County Comm

In an email exchange with Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean today he mentioned a store called County Comm. While he was mainly pointing out the NATO watch straps that they have (only $12!), after looking around at the rest of the products they have, it is clear that they have some awesome stuff. Here are some personal favorites:

The aforementioned NATO watch straps (that orange is pretty sweet looking, and they are available in sizes up to 22mm)- $12.00


Peanut Lighter- $5.00


Marathon quartz watch (similar to the one I mentioned in my watch post, but this one shows the date, and is $20 cheaper)- $125.00


XL Bail Out Bag (the bag on the right; I really like this thing)- $39.00


Martac Range Bag (I like laptop compartment on the side)- $69




I should mention that County Comm really needs to work on the navigability of their website. A list of a good number of things on their website can be found here.

Good news about the Ryan Adams show

As some of you may remember, I had quite a frustrating experience at the show Ryan Adams played in Alpharetta back in October. Well, word on the street was that there was work being done to make it up to everyone who was at the show, but I figured I would believe it when I saw it. Well, today I saw it.

The Cardinals will be playing a show at the Fox Theatre on March 20th, and anyone who had tickets to the October show can mail in their tickets or stop by the Fox or the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater and trade in their tickets for free tickets to the show in March. I am quite impressed that Ryan and the Cards and their management stepped up and did this. I think this will go a long way to currying favor with the Atlanta fans who felt let down by the band in October. In fact, I believe that most people will agree that the venue is a bit of an upgrade, though I must admit that being at my parents' house out in the suburbs, it was kind of nice to not have to drive downtown last time. The Fox is pretty incredible, though.

You can get the details about the ticket exchange in this article or here:

J. Crew Timex military watch alternatives

I'm suspecting that Michael Williams over on A Continuous Lean did not expect all of the backlash he would get from suggesting the J. Crew Timex military watch on his holiday gift guide. I'm a little bit divided on the subject because while I agree that it is a pretty cool looking watch, and is a unique item that can only be found at J. Crew, it is a little pricey for a quartz watch. I certainly don't think it was a poor decision to suggest it for his gift guide, though, especially since the guide was suggestions of presents for women to give to men. While it is true actual Timex military watches can be found on Ebay from time to time, and while these would be preferable to the J. Crew version, it's not exactly comparing apples to apples since you simply can't choose to buy one whenever you want. Because of this, I've decided to create a little list of alternative watches that are similar to the J. Crew one. Hope you enjoy.


Name: Military Watch
Source: US Cavalry
Movement: Quartz
Price: $13.99


Name: Squad Leader Watch
Source: US Cavalry
Movement: Quartz
Price: $27.99


Name: Camper
Source: Timex
Movement: Quartz
Price: $35.00


Name: Field Watch
Source: Orvis
Movement: Quartz
Price: $69.00


Name: Classic Field Watch
Source: LL Bean
Movement: Quartz
Price: $89.00


Name: Vintage Field Watch
Source: LL Bean
Movement: Quartz
Price: $89.00


Name: Marathon Special Field Watch
Source: Westcoastime
Movement: Manual wind
Price: $145.00


Name: Stainless Automatic Watch
Source: Orvis
Movement: Automatic
Price: $149.00

My thoughts:
I think that the Squad Leader Watch from US Cavalry is a surprisingly good looking watch, especially for the price. I have the Orvis Field Watch and it is a decent little quartz watch. I haven't worn it in a while, it needs a new battery, but makes a nice looking choice for a beater.

"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.

Smathers & Branson shotgun shell key fob

As much as I like emblematic belts, like those offered by Leather Man Ltd., I've never really gotten into the whole Smathers & Branson needlepoint belt thing. It may have something to do with being unwilling to part with $165 for a belt, but I think it also has to do with the fact that many of them look a little too cartoonish for me (though I will point out that if someone would like to actually make a needlepoint belt for me, I would be more than willing to accept and wear it). However, I was in a men's store the yesterday and spotted this S&B key fob that I really like:



I don't really have any need for anything else on my keys, but at $35, it did seem like a pretty nifty little gift. Note that it can be found and ordered on their website.

Levi's 501s at J. Crew

You have to hand it to Mickey Drexler and everyone at J. Crew: they certainly haven't been resting on their laurels. Between launching both a men's store and a women's store, adding the "J. Crew Collection" (and a new Collection store), and taking the brand up-market inspite of a down economy, it is clear that Drexler is not one to stand still. Additionally, this past year J. Crew has begun offering products in direct partnership with larger brands including Red Wing Shoes, Mackintosh, and using Thomas Mason fabrics for their shirts. Their latest partnership is a bit of a puzzler to me, though.

I was looking at the J. Crew website this morning and came across a pair of "Vintage slim fit 501 jeans in dark rinse wash." I'm curious about a couple of things.



First, I am a bit surprised to see Levi's doing this type of partnership. Clearly with the current popoularity of 501s and classic American clothing in general, it does seem advantageous for both parties. I guess it's just that I wouldn't have really expected to have Levi's allow their products to be sold under someone else's name.

Second, the jeans themselves are a bit of a mystery, and the description on the website doesn't really seem to help any. They seem to be selvedge, but do not appear to be raw denim (i.e.- shrink-to-fit). They also say "Import" meaning that they are likely made in Mexico. While they have a non-standard leather label, the wash, "Dark Rinse", is one that is available for regular (sanfordized) 501s. It is difficult to tell just how "slim fitting" they are without being able to directly compare them to a regular pair of 501s.

With price tag of $265, I'm afraid that it is simply a bit of a bait and switch for people who don't know any better. These basically appear to be regular 501s with selvedge denim that were probably made in Mexico (or some 3rd world country). They should probably retail for about half that price. In fact, I was able to pick up a pair of Mexico-made (raw) selvedge 501s off the Levi's website on sale for about $40 several months back. I believe they may have been marked down from about $100. For the price J. Crew is asking, one could buy some very nice (read: quality) pairs of jeans (A.P.C., Nudie, etc.) and definitely get more for their money. Even if someone wanted a pair of slimmer fitting 501s, a repro of the 1947 501s from SugarCane only cost $247 from Denim Bar. They are based on the actual pattern for the 1947 Levi's and are made in Japan.

I guess I'm somewhat conflicted by J. Crew offering these jeans. On one hand, I think it is a little bit low for the company to be ripping off people by selling these jeans that seem to represent something, when they are, in fact, something else entirely. On the other hand, I have to hand it to them for doing so since it is simply capitalism, and if someone wants to drop that much cash on a pair of jeans without knowing why they cost that much, more power to them. Caveat emptor.

Fantasy Football: Week 11

This just in: Chris Whatley is my bitch.

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."

Michael Crichton: 1942-2008

I meant to write this last week, but I ended up being busier than I had planned. It wasn't until last week that I found out that author Michael Crichton passed away on November 4th from throat cancer. I guess that it likely got swept aside in all of the hubbub surrounding the election. However, I was really disappointed to hear this news and was somewhat annoyed that I didn't find out about it until a week later.

While I can't say that I have read a lot of Crichton's books, I can still remember the first times reading both Jurassic Park and The Lost World and what an imparct they had on me. They are still some of my favorite fiction books and I love the way that he was able to incorporate cutting edge real-world science into his stories to make them that much more believable (which I guess was his forte). Anyways, I'd suggest checking out his website; there is a good summary of all of his work and includes a number of essays that he's written on various topics.

Michael Crichton, you will be missed.

Outsourcing

While listened to the The Moth Podcast today, I heard the October 20th episode which is entitled "My Outsourced Life" and features a guy named A.J. Jacobs In it, Jacobs recounts his experience in hiring an Indian outsourcing company (Brickwork India) to handle some work tasks for him, before eventually hiring them to handle a plethora of personal tasks in his life. The story is also recounted in an article he wrote about it in Esquire which can be found here.

While his experience was entertaining and interesting, at the end of the podcast, Jacobs was talking about how he had been racked with guilt that perhaps in hiring this foreign firm, he was taking jobs away from hard-working Americans. That is, until he received an email from a guy who had an IT job that was outsourced to India. After reading Jacobs' article, the guy hired an outsourcing firm to find him a job, which they managed to do in about a week.

This has really got me thinking. I am currently trying to find a job, in real estate, which is proving to be quite difficult, not surprisingly. If this firm can really do what they guy said what they did for him, I believe I would seriously consider hiring them, assuming if I could manage to gather up the necessary cash.

This post doesn't really have a particular "point," however I just really found that one idea quite compelling.