The black "dress" shirt

Gentlemen,

Let's go ahead and get something out of the way. Under no circumstance is a black "dress" shirt an acceptable choice. Yes, I know you see them all over MTV and "Access Hollywood," but that doesn't mean that it actually looks good, especially if you are a pasty white guy.



Whether you are wearing it with jeans, with black pants, with a jacket, or with a black suit ("for that monochromatic look"), you do not look cool or cosmopolitan--you look like a moron.



Yes, your girlfriend may suggest that you wear it, and may tell you that it is "so in right now," but don't believe her, she doesn't have any idea what she is talking about. It has been scientifically proven that women know absolutely nothing about men's clothing, so if you're going to start ignoring her advice (like you should), this is as good a time as any.



Somewhere along the way someone came up with the "genius" idea to pair a black shirt a tuxedo. This was about the worst idea since the all-white "tuxedo."



Unfortunately, the suggestion that wearing black dress shirts (and black in general) has been going around the men's fashion circles for a while now. Just look at this suggestion from "Ronnie" from the show "Make Me A Supermodel" (whatever that show is):

"When going to an event and you don’t know the dress code -- simply dress business casual. For men black pants, black button down shirt, black belt, black socks and black shoes. For the women black pants and a solid color blouse or modest dress, nothing too loud. Its always better to play it safe than to stick out like a sore thumb."

No, if you want to look like a tool, follow this advice. Frankly, I'm not sure I'd be taking advice from a guy who dresses like this anyways.



Anyways, leave the black shirts for the rock stars and douchebags at the club (not to be confused with "The Club").

In the News

"Rom-coms 'Spoil Your Love Life'"

(Please note that I would never personally use the term "rom-com" in reference to romantic comedies)

I saw this article and feel like it really confirms the suspicions I've had (and many men have had) about these movies for a while. I guess it is a not a surprising result since most females nowadays don't really seem to have many better places to look for romantic advice than romantic comedies and episodes of "Friends" and "Sex in the City." Additionally, I think that Nicholas Sparks, and the drivel that he passes off as "novels" (that eventually get made into movies), also play a big part in this unrealistic perspective on love.

Dear Scott Schuman...What the hell??

Let me preface this post by saying that I think Scott Schuman is a great guy and I have great respect for him and his blog, the Sartorialist. I've been reading it since the early days, back when he used to post his latest updates on a certain men's clothing blog that I have been known to read. He used to get a lot of flack back in those days from the crotchiest and most conservative users on the blog for his "ridiculous" pictures. Having tempted in my own clothing crotchiness over the years, I believe that a lot of the criticism was unjustified. However, within the past six months or so, I really have to wonder what he's thinking.

Exhibit #1


Exhibit #2


Exhibit #3


I recognize that because of the size of NYC it is full of both the good and bad, style-wise. But just because some guy has the balls (or lack thereof?) to walk down the street in outfits like these doesn't make him stylish. Maybe I am overreacting. I suppose that the majority of his pictures are not as outlandish as the ones above. Maybe it has more to do with the comments made by the blog readers about how "incredible" these looks are. Worst of all is how many of these readers insist on using the adjective "fierce" which was popularized by some asshole a few seasons ago on "Project Runway." Hey, commenters on the Sartorialist: you are not being original by labeling every retarded look as "fierce."

I guess another thing that has been annoying me about the Sartorialist has been all of the pictures from Europe. While it is exciting for Scott that he gets to go to all of the big fashion shows in France and Italy, it is very apparent that the extend of European style is douchey tight clothes that are black. Yeah, way to go, Europe. The shots from NYC are superior about 95% of the time.

Exhibit #1


Exhibit #2


Exhibit #3


Anyways, this post is not intended to be a bashing of Scott and his blog. It is simply meant to be an encouragement to get his blog back to its roots. As I said, I am happy for his success and wish that my blog could have 1/10th of the readers that his has. I will continue to read the blog daily and hope that others will too.

Ryan Adams

I started listening to Ryan Adams about two years ago. I had heard of Ryan Adams but had never really listened to him and didn't understand what the big deal was. So when I saw one of his CDs, "Cold Roses," at the library, I checked it out and put it on my Itunes. I tried listening to it, along with "Love is Hell," for a couple of weeks, but could never really get into it. Finally, after at least half a dozen listenings, I got it; something clicked. Ryan Adams is incredible and I have been listening ever since. I've got nine of his studio albums (which include two Whiskeytown albums) and four of his unreleased/bootleg abums. If I could rank myself as a Ryan Adams fan on a scale from 1-10, I would probably consider myself a pretty solid 7.

So last month when I heard that Ryan Adams was going to be playing in Alpharetta, and that one of my friends/classmates was going to be going, I jumped on the chance and bought two tickets. I'm not really a "concert guy," but I figured this was a fairly rare opportunity to see him, so it was a no-brainer.

Well, the big day finally arrived this past Friday and I drove over to the new Verizon Wireless Amphithreatre (which was very nice, by the way) with my brother, my friend/classmate, and her boyfriend. We got there around 8:15 and the Cardinals (Ryan Adams' band, whose name he is now playing under) finally started playing at 8:45. They opened with some new songs from their upcoming record and played a "Peaceful Valley" from Cold Roses (which was probably the best song of the concert, in my opinion). However, about 20 minutes into the concert Ryan apologized that he was losing his voice and said that they would do the best they could to get through it. I knew at this moment that things were not likely going to end well.

In case you are unaware, Ryan has a pretty ugly reputation for ending shows mid-way through, walking off stage, getting mad and cussing out the audience. A lot of this reputedly has to do with his problems with drugs and alcohol, but Ryan has supposedly been clean for about the past two years. These problems were supposed to have ended, but apparently not. The band continued to play, and after a few more songs Ryan complained and apologized about his voice again. This happened a couple of more times, and finally, after "Shakedown On 9th Street" Ryan apologized again, apologized for and to the band, and walked off stage. The rest of the Cardinals looked pretty dismayed and eventually walked off too. This was about 9:50; the band had been playing for just over an hour.

At first people didn't do anything because they either assumed that it was some sort of stunt, or thought that perhaps they were going to take a quick break and come back and play more. I knew it was for real though, and it became clear to everyone else once the house lights came back up. Eventually, everyone just started to leave, many of whom were cursing his name.

Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed. I think I was even mroe annoyed by the fact that Ryan's voice never sounded bad anyways, and I couldn't tell whether he really was sick, or whether he was just unsatisfied with the crowd or the venue or both. When I got home, I went on forum at the Ryan Adams Archive website to see what others were saying. By that time, there were already three pages of posts complaining about the show. By the time I got back to Clemson that night, there were seven pages worth. There were more than a few disgruntled fans expressing their angre and disappointment, while several of the older forum members insisted on defending him, in spite of the fact that none of them were actually at the concert. Then, when I went to check it the next day, I found that the moderators had inexplicably deleted the entire thread. From what I learned on some other Ryan Adams forums, Ryan Adams Archive is the officially sanctioned by the Cardinals, and deleting the thread may have been a decision that came from the band itself. Regardless, I found this to be an egregious example of censorship, and it probably did not create any good will on behalf of the fans in Atlanta.

So what am I getting at here? I'm not really sure. I still think Ryan Adams is a fantastic musician; I will likely even purchase the new album, "Cardinology," when it comes out. However, I will have no qualms about getting any of his other albums for free in order to make up for the money that was wasted on the tickets to the concert. And I will certainly think twice about buying tickets to another Ryan Adams concert; it seems like attending his shows are like playing a game of Russian roulette with more than one bullet in the gun. As I noted earlier, I don't go to a lot of concerts, but I have been to my share of live shows and I have never seen anything remotely like this happen. The Cardinals issued a statement about the show on their blog and said that they will make it up. I'll believe it when I see it, but I would like to think that they will keep their word about that.

A disappointing update

This is sort of an update to my second to last blog post found here. According to this article, the "honorable" Larry P. Langford is moving forward with his Olympics pipe dream by selecting a Birmingham Olympic Committee. Perhaps what I personally find even more awful is that the Associate Athletic Director from Samford, Jay Roberson, is involved in this nonsense. I am seriously considering writing him a letter to express my disappointment in his associating my alma mater with such bullshit.

The highlight (or should I say lowlight?) of the article is the last paragraph:
“After watching the government hand $85 billion to AIG last night, we need to go to the federal government for $3.2 billion to pay off the sewer debt and another couple of billion for the Olympics,” Langford said.

Yeah, Larry, that's it. The government is just handing out money willy-nilly now and I'm sure they'd love to give some money to Birmingham to fix the problems with the sewer that you had serious involvement in causing. Dumbass.

Blockbuster Video

I am not a big fan of Blockbuster Video. I signed up for Netflix earlier this year and have never looked back. So, when I came across this website which tracks peoples' perception of brands by displaying what words their associate with it, I was somewhat pleased to see the collection of words associated with Blockbuster. Some highlights include "late fees," "obsolete," and "ripoff."

Additionally, this video about Blockbuster from The Onion is quite entertaining.

Historic "Blockbuster" Store Offers Glimpse Of How Movies Were Rented In The Past

Brown "tuxedos"

This is officially a rant. Brown tuxedos: what are people thinking? As if "tuxedos," or the suits that are passed off as tuxedos, aren't bad enough, someone (a woman, likely) had the terrific idea of making them brown. What was the reason for this? God only knows. I suspect that it had something to do with how popular brown has been in weddings in recent years, and having the groom and groomsmen in brown tuxedos turns them from necessary accessories into necessary accessories that are perfectly coordinated with the rest of the decorations. I find this to be the ultimate insult to masculinity.

As a result, I have two statements to leave you with, dear reader. 1.- If you are a woman reading this and remotely interested in marrying me, do understand that I will not only never consider wearing a brown tuxedo to our wedding, I will allow you absolutely zero influence on what my groomsmen and I will wear. 2.- If you are a man reading this and about to marry a woman who is trying to pick out your tuxedo for your wedding, please do not listen to anything she says and drop me an email immediately. I will be glad to help pick out something to make you look proper and dashing, so that I do not have to later scoff at your wedding pictures on Facebook.

Douche


Douche


Double Douche (and obviously whipped)