TCB: happy jeans contest

[ah_long]

double sausage hot dog in Central, had these since I was little

 

DSC_0145 by 6u07, on Flickr

 

And local street food, love fried intestines

 

DSC_0147 by 6u07, on Flickr

[volvo240thebest]

random snaps from today

the tower from Albenga

reclaimed tomato tin used as a pot for basil, hanging on the street from the balcony

some nice "wall evo" ahah

TCB uniform!

Edited November 8, 2014 by volvo240thebest

[garden gnomes in space]

Great fit Volvo, the 50's cut suits you (there's a pun for you haha!)

[Maynard Friedman]

I think im the only white guy who gets down on chicken feet at dim sum spots

If I had a pound for everyone who said this type of thing!

[Paul T]

Sorry I haven't posted enough. So here's a photodump of stuff since we arrived back in rainy London

 

Every morning starts with this. Ours is a Gaggia Classic - we have a back up Pavoni Europiccola in case of coffee emergencies. This way I can be confident I can handle everything life throws at me.



Now, I've already shown-off the Volvo P1800. But look what the fella up the street from me has. I think he races it during the summer. Drool... it's not my most fave Alfa, which is the Giuletta Sprint Special SS. But I think the same fella owns one of those, too!



The morning I documented, I was on the way to Bath, where I give a lecture on the blues song form... on the way I passed on of my fave London buildings, St Olaf's house. A classic modernist design, the architect was also a decent composer, very Eric Satie.



This is the Uni campus, a stately home owned by th4 Methuen publishing family. Nice huh? If the photo is dark, it's because it was bucketing with rain, as it has been many days since September.



The next day the sun returned. Anyways, these are some of my typical mornings. Rain or shine, I love my walks in the morning with the woofer




 

Edited November 8, 2014 by Paul T

[Paul T]

My companion for those beautiful autumn mornings....

 

 

 

 

 

A few people might know I live near Greenwich market... bought a good amount of vintage clothing from here, but this was my most recent bargain. 1960 Hofner Club, cost me 90 pounds stelring. Now it's the nipper's. These can go for a lot of money... which they're not really worth as they play pretty badly, but they're cute, let's face it.



My new book was finally published in the US, so I spent a good amount of time doing press for it. This is one familiar place... inside BBC Western House, home of most of the music channels, where you often do interviews down the line from inside a tiny studio. Up to a couple of years ago you'd do this with bakelite headphones in a 30s studio but it's now all updated.


When I walked out the building a bunch of photographers and fans looked disappointed. THey were waiting for Bono who was in the same time. Shame I didn't see him, I would've kicked the tosser in the testicles.

Edited November 8, 2014 by Paul T

[jstavrin]

Excellent posts, Paul!

Edited November 8, 2014 by jstavrin

[Paul T]

It's a hard life doing my job of course. So we relaxed with a vacation in Berlin. Being freelance means we don't usually do big hotels, but we often do something much better... house swaps. So for a week a couple of architects and their kid stayed in our house, right on the Greenwich Meridian, while we stayed in theirs. Which is similarly right on the border between East and West, overlooking Bernauer Strasse and actually on Strelitzer strasse... the tunnel via which 57 people escaped to the west was dug from the old house next door. The building, clad in cedar strips, that you can see in the window is the Chapel of Remembrance, devoted to those who died attempting to cross the wall - which finally came down, 25 years ago today.





I was maybe slightly surprised to hear some people thought these jeans are slow wearing... I thought mine were about exactly the same as Full Count, maybe even quicker than Cone/LVC.

 

I am getting a lot of crocking, but my pair have been soaked around five times thanks to British rain.

So, here we are in Dessau - went out for a day on the train to check out all the Bauhaus buildings. An amazing trip. This photo we're on the tram out to a housing estate in the south of the city







We arrived 11.30am and left 6.15om, and were running from one place to another trying to get to all those amazing buildings. Made just about every one... many of them mind-blowing. We closed with a meal at the Kornhouse, a glass drum overlooking the Elbe. Very good wild boar stew, yum.



Finaly day in Berlin, back to some David Bowie haunts. THis is 155 Hauptstrasse, where he lived with Iggy Pop.



Pallasstrasse round the corner is a 50s housing block, built over a Nazi bunker which proved imprevious to attempts to demolish it. So it stands there still, a stark reminder of dark times, and a symbol of how much this great city has moved on.

Edited November 8, 2014 by Paul T

[aho]

Most excellent Paul! So good seeing into other people's lives, I'm always fascinated! 

 

Re: crocking, the jeans are bleeding a ton in my experience and I'd say they're a tad slower to crock than my Warehouse. Maybe it takes a few washes, but I think it'll really start taking off around 4-5 months.

[garden gnomes in space]

i agree Aho.  Im starting to see the first sighs of a lap fade, but its very subtle.  

[ah_long]

getting ready to go home

 

2014-11-09_10-26-15 by 6u07, on Flickr

[garden gnomes in space]

Ill have an update soon, but I fucked up and installed Yosemite os on my laptop and its got Lightroom all fucked.  Im pissed....

[Paul T]

This is a reasonably accurate impression of where my pair are at. I guess I am three months in, I think I started wearing mine around 9 August.

 

Edited November 9, 2014 by Paul T

[volvo240thebest]

They look good Paul. Fantastic updates, and extra points for the coffee talk. I'll add some photos of my gear when time permits.

Today is a bad day for me unfortunately, I was going to Switzerland for work and our car has been robbed while we were having a sandwich in the last Italian autogrill before the border. Thieves had cloned the remote locking system and opened the boot without no problems. I had 7k worth of work tools stolen plus a new canon camera and some other photo tools. bad bad day

[erk]

This is a reasonably accurate impression of where my pair are at. I guess I am three months in, I think I started wearing mine around 9 August.

 

 

 

Great looking jeans and hofner guitar paul! 

 

I am also feeling the guilt of not posting hardly anything. So heres something.

I also had a new guitar day in these jeans. 

its a 2010 AVRI 62 Jazzmaster. I had developed some back pain and shoulder issues with playing the 6120 and opted for a change. still have the gretsch though. 

not the greatest picture - but I'm wearing the jeans and this is the jazzmaster's debut show. 

 

I'm a little bummed about my size choice. I got a 34 and I think I easily could have gotten a 32 or 33. prob 32. theyre pretty baggy in lap area. they shrink down to 31 which is nice, but they stretch back to 34 in like 2hrs or less.

Edited November 9, 2014 by erk

[garden gnomes in space]

They look good Paul. Fantastic updates, and extra points for the coffee talk. I'll add some photos of my gear when time permits.

Today is a bad day for me unfortunately, I was going to Switzerland for work and our car has been robbed while we were having a sandwich in the last Italian autogrill before the border. Thieves had cloned the remote locking system and opened the boot without no problems. I had 7k worth of work tools stolen plus a new canon camera and some other photo tools. bad bad day

bummer man.  i was just watching something on TV about that cloning scheme...

[volvo240thebest]

Just for the sake of keeping the instrument talk going...I am a full time professional musician and the tools that were stolen were two wooden transverse flutes and two recorders. All very specific gear that needs a knowledgeable seller to be sold. The two traversos were made by a flute maker in Australia who is known to be one of the best 3 in the market. He used to have a six year waiting list, but now he's close to retirement and doesn't accept anymore orders. I had the flutes made to my specs 12 years ago 😞

My colleagues had all their gear in the car too for an average estimate value of 25k Eur..

And this is just more than money... At least I didn't leave my TCB jacket in the car... They even stolen our luggage with clothes. Gig in Switzerland cancelled and we returned home. Most terrible day I had in a while.

[jyoni]

Volvo, that is awful.  I'm always subject to having tools ripped off and it does happen.  I just finished a huge home a couple of months ago and the theft tab over the whole project was pushing 5k.  Not nearly your guys' amount of loss but it easily could have been if they had nabbed the right stuff!

 

I'll grab some pics today.  Some crocking but it's so early I don't pay much attention to it.

[Maynard Friedman]

Really sorry to hear that Volvo, hope you can get something back. Fuckers!

[Sugar Mountain]

Yeah, really sorry to hear that news Volvo. 

 

Great weekend of updates everyone. I wore a suit on Friday and climbing shorts on Sunday, so my only wear time was on Saturday, watching The Pacific and sitting on my arse drinking beers and whisky! Heading to Taipei this coming weekend though and there will be plenty to share.

[aho]

So sorry to hear volvo, I hope everything works out! 

[ranonranonarat]

volvo those are some really shitty people who stole your gear. i really hope you get those flutes back. i know it will count for little (relative to your attachment to them), but are you insured for theft on your instruments?

 

paul good seeing you back again along with the updates. i hope the nipper enjoyed time in dessau, a real historical treat with the birth of bauhaus.

 

erk those pants look good on you! they barely look half as loose as you described!

[Cucoo]

Yeah Volvo, that sucks, especially with special items that can't really be replaced with insurance money. Hopefully the thieves won't just toss them once they realize that it will probably be pretty hard to cash in on them.

[Bill_e_jean]

hi, volvo. i´m sorry to hear that but can i feel with you,...i´m also a professional musician/producer and i know how it feels when rare or expensive equipment is getting lost.

[volvo240thebest]

lots of musicians around!

unfortunately my gear wasn't covered by insurance, and neither my mates stuff.

it's something I've never got around to do, and I can only blame myself for that.

A Belgian luthier friend of mine just offered my a temporary loan for free of all the gear I need to do my gigs. this guy is an angel, I shall visit his workshop in about two weeks to collect the stuff while on tour, I will try to post a few pics of the place where he lives (beautiful Bruges, one of my favourite cities in the world!). unfortunately the pics will be taken with an iphone as my camera is gone too....

Edited November 10, 2014 by volvo240thebest

[Paul T]

Volvo, so sorry to hear that. They're specialist items, I hope they turn up. We got burgled two years ago and I got my Macbook back in the end, so it can happen (and the burglar is still languishing in jail).

 

Erk, nice axe! I love the anodised scratchplate version. My '62 Jazzmaster (a refin) was my first decent guitar, one I used on all our records, and the one I'd never part with.

 

Funnily enough I sold my 1965 6120 on eBay in January, having owned it for nearly 30 years - put the money towards a Yamaha U3. I don't like having too much stuff around that I don't use, but the nipper persuaded me to keep the Hofner rather than sell it on.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Paul T

[Bill_e_jean]

hi, volvo.  what exactly do you need? i work now for a well known british company that is famous for mic preamps, channel strips, etc. a good friend is endorsed by a bass manufacturer and i also have good contacts to the industry - so if i can help, just shout! 

Edited November 10, 2014 by Bill_e_jean

[volvo240thebest]

B&J, thanks a million. I play traditional and early music on wooden flutes and recorders. We had no mics or amps with us, and I play about 70% of my gigs without any PA. but thanks wholeheartedly anyway.

[Bill_e_jean]

no problem, mate! 

[tchengaa]

sorry to hear that volvo