Collection of One: Everyday Carry
The Cycle of Destruction Begins Anew
In law school, I recall being told about older court cases that held an attack on an object closely associated with a person, like a person’s walking cane, was treated the same as striking the actual body of the person. I couldn’t find any record of such cases when writing this piece, but the idea still resonates as true. Some of our possessions are so close to us that they seem like a part of us.
//
I woke up a few months back and realized my wallet and keys had fallen into complete disrepair without my noticing. These leather goods, which I carry every day, are in turn a small part of me. It’s the kind of problem that, once noticed, cannot languish on a todo list. There’s an urgency and some imperative tied up in self-perception to fixing these things. If my most personal accessories are unraveling, what then of my self?
I. Keys, Keys, Keys on Van Nuys*
*Because I can’t footnote a title (thank you Substack, for having rules to prevent that kind of madness), I’ll just clarify this is a reference to the Southern California radio jingle for the Keyes automotive dealership on Van Nuys Boulevard.
So first up, my car keys. Here is what I found myself carrying around (and handing to valets):
A giant Volvo key (the fob size is unavoidable), a broken Thule roof pod key (this discovery was the inciting incident for all this), a bent Orbit multitool, a house key, and some horribly distorted split key rings, all arrayed on a Brooks Brothers repp stripe fob. I looked at this sad array of broken and misaligned metal and thought back to the car keys of my last Saab. Here’s a picture of those:
Simplicity itself! A Saab-branded leather key fob, a giant physical, metal car key, a front door key (to our beloved, rent controlled apartment in Santa Monica) and a brass key blank/bottle opener from MAKR (a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law—she had a way with those kinds of small, perfect gifts). Nostalgia is a powerful drug.
So I decided to replace my key fob with the one I missed. I’ll never drive a Saab again, but I can carry the badge around with me. I picked one up from Classic Leather Fob dot Co dot UK. It’s the kind of business I love supporting—a small business that does one thing really well (timely shipping, comes with a handwritten note from the owner/maker, etc.). Here’s a photo of the piece and their write up:
NOW SOLD – sorry this keyring has now been sold and can no longer be ordered
An 0riginal vintage factory keyring which will have been produced between 1984 – 2000.
Just this one keyring with this serial no. to offer – when it has been sold this listing will be cancelled.
This keyring came to us as one of a pair – the other keyring was listed and sold recently .
An original vintage Saab Scania factory keyring .
Saab Scania had these keyrings made in batches – and each batch was slightly different.
Sometimes the keyrings were supplied with a patent splitring with a thumb catch – the one in this listing was supplied with a plain splitring as can be seen in the photos.
The Saab Scania keyring in this listing is a completely original keyring ( not the re-mounted original badged keyrings which we sometimes offer in other listings )
This keyring is in new old stock condition .
Has the ‘Drop in any postbox’ (Return to Saab ) information on the reverse of the badge for use if the keyring is lost and has been found- serial no. on this one being 66176 – the keyring would have been supplied with a new Saab Scania motor car and that serial no. would of course have related to that particular car.
The badge is mounted onto a keyfob in genuine black leather.
Produced between 1984 and year 2000 for use with the Saab Scania motor cars being supplied at that time.
Saab Scania keyrings do sometimes appear on internet auction sites – but are very rarely in this condition. Even so they can still attract a high level of interest – such is the affection that owners have for these cars. SMOSO 00/54 03/25
And here’s a photo of the UK workshop that produces/restores the key fobs:
Next up, I had to replace my horribly bent multitool (it bent when I attempted to open some theft-proof plastic packaging with it). Orbit has improved on their version since I last ordered, so it now has a few more functions (bottle opener, box cutter, nail file, screwdriver, ruler, etc.). It’s used all the time (breaking down packages, taking my camera off a tripod, opening sparkling water, etc.) and is easier than remembering to bring a pocket knife every day.
And with a new keyring from Orbit (discounted with purchase of the multitool), I had my keys sorted.
II. Rectangle in Blue*
*I also liked “Two for One, a Replacement Odyssey” as a title for this section, but then had to move on with my life.
And then the wallet. This one was less of an emergency than the keys. After all I could have trimmed off some of the loose stitching and the WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie card carrier would have a few years left in it. In the end, this old wallet ended up having a second life/use once I replaced it. I ended up giving this wallet to our four year old son (along with some random cards to keep in it). He loves it. He even put a small ammonite fossil in there, which seemed like a decent enough use of a wallet to me (he then lost that fossil within a day). His new wallet also made our friends’ older kid demand a wallet of his own (the unintended consequences of a good hand-me-down).
A nice replacement wallet candidate was dropped in my lap when I was ordering my new shoes from Crown Northampton back in January. They were offering to throw in a free card holder with the purchase of shoes:
A hand made Horween chromexcel card holder made from the same leather as our footwear. Seven two-tone colour options and one full-colour option have been designed, utilising the off-cuts from the clicking room.
The card holders are made from off-cuts (the left over pieces of premium leather) from their shoe assembly process. I’ve loved Chromexcel ever since choosing it for my Quoddy moccasins, so having this offered to me for free was one of those small, unlooked-for victories. The challenge here was waiting for the made-to-order shoes to get shipped to me with the wallet (shoes were ordered on January 30th and delivered three months later on April 11th). The shoes are great, but finally receiving the wallet and finishing my everyday carry emergency was equally satisfying.
III. “A Small Nation of Meaningful Objects”
So I now have a slightly less disheveled pair of small leather goods I carry every day, and the cycle of destruction is ready to commence anew.
As a parting shot, I threw in my watch, phone and glasses to complete a kind of representational still life. I have to carry some version of these things around with me every day, so it’s a small pleasure to have them all in order again, and to have a kind of coherence/consistent design story among them. Even high quality, ‘buy it for life’ things need occasional replacing or refurbishment, so it has to be enough that you can have things in order for a time.
IV. Post-Script
And since I don’t use Instagram any more, it made sense to mention it’s somehow been a year since my wife’s father died. He was a man who took great care of all the things in his life—objects and people alike.
As a nice remembrance, here’s a photo of him with our daughter, Estelle, on the occasion of her baptism on November 5, 2023 (almost exactly six months before his death).
//
Internet Bycatch
Came across a lot of interesting things over the past month, with my time away from writing (some much needed camping) accounting for the somewhat higher number of videos than usual.
I’m late to this party, but Blancpain rethinks the NATO. “Many NATO straps found on the market are constructed with metallic loops. Unfortunately, these metallic elements do not offer the same level of comfort as the rest of the strap fashioned in nylon. The solution is obvious. Replace the metal loops with ones constructed of nylon.”
Amazon’s Rings of Power is expensive, and sometimes it’s interesting. Usually though, it’s a mess. Bret Devereaux, a military historian, has a great five part breakdown on why its massive season 2, multi-episode battle scene (the siege of Eregion) fails to make sense on any level, failing in the end to even entertain the viewer. There is my life before and after having learned the importance of a siege camp and countersiege works.
From NYT, ChatGPT hallucinating more than ever (despite models getting stronger) is a distinct pleasure for me. A neat oral history of the chaotic introduction of the large language model.
From PBS’ series Art21, a video with James Turrell (architect of Roden Crater and a master of composing with light).
Plein Air drawing, from MOMA.
As tariff and economic uncertainty abounds, it’s time to shine for Salvatore R. Mercogliano, associate professor of history at Campbell University in North Carolina and adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (he also holds, in the ordered presented in his CV, (i) a bachelor of science in marine transportation from the State University of New York Maritime College, (ii) a merchant marine deck officer license (unlimited tonnage 2nd mate), (iii) a master’s in maritime history and nautical archaeology from East Carolina University, and (iv) a Ph.D. in military and naval history from the University of Alabama). He hosts a very grounded an informative YouTube channel, What’s Going on with Shipping? His last name is an uncannily good euonym and in a just world he would be one of our best known and beloved public intellectuals.
This is the face and shirt of a man who I am happy to hear from (even if he’s telling me my toothpaste will cost whatever the market will bear because the packaging is from China). Credit where credit is due—here’s a Mac advertisement I like a lot. One of the only portrayals I’ve seen in media that illustrates my occasional outdoor office habits and aspirations.
Contemplate deep time, and a time before nature had worked out what kind of animals our planet should have, with this great video of “Cambrian-Not-Fishes” from animator Aldrich Hezekiah (and enjoy the nice synth-wave music). Vetulicolians are a bit of a mystery. They were not quite vertebrates, and not quite worms either—they were a very early concept for a bilateral animal swimming with fins.
Yosuke Yukimatsu for Boiler Room. He’ll be in Los Angeles on September 21st.
LA Boiler Room is also the unsanctioned Central Division fan club meet up, as I’ve warned let Michael Williams and David Coggins know (they will not be in attendance). I think any fan club or other association would make them deeply uncomfortable to begin with, and then to host meet ups in places they disapprove of might have a certain kind of charm. We’ll see.
On the subject of fine leather works, here’s a glass hurricane from George Esquivel x Simon Pearce (handblown glass, with a natural leather cage).
You reached the bottom. Thank you and enjoy your achievement. Here’s a beautiful print ad I saw the other day.
