Ernest Hemingway
As significant as his writing was, Ernest Hemingway is remembered just as much for the life he lived beyond the page. Everything about him was oversized—war service in Europe, big-game hunting in Africa, all-night benders in Paris. Hemingway embodied a full range of traditionally masculine experiences few others have. He even had a dictum that summed up his approach: “Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk.”
His appetite for adventure only persisted later in his life, which ended tragically in 1961. If Hemingway’s literary output slowed during this final postwar decade, his celebrity spread far and wide. He wrote dispatches on bullfights and marlin fishing for popular magazines, and was the subject (sometimes willing, sometimes not) of numerous awed profiles...
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Kamakura Shirts
It could be argued that the oxford cloth button-down shirt is the bedrock upon which modern day American menswear is built upon. When John E. Brooks, the grandson of Brooks Brothers founder, designed the first OCBD a shirt he spotted on English polo players in 1896, he wasn’t merely developing another garment to add to his family’s reputation, he was making history. It became the workhorse of the Ivy League Look in the 1960s. But history became legend. Legend became myth. And for forty years, the minutiae of the original oxford cloth button-down shirt, specifically the roll of the collar, slowly faded with the men who loved it. Measurements were updated, factories changed, and details diminished. It would take a Japanese man to resurrect it...
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The Grog Tray
Drinking out is kind of a luxury. Think about it. A decent scotch will run about $14 a pour. Toss back three of those and you might as well have picked up your own bottle. Enter drinking at home. Not only is it economical (we like economical), but it's as good an excuse as any to fill your home with friends while also setting up your own home bar. It was William Morris who held, "Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." We tend to agree—and a grog tray is both...
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Shoptalk Radio Interview
Nick Onken and Fred first met when he hired him to shoot branding images for Fred’s photography business. That was 2008. Fast forward to 2014 and not only have they become great friends but for much of that time, Nick served as one of Fred’s creative mentors. For that we are forever grateful. He possesses a youthful way of looking at the world in front of him—a unique blend of music, community, food, and pop culture...
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The Wagon and the Road
At the time I dreaded it. I had better things to do with my summers, like pump my best friend to the comic book shop, watch CHiPs, and build forts in the creek behind my backyard. It was the early 90s and my parents were very much into road trips. The more states the better. The combination of economy travel for five, around-the-clock sightseeing, and an ‘87 Mercedes-Benz diesel wagon made it the sensible choice to satisfy what wanderlust my parents needed to pacify.
There is something very American about the road trip. Given our love affair with cars, it's no wonder. The 47,000+ miles of interstate highway, National Monuments, and roadside eats have made it about the journey, not simply the destination. Castleberry family road trips were no exception. Our destination was always home…with one caveat: never return the way you came. To drive in a huge loop was completely normal. In the summer of 1993 we circled the American Southwest...Sequoia National Park, the Grand Canyon, Delicate Arch in Utah—we hit it all in a week...
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