Friday, April 22, 2011

Once again... dear friends...

Two points here. On Monday, [you_have_broken_the_internet] posted a bit of a rant about the state of menswear blogs as it stands. En bref, they point was to produce original content, and not simply reblog everything that comes your way and call yourself a blogger. Actually, there were some really good points made, and while I have no real pretension to this particular site being any more than a idiosyncratic extension of my own ego, I took some of his words to heart.
Nevertheless, this site, Indexed, does produce it`s own content. And even if it usually doesn`t overlap much with The Hall`s main areas of interest, it did today, and, reblogging aside, I thought I`d share.
This debate rages constantly on the internet, and within my own discussions as well with friends, but I have rarely seen it so well summed up:

Monday, April 18, 2011

Out and about... Red Touque Edition

Radio silence from the Hall there for a while... Busy, busy, busy...

Nevertheless, as I was walking from the metro the other day, the weather forced me in to my red touque (watchcap to the rest of the world, but hey, nobody is perfect). It was cold. Sunny, but cold. In any case, I rolled it once more than was my custom, and to see how it looked, I snapped a few self pics. Happy with the results, I thought I'd share.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

WIAT (Breakfast/Rant edition)

No pictures today, Gentle Reader. I've been remiss in my photo-documentation, and to be honest, I don't feel very badly about it at all.
But I see no reason that should stop me from writing a What I Ate Today post. While pictures are undoubtably worth a thousand words, words are also worth words, although the ratio falls closer to 1:1. For very good words, like "scintillating", it might hit 1:3, maybe 1:5, but still...
In any case, I don't suppose I'll need a thousand words. It's just breakfast, after all.
This morning, I had a cupcake for breakfast. Not only that, it was a cup cake made from a boxed mix, and iced in a prepared icing purchased from the same supermarket the mix came from. None of it, not a whit, made from scratch. Why? Because I wanted cupcakes last night, and I got lazy. There. I said it.
Not only that, but, because I was still hungry after my little cupcake adventure, I also had some pizza. A few month ago, I had chips for breakfast. Potato chips. And pie was breakfast for a while (admittedly, most of the pie was made from scratch).
Where, you might ask, am I going with this? Good question, one I asked myself, just now. Well, let me elaborate. Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal of the day. Good. Fine. Should have protein, and produce, and should be at least 400 calories, and maybe more. Great.
Bollocks. I have more than enough rules governing my life already. Deadlines, office politics. Academic writing. Propriety. White pants and Labour Day. And for years now, I've tried, quite successfully, to eat a healthy, balanced breakfast.
There is a lot of pressure out there to eat a certain way, and a lot of pressure as to what is and is not legitimate, or authentic, or good. And not all of that pressure is bad. I support quite a bit of it. But all things in moderation, even good advice, and local, fresh, organic or biodynamic produce.
But I can't do it every day any more. The routine is crushing. There are chips out there, my friends, and cupcakes. Just begging to be eaten for breakfast. It's time to have fun in the morning. I can (and often do) eat well at lunch, and dinner (or dinner and supper, if you prefer). But a man (hell, a woman too) needs to have fun, sometimes, no?
Look, I know I'm not the first person to eat pastry or pizza for breakfast. Far from it. But it's liberating, and, man, if we can't enjoy this little life of ours, then I ask you, what's the point?

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Out and about...

This was quite some time ago, but I was happy with the look, so I thought I'd try to capture it. It's damn hard to keep my chin out of these shot, and apparently, just as difficult to smile.



Of note: Merino wool cardigan vest, cord blazer

Friday, April 1, 2011

Out and about... Spring

I couldn't resist somehow. Maybe it was the new brogued boots, or the spring cotton trench, or possibly the sunshine, on a perfect Saturday afternoon with someone special. For whatever reason, I snapped some shots and felt I might share.



It was probably that last reason more than anything else, come to think of it.