Alec Newbury: Sartorial Hero

I'm a sucker for Brat Pack and John Hughes movies, but one of my favorites is St. Elmo's Fire. Although Emilio Estevez's character is a super-creeper, and Rob Lowe's character is just weird, Judd Nelson's character, Alec Newbury, is an icon of 80s Georgetown preppy style. He's a guy who favors contrast spread collars, club ties, wearing his jacket collar popped, and has unbelievable, gravity-defying "rich people" hair. Below are some screenshots from the movie for your viewing pleasure.

A nice chalk-stripe suit to begin the movie.

Suspenders and contrast collar, natch.

Tweed jacket, collar-popped, cruising Georgetown in a Jeep.


Notice the ticket pocket.

Side vents are a nice touch.

Jeans, loafers, and a toggle coat for a midnight rescue mission of your coked-up friend, Demi Moore.

Nice combo with the double-breasted jacket.

Not sure what happened to the sweater vest...

Alec Newbury only fights dudes while wearing a coat and tie. And pocket square.

Still drunk in the morning? Pop the collar on your double-breasted jacket, smoke a cig, and grab a tall boy.

Hair still looks great.

Girlfriend just break up with you? No need to look like a complete slob while hanging out in the loft.

Notice the oxford cloth button down is a Polo.

Toggle coat on top of the tweed jacket is a great combo.



Nice looking tartan scarf.

And some random Georgetown preppies at the bar, for good measure.

Can't get enough of Judd Nelson wearing preppy clothes? See my old post about Making the Grade for more pictures.

"Boning the fish" is the new "Jumping the shark"

When a TV show, movie, or band has reached a point where their own absurdity can no longer save them from themselves and they would be best served by being put out to pasture, they are said to have "jumped the shark." This term is derived from an episode of Happy Days where the Fonz jumped over a shark on waterskis (the Fonz was on the skis, not the shark) and the show is thought to have gone down hill afterward.

Thanks to the glory of the internet, this idea flourished and was explored in depth and supported by a website, www.jumptheshark.com (please note that I did not actually link this site). On it, one could look up their favorite (or least favorite) show and could submit their ideas for exactly when a particular show had jumped, or vote on some of the most popular choices. This website actually developed a pretty strong following and the term "jump the shark" reached fairly widespread use. However, it would seem that sometime in 2006 the creator of the site sold it to Gemstar, the parent company of TV Guide, who in early 2009, scrapped the original site and basically turned it into a portal to TV Guide's website. In an irony to end all ironies, the Jump the Shark website essentially jumped the shark.

While I had been familiar with the old website, I didn't discover its fate until a couple of months ago when I was looking to see when a particular show had jumped. I was pretty dismayed at seeing what had happened, but fortunately Wikipedia pointed me in the direction of the spiritual successor of the original website, Bone The Fish.

Bone The Fish has essentially recreated the old site, and seems to have expanded on the number of categories. On the site you can read a more detailed account of what happened to "the site that shall never be named" while posting your thoughts on, say, when Friends started to go down hill (Ross and Rachel break up again??). While I'm not sure if the term "boning the fish" will ever gain the same acceptance as "jump the shark," this is definitely a website I would suggest taking a look at.

Recommended: "Paranormal Activity"

Last night I went to the 11:55 showing of the new horror movie Paranormal Activity. I've got to say, this is probably the scariest film I have seen since The Blair Witch Project.

The movie is about a couple who have had some strange happenings in their house lately--unexplained noises, things being moved, etc.--so the boyfriend, Micah (pronounced "Meekah," which is pretty stupid) decides to buy a video camera in order to hopefully capture the source of these disturbances. The couple sets up the camera in their bedroom when they go to bed at night, and that is when things start to get interesting (in a paranormal way, that is). The entire movie is seen from the perspective of that camera (note that it isn't in the bedroom entire time) over the course of several weeks.

You may not have heard much about this movie because it was initially released in a very limited number of theaters before finally getting a wide release a few weeks ago. You can read more about it on Wikipedia, but I suggest not doing that until after you see the movie. While I am tempted to write more about it, but I don't want to give too much away. I will say that if you are as skeptical of the poor excuses for horror movies that have been coming out over the past decade or so (every Saw movie, for example), I don't think that you will be disappointed here.

As Halloween approaches, if you're looking for a scare I highly recommend checking it out. I would also recommend taking a date, that is assuming you can get your lady-friend to agree to see it and sit through the entire thing. Additionally, be sure to catch it while it is in theaters as the movie is pretty dependent on subtle (and not-so-subtle) noises, so taking advantage of the superior quality of movie theater sound systems is a near must.

A "Bruno" review at R&R

I am a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen's Da Ali G Show, but must say I was disappointed with the Borat movie that came out a few years ago. Liking his Bruno character more than Borat, I was pretty excited about the new movie. However, my friend and fellow blogger Christopher Robinson was able to get an advanced viewing and the initial reports are not good. While it has an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes at this point, I think I'm going to stick with Chris' opinion and just wait for the DVD. Go read his review at R&R Review now.

Whit Stillman's "The Last Days of Disco" on DVD

I found out tonight that Whit Stillman's third movie, The Last Days of Disco, is finally being rereleased on DVD. If you are familiar with this movie then you already know that it has been out of print for some time, resulting in huge mark-ups ($100+ per DVD) on Amazon.com and Ebay for versions that will play on US DVD players. It appears that it will be released by The Criterion Collection and is available for pre-order on Amazon right now. You'll have to be patient, though, since the release date isn't until August 25th of this year. Having read the book last year (which is basically a novelized version of the movie script) but having never seen the movie, I am quite excited about this. Awesome.

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.

"Making the Grade"

The other night I watched the 1984 movie "Making the Grade." I rented this movie per a recommendation from the the Ralph Lauren Rugby blog. Wow, I have to say that this movie was quite abysmal. It features subpar acting and an awful story. It also features Judd Nelson as the only actor that I remotely recognized. The only redeeming quality of this movie, and it is quite the redeemer, is that the movie plays like a film version of the Official Preppy Handbook. Frankly, it was pretty amazing. While parts of it definitely fall into the category of "over the top" prep, the rest of it is simply khakis, shetland sweater, boat shoes, penny loafers, and tweed jackets. I won't really waste time by going into details about the movie (because it doesn't deserve it) other than stating that the movie takes place at a Northeastern prep school during the 80s, instead I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.


The scene when Judd Nelson's character arrives at Hoover Academy.


That's a lot of polo shirts.


Note the ribbon belt.


Guys in this movie wore sweaters around their shoulders so often that it almost appeared normal. The guy with green sweater is the typical preppy antagonist, unoriginally named "Biff."


Although pants were not actually worn this short during the movie, it was interesting that they included this shot when Judd Nelson's character (not originally a prep) was getting a lesson on what to wear to fit in.


Note the awesome lacrosse poster on the wall.


Nice selection of footwear. Also the directors seem to be under the impression that prep students love to smoke pipes.






Judd Nelson is wearing Chuck Taylors in this scene.


The girls from a nearby girls prep school.


A nice selection of ties.


Too much madras? Impossible.


I'm not sure which I like more: the girls in tartan or the guy in the patch madras pants.






The girls while watching the lacrosse game.


After watching the lacrosse scene, I'm pretty sure that the filmmakers had never actually seen a lacrosse game.


Awesome Bean Boots.


Nice looks shetland sweater.


The oxford over the polo shirt was pretty prevalent in the movie.


Note the Bean Norwegian sweater.


Judd Nelson and his love interest in a sweet down vest.

One thing I noted was how prevalent kelly green was in this movie, either in sweater or corduroy pants form. It made me really want to add some to my own wardrobe.

Netflix: Just getting better and better

I signed up for Netflix almost a year ago, and while I have consistently been pleased, last night I was reaffirmed that my $15 a month is a much better investment than shelling out $50+ a month for cable.

As many people know, Netflix offers a number of movies and TV shows to watch instantly on your computer. However, the selection on there has always been pretty weird, to say the least. While there have been some gems mixed in there, it has mostly been made up of low-budget movies and TV shows from the 80s and 90s, along with a number of black and white movies from the 40s that I have never heard of. In spite of this, I could usually find something to watch on there if I was really bored and both of the DVDs that I get were in the mail.

However, last night I poking around on the Watch Instantly section and noticed a new genre called "Stars Play." I hadn't seen it before, so I clicked on it and was amazed at the number of new releases and "real" movies that are on there. There were at least three or four movies in my regular queue that were now on the "Stars Play" list, and even more that I went ahead and added to my queue. Needless to say, I am pretty excited, and now have even more options to entertain me when Fox (the only channel I get) insists on having evenings made up of nothing but "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics."

Happy Reformation Day

Not only is today Halloween, more importantly it is also Reformation Day, which is basically the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the church. I've always thought that it might be fun to print out the 95 Theses on 8.5X11, staple them together, and tape them to the door of the local Catholic church. Haven't gone through with it yet...maybe next year.

On a related note, a few weeks ago I rented Luther on DVD. It wasn't the best movie, but it's worth a rent if you're interested in the subject.

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

I used to love this movie; it seems like we watched it every in elementary school around Halloween. I watched it again last night (there are four parts to it which can all be viewed on Youtube). It's really hard to go wrong with something narrated and sung by Bing Crosby. If you've got 30 minutes to spare, take the time to watch it.

Recent Netflix rentals

Although I have noted my love of Netflix at least once or twice on this blog, a couple of months ago my queue started getting pretty thin as I had seen most of the movies that I had originally intended to rent (that happens when you don't have cable). So, I started looking at some lists on Netflix and started adding movies, that, for one reason or another, I had never gotten around to seeing. I pretty much considered these the "bottom of the barrel" choices and figured I would just wade through those movies until some new DVDs came out. I must say, however, that the past five rentals I have gotten on Netflix have been fantastic. For your reading pleasure, I will give my thoughts on them below:

American Gangster- I never saw this movie when it first came out due to a bad review from a classmate who, in fact, walked out of the movie because he thought it was so bad. Over time, I began to only hear good things about this movie so I decided to check it out for myself. This really was a great gangster/cop movie, maybe not quite in the same league as the Godfather or The Departed, but definitely well done. My only issue was with the ending; I won't give away what it was, but the last 15 minutes really just didn't seem to match the feeling of the rest of the film.

As Good as it Gets- Although I suppose this movie is technically a romantic comedy, I thought it was really a good movie in general. I thought that the characters were really interesting and complex. I would also like to add that I had been intrigued by this movie ever since hearing Chris Thile's song "Locking Doors" at a Nickel Creek concert probably five years ago. During the concert Chris gave background on the song and said that it was written about Jack Nicholson's character in the movie Melvin.

V for Vendetta- I think I originally avoided this movie when it first came out because reviews seemed to indicate that it was basically a George Bush-bashing movie, and while I have generally become quite disillusioned with Bush, movies and music that bash him are something that I generally try to avoid. However, after watching this movie, I must say that I thought that the political theme of the movie ("People shouldn't fear their government; the government should fear its people") was pretty good, and that as an action movie goes, it was pretty entertaining. It also stars Natalie Portman, and it is hard not to like her.

The Blair Witch Project- I remember being really intrigued and excited about this movie when it first came out, but never saw it for some reason. Over the years, it came to be spoofed so many times that I assumed that it really wasn't that good of a movie. I was quite wrong. This movie really was scary, and the fact that I actually thought it was scary makes me really respect it. I think it is a perfect example of the fact that the scariest movies are the ones where you never see what it is that's "out there."

Crash- I never saw this movie because, when it came out during college, I remember so many people talking about how incredible it was and how it "changed their lives." Being as cynical as I am, I generally try to avoid "life changing" stuff like the plague. However, I decided to finally break down and rent it. While I wouldn't say that it changed my life, it certainly was thought-provoking and entertaining. Maybe that's just because I'm a sucker for movies with one-word titles where they have multiple-divergent plots that all eventually prove to be interrelated (i.e.- Traffic, Babel).

Next up on the list is Munich, and I am anticipating good things.

*Warning: None of these movies are guaranteed to change your life

"Metropolitan" on Hulu

I received a peculiar, though appreciated, email the other day from someone at IFC (the Independent Film Channel). Apparently they had seen my previous blog posts on Whit Stillman and pointed out to me that IFC recently published an interview with Whit Stillman in which he talks about some new projects that he has been working on, as well as the recent addition of Metropolitan to Hulu.com. The interview can be found here.

In case you aren't familiar with Hulu, it is website where you can stream a good number of television shows and movies for free. It is really a pretty good website, and now that Metropolitan can be watched on demand, for free, I'd say it's really gotten a whole lot better. Click here to go watch Metropolitan now.