Take that to the bank

A couple random things, a little hodgepodge, if you will, before the weekend:

Luke Burbank and Jennifer Andrews at Too Beautiful To Live have been doing a series of interviews with a seemingly regular guy and fan of the show who used to be a bank robber. A very successful bank robber. From Bellevue. It is fascinating – catch up on the podcasts here starting with the Monday, January 19th episode. I have been somewhat obsessively listening to this radio show, TBTL, since it started last January. The Stranger's article on Burbank and the show is highly informative, and you can catch up on old episodes at toobeautifultolive.com. (Stranger photo by Curt Doughty.)

Chad put me up on a blog I've been enjoying called Archival Clothing. Today's post is on re-purposed Filson gear, using fabric acquired by dumpster diving outside the company's Seattle headquarters. Interesting.

I got the new Andrew Bird record. I like it a lot and I'm sure I'll get more into it, but I'm not flipping over it like I did the last one. I tend to like his warmer-sounding stuff (Plasticities, Lull) and the new record strikes me as purposely tinny-sounding. I also got the new A.C. Newman record. It's basically a collection of variations on the same themes and sounds he always hits (both on his own and with New Pornographers), and honestly that is just fine with me.
A.C. Newman Submarines of Stockholm (edit) MP3 via Matador

Agent Provocateur just issued Love Me Tender…Or Else, an extremely high-gloss short video reminding its customers not to forget Valentine's Day. Fashion films generally suck, and this one has a lot of annoying things about it, but hey…what, I'm a red-blooded American, what can I say. I believe I have encapsulated the plot fairly well with the photos above, or if you want to perv out, perv, watch it here.

The Times has a pretty fascinating story this morning about surf gangs of the North Coast. Approached by Pacific Standard for comment, Hawaii native SK Honda had this to say: "dude, it's gangsta up there." Read here. (Times photo by Marco Garcia.)

I like this salsa. It's only $1 a can. I'm not sure what the duck has to do with it but it's good.