Leaderboard

Just in the last few years: Lagerfeld, Westwood (who was also predeceased by her natural successor Alexander McQueen), Miyake, & more recently Armani. Now Valentino last week: The remaining big Japanese designers of that era: Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons) & Yohji Yamamoto are both getting up there in age. Ralph Lauren is up there too, and thankfully still active for the brand. With Donatella having stepped down from Versace, who else is left from that period (70/80/90's)? Is Calvin still working? Mucia Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford (Gucci), Marc Jacobs are a few young-ish [sic] names I know crossing over into this century. I have no idea who is leading classic houses like Chanel, Dior, etc. On a positive note, I am currently amazed at Coutre to the Max, who appears to be an old soul in this young boy's body, & doing amazing things. Can this be real?

‘We get a lot of requests for it be used in sex scenes’: how Goldfrapp made Ooh La La https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jan/26/sex-scenes-how-goldfrapp-made-ooh-la-la-baudelaire

It's been a day. Got up this morning and came downstairs to the thought, "man, it feels cold on the first floor of the house." First call was to the boiler guy, praying that a circulation pump had crapped out overnight. Verdict - WRONG ANSWER. He quickly determined the boiler was doing it's thing but the pipes for the zone that heats the first floor were not. Shit. Phoned a friend whose husband is a plumber. Started chasing frozen pipes a little before 11am. Finally found the culprit at 2pm. Had it fixed and flowing heat again by 2:30. All told, it felt like a bargain at under $1000 given that a pipe could have burst and we've got another 10 days or so of freezing temps ahead of us. Still managed to make scones for Lily's best friend who slept over last night and turns 18 next week (JFC) and also still made dinner - pork chili verde with cast-iron-skillet cornbread. There will be barrel strength bourbon in my future. Oh and we've already got almost a foot of snow and I've cleared the driveway once. I believe I will sleep tonight.

I meant kick-start the HC travel team back into being, whether or not Marc has Red Oxx bags.

I'm going to need a second job...

https://bikerumor.com/proposed-new-hampshire-legislation-would-require-all-bike-owners-to-pay-registration-fees/

That's a tough one.....they were incredible.... On a more personal note, RIP to a friend, Pete Savickas. Pete was a partner to a woman who knew Karen from New York City single days in the 80's. She moved up to a small town in NH and expanded a house on a small lake there. She met Pete many years back and - while they never married - were partners all those years. No kids, but a nice life and acclimated to small town living. Pete was a bit of a curmudgeon, but he could've been in the Dos Equis beer commercial; he was one of the most interesting people I've ever met. He and Debbie were our New Year's Eve partners for several years. A great cook, boater (he had two beautiful wooden Chris Craft boats), wine & beer connoisseur, investor, weather watcher, animal whisperer, and so much more. We would talk about so many things, and I'd learn something new every time we chatted. It was a pleasure to chat about audio, finally something I could teach him; and his interest was always there to learn. I will raise a glass to him, if you are drinking and think to toast him, please do.

RIP Sly Dunbar, 1/2 of the greatest rhythm section of all time. Robbie Shakespeare preceded him 4 years ago.