30 April 2009

Pick Up the Thread

See if you can find a logical thread running through this post. I'm having a hard time with it myself.

Mrs. G. and I have been quite busy and haven't been off to the thrifts much lately. But today we managed to make the trip, which resulted in some really choice new acquisitions in both the menswear and music departments.

To start with, I've been known to say that in Massachusetts, one really can't own too much nautically themed stuff. So this dashing tie is a welcome addition to the Affordable Wardrobe:
from none other that the Brothers Brooks.It's funny. This tie cost me $3.99. I've actually reached the point of considering that pricey for a necktie. I've gotten so many good ties for a dollar that paying four times as much seems a bit outrageous to me. But you must admit, this tie is pretty special...its not just embroidered with mere whales, but with weather vanes with whales on them. A true New England double shot! I'll bet this tie originally sold better in Boston than at the New York flagship.

Up next, a nice shirt with a button down collar in blue and black tattersall check:Nothing much to say about it...just a good shirt for $5.99.

But clothes are not the only thing to be had at the thrifts. There are also the records. It's getting harder to find really good ones at these places, but they turn up enough that its always worth sorting through the piles if you're hopelessly vinyl obsessed. Today we scored a couple of points for the Italian team:A young and beardless Luciano Pavarotti, singing his ass off and looking sharp in a striped tie and narrow collar. Can't go wrong there.

And of course, Frankie's somewhat weird record "Cycles" :Which not only features a strange version of By The Time I Get to Phoenix (strange mostly because Isaac Hayes owns that jam), but also bears this photo on the back sleeve:

Tiny Tim: " I mean, really, I never took such a heavy trip in all my life!"
Frankie: " No kidding? You should write that down and mail it to someone who cares, you filthy ukulele playing hippie weirdo. Somebody call up whoever booked this gig and tell 'em the boss wants to speak to them. And while you're at it, bring me some cigarettes and a bottle of Jack to break over this chumps head."


This post may be somewhat odd and disjointed, but so is thrift shopping. Ain't that the fun in it?


p.s. I couldn't find Isaac Hayes doing "Phoenix", but watch this anyway...just because its the jams....


seriously, was there a time when this was on t.v.? Who designed that stage set? Who else do you know who can start out with a Brooks Brothers tie and wind up here?

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those were the days
Things worth preserving
Remnants of civilization
When pop music aimed at adults

Thanks for all this

Anonymous said...

Yale 1965:

But the barbarians were already among us -- guys in jeans, with long hair, beads and headbands, guys so brilliant they didn't care what they looked like. Yale in those days still required a coat and tie in the dining halls, but in some Yale colleges a knotted shoelace counted as a tie. There was even a short-lived debate about whether, since the regulations did not specify a shirt, going bare-chested was acceptable. Eventually, even some younger faculty members began dressing like the students, not the other way around. It was much remarked, for example, when Charles Reich, a Yale law professor and the author of ''The Greening of America,'' began showing up for class in jeans. Even he drew the line, however; his jeans, as some freethinkers noted with disdain, were always creased and ironed. He was trying to pass as a hippie, but he was still a Yale man.

David V said...

All the good records I find I already have.

FIXED BAYONET METAL SOLDIERS said...

I don't like the tie or the shirt but I think you are really interesting.Its fun to read you.By the way what is a thrift?

Enzo AGC said...

Just a technical point - the whale weather vanes aren't embroidered onto the tie, they are woven into the actual fabric. A tie is usually only embroidered with a singular icon like the golden fleece at the bottom of a brooks brothers knit tie...

tintin said...

I may be alone in the world when I say this but I think Tiny Tim had more talent in his pinkie finger than Frank ever had. His first album was a marvel featuring a song about the Devil talking to his son and one of my favorite little bits, "Never hit your grandma with a shovel...it makes a bad impression on her mind." Ok, he was little odd but what genius isn't?

The Cordial Churchman said...

Looks like the comment box is just as odd and disjointed as the post that filled it.

Young Fogey said...

Like tintin, I am not a fan of the strange phenomenon that was Frank Sinatra. He seemed to be the impetus for various illegal and illicit activities swirling around him, though he himself was not always a direct participant (but he was a serial adulterer). Plus, I don't care for his voice--but have no problem with those who do.

The Isaac Hayes performance: I guess Giuseppe isn't old enough to remember crazy stuff like that stage set. Even Andy Williams had funky stage sets and costumes! In a sense, that video is very nostalgic for me, though I extremely happy that that era is dead and over.

Though it's not my style, I really like the tie. The shirt is my style, and I wish I had one that nice. I;m envious of your great thrift shops--again.

3button Max said...

hilarious post-I regret not hearing Pavorotti live -
I scored a blue whale tie about a year ago-and actually scored a 3 button sack green hopsack about a month ago -ist good find in over a year-enjoy your posts-
Max

Horrible Old Man said...

hmmmm can I steal that tie?

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