aan den rijn

Checked out Aegis and then went barhopping the other day. Girl gave wrong directions. Interesting collection of Moleskin and finally, a place overseas that celebrates Cinco de Mayo. My friend got a lot of free drinks around Hengshan Lu.

My work is keeping me in China until June 1 and then to Vancouver, Kelowna, BC, and Seattle for sure (possible a detour to Boise or Sunnyvale) but if anything happens post 10th of June someone PM me please. The internet here sucks.

BTW Are you bringing your car? I paid more for parking than anything else (I drove down from Montreal). Take the train if you can, seriously. Not even kidding.

Three weeks in a hostel in NY is ridiculous. I've stayed at the Chelsea Star in Chelsea on 7th and thank god I was only there for two days. I also stayed uptown (WAAAY) uptown at the International Hostelling place on Amsterdam which was super-sketch. Also, being a travel agent and a real estate salesman at the same time, I'd recommend you that you look up craigslist to see if anyone will be out of town and let you temporarily stay at their place for a fee, because that might be your best option at this point.

McNeil's Imperial Stout, McNeil's Brewery, Brattleboro, Vermont. Unfortunately, I'm banned for life from the place after drinking one too many of those one cold, cold January night.

So i've decided to move to China once i'm through with university (2012) to teach English and I think Shanghai/Beijing are my best options.

Can anybody offer any advice for someone who has never been to China?

From the thread it seems that Beijing may be the preferred option for someone in my situation due to the cultural differences and the westernisation of Shanghai. I should mention that my goal is to reach a level of speaking as close to fluency as I can in the space of 1-2 years.

As well as optimum learning conditions i'm obviously looking for a place with a decent nightlife, good food and all that.

I'm also 6'6''. Clothes won't be impossible to cop in my size, right? haha

Hope you'll still be reading this

Bring something that'll help your digestion. My stomach got fucked by years of Bourbon and shit food and all sorts of crazy pharmaceuticals (most of them legal and prescribed - I have an anti-seizure med that causes seizures, ffs) Seriously, people will take you out to dinner. In fact, I've been here 5 days on this trip, 4 dinners, 3 lunches, my fridge is full of leftovers, and it is just absolutely crazy. I'm on a regular regimen of Pepto-Bismal and Folic Acid and also since I have weak lungs from being in an accident, coma, and ventilator for 2 weeks, I also have to Cipro the fuck out of my lungs and once a week I have to go in to breath pure oxygen or I just simply can't handle the air here, but that's kind of a unique case.

I'm here 3 months out of the year, mostly for real estate and investments (I'm a Masters/Doctorate student in London in the fall and I otherwise split my time in San Diego, Boston, and Los Angeles) and I spent my time in the states losing weight so I can have some room to maneuver in in China.

The thing about Shanghai or even Suzhou (where I live, own apartments, and do my evil underhanded shady dealings and whatnot) is that there are so many fucking dialects spoken all over - I'm fluent in Mandarin, Shanghainese, Suzhounese, Changshunese, Chinese Pidgin Shanghainese (sorta, it's dead, but that was my thesis topic), and I still get stumped. You throw in English in the mix, and a bit of Quebecois/French on my side, and it's a potpurri of fucked up languages. Beijing, you can get by with Mandarin and English. Shanghai, you can get by, obviously, but you'll be missing out on a lot if you don't learn some of the "dialects" - they're further apart from each other than Danish/Norwegian/Swedish or even Frisian/English in some cases. Fluency in a few years? Forget it. I took 4 serious years and really, a good part of my life (at least 7 or 8 years if you add it up) to learn three related dialects and now I can only do it with a heavy accent and can't handle some of the weirder jokes they do, and I took 2 years to research the pidgin, not even to speak it or anything. In contrast, I got the gist of Quebecois and can converse in French without much trouble except for my Quebecois accent in 4.5 years.

My friends in the states all want t-shirts and the largest ones here fit my friend who's 6'3" and 190 barely. Good luck.

Will you have a car or are you gonna cab/public transit the whole thing? If you have a car, drive out to Cabazon (101S - 10E for about 2 hours or so). I've gotten a great selection of very random and not even out of season stuff there. I got a Zegna cashmere suit for 3.5k, a lot of Dior, YSL, Prada, and they have a Barneys and Saks outlet there too.

If you don't have a car, being at the W limits your options. I mean, a cab is always possible but a cab in LA is sort of our in-joke. Melrose/3rd and Robertson/Fairfax is definitely within your reach, even by bus. Any further and it's a bit of a hike, even Rodeo. If you really want to go to South Coast, you can theoretically take the Red Line to Union Station (southbound), hop on a train and get to the Santa Ana train station via Amtrak or Metrolink, and then cab it to South Coast, but is it really worth it?

Ah, my pass is actually my tFS pass, anyway,

Herbs in SH, great hash, but you have to be ballsy and ask. A lot easier if you're not ethnically Chinese and have some US dollars to spend. By great I mean SERIOUSLY GREAT. I talked up a girl at Bar Rouge in 2007 who gave a sketchy business card and ended up with a quarter that I brought back to San Diego and don't remember much of the next three days.

Anyway, I'm in SH all day on the 3rd if anyone wants to come shop/go for drinks. I have to get back to Suzhou for drinks at 11PM though, but if you want to tag along to Suzhou, I have an extra couch.

holy shitz, jim is that you

jeff k/jon b (OC/LA) were talking about this

i has a pair of apc ns i can probaby donate. g'luck

(here's some +rep)

haha ya it's me, who is this?

talk to me tonight at the red button day party if you are there

Well we got a few nice looking pairs sitting around, it should be interesting. We are planning on doing something industrial and raw which should be interesting because my friend/collaborator's show involves hand-sewn refurbished clothes right next to mine.

If somehow I get enough money, a followup to this would be me shooting new pairs of raw jeans and displaying the results, but I wouldn't dare ask people to donate new pairs of jeans. Or guns.

You like chocolate? Galler and Neuhaus are fucking amazing and they are like, right next to each other near L'Hotel de Ville.

Dude just stay in a hostel, are you there for the hotel or the city. The city has much more to offer, btw.

But the HI building on Amsterdam is huge and fucking scary at night. Try something near Chelsea. A couple years ago, parking cost me more than the stay at the Chelsea Star a block from the Garden.

Staying in NYC sucks, I'm glad I have a pretty close friend who has a penthouse uptown but I can only stay there when she's there which sucks.

All the stores you named are actually on Melrose (except OC).

South Willard and Scout LA are the ones on 3rd, my bad

this sounds cool i have some edwins that have been thrashed but nothing too exciting but im gunna try and make it down for the exhibit...hope to see some great jeans.

Wouldn't mind having those in the exhibit, tbh, if you don't mind.

Definitely would love to see the exhibit...too bad you're doing it so far away. Any chance for a repeat performance in Berlin (Germany)? Hopefully you'll document the show here extensively.

It's sort of an art collective so people will be taking tons of pictures. Or I can just bring my digital camera and get some unprofessional shots of things.

you confused everyone in post #5. BubblyMasquerade asked if the shipping would be at the "originial owner's cost" and you said "Yeah."

no one was putting words in your mouth.

I wrote back the reply meaning as in me mailing back the jeans at the cost the original owner paid for.

And those jeans look fantastic. I am real. When are you free? I'm pretty busy during this weekend but next weekend I can drive up to the valley.

I just bought new cures today, i tried them on and they basically look like they have been painted on me. I was wondering will they stretch much? (they are size 27 btw.)

I bought mine 2 years ago, 28s, perfect fit. I now weigh around 20 pounds more (quitting speed does wonders) and they still fit and I can still button them up.

maybe two.

my cousins down from germany and i really wanted to show him around the city of angels. shopping is our priority and i was thinking of hitting as much as possible between rodeo drive and venice beach.

is this even possible?

and i myself barley know the area,

any good maps someone could recommend that i could either buy there, or for free online?

he's leaving in 5 days so i need to get this shit together.

thank you in advanced.

LA is fucking huge. If you really want to shop nowadays though, try 3rd St. between La Cienega and Fairfax, as well as La Brea and La Cienega. I know these street names mean nothing to you, but Marc Jacobs, Paul Smith, APC, etc are here, with the boutiques. Also, Opening Ceremony on La Cienega is one of my favorites.

In addition, we are using medium-format cameras to take details of the damage done to the jeans, and those will be the photos sent out. They will be done professionally.

Woah, what do you mean you guys pay shipping both ways? I'm paying for shipping. The $50 budget is for the setting up of the show, not for that. (installations, etc - the space is free and we have lights and a lot of other stuff already laying around) I don't know where you got that idea. What I meant was:

a) You'd have to ship your jeans to me first, which would cost money. I can reimburse you if you don't have $8.50

I only need this in like, late October

c) I WILL RETURN ALL YOUR JEANS. AND PAY FOR SHIPPING THE THING BACK TO YOU. AND REIMBURSE YOU FOR SHIPPING UNLESS FOR SOME REASON YOU ARE OKAY WITH IT, OR YOU ARE IN LA AND THEN I DRIVE TO DROP IT OFF.

I don't know where you got the idea that I'm getting jeans donations to keep. I know none of you know me in person I think. If any of you in LA are familiar with the Brewery Art Walk, it is a legit art collective show and I am going to be a part of it. People will show up to see these anyways and if someone is a used jean-cummer, we do have security people, you know.

If you are worried about it getting lost in the mail, get tracking confirmation. It has a receipt. I will reimburse for that too, but usually priority mail doesn't get lost in the mail.

Again, who the fuck said you guys are paying for shipping both ways? I understand you not trusting me, but don't put words in my mouth, okay?

Or should I just take this to mynudies or something where people actually read what I write? I just want to borrow some jeans. You will be out $8.50 for a week. If you can afford these jeans and can't be out $8.50 for a week, then I don't know what.

Seriously guys, read the post and then reply. I will try to make the show as awesome as possible for people who do come out. We have a whole bunch of artists working on various things.

you're serious about mailing back jeans at the original owner's cost?

Yeah. Not like overnight or anything, but USPS Priority mail, 2 - 3 days to most parts of the country.

Also we can include some professionally done photos of your jeans if you want.

I would like the jeans to be at least as worn as these APC New Cures I have (Stel's in Boston, October 06, worn in Boston, 2 Vermont winters, 2 LA winters, 1 LA summer, 1 Shanghainese summer, and intermittently in Chicago)

Original thread: http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showthread.php?t=57423

Basically, it seems like this is a go for November. I will need around 20 pairs of jeans, worn to the point where you hesitate to wear them anymore, shipped to me, and I will exhibit them in an exhibition during The Brewery Art Walk. The more beat up, the better, the more strange stains on them, the more exotic the better. I am borrowing them and I will return them, but I do need about a week to set up the show.

The show is tentatively called the Atrocity Exhibition as a nod to both Ballard and Joy Division. It will showcase worn dry denim, preferably denim worn for over a year, in a minimalist setting, letting the denim tell its own stories. All I really need are brand, name of owner, time of purchase, place of purchase, and where you wore it. Feel free to explain the stains, but not required, really, and any stories associated with them would be cool but not really a necessity. I will take good care of these jeans - they will be photographed, then, I will run a clotheline throw the belt rings and hang them up in sort of an installation in a warehouse-esque setting. The show will be free and during The Brewery Art Walk. You are all welcome to attend, and if you contribute, you might even get some free booze out of it, I don't know, we can't pay you unfortunately, we have a 50 dollar budget for this, excluding shipping costs.

We have a few pairs ready. Some Nudies, APCs, but I really wanna see a bigger variety of brand and wear and tear. I am really just borrowing these for a week, really. I don't really care if they stink. I don't care about any of that. A flatrate box from USPS is 8.50 or something. Stuff it into the box and ship it to me and in the end I'll ship it back and post pictures of the show here with a thank you note. The show is November 1st and 2nd and there will be some sort of a VIP pre-show/test run the night before and any contributors will be invited. You will all be credited by name unless you don't want to.

So, what do you guys think? If you are down, and I understand parting with your jeans to a complete stranger can be weird, but I hope you trust me on this one. All I need is maybe 15 pairs more, or even just 10 would be good, and they would be shipped back in the same condition.

If you are international, it would cost a little more, but no more than 15 dollars I think. If you are in LA, feel free to have me come pick it up or you can come drop it off. I'm in Cerritos right now but I can do anywhere south of the valley and most of the OC.

I WILL RETURN YOUR JEANS. FOR FREE. AND REIMBURSE YOU FOR YOUR SHIPPING COSTS. OKAY? What do you guys think? PM me if you want the address. Feel free to ask questions.

Link to the whole event: http://www.breweryartwalk.com/generalinfo.html

Well since all of our raw denim jeans have different looks after a while, I think they reflect pretty well what we ourselves went through during the time. My pair of New Cures, for example, after a year and half, have blood stains, broken stitches, holes, and all that shit. Im sure some of you guys can do better. In any case, I want to do an art show at a space we have at the Brewery in LA - an art colony - since I know a bunch of kids living there. But I only have three pairs of raw denim and that aint gonna fly. I do, know, however, that you guys are probably the people I am looking for to borrow some gnarly, fucked up jeans for a weekend for display.

Im not going to have too much text explaining the thing. They will be hung on a clothline, lit, in a large room, with tags saying location of where they are from, time they were worn, brand/fit, and owners name. They wont be for sale (unless you want to, I guess), its sort of an experiment to see if jeans themselves en masse could be art.

This might take more planning than I can handle before November 1st (art walk time) here in LA. We might have to do this in the spring, but Im just doing an interest check to see who is down for this. I need maybe 15 - 20 pairs, the more worn the better. Im gonna throw my New Cures into the mix because theyve been in Boston, China, Vermont, LA, Chicago, Montreal, and a bloody incident in Hollywood (long story). If you guys have comments or suggestions, it would be great. It might look a bit boutiquey, but I will try to let the jeans make their own statements. Tell their own stories, that kind of stuff. I cant imagine too many people doing something like this (dont steal my idea please haha).

Oh yeah and Im borrowing the jeans, so you ship them to me and Ill ship them back. I dont want to wear your jeans anyway. Interest check? Comments? Suggestions? I dont have a picture of the place (left my camera at work) but it is a very large space and we can get some very decent lights Im sure. We might even do some photography of the jeans to sell them to make some money back since all this would be free.

Art Walk link: http://www.breweryartwalk.com/index.html

Spring one is in April.

What do you guys think?

I barely fit into my 29 ACNEs but I fit into my 28 New Cures perfectly. Bizarre. Could always do more meth.