Monthly Archives: November 2013

What We’re Listening to – Angel of the Morning by Joya Landis

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Angel of the Morning is one of those great songs that that is so great it’s been been covered countless times by countless artists, and they all sound pretty good. For me though, the best of the best is the 1968 version by Joya Landis.

Landis was an American, but she recorded the track for Treasure Isle records, the Rocksteady/Reggae label run by Duke Reid in Jamaica. Ms. Landis’s version rides the fence between both genres, but to me it leans further into the Rocksteady category. It has everything that makes the genre great – the grooving guitar riff, the swagger, the tempo, the horns, the back-up singers, and of course her beautiful vocal track, which sounds relaxed and powerful all at once.

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Something special: A Chocolate Rolex GMT-Master

Every once in a while, you come across a watch that really gets your juices flowing, just like when you started out and everything was new and fresh. A special piece is exciting to find in the wild and it’s one of the thrills of the hunt when you bag one. I should add here that I am often excited about a lot of different watches I come across because, well, I’m a shamelessly promiscuous watchaholic. But there are flings and then there are the love affairs that last. And for a guy like me who has always had a special place in his heart for the classic Rolex reference 1675 GMT-Master, this one really put a charge in me.

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Do not adjust your monitor–that dial really is that brown. A deep, dark chocolate brown in fact. Now, we know that the early meters-first matte dials for the Red Submariners are famous for their tendency to turn a pleasing “Tropical” brown. But for whatever reason, we see this less on the first series of GMT matte dials. It’s not unheard of, of course, I’ve seen it a few times prior. But it definitely seems more unusual. And to find a dial like this one that is evenly toned and essentially flawless is really a rare thing…

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What we’re listening to today — A Bit of Heaven by Benny Golson

A swinging hard bop track by the talented tenor sax man and composer/arranger, Benny Golson, “A Bit of Heaven” can be found on the 1959 album Gone With Golson.


Benny Golson – A Bit of Heaven

The tune features wonderful solos by the often overlooked Golson and the great trombonist Curtis Fuller, who wrote it. The rest of the bouncy group for this session includes Al Harewood on drums and the brothers Tommy and Ray Bryant on bass and piano respectively. Moving along at a jaunty 4:26 and featuring tight team playing, “A Bit of Heaven” more than lives up to its title with Golson coolly demonstrating his impressive range amongst fine company.

tomvox1’s watches for sale — November Selection

MFL is proud to present links to tomvox1’s ads for vintage watches. These are sales posts you might otherwise have to search the web for or miss entirely before they are sold. These watches are eclectic, cover a wide range of price points and offer the discerning gentleman the opportunity to acquire quality vintage timepieces that are guaranteed to be authentic and add penache & elan to a man’s wrist & wardrobe.  Most of all, they are backed by one of the world’s foremost collectors and always certain to be accurately and lovingly described down to the last detail. Simply put, you can buy a watch from some other random seller on the Internet with a lot of vague claims and small pictures or you can buy a tomvox1 watch and know exactly what you’re getting before you make the leap.

Elegant 1960s IWC caliber 8531 Automatic Date model with Double-signed Türler dial–Click here for the complete Timezone Sales Coner ad: SOLD

IWC cal. 8531 Türler Dial

IWC cal. 8531 Türler Dial

Rare Vintage 1930s Platinum Hamilton Rutledge–Click here for the complete Timezone Sales Corner Ad: SOLD

Hamilton Rutledge

Hamilton Rutledge

Vintage 1970s Aquadive 20 ATM Diver w/ Beautiful “Deep Blue” Dial–Click here for the complete Timezone Sales Corner ad: SOLD

Aquadive 20 ATM "Deep Blue" Diver

Aquadive 20 ATM “Deep Blue” Diver

 

Coming soon to hot, hot Gowanus — Royal Palms Shuffleboard Parlor

ShuffleBoard

Hoping to do for that great geriatric staple shuffleboard what The Gutter & Brooklyn Bowl have done for bowling (i.e. make the square crazy happening), some hip young entrepreneurs are opening up The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Parlor smack dab in the middle of the former wasteland known as Gowanus, at 514 Union between Nevins and 3rd Ave. After an epic fight to get their liquor license, this festive beer, wine & cocktail-serving Tang & Biscuits emporium (those last two ain’t food–it’s what the cognoscenti call the stick & the puck) is set to soft-open in early December according to the latest buzz and should be drawing a healthy portion of the bearded set by the Holidays.

There will be a whopping 10 regulation-sized shuffleboard courts inside the massive 17,000 square foot space and gourmet food trucks outside to restore vigor to the competitors. And Royal Palms takes their avocation seriously: shuffleboarders (real word? it is now) will have the options of league play, competitive tourneys featuring ranked players or simple pick up games among friends, as well as private parties. All this exuberant high life amidst the spirited competition, swinging music and cocktails is bound to lead to the bonhomie that I’m told only good, honest shuffleboard can produce… as well as lowering the median age for its players by around 35 years. So be sure to check it out when they get the biscuits flying and chalk me up for 10 frames at the Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club! If it’s anything like pool, I’ll get better the more beer I have.

What we’re listening to today — Dondante by My Morning Jacket

Before there was Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes, there was My Morning Jacket. Hailing from Kentucky and dedicated to pushing their unique brand of alt-country rock to the very edge, the two things you can say about MMJ are: 1) You can never be quite sure what they’re going to try and pull off next and 2) These guys can fucking play. Check out this live version of “Dondante” and see if you don’t agree:

With nine albums under their belt since 1999, My Morning Jacket are as prolific as they are unwilling to be neatly categorized. Country-indie? The new Wilco? Way too easy and pat. But you can safely say that they’re their own men and follow their own vision even if it’s not guaranteed to make them rich. In short, they’re artists. Artists who have toured like maniacs and always put on a killer live show, as 2006’s double album Okonokos (and the fantastic corresponding concert film) prove so well. While you may occasionally fear for the health of lead vocalist Jim James’ throat at times with his wildly committed delivery, there’s no denying that My Morning Jacket make a lasting impression that lingers long after the shouting is over.

Gorgeous lady of the week — Gemma Arterton

GemmaArterton-1After bursting onto the scene as Strawberry Fields, the sexy spy destined to die drowned in oil in 2008’s underrated Bond entry Quantum of Solace, the dark and lovely Gemma Arterton found herself in great demand in Hollywood. And no wonder: with her curvy figure and expressive deep brown eyes, Gemma is one of the sexiest British imports since the Astin Martin Vanquish.

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Trained at RADA, the talented chestnut-haired ingenue has appeared at the Globe in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost and on BBC TV in the title role of Tess of the D’Urbervilles. But her quick wit and stunning good looks have also made her a hot property in high concept Hollywood blockbusters such as Prince of Persia, Clash of the Titans and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.

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With several smaller scale projects either shooting or in post production, it should be interesting to see if the lovely 27-year-old Ms. Arterton can find material that will help evolve into a consummate actress as opposed to simply a super sexy super heroine. Then again, whatever roles she chooses, she’s probably always going to be super sexy. The girl can’t help it.

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And the prize for longest article about a person you will stop giving a shit about after the seventh paragraph goes to…

This incredibly long paean by Liz Robbins in today’s New York Times about aging former Meatpacking District restaurateur & scenester Florent Morellet.  A mercifully short excerpt from this slavering epic:

In his raspy, French-accented voice, Mr. Morellet extols the potential development of Newtown Creek’s waterfront (post-pollutants), analyzes North Brooklyn’s messed-up grid and pushes for more skyscrapers to accommodate the city’s growth. He moved to what he considered the most viable edge of Bushwick, but he sees the boundaries soon pushing farther east on the M and L lines. He considers the two dirtiest words in the English language to be “nostalgia” and “gentrification.” He especially hates “the g-word,” as he calls it — but only because neighborhoods fight it.

That’s what’s happening now in Bushwick. A plan to rezone nine square blocks for retail and high-rise apartments has upset longtime residents and the likely new councilman, Antonio Reynoso, 30. Artists met this summer to discuss whether it was better to join the development bandwagon or be swept away by it.

Mr. Morellet, who read about the meetings in a local blog, thought they belonged in the TV parody show “Portlandia.”

“Cities change,” he said. “Young people are going to be pioneers in neighborhoods and make them livable. Wealthy people are going to move in and young people are going to move to the next neighborhood, and the next neighborhood. We have tons of neighborhoods to rebuild. Yes, the prices are going up. That’s great.”

To which those of us who are not discoing away every night in our luxurious retirement can only say: Fuck You. As if Brooklyn needs any more ultra-rich douchebags coming over from Manhattan to advocate for building luxury skyscrapers (none of them providing affordable housing) in the middle of previously low-rise working and middle class neighborhoods and trying to make their cool little “discovered” corner of Brooklyn more like, you know, Manhattan. Please go away or die already. You say “we have tons of neighborhoods to rebuild”… until we don’t and we are all living somewhere near JFK with jets roaring over our heads every 5 minutes because that’s all we can afford. And did not the editor think to tell Miss Robbins to maybe cut her ode to Mr. Fabulous here by, oh, I don’t know, 15 or so paragraphs?  It boils down to a fawning story about a guy who owned a restaurant and is now on his 3rd midlife crisis discovering his personal fountain of youth in Bushwick, not exactly Pulitzer-worthy journalism. Jesus wept, at 3000 words who could possibly make it to the end of this damn thing? I dare you to try to finish it without wanting to throw your computer out the window.