Trends in Fashion

Orlando asked me to do a post on male business fashion in accordance with the stated aims of Disco. We have also agreed to debate together in 2007, and so I am trying to think up a team name combining the themes, knowing that Orlando has a penchant for inappropriateness.

Anyway, here are my high level thoughts on male business fashion:

Find the centre of an equilateral triangle the sides of which are labelled: "Your Personality", "Current Trends" and "Classic Style."

Appropriate length of tie is the single most important detail to get right.

Shoes are next. But women who judge men by their shoes may have "issues" ("OMG 'is shoes!"... get it?).

Dark colours are easy to match - but not with each other.

No colour is out. But the older you get, the more you should use primaries. Also, brown is not a colour.

Use classical mechanics when choosing patterns. People need to know both how fast the pattern is moving and where it is. The world is not ready for quantum check.

Cattle wear brands. But only because they can't afford Armani.

Finally - no matter what you wear, how much you spend, what company you keep and how good your clothes look, remember that beauty is only skin deep, so you have to moisturise regularly.

Pod People

I'm not sure how podcast-savvy Disco is - so please excuse any overly simple or redundant explanations.

I have a 45 minute commute which takes place on public transport. There is not enough music in the world to make this ok. As a result I turn to facts and people who tell me about them.

'Podcast' is really just another name for 'audio file' - you don't need to have an iPod, you can play the file on your computer. The big deal is that you can subscribe to a Podcast and the latest episodes are downloaded automatically so it becomes more like a TiVo/Foxtel iQ situation.

The rise of Cable TV in the US opened the playing field for independents by lowering the barriers to entry of producing and distributing a TV show. Suddenly there were hundreds more channels with not much on them. The internet combined with increasingly sophisticated consumer broadcast technology has meant that it has never been easier to have your own online 'channel' (see RK's YouTube post). So there is a lot more mediocrity on its way (again, see YouTube).

The important difference here is that the Internet is a la carte. Timeshifting and aggregation are native to the online environment. So where cable lies groaning* under the weight of mediocre shows, the internet makes it possible to see only the diamonds in the rough by filtering out all the amateur detritus.

In that spirit, here are my recommendations:

• triplej's Hack Daily (no need for smh.com)
• Andrew Denton - Enough Rope (it's great to be able to pick the interviews you want when you want)
• Stanford School of Engineering - Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (some really interesting people talk about their careers)
• Adam Kempenar, Sam Van Halgren - Filmspotting (The best + least pretentious podcast about film)
• The Economist (some sound quality + programming issues but getting better)
• The Ricky Gervais Podcast (only if you're a fan)
• TVO Canada - Big Ideas (requires further filtering to find the good lectures but listen to Jessica Stern on Terrorism)
• Lars Brownworth - 12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of the Byzantine Empire (History's 'other' empire)

To access all of this goodness download the latest version of iTunes. Start iTunes, click on the Podcasts tab in the pane on the left. Then click 'Podcast Directory' on the bottom right. This will take you to the iTunes music store where everything is free (except music). Search for these podcasts or subscribe to others.

Any Disco members who share my commuting pain and podcast love, let me know what you're listening to...