Today I'm wearing my Chuck Taylor flame high tops, the originals they made about 5 years ago? Because I own so many shoes, they haven't gotten a lot of wear and tear, and paradoxically, that's because I love them so much I don't want to ruin them. Also, I can't really wear them to work most days. It's not just the dotcom bust that forced a more professional look on IT workers, there's also the grim fact that pushing 50, I don't want to come off like a pathetic old geezer trying to look like a 20 year old.
That said, these are really speaking to my love of rockabilly and 50s style Rock and Roll. That was the subculture that was on the wane in my formative youth, and our neighborhood hoodlum, Charlie P---- with his 57 chevy held together with rustoleum, and his friend Chip were inexplicably appealing to my nine year old self. I was drawn to them like a moth to a flame, but by the time I was old enough to hang out, that era was done, the greasers were gone, the hippies were settling into day job drudgery, and all we were left with when I reached my teens was the insipid sensibilities of Alan Alda's sensitive 70's nice guy. Blah.
And while I know that there is a certain amish-like subculture of youngsters way too young to remember actual 'greasers', who dress in period costumes of that generation, I frankly find that a bit uh. Restrictive? Rigid? Ok I'll be blunt. Weird and creepy. Sure, I like me my bowling shirts and my cuffed jeans and if I had all that hair left, my pompadour, but uh. They're just clothes to me, not a religion. It is 2009, and cars really have improved. Electricy, fuel injection, Horse and buggy, standard four on the floor, it's a compelling parallel... Plus. That subculture is very agressively heterosexual with the talk about dames and broads and the whole Betty Page thing going on. Whatever happened to the sensibility fostered by The Cramps?
At any rate, as I've mentioned before, it's important to accessorize one's ensemble. Check out this shirt I scored over tax-free weekend.
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