TheHistorialist: May 2017

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

<< U P D A T E S >>

1899 | Not How Cheap But How Good
Common sense from WAHR & MILLER (Ann Arbor - Home Of The Stooges)
Source: Old News (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

1897 | GODSPEED BROTHERS | Ann Arbor
Source: Old News (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

1894 | WAHR & MILLER (Ann Arbor)
Source: Old News (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Monday, May 29, 2017

WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES | FEAT. HENNING MANKELL

… a story about dignity.

During the long and difficult civil war that ravaged Mozambique - from the early 1980s until 1992 - I made a journey to the Cabo Delgado province in the north. One day in November 1990, I was in a place just south of the border with Tanzania. The area had been badly affected by the war. Many people had been killed or crippled, and starvation was widespread since most of the crops had been burnt. It was like entering an Inferno where misery rose like smoke all along the dusty roads.

One day I took a path that led to a tiny village. A young man came walking towards me. It seemed as if he was walking out of the sun. His clothes were in tatters. He could have been nineteen, maybe twenty. When he came closer, I noticed his feet.

Trompe l'oeil paintings by John Maurad and Jenai Chin
Photograph: Tom Schierlitz
Source: New York magazine

I saw something I shall never forget as long as I live. I can see it before my very eyes as I am telling this tale now. Rarely does a day pass when I don't think about this boy who was coming towards me as if from out of the sun. What did I see?

His feet. He had painted shoes on to his feet. He had mixed paint from the soil and preserved his dignity for as long as possible. He had no boots, no shoes, nothing, not even a pair of sandals made from the remains of a car tyre. As he had no shoes, he had to make some himself, so he painted a pair of shoes on to his feet, and in doing so he boosted his awareness that, despite all his misery and destitution, he was a human being with dignity.

Trompe l'oeil paintings by John Maurad and Jenai Chin
Photograph: Tom Schierlitz
Source: New York magazine

I thought at the time and I still think now that of all the strangers I have met in my life, this meeting may have been the most important of all. For what he told me with his feet was that human dignity can be preserved and maintained when all else seems lost. I learned that we should all be aware that there could come a day when we too will have to paint shoes on to our feet.

And when that day comes, it is important that we know that we possess that ability. I don't know what his name was. He couldn't speak Portuguese and I didn't understand his language. I have often wondered what became of him. He is most probably dead, though I have no way of knowing for sure. But the image of his feet will always be with me.

Henning Mankell

From: I Die But The Memory Lives On (The Harvill Press, 2004)

SHOES & BOOKS
[FEAT. HEMINGWAY, SHAKESPEARE, SARAMAGO, RANKIN, GALEANO ...]

Henning Mankell (1948 - 2015)
I Die But The Memory Lives On (The Harvill Press, 2004)
Source: HENNING MANKELL

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

JUST GOOD, CLEAN, HONEST FOOTBALL | FEAT. DAVID PEACE

No blue suits. No dossiers. No bingo and no bowls. No ritual walks around the traffic lights or lucky routes to this bench in the dug-out. No envelopes full of cash. No gamesmanship or cheating –

Just football …

Not superstition. Not bloody ritual and not fucking luck –

Just good, clean, honest football.

‘There will be no stopping us,’ I tell the press. ‘No stopping us now.’

David Peace
From: The Damned Utd. (Faber And Faber, 2007)

1951 | Nugget Polish
Source: History World

Cassius Clay becomes Muhammad Ali. The Quarrymen become the Beatles. Lesley Hornby becomes Twiggy and George Best becomes Georgie Best.
Superstar.

David Peace
From: The Damned Utd. (Faber And Faber, 2007)

1970 | George Best advertising Stylo Matchmakers boots
Source: Retrocards

In the temporary office. Because of the alterations to Anfield, because of the improvements to Anfield. Bill picked up the telephone. Again. And Bill said, Bill Shankly speaking. What can I do for you?

Hello, Bill. It’s me, Bob. I’m at Scunthorpe with Reuben. We’re watching this lad Keegan. And we should sign him. Immediately, Bill. Now. Tonight. This very minute … And Bill said, Thanks, Bob. That’s all I wanted to hear. All I wanted to know, Bob. Thank you very much.

David Peace
From: Red Or Dead (Faber And Faber, 2013)

SHOES & BOOKS
[FEAT. HEMINGWAY, SHAKESPEARE, SARAMAGO, RANKIN, GALEANO ...]

1981 | Kevin Keegan advertising Pirelli Slippers
Source: The Football Attic

Thursday, May 18, 2017

OXFORDS ARE FOR SQUARES (MISSION DISTRICT'S FOOTWEAR) | FEAT. PETER PLATE

He wouldn’t leave it alone. “I hate him. Look at his damn shoes.”
The cop had on nondescript black oxfords, footwear for squares. Oxfords were an insult to anyone with decent taste. They represented boredom and mediocrity. A guy in oxfords never got the pretty girl. He was never the life of the party.

Peter Plate
From: Soon the Rest Will Fall (Seven Stories Press, 2006)

Crockett & Jones | Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire
Source: History World

Patsy had to wonder about the doctor. Her mother didn’t understand how she could tolerate a man who wore Guatemalan cloth vests and Birkenstock shoes.

Peter Plate
From: One Foot Off The Gutter (Incommunicado Press, 1995)

2015 | Birkenstock
Photograph by Pari Dukovic
Source: New Yorker magazine

She was changing in other ways too - modeling a Charles Manson-style maternity dress made from dungaree scraps with Birkenstock sandals on her swollen feet, a bottle of lime-flavored Calistoga mineral water at her side. Not even twenty-three years old and she was deep into the pose of a nouveau hippie mother.

Peter Plate
From: Police and Thieves (Seven Stories Press, 1999)

1991 | Birkenstock
Since 1902

I didn’t have any answers for Hendrix. His second-rate loafers had looked cheap when they’d peeked out from under the medic’s plastic blanket. The heels were worn out; the soles had holes in them. Harry had ingratiated himself with Petard to keep his job, and what did it get him?
Nothing but his own death in a pair of shoes that were embarrassing to look at.

Peter Plate
From: Snitch Factory (Seven Stories Press, 1997)

Florsheim loafers owned by Michael Jackson
Auctioned for € 32,759
Source: Live Auctioneers

A slender, yellow skinned Mexican rigged out like a jazz musician in Sta-Prest green slacks, a sateen fedora, imitation Italian loafers, red lensed sunglasses and a droopy black leather coat, Jimmy wore a moderate pompadour and a fuzzy goatee.

Peter Plate
From: Angels Of Catastrophe (Seven Stories Press, 2001)

Gluecifer
Ridin' The Tiger (White Jazz, 1997)
Photograph: Morten Andersen

Rook dressed better than anyone else in the Mission. Satin shirts and silk underwear were de rigueur for him. Expensive Italian boots from Milan were his due in life.

Peter Plate
From: Angels Of Catastrophe (Seven Stories Press, 2001)

2105 | Fratelli Rossetti
Source: Robb Report

I am part of what I would call the working class Jewish Diaspora of North America. I come from NYC, but I was raised in a rightwing working class town of 100,000 people on the edge of the desert and the mountains, where LA’s smog comes to its final resting.

Peter Plate
From: The Brooklyn Rail interview by Christian Parenti (2002)

SHOES & BOOKS
[FEAT. HEMINGWAY, SHAKESPEARE, SARAMAGO, RANKIN, GALEANO ...]

2008 | Peter Plate
Photograph: Mike Kepka
Source: SFGate

Monday, May 15, 2017

OF TWO-TONE SHOES & BOOTS | FEAT. CHARLES WILLEFORD

Sneakers - Self titled (Mercury, 1980)
Source: Discogs

Burke studied the ground, rubbing his freshly shaven chin. He was in his middle forties, and he wore his pale, yellow hair much too long. He paid considerable attention to his clothes. Even at daybreak he was wearing a blue seersucker suit, white shirt and necktie, and black-and-white shoes. Two-toned shoes indicate an ambivalent personality, a man who can't make up his mind.

Charles Willeford
From: Cockfighter (1962)

Roblee
Source: Vintage Ad Browser

They looked more like Yuppies, well-dressed with blow-dry hair--like Brickell Avenue or Kendall types. One of them was wearing a silk suit, and the other had on a linen jacket. They were in their mid-twenties, I'd say. The one in the suit had black loafers, the other man wore brown-and-white shoes."

Hoke grinned. "The man with the black shoes did all the talking, right?"

Loretta Hickey nodded. "How'd you know that?"

"I didn't. But guys who wear two-tone shoes have an ambivalent personality, and are indecisive."

Charles Willeford
From: No Hope For The Dead (1985)

1973 | Mick Jagger in Austria (Rolling Stones European Tour)
Photograph: Robert Cohen
Source: last style of defense

"But as you can see, Pop, I didn't need the full two thousand. And I still got everything I needed, including these new pants, goatskin gloves, the shirt, and the running shoes. Boots look good on a man, but for running, when you have to run, they aren't worth a damn."

Charles Willeford
From: Sideswipe (1987)

Johnny Cash portrait
From: I See A Darkness - Graphic Novel by Reinhard Kleist
Published by I See A Hero - 2007

It’s not noir. I don’t do neo-noir. I see Pulp Fiction as closer to modern-day crime fiction, a little closer to Charles Willeford, though I don’t know if that describes it either. What’s similar is that Willeford is doing his own thing with his own characters, creating a whole environment and a whole family.

Quentin Tarantino
From: Sight & Sound, May 1994

Charles Willeford
January 2, 1919 - March 27, 1988
Source: Alchetron

Thursday, May 11, 2017

SO LONG AND THANKS FOR ALL THE SHOE STORES | FEAT. DOUGLAS ADAMS

Hahn Shoe store Washington DC
Designed by Ketchun, Gina & Sharp
Source: NY Times

Many years ago this was a thriving, happy planet - people, cities, shops, a normal world. Except that on the high streets of these cities there were slightly more shoe shops than one might have thought necessary. And slowly, insidiously, the numbers of these shoe shops were increasing. It’s a well-known economic phenomenon but tragic to see it in operation, for the more shoe shops there were, the more shoes they had to make and the worse and more unwearable they became.

And the worse they were to wear, the more people had to buy to keep themselves shod, and the more the shops proliferated, until the whole economy of the place passed what I believe is termed the Shoe Event Horizon, and it became no longer economically possible to build anything other than shoe shops. Result—collapse, ruin and famine. Most of the population died out. Those few who had the right kind of genetic instability mutated into birds—you’ve seen one of them—who cursed their feet, cursed the ground and vowed that none should walk on it again. Unhappy lot.

So said Pizpot Gargravarr to Zaphod in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Pan Books, 1980)
By Douglas Adams

Vogue Boot Shop – St. Louis, MO
Source: Decopix

He knew they were thirteen stories up because the windows were dark. He was bitterly upset. He had bought those shoes for some absurd price in a store on the Lower East Side in New York. He had, as a result, written an entire essay on the joys of great footwear, all of which had been jettisoned in the “Mostly harmless” debacle. Damn everything. And now one of the shoes was gone. He threw his head back and stared at the sky.

It wouldn’t be such a grim tragedy if the planet in question hadn’t been demolished, which meant that he wouldn’t even be able to get another pair. Yes, given the infinite sideways extension of probability, there was, of course, an almost infinite multiplicity of planets Earth, but, when you come down to it, a major pair of shoes wasn’t something you could just replace by mucking about in multidimensional space-time.

Douglas Adams
From: Mostly Harmless (William Heinemann, 1992)

SHOES & BOOKS

[FEAT. HEMINGWAY, SHAKESPEARE, SARAMAGO, RANKIN, GALEANO ...]

Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001)
DNA Press Photos by Jill Furmanovsky
Source: Douglas Adams

Monday, May 8, 2017

HUARACHES? ASK JOHN FANTE

Those shoes, they were huaraches, the leather thongs wrapped several times around her ankles. They were desperately ragged huaraches; the woven leather had become unravelled. When I saw them I was very grateful, for it was a defect about her that deserved criticism. She was tall and straight-shouldered, a girl of perhaps twenty, faultless in her way, except for her tattered huaraches.

And so I fastened my stare on them, watched them intently and deliberately, even turning in my chair and twisting my neck to glare at them, sneering and chuckling to myself. Plainly I was getting as much enjoyment out of this as she got from my face, or whatever it was that amused her.

John Fante
[From: Ask The Dust, 1939]

Not original HUARACHES, but they fit the description
Source: samsvojmajstor.com

I was in rags the day that check arrived. My nondescript Colorado clothes hung from me in shreds, and my first thought was a new wardrobe. I had to be frugal but in good taste, and so I descended Bunker Hill to Second and Broadway, and the Goodwill store. I made my way to the better quality section and found an excellent blue business suit with a white pinstripe.

The pants were too long and so were the sleeves, and the whole thing was ten dollars. For another dollar I had the suit altered, and while this was being taken care of, I buzzed around in the shirt department. Shirts were fifty cents apiece, of excellent quality and all manner of styles. Next I purchased a pair of shoes - fine thick-soled oxfords of pure leather, shoes that would carry me over the streets of Los Angeles for months to come.

John Fante
[From: Dreams Of Bunker Hill - Black Sparrow Press, 1982]

1949 | Nunn Bush
Ankle Fashioned Oxfords

... John, you’re big time now.

you’ve entered the Books of Forever

right there with Dostoevsky,

Tolstoy, and your boy

Sherwood Anderson.

I told you.

and you said, “you wouldn’t

shit an old blind man,

would you?” ah, no need for that,

bulldog.

Charles Bukowski
From: "Fante" (Betting On The Muse - Black Sparrow Press, 1996)

SHOES & BOOKS
[FEAT. HEMINGWAY, SHAKESPEARE, SARAMAGO, RANKIN, GALEANO ...]