The President says "bunghole", "nuts", and belches. Pretty much all in one sentence.
Amazing and real.
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Man to emulate: Teddy Roosevelt
On October 14th, 1912, Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest. The bullet passed through a metal eyeglasses case, his folded up speech in his shirt pocket, and three inches of tissue. Supporters tried to get him to go to the hospital, but he continued on with his speech. His opening words:
"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
Teddy Roosevelt was an almost unstoppable force in American politics and in American history. While I don't agree with everything he did (e.g. His actions after the Maine explosion), I admire his spirit as an explorer, thinker, change agent, and citizen. I read somewhere that there are three types of people in this world: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who ask, "What just happened?". Roosevelt is pretty unmatched in American history for "Making things Happen." I can think of few Americans who "made things happen" more than Roosevelt. In his lifetime he accomplished the following things:
1. Work as state legislator, police commissioner, and governor in New York
2. Own and work a ranch in the Dakotas
3. Serve as Assistant Secretary of the Navy
4. Fight as a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War
5. Serve as President for two terms, then run for an unprecedented third term
6. Become the first President to leave the country during his term in order to see the building of the Panama Canal
7. Write 35 books
8. Read tens of thousands of books-several a day in multiple languages
9. Explore the Amazonian rainforests
10. Discover, navigate, and be named after a completely uncharted Amazonian river over 625 miles long
11. Volunteer to lead a voluntary infantry unit into WWI at age 59.
Read more: Art of Manliness
One of my favorite quotes of his:
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
Tool Time
Last week while heading towards check out at Home Depot, I passed the beginning of their holiday sale display at the front of the store. The whole lot was organized as such: $40 and under, $30 and under… well, you get the idea. With all those hot fresh tools in one place, I slightly arched my head back and let out a, “arr, arr, arr.”
Then it hit me, Home Improvement flashbacks dropped all over my frontal lobe. I use to watch that show, like all the time. Granted, I didn’t love the show, maybe didn’t even really like to the show, but it was on after school and was right before the Simpsons.
I was drawing blanks with any of the shows details, so I hopped on the INTERNET!!! and read the entirety of the show’s Wikipedia page. Man, first-rate times, I guess. Besides the super cute mom, the rest of the cast borders on unbearably obnoxious. Ugh, and the later seasons with one son being goth, and the other a preachy liberal constantly talking about environmental nonsense; fast forward to the Simpsons please.
I looked up some quotes from the show and had a good laugh. From the quotes, I’d have to say my favorite character is head honcho Tim; and the way I’ve been acting around power tools lately, I think I’m becoming him.
Before buying a house, literally, all my tools fit inside our apartment's junk drawer. Pretty much a common hammer and screwdriver, cheap ones at that. And now, here I am at Home Depot, lusting over specific kinds of hammers. You mean there’s more than one kind of hammer? Yes my lad, there’s a plethora of diverse hammers; and check this out! You can choose a different weight for the same kind of hammer, you know, for comfort and smashing power.
Sure, Home Depot is a good choice for up-to-date power tools and items you lean towards wanting new; but lets not forget my first love, secondhand! More specifically, estate sales!
For anyone thinking/needing to build a tool collection, estate sales is the place to get the most bang for your buck.
We’re not talking cheap made in China or Taiwan garbage; your average estate sale generally reaches back to the late 50s early 60s, sometimes the 1940s 30s, enough to be considered common, and on the rare-ish side 1920s or before. Everything back then was tough as nails and made in the USA; built to last a lifetime baby. I highly recommend, purchasing your essential hand tools this way, you’ll get what you need dirt cheap, and be able to give new life to a piece of American history.
Not much time left before Christmas! Go hop on estatesales.net, find some killer sales, and start popping on some tools for the Tim Taylor in your life.
What time is it?
TOOL TIME!!!
Categories: Estate Sale Hunting, Moment of Manly Zen, The Vintage Handyman, Uncategorized.
Why I love Vintage. A bullshit free manifesto.
"I love vintage because every piece has a history, a story to tell."
I've read quote, "I love vintage because it has a story!" probably 10-15 times, mostly in etsy profiles, and I can smell the profile filling fluff miles away. While I agree that it can be true in some cases, the fact is people aren't setting up an etsy shop because they want to tell a story. They're setting up etsy shops because they want to buy it cheap and sell it steep. They're setting up an etsy shop because they like vintage AND they realized other people do too. Let's be honest. We're all adults.
But there is more to it than just the money. I love vintage. These are my reasons why. I like lists.
1. Made in America - There's just something about getting products that were actually designed and made in our country. The quality is better, the design is good, and you can buy it knowing your grandpa built it.
2. Quality - As I'm typing this, there's a fan on my floor that was built in 1938 in the city of Chicago. When I turn it on, it works. It needs a dusting and an oil refill every once in a while, but other than that, its pretty laissez fair. This fan was made to last. No cheap plastic. No quick and crappy parts.
3. The Thrill of the Hunt - I'm absolutely obsessed with finding something that someone else overlooked. Its hard for me to drive past a garage sale, a thrift store, without wondering what I might miss if I don't look. This is a huge part of it for me. I've found quite a few things that others didn't see as valuable.
4. A Cash Positive Hobby This is how I try to justify it to my wife. Right now I'm sitting on a pile of cash that I made just from picking garage sales, estate sales, and thrift stores. Green is good.
5. The People I absolutely love meeting fellow vintage/antique enthusiasts. I've met some really cool people. I love selling to people at shows, giving them the history of the piece, discussing what they know. Its awesome and fun all wrapped into one.
That's my list. Why do you love vintage?
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me.
Hello, my name is Morgan, and I don't finish things.
I'm a total sucker for thinking of myself as a jack of all trades, fixer upper, 101 projects going on at once without breaking a sweat; where did I get that crazy idea.
Right now, my garage sits with only a quarter of a roof. I started it last week.
The hole I dug three months ago to patch my foundation crack has yet to be filled. I dug a 5' x 4' hole in about a hour and a half, not bad aye? Filling the hole? Um yeah...
Don't get my wife started on the work I need to do in the basement. Forget about it.
On top of my house, which, in all truthfulness, I haven't been too bad getting the ball rolling lately; I have literally, a couple years worth of furniture/vintage projects clogging my brain waves. I'm at a emotional/visual/monetary, do or die moment with a lot of this stuff .
SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE!!!
So I'm challenging myself. Roof and hole are asap, but they're kinda boring, the fun part of the challenge will be some of the vintage projects I've gathered around myself for the last couple years. Did I say some? Maybe more like twenty...
With the upcoming Vintage Bazaar(woot woot) I've been doing inventory, and I'm ashamed, flipping ashamed about how many chairs I bought with good intentions but never got around to them. There's also about six lamps and two fans, but I have a long history of failure with the chairs. I really love chairs. Especially wood chairs that have ripped upholstery, or one broken arm, or just a frame of a chair. For years I bought them off Craigslist and at estate sales, vowing to fix em' up, but they would just stacked up in our apartment basement. Now with a house they have been all over the attic. Last night I bought them down into the basement to start work.
My secondary goal in all of this, is to offer all my current projects finished and beautiful to my customers at the next Vintage Bazaar, but my main goal is to make this a regular act in my vintage circus I'm putting on for all you lucky people, maybe even start designing and building my own furniture...
My plans for some of these pieces are maybe a little too grand. I'm determined to use real leather for the upholstery. Is this hard? My wife is a seamstress extraordinaire, who has promised to help with the fabric and leather ordeals. We shall see.
Below is my room of projects, hover over each picture for a description and some idea of what I plan to do.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen, The Vintage Handyman, Uncategorized.
Wut? I found ANOTHER mid century bench at my Church. Insane.
So, do you remember last week's post about the amazing bertoia bench that I found at my Church's rummage sale? Well, I'll be honest, I was worried it wouldn't even be there for me to pick up. No need to worry, as everything went better than expected.
I woke up this morning frazzled, as usual having fallen asleep in the guest bedroom with my son Ambrose, and slept in WAAY too late. Sundays are always rushed in the morning for the Franklins. We usually try to make the 9:00am mass, and Evelyn has CCD at 10:00am. Everyone sleeps all over the house on Saturday nights. Ruby was asleep in the basement, Evelyn in her bed, Sarah and Fern upstairs, and Ambrose and I were in the guest bedroom on the first floor. Finding the kids when we wakeup some Sunday mornings can be a challenge in and of itself.
"Has anyone seen Ruby?"
As I rushed to get ready and get Evelyn out the door to CCD....Oh, did I mention that we weren't going to make 9:00am Mass? We're bums. So as I rushed to get Evelyn out the door, I was actually NERVOUS about the Bertoia Bench that I was going to pick up in the basement of church. I bought it for insanely cheap last Sunday and needed to come back and pick it up when I had room.
"What if someone steals it out from under me?"
I was slightly consoled with the idea that the purple post-it note that said, "sold" on the bench was well secured. I dropped Evelyn off at CCD, made my way to the rummage sale, and started to freak out a little, because, of course, I couldn't find it. WHERE IS IT! My heart was pounding. But the pounding from freaking out increased when I saw this bad boy:
Could it be? Could it be? I don't know a lot about mid century design but I did know that it looked awfully close to a George Nelson designed, Herman Miller Bench.
WTF.
How could this be? You don't even want to know what the price was. Insanely low. And in the corner, my original Bertoia bench waiting for me. I promptly paid the lady, tried to contain my joy, and took both home to my doting wife.
What does this mean?
Or to put it better, what are the chances? It truly was a "Moment of Manly Zen".
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
Real America
Today after church I'm taking the family to Indiana for apple pickin', pumpkin kicking, and for donuts that melt in your mouth. Up yours Osama bin Laden.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
Essential Tools for Any Workshop
When I got my first house, I got a store bought set of tools for Christmas. They sat on a shelf in the basement for about a year until I figured I needed to fix a door knob instead of having Sarah hire a handyman. But did I have all the tools I needed? The 1956-1957 Handyman Ideas magazine by Better Homes and Gardens gives the vintage man a concise rundown of essential tools for any vintage handyman.
A good workshop starts with a carefully planned selection of quality tools.
Buy the best you can, even if it means that your selection will build up slowly. You'll find that the cheap tools won't do the job you expect of them, and they will be damaged or worn out before a good tool is really "broken in".
The basic equipment shown below will handle most routine construction and repair jobs around the house. Undoubtedly, you have some of these tools."
One way to add more tools to your collection is to buy a new one as you approach a job where you'll need it. The tools below can be added that way.
However, once your tool board is well stocked, its a good idea to add a few pieces of equipment and materials that you may need in an emergency. This includes items like the plumbing supplies and electrical equipment shown below.
When you're that far into handyman activities, you'll want to set aside part of your basement or garage for a shop.
Categories: Howto, Moment of Manly Zen, The Vintage Handyman.
Your Industrial Office
I can't even begin to tell you how frigging ridiculous Urban Remains Chicago is. After I had already picked two items for the industrial office from their online catalogue, I went looking for some industrial filing units on ebay. I didn't even realize that the one that I chose happened to coincidentally be from Urban Remains. I guess they sell on ebay. Who knew?
- Vintage Orange Metal Task Lamp, Etsy.
- multi-drawer factory benchtop cabinet, Urban Remains
- Rustic Shop Work Station, Agent Gallery
- Hand Painted Tin Sign, Urban Remains
- Shoe Factory Rack, State Street Salvage
- Switchboard Operator Swivel Stool, Urban Remains
- iMac, Apple
Categories: jayson best of, Moment of Manly Zen.
Have I gone too far?
Heck no! I've languished without art in my life for far too long. While I'm not gonna be holing myself in my attic with my oil paints anytime soon, Manly Vintage's Etsy shop will be pulling no punches. Personally, I need to try and have the best pictures on Etsy. If taking pictures of one typewriter takes 3 hours, so be it. Good art always takes a long time.
I've always been competitive. I was a jock up until high school, when my competitive nature in a team setting hit a brick wall in an indoor soccer league sophomore year. When I started drawing and painting vigorously Junior year, I regularly destroyed my past work cause it didn't add up with whatever artist I was obsessing with at the moment.
Then my stint in college, forget about it. I took over the painting studio, spending literally open till close, putting thick layers of paint on just about everything in the 20' radius of my canvas. What finally tamed this monster? The love of a good women. I got married, dropped all my classes, pack my supplies in storage, got a job, had three kids. Do I have regrets? Hm, no. But man, every time I see my easel just sitting there, I want to put my fist through a wall. I have a feeling holing up in the attic with my oil paints may just happen in the near future after all.
In the mean time, I hope you all enjoy my pictures.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen, Morgan best of.
Manly Vintage Relaunch!
A lot of talking and no action has finally evolved into a shift of epic proportions. Manly Vintage's Etsy shop is finally open!
Manly Vintage is a combination of our vintage shops Vintageonthemake and Chicagoish. There will be some similarities, but bigger and better is name of the game this time around. As our tastes and decor sensibilities have matured, we have come to loathe a lot of the vintage we sold in the past. Manly Vintage will be refined, masculine, and leaning towards higher-end items.
Refined: We don't want to sell individual items, we want to sell our own decor aspirations to an adoring public. Each piece should fit into a larger picture of how your home should look.
Masculine: No more pyrex. No more owls. No more kitschy crap. While not everything has to be dripping with testosterone, we will lean towards vintage and antiques that graced the poker room, the study, the warehouse, and the auto body shop of bygone eras.
Higher-end: We are both done cluster f-ing our homes and shops with smalls and misc. We hope you do the same. Our focus will be serious pieces for serious decorators. This will also include refurbished and (hopefully) handmade furniture.
So basically, think 80s DC hardcore, you got Minor Threat and Rites of Spring; life changing bands on their own. Life happens and those bands end, but outta that, comes Fugazi. Manly Vintage is Fugazi. Well... maybe not that epic. We did add Chicago at the end to help in the epic department. You know like, "wait, is there a Manly Vintage London too?" Ha. More like Manly Vintage Joliet.
What do you guys think of our newish layout and banner? Here's our thought evolution.
We wanted black and white, and our first font choice made us think Russian propaganda poster.
Maybe black background? Hmm, we decided the font wasn't readable enough.
Here's what we went with, using a bastardized Helvetica. A nod to another 80s punk great, Black Flag, and our beloved Chicago skyline.
And finally the avatar to match. Check out our new shop here. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for shop/blog updates and random nonsense.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
Manly Review: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Roosevelt gets off easy. BEST PRESIDENT EVER? No. That's reserved for Grover Cleveland. Was he manly?
HELL YES.
This guy couldn't walk and tricked the entire country into thinking he was ambulatory. That's amazing. Cause you know, we're really hard to trick. He was strong. Apparently, when he gave speeches, he would hold himself up on the podium with the power of his own resolve, summoning forces known only to him, and later, Simon Birch. His words were so powerful, they knocked Civil War veterans out of their wooden legs. At the beginning of his presidency, he reminded us that we only had to fear fear thereby trapping millions of Americans in an infinite mind-fuck. We still haven't recovered from that one. WTF!
| FDR | |
|---|---|
| Childhood |   |
| This limpin' pimpin president was born in 1882 in the great state of New York into wealth and privilege. He did the whole Harvard thing, yadi yadi. His early life seems kinda boring. COME ON WIKIPEDIA MAKE THIS FUN FOR ME! | |
| Appearance | |
| Dude smoked a big cigarette, drove around in fancy cars, and wore hats. Other than that all we really know was that he was crippled by Polio. Did I mention he was crippled? That damn Polio virus doesn't give two flying f-bombs about your boarding school credentials and strikes down even the richest of East Coast elites. But the dude STRUGGLED through that. Held his head up high, kept his pimp hand strong, remained relatively sober. | |
| Actions | |
| He fought and won WWII which seems pretty cool and all. I mean the nazis did suck, right? But the thing is, I know this dude on facebook who normally is pretty legit. He has nothing but good information on Politics and he ALWAYS hooks me up when I'm playing Farmville. Anyways, he says that Roosevelt totally freaking knew about Pearl Harbor. Come on Roosevelt, that's a shitty thing to do. So disappointed in you, man. | |
| Overall |  |
|---|---|
| Overall Manliness: 3.5 out of 5 stars. | |
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen, Reviews.
Inspiration Folder: Brutalist Architecture
Particular tastes change over time, and styles that once made us all a flutter will eventually seem childish. This applies to taste, though, and not beauty. Architecture and design is truly an art form, and the most complete expressions of art are able to capture something absolutely timeless and even possibly universal.
I used to hate Brutalist architecture. Being a libertarian minded person, its drab concrete facades has always evoked Soviet Russia. But just as the hipster sports the ironic mustache and geeky glasses, I too, am reveling in the irony of embracing a style of Architecture that evokes totalitarian functionalism.
I'm starting to see the timeless in some of these creations.
Categories: Inspiration Folder, Moment of Manly Zen.
Store Profile: Urban Remains Chicago
Holy crap Urban Remains is awesome.
Located on Grand Ave in West Town, This is not your average antique or "vintage" store, but a collection of salvaged industrial and historical curioso. The owner, Eric Nordstrom, makes it his mission to reclaim "american antique architectural artifacts found among commercial and industrial buildings or residential structures." The storefront is actually only one of the places you can go and see the amazing collection of salvaged goods. There is a Warehouse located at 410 N. Paulina, and apparently also an artifact museum called, "Building 51".
Inside the shop you'll find an amazing collection of porcelain signs, unique architectural pieces, vintage and antique consumer goods, lighting, folk art, and other furnishings suitable for home decor. I love vintage lighting and their selection of industrial task lighting is truly unique.
After the taste I got today, I'll be visiting the warehouse sometime in the future.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen, Reviews.
Am I right or am I right
Much needed autumn weather + Samuel Adams Oktoberfest Beer + Power tools = Finishing my living room makes for a pretty damn good Saturday
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
Use the Hive Mind to solve a vintage mystery
You've bought something cool at an estate sale and you're not exactly sure what it is. Consult the hive mind. Here's how.
Context:
Morgan was super stoked to get a set of three awesome gun posters at an estate sale recently, although neither of us were exactly sure what they were. The guy at the sale said that they were from WWII. Both Morgan and I were suspicious of that claim, as both of us have played plenty of WWII video games and are quite the experts on various WWII firearms.
What to do?
I knew exactly where I could go to find out what they were. One of the sites that I frequent is Metafilter. One of the sub-sites of Metafilter is ask.metafilter.com. Its one of the most helpful sites on the net and can be used, when necessary to find out where to buy vintage porn while in Paris, what affects the variables in a language's regional accents, or What are these posters?
It costs $5 to join the site for a lifetime membership. Very well worth the membership.
Categories: Howto, Moment of Manly Zen.
Mid-century Modern Sale of the Century
When we saw this sale on estatesales.net we knew we had to be there (check it out, its insane). We literally showed up at 8:30am for an 11:00am sale. We were 14th and 15th in line. The guy holding the "list" said that there was someone who showed up a 12:00am the previous night. What the hell was he thinking? The sale, advertised as, "all midcentury modern" was awesome. Danish furniture throughout the entire house, and all in perfect condition. The only thing that we found that was even reasonably priced was this "Lane Sweetheart" cedar chest. Everything else was priced, seemingly at retail prices. One dealer remarked, "$5,000! That's retail in New York City!"
Since we were in the first group to get in, I ran up the stairs (everyone else seemed to head for the living room), and found this piece in the master bedroom. The price seemed pretty darn affordable considering there was a 5,000 dollar dresser sitting next to it. I ripped the tag and made it mine.
Categories: Estate Sale Hunting, Moment of Manly Zen.
Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays?
What do you do when you have a case of the Mondays? Mine. Cigarettes and metal.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
A Very Manly Estate Sale
We're really ramping it up around here. This Saturday and Sunday, Manly Vintage (under the leadership of Morgan) will be running an estate sale. Yes. Running an estate sale. Let me say that again.
Manly Vintage will be running an estate sale.
Its going to be messy and disorganized, and we'll probably screw up a lot of things. But we're trying something new. Why? Because we wanted to see what it looked like on the other side of the curtain. Here's to the other side.
Categories: Estate Sale Hunting, Moment of Manly Zen.
Meet Russell
My wife and I, before kids, had fish.(and a couple jerk-ass cats) We sucked at keeping them alive, but we loved them. They all had names either from Old Testament kings or Xiu Xiu songs. My wife has been totally crushing on King Hezekiah every since she read the Chronicles of the Kings series by Lynn Austin, and this guy I just picked up is definitely worthy of a name. Hezekiah it is.
My old lady wasn't a fan of my name pick. Apparently, she enjoys naming animals classic male names that were popular a couple generations ago. What the heck do I know? She likes Russell. Whatever you want baby.
I'm a total sucker for classic manly decor from just about any era, what man doesn't want the head of something dead hanging over where he eats. Like seriously.
Oh, cool story from last night. I almost hit a real deer on Route 66 while on the way to look at this guy. Talk about the circle of life, so intense.
On a different note, I'm having a total love affair with the Beermosa right now. I never tried until a few weeks back when a good friend of mine was in town for a Saturday morning. We always drink and talk theology together, so what do you bring over at 8am. Dude. PBR and orange juice. Finally, the hipster culture is good for something.
The Beatles wish they wrote this song.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen.
Vintage Bazaar Recapitulus
Take me to a place where money, beer, and vintage floweth. Sure thing Shakespeare, that place is the Vintage Bazaar.
The second installment of the Vintage Bazaar was a smashing success but especially smashing, charming, sexy, oh and manly; here and here. (see below diagram)
The J-Dog and I are pretty much pros at this now, but there are a couple things we're gonna do different next time.
1. Bigger is better. Lets just say, we're sick of selling items, we want to sell rooms. Rooms baby! So maybe this WILL become a cute couple interior design blog. harharhar.
2. Cooler. For. Beer. For the cost of one beer at the Congress I skipped over to a liquor store and got a six pack. It was a big hit with Katherine and Libby. Jayson and I may have been getting a little loud with some customers towards the end. maybe. maybe not.
3. I'm gonna build an industrial size hand truck for next time. Come on, we're professionals!
4. We need signage. Manly signage.
Gotta go to work. Jayson, feel free to add to the list, wherever you are.
Categories: Moment of Manly Zen, Uncategorized.
You can meet this sexy girl at the Vintage Bazaar
Late 1930s, Chicago made goodness. She'll be there, along with a bunch of other awesome vintage goodness, at the Vintage Bazaar, this Sunday. Be there or frankly, be a regular quadrilateral. (And yes, I have been keeping her in my room. Where else do you keep a smoking hot thing like this?)
Categories: Estate Sale Hunting, Moment of Manly Zen.
Manly Vintage Award Winners Announced!
Morgan and I just returned from selling our wares at the Vintage Heaven sale. We had a blast, and met a lot of really great people. We decided to give out our first ever set of awards. (trust me there will be more fun, watch out Vintage World).
And now the winners!
Four Eyes
David was stunning in his "fake" retro glasses. He works in the advertising industry and says its almost a "cliche" that he watches Mad Men.
Creepiest Mustache
When we saw Matthew, we knew he was the winner. I was just a little afraid that he would try to punch me when I offered him the trophy. He was a good sport, but borderline offended. I meant nothing but love, brother, nothing but love. He came back and gave me his card. "Chicago Mustache League". These guys are hardcore about their facial hair (as it should be). Truly epic mustache and epic pose.
Random Bored Guy
Shopping is a funny thing. As a guy, I don't mind shopping for stuff that interests me. Put me in a video game store, Home Depot, or a Thrift Store and I can handle myself. Put me in a room full of mostly girl's clothing and I tend to get all nervous and twitchy. I become the "random bored guy." Emiliano was doing well, but sitting very bored waiting for his wife to finish shopping. He was sitting there on the couch with that depressed look on his face and I knew that he needed a major award to cheer him up.
Hey, Nice Shirt!
Most epic shirt ever. Completely inappropriate and yet hilarious. Cornelius was awesome when he won the award, screaming, and laughing.
Best Tattoo
We saw A LOT of tattoos at the Vintage Heaven sale. Lots of cool and elaborate designs. But Mike won this award because his tattoo is simple, yet awesome. Eagles are awesome. America is awesome. An American flag being carried aloft by a flying eagle is just so damn subtle and brilliant, we love it.
Please check out some of Mike's other stuff at Six Pack Vintage. Awesome stuff. Tattoo done by MCC Designed
Categories: Contests & Giveaways, jayson best of, Moment of Manly Zen.
Morgan and Jayson go head to head
Morgan and I found a couple of bowling pins. "Let's buy these.", I said. "Why?", Morgan struck back. "Well, we could have a competition to see who could sell theirs first. See who takes the best pictures, makes the bowling pins the most appealing." The goal: See who can sell it the fastest. The only rule is that we have to keep the bowling pin at the same price as each other. Morgan set the opening price of $30. We'll see how that goes.
Morgan's:
Jayson's
Who has the most appealing bowling pin?
Categories: Estate Sale Hunting, Moment of Manly Zen.
Manly Vintage is popping on men’s clothing
After the Vintage Heaven sale in Wicker Park Jayson and I did some serious evaluating of our friendship up to this point, you know like; do you like my new glasses? You owe me twenty dollars? I can’t stop thinking about your wife, is this going to be a problem? Do you think we should start selling clothes?
Well the answer to the last question is yes, Manly Vintage will start having men’s clothes available, at least at the next Vintage Heaven and Vintage Bazaar. Nothing against chicks selling men’s clothing if done right, but from what I’ve seen it has been poor selection and quality; we had one seller admit at Vintage Heaven she literally grabs stuff for guys without even looking. You know, and damn it, those fashion obsessed male hipsters deserve better than that.
I don’t know what will happen in our individual online shops, and I have tried to sell some clothes before with little success, there are some guidelines I’m going to stick to. Like modeling the clothes myself, or one of the other hot married dudes I know. Also to never look like those virgin douche bags modeling men’s clothes on sites like Etsy…I guess that’s it. So lets review 1) model the clothes, no shirt on a hanger, on a wall 2) model in a way that does not suggest I go home at night to a bottle of lotion, but to a wife who has dinner ready when I get home.
Thoughts anyone? Let the wild rumpus begin!
Categories: Estate Sale Hunting, Moment of Manly Zen.