chicote

I’d bob for apples in those! Or maybe go on a hay ride; I think apple bobbing might not have survived post - covid …

39 minutes ago, OutSider said:

What options are there?

The options are the same as they have always been: accepting that most people, the vast, vast, majority, share the exact same base desires as we do — to love and be loved, to live a fulfilling life, to be appreciated for their contributions and achievements, and to accept and learn from their mistakes. These same people, without exception, are going to have painful experiences from their upbringings, to be hurt when trying to be vulnerable, and to learn to react with fear, withdrawal, anger or violence, and in doing so they’ll also cause pain to other people. The choice becomes available when we realize and accept that about others — and just as importantly, about ourselves — and choose to meet people’s pain, struggle and difference with understanding and compassion. The choice to “go NC” (no contact) with somebody is valid when someone, in very rare cases, proves themselves pathologically incapable of meeting you halfway in your process of healing. But in the vast majority of relationships today, people can and deserve much more understanding and commitment than they get, even from close friends, partners and family members. To not offer them that opportunity is a failure to fully respect the complexity of the human condition, in my opinion. And it’s a root cause of the epidemics of loneliness and division I know we are all experiencing at this moment in history.

I’ve been thinking often recently that the highest form of “education” a society can have is shown in its capacity to accept, and live with, differences and contradictions both within and outside of itself. To that end, I see many rich, college-educated liberals in Seattle being stuck in the same backwards state of mine as the proverbial backwater Southerner: distrustful of outsiders, intolerant of difference, to the point it’s become a trend to even cut family members out of your lives who voted differently than you. It’s a problem both sides of the political & socioeconomic spectrum are really struggling with.

I finished reading a wonderful book a couple weeks back, The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm. There’s a passage in it where he discusses arranged marriages, often seen as antiquated, backward, even barbaric in the West (and surely there are elements of this when there are huge age discrepancies, etc — that’s beside the point for the moment). But in fact, he argues, a high percentage of those in this arrangement report themselves as quite happy. Why? Because, contrary to the modern social narrative that you’re meant to “fall in” love, which itself presupposes chance more than effort, he says people enter into arranged marriages understanding that they are building a loving relationship together, basically from scratch. That from being more or less strangers, perhaps with nothing in common beyond some shared cultural understanding, they work to find their common humanity, their capacity for care and empathy, and develop a lifetime commitment to one another, which forms the basis for their, not instant, but gradually developing, love.

In contrast, the West’s “modern” love ideas are far more transactional. Do you and your spouse feel the same burning, passionate connection after 5 years that you felt as new lovers? Perhaps not, and so one or both partners may just abandon the relationship to search for another, in hopes that this time, that initial feeling of love won’t fade away (it almost always does). That this dynamic has now stretched to include family and community members, and become codified in the act of “cancelling”, “ghosting” or otherwise abandoning people who don’t easily and comfortably conform to your ideas of acceptable, pleasing behavior, is to me one of the most concerning and notable elements of the decline of contemporary society in the West.

It’s interesting to consider that behavior such as inviting a stranger in for tea or offering a ride to someone broken down on the side of the road are now seen as risky, perhaps intolerably dangerous, though our grandparents may have thought nothing of either one. In fact, where I am living in rural Mexico, these are still normal, even socially expected, behaviors today. Why we have gone down the path of separateness I think has many factors, economic pressure and social media being some of them, but those are factors all over the world, and some places still stubbornly continue to embrace one another’s differences and embrace contradictions rather than turn away from them. So I don’t think those factors alone tell the whole story. Anyway, sorry for the long ramble, but this conversation about cultural difference & isolation has felt increasingly relevant this past decade and I am always wondering where it comes from and what can be done about it.

Holy shit, that’s one of the most amazing pairs of jeans I’ve ever seen. Beautiful work and repairs @crownzip!

I love cinches they’re so cool! I don’t know if I’ve ever cinched any of my pants up tight enough to do anything to the fit, but for me that was never the point. Bonus points if your jeans and jacket BOTH have cinches.

Happy birthday @mlwdp!

I also see Minnie Riperton’s Adventures in Paradise up on @fabes wall… a great one!

8 hours ago, smoothsailor said:

seems like a business model is to take on a lot of employees and get cash from all of them. While all of them struggle 

Not to go too heavy handed into this, but you’re absolutely right — that idea is foundational to our whole economic system. The whole principle of an “employee” is somebody who produces something (shoes, coffees, tattoos) for their employer, and who in return receives something (a wage). But the workings of the system require that the employee’s wage be overall less valuable than the labor they provide for their employer — the difference between the value an employee produces and the money they actually earn is, to the employer, the basis of “profit”.

Foundational economists working in early capitalism understood that the easiest way to maximize profit was to maximize the number of employees an individual employer has, because each new employee is a new source of profit. And as employers obviously prefer employees willing to do the same amount of work for the lowest wage, this formed the basis for the formation of multinational corporations, leading to the modern trend of “offshoring” jobs from Europe and the US to parts of the world where standard wages are far lower.

Because this all began in a time when the world’s economic systems were not yet interconnected, it gave rise to the myth that businesses have the capacity for endless growth, and therefore that their profits could increase endlessly, year after year, as their markets expanded around the world. This is the basis for the principle that profit-driven businesses will always tend towards becoming monopolies. It’s also the driving myth behind the stock market, which forces companies to find ways to earn higher and higher profits every year in order to attract investors — an investor, themselves, being a mini-employer of a sort.

The alternatives to this business model are more commonly found in small businesses, but not always. The tattoo industry, at least in my experience, has trended more towards “collectives”, where each artist pays a flat rate for rent and supplies each month, and keeps all the rest of the money they earn in the shop. (This is compared to a more traditional model, where 30-50% of each artist’s earnings go to the shop owner, who ends up making far more than any of their employees before doing a single tattoo of their own.) And on a larger scale, we can look at cooperative corporations like Mondragón of Spain, which employs almost 80,000 people, yet pays the highest-earning worker no more than 6 times the salary of the lowest-earning ones. There is a lot to learn from these examples, and though they’re difficult to implement when in direct competition with huge multinational corporations, like your post mentions, I think the ethical position that cooperatives advance and the standard of living they provide are really worth supporting and adopting in larger sectors of the global economy.

Or have a tailor make the pockets a little longer! I don’t blame repro makers for not catering specifically to the phone industry… it would be kind of antithetical to the whole idea imo. and phone sizes are getting out of hand anyway! but that’s another topic

I always wondered this about chainstitch history — people talk about chainstitching not existing (in the denim world) until the late 1930s, yet chainstitch machines, of both single- and double- needle varieties, have been produced since the 1850s. Union Special first produced the 43200G in 1939, but it had other industrial chainstitch machines in the 1920s, and perhaps it or other brands did even earlier. So if the technology existed almost 100 years prior, why did people only start hemming with chainstitches in the mid 20th century? And why use such an inefficient (from a thread-use perspective) stitch in the middle of WWII rationing?

I have a pair of 470s that i cut into shorts after a year or so of wear.. they faded slower than most of my indigo jeans but only by a bit. 

For those interested (perhaps particularly those in Europe & the UK who aren’t familiar with the development of US automobile culture), this is a great video explaining the reasons why our vehicles are getting bigger and more dangerous year after year..

Just like everything else in this finance-driven society, decisions about what products we are offered are determined by multinational, multi-industry corporate monopolies and the governments they control through lobbying and cronyism, NOT by individual consumers. There are so many reasons why our perfect small environmentally friendly vehicles will never come to bear under this system, and it’s the same reason why our electoral choices are usually limited to two or a handful of politicians who are entirely oblivious to the needs and antagonistic to the desires of the average person. I think if people were given an informed choice, we would choose to have robust public transportation systems, safe and thoughtfully designed communities, localized food systems, affordable healthcare, well-made clothing, and so on, but sadly we have been down this path for a long time already. The incentives driving companies like Shein and Forever 21 to shove billions of disposable garments down our throats are the same ones pushing enormous new trucks and ridiculously expensive EVs that barely anyone can afford to buy outright. It has absolutely nothing to do with consumer choice.

@cultpop 0217 do u have any photos of ur whole boot collection??? I’ve seen so many great ones come thru this thread over the years I’ve lost track of how many you have / maybe you have moved some on too?? anyway would love to see if you feel like sharing!

Wow that weft colour is really cool

I think the tezo tees are pretty hard wearing actually… the fabric is thicker than my whitesville or Stevenson tees, on par with a vintage hanes heavy maybe. I’ve had a few for almost a year and have no signs of seams or fabric wearing thru. but I haven’t had them long enough to see them start to fall apart so maybe it happens quick. still think u should give em a try double 0!!

thanks yall! @julian-wolf i was always rly taken by the back pockets on this brand steel feather, a European denim maker that was around last decade sometime… they had the selvedge seam running down the middle of the pocket in this same manner. maybe a little over the top on a pair of regular jeans but I feel these are different enough that it works ok. thanks for the kind words!

Turmeric is amazing! If you’re consuming it for its health benefits, it’s recommended to add a bit of black pepper alongside it. The polyphenols curcumin (from turmeric) and piperine (from peppercorns) taken together greatly increase the former’s bioavailability, meaning it’ll be much more readily absorbed by the body.

One of my favorite coffee additives is a masala (spice blend) i had while in India years ago. I came across it in the wonderful cookbook Masala by Anita Jaisinghani - highly highly recommended as a cookbook but also an introduction to Indian spices, their traditional and Ayurvedic uses, and the culinary and cultural histories of the subcontinent. Anyway, it’s as follows:

Coffee Masala (adapted from Anita Jaisinghani)

4 cinnamon sticks

2 tablespoons black peppercorns

2 tablespoons green cardamom pods

2 star anise pods

1/2 teaspoon whole cloves

Ground turmeric, to taste (I recommend 2-3 teaspoons to start, turmeric has a very strong flavor by weight)

Roast all spices, except turmeric, on a baking sheet in a 300 degree F oven (150 C) until fragrant, 3-4 minutes. Let cool about 20 minutes, then grind in a spice mill or mortar and pestle to a powder. Add turmeric as desired. Mix into coffee grounds before brewing.

Makes a great latte as well!

I really like that fit on you personally, and the denim will continue to shrink all round over time (not sure how much with this particular fabric but I assume a good bit). A slightly higher cuff (or small hem) can make a big difference in the drape as well, especially when the fabric’s broken in a bit more. I think one or two cuff turns, with no break, really helps give structure to the leg on these wider cuts.

I want to let you all know that the amount of time you spend publicly agonizing over sizing will be factored into your scores at the end of the contest... let that be some encouragement for those of you who consider it an easy choice...

Just a word of caution - i had some quoddy mocs (high tops w a crepe sole) that had basically zero structure in the heel cup, and led to the sole slipping to the outside of my heel and screwing up my walking posture for years after. i was 19 so not rly paying attention to those things at the time, but i would definitely not do it over again if i could!  Hopefully their newer models have a bit more structure.

I’ve just started wearing my 2nd pair of 40s also!! I forgot how much i love the fit, every other pair’s front rise feels inadequate in comparison. Looking forward to seeing how urs turn out scooby!