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2012年5月10日星期四

The Morning Regimen

I believe in taking care of myself, with a balanced diet and a rigiorus excercise routine. In the morning if my face is a little puffy, I’ll put on an ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now. After I remove the ice pack, I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower, I use a water activated gel-cleanser. Then a honey-almond body scrub, and on the face, an exfoliating gel-scrub.

Just kidding, I’m not Patrick Bateman. I subscribe to the less-is-more school of grooming. I get my hair cut by a nearly 75 year-old barber at Astor Place for $14. It is perfect for me because I like my haircut to be 1950s style, and well, he was actually cutting hair in the 50s, so it works out. The focus of my grooming efforts is mostly centered on the painful practice of shaving. I hate it. One product that has significantly helped ease the brutality of the daily shave is GEO F Trumper’s shaving cream. This little dose of goodness was graciously given to me as a gift from the worldly Hollister H. Hovey. “It’s the good stuff. What they use at Freeman’s.” said Ms. Hovey as she presented me the Trumper’s. Thereby changing my life for the better.

GEO F Trumper’s available direct or at Freeman’s Sporting Club locations in New York City.

All Black Ballistic Bags from Goruck

I’ve been know to own a bag or two. A guy needs to keep his gear properly stowed, especially living in New York City where you constantly need to tote your “tackle” around town. Enter Goruck, the new maker of bad ass black ballistic nylon bags that pack all the toughness (and quality) of mil-spec gear, but designed with civilians in mind. Jack Barley and Jason McCarthy (a fellow Ohioian — hat tip) founded Goruck to improve upon existing military issue packs. McCarthy in particular has first hand experience with such equipment through his service in the special forces.

Every Goruck bag is Berry compliant (which means it is sourced and manufactured in the USA) and MOLLE (a military acronym for MOdular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) compatible. Every pack is also equipped to hold a hydration bladder system, which would come in handy on a hike. Everything in the line is very minimally branded with the only logo placement inside the bag and on interchangeable patches, a very well executed and appreciated design aspect. My personal favorite patch option is the reverse black-on-black reverse flag, as pictured.

Pictured below is the GR1 with the GR Tac head cover both of which I have been using for the past few weeks, which included a jaunt through the Iberian Peninsula. I can vouch for the packs easy of use and quality. The GR1 is substantial without being too heavy, even when loaded with a DSLR, laptop and other belongings. The zippers work great and move smoothly, plus there are a lot of pouches and compartments to keep your stuff stowed properly. These Goruck bags are some of the best things I have seen in a long time — I’m expecting big things from the brand. [Goruck]

Obsession Bullet Pencils

I develop strange obsessions with things — case in point the Bullet Pencil. I always comb the flea market and am usually able to snag one for a buck. There are a few for sale on eBay but they are all over priced and I hate getting gouged on the shipping. The good fellas at Draplin Design Co. (who incidentally are one half of the team behind the phenomenal Field Notes) like them too. Next time you are at the flea, dig through that random box of pencils and you might find one of these little treasures. Also, if anyone knows a vendor that is still selling new Bullet Pencils please speak up. They would be great ACL merchandising.

Flickr Find The Postal Service

My obsession for Flickr took a serious back seat to the thousands of great images that emerged through the massive Life archive. Over the Memorial Day weekend I spent a fair amount of time mining the Flickr, working my way through a good swath of the Smithsonian’s image collection. One of my favorite images is “the first day of airmail” which is pictured below. This photo sparked a full-on Postal Service set and the Flickr Find is back!

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Description: Army airmail pilot Lt. Torrey Webb receives a celebratory watch from a representative of the Hamilton Watch Company. Each of the pilots flying the first day’s mail between Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City received a Hamilton Watch. Webb flew the Curtiss Jenny JN-4H between New York City and Bustleton airfield near Philadelphia on May 15, 1918.

It is interesting to see Hamilton — a company still giving American made timepieces a good name — doing marketing giveaways all the way back in 1918.

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It is difficult to be nostalgic about the Postal Service considering every time I set foot in a post office my blood boils, but these pictures are pretty amazing. It is interesting to see the people that laid the ground work for the modern delivery systems that we all take for granted. Or maybe I just like to look at old pictures. Either way this stuff is pretty cool.

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More Flickr Finds can be seen here.

Obsession DWR Tools for Living

The new Design Within Reach Tools for Living store opened today on Wooster Street in SoHo. Since my office is a few short blocks away, I decided to check it out at lunch. The purpose of the mission was actually get a flask that I saw the previous day on 10engines. You see, the flask wasn’t available online at the time and when I called DWR they said, “the new Tools for Living store, which opens tomorrow, will have this in stock.” Perfect. Upon arrival to the neatly organized bi-level shop, my jaw hit the newly installed floor. The upper section of the store offers home, kitchen, office goods, so I headed directly to the lower level for the more brutish “tools” section.

Downstairs I found a selection of nostalgic lawn games, gardening tools, a lawnmower (clearly for merchandising purposes), a group of canvas Filson bags (who doesn’t sell Filson these days — not that I am complaining), Klein tool bags (the fact that they are selling Klein blows my mind), the best first aid kit I have ever seen, a fatigue green powder coated folding hand shovel, portable burner for camping / grilling, a set of knit finger puppets for kids, plus all sorts of other clean and classic goods. The product assorment sort of made my head spin. The merch was similar to what you would expect from Restoration Hardware only much, much better. Many of these items are available on the DWR website, but to see everything in one space was mesmerizing. The merchandising is on point with any store I have ever been to. Color me obsessed.

The lower level.

The upper level features office, home and kitchen goods. Not to mention helpful and good looking staffers eager to assist.

Mission accomplished. My new Stanley flask and a wood bird call (taking me back to my childhood trips to The Holden Arboretum in Ohio).

DWR Tools for Living: 142 Wooster Street, New York City (212) 471-0280

Woolrich John, Rich & Bros.

If you aren’t totally clear on the brand structure,Replica Conduct Sunglasses, there’s Woolrich, then Woolrich Woolen Mills and finally Woolrich John, Rich & Bros. The first is the main U.S. brand, the later two are the product of the geniuses of Italy’s WP. If you aren’t familiar with WP, they are the Italian distributor for Barbour, the global distributor of Woolrich and the owner of various other brands including shirt maker B.D. Baggies.

As it turns out, the guys from WP were the catalyst in getting To Ki To to create a special collection with Barbour. That special group of jackets was my first exposure to the Japanese designer — and I have since became a huge fan of his work. While out in Las Vegas at the apparel trade shows I had a chance to chat with the gents from WP and eventually the conversation shifted to To Ki To (whose name is actually Tokihito Yoshida). Apparently, To Ki To designed two coats for Woolrich John, Rich Bros. for AW10 — a down field jacket (the style name escapes me) and an update on the classic Woolrich parka. Both are obvious To Ki To designs in shape and detailing. I’m excited to see Tokihito contribute his talent to a company like Woolrich and am now thinking I have to buy both of these coats come fall to go with the Barbour Beacon bicycle jacket I picked up recently in London. Credit is definitely due to WP for bringing good companies and people together to make good product.

Brimfield in the Summertime

It’s that time again — Brimfield. Though with schedules being as they are this time of year,monster beat headphones, my hombre Sean Sullivan and I had to execute a surgical strike. With motel reservations in hand, cash in wallets and a do-or-die spirit in our veins we set out on a 24 hour mission into the heart-of-antique-darkness. And let me tell you, this show had a different vibe then our May trip. First of all it was a hot mess up there — like a soup sandwich. I deployed gingham in the hopes of camouflaging my perspiration, but the Massachusetts humidity definitely won that battle. Secondly, the turnout was much lighter than the spring show. Maybe that was because we were there for the opening bell, or maybe it was the heat. Either way we had a blast and picked up some gems. Before I post more of that good ole Americana, I thought it would be fun to show you some of the people we encountered at the world’s largest outdoor antiques market — summer edition. Enjoy.

I was shopping the same field as this cool Japanese couple, just a few rows behind. I was trying to catch up with them to get a picture but then they just disappeared. That was right around the time we were heading out, so I figured I had missed my opportunity. Luckily they just went to drop off some stuff at their car and we caught them on the way back in.

Team Jack Spade. Note their matching backpacks.

Lighting genius Gadi Gilan from the ACL film that Sean Sullivan and I made.

Kyle from Sit and Read furniture inspects the canvas. That’s #8 duck. Respect.

These folks were kind enough to pose for a snapshot. That’s Chris from Stanley & Sons on the right. No telling who the gent in the background is.

Sullivan takes this stuff seriously — look at the man's concentration. In the end he did buy the chairs. Good pick brother.

Beat the heat.

This about sums it all up.

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