4 ms·

Gotta say I wanted to keep reading. How good is Atlantic? Maybe I should sub

ggm 2y ago
The writing held me to the end. I think their long form apolitical stuff is amazing. People disagree about the political/editorial, I think it's classic American centrist but right wing see it as leftist, and left wing see it as establishment. I totally would wear $20,000 of well made wool 6ply, leather and cotton. Like the author, I'd do it on somebody else's dime. My forays into Japan align strongly to the sense there are many obsessive mercantilist specialists there. The guy with a 2 meter wide stall selling exclusively high end pentode valves in the old akehabera market comes to mind. I spent a brief time in Beijing with a co worker watching them being fitted for a high end suit. The fabric was just amazing. They keep the salvage showing out on the roll so you can see where it's woven be it Milan or Scotland. I think that experience is why this article resonates: that and getting a charity store "demob" suit recut to fit me in London in the eighties. 1946 vintage double breasted with a slubby thick stripe, £20 to buy and £120 to have fitted (it was destroyed by moths in Brisbane 20 years later) My highlight of that Beijing trip was buying a beautiful "pleather" designer jacket for my son from the cheaper, fraudulent end of the market. Very nicely made, he wore it into the ground. If you walk away from the stall without bargaining the market trader women pinch you to teach you a lesson. Painful.
- pvg 2y ago
  It's Gary Shteyngart, you don't have to sub to the Atlantic to read him. I've zero interest in his late mid-life hobbies of watches and suits but the dude can write. His fiction is fun, for those who are into that sort of thing.
  - ggm 2y ago
    I've zero interest in diving into new (to me) fiction right now but his late mid-life hobbies made for short, enjoyable reading. We're all different, and as Gary might say, you do you. If you do (like me) like magazine style writing about obsessions, then William Gibson writes well about it regarding ebay bidding on watches but perhaps you prefer reading his books more too? https://www.watchpaper.com/2015/07/16/william-gibson-on-watches/ https://www.watchpaper.com/2015/07/16/william-gibson-on-watc...
    - pvg 2y ago
      I don't think I even knew Gibson did random hobby writing, no! I've seen the occasional pic of his drip on twitter - I will definitely not be one but it's nice to know it's at least possible to be a dapper old man dressed in something other than formalwear or whatever was in style in his youth.
      - ggm 2y ago
        I desperately want to deny "dress for success" ever mattterd to me but I'd very much be lying. I've worn suits to fit in, I've worn jackets to project an image, I've dressed down to make a political point. Now, just wear clothes which are comfortable and appropriate to circumstances which admits circumstances can change. Formal wear has consumed itself. We need sumptuary laws back.
        rsynnott 2y ago
        > Formal wear has consumed itself. We need sumptuary laws back. I mean, if anything, it’s mostly dead; formal wear is _far_ less of a thing than it was a few decades ago.
    - defrost 2y ago
      Even those that wooden watch The Peripheral (2022) might still enjoy: https://uniquewatchguide.com/valerii-danevych-wooden-watches/ https://uniquewatchguide.com/valerii-danevych-wooden-watches...
    - iamacyborg 2y ago
      On the subject of fashion, obsessions and magazine writing, this piece is excellent too. https://www.gq.com/story/buzz-bissinger-shopaholic-gucci-addiction https://www.gq.com/story/buzz-bissinger-shopaholic-gucci-add...
- dyauspitr 2y ago
  God, how I miss the centrists.
  - ggm 2y ago
    Isn't this time to write the center cannot hold things fall apart
  - lazyeye 2y ago
    Ummm..."the occasional MSNBC appearance"
  - p3rls 2y ago
    It's interesting because the left hates the Atlantic because of its neoliberal, capitalist-class owners that spawned things like 20 years of cheerleading for wars in the middle east and hiring David Frum "axis of evil" types to be their senior editor. And the right hates them because of its puritanical coast-obsessed effeminacy that reads like a gossip paper with a few more fiver-dollar words. But still they've lasted 150 years now so must be doing something right.
    - gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
      Roughly parallel to reasons for hating/revering Apple.. Not surprising, now that Powell Jobs is that very "capitalist-class owner"
- lostlogin 2y ago
  > I totally would wear $20,000 of well made wool 6ply, leather and cotton. I think many of us would. It’s the paying that’s the issue.
  - dinkblam 2y ago
    and many of us wouldn't wear it even if it was free
kergonath 2y ago
> Gotta say I wanted to keep reading. How good is Atlantic? Maybe I should sub The Atlantic is fantastic and you should subscribe. You might be put off by the tone of some of their political pieces, which tends towards old-fashioned centre right. But as a leftie, I think that a lot of them are insightful even though I regularly disagree with the authors and in any case their long-form articles are excellent. The writing is good and the research is thorough.
gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
>Through [The] Emerson [Collective], Powell Jobs owns The Atlantic and a stake in Axios. A tidbit that might help to connect the dots between the political & the apolitical. Or not.

ggm 2y ago

The writing held me to the end. I think their long form apolitical stuff is amazing. People disagree about the political/editorial, I think it's classic American centrist but right wing see it as leftist, and left wing see it as establishment. I totally would wear $20,000 of well made wool 6ply, leather and cotton. Like the author, I'd do it on somebody else's dime. My forays into Japan align strongly to the sense there are many obsessive mercantilist specialists there. The guy with a 2 meter wide stall selling exclusively high end pentode valves in the old akehabera market comes to mind. I spent a brief time in Beijing with a co worker watching them being fitted for a high end suit. The fabric was just amazing. They keep the salvage showing out on the roll so you can see where it's woven be it Milan or Scotland. I think that experience is why this article resonates: that and getting a charity store "demob" suit recut to fit me in London in the eighties. 1946 vintage double breasted with a slubby thick stripe, £20 to buy and £120 to have fitted (it was destroyed by moths in Brisbane 20 years later) My highlight of that Beijing trip was buying a beautiful "pleather" designer jacket for my son from the cheaper, fraudulent end of the market. Very nicely made, he wore it into the ground. If you walk away from the stall without bargaining the market trader women pinch you to teach you a lesson. Painful.

pvg 2y ago
It's Gary Shteyngart, you don't have to sub to the Atlantic to read him. I've zero interest in his late mid-life hobbies of watches and suits but the dude can write. His fiction is fun, for those who are into that sort of thing.
- ggm 2y ago
  I've zero interest in diving into new (to me) fiction right now but his late mid-life hobbies made for short, enjoyable reading. We're all different, and as Gary might say, you do you. If you do (like me) like magazine style writing about obsessions, then William Gibson writes well about it regarding ebay bidding on watches but perhaps you prefer reading his books more too? https://www.watchpaper.com/2015/07/16/william-gibson-on-watches/ https://www.watchpaper.com/2015/07/16/william-gibson-on-watc...
  - pvg 2y ago
    I don't think I even knew Gibson did random hobby writing, no! I've seen the occasional pic of his drip on twitter - I will definitely not be one but it's nice to know it's at least possible to be a dapper old man dressed in something other than formalwear or whatever was in style in his youth.
    - ggm 2y ago
      I desperately want to deny "dress for success" ever mattterd to me but I'd very much be lying. I've worn suits to fit in, I've worn jackets to project an image, I've dressed down to make a political point. Now, just wear clothes which are comfortable and appropriate to circumstances which admits circumstances can change. Formal wear has consumed itself. We need sumptuary laws back.
      - rsynnott 2y ago
        > Formal wear has consumed itself. We need sumptuary laws back. I mean, if anything, it’s mostly dead; formal wear is _far_ less of a thing than it was a few decades ago.
  - defrost 2y ago
    Even those that wooden watch The Peripheral (2022) might still enjoy: https://uniquewatchguide.com/valerii-danevych-wooden-watches/ https://uniquewatchguide.com/valerii-danevych-wooden-watches...
  - iamacyborg 2y ago
    On the subject of fashion, obsessions and magazine writing, this piece is excellent too. https://www.gq.com/story/buzz-bissinger-shopaholic-gucci-addiction https://www.gq.com/story/buzz-bissinger-shopaholic-gucci-add...
dyauspitr 2y ago
God, how I miss the centrists.
- ggm 2y ago
  Isn't this time to write the center cannot hold things fall apart
- lazyeye 2y ago
  Ummm..."the occasional MSNBC appearance"
- p3rls 2y ago
  It's interesting because the left hates the Atlantic because of its neoliberal, capitalist-class owners that spawned things like 20 years of cheerleading for wars in the middle east and hiring David Frum "axis of evil" types to be their senior editor. And the right hates them because of its puritanical coast-obsessed effeminacy that reads like a gossip paper with a few more fiver-dollar words. But still they've lasted 150 years now so must be doing something right.
  - gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
    Roughly parallel to reasons for hating/revering Apple.. Not surprising, now that Powell Jobs is that very "capitalist-class owner"
lostlogin 2y ago
> I totally would wear $20,000 of well made wool 6ply, leather and cotton. I think many of us would. It’s the paying that’s the issue.
- dinkblam 2y ago
  and many of us wouldn't wear it even if it was free

kergonath 2y ago

> Gotta say I wanted to keep reading. How good is Atlantic? Maybe I should sub The Atlantic is fantastic and you should subscribe. You might be put off by the tone of some of their political pieces, which tends towards old-fashioned centre right. But as a leftie, I think that a lot of them are insightful even though I regularly disagree with the authors and in any case their long-form articles are excellent. The writing is good and the research is thorough.

gsf_emergency_2 2y ago

>Through [The] Emerson [Collective], Powell Jobs owns The Atlantic and a stake in Axios. A tidbit that might help to connect the dots between the political & the apolitical. Or not.