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.Emily and I have both been working weekends for the past month so we haven't had a chance to do much, either in or out of town. I kind of miss posting more personal adventure photos... with Spring on the way and the Jeep undergoing some much-needed tune-ups as I type, I'm hoping we can take a little roadtrip soon. In the mean time, here are some pics from our last mini-vacation, to Port Townsend, the first weekend of January. I can't believe this was already a month ago... the new year has been a blur.

Before the railroad, Port Townsend was the most important city in Washington, because of its access to Pacific Ocean shipping lines through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Then Tacoma seemed likely to take over, being the logical terminus for the railroad – but it ended up in Seattle, and the rest is history.

A lot of Port Townsend's old buildings are preserved and it's a cool city to walk around.

We weren't there for long, we just hit a couple antique stores and had some oysters (maybe the best I've ever had, actually – from Quilcene, which is just down Hood Canal) and ales from the local brewery before heading across to Whidbey Island on the ferry to spend the night.

I have always liked Port Townsend and I'm glad to know it's still there.

Image of the Day

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This photo, by the supremely talented photojournalist Nicole Bengiveno, is from an article and slideshow in the New York Times about a guy who has lived in the same apartment (above the Swatch store in Noho) since 1975. It's got these great round windows – I have noticed them from the street but didn't imagine that someone lived there – and one of them has a bunch of little bullet holes in it. "Mr. Hinman suspects that they date from the years that the law commune whose clients included the Black Panthers had its headquarters on this floor."

Mega Margiela

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Pacific Standard's favorite vintage clothing store Resurrection is holding a gigantic online Margiela sale this weekend in conjunction with 1stdibs.com – over 1000 pieces, all from a single collector. Info at resurrectionvintage.com, and sign up here to receive the catalog Saturday morning when the sale goes live.

What'll We Get from Mr. Fancy-Pants Art Dealer?

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[ via The Year In Pictures ]

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

Alexander McQueen

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I'm sad to forward the news that Lee (Alexander) McQueen has died of an apparent suicide. His close friend and supporter Isabella Blow, who herself committed suicide in 2007, purchased McQueen's entire student collection when he graduated from Central Saint Martins, and since then McQueen's work has been at the forefront of treading the line between avant garde and mainstream. His mother, a former school teacher, passed away a week ago. McQueen always seemed to be a tortured soul but he channeled it into dark beauty, and his loss is an incredibly sad one.

Zut Alors!

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The Quarterly Disorderly is moving to Bastille!

Come to Ballard next Tuesday night!
If you live in Ballard: stay in Ballard next Tuesday night!
I'm playing records (French and otherwise) with Matthew, Spyridon and Alex again for the third installment in our occasional old-guy DJ series. This time it's in the back bar at Bastille. Here are the details:

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2010
After work, 6pm-11pm

BASTILLE
5307 Ballard Ave NW - Seattle WA
No cover charge, great drinks and snacks, rustically chic atmosphere. You'll fit right in – see you there.

Image of the Day

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A Willy Vanderperre photograph of Eniko Mihalik, styled by Panos Yiapanis, for the forthcoming issue of AnOther Magazine. Emily and I camped in a remote section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park one time and there was an old farmhouse and barn still standing. Seeing this photo reminded me of the light that shone into the top floor of the barn.

The Ultimate Tool or the Ultimate Enemy

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Disney is wrapping up production on a sequel to Tron, in 3D. Usually I would say "worst episode ever" or something rude meant to convey that nothing can ever be as good as the original, analog rules, back to mono, nothing gold can stay, pass the beer nuts, etc. – but honestly the thought of all those lights and lines in 3D is pretty exciting. Jeff Bridges is in again, with Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde (pictured below), John Hurt and others.

Click here for the trailer (worth it just for the clouds in the beginning).

Image of the Day

. Signed 1865 Ulysses S. Grant carte de visite photograph by Brady & Co. – currently up for bidding at Heritage Auction Galleries (the same place that sold those D.B. Cooper $20 bills I posted about before – I'm getting their catalogs now and I'm amazed at the things that come up for sale).

A carte de visite was a standard 2.5" x 4" albumen print patented in 1854 by a Paris photographer named Andre Adolphe Disderi. Their popularity spread quickly – people would get them made and then trade them with their friends and people they met.

Rough and Refined

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Last week I mentioned that I thought the most interesting thing to come out of the Spring couture shows was the return of 47 year-old Dutch designer Josephus Thimister, who had gone missing (save for a short stint at Charles Jourdan) since leaving Balenciaga in 1997.

Thimister's final collection at Balenciaga – the one that got him fired – was inspired by the Baader-Meinhof Group, and the "bloodshed and opulence" of the Bolshevik Revolution provided inspiration for this one. "We are still feeling the aftershock...Europe fell apart," he told Hilary Alexander at the Telegraph. "We have never recovered. We have lost our soul and our spirit."

Brooding Commie or not, I really like Thimister's juxtaposition of rougher military materials with more delicate pieces. In the look shown below, the coat could almost double as a tarp, and by contrast it elevates the beauty of an intricately embellished evening dress – which itself feels like it could have been made from scrap metal and mesh (click to enlarge). It reminds me of camouflage netting.

So anyway – I liked a lot of the show, and it will be interesting to see where Thimister goes now. See more images at Fashionologie and read a recent interview with the designer at Style.com.

Image of the Day

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I love this photo of the Joe Cuba Sextet and special lady friends at the Pines Hotel in the Catskills. It's featured in the booklet that comes with a new 2-CD retrospective, El Alcalde del Barrio, which I designed for Fania as part of their ongoing A Man And His Music series. All of the tracks included have been re-mastered by Wax Poetics and the booklet includes extensive liner notes and many more photos. Sunday's New York Times had a nice write-up of the release, which is in stores February 23rd.

The bandleader and conga player Joe Cuba, who died last year at the age of 78, made fearlessly welcoming records. He wanted the widest possible audience, so he worked at mambo, pachanga, Latin boogaloo, salsa, bolero doo-wop, Latin rock; he used hard-hitting percussionists, romantic crooners, soul choruses, electric guitars. Apart from the rhythm, the vocal hooks of his greatest songs had schoolyard genius: “Beep beep/Bang bang/Ungawa/That’s power” (“Hey Joe, Hey Joe”); “Cornbread, hog maw and chitterlings” (“Bang Bang”); “I’ll never go back to Georgia/I’ll never go back” (“El Pito”), “Oiga mi pregón/Es muy sabroso” (“Pregón Cha Cha”). All of those are found on “El Alcalde del Barrio,” a new two-disc retrospective on Fania, taken from records made between 1956 and 1974. It’s New York City music of incredible joy, crossover-minded down to its foundations.

More info here.

Image of the Day

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Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

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Don't take my picture dad, we're studying.

Take Two Steps Back

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St. Vincent tonight at Neumo's.
Not going, too tired. You go, tell me how it was.
Or, just watch these videos, they're funny.



St. Vincent "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood" video with THUNDERANT (Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen). See also:


[I think I might have posted that before, I can't remember.]



More at THUNDERANT.
More St. Vincent at ilovestvincent.com.

Image of the Day

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From the Architecture and Design department at The Museum of Modern Art: Pininfarina (Battista "Pinin" Farina). Cisitalia 202 GT Car. 1946. Aluminum body. Manufactured by S.p.A. Carrozzeria Pininfarina, Torino, Italy. Gift to MoMA by the manufacturer.

I'm posting this as image of the day because it appeared at the top of MoMA's email newsletter today, and it reminded me that one of my favorite places in the museum is the part of the design department where they display a car from their collection. More at MoMA.org

Counting the Old Days, It Always Equals One

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A long overdue update from J. Ralph Phillips! It's been too long.



While we're at it, one of my all-time favorite J. Ralph Phillips cuts:
J. Ralph Phillips Breaks Like Broke mp3

More at jralphphillips.com.

One person’s helpful mood improver is another’s worryingly effective stimulant

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An article in this morning's Times details Scotland's problems with Buckfast, a popular barleywine brewed by Benedictine monks and containing 15% alcohol and caffeine equivalent to eight Cokes per bottle. "The police in the depressed industrial district of Strathclyde," it notes in particular, "recently told a BBC program that the drink had been mentioned in 5,638 crime reports between 2006 and 2009 (the bottle was used as a weapon in 114 of them)." Nationally, the Scottish government "estimates that alcohol misuse costs Scotland $3.6 billion annually in health and social problems and loss of productivity."


Moreover,

"It’ll blow your head off,” said James Grimson, smoking a cigarette outside a pub near the center of Coatbridge recently, speaking of Buckfast.
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"It goes straight to your head,” [said Martin Rooney, 48,] “but it’s not my cup of tea.” (Mr. Rooney noted that his cup of tea is half a bottle of vodka a night.)
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"It’s always wise to remember that Jesus turned water into wine,” [Buckfast PR spokesman] Jim Wilson said in an interview.
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"Have you ever tried Benalyn cough syrup?” asked Sharon Macauley, a sales assistant at G & B’s Newsbox general store.

No, m'am.
Click here for the whole story.

Image of the Day

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Theodore Roosevelt in deer skin hunting suit, 1885, by photographer George Grantham Bain. Read some cool and/or interesting stuff about Roosevelt here.

See also: Our trip to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Image of the Day

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I don't know what this is
but I think I need it.

Make It Work Etc.

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A lot of people say that Haute Couture is a relic of the past, but the inspiration, the references, the search for something new – in addition to the more surface-level beauty of the colors, the shapes, and the culture itself – keeps me interested in coverage of the shows every season.

Givenchy Spring 2010 Haute Couture, by Riccardo Tisci.

That being said, compared with some past seasons, the Spring 2010 shows last week seemed a bit lackluster (Cathy Horyn asked, "How many couture collections really proposed a new style, or showed you something that was the result of amazing techniques?").

Jean Paul Gaultier. Some nice details.

I thought the return of former Balenciaga designer Josephus Thimister was the most interesting thing that came out of it, but I'll do a separate post about that. For now, here are some of the things that caught my eye in the main shows. (And yes, this is clearly Emily's territory on the blog... but since she is buried in schoolwork, I thought I would attempt to pinch-hit. I mean, hey, I bought my mom a subscription to Vogue when I was 8. Let's do this.)

Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld. The hair reminds me of the sorority girls in Animal House ("That boy is a p-i-g PIG"). On the surface it seems...I keep thinking of a young Pat Nixon or something, not that I have any idea what she looked like. The details are impressive though – one outfit had something like 13,000 satin flowers on it – and combined with those crazy road warrior accessories the contrast is interesting. "I don’t want vintage...and in a way I am vintage," Lagerfeld was quoted as saying. "Like a box of macaroons projected into cyberspace," said Suzy Menkes.

Christian Dior, by John Galliano. A little bit expected – it doesn't feel very relevant to me. I say that as a fan, and I guarantee that if you got close to these pieces your mind would be blown, but from afar I didn't find this collection very exciting. I would like to see Gaultier and Galliano do shows that are totally out of their own heads some time, as opposed to such heavily referential collections every season. I am a sucker for red and for riding gear, however. What.

Armani Privé Spring 2010 Haute Couture, by Giorgio Armani. The way the light hits that blue dress is cool. Otherwise...it was an Armani show.

Valentino – the first collection by Valentino protégés Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli. A little boring overall but the lightness and layering of the fabric is beautiful. Maybe this is because I'm a dude but I don't like the little bows – I understand that you sometimes have to do things to tie a look together (imagine that middle look without a bow – it would need something) but I might prefer a knot. Those fabric roses that Tom Ford did at Gucci – something more modern. I don't get the instinct to do a jacket like that one on the left, and then along comes a little bow.

So there you have it. Some day Emily will be done with school and coherent fashion coverage will return to the PS. As always, we thoroughly recommend Cathy Horyn's coverage of the shows (and she's Twitting now too, if you're into that kind of thing).

More images at Fashionologie.

Special Analog Set

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Via hot tip from my man DJ Suspence:


More info on Typeface, a film about the Hamilton Wood Type Museum of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, here.

Movie poster by Dennis Ichiyama

When I Grow Up

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This madness compelled me to take another look at the work of Fever Ray. Thus far, I've been more a fan in theory than in practice (does anyone else make that designation? I make it a lot). Now that I pay closer attention, I'm liking Fever Ray more and more. The thing is, I think of what she does more as performance than as stand-alone music; it feels like without the visuals, you only get half the story.

Karin Dreijer Andersson, aka Fever Ray

In some cases, the visual elements are much more elaborate than the songs – the dirge "If I Had A Heart" feels like an electronically parsed version of Bonnie Prince Billy's "My Home Is The Sea," and the video makes it epic. (Incidentally, I can't help being reminded of the river scene in Night of the Hunter.)


Anyway, there you have it: slightly more into Fever Ray.
And this concludes my dinner break.

Info and updates at feverray.com
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Image of the Day

I love the graphics on this piece by our homegirl Lily, from her Urban Outfitters line Yellow Is Gold by Sunshine & Shadow. Click here to buy and here for a lil' write-up at New York magazine.

You Have to Get a Little Detached,and Then Come Back and Look At The World

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In Saturday's New York Times, Bob Herbert had a nice remembrance of historian Howard Zinn, who died last week at the age of 87:

I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. (He called himself a radical.) He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?
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That he was considered radical says way more about this society than it does about him.

Read the rest here (the Times' original obit is here).

Here, Wallace Shawn reads an endlessly relevant November 1970 speech by Zinn on the topic of civil disobedience:

Wow Me

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[via SLOG ]

Champion

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Karin Dreijer Andersson aka Fever Ray accepts an award from Sweden's P3 Guld public radio.

[via Jessica and Olivia]

Image of the Day

. This week has been pure insanity.

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

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Hey dad, hey dad-

Yep, what's up Jeans.

Play my song again!

Again?!


Ah yeah, again and again!

Rodney O & Joe Cooley Everlasting Bass mp3
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It's Different

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Seems civilized compared to the degenerates on Jersey Shore.
Another one to add to the collection...
[via General Bonkers]

Hellhole Ratrace

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Wildwood NJ + Kids + 2010 = Sophomore Spring/Summer video lookbook by photographer Cass Bird.

Unhappy Hipsters

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"Maybe naming him Rimbaud wasn’t such a good idea."
(Dwell magazine, February 2009)

Click here for more.

Raise High the Roof Beam

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Very sad news this morning: JD Salinger has died. He was 91 so, you know, how sad is it – he had a good run. But his books, as few as there are, have meant so much to me, that it makes me sad.

"What this reader loves about Mr. Salinger's stories is that they honor what is unique and precious in each person on earth." –Eudora Welty

...
The New Yorker has posted links to all of the Salinger short stories published in the magazine from 1948 through 1965 – click here.

Image of the Day

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Here's an image I found on the web whilst drinking some refreshing Canada Dry ginger ale and eating my lunch (smoked salmon with tabasco and a side of carrots – quite fantastic, no?) It's a sheet music cover for "The Owls Serenade" by HW Petrie, [self-proclaimed] "composer of the great successes 'I Don't Want to Play In Your Yard' and 'You Can't Play In Our Yard Any More.'" (Click to enlarge.)

The state of the union is objectively shite but things like that remind me that the history of the union is weird and great. More old sheet music here.

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Late-breaking update:
Actually, Obama's State of the Union speech tonight made me feel a bit better about the state of the union. Talk is just talk but at least his sounds good. I still believe in the guy, and I'm not one of these people that thought everything would change overnight – he has a lot to deal with – I just think he needs to apply more pressure.
Anyway, enough of all that.

Image of the Day

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Today is my Grandpa Don's birthday (he would have been 90). Above is a photo of him with my mom on Vashon Island, probably about 1951, and below is him in 1978. Pretty cool jean jacket.

Happy birthday, old timer.

Inspiration, Imagination, Discipline

. "...or go to the ocean. And drink coffee."

Last night my mom, Emily and I went to see Patti Smith play a few songs and read from her new memoir Just Kids. It was great, the most inspiring thing I have witnessed for a long time. I'm too swamped to write much about it right now but just wanted to mention it, and to post a link to a very good recent interview with her on Fresh Air.

Photo by Angelo Cricchi from pattismith.net

Image of the Day

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Bubble wrap is 50!