Shit Worth Checking Out: The five literary works that inspired Woody Allen.

Woody Allen is a workhorse of epic proportions; the man averages a movie a year, and his latest film, Midnight in Paris, just opened the 2011 Cannes Film Festival a couple days back (and was very well received).  Admittedly, not everything Allen touches is gold, but hey, with that rate of production, the man can't be expected to be churning out perfection.  Allen is, however, responsible for some of the greatest films of the past 45 years or so, including arguably the greatest romantic comedy of all time (a genre that produces trash at a rate unlike any other), as well as one of the finer tributes to Alfred Hitchcock you'll ever see.  Recently, The Browser conducted an interview with Allen where he set out five books that have resonated with him.  His choice of literature is of course interesting in itself, but the commentary from the eminently quotable Allen does not disappoint, either.

Combining Fashion and Finance: Interesting interview with Gilt Groupe CEO Kevin Ryan

Bloomberg Television conducted an interview the other day with Kevin Ryan, the CEO an co-founder of everyone's favourite flash sale shopping website, Gilt Groupe (well, not those of us in Canada, but that's another story...).  Gilt recently completed another (allegedly its final) round of financing, for $138 million.  The financing attaches a market value to Gilt Groupe of $1 billion; not bad for a company that is only three years old.  Although not yet profitable when taking all of its divisions into account, Gilt's revenue has grown steadily since its inception, and Ryan predicts gross revenue for the year ended June 30, 2011 between $400-500 million.  Gilt employs over 700 people across seven different verticals, including women's fashion, men's fashion, Gilt City (city-specific deal service a la Groupon), and Jetsetter (travel sales division).  More after the jump.

Interesting Shit that I'm Too Lazy to Write Anything About: May 13, 2011.

Tour Mark Zuckerberg's $7 Million new home (it looks like a Vermont B&B for seniors...)

The Icon's Guide to Sunglasses (featuring Steve McQueen, Robert Downey Jr., Marcel Mastroianni, and even the Secret Service)

Wall Street Journal article on retail reward programs: Why Pay Full Price?

Study finds world luxury market to grow 8%

The 50 Most Stylish Musicians of the Last 50 Years

Will Smith as lead in Tarantino's Django Unchained?

Shit Worth Checking Out: Want to see how handmade Italian ties and shoes are put together?

Every been curious about just how those crafty Italians make ties and shoes by hand?  Ponder no more.  Check out the two videos below, produced by Mad About Town, to see the process in all its glory.  The first video features a Finollo, a Genovese tie maker, and the second features a Mr. Riccardo Bestetti, an Italian cordwainer.  See them in action after the jump.

Shit Worth Checking Out: Very nice lookbook from Brunello Cucinelli for S/S 2011.

I'm a big Brunello Cucinelli fan (from afar...sigh), and the 2011 Spring / Summer campaign doesn't disappoint.  Once you get past how beautiful the setting is, you can focus on the clothes, and there are some very nice pieces to be seen.  Check out the pics below.  I am particularly a fan of the brown DB suit; awesome in every way.  My only complaint would be the last photo; looks like your typical sartorially-bankrupt dude.  Ignore that one; I include it only to show that nobody, not even Cucinelli, is perfect.

Shit Worth Checking Out: The Philosophy of Michael Drake.

The website for Drakes London features a blurb on The Philosophy of Michael Drake, the founder of Drakes London, that is worth checking out for a Sunday afternoon read and outlines Drake's personal style.  Take from it what you will; his style is decidedly English and not for everyone, and his claim that '[t]he best-dressed Neapolitans aim for an understated English style' is slightly biased at best.

Check out the article after the jump, or go right to the source if you trust yourself to avoid getting sucked in to shopping.

Shit Worth Checking Out: Citizen Kane at 70: The Legacy of the Film and Its Director.

The Atlantic had an interesting article the other day looking at Citizen Kane and its influence over the past seventy years, titled Citizen Kane at 70: The Legacy of the Film and Its Director.  The article focuses on Welles's career and his importance to cinema, but the most interesting bits look at some of the lost footage from his films, including an entirely unreleased film, The Other Side of the Wind, which remains unedited and the subject of a lengthy legal dispute.  While one can argue forever whether Citizen Kane is indeed 'the greatest film of all time', its innovatory importance is not up for dispute, nor is its (or Welles's himself) impact on film.  Check out the article here; it's well-worth a read.

Shit Worth Checking Out: What is the most epic photo ever taken?

Quora has an amazing thread right now featuring the attempt to find the 'most epic photo ever taken'.  Right now, there are over 50 photos posted, most with accompanying stories (my choice for title photo was based at least in part on it needing no such description).  Some of the pics submitted are quite epic indeed.  Many are also highly disturbing, and I thus hesitate to designate the photographs I have picked out as my "favourites", so I will instead refer you to some of the best, or most intriguing, photographs after the jump.  Which gets your vote?

Shit You Should Buy: New edition of Cannes Cinema: A Visual History.

A new edition of Cannes Cinema: A Visual History of the World's Greatest Film Festival will be released next week, just in time for this year's 64th Cannes Film Festival.  The book includes over 550 photographs by the Traverso family, a local family of photographers who have been photographing the event since its inception in 1939, and text by Serge Toubian.  You can grab it on Amazon, but only the paperback edition is available.  This feels like a book where a paperback edition simply won't do, so head over to Phaidon and shell out a couple more ducats for the hardcover.  I'll definitely be grabbing this one when it's released.  The perfect coffee table book; one you can glance through with a scotch in one hand and a woman you're pretending to pay attention to in the other.

source: Gilt

Shit You Should Buy: A tailor-made suit from Miller's Oath.

"At a certain point in your life you accept the fact that you need a tailor—a real tailor, who makes a suit specifically for you. It’s going to cost more than $3000, and you respect (perhaps grudgingly) the fact that that quite serious amount of money is going to a craftsman who’s learned his trade over decades; it’s going to buy cloth woven in the finest mills; it’s going to a cutter who’s refined his pattern to create a refined silhouette. Your money is not going to underwrite a luxury goods behemoth, it’s not going to anybody who appears in his own ads—it’s not going to anybody who has ads. You seek a local tailor."

A Continuous Lean published an article the other day on tailor Kirk Miller, who used the experience he gained at Paul Stuart, Thom Browne, and Barker Black to open Miller's Oath in New York on Greenwich Street.  Miller ensures the experience is a very personal one; he employs just one tailor, and takes all measurements himself.  As he says, "I want to have a connection with the men who come here."  See below the cut for some pics of Miller's work.