Perspective

On the same day I took the pay-phone picture a couple of weeks ago, I also took this shot on the platform at Wellington:

I waited for the precise moment when the train had stopped, but the doors had not yet opened. And it turned out pretty well, I think.

Public Works

Back in the spring the a contractor for the city spent several weeks digging up our street and some of the surrounding ones for sewer work. Now a new contractor is working on lining the water main that runs under the street. In order to do this, temporary water lines were set up about a month ago; they run above ground across driveways and sidewalks, going just under the surface where they cross side streets.

Yesterday I got up around 7 to take the dog out. I came back and returned to bed, and as I was drifting back to sleep a racket started up, coming through the closed bedroom windows. I soon figured out that an asphalt saw and a jackhammer were being applied to the pavement in front of our house. It was probably close to an hour before things settled down enough that I could fall asleep again.

What I can't figure out is why this work was being done on a holiday. There doesn't seem to be any urgency around the project in general; once the temporary water lines were set up and the houses were connected to them, nothing happened for a couple of weeks, then I started noticing workmen around the neighborhood, but whatever they were doing, it seemed like they were doing it in a rather leisurely way.

I expected the noise to return today, but I didn't hear anything and didn't get awakened; when I got up the workmen were digging, but they were set up several houses away. so, on it goes.

Car Stuff: Missed Opportunities

Now that I'm on the lookout for cars to take pictures of, it's particularly frustrating when I see one but can't get a decent picture of it because it's too far away or moves away too quickly. There are also cars that I saw around my area before I started taking pictures and haven't encountered again in a while. Being unable to get good pictures from more than one angle is frustrating too.

One afternoon a couple of months ago, I was coming back from a walk with the dog and waiting to cross out street when a really nice red late-1960s Cadillac convertible came gliding by. I didn't have my phone on me, but even if I did I wouldn't have been able to get it out and take a picture in time. Likewise, someone around my area has a late-1980s Cadillac sedan in an unusual triple-pale yellow combination. I saw it a year or so ago at the gas station with one of its doors open so I could see the interior, and then I saw it once again after that, in traffic, but going in the opposite direction.

There are others, but you get the idea. I'm still hoping that I will encounter some or all of them again at more opportune moments.

This Week in Awesome (10/12/13)

Busy busy busy... no really, we were busier than usual this weekend. And to be honest, I don't have the typical allotment, but what I do have is pretty good so I'm just going to go ahead and post it anyway...

Did you watch the annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode of The Simpsons last week? (They show it early because the show gets preempted for several weeks in October for the baseball playoffs.) The opening credit sequence was "reimagined" by movie director Guillermo del Toro, and incorporated all sorts of references to horror movies.

There's a lot to absorb in there, so a couple of subsequent articles break everything down: this one by annotating the video, and this one with stills and text, which may be easier than hitting the pause button over and over. (Entertainment Weekly; /film; Screen Crush)

And also in TV land, the people who make the FX animated comedy Archer did a little gag promo for the show's upcoming fifth season. If you watch the show you'll understand exactly why this is what it is. (FX via Vulture)

Retro Video Unit Bonus (10/11/13)

I was going to hold onto this until next week, but it's just too good. Yesterday I was sifting through videos on YouTube, looking for clips to accompany an article for The Longfellow Bridge, and found this. I used it in the article, and I'm posting it here as well.

When I look for videos for this feature, I tend to focus on the years around the beginning of MTV because I have an especially strong bond with the music of that period. But sometimes I tend to forget that I am in fact a child of the 1970s (yes, born in the '60s but in terms of cultural awareness) and remain connected to the cultural signifiers of that era, for better and worse.

Fleetwood Mac was one of the biggest bands of the '70s; they sold millions and millions of albums, and their music was all over the radio. Even without ever owning any of their music, I've absorbed much of it. This song, "Rhiannon," was one of several hit singles from their 1975 self-titled album.



I've always liked this song, but I've never seen or heard a version like this one. Like the best bands do when performing their material live, Fleetwood Mac takes this quiet, moody song and rips it open into something quite different.

(This performance is from a 1970s late-night TV show called The Midnight Special that featured bands performing live.)

Collared and Cuffed

We attended an event over the weekend for which we needed to dress up, and as I was planning what to wear I got to thinking about how my taste in dress shirts has changed. I used to choose dress shirts with a traditional point collar, as I am still a believer in the "rule" that one should not wear a button-down collar shirt with a suit (I'm totally okay with it when wearing a sportcoat and trousers).

I used to dislike spread-collar dress shirts, though at this point I can't remember why. I started noticing pictures of men dressed up—in catalogs, in magazines, at red-carpet events—and I realized that a spread collar shirt is an excellent way to elevate one's outfit just a bit more. It's classic and classy, and you don't have to worry about using a certain kind of tie knot; as long as your knot is well-formed, it will look just fine with a spread collar. (I don't really care for the cutaway collar, though; it's just a bit too dandyish for me, and it does require a Windsor or other chunky knot to look right.)

I also came to realize that a dress shirt doesn't need a pocket. I am someone who prefers my casual shirts to have a pocket, because I end up using it frequently, but if you're already wearing a suit then you have at least two or three inside jacket pockets available to you, so the dress shirt pocket is superfluous, and a dress shirt just looks cleaner and sharper without it.

Regarding one's cuffs, a lot of more style-conscious men now prefer their dress shirts with french cuffs, which is perfectly fine, but I find this is often just an excuse to wear whimsical cuff links. I am guilty of this (I own cuff links made from old typewriter keys), but I also have a pair that came with a shirt that are just pairs of buttons with about half an inch of thread between them (the thread is wound around itself a number of times to make it stiffer and easier to handle), and I have come to appreciate the quiet dignity (and low cost) of plain silk knots.

However, I've found that there are occasions when I feel that cuff links are a bit too dressy, and I prefer the look of a two-button cuff. I don't mean the kind that allows for a narrower or thicker wrist, but two buttons side by side with two buttonholes. It's more distinctive because it's less commonly seen, and even if no one else notices, I still know it's there.

It's possible to find all these attributes on one shirt, but it takes some sleuthing. The best source I have found for reasonably priced shirts with all these style options is Charles Tyrwhitt (and they are almost always running some sort of sale or promotion). But when I go bargain-hunting for dress shirts in Marshalls, I know that I'll probably have to compromise on at least one of these details.

Ralph Lauren shirts tend to be widely available at discounted prices, and I like them quite a bit, but I have yet to find one with a two-button cuff. A while back I found a USA-made shirt by Ike Behar for $20, but it had a pocket; I bought it anyway. A striped shirt by Tommy Hilfiger was exactly like one I was looking to replace, but it had a point collar. Again, for only $20 it didn't matter so much. Now I just need places to wear them...

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #7

Not all old cars are interesting, and not all interesting cars are old. I spotted this in Medford Square a couple of months ago:

It's a Dodge Stealth, a car produced by Chrysler affiliate Mitsubishi during the 1990s. I don't know a lot about these cars, but after some quick digging on Wikipedia and Google images, I'm pretty confident that this is from 1990-93.

The Stealth was also sold as the Mitsubishi 3000GT, but unlike the earlier Mitsubishi Starion, an identical version of which was also sold as a Chrysler, the Stealth and 3000GT were the same car underneath but wore different designs. The biggest difference was at the rear: the 3000GT's rear glass wrapped down to the sides (though it looked like a single piece, it wasn't) and the Stealth had an unusual rear spoiler that was set at the base of its rear window rather than at the rear edge of the car.

Though this car is between 20 and 25 years old, its styling looks very dated compared to today's cars. It's much busier overall, with lots of flares and scoops and doodads, but that was the general vein of Japanese car styling then, a holdover from the 1980s. It's also significantly heavier and less powerful than a current sporty coupe like the Subaru BRZ (hi, PB).

The main reason I noticed this car is because we happened to park right behind it. It's not a car I thought of as particularly attractive when it was new, but it's running and getting someone around.

Last Week in Awesome (10/5/13)

The weekend just kind of got away from me, as sometimes happens...

Sci-fi nerds will love this giant spaceship chart. (BuzzFeed)

A couple of months back I linked to an article about the top five TV shows ever. Now that Breaking Bad is finished, the author has reassessed his rankings. Spoilers, obviously. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Here's a pretty neat collection of infographics about internet usage. (BuzzFeed)

And finally last week, another New York time-lapse, but this one is arguably much more impressive when you read about the details of its creation. (PetaPixel via Laughing Squid)

Retro Video Unit (10/4/13)

Oh yeah, we're digging deep today. As I have expressed before, the late 1970s was an incredibly fertile period for music, but a lot of the performers and songs from the period have slipped into obscurity. Thanks to YouTube a lot of this music is still accessible and available.

Flash and the Pan (a deliberate play on "flash in the pan") was an Australian group active during this period who had a run of catchy, well-produced songs. This one, "Media Man," is likely the first song of theirs that I encountered while watching a syndicated late-night music video show called Rock World.



I've always liked this song, but I think the video is particularly impressive given the technical constraints of the time period. Today a high-school student could probably throw together something as good as this in a couple of hours, but back then it would have taken some skill and creativity. And today's media men and women are no less plastic than their 1980 counterparts.

Still Thinking About Boots

Can you stand a few more words about shoes? Because I have them. Words. And shoes, duh.

I've been lamenting this week's return to summer-like weather because, well, mainly because I don't like warm weather, but also because it's prime boot-wearing time. It is October, after all. The window of opportunity for wearing boots that don't protect feet from cold and/or snow, and are worn primarily because they look good, has gotten narrower as we've become accustomed to our changing climate and weather patterns. It's possible I might end up being able to get back some of this time during December (and perhaps even later, like two winters ago), but there's no way to know that now.

A long time ago I wore Justin roper boots, and I've also tried classic harness boots with oil-impregnated, matte-finish leather, but I've found that the shaft height (around 10 inches, sometimes a little higher) of these styles to be uncomfortable; the tops of the boots end up rubbing against my calves. I tried higher socks, but they wouldn't stay up and they caused their own comfort issues.

So I've settled on 6" lace-up boots, and a zipper boot that's about 7" high. I have a couple of different kinds in different colors. Three years ago I bought a pair of Wolverine 1000 Mile boots in a color they call "rust." I chose it because it was more distinctive than the black or brown they were also offered in at the time. Some time later they added "tan," which in reality looks too orange and is not something I'd wear.

I've wished since then that they would offer some sort of a burgundy, especially since the leather for the boots comes from Horween, a Chicago tannery that's been around for over a century. Horween offers shell cordovan leather (from horses) in a deep burgundy they call "color 8," and I know this color is available in some of their other leathers. The competition (Red Wing) also offers their boots in "black cherry."

Sure enough, the 1000 Mile boot is now available in "cordovan no. 8," but these boots retail for $350 a pair. You can spend quite a bit less than that, and still get a quality boot that's made in the USA. Maybe seven or eight years back, L.L. Bean revived an engineer boot they had offered back in the 1930s for their Katahdin Iron Works collection. They are made for Bean by Chippewa, a company that doesn't get as much attention as Red Wing or Wolverine but has an equally legitimate bootmaking heritage. (Actually, J. Crew has been offering a few Chippewa styles for a couple of years now.)

This fall Bean added a plain-toe version of the Iron Works boot in a deep burgundy. They cost $210, which is a chunk more than the $150 they ran when Bean first reintroduced them, but still only about 60% of what you'd pay for either the Red Wing or Wolverine equivalent. And the Bean/Chippewa boot can claim to be more usable as a work boot as well. I tried on the original version some years back in a Bean store, and I found that they run small; I have another pair of Chippewas for winter wear and those run small as well.

By the way, for any of my family members who might be reading this: a Bean gift card would be a welcome Christmas or birthday gift, so I could put it toward a pair of these.

Farewell, Pay Phones

I've been trying to be more aware of potential photo opportunities as I go about my mundane business. It has led to some interesting shots, like the one last week of the panda thief.

Yesterday I was passing through Wellington station again when I noticed this tableau:

The shot didn't come out quite as well as I hoped (I should have taken it on an angle to avoid the outside glare), but I only had a few moments before the train arrived, and there are still some MBTA employees who have not gotten the memo that it's legal and okay to take photos on T property, so I didn't feel like risking the wrath of anyone seeing me trying to take a bunch of shots.

I don't remember ever seeing pay phones inside the station, but I could be wrong about that. It looked as though they were on their way to the pay-phone graveyard and had been set in this spot while awaiting pickup. The cones and caution tape just add to the overall effect.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #6

Once I started taking pictures of older cars that I spotted around the area, I started noticing more of them. Sometimes they lurk in driveways, while others are parked on the street.

Today's subject is a car that we passed several times while driving; when it registered in my mind what it was, I asked the Mrs. to stop the next time we drove past it so I could take some pictures. I was very excited to see one still on the road, and not just being saved for car shows and cruise nights.

It's a 1968 Dodge Dart two-door hardtop. Its basic design was introduced for the '67 model year and remained in production for a decade, with minor changes to the front and rear ends every couple of years. The Dart and its corporate cousin the Plymouth Valiant were very popular cars when they were new, because they were well-built, dependable, and economical to own and operate. (There's a reason so many law enforcement organizations preferred Dodge and Plymouth police cars for decades.)

I know this car is driven regularly because I've seen it parked in various spots around this general area, including sometimes in a nearby driveway. This certainly would have been basic transportation when new; it's a Dart 270, the middle trim level of three available that year. I can recall that the parking lot of my elementary school always had several Darts and Valiants in it, cars that belonged to both teachers and staff.

By the way, you can identify the year of Darts like this fairly easily due to the small round side reflector lights. '68 was the first year they were required by the federal government, and the round ones were used on many Dodge and Plymouth models for that year only; for '69 they were replaced with larger rectangular lights.

This car also has a trailer hitch, which may seem a little unusual, but it could be used to pull a small boat or trailer of some kind, especially if it has the small V-8 that was such a workhorse engine in so many Chrysler products of the period (our green station wagon from a few weeks back had the same engine).

This car has obviously seen better days, but it's still on the road after 45 years. I've always liked these cars, especially the Dart GT convertible from this year, but any model from any of the 10 years of this design would be a fun car to have.

Seven

Well, I was half right in my Breaking Bad prediction; I'm fine with that.

Yesterday marked seven years since I started this blog. It's hard to believe that much time has passed. (We moved into this apartment and got our dog earlier that same year.) I still enjoy doing this, and I keep coming up with stuff to write about, though I will admit there are days when I feel pressure to say something clever, or anything at all.

As always, thanks to everyone who visits, reads, or comments.

(Car stuff will be back tomorrow.)

This Week in Awesome (9/28/13)

All right, here's my Breaking Bad prediction: Walt rescues Jesse, but Jesse kills Walt anyway.

Here's a K-Tel collection you probably won't see on sale anytime soon. (Nerdcore via Laughing Squid)

This video plays a clever visual trick on viewers. (Vimeo via Gizmodo)

The New York Times asked hundreds of teens to submit photos of where they live, and collected some of the best in an online gallery. (Lens blog via The Hairpin)

And finally this week, normally I wouldn't give a moment's thought or any attention to the subject of this because I find him insufferable, but as usual Jimmy Kimmel found a way to skewer his overinflated ego. Watch this first, then this. (TV Tattle)

The Fire This Time

I'm very happy that Tina Fey is hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live tomorrow tonight, but I'm even happier that the musical guest is Arcade Fire. Their new album Reflektor will be released in about a month, so I guess this is the first of their promotional appearances.

UPDATE: After SNL, NBC will broadcast a 30-minute Arcade Fire concert special. Adjust your DVRs accordingly.

There's a video for the single, also called "Reflektor."



The giant paper-mache heads are weird, but I found that opening it in a separate tab and listening to it without looking at the video helped me get into the song more. If you preorder the album directly through them, you get early access to concert ticket sales.

Also of note re: their SNL appearance: David Bowie sings background vocals on this song, and I'm totally speculating here, but he does live in New York so it's not out of the question that he'd show up for the live performance.

Panda Rustler?

Apparently there's a panda-smuggling ring operating in the area; I spotted this culprit making off with one today at Wellington:

Someone should inform PETA, I guess.

Finding the Right Monk Straps

I've never cared for the menswear-blogger favorite, the double monk strap shoe, but the appeal of the more traditional single-monk style has grown on me in recent years. It's a dressy shoe but with more flair than a standard lace-up. I started thinking about getting a pair of monk straps about two years ago, and as I started looking at the offerings from various brands, I noticed a few things that helped me find the right shoes for me.

First, a lot of shoes have straps that look too dainty for a man's shoe. Part of this depends on the width of the strap, and part of it depends on the buckle. A narrower strap and a buckle that's too rounded at the corners give the shoe a softer look overall, that I'd probably describe as more "continental." That's fine, but it's not for me.

I also noticed that some shoes had a leather loop or keeper for the strap to pass through after it gets buckled (like on a belt), and others had the strap passing through the other side of the buckle. So now I knew I wanted shoes with a wider strap, a squared-off buckle, and a keeper loop. And the buckles had to be silver-colored, since I don't care for brass belt buckles or any other yellow metal.

Toe shape is always an issue for me; a shoe that's too tapered causes cramps and other issues for me, so I looked for shoes with a more rounded shape. Then I noticed differences in how the parts of the shoe were cut. I was seeing quarters cut on an arc, like a traditional blucher or derby shoe. This pair from Cole Haan is a good example:

It's a detail I might not have noticed had I not seen a shoe that did it differently. The first such shoe I saw was one from Allen Edmonds called the Norwich, and the front edge of its quarter pieces doesn't have that arc, but angles back just slightly down to the sole, like this:

I think this blends in much better with the overall aesthetic of the shoe, giving it a more distinctive look. Like almost all AE shoes, the Norwich is made in USA and normally retails for $345. I saw these details replicated a short time later on a shoe that Ralph Lauren was offering last year. It was also made in USA and retailed for nearly $500.

Without regular income, buying a shoe like this would be an unnecessary luxury. But I got some money for my most recent birthday, and I had some extra set aside before that, so I decided I was going to buy myself the AE shoes as a birthday present. Knowing the annual Allen Edmonds sale would be starting soon, I went to one of their stores to try on shoes and figure out which size would fit me best.

I thought I was a 10.5 E, but it turned out that the 11 E was a better fit. Earlier that day I'd happened to find a pair of the same style on eBay in 11 E for $100, while buying them new would be almost $300 even with the sale discount, so I decided to save some of the money for something else and bought the shoes that were on eBay (that's them above).

I probably wouldn't choose these for daytime business dress if I was in a situation where I had to wear suits regularly, unless I was an art director or something like that. But we are attending an event next weekend for which I'll be dressing up, and it will be a good opportunity to wear these.

Freedom

A quick reminder: this is Banned Books Week. Celebrate the freedom to read.

Car Stuff: Random Sighting #5

(In case you're wondering, there was no TWiA this weekend due to a lack of suitable material.)

The parking lot of our local Ocean State Job Lot has turned out to be a pretty good source for car-spotting. (Several years ago I saw two old Dodges parked next to each other, but the pictures I took have been lost over years of switching phones and memory cards.)

I took this picture three or four months ago, before I realized that I should be getting shots from multiple angles when possible, so this side view will have to do.

This is an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme sedan from the mid-1980s. The Cutlass nameplate originated as the sportier top trim level on Olds's "premium compact" F-85, which arrived for the 1961 model year. For 1964 the F-85 and Cutlass evolved into a midsize car that shared General Motors corporate DNA with the Chevrolet Chevelle, Pontiac Tempest, and Buick Special. This "platform," known as the GM A-body, was produced until the late 1980s, so this car represents the final years of that line. But for much of the later 1970s and early '80s, the Cutlass Supreme coupe was the most popular car sold in the US.

This basic design arrived for 1978 as part of GM's downsizing program, but with a rather homely slanted-back roofline (called "aeroback" by GM) that went completely against the grain of the general design themes common at the time, which had been so successful for Olds. Also questionable: the windows in the rear doors did not roll down. It also came as a two-door model, and there were Buick versions of these as well.

Disliked by the public, sales of the aeroback models slipped significantly and GM rethought the decision; for 1980 they introduced a revised design with the upright roofline you see here. The windows in the rear doors were still fixed, but the narrow flip-out window was added for a meager amount of ventilation.

The tail lights and other minor trim details identify this car as being anywhere from an '84 to an '87. For 1982 GM had shifted the A designation to a new range of midsize cars with front-wheel-drive, but kept the older models, now called G-bodies, in production for several more years. This is a common practice among automakers, because after a few years in production, the main costs of developing a vehicle have been recovered and continued sales yield mostly profits.

These days it's surprising to come across a car that's still in somewhat regular use in this area after nearly three decades, but this Cutlass Supreme is soldiering on.

Retro Video Unit (9/20/13)

Today I'm going back to my college years for a song for which I never even realized there was a video. Yaz, known as Yazoo at home in England (there was a band in the US already using the name Yazoo at the time), was a synth-pop duo started by Vince Clarke, an original member of Depeche Mode who left early on to do his own thing.

He teamed up with vocalist Alison Moyet for a brief but influential period in the early 1980s; they only released two albums, Upstairs at Eric's and You and Me Both, before deciding to go their separate ways. Moyet pursued a solo career while Clarke formed the long-running duo Erasure with Andy Bell, a singer who sounded uncannily like Moyet.

This song, "Situation," is from the first album and is almost certainly the first song by them I heard. It's bouncy and upbeat, and would probably be good on a workout playlist.