me very confused about what to do. I know my sweatshirt isn't Belichick's, but I'm afraid if I wear mine there will still be bad vibes.

You know, I'm pretty sure I still have my championship T-shirt from the Pats' first Super Bowl win ten years ago. That's probably what I should wear.

Reward

It was such a nice day I decided to take a walk and get some ice cream after lunch.

TREAT. YO. SELF. (Parks And Recreation reference; I'll try to find it later...)

Brief Encounter

The train was pretty crowded this morning, and there had been an earlier delay, so when it pulled into North Station the platform was pretty packed. As I squeezed out I had one of those moments where you try to maneuver around someone who moves in the same direction as you, and your brain tries to correct and move you back in the other direction but it's too late and the momentum keeps you moving on your original path.

So there was a little more contact than normal as I worked my way around a guy. As I headed toward the Green Line side of the platform I heard, "Hey...hey!" I started to wonder if he was upset about the contact I'd made (you never know what's going to cause someone to get upset), and the train was already pulling away so I stopped and turned around.

He reached out his hand toward me, but not in a threatening way. I looked down and saw that his white headphones were caught on one of my coat buttons. I looked back up and said, "Aw man, I'm sorry." He unhooked them from me, smiled, and turned back to try to board the train, but given the number of people waiting I doubt he was able to get on that one.

Outerwear Options

I've talked in the past about how my preferences in outerwear have evolved over the years. If you accept the notion that the range of what I see men wearing on the T on a typical day is a representative sample, then I would say about 80% of it is disagreeable to me for one reason or another. About half of those people are wearing some sort of black North Face jacket, with that big, ugly logo on the right shoulder.

I've also noticed that the latest trend in down-filled outer garments is that the feather-filled chambers have grown much narrower and more numerous, which has resulted in people walking around in what appear to be rows and rows of brightly-colored links of sausage. This is far more hideous to me than an old-school down parka, which merely made people look puffy.

I do see the occasional wool overcoat, but they are quite a bit less common these days, probably because relatively fewer men nowadays are required to go to work every day in full business attire. Far more common are shorter, uglier, ill-fitting wool car coats. And of course there are the diehard sports fanatics who show their support for one of our local teams via a parka or some other sort of logo-emblazoned jacket, and a few construction workers in Carhartt brown.

I don't wear much vintage clothing these days, but I do tend to be somewhat backward-looking in my clothing choices. I prefer natural fibers and coats with distinct collars. Last fall, a very retro button-front corduroy coat made its appearance in the L.L. Bean Signature offerings. It's based on a design from the Bean archives circa 1963, with upper and lower flapped pockets, button tabs on the sides of the waist, and a bright plaid wool lining. It reminded me a little of an old hunting coat of my father's that I wore for a while when I was in junior high.

I felt it was overpriced at $185, but Bean always does a bunch of markdowns right after Christmas, and the coat went down to $129. I applied a couple of the reward coupons I earn from having a Bean Visa card to bring the price down to $109. With the only color choices being brown or black, I chose black; I'll wear brown pants now and then, but for a piece of outerwear I just don't care for it. The inky black fabric is offset by very shiny buttons.

I made the mistake of ordering the coat in large, which fit well in the shoulders and arms, but ended up being too snug across the chest and around my seat. I've gotten used to wearing things slimmer, but the near-universal style blogger advice to "size down" does not always apply, especially for someone of my height and build. I based my size choice on the L.L. Bean Signature shirts I've purchased, but with the coat I needed a bit more room, so I sent it back to exchange for an XL, which didn't cost me anything because returns are free with the Bean Visa. There's only a couple of inches' difference in the fit, but it's just enough for me.

As of today, a month or so later, the coat is still on sale at the same price, and all sizes seem to be available in both colors. If you are interested, I'd suggest holding on a bit longer to see if Bean takes another markdown.

This Week in Awesome (1/28/12)

Time to start thinking about the Super Bowl menu...

Related: really well-done re-imaginings of NFL team logos. (This Fits)

A crowdsourced approach to concert videos. (UrbanDaddy)

Cultural anthropology of sorts: in the early 1970s the EPA sent photographers out across the country to document how people's lives were being affected by various environmental conditions. This fascinating photo set on Flickr examines a section of East Boston adjacent to Logan Airport in 1973. (Hemmings Auto Blog)

And finally this week, also in a musical vein, Leonard Cohen's new album Old Ideas arrives this week. I have never given his music the attention it deserves, but Twilight Singers frontman Greg Dulli's outstanding cover of Cohen's "Paper Thin Hotel" is a great way to begin to rectify that. A day or so later I came across this video of a 1988 Cohen appearance on Austin City Limits. (Rolling Stone via The Awl (note that this link will autoplay); Dangerous Minds, also via The Awl)

Retro Video Unit (1/27/12)

Wow, it's already been two weeks since the last one of these? Too quick. I took a day off yesterday and was fairly busy, so I forgot I was supposed to do this...

Going back to about the same time as the XTC song from back in December, The Boomtown Rats came out of London by way of Dublin with a sound that, initially at least, owed as much to Bruce Springsteen as to punk. Most people are familiar with them (if at all) from lead singer Bob Geldof's work organizing the Live Aid concerts in 1985, or the 1979 single "I Don't Like Mondays." That song is what led me to them originally, but it's far from my favorite of their songs.

That would probably be "Rat Trap," from their second album A Tonic for the Troops. It's like a mini rock opera all in one song. There is supposedly an official music video, but since it was released in 1978 I can't find it, so we'll go with this "live" clip from (if the YouTube info is to be believed) the UK music show Top of the Pops.

Briefly Noted

Just after my previously described encounter, I passed the Così sandwich shop on Milk Street and was greeted by outside speakers playing "This House Is Not For Sale" by Ryan Adams. Who knew anyone at Cosi had such good taste in music? For that matter, who knew Così was even open for dinner? When I worked upstairs in that building several years ago, they closed at 3 pm.

Overheard: Personality Conflict Edition

Guy standing in an alley off Milk Street, talking on his phone: "Nah, I can't work with George. That's what happened at Quizno's."

Interrupted

I'd planned to quickly post this morning about how the three meetings I had to attend yesterday got in the way of blogging. Then I got to work and found that we were having serious internet issues—no email, no web access, no file server.

That lasted until early this afternoon, which meant I was unable to get any work done for the first half of my day, and I've spent most of the second half making up for that. And much of that work was postponed from yesterday... see where I'm going with this?

At this moment, I'm not entirely sure what day it is. Hopefully I'll be getting back to something resembling a regular schedule soon enough.

Awareness

Residing on my list of perpetual annoyances is people who don't pay attention to what's happening around them, resulting in the inconveniencing of other people (mostly me, but sometimes others). As I was leaving work today, there was a guy standing at the top of the stairway down to the first floor and the exit. He was in the process of putting on a trench coat, and he was standing in such a way that he was blocking the stairs.

My approach was from behind him on his left side, so he didn't see me. I stopped and waited for him to finish. He shrugged the coat on, and back off again, and back on and back off again. I think the collar was getting caught on his clothing underneath, or something, but after ten seconds I decided I didn't want to wait any longer. I said "excuse me" and went on past him. But he didn't need to be standing in that spot in the first place; just to the right there is an area with armchairs that is not directly in the path of anyone who might be leaving the building.

Yes, sure, people sometimes get distracted, but frankly, most of the time it's because they just can't be bothered to pay attention in the first place. I am always very conscious of my surroundings, and of whether or not I might be blocking someone's way. If you ride public transit, you kind of need to be, but it also connects to my visual limitations and the fact that heightened attention helps me compensate for things I might not be able to see as soon as another person might.

This Week in Awesome (1/21/12)

Those around me know that I had predicted this would be a relatively mild winter, and I'd say that having the first real snow fall three weeks into January fulfills my prediction. Now, it was pretty cold (around 20 degrees) when I went out to shovel yesterday, but the snow was the light and fluffy kind, and we got only about three inches, so I kind of enjoyed it. And we're supposed to approach 50 degrees tomorrow and Tuesday, so it's all going to melt anyway.

Meanwhile, back on the internet, it was a bit of a pop-culture fest this week:

—a classic movie recreated using action figures (Pop Culture Brain via Videogum)

—classic album covers recreated in LEGO (High Snobriety via Esquire Style Blog)

—these dogs want to bark you a familiar tune (YouTube via Jalopnik)

Elsewhere, those of you who are compulsively minded (like me) will appreciate the organizing principle behind this tumblr (Cult of Mac)

And finally this week, Stephen Colbert's satire machine has shifted into high gear for primary season. If you haven't been following along, he formed a SuperPAC and has been using the funds to create a hilarious series of mock campaign ads. You can find all of them here.

The Source

A couple of months ago, I compiled a list of penny loafers at various price points. At the time, I mentioned that I didn't know where the Brooks Brothers loafers were made. I happened to be in the store recently, and got a good look at the shoes. They're made in El Salvador. Know who else has penny loafers manufactured in El Salvador? Bass. Coincidence? Probably not.

If you think about it, it makes sense. Brooks Brothers contracts with companies like Alden and Crockett & Jones to make higher-end shoes for them. Brooks wants to offer a traditionally-styled penny loafer at a more reasonable price, but doesn't want to just carry Bass Weejuns because those sell for only around $100 and are available in lots of other places. So Brooks goes to Bass and says hey, can you run up some private-label loafers for us?

There are a couple of minor differences for the almost $100 extra you'd pay for the BB loafers. The leather soles are much darker than the natural tan ones on Weejuns (not that this matters since the color gets scuffed off the soles as soon as you wear them outdoors). The leather used for the uppers seems a bit nicer, with a more natural-looking semi-matte finish instead of the glossy, plasticky look of a typical modern Weejun.

Otherwise, they're pretty much the same shoes. The insides have the same amount of padding, which is to say hardly any (no one buys penny loafers expecting them to be comfort shoes). I don't see a justification for spending almost twice as much, unless you could get them during one of Brooks Brothers' sales.

Season Premiere Alert

Oh, by the way: Mad Men. March 25th. TWO HOUR EPISODE.

Sports Talk

On my way home from work yesterday, the guy sitting next to me said, "Excuse me, are you a Giants fan?" He was an older gentleman wearing a Celtics jacket.

Trying to determine whether he was a typical T weirdo or a somewhat more normal person, I raised an eyebrow and said, with as little affect as I could, "No." He answered that since he could see that I was reading the sports section of the New York Times, he thought I might be a Giants fan. I told him that the Times has excellent sports coverage, including a reporter who specifically covers the Patriots. I showed him her byline on the story I was reading.

It turned out that he was a native of Indianapolis who had moved to the Boston area almost a quarter-century ago, and over time had become a Boston sports fan. As such, his friends back in Indianapolis had been harassing him via text message regarding the Pats' postseason success. (But hey, they're Colts fans, so they don't have anything better to do at this point, right?)

We proceeded to have a very pleasant conversation about the Patriots, the Ravens, the upcoming game, last weekend's games, his family, his semi-retired state, and several other random topics. I was glad he had made the effort to speak to me, and I hope I see him again (which I may, since we both were heading to Wellington to board buses).

The Pendulum

That stuff I was saying a couple of weeks ago about my work? Yeah, maybe not so much.

Last Week in Awesome

Not sure how I forgot to do this... the weekend ate my brain, I guess.

Did you know you can still find classic men's colognes like Brut in drugstores? I'm not sure how they smell, but if you are dissuaded by the overly perfumey nature of many of today's purportedly men's fragrances, this intrepid gent sampled six drugstore scents. (The Art of Manliness via Kempt)

The font Comic Sans has taken its share of ridicule. This project reimagines well-known logos and other typography using CS. (Esquire Style Blog)

In a similar vein, these movies are imagined in different eras with actors and directors of those times. (Behance via The Daily What)

And finally this week, many of you have probably already seen this, but it's so good it's worth posting here too: Tebowie. (Late Night With Jimmy Fallon; Hulu via Videogum)

Retro Video Unit (1/13/12)

I decided to toss out another one of these today, to get back on my original schedule.

The Church, one of my longtime favorite bands, made a bunch of videos to accompany tracks from their early albums, and they were all complied on a collection called Goldfish: Jokes, Magic, and Souvenirs. I had a copy of it, but it was on VHS, which may explain why I can't find the videos for early songs like "The Unguarded Moment" anywhere on YouTube.

But I did find this one. It's a typically weird video by the standards of the era, but it's quite a decent song: "Almost With You" by The Church.

Wet and Windy

I'm always (still?) a bit surprised when I see people struggling and flailing with umbrellas on really windy days like today. Believe me, I hate getting rained on, but an umbrella is essentially useless when the wind is blowing at 30 miles an hour. I brought mine with me today in case the wind subsides later, but I didn't open it on the way to the bus stop. I managed by covering my head with a wool hat, which is naturally water repellent.

I have a bus-stop acquaintance who has one of those clear plastic bubble-style umbrellas, and those are probably the best approach on a day like today. Because of their deeper bowl shape, they are less likely to get inverted by the wind.

But sometimes a jacket with a hood is the better option. I remember reading the blog of a Bostonian who was transplanted to Seattle, where they have a certain familiarity with rain. She reported that Seattleites have a dim view of those who choose to carry umbrellas, and you basically have to go with hooded Gore-Tex if you want to fit in.

Too Tight

You'd think I would know better by now... I picked up a pair of vintage American-made Levi's on eBay, but never bothered to confirm the measurements. Of course they were too small. Just because the tag says "size xx" doesn't mean the garment is actually that size. Things shrink. Luckily, this seller accepts returns, so they are going back.

Watch This

DVR alert for this weekend: Arcade Fire will be making their second appearance on PBS's Austin City Limits. In the Boston area the show airs on channel 44; the first broadcast is Saturday night/Sunday morning at midnight. There's also another showing 24 hours later on the same channel. Their first performance on the show, a few years back, was excellent. I imagine this time they'll be playing mainly songs from The Suburbs, which should also be great.

There are a few other airings during the week, but only on the 'GBH Kids channel; if you have cable or satellite service you'll have to check to see if you get that channel (being kidless, I have no idea). The WGBH schedule main page is here. If you live elsewhere, check the website for your local PBS station, or the main PBS site. And if all else fails, after the show airs you'll be able to watch it online here.

To get you in the mood, here are two preview videos: first, a look backstage set to "We Used To Wait":

Watch Behind the Scenes: Arcade Fire on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

And the song "Ready To Start":

Watch Arcade Fire "Ready to Start" on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Annals of the Gross and Exceedingly Embarrassing

After reading this lovely entry earlier today on Universal Hub (warning: don't click if you are eating or are generally sensitive to gross stuff), it reminded me (what does that say about me, btw?) of one of the most embarrassing things that's ever happened to me.

(Come to think of it, the above warning more or less applies to the following as well...)

Way back more than 20 years ago, I lived in Jamaica Plain for a year. One day I was heading home on the 39 bus. It was winter, and I had a cold. I was sitting near the back, in one of the seats that faces sideways. The bus was fairly crowded, so there were people sitting in all the seats directly across from me.

A cough sneaked up on me, and before I could get my hand up to cover my mouth, I accidentally expectorated onto the shoe of the person sitting across from me. The trajectory was perfect; I could not have accomplished such a feat of bodily rebellion if I was trying, but of course these sorts of things tend to happen beyond our control.

Naturally I was mortified, and apologized profusely, but the guy just glared at me, unwilling to accept the idea that this had happened by accident. And also naturally, everyone else sitting or standing nearby witnessed it. Even though it was a few stops before my stop, I got off the bus immediately out of colossal embarrassment. I briefly considered packing up and moving out of the area that very weekend, in order to avoid the possibility of encountering any of those people on a 39 bus again, but I didn't have anywhere else to go at the time, and ended up staying another seven or eight months.

This Week in Awesome (1/7/12)

I skipped TWiA last weekend, because it was a holiday and there wasn't much going on the web anyway. But it's back, with numerous diversions for you...

There's more than one way to wash a car. This one may not give the optimum result, but it's certainly the most efficient. (YouTube via Autoblog)

Weekend craft/DIY project: make your own Whitey Bulger paper dolls. (South End Textiles via Universal Hub)

Here's a look back on some of the major events of 2012. Just go look at it, and it will make sense. (The Morning News via The Hairpin)

This has already been posted in a few places, but for those of you who haven't seen it yet: Hoarder Barbie. (Flickr via The Hairpin)

And finally this week, my interest in city life, infrastructure, and transit comes together very nicely in the work of Shawn Dufour, who photographs things like abandoned subway tunnels. Check out his work here, and an article about him here. (BostonInnovation via Universal Hub)

Retro Video Unit (1/6/12)

(I missed a week of this feature due to the holidays; I'll probably do one next Friday to make up for it.)

Even as a teenager, it was quite obvious to me why Blondie included "Heart Of Glass" on their 1978 album Parallel Lines: to get radio airplay at the height of disco mania. As original written, the song was very different, a slow, country-tinged lope; had it been released that way, it's entirely possible Blondie would have flopped and never been heard from again.

But after I got the album, I was really quite happy to find that the rest of the album was quite different from the hit single. Having been exposed to performers like Elvis Costello and Talking Heads on Saturday Night Live, I was ready to move beyond my personal disco phase, and Blondie was pointing the way.

Even how they dressed (on the album cover and some of their TV appearances) would come to influence me, because in another year or so I would be a senior in high school, and for some never-explained reason, seniors (who attended classes on a separate campus) were allowed to wear sneakers with our jackets and ties.

Here's the first track on Parallel Lines, "Hanging On The Telephone."

Flash-Sale Fatigue

A couple of years back, web sites selling high-end merchandise at deeply discounted prices for short periods of time, like Gilt and Rue La La, were the hot retailing trend. Everyone wanted a piece of the action. Amazon started MyHabit, Nordstrom bought HauteLook, and now even Bluefly is jumping in with Belle + Clive (which is kind of interesting because you could argue that all the other sites are a modified version of what Bluefly had already been doing for over a decade).

But as these sites have proliferated, they are all competing for more or less the same merchandise, meaning the selection gets poorer, and in order to continue having fresh product to offer, some sites have resorted to the outlet-mall tactic of having merchandise made specifically for them. Overall, the chance of finding a prestige-brand item at a steep discount is much lower than it used to be, along with the perceived thrill of shopping at these sites.

My own tastes don't run to designer apparel and shoes anyway, and I've found that, especially in the last year, there is very little in the daily emails in which I'm interested. I've stopped opening most of the emails, or I'll do so only to scan the full list of what a site is offering on a given day. Rarely do I click through to browse anything. Some sites' emails, like those from Beyond The Rack, just get deleted each day, which makes me think I should probably just disconnect from that site altogether.

It's disappointing. I had hoped that sites such as these would take over the role once played by discount stores like the now-departed Filene's Basement. But it doesn't seem to be turning out that way. However, New York's famed Century 21 has started its own version of flash sales, and some of their offerings have been at least marginally interesting. And now and then I see postings on men's style blogs of people finding merchandise from Brunello Cucinelli and Ralph Lauren Purple Label in their local Marshalls, so maybe there's hope after all.

Wood Flakes

I have a peacoat I got about a year ago. Whenever I wear it, I find little bits of what seem like wood shavings on it, along with other assorted lint and fuzz. (I should have known better than to choose black, because the wool attracts everything and the black shows everything.)

Recently, I was putting on the coat and mentioned the wood bits to the Mrs. She figured out that they are coming from the closet rod: when the hangers get slid back and forth, they are causing tiny bits of wood to get rubbed off the rod, and they fall down onto the coat.

I may have to see if I can find one of those plastic shield things you put over the shoulders of a garment on a hanger. And also, this reinforces my feeling that I should have gotten the peacoat in gray.

Looking Ahead

The tree is being undecked (slowly), the last of the egg nog has been consumed for another year (I realize that I could stockpile it in the freezer, but that just seems sort of desperate, and I prefer the idea of a treat that's only available for a small portion of the year), and it's back to work tomorrow (boo, hiss). The winter break always slides by so quickly, I feel like I barely get the chance to do anything more than sleep late.

It was quite a year for us, with the Mrs. embarking on her great grad school adventure. She finished her first semester with a 3.4 GPA, which is pretty damn good, considering there were times she thought she wasn't going to be able to finish the required work, and I thought she was going to lose her mind in the process. One semester down, three to go.

I have the gift of full employment in a pleasant and collegial work environment. I sometimes listen to other people talk about problem coworkers and other workplace issues, and I remind myself how lucky I am. There are indications that this may be a somewhat challenging year for us as a company, but to be honest I welcome it, because it will bring out the best in us.

And this? Yes, this diversion will continue, hopefully better than before, or at least as good.

Today's Three Weirdnesses

The Mrs. was at her internship today, so I went into Back Bay this afternoon to do a few things. The Orange Line was fairly empty, but I was joined in the car at the next stop by a group of three young people, one of whom was showing off his Pandora mobile app, which meant I was once again subjected to someone else's terrible music through a tiny, tinny speaker. In this instance, the night before I had just watched the season two episode of The League called "Ghost Monkey" in which two characters criticize the cheesy dance music a third is listening to in his car via Pandora, and the music this guy was playing was hilariously similar. Thankfully, there are still areas in the T tunnels where cell phones still don't work, so eventually the music died, to my great relief.

On my way home later in the afternoon, I got on the Green Line and immediately noticed an unpleasant, vaguely vomitish smell. Not even New Year's Eve yet, and the T already smelled like puke. Way to get the jump on the new year, T.

And later on, we stopped at a liquor store to look for something bubbly to take to our friends' house tomorrow night. This is a place we've never been, but it happens to be on the way to the restaurant where we'd decided to eat. As soon as we walked in, we both noticed that the whole store smelled like a gigantic ashtray. 20 or so years ago that might not have been so unusual, but workplace smoking has been banned for a long time; someone has obviously been ignoring this rule in this particular store for a long time. We quickly turned and left, and happened to pass another store on the way where we got what we needed.

Laundry Tip

You folks all use OxiClean, right? Amazing stuff. I've found the spray and gel stick to be more useful than the powder, but that's good for certain things too. For the past couple of months I've been using the spray on my shirt collars before putting them in the washing machine. It's quicker and easier than pre-treating them with detergent, and just as effective if not more so.

Not Flannel Enough

I managed to get over to the UPS customer center in Watertown yesterday to retrieve my package from Lands' End. I had ordered wool flannel suit separates, but the fabric is not flannel. It's wool, and it's decently put together (in Mexico), but the fabric does not have the heft, thickness, or nap that you would expect of wool flannel. Flannel is a fall/winter fabric; this might even be light enough to wear in late spring.

This does not come as a complete shock, given the gradual cheapening of LE's products over the past several years, and the struggles of its parent company Sears. At $165 for both pieces it was certainly a good enough deal, but it isn't what I wanted, so I don't know if I'm going to keep it.

After-Christmas Sales

This being the day after Christmas, there are a lot of great sales happening. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive listing, more like suggestions for some places to look.

Nordstrom's semi-annual men's sale started today, and it's one of the best times to stock up on basic items like dress shirts (their house brand is a good choice). Brooks Brothers also has a pretty wide-ranging sale, and today only they are offering an additional 20% off sale prices online and in stores. They have a nice discount on dress shirts if you buy in bulk: four shirts will get you 40% off, or 25% off two. I think this offer applies to ties too.

(Of note on the Brooks sale: if you go for the bulk-shirts thing, the extra 20% does apply on top of the 40%, and you can mix and match dress shirts and casual shirts. It also applies to their made-in-USA Levi's, which is nice because those are $148, but at 25% off and with the extra discount they're down to $89, which makes them somewhat more justifiable.)

Lands' End Canvas is taking an extra 20% off sale stuff, and their sale prices are already quite low on a bunch of their stuff. J. Crew has a similar offer, though their online sale selection can be iffy. Usually the online sale gets restocked once a week or so, but if there's a specific item you want that isn't available in your size, get in touch with customer service. I've had excellent luck with them finding items for me, even if they have to have it shipped from a store that has it in stock.

L.L. Bean's sale applies to both its regular and Signature lines. Sometimes these deals can be great, other times not so much. Stores tend to have a much narrower selection than online, unless you happen to live near Freeport or are in the mood for a road trip. A sale at Orvis is more like a "sale," since their prices are generally high to start, but you might want to browse and see what's on offer.

All of Crate & Barrel's holiday candy is 50% off, and it usually goes quickly, so get moving.

This Week in Awesome (12/24/11)

Merry Christmas to all of you who are celebrating. I've left some gifts for you under the internet tree...

As far as I can tell, this is a real commercial for a real product. But you have to wonder... (Videogum)

The Village Voice's Maura Johnston is back with her list of the most irritating songs of 2011.

See the characters from Parks and Recreation as cartoon illustrations. (Jon Defreest via Vulture)

This is just one person's opinion, but this list of the best web films of the year has some pretty cool stuff on it. (The Awl)

And finally this week, an awesome Christmas flashback: Run-DMC performing "Christmas in Hollis" back in '91. (The Awl)

Christmas Question

What does it say about me that the only Christmas music I own (bought from iTunes) is "Fairytale of New York"?

(...and just as I was about to sit at the computer and post this, I saw on the Mrs.' facebook that Lisa had posted about the same song. Have a merry one, Lisa...)

Delivery Exception

Today was the first day of my holiday break. When a holiday falls on a weekend, it's "observed" on the nearest weekday. Each year, when the calendar of work holidays comes out, Christmas Eve is listed as a half-day, and each year, the dean announces that everyone gets the whole day off, which I guess is supposed to make us like him more, or something.

During last weekend Lands' End was having a big sale with 40% off everything, including stuff that was already marked down. I ordered a few things, feeling that some of the deals were too good to let go by. I signed into my account and clicked "place my order" without thinking about it too much. The order didn't ship until Wednesday, but I wasn't concerned because I knew I would get it at home today.

This morning when I went online to confirm that the package was scheduled to be delivered today, I realized that it was heading to my work address. Because of the holiday, the building was not even open today, so UPS could not deliver there. I called Lands' End and was told they could not change the delivery address, so I called UPS, where I was told my only option was to pick up the package at their distribution facility, or wait until after the break.

I could have picked it up today, but I couldn't get there on my own. So hopefully I'll be able to get over there on Tuesday. But when I placed the order, I should have been more mindful of my situation and schedule this week, and defaulted to my home address.

Watch Wednesday Upgrade Update #2

There, I fixed it...

For some context, this "woven" style of strap was fairly common on sport and diving watches in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Back then they were made of rubber or vinyl, and they usually had flat edges without any sort of stitching, and especially not with contrasting-color stitching like this strap. So it's kind of bridge between past and present, as well as a visual connection to the red accents on the watch dial.

This strap is made by Hadley-Roma and is available with stitching in orange, white, or black in addition to the red. I've also seen other similar styles with blue or yellow. They generally aren't expensive, either; I got this one for only $20 from GlobalWatchBand.

Watch Wednesday (12/21/11): Bonus Holiday Watch

Notice I didn't say "holiday bonus watch"; it isn't, because I didn't receive one...

So, the one-watch-per-quarter rule got a little bent, but I have a long history of buying myself presents at this time of year anyway.

I first became aware of this Timex watch almost nine months ago when it was shown at the big watch trade show in Switzerland. At the time the word was that the watch would be available "soon," but it only appeared in the Timex online store in November, so I have no idea what was going on there.

It's a nice watch, nothing fancy, just good looks. It does have Indiglo, which is always useful. This is the strap that came with it. It's some sort of soft-touch silicone, and it feels okay on the wrist, but it's a lint magnet. I took this picture right before I removed it to attach the strap I'd bought for it, but after I was finished I got distracted and didn't take a picture with the new strap. It's too late now, so I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Winter Break TV Projects

I was just talking with a couple of my coworkers at our holiday party about this: the next couple of weeks are kind of a wasteland for TV, but it's an excellent time to get into a show you've heard about but have not gotten around to watching. Of course it helps if, like us, you have ten or twelve days off.

I'm lending one person my Dexter DVDs, someone else is checking out Louie on Netflix, and another person is planning to watch Deadwood. Me? Not sure yet. Hoping to maybe get into The Good Wife, as it generally gets good reviews and praise from critics.

Random Bits

—I got a package delivery from the postal service yesterday. Sunday. Huh? Not complaining, mind you; in fact I was pleasantly surprised. It had been sent via Priority Mail in Oregon on Friday, which makes it that much more impressive that it crossed the continent so quickly. I guess the USPS is trying to make customers happy this holiday season, and paying some overtime to have people drive around and delivery Priority Mail packages on a Sunday isn't a bad way to do that.

—This morning while heading into the T station, there was a dude in front of me wearing a black nylon technical parka and a porkpie hat, which set off the WRONG alarm (the one in my head, I mean). I've long since accepted that certain fashion trends and specific items of clothing are not going away, and that people are going to keep wearing them regardless of how unstylish they are.

But the issue for me here was the cross-pollination between two items that are of questionable style merit to begin with: I can think of few items of clothing more ill-suited to being worn with each other. Fact is, there is a dividing line in men's clothing, and these items live on opposite sides of it. And if there is any "rule" of style that you cannot break, it's that one: you can't mix stuff from opposing sides of that line. You have to choose a side.

This Week in Awesome (12/17/11)

Wow, the last few months have absolutely flown by. It feels like it was just Labor Day, but there's only two weeks left in the year, and the Mrs. finishes up her first semester of grad school in a couple of days. Meanwhile, the internet brought us some early Christmas gifts...

This week's time-lapse is of Ho Chi Minh City, and it's pretty cool. (Rob Whitworth via Jalopnik)

Bored? Try this cat video masher-upper. (Hemmings Auto Blog)

Tom Hanks was on Late Show With David Letterman, promoting the latest project he's producing for HBO. (CBS via The Daily What)

And finally this week, a reminder that Apple wasn't always awesome. (Cult of Mac via Retronaut)

Winding Down

Ravioli with bolognese sauce, inexpensive chianti from Trader Joe's, and the football highlights show is a nice way to wrap up the weekend.

TWiA will be up later this evening...

Retro Video Unit (12/16/11)

Just dug up this old nugget from XTC, "Making Plans For Nigel." I'm quite sure I've never seen this video before, which is kind of surprising, though XTC were never exactly a high-profile band. Anyway, it does a nice job of adding a visual element to the song's lyrics while maintaining their innate British specificity, and acts as a reminder that the England of 30-some years ago seemed much more distant than it does today. And I wonder what those giant dice were made out of?

Chambray Ralph

I've been a fan of chambray shirts for a long time. Back in the mid-1990s I even had a tab-collared dress shirt version. These days you're more likely to find them over in the heritage-Americana wing of menswear, but that doesn't mean you can't wear a workshirt with a tie and jacket—it'll just look better if you choose the right ones.

I tend to confine mine to weekend wear, but I haven't had a "regular" blue chambaray workshirt for a couple of years now. I had one that I'd picked up at the Gap, right before I decided it was no longer worth shopping there. I wore it here and there, but I was never that excited about it; the pockets were too small, and it didn't fit that well—the sleeves were egregiously long.

This fall, Ralph Lauren introduced another sub-brand to its empire: Denim & Supply. Some of you may remember the old Polo Jeans Co. line, which disappeared from department stores about five years ago; this new label sort of fills that gap in the lineup, while also serving as a kind of poorer guy's substitute for the super-nice and super-pricey RRL line (finally available online, by the way). Some of this stuff is a bit costumey, but some of it is basic, simple day-off clothing: flannel shirts, jeans, henleys, and chambray workshirts.

None of it is going to approach the quality you'd have found in Ralph's offerings of, say, two decades ago (Polo Country, anyone?), but on the positive side, the fabrics (like most all of Ralph's stuff) are above-average, the fit is modern without being ridiculous, and since the line is sold in stores like Macy's, it gets marked down, and then marked down again, and then has another 20% taken off.

The other day I picked up this shirt at Macy's (the first time I'd been in the downtown store in maybe three months). Don't even bother with the lighter, faded blue; the darker blue is the way to go. (The Mrs. is kindly going to remove that silly little tag from the pocket, as soon as her semester is finished in a few more days.) They were on a 50% off rack, with an additional 20% discount being offered that particular day without any coupon hassle, for a grand total of $28, or 60% off the original asking price.

I might have been able to get it for even less if I'd been willing to wait a bit longer, but then I'd run the risk of not being able to find my size. (And FYI, even when the Ralph site marks things down, the prices are inevitably going to be higher than the markdowns in a store like Macy's.)

That Would Be Me

There's an interesting article in the business section of today's New York Times about people who don't use facebook. By the numbers, roughly one-third of Americans decline to participate in the social network, for various reasons. Here are a few of mine:

• I don't care for the way they've conducted themselves as a corporate entity, with all the bullshit about privacy settings, and if you step back from the "connect with your friends" aspect, the real reason facebook exists is as a marketing tool, so right there I'm out. I don't like the idea that I would have to "like" some company's facebook page in order to enter a contest.
• I'm not interested in reconnecting with people I went to high school with, and I wouldn't want those people to be able to contact me that way. Both my high school and college offer web gateways for alumni, and I'm registered on both of them, so if someone from those periods of my life really wants to get in touch with me, it's relatively easy.
• Sorry, but I don't really care what you had for breakfast, even if you are my friend.
• As for my real-world friends, I do not lack ways to communicate with them
• The design is just horrible, so bland as to be offensive, and the lack of basic functionality, like the ability to move the chat pane or pop it out as a separate window, like I can do in my Gmail account, is extremely irritating. I'm not a web designer, but I know enough about interface design to know it is not that difficult to implement such a feature. I've had facebook chats a couple of times through the Mrs.' account, and having to keep my neck bent down toward the bottom of the browser window gets uncomfortable very quickly.

The fact is, in today's connected world we no longer have privacy, but we still have some choices about who does or does not have information about us.

The one thing in the article that did bother me was the suggestion that employers and recruiters might look down on those who don't use facebook. Unless you are trying to get a job in "social media" (which I think used to be referred to as "marketing"), it shouldn't matter. In fact, I'd think that a potential employer would regard a lack of facebook use as a plus, i.e. no embarrassing photos out there, one less distraction during the work day, etc.

Waiting

Well, it's been quite some time since I experienced a good old MBTA clusterfuck, so I suppose I was due. Today we were having a monthly staff meeting at work, so I wanted to make an effort to be on time. The bus was more or less on time, and I got to Wellington just before 8:20, only to find a full inbound platform and announcements that a "power problem" had knocked out service on the southern part of the Orange Line, but trains were still running.

Each time an inbound train rolled into the station, only a few people were able to squeeze on. Having had more than a lifetime's share of sardine-packed T rides, in such situations I tend to step back and let others subject themselves to squishing. But because part of the line had been cut off, there were fewer trains available than during a typical morning rush hour.

There was a lot of grumbling and eye rolling. I looked at my watch and saw that nearly 30 minutes had passed since I'd arrived. I was also getting cold, but not terribly so. Since we've been having this in-between weather for a while, I've been opting not to layer up because it's too easy to become overheated. Instead I've been wearing my usual layers of shirt and undershirt, and adding a scarf and a medium-weight coat.

Eventually the trains grew less crowded, but by the time I was able to board I'd been waiting on the platform for almost an hour, and the train was still pretty full. Then we rolled into Sullivan. I'd completely forgotten that things would be worse down the line. I sympathize with folks who have to board the Orange Line at Sullivan every day, because the trains are almost always packed after picking up passengers at Wellington, but people were just forcing themselves into the car.

I know I shouldn't really have been surprised at this, but I still was. I know, you need to get to work; everyone on that train has somewhere they need to be, and nobody likes to wait, and nobody likes to be stuck outside when it's cold. But I'm still taken aback at times by the overwhelming selfishness that has become the norm these days. I only needed to go three stops so I could switch to the Green Line, but I waited because I figured there were people who needed to get where they were going more urgently than I did.

I ended up missing about 90% of the meeting. Oh, well; stuff happens.

Addendum: Looking at the comments about this morning's incident on Universal Hub, I now realize that I should have taken an outbound train one stop to Malden, where I could have gotten on an inbound commuter rail train. But as the commenter points out, none of the PA announcements mentioned this option.

More Candy

After I wrote about some of favorite holiday candy treats the other day, I realized that, while deserving, all the attention didn't need to be focused on See's.

Each year I eagerly anticipate the arrival (and subsequent discounting) of dark chocolate sea-salt caramels, nestled in their metal tins at Crate & Barrel. The price has climbed a couple of dollars since last year, but if you can score a tin or two after they've been marked down, they are well worth it.

New this year, and similar but just different enough, are dark chocolate covered peanut butter "bites," also sprinkled with sea salt. These come in a much smaller package (7 ounces, vs. a pound for the caramels) but they also cost less. As it turns out, both are already marked down, but if you can wait they'll go lower.

This Week in Awesome (12/10/11)

With the Mrs. a full-time student, it's been tougher for me to get computer time on the weekends, but I'm doing my best for you guys...

Crazy-ass clip from a Bollywood cop movie. (Jalopnik)

Language nerds: this one's for us. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

The story of this viral video, and how it led to a music video, is pretty interesting. (Gawker)

And finally this week, a brief drawing lesson. (The Daily What)

Fun Friday Read

Leave it to the British to come up with this one: the annual Bad Sex in Fiction award was bestowed earlier this week, chosen from among a dozen nominees.

Want Some Candy?

Speaking of imminent holidays and sweet treats, the seasonal See's Candies pop-up stores are back. See's is a California-based chain beloved by the Mrs. since childhood. There are no permanent See's stores in our corner of the world, but for the better part of the past decade they have been operating temporary stores during the holiday season, and a (very) small selection of their offerings is available year-round at Lord & Taylor stores.

Among our favorites: the vanilla and butterscotch lollypops; the individually-wrapped bars in two varieties; the dark chocolate nuts-and-chews assortment; and what is quite possibly the best peanut brittle to be found anywhere (it's certainly the best I've tasted).

Any of their candy choices would make an excellent gift. In the Boston area, the temporary stores are in the Northshore, Natick, and Chestnut Hill malls, and in the Derby Street shops in Hingham. And they're always giving out free samples, as if you needed another enticement. To see if there's a pop-up near you, check the store locator page. If not, you can always order online.

Noggin'

I do love that time each year when the egg nog finally shows up in the supermarket (though it seems like it gets earlier each year). I try to restrain myself, buying a quart and stretching it out for a couple of weeks. My current favorite is anything with vanilla flavor added; it's less eggy than the regular kind, and is more or less like drinking a vanilla milk shake.

The folks at Huffington Post's Kitchen Daily did a taste test of 17 varieties of egg nog. The results are quite interesting, I think, though I will say that I am entirely not surprised that the soy variations finished near the bottom of the list. I guess I need to try some of Trader Joe's version.

Customized

Right around the time I ordered my iPhone, I saw a picture on a style blog of one that had its glass back swapped out for a metal one. I liked it, thought about it for a bit, and decided to order one for myself. It looks like this:

The back is held on by two extremely tiny screws in the bottom edge. They require a special star-pointed screwdriver, which you can get for a couple of bucks on eBay (that's what I did). The back came from a place in Hong Kong, and took about a week and a half to arrive. I got a weird-looking tracking number that is actually for the US Postal Service, and for a couple of days nothing came up when I entered it, then it showed up and became trackable.

The back panel couldn't be easier to replace: undo the screws (have a plastic cap or something around that you can put them in, since they're so small they would be easily lost), slide the back up a few millimeters, and lift it off the phone. The screws are a little hard to handle when reattaching, but it only took a minute or so.

There are a couple of different styles to choose from. One has a beveled edge, and another is described as "diamond cut" which, best I've been able to discern from the pictures, means the edge is metal-finished like the back, whereas the style I chose has a black edge, so if you look at the phone from the side, it looks just like the edge of the glass back. They're also available in some different colors, if that's your thing.

I thought swapping the back would make the phone lighter, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I have not noticed any difference in phone reception or data speed.

This Week in Awesome (12/3/11)

Okay, I sort of stalled on this week's installment because I don't have as much as usual, but we'll just press on regardless.

This will remind you of any time you've had to deal with an obnoxious salesperson in a store. (Vimeo via Racked)

An imaginative (and rather downer) exploration of what happens to the people in catalog photos when no one's looking at them. (The Hairpin)

A collection of unseen TV characters. (The Daily What via Videogum)

Retro Video Unit (12/2/11)

This was supposed to be Friday's post...things have been busier than usual. TWiA will be up later today.

I wasn't looking for this particular video, but it's a nice artifact from early in the New Wave era:

Gray Suede Shoes

I wasn't intending to talk about shoes two days in a row, but things happen... Over a year ago, I found suede bucks on Nordstrom's web site in an array of colors, including gray. I ordered a pair, and when they arrived I was dismayed to find that the toes were "burnished," which is apparently something that's fashionable to do to shoes to make them look lived-in. I exchanged them for dark khaki bucks that hadn't been messed with in any way.

Not long after that, I came across some nice-looking gray bucks made in Pennsylvania by Walk-Over, a company that's been around for a couple hundred years. They weren't cheap, but they were exactly what I wanted. I ended up convincing myself that I didn't need them, since I'd just gotten the other bucks. But one day back in the spring, I was shopping and saw the shoes (in other colors, but not the gray) and decided to try them on, to see how they fit and felt, with the idea that if I did decide at some point to order them, I would know what size to get.

Earlier this week, I came across a link to a sale on the Steven Alan web site. Even though most of their clothing is made in the USA, I never bother looking at their stuff because the prices are pretty high, their shirts are cut way too slim for me, and they make them with this horrible little detail (use the zoom feature and you'll be able to see what I mean) where the placket is twisted around, on purpose, between the collar and the second button.

Anyway, I decided to look at the sale just because I hadn't looked at their site in a long time. They also carry some things made by other companies, and in the sale section I found the gray Walk-Over bucks, marked down almost 30% off their usual price. They aren't carried by many places to begin with, and they don't tend to be on sale, so I decided to go ahead and get them. They're still on sale, if you are so inclined.

Purchases from the sale section are final, and if I hadn't tried on the shoes several months ago I wouldn't have been sure which size to get. They arrived today, and I'm very pleased. They have a 360-degree welt which makes them resoleable if necessary, and a full leather lining. Are they better than Nordstrom's bucks, which are made in Brazil? Not necessarily. The Nordstrom shoes have thicker cushioning in the soles, but they couldn't come up with a gray shoe that was unblemished.