I love Levi's, old leather boots and camel and khaki....and lots of you do too.....It's the things I like to find and sell.
rustic. midcentury. practical. steampunk. with a touch of fairytale. gothic. tarnish and tatter
That's funkoma vintage......
Here's the kinds of things I get all goose-bumply over!
Old denim, old leather, old practical clothes that always look good...a little wear and tear....no bother!
an anorak is a fantastic jacket-pullover that is a preppy classic, a seashore classic.....
I have 2 worn and wonderful rustic denim jackets listed on etsy right now...Now is the time to do the double denim...or the ol' Texas Tuxedo! denim is fantastic, and I never get bored of it..in or out of fashion........
We know this classic,fer sure. 2 pocket indigo, 70505.
Everyone and their sister copies this classic Levi cowboy or trucker jacket.
and this fine example of Americana.....the Lee 101J denim jacket, now listed on etsy. Lee began making workwear in 1889.
"Lee Mercantile Company was founded by Henry David Lee in 1889, when Lee opened his first garment factory in Salina, Kansas, producing dungarees and jackets."
It's another American Heritage brand we can take great pride in here in the good ol' usa.
So... don't pay bank for a phony faded denim jacket made in the 3rd world......this one has authentic worn-ness.....not factory made phony-ness!
Paint marks, real stains...But it's fresh and clean. It just looks like what it is...which is the real deal.
And here's another wardrobe basic I indulge in...many many pairs sit in my personal closet.....
Cool Dude square toe 70s boots 8D, or for a cool chick....
totally bitchin' brown leather boots are just broken in with millions of miles left to go... Listed in my etsy shop......
I got nothing against a pretty dress and lacy undies...either....I love a well-cut vintage suit...
But classic casual style, denim and leather and old American, and old heritage brands will always flutter my heart!
Tavi has nothing new to say and she is not a style rookie. She is a conspicuous consumer like all the other gals who read Vogue, Elle, Nylon, Dazed..blah blah blah.
She is a fashion rookie perhaps. Style is something entirely different from Fashion-Slave.
I'm sure she's a sweet little girl, but the media frenzy around her is just silly and rather exploitative and robbing her of her youth which is being spent being famous. Magazines like Teen Vogue and nitwits like Miley Cyrus are shoved at teen girls as role models and How-to manuals...How to be a Shopper! and be like everyone else while buying crap you don't need and don't want. That's the job of Mainstream Media...and the Mainstream but faux-indie Bloggerati.
Mainstream media and the Bloggerati are making her famous...because ...
She is 1000% mainstream. Nothing wrong with that, if that's her choice.
Just a few pages of reading her blog reveals these designer namedrops....Rei Kawakubo...Proenza Schouler...Miu Miu...Celine...Comme des Garcons...Marc Jacobs, and farther back..."Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, Vivienne Westwood, Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, Tao Kurihara of Tao, Alexander McQueen, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren of Viktor & Rolf, Nozomi Ishiguro, Yohji Yamamoto, Maison Martin Margiela, Junya Watanabe, Luella Bartley of Luella, and Gareth Pugh, to name a few *ahem*, but I am always discovering new ones which I adore as well. Right now I'm very into Sandra Backlund, especially after happily receiving my Yokoo scarf. And of course, the fake Karl Lagerfield."
So GOOD Grief people! She LOOOOves designers. Just like millions of other girls/women. Nothing special there.
And now the designers send her stuff for free, so she blogs about those designers that send her stuff, and they send her stuff for free, so she blogs about those designers.......
detect a pattern here?
She talks about the same subjects all the other young fashion bloggers blog about, such as the Future of Digital Fashion Blogging, DIY mixed with HighEnd Fashion, Fat Models Are Good, Skinny Models Are Bad, pervy photographers, blah blah blah.
I liked her better when she first started ...when she dressed like characters which are more like her little girl personality,because she is ...NEWS FLASH... a little girl.
Her take on Thrift Store shopping is the same stuff all the other fashion bloggers are saying....and NO, Salvation Army,ST. Vincent de Paul and Goodwill are not in business to sell things cheap to poor people....SA, Vinnies, and Good are there primarily to sell things to middle class and lower middle class people to fund Do-Gooder programs that help poor people. BIG difference! I know this to be true because I read like, um, history. Now, of course, everyone shops the thrifts...Rich and not-so-rich alike because it's Trendy !!!!
Dazed Digital: What’s your big ideaCity talk about?
Tavi: It’s basically about what Sassy magazine would look like today. Because there aren’t any counter cultures, so what would make it subversive?
DD: And what is that?
Tavi: It would be subversive not by latching onto a subversive band or clothing style, because those, you know, there isn’t any counter culture. It would be subversive just in that it would be honest and tell teenage girls that, like, our opinions matter and to be ourselves and stuff. Other magazines, I feel, don’t succeed in doing that. There’s insincerity.
OH GOOD GOD!
Yes, Tavi there are plenty of countercultures....People who eschew consumerism, homeschooling parents, folks who grow their own food, folks who work from home, people who bicycle/public transit to work when they don't have to, people who dumpster dive, people who make their way in the world without corporate jobs, artists and musicians.....
And, bottom line, you can't have it both ways: "...tell teenage girls that, like, our opinions matter and to be ourselves and stuff." AND be a slave to high-end Designer consumerism. Choose a side. That's the clever thing to do.
Portland has that Tacoma doesn't? more tattoos, more bicycles and more coffee shops?
Well that, maybe........Portland is a city that values the arts. If my idea of filling empty stores and buildings downtown with ART wasn't so obvious, I'd really take the credit. ART is always what saves a town....and Tacoma, being a working class tough little bugger, needs more of that.
Fantastic artfests, music fests, hot rods for granpas, hot rods for hip chicks and dudes, Cones of hot ART... Proctor Art....6th Ave Art...and more farmer's markets are happening...what huge changes have happened here in our little burg in just 10 years...If we could blot out the big ugly condo projects that stick out of our sweet humble little town like a whore in church, or at least, a banker in church.
When I was a wee thing, I used to visit Millie's family up in Lake County. Any storefront in along the main street was filled with something....drawings, pictures, posters, anything interesting! All a person had to do was contact the bldg. owner and ask to do a project. The bldg. owners being smart Californians, I guess, got the ball rolling there. The local newspaper office would print pictures for kids to color, and collect them, and then hang them in the store windows.That's where I got the idea that A) Grownups care about empty windows.
B) Republicans like art. This is also where I learned to draw a Dog face....big time!
What do I mean "Saves a town"...if people give a crap about what things look like...and I don't just mean, manicured lawns and tasteful house paint colors.... if people give a crap, and get loud, and say Yes, and then No to the ugly.... we can make Tacoma look more like Portland, or San Francisco or VancouverBC...and a lot less like Stockton or Brawley or Hell.
and also...it makes people feel better, because if I see that you care, I'm less likely to drop my garbage*...If people feel Hopeful, they'll act nicer. They'll try harder. And they'll vote....for the kind of politicians that put people first, and let money take care of itself like it always does..... .It's all About Culture and building a welcoming community that makes room for lots of different kinds of people, but under no circumstances, should there be any excuse for a PFChangs. that's just lazy and nasty.
First we had a breakfast at Dock Street Landing...now Rock the Dock. ...stupid name. Same dive with rearranged furniture. Ask for the veggie burger since it isn't listed on the menu.
We sat on the deck and had the most vegetarian things on the menu. Me, poppers, and Mark had a cocktail! Lucky him, since I volunteered to drive for the day I was sober until dinner time.
We watched the boats float by....someday that will be us sheeting and rigging....We saw 2 Oompa Loompas on one large sailboat.....so I figured it was the Willy Wonka cruise.
2 old folks sat on chairs at the stern, both wearing bright orange t-shirts while a dapper man pulled up the fenders and pointed out Thea Foss landmarks. I figured the dutiful son made Ma and Pa Midwestern wear the super-bright t-shirts in case they fell in they'd make good targets....I Jest!
The old folks were in life jackets. Bright Orange life jackets. Still.
Ooompa Loompa.
Just saying.....
Then we walked the docks and drooled on the boats. We walked to the tiny park and chatted up a guy with a canoe strapped to his 70s Volvo...and we thought "That Dude is Awesome!"
Canoe + old Volvo = Mark and Tressie ! therefore ...awesome! but that's Sunday.
Back home in the late afternoon to continue the party. We didn't have a party like in years past. Low volume right now. So, linen jacket and slacks, Brooks Brothers, as is the shirt. Vintage 50s bow tie....a real Bow tie. It's easy. Just tie a bow. Like in the movies!
Cocktails while dressing....and a tiny glimpse of the new living room...there will be some blogging about the new home and decor next week...
Plaid Sperry slip-ons...and a sweet shot of the most amazing mirror....
He decided to tuck the bow tie in his jacket pocket just before we took off for dinner at Harbor Lights...
We're often overdressed for Tacoma...we're ok with that...but it was a bit hot for the tie.
So off to Harbor Lights.....we love Harbor Lights....not just that they serve real alcohol in the drinks and that the food is good.....but we love it because it has a old-time warpiness there. It looks like time stopped in 1979. We like that.
The bar is "decorated" in Jim Beam bottles. Tacky boat and fish things. Lots of drunk lawyers and middle-aged ladies who still tease their hair in an updo and spray the crap outta it with AquaNet. They drive Cadillacs and wear high heels. They still smoke but not during dinner any more.
The servers and bartenders are mostly professionals. There are some younger folks as wait staff and they still need to learn how to serve as a profession. We miss Joan who has retired, as has Rose, though Mary was still there to take our drink orders.
It does not escape my esteem that the wall in the foyer has framed and autographed pictures of the 2 greatest male actors of all time......
Bob Denver and Ray Walston!!
You may remember Ray Walston as this guy......
We arrived early and got a corner table right on the water! So beautiful...many sailboats gliding by and the parachute sail people were flying high!
We ordered clams and clams and drinks and clams and clams, and then some mussels.
Dinner done, I drove home and then we took off walking to 1022.
I love my multi-colored boat shoes!
One last pic before we head out the door.
Arrived, and waiting for the first cocktail of the evening. Mark drank copious amounts of brandy. It is wonderful to sit outside. I hope the fire pit comes back and we can sit outside come the rainy season.
We love it because we can bring our dog for a walk and have a drinkie and walk home. Isn't that what local is all about?
I had the basil vodka cocktail, the death cocktail, and finally, when Matt arrived it was dark and warm and the full moon was shining bright!
It was a glorious evening.......
Matt's sweet Volvo....and look!
He's got Double Rainbow decals on the back windows! All original OG 70s rainbows! He rules.
A few shots of the really big tree, the moon , the neighborhood.
Then we rode home with Matt in the Volvo since we only live about 7 blocks away from his house.
Dreamtime.
The next morn we loaded (the royal We) the canoe on top of the wagon and took off for its 2010 maiden voyage at Wapato park...
This park used to be so pretty....it looked like a resort of the 1920s back in the 80s when my kids were young. We used to go all the time to swim or just walk around. The City of Tacoma has allowed the lake to putrify into a toxic algae stew. No one can swim there anymore it is so toxic. Thanks Assholes!
But we launched anyway and paddled around for a bit. The patches held real well..yeah!
Since the day was getting real hot we headed for home and crashed.
It was a low-key birthday, this one.
I think the song of the day was Bali Hai...That's the movie South Pacific where Ray Walston and Mitzi Gaynor are pictured in above.....(if you have never seen it...please do!)......our day was beautiful...another world...on the water....melancholy...but treasured all the same........
it was hot in the summer in Yountville...it rose to 90 early in the summer morning and if I didn't go swimming at the Veterans Home pool, I'd likely head down the street to the dark cool library at the Post Office building.
It was a cold shock to open the heavy door and walk in. Dark stacks of books, flat carpet and a small window......and all those words on paper.
This is where I discovered Robert Louis Stevenson, Jessamyn West and books about death. All of us kids read RLS and Miss West since they lived in the Napa Valley and were therefore, "our own". Whatever was on the "grown-ups" recommended shelf, was what I wanted to read.
I'd lay on the floor on my back, roll over on my tummy, or lean against a corner out of the way. Hours would pass. I traveled to worlds far away from my tiny farm town.
When I tired of that, or bored, or ready to check out and take a book to read, it actually hurt a bit to step into the hot bright California sunshine after being entombed in the cave of the library. Then I'd find a shady oak to climb up and sit with the birds and bugs.
Classic trash like Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road, Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl....lots of sex! A bit of murder, some double crossing...perfect for reading in a hammock or late at night when it cools.....
