#his life might not be the only thing elongating if steve does

[fawcett-hairspray-club]

Feel like helping a boy out with his anxiety, pretty boy?

[bloodybells1]

ON SCORDATURA

When I was eighteen, I was really into heavy metal and had been practicing the electric guitar for four years. I was devoted to music theory and looked up to guitarists like Steve Vai. I played loudly and fast, emulating the popular style of playing when heavy metal was at its apex of popularity. You might say that I was a “shredder.” 

My passion for technique took an unexpected turn, however, when I became fascinated by the classical guitar. I don’t exactly remember when it hit me, the inspiration to explore this type of playing. It might’ve been born from reading the name of Andres Segovia in the magazine interviews of my favorite guitarists. (Also, I listened to a lot of Jethro Tull, and the intro to one of his songs is a quotation of a popular classical guitar score by Bach, the “Bourée in E Minor.” I started teaching it to myself by ear, but soon realized I needed help adjusting to the new technique). 

One day I made the decision that I wanted to take the plunge into the classical world. I purchased a cheap nylon string, looked for a tutor and, once I found one in Chapel Hill, NJ, I started taking lessons and practicing every day.

I was enthralled by the new possibilities in this style of playing. I was discovering a wealth of textures and styles I’d had no previous idea about. My parents had not listened to classical music, so all of this was foreign to me. But I fell in love with the genre all the same.

I loved how old this practice was, how its provenance dated back to before there was electricity. I loved the deceptive simplicity of paper scores, how the mere act of sight-reading might open up varied worlds of expression, limited only by the player’s willingness to learn the technique and the player’s ability to perform.

My tutor included Renaissance lute scores in his homework for me. These scores contained instructions for alternative tuning arrangements of the strings. This changes the whole grid of the fretboard. Each string has been tightened or loosened to different notes, so all the note relationships are changed. If you wanted to play the same material you would have to relearn it with new fingerings. 

But that wasn’t the point. The scordatura was designed to make available new sonorities. These lute pieces dating back to the Renaissance had a “harpier” texture, with open notes ringing out in different keys and mixtures of notes in registers I didn’t often hear in guitar music with traditional tuning. It was rather exotic, like the simple act of turning a screw on a taut string had turned this plain old Spanish guitar into some new, esoteric instrument.

My experience with classical guitar, and specifically the scordatura my tutor taught me, was a factor later in life when I played bass guitar professionally in the mid 2000’s. Not only do I think that it made me flexible enough to feel confident learning to play another stringed instrument, but it also influenced my tuning. I utilized what’s called Drop D tuning, a simple type of scordatura that lowers the heaviest string by two notes. It gives you two extra lower notes you wouldn’t normally have with the standard tuning—where the lowest note is E. 

Heavy metal guitarists love this tuning because of how much heavier it makes the music sound and because it ends up making power chord configurations a one-finger job instead of two, and you can play those heavy power chord riffs much more quickly with just one finger. 

Drop D was useful to me, however, because of how it enabled me to interact with the songwriting. My band’s music was dark and a lot of the songs were in D minor. So having a lower D available permitted me to create pedal tones and deeper support functions for chords and textures that were already using that scale a lot. It added depth and character to the music because of this sort of flexible shadow figure moving around underneath the guitars and the keyboards.

I had a profound experience with scordatura later in 2014, while I was in acting school. One of our school productions was a kind of fantasia on Nabokov’s Pale Fire. The novel is already a bit of a fantasia itself, so the production was very post-modern. 

The director, Alex Harvey, staged it brilliantly. One of his ideas was that my character would play passages on the piano between scenes. The score was from a series called Revelation by composer Michael Harrison. 

Harrison had contrived a bespoke scordatura for the score. An assistant, a specialist who could interpret unconventional concert pieces like these, was hired to transform the school’s simple upright Yamaha, an instrument more often used as accompaniment for students singing from the American Songbook, into a piece of avant-garde machinery. 

I had already begun learning some of the passages before the piano had been prepared. They sounded ok, but not extraordinary. Once the tuner was finished and the specific tuning had been accomplished, however, I began learning the pieces in earnest and it was, well, it was a revelation. 

Harrison’s scordatura was wild. Some keys adjacent to each other were tuned only fractionally sharper than their predecessor on the keyboard, thereby creating a tonal cloud or wash between the two that sounded a little like an untuned guitar, but in a shimmery, beautiful way. Other keys were tuned a whole fifth from their predecessor, thereby jumping up very far between two adjacent keys. The two extremities canceled each other out to create a distinct sense of balance and harmony, a kind of timbral mist floating in the ether. 

As I worked on the score I had a sense that I didn’t know what was happening. It was difficult for me to anticipate and conceptualize the piano with this exotic construction. Yet, reading through the score and performing it, the idea was actualized. A whole new musical sensibility was borne out of this tuning. It was thrilling to put into action such a strange and beautiful arrangement.

What would a trumpet sound like if one could alternate its tuning? It’s a ridiculous notion: it would require bending metal, destroying the instrument in the process. Scordatura is likewise impossible for woodwinds. Ditto, percussion. A timpani, the most obvious exception, is in fact quite flexible and can even be tuned during performance. The percussionist puts their ear to the skin and lightly taps so as to enable them to change the tuning without disturbing the performance of other orchestra members. But you can’t do that with, say, tubular bells.

Stringed instruments and the piano are different than all the other instruments. The oscillators, the strings themselves, are adjustable. Coupled with the fact of their polyphony, it’s plain why these instruments, especially the piano, are so popular. They are great adapters. They can be brought back to their mean and reset for future use in other circumstances. The ubiquity of these instruments, across genres, in barrooms and conservatories alike, is explained by their ability to avail themselves. 

And what about the voice? How supple are the cords? Can they be stretched or loosened like the strings of a guitar? Is there a scordatura possible for the human vocal mechanism?

It’s debatable: vocal training, primarily through work in breathing, does fortify ones range by bolstering the lower and upper parts of the register with more support. But your vocal cords are your vocal cords. Even on a guitar, you can’t detune the strings too much. It affects the timbre: the fretboard is designed with a natural state of tension and that string that is being detuned is only thick enough to perform in a certain range before the slackening of the string makes it flap against the fretboard—or before the tightening warps the fretboard. 

Vocal cords are similar in this way. Just like with a guitar, once you start “detuning” your voice, you invite corruption of the sound. Your voice cracks when you try to go too low. 

When Olivier tackled Othello he tried to lower his voice through vocal training. Obviously, considering all of the other garish and offensive effects—the blackface, the funny walk, the stupid dialect—he should’ve known better than to engage in minstrelsy, but he also should’ve known about the corruption of his voice. Not all instruments have that level of flexibility. 

He should’ve known that not everything is available. 

What about the human being itself? Can it be construed as an instrument? one that might likewise permit a certain scordatura? 

My feeling is that in this case the change is permanent. And, like with a trumpet, one risks destruction. The human being is not a stringed instrument. 

I can attest to a certain kind of “permanent” scordatura of the body and mind. It was possible for me to “detune” myself, but it was a commitment to a new state. I won’t ever be able to “go back” to my original tuning. It involved deep structural shifts and I came close to collapse—and in fact did collapse—many times. The instrument—the body and the mind—was constantly at risk of crumbling and warping under the stress of the transformation. Slackening a string is one thing. Shortening or elongating a valve is another. 

What is therapy but a type of spiritual scordatura? The patient comes in with a limitation in place and leaves with that “bar” set somewhere else. Thresholds are repositioned. Pain that was once unbearable can be stomached. New life experiences are   permitted because the mind has been opened to their possibilities. It is a fact that the change is permanent, but after we recognize the evolution we would never want to “detune” back to where we were. 

I have a long history with therapy and it is without question the source of all of the appetite for change that I’ve experienced. In teaching me about healing, it motivated me to seek out other forms of healing. I credit it with helping me gain acceptance to the prestigious MFA program in Acting which I entered in 2012 at NYU, the beginning of three years wherein this process of permanent scordatura would be hastened. 

I had many illnesses. Some would find treatment through the program’s vast assortment of exercise techniques addressing body misalignment and spiritual imbalance. Yoga classes, Feldenkrais, Alexander technique, chakra work, these were all deployed to “tune” the bodies in class. 

Voice and speech exercises as well helped bring awareness of lifelong limits, expressed through the mouth and in the breath. It was unnerving to encounter these intimate facts about how one walks, how one talks, how one moves, how one breathes. 

Most people would never submit themselves to this level of scrutiny. A fellow alumnus with additional experience in the military often jokes that an MFA at NYU Grad Acting is actually more oppressive than boot camp because at least in boot camp you let your anger and hostility grant you relief—you can growl and yawp and hunch over and adapt to battlefields—whereas actors, despite undergoing similar rounds of abuse, must look smooth and collected and relaxed in order to perform well on stage. It really was a double whammy of having my being constantly interrogated in various invasive manners, all while being denied any permission to sublimate the tension.  

I had my own motivations to undergo this training. I was desperate to have a classical training in the theatre. But I was also subconsciously motivated towards healing. Despite the horrors of these ordeals, the modalities that are therewith deployed are part of a healing experience that, having undergone them, I wouldn’t trade for anything. Had I known what I was getting myself into beforehand, I don’t know that I would’ve jumped in the pool. But I’m glad I didn’t know because I cherish the experience.

I had a problem with keeping my mouth only partially open which our singing teacher was constantly bringing my attention towards. She had taught me that this was a defense mechanism, a strategy of containment, a means of keeping the world from having access to my heart. (Of course, keeping your mouth closed is also a problem for sound projection on stage, but that’s more technical). 

During one afternoon class, singing “Lonely Room” from Oklahoma, I broke down into tears as the teacher kept coaxing me to open my mouth more and more. There I was, a man pushing 40, with tears streaming down his eyes, opening his mouth wide, not even singing the words, just the vowels, but doing something that was so psychically threatening, something that I could never bring myself to do, something simple, like opening a mouth. The limit had been expanded.

There was an element of bodily restructuring to all of this as well. I had done a number on my body during those years of my professional musicianship, when I toured the world in a famous band. And so by this point, I was aware that a shift was needed from the effects of years spent in front of cameras and abusing drugs and traveling and losing sleep. Alice Miller’s book, The Body Keeps the Score, is instructive in this regard. Somatization of traumas explain a great deal of certain physical ailments. In my case, they played out structurally, on my bones and on my muscles and in my central nervous system. 

These changes are subtle to the layperson. But they are profound for the student. When I look at how I held my body in old photos, it is obvious to me that there was something wrong. On the stage, with a heavy instrument hanging from my shoulder, it wasn’t perceptible. The lights and the postures have a way of masking the truth. But in the more candid and private shots—the Polaroids and the exposures from my disposable camera which my friends and I took in our apartments—I see evidence of a lot of tension. Shoulders crept upwards towards my ears; chest muscles held; an exploded solar plexus; a chin pointing up. It was a mixture of a lot of holding, a lot of somatization in the fibers, with a learned posture organized to communicate the persona I wanted everyone to see: a demiurge or rockstar. 

I came into grad school as though off an assembly line, where the factory had riveted and hammered onto my body and psyche its lessons. It was a capitalistic factory but it was also a societal one, one that bore the hallmarks of the dogged problems which elude solution: childhood trauma, dog-eat-dog meritocracy, bullying, etc. 

So now I was this product getting recalled, but I was going to another factory for refurbishment. One that also had rivets and hammers, but ones which were designed to break open the right parts.

I stretched and stretched. By the end of the three years I was essentially exiting with a new body. The myth about the seven year cellular regeneration in one’s body is instructive here. For it truly was the case that new grooves in my brain and muscular and skeletal patterns had taken hold. One of my teachers said during my final evaluation that I had come in to school looking like a clothes hangar with legs but that I now looked graceful. 

Even my scoliosis—a condition I was born with and which I will contend with for the rest of my life—was discovered in acting school. I had had no idea about it before one of the teachers told me that I persisted in leaning downwards to my right. My spine curves in the shape of a sidewards C. It’s a genetic condition. Of course, hanging a ten-pound instrument off my shoulder and letting the weight pull me down to the ground so that I could look cool every night didn’t really help either.

The modalities in the movement and vocal training classes in acting school are designed to build awareness and flexibility in the body and the mind. The purpose of this is to permit the actor to be resilient enough on stage so as to be present and believable. So it has a practical purpose and a real-world application. 

I had other problems which these modalities could not fix, but which their steady application, encouraging honesty and reflection, revealed. There were addictions and mental illness issues which I’d had no idea about before entering grad school but which were inflamed by the pressure inside. I then had to deal with them. Immediately, since they threatened the goal of getting my MFA. 

The cocaine abuse of my years in the music industry haunted me in the form of paralyzing panic attacks and circadian disruptions which complicated my ability to perform in school. The years spent pursuing rampant and anonymous sexual congress created inappropriate obsessiveness with orgasms and romance. Naturally, given that my peers were all considerably younger than I was, this last part wasn’t all that abnormal. But it interfered nonetheless. I was no spring chicken but I was acting like one. I had to double down on sex addiction meetings and on therapy.

It all came to a head inside the cloistered walls of the conservatory. It came to a head when Alex Harvey, the director of the Nabokov rendition, had to massage my shoulders backstage as I collapsed in tears during one of many nervous breakdowns. It came to a head when in a movement class, during an unfamiliar physical exploration, an early painful memory of abandonment that had long been forgotten had been recalled and sent me to the floor sobbing. 

I’m grateful that I had the means to address the issues. I had to juggle that with the demands of the curriculum. It was not easy. But I’m proud of my accomplishment and I’m proud of the new person this all made me become.

It is possible to “detune.” I think a better way of looking at it is “retuning.” It is a permanent scordatura and it therefore should not be taken lightly.

[tejarablog-blog]

Minimalism, Mark, Money and Misunderstanding

Minimalism

In a growing debt ridden world, advertisements, lifestyle chasing, ever elongating lists of must haves, a number of people have been adopting a minimalist approach. Minimalism, quite simply is the ‘less is more’ mentality. Having less stuff, spending on experiences rather than things, focusing on things that matter are all minimalist mantras. People are either forced into minimalism by circumstance, or they embrace it willingly; Either way, it is a beautiful thing. It is a decluttering exercise that brings clarity and helps you prioritize.

Mark Zuckerberg

The Independent published an article, where they enlightened us with the reason why Mark Zuckerberg wears the same clothes to work every day. Very similar to the reasons why late Steve Jobs did the same; To focus on the things that matter, and to reduce any irrelevant decision making stress that gets in the way of doing what they’re doing. Minimalism in practice? Yes!

So where is all the misunderstanding?

I’ve been at war with myself, and I’ve come to realize, other folks are too. How do I become a minimalist and feed my growing family? How do I travel and live experiences? Will I have to resort to writing or a drop shipping business for a living? If everyone adopts ‘minimalism,’ will everyone become a writer or a speaker to pay bills? What happens if everyone wants to be a minimalist, what happens to millions of people working in advertising, restaurants, production, and just about everything? I mean if you look at it, everything besides food, shelter and a few basic necessities, becomes irrelevant. The truth is, there are many questions such as these, all of which point to the need for money.

Money changes hands through an exchange of goods and services. No one is going to pay you to have only 50 belongings, or an all white themed room with just a laptop and cactus plant. There needs to be an exchange of goods or services, a way you add value to someone to gain a monetary return to sustain a living. That’s just how it works.

I say, why do we then need to make stuff evil? Being a minimalist is one thing, but imposing the idea that acquiring things is evil of some sort is just impractical. Even if you’re a hardcore minimalist, you’ll find yourself selling or buying something. You need both to sustain. Coming back to Mark Zuckerberg and his wardrobe; He is often considered an ideal for minimalists. A successful minimalist possibly.

Here’s how an uninformed minimalist would think. Mark is a minimalist too, he wears the same clothes; I hate Gucci, and I don’t need all these brands, products and unnecessary clutter in my life. Re-think how Facebook works for a second. Isn’t it all advertising and selling you products? How are they making so much money? Isn’t it all just business?

Let’s not go into what is right and wrong about Facebook.

Bottom-line is, Facebook is a business. For that matter, do not fool yourself that Steve Jobs was only about wearing the same clothes every day. He was selling products! He sold a tonne load to all of us.

Where does all of this lead us to, as ‘frustrated/slightly confused minimalists?’

Instead of a lifestyle, minimalism should be a tool used to enhance our human experience. It should not be a competition to have fewer items in our house or only having possessions that could fit in a backpack. It should only be used by us to determine what matters the most to us. The keyword being, us. What might be a must have for you could be a useless, time wasting, stress creating item for someone else, and vice versa. So why shame every product or every item that we think is unnecessary. It could mean volumes to someone else.

I do not think the world can sustain itself without products and services. Human’s are creators, entrepreneurial, competitive, collaborative and have an inbuilt need to trade—goods,services and ideas. I believe it is comforting to understand that.

Instead of shaming every product which is irrelevant to us individually, maybe we can learn to appreciate the human effort that went into creating it, marketing it, and making it on the shelf so to speak. As a reminder, for myself first, let us take minimalism as a personalized tool to make us efficient, and as a way of decluttering our path to our personal priorities.

Happiness does not only come from getting rid of stuff and by living with less, it also comes from the joy of creating something that someone buys with their hard earned cash because they saw value in it.

Even as a minimalist, you’ll find yourself trading something to make a living. So why shame others who are trying to trade something else? If you are someone who is having second thoughts on setting up a business, or selling something, because you do not want people to be pestered with yet another thing to own, rethink. Trade is a part of human nature.

[ihtspirit]

PE-lovers, rejoice: Program offers phys-ed summer classes

PE-lovers, rejoice: Program offers phys-ed summer classes Originally published July 23, 2019 in the Pamplin News-Times. By Wade Evanson I love golf. You may love ice cream. But according to Hillsboro physical education instructors Neill Twigg and Steve Johnson, we both love PE. https://ihtusa.com https://ihtusa.com/pe-lovers-rejoice-program-offers-phys-ed-summer-classes/ Originally published July 23, 2019 in the Pamplin News-Times. By Wade Evanson I love golf. You may love ice cream. But according to Hillsboro physical education instructors Neill Twigg and Steve Johnson, we both love PE. Ten years ago, Twigg, who teaches at Patterson Elementary, and Johnson, who teaches at Orenco Elementary, started a business called Everybody Loves PE! You may wonder why two teachers who normally have the summer off would choose to spend their three-month vacation doing what they do the other nine months of the year. But to these two physical education enthusiasts, it's really pretty simple. [caption id="attachment_19086" align="alignright" width="551"] Christopher Oertell photo/Pamplin Media Group[/caption] "The number one reason is that we love what we do," Twigg said. "We love working with kids, love keeping them active, and love the idea of giving kids an opportunity to meet and play in a safe and educational environment." Everybody Loves PE is a program for kids from first through sixth grade. Sessions are one week long and run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. It works much like an elongated version of the typical physical education class you might see in elementary school, consisting of various individual and team activities, including but not limited to games, cheers, obstacle courses and much more. The two gym jockeys — who've been teaching physical education for a combined 32 years — started the program after seeing something similar as part of a limited professional development program called "Fun PE Guy." They'd been looking for an alternative way to supplement their income over the summer when they attended the workshop started by Dennis Stands, which teaches existing and aspiring PE teachers a range of activities, games and strategies for teaching physical education. After attending the 10-week workshop Twigg and Johnson saw an opportunity for something similar — but for kids. "It was kind of a 'wow moment,' and opened our eyes to different things we could do," Twigg said. "We were like, wow, this guy has X amount of adults coming to his class [and] he does it for 10 weeks during the summer around the Northwest. We were like, man, something like this would be fun to do." From there, it was about learning. Neither Twigg nor Johnson had run a business before, so they had to clear the facilities and equipment with the Hillsboro School District, then spread the word about what they were offering in an uber-busy summer market. They thought they had a niche — after all, most camps are sport-specific and are set in a highly competitive environment. Theirs, however, was designed more as an extension of elementary PE, geared more toward activity and fun rather than competition. "You see these specific camps for soccer or basketball, so we wondered what we were doing to reach these other kids that aren't 'athletes,'" Johnson said. "The kids that still need to find a way to be active, but aren't into specific sports." Everybody Loves PE is offered over a 10-week period beginning in June and ending the week of Aug, 12-16. Sessions start with the combination of grades four through six, then first through third, and alternate every week. A typical day starts with check-in and introduction, then continues with various individual and team activities ranging from low- to high-energy, and mixes in snacks, lunch and recesses, much like a typical school day. "We break up the day, knowing that five hours is a lot for a kid or adult to be active, so we're mindful of the types of activities we do back-to-back," Johnson said. "For instance, this week we're doing a team building activity to start the day for 15 minutes, then go to a tag game or higher physical activity game, then we go to a co-operative game for a longer period of time where kids are working in teams toward a shared or common goal. Then recess or lunch." The classes are obviously physical, but they stimulate kids' minds as well as their bodies. "We do so much more than specific physical activities," Twigg said. "PE is one of the only subjects in school that kids get everything from emotional, academic, social and cognitive stimulation that creates a well-rounded experience. So it's nice not to just work on physical skills, but also all of the others necessary for life." Throughout the day, kids are awarded ELPE (Everyone Loves PE) tickets for displays of safe, respectful or responsible behavior. At the end of class, those tickets are put into a treasure box for a prize drawing. "They start to see that when they do nice or good things, they're rewarded," said Johnson. The camps have grown every year, to the point where now the duo offers internships and hours for Portland Community College and high school leadership students. And how do the kids like it? "Sometimes kids show up and are a bit grumpy, but we make it a fun atmosphere and hold them to a high standard of behavior ... they appreciate and embrace that," Johnson said. "Once they see what our camp is all about and how comfortable we make it, they find themselves on board." The camp's teachers both come from an athletic background. Twigg — who grew up in the Hillsboro area — was a volleyball and basketball player in and after high school, and Johnson — who completed his undergraduate degree at Oregon State and his master's degree at Pacific University in Forest Grove — played basketball in high school and now coaches the sport at Liberty. It's that experience, along with their professional certification, that distinguishes them from others who offer similar summer experiences. "There are a handful of other things out there designed to occupy kids' time, but what sets us apart is that we're two licensed teachers who are still further educating ourselves on what's best for kids," Johnson said. Yes, Everybody Loves PE is a business. But more than that, it's a labor of love and an opportunity for a couple physical education professionals to continue giving year-round. "We want these kids to be active now, but our hope is that we're helping to develop people who choose to be active for a lifetime," Twigg said. "Knock on wood, we've never had a negative comment, so we're doing something right. But more than that, it's great to know we're making a positive impact in kids' lives."

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[fashiontrendin-blog]

15 Habits Of Well-Dressed Men

https://fashion-trendin.com/15-habits-of-well-dressed-men/

15 Habits Of Well-Dressed Men

Do you get your jackets tailored? Wash your whites separately? Press your underwear? No? Then there’s a strong chance your style might be suffering as a result.

According to club menswear’s most influential opinion-makers, there are a few habits shared by nearly all the most impressively turned out blokes at Fashion Week, and it’s not necessarily having a stylist on speed dial.

In a bid to give you the sartorial shortcut to wardrobe success, here are 15 things worth adding to your daily routine.

They Know The Basics – And Stick To Them

A look is only as good as its weakest link, but then you don’t have to tell these men that. “From Steve McQueen to James Dean, all the fashion greats kept it simple,” says stylist Georgia Boal-Russell, who has worked for the likes of Tom Ford, Adidas and Jigsaw. “They rely on basic uniforms and don��t worry about making a statement if that’s not their style.”

According to a survey by online men’s personal shopping service Thread, British men on average wear just 13 per cent of their wardrobes. “My hunch is that guys return to their basic pieces time and again,” adds Boal-Russell, “which makes it worth investing in quality staples that will still look good after many wears and work with a lot of things in your wardrobe.”

Cover your bases with a few well-fitting white T-shirts, a sky blue Oxford shirt, grey sweatshirt, denim jacket and some light coloured chinos in a slim or straight fit.

They Shop Offline, Too

With thousands of brands at your fingertips, no queuing, and the ability to buy pants without wearing any, shopping online has revolutionised the way we stock our wardrobes. But steer exclusively digital and you might miss a trick.

“As popular as e-commerce is, I still love popping into brick-and-mortar boutiques,” says menswear writer Jian DeLeon. “You get a feel for new brands that might pique your interest and have the ability to try on clothes and feel fabrics in person. Also, stylish and knowledgeable sales associates can be a boon in helping you think of different ways to wear the same thing.”

Not only that, but you’ll also get to try the items on — saving you from enduring the special hell that is waiting in line at a post office on your lunch break.

Goodhood, London

They Take Care Of Their Underwear

Even if you’re the only one who sees them (the reason might be linked), your underwear should still be treated with the same respect as the rest of your wardrobe according to Olivia Francis, founder of luxury loungewear brand Hamilton & Hare. “Press your boxers – just like your shirts – with a hot iron and lots of steam. You’ll be amazed at how good they feel to put on in the morning.”

If that’s a little TLC too far, at least commit to keeping your underwear rotation fresh. “Threadbare and faded underwear is not a good look; you should aim to replace yours every 12-18 months depending on rotation.”

And need we say you’d be hard pushed to find a novelty pair of sausage skins in the wardrobes of Messrs Gandy or Beckham, so yours should be no different.

They Don’t Plan Obsessively

One of the most commonly pedalled pieces of advice when it comes to getting dressed is to select an outfit for the following day the night before. But this is not the way all stylish guys go about it.

“I rarely lay out clothes the night before,” says Simon Chilvers, men’s style director of MatchesFashion.com. “Unless you’ve got a strict uniform or dress code to adhere to, dressing with spontaneity is most likely to result in outfits that you feel comfortable in and that will suit your mood.”

Admittedly, you might need a bit longer for such free-styling, so having a few go-to combinations on hand is never a bad thing. “Just make sure you run through what your day looks like while you’re picking something out so you choose something that’s flexible enough for meetings or an after-work event.”

They Don’t Ignore Care Labels

There are few things in life more irritating than discovering that the new season sweatshirt you just bought is dry-clean only. Or having to devote precious weekend minutes to hand-washing delicates.

But caring for your clothing could be the difference between subpar and outstanding style. “We live in a world of disposability, but it’s still worth taking care of a garment,” says photographer-turned-menswear-influencer Jonathan Daniel Pryce.

If you’re only just getting to grips with separating light and dark colours, invest in pieces that are built to last with minimal fuss such as merino wool, which needs to be washed less frequently due to its antibacterial properties.

They Only Settle For the Best Trouser Break

Aside from allowing your footwear to be on full display, nailing the trouser break is something that separates the men from the boys, and can also elongate your frame to make you appear taller and slimmer.

“If your trousers aren’t turned up or hemmed to the correct length, any shoes you wear are wasted,” says shoe designer Marc Hare. “The greatest shoes in the world have zero presence poking out from under a bunch of fabric.”

In colder weather, buy trousers that break just the right amount (hitting the top set of eyelets on your footwear at the longest) in the first instance or have them altered to suit. When it warms up, try going sockless and pinrolling your trousers slightly to show off your shoes (and ankles) in all their glory.

They Don’t Wash Their Jeans

Believe it or not, in some cases it’s possible to look better by doing less. This is particularly true of jeans, which you should skip washing in favour of a swift half down the pub for at least the first six months of wear.

“We champion the habit of buying raw (or ‘dry’) denim jeans and breaking them in yourself so that they can create their own wash,” says Nudie Jeans denim designer Johan Lindsted.

“By holding off from washing your jeans for as long as possible, you can create a beautiful pair of your own without buying the wash ready-made.”

They Stay Stocked

Buying basics may not be the most exhilarating way to part with your hard-earned cash, but it is essential to dressing well and looking good in all situations.

“Basics are the bedrock of any wardrobe,” says Sarah Gilfillan, founder of personal styling consultancy SartoriaLab. “Once you have these sorted, all other pieces will fall into place, and you can add more trend-led pieces into the mix.”

Stylish men make shopping for replacements less strenuous by taking time to find the perfect example of each, making a note of the store, size and cut, then staying stocked up. For bonus points, take a picture of the label and keep it in your phone so you can do this when out and about.

They Take It Up With Their Tailor

Every well-dressed adult knows that the key to looking good is fit. From your basics to your best two-piece, there’s nothing that can’t be improved with a nip and a tuck.

“Whether you’ve just blown your month’s wage or picked up a bargain on this winter’s overcoat, make sure you get it tailored,” says FarFetch.com menswear editor Tony Cook. “In menswear, an inch means a mile and the slightest alteration can make a massive difference.”

So focus on the small (and therefore, cheaper) tweaks, particularly on jackets, that make a big difference: cuffs, shoulders and back.

They Do The Little Things Well

The phrase ‘I woke up like this’ has misled scores of men into thinking the best-dressed guys do just that. Not the case. Far from simply throwing on clothes and leaving the house, taking time to cuff your jeans, roll your sleeves and choose the right tie knot can make a big difference.

“Style for men is most definitely in the details,” says Daniel Johnson, a stylist who has worked with the likes of Ralph Lauren, Paul Smith and Hermès. “A man’s wardrobe differs very little in terms of the shapes of clothing available, so we have to get the little things correct.”

Accessorising cleverly is another small but impactful style move worth perfecting. Just be careful not to overdo it, particularly in the case of jewellery – you should be aiming for James Bond, not Mr T.

They Know The Importance Of Rotation

Building a capsule wardrobe that has you covered for every occasion can be extremely rewarding. But it also comes with the risk of quickly wearing key pieces out.

“Try to think of yourself as a something of a team coach when it comes to your wardrobe,” says Selfridges personal shopping consultant Daniel Rhone. “Rotating your clothing and shoes – like a manager does his squad – is key, especially if you have to wear a suit every day for work.”

Not only does this keep your look fresh, but reducing the strain on individual pieces by allowing time between each wear also increases their lifespan.

They Wear The Shoe That Fits

It’s not uncommon to hear people waxing lyrical about how footwear is the most important component of an outfit. And while it’s quite a bold statement, they have a point.

Shoes have the power to make or break a look, so as well as ensuring you have all the cornerstones of cordwaining to hand, it pays to swot up on what to wear with each, and where. You should have at least a pair that matches every trouser hanging in your wardrobe.

“Some of the most versatile shoes a man can have are Chelsea boots in brown, wingtips in dark tan, double monk straps and, my favourite, plain loafers,” says Johnson. “Aside from that, there’s not much else you need apart from a pair of white sneakers an and an all-rounder black shoe.”

They Organise Their Wardrobes

It’s been established that not all impeccably-dressed men spend hours meticulously planning their outfits. However, they do give themselves the right tools to work with, thanks to a spot of wardrobe organisation.

“When doing wardrobe edits for clients, I find that if they don’t have their clothes in some sort of order, they either forget they have things or feel overwhelmed by choice and only wear a small portion of their wardrobe,” says Gilfillan. “To make the most of everything, it’s crucial to have it organised in a way that makes sense to you.”

Try organising by colour, type of garment or season, and you’ll find getting dressed in the morning becomes a whole lot easier.

They Don’t Wear Bootcut Jeans

There’s a common thread that has long precluded the likes of Simon Cowell, Jeremy Clarkson and Paul Hollywood from best-dressed lists: their denim choices. And far from being something thought up by a fashion editor, there’s science behind the shame.

“For the majority of men, bootcut jeans are incredibly unflattering. Don’t wear them,” says stylist Elgar Johnson, who has dressed the likes of Eddie Redmayne, Travis Scott and John Boyega.

Instead, Johnson suggests slim, straight or tapered jeans that will flatter your legs – whether yours are chicken-like or #swole from chugging protein – in ways no bootcut style ever could.

They Look After Themselves

You can buy a suit, hand spun in Italy from the finest thread known to man, but if what’s underneath it isn’t up to scratch then you’re still not going to look your best.

Eating well and exercising are two of the most overlooked factors when it comes to style, but they make a huge difference to your overall appearance. Just a small amount of exercise and a balanced diet can have a massive impact on how you look and feel – just ask Lee Axon, a personal trainer at national gym chain Xercise4Less.

“Too much sugar can metabolise as body fat and on men. This sits on the lower back and abdomen area, just where we don’t want it,” says Axon. “On the other hand, exercise increases the circulation of oxygen and nutrients and releases toxins through sweat, which leads to clearer, firmer skin.”

And don’t forget to smile while you’re doing it – it’s the best exercise for your face.

[ronaldmrashid]

How To Make Your Business Last Forever

Because I joined the equities business a year before the 2000 dotcom bust, I’ve always been a little wary of stocks as a source of long-term wealth. It was crazy to witness so many people go from having millions to zero in a matter of months. Where does all the wealth go?

The irony about my suspicion is that I firmly believe the only way for someone to reach “next level wealth” is if you build enough equity in your own business. Unless you make Managing Director at a major financial firm, Partner at a big law firm, or get hired as a Senior VP at a large tech company, it’s very hard to get really rich through a day job.

Therefore, the best way to reach next level wealth is to not only build a business, but to make your business LAST for as long as possible. 

Making Your Business Last Forever

Netflix killed Blockbuster. Amazon killed Circuit City and a bunch of other businesses. Redfin is slowly squeezing real estate commissions to death thank goodness. Every single business has a life cycle. If you don’t constantly reinvent your business, you will die. If you believe your business will die despite your best efforts, you should sell.

Part of the reason why I like converting long term profits in the stock market into real assets is because I’m always paranoid that nothing lasts forever. Instead of seeing my profits turn into losses, like I’ve seen so many times in the past, I might as well lock in some profits and convert them into something that will last e.g. a new $55,000 master bathroom from a DJIA investment made in 2012.

I know my master bathroom will last for at least 30 years. Sadly, the same cannot be said for most businesses, which is partly why index investing is the predominant way to go. Besides, there’s no point investing money if you don’t one day take profits to use for a better life.

I’m not sure how the online publishing business will evolve over the next 10 years. My business could very well die a sad death. The only thing I can consistently work on is building a strong brand that will allow me to pivot to something new when the time comes. Financial Samurai drinking water anyone?

Let’s say everybody stops reading independent personal finance sites that are written by financially independent authors who spent their career in the finance industry. Instead, people decide it’s more beneficial to get financial advice from entertainers due to their good looks. Well crap! I’m SOL since I’m not much of a self-promoter. What is a blogger supposed to do?

If my business or your business is faced with a structural decline, we must CHANGE the composition of our respective businesses. But instead of converting profits into a bathroom that produces no income, a business should consider buying income producing assets.

The only income producing asset I know of that has a high degree of certainty for lasting a long time is real estate. Let’s do a mental exercise.

Business Conglomerate

There’s no restriction as to what type of business you must operate, especially if you run a privately held business. See this comment from an entrepreneur reader:

My growing company was recently valued at $3m but my business partner and I each making over $500k a year (and I’m only working an easy 20-30 hours a week). Why would I ever sell?! In reality my equity will end up being sold to some valued employees. I don’t see selling to an outside party. Plus we own the commercial building (in a separate real co and renting it to our operating co) and are building a nice asset (equity just passed 50% of value).

Thanks FS – I agree (DON’T SELL YOUR CASH COWS!!)

Do you see the nugget of wisdom in this comment? The reader structured his business into two separate entities: 1) a real estate company that owns the commercial building, and 2) his operating business that pays rent to his real estate company! This way, he recycles all his profits within his business empire while taking advantage of tax shields through non-cash depreciation expense. Further, he rests easy knowing the landlord will never kick him out, unless he turns schizophrenic.

Let’s see how this business works with some numbers.

Real Estate Company Rental Revenue: $120,000

Real Estate Company Commercial Building Value: $2,000,000

Annual Non-Cash Depreciation Expense: $100,000

Operating Expense: $20,000

Operating Profit Before Taxes: $0

Taxes: $0

The actual cash flow from Real Co. is $100,000 while he gets to pay no taxes and see the value of his real estate holding(s) grow over time.

Operating Company Revenue: $1,500,000

Office Rent: $120,000

Operating Expenses: $380,000

Operating Profit Before Taxes (distribution to two partners): $1,000,000

Plus $100,000 in net rental income = $1,100,000

Because this entrepreneur’s business needs to rent office space anyway, they decided to buy a commercial office building in order to charge their operating company rent.

If you own commercial buildings in superstar cities like San Francisco or New York City, there may come a time when the value of your real estate holdings SURPASSES the value of your operating company itself! Let’s look at a real example in San Francisco below: Lombardi Sports.

The owners of Lombardi Sports bought a 50,000 square foot building in the prime Russian Hill neighborhood to house their store in 1993 for several million bucks. They had a great run, but selling sporting goods slowly started to lose its edge due to the rise of e-commerce. As a result, the owners decided to sell the building to an investor.

“After a while it got to the point there were more lucrative things for the family to pursue,” said Steve Lombardi Jr. “We were working twice as hard for half the money. This was not a whimsical decision; our family has been in business in San Francisco since the early 20th century.”

I heard the sale of the building was for more than $25 million in 2014. Not bad at all, especially since Sports Authority went bankrupt in 2016. Instead of completely getting squeezed, the owners were able to capitalize on their business’s most valuable asset: real estate.

I’m sure the owners liked the idea of owning their building in order to control costs and have maximum stability, just like a homeowner does. But I don’t think they forecasted their real estate holding would become a gold mine. Wholefoods plans to move into the space and charge $10 for an organic apple in the near future.

The Terminal Value can dominate the overall value of the business if there is no ending!

Buy Lasting Assets

Although I run an online media company, I’m considering buying real estate with the company’s retained earnings. First I’ll start with an office building since I need somewhere to type my magic. Then I’ll rent out the remaining 98% of space since I don’t need that much space to type my magic!

Slowly but surely I’ll buy more and more real estate to build a rental property empire under Financial Samurai Incorporated. Perhaps one day, rental income might equal online media income (doubt it). But given the disconnect in valuations (SF real estate valuations are much higher than online media valuations), I might be able to raise my final company valuation multiple if I ever sell. Talk about forward thinking!

By actively turning online media funny money into real assets, I’m basically ensuring my company will be worth at least the value of the company’s real estate holdings (book value). I’m also elongated the lifespan of my company forever. If real estate inflation continues to grow the way it has in San Francisco over the next 30 years, I will create some serious next level wealth for my children.

Plan. Execute. Predict. Diversify. Don’t stay complacent because things are always changing.

Related:

Blogging vs. Real Estate: Which Is A Better Investment?

To Get Rich, Practice Predicting The Future

Business owners, have you actively used your company’s operating profits to buy real assets? If so, how has that turned out? Do you know other examples where the value of the company’s real estate holdings makes up the majority of the company’s value? Are there any other hard assets with lasting value a business owner should buy? Any tax accountants want to poke some holes in this business longevity extension plan? 

from http://www.financialsamurai.com/how-to-make-your-business-last-forever/

[ihtspirit]

PE-lovers, rejoice: Program offers phys-ed summer classes

PE-lovers, rejoice: Program offers phys-ed summer classes Originally published July 23, 2019 in the Pamplin News-Times. By Wade Evanson I love golf. You may love ice cream. But according to Hillsboro physical education instructors Neill Twigg and Steve Johnson, we both love PE. https://ihtusa.com https://ihtusa.com/pe-lovers-rejoice-program-offers-phys-ed-summer-classes/ Originally published July 23, 2019 in the Pamplin News-Times. By Wade Evanson I love golf. You may love ice cream. But according to Hillsboro physical education instructors Neill Twigg and Steve Johnson, we both love PE. Ten years ago, Twigg, who teaches at Patterson Elementary, and Johnson, who teaches at Orenco Elementary, started a business called Everybody Loves PE! You may wonder why two teachers who normally have the summer off would choose to spend their three-month vacation doing what they do the other nine months of the year. But to these two physical education enthusiasts, it's really pretty simple. [caption id="attachment_19086" align="alignright" width="551"] Christopher Oertell photo/Pamplin Media Group[/caption] "The number one reason is that we love what we do," Twigg said. "We love working with kids, love keeping them active, and love the idea of giving kids an opportunity to meet and play in a safe and educational environment." Everybody Loves PE is a program for kids from first through sixth grade. Sessions are one week long and run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. It works much like an elongated version of the typical physical education class you might see in elementary school, consisting of various individual and team activities, including but not limited to games, cheers, obstacle courses and much more. The two gym jockeys — who've been teaching physical education for a combined 32 years — started the program after seeing something similar as part of a limited professional development program called "Fun PE Guy." They'd been looking for an alternative way to supplement their income over the summer when they attended the workshop started by Dennis Stands, which teaches existing and aspiring PE teachers a range of activities, games and strategies for teaching physical education. After attending the 10-week workshop Twigg and Johnson saw an opportunity for something similar — but for kids. "It was kind of a 'wow moment,' and opened our eyes to different things we could do," Twigg said. "We were like, wow, this guy has X amount of adults coming to his class [and] he does it for 10 weeks during the summer around the Northwest. We were like, man, something like this would be fun to do." From there, it was about learning. Neither Twigg nor Johnson had run a business before, so they had to clear the facilities and equipment with the Hillsboro School District, then spread the word about what they were offering in an uber-busy summer market. They thought they had a niche — after all, most camps are sport-specific and are set in a highly competitive environment. Theirs, however, was designed more as an extension of elementary PE, geared more toward activity and fun rather than competition. "You see these specific camps for soccer or basketball, so we wondered what we were doing to reach these other kids that aren't 'athletes,'" Johnson said. "The kids that still need to find a way to be active, but aren't into specific sports." Everybody Loves PE is offered over a 10-week period beginning in June and ending the week of Aug, 12-16. Sessions start with the combination of grades four through six, then first through third, and alternate every week. A typical day starts with check-in and introduction, then continues with various individual and team activities ranging from low- to high-energy, and mixes in snacks, lunch and recesses, much like a typical school day. "We break up the day, knowing that five hours is a lot for a kid or adult to be active, so we're mindful of the types of activities we do back-to-back," Johnson said. "For instance, this week we're doing a team building activity to start the day for 15 minutes, then go to a tag game or higher physical activity game, then we go to a co-operative game for a longer period of time where kids are working in teams toward a shared or common goal. Then recess or lunch." The classes are obviously physical, but they stimulate kids' minds as well as their bodies. "We do so much more than specific physical activities," Twigg said. "PE is one of the only subjects in school that kids get everything from emotional, academic, social and cognitive stimulation that creates a well-rounded experience. So it's nice not to just work on physical skills, but also all of the others necessary for life." Throughout the day, kids are awarded ELPE (Everyone Loves PE) tickets for displays of safe, respectful or responsible behavior. At the end of class, those tickets are put into a treasure box for a prize drawing. "They start to see that when they do nice or good things, they're rewarded," said Johnson. The camps have grown every year, to the point where now the duo offers internships and hours for Portland Community College and high school leadership students. And how do the kids like it? "Sometimes kids show up and are a bit grumpy, but we make it a fun atmosphere and hold them to a high standard of behavior ... they appreciate and embrace that," Johnson said. "Once they see what our camp is all about and how comfortable we make it, they find themselves on board." The camp's teachers both come from an athletic background. Twigg — who grew up in the Hillsboro area — was a volleyball and basketball player in and after high school, and Johnson — who completed his undergraduate degree at Oregon State and his master's degree at Pacific University in Forest Grove — played basketball in high school and now coaches the sport at Liberty. It's that experience, along with their professional certification, that distinguishes them from others who offer similar summer experiences. "There are a handful of other things out there designed to occupy kids' time, but what sets us apart is that we're two licensed teachers who are still further educating ourselves on what's best for kids," Johnson said. Yes, Everybody Loves PE is a business. But more than that, it's a labor of love and an opportunity for a couple physical education professionals to continue giving year-round. "We want these kids to be active now, but our hope is that we're helping to develop people who choose to be active for a lifetime," Twigg said. "Knock on wood, we've never had a negative comment, so we're doing something right. But more than that, it's great to know we're making a positive impact in kids' lives."

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