Winter Storm Warning.

Hunker down, you brave New England Southerners. Stay warm, you ex-patriots.

The Superbowl.

Well, now that this town has had a little time to get over the Superbowl, I can post to say I was personally okay with the outcome thanks to Mr. Manning and myself sharing an alma mater and a few business classes back in '02.

Although, over the past five years, we've been to victory parades for the Bruins, the Celtics and the RedSox. So I would like the sweep. You know, it's tough living in America's foremost sports town (don't even try to argue, Oklahoma City.)



I will also say that going to watch it in a penthouse suite on the Charles River wasn't bad at all. Even if the penthouse was MIT married student housing and doesn't mean that we have a wealthy benefactor.

Yet.

Garden & Gun.

Eight months ago, when we started Old Try, I said to Marianna “Well, if we get into Garden & Gun, we must be doing something right.”

As of this windy Saturday morning, we're on the top left of the homepage.

&

A few weeks back I was puttering around the internet, and stumbled on Ampersand Vintage Modern.

Now, anything with an Ampersand is fine by me. (Side note, a buddy of mine out on the West Coast has an ampersand blog).

At any rate, these folks go searching for some of the finest, simplest old vintage goods, then sell them in their online shop. The coolest part is that they live over in Somerville. Which is where we used to live and also where we currently print. And their photography is just so well staged and propped and I swear we're on the same wavelength.

Red Clay Soul introduces our tote.

Give it a read over on Red Clay Soul.

Thanks to Jay for the writeup.

Writing for The Trot Line.

It's still warm enough to wear shorts when jogging. My February post for The Trot Line talks about it.

Read it here.

Working with Bourbon & Boots.

Got an email from a guy months ago. Something about a sales site that was going to start that hadn't started but was going to and it was going to be really popular and Southern and we should hop on board. I sent back an email saying no. That I wasn't interested.

Then I get another email, and he says that he'd like to talk about it. Now, if a Southerner is going to approach you again, he's either wanting to get into a fight or really believes in what he's doing. And he might fight you on the second point as well.

So, I gave in. Chatted with him. And realized that he and his buddies were doing something really cool.

Happy Birthday, Washington.

Southern Hospitality.

We know some folks who've just moved up, within the last three months, from Durham to Boston. We know them 'cause I got no fewer than four phone calls from folks telling me to meet them, they are good folks, you better not let them come to town and not know anybody.  We were finally able to meet up with Sanders and Kate and have some dinner and we knew we'd found fast friends.

At Home in Atlanta.

 
This one here is hanging on the wall of a good friend, from growing up and college and still now.

It's near that AC control. Cause it gets hot in the ATL.

A Grand Old Party.

We're co-hosting a party in ATL here in a few weeks.

Hope y'all can make it out. Love to meet you.

RSVP here.

The day comes once a year.

 

I've opened them and inspected them and removed the tags and I put them on, and they are giant. They are not shrunk. They are standard prison issue size. And they are rigid. And they are right. And the indigo hasn't washed out of them yet. And I wear them. And I dare the rain to rain on me. If it does, I will lose the ink. I will lose the rigidity. I will lose the size. But I will not lose heart. For I've put on the pants that men have worn for a hundred years before, and they didn't fear the rain, and they built the railroads, and they grew their families, and they wore these jeans.

At Home in Madison.

I always like packing up and sending prints to my actual home towns. These two went to Madison, just down the street from where my Pops lives. So, they honestly did make it home.

Tobacco Road Giveaway!

... UPDATE ... ........................ ........................ ........................ ........................ .........................

After a disappointing (for UNC) last-second three to win the game, Old Try is now upset with the Celtics organization (why not) and Mr. Rivers for bringing up such an amazing talent and three-point shooting machine in his son, Austin.


At any rate, Mr. Kloess of Brentwood, TN, won our print. He will hang it with pride and forget this game ever happened. Thanks to all of y'all for entering.
 ........................ ........................ ........................ ........................ ........................ ........................

'Cause we're a basketball house and we're a UNC house and the Tar Heels are playing Duke on Wednesday, we decided to give away a Hark Print at the end of the game.

To enter, leave a comment below with your email.

Additional entries (separate out your comments):
. follow us on Twitter
. like us on Facebook
. share the giveaway on either FB or Twitter

Easy as. Give us some shameless promotion, and we might mail you a print. Hell, we might even toss in a Koozie.

 

To Dixie with Songs of Joy.

A little snap I caught the other morning at church. Love it.

Southern baggage.

We're really excited about what we have going on with our friends, Remnant, down in North Carolina. They are working on some bags that are special just for us.

They've been documenting the process with some sneak peeks. They're making us giddy.

The Lesson of The Moth

The Lesson of The Moth

By Don Marquis

I was talking to a moth

the other evening

he was trying to break into

an electric light bulb

and fry himself on the wires



why do you fellows

pull this stunt I asked him

because it is the conventional

thing for moths or why

if that had been an uncovered

candle instead of an electric

light bulb you would

now be a small unsightly cinder

have you no sense



plenty of it he answered

but at times we get tired

of using it

we get bored with the routine

and crave beauty

and excitement

fire is beautiful

and we know that if we get

too close it will kill us

but what does that matter

it is better to be happy

for a moment

and be burned up with beauty

than to live a long time

and be bored all the while

so we wad all our life up

into one little roll

and then we shoot the roll

that is what life is for

it is better to be a part of beauty

for one instant and then cease to

exist than to exist forever

and never be a part of beauty

our attitude toward life

is come easy go easy

we are like human beings

used to be before they became

too civilized to enjoy themselves

Something is horribly amiss.

This is today.

This is today one year ago.

 

And a little writeup about winter over on Boston.com.