It’s unbearably hot here in Chicago. I was bumbling through some bookmarks and I found this. Here’s to cooler days ahead.

GQ

It’s been a little more than a month since I packed my things and moved to Chicago. I love it here, but I have to say that it’s hotter than I thought it would be and I need new clothes. Here to answer my prayer is the always amazing Outlier. I’ve had a mini obsession with this company and their pants for quite some time now and when I saw these Ultralight Summer Pants,  the obsession turned ugly. These things look awesome and from what I understand the quality is second to none. I don’t have any money, but if anyone feels like spending their paycheck on me please feel free to do so.

Pictures at Outlier

Photos courtesy of Discovery Channel

I like to keep this video in my back pocket. This is a video I like to revisit when I need to restore some faith. Bon Iver just sort of landed on the radar and I love that he continues to keep the radar guessing.

Came home this morning to The Sandlot and I couldn’t be happier about it. Not only is it one of my all-time favorite movies, it was a Saturday morning fixture in my house growing up, it’s a great way to kick off spring and summer. I snagged some shots from online and I’ve presented some off the style highlights of the movie which boasts a few bonafide summer throwbacks that make me really excited that Sunday is opening day. Loving the rolled jeans, baseball hats and 3-quarters length t-shirts. Total nostalgia this movie. Stoked about baseball season being right around the corner and loving that classic movies like The Sandlot are still in heavy rotation.

Pictures

“I am prone to envy. It is one of my three default emotions, the others being greed and rage. I have also experienced compassion and generosity, but only fleetingly and usually while drunk, so I have little memory.” – Augusten Burroughs (Dry: A Memoir)

Augusten Burroughs is an author that, until recently, has always existed at the periphery for me. You’d think that having worked in a bookstore for almost five years I’d have a better grip on the goings-on of the print industry, but apparently you’d be wrong. Boy, oh boy have I been missing out.

In between constant starts and stops while reading The Family (also a great read, though I recommend you clear your schedule for that one) by Jeff Sharlet, I had a chance to read Dry and experience the world thr0ugh Mr. Burroughs eyes; a world that I’ve been far too late getting acquainted with.

The pace is quick, the dialogue is snappy and the insights are infinite. Dry, tracks Mr. Burroughs journey to sobriety while navigating through life as a gay, romantically underachieving, ad-man in New York City. It is at times sad, it is at times uncomfortable and it is, at times, incredibly funny, yet the thing that I noticed most explicitly about Dry is that it is constantly moving forward. Everything and everyone moves the story ahead. Now, this could just be a symptom of a memoir, I mean, when it’s true, everyone that’s involved is important right? And while I think this is probably true of this story, I think it’s also a testament to the quality of the work. Mr. Burroughs has a knack for weeding out all of life’s minutiae just in time for readers to grasp the big picture he so often chips away at.

This is a beautifully written book and I think the story of Mr. Burroughs journey through alcoholism and recovery could easily have been lost in the shuffle were not for his acute sense of his surroundings and his wholly adept renderings of the people and places that influenced his turnaround. It’s his ability to point out the obvious and his ability to craft a subtle, hopeful message without being overly dramatic and placatory that allows this book to be funny, revealing and incredibly satisfying.

Dry
The Family

Just heard about this and I can’t believe my eyes. This has got to be one of the best ideas I’ve heard in a long time. Artist Sophie Blackall scours “missed connections” on places like Craigslist and visually depicts them in paintings. Some are funny, some are sad and some are just plain wonderful but they all have something to say. These paintings let us in to the fleeting experiences we all have when we catch someone’s eye for just a split second only to never say anything and maybe never see them again. This is great.

Missed Connections blog
Missed Connections

I was thinking about this book the other day and I still don’t really know what to think about it. It’s been nearly a year since I read this thing and I think it’s safe to say that it made an impact on me.

When I first picked up the book I had no idea what I was in for. Every synopsis or book review I read made the book seem dense and slightly fuzzy. That said, I think the truth is that this book is just that; dense and fuzzy. The good news is, I mean that in the best way possible. Not only does it mean that I can’t wait to reread it, but it left me with that great feeling of possibility and of the “what could be”.

Essentially, at least in my mind, this book amounts to a really great lesson on the true nature of relationships. Psychiatrist Leo Liebenstien is convinced that his wife Rema has been replaced by a simulacrum. In other words, Rema is missing, and some other woman, someone who looks just like Rema, talks just like Rema and is just like Rema has taken her place. This simple, subtly confusing dilemma leads to a “wild goose chase” of sorts as Leo, with the help of his weather obsessed, highly disturbed, patient Harvey, trek all over the world in search of his “real” Rema.

The book is expertly written, and while it gets a little bit difficult to follow at times and perhaps a little too wordy and drawn out near the end, these flaws are far outnumbered by all of the times you’ll stop to reread a sentence because you’ve never thought to say something that way before.

In the end, this book helped me to realize that everyone, be it your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, or best friend, is always changing, and while at times it may seem that they’ve gone away forever, the reasons that you have the relationship you do are still there; they just might be a little harder to find.

Amazon

Word on the street is that ad-agencies may be on the prowl and looking to give out some jobs.  According to an article on Adweek, a recent survey of ad and marketing executives done by The Creative Group shows that 1/3 or so of respondents plan on increasing staff levels over the next 12 months. Of those respondents interested in increased hires, “web design and production”, “creative art and direction”,  “interactive” and “account services” were the specialties most in demand.

A bright spot in an otherwise dismal economic forecast? I’m happy to hear it, and I hope it holds true.

Adweek