Sartorial Sunday

Sundays have always been my favorite day of the week. Some people dread it like the plague, being the last day of freedom before Monday rolls around. Some people prefer Fridays for its festive nature signaling the end of the work week and the beginning of their time for post-work debauchery...Saturdays have a cool sophisticated air, perhaps the benefit of being situated between the Licentiousness of Fridays and the Sanctity of Sundays. Its a day of strolls in the park, brunch on terraces overlooking tree-lined avenues and sailing along the Charles...But Sunday. Oh Sundays really take the cake...

Being that Sunday is a day of worship, one is especially expected to dress in a manner that they don't usually aspire to. While I'd say I'm usually conscious of what I wear most every day, its Sundays that give me carte-blanche to engage in the pursuit of sartorial gains. Boston in general certainly may not be the most sartorial of cities, but at least on Sunday you'll see people wearing things a bit nicer than they usually tend to...the leggings are gone, the madras stays at home, and every once in a while you'll see a blazer or a tie. As for myself, and being that its so ungodly hot today, I chose to keep it simple this Sunday with a light blue western, some professional looking raw-denim, Gucci horse-bit loafers, the crocodile attaché, a good pair of Persol, and my light blue Hermes belt...the closest thing you'll ever find to me wearing that features a monogram of logo from a designer brand...I buy things for their quality, not for their social prestige...

I attend services at the Arlington Street Unitarian Universalist's congregation of Boston. Apart from having truly mind-blowing sermons they also have strong ties to the Symphony and the Longwood conservatory, which often means some truly amazing performances. This Sunday's piano-piece was Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy. Its an old classic, but I thought you'd enjoy the modern way in which its presented...

...heres to a wonderful Sunday...

Colouring Pigeons...

As with most things in my life, I discovered this song while listening to Morning Edition NPR, and have had it playing continuously in the background ever since. Definitely experimental, their use of beat and operatic elements and those weird pictograms in the video make it hard NOT to watch all 8 minutes and 31 seconds of this entrancingly odd yet beautiful song.

...just goes to prove... Scandinavians have the quirkiest sense of taste...

the Dark Sounds of Andrew Bird...

...I'm very pleased to announce that I and a great friend from my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin have managed to score tickets to the sold out concert series / exhibition "Dark Sounds" being put on at the Guggenheim...

...apparently the exhibit is a three part live concert performance given as compliment to the musuem's current exhibition Haunted: Contemporary Film/Video.Performance which by itself looks to be an interesting venture into the meaning of the captured image and how the human psyche relates to these pictographic and sonal frameworks. The word du jour here is Melancholy, Ghostliness, and the Uncanny...

...and who better to represent such a sound than the uncannily mesmerizing Andrew Bird, whose music I and my friend have a severe addiction to...and whats more!!! his installation piece will be a collaborative "sculptural landscape" piece with Chicago based luthier Ian Schneller for what the Guggenheim is calling "Sonic Arboretum, a site-specific performance involving violin, looped passages, and a landscape of speaker horns." Needless to say, I and my friend are going to be ecstatic at the opening. Apparently there's also a private showing for ticket holders at eight, followed by the performance at 10pm.

...If you're not familiar with Andrew Bird then you're truly missing out. A Chicagoland native, he's both a multi-instumentalist and lyricist (though I'd wager more a poet) but also a damned good whistler, which he often manages to weave through his music. His sound is...truly uncanny at best, a mixture of as the guggenheim describes it..."experimental forays into pop music which incorporate elements of gypsy jazz, classical, folk, and country blues traditions."

...And! Did you know? The Guggenheim puts on "Art After Dark" a social gathering of food, music, and a chance to mingle with artists, socialistas, oh yeah and theres some art hanging on the walls as well, but nobody seems to go for that. Its that rare New York moment when both Uptown and Downtown crowds co-exist and tear it up on the rotunda floor...