Vintage: Razors

Taking a step beyond what's become a rare but necessary indulgence at few barber shops in NYC, such as Freemans Sporting Club, is to then actually own a beautiful straight edge razor itself, especially when the're vintage or at least inspired by the classics shown here. And since we grew up with the safety razor, having gained an appreciation passed down from our grandads and our dads who taught us to shave, we're also drawn to the real thing that gives us that touch of nostalgia. By "real thing" we mean the genuine oldies from Gilette, Ever-Ready and even the British Army to name a few below.
Freemans Sporting Club (shown at bottom): 5 Horatio St., 8 Rivington St., NYC

Feedbags: Dottie's True Blue Cafe

We don't care that we had to stand in line for an hour, feeling the crisp bite of the late morning air. Neither do we care that we were just like everyone else in line: from out of town (sorta). We knew what we were getting ourselves into. We have a long memory, having  tasted it almost 12 years before. Similarly bitter cold. Similarly long line. What would be set out before us on the formica countertop, as we sat gawking at the talents being exhibited by a multi-tasking/talented cook (pretty much a one-man show with a sidekick), was grilled cornbread paired with red pepper jelly, pulled pork omelette with hashbrowns, the chipotle beef omelette with aforementioned, amazing hashbrowns, one ginger-cinnamon-whole-wheat pancake and a side of chocolate chip and butterscotch French toast. Well worth the wait (again). 522 Jones St., S.F., CA

Jerome David Salinger 1919-2010

It started with Catcher In the Rye. So often proclaimed as the ultimate favorite novel, the coming-of-age classic expresses the unarticulated moments

of our youth and the comforting thought that somewhere there is a Holden Caulfield brooding within all of us. It might sound cliche now but its reputation owes its power to the continuing influence its had on anyone under the age of eighteen and beyond since it was first published in 1951. Salinger loves to write about youths, giving them a voice that is daringly honest yet disarming. There's also this mystique about him, ignited at first by the popularity of that first novel then reinforced by his reclusive existence in rural New Hampshire, where he remained in seclusion in a town called Cornish for over 50 years. His fiercely guarded privacy along with scant photos and spotty albeit controversial information on him make him out to be an eccentric of various passions that include maintaining a prolific work ethic that's resulted in an organized body of unpublished manuscripts, as well as a self-disciplined lifestyle reflecting his different religious proclivities from Hinduism to Christian Science. These idiosyncracies surface infrequently from an absence from the spotlight while his distance from public life kept his characters untouched, less handled, and perhaps the reason why the legacy of Holden Caulfield's been living on for over 55 years. He was 91 and is survived by his daughter and son, Margaret and Matt.

Raleigh Denim

They're made in North Carolina by a husband & wife team who gained their craftsman's approach by learning from former denim (Levi's to be exact) specialists. Every pair is signed on the inside and numbered on the outside in embossed leather. Their jeans are personal: the x-ray hipbone design screened onto the interior are- with perfect irony- placed exactly, well, you know, where hipbones should be. We tried on the Camden straight-leg, the skinniest cut they make, in the color slate. They're not too skinny, so there's no need to fear that you're stepping into another pair of legging jeans. But they could stand to be a little tighter. (Maybe we're just used to our Acne Max cuts). John of AB Fits and Raleigh Denim rep loves the Lincoln pair he was wearing that day. The Lincoln is trimmed with selvedge at the coin pocket and the raw denim is meant to fade to a dark grey, while further turning into a worn light blue wash in all the right places: knees, inner thighs, what have you. He went on to say they were meant to feel lived in, like a comfy cozy pair of pajama pants. That pretty much sealed the deal. Available at Barney's in NYC and AB Fits in SF.

Julian Casablancas

We envy you lucky ones who'll be at any of the two back-to-back JC shows starting tomorrow night. We can't get the song 11th Dimension off Julian's debut solo album Phrazes for the Young out of our heads. Check out the video. It's a strange converging of Brazil-meets-Tron-meets-guy in a three-cornered hat? Dare comment if you can name all of the films. 
TIckets are still available for the Friday, Jan. 15th show @ Terminal 5, NYC

Vintage Warren Beatty

Last weekend we watched Shampoo for the first time, giving ourselves a jumbo-sized dose of no holds barred mid-70's chic mixed
with a strange desire to take a long, wind-whipped drive through Coldwater Canyon... In each of his (non-period) films Beatty seems to have represented an in-the-moment style, a lot of it through his hair as these photos show. Peter Biskind has just released an intimate, revealing biography titled Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America. In it he lays out the balance Beatty achieved between his reputation as a womanizer (having dated most of his leading women) and his star status and evolution as an auteur. We pretty much devoured the sneak-peek excerpt online.

On the Street: Madrid

Off the beaten path in Malasaña 

Late at night in La Latina

Crosby Street Hotel Restaurant

On NYE we popped into the Crosby Street Hotel for lunch. It wasn't busy at all at 1:15 in the afternoon and perfect for escaping the frost. The room was colorful and cozy with puffy pillows on the banquette, and eye candy all around: red felt animal-shaped cut-outs affixed to the backs of charcoal grey felt chairs; the Queen's face inside a grid of shadowboxes on the wall; and a bizarrely playful fixation with vintage telephones. The ultimate reason to come back (besides this being one of the handful of restaurants in greater-SoHo that inspires a shopping break): the duck springroll. It will make you very happy. The burger, made from three cuts of beef and ground freshly on the premises, is good (beware the avocado, you purists), and the cheddar mac n cheese is OK but a bit too runny for us. We didn't get dessert, but if you're lucky they'll swing by your table with those complimentary house-made mango, strawberry or choocolate sorbet cones. 79 Crosby Street, NYC, 10012

Photo from Apartment Therapy.