M65 JACKET!

As iconic as Mount Rushmore itself, the M-65 jacket has always been at the fore front of men's fashion since its inception in the 1960's. Worn by Army veterans, film stars, fashion heads and just regular people alike; this jacket has become a men's wear staple for over 50 years!

After the USA chose to help the struggling south Vietnam forces defeat communism from the oppressing northern regime in 1963. The USA government reacted to change their army's uniform to fit for this whole new terrain; with its vast jungles and swamps they chose to create Sateen uniforms to be light and breezy in the dense heat along with ripstop to stop it from destroying in action. However, when it came to outerwear for the traveling troops they chose to rethink their approach and created the M-1965 aka M-65 in 1965 as its name suggest. Rather than being a heavy parka (M-51) in the Korean Conflict, this jacket was lighter and more easier to move in plus it could be used with or without a hood instantly. The Government issued this jacket firstly to the troops stationed in the Central Highlands, where the air was cooler than the jungles, then to all the troops after the monsoon rains had come and as a result it began to get colder. With this in place and the the success of this jacket the USA started to give it all their troops across the world not just in Vietnam.

Two of my M-65 Jackets 

As you can see from above each jacket features a four pocket design, Velcro straps to fasten both the sleeve cuffs and the collar as well as both a zip and press stud closer. But making this different from the original M-51 jacket from Korea was the idea to have a fold away hood that hides in the back via a pouch, accessed only by he collar; instead of a removable making it easier to switch around.
Each jacket was produced to be the OG-107 colour way as this was the staple, standard issue colour the American army chose for their uniforms, before it was later adapted to a variety of camouflages and colours as it was sent to other troops in other countries overseas. Also, the jacket had a secret roll back cuff that could be pulled down to cover the users gloves or folded under encase he chose not to, this was added to the jacket to stop the rain from entering as it would protect the gloves or hands when the monsoon hit unexpectedly.

Al Pacino as Frank Serpico

Christian Slater in True Romance

As Hollywood has created various well known heroes and villains post Vietnam War, many characters from these films have been decked out with an M-65 jacket helping to push it into mainstream culture. A particular figure curated by Martin Scorsese in 1976 exploded the jacket into the front of every ones eyes as DeNiro played ex-veteran Travis Bickle. A character who seemed to never take off his M-65 and thus each outlet used to promote the film stressed the importance of this jacket, as it indicated his War based pasted that lead him to this point of insanity. Many of the iconic photos and scenes of Bickle seemed to revolve around him rocking that famous jacket. As a result,not just DeNiro wore the jacket as other famous actors have wore this staple such as: Christian Slater in True Romance, Woody Allen in Annie Hall and Al Pacino in Serpico where he played an undercover office in the 70's.    

However, as time has passed the jacket is still as popular as ever and can be spotted on various men and women in day to day life as well as famous fashion events like Pitti Uomo in Florence. A sprezzatura classic this is usually popped over a blazer/ suit and adds great contrast to both white or navy choices amongst other colours. Give one a go!

Pitti Uomo Style with added M-65 Style

The Sartorialist showing us different way to rock one

- THURSTON

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LARRY BURROWS- WAR PHOTOGRAPHER

Larry Burrows: Doomed Photographer
Eyes to the Horror

In the late afternoon of the 10th of February 1971 the English photojournalist Larry Burrows was pronounced dead after his helicopter was shot down by the Vietnam People's Army in Laos. An incident which also took the life of fellow french photographer Henri Huet who too, boarded that disastrous helicopter flight. Burrows in the wake of his death had managed to show the world the true horrors of war and the length of terror these soldiers were facing both on and off the battlefield. His main accomplishment was his extensive coverage of the Vietnam war between 1965 til his death in 1971. Many of his photos appeared in multiple magazine especially, Life magazine where he was first discovered and worked for since he was only 16 years old; as a result, with their wide audience figures this publication had at the time, his photos were widely praised and inspired many figures to drum up support against this conflict.
 All these photos taken during this period of unrest where collected back together and published in a book pleasantly titled: "Vietnam". This was both a celebration of his work in the conflict as well as a epitaph to his legacy as a photojournalist, this book can truly be seen as his magnum opus.

My Copy of Larry Burrows Vietnam Work

One of Burrows many Life Magazine Covers

Never one for Censorship, Burrows let his photos do the talking!

He tried to Capture all angles of the War

As you can see, many of his photographs encapsulated the real brutal nature of war; with many of his photos displaying injuries, corpses and people who are in dire need of any help. All of his shots were taken without any staging or any form of setting up prior to the lens shutting, before burning an image forever on a blacken screen, a light to our eyes. All his snaps were from the cuff, what you see is what really happened through his eyes. As a result this gave a more authentic look into America's effort to dispel the powerful communist Viet Cong from attaining the country.
 With his wide use of scenery and broad aspects, Burrows stressed the true meaning of team work within his pictures. Each of his images caught a large section of the battlefield, with both the aspects of fighting and artillery bombardment along with the dead and wounded who are left both in the foreground and in the horizon to fight the death within themselves. Not only that, but Burrows successfully managed to highlight the vast and always dense green jungle that the solider waded through on a daily basis which strongly contrasted with the continual appearance of blood and annihilation visible all around these backdrops.    

War is Never Pretty

Additionally, through out his work he focused on individuals too both on and off the arena of war, no matter if they were fighting or not. As shown above, he enjoyed to target people who he felt best represented the daily struggle to survive in this harsh environment. He photographed the needy with various wounds; alive or dying, soldiers committing to the fight, blasting all kinds of weaponry to hold back the advancing forces, and of course the locals who were caught in the eye of the hurricane; whether they favored the Americans liberation or not. This as a result help to spotlight at home the dangers of what was out there and lurked hidden in the wild grass. This as a result, made his work become a weapon in its own right to be used against the Government and support the leave out of Vietnam.          

In the Heart of the Battle

Level of Detail within his shots has never been overlooked

As history has progress and we now look back on this doomed conflict, we seem to use Burrow's photos to help illustrate the great amount of lost America faced in Vietnam but, also that War itself is never a pleasant experience. Burrows along with his strong colours, surrounding and faces all in his photos, managed to run home the genuine grim reality of what was going out there in the jungle. Sadly, as he continued to work he too became a target and his death not only helped to add a little more truth in his work it also added more power to his photos.



- THURSTON

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REVIEW! MAX RITCHER - FROM SLEEP (2015)

"Sleeping is one of the most important things we do"

It seems year after year Max Richter, a German born English composer, gets better and better. With a major backing from film directors as well as HBO knocking on his door, for more songs to be added to their star filled TV dramas, this man can do no wrong. (Seek The Leftover's TV Show, series 2 out now)

After finishing various works for the silver screen and the ones that live in our front rooms remaining constantly vibrant. Richter took it upon himself to crafted one piece of music heavily disguised as lullaby to help explore the ideology of what Sleep is and what happens to us as we enter inactivity.
Richter prior to writing this length of music, conferred with famous neuroscientist David Eagleman to learn more about how our brains work at night. Richter wanted to attempt to find out the answer of what spaces occur within our minds when it is on "holiday".  Thus...

We got the masterpiece: SLEEP!


However, this album under review: 'From Sleep' can be seen as the "greatest hits" of this eight hour long epic. Heavily consisting of pianos, strings and choral structures, this album is perfect in case you just want dip your toe in the waters of this drowsy delight. Basically, a heightened power nap to energize your ears. The album is compressed onto one CD or on two vinyls in a deluxe package; its a beautiful accompaniment to your thoughts and dreams in the midnight hours.  

On this record, set over two visually stunning vinyls which in themselves create their own moon like gravitational pull when spinning, Richter manages to craft a beautiful patchwork of pianos, variety of strings and choral pieces throughout to distill a quilt of heavenly slumber. The music, river like in it's passage, drifts along with a soft ambiance. Personally, this lullaby for the dormant individual never fails to lack any tedious qualities track by track or does any section repeat its previous self; Richter successfully conveys a strong sense of emotion and a constant beating melody which is usually absent in the hearts of minimal music.

Track by track we get a feel of Richter's thoughts and feelings on what sleep is to him. Second by second will hear that with each stroke of a string and each hum of the choral piece being played we see the transition of the subject mater into that of an art. The vibrations add more and more splatters to the final canvas of art hanging in our minds.

Max Richter- German born English composer

Richter himself is a key figure head in the modern movement of post-minimalism in the early 2000's. A style of music and art which further develops and expands upon the original idea of minimalism a few decades before. As he successful re-composed Vivaldi's classic baroque standard, 'The Four Seasons' with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, to critical acclaim, he became a main figure in the modern classical circuits. (For me personally, this is where I first heard his work)
Although, he himself had already released a stream of concept albums including the brilliant 'Blue Notebooks' which, featured Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton herself narrating like a omnipresent voice. These records largely stayed in a mix of elective social circles where they were chosen as their favorite albums of that year corresponding to its release.

Not long before the release of this record to the public, the composer was approached by the BBC to preform this epic it all its heavenly glory on the 27th of September that year,2015. With Richter agreeing to be part of it's Radio 3 "Science and Music" weekend, the whole 8 hour piece was preformed live from the midnight til 8:00 am to match the sleeping patterns of a normal human as the climax to the festival. With this, Ritcher manages to break multiple records all at the same time including: the longest broadcast for a single piece of music in the BBC since its inception in 1936.

Max expressing his feelings about the record/ Inner Sleeve

Side A of the Vinyl/ Grey "Moon" Colour

Rating: 4/5


-THURSTON

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P.S. Yes 'The Blue Notebooks' is where I get my name sake from! Shhhhhhh.....

REVIEW! PAVEL BUCHLER IDLE THOUGHTS (2013)

BOOK REVIEW: PAVEL BUCHLER- IDLE THOUGHTS

The Book in its GLORY

"All I remember is the handwriting going on for pages and pages... in its way it was perfect."

A closing remark by the artist Pavel Buchler on the reasoning behind why he has chosen to replicate the fading memories of his father, within his art work. The art work can be seen as a very heart felt love letter to his deceased father, as well as the influence he has bestowed within Buchler now as he is an adult. Whether it can be seen as open letter to his father or a work based upon the discovery of his failed novel in his youth, Butchler has used this as a catalyst to help him create multiple works of art based around the idea of human ideas as well as the way we write to express these interests of ours.

Pavel Bulcher in discussion of his work

  Pavel Buchler was born behind the "Iron Curtain" in Prague in 1952, around the time of the infamous 'Slansky Trail', where he would live and worked until the early 1980's. As a struggling artist he drew inspiration from a variety of sources: including his heritage, but mostly from the society and the world around him at time, especially living and breathing under a very strict Communist rule (strongly shown in his other works). Learning from this he created multiple works of art and sculptures to both stress and parody his life under this all seeing eye. However, he has also turned his hand into teaching and lectures about approaches to art on the whole as well as his own work. Currently he is a professor at Manchester University on the MA Fine Art course.
Still to this day he is a strong a prominent figure on the intentional art scene in more ways than one.  

Moving on to the exhibition put on by the recently re-built and updated Withworth Gallery in the student heart of the city of Manchester, I can not say I ever entered the gallery prior to it being updated but pictures have help me to illustrate the changes that have taken place over its closure. Now the gallery has a wide variety of different form of art work from sculptures to drawings, film and other art based works from multiple foreign and home grown talent.

Idle Thoughts (Diary 2010-2011)

As shown above, you can see the level of detail Buchler adds to these pieces; where each individual scrape and flick of the pen is perfectly added to cover up any remaining white paper cushioned below. The main interest in us human's is what lies behind all that blue blur. What was written moments before? Its a bizarre take on what the human mind can develop and structure but, also how in time all of our ideas grow from seeds and fruit the understanding of who or what we would like to achieve. This collection of art is no different; with the thought of time taking president which is duplicated with the periods of expanse it took to complete the collection. From the inception of his discovery to the formation of the works all of this took time, like his father's novel did.

In others forms of works in the series, entitled 'a year with a dead Biro' we see Buchler create invisible works of prose left as a ghostly outline on the page. This includes a diary of notes taken from the same year which has his thoughts and feelings embossed with the fibers of the paper itself. An all white swan song of his inner mind workings, which is too faint for us to see and feel. Yet, symbolically powerful for us viewers to feel a sense of lost and hope all juxtaposed in one. What was written?

Few of the Pieces on show 

Overall, a excellent messy insight into the world of failed human notions. Prior on the surface it may seem like an explosion at a pen factory; it deals more with the connection and love with for his father as he reminisces about his childhood and his amazement that his father could have it in him to create a novel in general.  



THURSTON

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HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

New Beginnings

A simple blog!

As Dicken's inscribed in Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times!"

I am here to chart and describe my life as a Modernist living within the Working Class city of Manchester. A place which has effected by my life and a large chunk of my influences. I want to share this blog with you to highlight these interests of mine and hopefully show you what it means to be a "Modernist" in 2016 rather than 1966. 
It's more than just a way of life... 

Here on this blog I will review both new and old clothing which I acquire on a regular basis, rare or scare books which I have recently picked up too. Whether they be about art, design or photography you will be able to get a glimpse of my library as I build up my collection. Explain my thoughts on new and old music which I frequently listen too or view live at certain venues. Finally, I would like to discuss any new art based events I will attend both locally or abroad when I travel.
Plus, I might even drop some of my own photos which I have taken on my 35mm camera's which I am also very passionate about!   

So hopefully by now you have gotten a taste of my world... 

ENJOY MY BLOG

Thurston

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