There is no reason why you should be reading these words and not looking at the amazing photos below. There is nothing I really need to say other than, look at the images below and enjoy the pure beauty and spectacle that is a Ralph Lauren fashion show. If there is one event I wish I would have attended this New York Fashion week, this is it. This first picture of the young lady in the overalls, good God, stunning.
All photos via Marcio Madeira and Style.com
It all started in 1985 when — in an effort to save money — Coca-Cola stopped using real cane sugar and reformulated the iconic drink to be made with high-fructose corn syrup. The U.S. government subsidizes corn growers so much (some $40 billion since the mid 90s) that HFCS is cheaper than sugar, and when you are producing on the scale that Coke is material costs are crucial to the bottom line. What does this have to do with Mexican Coke you ask? Well, the bottlers south of the border never made the switch to HFCS, so people (like myself) feel that Mexican Coke has a better taste than American Coke. I think the Coca-Cola made with real sugar is less sweet tasting and has a smoother finish than HFCS Coke and thus is superior. There is also some Coors beer action going on (ever see Smokey & the Bandit? They’re thirsty in Atlanta and there’s beer in Texarkana) because Mexican Coke is harder to get.
That is my buddy Randy Goldberg’s set-up pictured at a concert earlier this summer. The wallet is a custom Billykirk from the Pop Up Flea. I finally got around to pulling those pictures off my camera and this guy stood out. The Billykirk boys are famous for being painfully nice, so I bet if you wanted a special wallet a la Mr. Goldberg’s below they would do it for you for a few extra bucks. Budweiser sold separately.
If you haven’t had a chance to drink some Buds outside, sit around a camp fire, drive fast with all of your windows down, ride on a boat, catch an outdoor show, drink a Dark ‘N’ Stormy and do all of that other fun summer stuff you better get at it. One more month and it is September…
Download Freedom
Dearest ACL brethren,
It seems the folks at Men.Style.com have been holding a popularity contest for “blue-collar beers” and my beloved High Life is trailing both Pabst and Yuengling. All I can say is what the fuck! I’m a High Life man and High Life men don’t take this sort of thing lying down (hmmm, unfortunate idiom there). So head over and cast your vote for the High Life.
Vote here — then go back tomorrow and vote again. Forward to your friends and tell them to join the campaign. (ACL has no affiliation with Miller except when they get me drunk.)
I feel like an idiot. Chad Lemke has been blogging about staplers since 2007 and I had no idea. I’ve never met Chad and don’t collect staplers or anything, but when I found his blog the sheer joy hit me like a ton of bricks. The first thing I did was email the Stapler of the Week link to Alex Olch — he’s a stapler lover like myself. The email went something like this. Subject: FUCK. ME. Body: This is why god created the internet. Olch agreed. I imagined him giddy and grinning as he inspected the online treasure-trove of paper connecting goodness.
Not only is Mr. Lemke an earnest and well versed stapler collector, his blog is exactly what you would expect from someone who is fixated with paper organizing devices. Text, coherent and exactly justified in tidy columns with beautiful photography on pristine white backgrounds. Layout simple and uncluttered. The blog is very well done. This discovery renews my sense of pride in Americans. We can obsesses over the most arcane subjects just as well as the Japanese. For that Chad, I salute you. Visit, bookmark and read Stapler of the Week.
File this under random. I have a strange fascination with hobo culture. In fact, two of my very different interests (it should be pointed out that I have a lot of odd diversions), intersected in the first season of Mad Men when a young Dick Whitman (aka Don Draper) meets a hobo man that teaches him a lesson about life. Amazing! Everything you need to know about how to get by as a hobo can be seen below. Given the current economy, this might actually have real world applications.
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1992382&w=500&h=383&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1992403&w=500&h=383&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1992426&w=500&h=383&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1993458&w=500&h=383&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
Here’s to a happy, health 2009! I resolve to get up earlier and drink more High Life — not necessarily at the same time.
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1915013&w=500&h=385&fv=clip_id%3D2645513%26server%3Dvimeo.com%26autoplay%3D0%26fullscreen%3D1%26md5%3D0%26show_portrait%3D0%26show_title%3D0%26show_byline%3D0%26context%3D%7Cnewest%26context_id%3D%26force_embed%3D0%26multimoog%3D%26color%3D00ADEF]
Looks like Mom and Dad read ACL — some of my spot-on Christmas gifts are pictured below. In addition to the items seen here, I also scored a classic Lands’ End attache bag in navy. Plus, a monogrammed set of Tervis Tumblers (the original, made in Flordia) from my biz partner and her wonderful mother. Thank you, thank you! What did you all get? What did you want?
My nice union made Carhartt from Midwest Workwear.
That’s how much the copy of Take Ivy sold for on eBay. At this point, Take Ivy is said to be more valuable than most U.S. investment banks. To quote Carl Fox (Martin Sheen’s character in Wall Street), “The whole world is off its rocker!”
The lovely Joanna Goddard from Glamour’s Smitten blog asked me to put together a guy-orientated gift guide for her readers (for the ladies). You can see the full feature here.
