badass |ˈbadˌas| informal |ORIGIN 1950s: from the adjective bad + ass. 

adjective: formidable; excellent: this is one badass memo pad.

Aaron Draplin.

Not only is Draplin an ACL Hero and American Icon, he’s also half of the wildly popular “pocket material” empire Field Notes. In a follow-up to Draplin’s other famous videos (what’s the status of that documentary?), the native Michigander spends some time “talkin corn” and showing off some of the farmers promotional memo books that served to spur the creation of Field Notes. The more video of Draplin I see, the more he continues to inspire and entertain. Respect must be paid to him for sticking to what he loves and for making great stuff.

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The Chris Craft boats of the early 1940s could be the best looking pieces of American design ever. Well, that’s my feeling anyway. Imagine spending a sunny summer day on a lake in the upper Midwest cruising around in a beautiful wooden 1941 Chris Craft Barrel Back. What could possibly be more fun?

The lines and shape of the wood and chrome on the pre-WWII Barrel Backs are so incredibly good looking, I could imagine it would be tough to nominate something more quintessentially Americana. Note specifically the half moon styled stern on those bad boys, it is something truly magical.

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A little while back I went to the preview for an auction of William Eggleston prints at Christie’s, a sale that was arranged to benefit the Eggleston Artistic Trust. It was a particu;arly interesting event for me for a few different reasons. First because I absolutely love Eggleston’s photography (and the man is one of my favorite living artists), and also because the auction consisted of large format digital pigment prints, a rare departure from the dye-transfer prints that helped solidify him as one of American’s greatest photographers.

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The guys at Devour just posted this great video of what I’m guessing is 16mm Kodachrome home movies from a group of Chicago Police officers and their wives while they visit Las Vegas in the early 1960s. The opening sequence takes place in a bus with long curved plexiglass windows (which makes for easy viewing of the Nevada / Arizona country) and is perfectly clear and in focus — incredible stuff. The quality of these home movies are pretty astonishing when you consider the era and equipment. Brings to mind the footage of VJ Day that we posted back this past August and the amazing Malibu home videos from 1965. Really interesting to see what Vegas was like in those days and how it has changed.

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“More heady than love, ladies or liquor is the sporting-goods catalog of L. L. Bean, outfitter extraordinary to men who live so they may hunt and fish,” read Life magazine’s encomium to the entrepreneurial outdoorsman in October of 1941. From modest beginnings in 1911, sales at Leon Leonwood Bean’s Freeport mail order business had surpassed the $1 million mark by 1937. Life showcased a number of innovative items from the Bean catalog, beginning with the famous Maine Hunting Shoe, created when Bean had a seamstress sew elk hide leggings onto a pair of old rubbers to keep his feet warm and dry while duck hunting.

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With my apartment positioned squarely within a Zone A of New York’s hurricane evacuation area, I decided to head to Ohio for the weekend to visit my folks and avoid all of the kerfuffle in the city. I got up early on Saturday, grabbed my car and headed west on Interstate 80. I wanted to get out of the city to avoid traffic before everyone was up and about, which meant that I got a quick start and made great time across the state of Pennsylvania. Around exit 70 I saw a sign for a flea market (a diversion that I have been able to successfully ignore on many previous occasions) but being as this was an unplanned trip and I had time on my side, I decided to peek in and see what this place had to offer.

To my surprise, the flea market had a good selection and was situated next to one of the best looking painted barns I have ever seen. There weren’t any crowds or obnoxious yuppies (not counting me anyway) and no food trucks serving lobster rolls — just a bunch of old stuff to peruse. The exit 70 flea is made up of four long stalls each staffed by an old timer that would happily accept conversation over a sale, a transaction I was happy to provide after five hours on I-80.

In the end I did pick up a few small items — resisting the two great lanterns below – took a few snaps of the barn and was on my way a happy man. If you ever find your self running from a massively over-hyped piece of weather and end up near exit 70 on I-80 in Pennsylvania (on a Saturday or Sunday in the spring, summer or fall), stop and check out that old barn and the flea. You won’t be disappointed.

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