Posted in Misc, Transportation, tagged brooklyn, buster keaton, fedora, hipster, nyc subway, photography, porkpie hat, retro hat on May 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »
I don’t know who started calling every retro hat a porkpie, but I joined in. What do most of us know about men’s hats, anyway? Actually, a porkpie has a flat top (think Buster Keaton), so the ubiquitous hipster hat of the past couple years is something else, maybe a fedora. Requirements are a dent in the top of the hat and a short brim. Now that stores like the Gap sell hats like this, we can expect a new headwear trend to appear before too long.
Posted in Misc, tagged brooklyn, hipster, neon, night, photography, polynesian, pork, porkpie, sunset park, tiki, yul brynner on January 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »
In Sunset Park, a multi-culti neighborhood, with Latin-Chinese restaurants and a tiki bar. But what is tiki?
Tiki is mainly about the idea of tiki – not Polynesian culture or history, but fruity drinks, torches, stylized drinking cups, and the Trader Vic’s aesthetic of the 1950’s and 60’s.*
Bklyn’s Tiki Bar is trying to be upscale. Collars are required for guys on weekends, and no hats or sports jerseys are allowed. (Hipsters in porkpies are okay, but thugs with baseball hats, please take your riff-raffy selves elsewhere.)
The Professionals is a barber shop.
* Yul Brynner sued Trader Vic’s at NYC’s Plaza Hotel in 1979 for allegedly giving him trichinosis from undercooked spareribs.
Pix and other images 