Hollister Hovey

An Investigation

2012-01-30T09:55:00.001-05:00

Regardless of this old British Abercrombie & Fitch lighter actually belonging to Papa, it's pretty cool...but how much more cool would it be if it actually DID belong to Hemingway? I found it at this tiny shop - Lovejoy Antiques - a couple blocks from my apartment yesterday afternoon and my mind has been awhirl ever since. After a cursory poke around the internet, I've sussed out the following: 

- He considered La Floridita, the old Havana bar that served him countless daquiris back in the day, one of his favorites. (He's seen below throwing back one of these said cocktails with Spencer Tracy in 1955).

- He was known for buying stuff from Abercrombie (including the fateful shotgun).

- On the other hand, though, the folks at La Floridita have not let the lore of Hemingway's patronage fall subtly into history. The joint has a statue of the guy sitting in there today, so it's no stretch to imagine that this is actually just a nice piece of touristy memorabilia, a luxury version of a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. (However, I couldn't find others online).  

What do you think? 

White Out

2012-01-23T08:44:00.001-05:00

If you're ever in a situation where you're sort of on the fence about repainting, throw a Bavarian-themed holiday party and create an elaborate faux timber theme with gaffer's - not masking or artist's, mind you - tape. Yep. Do just that. The resulting mess will be something like the images below.  As one cannot live like THAT, you will be forced to re-think your entire color scheme and revolutionize your whole living space. In our case, our new color scheme is pure, glorious white with some Parisian-style moulding touches (this is just the beginning on the moulding front).  (BTW, those tusks are made from hundreds of little melted plastic toy soldiers! You can see their little guns and bodies when you flip 'em over. How cool!)

Room and Bard

2012-01-20T10:42:00.000-05:00

My family has always been utterly thrilled to know that Jeffersonian architecture never inspired me to read, learn or wax intellectual. All those white columns and red bricks ever mustered in me was a tremendous urge to play journalist and consume large quantities of terribly cheap beer. In the end, that was ok, since I grew up to become a journalist who still loved beer. But I wish my years at W&L would've felt more like I'd imagined, like a movie: cozy, dripping in Faulknerian accents and thought...oozing with some magical dust that would make me devour books like I did in my youth. That never happened. Years passed. Countless novels went half finished (the ashamed would-be reader's way of saying, "barely started").

And then I went to visit Porter at her school, Bard College. Like the most fun guest a college freshman could ever desire, I spent the whole weekend curled up in her tiny dorm room reading away voraciously as she went out and did appropriate, college kid things without me. I couldn't help it. The "dust" had hit me. All those stone buildings! Trees! Mountains! River!

I still think it's one of the prettiest places on earth. And now, the college has posted some of the highlights of its photo archive online. All schools really should do this. It's better than any pamphlet they could whip up. What also helps the ole collegiate PR machine is a huge feature story in Town & Country. 

Blithewood Mansion in the snow

Hanging out at Stone Row (Porter's dorm room was in there, too)

The early years when the campus belonged to St. Stephen's School

The Old Gym - former home of the former Drag Race, a helluva hop that was canceled Porter's junior year after all the ambulances in three counties were dispatched to campus to deal with kids, who, on that night, were highly affected by things other than that magical reading dust.

Main Campus

Ward Manor - this is now a dorm

Early Technicolor: Ziegfield's Glorifying the American Girl 1929

2012-01-06T22:54:00.000-05:00

Just. Completely. Incredible. Daphne Guinness would be proud. Read more here.

Early Kinemacolor No. 2: Deauville, France 1912

2012-01-06T22:45:00.001-05:00

Early Kinemacolor No. 1: With Our King and Queen in India

2012-01-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

Highlights from British India's celebration of George V's coronation in 1911...in color.

Charting Inspiration

2012-01-04T12:17:00.001-05:00

Port and I are keeping track of all the things we'd love to buy for ourselves (but cannot (damnit!)) or for clients (hopefully!) at the Hovey Design tumblr page. I'm a bit heart broken that I didn't choose this wonderful grid theme for my own when I launched it. While it's much more fun to look at the page as a chart, we're tweeting all this too via @HoveyDesign. 

Winter's Finally Here

2012-01-04T00:21:00.000-05:00

As a gal who grew up in a place where school closed when nary a flake fell but but winds blew so cold you'd lose a nose if you waited for the bus for more than five minutes, it seems mighty wimpy that all us New Yorkers are crying over the mid-20s, but it's icy and blistering out there! We're used to light windbreakers and lunch outside on Dec. 31! But perhaps it's time to get out the mid-50s speedsters and grab our skis. Yes. I think it is.

Good Will and Testament

2012-01-03T12:15:00.000-05:00

For 2012 I don't really have a resolution...it's more a mandatory assignment: FINISH YOUR BOOK (on time) AND MAKE IT EVERYTHING YOU'VE DREAMED! So, I'm diving head first into my quest to gather together the most spectacular, touching tales of family pride, childhood joy and nostalgia...and the heirlooms that represent (or will represent) all three. I have chills over the list of people some family friends have suggested, but I want to cast the net as wide as possible. 

So with that in mind, I reach out to you all with a grand request: Do you know anyone or any families who've done an amazing job preserving their legacy - as a family and/or individuals - and incorporating their heirlooms into their homes beautifully?  I'd be thrilled to hear from you! Shoot me an email at hollister.hovey@gmail.com.

(Above: Frida Kahlo's My Grandparents, My Parents and I (Family Tree), 1936)

(Queen Victoria's family of European monarchs)

(The incredible Black family tree mural from Harry Potter)

(A great nautical "tree" found online)

Happy New Year!!!!

2011-12-31T01:47:00.000-05:00

I owe so many people so much for making the past 12 months some of the most exciting of my life. What ridiculous once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, adventures, gifts and laughs you've all given me. I'm so lucky to have you around. Here's a little 2012 cheer for all - and a wish that you all get to spend the rest of your days surrounded with your favorite past-Presidents, polar bears, giraffes, soldiers, cowboys, natives, skiers, tennis champs...or maybe just your best, sweet friends and fam.

Pictures from Home: A Visit to the National World War I Museum

2011-12-29T09:43:00.002-05:00

Kansas City gave me one of the best gifts ever this Christmas: a touching, beautiful, honest, fascinating homage to everyone touched by and lost to the first Great War. You enter the National World War I Museum's new wing (opened in 2006) walking on glass floating above a field of 9,000 poppies, each representing 1,000 of the 9 million soldiers who died during the conflict and recalling images from John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.   

In 1919, a year after the war ended, a local group came together to raise funds for a memorial. Within 10 days, Kansas Citians handed over $2.5 million to make it happen - a staggering amount for the day (or any day). On November 1, 1921, the supreme Allied commanders - Lieutenant General Baron Jacques of Belgium; General Armando Diaz of Italy; Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France; General John J. Pershing of the United States; and Admiral David Beatty of Great Britain - gathered together in the same place for the first and only time to dedicate the site in front of a crowd of 100,000. President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the nearly finished memorial three years later. 

The original museum sits in two sections on either side of the memorial gloriously featuring sections of all that remains from the incredible mural Pantheon de la Guerre, started in Paris as a French propaganda vehicle in 1914 and eventually displayed at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. Originally 402 feet long by 45 feet high, it took 30 artists painting until after the armistice for the massive work to be complete. It served as a sad memorial of loss for Europeans but the Americans framed it as a patriotic piece when went up at the fair. But then it was thrown into storage and forgotten as the second great war unfolded. Kansas City acquired it in the 1950s and pieced together about 7% of the undamaged pieces (which are still staggeringly large) to fill the two old wings of the museum.  This detail featuring tiny portraits of real soldiers above hangs in the western wing.

A detail of a portrait of John Lewis Barkley's uniform. The Missouri boy was declared the most decorated soldier of the Midwest. 

Gas masks

A South African kilt

A model of the German U Boat

Court dress tunic and hat of Baron Rudolph Karl Maria Alexander Schwarzbek von Marau

Grenades

Captain Glenn Orrin Brown's hand monogrammed haversack

More of the Pantheon de la Guerre in the old East Wing

Legacy: Grandma + Givenchy Go to a Party

2011-12-21T10:20:00.001-05:00

Aunt Virginia wasn't the only one in the fam lucky enough to make it into LIFE. It's always been a huge source of family pride that grandma got the cover in '55 (for being a pretty stunning socialite), 12 years after her second husband got his (for fighting Nazis from the cockpit of a P-47 Thunderbolt) (click here to see the covers). It wasn't until a few years ago when I got my own copy, that I realized grandma was inside her issue, too...on the arm of Givenchy! I finally found it online. You can read the whole issue and the article (starting on page 24) right here thanks to Google Books. Man, I love technology!

Legacy: Ginny and Rita Go for a Picnic

2011-12-21T09:44:00.000-05:00

During a 4 a.m. fit of insomnia this morning, I started poking around on the internets and came across something quite shocking: photos of my grandpa's sister riding bikes, making jelly sandwiches and eating chicken with her friend...Rita Hayworth! Aunt Virginia's on the right. Their poor friend Jane Hopkins didn't seem to get the memo about the uniform of the day and Minerva Griswold seems to be kinda struggling to keep up, but at least they all got treats at the end of the 10 mile ride. So fun!

Photos by Peter Stackpole for LIFE Magazine, 1940

Hovey Design is Born!

2011-12-14T23:59:00.000-05:00

In the name of not wasting once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, we figured it would be good to have a website for our new interiors business. It's been near-torture to keep it under wraps until now! Click the pic to take a tour - designed by the dear and amazing Christopher Lopez-Thomas. Port took all the photos. 

You can also tweet us up at @hoveydesign! 

The Decorating Project: Revealed (in a Shocking Way)!

2011-12-14T23:38:00.001-05:00

In what must be the greatest convergence of great luck, timing, loads of effort, lost sleep, manual labor and true proof of Santa, Christmas legend and fairy dust, the results of Porter's and my first decorating commission appear in the home section of this Thursday's New York Times. 

We went from taking six years to fill our windowless loft, to about three months to warm up a brand new, beautiful penthouse with 20 foot high windows that open the walls up 270 degrees, offering clear views from Williamsburg to downtown Brooklyn to the Williamsburg Bridge to the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings.  

The owner made a real leap of faith when he agreed to pay two amateur vintage addicts to fill his stark white glass cube. We can only hope that in setting out to buy him new furniture (and a really huge folding kayak), we've managed to make him a home. 

I'll share all the details of the fun, adventures, generosity and deals that went into this process in a bit, but in the meantime, reporter Emily Weinstein has perfectly captured our motivations and feelings about the project and photographer Trevor Tondro has made it glow with his wonderful shots. We honestly owe them and our client, Peter, our futures.

 Porter and I (who actually look like sisters in the shot below) decided that it would be an incredible shame to not try to make good on the daydreams and promises we've made ourselves for about two decades. So, with this project, the interiors obsession becomes official with the launch of Hovey Design. Porter will man the ship full time, while I throw myself in on nights and weekends. We absolutely cannot wait. We are eternally grateful (and absolutely so excited and shocked that it's really come true!!!!). Let us know if you need some help shopping, Ebaying or filling your entire house. That's what we're (finally) here for!

All photos by Trevor Tondro for The New York Times 

A Very Bavarian Holiday at the Hoveys: The Fest!

2011-12-14T12:48:00.000-05:00

Port and I had been toying with different themes for this year's holiday party for months until one day in late October when The Standard Edition and I popped to around the corner from my office to Bierhaus, midtown's only beer garden (and actually a really really fun one). It was the two of us, a table of wildly drunken German tourists and the most amazingly infectious polka band we'd ever come across. He looked at me and said, you have to have them at your Christmas party...and there it began. 

It's always incredible to see our friends go above and beyond in the costume department. Here are some of the highlights. What fun it was!

Above: The Brothers Bray from BillyKirk and Jamie Apostolou.

Peter Pracilio, the amazing product designer, made two gigantic pretzels and a tiny hat and cape for his French bulldog, Chef Gordon.

Sean Crowley and Meredith Modzelewski came as an extraordinary early 20th century couple.

Farra Korshin and Carly Blumberg Ackley

The Polka Brothers

Cicely Thomas came as the Christkind, the teenage angel who rolls alongside St. Nick (and she even brought a weihnachtsgurke!) 

The Polka Brothers

Tonya Douraghy

Marya Mezzatesta

I never imagined this many people could fit into our place...  

...or this much beer in the fridge!

Photos by Porter Hovey 

A Very Bavarian Holiday at the Hoveys: The Decor

2011-12-12T16:03:00.000-05:00

After creating the Black Forest/cuckoo clock-inspired deer/pheasant/fox/pine cone vignette, a harsh reality set in: our apartment did not resemble anything Bavarian in any way shape or form. Suddenly the "comfortable gentleman's club with a bit more color" (presumably adaptable into a Bavarian theme) was a fluorescent jungle of non-German exotics and more Anglophilia than a gift shop outside Buckingham Palace. Major steps needed to be taken. These steps included: moving almost every piece of furniture into my bedroom, purchasing 10 roe deer antlers, switching out a mantle, switching out a mirror, hiding about 8 heads and a stuffed alligator in my bedroom (with all the furniture), hiding some marble behind the couch and taping an elaborate faux timber theme onto the walls. Here are the results!

I converted the chandelier into a wild floating pine tree of sorts and I carried that 9' tree (with Porter's help guiding the tip) on my shoulder/back and almost died (it was 20 years old! A geezer of a tree!). No half measures allowed at the holidays - even if you're left half bent in pain for weeks.

(Photos by Porter Hovey)

Boy Toys

2011-12-06T15:56:00.001-05:00

Sotheby's is teaming up with RM Auctions down in Florida to sell off a load of toys for boys, men and all cool chicks who enjoy chrome and wood (in all shapes and sizes).  All of these items in the Milhous Brothers' Collection go on the block this February. There's this 1933 "Miss Florida" speedboat by Jack Kipfer (above), the 1939 Dooling 2nd Series FWD tether race car, the 1950 "Buster" Brown Rudge motorcycle, the Curley Class B Mite Racer Model and the 1924 Baby Bootlegger.  

Frohe Festtage!

2011-11-27T20:47:00.001-05:00

Two years back, Porter and I went to the American frontier for Christmas, but this time around we thought it might be grand to holiday in the dark woods and high peaks of southern Germany. The apartment transformation into the Black Forest and Alpine lands of Bavaria has begun! 

(I hope everyone had the most amazing day of stuffing and thanks on Thursday. To say I'm thankful for this amazing year is an understatement - what a ride! Here's to a wonderful holiday season. I cannot even begin to communicate my gratitude for all the generosity and kindness out there. Cheers to you all!) 

Playing Safe: Auto Polo

2011-11-23T11:45:00.001-05:00

Oh, the games men play. I'm just guessing, but I would imagine the point of auto polo - if not to score goals - is to stay inside (or at least on top of) one's (upright) automobile. Was there a winner? We'll never know! 

All photos plopped over from the Library of Congress' wonderful flickr stream.

Black, White + Red All Over

2011-11-22T15:53:00.001-05:00

For a gigantic slice of Russian publishing history, pop to the Helix Art Center in...

...San Diego.

 They collect and consign every kind of Russian paper good they can get their hands on - and the results are incredible. If you know someone who loves great fonts, your holiday shopping may be complete after a digital stroll through the collection.

Click on the book covers to get the full scoop (not to be confused with Moop).

Acquisitions | Field Boots, Slips, Cap and Case!

2011-11-20T22:13:00.001-05:00

Traditionally, the annual Pier Antiques Show has seemed like a real life stroll through 1stDibs.com - i.e. a fantastic experience for that 1% crew. If you stuck next to the Hermes and Chanel selections, nothing had changed, but we scoured the joint and scored some great 1%-worthy-lookin' stuff for, let's say, 72nd percentile prices. Highlights included these custom-made-for-someone-else (and barely-worn) E. Vogel field boots and a perfect little schoolboy cap. 

Then there were the loads of last minute purchases needed to finish the (honestly almost complete) design project: a flag, a 19th century monkey in a frame, a deco lamp, a sterling and glass bourbon decanter, a horse-jumping photo tryptic, six architectural sketches and an old squash racket. 

On top of all that, I meandered through SoHo and Nolita where I found a great leather iPhone case at the J.Crew men's shop and the warmest, cutest wintery espadrille-esque house slippers from the new Armor Lux shop on Mulberry Street. The latter helped me realize the true greatest failing of corporate America today: only 0.00001% of workers actually get to wear wool house slippers at the office. 

I think I need a tent.

Excuses, a King and the World's Toughest Palm Tree

2011-11-17T14:18:00.001-05:00

Pretty incredible (in the worst way possible) that my first post in November occurs SEVENTEEN days into the month. Porter and I have been scrambling to finish up the decorating project and we've decided to keep things completely under wraps until it's ready for a big unveiling. We're pretty proud of it -- especially since we even managed to incorporate a bunch of straight lines and modern touches.

Also incredible is the fact that when King Carl XV of Sweden (I quite like his schlumpy posture in this portrait) popped over to Karlskrona, Sweden in 1860, the local artisans made him a palm tree out of the most modern handguns of the day. You can hang out next to said tree at the Karlskrona Marine Museum today. (There are also hostile pineapples made of weapon parts sitting along side, too).

Stay tuned in the next few weeks for the big decorating project unveiling - as well as a litany (I hope!) of holiday shopping guides!

A Very Scary (Decorating) Story

2011-10-31T11:40:00.000-04:00

With a November 15 deadline for the decorating project looming, Porter and I decided we should head where the antiques are, so that meant Hudson, NY. That was a completely great decision at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning and continued to be until around 3:00. We found perfect white metal patio benches with rubberized, Band Aid colored bands that look like something from the set of a Mathew Barney film, gigantic celadon Japanese rice pots and a iron bedframe with brass balls for the project - and picked up a portrait of the Duke of Wellington (above), six beautiful tartan scarves and five charming reverse glass paintings for our joint and necks. Then it started to sprinkle. So, we got into the minivan and headed south. By 3:15 there was nothing but white. And then things went down hill: 

6:15: Stuck in the snow getting pushed by group of men.

6:30: Fallen tree blocks the road.

6:45: Minivan stuck again with long line of cars behind it. 

6:46: Unnecessary, unhelpful yelling at the navigator (Porter) begins.

6:50: Helpful men push minivant onto a cul de sac as the state troopers close the Taconic Parkway. 

7:00: Ship abandoned.

7:00-7:30: Joe, a kind-hearted jazz pianist/cable man drives us to the Ramada in Fishkill.

7:30: Ramada and all other lodging in Fishkill fully booked. Decision to camp in the Ramada made.

8:00: Guy in snow pants comes in and declares that his day had to be worse than all of ours. He explains why:

He wakes up in the morning set to help his friend move. The storm rolls in, so they finish up and then head out too see if they can help pull people from snow. They come across a car stuck in an embankment and try to help. A gigantic tree falls on that car. As they run for their lives, his friend sprains his knee. They decide to call it a day and head for the barn until the power in his 2007 Nissan goes out, stalling the car. They get out and walk away, just in time for the thing to burst into a gigantic ball of flames. A BALL OF FLAMES! A corrections officer takes pity and drives them to the Ramada. 

We give him beer.

Sunday

3:30 a.m.: We finally get a room.

9:00 a.m.: Taconic still closed to all traffic. Worried about the car and the new purchases, we decide to walk the six miles to go fetch it, taking comfort in the concept of at least making progress in some direction. A kind mom in a Jeep picks us up on mile 5 and drives us the rest of the way.

11:15 a.m.: Car located and totally safe. Daylight reveals an absolutely treacherous path taken the night before and substantial damage to other cars and trees along the way.

3:30 p.m.: Back safe in Brooklyn. Exhausted.

  As far as shopping trips go, this may have been our Waterloo.

P.S. Despite this being the least festive Halloween post ever, I have to say, the weather may have played tricks, but it was an utter treat to see people at their best, exuding the finest generosity of spirit and kindness. Joe, the wonderful lady who picked us up and the exhausted-but-helpful-and-sweet staff of the Fishkill Ramada, you're all pretty damned wonderful. Thank you so much! 

The Most Exciting News (Of My Life)!!

2011-10-24T17:26:00.002-04:00

It is with immeasurable quantities of unbridled joy that I get to type: I'm writing a BOOK! A big, shiny coffee table book...for Rizzoli!!! 

Porter gets to do the photography, too! It's really, really a dream come true for both of us. 

It would have never happened without the tireless efforts of Jean Sagendorph at Mansion Street Literary Management.

We are so, so grateful to you, Jean (and the lovely Mrs. Blandings for making the introduction).

Rizzoli, thank you so much for taking a chance on this blogger and herlittle sis. We've adored your beautiful books our whole lives and are just so honored to be working with you.

It's so wonderfully fitting to get the news just a couple weeks beforewhat would've been our mom's 65th birthday. The project is an homage toher and her legacy.

We'll work like mad to do you proud, Mommy!

Need for Tweed

2011-10-17T16:22:00.001-04:00

 On Saturday, a load of ladies and gents threw on some tweedy bits and gathered around the Rugby Store on University Place for the first U.S. Tweed Run.  Because of the rampant, occupational protesting going on around the island, the "run" (bike ride) portion was truncated into a ride around the West Village, but the duds still looked pretty nice. 

I wore jodhpurs, a Rugby windowpane tweed hacking jacket (they gave me one - so nice!), my new navy blue Sermoneta driving gloves and my Brooks Brothers cap toe boots. 

Bill Cunningham showed up to take some snaps! 

Port came in a Rubgy knit dress and swaddled herself in a J.Press Brown University college scarf and regimental pin. 

Rugby knit dresses are kinda short on 6' tall girls - and very dangerous in a stiff breeze!

(Photos by Porter Hovey and me) 

Birthday Dunes

2011-10-13T13:47:00.000-04:00

As a little kid, one thing was guaranteed: rain on the day of my birthday party. Hulu hoop contest at Winstead's diner? Rain. Hay ride at Saddle & Sirloin? Rain. So, after all those years of soak outs, someone in the sky said, It's time to do HHH a good one...and gave us last weekend. We'd always planned to head to Montauk, but with a cozy sweaters-on-the-beach vibe. But instead, we were treated to full-out summer and probably the best, most care-free, wonderful birthday weekend of my life (that included the best lobster roll ever to touch my buds at the appropriately named, Lobster Roll down the road in Amagansett). Here's the photo evidence:  

It was closed. For the season. So was Ruschmeyers! 

A violent crime or a flip that could've used a bit more air? Hum.

That is Porter - and I am actually less tan. Yep. 

A very athletic ninja chop.

Yep, Port loves J.Crew stripes.

Me, on the upper deck at Gosman's.

The Fixer Upper | A Desk, a Lamp and Some Gigantic Bullets

2011-09-26T08:34:00.004-04:00

Here's a tiny vignette of selections that will go into one of the guest bedrooms of the Williamsburg decorating project. The 19th c. desk, brass lamp and bullets all came from Dickinson's in Beacon, NY. The stapler to the right is from Restoration Hardware and the indiscernible ivory Bakelite page turner is from a great little shop in Cold Spring. The navy pleated shade is a custom order from Just Shades in Nolita. This and just heaps and heaps of more amazingly fun finds currently sit in our already quite stuffed loft. It's so exciting to be making a dent!

Hovey Films | The Late Date

2011-09-18T20:21:00.000-04:00

One of the prettiest places on earth - seriously, all of earth - is snuggled up, down a winding road just off Annandale road, past a gigantic wishbone at Bard College: Blithewood Manor and Garden. I've learned that it's the perfect setting for picnics - and also some good ole sisterly hazing. The last time were were there, I made Porter play dead, reenacting the Edward Gorey's opening credits to Mystery! (you know, for the blog!).

On Saturday, I decided that the afternoon's activities for her should include sprinting and spinning - until she could neither sprint nor spin one step more - all while wearing polo boots.

Here we have a silly little film of the antics. Please excuse lack of attention to detail in the props department. It's hard to think of such things when spitting with laughter. (It's also very hard to hold the camera still).

(The boots were a treasure find at the Chelsea Flea Market a few weeks back and her dress is from Rugby).

The song is Penguin Cafe Orchestra's Air a Danser.

The Fixer Upper | A Beacon in Beacon

2011-09-18T19:56:00.000-04:00

The deadline to finish the apartment decorating project is looming (in the next couple months) - but we're breathing easier tonight after a ridiculously fruitful jaunt north. We were headed up to Rhinebeck, but on a whim, said, Hell, let's swing through Beacon. The first and only place into which we swung: Dickinson's at 440 Main Street. We left with: a 19th century leather top desk, a Victorian bed, a WWII radio receiver, a brass lamp, some very large bullets, a school house chalkboard, a huge framed map, A PROPELLER...and a 1940s KAYAK (in bits, in the green bags). Phew. It's amazing. You must go! (Esp. if you want a vintage marble-topped fridge, a couple huge arts and crafts style club-ish chairs, a wonderful painting of a boat or any number of beautiful clocks!).

The loot!

Rugby Crosses the Gain Line

2011-09-15T21:35:00.001-04:00

Rugby's thrown co-education aside and graduated from University (Place) with its two new tiny, beautiful single-sex boutiques on Bleecker.

The boys' (at 390 Bleecker) looks like stepping into the ultimate boarding school movie. Loads of vintage college scarfs, cricket jackets, tweeds and slippers (including a pair of vintage John Lobbs that might have cost more than a semester at Eton), hang and sit against dark woods, intermingling with the new collection. Besides that one pair of velvet, gold-threaded beauties (which spend many of their days in a safe), all the vintage is for sale.

The girls' (380 Bleecker) takes things more lightly with old ivory-painted wood, ruffled pillow ticking dressing room curtains and muted tartans on a large french settee.

Those two frames to the left show off a couple pages from an old English embroidery factory's inventory "catalog." Someone carefully drew in columns with pencil and glued in all the school patches. Library style, they stamped the date alongside whenever there was a re-order. (I saw the whole BOOK - honestly 4 inches thick - of these a couple years back and nearly passed out).

This fall's slipper selections, including a pair designed for October 15th's Tweed Run! (More on that in a bit!)

Last spring, they launched a Haberdashery shop of really great suits and sport coats at the University Place digs. Now, the Bleecker store offers made-to-measure shirts with oxford and broad cloth from New England Shirt Company. (I've ordered up a pink, club-collared Oxford with sans serif HHH monogram on the pocket).

There are the Lobbs!

Here you can see the lightness of the women's store.

The gals get vintage, too.

A little peek at the ruffled ticking curtains.

I love that the boys just get busts and the girls get mannequins with full, (somewhat intimidating) personalities. The gal above seems quite relaxed, though.

Note: Not being one for half measures in real estate, Ralph also opened an expanded space for RRL's fancy side across the street. It's pretty spectacular, too. Expensive, but so good lookin'.

(All photos by Porter Hovey)

Our Digs on Design Sponge!

2011-09-12T11:59:00.000-04:00

Porter and I are so excited to see shots of our apartment up on Design Sponge today! Port took these shots a couple weeks back - and they're really some of the first to accurately capture the blue walls. Take a peek! (and be sure to check out Grace Bonney's amazing, brand new interiors tome, Design Sponge at Home!).

AND - more shots of the blue walls can be seen in the upcoming book, The Birding Life, which hits shelves on Oct. 18 (with a covered unveiled on Amazon yesterday!). 

Fantasies, on a Crisp White Background

2011-09-08T11:11:00.000-04:00

One of the reasons I started this blog was to stop living beyond my means. The need to purchase amazing items (esp. coffee table books) is often tempered by taking or stealing a photo and plopping it up here. Those are only on the rational days, though. More often than not, it's, "Wow, that would be so great on the blog!" as I hand my debit card over and purchase a vintage Louis Vuitton trunk. That it not a remote possibility when scrolling around on 1stdibs, however - and that's the main reason why I started my tumblr page. Turns out I'm not the only one with 1stdibs envy: Celerie Kemble has it - and 1stdibs founder, Michael Bruno, does, too!  Steven Kurutz was kind enough to include me in his own homage to these pangs of antiques pain in the Home section of today's New York Times. So fun! Thanks so much, Steven!

Holler & Squall's Unlimited Things

2011-09-07T15:14:00.000-04:00

Along the westernmost reaches of Atlantic Ave. - so far west, you can almost take a dip in the East River - sits Holler + Squall, a perfect little boutique filled with Deyrolle-worthy taxidermy and industrial/European antiques. 

Taxidermy like this MONKEY!!! (He's an expensive monkey - $2,000 - but a MONKEY nonetheless)...

...or this gator, who's obviously less interested in hanging out...

(These duffel bags from the Quality Mending Company are currently 25% off).

...or this buffalo, who will be hanging out forever...

...or this huge, monitor lizard - who will eat you...with a smile.

(Very importantly: The shop's right next door to New York's - and maybe America's - greatest sailor bar). 

Holler + Squall

71 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn

Flicks | Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

2011-08-31T14:20:00.000-04:00

The Fixer Upper | Plants and Tassels

2011-08-25T10:54:00.001-04:00

Porter and I are making tiny dents in our penthouse decorating endeavor and it feels so good to see it start to come together. We're going to man up this Hollywood Regency stool from ebay with suiting fabric or a nice, thick Black Watch wool for one of the three bedrooms. We want this one to feel like entering a modernized Napoleonic uniform when we're done. 

Last Sunday, we hit the flower district in Chelsea and picked up this adorable olive tree, the two topiary trees below, and two box hedges that will stand guard alongside the outdoor cocktail/bar area. The patio is a miraculous 30' x 20' (it's like an entire extra loft apartment!) - with full views of Manhattan and the river. 

We got four of these guys on ebay for the Napoleonic room.

I love these French-looking planters. A colonial-style couch is arriving to fit between them on Saturday! 

Gettin' Out of Dodge (In Style....or Just Leather)

2011-08-19T15:31:00.001-04:00

The lovely Chris Frey interviewed Porter and me about our travels - and the piece appears on Ebay's The Inside Source blog today! I love how they laid out my auction selections (which, in the end, mostly involve leather). Click here to see the interactive original.

War and (I'll Take 10) Pieces

2011-08-19T14:52:00.001-04:00

The folks over at Art Knowledge News report that one ridiculously tasteful history buff's collection of militaria, uniforms and other pieces of military greatness will go on the block at Bonhams in San Francisco this November. There isn't a catalog posted on the Bonhams site yet, but stay tuned!  In the meantime, rip your heart out of your chest over this week's Quail Lodge Sale.

The Remarkable Albums of Sylvia Drew

2011-08-18T09:56:00.000-04:00

There is an art to scrapbooking, and if anyone should be crowed queen of the hobby, it's Sylvia Drew. In the September issue of World of Interiors, her great grandson, historian Turtle Bunbury, recounts his childhood when he'd get to flip through all 240 vibrant, beautiful pages of her carefully arranged watercolors, prints and photos compiled and created from 1909 to the 1930s. They truly represent just remarkable graphic design. These shots were originally captured by James Fennell and then instagrammed by me.

You can buy a copy of the first of her four albums through the family by emailing history@turtlebunbury.com.

Best of (in my Noggin) the NYIGF's Accent on Design

2011-08-16T18:27:00.001-04:00

 Maybe it's because of the sheer childlike joy of giving (and getting) gifts, but I always revert to kid-like fantasies when I walk the New York International Gift Fair. Last time, I liked the very grown up Bellocq tea packaging the best, but I was really also in love with Doca Pet's doggy chew toys that looked like green plastic soldiers and smelled (and tasted, if you were to take a lick) like peanut butter. This time around, a gigantic giraffe won out. He's from the Japanese design house D-Torso and he would make any kid who got him and put him together the coolest, most imaginative tyke in school. It's die cut cardboard! But also a B.A. creature. 

That said, the uber modern doll houses from Brinca Dada aren't too shabby either (yet exponentially smaller).

John Derian's booth looked just like the store, which means it was amazing (as usual). 

This Matouk towel was actually in an entirely different section, but I loved it for obvious reasons.

And we can't all be like Kate M., but we can buy oodles of her grandmother in-law from the fun folks at Kikkerland. 

Playing Dress Up with Anthro (Again!)

2011-08-15T17:00:00.003-04:00

 Last week anthropologie hosted what might have been the world's most darling blogger event since bloggers started blogging. Turns out it's just as fun to have hair, makeup and wardrobe pampering in semi-public settings as it is in your own home! They let us try on clothes from the fall line - and treated us to full shoulders-up spiffing sessions.

 I have that same J.Crew shirt that the makeup artist is wearing, but am boring and wear it with a blazer. It looks ridiculously great with a leopard print turban and tie die skirt - much, much better. 

 These teats from New York Cake Pops were beautiful and maybe the best bites of cake I've ever consumed.  

 This Yabusame necklace is my favorite accessory of the fall selections (besides those amazing sunglasses Porter's wearing on top!) 

The event that keeps on giving: My hair (which has been blondish for about a month now) was so big and amazing, I almost cried when I had to wash it on day three. This is day two - the best of the days.  

And here we are in the Smilebooth acting like goofs. Nice tongue, Port! 

Shedding Light on the Peacock

2011-08-15T13:10:00.002-04:00

The Smithsonian is finally shedding light on James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery. The restored ceramics room from shipping magnate Frederick Leyland's 1904 Detroit mansion has been open in D.C. since April, but the shutters have not. Now, visitors can see the gilt green, pottery-filled master room in its full sunlit glory on the third Thursday of each month (starting this week!). 

Library Lovin'...on the iPad

2011-08-11T17:58:00.000-04:00

The New York Public Library isn't just scanning its photography and prints collections, it's cobbling them together as incredible, multi-media historical experience for the iPad. Download Biblion and you'll have an entire window into the 1939 New York World's Fair. The celebs, the clothes, the food, the future. It's a pretty fun ride!

My favorite item. Hard for surrealists to meet real deadlines, it seems.

They show you the backs of the photos, too!

The Greatest of Challenges: The Hoveys Take on Modern

2011-08-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

Porter and I just found out that we get to decorate...a PENTHOUSE! And in the greatest of ironies, the we girls - who live in an apartment without windows - will be choosing and arranging items in a place that's basically a cube with 30-foot glass walls (and a 30'x20' patio!!!!). It's really quite a dream come true. The owners only instructions: No heads. I think we can handle that. (It's still going to be an amazingly hard, wildly fun load of work - and we cannot wait!).

The views from this place blow the mind. Here's a look down onto the Williamsburg Flea from that loft-apartment sized outdoor space. 

Plum Crazy!

2011-08-05T18:03:00.000-04:00

Haskell Harris at Garden & Gun asked me to cook up a fun cocktail recipe for my guest blog post on Belle Decor this month. The plums at the farmers' market this week were so ripe that their sweet smell was, well, smellable, from 20 feet away. So, they got to be the key ingredient. I've had some definite cocktail failures in my day (bacon vodka Bloody Marys really sounded like a brilliant idea! They did!) - but this one is actually shockingly good (after one initial failed attempt). Pop over to the G&G blog for the (very loose) recipe. 

Perhaps  my subconscious started acting up this morning, because I had no  intention of placing Sylvia Plath right below my recipe for a Plum Crazy...but there she is! Oops! (And yes, I know it's actually "plumb" but that wouldn't make much sense here!). 

Dead Poets Society Pt. 2 | Sylvia Plath on BBC Radio, 1962

2011-08-05T14:04:00.001-04:00

Sylvia interviewed by the British Council's Peter Orr. 

Orr: You as a poet and a person, too, straddle the Atlantic - if I can put it that way... 

Plath: That's a rather awkward position but I'll accept it.

Dead Poets Society | W.H. Auden (In Memory of W.B. Yeats)

2011-08-05T13:54:00.003-04:00

How wonderful to hear the poet's own voice. No man honors the dead better than Auden. Well, maybe Whitman. No need for a competition, though. We're just so lucky to have had both bend the language so beautifully.

Wheeee!

2011-08-02T12:04:00.002-04:00

Gjon Mili shoots aggressive badmintoners jumping around with shuttlecocks in '39 for LIFE. So great!

The Art (and Science) of Shaving

2011-07-26T13:48:00.003-04:00

I bought myself a safety razor last week because I thought it looked cool. However, when a gal has 20/1000 vision (or worse) without contacts and has been shaving her legs for two decades with less care than a child going at a bowl of cake batter with a spatula, "safety" is the last word I would have recommended. 

Here is a scientific attempt at more precise shaving techniques - but even more terrifying! The British Pathe guys shot this at a research center in Isleworth, Middlesex, England in 1959 - and luckily, the camera crew stuck around to capture some ladies who got to (less perilously) test out shampoo.

(His arm is wired so they could measure his strokes. Seems that someone could have just counted instead of trying to electrocute the guy. But their research - that I highly question - showed that a man removes an average of SEVEN meters of hair each time he shaves!).

Miu Miu's Muta - The Most Beautiful Creepy Short Film Ever Made

2011-07-25T09:34:00.001-04:00

Great Grandma's Sex (Ed) Book

2011-07-22T17:29:00.001-04:00

A couple years back, I wrote about my great grandmother's amazing career as the first female medical illustrator in the U.S. - and her later roles helping sort out the juvenile justice system in the U.S. Along the way, she managed to pen the first - and maybe only - sex ed book written from the perspective of the fetus (the fetus being my grandma's older brother, who was in great grandma's tum when she wrote it). I finally got my hands on a 1926 edition of How I Came  to Be, the autobiography of an unborn  infant - but you can all read and download it from the folks at Google Books who managed to scan the Boston Medical Library's 1916 version (they got theirs in 1917 - so cool!).

Her husband also had a bit of a wild professional path. Before becoming a surgeon who lectured about things like recurrent nephrolithiasis he was head coach of the UNC football team (1907)! 

Films of Edie

2011-07-21T11:14:00.006-04:00

You could store a baby in most of my purses, so it was a huge leap of faith for me to purchase a comparably miniature Edie bag from J.Crew. No - you can't cram in an iPad or an entire year's subscription of W magazine, but it sure holds all my necessities - with room to spare. It's also really nice to have a shoulder strap for once. 

But almost more importantly, this post is meant to show off the ridiculously fun Super 8 iPhone app! Yeah, yeah, there's Hipstamatic and ShakeIt and Instagram and Camera Bag for the still photos, but Spielberg and crew are letting us make our own little vintage movies. Now your totally mundane activities can be captured and made to look like the opening credits of The Wonder Years. You just shoot a bunch of clips - and then "develop your film" and it makes a little movie! So fun.

I also shot this one while hanging around New Haven Union Station yesterday. (It's actually much cooler than the purse one). 

The Perils (and Virtues!) of Prince Street

2011-07-20T14:42:00.002-04:00

Prince Street is proving utterly perilous. Like a Bermuda triangle, er, straight line, of impulse buying fits. A couple years back, I decided it would be good to get a bit of exercise and walk from Grand Central home across the Williamsburg Bridge. I bought a Prada purse on the way. There was the Louis Vuitton trunk purchased on a coffee run this spring. And two weeks ago, it was this Hermes  H Hour watch on a stroll to the 6 train. NOT GOOD (but SOOO GOOD!). 

The thing is - these are some of my favorite purchases of all time - mostly because I'd coveted the items for years and then found them waiting for me, like holy grails unveiled, at prices I could swallow at consignment shops and sample sales. 

The watch came from A Second Chance, this incredible shop filled with so much vintage Chanel that Coco or Karl might even be envious. The exterior is painted a frightening color of hot pink, so I'd been walking past it for years, thinking it was some no-name version of Claire's Boutiques. I couldn't have been more wrong. The Prada bag was from INA - which is always fantastic (as is the men's shop next door - I went for a coffee with a friend and talked him in to a pop-in. He left with three Ralph Lauren herringbone tweed blazers). 

(AND I thought it would be fun to update the watch a bit, so I replaced the tan leather Hermes band - which was really great - with this gator one from Central Watch at Grand Central. They've got loads of beautiful lizard and croc/gator ones - as well as more nylon stripes than you can imagine).

Callin' All Southern Craftsmen (and Craftsladies)!

2011-07-19T13:42:00.000-04:00

Garden & Gun Magazine is calling all butchers, bakers, candlestick makers (and any others who make and manufacture their own products for consumption, sport, fashion or home somewhere below the Mason-Dix).

Click here for more scoop on this year's Made in the South Awards. If you're the craftiest, you'll be featured in the magazine, win 500 bucks and get an online boutique at www.taigan.com (which has some pretty great vendors, including NOLA's Aidan Gill!). 

Entries due August 1! Good luck! 

A Sad, Sad Day

2011-07-12T16:57:00.001-04:00

Lachlan died today. For the second time. 

Porter and I have been struggling with a moth invasion for six months. Bags and bags of wool clothes have hit the trash. The salvaged wool pieces hang in ugly plastic bags in our closets. It's been terrible. And gross. But we thought it over. 

Then, last weekend, we took Lachlan, the merino sheep, off his wall. How we didn't think that moths that munch on spun, died wool might enjoy unspun, natural wool just as much is beyond me. Frankly, they love it. They cannot get enough. They devoured the entire top of his head. They ruined him. 

We'd had a couple deer (Denver and Michael Gregory) - but Lachlan was the majestic creature that sparked our taxidermy spree. Without Lachlan, there probably wouldn't be Daedalus or Icarus (the swans) or Mandela (the nyala) or even Cormack (the highland bull). Would the apartment have ever made it into The New York Times or ELLE Decoration? I don't think so. It was all Lachlan.

 We tried to salvage him from the devastation, but it was beyond repair (and we both were on the cusp of asphyxiation by moth ball). So, this morning, I grabbed him by his plastic-wrapped horns and put him in the dumpster. Thank goodness he was covered and I didn't have to look him in the glass eye.

We'll have remember him through the photos and this portrait (above) where I dressed him up and added a bit of red tint to his lustrous woolen locks. And we really have to do something about the lonely, empty oval on the wall where he once looked out over the loft. Goodbye, sweet Lachlan, goodbye.  

Acquisitons | Wodehouse, on "The Continent"

2011-07-11T10:26:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I found these two P.G. Wodehouse paperbacks at the used book table adjacent to Washington Square Park (the renovation of which is absolutely beautiful and will shock anyone who walked through it 10 years - or even 10 months ago). Ironically, the design of these German paperbacks was in some way meant to cut down on the tendency to judge books by their covers, but I bought them mainly because I loved their covers (and I do actually love Wodehouse. Who wouldn't!?). They were published by Tauchnitz, the Leipzig-based printing house that dates back to the late 18th century for English speakers on the European continent. The best part: they explicitly say, "Not to be introduced into the British Empire or U.S.A." 

Auctions | Joyce's Odyssey

2011-07-06T14:09:00.006-04:00

The passport that allowed James Joyce to travel Europe with Nora and the kids while he finished up Ulysses goes on the block at Sotheby's London on July 14 as part of the English Literature, History, Children's Books and Illustrations sale. This little 10-paneled piece of paper is expected to fetch up to GBP 70,000. 

Cy Twombly, In Context

2011-07-05T17:55:00.000-04:00

Never mention two words around me: Ken or Burns. If you do, I will launch into a diatribe about the failings of the American education system and cry out, "Why can't they just teach things in context!?! My god, give those kids some context - just like Ken Burns does!!!" 

Literature without historical context? Nice stories. Art and music without history? Just pretty paintings and catchy tunes. Calculus without physics? Freakin' confusing and charty. Spanish without plans for an amazing trip to Buenos Aires or Barcelona at the end? Pointless.

 In high school, you might be studying Chinese imperialism while reading Gatsby and listening to Mozart. It's all taught in silos. You eventually piece things together, but it could have just been taught the fun and interesting way the first time around. Kids would be running around, pumping their fists in the air, exalting, "My god, it all makes sense!" Yes, I'm sure they would.

This context is absolutely vital for understanding modern art. To understand the war years and the aftermath is to understand Picasso's cubism and Pollack's splatters. But even with context, I never got Cy Twombly. He scribbled and smeared and I just didn't like it. Adding "Zeus!" to what looked like a preschooler's tantrum on canvas? That's not art, I told myself (while frustrated with my aesthetic narrow-mindedness). 

But then I got some very cool, seemingly local gossipy context in art history class at Washington & Lee University.

Cy grew up in Lexington, Virginia and his dad, also Cy (after Cy Young), was athletic director at the college.  The professor explained that Cy, the artist, was never understood by Cy, the jock, and that their tensions haunted him for much of his life. As much as he reeled from the fratty, macho environment of W&L and his home life, he actually poured it into his art. His gray paintings aren't just gray canvases with scribbles, the professor explained, they're symbolic of his dad's work, figuring out plays for the football team on a chalkboard. "My god, it all makes sense!!!"

I'd like to think that all those chalkboard paintings are all meant to show us all that there is no real playbook for fathers and sons - that it's all just a mess and you have to play the game anyway.

None of the non-factual parts of that tale may even be remotely true, but it did provide the context (faux or not) I needed to appreciate his art. Cy died today in Rome - his other more artsy home - at 83.  

Maybe for Next July 4...

2011-07-05T12:30:00.001-04:00

For this month's Garden & Gun post, I thought it would be fun to plan a little 4th of July party in the spirit of the fight - not just the victory - of our revolution.  So, based on the scene they cooked up at the Smithsonian, I suggest throwing a party like George W. might have on the front for July 4, 2012 (because I'm posting this on July 5, 2011). Click here for the details!

Washington, the Mason

2011-07-04T10:41:00.002-04:00

The Virginia Masons broke off from the Pennsylvania chapter and started their own lodge - Alexandria Lodge No. 22 - on April 28, 1788. Under the new Virginia charter they named a Master: George Washington. On a hunt for a non-Peale portrait of the General, I came across these wonderful old postcards depicting the artifacts and history of the lodge and Washington's influence there. As told by the Washington (State) chapter, the story for each goes like this:

This rare picture of General Washington in Masonic regalia, was painted from life by Williams of Philadelphia, in 1794 for Alexandria Washington Lodge, No. 22, A. F. & A. M., of Alexandria Va. of which Washington was then a Past Master. It is probably the only authentic work showing him in advanced age. the apron and sash worn in the picture were inherited by "Lawrence Lewis," Washington's nephew, who presented them to the Lodge in 1812, where they ate still preserved.

This collection of Washington relics is the property of Alexanderia Washington Lodge, No. 22, A. F. & A. M., and presented to the Lodge in 1812 by Lawrence Lewis, Washington's nephew; his wedding gloves; farm spurs; pocket compass; pruning knife; medicine scales; bleeding implements and many other valuable relics which have been presented tot he lodge from time to time by his relatives.

This Trowel has been used on many important occasions, the most notable being the laying of the Cornerstone of the National Capital (by General Washington) in 1793. Washington Monument in 1848, and the Masonic Temple in Washington, D. C., by President Roosevelt, in 1907.

Ease view of "Old" Alexandria Washington Lodge, No 22; A. F. & A. M., Alexandria, VA., of which General George Washington was first Worshipful Master in 1788.89, showing Master's chair occupied by Washington when Master, also original desk, benches, etc. The Lesser Lights were used at the laying of the Cornerstone of the National Capital and at Washington's Funeral. On the wall to the left of Master's Chair is the Williams Painting of Washington, made in 1794 for the Lodge.

The Lesser Lights of Alexandria Washington Lodge No. 22, A. F. & A. M. Alexandria, VA., were used by the Lodge at the laying of the cornerstone of the National Capitol in 1763 and at Washington's funeral in 1799. The Clock was in General Washington's bed chamber when he died. Doctor Elisha C. Dick, Master of the Lodge and one of the attending physicians, cut the pendulum cord and stopped the old timepiece at ten-twenty P. M., the exact time of his death. Three days later Mrs. Martha Washington presented it to the Lodge. Pendulum or weight with cord severed shown to the left of clock, hour glass to the right.

This Chair, the property of Alexandria Washington Lodge, NO. 22, A. F. & A. M., was occupied by General George Washington while Master of the above named Lodge 1788-9, and was in constant use for 117 years. Now kept in a glass case and used only on special occasions such as installation of officers, for distinguished guests, etc.

(Happy 4th of July!)

A Most Incredible Surprise

2011-06-29T10:05:00.001-04:00

Back in February, I discovered the incredible portrait artist, Reginald Gray. And yesterday, Reginald Gray surprised me with a package that housed this wonderful portrait! I'm still in shock - and so deeply flattered. Reginald, this is one of the kindest gestures anyone has ever made towards me. Thank you so, so much. 

Flicks | A Dangerous Method

2011-06-28T14:06:00.001-04:00

Freud, Jung and a lot of hot sexytime (albeit not with each other) coming this November thanks to David Cronenberg.

Harvard-Yale Games (and Some Extra Time in the Bean)

2011-06-27T12:59:00.003-04:00

Porter and I made our seasonal pilgrimage to New Haven on Thursday for a quick night at the Study Hotel (which is a huge testament to the power of the Yale Alumni and parents who roll into town a couple times a year). We hit all our normal haunts - BAR for the otherworldly pizza and home brewed watermelon ale (my absolute favorite), Caseus for grilled cheese, the Yale Center for British Art (which has just put its collection online!) to gaze at our favorite paintings (George Stubbs!) and the Peabody Museum of Natural History to look at dinosaurs and dioramas. (They have old model trains throughout the New Haven train station. Westward Ho! So great).

They claim to have made America's first hamburger sandwich at Louis' Lunch. It's small, it's classic, it's perfect to try once. The burgers are good, but come on slices of white bread, which, after consuming brioche and even egg buns, just kinda suck. (This is mean and will get me in trouble, I'm sure).

The Gant store has moved in to a perfect corner spot, just a door away from J.Press (next to the somewhat scary British tween import, Jack Wills). Given that summer school students don't have the same spending power as the ones during the year (apparently), the whole town is on sale. So, I picked up a cute burgundy and gold striped college sweater. They have a nice cabinet of old Yalie duds, including this stocking cap, at the front.

I went insane with Instagram at the Yale Center for British Art. How perfect is all this?

Impressive painting. More impressive frame!

A cuddly fella at the Peabody.

And then I headed up to Boston to meet up with The Standard Edition. Saw this on the way from the train...

...and this amazing sun room on Commonwealth Ave.

...and then spotted the Masons' beavers.

The Boston Public Library was an amazing treat, too. Green spines!

Double helix stairwells!

Some pretty decent ceilings!

The best court yard this side of Europe!

Majestic lions!

And a few details up above.

On Sunday, we popped over to Harvard.

Thayer Hall, my home for 6 weeks in the summer of 1995.

The Winthrop House dining hall (we snuck in).

The Lowell House courtyard.

The Lowell House crest!

Shipspotting No. 2

2011-06-23T00:19:00.002-04:00

In what is only slightly less remarkable than the lightning speed by which The New York Times' and EinesTages' readers sorted out both publications on the original owner and creator of a WWII photo album, one quick search of the "Walpole Bay Ship Spotting Club" led to this amazing motherload of personal history about the boat-loving boys and their great leader shown in the post below. One man posted the following inquiry on the Kent History Forum site:

Can anyone identify the vessel on the postcard? The name is either ARGANTOCK or ARGANTOCH. The postmark is 1936 though the photograph could have been taken a lot earlier. I and a friend have conducted several researches through the Shipping Registers but have drawn a blank.The only piece of information I can find is from a French newspaper giving ship listings from various ports.

Regards,
Ted

Well, Ted got some great answers:

...I knew Mr Shelley when I was a mere youngster. By profession he was a Watch and Clock repairer in Margate in the 1950's. He was very keen on the English Channel shipping movements and ran a Ship spotting club in Margate. I can remember going on a boat trip that he organised on the Thames which included going through the locks into the Docks on a small pleasure craft under the stern of what seemed to be a gigantic ship. In the 1950's Mr Shelley lived on Grotto Hill with his Sister and Bro in Law. He was our next door neighbour.

- AND THIS! (AND THE PHOTO AT THE TOP) -

I also knew Fred Shelley. He founded the Walpole Bay Ship Spotting Club in the late 50's early 60's. We spent many a day with him and his very large telescope at Walpole Bay during our summer holidays. As you said, he arranged many a visit to ships in the Royal Docks. The photo came from his collection that was given to me when he passed away.

Click here for some more fun details on Mr. Shelley.

Shipspotting No. 1

2011-06-23T00:05:00.000-04:00

Some of us had Model Rocket Club. I personally had student council, quiz bowl, math team and yearbook (v. popular!). No one would cut off a limb to join any of these groups, but I'm sure many a boy would take hacksaw to wrist if it meant having the world's coolest teacher explain how to make ridiculous model boats and then spot real boats on the horizon. The incomparable site, British Pathé, sells rights to some of the most remarkable clips of film on record - including this 1958 news reel of the Walpole Bay Ship Spotting Club. Those Pathé Brits clearly don't like bloggers to use stills - but you should absolutely watch (or buy!) the clip and the outtakes. If Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson didn't watch this before making Rushmore, the world just got hit with some legitimate deja vu.

After all These Years...

2011-06-19T07:00:00.005-04:00

Every time we'd go to the video store as little kids, our dad would beg, "PLEEEASE, can we rent the Seven Samurai?!?!" Being smallish girls, we'd scream, "NO, DADDY! NOOOOO!" and then bring over a copy of Dirty Dancing to the check out. Ok, dad, you might not have been as totally irrational as we thought. Happy Father's Day!

This Seems Unfair and/or Unrealistic!

2011-06-16T15:25:00.000-04:00

I know about shooting fish in a barrel, but bopping a kangaroo on the head while it's pretending to be under arrest against a tree? Hum. (Another great one from the NY Public Library).