Iron, Man

Some months back, our iron of several years started misbehaving, dripping water on the garment being ironed seemingly at random. It was a basic iron we had bought at Costco for $30, and I think we'd had it six or seven years, so I figured we'd gotten our money's worth out of it.

I started thinking about what to replace it with, and I went to Amazon to read some reviews. After maybe half an hour I was dizzy, and felt like my brain was trying to stab itself. There were just far too many products, and every single one of them had at least one person who'd had a miserable experience with it and needed to vent about it. (This probably isn't news to those of you who shop online with any frequency, but people are much more likely to post negative reviews than positive ones.)

I decided the path of least resistance was to do what we'd done before; we went to Costco and I got the less expensive of the two irons they were carrying. It was a different $30 iron than the one we'd bought before, but it was the same brand, so I figured it would be all right. But a couple of months after we got it, I noticed that it wasn't generating steam properly. It was getting plenty hot enough but not making any steam, even on the highest steam setting. As a result, ironing a shirt was taking three times longer than usual.

I realized that we could still return the iron, thanks to Costco's generous return policy; for most items they sell other than electronics, there's no time limit on returns, as long as you have the receipt and don't abuse the privilege. That still left the question of what to get in its place. A Bed Bath & Beyond sale catalog arrived in the mail that same day, and inside was a basic iron, a different brand and $40 instead of $30. Conveniently there's a BB&B in the same shopping center as the Costco, so off we went. Costco even gave me the refund in cash, even though I'd made the purchase with my debit card.

I know there are people who swear by their $100 "professional" irons, and I did consider that option, but for the amount and type of ironing we do I believe a "regular" iron is sufficient. Some of the pro models are still made in Germany, however, instead of China, which is something I know some people like to be aware of (I'm one of them). If this new iron does turn out to be deficient in some way, I will most likely give in and get a pro model, but I'm hoping it won't come to that.

This Week in Awesome (7/14/12)

I didn't even notice it was Friday the 13th. I guess that's how Friday the 13ths should be, right?

As a word nerd, I appreciated this argument for the reintroduction of some obscure old words. (Note that "loggerheads" is not among them.) (Thought Catalog via Kempt)

Of course there's a website with scanned archives of decades' worth of Radio Shack catalogs, silly—it's the internet. (The Truth About Cars)

Have you ever wondered why we wear pants? (The Atlantic)

Here's an interesting piece from PBS's OffBook web series about logo design. They post new videos every other week, so it's worth bookmarking this page and revisiting it. (The Daily What via The High Definite)

Have you seen this alternate version of the Dark Knight Rises trailer? That voice sounds awfully familiar... (Hulu via Videogum)

And finally this week, in anticipation of tonight's season five premiere of Breaking Bad, some reading to get you in the mood: first, a recap of the first four seasons in 10 minutes (SlateV); an analysis of the show's approach to storytelling (Grantland); and a wish list of hoped-for answers in the final season (Vulture).

Retro Video Unit (7/13/12)

Today we have another instance of "this band just popped into my head for no particular reason." The Replacements weren't the biggest fans of making music videos, and in some cases they worked hard to make what they considered anti-videos, but in hindsight those can be just as interesting. Here's the official video for "Alex Chilton," a truly great song:

Meddling with History

If I was given the opportunity to erase one band from existence, I think it would be Supertramp.

Readers: your thoughts on this, please? Agree, disagree, suggest alternatives...

Game Face

I've never been much for video or computer games. I've never used an XBOX or a Playstation, or even a Wii. I do not have Angry Birds on my iPhone, nor have I ever played it. Way back in the pre-smartphone days when I was using a Palm handheld, I used to like a couple of puzzle games, Tetris and Bejeweled.

But not long after I got my iPhone, I did download the free version of Scrabble. And about a week after that I downloaded the $2 version so the incredibly annoying ads would be gone. I started a game with a college friend who lives in Texas, and another with a friend who lives nearby. When we visited family in California in May, I started a third game with my brother-in-law.

A couple of days ago, my in-progress games suddenly would not load on the main menu screen. The game would search and a little cursor thing would spin, and after a couple of minutes I would get this message: "something went wrong, pull down to retry." Not good.

I found a support email address in the game info, and sent a request explaining the problem. I expected it would be at least a couple of days before I heard anything back. This evening, nearly 48 hours later, my games were just as suddenly back, and shortly after that I received a message from Gmail informing me that it has been unable to deliver my message, for vague reasons. I suppose it was a bit naive of me to think that email address would actually work, but at least my games are back.

It Comes in Colors

A couple of weeks back, when I was writing about the items I'd picked up at Target, I came across this.

I meant to do another post about it the next day, but my middle-aged brain let me down (again) and I forgot about it. Today my memory was jogged when it showed up on Dappered as "offered without comment." What fun is that?

Seven color choices (what, no acid green?), 100% cotton, matching pants, $80 for the whole rig. How can you resist? Seriously, how?

The blue might be passable in certain situations, and people who like to wear bold color in general could probably get away with wearing either the jacket or the pants, if the rest of the outfit was suitably toned down, but the two pieces together are just too clownish, too reminiscent of The Time back in the '80s.

But hey, maybe you want to go retro and do a Morris Day thing for Halloween this year...

(All images borrowed from Target's website.)

Bathroom Break

Most people keep at least a few things in the shower: soap, shampoo, a scrubber. I have a few others, like face wash and shaving cream. Even in a household like ours with only two adults, it's difficult to avoid shower clutter. (This is not exciting stuff, but it is necessary.)

Years ago I lived in a very old house in Somerville. The bathroom had a footed tub with one of those old shower curtain rods that goes all the way around, and a shower head fed by a length of hose from the faucets. There was some shelving built into a corner where two walls met that worked nicely for holding the necessities. Later, when the Mrs. and I moved in together, we tried a variety of storage solutions, including one of those plastic buckets that attaches to the shower wall via a suction cup. This was fine except that it decided to de-suction every once in a while.

After moving into this apartment six years ago, we settled on one of those pole things with shelves on it. It provided enough space, but we had to pay attention to how much we put on the shelves, because they were held in place by tiny rubber rings and couldn't handle too much weight. After several years that unit started to show some rust, even though it was made of stainless steel coated with a white vinyl outer layer. We replaced it with a similar unit that was just stainless. It started to rust literally within a week of installing it, and after a while both of us were sick of looking at it.

While flipping through a recent catalog from The Container Store, I found this shower head-mounted caddy. Not only was it attractive and on sale, but the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, including one that claimed no rust after two years. It's made by simplehuman, whose products are well made and well regarded; we already have one of their kitchen trash cans. I'm generally not a huge fan of over-the-shower-head organizers, but we both liked the adjustability of this one.

So on Friday we headed out to the Natick Container Store, which is a bit of a drive from our house, but there is also a fabric store nearby that the Mrs. likes quite a bit. (The shower caddy also comes in a version with bamboo elements, but it was not on sale and $20 more, and it would look out of place in our shower and bathroom anyway.) As a bonus, the Mrs. found a nice little work desk on clearance in the back of the store for about 75% off its original price, so she decided to buy that too. It had to be disassembled to fit in our car, but that small inconvenience was worth it.

(The Proper Bostonian asserts that Shower Caddy Organizer was a semi-underground band back in the 1980s, but I can't find any evidence to support her claim.)

By the way, The Container Store is opening a new location in the Northshore Mall in Peabody in October, which may be more convenient for some Boston-area shoppers.

This Week in Awesome (7/7/12)

Ah well, good intentions and all that. This week's TWiA is extremely abbreviated due to, um, a dearth of awesome out there in internet land. Let's blame it on the midweek holiday...

Fathers of Katy Perry fans: there's a special version of her new movie just for you. (Jesse Thorn)

Remember those courses and programs that purported to teach you speed reading? (Everything Is Terrible)

And finally this week, This is pretty much how I've always felt about this. (BuzzFeed)

Anticipation

Getting packages in the mail is always nice. Being able to track their progress online is also nice. Sometimes various shipments end up being delivered all on the same day, which is slightly disappointing. I would rather receive one package a day for several days than have them all arrive on the same day. But that's just me.

Counting Down

Just a reminder: we're now less than two weeks away from the opening of The Dark Knight Rises. Somehow, I have not seen the assault of advertising for this movie that I expected. Where are the TV commercials? Shouldn't they be everywhere by now?

Overheard: Word Nerd Edition

Mother, having lunch with her college-age daughter and some of the daughter's friends: "You should be glad you're not around at home right now. He [referring to daughter's younger brother, still living at home] and I are at loggerheads."

Who the hell talks that way?

The Bond Collection

Happy 4th, everyone. Today isn't a big deal for us, which is fine. We aren't the sort to fight crowds on the Esplanade; I'm perfectly happy spending today at home reading a book, or watching movies.

Speaking of which, the cable channel Encore is doing a month-long James Bond retrospective on its HD channel. Sure, other channels do this from time to time, but the nice thing about Encore is that all the movies they show are completely unedited, as they were originally shown in theaters, and without commercials. Encore is a sibling channel to Starz, but it isn't a premium channel. Some cable packages have it, others don't, so you'll have to check your guide or hunt around. (On our Comcast it's channel 785.)

The movies are not being shown in exact order, which bothers someone of my nature, but they are showing the complete series (except for the two most recent Daniel Craig movies). When's the last time you saw Never Say Never Again? For me, it was 1983, when it came out in theaters (I remember going to see it at the old Sack 57 near the Park Plaza with some friends from school). That will be on at 8 pm on Tuesday July 17th. Likewise, I have not seen 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service since probably some time in the mid-1970s, when it would have aired as an ABC Sunday Night Movie. That's coming up on July 10th.

There's a Bond movie on each night this month at 8 pm (nightly schedule here). They've been doing a marathon of sorts since this past Sunday, and I've already recorded most of the movies (so yes, I kind of missed the chance to mention this when I should have), but Encore tends to show movies multiple times over the course of a month, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are other opportunities to see or record them. Their online schedule is not the most useful thing I've seen, but between it and your DVR you should be able to scope out whichever movies you want to watch.

It's also worth noting that the versions being shown appear to have gone through a restoration process, making them look and sound great.

Correction: after looking over the movies Encore is planning to show, I realized that the last two Pierce Brosnan movies are missing: 1999's The World Is Not Enough and 2002's Die Another Day. Don't know why, probably has something to do with rights.

SAR's Kitchen Helper: Easy Summer Meal

Hungry? Yes. Yes is always the answer to that question. But it's difficult to come home from work and be motivated to put together a decent meal, especially during the summer. So I thought I'd try something a little different and share an easy recipe I like to make when it's warm out.

You will need the following ingredients: cooked chicken, pasta, tomatoes, red onions or scallions, olives, cheese, and salad dressing. I'll get to the specifics and quantities in a moment, and there are also a couple of variations of how you can make this.

The easiest way to get cooked chicken is to go to the grocery store and buy one of those rotisserie chickens. If you already have leftovers in your fridge that's perfect. Last time I made this I didn't have any leftovers, so I pulled a couple of frozen boneless chicken breasts out of the freezer and cooked them first, which adds some time but allows you flexibility in preparing the chicken the way you like it. You should end up with at least two cups of cut-up chicken, maybe even three.

For pasta I like to use fusilli (the ones that look like corkscrews) or farfalle (bowties), but you can use whatever kind you like. Let me just point out, though, that bigger ones like ziti don't make sense to use in this recipe. And no spaghetti, smartass. Don't bother with anything fancy; as long as you cook it properly (which is to say, al dente) it will taste fine. I like to use Barilla boxed pasta. Cook the whole box, but use only about 2/3 of it for this. Set aside the rest and use it for something else (tough to go wrong with olive oil, garlic, and cheese). Don't cook only 2/3 of the box, because you know you'll eventually end up with a bunch of orphan boxes cluttering up your cupboard or pantry.

Grape tomatoes cut in half work nicely, but you can use the vine kind or whatever, maybe you're even growing tomatoes in your yard. I like the grape ones because that pint container is just the right size for this. (It's true that Virgos like precision, but this isn't anything that calls for a lot of careful measuring, so I just wing it.) Likewise, one can of olives, split into halves, is fine. You don't need as much onion as you think, so get a couple of smallish ones and just dice them up. I like to use feta cheese in this, but some people don't like it. That's a great thing about cheese: there are so many different kinds. If your cheese isn't already conveniently broken into small chunks (like feta is), you'll want to do some approximation of that. (Optional: something like celery or cucumbers, for a little variation in texture and additional nutritional value. Just dice them up like the other stuff.)

Is the pasta done yet? I hope you were paying attention and didn't overcook it. Drain it and put it back in the pot or a really big bowl, and start throwing in all the other stuff. After you add each item, add a little bit more dressing and stir well. This helps everything get coated nicely. I recommend an oil-based dressing like Italian, Caesar, or Greek, because they are flavorful, coat well, and aren't too heavy. You wouldn't want to use a creamy dressing, that would just be too heavy, blech. Paul Newman's dressings are great, I almost always use one of those.

That's pretty much it. If possible, prepare it ahead of time and refrigerate before eating. You may find that, like chili, this tastes better after a night in the refrigerator. One other variation I do once in a while is to use salami instead of chicken. Ask at your deli if they will cut you a hunk of Genoa salami and not slice it. Take it home and dice it up. Five or six ounces of salami is probably plenty, and if your deli clerks know what they're doing they will know how much to cut. I kind of prefer scallions when I make this with salami, but you can take it in whatever direction you feel like. Obviously, if you're a filthy hippie vegetarian you won't be using any meatish stuff anyway, but the rest is safe. Dig in...

This Week in Awesome (6/30/12)

Hello, blogland. I hope your air conditioning is working this weekend.

Louie returned this week for its third season. It's a very New York show, so here's a map of locations that have been featured so far. (Splitsider)

Also New York-related, a collection of photos of the city in the 1980s. (Flickr via The Trad)

It's hurricane season, and here's an interesting look at hurricane trends based on their names. (The Awl)

Gary Oldman offered some advice to athletes interested in acting. (Jimmy Kimmel Live via Kempt)

If you have 12 minutes, watch this history of rock & roll in 100 guitar riffs. (Devour via BuzzFeed)

And finally this week, Jon Stewart had a few words for Fox and CNN in the wake of their dubious coverage of the Supreme Court's health care decision. (The Daily Show)

Retro Video Unit (6/29/12)

Considering the approaching holiday, there's really only one choice for this installment: "Fourth of July" by X from 1987's See How We Are. Unfortunately, as is frequently the case I can't locate the official music video, though I'm certain one exists, having seen it many times on MTV. (One labeled as such on YouTube is in fact the video for the title track from the album, and still worth a watch.)

But I did find a very nice video for it by Dave Alvin, who wrote the song and who was briefly a member of X after the departure of original guitarist Billy Zoom.



If you're in the mood, there's also an excellent audio-only clip of the band (with Alvin) performing the song live at Boston's Paradise in 1986 (followed by another live version from a 1993 show in California).

X may not have achieved mainstream success or recognition, but few bands have come close to their ambition, talent, and stature.

Urban Deal

I almost never go into Urban Outfitters these days, though I shopped there semi-regularly back in the '80s. But I do look at their website from time to time, and I'm even more likely to do so when they are having a sale. Right now UO is having a pretty big sale, and these Eastland shoes caught my eye.

Anyone familiar with L.L. Bean's blucher mocs will recognize these as almost exactly the same shoe, except for being rendered in suede. Bean did this themselves for their Signature line, but I think they made a bad call in terms of the colors they offered: there was navy, a dark khaki, and an olive or loden green. The khaki was the closest to a "normal" shoe color, but looked a little weird with black soles. Navy shoes certainly have their fans, but I can't consider myself one of them. The green? Well, I kind of liked it, but I had no idea what I might wear them with.

These Eastlands also come in navy but it appears to be something between nubuck and regular leather, with a brick red sole borrowed from suede bucks. This is admittedly a sharp-looking shoe, and I bet there are people out there who would go for it. But the brown suede is what caught my eye. It looks enough like the original, but the suede gives it just enough of a twist. I can't speak to their quality—could be decent, could be not so good—but I have ordered a pair to find out for myself.

Both colors are currently on sale for $55 from an original price of $85; my calculator tells me that's 35% off. All orders of $50 ship free, and returns by mail are free as well, which is a simple and decent policy. Web purchases can also be returned to UO stores, so there's absolutely no risk to ordering a pair of these and trying them out. But sizes are starting to get thin (no more half sizes in either color, nothing smaller than 10 in the navy) so if you want 'em, act fast.

Debits

Last year my bank was bought by another local bank. I'd had my account with the purchased bank for a long time, but the good news was that my account numbers didn't change, the routing number for online bill payments didn't change, and I was able to continue using my existing checks for the one or two checks I still write per month.

One of the reasons I'd chosen my bank was because it belonged to a network of banks that had agreed not to charge each other's customers ATM usage fees. The credit union at work was also a member, so I could get cash from the ATM in the cafeteria, which was really convenient. The new bank said they would honor the SUM arrangement for one year after the purchase of my bank was final.

A couple of months ago I got a letter from the bank reminding customers that the SUM agreement was ending. I didn't read it in detail; I had other things on my mind at the time. Then while reviewing my transactions online I noticed a "foreign ATM charge." I remembered the letter and realized this was a result of using ATMs that were part of the SUM network but not my bank's. I don't like having to think about stuff like this; I just want a checking account with no fees for anything.

But the new bank did create a new category of checking account that allows customers a way to avoid fees. The easiest way to qualify is to keep at least $1500 in the account. I'm meeting that at the moment, but it may not remain that way. Alternately, customers who sign up for electronic statements and make 15 debit purchases each month can use any SUM ATM, and additionally will have fees from "foreign" ATMs refunded up to $10 per statement cycle (nice for emergencies).

I switched my account to this type, but I still feel compelled to track how many debit purchases I'm making each month. I was accustomed to carrying cash in order to pay for my lunch each day, and I hope I'll be back at work soon enough and that wherever I end up working, there will be a cafeteria that takes debit cards. Doing that every day would definitely cover the minimum.

Learning to Like Market Basket

Twenty-some years ago, when I was a single, grossly underpaid retail worker (though that job did provide health insurance, which would be far less likely now), I moved to Prospect Hill in Somerville. Until that point I had always lived "across the river," having spent my first few post-college years in Brighton, Allston, and Jamaica Plain.

Back in my Allston days I shopped at the Purity Supreme on Harvard Street (where there's now a TJ Maxx, I believe). Everyone called it Poverty Extreme and it was a brisk 15-minute walk from where I lived, but it was pretty much the only option in Allston. Food shopping in JP was even worse; there was a small, family-owned market called Flanagan's, but without access to a car, if you wanted to visit a Stop & Shop or Star you had to take at least one bus, or do your shopping on the way home from work. I did both, frequently, but carrying groceries on the bus isn't fun either.

After moving to Somerville I quickly learned that the closest, cheapest supermarket was the Demoulas Market Basket on Somerville Avenue just outside Union Square, about a five- or six-minute walk from my house. It was downhill to get there, uphill (lugging the groceries, naturally) to get back. Going there on my way home from work was again an option. (I know I could have gotten one of those granny carts, but I never got around to it.)

The laundromat was also at the bottom of the hill (both were a lot of fun in the winter), so another of my tactics was to bring my clothes down and get them started, walk over to Market Basket and get groceries, go back to the laundromat to switch my clothes from washer to dryer, carry my groceries up the hill and put them away, and go back down to retrieve my dried clothes. (I was younger then and had a lot more energy.)

I never grew to like shopping at Market Basket; I put up with it because I didn't have another option. It was always crowded, and the aisles were especially narrow. The store closed at 9 pm (and earlier on Sundays), so I had to plan ahead. The store felt antiquated and had a vaguely seedy air, and the deli counter people almost invariably messed up my orders. After I'd been dating the Mrs. a while she started driving me to a Stop & Shop, and after we moved in together we continued to shop there. (Now we live just down the street from that same store.)

A couple of years ago Market Basket opened a gigantic superstore in Chelsea, about a ten-minute drive from our house. It has a huge produce section, a substantial prepared-food area, on-premises baking, and spacious aisles that I never could have imagined while fighting my way through the throngs at the Somerville store. And the prices are still insanely low; we load up on hummus and pita chips there, because they're even cheaper than buying in bulk at Costco. I've also been buying bananas, seasonal berries, whole-wheat English muffins, local organic lettuce, and plenty of other items at wallet-easing prices.

They still close at 9 pm, even on Fridays and Saturdays, but otherwise it's a completely different experience than shopping in Somerville was. Well, it's still always crowded, but since the Chelsea store is so much bigger it's tolerable.

Munch

The hell?

Blogger just ate my post, which was finished and in process of uploading. Now I have to do it all over...

Radio Free...Internet?

Well, this is encouraging: boston.com is launching a streaming radio station, and has scooped up some of the leftover folks from the recent WFNX massacre for both on-air and off-air staff. No details yet on when this will be happening, but it sounds like a good idea.

Update, 6/26/12: Things just got weird(er), as WFNX announced that they too will be launching their own streaming radio station. Stay tuned (HA!)...

This Week in Awesome (6/23/12)

Wow, where did Saturday go? For that matter, where did Sunday go?

The New York Times's City Room blog featured a pair of sites dedicated to preserving images of neon signage.

Fifty or so years ago, there were all sorts of predictions about what sort of lives we could expect to be living in the not-too-distant future. One such vision, courtesy of Disney, concerns transportation. (Hemmings blog via Michael Lamm)

Also car-related, the European brand Skoda (owned by Volkswagen) used the launch of a new model as an excuse to erect a mini-Stonehenge out of cars in London. (Autoblog)

CBS tried unsuccessfully to prevent ABC from launching a reality show they claim is a ripoff of Big Brother. I couldn't care less about any of that because I hate these shows, but in the aftermath CBS decided to issue a fake press release for a show clearly not influenced by anything ABC had done. (HitFix)

Grown-up movies artfully adapted for younger folks. (BuzzFeed via The Daily What)

And finally this week, a kindergarten class shows off its singing and dancing skills. (For more info on how and why this came about, go here.) (Videogum)

Summer Clothes

I don't shop for clothing at the high end of the market, simply because I don't have the means to do so. But the fact is that the quality of what you can buy at the lower end of the market is much better than it was even ten years ago. As with the automotive marketplace, features and quality from the luxury brands eventually find their way to the more mainstream offerings.

When summer arrives, we naturally want to wear our easiest, most comfortable clothes. For many of us this means shorts, T-shirts, polos, and whatever else is light and keeps us cool. But sometimes you have to look more put-together when it's warm out. Sometimes wearing pants instead of shorts or a shirt that buttons is just more dignified and more adult, regardless of the weather and what the rest of society is doing.

As with yesterday's comments about JCPenney, I don't buy a lot of clothing at Target, but the men's section is usually worth at least a quick look. On a visit earlier this week I found two items I ended up purchasing, and after bringing them home and trying them on I decided to keep both. Target has had an exclusive Converse line called One Star for a few years now. The line is geared toward younger men, but both of these items are simple and stylish enough to be worn by just about any man, and with little or no external branding, you don't have to feel self-conscious about what you're wearing.

The color of this shirt is what caught my eye. This is the sort of blue I don't generally venture near, except perhaps in a polo shirt. (This photo is lousy, but it shows the true color better than the others I took.) But it stands out in a way that makes it a natural choice for summer wear. This is as close to "blogger blue" as I plan to get.

A glance at the tag told me the shirt is a linen/cotton blend, another natural choice for the warmer months. This style is also shown online in a light red (less attractive in person), and for those of you feeling less adventurous about color, light gray and charcoal (which looked more like black in the store); my local store had all those colors, plus white and navy.

These roll-up sleeves aren't generally my thing either, but the sleeves are cut loosely enough so that they don't constrict my arms when rolled up, and if you're going to wear a long-sleeve shirt on even a somewhat warm day, you're probably going to want to roll up your sleeves anyway. If you're really not into the roll-up thing, you could just remove the buttons on the sleeves, and if you're feeling more adventurous you might try getting a seam ripper and removing the tab altogether. Oh, and this shirt is $25. I was glad it didn't have epaulets; that would have been a bit too military-looking.

I finally found a good pair of off-white jeans a couple of years back, but sometimes they're a little too heavy to wear when it's warm out. Near the shirt I saw these jeans in "natural," one shade further away from white. They're a nice, summer-weight fabric. I couldn't tell you the ounces per square yard, but they are lighter than any jeans I own. The fabric has some texture so I thought it might also be a linen blend, but they are 100% cotton. These are $30, and they look pretty good with the blue shirt.

The cut is called "vintage straight," which on my frame in size 36 translates to a slightly lower rise (11") and a normal leg opening (8.5"). Your mileage may vary depending on how you are built and how you prefer to wear your pants.

This picture shows the back pocket detailing. Both pockets have that straight-line stitch about a third of the way down, which is a slightly unusual choice of placement; usually you see something like this halfway between the top and bottom of the pocket, but from a few feet back it's pretty unobtrusive. The red bar tack appears only on the right side of the right pocket, which is probably just enough, otherwise it would be too gimmicky. There is also a hanging loop stitched into the waistband with red thread, but if you wear a belt (and you should, because your shirt is going to be tucked in, RIGHT?) it won't be visible. There's a typical brown fake-leather patch on the waist stamped with "Converse," but you know I already removed that.

Public Works

You can tell it's near the end of June over here where we live. For the past two weeks there has been a frenzy of public-works activity: crews have been installing signs (I was clued in by jack-hammering across the street early one morning), digging up sections of uneven concrete and replacing them (more early-morning noise), repainting lines and crosswalks, trimming trees, and other general civic beautification and maintenance. Just a little while ago a work crew was filling a pothole in the street in front of of our driveway.

Municipalities are like businesses: they have to make sure that the budget money is spent by the end of the fiscal year, or they don't get as much the following year. And don't misunderstand; I am not complaining. I am happy to see our city making sure things are tended to. It's part of what makes this a nice place to live.

Looking Forward

I'm always interested in what's going on in the retail business, and I'm always interested in what's going on with JCPenney. I don't buy a lot of clothing there, but they fill a need for certain things, and they have been making an effort to improve their offerings.

The GQ Eye blog posted an interview with Nick Wooster, a guru to style bloggers worldwide and veteran of high-end stores like Barneys and Neiman Marcus, who recently signed on with Penney as vice president of "brand, design, and trend." That bit of marketing-speak means he's now the guy in charge of men's design, and he offers a preview of some of the company's efforts that will be reaching stores starting this fall.

(Side note: since JCPenney decided to drop its Ralph Lauren-prodced American Living line, I'm wondering if another clothing retailer would be interested in picking it up, like how Martha Stewart went from Kmart to Macy's. I don't know if that's even possible under the terms of the agreement, but it's certainly an interesting thought.)

Rock On

This Friday night presents an embarrassment of riches for me as a fan of my friends' musical endeavors. The Rationales are playing at Precinct in Somerville, while B-52s cover outfit Bikini Whale will be rocking the Beachcomber in Quincy. What to do...

Sales and Stuff

If you need some dress shirts, this is a good time to swing by a Brooks Brothers (or hit their website). If you buy two shirts the discount is 25%; buy four or more and it's 40%. One nice thing about BB is that they offer their shirts in four fits, which covers just about every body type. However, it's also worth noting that most of the shirts they now offer are of the non-iron variety. I bought one of these a while ago, and I find the treatment used to resist wrinkles to be a lot more tolerable than what I've come across in most other shirts of this type, but of course YMMV.

Also, if you like wearing your watch on a one-piece nylon strap (which can be more comfortable in summer), and you like having a variety of different colors to switch between, you may have noticed that these straps aren't cheap. They typically sell for $17 to $20, which seems like a lot considering a moderately decent leather strap costs about the same. I've found two sites that sell these straps for much more reasonable prices.

The Knottery started out selling small runs of USA-made ties and pocket squares, and has since expanded into other useful accessories. Their nylon straps are available in either 18 or 20 millimeter widths for $10 each, plus they have similarly styled, USA-made, one-piece leather straps in 18 mm for $25 each. Crown & Buckle carries a much wider selection of straps; their nylon straps range from $12-14, but if you buy three of a given style they will discount your order. They also offer one-piece leather straps for $18.

This Week in Awesome (6/16/12)

There has been some neglect of TWiA in recent weeks, to my dismay. The truth is, rooting out the awesome on the internet takes time and effort, and my attention has been somewhat divided lately. Also, sometimes it's just harder to find than other times. But let's not dwell on that, let's just enjoy what's here now...

I haven't gotten to see The Muppets yet, but for those of you who have, and those of you who just like these things anyway, here's a nice, plump blooper reel. (/film via Kempt)

We've mentioned the Boston Public Library's photo archives on Flickr before, but did you know they have a whole section devoted to traffic accidents? (Universal Hub)

New York public radio station WNYC put together a map of Mad Men locations in the city that spans all five seasons. (Basket of Kisses)

The season two finale of The Killing airs tonight on AMC, and those of us who slogged through it are finally going to learn who killed Rosie Larsen. For those of you who chose not to bother, Vulture compiled a tongue-in-cheek guide to the events of this season, in case you want to tune in tonight.

And finally this week, a list of 15 worthy rock movies. I've seen all but one of them. (HitFix)

Mad Men Season 5 Thoughts

After what seemed like a lifetime of waiting, season five of Mad Men is now behind us. Matthew Weiner stated that the theme of this season was "every man for himself," and that was certainly evident, so I thought I would look back at the season with that in mind.

Spoilers ahead! If you have not finished watching season five, DO NOT READ FURTHER.

At the start of the season Don was happily remarried to Megan, his former secretary. Obviously she couldn't continue to be the boss's secretary and also be the boss's wife, so she got a promotion to copywriter and was taught how to do the job by Peggy. Megan turned out to have a natural ability for the work, and Don was pretty pleased with himself, but Megan didn't enjoy it because her dream of being an actress was going unfulfilled, so she quit.

Don didn't know how to handle this, because he thought he had come up with a way to make Megan happy, which made him happy. He also couldn't grasp the concept of someone not enjoying the thing that he enjoys so much. Megan's ambition was something new to him, and it upset the balance in their marriage. On the other hand, Megan's departure from the agency seemed to reignite Don's passion for work, so what does that say to us?

Looking back at some of their arguments during the course of the season, it seems obvious now that her dissatisfaction with her own life was at the root of many of them. Hmm, that sounds familiar. Many people have expressed their dislike of Megan, and I will allow that she can be a bit childish and annoying at times, but their relationship makes sense to me. However, now that Don has helped her get started on her acting career, their future together may be somewhat questionable.

Roger's marriage to his own former secretary (which always seemed like a worse idea, given the even wider age difference) sputtered to an end in the aftermath of a memorable LSD trip. Roger's new-found enlightenment inspired his own renewed interest in work and the agency (and in Megan's mother), but let's not forget that earlier in the season he was buying off people left and right to do extra work for him and generally keep him looking good. In hindsight, the episode of Joan's partnership is just a far more egregious example of this behavior.

However you feel about Joan's decision to have sex with a man in exchange for an ownership stake in the agency, I got the sense that this was a sort of transaction Joan was familiar with and had quite possibly been involved in previously in her life. It may have been distasteful, but it was her decision, and she made it willingly. For a single mother, or really any woman in 1967, to reach that level of achievement is significant, and I think that regardless of how she got there, we know Joan keeps the place running; she deserves it.

Pete continued to be a whiny little sourpuss who has everything and is still unhappy. Pete has been very successful at work, but in his personal behavior he has become much more like Don. He racked up several carnal trysts this season, even making a move on an underage girl in his driver-ed class before being cock-blocked by her hunky classmate. Instead he went after the unhappy wife of a commuting acquaintance, whom we later learned was depressed and undergoing shock therapy. (I guess this explains Rory Gilmore's Alexis Bledel's dreadful performances: she was playing a woman whose affect had been dulled by repeated ECT treatments. Or maybe she's really just a poor actress.)

Perhaps the boldest move was made by Peggy, who tired of Don's treatment of her and left the agency for a promotion and significantly more money at a rival shop. I was greatly relieved when we got the scene in the season's last episode of Peggy chewing out junior copywriters in a very Don Draper way; it was the show's way of telling us that we will continue to follow Peggy's journey, which for me has always been one of the best and most important aspects of the show. And as soon as we saw Don entering a movie theater, I knew he was going to find Peggy there. It allowed Don to say the things he should have said to Peggy when she told him she was leaving, and to express his pride in her accomplishments.

Things didn't end so well for Lane, who tried to solve his financial problems by borrowing from the agency via a forged check. When Don learned what Lane had done, he had no choice but to fire him, but he tried to soften the blow by allowing Lane to resign. The shame and defeat were too much for Lane, who chose to take his life in his office for the others to discover.

Betty is much more of a peripheral character now, which makes sense given the circumstances, but she was at least able to reassert herself when Sally needed her, and showed that she can be a good mother, sometimes.

The agency is now prosperous enough to make the once-apocryphal second floor a reality, and I loved the image of the five partners standing in the raw space, looking out the windows. I wish the season had ended with that, but the final moment with Don in the bar was equally powerful.

I'm sorry that I couldn't make things work with the weekly writeups this season, but life has been just a bit unsettled of late, and that combined with some travel and some poor planning on my part. Maybe by next season things will have sorted themselves out.

Retro Video Unit (6/15/12)

This song has been in my head for weeks, but at least I know why: when we went to Mortified a few weeks ago, it was playing on the sound sytem when we walked in.

Raise your hand if you thought the Flamin' Groovies were a British band. (Raising my own hand.) In fact they were from San Francisco, but this song and the 1976 album it comes from were produced by Dave Edmunds, whose influence is all over it (see also "RVU 2/10/12").

Power pop doesn't get much better than this. Unfortunately, in '76 there was no such thing as an official music video produced by the record company, so we'll have to go with a bifurcated approach. First, here is the full version of the song, with only a static image of the record cover:



And here's a live performance from 1986 (regrettably, the image is seriously cropped on the sides):

We Had Stuff to Do

Sorry things have been a bit quiet this week. I had an all-day career workshop on Wednesday and a job interview yesterday, so my focus has unavoidably been elsewhere. I promise my thoughts on season 5 of Mad Men are coming soon, along with this week's Retro Video Unit.

Support American Workers

Hey, you want to help support American manufacturing and job creation, right? You can, easily. Just go to your local Starbucks and buy one of these mugs for $10. They are being manufactured for Starbucks by American Mug & Stein in East Liverpool, Ohio, and for each one purchased Starbucks will donate $2 to the Create Jobs for USA Fund. You can also read more about the factory here.

Oh! You Pretty Thing

Things used to be a lot different, as today's edition of the comic strip Gil reminds us.

Early Morning Encounter

Since I'm not on a regular schedule these days, the morning dog walk occurs whenever the dog decides she needs to go out. This is generally anywhere from 6 to 7:30 am.

When I used to walk the dog before leaving for work, we would sometimes encounter an elderly neighbor, returning from somewhere (perhaps an early-morning visit to the grocery store?), who would slow down alongside us in her car and call out, "He's taking you for a walk!" She did this every single time she saw us, as though (a) it was the cleverest thing anyone had ever said, and (b) I hadn't already heard it countless times. I've pointed out many times that the dog is a "she" and not a "he," but given the circumstances it's not surprising that information didn't stick. (Also, my father regularly made the same comment about our next-door neighbor and his German shepherd 40-odd years ago. The dog was huge, and it was much more appropriate in that context.)

This morning I went out with the dog around 6:30 and we saw the woman again, though this time she was standing on the sidewalk in front of her house, as though she was waiting for us. Of course she said "he's taking you for a walk" again, and I nodded in response. Then she abruptly said, "I have a cat."

I replied, "Yes, I've seen it." It's a big orange thing that sits on the front porch and eyes the dog warily as we walk past. The dog is afraid of cats in general, which is pathetic, and I find it quite amusing to see her get nervous as the cat gives her the evil eye.

She said, "The orange one?"

Me: "Right."

She: "That's not my cat."

Me, confused: "Well, it's on your porch all the time."

She: "That's because I feed it."

And that, apparently, was the end of the conversation, because she did not offer anything more. The dog and I went on our way. For a moment I wondered if maybe I was dreaming, and hadn't yet gotten up to walk the dog. A couple of hours later, after I'd gotten up for real, I realized that I haven't seen the orange cat in some time. Usually once winter ends the cat is outside frequently, glaring at us as we pass. So maybe it isn't her cat after all, and has found another porch on which to perch.

Just Because: Silly Chase Footage

I've been knocking around YouTube trying to find something silly to post, and I think this will do nicely: a bunch of different car chases from the original Hawaii Five-O edited together into one long, strange clip.

Watch Wednesday Thursday (6/7/12)

I will probably never own a Rolex, or a Breitling, or an IWC, but there are plenty of great, interesting, collectible watches that cost far less than one of the finer brands. I've focused on acquiring watches that are affordable and that I want to wear. What I have to show you today is what I have long considered the coolest watch ever, the Accutron Spaceview:

I've featured other Accutron watches in the past, but a Spaceview has been missing from my collection for a long time. I actually bought one around 13 years ago, early on in my collecting. After a couple of years my feelings about the watch had changed (I realized that I preferred a different style) and I sold it, planning to get another one somewhere down the road.

"Down the road" became a decade. I looked on and off over the years, finding ones that were in excellent condition and comically overpriced, or ones that were not running and in need of a total electronic and cosmetic overhaul. Also, during the years they were produced, there were many variations in case designs and in the markings on the crystal, and I wanted the very specific style that you see here, a stainless steel case with the metal ring around the edge with hour and minute markers, and the Accutron name and symbol on the crystal at the 8 o'clock position.

Last fall I renewed my search with a bit more enthusiasm than I had given it in some time. I found that people were still asking outrageous prices, and I started to worry that I would never be able to find a watch at a reasonable price. In November I came across a watch for sale on eBay that had been tucked away in the proverbial dresser drawer for 40 years. It was running and in very nice condition cosmetically, and being offered for a realistic price, so I bought it.

When the watch arrived, I found that while it did indeed run, it was afflicted with a problem common to many older Accutron watches: it ran quite fast, much too fast to wear even for a day. I knew it would need servicing. I remembered a New York based eBay seller who sold watch parts and also offered Accutron repairs at a flat rate. He has been repairing Accutron watches for over 40 years. When I was planning my April trip to New York, I contacted him and asked if I could drop off the watch in person while there.

It took a few weeks for him to complete the repairs, but the watch arrived back to me last week. Not only is it running just right, but he polished everything so it looks like a brand new watch. To complete the package, I had him put the watch on a period-style Accutron strap with the tuning-fork logo on the buckle. I'm thrilled to have this watch, and very happy that I was able to get it repaired so it runs properly. Watches are wonderful to look at, but they are meant to be worn.

In the Stars

Clouds prevented us from seeing Venus's transit of the sun this evening (more info here), but I think reading this may leave you in a better mood anyway.

Summer Suit Field Test

About a year ago I expended several days of blog space on my attempt to find a serviceable and reasonably priced cotton suit for warm-weather use. I ultimately purchased the Plain Weave jacket and pants (sold as separates) from L.L. Bean Signature. I wasn't buying this suit for any specific occasion; I was trying to take the "get it before you need it" approach.

Buying separates meant I would need only minimal tailoring: the pants were hemmed and fit decently enough, but the jacket's sleeves were too long, with the added complication of working buttonholes. At one time this was an indicator that your clothing had been custom-made for you, but in recent years it has found its way to all sorts of low-cost, mass-produced sportcoats and suit jackets. It's a gratuitous and unhelpful "feature," because (1) no one needs to be able to roll up his jacket sleeves, and (2) if the sleeves are not the right length, it makes getting them tailored much more complicated.

After I'd bought the jacket, I never bothered taking it to the tailor because I didn't need to wear it anywhere imminently, and because I wasn't 100% convinced I wanted to keep it. Since it was from L.L. Bean I knew I could return it, so I left the tags on and put it away with my other suits and jackets.

A few weeks ago I spontaneously decided to volunteer for an event. The instructions said volunteers should wear business dress, and when I started thinking about what I was going to wear and what the weather would be like, I realized I might need to wear the cotton suit. The one that still hadn't been to the tailor yet, after nearly a year.

Around the same time I clicked on one of the emails from Jos. A. Bank that deluge my inbox every day. Their cotton-blend suits with some sort of "stay cool" voodoo in the fabric were being offered at a ridiculously low price, somewhat less than I'd paid for my separates. I decided to order one to see how/if it fit, since I'd never bothered to go into one of their stores and try one on in person. To be safe I ordered the same style in two different sizes, which also got me above the free shipping threshold.

The Bank suits arrived, and neither one fit particularly well. The 42 fit decently in the shoulders, but there was no way I could button it. The 43 was a bit big in the shoulders and I could just barely button it, but it didn't look good. When I returned the suits to the local store, the salesperson tried to convince me that the 43 could be let out at the sides, but that sort of alteration is much more complicated (meaning it also costs more) and I didn't feel strongly enough about the suit to start with. The Bean jacket fit me much better overall, except for the sleeves.

That meant I still needed a tailor, and by now I had only a few days left. From my previous experience with Mr. Lee, the tailor I've used in Teele Square, I didn't think he would be able to complete the job in time. I had noticed a tailor shop near our house and decided to visit. The proprietor understood what needed to be done to the jacket's sleeves, but she told me she would have to close the bottommost buttonhole on each arm. I didn't care as long as she could do the work. She offered to have it done in four days; I asked if it was possible to complete it in two. She said yes, and with no additional charge.

The day of the event was sunny and about 80 degrees, but thankfully not humid. I had to walk a short distance from the subway, so I got a little overheated; it was easier to wear the jacket than carry it. I also discovered that putting my phone in one of the inside breast pockets messed with the way the jacket hung on my chest, but shifting it to a side pocket solved the problem.

Once I got inside the building and adjusted to the strong air conditioning I was fine. Because they are cotton, these pieces have a slightly more casual look overall than a "real" suit, but I dressed it up with a blue spread-collar shirt and a red paisley tie with a blue accent that picked up the shirt and a light beige accent that picked up the suit. I wore it with honey-brown lace-up shoes with tan cotton laces. I managed this picture with my phone in the men's room mirror:

If I had been attending a more casual sort of event, I might have considered wearing loafers, but if you're wearing a suit with a tie, you should be wearing lace-up shoes. If you have to attend an outdoor event in summer, I'd recommend getting a linen suit with as little lining in the jacket as possible, but if you know you'll be in a climate-controlled environment, cotton works nicely.

Retro Video Unit (6/1/12)

I've been trying to get back on schedule, but obviously I haven't been entirely successful. Let's be honest: sitting at a desk for seven or eight hours a day provides an ample framework for finding fun stuff on the web, and for blogging. Not working provides no framework for anything.

Anyway, let's go back once again to New Wave-era England, a rich period that I (obviously) never tire of exploring. I've just learned from Wikipedia that Buzzcocks has no "the" before it, which feels a bit awkward. The band was quite successful at home, but did not achieve wide recognition in the USA. I remember seeing their albums when I started exploring record stores in downtown Providence in the late 1970s, but I never bought any of them, which was clearly a mistake.

Here's a live performance of the 1978 single "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldnt've)":

Determination Yields a Bargain

Those of you who pay attention to men's clothing and fashion will know the name Michael Bastian. He's been offering luxe interpretations of traditional styles for more than half a decade, and in the process has become one of menswear's most admired designers.

But man, his clothes are expensive. Even after he terminated a manufacturing arrangement with Italian luxury brand Brunello Cucinelli (supposedly to reduce costs), his stuff is still way, way out of my price range.

For example, this red cotton jacket was one of the standout pieces of his spring 2012 runway show. Care to guess how much it retails for? When it finally showed up in a GQ fashion layout a couple of months ago, they had it listed at $875. I had to squint at the magazine to make sure I was reading the number correctly.

I've been looking for a red jacket similar to this (minus the epaulets) for some time. I could have just bought a Baracuta-style jacket, but I don't care for the stand-up collar or the raglan shoulders, and Baracutas are overpriced too. After I saw the Michael Bastian jacket, I was even more determined to find a reasonable facsimile, and even more determined to find a good deal. The knockoffs haven't had time to hit the market yet (probably in the fall), so I figured I would have to dig around on eBay.

I spent some time one afternoon with eBay's shopping tools, narrowing down the hundreds of thousands of available items in the men's coats and jackets category to make searching more manageable and, maybe more importantly, to eliminate the stuff I knew I didn't want. From there I looked at individual brands; I wasn't especially concerned about finding a particular brand, but for me it's just an easier way to search for an item within a specific category, and it allows me to avoid looking at items that I know will be logo-encrusted or of poor quality. After a while I found this:

It was in unworn condition, for $13 plus shipping. It's at least a decade old, but probably older, back when Gap actually made decent stuff. Remember that? It's a slightly darker red than the tomato hue of the Michael Bastian jacket (and my mediocre camera makes it look even darker), but for what it cost me it doesn't matter. Of course, now that summer is setting in, I won't be able to wear this until at least September.

Busy Thursday

Just a bit busy at the moment—I'm volunteering at another event for Community Servings this evening and an appointment this morning. I'll be home in between and may be able to post then, or it may not happen until late tonight or Friday.

Classic Movie Alert

As I've mentioned in the past, the 1984 movie Repo Man is near and dear to my heart. The Harvard Film Archive is kicking off a retrospective series of director Alex Cox's work this Friday, June 1, with a screening of Repo Man at 7 pm. If you've never seen the movie, or have never had the opportunity to see it on a big screen, this is an excellent opportunity to absorb its glorious 80's satire.

Repairs

A couple of days ago, the hot water faucet on our bathroom sink came off in my hand. I thought it had just come loose and would screw right back on, but it had broken off. I'm not sure exactly how old it is—we've been living here six years, and the bathroom was renovated at some point before that—or how long such things typically last, but the stopper function also broke a couple of years ago, so it seems like replacing the entire faucet assembly is needed. I contacted our landlord and we should be seeing a plumber in the next day or so.

This Week in Awesome (5/26/12)

Think of this as the blog equivalent of spring cleaning; some of these have been hanging around for a while.

Garage door designs on midcentury houses. (Hemmings Auto Blog)

A supercut of all the gear shifts (and only the shifts) from all the Fast/Furious movies. (Devour via Autoblog)

Saturday Night Live's 100th Digital Short was kind of a greatest-hits callback to many others in the series.

This tumblr offers visual comparisons between movie references on The Simpsons and the movies being referenced. (Videogum)

And this one riffs on imagery from Mad Men episodes. (What's Alan Watching?)

The second episode of Jimmy Fallon's Downton Sixbey arrived this week.

And finally this week, back in February SNL did a great Downton Abbey spoof, treating the show as if it were on the brotastic Spike channel. At the time it wasn't posted online because of rights issues, but I came across it today. (Styleite)

Senior Dog

I guess the air conditioners are going in this weekend after all. Blech...

It's not just us, though; our dog is almost 11, and has difficulty with heat and humidity as well, so we have to think about her comfort. We went to the vet yesterday, and not only do they want to see her twice a year now because of her age, but she's also getting a joint supplement that we hope will make it easier for her to climb the stairs.

Watch Strap Search

Those of you who have read my watch collection posts know how important it is to me to find the right strap for each watch. Sometimes I end up making compromises, but I find that when I do so, I end up not wearing certain watches as much.

One such watch is this Tudor that I spent a fair amount of money to have repaired a couple of years ago. It takes a 19 mm wide strap, which is an uncommon size. The strap on this watch is just a cheap one I found somewhere (maybe Target?), and it's not very pleasant to wear, so I set the watch aside and forgot about it for a while.

Recently I remembered that I'd wanted to find a nicer strap for this watch, so I started looking around online at all the various watch strap sites I'd bookmarked. Very few even carry 19 mm straps, and those that do have a slim selection. Also I want something very specific: black leather with little or no grain, with matching stitching. Many of my watches have straps with white or colored stitching, but I thought that style wouldn't look as good on the Tudor.

I thought of trying some local stores, but was having no luck that way either until today. I had lunch with the Proper Bostonian, who afterward wanted to look at jewelry at downtown mainstay E.B. Horn. I spotted a nice, plain strap in tan and almost bought it, but I asked if it came in black and was told it did, and it could be ordered. At this point what's another couple of weeks?

Great?

I kind of had to post this... the first trailer for Baz Luhrman's 3-D version of The Great Gatsby hit the internet yesterday. It looks just as bonkers as I expected, maybe even kind of in a good way? (You can see how conflicted I am about this.)

I did detect dialogue that comes directly from the source material, and regardless of what's coming out of the actors' mouths, it's certainly going to look magnificent on a big screen. The movie opens on Christmas Day. Anyway, enjoy...

Time Flies

It's hard to believe that Memorial Day weekend is already approaching. Not that I have plans to go away or anything like that, just that it's generally considered the unofficial beginning of summer, and it's at around this point each year that I think to myself, wait, where did spring go? I don't want it to be summer yet...

This year we had an up and down spring, with a couple of bursts of very warm weather mixed with more typical cool, wet stretches. It can be tough to figure out what to wear, and on days when the temperature can fluctuate by 30 degrees or more, I frequently end up carrying a jacket that conditions have become too warm to wear. I wish I was one of the people who can tolerate temperatures well enough to keep his jacket on no matter what, but it just ain't happening.

Being a person who dislikes heat and humidity, I kind of dread the point in the year when the onset of summer becomes inescapable. Last year I was forced to put in our air conditioners on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, but thankfully it's not going to be that warm here yet. Remember a few years back when it didn't get hot until the middle of July? Yeah, I was the person who was happy about that.

The weather, and our trip to California, also led me to pull some shorts and other warm-weather clothing from storage before getting around to putting away my cold-weather clothing. Conditions in our bedroom and closet are haphazard, to say the least. A project for this week, I guess.

Retro Video Unit (5/18/12)

Another tribute would seem in order, due to the untimely passing of Donna Summer earlier this week. Now I realize that her music doesn't fit with the clips I tend to post here, but you have to remember that I grew up in the 1970s. At this point in my life there's no harm in admitting that I had a disco phase during high school, but even if I hadn't I would still love her and her music.

Her music wasn't included in Saturday Night Fever, but Donna Summer defined the disco era as much as the Bee Gees, KC And The Sunshine Band, and the Village People did. And she was a gifted enough artist to transcend her early work. She was a great performer, and her music meant a lot to me. Here's a performance of "On The Radio" that I found on YouTube.

Another One Bites the Dust

On Wednesday the Phoenix Media/Communications Group announced that it was selling WFNX to Clear Channel, considered by many the evil empire of radio. Almost all the staff were immediately laid off and, assuming the sale goes through, the station will likely switch to a different format.

WFNX had been around for almost 30 years, and like WBCN before it, was a crucial part of my musically formative years. From the time it went on the air in 1983 it was the cool kid among Boston radio stations, and I welcomed the station as a place on the radio dial where I knew I could find the music I cared about and wanted to hear. Over the years 'FNX introduced me to hundreds of new artists, some that wouldn't merit airplay on any of the other, more commercial station in the area.

Part of its appeal was its status as an independent station, the last remaining one in Boston. But as much as I loved and appreciated WFNX over the years, I had not been a regular listener in a long time. Part of that was simply because I don't drive, which is where many people listen to most of the radio they consume. But I had pretty much stopped listening to any radio, not because of technological changes, but because it just wasn't as satisfying to me anymore. I did listen to music much of the time at work, but I used my personal iTunes library; for some reason it never occurred to me to click into 'FNX's streaming feed.

So now WFNX becomes another piece of our shared past that's gone, with nothing left but memories and nostalgia. Or maybe not quite. I did have a personal connection with the station that most other listeners didn't. Back in the late 1990s WFNX used to do a fundraising event for World AIDS Day. In 1998 midday DJ Julie Kramer offered listeners the opportunity to join her in hosting the "Leftover Lunch" show in exchange for a contribution. The Mrs. made the donation as a gift for me, and I did my show the following January. They made a copy of the broadcast for me on a cassette tape, and a few years back I converted it into an mp3 file. Here's the playlist:

David Bowie: "'Heroes'"
The B-52's: "Legal Tender"*
INXS: "Don't Change"
Elvis Costello: "Radio Radio"
New Order: "Temptation"
U2: "Out Of Control"
The Lucy Show: "Ephemeral (This Is No Heaven)"
Pretenders: "Talk Of The Town"
Roxy Music: "Over You"
X: "The Hungry Wolf"
Dumptruck: "Island"
Shriekback: "Hand On My Heart"
The dB's: "Never Before And Never Again"
Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians: "Heaven"
O Positive: "With You"
Tommy Keene: "In Our Lives"
Graham Parker: "Discovering Japan"
The Church: "Tantalized"

(*a request from the Mrs. that I had to play, since she was the reason I was there)

Thank you Julie, and thank you WFNX, for all the great radio memories.

Short-Term Savings

I haven't offered any shopping tips in a long time, partly because I've been trying to keep a tighter rein on my spending. But just because I'm not buying as much doesn't mean you have to.

Endless is having one of their two-day 20% off events. As it happens, today is the second and final day; I dutifully ignored the first email I received from them, and didn't realize this discount was in effect until I saw it on Dappered. To get the discount, use the code FRIENDS2 at checkout.

There are restrictions: you have to spend at least $100, and the offer does not apply to clearance items. But the best thing about these events is that the discount does apply to more expensive shoe brands like Allen Edmonds, which rarely go on sale, and shopping through Endless gives you the convenience of free two-day shipping and free returns.

This is an excellent opportunity to get a pair of quality, American-made shoes (a few of their styles are made in the Dominican Republic, but most are US-made) at a nice discount. And if that isn't your thing, there are plenty of other brands to choose from. Endless also offers accessories like sunglasses and watches, so get going...

Travel Thoughts

...and we're back. The traveling is over, for now. Our trips back from the west coast usually involve overnight flights. It's a bit of a hassle, but ultimately it's the simplest way to return. I would rather fly overnight and nonstop than have to deal with changing planes. However, I am almost never able to sleep on planes, so I have to plan on devoting the rest of the day to sleep and recovery. I hit my pillow around 6:30 am and woke up about seven hours later.

The San Jose airport is mercifully easy to deal with. It's not huge, but it's not so tiny that you have to disembark from the plane onto the tarmac. Everything is laid out very logically, and the signage is excellent. Even if you'd never been there, you could probably drive out of the rental garage and figure out which highway you needed to be on and how to find it.

Visiting northern California is always interesting to me. The climate is agreeable, the people are uniformly friendly (sometimes a bit too much so for a New Englander's comfort), and there are lots of old cars. And by "old" I mean cars that are 30, 40, maybe even 50 years old, being used as daily drivers. (The weather means rust just isn't the issue it is in the Northeast or Midwest.) This makes observing everyday traffic much more varied and colorful. Unfortunately the cars I saw were gone in a moment or two, so I wasn't able to get any pictures.

As for us, we were driving around in a rented Nissan Sentra, a car that can charitably be described as funny-looking. But it was comfortable enough and didn't use much gas, and when we got to the car return area at the airport, the check-in staffer told us to stay in the car and someone would drive us around to the terminal, so we didn't have to take the shuttle. It was a small gesture that made our lives a bit easier, but one I've never had another rental company offer, and it was appreciated.

Double Double

Someone had the good sense to build an In & Out Burger adjacent to the San Jose airport, so we are fueling up before taking off. There wasn't even a line to order.

I Must Be in the Front Row

I thought I was being clever by selecting seats in the first row of the plane. It never occurred to me that being in the first row means no seat in front of you under which to store a bag; everything has to go in an overhead bin until the plane has reached cruising altitude. Also, the little TVs are mounted on the partition, which is further away than the ones mounted on the seatbacks. Not an issue for most people, but a little too far away for me.

But other than those minor things, and a very bratty three-year-old one row back on the other side of the aisle, it was the easiest cross-country flight I've taken. We took off on time, there was no turbulence, and we landed 20 minutes early. Getting our luggage and the rental car took longer than the drive from the airport to the hotel. We checked in just after 9 pm Pacific time, eager for some rest.

The weather is beautiful, and we have a lot planned for the next several days. The Mrs. brought her laptop and the hotel has free wifi, so I'll check back in when I can.

Travel Prep

Travel is both exciting and tedious, simultaneously. It's great to be able to cross the continent in six hours or so, but while airborne it feels agonizingly slow. For this flight to San Jose we ended up paying a little more for "extra legroom" seats. It wasn't strictly necessary, as JetBlue's planes are already pretty gemerous with legroom, but there were only a few middle seats still available, scattered around the cabin. The extra-room seats were at the fromt of the plane, and came with some sort of expedited security (which didn't seem any faster to me) then there's the weather. Santa Cruz is fairly warm right now, so I had to dig into my warm-weather clothing storage for climare-appopriate stuff. I didn't even bother with a jacket, but I did pack a heavier canvas shirt that I can wear ad a layer if needed.

Laced

I needed shoelaces. The laces that came with my L.L. Bean blucher mocs had started to deteriorate; small splits had opened, causing the white inner filling of the laces to poke through. I'd never seen laces do that, and it looked terrible.

You'd think it wouldn't be a big deal to find shoelaces. You used to be able to find them in any drugstore, but the shoe care section of the typical CVS has been shrinking steadily, to the point where it's a few packages of athletic laces on pegs and a few cans of shoe polish.

Also, I didn't want to buy the same kind of laces again, because I figured the same thing would happen. And since the laces that came with the shoes didn't stay tied well, I thought it would be a good idea to try rawhide laces. They are durable and more likely to stay tied, but they look similar to the ones that came with the shoes.

Finding them wasn't easy. Even shoe stores like the DSW downtown didn't have them. On a whim I ventured into the Army-Navy store on Tremont Street across from Macy's. Stores like this also used to be more plentiful; the one in Kenmore Square was a good source for simple, cheap clothing for my friends and me when we were in college.

The Army-Navy store did have rawhide laces, in both the typical orange-brown and a darker brown. They're meant for boots, so they were long, but cutting one lace in half gave me two laces just the right length for my blucher mocs, and I have the other one as backup. But this search made me think it might be a good idea to start stockpiling shoelaces.

More Travel Ahead

That's right, we're off to visit the Mrs.' sister and family on Wednesday. It's been a couple of years since we've been out there, and about 18 months since they visited out here, so we're due. The Mrs. has a couple of weeks between the end of the semester and the start of her summer session, so we have a limited window of opportunity to work with.

Unfortunately things aren't working out so well with the Mad Men writeups this season. It's kind of crazy since I'm not even working right now, but I've had other stuff going on, and while I have generally been watching the episodes when they air on Sunday nights, I have not been able to get in the second viewing that I find I need to critique them effectively. The traveling hasn't helped either. I'll definitely so a summary of the season when it concludes.

This Week in Awesome (5/5/12)

Some of these are from last week, so they may not be completely fresh by this point...

A visual representation of the planet's transportation routes. (Gizmodo)

Legendary British DJ John Peel's legendary music library is being made available for online streaming. (UrbanDaddy)

Another transit blog (I can't get enough of this stuff). (Transit Maps)

Art class: check out how these intricate paper sculptures are made. (The Daily What via BuzzFeed)

And finally this week, you may recall that when Paul Rudd was on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon a couple of months ago, they made up a batch of posters for fake movies the two allegedly made. Well, they've done the same thing for Jimmy and Amy Poehler. (Pop Culture Brain via Videogum)

Retro Video Unit (5/4/12)

Sad news comes today of the death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys. I can remember hearing "Cooky Puss" on an adventurous radio station nearly three decades ago and thinking, "What the hell is this? Also, I kind of like it..."

So let's celebrate MCA's life, talent, and profound impact on music and pop culture with what I consider to be one of the best videos of the 1990s: the Beastie Boys' glorious spoof/homage of 1970s cop shows, "Sabotage."

Flagship

While I was in New York, I made sure to visit Uniqlo's new global flagship store, which opened about six months ago. It's on Fifth Avenue right around the corner from the Museum of Modern Art.

At 89,000 square feet, it's quite enormous, though when you first walk in off the street it's a bit deceptive, as all you see at first are three escalators, all going upward, with small selling areas on either side. The best thing is just to jump on one of those escalators and ride all the way up to the third floor, which is much larger than either of the two floors below it.

The selling floor up there seems to keep on going almost infinitely; I kept turning corners and finding more stuff, without even straying into the women's section. At the same time, the environment wasn't overwhelming, as the Soho store can sometimes feel. I think this is because this store is so large, everything is somewhat more spread out, making shopping more comfortable.

I roamed around for a while, just taking in all of it, before starting to shop in earnest. There are almost always promotions being offered on certain items; last week, all T-shirts were half-price, and buying two got you a free admission ticket to MoMA. Button-front plaid and checked shirts, usually $30, were $20, which encouraged me to buy two.

The Soho store suffers from a relative scarcity of dressing rooms, but that isn't a problem here. I recall reading when this store opened that there are 100 dressing rooms. Personally, I'm much more likely to buy something and then go back to my hotel room to try it on (I did that this time with some pants, which I ended up needing to exchange), but that's just me, and it's still nice to know that a dressing room is more likely to be available if needed.

Another great thing about this store is that it's loaded with staff. They are fairly easy to spot, and you may be approached before you even need to ask a question by a friendly staffer asking if you would like a bag to hold your potential purchases while you make your way around the store.

Uniqlo has plans to start opening stores in other US cities; this fall they will open their first West Coast store, in San Francisco. Meanwhile, if you are visiting New York, you really should make a point to see this store.

Seeing Gatz

Sorry for the unexpected absence the past couple of days. There's no particular reason for it; I guess just going away, and then adjusting to being back, threw me off schedule. So, do you want to hear about the epic play I saw in New York? I hope so, because that's what this post is about.

To refresh your memory, I saw Elevator Repair Service's production of Gatz at the Public Theater. The building that's home to the Public, on Lafayette Street near Cooper Union, is over 150 years and originally housed the New York Public Library. It's a beautiful old building, and the interior public spaces are currently being renovated, which can be slightly confusing, but the staff was gracious and helpful.

Because of the extreme running time, the show began at 3 pm. The story opens with people working in a dreary, cruddy-looking office. One employee arrives and finds he can't start up his computer (which is ancient). Bored and unable to work, he rummages around his desk and comes up with a copy of The Great Gatsby, which he begins to read aloud. This brings some odd looks from his coworkers, but he ignores them and continues. At one point he appears to go home for the day, return the next morning, and resume his reading (by that point, his computer has been taken away by an IT tech).

Gradually, his office mates become the other characters in the story, and by the time our narrator (he's reading the part of Nick Carraway, who tells the story in the book) had reached the end of chapter 3, two hours had passed, and it was time for the first intermission. I got up and stretched my legs, and stood around waiting for those in my row who had gone to use the restroom to return.

Act 2 ran about an hour and 15 minutes, after which there was a 90-minute dinner break. I used that time to walk a few blocks north to Dos Toros, a burrito place on Fourth Avenue just below Union Square. I had an enormous burrito and a $2 can of Tecate, and walked off my dinner a little before starting back. I grabbed an oatmeal raisin cookie from the concession stand before heading back into the theater. The show resumed promptly at 8 pm, with the final intermission at 9:30. Act 4 ran from 9:45 until around 11:10 pm. It took me only about 15 minutes to walk back to my hotel, just off Houston Street.

I was slightly terrified that I might fall asleep after eating, but the performance was completely engrossing. It really didn't feel like I had been sitting for over six hours, and it also didn't seem possible that the cast had covered the entire text of The Great Gatsby in that time. F. Scott Fitzgerald certainly didn't write Gatsby with the stage in mind, and I'm sure he never imagined anyone would want to perform his work on stage, but it's a brilliant idea that is flawlessly executed, making for a unique and memorable theater experience.