100 Days, 100 Ties

Whether the world (or I) was ready or not, it has now seen me in High Definition.

Yes, today was the day that my “Uniquely Chicago” piece ran on WCIU-TV (Channels 26 & 183 here). At 6:05 AM, to be exact, my 15 minute of fame began. Of course, as a couple of my Facebook friends have pointed out, it ended 12.25 minutes short. But that’s okay.

Without further ado, I’d like to thank Jane Monzures, the reporter who interviewed me, and Dustin Aldrich, the cameraman. They both made me feel super comfortable, and told me just what to do and where to look. Hard to believe they cobbled my hour (or two) of babble into just under 3 minutes. I’d also like to thank my friends Diana and Dominic Turcotte, who told Jane about my tie obsession and told her to get in touch with me.

So, all week I’ve been paying homage to Uniquely Chicago with my Unique Tie Wique. I thought I’d pull out a good Tie du Jour to keep that going.

The flat-bottom on this strip (damn, the picture doesn’t show it) makes it just about unique enough for UTW, but the constellation map puts it over the top. It’s from Rooster, which is a vintage label. The fabric is almost a denim, it’s so thickly cotton.

I have an interesting Guy With Tie picture today. Maybe even unique, as it starts a new category. The CCWDT…Cardboard Cutout With Drawn Tie. Here, Dave Steiner, GM of the Hilton Garden Inn, poses with a cutout of his new boss’s boss (can’t remember his name). The staff of the hotel were posing with this picture as part of a PR campaign about Interstate Hotels & Resorts taking over management of this (and other) HGIs. Once this picture was taken, they were to overnight the cutout to another HGI location. Good to know that large corporations can act like they’re at summer camp sometimes.

Thank for reading, and watching…Brooke

Sorry, Wednesday. I know you deserve to be treated just like the other days of the week, but I really need to get to Thursday’s post. I’m sorry. It’s not you…it’s me. I’ll make it up to you. I promise I’ll be a better blogger. I hope we can still be friends.

I would like to use today’s Tie du Jour, which is evidently a Bow Tie du Jour, to herald next week’s Bow Tie Week. I feel it is unique enough to fit into Unique Tie Wique, as well.

Any fish you wish

I hope you can see the fish pattern, which is an MC Escher design. Escher created a lot of the optical illusions that you see out there: hands drawing hands, stairs that run into other stairs…you see them all over the place. Here’s a closeup on the left if you need it.

Besides being a sign that a BTW is on the verge of happening, this bow tie is a loan from my friend Dan Murrell, who wears bow ties almost exclusively. Dan, do you have more than 100 bow ties? He sent me about 10 or a dozen, to fill my BTW needs. I may end up wearing more than one in a day, see if anyone notices.

I was able to add another GWT to the mix. I don’t know him, just liked his tie. His name is Peter, and he was at Davis Street Fish Market (ah-ha, fish…a coincidence!).

Thanks for reading…Brooke

I always laugh at that quote from news magnate/sailing champ Ted Turner. Ol’ Tie-One-On Ted sure had a way with words…probably still does, as I don’t really think he’s kicked off quite yet. I’m sure they’d report that on CNN…or he’d kick their asses.

My Tie du Jour had nothing to do with CNN, Ted Turner or any of Time/Warner’s other holdings. It was chosen since I was going onto Northwestern’s campus on a Chamber call.

So, yes, of course, the TdJ is mainly purple. A beautifully striped strip from Astor & Black, I like the way the different textures capture the light in, um, different ways. Not sure why this gets it into UTW (Unique Tie Wique), but let’s just say that it does.

The countdown continueth for my segment on WCIU-TV’s “Uniquely Chicago.” While it will be on (I assume) one of the three morning time slots for “You & Me in the Morning”, it will also be available online at some point. Of course, I will post a link here…

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Oh, ladies and gentlemen, the next Few days are going to be filled with fun and excitement.

The stills at Few Spirits are mostly built, and are just waiting to have interesting liquids put in them, which in turn will turn into more interesting liquids. Oh, the gin & white whiskey will pour soon, my friends.

The goings-on at the Chamber are getting exciting. Apart from our regularly scheduled networking events and our quotidien ramblings and workings, we are about a month away from welcoming a brand new Executive Director. Eve Doi, from the Ames (Iowa) Chamber of Commerce, will be taking over in mid-May. Oh, the gin & white whiskey will pour soon, my friends.

Next week I’ll be having dinner with some tie guys, Lee Allison and Trideep Das, whom y’all know well from their mentorship of 100 Days, 100 Ties. Oh, the gin…ok, I’ll stop.

What I’m trying to say, besides the gin/whiskey thing, is that you should keep reading (I’ll thank you, certainement). It’s gonna be exciting.

No, you are not seeing spots. My Tie du Jour is a classic spotted tie from Perry Ellis. Red with navy polkas, it is exactly the same as the royal blue with sky blue spots Perry Ellis that I wore a few weeks ago, save for the obvious alterations.

So, another 3rd Wednesday of the month, another Business After Hours. We were hosted by the very hospitable ladies and gents of the Rotary Club of Evanston. Of course I caught a couple of them wearing ties…

Herbert Rivero is the owner of Minuteman Press, and a GWT alum. He’s also a new board member, so congrats.

I crossed the room to snap a shot of this bow-tied gent. Bruce Kaiser, who was director of the Norris Center at Northwestern, is a Rotarian and was great to chat with about ties (what else do I know?).

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Gentlemen, start your glencairn glasses!

A glencairn glass is a special whiskey tasting glass, used to great effect at events such as Friday’s Whiskey Fest, down at the Hyatt Regency in the city. There were about 250 different whiskeys—scotch, bourbon, craft, etc—on gorgeous display, and they were all sippable.

My buddy and GWT alum, Paul Hletko, took me down there to learn more about whiskey. He’s the one that is starting Few Spirits, a microdistillery here in Evanston. We are just a Few days away from putting the stills together, and it will be a beautiful thing.

It was generally a pretty dapper affair, with many men in ties. I was not in camera mode, except for this one shot of Master Distiller Craig Beam. You may guess that he’s the MD for Jim Beam, but you’d be wrong. His grandfather left Jim Beam about 80 years ago to go work for Heaven Hill, and a Beam has produced every drop of their whiskeys (their most famous is Evan Williams) ever since. He had some funny stories and a GREAT Kentucky accent, both of which I can remember because I sampled responsibly.

My Tie du Jour, or Tie du Whiskey Fest, as it may come to be known, is kind of a vintage one. It’s brown with tiny blue dots, and it’s from Rooster. An additional tag tells us it was sold at Lord & Taylor, seemingly many years ago. I thought it’d go nicely with my plaid Ben Sherman shirt, and I think I was right.

Well, it’s the weekend, and that means the work week is coming up [a collective groan emanates from the readership]. I will be gearing up for another Bow Tie Week in the next 2 or 3 weeks, so keep an eye out.

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Yep, more rock songs are acting as muse for my subjects. You can’t fight a streak, I guess.

Before I get to the reason I went looking for a tietle with ‘brother’ in it, I need to point out an interesting fashion segué that I discovered while taking an Adult-ADD-inspired surf around YouTube. In this case, interesting means hilariously embarrassing.

First, check out The Hollies’ video of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” It’s a good ol’, late-60s anthem, and lead singer Allan Clarke looks resplendent in his mod tuxedo and black tie. I especially love the pocket squares on them all that are exploding out of their pockets. Now, let’s go to (one of my favorite songs of all time, although I may demand a recount after seeing this video) “Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress” from 1972. The mod tux has been left at the cleaners for 3 years now, and the permed Mr. Clarke has tied his pocket square around his neck. The satin jacket WITH NO SHIRT underneath just slays me. Slays me dead with tears of laughter frozen on my face. So many fashion things have come back from that era—bell-bottoms and big hair—but please, God please don’t bring back the shirtless jacket look. I’m sure many of you out there agree with this fashion plea.

Anyway, today is my brother Grant’s birthday. He ain’t heavy, he’s just 39 (me minus 3), so next year should be a fun one, maybe even with a party. Hopefully I’ll get an invitation (inside joke).

My Tie du Jour has absolutely nothing to do with Grant, though. It’s a Colker Special, which signifies that it is one of the dozen or so ties loaned to me by my friend David Colker. The brand is Format, which I’ve never heard of, but it’s a long, cool black tie with some funky stripes in a V-pattern.

I wasn’t able to capture any real live Guys With Ties on this day, but I was able to pluck a shot of the incoming and outgoing managers at Dunder Mifflin. Michael Scott and DeAngelo Vickers are here, showing off their fashion sense. Diggin’ that tie clip on Vickers/Ferrell.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Birthday, Grant…Brooke

I’ve been on a lyrics kick lately, but I guess I’ll do whatever it takes to keep the subjects rolling. That’s the kind of service you should expect from 100 Days, 100 Ties. Oh, sure, we may be just another corporate behemoth, printing money and using third-world countries as our personal chessboard, but we employ an army of public relations professionals to make it seem like we care about service. And about you, oh loyal consumer.

Ohhhhhkay. That’s what happens when you fall asleep too early, wake up seemingly refreshed and sit down to post a blog (still hate that word).

We now return to our regularly scheduled program…

After even more blather about my lack of green ties, I fired up another one. My Tie du Jour is a multi-green from BCBG‘s Attitude collection. It definitely provoked a couple of different attitudes, as it garnered some comments from both ends of the spectrum. My friend Cynthia Early (a Girls With Ties alum), at a chamber event, said outright: “Well, that’s an ugly tie.” A couple of people defended it at the same meeting, but the damage to TdJ’s psyche was done. It was brought back to the sunshine later on, when a couple of folks complimented it. There, there…all better, greenie.

Wednesday evening was kind of a treat/blast-from-past. Went to see an amazing band called Expo ’76 at Simon’s down in Andersonville. Their drummer, John Carpender, is a good friend of Jenny’s, and three of his bandmates, including their lead singer Dag Juhlin, are in Poi Dog Pondering. Now, Poi Dog is the band that I have seen most in the world. From Mabel’s down in Champaign to Lounge Ax (RIP…respect) in Lincoln Park to Ravinia in Highland Park…I’ve probably seen them 10 or 12 times in various setups and getups and drinkups. They play a bunch of 70s and 80s covers, and yet, they throw in one of my favorite songs, “Can’t Hardly Wait” by the Replacements. Aaaanyway, last night was amazing because Poi Dog’s lead singer, Frank Orrall (can you get a more perfect name for a singer? well, maybe my former college roommate David Singer, of David Singer and the Sweet Science) guest-sang for a couple of songs. It had been at least a decade since I’d last seen him sing (that would be their mid-day kid’s show at Ravinia over a dozen years ago…Expo ’98, methinks?). He can still belt it out, believe me…I was about 4 feet from him. Very cool.

And, wouldn’t you know it…Expo ’76 keyboardist Kenn Goodman was sporting a tie again. I have actually taken a picture of him at prior shows, but the light was terrible. In this one the light is much better…but, sheesh. His face is a total blur. Sorry, Kenn, but I have a crapiPhone with a crapiCamera. Tie looks good, though…

Thanks for reading…Brooke

Really behind here…this is the first time I’ve had three posts to write. Really putting the blah in blog, so let’s get to it.

My subject calls to mind the Thompson Twins song, “Lies.” It is most definitely NOT rock, so co-lead vocalist Tom Bailey’s tie in this video gets him charter membership in the SPWT category (Synth Popper With Tie).

A bit of a rarity here with my Tie du Jour: a green tie! As much as I love green clothes, I’m rather surprised that I have so few green ties. I seem to recall wearing a couple of green ones in my first week or two of 100D100T, but I never really replenished the supply to great effect. This glowing green strip, with purple and blue stripes, is a beauty from Astor & Black. My friend Billie Kershasky works for A&B, and led me to a sweet tie sale on their website.

My GWT radar was in the ‘on’ position as I captured a pic of a new Guy With Tie, attorney Manish Bhatia. He has his own estate planning legal practice here in Evanston, and he came to our Lawyers, Guns & Money event at The Celtic Knot. The focus in this pic is awful…he had a great tie and you can barely tell.

I have a birthday coming up (at press time it has already come and gone), so I’m pondering the Tie du Birthday (at press time I already know the TdB). Stay tuned for the reveal…

Thanks for reading…Brooke