10E2657: US Postal Service is amazing...

I love the USPS... Constantly amazed by it.  One stamp to send a letter across the country in a day or days? Amazing.  All you eBayers out there! You love the USPS... those sweet sweet priority mail boxes arriving with vintage goodness inside... mmmmm  Child of the 90s... can you see that hat and not think House of Pain and hip hip/workwear?  Just me?? Neat little history of letter carrier uniforms by the USPS here.

Unless you have been under a rock you know our current administration is trying to undermine the USPS via intentional slowdowns (the President said it plainly already) - paving the way for a heartless privatization that will hurt rural addresses and increase costs to all.  Not to mention a complete kick in the teeth to these essential workers at this pandemic time - and a way to try and ratf*ck mail-in voting... Totally unacceptable behavior.

What can we do?  

1) Sign the petition to SAVE THE USPS.  

2) Buy stamps now to use later.  Hey Cooks Illustrated fans... Rob Papp has a set just released!  Or dig sculptor Ruth Asawa.  Or how 'bout you just say THANK YOU to someone...  You have a stack of thank you notes ready to go right??? Essential kit...

3)  Contact Congress today.  By Phone: call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to reach your senators and representative. By Mail: write to your senators: [Name], U.S. Senate, Washington DC 20510. Write to your representative: [Name], U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515

"Ask your senators and representative to support legislation that addresses the cause of the Postal Service’s manufactured fi nancial crisis. Ask them to: Repeal the unfair mandate to pre-fund health benefits;  Protect service standards to keep post offi ces and mail sorting centers open, and allow USPS to offer new services to consumers and businesses."

 

In raking around interviews for The Last Black Man in San Francisco we heard how Danny Glover's parents were postal workers in the 'Bay area and the role of the USPS as an equal opportunity employer nationwide that allowed upward mobility for many. Hear Glover below expand on that theme via usmailnotforsale.org.

 

Finally. If you thought perhaps the Postal Service (and it is a service) was maybe not as hip and with it as other shipments carriers - do you have the INFORMED DELIVERY app? This not only handles all tracking of packages (yawn...) but pre-alerts you with an image scan of your incoming mail so you can see what is arriving in the mail.  Lots of deep options.

OMG dood... almost fo'got this guy...

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 bottom).  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”).

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