Friday, February 12, 2010

Click to Enlarge

.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

Thursday, February 11, 2010

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.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

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).

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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 name
d Andre Adolphe Disderi. Their popularity spread quickly – p
eople 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.

Monday, February 8, 2010

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.