Sunday, January 31, 2010

Nothing like a dead animal on your wall make your room look more badass


Picked this up today at Kudzu in Decatur (which I wrote about in November). Perhaps it is fitting that my version of deer hunting happens at an antique market rather than in the woods. I assume it's a whitetail, can anyone verify this for me? As much as I like bird hunting, I have yet to do any deer hunting. There is always next season, I suppose.

The rack is pretty small, but he is in good condition and was 25% off. Now I am finally on track to acquiring a taxidermy set to compete with the Hovey sisters (highlights here, here, here, and here), but that will be a long road.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Drake Old School Camo

Although duck season is pretty much over, the appearance of camo on several of the clothing blogs lately (as Greg mentions here) reminded me of this.

Drake is one of the better-known makers of waterfowl clothing and accessories, all of which come in a variety of the latest and greatest camos (Max-4 HD, Mossy Oak Duckblind, etc.). However, they recently introduced a line of gear in the waterfowl camo of old, what they are calling their "Old School Camo."

This stuff looks great, and if you were so possessed to wear camo in some sort of non-hunting environment (not that I am endorsing it), I think this should be your first choice. As for its use in the field, while it may not look like a photo of a marsh like some of the modern camos do, there is no telling how many thousands of ducks have been shot over the decades by guys wearing this stuff, so I would say that its pedigree is already spoken for. So whether you're sitting in a freezing duck blind at 6:30 in the morning, or riding your fixie through the streets of Brooklyn, here are some highlights:

EST Heat-Escape Waterproof Button-Up Shirt

MST Waterfowl Fleece-Lined Full Zip

Old School LST Down Coat

MST Fleece-Lined Pant

Check out the whole line here.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

An English flask, Southern style

This past Friday my brother returned from a month-long study abroad trip to London. Having also gone last year and not bringing me back any sort of souvenir, I made it quite clear to him that I expected him to bring me back something this year since he was fortunate enough to go to London (twice!) while I was not able to go back when I was in school. I did, however, give him little guidance into what I wanted him to bring me, except to tell him that I expected something that I could not purchase here in the US.

So, upon he return this weekend, he produced this flask as my souvenir. At first I wasn't sure what to think, but after reflecting on it a while, I am pretty glad about it.

Now, in spite of how much I love the South, I have never been much a of a "Confederate flag guy." However, I do think that this flask manages to just cross to the better side of that thin line between tacky and charming. It is pewter and was made in Sheffield, England, so it does have a good Anglo heritage. While it isn't another Barbour jacket, it's certainly not something that I would ever buy for myself, but I like it, and am glad that this is my souvenir. Thanks, brother.

Friday, January 22, 2010

The State of Georgia--Music Capital of the World

In case you weren't aware, the two biggest songs to come out in the past two weeks have both come from Georgia. Please enjoy.



Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Style Icon- G. Bruce Boyer


Photo credit: The Sartorialist

In case you didn't know, G. Bruce Boyer is an author and was fashion editor at Town & Country, GQ, and Esquire. I think that he is one of the most stylish men in America. He has really done so much for promoting American style (as opposed to American or Italian), and that is clear in his own style choices. He is dressy without being pretentious or stuff, and conservative but with enough small touches to keep it from being boring (like his penchant for only wearing suede shoes).

I was given a copy of his book, Elegance- A Guide to Quality in Menswear (thanks Alan C.) and it is one of the best books about clothing that I own.

Here are some various photos of him from the interwebs.

Photo credit: The Sartorialist

Photo credit: The Sartorialist

Photo credit: The Sartorialist

Photo credit: The Sartorialist

G. Bruce Boyer (along with Andy Gilchrist and Alex Kabbaz) sporting a Barbour jacket at last year's Collection of Sartorial Excellence (Photo credit: Collection of Sartorial Excellence).

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Robert E. Lee's birthday

Today marks the 203rd birthday of General Robert E. Lee.

Lee is a man who I feel like is too often unfairly used as a symbol of racism and the supposed ignorance of the South, and as a result, becomes known simply as the leader of the "bad" army in the Civil War. Unfortunately, this takes away from the fact that he was one of the greatest military leaders in the history of the United States, and also a great patriot. A fact that rarely seems to be brought up is that on the verge of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln approached Lee, a West Point graduate, with the offer to be the head of the Union Army. Lee, after much debating, finally made the decision that he had to be loyal to his home state, Virginia, who had entered the war on the side of the Confederacy.

Lee was a man of honor, courage, and principle, and someone who deserves a better legacy than the one that is widely given to him. Read more about his life on Wikipedia.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

New watch: Seiko Sportsman

My brother bought me three NATO watch straps from Gnomon Watches for Christmas, and feeling like none of the watches in my "collection" (I use that term loosely) were up to par with how awesome the straps are, I picked up this watch last week from a local antique shop.

It's a silver Seiko Sportsman manual wind watch with the seahorse back case. From what I've been able to gather from the internet, it is most likely from the 1960s. It is in very good condition externally, and seems to be running well, though it does lose 4-5 minutes over 24 hours, but I can live with that for now. It's also a good size and looks cracking on a NATO strap (as can be seen in the picture). I like the resemblance that it bears to some of the older Omega Seamasters, like the one below (not mine).

I apologize for the picture quality as I am currently without my normal camera since my brother took it with him to London for the month of January, so I did the best I could with his camera (not that my normal photos are anything to write home about). If you actually have any more info on this watch, I would really love to know more.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Countdown to the LOST Season 6 Premiere

This post is dedicated to my community group from All Souls, and to Chris Robinson from the R & R Review (which will hopefully be updated, one of these days).

If you like LOST as much as I do (which is a lot), you may be constantly wondering just how many hours there are until the first episode of the last season. For your sake, and mine, I have created a timer, on the right side of your screen, so that we can always know just how long we have until the beginning of the end. I can't wait.

**UPDATE**
Thanks do my buddy Dusty for pointing out that the timer wasn't working. I've replaced it with another one that, while visually much crappier, does actually countdown, which I guess is all that really matters in the end.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

New Eastland blucher mocs...kind of

Tonight I had some time to kill so I swung by the Ross in Decatur to see if I could find some socks (over-the-calf socks are hard to track down). While I was there, I saw a couple of pairs of these Eastland blucher mocs on the shoe rack and went in for a closer look.

They seemed to be at least comparable to the pair of Bean blucher mocs I was wearing at the time, if not a little better. "Made in China"--disappointing but not a dealbreaker. They were labeled size 10 and since I usually wear a 9 or 9.5, I figured they were worth a try. I was surprised at how snug they seemed, but I chalked it up to the pair of socks I was wearing, and for $17, I figured it was worth it.

Well, upon getting home, I removed the tag and tried them on again. Really, they were pretty snug, so I looked at the tag again. It did indeed read "10M"...."WOMEN'S." Oops. Chalk that one up to the androgynous nature of preppy clothing. So they won't seem to work with socks, but without socks I think that they will actually be alright. I'm going to give them a shot at least.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Volvo 850R

Most people would consider the Volvo 850 to be a pretty mundane (yet somewhat preppy) grocery-getter. Nothing to really take note of other than its unremarkableness. However, from 1995 to 1997, Volvo released a special edition of the 850, the 850R, that was a bit more of a head-turner.

The 850R (known as the T-5R when it was introduced in 1995), had a more race-like body kit, a larger spoiler on the back, a sport suspension, Alacantra suede and leather seats, 17-inch alloy rims, and a turbo engine that was tuned to 240 HP--18 higher than the 850 T-5's 222 HP. The T-5R is perhaps best known for the cream yellow color that it was offered in, but the 1996 and 1997 models were only available in black, red, and white. But really, what other colors could you want? Plus, it was available in a wagon (though I prefer the sedan).

I had the pleasure of owning one of these for a couple of years. A black one. I have to say, I loved that car, and would love to get one back some day. However, the combination of low-profile tires and the ten year old sport suspension were not a good match for the awful pot-holed roads of Birmingham, and the car really took a beating. Plus, taking it into the shop every six weeks or so for some $300 repair wasn't the kind of thing I was looking for as a college student/recent college grad.

I have one picture that I took with the car before I sold it, and tried to find it to post here, but couldn't track it down. I hope that you enjoy looking at the rest of these photos, though (which are not mine).

Sunday, January 10, 2010

LIFE Photo Archive: Quail hunt

I was fortunate enough to be able to quail hunting at my friend's parents' farm on New Years Day. In spite of the cold, it was still a lot of fun, and there were a good number of birds flying. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but you can imagine that they were similar to these photos I found on the LIFE Photo Archive, except without Dwight D. Eisenhower.






New year, new music

Having nearly filled up the hard drive on my computer, I haven't been able to download any new music for a couple of months. However, last week I bought an external hard drive and was able to transfer all of my music to that, allowing to to finally cash in the $45 of Itunes credit that I had. Here is what I got:

Kings of Convenience- Declaration of Dependence

I have been a big fan of Kings of Convenience for several years now. Don't be fooled into thinking that the LL Bean sweater was the only good thing out of Norway because these two guys are fantastic. So far I've really enjoyed this album. I think that it is better than their 2004 release Riot on an Empty Street, but don't think that it can top their 2001 debut Quiet is the New Loud (which is also one of the best album names of all-time).

Harper Simon- self-titled

In case you didn't know, Harper Simon is Paul Simon's son. It would be nearly impossible to write about this album without noting the similarities in their styles (not that it's bad thing, by any stretch). In fact, on a number of songs, you would be easily forgiven for mistaking Harper's voice that of his dad's back when he played with Art Garfunkel. However, on the whole, this album has a bit more of a country feel than Paul's ever did, and it's really quite good.

Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard- One Fast Move or I'm Gone (Music from Kerouac's Big Sur)

I had no idea about this side-project until I heard the song "These Roads Don't Move" on Dave Roots (which I wrote about recently). Being a sucker for both Ben Gibbard's voice and the pedal steel, this was love at first listen. The album is basically the result of Gibbard (the front-man for Death Cab for Cutie) and Farrar (of Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt fame) collaborating to do the music for a Jack Kerouac documentary entitled One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur. You can read more about it in this Pitchfork article.

Works Progress Administration- self-titled

Another album that I found out about thanks to Dave Roots, WPA is a collaboration which includes Sean Watkins from Nickel Creek, Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Luke Bella. It also features performances by Sara Watkins and dummer Pete Thomas. While some of you may find this line-up strikingly similar to the Mutual Admiration Society, think of it as MAS with a good bit of twang to it. The album also features two vocal performances by Sara Watkins, which are almost worth the price of the album by themselves.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

I'll be back


If anyone still reads this, I apologize for the lack of updates. So far this New Year I have had a lack of time and access to a computer, but hopefully I'll have some new posts up by the weekend.