A Man's Movie: Electra Glide in Blue

Keep away from impressionable 13 year old boys



In 1973 (or was it '74?), I was knocked out by an obscure movie for the second time in my short life. Certainly Electra Glide in Blue kicked started me into law enforcement but more importantly it introduced me to the adult world of bullshit.

Robert Blake's, John Wintergreen is a motorcycle cop who longs for a detective's badge telling his buddy, Zipper, "I hate that motorcycle they make me ride. I'm here to tell you there's nothing I hate worse than that elephant under my ass."

Zipper (Billy Green Bush) is his pal on the force who's only too happy to avoid the heat and any taxation of his mind unless it presents itself as female. Zipper reminds me of 90% of the folks I worked with in law enforcement. Wintergreen gets a shot at a promotion by driving for a blow hard detective (Mitch Ryan as Harve Poole) who can't shut up and who, we later learn, can't get it up for his bartender girlfriend Jolene played by Jeannine Riley who screams 70's tight jeans and halter tops.

When someone is all knowing - - it's usually because they don't know anything. The guy to listen to is always the guy who isn't talking. And it's usually best just to watch him. John Wintergreen is able to see the detective for what he is - incompetent. He calls him on it resulting in his getting sent straight back to the elephant culminating in a surprising ending over what may be the longest credit roll in cinema history.

The story is... who cares about the story. It's a Man's Movie and men don't give a pooh about story. This is about characters and images that stun to me to this day. From the opening credits to the scenes of Monument Valley...it's nothing short of an opera. DP'ed by Conrad Hall (check out, 'Tell Them Who You Are') and produced by James William Guercio (Chicago & The Beach Boys) who also authored it's haunting score, it is one of the great and sadly overlooked pictures of the 70's.

"20-167"

For Tessa : The Friday Belt Returns

Schweppes Slimline Indian Tonic Water


The Strategy

When Tessa Scoffs tells me she wants something - - I jump. So, for Tessa, the Friday Belt returns.

Except for one or two falls off the Conestoga -- the Lent sacrifice went well while 15 pounds disappeared. I know that weight can come back in a heart beat so the focus is on sugarless drinks. It's a helluva motivator to look at the scale in the morning and watch it tick down. I want to take that and use it as an incentive before I have to give all my medium sized shirts to ADG.

Schweppes "Slimline Indian" Tonic is off the boat from the UK. Much better than their diet tonic in the states and with half a squeezed lime it makes a pretty darned good G&T. I don't where the hell you're gonna find Slimline Indian but I get mine at Myer's of Keswick (they also have Schweppes Bitter Lemon) in the West Village. It seems to me a perfect time for the G&T. The idea of drinking brown Scotch or a Bordeaux just seems wrong.

And so does wearing my brown Sling Belt. I stick pretty close to the rules when it comes to white bucks and seersucker but who says you can't break out a Madras belt before Labor Day? I ordered this one for spit last Winter. Earlier this week, ADG and I were shooting the crap with Jay Kos and we all agreed that when J Crew is offering tons of patch madras it's time to look for alternatives. But the Madras patch belt is a subtle little flash of 1965 college wear. And subtle, as Tessa will tell you, is key.

Off My Back: French Kissing in a Foulard Button Down

Foulard Shirt (front row on right) by Lee- Esquire Magazine 09/1960

Foulard Fabric

A.K.A. "The Acorn Shirt" by Golf Foxtrot

'University' collar 3 3/8

Those fashion designers in Wilmington, DE

Sleeve placket

I caught that ad in the Sept 1960 issue of Esquire and it got me thinking. When was the last time I saw a foulard pattern shirt? I had a Gant in high school but I was at a loss after that. And that was a long time ago.

I picked up my order from Individualized at Wright & Simon back in Feb. and caught this fabric stuck in the back of the sample book. I asked Len Simon about it and he said, "No one's ordered that crap in years."

Len's brilliant because I had to have the foulard knowing it had been abandoned. I asked what else no one wanted and he pointed out that beautiful twill in pink and hunter green. I love what no one else wants. We'll look at that shirt next week.

A surprise these were the cheapest fabrics although, like the Golf Foxtrot, I imagine many of you will not be.

I love both these shirts for their vintage patterns but Individualized is just not the place for a popover. Horrible pattern matching again. The last nightmare was returned and they fixed it but I just can't go back again. Len'll run me through with his yard stick. The sleeve plackets never match either. Is this Made to Measure or am I being difficult? The trick with Individualized is to stick with small patterns and solids.

I remember a foulard shirt on my back when Cheryl S. gave me my first French kiss at a dance. She was sitting on my lap, took the gum out of her mouth and let me have it while we listened to the Carpenters, Close to You. Definitely gonna be looking for another foulard.

Buy This Shirt Or We Shoot The Dog

Tintin Sweater at the Aspen Comedy Festival 1998

Terry Gilliam'Tintin sweater (it's itchy)

Terry Gilliam knocks over Graham Chapman's urn :33 seconds in. I've been carting around this newspaper clipping for 12 years - just for this very moment. Gilliam appears to share a shoe and sock fetish with our very own ADG at Maxifly, Maxipad, Maxilad, Maxidice, Maxihandling, Maxioptions, Maxiflusser, Maxi...

A Man's Movie: Culloden

The 1964 BBC Docudrama, 'Culloden' will burn into your mind like a piece slow match. The anniversary of the 1746 battle is this Friday though I doubt few will be celebrating. It was directed by Peter Watkins and includes a TV news crew reporting 'live' from the battle (it works). With a budget to match the directors experience (nil) , amateur actors and one cannon, this film packs an emotional punch stronger than most of what Hollywood has ever made.

I first saw this film at Valley Forge National Historical Park. The National Park Service had a 16mm print and used the film to train rangers in 18th Century warfare. That's how historically accurate it is. Ball versus grapeshot. Musket shot versus bayonet. Movement and flanking. And lastly, the arrogance and stupidity of leadership on both sides. Always a lesson to me.

You no longer have to work at Valley Forge to see it. It's on DVD and well worth adding to your collection if for no other reason to remind us all that incompetence and war usually go hand in hand.

Canvas Barn Coat

In between an undecided Spring and a Summer not here.

Off My Back: Honesty In Chamois

I've been an Orvis customer for 30 plus years. My favorite moleskin trousers in hunter green are from the early 90's. They came in handy on the 50 minute winter commute from Lake Bluff to Chicago on the Metra. They could just sneak by with a shirt, tie and blazer. But with this shirt you were talking casual Friday. It has only improved with age and rates as my favorite hang over shirt.

To this day the Orvis cut is generous. This medium fits...as long as I have a salad for lunch. A burger and a Guinness? Forget it. And even though NYC hit 91 degrees yesterday - I have this Orvis flannel in my Beretta sights.

For me, Orvis is the real deal. Has been. Hopefully continues to be. Imitators of Orvis are hoping they can steal the authenticity but they always miss the boat. Some of that stems from their models in winter clothes and coats and heavy shoes without socks. That would be a fad and a bad one at that. There's also a calculating insincerity that comes from peddling what doesn't interest you.

Some of the younger folks I've met in the last year do get it and have a real love for this kind of kit. Their passion runs deep. They ask about the early 1980s the same way I ask folks about the early 1960s and the way those folks love the 1930s. It's that nostalgia for something all of us have never had but long for. I suppose a two year old today will be asking you about J Crew 30 years from now. Looking at my consumption of alcohol and tobacco in the last 30 years - - I'm guessing I'll miss it.

A Man's Movie: Looking For Richard

Al Pacino as Richard III

Frederic Kimball and Al Pacino

Kevin Spacey as Buckingham

"If we think words are things and, and we have no feelings in our words then we say things to each other that don't mean anything. But, if we felt what we said - we'd say less and mean more. Panhandler

"The music - literally - I mean the music and the thoughts and the concepts and the feelings have not been divorced from the words and in England you've had centuries when words are totally divorced from truth." Vanessa Redgrave

"Irony is really only hyprocrisy with style." Barbara Everett

"In the midst of these noble concepts, these treaties and these diplomatic pacts, he was saying, the truth beneath all this is absolutely the opposite. The truth is that those in power have total contempt for everything they promise, everything they pledge and that's what [Richard III] is about. Vanessa Redgrave

Shot over four years and paid for by Pacino, Looking for Richard is a documentary and a play. Searching for simple understanding of the pentameter and the very complicated truth. Mostly it's a story of language and what it meant then and now. Just a few years before this film was released in 1996, I was having a political argument with a brother in law. I told him to look up 'liberal' and 'conservative' in the dictionary and tell me which one he wanted to be. He told me, "Life's not the dictionary." It is here.

Winning & Losing

Q. Golf-wise, what are your expectations this week?
TIGER WOODS: Nothing's changed, going to go out there and try to win this thing. Recently Trad Dad reminded me of Little League baseball tryouts when I was 11. Coaches, who always had their own sons on the team, were interested in winning. And these memories are some of my earliest about life not being very fair. I did manage to play on a Pony League team (2nd base and short stop) but we lost almost every game. Still, I got to play. At 15 I was the assistant coach of a Shakey's Pizza team. We came in second to last but we ate well.

I was lucky I got to play. If someone's gonna win - someone's gotta lose. I've always told my Little League stories proudly and wore 'Loser' as a badge of honor. But never have I been so curious about winners as the recent events surrounding Tiger Woods.

Winning, a old friend tells me, is directly related to power. Wall Street sure likes to win and win big. Michael Jordan appears to be addicted to the charge of winning at the card table. I guess winning in Vegas must be like winning on the court. And what about winning women? I reckon they stand as the ultimate prize.

The April 12th feature of New York Magazine, The Half-Hooker Economy, dovetails nicely with the Vanity Fair feature on Tiger. Bottle girls, who claim not to be prostitutes, sell $30 bottles of hooch for $800 and may or may not sleep with the customer. And of course there are 'winners' among the bottle girls. So I was thinking, is all of this really about an addiction to sex? Or, is it an addiction to winning? Fortunately, like drugs, I never did enough winning to get hooked. But America sure does love a winner.

A Classy Lady on 57th - Teodora Restaurant

Teodora Restaurant - 57th between Lexington and 3rd Avenue

My favorite sardines

The specials

The Grappa

Teodora Restaurant stands as elegant and simple Italian on 57th Street between Lex and 3rd. It's a favorite of two of my favorite people. The Golf Foxtrot and Gail Greene. The lasagna deserves the raves but never discount the specials. These little sardines were a perfect bite of briny sea without being over powering at all. Placed on bruschetta with a squeeze of lemon -they were "bang the table" fantastic.

It's the perfect place for splitting a starter and a pasta entree. There's always a $30-ish bottle of Montepulciano and it flies under the Manhattan radar so a table is rarely hard to get. I always think of this restaurant as a woman. Bright, smiling, fresh scrubbed and wearing a simple linen dress and clear nail polish. My idea of a long term relationship.

Heavy Tweed Jacket

...has returned. Lots more of the above can be found here.

Easter Chicks: UNC 1967

Happy Easter

Off Her Back: Chicks in Shirts and Cod

Anita O'Day

Julie Christie

Babe Paley

Charlotte Rampling

Katharine Hepburn

Doris Day

Barbara Bel Geddes

Hope Lang

Diana Quick

Cybill Shepherd

Greta Saatchi

1980's Chicks - Brooks Brothers

If loving this is wrong then I don't want to be right...

Spring 1989

Spring 1989

Fall 1988

Spring 1989

Spring 1988

Fall 1989

Spring 1988

Spring 1989

Fall 1989

Spring 1988

A lot of the catalogs Brook's Brothers put out for women were (and still are) cheesy spectacles of poor layout, bad photography and laughable back drops. Early '80s back drops stand out with a whole lot of split rail fences, Mt Vernon porches and ersatz fireplaces.

Something happened in '88 and '89. And not just the catalogs but the clothing as well. Beautiful photography with scenes of Manhattan hooked up with models who looked they made a living modeling. And the clothes were amazing. Grown up and sophisticated in rich fabrics for decades of wear. Hell, even that damned tassel flattie disappeared (for a while).

I'd love to know what happened. And I'd love to know why it ended. A real shame because Brook's never came close to this kind of erudite style again. With a lot of '80s inspired fashion showing up everywhere today you'd think this would be a no brainer.