style | Check Your Inven.tory

Edgy, Indie Designer Clothing. Four words many shoppers dread to hear; the phrase is basically a euphemism for apathetic service and overpriced clothing.

But on a recent weekend excursion to the ever-packed shopping district of Soho we found some refuge (oddly) in a warehouse full of Edgy Indie Designer Clothing.


Inven.tory -- a Nolita native -- just opened up their Soho warehouse branch on Lafayette. It has, appropriately, a warehouse feel without losing a botique intimacy. Racks of clothing are strategically placed throughout the store, giving it a nice flow. And, the staff is just amazing. A man in skinny jeans and a fedora commented on a pair of trousers I was looking at and told me he loved them in navy (who ever thought the fedora-donning type could be so enthusiastic!).

But, the atmosphere and friendly staff are only outshone by the price and selection of their clothing. They get Indie designer clothing wholesale, bringing it to us for 50%-90% off the original price.

That's not to say it's your new Old Navy -- but it's definitely a place where you can find some great lasting pieces. I tried on a pair of $90 Idol Radec skinny chinos (something that I've been looking for) -- apparently I'm not a size 28, though.

food | Di Best From Di Palo

Like a fearless cultural George Washington, I crossed the Hudson to oh-so wonderfully hip Brooklyn. My uncle lives in the trendy neighborhood of DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) which falls somewhere between a more desolate Meatpacking district and a bustling shantytown. It still has the beautiful block-sized, red-brick buildings and the cobblestone roads, giving it that Gangs of New York feel.

Any ways, he cooked and the food was simple but great. Classic tomato, fresh basil, and mozzarella, but his secret? Di Palo Select.



Located on 200 Grand St (nr. North St.), it has some of the best cured meat and cheeses around. The mozzarella really rounded out the simple tomatoes and Trader Joe's balsamic. The pasta wasn't bad either -- heartier than most.


But crack out the Citibank card because some of their meats -- like their Sweet Soppressata -- will set you back about 15 bucks a pound.

style | Brooklyn Aristocrat

So, I'm trying out this hipster ascot.

(cheap bandana + unbeatable tying skills = hipster ascot)




A look of surprise at this new -- or perhaps old -- discovery.

style | Suit Up

GQ did a great series on suits. And, with us college folk and those internship interviews coming up (or at least we hope they're coming up), everyone needs to know how to suit up.

Listen and listen carefully:

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3.

style | Vest Up

So with sun on its way, the transition calls for a winter retrospective.

I was never a nylon vest person, even though I had been moving in a more "Work Wear" direction in my style. It was just too chunky for me. And as a slender-man, I didn't feel like becoming a top-heavy marshmallow. Plus, the leaving of your arms bear just didn't seem ergonomic -- waste, much?

But, with Fall and Winter collections on the sales rack, I thought it might be something worth looking at.

Like this Hickey nylon vest, on sale right now for $177 down from $400:

We'll see if I make my vest conversion, but I'll certainly have to find its cheaper sibling hiding somewhere.

stuff | As Much As I Don't Want To Be A Hipster

I'm totally using this Yashica Electro 35 that my pops found in the closet. Don't know how, don't know if it has residual carcinogenic chemicals circa 1974, but, by golly, I'm determined to whip this 10 pound camera out on a sunny day at Riverside Park.

writing | Grandma Flannery

So, the grandmother of this blog is none other than Flannery O'Connor, who begot one of my favorite short stories -- A Good Man is Hard to Find. After she birthed the story 54 years ago, I picked up the child, decided to write a 12 page paper on it, went a little crazy from sleep-deprivation, and then created my own idea baby, this blog.

(Sorry for the prolonged child analogy. I thought that would go somewhere.)

Anyways, there's a new biography out on her life and I spotted a woman on the subway reading a review of it in the New York Times; I thought it only right to mention it here.

And, it's not out of grandmotherly guilt that I make a Flannery shout out; the biography looks really good -- 30 bucks and 488 pages of really goodness. I'm pretty sure that it's interesting mostly because of its subject (the review of the biography reads more like a biography itself), but from what the reviewer reveals, Brad Gooch has poured over her life.

But I mean, look at her. An excerpt from the review and presumably from the book:

Flannery. She liked to drink Coca-Cola mixed with coffee. She gave her mother, Regina, a mule for Mother’s Day. She went to bed at 9 and said she was always glad to get there. After ­Kennedy’s ­assassination she said: “I am sad about the president. But I like the new one.” As a child she sewed outfits for her chickens and wanted to be a ­cartoonist.

<3

She's quirky, odd, downright weird, and all the same, lovable (in a morbid, prickly sort of way).

(I'm on this new posting kick -- let's see if we can keep this up.)

art | Folk – It’s of the People or Something Like That

So, I’m obsessed with the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM) – the loudest, over-the-top museums that is still quietly under the radar of most New Yorkers. Who thought the Shakers could ever be so interesting?

Relatively empty for a Friday but mostly populated with aging Baby Boomers and skinny-jean clad art students, the AFAM is a serene, intimate space that makes the most of its tiny property. It’s right next to the monolith MoMA, but MoMA’s large area hardly overshadows the architectural masterpiece of the AFAM. Built in 2001 and designed by Tod Williams and Billy Tsien, the building’s façade resembles a granite Trojan Horse –its simplicity makes it unassuming and mysterious yet you know there is more inside.

And there was. 4th Floor, Henry Darger– a social recluse who wrote a 15,000 page book entitled The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. The pictures that parallel this mouthful of a title are grotesque and mesmerizing. Hermaphrodite, doll-like girls run around a fantasy garden resembling Eden while adult cowboys try to capture these girls and hang them from trees. Yet, his use of bright watercolor is disturbingly beautiful. 3rd Floor, Martin Ramirez – a catatonic schizophrenic who drew while in an insane asylum. Abstract, minimalist, and just down right beautiful, his crayon drawings are filled with tunnels, caballeros, and bold lines.





Bottom Line: Visit AFAM and bask in Shaker-Darger glory. An aesthetic journey, I promise you.