Comin’ into Los Ang-e-les, not bringing in a couple of keys.
I’ll be out in California for a little more than a week to get some work done and to visit some ACL related things. Stayed tuned for what I hope will be regular updates and follow my sun-soaked and heavily-liquored thoughts as they happen via the ACL Twitter.
Download Arlo Guthrie, Coming into Los Angeles
April 1 is the beginning of trout season here in New York. Conditions don’t really pick up until later in the spring, but that doesn’t stop the faithful from lining the banks for a crack at the first fish after a long winter.
Here are the essentials for your time on the river—note the absence of the dreaded vest. Unless you are an accomplished guide or a decade-long member of AARP, you are forbidden to wear one.
Most exalted makers are blindly devoted to their high-end rods at the expense of their value line. Not so Scott. The Montrose, CO company does right by those who rightly expect a $300 rod to do what’s asked of it.
Trout are the gentlemen of fish—some anglers even wear ties, out of respect, while pursuing them. We don’t go that far, but the selective species are perhaps the most dignified ambition in the fishing pantheon.
Another book I need to buy from Taschen is Roadside America by John Margolies. Similar in style to Los Angeles, and very obviously my type of vibe, the book covers everything from “main Street signs, movie theaters, gas stations, fast food restaurants, motels, roadside attractions, miniature golf courses, dinosaurs, giant figures and animals, and fantasy coastal resorts.” You know who else would love this book? Mr. Aaron Draplin.
Some great imagery from Roadside America is below. Enjoy.
Thunderbird Restaurant Sign, Mount Carmel, Utah, 1987
It couldn’t have been a more beautiful spring day last Thursday at the penthouse at Milk Studios when J.Crew presented its fall 2010 collection to editors. The sun was shining, the wind was blowin, the Dark ‘N’ Stormys were flowin and there were lots of familiar faces in attendance.
It has just started to get warm in NYC and looking at autumn clothes took some concentration, but J.Crew really nailed it with this collection. As I studied the looks at the presentation I told a friend — this is how I would dress everyday if I wasn’t so distracted or lazy, or a combination of the two.
Since the event and clothes have been out there on the internets, I thought it would be fun to take a different sort of approach and give you a comprehensive wrap-up of what was shown and what was said. That way you will be prepared come late summer when the collection starts hitting stores.
A few months ago I had a revelation. Instead of being dependent on Flickr users to post their old Kodachrome images I would take matters into my own hands. I started buying whole collections of slides from the 50s and 60s at estate sales, flea markets and elsewhere. I would then send the slides away to be scanned. The process is super slow, but the results are amazing. Especially since I am amassing such a great collection of Kodachrome Americana. And I plan on sharing it all with you here. This post below is the first of many to come.
This batch of images is a mish-mash of two different collections. You can tell that images three and four are not the same as the flannel shirt images. The flannel gents and the boathouse are (I believe) are from Minnesota in the 1950s.
When I was about 15 years-old a family friend gave me $25 of LTV Steel stock. It was of nominal value, but it was an amazing gift — the memory of which has remained with me in to this day. It was especially poignant the day LTV filed for Chapter 11 and closed the last remaining steel mill in Cleveland. That was a disappointing time for me. While LTV was shuttering, the local newspaper — the Cleveland Plain Dealer — ran a series of articles called The Quiet Crisis, about the deflating Northeast Ohio economy and the eroding industrial tax base. It is tough to see things like that happen to any town, especially a town you grew up loving and defending.
I found these beautiful black and white photos from the Library of Congress (via the Detroit Publishing Company archive) and was listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Youngstown and it took me back to the glory days of American industry. Or at least the American industrial 1970s (think Deer Hunter) or when I was a kid in Cleveland in the 1980s. Most of these photos are from Western Pennsylvania — places like Homestead and Braddock — and some are from Cleveland, but the spirit is from Bruce and Youngstown, Steel Town.
Download Youngstown
One of my favorite things to do is to poke around the photo site Flickr. There are so many amazing old photographs there — down the rabbit hole I go. A wonderful new addition to the community is the UK’s National Archive. They are just getting started and only have about 200+ photos uploaded so far, but there is already some really great stuff in there. I pulled out a selection of favorites for your enjoyment and posted them below. If you are seeking nostalgia and inspiration, click on over. [National Archives UK on Flickr]
