Manzine, Oi Polloi.

Recently picked up issue four of Manzine and amongst lots of good stuff it features a great little spread for Oi Polloi which takes you back to old school magazine and newspaper classifieds, as I mentioned previously by illustrator Ben Lamb, great artwork.

Cro'Jack.

Recently spotted, Cro'Jack - a label which is a bit of a new one on me.
Over the last few years we have seen a small influx of new British labels introduce themselves, steeped in our own heritage and tradition, Albam, Heritage Research, Universal Works, Percival, North Sea Clothing and Private White V.C. all spring to mind, which can be no bad thing really, Cro'Jack seem to follow that trend, a brand all cut and sewn in England at their own factory and working alongside many old British Mills and using fabrics that have provenance, such as British Millerain, Ventile and Harris Tweed. The folk behind Cro'Jack - crossjack pronounced Cro-Jack, have an established background in menswear, they have created their own label to produce a pure British collection, paying homage to our universal friends in a quirky British way.
Currently creating great garments, some laundered to give a vintage comfy handle, very wearable garments that will become 'an old friend' Inspired by military and functionality and a desire to create garments using British know how and craftsmanship. I've yet to see this in the flesh but it's certainly one to look out for, I especially like the look of the Li waxed jacket up top, pics shamelessly borrowed from Kiosk78.

Pin Badge.

The Oneupmanship logo has now been immortalised in tiny badge form, a specially crafted enamel pin badge smaller than your standard shirt button and very subtle to the untrained eye. Another collaborative step with The Casual Connoisseur and comes with a 'double c' swivel keyring as part of a set, available this weekend.~

Introducing.

A new addition to the family, eight weeks old and weighing about the same as a box of matches, measuring three inches pit to pit, little Otis, a Jack Russell x Chihuahua collaboration.

The American.

The other night I watched the recently released The American starring George Clooney, I thought it was really rather good, it had it all, amazing scenery, suspense, thrills, breasts, fanny hair and even 'Rodney Dangerfield' as the Priest.
Joking aside, it's not hard to see why Anton Corbijn's (Control 2007) new film is getting the thumbs up and five stars across the world by the critics, this put me in mind of of old Euro cinema like Antonioni's The Passenger, Bertolucci's The Conformist and even early Bond flick On Her Majesty's Secret Service - maybe that was just the snow and the unsettling climax, an enjoyable film, slow paced, tense, intelligent and haunting, even the cool poster was reminiscent of this bygone era.
Based on the novel A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth, The American stars Hollywood A lister George Clooney going slightly against the usual George Clooney type with a more thoughtful and interesting turn as Jack aka 'Edward' a hitman laying low and wanting out, who finds himself out in the sticks in the open scenic small medieval town of Abruzzo, Italy. Despite telling his somewhat untrustworthy boss he will keep his head down and not speak to anyone and his own personal quest for anonymity, he soon befriends the local Priest (Paolo Bonacelli) and a local prostitute (Violante Placido) whilst preparing one last job for a fellow assassin covertly constructing the weapon at different intervals for his mysterious contact (Thekla Reuten) as his relationship with prostitute Clara blossoms his journey turns into one of extreme paranoia as he finds himself pursued by fellow assassins leading to a nervy and intense climax. The American.

Chafed thighs and cold breakfasts.

The weekend just gone I spent three days in das capital, we had to go and see a man about a dog. I shall stop being metaphorical right now, sorry.
I do like London, there seems to always be somewhere new to visit, something new to see on every trip. Managed to see some sights, visit some shops and drink in some great pubs. Not to mention walking what seemed like twenty odd miles over two and half long days.
There's never enough time in the day really, a tube strike meant more than half a day stuck in a car, stuck in traffic on Monday. Saturday morning started whilst it was still dark, wrapped in as many layers as I could find as I bolted out of bed, CC pocket tee, Ralph Lauren denim club shirt, herringbone tweed vest, wool Daks scarf, Artesania hand knitted gloves (toasty), and some tan jumbo cords topped off with a Heritage Research watch cap which kept me snug as a bug in a rug all weekend, with a large padded Woolen Mills hunting jacket and some funky Euro comfy shoes, I didn't realise just how cold it was until the four of us travelling made a services stop in Staffordshire which revealed lots and lots of snow.
We got to the outskirts in good time and found a greasy spoon to get us started, before meeting a few local cohorts for the day ahead. The plan was to cram as much in as we could, shops, sights even the odd museum, unlike the heavy weekend the week before, we wanted to leave the drinking until later. We were in the pub on our first pint by noon.

One of our little crew managed to get us some great deals in two pretty nice hotels, but the nice heavily discounted price was slightly tainted when I had to share a double bed with our kid and woke up early on with my other hand between two pillows, I didn't really. 'See that Bears game last week?' 'Yeah, helluva game, helluva game...'. Nice hotel, though they seemed to forget the cooked part of a cooked English breakfast. Pfft.

Shops visited included Oliver Spencer and Folk around Lambs Conduit St, Bloomsbury, which really is a lovely part of the world for a browse, even better is The Lamb pub at the end of the street, an a amazing olde worlde public house still complete with original Victorian snob screens along the bar, I'm no lush but I could never simply just walk past these kinds of alehouses.

Had a gander in Number Six, Son of a Stag and a Howies pop-up sale store which you'll probably see more of later. Also visited Benetton on the busy, bustling Regent St, to stock up on a bit of nice high street affordable steez, a store where I think you must have to be a female model to get a job. Whilst thumbing through expensive but nice, in fact nice but too expensive, coats and jackets in Liberty department store I spotted actor Martin Freeman - he of The Office and Sherlock Holmes fame, I didn't let on or anything like that, just because he's on the telly doesn't mean we know him does it? I know people think it's a bit gay to say this he always looks to be a well turned out chap, likes his clobber, pretty stylish cat. On leaving the store I also spied that Edith Bowman off of the radio and stuff and our sleb spotting didn't finish there, oh no, with numerous people we spotted who were that famous we couldn't remember their names, oh and that Kevin Day from Match of the day two, too. As you can guess we're from up north/don't get out much, bright lights, big city and all that innit?

Saturday drew to a close late on after walking from St Pauls to the East End after a jaunt around Shoreditch's stores and busy pubs and dodging somewhat mithery men outside their various food emporiums on Brick Lane it reminded me of a shite holiday in Corfu eight years ago. Two of us then later found ourselves heading back towards our hotel in Maida Vale/Kilburn, via Warwick Avenue where we spent an hour, but no more than two, in Little Venice just in time for last orders in a couple of great boozers, The Warwick Castle and The Bridge House, but we couldn't find Gordon Ramsay's place - which my little pocket CAMRA guidebook told me was one you must see.

This, in a drunken, dark, hazy state of consciousness looked a beautiful part of London, amazing old Victorian and Edwardian terraced mansion apatments split through the middle by the Paddington Basin full of houseboats, it just made me want to win the lottery.

Sunday evening myself and one of my cohorts had to go and cross some t's and dot some i's in North London, going via Arsenal's Emirates Stadium - which being a lower league football fan who's team are admittedly currently a fucking embarrassment, but who's heart and soul has been stolen by a Rugby Union out of towner - I have to say I was rather impressed, I'm no great fan of modern day football stadia but this was a great looking place and one I believe once you're inside has been done very, very well. I longed for us to just be good enough to have a stab at visiting places like this in the FA cup third round, alas, we'll have to wait another year for that after yet another dicking in the early stages. Sunday evening was spent in the superb Market Porter overlooking Borough Market, there can't be many better places to waste away a Sunday evening supping all the beers on offer in places like this, before walking back along the river to crash out in another posh, but discounted hotel. All in all another good insightful jaunt, my legs are still aching now. ~

Central Station paint Corrie.

Central Station Design present an official collaboration with ITV for the ongoing 50th Anniversary celebrations of the long-running British soap opera Coronation Street. The Central Station team comprising Matt and Pat Carroll and Karen Jackson who's work most will be familiar with from the Madchester era and most notably The Happy Mondays, have produced a series of technicolour portraits of the soap's most famous faces. The prints will be exhibited at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester from Friday 3 Dec.

Snow.

Every where's covered in white stuff, some prefer it hot, but I like it.

Least Wanted.

Punks, sneaks, mooks and miscreants. Hookers, stooges, grifters and goons. Men and women, elderly and adolescent, rich and poor, but mostly poor. These are the Least Wanted. Their portraits make up a small part of Mark Michaelson’s collection of over 10,000 American mugshots from the 1870s to the 1960s.
Some rather cool, stylish and scary ne're-do-wells spotted here. Flickr

Hanon Kegler Super.

My mates up in the granite city at Hanon are about to release another limited edition collaboration to mark the stores twentieth anniversary - Hanon x Adidas Consortium Kegler Super. A great winter trainer if ever there was one.

An all time favourite model retold, the Kegler has always maintained a cult following since it's original release as an indoor skittles shoe in the 80s before being adopted as a casual classic. Those with more than a clued up eye may notice the inspiration behind the new look, marrying the familiar look of two old school models the Forest Hills and Samba to create a new unique style. Only available at just three stores worldwide with less than 500 pairs produces, each shoe comes hand numbered. Available from Hanon this Friday.

Patagonia Great Divider bag.

What, three bags featured in two weeks? crazy eh?

But this looks cool, originally designed as a functional fishing bag, the Patagonia Great Divider bag is a great general purpose, waterproof and leak free foul weather bag for storing in the boot of your car, camping, festivals or even catching a few fish. Featuring all you'd expect (and then some) from the outdoors mad and very innovative Patagonia this is as serious as a bag can get if a bag can actually be deemed serious.

Available from The Original Store who you may have already heard of, a great online store doing a sterling job bridging the gap between street and functional wear, and of course serious bags.

The Last Detail.

Pea Coats, denim and tattoos, sensible haircuts, shiny shoes and swearing. Badass boozing and brawling. Good ol' naval steez as Jack Nicholson and Otis Young take Randy Quaid for one last adventure across America in 1973's The Last Detail directed by Hal Ashby.

Plastic Boots.

OK it's a very tenuous link, but it's the first thing that came into my head. I couldn't make my mind up when I first saw these, they were either great or a crazy idea, these are actually my brothers but I do like them, they are from Native - the Fitzsimmons boot, a totally innovative take on the classic hiking boot made from plastic. Extremely lightweight, waterproof and pretty durable, they work for me.