Eddy Huntington

On Thursday night I was in a club deep in Soho observing American Psycho-esque junior investment bankers mingle with gallery girls to a mix of 80's pop and contemporary electronic music. While watching the white V-neck clad Brooklyenite DJ play music on his Mac Book, a riff from Eddy Huntington's U.S.S.R. jumped out at me like Homeward Bound in the family section of a movie rental store.

My brother first introduced me to the great Eddy Huntington via a Facebook wall post that read "Dude, I think this guy is our cousin" and included a YouTube link. Intrigued, I perused the web looking for background on this once great pop sensation from the late '80s and found, much to my disappointment, no family ties but a great story.

Born in 1965 in a small town north in England, Eddy moved to London at 18 to pursue a carrier in the entertainment business. After appearing in multiple music videos as an extra, the Italian record label, Baby records, spotted potential and took him to Milan to record his most notable work, U.S.S.R. The song quickly gained traction on pop charts in the UK, Scandinavia, and wait for it, the U.S.S.R.

After touring around Europe playing shows like this for a bunch of commies, Eddy retired from the music industry in the early 90's and went back to school. Today, Eddy is a middle school principal and gives dancing and singing lessons to his students. If you read the YouTube comments you will see multiple ones like, "Hey that guy is my teacher, he's so nice." I did not make this up.

Here are some more links,
Eddy Huntington (Wiki),
Eddy Huntington Interview,
Eddy Huntington: Bang Bang Baby.

New Order

I love new wave and the decade of decadence that they helped define. New Order is my favorite new wave band and contributes to my lifestyle. The spectacle their music creates makes any party more fun. As on ode to Patrick Batemen, "Their music combines an upbeat sound with complex lyrics." Here are some music videos and a clip from the dance scene from American Psycho.

My Vuarnets

Life looks better through the lens of my Vuarnets. Vuarnet, a French ski sunglass company has been making eye wear since 1957. Unlike many sunglass companies, Vuarnet focuses on creating great lenses and looks to classic shapes for their designs as opposed to focusing on pioneering designs first and optics second. Although relatively overlooked by the American sunglass market, Vuarnets are used exclusively by the film maker Wes Anderson. Vuarnets are a great departure from the wayfarer shape and offer substantially better optics than equivalently priced classes. Here are some Vuarnets, similar to the ones featured here, on ebay and some photos taken through the lenses of my glasses.

Trip To Burton Factory: Part 1

On Saturday, my amigos and I made the trek up from Middlebury to Burlington for a day of exploration. We stopped by the Burton headquarters to see their flagship store. Like all flagships, this one was over staffed and very loud. However, in their lobby were twenty snowboards documenting both the evolution of the sport but also Burton as a brand.

Look at the evolving shapes.The Safari color was is awesome. Very excessive.
These boards are great examples of the decadence that defined the 1980s.