Knot a Blog: 2007年1月

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1月30日

Urban Nocturnes

Here are two lovely ties that I've been wanting to wear. I don't remember where or when I bought them. I'd especially like to remember whether they came together, because, although they have different labels, they seem to be part of a series. Both of these neckties have dark, stylized urban scenes.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, 1/31), I'm wearing a Surrey tie made in Korea, and the following day, the first of February, I'm wearing another tie made in Korea, this one with the Addiction label, and as always, I have to add, great ties with a terrible name.

I'm still reading Bleak House with my ears as I drive to and from work and drive to all my various assignments, even though I have traded cars and have had to come up with a new way to use my MP3 player in the car. Bleak House, for its Victorian excess gives an intriguing perspective on addiction. Strangely, it is an addiction to a court case which destroys individuals and families for generations. Our age's own William Burroughs never caught so perfectly the devastation of addiction.

I enjoy ties with landscapes. These city-scapes offer a pattern changing all the length of the tie, complete with a full moon on one, a quarter moon on the other. Unfortunately, you are not mooned, because I could not get the whole picture in the scan.

These images stir up memories of cities I know, cities I dream of, including one lovely true story that I will recount later.

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1月28日

Sticking Out My Neck

My neck is my most prominent anatomical feature, in terms of this blog, since it is my neck that supports the subjects of this blog, my neckties. So, join with me in celebrating a critter that is the totem of the neck, whose neck, perhaps, might be a totem pole, the giraffe.

Why am I wearing ties with giraffes on them? Well, why wouldn't I, since I can, since I have - in fact - several ties with giraffes. But, let me make these two ties very special by dedicating them (or, at least, my wearing of them) to the Giraffe Heroes Project , which honors and celebrates those heroes who, of course, stick their necks out. Do yourself a favor, and check out their website.

I hope you enjoy these ties. The red one, for Monday (1/29) is a silk necktie by Daniel/Milano, made in Italy. Tuesday's silk necktie is from the ManhatanMenswear Group/World Wildlife Fund, "Design No. 198: Male Giraffes May Grow Up to 18 Feet Tall."

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1月25日

Soup on My Tie?

I'll be wearing another Christmas present tomorrow (1-26), and what a present! This tie makes me smile every time I look at it, because it is a visual pun. I have referred to having lunch in thrift shops, that is, using my lunch break to check the buffet of ties available at those venues. For the past few months, however, I've been having lunch... in restaurants! Actually, the thrift shop option is cheaper as well as less fattening.

I'm a soup and salad type for lunch, and I've discovered a peculiar relationship between soups and neckties. Either soups turn agressive and attack ties, or ties become elaborate variations on a bib, outright soup magnets. There is really nothing deadlier for a necktie than an attack of a killer split pea soup. Don't even get me started on borscht.

So, get a load of this tie that my friend and co-worker Gina gave me. (I am experimenting this week with close-ups of ties that - like this one - have a small pattern repeated throughout the body of the tie.) Yep, that's right! This tie has soup all over it, but that's quite all right by me.

I feel a certain smugness about wearing this tie, because you aren't going to find one like it at your favorite department store or men's store. My friend's husband, who is a food-service professional, found this at a convention. The label reads Chef Francisco, a purveyor of - no, not neckties, but soups! Keep your Hermès ties; I have Chef Francisco.

Another reason that this tie makes me smile is that it makes me think of Gina, my friend who gave it to me. She is one of a very special breed, even among the very special folks that I work with at the Lighthouse. She is a "baby teacher," one of the brave souls who work with pre-school kids with visual impairments. They do not sit in a nice, clean classroom, waiting for their charges to come to them. Instead, they drive all over Polk County, meeting the kids and their families in their homes, in day care centers, in schools, and in hospitals. I'm amazed at their creativity and stamina in selecting toys, planning activities, working with families and doctors and various social service agencies. And, on top of that, whenever I see Gina, she has a warm smile.

Surely when she considers what a great impact she and the other Early Intervention teachers (to give them their proper title, although I prefer "baby teachers") have on the children and families they work for, she has reason to smile. Thanks for the great tie, Gina, and congratulations to all the EI teachers on their great work! It's not just the neckties that make the Lighthouse such a wonderful place to work.

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1月23日

The Mara Twins

For the 24th and 25th, I'm adding some food to the drinks of the past two ties with a couple of intriguing ties. I've mentioned and worn previoiusly ties that have the same design in different colors. Here are two ties with similar fruits but different colors and with Countess Mara labels but without the CM monogram or with any indication of Mara lineage embossed on the lining. Who knows?

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1月21日

I'll Drink to That!

I enjoy wearing my Cocktail Collection neckties. In fact, I've already worn one this month. This time, I'm offering smaller but more detailed pictures. These ties have an intriguing story behind them and that link takes you to, of all places, a page from Florida State University explaining that story. Basically, the designs are based on microphotographs of various cocktails, photos (and, I assume cocktails) made at FSU.

The ties, made by Stonehenge, not only provided royalty payments to FSU but also charitable contributions to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a group that proclaimed them "the only way to 'Tie One On' before driving."

This week, I shall indulge on Monday (22) in Vodka and on Tuesday (23) in a Bloody Mary. I suspect the colors are manipulated on these images; note that the Bloody Mary has a dark background, while the Vodka is red.

To follow up on the previous post, which was more about Charles Dickens than about neckties, I have been snooping around the Internet enjoying the many Dickensian riches online. Among them is the intriguing tidbit that in the London of Dickens, it was safer to drink alcohol than to drink the water. I've also found a fascinating page on alcohol and othe drugs in te work of Dickens. (By the way, opium figures in the plot of Bleak House.) And here is a page from the Victorianly thorough Victorian Web on alcohol in the history as well as the literature of nineteenth century England.

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1月20日

What the Dickens?

I had a friend who, educated in pre-Vatican II parochial schools, could read Latin. He used to speculate that it would not be long (this was in the early 1970's) until reading English would become as arcane and archaic as reading Latin. It surprises me that I (an English major and sometime English teacher) do so little reading myself. I no longer enjoy even the physical sensation of sitting down and holding a book. Since I spend so much time in my car now, I am doing most of my reading with my ears, that is, with audiobooks.

I recently read in that manner a contemporary novel that amazed, amused, and delighted me, actually leaving me wanting more: Yann Martel's Life of Pi. I can associate it with this blog, because it has a reference (a single reference) to a tie, "A tie is a noose, and inverted though it is, it will hang a man nonetheless if he is not careful." Considering that during most of the pages of the book, Pi is naked, he doesn't have much use for a tie.

On the other hand, consider old Mr. Turveydrop (click on the name for an illustration) in Bleak House by Charles Dickens, which I am currently reading:

He was a fat old gentleman with a false complexion, false teeth, false whiskers, and a wig. He had a fur collar, and he had a padded breast to his coat, which only wanted a star or a broad blue ribbon to be complete. He was pinched in, and swelled out, and got up, and strapped down, as much as he could possibly bear. He had such a neckcloth on (puffing his very eyes out of their natural shape), and his chin and even his ears so sunk into it, that it seemed as though he must inevitably double up if it were cast loose. He had under his arm a hat of great size and weight, shelving downward from the crown to the brim, and in his hand a pair of white gloves with which he flapped it as he stood poised on one leg in a high-shouldered, round-elbowed state of elegance not to be surpassed. He had a cane, he had an eye-glass, he had a snuff-box, he had rings, he had wristbands, he had everything but any touch of nature; he was not like youth, he was not like age, he was not like anything in the world but a model of deportment.

I don't think that my necktie-wearing has anything to do with my lack of interest in reading. I submit the example of tie-blogger Will Stuivenga, who also maintains another blog of his reading.

Since I have no necktie to illustrate, let me share some pictures of Charles Dickens in various styles of neckwear: (1),(2), and (3). Here is a list of Dickens's characters, some with illustrations, and here is a photo of Yann Martel in a bowtie.

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1月17日

Tied to Terpsichore

After two ties capturing the spirit, almost the music, of the 19th century demimonde, I am wearing two neckties that keep me tied to Terpsichore, ties that capture the spirit, if not the music, of the dance. Tomorrow's necktie from Gerard Philippe, is très French - featuring the dancers from the works of Edgar Degas - that it is a shock that it was made in the Domincan Republic. These dancers always make me "hear" Gymnopedie by Erik Satie in my mind's ear (and if you click on that link, you can hear the music in your computer's ears).

I'll finish this entertaining week on Friday (19th), with a silk tie from Wembley (I think this is the only silk tie with that label that I have), an older (consequently, shorter) necktie with more dancers and a real need for Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days, My Friend" to be playing... somewhere! As in, "Somewhere, My Love..." anywhere with balalaikas playing.

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1月15日

Lautrec-ker Ties

With a three day weekend, with time taken to remember the debts that we all owe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (I get so tired of the idea that this is a "black" holiday), I had a chance to go down into the vaults and search the collections. When I do such a thing, what surprises me is usually not so much individal neckties that I have as the groupings of my ties.

I had no idea that I possess two ties based on works of the French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. But, here they are. On Wednesday (01-17), I'll wear an Act 5 tie based on his portrait of Aristide Bruant. On Tuesday (01-16), I'll wear a Ralph Marlin tie based on his "Moulin Rouge: La Goulue" ("Moulin Rouge" Gray d'Art © 1987). You can almost hear the cancan.

But, that is not the music I heard this weekend. On Friday evening, I took advantage of a beautiful day and a beautiful setting (Lakeland's Lake Mirror) and enjoyed a concert of sweet, smooth soul music. Sunday, I attended a bluegrass festival, where I heard the Lewis Family and especially appreciated the antics, talents, and striking necktie of their Little Roy Lewis.

Click on photo to enlarge

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1月10日

The Bear Facts - and the Oscars

At an office Christmas party, I was delighted to received two new ties. Not just "new" to me, but downright virginal, never before worn or broken in by anyone else. Both were particularly charming. In fact, I was charmed that my friends would associate these ties with me. I wore one yesterday (1/9), and I want to comment on it (Renaissance Hand Made, polyester, Korea).

The design shows polar bears, chilling out - I couldn't resist that - with pool toys, beach umbrellas, and cold drinks. Since that time, polar bears have invaded the news and editorial cartoons showing polar bears in situations similar to the one on this necktie.

Because of global warming, the ice caps are melting, and the bears are drowning, turning to cannibalism, and having fewer young (as this story and many others discuss). Real polar bears, unfortunately, are not having the fun that these beach bears are.

I have to tell you a litte about Rebecca, who gave me this tie. The next time you are about to walk across a busy street, close your eyes, and try to get across. Now, imagine trying to teach someone how to cross such a street with eyes closed. That, essentially, is what an orientation and mobility teacher does, teaching people who are visually impaired how to cross streets, take public transportation, and get around their homes, schools, and work places. It is an amazing profession, and Rebecca is an amazing O & M professional. Just today, a woman told me that she would not be alive today if Rebecca had not helped her learn how to get her life back.

I had a very slight personal experience of Rebecca's skills. When I first started work at the Lighthouse for the Blind, Rebecca had me put on a blindfold and then took me out on the town. She made it clear that we were not "playing blind," or even trying to give me an idea of what it is like to be blind. Instead, it was to help me learn how to be a sighted guide for people who are blind. It was a humbling experience, even though I knew at any moment, I could take off the blindfold. But, Rebecca's mix of coolness and warmth reassured me, and I got through the experience learning a lot. Mainly, I learned that if I ever need an O & M instructor, I hope Rebecca will still be working.

Thanks, Rebecca, for such a cool tie and for being such a cool friend.

On Thursday (11th) and Friday (12th), I'm wearing Oscar de la Renta ties, which come from different lines of that label. Thursday's tie is from Oscar de la Renta Couture. The label has s signature in gold with the word "Couture" printed in gold. I believe it is silk, and the fabric lining the tie is embossed with the designer's signature. Friday's tie has the words"Oscar de la Renta Studio" in block print. This one still has a label identifying the tie as being made of polyester in the US. By the way, the tie is not dirty or stained. The rather smudged look on the gray lines is part of the pattern. Also, note the diagonal signature on the left side toward the bottom.

This week, I've worn three ties given to me by friends. I'm closing with these two ties that are not at all distinguished members of the collection, except for their labels.

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1月7日

The Cardboard Treasure Chest

In some year-end reflections this year, I commented on how many ties I had worn during the past year, this blog, and the whole insanity associated with neckties in my life. A friend of mine who lives just a few houses away responded by mentioning that he had a box full of old ties, and he would like for me to see if there were any of his ties that I would like to have.

Now, isn't that music to any collector's ears? "I have a box of ... [whatever you collect]" I often reflect, as I go through ties in thrift shops, how those ties ended up there, how much or if they are imbued with some essence (at times, I suspect, some cologne) of the previous owner.

As I sat in my friend's new sunroom, rummaging through a box of ties that had belonged to him and to a deceased friend of his, I had a sense of feeling some human spirit associated with the ties. He reminisced about the time they purchased a couple of the ties in Oxford, and commented that one of the ties was released as part of the Bicentennial celebration in 1976. Labels on the ties confirmed his memories; I passed over them, since all three ties were polyester.

My friend is a musician, and several thematic ties reflected that part of his personality. Although I have several musically themed ties, I left these behind, since I felt that he might know a musician for whom they would be more appropriate.

And then, then, there were other ties, beautiful ties with a variety of labels (some quite surprising). I kept seeking reassurance that he was serious about offering these treasures to me, ties that friends had given him, ties that a friend had worn. The cardboard box was so full of memories that it was amazing that it could hold so many neckties.

He told me that he had kept a few ties, as many as he would need, since he so seldom wears neckties now, in his Florida retirement. I left with - I just counted - thirteen, or, shall we say, a baker's dozen, gently folded and stacked in my hands.

I'll be spreading these ties out through the blog, but we'll begin now with two. Tomorrow (Monday, 8th), I'll wear my first and only Gucci necktie (silk, Italy), a simple, elegant piece of silk, which bears a warning about using "petroleum solvents." Wednesday (10th), I'll wear a Christian Dior Monsieur necktie (silk, US), made up of waves of cheery pastels which make a nice contrast to the previous days restraint and darkness.

Thanks, Clark, for sharing the ties, the memories, and a memorable Sunday afternoon.

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1月1日

A Bubbly Beginning

A year ago, when I began this blog, I had no idea that a year later, I would still be working at it. But, here I am. I'm looking forward to wearing a tie and getting back to normal tomorrow. There is something tiring about the holidays. Well, I'll stop short of "Bah, humbug!"

Tomorrow (1-2), I'll celebrate the anniversary of this blog with champagne. This necktie (Molecular Expressions by Stonehenge, silk, US) is labelled "Champagne, as seen under the microscope." Tuesday (1-3), I'll wear a Countess Mara tie (silk, US), just as I wore a Countess Mara tie at end of the previous year. I've adopted the Countess as a sort of guardian angel of this blog.

Last year, I began the blog with the intention of wearing vintage ties for a month, an intention that weakened after a week or two. For me, these ties are tricky to tie well and wear comfortably. I had planned to wear the tie for Thursday (1-4) during the last week of last year, to bring the year to a close with a Countess Mara tie and a vintage tie, but I unexpectedly took off an extra day and so carried this tie over. Like many of my older ties, it has no labels. Also like many of my older ties, it has an intriguing brocade, which plays a counterpoint to the colored design.

Friday (1-5) will be a dog day for me, a day that I shall take off work and literally go to the dogs. More on that later. The tie that I shall wear has no labels, and I really wish I knew something about it. I guess that it is silk, but I'm not sure. The images are raised (woven into the fabric, perhaps), and I am calling the stylized quadrupeds dogs, although again, I am not sure of much of anything about this little bit of chinoiserie.

Update: Friday was a wonderful day. I took two friends down to Southeastern Guide Dogs for some training. While they were working, I visited another friend and her companion. At lunch, my friend turned her beautiful home into a gourmet Mexican vegetarian restaurant and put my new year's resolution onto the endangered species list. Instead of saying that on Friday I "went to the dogs," I prefer to think that I spent the day with four lovely ladies, two of whom (Eva and Valerie) get around on two legs, two of whom (Cara and Emma) need four legs. Eva and Cara had a busy and stressful day of work, while Valerie and Emma were hostesses with the mostest. And I was lucky enough to have a day with such good beings.

Do you notice something that unifies these four diverse neckties? This week could be subtitled "Variations in Red."

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