Here’s to another goddamn new year.

In high school I got used to snow-heavy winters. I was only as far north as Pennsylvania, but we spent a couple of consecutive years buffeted by storm after storm. Snow, ice on snow, then more snow, then more ice--the yard was like a giant layer cake. Note sure if I remember right, but I'm sure we had less than a full week of school one January. They threatened to extend the school year, but never did. I blame the fact that I'm awful at algebra on that lost month. After those storms you could go out and walk, crunching, across the crust to look at the incredibly uniform jacket of ice around each tree's twig fingers. I'd slip in the attempt to climb over the split rail fence, and have parent-forbidden, brief, and painful snowball fights. This year the mid-Atlantic region seems to be the victim of a similar storm cycle, although so far it's just been snow, rather than the ice storms we had in PA. Maybe I'll just pop open a bottle of bubbly while 2 feet of snow makes me vaguely claustrophobic.

There's this thing--called youtube?

A subgenre of youtube videos I've only recently discovered for myself is pretty simple. People post videos of records playing. That's it. The selected records lean heavily to rare vinyl that you're not going to hear in person, ever--even if you know a collector with an original "Wreck of the Old 97" 78, chances are they're not going to indulge you by actually playing it. These clips work for those more interested in approximating the experience of hearing a crackly recording of Buddy Holly's first single (considered a disappointment upon its release) than the experience of being in the stands at a Phillies/Dodgers game where this dude totally nails this other dude with a beer. Course I'm down for both.

There are a lot of clips that essentially just play a song, accompanied by the album cover or a montage of artist images (not to mention user-generated music videos, which I find inordinately creepy), but the spinning record clips have appeal in their simplicity and honesty. Plus they remind me of sitting at home and putting on punk rock 7 inches and just listening to them over and over.

Buddy Holly--Blue Days, Black Nights



Also, RIP Buddy Holly and all that.

Everyone I know has a big "but."

Also on board with the red chamois--Andy from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

Sham wow.

American chamois shirts must confuse the hell out of Europeans—a French dude (I’m thinking mustachioed and chapeau’d, De Gaulle style) shaking his head in disbelief—“Zut alors! This is not shamwa!” True, a chamois is a European mountain goat and chamois leather is light and, oddly enough, gentle and water absorbent—hence its use to dry car finishes.

Chamois, to most Americans, means a thick, strong, flannel-esque cotton weave. When LL Bean ruled the yuppie land with a hunter-green fist, one of their most popular products was the chamois shirt. My dad had a handful of solid cotton flannel shirts in the standard greens and a tan/gold color he just called “shammy”—that’s the closest in color to natural chamois leather. I started looking for a new equivalent last spring, as today’s Bean shirts are cut very large and are made abroad. A chamois shirt should not fit slim, but jeez the new shirts are big. Cabela’s and other usual outdoor suspects also sell oversize versions as hunting shirts—like other “heritage” natural fabrics, cotton chamois is extraordinarily quiet in the field. Unfortunately my hiking boots squeak like seals. Fortunately I stalk mostly microbrews and indie bands.

I settled on a Cruzer flannel from Post Overalls. Post Overalls (or Post O’alls) has been making new clothes with old DNA since 1993. Not surprisingly, the designer is Japanese—Takeshi Ohfuchi. Takeshi has been collecting vintage garments since the 1980s. It’s tempting to draw some parallels between Post O’alls and Engineered Garments—but that’s for another day. Check out Takeshi's blog. The Post O’alls Cruzer flannel shirt in red (hell yes red) cotton.



A chamois spotted at the Rose Bowl flea market by Mister Mort. Not my ideal ensemble, but...