Monsoon Season | The Aigle Ecuyer Slush

An equally English (by way of the French), yet non-Wellie solution for the Amazonian weather systems on the Eastern seaboard: Aigle rubber riding boots.  Handcrafted in France since 1973, they're fully waterproof, really, really look as leathery as rubber can and will cost you $195.  Pricey, but when it rains everyday...

(Francesco Maglia umbrellas - like my new brown and yellow striped one from Rain or Shine on 45th Street - are quite nice, too)

We're "New Antiquarians" in The New York Times!!!

It's not every day that you and your sister, two non-fencers, appear in The New York Times in fencing masks, holding vintage rifle cleaners (these items usually only come out after a few cocktails).  We and a few friends were lucky enough to be deemed the "New Antiquarians" for the Thursday Home section...and what fun it is.  Countless thanks to reporter Penelope Green for being so kind and writing such a wonderful story that explores all of our homes and collections - and even includes Taavo Somer, ROOT and our mom and dad.  Also, Michael Weschler, those are some great pics.

Well Hung | George Stubbs

George Stubbs, the renowned 18th century British horse painter (who spent years dissecting horses to perfect his anatomical technique), also toiled in more exotic animal and occasional human portraiture. (He's also the man behind the zebra painting in the Yale post below. If you're ever in New Haven, you really must check out the wonderful, soaring Stubbs room Yale Center for British Art).

Above is his aptly named 1765 work, Indian Cheetah with Two Servants and a Deer.

Albino Baboon and Macaque, circa 1780

Soldiers of the 10th Dragoon Regiment, 1793

Calling All Readers | The Mad Men Walk-on War!!

AMC and Banana Republic are holding a cyber casting call for a walk-on role on Mad Men -- and Porter rabidly wants to win.  We got her all gussied up and pushed that pram all the way down Bedford Ave. so she could display postpartum apathy towards an imaginary child.  This was our second favorite shot.  Click here to see the "winner" (in our minds) and vote!

Vote for Porter!

(Update - as of 2:41 ET on Monday, she's in second place! Amazing!!!! Thank you all so much!  Keep on clickin'!)

Day Trippin' | Yale (the Revisit)

Porter and I developed a Saturday hankering for a taste of Europe, so we popped up to New Haven to revisit Yale's extraordinary neo-gothic environs.  We loved it when we first visited last year - and it's just as breathtaking the third time around (we popped up for pizza and beer at BAR at a couple weeks ago...and got stuck on the highway for two hours after an alleged tornado blew through Westchester and caused a semi to jackknife.  It was well worth it).

The atrium-style bus stops

The Yale University Art Gallery sculpture "garden"

Humorous stone work over the service entrance to the dining hall

One of Paul Mellon's many wonderful George Stubbs paintings ("Zebra," 1763) at the exceptional Yale Center for British Art

 

Remembering the Yale boys who went to war in the Commons

Details on Porter's outfit: Amish leather suspenders from ebay, boys' shirt from Rugby, tie from J.Press (purchased minutes before at the original location at 262 York Street), Equi Comfort riding pants from Dover Saddlery, shoes and bag, Prada.

Porter, hanging out in Commons Dining Hall, where Yalies eat like they're at Hogwarts.

Entrance to the New Haven City Burial Ground

Planet of the Ape

Back in '48, the Italians must have realized how hard it is to get home from a successful day at the flea market on a scooter, so they added a large backside to the Vespa ("the wasp") and called it an Ape ("ap-ey" or "the bee").  The new new version of these adorable three-wheel commercial vehicles from Piaggia are now available in the U.K. and will probably never be sold in the U.S.

Click on the AutoGreenBlog for more info.

Old Sport

The University of Washington has amassed an expansive digital collection of images depicting life of the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the century.  Here we have an extraordinary glimpse of Native American athletes.

(Above: Alaskan Indian football team poses in uniform, Alaska, ca. 1903)

Baseball team, Tulalip Indian School, ca. 1912

Colville baseball team, St. Mary's Mission, Omak, Washington, 1914

Colville baseball players, Keller, Washington, ca. 1925

Fort Spokane baseball team, Washington

First girls' basketball team, Tulalip Indian School, 1912

Ridin' Rough

A short glimpse of Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders galloping up to their HQ at Camp Wikoff at Montauk Point, Long Island in 1903.

Nooks and Crannies

It took four years, but we've finally organized the apartment.  What a joy it is to wake up in what, by comparison, seems like a nearly minimalist home.  The major improvements are seen in these two nooks, former fertile dumping grounds for all that would fit.  Here in the entryway, we: switched animals, added badminton rackets, removed the 15 cheapy folding umbrellas from their pile on the floor and about 900 jackets and scarves from that hook, added portrait of dad.

Neither of us had been into this area next to the kitchen island in roughly a year without acrobatics and strain.  We removed: solidly packed clothing rack (what had become Porter's de-facto closet) and pram filled with vintage children's clothes from our efforts with Hovey Vintage;  Added: liquor previously displayed on a tray/rack thing in the "office area" to the kitchen shelves; faux lizard paper to the back of the shelves; painting; clip light.

Family | Mom and Dad in the '70s

A look at Lana and Porter (Lamson), pre-Hollister and Porter (Lindsay)...

NYC - Fall 1975

San Francisco - Summer 1972

Colorado - 1970

London - 1972

Colorado - 1971

Nova Scotia - 1974

Upstate New York - 1975

Nova Scotia - 1974

Mexico - 1971

Paris (Honeymoon) - 1975

New York City - Spring 1974

Arizona - 1971

Rugby Match (with random child) - 1973

 

Paris (Hotel Plaza Athénée) - 1975

Quite Slow, but Lovely

If someone tells you that you have a face made for radio, slap him/her upside the head and then go wrap yourself into the fetal position and sob. If someone tells you that you have graphic design sense made for radio hug him/her and then pitch a major feature piece on yourself to Print Magazine.  

In a process that would send chills down the spine of any ADD-afflicted technophile today, people used to confirm radio transmissions with Bauhaus-y post cards, or in more proper terms, QSL cards.  

May Day! May Day! Two months later: Message Received. 

Not efficient. Very beautiful.

The examples here are all for sale on ebay for less than $10.

Late Breaker | May A Miracle Occur in Americus, Kansas...

If you live in or near Americus, Kansas and have an extra $45, bid on these cast iron theater seats right now!!!  Only an hour and a half left in the auction.  You have to pick them up.  Go, go, go!!!

Puppet Masters

Today's New York Times takes us beneath the incredible horse puppets created for the London production of "War Horse," a play about a poor boy who loves a horse that is sold to a British officer who rides it off to WWI battles.  The poor boy, shattered, enlists in hopes that he'll find his dear friend.  It's supposedly incredible and heart wrenching and full of never-before-seen puppet mastery.  It's expected to hit New York in 2011. Giddy up.

Photos by Simon Annand

Pedaling Perfection

I had been riding my bike to Queens in the morning, but then some fellow rider left a sticky note on the seat saying something along the lines of: "Someone's gonna getyer pretty little bike if you don't learn to lock it up properly. I've been watching it all week and you're just asking for it to be stolen." I think it was meant in kindness or at least as a public service, but it read like an attack, something written out by a threatening bike villain with a disposition like the Wicked Witch of the West (a woman who certainly used her bicycle to pedal evil).  Fearing the depths of my bike locking inadequacies and the tendency of a stranger to eye my bike for a whole week, I now only ride it when I know I'll be able to watch it.  So much angst over a slightly rusted 1967 Raleigh folding bike that looks like something from the circus below me!  That said, riding this handmade beauty from Ateliers d’Embellie might give me a heart attack...but maybe that's why it comes with a flask.