Walking North

"That long, long path over the moors and into the forest, who has trodden it? Man, a human being, the first one who came here. There was no path before him. Later a few animals followed the faint tracks over the heaths and moors and made them clearer, and still later a few Lapps began to nose out the path and to use it when they were going from one mountain to another to see to their reindeer. This is how the path through the great common, the no-man’s-land owned by no one, came into being.

A man comes walking north. He carries a sack, the first sack, containing provisions for the road and some implements. The man is strong and rough-hewn, with a red iron beard and little scars on face and hands, sites of old wounds—were they gotten at work or in a fight? Maybe he has been in jail and wants to go into hiding, or perhaps he is a philosopher looking for peace; in any case, here he comes, a human being in the midst of this immense solitude."

Knut Hamsun, Growth of the Soil (1917)

Blue Beard

Merry Christmas 2012

Rare Exports

Yuletide Tweed

فيروز) ثلج ثلج)

Brooks Brothers Three-Piece

Are you into three-pieces? I certainly am, expecially in chilly weather when a sturdy suit of sartorial armour is practically a necessity. The candid photographic image (at left) depicts a vintage Brooks Brothers three-piece suit in thick charcoal Tweed and 3/2 button configuration. Shirt and repp tie, also by Brooks Brothers. They've been in my collection for years. I can just recall my late father, a Wall Street executive, wearing three-piece suits in the 1970s and early 1980s. They must have kept him warm on the daily commute to and from Manhattan. Please forgive the quality of the photograph, hastily taken by an admiring paparazza (note my hand bestowing a well-deserved pat on the head) in a wood-panelled corridor of financial power, which invariably occurs when one is dashing about being charming. The effect, I can report with a smile, was quite palpable.

Pipe & Razor Club

Scandinavian Rowing Club

Club de Remeros Escandinavos, Tigre, Beunos Aires



Amerika (Rammstein)

Surf Trad: Pendleton Board Shirt

  



Pendleton Board Shirt: A favorite of adventure bound men
since the Beach Boys premiered it on an album cover
in the 1960s



A Multivariate Exploratory Analysis on the Effects and Implications of the Female Causal Factor with Observational Data

a scientifical study

The Misty Mountains

en garde



Single Deadly Combat



Hussar Style

The Carolingian Inference

South Laguna Beach

A brief update. The word on the street is that I have been extraordinarily busy at the orifice in recent months. The last six weeks of the year are when the resolve of many professional chaps seems to slacken. For me, it is time to gird one's Tweed suit and sally forth with renewed determination. Nose to the grindstone, and all that. It is always best to finish strong.

As you know, I loathe the holiday season with a loathing of white-hot fervidness. The lumpen holiday tunes. Displays of naked capitalist-consumerism. The spectacle of earnest females busily engaged in buying up shitty little baubles. And memories, for me, of big family dinners beset with squabbling, drama, argument, drama, gossip, and more drama. I simply never felt it, a condition extending to certain other areas of life of which I am sure my family from my earliest years were quite aware. Modern Americans only seem to come together if it involves monetary exchange, and even then there really is very little there. It almost moves me to violence. Modern life presents the civilised man not with disappointment, as John Cheever famously said, but with insult.

I work hard, true, but, as you may have heard, I do like to have fun on a regular basis. And this usually involves a pretty filly or two. My recent reports on the topic have been meagre, I admit; I aim to remedy this shortly. I will tell you one thing, though. I regularly patrol the champagne-pits of the California show-coast where I encounter hordes of seriously attractive, single, childless women in their 30s-40s trolling for rich beta-bait. The number of such females is quite startling. Easy pickings for some of us--but cause for serious despair for others, including the foolish females themselves. I am taking--and have taken--full advantage of the sexual availability of modern females. But there lingers at the back of my mind--I do not deny it--an idea that something better once prevailed.

If it is true the present consortium is breaking up and circumstances have not yet progressed to the point where men can finally experience life as it is meant to be experienced--in full blood and glory--then there are worse places to be than poolside with a cocktail in one hand and a hottie in the other.

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Dandy Clan

Wine & Hope

“I rejoiced in the Burgundy. How can I describe it? The Pathetic Fallacy resounds in all our praise of wine. For centuries every language has been strained to define its beauty, and has produced only wild conceits or the stock epithets of the trade. This Burgundy seemed to me, then, serene and triumphant, a reminder that the world was an older and better place than Rex knew, that mankind in its long passion had learned another wisdom than his. By chance I met this same wine again, lunching with my wine merchant in St. James’s Street, in the first autumn of the war; it had softened and faded in the intervening years, but it still spoke in the pure, authentic accent of its prime and, that day, as at Paillard’s with Rex Mottram years before, it whispered faintly, but in the same lapidary phrase, the same words of hope.”

Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (1945)

A Matter of Perspective

'...when something is detestable, and yet inevitable, what one must do is not merely to endure it--a hard task whatever one may do---but find an excuse for loving it. Everything is a matter of points of view, and misfortune is often only the sign of a false interpretation of life.'

Henry de Montherlant

Jünger-Haus

Done Talking

East Prussia Hunt

les actions des corsaires

Autumn in Southern California trundles on through foggy mornings and warm, sunny afternoons. In recent weeks friends, colleagues, and clients have approached me for counsel, dejection and despair practically written on their face. I just smile and tell them: "That hissing sound is the American soufflé, collapsing." It is exhausting trying to help them. I struggle to find the soothing words, for I do not share their feelings. For me, this is a time to rejoice. I am grateful, as you should be, for having been born at such a momentous time. We are entering a new era, one that holds many promises for us. As we have said before, the slow, undulating decline will present in coming years many opportunities to act. We should be prepared for it. Mindset matters. Attitude is key. I would encourage my comrades to find a new way of interacting with the world. Develop and implement a system of non-conformism, resistance, dissidence, and the thought-patterns of the insurgent. Adopt the attitude of the Corsair, the Privateer, the Condottiero, the Hajduk. We must become commandos operating behind enemy lines, privateers embarking upon a new voyage from which we know there is no return, striking suddenly and hard from oblique angles, fueled by private initiative and driven by the spirit of technique. No apologies, no regrets, no remorse. As our Italian comrade has written:

'Les actions les plus efficaces, c'est-à-dire les actions d'avant-garde, ne furent pas menées l'insigne à la boutonnière et le drapeau au vent, mais en civil. Pour prendre une image militaire, elles furent conçues comme des opérations de commando derrière les lignes, mais avec le soutien de la population. Quant à l'esprit et à la technique, leurs instigateurs furent les Robins des bois qui précédaient l'arrivée du Roi Richard.

L'idée doit donc être de susciter quelque chose qui soit en même temps possible et juste et aille dans le sens voulu, mais sans l'encadrer directement. En d'autres termes, si l'on essaie d'être une avant-garde politique et sociale et non des chefs de bandes, des marchands de votes ou les roitelets mendiants de ceux-ci, on ne doit pas s'occuper des retours immédiats, de l'utilité directe, de la gestion personnelle de ce que l'on suscite. On doit agir, un point c'est tout. Et on doit le faire bien, autrement c'est inutile.'

Gabriele Adinolfi, Pensées corsaires: abécédaire de lutte et de victoire (2008)

Automne lanternes à travers matins brumeux et chaud, après-midi ensoleillés. Ces dernières semaines, amis et collègues m'ont approché pour l'avocat, le découragement et le désespoir pratiquement écrit sur ​​leur visage. Je souris et dis-leur: ". C'est sifflement est le soufflé américain, l'effondrement" C'est épuisant d'essayer de les aider. J'ai du mal à trouver les mots apaisants. Je ne partage pas ses sentiments. Pour moi, c'est une occasion de se réjouir. Je suis reconnaissante, que vous devriez être, d'être né dans un tel moment crucial. Nous entrons dans une nouvelle ère, celle qui est riche de promesses pour nous. Comme nous l'avons déjà dit, le déclin lent et ondulant présentera dans les prochaines années de nombreuses occasions d'agir. Nous devons être préparés pour cela. Questions Mindset. L'attitude est la clé. J'encourage mes camarades de trouver une nouvelle façon de regarder le monde. Développer et mettre en œuvre un système de non-conformisme, la résistance, la dissidence, et les modèles de pensée de l'insurgé. Adopter l'attitude du Corsaire, le Condottiero, l'Hajduk. Nous devons devenir des commandos opérant derrière les lignes ennemies, les corsaires qui s'engagent sur un nouvel itinéraire à partir de laquelle il n'ya pas de retour, frappant tout à coup sous des angles obliques, alimentée par l'initiative privée et conduit par l'esprit de la technique. Pas d'excuses, pas de regrets, pas de remords.

Autunno trundles il tramite mattine nebbiose e caldi pomeriggi assolati. Nelle ultime settimane, amici e colleghi mi hanno avvicinato per consiglio, sconforto e disperazione praticamente scritto in viso. Ho solo sorridere e dire loro: ". Quel suono sibilante è il soufflé americana, crollando" E 'faticoso cercando di aiutarli. Faccio fatica a trovare le parole tranquillizzanti. Non condivido i loro sentimenti. Per me, questo è un momento di gioire. Le sono grato, come si dovrebbe essere, per essere nato in un tempo così importante. Stiamo entrando in una nuova era, una che contiene molte promesse per noi. Come abbiamo detto prima, il lento, il declino ondulato presenterà nei prossimi anni molte opportunità di agire. Dobbiamo essere preparati per questo. Mindset questioni. L'atteggiamento è fondamentale. Vorrei incoraggiare i miei compagni di trovare un nuovo modo di guardare il mondo. Sviluppare e implementare un sistema di non-conformismo, la resistenza, la dissidenza, e-modelli di pensiero dei ribelli. Adottare l'atteggiamento del Corsaro, il Privateer, il Condottiero, l'Hajduk. Dobbiamo diventare i commandos che operano dietro le linee nemiche, corsari intraprendere una nuova rotta da cui non c'è ritorno, colpendo improvvisamente da angolazioni oblique, alimentata dalla iniziativa privata e guidata dallo spirito della tecnica. Niente scuse, nessun rimpianto, nessun rimorso.

Herbst rollt weiter durch nebligen Morgen und warme, sonnige Nachmittage. In den letzten Wochen Freunden und Kollegen haben mich um Rat, Niedergeschlagenheit und Verzweiflung praktisch auf ihrem Gesicht geschrieben näherte. Ich lächle und sage ihnen: ". Das Zischen ist die amerikanische Soufflé, kollabieren" Es ist anstrengend versuchen, ihnen zu helfen. Ich kämpfe um die beruhigenden Worte zu finden. Ich teile nicht ihre Gefühle. Für mich ist dies eine Zeit, sich zu freuen. Ich bin dankbar, wie man sein sollte, weil er in einem solchen bedeutsamen Zeit geboren worden. Wir treten in eine neue Ära, eine, die viele Versprechungen für uns bereithält. Wie wir zuvor gesagt haben, wird die langsame, hügeligen Rückgang in den kommenden Jahren bieten viele Möglichkeiten zu handeln. Wir sollten darauf vorbereitet sein. Mindset Angelegenheiten. Attitude ist der Schlüssel. Ich möchte Sie ermutigen meine Kameraden, um eine neue Sichtweise auf die Welt zu finden. Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines Systems des Nonkonformismus, Widerstand, Dissidenz und die Denkmuster der aufständischen. Übernehmen Sie die Einstellung der Corsair, die Privateer, die Condottiero, die Hajduk. Wir müssen Kommandos die hinter den feindlichen Linien, Freibeuter hin zu einer neuen Strecke, aus dem es keine Rückkehr gibt, fällt plötzlich aus schrägen Winkeln, angeheizt durch private Initiative und angetrieben von dem Geist der Technik geworden. Keine Entschuldigung, kein Bedauern, keine Reue.

Осенью trundles на через туманные утра и теплые, солнечные дни. В последние недели друзья и коллеги обратились ко мне за советом, уныние и отчаяние практически написано на их лицах. Я просто улыбнуться и сказать им: ". Что шипящий звук является суфле американских, рушится" Это утомительно пытаются им помочь. Я борюсь, чтобы найти слова утешения. Я не разделяю их чувства. Для меня это время радоваться. Я благодарен, как и должно быть, за то, что родился в такое важное время. Мы вступаем в новую эру, которая имеет много обещаний для нас. Как мы уже говорили раньше, медленно, волнистые снижение представят в ближайшие годы многие возможности действовать. Мы должны быть готовы к этому. Мышление вопросов. Отношение является ключевым фактором. Я хотел бы призвать моих товарищей, чтобы найти новый способ смотреть на мир. Разработать и внедрить систему нонконформизма, сопротивления, инакомыслие, и мысли-формы повстанцев. Принять отношение Corsair, Privateer, Condottiero, Hajduk. Мы должны стать коммандос работа в тылу врага, частников вступая на новый путь, из которого нет возврата, ударив неожиданно с косым углом, работающих по частной инициативе и ведомый духом техники. Никаких извинений, ни сожалений, ни угрызений совести.

الخريف تدحرج على طريق ضبابي الصباح والحارة، بعد الظهر مشمس. في الأسابيع الأخيرة، اقترب الأصدقاء والزملاء لي لالإنكسار، المحامي واليأس كتابة عمليا على وجوههم. أنا مجرد ابتسامة ونقول لهم: "هذا هو صوت الهسهسة سوفلي الأمريكية، وانهيار" انها مرهقة تحاول مساعدتهم. I يكافحون من أجل العثور على الكلمات المهدئة. أنا لا أتفق مع مشاعرهم. بالنسبة لي، هذا هو الوقت للابتهاج. وأنا ممتن، كما يجب أن يكون، لأنهم ولدوا في مثل هذا الوقت بالغ الأهمية. اننا ندخل حقبة جديدة، واحدة أن يحمل وعودا كثيرة بالنسبة لنا. كما قلنا من قبل، فإن تقلص بطيء ومتموجة في السنوات القادمة تقديم العديد من الفرص للعمل. يجب أن نكون مستعدين لذلك. عقلية المسائل. الموقف هو مفتاح الحل. وأود أن أشجع زملائي لإيجاد طريقة جديدة للنظر إلى العالم. تطوير وتنفيذ نظام لعدم التماثل، والمقاومة، الانشقاق، وأنماط الفكر من المتمردين. اعتماد موقف قرصان، وقرصنة، وCondottiero، وهايدوك. يجب أن نصبح القوات العاملة خلف خطوط العدو، بالقراصنة الإقدام على طريق جديد من التي لا يوجد المقابل، ضرب فجأة من الزوايا المائلة، تغذيها المبادرة الخاصة وبدافع من روح التقنية. لا اعتذار، لا يشعر بأي ندم، أي ندم. شهدت

Tintin en France

Pipe Styles

The Perfect Gentleman: The Pursuit of Timeless Elegance and Style in London (James Sherwood)

From the publisher:

'In an age of globalization with fashion trends that change by the day, the quality and workmanship of the great British luxury brands endure and flourish like never before. Valued for their craftsmanship, superlative quality, exclusivity, and the status they confer on their owners, these “heritage houses” have been synonymous with the finest production for hundreds of years.

This lavish publication celebrates the gentleman’s search for the perfect sartorial detail or the ideal accessory. It features six historical chapters, from the Regency period to the present, each of which presents classic British marques, including shoemakers, jewelers, shirt and tie makers, cloth makers, perfumers, hatters, and vintners. The final chapter showcases the new generation of designer-artisans who are redefining notions of quality and handwork in the era of globalization and digital technologies. A reference section presents the London gentleman’s social world, from the shopping arcade (Burlington) to hotels (The Savoy) and the member’s clubs and antiquarians in between.'

contre-attaque

The Cleverley Group

A collection of black half-brogues, by G. J. Cleverley,
auctioned in London, 14 Nov 2000



La Dolce Vita (Slim Aarons)

Jünger: Interesting Drugs

Kirchhorst, 3/3/1948

"What interested me above all was the relationship of these substances to productivity. It has been my experience, however, that creative achievement requires an alert consciousness, and that it diminishes under the spell of drugs. On the other hand, conceptualization is important, and one gains insights under the influence of drugs that indeed are not possible otherwise. I consider the beautiful essay that Maupassant has written about ether to be such an insight. Moreover, I had the impression that in fever one also discovers new landscapes, new archipelagos, and a new music, that becomes completely distinct when the "customs station" appears. For geographic description, on the other hand, one must be fully conscious. What productivity means to the artist, healing means to the physician. Accordingly, it also may suffice for him that he sometimes enters the regions through the tapestries that our senses have woven. Moreover, I seem to perceive in our time less of a taste for the phantastica than for the energetica—amphetamine, which has even been furnished to fliers and other soldiers by the armies, belongs to this group. Tea is in my opinion a phantasticum, coffee an energeticum—tea therefore possesses a disproportionately higher artistic rank. I notice that coffee disrupts the delicate lattice of light and shadows, the fruitful doubts that emerge during the writing of a sentence. One exceeds his inhibitions. With tea, on the other hand, the thoughts climb genuinely upward."

Ernst Jünger to Albert Hoffman (Private Correspondence)

My Beach (Surf Punks)

Tartan Tuesday

les duellistes

Dandy Front

'Das Ideal des Dandys ist kein humanistisches Persönlichkeitsideal, sondern die perfekte Kultivierung eines Lebensstils. Das Leben als Kunstform, nicht als Werk eines Künstlers, sondern als Leistung eines Artisten und Weltmanns: the dandy as art.'

'The ideal of the dandy is not a humanistic ideal of personality, but the cultivation of a perfect lifestyle. Life as an art form, not as a work of an artist, but as a performance of an artist and man of the world: the dandy as art.'

- Nicolaus Sombart

Jeanne d'Arc

'And now I know how Joan of Arc felt'



The Art of Parties

Tartan Tuesday

Elegance In White

Source: Tommy Ton




 

c'était un rendezvous

Against Despair

"There's only one great evil in the world today. Despair.”

Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies (1930)

Tighten Up Takahashi !

Gentlemen Stand Up Please !

Old School Bold Style

Eton College, 1960s



Piano Concerto No 27 in B flat major (Mozart)

Special Viyella

Mountain Assault Course: Taking The High Peaks

“Isao had never felt that he might want to be a woman. He had never wished for anything else but to be a man, live in a manly way, die a manly death. To be thus a man was to give constant proof of one’s manliness–to be more a man today than yesterday, more a man tomorrow than today. To be a man was to forge ever upward toward the peak of manhood, there to die amid the white snows of that peak.”

Yukio Mishima, Runaway Horses (1969)

Battle Cries & Champagne: A Society of Super-Freaks (Bowie)

 Passionate bright young thing
(1913-1938-201?)

David Bowie sat in an overstuffed armchair in his suite aboard the ship Ellinis, returning to London from his first triumphal tour of the States. His delicate brows knit in a look of perplexed recognition as he read Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies"--a 40 year-old, futuristic novel about a society of "bright young things" whirling through lavish parties in outlandish costumes, dancing, gossiping and sipping champagne. Suddenly David lowered the book to his lap, picked up the spiral notebook and pen sitting on the small mahogany table at his side, and began to write the words to the title song of his new LP, Aladdin Sane...

***

"The book dealt with London in the period just before a massive, imaginary war," David would later confide, touching one finger, with its green-painted nail, lightly to his chin. "People were frivolous, decadent and silly. And suddenly they were plunged into this horrendous holocaust. They were totally out of place, still thinking about champagne and parties and dressing up. Somehow it seemed to me that they were like people today." But who was the frivolous, romantic young man Aladdin Sane? At first David merely cupped his hands in a fragile cage and said "I don't really think he's me." Several days later, Bowie realised who - or rather what - the song, and in fact the entire album, were about. "It's my interpretation of what America means to me. It's like a summation of my first American tour."

***

A few days before he was scheduled to sail for London, David sat before a crowd of reporters in a futuristic looking RCA studio and admitted: "I feel the American is the loneliest person in the world. I get an awful feeling of insecurity and...a need for warmth in people here. It's very, very sad. So many people in America are unaware that they are living."

It is little wonder then, that when David sat in his stateroom aboard the ship Ellinis and began to read in Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies about 20 year olds caught up in a "mad and illogical whirl of extravagant parties and other pointlessly important social affairs," he saw an image that summed up everything he had seen in North America...and everything he had written into his songs. It was the image of Aladdin Sane, the "passionate bright young thing" who would learn to really live only when the cataclysm of war forced him into it. And paradoxically, it was the image that would give an album life.

'Bowie Foresees the States In Flames-The Personal Story Behind "Aladdin Sane"', Circus (July 1973)

Major Hoad On Cologne

On Duelling

The Certainty Principle

'To know and love one other human being is the root of all wisdom.'

Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (1945)

Quality Tweed

Mensur

100% Pure Cashmere

'Throughout history cashmere has been a luxury cloth, prized for its warmth, light weight, and sensation of softness against the skin. Rich Romans bought cashmere scarves of exotic and intricate design that had been handwoven in Srinagar, Kashmir (hence the name), and brought to Rome by merchant traders. In India the cashmere spinning industry was so extensive that by the fifteenth century nearly 60,000 people were directly employed in it. By the nineteenth century, the European aristocracy considered cashmere the most fashionable of fabrics. In England, George "Beau" Brummell and the Prince Regent started a vogue for white cashmere waistcoats.'

G. Bruce Boyer, Elegance: A Guide to Quality in Menswear (1985)

Dandy Clan

Talent For Invective

The other morning, entering an office building, I failed to hold open the door for a female coming up behind me. She emitted a tiny gasp when I did so.

She was a young professional female in professional clothing with a seriously professional look on her face, slender and attractive, most likely with a university degree, who probably holds herself in extremely high regard and assumes everyone else does as well. You know the type.

It is with a bit of uneasiness that I admit it to you. I am generally regarded as a gentleman, "one of Nature's gentlemen" in fact, although, as I have pointed out before, I do not consider myself as such. Still, I am considered a well-mannered sort. These are reflections no doubt of my priviliged upbringing and education, for which I am grateful and for which I make no apologies. After they get to know me, of course, the assessment is that I am an arsehole, a solitary, and a sexual pervert, albeit one with sweetness and charm. But the initial impression remains.

Everyone of us has a unique talent. Mine is invective. From a very early age my mouth has landed me in trouble. My contempt, it seems, has a mind all its own. As I matured I was able to back up my words with the threat of physical harm. And now, at my age, it is married to an increasingly brutal, bleak view of our situation.

Several months ago one of the portfolio assistants, a chubby twentysomething girl from Chicago, approached me with an odd smile on her face. "So, William, what does a girl like me have to do to get a guy like you?", she asked, her head cocked to the side, hand on generous hip. Typical snarkiness replaced for once by vulnerability.

I wanted to tell her: "Stop stuffing your pretty mouth with fast food, you fat little pig". But instead I suggested she start attending a local gym (which, around here, function as a sort of singles club), or head to the beach, or take up kite-surfing.

"I can't help it that I'm overweight", another chapette with a hankering for yours truly recently explained. "It's in my genes".

"Indeed", I replied. I wanted to add: "I'm similarly genetically programmed to avoid fatties such as yourself, apart from procuring an occasional drunken blowjob in the bog. Your rolls of fat betray a defect of character and an insolent attitude. Now go eat a Twinkie".

But, I said nothing.

Progress, one might say, not perfection.

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