With October just around the corner, I'm having to admit to myself that another summer is already come and gone. While I've already packed away most of the summer wardrobe, it's still not quite cool enough to feel like fall in the mid-Atlantic. Amidst this seasonal segue, I find it's nice to take the opportunity to make some small trips that help bridge the seasons. Yesterday, my wife and I revisited one of our favorite day trips with my brother and his wife who recently relocated to DC.
After a night cheering the Longhorns as they defeated Texas Tech 34-24, we met up early Sunday morning and hit the links for a quick 9 before driving out to Annapolis for lunch.
Annapolis is home to one of my favorite eateries, Jimmy Cantler's Riverside Inn. Cantler's has an atmosphere that is just about perfect for making me forget that eventually I'll have to return to the office. Situated right on the water away from downtown, it's easy to believe that you're far away from the Sisyphean world of workaday drudgery and morning commutes. Much of the staff appear to be local high school kids, which reminds me of the family restaurants where I grew up, making it all the more homey. Oh, and the food is fantastic. We plowed through a dozen large crabs with coleslaw, fries, and hush puppies. All washed down with cold beer in a warm September sun.
After lunch we walked around City Dock and downtown Annapolis. Much to our delight (the the chagrin of fellow tourists, no doubt) our wives permitted us to stop at the tobacconist for cigars. With Montecristos alit, we made our way down the boardwalk and ogled the boats in ego alley. A personal favorite, and one that duly impressed my brother, was the Manitou, JFK's presidential yacht. If GWB's Crawford ranch was "The Western White House," the Manitou was the White House on the Water.
Interestingly, the Manitou is for sale. Had I the means, I'd grab that baby up in a heartbeat. As it were, though, I hope it goes to an appreciative buyer.
Annapolis is also home to some great haberdashers. Laurence Clothing on Main Street is a standard bearer for traditional (what my brother still calls 'soulless', but I'm working on him) menswear, and a regular stop anytime I'm in town.
Another Annapolis tradition is Johnson on the Avenue. Sadly, the shop across from the Maryland State House is no more. Visiting Johnson's was always a treat. The shop was filled with dark woods, classic tweeds, and gentlemen browsing some of the finest clothes in town. Johnson's provided tailoring for officers and midshipmen at the Naval Academy, and stepping inside their State Circle store always filled one with a strong sense of tradition. I made my regular pilgrimage and attempted to describe to brother what he'd missed out on by taking so long to get there. I understand from their website that Mr. Johnson's granddaughters are maintaining the store as an online shop, and I wish them the best of luck.
It was a great Sunday outdoors, uninterrupted by petty distractions and life's frivolities. The four of us were able to concentrate on what's really important in life - family, food, and having a laugh. Here's to fond summer memories and looking forward to an equally adventurous fall.
Farewell to Summer
Soul Power
There was a time when R&B meant something other than trite warbling over glorified Casio rhythm presets. Once upon a time performers like Ray Charles and Al Green moved feet and hips and hearts. They made music with soul.
The music was infectious, and it freed a generation of youth from the shackles of their parents' outdated ideas about race, class, and culture.Brown v. Board of Education may have integrated schools, but Stax Records really broke down the barriers of racial segregation in the hearts and minds of America.
Soul music seemed poised to make a brief comeback after the release of films like The Blues Brothers and The Commitments. As great as those films are, they were really just bringing attention back to standard soul classics. They were all nostalgia, no renewal.
Enter Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, a group of musicians from Austin, Texas that are bringing soul back - and in force. Their debut record, Tell Em What Your Name Is! was released by Universal Music Group's Lost Highway label in March. I may be late to the show, but thank God I found a ticket. This music is HOT.
If you're like me and you're just hearing of these guys, check out the video for their song Sugarfoot. This already has me planning the playlist for a soul disco in the basement.
In their infinite wisdom, Universal Music Group has disabled embedding, so I can't actually show you the promotional video they paid a lot of money to produce. I can only provide you a link to click through to watch it somewhere else.
Take the extra step, though. It's worth it.
Blue Horseshoe Loves Endicott Steel
Oliver Stone is making a sequel to his 1987 hit Wall Street, sending pomade futures through the roof. When Wall Street came out I was too young to really know what was going on, but it was one of those films (like Real Genius) that we could all recite verbatim in high school.
And why not? The film had everything you wanted in the late '80s - slicked back hair, expensive suits, cellular phones, and arrogance for miles. In the end, all of this went into the dustbin when we got old enough to realize that girls were far more interested in Doc Martens and ratty cardigan sweaters. But for a period, Wall Street was the lifestyle movie of choice. It's where, as young teenagers, we first saw in action the contrasting collar and silk braces that represented "success." Will we see, this time around, a resurgence of Zegna stripes? God, I hope not.
Of course, none of this was by design. Wall Street was meant to expose the excesses and moral failings of the players at the time. That it became a hagiography should, perhaps, have been foreseen, but it's not an uncommon dilemma for filmmakers, I would think. I will be interested, however, to see how Stone approaches the recent market shenanigans, and whether the bad guys again come across so damn cool. 
I've also been wondering lately when we'd see a follow-up to James Stewart's book, Den of Thieves about the Milken, Boesky, Siegel, and Levine scandals of the period. That book was a must-read when I was in high school, though, much like Wall Street, we all took the wrong message from it.
Den of Thieves really is a thrilling read, as I remember it. I should pick it up again. The backstory for the past decade has equally compelling characters, though, and I hope a sequel is, like its cinematic cousin, Wall Street, in the works.
Slightly off topic, but thinking about this reminded me of the great anti-drug PSAs of the time. This was always a favorite.
"And buy a decent suit. You can't come in here looking like this. Go to Morty Sills, tell him I sent you."
-- Gordon Gekko
Maybe all you need is love, but money sure helps.
I had no interest in economics in college, either. I belonged to that great tradition of academic bohemia which stretches from the fifteenth century riots of François Villon's to the Phish tours of the present day. For University hipsters, there is (no doubt Villon mentions this in his Petit Testament) nothing more pathetic than taking business courses.
My friends and I were above that. In our classes we studied literature, anthropology, and how to make ceramics. We were seeking, questing, growing. Specifically, we were growing sideburns and leg hair, according to gender. It did not occur to us that the frat-pack dolts and Tri-Delt tweeties, hurrying to get to Econ 101 on time (in their square fashion), were the real intellectuals.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Eat the Rich
Not unlike O'Rourke before me, I spent my college years writing papers about deconstructing gender identity tropes in slave narratives and discussing Foucault over cheap wine. I grew a ratty beard, and my band played a benefit to raise awareness of the struggles of indigenous peasants in southern Mexico. The closest I got to economics was reading neo-marxist critiques of contemporary film theory.Also not unlike O'Rourke, I've grown up and found myself a little more concerned that things like "current account deficits" are a larger issue than whether or not I wrote a bad check for beer. Unfortunately, I understand current account deficits now about as well as I understood then why the bank was sending me overdraft notices about a $5 check to "The Beer Barn."
With this background I recently picked up a copy of Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds' new book, Money, Markets, and Sovereignty. The amount of knowledge packed into these short 246 pages is astounding. What's even more, the book is accessible even to me.
Prior to reading Money, Markets, and Sovereignty, I long held the belief that money was a ridiculous concept. After all, what but mass delusion results in billions of people trading small pieces of paper for actual objects of intrinsic value? As it turns out, the answer is something like mass delusion. But I now find it anything but ridiculous. After all, this mass delusion is, essentially, what makes the world work. It's the same mass delusion that allows us to live without constant fear of being hit by a car or contracting a deadly disease. We all go along because, well, things just wouldn't work otherwise.
That's not to say that things can't go wrong. They can. Horribly, horribly wrong, in fact. Take, for example, the fact that $5 USD will buy you a 100 Trillion Zimbabwean dollar note on Ebay. Or, for an example a bit closer to home, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Steil and Hinds' book presents an easy to digest history of money and monetary policy, concluding with present day issues that face central bankers and governments the world over. The authors outline the unique role the US economy has played since 1944 saw the signing of the Bretton Woods Agreements, and even more so since the Bretton Woods exchange markets closed in 1973. Most important, though, Steil and Hinds make exceptionally clear the urgency with which the US needs to get its house (the Fed) in order if we are to prevent further deterioration into a global financial crisis that will make the past year look like a cakewalk.
Those who recoil at the idea that globalization could actually be helping, rather than hurting, global standards of living will certainly find some of the authors' points hard to swallow. I would recommend reading their thesis with an open mind, though, as it's quite convincing. And I invite anyone with alternative readings to post them in the comments for future review.
Next, Kay bites the head off a bat
A few years ago I posted that a rumor was going around the Sen. Hutchison (R-Texas) was thinking about resigning from the US Senate to challenge Rick Perry for Governor. As is well known by now, the rumor was true, and Sen. Hutchison is running for Gov. I said at the time it was going to be fun.
I didn't know the half of it.
This definitely goes down as one of the funniest political ads I've seen. Frankly, I didn't think old Rick Perry had it in him. I can't wait to see what comes next.
On the Cusp of Autumn
While I love summer and all the promises of sun and relaxation it brings, my heart will always belong to Autumn. Already the air in DC has cooled down a bit, and as Labor day weekend approaches, our house is gearing up for the first Texas football game of the season.
And what better song to prepare for the impending Autumn season than the Avett Brothers' song November Blue:
