The Wall Street Journal recently did a study that showed men’s business clothing is gaining more and more market share. The casual flip flops, ripped jeans, and vintage tees that we have all come to love over the past few years are being replaced by a band of Brooks Brother Ivies who “just can’t take it anymore.” Dressing up for work is not just for the Fortune 5’s anymore. So if you are ready to sell out your style and shell out some bucks to get ahead at work, I’ve included a few links to help you along your way. A few words of advice, just because the store has an Itallian name (and I am specifically referring to the string of “cannoli tailors” that line 34th street and sell Carenzini rayon for 125 bucks) doesn’t mean you are getting an Itallian suit. To know before you go, check out Banana Republic and Soyouwanna.com.
Who wouldn’t want to wake up, play 18 holes of golf, grab a Corona and head to the beach cabana until your six o’clock date with a few pina coladas and fresh crab legs? How sweet life would be. But, the modern man knows that sunday night marks the end of the weekend debauchery and the beginning of the work week grind. There isn’t enough Starbucks in the world to help me through the first two hours of Monday morning, but here are a few sites ( IndiaTimes and eHow ) that offer an alternative Monday morning panacea.
” make sure you finish all the dirty work on Friday itself. Keep Monday for a fresh start. That way, at least there’s one thing less to bog you down on a Monday. Now that you know how to chase your blues, have a very happy Monday, remember the weekend’s just five days away!”
Filed under: Modern Man
No guy wants to admit the first time he actually wanted to take a trip to Crate and Barrell or Pottery Barn on the weekend to check out the merchandise. There comes a point in time when an old couch, a Playstation 2, and a shadeless lamp just don’t tie the room together as well as we had originally thought. This realization typically has some underlying correlation to the female species, but I won’t get into that now.
Some people say that everything is art, and art is everything. I couldn’t agree LESS! I have seen more bullshit art living in New York than I care to ever see again in my life. Some people got it and some people don’t. Spirit of the Brand…now these guys are artists.
“The Spirit of the Brand program was created by people who genuinelyunderstand what it means to be artists. We actively seek out designers, performers, musicians and other creative souls from today’s street culture who collectively define the bong spirit.”
Now get this all wannabe trendsetters and “genius” marketers out there. These guys speak to this generation better than any Brooks Brother’s Ivy MBA.
“Other companies often try to influence trends by creating ad campaigns full of illusionary lifestyles and fictitious hipsters. Whike they lump together one group of vague stereotypes, we know that that our consumers are both more intelligent and uniquely individual than any clever ad exec could ever invent.”
That’s right guys, when you are done with the hooch the bottle will look good and smoke better. Now thats what I can funtional art.
The modern man knows that while life is short, your career can be even shorter. A study was released earlier this year that spoke to the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars are lost every year in worker productivity due to Fantasy Football. I don’t even want to imagine how many man hours are wasted looking for new jobs on company time. So, the next time your boss catches you looking for new jobs, point out the fact that you are actually saving him money by using Indeed.com, your one stop job search tool.
“In one simple search, Indeed gives job seekers free access to millions of employment opportunities from thousands of websites. Indeed.com includes all the job listings from major job boards, newspapers, associations and company career pages - and we continue to add new sites every day.”
No matter how big or how small, lay a challenge down and the modern man will accept. It feels good to win. Whether you win the office NCAA basketball pool or the tour de France…a victory is a victory. I almost choked on a mouthfull of saltine crackers, eaten the ATOMIC chicken wing, and successfully ran up a “down” escalator. Why…because someone told me that I couldn’t. There was no rhyme or reason to my decisions, just a little voice in the back of my mind screaming out “you can do it, you can beat this guy.”
These challenges used to be undertaken without refernce to past man’s failures or accurate gauge of your opponent’s strengths. These days, however, there are thousands of websites out there who showcase the been there and done that. Ask Men is a website dedicated to the intricacies of the male species.
“AskMen.com is a free online destination for men, a men’s portal, designed to provide men with daily features on subject matter that interests the general male population.
What is its mission? To offer men candid advice, that is useful, practical and entertaining. AskMen.com address issues regarding dating, women, fashion, money, fitness, and entertainment. Offering advice that is too complicated or unrealistic does not serve any viable purpose, therefore it deals with topics that can be incorporated into men’s daily lives.”
The Modern Man no longer has to go through life like a neanderthal proving his point. We have tools and we have knowledge. We can learn from those whom have tried and failed. Teddy Roosevelt would stay up all night and read up on subject matter he knew was of interest to those he would meet with the following day. He didn’t have Wikipedia or Google, but he did have the where with all to prepare himself for his daily battles. The result…Little Victories.
Whether you have plans next Saturday with your foodie friends, a Harvard MBA, or an Art History major, don’t forget to brush up on the topic matter that you know they are interested in. A little homework on gourmet cousine, luxury watches, or modern art could make all the difference between a night of sounding smarter than you actually are and arm wrestling for the check. The measure of the modern man lies in his ability to win the affection of others.
Football season has finally arrived. NFL and College football is underway, and that puts a smile on many a man’s face. We have been patiently waiting the past seven months for an excuse to sit in front of the television and drink Budweiser all day. There is nothing like screaming profanities at an unaffected roster of over paid men while they try to inflict pain on others.
Apparently, I am not the only one who has been waiting for the fall. Advertisers have spent the off season crafting their message to affect the much saught after demographic of men whom spend their days glued to their plasma. Though Tivo has enabled us to fast forward through most of the garbble, Miller has found a way to reach the masses with their Man Laws. A few of my favorites have are listed below:
“A man should never take his girlfriend to a sporting event instead of his drinking buddies unless all his drinking buddies are unable to go. (In which, said buddies should promptly turn in their man cards.)”
“A man may only speak with his wife/girlfriend once during a guy’s night out, and may reply to two text messages only to tell her not to call again or text again.”
“On Valentine’s Day, never give anything unbeatable to your significant other, for she will expect you to topo that gift the following year.”
The modern man is always on the go. We don’t have the time or the room to lug around a copy of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” in our Jack Spade’s. The magazine has not replaced the great literary works of this century, but it has certainly captured a disposable following. When I leave my apartment for the uptown R train, there is nothing like opening a magazine for a crash course in life before I hit the office. I can learn how to hot wire a car, fix my slice, and hack my iPod all before my first cup of coffee.
Only suckers pay full price. With your typical guys magazine going for an average of 4 bucks on the street, the only way to get your daily dose is to hit the internet looking for a bargain. There are lots of sites out there to choose from, but I am particularly fond of BigMags.com. I logged on the other day to take advantage of the “5 magazines for 1 year” offer at a measly $29.95 (Maxim, Entrepreneur, Wired, Golf Illustrated, and Traveler). You can hardly walk out of Barnes and Noble these days for 50 cents an issue, you won’t feel so bad leaving a copy behind in the john.
There comes a time in a man’s life when his 20 inch tv/vcr combo from college just won’t cut it anymore. The combo has served its purpose, but who watches tapes, and more importantly why would anyone want to watch football on a rinky dink 20 inch tv. The modern man knows that the ONLY way to watch the game is on at least a 42′ flat panel.
Walk into your local Best Buy or Circuit City, and that middle aged jerk who still lives at home with his mother, will try to sell you on the latest and greatest without regard to your financial situation. Best advice…know before you go. There are thousands of resources to pour over to help make the best decision. Save yourself the time and go to CNET for a one page break down…
“If you’re in the market for a big screen television — and we’re talking 42- inches and above — then we’d suggest plasma as a safe bet. Plasmas give you more bang for your buck at the big end of town, and while LCDs can give you better resolution, the price difference is currently too wide. However, if money’s not an issue and you want the sharpest image in town, then a large LCD is for you. At the smaller end of things (15″ to 36″ TVs), LCD is the only way to go if you want something slim and tasteful. And the best thing is that LCDs are getting cheaper all the time. “
Sack up already. You’ve got less than a week until your friends come over for the Ohio State and Texas kickoff Saturday, Sept 9 at 7:00 pm.
Sure, security at airports has been somewhat of a nightmare lately, but these days when the modern man travels by air for business or pleasure, there are few things we can’t live without. Carry on essentials include an iPod to drown out the chipper stewardess’s compelling monologue, a lap top for work (I mean DVD’s), and a cell phone to ring your ride home that you have landed and they better step on the gas.
“…there’s a new way to spend time at the airport before boarding your aircraft. From today passengers travelling via Amsterdam Airport Schiphol can download travel information, music, audio books and videos…”
Leave it to those crafty Dutch to create the next generation of “digital dessert” by introducting Fuel For Travel (company plug above). Though FFT is not compatable with my favorite Apple products yet, the iPod vending machines powered by Zoom Systems that have been popping up at airports couldn’t be a better fit for this on the go download station. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my hour and a half wait than to buy some electronics and fill them with goodies for the trip.
Filed under: Modern Man
During the next couple of weeks I will be helping PSFK with a project called, Carnival of Modern Man. It’s all about all about being a modern man in America. You will see posts related to the subject. It’s a nice reflection on life…from a man ’s point of view.