Denim: Give It A Wash

I have waxed lyrical before about my love of denim. How it fades, moulds to your body and is generally the best thing you could wear in the history of ever. In my last post I really covered why I love that particular pair of jeans, and the effect that wearing something for a long period of time has. What I didn’t cover was how to get them to the point that they look like they could give up the ghost at any minute (my preferred look).

Before

After

Many people have many opinions on how to treat raw denim. Some, like the geezer that runs Levis (or whichever P.A writes his blog posts), say you should never wash them but instead put them in the freezer to stop them smelling, A.P.C (who make this very pair jeans) suggest running into the sea then rubbing sand all over them.. both suggestions seem a little much. I mean, at the end of the day they’re a pair of jeans, you shouldn’t have to really think about it that much should you?

That being said, you probably don’t want to just whack your expensive and much loved pair of trousers in the washing machine with your stained t-shirts and clinging-on-for-dear-life socks. Instead, I’ve hit upon a pretty easy formula that seems to mean that every six months you end up with an excellent continuation to the denim fade whilst keeping your jeans moderately intact. I say moderately because mine seem to wear fairly quickly whether washed or not. Thankfully repair stations like Son Of A Stag exist so that people don’t have to see the gaping hole in my crotch.

Before

After

Usually at this point someone will say something about Steve McQueen and how he’s an icon and how you should own a pair of Persol sunglasses. Fuck that, here’s how to wash your jeans in 8 easy steps:

1. Take your jeans, empty the pockets, unfold any cuffs and shake out the accumulated dirt (It will be there)

2. Run a bath tub of lukewarm water until it’s around a quarter full

3. Add a mild detergent and stir through the water so it’s evenly mixed throughout

4. Submerge your jeans in the water and gently rub any particularly ingrained dirt to start the cleaning process

5. Weight the jeans down to ensure they don’t end up floating out of the water, and leave for 45 minutes

6. Return and gaze disgustedly at the colour of the water, and then empty the tub

7. Using a shower/the tap thoroughly rinse your jeans until the water runs clear

8. Find a well ventilated space and hang to dry

Before

After

I’m going to avoid making Teddy Bear’s Picnic jokes here. Woods and forests are cool, not just literally. There’s something really relaxing about taking a walk under the shade of closely packed trees, feeling the cool moisture in the air and watching as the wildlife either gets out of your way, or ignores you entirely as it’s just getting on.

Highgate Wood, in the north of my England’s fine capital, is not large but it’s pretty tranquil (28 Hectares according to the internet). I mean, that’s if you veer slightly off the beaten path and manage to avoid the children on microscooters and their trailing mothers. A surviving fragment of the Great Forest of Middlesex, it’s been open to the public since 1886. It’s remarkably easy to get to and so it was on a cloudy Sunday we took the Northern line up to Highgate and with a quick step off the high street were enveloped by the wood’s leafy fronds. Bypassing the hordes and the ubiquitous English cricket match, the woods provided the perfect antidote to hangovers and general fuzzy headedness.

This drinking fountain dating from 1888 proved to be the only notable feature of the otherwise pristine habitat (beyond a lovely cafe, heaving with young families). It’s commemorative plaque shares a quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

“Drink, pilgrim, here! Here rest! and if thy heart

be innocent, here too shalt thou refresh

thy spirit, listening to some gentle sound

or passing gale or hum of murmuring bees”

As it’s so small, there’s no real route I can recommend but it’s pretty easy to get to and is definitely a green dream if that’s what you’re looking for. Instead here’s some pictures of trees which I took, and like.

Find out how to get to Highgate Wood via the always handy Google Maps

Elton John - oh man, where do you start? The man more legend than person at this point. From his elaborate stage costumes to his adidas tracksuits, I’m sure he occupies a larger space in this dimension than just his physical form would suggest. Obviously everyone knows his hits, the Rocket Man’s, the Your Song’s, THAT moment in Almost Famous. All strong choices no doubt. But there’s one track on his ’72 album Honky Chateau that at some points I like more than all of his big crowd pleasers.

Susie (Dramas) precedes Rocket Man and that’s probably one of the reasons that it’s fallen by the wayside. The other being that, Elton’s recorded over a million and a half songs by this point and no one can be expected to keep track of them all, let alone him.

Honky Chateau was the first album on which EJ had managed to circumvent the irritating record company and feature his full live band across all the tracks. The way they blend, you can tell stage performance has honed these guys into a finely tuned machine.

Susie, lyrically, isn’t much to shout about. It tells the story of a country woman leading her man along and by about a minute and a half in you’ve heard all the original lyrics your’e going to hear. That said, it has some great turns of phrase from Bernie Taupin including ‘I’m an old hayseed harp player, I’m the hit of the county fair’, aided in fairness by Elton's delivery.

But it’s not the lyric you’re here for, it’s the sweet grove laid down by Nigel Olsson backed up by Dee Murray who locks this down on bass hooking nicely into Elton’s own bass part in his left hand. Davey Johnstone adds a nifty backwards guitar solo. This is one to make you dance - if it doesn’t you definitely aren’t listening to it loud enough.

I made a mistake this summer. I forgot one truly vital learning from my previous 25 years on this planet. In a hot season, cladding your ankles with trainers is a surefire fast lane to misery. In a mad bid to free myself from the confines of heat and canvas I hastily picked up a new pair of kicks which I’m well and truly infatuated with - the Vans Old Skool Reissue CA.

In an always helpful stroke of blog luck, I don’t think you can actually buy these anymore as the season has now passed, but I figured I’d write about the anyway since I like them so much, and the Old Skool comes in a literal heap of other colours, materials and collaborations.

Debuting back in 1977, the Old Skool was the first ever shoe to have Vans’ now trademark side stripe - whipped up as a doodle by the company’s founder Paul Van Doren, ‘Style 36’ was also the company’s first leather skate shoe. Soon it was seen adoring the feet of none other than the likes of skate pioneers Stacy Peralta and Steve Alva. Now a bonafide classic, many people have put their print on them some in DIY fashion and some as part of of Vans’ seemingly neverending series of collaborations.

Part of their Reissue CA series (who knows what that means, the internet isn’t particularly clear) these specific foot gems have the excellent added touch of coming pre-treated with Scotchgard so the need to worry about things like British summer weather, spilt drinks (guilty) or the shelling out for expensive and ineffective sneaker protection is completely taken away.

Comfy to an extreme, the reason this shoe works is that rather than blasting it out into a one colour/material dullard, the suede and canvas nicely complement each other whilst staying nicely neutral and similar enough that to the passing eye it looks more like a trick of the light than the work of a brilliant aesthetician. Props to Vans on this one, I’m only going to take these off when the sun stops shining.

I would recommend teaming them up with a pair of faded denim, and a bright yellow t-shirt. Go grab yourself a pair of 70s history.

I know this post is about 2.5 weeks late but.. sue me. I'd start calling them Tuesday Tunes but it just sounds awful doesn't it? So no, this isn't about putting on weight after gorging yourself on way too many helpings of Lasagne, (my regular swimming routine puts task to that) I've just been listening to things that are a tad heavier over the last week and thought I'd put something together that reflects that. Maybe it's a reflection of the somewhat rainy weather we've been plagued with? Either way, I'm really into this playlist and it still ends on quite a light cheery note. (Thanks Alex Chilton!)

I've opened it up with ZZ Top, who are truly in the upper echelons of cool. If you look past the beards and the furry guitars there's a lot there, and one thing that goes without argument is Billy Gibbons' guitar playing is no laughing matter. According to him, it was BB King who told him to use light guitar strings as anything heavier was getting in the way of his playing. My Dad used to love this band, and I finally see it was with good reason. Also included is yet another great 70s cut from Aerosmith, No More No More. Opening with the absolutely excellent lyric "Blood stains the ivories on my Daddy's baby grand, ain't seen the daylight since we started this band", Steven Tyler sure knew how to pen 'em. Moving on, as usual a few fun facts about some of these songs:

- On The Ocean, there's a bunch of background noises that can be noticed through careful ringing, including a telephone ringing. This all happened by chance as the band recorded House of the Holy in a house, rather than a regular recording studio
- On Melbourne based Australian radio station 3RRR in the mid to late 1980s, a legal show aired named after Warren Zevon's song 'Laywers, Guns and Money'
- Though it sounds deceivingly simple, hidden on September Gurls by Big Star is a Fender mando guitar, an early electronic guitar/mandolin hybrid.
- Bonus fact - I once caught a live Justin Timberlake concert playing on VH1 in the mid 00's. They sampled The Ocean for a verse of one of his songs. It was pretty, pretty awful.

“Don’t you miss cheese?” “Oh my god, I couldn’t live without cheese?” “My life is cheese”.. these are just some of the utterances you get when you tell someone you don’t eat dairy anymore. Much better are the astonished faces you see when you confirm that no, you don’t miss it. Don’t get me wrong, cheese is a delicious substance filled with many intricate flavours, however now it’s gone I’m really not altogether fussed on it’s absence. I’ve moved on to far greener pastures.

What I do miss however, is a good béchamel sauce layered with pasta and bolognese sauce in a delicious English disruption of an Italian classic. There’s something so comforting about a well cooked lasagne, at least for me. It reminds me of childhood and general happiness as it’s always been a familiar face on my Mum’s kitchen table. Now thanks to the trusty help of the ever faithful cashew nut, and the forever ever trusty Oh She Glows, magic has happened. Lasagne has returned to my life in an, only slightly less than, mystical way which i’m very happy to share with you as I think pretty much everyone should eat this. All the time. If I had the time and the energy I would eat this every other day, however as I have neither this has gone into rotation as a solid Sunday dinner and is a great replacement for my Mum’s béchamel laden cheese/meat fest.

This recipe actually came together fairly easily, once we’d worked out the flavours and textures we wanted included it was simply a case of plotting the most structurally sound order in which to layer! As a side note, in doing my research for this I finally discovered the difference between lasagna and lasagne - for anyone interested lasagna is the singular sheet and lasagne is obviously the plural.

If you’re wondering whether you really need to soak the cashew nuts, trust me, unless you want a crunchy completely unsatisfactory experience - soak them. I speak from experience. In terms of the other ingredients, lots of other things would work in this - I would consider trying leeks, chard or even aubergine (though that’s a tad overdone isn’t it?) You can also use your own tomato sauce, or store bought if you’re really not bothered, this is just a nice way to incorporate lots of fresh ingredients directly.

Give it a go, you won’t look back.

Recipe

Cheeze Sauce

Borrowed from here, minus the Basil.

1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 30 mins or overnight
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup vegetable broth or water (or more as needed)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (gives the cheese flavour)
3/4-1 tsp kosher salt (or to taste) + freshly ground black pepper

1. Drain and rinse soaked cashews. With the food processor turned on, drop in your garlic cloves and process until chopped. Add in the rest of the ingredients and process until smooth, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Lasagne

1-2 Large Sweet Potatoes

1.5 Cups Red or Dead Pasta Sauce (I like to make mine at the same time the potatoes are baking)i

1 large, or 6 baby, Courgette sliced lengthways

250g Chestnut Mushrooms, Sliced

1-2 Handfulls of Baby Spinach

1 Pack Wholewheat/Spelt Lasagna sheets

Extra Nutritional Yeast

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°c

2. With a knife pierce or cross the Sweet Potatoes and place on baking tray in oven for 40-50 minutes

3. Once potatoes are soft to the touch, remove from oven and let cool

4. In a large baking dish, place a bottom layer of courgette slices, ensuring that it is relatively even and flat, add enough red sauce to mostly cover. Place layer of 3 lasagna sheets and spread cheeze sauce on top until covered.

5. Place layer of sliced mushrooms in the same way as the courgette slices, again ensuring relatively even and flat . Repeat sauce, sheets, and cheeze.

6. Remove sweet potatoes from skin and with a cutlery knife or spoon, spread evenly across surface of the lasagne and place spinach on top. Cover entirely in lasagna sheets ensuring no gaps.

7. Use the rest of the cheeze sauce to cover the lasagne, sprinkling additional nutritional yeast on top to ensure crispness.

8. Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes depending on crispy top preference.

9. ENJOY

I’ve recently realised the beauty of a weekend morning brunch which isn’t in direct relation to a horribly drunken Friday evening. Introduced to me by the lovely Maya, my new favourite spot and home of our brunch club is No67 at the South London Gallery.

Located a short bus ride (or equidistant walk if you’re feeling for a perambulate) from Camberwell and Peckham the cafe has plenty of seating in both it’s two indoor dining rooms, front garden and piece de resistance - the back garden. Covered in perfect leafy green foliage, warm sunlight hits it’s two tables at around 11.30am and there isn’t a better place to sit on a weekend morning. If the weather isn’t suited to al fresco dining, the back room has beautiful steel-framed floor to ceiling windows which offer a perfect view of the aforementioned vegetation.

The menu though slightly (read: very) short on vegan options, only holding one labelled main and side, is at least delicious. The House Beans in Pepper Stew on Sourdough aren’t your average Heinz on sliced white. These chunky butter beans arrive at the table glistening with goodness. Sat on top of two perfectly toasted pieces of sourdough, the warm and spicy sweet tomato sauce is the perfect morning kickstart. In happy news, if you ask you will find that the Bubble & Squeak is cooked in oil, not butter - as are the roast mushrooms. So the menu opens up a little with a variety of side offerings.

I’m also reliably informed that the non-vegan options are delicious too, with the granola yogurt receiving a special mention.

To accompany your meal, the only option is to order yourself a Mimosa (it’s the weekend), and if you’re lucky it won’t just include traditional orange juice but a hint of blood orange sweetening things up.

Find you way there with the help of Google Maps!

Coming to you live, direct and late from sunny Clapham, London is the second in the Monday Moods series. For anyone who's been anywhere in the South of England (or maybe further afield, I don't know) the last week, I don't need to state that it's been pretty warm. Whilst I pretty much live on Vitamin D and like to spend long periods in the sun photosynthesising, the warm evenings with little sleep aren't doing too much good for me.

So, with that in mind this playlist is a celebration of hot melty summer heat. You've got Bruce Springsteen singing about the hot sun beating on the tarmac, Elton talking about how much he loves Jamaica and the classic Rivieras celebrating the gorgeous California Sun. As with last week here are some fast and fun facts about some of these tracks.

- The excellent Sherry Darling features on the Bruce Springsteen Promise documentary, about the making of Darkness On The Edge of Town. Bruce & Steven Van Zandt play it on a piano, finishing with saying it was the one and only performance of that song. Little did they know..
- Elton and his band had originally planned on recording the whole of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in Jamaica, however studio facilities were not quite up to par and they eventually decamped to the South of France. This song sums up their feelings pretty much perfectly
- California Sun is not orginally by The Rivieras, but by singer Joe Jones. It's since been covered by a metric fuckton of people, but if you're a fan I would recommend checking out this version by legendary NYC punk band The Dictators

You know the old adage, a good t-shirt is hard to find. Okay, that isn’t an old adage but I stand by it, they really are hard to find. Sure you can go just about anywhere and get something with a shitty logo or a lame band t-shirt which has been seen a million times before, but scouring for something perfect? That’s a skill, a skill I’m certainly not anywhere near perfecting. However I’m definitely getting closer than some people out there so I thought I’d put together a post showing off my favourite new additions to my collection from TSPTR, Thundergirl City and Stay At Home Club.

First up is this awesome TSPTR tee, shown above and above (again) - featuring Astro Snoopy. According to their spiffy website, the SS’15 collection “focuses on American counter culture in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, specifically the war in Vietnam and the cultural revolution that surrounded it ... as often happens in situations such as this the best way to express opposition was through humour. Vietnam was no exception, while magazines such as LIFE and TIME reported the reality and daily horrors, the soldiers themselves responded by using slogans and parodies of pop culture icons such as Snoopy and Charlie Brown to express their anxieties and frustration at the grim situation they were in.” Pretty deep stuff. All I can say is that though the subject matters is heavy, it only adds to this being is one rad t-shirt. Plus, if you don’t like Snoopy then really I don’t like you. Check out their whole SS’15 collection here.

Thundergirl City is a cool British brand founded by two friends who wanted to ‘address the lack of cool t-shirt designs on the market’. So basically, as noted above, most tees suck and sadly people buy them and wear them a lot. I picked up this bad boy in yellow because I once had a girlfriend who had a yellow Great Wall of China t-shirt which I stole for ages but sadly had to give back, and miss terribly... I was a pretty shitty boyfriend though so it's fair that it had to be returned. I also bought it because it’s fucking rad. Good shit by good people, recommend 1000% (It also comes in black or white if you’re fancy/dull).

Last up is this tee from Stay At Home Club, a Canadian brand.. I don’t really have much to say about it or them. But I like Sad songs, they’re often the best songs, so I feel sharing that is probably a pretty good shout. Grab one here.

After a month (ish?) of writing Friday tracks, I’ve decided to change it up and introduce a new series. Monday Moods will basically be a bunch of playlists grouped around a loose central theme or feeling, a ‘mood’ if you will… For the first in the series I’ve put together half an hour of country-tinged (and in some cases just straight country) tunes, including songs from Neil Young, CCR, The Rolling Stones, Merle Haggard and a few more.

Right now in London it’s pretty warm, and if like me you work in a giant air conditioned building you’re probably craving a trip to the woods to sit in the shade of a big tree and watch nature go by. So this is what this playlist is for. If you can’t be there, you can at least close your eyes and imagine it.

Cool facts about some of these tracks:

- Lookin’ Out My Back Door was written for John Fogerty’s three year old son and inspired by the Dr Seuss book ‘And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street'

- Key To the Highway was first recorded in 1940 and has since been recorded by seemingly a million and one different people. This version with B.B. King is Eric Clapton’s 4th out of his 5 released versions of the song

- Led Zeppelin’s Going To California is reportedly written about Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s shared infatuation with her. To be fair, who wouldn’t fall for Joni in 1970?

It’s fair to say that simple is in most cases, often better. The Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars were first produced in 1917, and are still being worn across the world today. Admittedly in many different colours and styles. A bonafide classic, I join the rest of the world in being a huge fan of the shoe, finding the only problem with it it’s tendency to fall apart under extreme duress (or 6 months of solid wear, whatever).

Converse have fixed that problem by putting together the Converse All Star Chuck ’70. Using modern tools, they have produced a collection of All Stars with the same specs as they had in the 70s. This means you’ve got a heavier-grade canvas with beefed up stitching, higher rubber foxing, a cushioned footbed and a much sturdier toe cap. Putting them on they feel the business, exactly like you’ve always wanted a pair of Converse to feel. You can instantly tell the heftier weight of the canvas with it’s stiffness which takes a little time to break.

The thing I like about this shoe is it’s probably the most versatile you’re ever going to own. If you have a pair of Nike runners or the latest pair of Adidas, they’re going to look the business but everyone’s going to know that’s exactly what they are. The All Star is nice, it’s subtle, the logo is even on the inside leg! But when you notice someone wearing them it looks, and will probably always look, effortlessly cool.

Team them up with a pair of your favourite faded blue jeans, a pair of black skinnies, shorts even a suit if you're imagination really takes you that way! From Patti Smith to Joe Cocker to The Strokes and everyone you can imagine in between, they’ve all worn the Chuck Taylor and it’s probably important that you do too. You can grab yourself a pair from the very excellent Number Six here.

If you needed any recommendation to listen to Running on Empty by Jackson Browne more than my own, all you need to know is that Keith Richards listened to the album in the car every single day of his commute to the studio when the Stones were recording Some Girls. Recorded live "on stage, backstage, in hotel rooms and on the bus" in 1977 Running on Empty the album covers the rigours of life on the road in it's various forms. It’s well worth a listen as a whole piece of work but today I’m just going to focus on the opening track which is my favourite.

If you’re not familiar with Jackson Browne’s work but his name rings a bell, you might remember him for producing Warren Zevon’s first album which I talked about in the first Friday Tracks. He also worked with The Eagles, co-writing their hit Take It Easy (which I’ve only just discovered so get ready for me to start going on about that as a Friday track in a few weeks time..)

Running on Empty starts with a little bit of audience noise and guitar ambience and then a bang and you’re in, out on the road. The piano carrying the melody with the warm hum of the lap steel humming underneath everything before punctuating the song with high notes (and two killer solos no less). There’s something about road songs that highlight the unseen world of the touring musician and glamourise it into something mystical and amazing. This song captures that perfectly with the perfect hint of sadness and loneliness needed to make everything great.

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels,

I don’t know how to tell you all just how crazy this life feels,

I look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through,

Looking into their eyes I see them running too

It would be foolish to write about this song and not mention the soaring harmony work undertaken by the backing group The Section and backing singer Rosemary Butler. Creating a rich warm harmony they give this song such a depth that without it the tone of the song would drastically alter. Summer’s here and there’s no better time to get on the road, let this song take you there.

Another week, another trip down to the coast. It almost seems blasphemous not to take full advantage of the hot, sunny weather we’ve been having so when a road trip was suggested to Lewes and Brighton there was absolutely no way I was going to turn it down. This isn’t really much of a post, but more of a collection of photos of things that caught my eye was we wandered around.

We first hit Lewes, a historical town surrounded by rolling hills and filled with antique shops and blue plaques informing you of the history in the area all around you (not limited to, but including a pub which is thought of as the cradle of American independence).

Heading to the top of the town, up a cobbled street we walked around the castle and past a bowling green which as been in place since 1640.

After stopping in at the tiny Lewes Arms for a small refreshment we headed over the hills and a series of winding country lanes into Brighton.

Wandering in a roundabout fashion we passed the famous Royal Pavillion, built by George Prince of Wales in 1787 in the Indo-Saracenic style and from there headed down to the beach and Pier where the sun was breaking through the clouds to hit the ocean perfectly, and the arcade was noisily buzzing and whirring.

After a few rounds on the 2p machines, winning a car simulator race and absolutely nailing Time Crisis we hopped in the car and sped back up the motorway to the smoggy warmth of London.