Mod Life: Overrated

You probably thought I gave this blog up, but the reality is that I've been way too busy with a miserable, overbearing task: moving.

Seriously. My wife and I just finished moving and the largest lesson I've learned from this whole thing is that this Mod thing sucks. I'm done with it.

I understand now why many 1960s Mods splintered off into more spartan, hippie lifestyles. I'm trading in my suits for target t-shirts and jeans, trading in all my shoes for a single pair of Adidas trainers, trading in all my vinyl for a single iPod, and trading in the books for a library card.

Of course, 18 years of accumulation is a hard thing to just pack up and move. We're dealing with boxes & boxes of shoes and bags & bags of clothing... and let's not get into my wife's collection of shoes and clothes! We couldn't have done it without the help of a moving company and our friends Jon Burchard, Karen Finlay, Syd Wayman, and Mari Corella. (Thanks guys!)

A few things I came across during our packing included an old pair of original 1960s Denson 'Chisel Poynters' I wore once long ago, before the tongue fell out. At the time that I got these, I didn't appreciate the fact that they were original Densons!

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I also found my old pair of Jam stage shoes.

A few other clothing pieces I came across included a beat-up pair of Cuban-heeled pointed boots...

some madras jackets...

my old houndstooth suit jacket...

and my paisley 2-button jacket (thanks Sean C.!).

Also came across some old paperbacks with great covers:

Oh yeah, and I found my old scooter!

Now, I  lived in that last place for almost 18 years, believe it or not. I moved in, as a couch-surfing student, with my friends Susan and Mike Therieau. At the time, The Beatles were celebrating their Anthology and local brit-pop club, Popscene, had just debuted at the Cat Club.

A month later, I had my own apartment in that same building with my roommate DJ Sean Cavanaugh. 4 years or so after that, while riding high on the dot-com craze, I had enough money to rent my very own apartment with no roommate in the very same building. Unfortunately, a month later, the dot-com craze died, but I survived and held on to that apartment! About 6 years later, my future wife moved in with me and now, 7 years later, we're off to a bigger place. Sigh... sad leaving that place behind.

Many Mod friends passed through as residents of that building over the years including Mike Therieau, Sean Cavanaugh, Dennis (Denny) Winston, Jason Ringgold (New Untouchables), Jon Burchard (ex-The Idea), and more. Many good times of BBQs, parties, and late-night hangouts.

And now, it's over. Time to move on.

As we cleaned out the last bit and prepared to close the door for one last time, my wife wanted me to take photos of the old place. 

And as we shut the door, I just had to play this last song (as I reminded myself to stop watching so many sitcoms):

Now it's time to give the spartan life a chance... a-a-a-and that's over. I feel like book-shopping.

*