A Lil' Somethin' to Tide You Over...

With the Top Shelf Flea Market gaining fast, I'll be finding myself awfully damn busy this week. So here's a distilled version of a weeks worth of posts:

Remember those shirts I had made? Well, I only just busted out the blue and white stripe number yesterday. Seen here with the by now ubiquitous probably 1990s vintage J.Press blazer ($7.49), a silk knit tie ($1.99), and a collar pin ($0.50). Finished with trim cut 1960s vintage grey slacks, with just a touch of shark skin sheen.

Forgive the odd angle of this shot. It was the only one I had that gave an honest representation of the colors and textures, key elements in this ensemble.

There was a fair amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth back when I got these shirts, especially over the construction of the collar, but with a knit tie and pin, I think they strike a distinctly George Harrison 1965 kind of vibe. Not something you see too often these days...I'll take it, thank you.
I used to be a strictly 'John' guy, but the older I get, the more of a 'George' guy I am.

To wit, the rig above was worn to my little bands performance in a brand new concert hall in Rockport, Massachusetts. 325 people in the audience, seated. A ceiling at least 30 feet high. A brand new Steinway grand piano. A set full of Chet Atkins numbers. George would have dug it. Nerve racking? Certainly. Fun? Hell yes. After all those years of sticky floors and cigarette smoke, I felt a bit like maybe I had finally "arrived".

Dig this shot, courtesy of Mrs. G. Looks like we're performing on Ed Sullivan. Gotta love it, no?

In other news...

A button up shirt over a tennis shirt is an old (gag) 'Preppy' convention. I gave it a whirl today:

Don't worry, it ain't likely to happen again. Way to affected and silly...totally out of context these days. Let's leave it to old guys and the eighties. But...

This is what I had on today for lunch with ADG. Our man found himself in Boston for business, so the wee ones and I took him to the the North End for lunch, at none other than the legendary Galleria Umberto.

2 slices of pizza, 2 arancini, 2 panini, two paper cups of cold red wine (Carlo Rossi) and a Sprite (for the boy)= $18. Unbeatable. Followed by a round of gelato and Lavazza across the street at the Caffe Vittoria. The internet can be a real time-wasting-pain-in-the-ass most of the time, but when you get a new buddy like ADG out of it, it all comes out in the wash.

Our man recently wrote a veritable tome on madras just t'other day. Read it. Here's my two cents on that:

O'Connell's of Buffalo has a downright insane pile of new-old-stock vegetable dyed madras pants. The selection will make you cry. But still, they are $90, and I'm not only a cheapskate, but also a poor b*stard.

But I've got these:

I'm thinking they must be the real deal. Probably 1970s vintage L.L.Bean, judging by the label.

I plan to soak em in the sink tomorrow and see what 'bleeds' of of them. Wish me luck.

And while I was poking around the O'Connell's website, I spied these:




Holy Mama, unlined pennies with a boat shoe sole from Quoddy? Seriously? That's really the living end. Please come to the Top Shelf Flea and spend $195 at my table so I can own these.

And with that, I bid you all Adieu until next Monday. I've got a million things to do in preparation for the Flea next Sunday. I hope to meet a bunch of you there.

Until next week,

-gt