Analyst

6.23.06

1. California (all the way) - Luna

2. Here at the Right Time - Josh Ritter

3. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. - Sufjan Stevens

4. The Trapeze Swinger - Iron and Wine

5. Funeral - Band of Horses

6. One -Metallica (covered by Apocalyptica)

7. Such Great Heights - Postal Service

8. Fight Test - Flaming Lips

9. Tiger Lily - Luna

10. Insomnia - Chihiro Onitsuka

I kinda liked this Japanese film called the Princess Blade, which brings to life a popular Japanese comic book about mercenary who avenges her mother's death. Kinda cool film and worth a look.

Anyone see Suicide Club? Japanese film about a group of high school students who meet on the internet to plan their suicides. The movie starts with about 50 high school girls jumping in front of a subway train.

Graniph

Comme des garcon

graniph

built by wendy

gingham/2K

-h.p.

I like the Gingham/2K shirts especially the food series i.e., Spinach.

Ever and Paper Denim Cloth also make awesome tees...

lets see

joe clausell

danny krivit

francois k

(body n soul nyc)

jeff mills (at his prime)

tats all i can think of at the moment

Oh shit.....Francois K was awesome at Body n Soul. Best Sunday afternoon at Vinyl aka Arc aka R.I.P. Excellent classic/deep/tribal house.

For underrated and definitely understated brands:

Band of Brother oxfords

Thom Browne shirts

Rag & Bone everything

Ever everything

IWC Watches, namely the Portuguese most Pilots

Nobody Knows - Japanese film (true story) about five kids that were abandoned by their mom and were living in a Tokyo apartment

Battle Royale- Japanese film about a high school class that gets deported to an island and must kill each other to survive (this is a little older I think); also see Battle Royale II

Ken Park - Larry Clark film about kids in suburban California with some fucked up lives; banned in all countries other than HK (last I heard); very Larry Clark; downloaded from Kazaa

50% Thai and 50% Chinese...

Thai and US Duel Citizen...

Been dying to check out the Balkans and more of Eastern Europe. For the short term, I'm going to be in Southeast Asia for while. Should be an exciting time to be here.

Miles to Go Before I Sleep

It's been a few years, actually 13 years to be exact, since I was in Moscow. My favorite place to go on the weekends was actually Izmaylovsky Park or Izmailovo Park, a wooded park similiar to Washington Square Park in NYC. Here, on the weekends, people would set up kiosks to sell everything from WWII medals to night-vision (second generation) to toys to matrioskya dolls to military hardware.

As souvenirs, I bought a MIG 29 flight helmet, numerous Nazi Germany WWII medals including an Iron Cross Second Class, Russian WWII medals (at the time didn't have enough cash for the Order of Lenin, equivalent to the Medal of Honor), several night vision scopes and other nick nacks.

I'd love to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg again.

I just got back from HK. Didn't have that great of a time, but I probably didn't know the best places to go. Stayed in Kowloon around Tsim Sha Tsui and ate a lot of congee, duck, noodles, dumplings at these random hole-in-the-wall places. Didn't do much shopping, since all I saw where the usual stores you see anywhere in the world. I did see the Bape store on the HK Island side but didn't get a chance to drop in. Causeway Bay is supposed to have a lot of cool stores, but didn't have much time to stop by. TIP: Don't go to Wan Chai. Nothing but ghetto Filipino girls and signs welcoming the US Navy. Nasty.

HK is an excellent place to buy watches as there are tons and tons of watch dealers on every street. Basically you can find any watch out there: lots of complications, minute repeaters, perpetual calendars. Saw the "Green" Rolex Submariner and a Patek Aquanaut. Drool.

The highlight of this trip to HK was actually going to Macau, about an hour by ferry to the former Portuguese colony. The island is known as a casino and gambling town and still has a interesting, edginess to the whole place. Lots of fat, Chinese Triad gangsters with beautiful girls hoarding a ton of chips at the Sic Bo and Baccarat tables. Definitely stay at the Hotel Lisboa and go gamble at the Sands. Lots of cute girls in Macau, probably working but whatever......

So Poly800...how was your trip to Asia? have a good time???

Black Louis Vuitton Epi Leather bi-fold.....nice and simple....

For shopping in Thailand, you definitely want to check out Siam Square, a collection of small boutiques over three small streets. Here you'll find a lot of independent stores owned by Thai designers, imported jeans and t-shirts (i.e., Ever shirts, True Religion), ecclectic eateries (i.e., Used to be a Closet, I-Berry, RotiBoy). On the back side of Siam Square is CentrePoint, where young students from Chulalongkorn University and high school students hang out. MTV Thailand also typically conducts interviews and broadcasts from this area.

On the other side of the street, you'll find the new Siam Paragon mall, a monstrosity of luxury stores and restaurants. If you're looking for Hermes, Gucci, Bottega, it's all there. Their watch gallery is amazing with Audemars Piguet, IWC, JLC, Patek boutiques. The food court on the bottom floor is definitely worth checking out: go to Kabuki or Aoi for excellent Japanese, Amici for Italian, and if you go to Manna for Thai food, definitely sit outside by the water.

Siam Paragon is connected to the Siam Center, which is connected to Siam Discovery. Each of these malls are constantly packed with people but most of the stores are older and same as anywhere in the world (i.e., Diesel, Lacoste).

Up on Sukhumvit 55 (THong Lor), around Soi 18 is the Playground concept store. While I don't expect this place to be open much longer (high unprofitable store in an extremely expensive area), it's worth going to. This large space houses several excellent restaurants (Kuppa is excellent; Vanilla is so so; Sonie is good too) and concept boutiques inside, which sell APC, Yanuk denim, X-Large, Jean Paul Gaultier umbrellas, Mandarina Duck luggage and bags). The nice thing about Playground is that it also consolidates a lot of Thai designer clothes i.e., Medium Rare, etc.

Of course there are also the usually shopping spots such as the Chatuchak Weekend Market at Lad Prao and the Suan Lum Night Bazaar around Lang Suan. Patpong, the red light district on Silom, also carries the myriad of fake Rolexes and Cartier watches, bootleg DVDs and CDs, and various shoes and clothes.

Anyway, that is a short list of shopping districts in BKK. If you're interested in more info let me know. I didn't talk about the MBK center in Siam or the Emporium around Phrom Pong or Gaysorn Plaza/ Erawan in ChitLom.

Been wanting to travel out to the Balkan region to Croatia and Serbia for a while now...

...read Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West (1934)......

I really like the Jean Shop belts...heavy brass buckle and thick brown leather...

the belts from 45rpm look nice too (check their Website for pics) but I'm not sure I like the buckle that much....

Need more clarity...do you mean actual designers (they may or may not have their own direct-marketed channel) or do you mean actual shops that may carry their own label as well as sell third-party labels, too.

29. my favorites are Rag & Bone RB8, 45rpm Sorahikos, and Jean Shops...

really want to pick up some Eternals from Japan....

I went clubbing at Aria on St. Catherine last June and had a pretty good time. Watch out for the hookers loitering about the area.

Chez Diane's is an excellent strip club but I'm not sure if its still around. It's about 45min from Montreal.

I'd love to pick up a belt from Jean Shop.

Vintage brass buckle on brown leather. I called up the store to order but the guy mentioned that its a pain in the ass to ship to Thailand with customs, etc. He was definitley not receptive to the idea. Now, I'm kicking myself in the ass for not picking one up in NYC a few months ago.

Anyone coming out to Asia from NYC anytime soon???

Let's see...

Kids

Requiem for a Dream

Tron

Pulp Fiction

Battle Royale

I'd have to go with J. Smooth out of Philly playing drum&bass/jungle infused with R&B and whatever else. I used to see him play out at parties in DC and Baltimore. The guy would be literally doing live remixes by dropping the Imperial March into two -step or dropping Monica's Angel of Mine over some sick basslines from Andy C and Shimon. The guy would also scratch over anything. HAven't heard him in a few years but definitley one of the better local DJs out there.

TY T who ran Stellar Management group in DC used to drive the local Progressive Trance/ House scene back in 1998-2002. Back then some progressive trance/house was just coming online with tunes like Greece 2000, Binary Finary 1998, Gamemaster, and anything else on Hooj Choons (now out of business). Miss those days.

DJ Imri. Local breakbeat DJ from Baltimore I think. Just saw him at one party like four years ago at Sonar NYE party.

I picked up a Tumi ballistic nylon duffel that I like a lot. It's indestructable and excellent as a weekend bag, but may be too minimal depending on your tastes. Basic black with some soft napa leather.

I saw a great Jack Spade duffel at their store in Soho many months ago. Brown waxy canvas within your price range too. I think it would look even better as it breaks in overtime.

Isn't Franklin and Marshall a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania??

Thanks Tisswat.

Based on some of the previous posts on this thread, everyone's experience with BKK has been quite different. From my perspective, I think its one of the most interesting countries in Southeast Asia and I'm comtemplating the propspects of staying here or in the region indefinitely. Upon arriving here back in September, I thought I would be in BKK for one year at most. But Thailand has a way of growing on you very quickly. Once you leave the contraints of the Lonely Planet and Frommers frameworks and step off of the beaten path, the country really begins to open up. I have my favorite Hainnese chickenn and rice vendors on Soi 38 Sukhumvit, lounges on Soi 26 Sukhumvit, quiet design library at TCDC in the Emporium, etc. Every week is spent finding some new place to eat or explore.

Let me know if you ever make it here. I'll be happy to suggest a few places to check out.

For Watches....

www.timezone.com

www.paneristi.com