Call off the search… I’m very much alive and well.
Well, alive I guess.
I’ve fallen victim to one of the most unforgiving stretches of work that I’ve ever experienced professionally and its come at some personal expense.
Work won’t be letting up anytime soon, but I’ve made it a point to write with more regularity. Things are too quiet at the apartment and I need to get some of the inner dialogue I’m continuously having onto the page and out of the system.
More very soon…
-aCr-
Popular hamburger purveyors Whataburger announced Tuesday that the company is, for the first time, entering into retail sales by bottling its condiments to sell in HEBs across Texas and Mexico.
H-E-B and Wataburger are working together in bottling ketchup!
(Phil (guy above) is a friend I met in college and was recently featured in Crains Chicago)
F. Philip Barash,34, is creative director at Chicago-based Forum Studio, a design firm. Here, he tells Crain’s Jackie Bender about his sartorial style.
Signature work uniform: (Winter) daring escape from prep school, a-la Holden Caulfield. Jeans, checked shirt and navy or tweed blazer. Usually a sweater; often a scarf and fingerless gloves. (Summer) regatta rail meat. White oxford shirt, cotton blazer and pants in as toxic a color as possible (lime green, electric blue). Usually a pair of sunglasses dangling off a Croakie; often a ribbon belt. (Year-round) canvas sneakers, bookish glasses, shoulder bags, cotton or chambray hankies and antiquated neckwear.
Getting-dressed philosophy: When I started working professionally, I faced moments of existential crisis in the morning. Some days, I would stare into the depths of a closet for what seemed like a short eternity, paralyzed by choice. Where was the elusive shirt that coordinated with olive slacks? Would I go preppy? Euro? Casual? American Psycho? Were there meetings on the calendar? Was there a happy hour hatching? Then, in a rare moment of clarity, I gave my sleek, all-black outfits to a clubby friend, donated a kaleidoscope of sweaters to Salvation Army and committed to a ceremonial pyre all novelty shirts with paisley detailing. Today, my closet is a tiny autonomous dictatorship, all in shades of blue, gray and beige (except in summer). And I have my mornings back.
What’s unique about your style? It’s so conservative that it borders on the perverse. Before I leave the house every day, I check the mirror, in vigilance. I ask myself: Can a person looking at a black-and-white photograph of me tell when, in the last century or so, the photo was taken? Unlike Marty McFly, my appearance in 1955 wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. Nor, for that matter, would my appearance in 1985, the year “Back to the Future” was released.
How is fashion important in a professional context? Clothes are one of the most accessible and universal ways of signification. As a symbolic system, they help us reveal — or conceal — information about ourselves. All this is to reframe the old adage about dressing for the job you want rather than the one you have. Happily, in my case, the job I have — the life I have, really — happens to be the one I want.
How does your style complement your career? I communicate for a living. Through ideas, words, images, environments and interactions, I help companies and organizations tell their stories in ways that matter to them and their stakeholders. My style of dress reflects my style of communication: consistent, clear, approachable, unfussy and, at times, mildly amusing.
Always on-hand at the office: Striped ties to distract my colleagues, a sturdy bag to carry an arsenal of iProducts, a Moleskine notebook to doodle in, a Timex or Swatch to track time (not to flash bling) and glasses to help me see. In warm months, light-soled sneakers signal my readiness to sail at a moment’s notice.
Favorite places to shop: I’m a bargain shopper, for reasons of necessity and temperament. I also have an immigrant’sfascination with stuff (he moved here from the Soviet Union as a child) coupled with guilt about being so easily seduced. So my basic palette is supplied entirely by the middlebrow American Apparel and J. Crew. The rest comes from lucky finds at stores whose show windows look like recruitment posters for lawn sports: J Press, Brooks Bros. and their ilk. In Chicago, I’ve enjoyed occasional visits to Haberdash and found many a preppy blazer at Macy’s on State Street. Recently, I’ve become a big fan of Chicago-based online retailer the Tie Bar.
Style icons:Roland Barthes, Miles Davis and my grandfather, who every day of his life dutifully shaved twice and tied a perfect double-Windsor knot.
Want to quickly send out some birthday love to my Father(Age 79)… I had the privilege of spending lots of quality time with him last week when he was in town to celebrate my Mother’s Birthday.
Things have been insanely hectic as of late in both my personal and work life… it’s the little things like this that make me take a little pause and appreciate him in ways I can’t even begin to describe.
See you soon hombre,
Mijo
One game (table top) that I’m sorely missing from my collection is a simple Chess Board.
I’ve been holding out however for something special and I think I may have just found one.
A bit pricey, but its designed by Daniel Weil of Pentagram
These boards are being used at the Word Championship Chess games!
Pitchfork has put together another Rock Doc I need to watch this evening… this one is for Modest Mouse’s The Lonesome Crowded West
I kinda wished they had done one on The Moon and Antarctica but this album is sorely in need of some documented praise and for that I’m insanely thankful for Pitchfork’s decision to do this record.
In all my years of seeing live music… I’ve never worried more about the line blurring between stage and audience, more than with Isaac Brock on stage.
I saw them perform once at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor and feared that the mood & music was teetering on something that could go incredibly wrong for everyone involved.
It was with that performance that I became a lifetime fan of their work and have sought out anything they have ever recorded and released.
Learned this morning that Pitchfork Media has put two new “Classic Albums” documentaries… This one is for the Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin
Admittedly, I was a little late to this album but it caved my head in on the very first listen.
While attending Flatstock last week… I was hoping to find a poster for my Niece’s bedroom.
I didn’t really find anything that “fit” but I did find this little 12 month weathered t-shirt that read “terror-o-dactyl”.
Purchased it without asking what the price was and while it’s way to big for her now, I did get my sister to have her throw it on so that I can see what it will one day look like.
Made the yearly pilgrimage to Flatsock @ SXSW yesterday… quick observation about the festival - it felt freakishly congested for the first time ever. I can’t ever remember parking being so problematic and I attended a mid-week after lunch time event.
I ended up parking in a local neighborhood and took advantage of the Metro rail to get to the convention center with ease.
—- Posters ——
Made it a point to pick up the annual Empire Press Flatstock poster. Farley Bookout (artist) has made one for the past three years and I’m happy to have each one in my collection.
I also snagged Farley Bookout’s first poster she created: I learned that this poster was about her memories of seeing a plan fly over every Friday at a remote location on the globe, when she was a child. It wasn’t until the poster was printed that she realized the imagery and the date could give a person the wrong the idea…
My favorite poster collected yesterday was a piece by Dan Grzeco. An artist that has been erroneously missing in my personal collection of gig-posters.
His work is amazing, but I’ve never really connected with the artists he’s done work for. That however all changed when he decided to make a poster for Life During Wartime (Talking Heads) and placed lots of stuff from the song into the poster.
The song is quite possibly one of the most haunting songs I listen to on a regular basis. Thus making this one of my favorite posters in my collection and look forward to framing and displaying this as soon as possible.
I can’t stress how cool it was to talk to Dan Grzeco by the way… we both tried to top each other with lyrical references from the song that didn’t make the poster. He mentioned that he really wanted to fit in “burned all my notebooks” but couldn’t figure out how.
I softly said “we’re tapping phone lines… i know that ain’t allowed”
He closed his eyes, rolled my posters and shook his head in agreement with a smile. We shook hands and I looked for something special for my niece.