ART IMITATES LIFE & VICE VERSA

To compensate for the volume of shoe-centric pieces lately, I thought I’d throw up some more film inspired stuff on here. In terms of traffic, a little less potent, but for the few of you who check this site out semi regularly, I’ll be presumptuous and assume it’s relevant to your interests. If you’re here and haven’t seen ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ and you’re over the age of 20, you’re one of those characters who I don’t want to be seated next to at a wedding dinner. Pacino in a role that’s shouty but nuanced (those phone call scenes are pretty much as good as ’70s cinema gets), the amazing and much-missed John Cazale and an excellent Chris Sarandon on support and…fuck it, there’s no point even trying to talk it up, because if you know, you know. I knew it was based on a true story; P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore’s ‘The Boys in the Bank’ from a September 1972 issue of ‘LIFE’ about the John Wojtowicz case, but I forgot how much of that article (and the accompanying imagery) is in Frank Pierson’s screenplay and the final film, rather than Scorsese loosely channeling the doom atmosphere of Larry Clark’s ‘Tulsa’ for ‘Taxi Driver. For all the drama and panicked humour, it’s a strange, sad story really.

This Ain’t It Cool News conversation between Jason Schwartzman and Quint is a fun tangent from the usual press junket topics and Quint breaks out some close up shots of the University of Texas’s De Niro donations. I’d seen the ‘Taxi Driver’ “King Kong Company” tank jacket and shirt before, but Sam Rothstein’s burnt post-car bomb jacket from ‘Casino’? Insane.

Images taken from here.

I had the pleasure of talking to Jerry Cohen, founder of Ebbets Field Flannels recently. There’s a lot I wanted to ask him with regards to sportswear’s lost brands and techniques, but it’s heartening to see a man who is obviously obsessed with the subject of old sports making a career out of it and on his own terms. Go visit POST/NEW for the whole thing, but beyond the talk of several cities having their own hat shape as well as their own logos and colours, Jerry also schooled me on the difference between a varsity jacket and baseball jacket. To tie this to the talk above, Ebbets make a replica of Robert Redford’s New York Knights jacket from ‘The Natural’ (I think the OG was made by Maple Authentic Sportswear who made the film’s flannels too). Word to Wonderboy…

GW: On the jackets, is there a difference between baseball jackets and the more commonplace varsity jacket?

JC: Absolutely. Nobody asks me that because they assume they’re the same. The big difference is length. Varsity jackets went up on the waist but baseball jackets went longer. They were meant to be worn to warm up in, so the shoulders were cut different too. They used to make them tailored and varsity jackets were more bulky — Wilson made the best ones and I have a few originals.

GW: Are they from the 1950s?

JC: Yep, the 1950s. The Wilson jackets were beautiful, with a zipper or buttoned front and they just had a certain drape to them that was just gorgeous. That’s what we try to replicate. The wool isn’t as heavy. A varsity jacket used a Melton wool , but baseball jackets used an 18 or 19oz wool rather than the 24oz.

YAYO & SWEATPANTS

My mum doesn’t believe I do anything for a living unless it’s on paper. If it’s not paper, it’s a fad. Pixels can’t compete. So it’s always nice to get a gig writing something beyond the screen. I gave up wanting to be a journalist years ago when I realised that advertorials seemed more profitable than music criticism and if you can write an advertorial, you can probably write copy for brands which always pays more than integrity. And that was the end of my journalistic aspirations. Shit, even angry old Scott Schuman probably got no maternal props until he put out that Penguin book. That’s why he’s mad at a little girl who writes better copy than him. Anyway, this blog was meant to be a work showcase stuff I’ve written, but I only learnt how to use a scanner a short while ago. Here’s a piece on Supreme for Time Out London (strangely, while I’m prone to plenty of typos, I didn’t put that strange plural/singular G-Star typo in the brackets) for people who’ve never heard of the store.  And on the subject of Supreme’s origins, shouts to Arse_Beard on twitter for reminding me about the Menace Epicly Later’d.

After this week’s madness (chainsaw hostage decapitations and corpse highway road blocks) with cartels, Mexican film ‘Miss Bala’ (based on a true story) about a beauty queen involved with some dangerous characters sounds even more intriguing than it did a few days ago. The poster’s especially cool with the bullet and bikini imagery.

Watching the appalling ‘Killer Elite,’ I was reminded that De Niro seems to have gotten by on face-scrunching alone throughout the last decade. But guess what? If he’d only ever been in one scene (the campaign HQ kung-fu stance) in ‘Taxi Driver’ I’d probably be obsessed with his acting. So he’s forgiven for the cinematic shitslide. Steven Prince is iconic for his turn as creepy gun salesman Easy Andy in that film and it’s always worth using talk of ‘Taxi Driver’ to link to Scorcese’s  amazing 1978 Steven Prince documentary ‘American Boy’ in which cult ex-smackhead Mr. Prince tells amazing anecdotes about Neil Diamond, overdoses and silverback gorillas in hats. This beats any amount of George Harrison footage. It’s like being in the presence of the best cokeheads ever.



This feature on Acronym at Being Hunted is amazing (as is the Being Hunted way), but Errolson’s revelation that he’s got a line on the way with United Arrows called DISAERAN is interesting. The site’s live, but it’s not giving a lot away. I’m guessing that it won’t be waxed parkas and knitwear.

YMCMB apparel has been addressed here before, but my Rhyme Syndicate merchandise comparisons seem triply vindicated by the amazing array of trackpants on the www.ymcmbofficial.com site to complement the YMCMB sweatshirts. There’s even blank tees too, but I’m not so sure about the skateboards. Rappers filming their skate lessons for Worldstar is an excruciating fad. Still, it’s not half as bad as the Dipskate inline skating team.