I think this is brilliant. Taken By Trees takes Animal Collectives “My Girls” and remakes it into something all their own and appropriately renames it as well. Here they are in a video that is perfectly suited for the song:

YouTube – Taken By Trees – “My Boys”

The NYTimes.com has a great piece on a writer who had struggled like many people to give up smoking. Anyone who has this resolution in mind for January 1 should read this: Hurry Up, It’s Time. Let me expand that and say anyone who has any resolution they want to make on New Year’s should read it. I think this applies to anyone, for it is not about the quitting. Rather..

“I looked around the faces in the classroom. Sure enough, everyone would eventually quit smoking, I thought. Everyone except me.

Then, at some point during the meeting, it hit me. I didn’t just want to quit smoking. I wanted much more. I wanted something new in life — call it a new deal, a new me, new rituals, new friends, new clothes, a new home, a new career, new everything. This was my crazy reason. I told no one.”

It’s good. Read it. And good luck to you and to us all.

Since alot of people come to this blog because I once wrote why I buy suits from Zara — alot of people! — I thought they might also be interested in taking lessons from a real master, Bill Blass. I saw this in Vanity Fair and thought his closet provided some good tips for people acquiring men’s suits.

First, look at suits he has in his closet. If you are going to have a number of suits, you would be well off to stick with mostly blacks and dark grays and navy blues, while mixing up the striping and perhaps the cut. The key is “mostly”. Notice he does make room for lighter suits of browns and grays and plaids.

Also note how well he spaces the suits in his closet. He doesn’t have them jammed together. This is smart. Obviously you need space for this, but it is a good way to use your closet space.

Finally, don’t do what Bill does: wear pants instead. 🙂

If you want to know more about the photo, go here: A Jonathan Becker Retrospective | vanityfair.com