French Suits and Hack Directors

Introducing the Diamond Concierge Service

Hello! So next week the weekly update/roundup will be going paid subscriber-only. I will be adding a little more to these weekend newsletters, some special deals, little bits of insider info, recommendations from myself and friends, and people I like. I’ll be calling the Diamond Concierge Service. I think it’ll be hot. If you can pay for a subscription, I’d appreciate it. I know these are pretty popular, and I can promise they’ll only get better.

I’m typing from a table outside my friend’s house on Long Island. It’s sunny and there are crickets and all sorts of insects making noises. I’m not used to it and, frankly, I’m a little afraid. Quiet: What a concept!

But I’ve got to admit that getting away to Long Island in the middle of August is a nice break. I used to hate it, mostly because I’d be the tag-along friend when a friend’s parent let them borrow their house in Amagansett or Montauk, and I’d feel like a genuine trash bag being the poorest person hanging out. But we’re on the North Fork in a quieter part of the area, and it’s really nice. No crazy scene, no Blade helicopters landing nearby, and I saw one person using a metal detector on the beach, so that’s nice.

I think I’ve also become a canned wine guy, at least in the summer. We brought a handful of Las Jaras Waves cans, and I was crushing rosé in the Long Island Sound without a care in the world. There’s really nothing like drinking in the middle of a big body of water and I feel like it’s either a can or a Yeti, and as much as I see the appeal of the latter, I don’t know if I want to drink wine out of one of those things.

Melt Reads

The Quilted Giraffe is one of those restaurants that’s always been like a myth to me. They catered to a certain, big-money, 1980s “racy, coke-addled clientele,” and as Adam Platt shows in his lovely and fun overview of the place, it really was sort of proto TikTok in a lot of ways. I’ve been waiting for an article like this. So glad to finally read one.

• Read: “It Was a Wild Time, and We Were Selling a Certain Story” by Adam Platt at Grub Street

I often think about how we’re so used to the fact that everything has to try to look perfect. Even bad movies, films that will no doubt be trash, still get great directors to come in and add a blemish or two to their records by making stuff that’s obviously crap because there’s an easy paycheck but also because the studios probably think hiring actual talent to make the films will either make the movie suck a little less or people like me will see that buzzy directors like Ben Wheatley, who did Free Fire and Kill List, directed Meg 2 and think that maybe it can’t be that bad since he’s involved. That’s why Sam Adams making the case that we need to bring back the hack directors really resonated with me. I actually tend to love older films that are made by people that wouldn’t dare say they’re a “filmmaker.” They’re usually looser and it helps make the bad movie they’re attached to more entertaining.

• Read: “Bring Back the Hack” by Sam Adams at Slate.

Speaking of directors, the great William Friedkin passed away this week. And while plenty of people mentioned his films like The French Connection and The Exorcist, I felt like somebody needed to talk about how his 1994 basketball drama, Blue Chips, deserves more credit than it got upon release.

• Read: “William Friedkin's Blue Chips Is Better Than You Remember” by Jason Diamond at Esquire

And I had no problem finding my favorite tracks of the week. I’m equally obsessed with Turnstile as I am BADBADNOTGOOD and was pretty excited to see the two teamed up to rework some songs off of Turnstile’s Glow On.

• Read: “Turnstile & BADBADNOTGOOD team up for jazzy re-imaginings of 3 'Glow On' songs” by Andrew Sacher and Brooklyn Vegan

Melt Stuff

• Big news from the West Coast that I know about thanks to my pal Dave Schilling, whose “How (Not) To Be A Man” is a good newsletter to get in your inbox. Dave texted me that Musso & Frank are selling new T-shirts and tote bags on their site. Crucial merch.

• The peak of the latest preppy revival might be the Rowing Blazers x Target collab. Will I be outside of the Atlantic Terminal Target on 9/23 when it drops? Yes. Yes I will.

• Since I’m thinking about spending more time by the sea in the summer, Quaker Marine dropping these sea-washed shirts couldn’t have come at a better time. I wear a lot of stuff from Quaker Marine and the quality is always top-notch, and since this is something I will strictly wear while drinking beer on a boat or drinking beer on a beach or drinking beer while I fish, then it’ll likely take a beating.

• Finally, I almost would never say you should buy a suit online. It’s just a real roll of the dice, especially for people like me who don’t have a one-size-fits-all body. But I also love Husbands in Paris. I’m obsessed. I didn’t spend enough time in France on my last trip there to even entertain the idea of working on a suit with them but reading Eric Twardzik’s latest Robb Report dispatch has me wondering if I should take up the chance to buy a suit from them from the comfort of my own home.