I'm dreaming of a Mod Christmas

Today was the office holiday party, which means it was time for my annual wearing of the red Levi's cords. I didn't have another Christmas-themed tie, so I chose one with red in it, and what's more festive than a retro mod/tiki pattern? (Tie made in Italy by an unknown maker.) This year's party, at my new job, differs from last year's at my old job in two major ways: 1) it wasn't cancelled at the last minute, and 2) we all got to go home early. Now that's living!

I won't be wearing a tie for the last two days of my work year, so this is it for 2006. I have curtailed my tie wearing considerably, but the upside of that is that it will make my current supply last longer. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to all; see you next year!

Unseasonable

People have been warning us about the harshness of Ithaca winters for the past six months, but it is still unseasonably warm and looks to stay that way through the next week and possibly beyond. So today I wore a tie that is unseasonably bright. It's a heavy (and wide) vintage tie of cotton by Liebert, a brand that has more hits than misses in my experience.

Cats On A Roof!

At first I thought this tie was a cityscape with two giant cats; then I saw that what I thought was a house was really a rooftop fan housing, alongside a TV aerial, some chimney pots, and two normal-sized cats. There are some pink clouds directly behind the fan housing, a sligthly sinister-looking anthropomorphized moon, and a tiny white cloud farther to the left. The detail of the woven pattern doesn't show up so well in the small picture to the left, but you can click through to a larger version. This tie is unlike any other I've ever seen; it's a wide polyester number from 1970 or so. The brand is "Pedigree by Michel;" with a name like Pedigree, I wonder if it was an entire line of animal-themed ties. I can only hope I'll run across another one some day.

After the Fall

Owing to my extended schedule of unpacking in our new house, I was unable to join the other tie guys (Mike and Will) in celebrating Fall with autumn leaves ties; I have some, I just couldn't find them. Here, then, is my belated entry in that category. I know that this is actually a floral tie, but the flowers are stylized enough that they could be interpreted as leaves if you really want to (and I do). (Oh, the many and varied practical uses of abstraction!) The tie is by GianMarco Venturi, and is yet another purchase from the Modaitalia eBay store.

On the earphones: new Inverse Room (a return to longer, more "serious" songs, with a darkly comic undercurrent, or overcurrent in some cases), Spitznagel's Lowcountry Dub (sounds like a great lost Playgroup album).

Missoni

The past week was very cold; I wore mostly turtlenecks and wool sweaters, except for Wednesday when I wore this eye-grabbing Missoni tie. If a network were to broadcast The Point, and there was static interference with the broadcast, then I think this is what the static would look like.

On the earphones: Miles Davis, Pangaea, a recording of a 1975 concert in Osaka. Half is peaceful and meditative, the other half is a funky hard-rock freakout that puts most full-time rock bands of the time to shame. Miles' electric period is my favorite, and Scott McFarland articulates the reasons in this excellent essay. Squarepusher's Music Is Rotted One Note is a reasonable pastiche of this music, and back in 2002 I had the luck to happen across a local band in Baltimore (upstairs at the Ottobar) who cranked out some Electric Miles sounds too. So the sound lives on!

Garber's again

"Today's" tie (and by "today" I mean November 30) is the companion to my October 21 tie, in that it has the same label (Garber's), the same construction (woven, as opposed to printed, silk), and I got it in the same lot of vintage ties on eBay. Click on the picture to see a larger version for a better appreciation of the intricacy of the pattern.

On the earphones: Africadelic: The Very Best of Manu Dibango and Fela Kuti with Ginger Baker Live! (the added punch of Baker's drums makes this my favorit Fela album so far, but I still have a lot of catching up to do).