This is a strange week. I don’t know who cares about reading anything online, so I’m sending out one e-mail this time around. Next week, after all the Labor Day festivities have ended and we start the march into autumn, I’m aiming to send out three newsletters, one of them the Diamond Autumn Preview for paid subscribers only. I’ll be sending out all sorts of new paid-only stuff over the fall, so if you’d like in on that, please consider paying for one. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s free Diamond Concierge Service newsletter. These are usually paid-only, but since I only sent out one newsletter this week, I figured it’s for everybody to enjoy.
I do two things every single year to start Labor Day weekend:
Drink a hot coffee and listen to “The Summer Ends” by American Football.
Watch the “Bart of Darkness” episode of The Simpsons.
If you know me, either in real life or through reading me over the years, you know I love little seasonal traditions like listening to Sea and Cake during the dog days or watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles every year around Thanksgiving. But my Labor Day weekend plans might be the most specific of all. I can’t listen to that song at any point in the year except during September, and watching that one specific episode of Springfield’s famous family getting a pool to beat the summer heat only hits right this time of the year for me. Sure, it’s largely based off Hitchcock’s Rear Window, and that’s a perfect summertime movie; but it’s the end of the episode that really matters. Martin Prince just standing there in the ruins of what was his swimming pool that was going to make him “Queen of Summertime.” He’s naked after Nelson pulled his bathing suit down and ran away with yelling his trademark “Ha-ha!” Martin takes a second and mutters, “Ah. The gentle caress of a summer breeze,” as the camera pans out with Martin singing Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind.”
Honestly, I’m as big a Simpsons head as anybody. I’ve got a hundred favorite quotes and two-dozen favorite episodes, but that one scene is the one that I love the most. It’s so perfect at summing up how terrible it felt as a kid to watch the summertime slip away. And even though I’m very pro-autumn as an adult, rewatching that last scene in “Bart of Darkness” every year around this time connects me back to being a kid and hating the fact that school was going to start back up soon, except now it’s a reminder that the season is changing and that I should embrace that.
Melt Reads
People still come up to me all the time and talk to me about being on Articles of Interest during the preppy season, so I was honored that they came over and talked to me about my favorite fabric for a new episode.
Read/Listen: “The Corduroy Appreciation Club” at Articles of Interest
60 Wall Street is the best subway stop in the city. I’ve long called it the Cocaine Station. Sadly, boring people want to make it a boring place, and one of the most charming and strange places in the city is going away.
Read: “The Final Days of Wall Street’s Beloved ‘Tacky’ ’80s Lobby” by Dodai Stewart at the New York Times
What’s the deal with cool people like Ottessa Moshfegh andChloë Sevigny selling their stuff? Olivia Kan-Sperling seemed to want to investigate that, but it turned into a really interesting essay about style and celebrity.
Read: “Second-Hand Lifestyles” by Olivia Kan-Sperling at Spike
I’ve been going back to taking pictures with a camera that has actual film and produces real photos, but the camera I have sort of sucks. I want something small that I don’t have to put a ton of thought into. Reading this has me looking for a used Leica.
Read: “The Underrated, Affordable Leica Camera” by Cory Ohlendorf at Valet
Melt Stuff
It’s almost layering time! That means you’ll need something like the L.L. Bean denim shirt lined with soft flannel. Honestly, anything with soft flannel lining is a good investment since you’ll be able to wear it a lot between September and March. Thisone is particularly good, but I don’t know if I want to call it a “shirt jac.”
It’s also almost beret season, so of course AWMS has a new style coming out September 2nd. This e-mail is going out the day before, so just go to the store tomorrow. And while you’re at it, read my interview with AWMS proprietor Tony Sylvester.
I’ve been getting ready to send out a zine I’m doing and I’ve been looking for the perfect envelopes. I’m sort of thinking it’s worth spending a little extra to get them from a company in the U.K. that based their design off envelopes from Japan. What do you think?
Oh man, that going back to school feeling as a kid was the worst. I can remember just laying on the sofa for days without the energy to do anything as late August trickled by, and only in adulthood do I now recognize those symptoms as depression.
Those envelopes seem like a must to me...how do I get my hands on the zine??!