Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sun Goddess

Back in Feb of 2008 NYC lost a gem....CD101.9 FM, the smooth jazz radio station where new contemporary jazz could be heard along side of classic gems. Saturday night's The Groove Boutique with Rafe Gomez was so dope. A mix of jazz, funk, soulful house even. Gone. And missed.

CD 101.9 would rock some nice old joints. One of my faves was Sun Goddess by Ramsey Lewis. Always reminds me of summer. I loved this jam so much I even used it as background music in my wedding video.

Get your dose here.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Caravan

Has someone from J Crew has been reading my non-sense?

Nah, doubt it, but it is kinda funny that after obsessing and writing about my love for Ray Ban 3136 Caravans back in May, and giving in to multiple pairs, now J Crew is offering the Caravan as part of their Fall '09 lineup. Thanks, after I went crazy trying to find these in May!



Some folks had told me that the Caravan model was discontinued (folks at RayBan, no less!). Glad to see they didn't know the real deal.

Friday, July 24, 2009

1969 is Coming

Stopped in Gap yesterday to check out the sales and see if there was anymore info on the 1969 Jeans re-launch. Not much on the re-launch, but...

In the winter, I sprung for the white selvedge jeans for $88. I just loved the fit and the feel of the denim. What did I do after 3 months? Spill coffee on them. Nice. Stained. Ruined.

Yesterday I found them for $18 on sale. Score. They're back.

As I paid the cashier also handed me two coupons. One for 25% off the new 1969 jeans coming July 27th and one for 40% off one any item during Aug 3-7. Thank you very much sir. Think I'll use that 40% on the new jeans, if I dig them.

J Crew Fall '09

If you haven't seen/heard it elsewhere, the Fall '09 collection at J Crew is beginning to slide in. Yesterday, lots of goodies were added on-line, including the grey crinkle-wash jeans I've been eyeing since about a month ago.

Not wanting to wait for these bad boys to ship over the weekend, I tried to find them at a local store here in the NYC area. Tried my fave 5th Ave Store, but no luck. Tried Short Hills, NJ but no luck. I knew it would be difficult--both stores told me that these were just released so it would be about a week till the stores got them. So I called my trusty contact "PV" at J Crew to do a search for me. He came back with one....just one, in my size in whole area...at The Liquor Store.

Luckily, The Liquor Store is just a 3 stop subway ride away. I jetted up there during lunch and snagged them. There was maybe only 5-6 pairs total in the store, so I was pretty damn lucky. The sales associate said to me, "we just got these in last night....No one else in the country has them yet...you are the first person to buy them. So go out and walk around in your new EXCLUSIVE jeans".

Anyway, the guys at the Liquor Store told me they got 100 boxes of fall stock just this week. I was pretty impressed with the selection. Check it out if you are in the area.


On the way home, I decided to stop by the J Crew men's shop in the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ. To be truthful, I was more impressed with this shop than the Liquor Store. They had tons and tons of new Fall stuff. The store looked superb. Great job by the visual team. Saw many things on the floor that were listed on-line as "catalog/JCrew.com only". I picked up the Chino Workshirt in white. The Charcoal Heather Poplin Utility shirt was also quite nice, but I held off.

It's gonna be a good end to summer.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Mont Royal

See that skyline above? That's Montreal, my fave city in the world (outside of NYC, of course). It's where I have my best memories as a young dude (18-25) as well as where my beautiful wife is from, just by coincidence.

I'm in Montreal now for a few days. The European feel, the great diversity of cultures, the sense of fashion, the wonderful array of foods...It's a top notch city.

If you dig shoes, you'll go broke here.
If you dig bagels, you've never had a bagel like they make at St Viateur bagels. It's world famous.

I'm headed to old Montreal right now. Get a load of this:



Enjoy your weekend. See you on Saint Catherine Street.

~JB

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Shade of Grey

A few weeks back a SA at a J Crew here in NYC was kind enuff to show me the print version of the Fall 09 lookbook.



In 12 seconds, the wanting set in!

These are a standout of the book, for me. Counting down the days till these can slide on me. These look perfect for fall, with their darkish shade and wrinkle wash.

Lots of images from this look book floating around on line. Come Fall, come.

Tasty indeed.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

July 27th

Big sign in my local GAP today...

July 27th: The best premium Jeans in America arrive.


I assume this is referring to the relaunch of the GAP's 1969 line. Looking forward to see what they have to offer, for the un-premium price of $69.

I emailed the Gap customer service, but they would neither confirm nor deny any new product launches. Oh well, let the countdown begin. 13 days to go...

Friday, July 10, 2009

Turn it Up

I'm having 2 BBQ's at my house this weekend. Why the hell not? Summer doesn't last forever.

When I have people at my house I automatically revert back to my DJ days, making sure I have just the right sounds to feed the vibe. For some peeps, who know my love of soulful house and old soul/disco, I'll let my deep shit take over. For others, I have to be a bit more conservative in my selections.

So all week I've been thinking of what to play, what to play.

Here's what I've decided on for this weekend's aural pleasure

Saturday:

Vintage Michael Jackson (Thriller and before)
Raphael Saadiq
DJ Sazon's Lost in a Strange World


Sunday

Eros Ramazzotti
Raphael Saadiq
Possibly some Maxwell if I can score the new CD today

Hope your weekend is groovy.

What I Miss

More often than not blogs speak of what people want, and what they've bought. Sometimes I think that what people want and buy is meant to make up for things they really can't have.

Yes, that can be deep rooted things like relationships, respect, love, belonging, etc. But it can also be simple things. Like Hair.



That picture is of the back of my boy's head. He is 3 years young. Check out those wavy, abundant locks of hair. No idea where he got that chestnut color from, as both me and the W are almost black-haired.

Now THAT is what I really want, much more than a new washed favorite shirt from J. Crew. My hair started to betray me at about 28 or 29. But before it got the better of me I let my hair grow enough to have curls like that in the back, and then some. I miss it everytime I look in the mirror.

M2, enjoy it while you got it.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Khaki Hunt

Usually I'm on the look out for some fine selvedge denim...but lately, with my closet filling up with denim and my summer work-wear gravitating away from suits, I've been on the khaki hunt.

I've been meaning to buy a pair of Bill's but haven't had the opportunity to hunt them down in person yet. I've tried many higher priced designer brands but none that I fell in love with.

My reliable standby J Crew makes a regular cut and a slimmer classic cut. While I can deal with them, I'm not crazy about the fit, especially in the waist. Believe it or not, the Gap Original Khakis are one of my faves, and at just $44 a pretty good deal.

I've recently fell in love with the J Crew Premium Officer's Chinos. Something a little bit different. And now on sale for $32 with the J Crew 20% off final sale. It's a solid deal.

Now whatever happened to the the old K-1 Cramerton cloth khaki by Dockers? That was a classic.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Independence


When is the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? 4th grade? 11th grade? Possibly never?

Give it a read, if you haven't in a while.

Just think of the set of cohones on these chaps when they put this to paper in 1776:

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Thank you MJ

I couldn't let the death of MJ go without comment.

I grew up with Michael's music, my first memory of him being when I got the Off The Wall LP for Christmas in '79. I was just 7 years old but that album shaped my musical tastes for the rest of my life.

I don't think an album will ever be a enormous as Thriller was, ever again in my lifetime. How can you begin to measure the profound influence it had on popular society, around the globe?

Just recently I discovered this track "Carousel" from Thriller that was left off the LP. Back when vinyl was king, only 45 minutes was available for an album. I read somewhere that MJ and Quincy Jones worked on 300 songs for this album. Just imagine the wonderful music that would have made it onto Thriller had the 80 minute CD been available?



MJ's music will live in me forever. I promise that I'll pass it on to my children.