10E2656: Mountain Man | Look at Me Don't Look at Me

10E fave Mountain Man back together after several solo projects. Listen and buy Look at Me (Don't look at Me)

If you want a copy for your car you can even buy it on cassette. Yup.

Further listening;

Sylvan Esso - vocalist Amelia Meath of folk trio Mountain Man and producer Nick Sanborn, bassist from Megafaun

Úlfur -  vocals by Alexandra Sauser-Monnig of Mountain Man

Daughter of Swords -  Alexandra Sauser-Monnig

10E2655: A Movie, A Resource, And Knits

The Last Black Man in San Francisco.  I missed this last year when it came out - fantastic slow burn.  Directed by Joe Talbot and starring Jimmie Fails (from his own story), Jonathan Majors (seen recently in Da 5 Bloods), Rob Morgan, Tichina Arnold, and Danny Glover (with a great supply of knits... more on that later..) The score is a showstopper too along with inventive camerawork, and a mediation on race and gentrification, and masculinity; 

"Jimmie Fails dreams of reclaiming the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Joined on his quest by his best friend Mont, Jimmie searches for belonging in a rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind."

If you live in San Fran (or anywhere with a great public library that supports the Kanopy movie player) you can watch it right here. Kanopy is an essential resource for the toolkit...

A24 are killing it with the movie merch (see The Lighthouse) and in this case printed an "Insiders Guide to SF" from the filmmakers

Danny Glover (San Fran native - also seen in Sorry To Bother You - again touching on San Francisco gentrification, and race relations) plays supportive father to Mort, Jimmy's friend and playwright.  Great knits!

10E2654: In Praise Of Knit Ties - Fridays Are Tie Days

 Photo by Alan Clarke via Esquire.

Above from 2010 article on the archetypes of menswear (link) - The Trad (as opposed to The Sport, The Rake, The Outsdoorsman, etc) still one of the best done bits.  The angry, about to explode New England academic. Hello pot this is the kettle haha...

Signature accessory: Knit tie.
Bragging rights: Wearing the same pair of khakis for fifteen years.

As knit ties are - you guessed it - 'knit' rather than cut from cloth - they have a straight profile down the front so are generally slim. They end almost universally in a straight edge rather than a point (grenadine ties are a different tightly woven type of tie that often end in a point - also great). Why the love? The crumbly, rough texture of the knit takes the wearer into high/lo territory - dressed up but not as 'the defendant'...    Signals you have so many ties you even have KNIT ties...

Knit ties have a slimmer section round the neckband, that means you can successfully tie a knot without a lot of bulk. Four in hand (schoolboy knot) the only option due to the heft. Anyway... Windsor knots are characteristic of SMERSH.  David Muir over at ABC News wears navy, polka dot, shantung silk versions... Pretty unique choices for mainstream tv, nailing it.

10E2653: Rent A Flat Above A Shop

It was April 16, 19NinteySomething... The 'New Town' Edinburgh (built in the late 1700s).  Shallow Grave territory (great intro - ends by that church at botom).  We lived top floor, no lift,  high above the shop Margiotas (a fancyish corner shop chain).  GoogleMaps tells me it is now a yoga studio.Also a sweet sweet Defender w camper roof parked by the Mini... check it!

PULP's Common People (release a few years before all this) is somehow an absolute earworm right now in the kitchen. You don't know this one?? Go on... big coffee and turn it up. "I'll see what I can do..."

10E2652: Kerchief

kerchief


Etymology; Middle English kerchef, from Old French couvrechief, from couvrir (“to cover”) and chief/chef (“head”).

via 

10E2651: Bow Tie...

A few years back now... Barman says to me, "You tie that yourself?" Long pour of Jameson and ginger ale follows. (The debate over which Irish whiskies are Catholic or Protestant may be BS but there was no Bushmills in sight...)

"I only wear bow ties" he says. "One day I was working late, almost alseep, and in comes Tom Johnson [Bruins coach and player, Hall of Famer 1970- ed.] and says 'I bet no one in this bar can tie a bow tie!' - So my friends wake me up sayin 'He can do it'.  I step forward and cross the ends over, longer end up - and he says 'You can stop there, I can tell you know how'. Then Tom comes in the next week and gives me a whole bag o' silk ties. Made by a lady in the North End. That was 1979."

The tv in the corner was playing the Penguins and Islanders game.

Photo: Dan Goshtigian for the Boston Globe

Tom Johnson served the Bruins as a player, coach and front office executive 

for over 30 years until his retirement in 1998.