There are better headphones, there are cheaper headphones, but dollar for dollar, there are no headphones as good as Grado’s SR60s.
Entries categorized as ‘endorsements’
In-N-Out Burger
August 11, 2009 · Leave a Comment
“The hamburger is definitive, greasy but oddly clean-tasting at the same time and the sauce actually is ‘special.’ And the shake tastes the way shakes tasted back when I was a kid. It makes me tear up just thinkin’ about it.”
—Alton Brown, host of Iron Chef America
“I dare anyone to tell me their burgers aren’t as good as any you’ll fine anywhere, from fast food to fine dining.”
—Tyler Florence, host of Tyler’s Ultimate
“It’s fast, it’s hot, there are code words – what’s not to enjoy?”
—David Myers, Sona and Comme Ca, Los Angeles
“It’s the perfect example of classic American fast food. It satisfies my craving for meat, crisp fries, and their special sauce.”
—Thomas Keller, The French Laundry, Yountville, California and Per Se, New York City
“It’s a rite of passage for all visitors to California.”
—Nate Appleman, A16 and SPQR, San Francisco
“The places are incredibly clean. I’m impressed as hell by that. And whatever’s in that sauce is tasty.”
—Charlie Palmer, Aureole, New York City and Charlie Palmer Steak, multiple locations
The Best Fast Food in America: Esquire’s Chef Survey (Esquire)
(Via.)
Categories: endorsements · food · quotes
Tagged: In-N-Out Burger
The Joy of Less
July 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment
“I still live in the vicinity of Kyoto, in a two-room apartment that makes my old monastic cell look almost luxurious by comparison. I have no bicycle, no car, no television I can understand, no media – and the days seem to stretch into eternities, and I can’t think of a single thing I lack.
“I’m no Buddhist monk, and I can’t say I’m in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I’ve written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn’t want or need, not all I did. And it seemed quite useful to take a clear, hard look at what really led to peace of mind or absorption (the closest I’ve come to understanding happiness). Not having a car gives me volumes not to think or worry about, and makes walks around the neighborhood a daily adventure. Lacking a cell phone and high-speed Internet, I have time to play ping-pong every evening, to write long letters to old friends and to go shopping for my sweetheart (or to track down old baubles for two kids who are now out in the world).
“When the phone does ring – once a week – I’m thrilled, as I never was when the phone rang in my overcrowded office in Rockefeller Center. And when I return to the United States every three months or so and pick up a newspaper, I find I haven’t missed much at all. While I’ve been rereading P.G. Wodehouse, or Walden, the crazily accelerating roller-coaster of the 24/7 news cycle has propelled people up and down and down and up and then left them pretty much where they started. ‘I call that man rich,’ Henry James’s Ralph Touchett observes in Portrait of a Lady, ‘who can satisfy the requirements of his imagination.’ Living in the future tense never did that for me.”
Categories: endorsements · quotes
Get Yourself a College Girl
July 15, 2009 · 2 Comments
Last week I was watching TCM in the middle of the afternoon when Get Yourself a College Girl (1964) came on. It’s a Beach Party clone, one of those mindless ’60s movies where girls wear bikinis almost exclusively and everyone dances the Watusi.
Though I’ve never felt any particular affection for the genre, I literally couldn’t stop watching Get Yourself a College Girl. I found myself feeling a bit like Giles De’Ath (John Hurt) in the criminally-underrated Love and Death on Long Island (1997) when he stumbles upon the work of Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestley), star of such B-movies as Hotpants College 2 – i.e., inexplicably finding great depth and beauty in kitsch.
The film is easy to dismiss, and as dismissals go, Howard Thompson’s 1965 New York Times review is a classic: “Get Yourself a College Girl deserves – and gets here – a one-line verdict: idiocy strictly for the birds. Or maybe the Animals. They’re in it, if anybody cares.”
On one level, Thompson may have been right. The movie isn’t available on home video, which suggests maybe nobody does care. (If you want to watch it, you’ll have to wait until TCM airs it again.)
The film’s plot – such as it is – revolves around a demure college student named Terry (played by 24-year-old former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley) who is paying her way through college by writing provocative pop songs.
There’s some interesting stuff to be found here about academe, nascent second wave feminism, and race (e.g., the scene in which, in order to show the Senator Morrison character’s fuddy-duddy point of view, shots of white American teenagers dancing are intercut with stock footage of African “savages” jumping around).
Perhaps the most notable thing about the film, however, is its music. Indeed, after watching it, I felt compelled to buy a used copy of the soundtrack (which, as luck would have it, was released on compact disc in 1992).
Produced by Sam Katzman (who was also responsible for Rock Around the Clock [1956]), the movie features performances by The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, Stan Getz, the Jimmy Smith Trio, The Standells, and Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys with Roberta Linn. As perhaps the definitive overview of the film puts it,
Get Yourself A College Girl features not just a great list of starring musical acts, but an extensive one: in addition to a performance of the title number by Mobley, we’re treated almost every ten minutes [to] … a wonderfully broad array of acts, running the gamut from two variants of the British invasion, to Latin-flavored jazz, to early garage rock, and even Las Vegas-type lounge.
The Dave Clark Five’s appearance is noteworthy because it’s apparently the first time a British rock & roll group appeared in an American 1960s pop film, but it’s the Stan Getz Quartet featuring Astrud Gilbero’s performance of “The Girl from Ipanema” that’s the real show-stopper. It may even be “the single finest performance of the entire Beach Party genre.”
In true Giles De’Ath fashion, however, it’s the stupid, sexy title number by Mobley that captivates me the most. Have a listen.
Categories: TV · endorsements · movies · music
Tagged: Love and Death on Long Island, Mary Ann Mobley, Stan Getz, TCM, The Animals, The Dave Clark Five, The Girl from Ipanema
Endorsement: Mexican Coca-Cola
May 11, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Garden & Gun has the details.
Categories: endorsements
Tagged: Coca-Cola
Two Tiny Mac Programs
May 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Inspired by Michael Leddy’s “Two useful bookmarklets” post, here are two tiny Mac programs I find invaluable:
- Caffeine: “a tiny program that puts an icon in the right side of your menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to go back.”
- Freedom: “an application that disables networking on an Apple computer for up to eight hours at a time. Freedom will free you from the distractions of the internet, allowing you time to code, write, or create. At the end of your selected offline period, Freedom re-enables your network, restoring everything as normal.”
Caffeine prevents your Mac from going to sleep when, say, you’re giving a Keynote presentation, but I find myself using it anytime I want my Mac to remain at the ready.
Freedom – developed by a PhD student, natch – might help you combat your Internet addiction disorder (IAD), even if you have to use the Internet to download it first.
When used together, who knows, you may actually get some things done.
Categories: endorsements · technology · work
Tagged: caffeine, freedom, mac, osx
A Look Inside C.C. Filson Co.
January 7, 2009 · 1 Comment
On a recent trip to Seattle, I stopped by C.C. Filson Co.’s flagship store (1555 4th Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98134) and snapped some photos. In addition to having perhaps the most badass corporate motto ever — “Might as well have the best” — Filson makes some of the highest-quality, handsomest-looking outdoor clothing and gear in the world. Some of it is still even made in the USA.
I especially love their bags, but my favorite thing they make might be the Mackinaw Cruiser (pictured below), an item that’s gotten a few high-profile endorsements recently.
More photos after the jump.
Categories: endorsements · style
Tagged: Filson, Made in USA
Endorsement: LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
November 24, 2008 · Leave a Comment
You can now “Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.” If you don’t know, now you know. Above is just one of the many photographs that caught my eye. I encourage you to explore the archive for yourself. There’s lots and lots of cool stuff.
Categories: endorsements
Endorsement: The Earrings of Madame de …
September 19, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Categories: endorsements · movies
Endorsement: Navy Showers
August 9, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Per the advice of both Tim Ferris and Michael Leddy, I recently purchased and installed an Incredible Head Power Showerhead. (Yeah, I know, an unfortunate name.) I found it at Wal-Mart for under $5. I got the model with the soap-up valve for navy showers and have begun, whenever possible, taking navy showers.
What, you ask, is a navy shower? Well, as Wikipedia explains, a navy shower is when you (1) turn on the water, (2) immediately wet the body, (3) turn off the water, (4) soap up and scrub, (5) turn the water back on and rinse off the soap.” The opposite of a navy shower is a Hollywood shower. Growing up, I remember my dad taking navy showers all the time. I imagine he picked up the habit in the military. I, however, have been a Hollywood shower man for as long as I can remember. Until recently, that is.
Now, navy showers aren’t for everyone, and technically you don’t even need an Incredible Head Power Showerhead to take them – though it makes things easier. Yet if a one-time staunch Hollywood shower man like myself can change his habits, you can too. It’s the red-blooded American thing to do and it’s good for the planet because it helps conserve water.
Categories: endorsements · masculinity
