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10月28日 Falling Festival This has been a hectic month here at the blog, ranging from Wall Street to Australia. So, it's about time to kick back on this bridge week (bridging October and November) with some festivities.
The theme for the neckties this week is autumn leaves, falling leaves. As I've mentioned before, I believe that in the 40's and 50's, the earth tones of autumn leaves seemed more masculine than the full palate of floral ties, which came later. Will Stuivenga has been showing off some wonderful examples of this trend in his blog, and I've shown some leafy ties elsewhere in the blog.
Tuesday (31st), I'll take a break from the week's theme with a Hallowe'en tie. I've resisted holiday themed ties, but this is my treat... or is it a trick, since there are no identifying labels on this tie, which, I think is silk. I said all I wanted to say about Hallowe'en, which is being replaced with "fall festivals" in some quarters, some years ago, in articles here and here.
Monday (30th) starts off with a diagonally striped (boo, hiss) tie made special by some falling leaves. There is a sewn cloth label reading "Pilgrim Rayon Cravats," and - for me - a very rare adhesive paper label, now yellowing, from Sears, Roebuck and Co., with the price of $1.00. Also on the back of the tie is a painted or printed banner reading "Individually handpainted." That is much more information than I have about any of my other vintage ties.
Wednesday (Nov. 1st), I'll wear another old tie. This one no longer has labels, just a single printed word, "Haband." Nice necktie, just not much reading material.
The leaf-motif (puns always allowed here) is not all that common among recent ties, but I do have two really magnificent examples. Thursday (2nd) is another one of those recently discovered treasures from the "Masterworks Collection" from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I first blogged last week, silk, with its $75 price tag intact. That price for a tie is a real trick... but I have a real treat on Friday (3rd) with a splendid Countess Mara tie (the CM monogram is visible).
I had a couple of treats Saturday (28th), although I was not wearing a tie. My town of Lakeland had a new art festival, and I treated myself to a couple of prints by Mary Erickson. Do check her website and work, and remember that the last artist referred to here, just last week, was Jan Vermeer, so I would say she is in very good company.
Then, I went to a garden show (Lakeland was really up to some tricks), where I bought the cheapest orchid in the show as well as my first carnivorous plant, a Nepenthes Alata, perhaps a gesture to the upcoming holiday. So, if you see a guy wearing a necktie hunting bugs, you'll know it's just me, trying to feed Audrey III. I just wish it were big enough to swallow some of these mud-slinging politicians (of both parties).
And, I have to say that Friday, I really had a treat, when I joined others from my office to watch a friend and colleague get a special award at the Florida Association for the Education and Rehabilitation for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge. 10月23日 More Artsy Ties I enjoyed a day with William (see previous entry). That is the kind of tie that I especially like, since I organize my ties around weekly themes. William's tie was cross-thematic, since he could have been included in a week of ties featuring African mammals or another planned week on shades of blue or a week of little pictures arranged as large dots (a week that will feature flies, beer bottles, and other surprises).
Some time ago, my friend the Designated Shopper told me about finding a beautiful tie with images from Egyptian art, a tie which he did not get because the line at the cash register was too long. So, William gave me my first and only Egyptian art tie. Now, I settle down to the rest of the week's Metropolitan Museum of Art ties, and there's not much to say. William's tie was thick, luscious, while these are similarly made in Italy and all silk, but they just don't feel as rich. The tie for Friday is a little different. Recently, the Designated Shopper showed up with two MMA ties (from the same thrift shop), each with the label "Metropolitan Museum of Art - Masterworks Collection" and with a sewn-in price tag of $75.00. As I've mentioned before, I sometimes find in a thrift shop ties that seem to have fit together some way, and these were the first two ties in the "Masterworks Collection" that I had ever seen. A few days later and miles away, to my surprise, I found another. One problem I have with MMA ties is that most of them are strongly horizontal in design, and I do not need horizontal lines with my vertical impairment, but the Masterworks ties have more exuberant designs. Yes, I know this has my least favorite design, diagonal stripes, but these strips have a lot going on with them.
I suppose if I were consulting on MMA ties, I would think in terms of reproducing great works of art, especially my beloved Vermeers. Most MMA ties, however, seem to be based on decorative borders, and come across showing tasteful restraint. (Yep, nothing shows tasteful restraint like a blue hippo.) Might I even say... boredom? No more hippos this week, but just some nice, tasteful ties that don't give me much to write about. So, here goes... I never saw a blue hippopotamus, Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 10月22日 Welcome, William! On one of my last hunting trips (which, in the lingo of this blog, means hunting for neckties in thrift shops), before my recent surgery, I found a tie with what seemed to be large blue dots which resolved themselves into some sort of blue animal, a sheep, I thought. Well, I wasn't in the market for blue sheep, so I left the tie behind.
On my first hunting trip after the surgery, with my renovated eyes, I could see that the animal was in fact a blue hippopotamus. Eagerly, I turned over the tie and could read the Metropolitan Museum of Aart label. I almost shrieked - not typical behavior for me - in recognition of an old friend from my New York City days, "William!" It was indeed the famous but unofficial mascot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, William, the little blue Egyptian faience hippopotamus found in an Egyptian tomb, where - according to another Met page - images of hippos were buried to give the tomb's occupants strength against the monsters found in the afterlife. Real hippos certainly have strength, termperament, and odd behavior to withstand any monsters they may encounter, most likely, other hippos. They engage in "dung showering," in which they spray a mix of feces and urine, propelled by their whirling tails, on each other. (The second time in two weeks that I've referred to feces; I hope there is no pattern emerging here.) But, that's not the whole story. Hippos take on a lovable persona (animalona?) in popular culture, well documented in "Hippo World," a great example of a well-made personal site. The site includes a page of "Famous Hippos," including William, Hyacinth (the coy ballerina from the 1940 Fantasia) and the first live hippo seen in Europe since the time of the Romans. There is also a page of "Hippo Songs," including the Flanders and Swann celebration of hippo love, which is perhaps best known in the bilingual Russian/English version. You can listen online elsewhere to two songs by the great Flanders and Swann,"The Hippopotamus" and "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear," and if that doesn't make you feel that visiting this blog today was worth the time, I don't know what will... unless I tell you that William is kicking off a week of ties from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge. 10月21日 Saturday Ties Reconsidered Earlier this year, I was invited to speak on a Saturday, and I decided not to wear a necktie, to keep Saturday my one tie-less day, since I wear ties Monday - Friday to work (although Friday is tieless, according to our dress code) and on the occasional Sundays when I go to church. Well, life (or death) has a way of stealing the cookies and changing the plans, because I have worn ties on two Saturdays this year - to funerals. Today and a week ago, however, I have worn Saturday ties and have had a lot of fun doing so.
Saturday the 14th, I wore a skinny old heavily textured tie with a swatch of design ("Cricket Royal, as advertised in Esquire") to do some rare but very pleasant Saturday work and then to go over to Tarpon Springs to see an exhibition of works by my favorite artist, Leonard Baskin. With my newly renovated eyes, I enjoyed every gloriously black line on white paper as if it had been in blazing color. Today, I went to one of my favorite yearly events, the Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival here in Lakeland, and for it, I wore a silk necktie (RM Style, US) featuring Dodge Vipers and their herpetological emblem. The Lake Mirror Classic is a car show even for folks who aren't interested in classic cars. The whole lovely downtown of Lakeland is (ironically) largely closed off to vehicular traffic, as pedestrians stroll by, looking at amazing cars and enjoying street musicians on a weekend that falls during the most pleasant time of the year in central Florida. Around Lake Mirror, with its Frances Langford Promenade, named for the lovely Lakeland native, the very rare cars are displayed. At noon, the owners of these cars are served lunch by a parade of tuxedo-clad waiters from the nearby Terrace Hotel, a parade led this year by a bagpiper. Best of all is the "splash-in," when several amphicars circle the lake before plunging into it to float around as the "amphibious cars" they are. Just a few steps up from the Promenade, you can check out Hollis Gardens, where today there was a display of bonsai, and the weekly intown farmers market was going strong, with a new orchid vendor. Jazz, bonsai, classic cars, orchids, bagpipes, with great weather and a morning chardonnay (only champagne beats chardonnay for wine before noontime)... and to all the various ribbons and trophies, I'll add one for myself for best necktie, because the only other ties I saw were clipped-on bows worn by a Dixieland jazz group. I'm back home now, where I can enjoy the second blooming this year of my "spider orchid," as I call it, technically Miltassia Shelob 'Tolkien' (great photo - not of my plant), I like to think, so that I can see it clearly now. (You can revisit the previous blooming.) Two friends who have seen it have commented on how beautiful "she" is, which is odd, considering that the word orchid comes from the word for testicle. Perhaps it is a good time to report that I am "street legal" now - can legally drive without glasses. The first time I saw (or didn't) my surgeon, I thought I could tell that he was wearing a beautiful necktie. Yesterday, with the good vision he crafted for me, I was amused to see, very clearly, his Snoopy tie! Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge. 10月19日 All the King's--Ties? I recently saw the new All the King's Men. Sadly, this old English major has never read the source novel nor seen the earlier film. So, I was going into the film with my slate blank.
In the first minute, I discovered three things about this film, any one of which can turn me off. Three in one? Well, I fell asleep during about the 398th minute of its 140 minute duration.
The first problem (bear with me; we will get to neckties) is the narration. Film is the art of visual story-telling. If a director uses narration, he is either not confident of his own abilities to tell a story as a film or he doesn't even have such abilities. I cannot take any narrated film seriously... as a film. Perhaps if I knew the novel, I could enjoy it as an audio-visual aid.
Second, there was just too much honeysuckle in the suth'run dialects, y'all. (This from a guy for whom people in New York City used to buy drinks just to hear him talk.)
Third, Jude Law.
Sean Penn's performance was amazing (and - predictably - quite a contrast to Law's); at least as this film was structured, however, he had only a supporting role.
But, this is a blog about neckties. I've mentioned previously that my addiction adds a new level of pleasure to watching films. In the case of this film, it added about the only level of pleasure.
I enjoyed seeing quite a range of lengths and widths of ties. I noticed that in general the gents either kept their jackets buttoned or wore vests underneath their jackets. Maybe that accounts for the shorter ties of the period.
Also, I noticed just how much the gents wore: vests, hats, watch chains, tie chains and tie bars (tie clasps, as I remember calling them). I kept looking for cufflinks, but I never saw any. Maybe they started flashing cufflinks during the three or four hours that I was asleep during the film.
I thought about how much of this stuff is not worn anymore, at least not very often. Then, the next day, I stopped in at one of my usual thrift shops, one where I have found many treasured neckties, and they had only one tie. Spooky.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 10月14日 Australia-bound Australia: This is a theme week that I'm doing... just because I can! When I bought the first tie some time ago, I decided that it could fit into three possible theme weeks: ties with animals (kangaroo, in this case), ties with writing, and ties which were the sole example in my collection from their country of origin. Technically, the tie could fit into any of those three, even the last, although I now have five Australia-themed ties.
During a month in Argentina (1992), I ran into Australians everywhere I turned. It seems that South America is a cheap vacation destination for them. In fact, at the tomb of María Eva Duarte de Perón (better known as Evita), I overheard some of them wondering what the many inscriptions meant. I volunteered my services, and translated with some thespian excesses, I'm afraid, "No me llores, Argentina" (literally, "Don't cry for me, Argentina" - now you know where those lyrics originated). As I finished, I noticed that someone was videotaping my performance. Perhaps, even now, somewhere on the other side of the world, a family is gathered around laughing at the gringo... or whatever Aussies would call me.
I suppose my only other connections to Australia are that my favorite film is the great Australian soul-teaser, Picnic at Hanging Rock and that I have a didgeridoo - although mine was not made in Australia. (Sad footnote: I had a videocassette on playing the didj, which I let a friend of mine borrow. She lived in Waveland, Mississippi, a town which was wiped off the map by Hurricane Katrina, and so was my video.) Yes, I can play it a little, producing a sound which makes me wonder if the word didgeridoo might mean sounds like the kangaroos have been in the beans.
And, so, we get to the kangaroo at last. On Monday (10-16), I'm wearing a solid color polyester tie distinguished by a small kangaroo and the word Australia. The label reads "Australia by John and Lois, Made in Australia." It looks as if it might have been made to be worn as part of a uniform, perhaps for a flight attendant?
Tuesday (10-17) follows with an impressive piece of comfortable silk. One label reads "Coogi Australia," but another reads "Made in USA." Pardon this tie while it has an identity crisis, an identity crisis with no animal companion, since it is the only tie this week without an animal depicted on it.
One of the most glorious ties I own (and the most recently acquired of this week's offerings; aha, a fifth tie with an Australian theme, so that means I can wear and blog a week of them.) This tie with its striking turtles is labelled "Desert Designs." There is - printed onto the silk on the back - a word in a rough script that I cannot read. I would have no clue that this was related to Australia (there is also a label that reads "Italian silk" and "Made in USA") except that Burl Veneer has some Desert Designs ties and in his entries he refers to their Australian connecton.
And that gets us up to Wednesday. What could be left? Here's a hint: just how many marsupial ties does one guy need? Well, we already have a kangaroo. (By the way, "Waltzing Matilda" is not about trying to dance with a 'roo.) Two more days, two more marsupial-themed ties, neither from Australia.
Thursday (10-19) will be brightened by some rather cartoonish koalas on a World Wildlife Fund tie (silk, USA), with the printed information: "Koala - Can be found in tree tops along Eastern coastal Australia, Design No. 151." Friday's Endangered Species tie (silk, USA) crams more of the cuddly critters, more realistically portrayed, onto the tie.
Of course, you may not want to cuddle with a koala when you learn that in order for the babies to get necessary enzymes into their digestive system, they must consume the feces of their parents. Do I really want to wear koala ties? Considering just how few ties featuring coprophages I find these days, I'll take my chances... and hope that the bears (that are not bears) use extra mouthwash.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge. 10月12日 Happy Irony I very often use the expression sad irony, which could be the controlling emotion of Knot a Blog. I'm delighted to notice that tomorrow's tie will involve a little happy irony.
Having recently obtained a fifth Wall Street tie, I decided to do a Wall Street week, but, then I realized that I had already worn and blogged one of the ties, so I had to settle for a four-day week of Wall Street ties, including the Wall Street crash tie. (You have to love any artice of clothing that can celebrate that!)
So, to finish out the week, I'm wearing a silk Oscar de la Renta tie, with the subtext that many people might think that one has to strike it rich on Wall Street or elsewhere to wear such a tie. Here's a happy irony: as a rule, my designer ties have come into the collection at the lowest prices, because most of them aren't all that impressive to me, although I do like the tangle of vines on this one.
I'm gradually learning how to use (and drive with) two eyes again. (Gee, do you mean that stop sign has always been there?)
I had been particularly concerned about not being able to lift and set up some hardware that I especially enjoy setting up for visually impaired people. Well, here is another sad irony. I finally lifted my first post-op equipment, but it wasn't to set it up to help someone use what vision he had left. Instead, it was to pick up equipment after its user died.
I didn't think about it until I began this entry that tomorrow is Friday the 13th. (I wonder what would be an appropriate tie?) I feel as if I've had a week of such Fridays, with cancelled appointments, software that just won't play by the rules, and craziness involving my least favorite technological "advance" (I'm not so sure), the cell 'phone.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge. Crash! As I mentioned in the previous entry, I have enough Wall Street themed ties that I could do a week of them, but I remembered that I had already worn and blogged one of them. That crashed my plans, so it is appropriate to bring this four day week of neckties to a close with this stunning tie.
The design is the transactions of the New York Stock Exchange on October 29, 1929 - the day of the big crash. The tie is a rather rich silk (especially considering the event it commemorates) and is an example of "Creative American Design, Alynn Neckware, Stamford CT" and has the information "Crash of '29 - Alynn Neckware ©" on the back.
Speaking of crashes, I just read in the irrepressible Burl Veneer's blog that he has been pressed by a healthy change in lifestyle that means he won't be wearing and blogging ties daily - but that will make his less frequent ties and entries even more welcome.
Some announcement to make on his birthday. Happy birthday, anyway, Mr. B.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge. 10月8日 Bulls and bears, oh, my!Once again, I'm devoting my ties to public service, in this case, to reinforce your knowledge of current events. Nothing about creepy emails or an even creepier war for no reason, but instead, a commemoration of the recent record-setting activity on Wall Street, with its bulls and bears. When I began this blog, I presented twelve "fundamental ties," which in some way represented the appeal of neckties to me. They were ties I had previously worn but did not yet have a place in the rotation of this blog. One of those ties featured the lovable Wall Street fauna of this entry's title. (Picture and write-up.) And it (Polyester, Romario Manziri) will begin this week's ties on Monday (10/09). For Tuesday and Wednesday, I'll wear two more bulls and bears ties - these are silk, however. On Tuesday (10th), a tie by "Judy Davis, New York, Exclusively for Oppenheimer Funds." On Wednesday (11th), I'll wear another red tie (RM Style, "Stockbroker," © 1995 by Ralph Marlin & Co.). I have another Wall Street themed tie, which I have previously worn and blogged (picture and write-up), so it will not be worn this week. (I still have a few ties that I have yet to wear before I start repeats.) So, stay tuned for a surprise or two for the rest of the week. (Later note: I'm getting some unpleasant surprises myself. This not so live "Live" format for the blog keeps messing up the font on this entry, which I have corrected four times.) Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved 10月2日 The Party's Over Well, considering that the necktie party lasted over a week, your host is feeling a little weak in the knees (but not in the neck) and so is retreating to a few days of humdrum designer ties... with perhaps the exception of the tie for 10-03, a wild polyester (US) number by Oleg Cassini. It's enough to make you wonder if the designer smoked odd cigarettes.
For the rest of the week, however, the ties might be appropriate for an old-fashioned post-party hangover:
10-04 - Geoffrey Beene, silk
10-05 - Christian Dior, silk (fabric woven in Italy; tie made in US)
10-06 - Perry Ellis Portfolio, silk (imported fabric; tie made in US)
By the way, the strangest necktie in the collection is also probably the most uncomfortable. I caught myself tugging at it and adjusting it all day. In a home that I visited, a daughter with a Ph.D. in psychology was visiting. Later, I wondered it she had run some sort of Freudian analysis of my obsessive-compulsive behavior with my tie.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photos to enlarge. 10月1日 Strange Little Ties The necktie party did not end Friday (but, another one has been called off), because a nice hand-painted tie seems appropriate for an Internet celebration. The problem is that, due to a change in plans, I would not see many people, nor would I (and my tie) be seen, and I was planning to wear the strangest tie in my collection.
Do hold onto your seat before you click on the photo. Yes, there are two ties there, two very unusual ties.
On the left is the tie that I shall be wearing tomorrow (Monday, Oct. 2). I have a few skinny neckties and a great many Countess Mara neckties, but this is the only skinny Countess Mara tie that I have. (At its widest, it is less than 2.5 inches.) It has the CM logo and label, and to make things even stranger, a label for "Menards, Ltd., Reno." All I can find about Menards is its inclusion in a list of stores "such as Lowe's, Home Depot, RONA, Reno-Depot and Menards." Let me get this right: the Countess Mara ties are hanging next to the plumbing supplies? Finally, there is a paper label reading "NIRY $30.00." Finally, it is about six inches shorter than standard contemporary ties.
Strangest of all, this weird little tie is made out of... velvet? Something with a distinctly fuzzy texture.
Now, for an even smaller necktie. The one on the right (J.B. Herringbone, polyester, US) is at the widest point about the same width as the previous tie, but it is only about half as long. It is a tie for a small boy, a real tie to be tied not one of those clip-on things.
Obviously, I shall not be wearing it. Back in July, I mentioned that as I was writing the entry, my Designated Shopper (he finds such wonderful ties for me) told me about the birth of his newest grandson. I speculated that he would find wonderful neckties for the boy. But, to my surprise, I found this little jewel - the only real tie for a little boy that I have seen. Its sports motif is especially appropriate since his father his a coach.
Today, the comic strip Pickles showed the little boy Nelson in a necktie and suit. I like the coincidence.
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Segers, all rights reserved Click on photo to enlarge. |
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