R.I.P. : Louise Bourgeois, 1911-2010.

Pictures of Pictures of: Jasper Johns.

A longtime hero of mine. iPhone photos of photos from the catalog accompanying his 1996 MoMA retrospective.

Debatable: 3Sixteens, Six Months in.

Up over at Denim Debate now is the most recent installment of this year-long saga of a man and his jeans. Or is it a chapter in the epic tale of men and their jeans? Either way, get over THERE and check it out how my 3Sixteen's hold up during my very specifically calibrated 24 oz. Banquet challenge.

The Long and Short of it: Hanover Pebble Grain Longwings.

The longwing has certainly come 'round again. My father wore them most every day of his adult life. He did his residency at Johns Hopkins in them. He wore them to my little league games on weekends. I'm sure most father's had a place in their closets for a pair.
Mark McNairy's soled them in redbrick. Winn Perry has their double waterlock sole for inclimate Portland days. Blackbird offers a shortwing. I've been very much wanting a pair of the waxed tobacco longwings Alden did for J. Crew and although a very sound investment, I've yet to press go on it.
Bringing me to this recent find. US made Hanover "LB Sheppard" signature pebble grain longwings. Didn't pay a lot for 'em but they'll do the trick. For now.

Object Effection: Edition L'Orange.

*Caran D'Ache Pen
*Yuketen Triangle backpack
*Petzl climbing knife
*Rolex
*Jielde signal lamps

He and I Both: "Thirteen" Live, Johnny Cash.

Iconic: The Brooklyn Bridge, 1883.

Opened this day in 1883. The oldest suspension bridge in the US.
The bridge's main span over the East River is 1,595 feet 6 inches.

The Revenge of Greg LeMond: Tour de France, 1986.

To be honest, I stopped caring after Floyd Landis. After his epic collapse during stage 16 in the 2006 Tour. After his even more epic ride the following day in stage 17. Larger than epic. It was a resurrection. And it was f*cking thrilling. And as in any worthy tale of redemption, the underdog comes back to beat the most insurmountable of odds. And in the audience, there's what's called the willful suspension of disbelief. And then it turned into a circus. There was the, uh, "whiskey defense". There was a thyroid condition and cortisone shots for chronic hip pain. Disbelief eventually drops the prefix. Pereiro's named winner. Four years later, Contador's won it twice, and someone else once, but honestly, I just had to look that up.
And it continues to unfold. Just in the past day or so, Landis has now admitted to doping since 2002. And he's decided to rat out a few of his former teammates and competitors. To clear his conscious. But this is about LeMond. And 1986.
There's the tale of the last Amercican to "win" the Tour. And there's also the story of the first American to win. And their own stories intertwine. LeMond's outspokenness on the subject of doping. Calls between Landis, his manager and LeMond. Bad blood, intimidation tactics and court testimony.

But in 1986, there was a different controversy, one between a twenty-five year old LeMond and his older teammate, Bernard Hinault.
While the year before, LeMond rode in support of Hinault, holding back even, to give Hinault his fifth win and a second place finish for himself.
1986 would be a different story. Although having stated to be riding in support of LeMond, Hinault had amassed a five minute lead over his teammate by the end of stage 12. Feeling the sting of betrayal and with the aid of a rookie teammate Andy Hampsten(who would later lead the famous 7-11 team), LeMond would take stage 13.

He would then take the yellow jersey three stages later.

And eventually, the first American win in the Tour's then eighty-three year history(less the war years).

This is when I watched the Tour religiously and as a young fan. (Phil Liggett's commentary career is like a fine wine at this point)
So, July approaches. And granted, it's no small feat what these guys do, doped or not. I'd like to think that most aren't. But really, who cares at this point. For all the major steps the UCI has taken, for all of the transparency in team's training and testing policies, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
And certainly Landis did that, for a few years, until yesterday.
It's a nice time to look back, to when some kid from Reno was the first American to win the Tour. And maybe, just maybe, start to look forward to it again.

California Dreamin': Alex Knost, Tyler Warren.

One California Day ,2007
directed x Jason Baffa + Mark Jeremias

Into Right Now: Oliver Spencer + Topman.

From the inbox comes word of Oliver Spencer's capsule footwear collection for Topman. "The collection of desert boots and oxford shoes share Oliver’s trademark brick red EVA wedge sole which the designer champions in his own collection of tailored shoes. The desert boots are available in navy blue, stone and chocolate brown suede. The oxford toe-caps are available in navy blue and cream nubuck with white stitching." From $150.
Soon available at Topman @ 478 Broadway, NYC and at Oliver Spencer, 330 e. 11th st., NYC
Make your move before these vanish.

On the Road, Out&About. NY, VT, TN...

Construction Ahead.

Change is a necessary thing and although I'm prone to resist it in general, June does mark Secret Fort's two year anniversary so I felt it appropriate to do a little work on the old fort. Nothing drastic, some minor renovations, but over the coming little while expect to see some changes around here. Hopefully, the new and improved Secret Forts will be just that yet still feel like the old familiar place you've been coming to for a while now. There's going to be some interesting things happening on other fronts, so stay tuned. As always, I welcome all thoughts and suggestions whether in comments or by electronic mail. So keep stopping by, thanks a million for doing so and keep an eye on the fort.

Dennis Hopper, b. 5/17/36.

Actor, Director, Photographer, American badass born 74 years ago today in Dodge City, Kansas.

Profiling Modern Activism: Apolis + Rod Arnold of charity: water.

Back in March, I teamed up with my buddy Shea Parton from Apolis Activism and a small team to produce a few profiles on modern activism in action. The first was Michael Daube of Citta International. The second, and just up on the Apolis website, focuses on Rod Arnold, Chief Operating Officer at charity:water whose prime objective is bringing safe drinking water to developing nations. From the Apolis site, "At Apolis, we recognize that authentic results come from daily partnerships. Each season, we feature a modern activist whose work represents our vision to empower people and communities. This spring, we acknowledge Rod Arnold at charity: water for partnering with us to create the Restore Haiti Initiative and this is the story of how it all began."
It was an honor to be apart of Apolis's continuing recognition of good people doing good things. Scroll down for the profile video and click HERE to have a look at the day in the life of a modern activist.

APOLIS ACTIVISM PROFILES: ROD ARNOLD from Dave Christenson on Vimeo.

Tables Turned: 01\\Magazine Q&A + Secret Forts.

I had the pleasure of meeting Redia at 01\\Magazine a little while ago, after I had totally procrastinated on answering her questions for a period of weeks. Our meeting was enough for me to get them done and just up is the resulting Q&A. If you don't know 01\\Magazine, get to. It's a well varied survey of current art affairs with a different theme each outing. I'm really stoked to be included among the features this time around and a huge thanks to Redia for her patience. Click HERE to give it a read.

The Dirty Dozen: Q&A w/ The Hill-Side.

I met Emil and Sandy Corsillo, brothers, founders of The Hill-side and proprietors of Hickoree's Hard Goods, a year or so ago. I was told about the Hill-side by Ryan Huber of Context Clothing. I posted about them. Emil gave me a call. We all met up at the ACE after some thing one night. Became fast friends. So I thought, a year since first discovering the Hill-side, I would pay a visit, take the chance to catch up with them, see what's new and what's to come. Twelve Questions. Twelve answers. The Dirty Dozen.

Shelf Life: The Supreme Book.

It may be hard to believe, but Supreme opened on Lafayette in '94. The past sixteen years is the subject of a new book published by Rizzoli. Contributors include Glenn O'Brien and Aaron Bondaroff, with an interview between founder James Jebbia and artist and frequent collaborator KAWS. Available at SUPREME.