The Grey NATO - Ep 66 - We're Back!

Published on Thu, 18 Oct 2018 06:00:09 -0400

Synopsis

The podcast is a casual conversation between two friends, Jason Heaton and James, catching up after a summer break. Jason talks about his recent travels, including diving trips to the Great Lakes region and a trip to Monaco where he attended a yacht show and visited the Museum of Oceanography. James shares updates on the cars he's been able to drive, including a Lamborghini Huracan Performante, a McLaren 720S, and a Bugatti Chiron. They also discuss their recent vintage and budget watch acquisitions, as well as their renewed interest in film photography. The episode closes with some final notes related to adventuring, travel gear, and an upcoming film release.

The podcast has partnered with Hodinkee, a renowned watch publication, which will be advertising on the show going forward. However, the hosts assure listeners that the show's content and independence will remain unchanged.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello.
James Hi, is this, uh, can I speak with, uh, Jason? Am I pronouncing that correctly?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Who's this?
James This is James. How's it going?
Jason Heaton Oh, geez. Wow. It's been a while. I think it's been since August.
James Yeah, for sure. So we're back. Jason, I'm thrilled. This is great. We took a nice little summer break. You got crazy busy. I got crazy busy. We've been doing a ton of stuff for the last kind of six to eight weeks. But now fall is back. It's kind of time to maybe spend a little bit more time in the office. And with that, TGN's back and we have kind of a big announcement in kind of considering the future of the show and how we'd keep it running and kind of blending mixed schedules and making sure that everybody's happy with the setup. We've partnered with Hodinkee and we're now officially brought to you by the site. It's a new partnership and something that we're super excited about. So the great team at Hodinkee, which, of course, Jason and I work very closely with, We're interested in bringing TGN on as kind of an advertising partner. And moving forward, we couldn't be happier about it. And the only real change that you're going to see or hear for the show is we're going to move to Thursdays, which is a better fit for the overall schedule. So we used to be every other Tuesday, we're now going to be every other Thursday. And we'll stick to that like we have up until our summer break. And then we're also going to have the occasional ad on the show. Currently, we don't have any ads, but When it comes up, we'll make sure that it's super obvious. If you've listened to the fantastic Hodinkee Radio episodes, the ads are going to be very similar in kind of style and set up to that.
Jason Heaton So, yeah, I'm excited. I think this really dovetails nicely with kind of the work you and I have been doing, you know, piecemeal for the past several years. You know, I've been with Hodinkee for quite a while and you joined last year. And I think we, you know, so much of what we do and write about ends up on Hodinkee and we end up talking about it, and I think that said, what I'm happy about is that they gave us full independence to, despite the fact that we're part of the network, just business as usual. We'll just keep talking about, you know, adventure, travel, diving, and gear, and watches. And I think that's, it's kind of a a really nice relationship going forward. I think I think listeners will be thrilled and we will have more listeners, hopefully, which I'm really excited about.
James Yeah, same here. And I hope this means that we can maybe actualize on some plans to do, you know, more events, maybe show up to some stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And we can both apologize to our our existing listeners for our sort of extended hiatus for the past, I don't know, six weeks or so. You know, it's funny. I was getting sort of some some feedback from people occasionally you know, in places like comments on Hodinkee articles and on Instagram comments where people would say, Hey guys, you know, summer's over time to start recording again. And I, I know we, uh, we delayed our, our restart a little bit, but hopefully, uh, we'll be back and, and hit the ground running here. And I w I just want to add to that, you know, going forward, we would love to, um, get feedback from, from listeners, uh, as to what we can do to improve the show, what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like us to do more of, you know, we're open. And I think this is kind of a logical time to not do a reboot. I think we're just going to keep on, keep on keeping on, but, uh, it's kind of a logical place for, for, to ask for, for feedback as we kind of kick off a new chapter here. So please, by all means, write to the gray NATO at gmail.com, or you can certainly comment on, on Instagram or, or wherever you like. And I guess now you can even comment in the show notes on, on Hodinkee. Yeah.
James To all of you who responded to the last call for feedback when we took the summer break, I really appreciate all the emails, both of support and of constructive criticism and all that, all fantastic. If you ever want to get in touch with either of us, both of us, whatever, like Jason said, thegreatnadoatgmail.com, we reply to every single email that we get and we will continue to do so. So Jason, let's see if I can, let's see if I can do this right off the dome. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado brought to you by Hodinkee. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 66, and we thank you for listening. That's official. Yeah, that's great. All right. So while I think we're going to in the future, you know, stick to kind of broader, like actual topics for shows, that was part of the feedback that we got over the break was that people really enjoyed kind of locked in topics that we would chat about. Yeah. This is not going to be that we've been, you know, essentially not doing the show and really so busy. We've only been half kind of communicating on Slack for the last six weeks. So this is just going to be like a simple catch up. And so people can kind of understand where we were and what was still going on and the fact that we didn't just abandon the show and and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So what have you been up to? I mean, it's funny, you know, you said we really haven't been communicating much on Slack. And I feel like I sort of have been observing what you've been up to just through, you know, through Instagram and through the occasional Nouveau or Hodinkee article that you've done. But it looks like more cars, more cameras. It's a lot of cars, a lot of travel.
James I had a really good run. If I remember, it was a lot of travel. It was a really busy time for travel. I adored it. It was great. And if I remember correctly, the last kind of car thing I talked about would have been the Bentley Bentayga in Portland. So since then, pretty impressive run. I'll do just a few minutes on each because there's quite a few, but I went to the global launch for the Aston Martin DBS, which is a 715 horsepower V12, kind of more wild version of a DB11. And that car was just absolutely incredible. And we were in southern Germany, right on the edge of Austria, right near the Eagle's Nest.
Unknown Oh, yeah.
James And so the roads were incredible and the driving was wild. The car is very wild. I mean, it's a lot of power for the rear wheels. It makes a great noise. Like, it communicates really well in Germany. So you'd be driving like something of a low-level maniac between, say, two small German towns. You'd get to the town, slow way down, you know, back down to the speed limit. get to like a crosswalk and it's a, it's a, like a fire spitting V12. So of course, like you see some kids, you put it in neutral and you rev it. Yeah. And like, or like in Vancouver, that's not going to make you any friends. Yeah. In Germany, people are clapping. You're getting thumbs up. Like I'm going to like, it's a bright red, like a glowing red, uh, DBS. So that was a really fantastic trip and an amazing car. And then I had, uh, I had a handful of cars on loan here in Vancouver. It was really, really nice way to fill you know, some of the time at home with a little bit of added excitement. So I had the Ferrari GTC4 Lusso, which is the V12 four-seater. Yeah. Kind of a hatchback, mini wagon, shooting brake sort of idea. Yeah. I mean, there's not much, like, I mean, you look at it, it's incredible, like just an amazing car, super comfortable, really fast. V12s that rev to 8,500 are always good. And, you know, you go through a tunnel, it sounds kind of like an old F1 car. Wow, really fun. And you could put you could put I put four adults like I put three adults in it. Plus me had a glass roof that people really loved. And that car was an absolute treat. It actually like fit into my garage so I could actually get it down the ramp. Oh, and and into into my underground parking. So that's great. I had the new M5, the 2018 M5. I bet you like for cars and TGN listeners like a lot of a lot of them know the M5. I think that kind of fits better than a Ferrari or even an Aston into the kind of general milieu. But I think that this is the this for me, I think, is very much a return to like the E39 generation. So it's a very stoic looking car. It's very like, honestly, I'd like it was in this kind of bright, brightish blue. Yeah. And, and I'm kind of blacked out wheels. And even then, I mean, if you didn't know M5s, if you didn't know the current generation M5 or the last gen, I feel like you wouldn't necessarily know it wasn't just a 5 series, like a 540 that has like nice wheels. And then of course you start it up and it's a 4.4 liter twin turbo V8. It rumbles like a muscle car. And actually driving it, that car is, the way it drives is the exact opposite of looking like a casual sedan. It's just insane. It's 600 horsepower. It's insanely fast. I put both of my kids, I have two little girls, I put both of them in the back seat, in their car seats and everything, because it's a big car, has plenty of room. And then I put a GoPro in the back as well and just kind of launched it around. And it was great. We had a blast with that car, super fun. And my parents were in town when I had that car and kind of neither of my parents had ever been in like a fairly quick car. So I got to give them a ride as well. We put a fair amount of kilometers on it. That's a really, really good car.
Jason Heaton That's a good car to have with the family visiting. I mean, you know, it's better than having a McLaren or something when you've got family in town.
James And then, yeah, the next car that I had moving as quickly as I can through these, the next car that I had would definitely have not have been great for my parents or my kids, because not only did I sign an agreement that nobody under 18 would get in the car. Oh, wow. There's no way you could have fit a child seat in the race buckets. I had the Lamborghini Huracan Performante Spyder. I've written my piece for it. It's on Nuvo, and I can link to all these. It's fine, but I don't really have words for the way that car drove. I think people have expectations for Lamborghini that they look good, and they make a great noise, and they're fast, but otherwise, they're not that dynamic. This car drove like an absolute razor blade. It has this incredibly trick arrow set up called Allah, which I'll see if I can find a video explaining it because I don't think people actually want me to explain the fact that like it uses a special type. I guess I am explaining it uses a special type of carbon fiber that allows them essentially make tunnels. And then they will actually draw air in from various parts of the vehicle and send it through the wing. The wing is fixed, but there's little flaps that open or close to shape how the air moves through the wing. Oh, wow. So if you're braking or turning, it funnels a ton of air over the wing to increase downforce. And if you're turning hard enough, it will actually stall the outside wheels. Oh, wow. So you get additional grip from that. It's also doing the exact same thing at the front with the front splitter. And then if you're just going for straight line speed, you're going down the back straight of some racetrack, it actually fully stalls the wing and removes it from the downforce equation of the car. It's super trick. The car is super loud and really exciting and really easy to drive like much too fast for the road. Yeah. Um, I don't fit in it. Like my hip to heel length was probably three inches too long for the car. And that's what the seat all the way back and all the way down. And then, you know, to make a car to look like, like the car looks amazing and it photographs beautifully, but to make the car look like that, it has to have a very steeply rigged windshield.
Unknown Yeah.
James So With the top up, there's enough headroom. I couldn't wear a helmet, but there is enough headroom.
Unknown Yeah.
James But I can't see stoplights. Oh, yeah. I have to like duck forward. So I just drove it mostly with the top down. I could just see stoplights like through where the roof would have been. Yeah. You know, the combination of the drop top and a naturally aspirated V10 that revs to 8250 or something, 8500, something like that, and a really good DCT transmission and really fantastic tires and great steering. That car is full-on bonkers, just really good. I like that car a lot. I only had that car for like a day because I took it home to park it and it could not go into my garage even with the nose lift system. Oh, yes. It had a nose lift that added, I don't know, 20 millimeters, maybe two centimeters or something to the front, maybe a bit more than that. I had a spotter and I still couldn't get it into the over the, you know, where the ramp becomes the floor, basically. It's too low. So what did you do? You had to park it on the street? No, I just took it back. Oh, yeah. I've been out all day shooting it. I had the photos I needed. I mean, like, I don't need more time. I had done several hundred kilometers in the car.
Unknown Oh, sure.
James Yeah. And I'll get into this other side of it. But, you know, I went down to L.A. for this event that Hodinkee did at the United Talent Agency's pop-up space. And so I was there for the week. And whenever I go to L.A., I always send a few emails and try and get press loaners. And I got pretty lucky this time. So for the first half of that week or so, I had a McLaren 720S, which has to be the fastest car in the world right now over a twisty bit of road or very close to. And then in the last half of the week, I had the new Ferrari Portofino. Uh, so I had, uh, yeah, I had two amazing cars and I had good access to Angela's crest, had a really amazing morning in the seven 20. And then on the weekend, went back with the Ferrari and took it up Angela's crest as well. Grab some coffee at Newcombs. It was, um, pretty much like the, it's a perfect way to experience a car, uh, Angela's forest and Angela's crested, which is just North of, uh, of, uh, LA. When I had the McLaren out the one morning, I convinced Ben Clymer of Hodinkee and Inuri Acosta, also Hodinkee, and then also Brett Curry, a friend of the show and just all around great guy. If you're not following Brett, you should be following Brett. To kind of meet up in Flint Ridge, La Canada, there's like a shell station at the bottom of Angelus Forest, and that's kind of the starting point. And so I had the McLaren, Ben had a Singer 911. Henry had a classic 911 and Brett rocked up in his new GTI, which is also really lovely color and a great car. And so we went up into the hills that way. And yeah, you want to kind of, especially for photos, and when the 720 piece eventually goes live, I'm behind because I've had so many great cars, it's a great problem to have. But when the McLaren piece finally goes live, the photos turned out really well. So you kind of want to be there within 20 minutes of sunrise. Yeah. So that you can get up to one of the big parking lots where people go and do burnouts and sit with their cars. But this is like a Wednesday morning. We didn't see another car. Oh, wow. Nice. So went up, got the photos we needed, drove around a little bit and then came back. You know, we were working that day, so it couldn't be super late. And the trip there is minutes and the trip back is hour or more because you hit traffic. Yeah. On the back road. So that was good. And then when I when I had the Ferrari, I did basically the same thing. I started early and and took my time, you know, drove out and you can take kind of the full run from, or not the full run of the road, but kind of the, the run, the casual or the normal run is, you know, from that gas station up to Newcombs, turn around and come back down the hill. I went a little bit further than that and got lots of great photos of the Ferrari, but yeah, you definitely want to, if you're making, if I'm making a recommendation, you know, you go to LA, maybe you get a car or something on Turo, like a fun car. You, you want to gas up at the bottom of the highway. and then head up while the sun is still coming up and then drive until you're bored of driving and turn around and come back. I mean, technically you can take the route all the way to its other side. I've never driven it that far. I've gone, you know, several miles past Newcombs and then turned around. And yeah, so an amazing time in LA. And I can go more into the Haudenosaunee UTA thing in a bit. But to wrap this up, I got, I've saved kind of the craziest for last. I got to drive, I had about an hour in a Bugatti Chiron.
Jason Heaton Wow. Same trip? All three cars in the same trip?
James Oh, wow. No, this is two days after I got back. It was a it was a press and like buyer preview for Vancouver. Geez. So they had the car, they had a Tehran in town for the luxury supercar weekend. And then it stayed in town to do these kind of two or three days of demos with a Bugatti test driver out of North Van. And so that's for anyone who doesn't know that's, I'm going to talk in Canadian dollars, but it's a $3.1 million is where you start. The one I drove was around three, four. So you're looking at, you know, somewhere in the high twos for USD. I think it's 2.5 euro is the starting point for Europe and, um, 1,479 horsepower. I don't remember the torque figure at the moment. I believe it's around about 1200. Wow. I mean, like I've driven, I drove a Veyron. I had kind of the same rough experience in a Veyron where I went out with, um, I mean, I went out with the factory driver, Andy Wallace, who, if you follow that kind of stuff is amazing in the Veyron and the Veyron was, was great. It was really cool. But, um, the, the Chiron's next level, I mean, it's 30% more horsepower. It's way more tied down as far as the front end feel and the steering it's, uh, I mean, still just beautiful. There's it's really all that's one, just to kind of watch for my piece. I put a lot of work into the piece for Nuvo. So that'll be out, um, probably before this. episode comes out, so I'll link it if I can, but really just an absolutely crazy, crazy car that it even exists. And the way that it can put on speed without adding any drama, like it's not only vastly faster than something like the Huracan Performante, but the Performante was kind of scary. Yeah. This, it just kind of feels like something's pushing against your chest and you look down and you're at like 4X the speed limit. Wow. Like it makes some noise, but not a crazy amount of noise. Like it's very comfortable. And then full throttle is just, it's something else. Like it makes your hands shake. It's great. It's really great. So I've rambled for a while about cars. You did a bunch of diving. That's what I know from your Instagram. Tell me about some of the diving.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, sort of after we, we kind of took our hiatus, late summer here for me tends to be, sort of the start of what I consider Great Lakes diving season, simply because the, the water warms up to the point where it's a little more tolerable than it is in the early summer. And so I, I did a couple of, uh, Great Lakes trips. I did one, um, I think last time we spoke or one of the last episodes we did, I had talked about the trip over to Lake Huron to dive the Daniel Morrell wreck, um, with Becky Kagan shot and my buddy Chris. Since then I did two other trips. I did a trip down to Milwaukee during a week when it was pretty, pretty miserable, strange weather conditions. We had a whole week, almost a whole week of high winds and high seas that kind of kept us off the boat, which was a little frustrating. We had some photography that we had to do underwater and we were sort of sitting on our hands for a week, but finally got out for a day and did a little bit of diving and I finally got to try out my new uh, my new dry suit, which, um, I think I'd talked about in a past episode from, uh, Aquila or Aquala, which is a brand out of Louisiana that was started by a friend, Ty Alley, who's a longtime friend of Doxa. And, um, I had met him on the mission 31 trip that I did with, uh, Fabian Cousteau, uh, and Doxa back in, uh, I don't remember what year it was, but five years ago or so. And Ty bought the, the name of, of Aquila, the company, which is a very old dry suit maker from 1950. And he's got kind of three levels of dry suit. Uh, one is a very retro one that kind of twist ties shut like a plastic bag, um, which would be for really hardcore retro divers. And then he has sort of a middle sort of splits the difference, um, model that's kind of retro, but, but has some modern conveniences. And then, um, He custom-made the Cordell, which is his kind of top-of-the-line drysuit for me, and I got to try it out. It uses their Multi-Ply rubber material, so it looks very much like an old rubber drysuit, but it uses the modern rear zipper and then the Cytec valves for the venting and for the fill valve on the chest. Um, so it was really fun to, to try that out. It was, it's a great suit. Um, you know, I've never, I've always bought my dry suits, uh, kind of secondhand. So they were always a bit of a compromise and this one, you know, fit me really well. And, and the material I haven't, I'd never dived in a, um, a rubber suit. I've always had, you know, shell suits. And, um, this one was, uh, it was really, really nice because it's very flexible. It's easy to get on and off and, and underwater it's, uh, it's very, um, Uh, it's very mobile. It allows you to kind of twist and turn and reach things. And, um, so I, I really, really liked it. Of course it dries, you know, it just doesn't get wet, like, uh, like some shell suits that are made of Cordura and things like that. So, um, that was fun. And then, uh, so we dove two wrecks on that trip. Uh, one of them was, uh, one that I've done many times, which is the Prince Willem V, which is a Dutch freighter that sank in the fifties. And, but then before that we went out to the It's a sunken car ferry called the SS Milwaukee that sank in 1929, and it's a fascinating wreck. In fact, it was featured on, there used to be a show called Shipwreck Hunters, I think, or Shipwreck Detectives, I think, with Richie Kohler and John Chatterton. Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. And they actually went there because it's a really interesting wreck that has some mystery around it, and it had set off from north of Milwaukee and was headed across Lake Michigan to Michigan with a load of passengers and boxcars, railroad cars. And at some point, the seas were quite high. I think this was in autumn. And you get those late summer, fall storms. And the seagate gave in. The seagate is on the back of a ferry. If you can picture it, it kind of hinges down and seals against the back of the boat. And that crushed in at some point during the storm and the ferry flooded and sank. And it makes for a very interesting dive because you get boxcars, you get actual railroad boxcars that are sitting on the lake bed with the wreck on top of it. So you can dive under the wreck and you see the, you know, entire railroad boxcars underneath the ship, which landed on top of it. And it's just a huge wreck. I mean, it's, you know, three or 400 feet long and about 130 feet deep. So it's a bit challenging, but it makes for a very interesting Very interesting dive. Yeah, sounds it. So we did that for, we actually only got out for one day and we kind of crammed in three dives on that day and did a bunch of photography and had a proper adventure. And then about, I think it was only about two weeks later, my wife and I did a really fun road trip over to the other side of Lake Huron, which was actually on your side of the border over in Ontario. There's a peninsula that sticks up into Lake Huron called the Bruce Peninsula, and there's a small town at the tip of it called Tobermory. And apparently it's a real vacation spot for people from Toronto and kind of that surrounding area. Absolutely, yeah. And I had no idea that, naively, that the same weekend that we went, which was the American Labor Day, is also Canadian Labor Day. So it was absolutely jammed with people. But we rented a little cottage right on the water. And, uh, we did, uh, gosh, I think we did three days of diving. Uh, and it's, if you are into, uh, wreck diving and, um, somewhat cold water, uh, I really highly recommend making the journey there because they're, you know, probably, you know, half a dozen to, you know, 10 really high quality old wooden schooner and steamer wrecks that are in fairly shallow water there. So it makes for, um, really not terribly difficult, uh, wreck diving. And the water was not that cold. It was, I would say, I don't know, maybe, uh, I think I saw 65 Fahrenheit, which is probably 17 centigrade or thereabouts. And, um, I mean, some of the wrecks there's, there's what, there's a shore dive that you just, there's a staircase that goes right into the water, right off the, just right off the road. I love that. And it's just a rock bottom, just kind of big sort of polished boulders and pebbles. And there are no less than four tugboats that are sunk there, not intentionally, but over the history, they all sort of ended up there, lying on the bottom. And they do classes there because you literally sink down 15 feet below the water, you know, five meters or thereabouts, and you're on the wreck. And it goes down to a maximum of maybe 30 feet or 10 meters. So it's really easy kind of cruising around. Um, we went out on a boat a couple of days with a local dive shop there called Diver's Den and, um, they run a big operation. There are several boats a day and we went out with them two days and, and dove, uh, a couple of other shallow wrecks that, um, are almost snorkelable. They're so, they're so shallow, but they're big, long wooden wrecks, very well preserved. Um, So that was really fun. And then the last day we were there, we, we did another shore dive off of, uh, uh, there's a lighthouse called the, um, big tub Harbor is kind of a natural Harbor. And at the point, uh, sits, uh, 1800s, um, lighthouse. And we parked our car at the little parking lot there and humped our gear to the end of the point. And there's a little bench there and we suited up and you're right, right at the lighthouse. We just walked in and. stepped off the edge and you go straight down and it's just this sort of wall dive with these overhangs and big tumbling boulders and, um, very cool, decent fish life. So it was, uh, it was, uh, really a great trip. It was a very long drive from, from Minneapolis. Of course, it took a couple of days to get there. A couple of days back, we took the ferry across Lake Michigan to get there, but, uh, um, really was, uh, really was a worthwhile, um, getaway kind of at the end of the summer. We've been talking about doing that trip for, for years and It didn't disappoint. So, yeah, it was good. I had one bit of a snafu on that trip, an equipment issue. I had brought my Nikonos 5 underwater film camera to do some photography and loaded it up with some black and white film because I thought it would be really great to get a lot of great... What emulsion? Underwater shots. I used, I think on that one I had the, yeah, I had Tri-X. Okay. You used 400 for underwater? Yeah, it was 400. And I brought another roll of 3200 Ilford, which I, because of this issue, uh, I couldn't load up. Um, so I only managed to get a roll of film shot, but, uh, um, I was climbing back on the boat after one of the dives and I had set the, the camera on the transom of the boat, climbed the ladder, sat down, reached over to get my camera. And the lens was, had these lenses are just a bayonet fit on the, on the front of the camera body. And it was, it had come loose and was sitting on the, on the transom next to the camera. So I, I did get moisture inside and I'm still debating whether it's worthwhile to get the camera dried out and fixed. There's a local, or there's a guy in Texas who does the work, but it's almost more cost effective just to buy a new one. These cameras aren't very expensive anymore. Okay. And then I came home and, you know, the film was, the film was okay, for the most part. And, you know, kind of tried my hand at processing at the kitchen sink and, you know, I'm sure I didn't do as good a job as the labs would have done. The photos are a little sort of mysterious and dark looking, but I think it kind of adds to the, to the overall effect. So, um, for sure. Yeah, it was, uh, it was good. And then, you know, just more recently, I, in fact, today, as we're recording this, my story on Hodinkee about, uh, free diving with the new Ulysse Nardin, uh, diver chronometer went up on, on the website. Um, did a quick story about that. Got to dive with, uh, with Fred Buell, who's a Belgian free diver who, if you aren't following him on Instagram, uh, he's well worth it. He's a really interesting sort of Zen master of, of free diving who does a lot of work with, um, sharks and, and underwater photography is very much a purist. He doesn't use artificial light. He just says he just goes down with his fins and his mask and his camera. And, um, a lot of scientists and, and, uh, scientific organizations employ his skills to help with shark tagging because he's obviously very good at it. He's somewhat fearless, but freediving is a very good way to tag sharks because you don't spook them with the bubbles. And I had a good chance to kind of get to know Fred a little bit. And we did a bit of freediving in the Mediterranean, which was a real trip. I'm not a very accomplished freediver, but I think it's always kind of fun to do it and good skill to have for kind of the odd time when you drop something off the dock and you have to go get it, so.
James For sure. So, yeah. That's an awesome, it looked like a great trip. Yeah. So, you know. What'd you think of Monaco?
Jason Heaton You know, the city, I was expecting something a little more visually beautiful. Yeah. It's just packed apartment buildings because there's so little space that everything kind of has to go up. But it was neat to be there. I've heard so much about it. And we were there for the, the timing was such that the yacht show was going on and it was just, it was huge. I mean, it was just absolutely huge. Um, it was in the Marina and you know, lots of big, you know, kind of the, the, the watercraft version of the cars you've been driving. Um, you know, just, you know, $120 million super yachts with two helicopter pads and you know, um, just every possible amenity and luxury that you could imagine. Um, and we got to tour one and, I just walked the show.
James Like one of the really big boats?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah, so we got to tour one of the big yachts. It was called the Dar, and it was actually the yacht that won the award for the best in show for this year. And it had just been purchased, and the woman from Venice who had done all of the interior design work gave us the tour of the inside. Was it incredible? beyond words. Every level, every turn, every cabin, every room you go in, there was a wellness center with a massage room and then its own sauna and a weight room with all modern equipment. It blew my mind. And to the level of detail, to a certain degree, it's akin to what people appreciate about you know, haute or lingerie watches, um, the, the hand finishing and things, all of the materials, the, the, um, the embroidery and the cut leather that's used for wallpaper and the, um, custom furniture that's made so it can rotate. So you can have conversations in two different directions and, you know, all of this kind of stuff was, uh, it just blew my mind. Um, but the rest, the rest of the art shows, uh, it's a trade show. I mean, it was tent after tent of companies selling everything from cigar humidors to sun awnings to ROVs and mini submarines and, you know, just, it was, it was really eyeopening, really an interesting experience.
James That's wild. I know I watched a video the other day that was from the Monaco Yacht Show. It was a tour of a $145 million yacht. Yeah. And like, like one, I can't, like, you can't, like, when you actually consider that number, it's meaningless. Like, I don't, like, I can't, I have no contextualization for it. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm watching this video of these guys walking around this yacht and like if they told me like, oh, we're in a hotel. Yeah. Like it had the boat had like a lobby. Yeah. That had multiple that had like access to multiple floors.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Oh, it's an elevator spiral staircase. I mean, you know what I mean?
James Like, like there'd be like a walkway. And if you like leaned over the edge of the walkway, you could look down into a lower floor. This is in like the other thing that I find this is could be like This must be how I'm wired, maybe. It must be, but I'm watching that video where I'm listening to you talk about this, and all my brain is telling me is this could sink so easily. Yeah, yeah. The smallest mistake, and it's all underwater. Yeah, right. Yeah, just run to the ground somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like $145 million, it could just sink. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Unknown It's insane.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it was, it was crazy. It was, it was fun. And then, uh, I had posted some photos on, on Instagram while I was walking around because there were, um, there was a whole section of really high luxury cars. Um, what's the Mercedes tuner Brabus or Brabus? Oh yeah, Brabus. Brabus. And, uh, there was a Shelby Cobra, um. Okay. Uh, dealer, I guess. Oh, okay.
James It must have been like a, like a resto or a. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Restoration. Replica dealer. Yeah. Yeah. Um, So that was, that was, that was neat. And then I snuck away in the afternoon after, um, kind of wandering the show, I managed to get up to the, the museum of oceanography, which is a place I've wanted to go to for years. It's, it's quite famous. Uh, Cousteau himself, Jacques Cousteau was the director of the museum from 1957 until 88, I think. So he was there a long time. And so it was founded by Prince Albert the first, who was, you know, the ruler of Monaco back in the early 1900s and kind of a pioneering uh, sort of amateur scientist, uh, when it comes to oceanography and he had a, a mega yacht of his era, I guess, and sailed around the world and collected specimens and did all sorts of experiments. And they had a lot of his, uh, fish that he had caught sort of preserved and formaldehyde still kind of in cases and big whale skeletons and small dive gear. And so, um, the building itself looked awesome building itself is, is, was the highlight for me. It's, it's, it's built kind of into the cliff side, right above the sea. And it just looks like this big fortress. And inside was similarly impressive. So it was good. It was a good trip. It was a very short trip. And my flight got canceled, so I had to stay an extra day in a Paris airport hotel. But overall, for four days, free diving with Fred Buell and doing the Oceanography Museum and touring a mega yacht made it all worth it.
James So it was great. And you, did you stay, you stayed like right next to Charles de Gaulle? Did you get a chance to kick down to Paris for a bit?
Jason Heaton No, the flight, you know, by the time we got off the plane and whatnot, it was late afternoon and we were a good hour from downtown. We were right near the airport. So I was pretty beat and it was just, I had to get up in the morning and go back to the airport. But south of France, you know, south of France was pretty great. You know, we flew into Nice and then stayed at the Cap d'Antibes, Eden Rock Hotel, which is a very famous, uh, you know, from the sort of movie star set in the fifties and whatever. So it was, uh, it was great. Ulysse Nardin, uh, treated us really well and I met some fun people. So it was, uh, it was really good. Very cool, man. Yeah. What about you? You've, uh, you've also been dabbling in a little film shooting too.
James Yeah, no, I've been I've been putting roles out. It's been good. First up, I want to make like a very I should have asked if he wanted his full name said on the show. I'm just gonna assume some anonymity is fine. Adam, if you're listening, I obviously I told I sent you an email Adam, a listener was very kind DM to me to to offer to send kind of a box of Canon photo equipment. That was his grandfather's that he he just had in storage. And what arrived is like several lenses and essentially a factory fresh AE-1 program. Wow. Adam, I cannot thank you enough. I've been, I put two rolls through the AE-1 program already. It literally feels brand new. It runs like new. It's incredible. The lenses you sent have been super fun and I've been shooting a bunch with them. I even now have enough lenses to necessitate an adapter for the E-mount to go to my Sony. So I've been, uh, one of the lenses Adam sent along is literally a factory fresh, uh, 35 to 70 millimeter F two eight, which is this like, it's all metal and super heavy and really gorgeous. And it has like really lovely colored paint in the, um, in the scales and the, the, the listings and, uh, Adam, I'm just having a blast with this stuff. Thank you so much for sending it. It was very sweet of you and it will all get to use either, uh, for me or, uh, you know, passed along to other photo enthusiasts. It's fantastic. It's super, super fun. But yeah, so I've got a handful of new lenses, been shooting a ton. And then just a couple days ago, there was like a photography swap meet in Vancouver. Oh, nice. And so I packed up my daughter and we went down there and she got like a Canon point and shoot from probably six or seven years ago.
Unknown Oh, wow.
James for $5. Wow. That's awesome. So it's like, you know, like one of those tiny things that you would put around your wrist, you know, like before phones, before phones had good cameras, the kind of thing that everybody had somewhere in their home to take pictures of family and stuff. But it's like a 12 megapixel power shot or something with a battery and a charger. And like you go to one of these, you go to one of these shows and it's rammed so many people there. Yeah. She's the only kid in the place. And like everybody's talking to her, like, Hey, it's so nice to see a kid into photography. She's almost in tears because all these strangers are talking to her. Yeah. And then this guy sees her. He doesn't. He's like, chill. He doesn't say anything to her directly. He looks at me. He's like, she have a camera? I'm like, nah. And he's like, how about this? And he like digs around on his table and pulls out this thing. He's like five bucks. I was like, yeah, five bucks. Wow. So we're doing that. And then I got lucky. You really had to look around, especially like, you know, if you're hunting for something like, I'm sure, Jason, you know, this like a lot of Nikkor glass looks the same on a table, you really have to like read the front lens element of all of them to know really what you're looking at, unless it's kind of a very strange lens. Yeah. But I, I did, I don't know, seven, eight laps of this show, and finally came across a 50 f 14. Wow, which was a one, you know, obviously, if you can find it slash afford it, the 50 F one to L, the later generation of that lens, you're going to look at closer to 800 bucks us for that. I was able to get this one, which is not as good, but it's going to be a very good for my uses for like 80 Canadian. Wow, geez. And it looks essentially brand new. And I have yet to use it on the AE-1, but I have adapted it to the Sony and it's fantastic. I put up a ton of photos yesterday night of just some flowers around Vancouver that I shot with it. Really fun. Super, super, obviously being a 1.4, like super, super bulky. And yeah, all in all, I'm absolutely loving the whole film thing. And It's it's been nothing short of a blast. I'm now, you know, often carrying now a second camera because if I see something I'm like, ooh, I think that's more filmy. Oh, yeah. I'll try and get a film shot of it.
Jason Heaton So, yeah, the swap meets are always a kick. There's a there's an annual tent sale that one of the big camera stores here does. And it's just people line up for an hour before it opens. And then, you know, the table where all the old lenses are is just everyone like runs to it. And And you're lucky if you can find like, you know, the good stuff, you have to get that right away. All the, you know, the really fast lenses and the really kind of coveted sort of focal lengths are always, you know, gone in the first hour of the show. So it's a... Absolutely. It's a blast.
James This is, this is great. Basically, like I know that we've talked both, like we've both said people should get into film if they have the time and the money to do so. Yeah. The equipment is cheap. The film, the actual film part of it kind of isn't. Yeah. you know, for your 30 shots, I think I'm probably paying a little bit more than a dollar a photo. Yeah. All said and done. Yeah. Which is fine for the fun. It's fine. Um, but it like it, this can't be the way that I operate all of my photos. Right. Obviously. Right. But then I still think what, what I'm learning again and again is like, if you have a camera that has focus peaking, yeah. Just buy really good old glass. It costs nothing.
Unknown Yeah.
James Like this, the 50 F one eight or I mean like a 50 F one eight is like, they're like, I saw them for $5. Yeah. Right. And if you want the 1.4, you're closer to a hundred bucks. This is again, like Canadian and swap beat prices. And then you go on to something like eBay, you can find the 50 F1.2L, you know, an amazing, legitimately crazy good lens. And you know, they're less than a thousand dollars. Whereas if you wanted to get a legitimately crazy good modern Canon lens, it could be 3,500 bucks. Right. Yeah. I just think like 50 bucks goes a real long way these days in vintage lenses, whether you want to go M42 and like an Asahi Pentax 50 mil or something like adapt to FD or Nikkor. And you just don't have autofocus, but really like with a bit of practice. The only time that I find it really annoying is when you're trying to get that one picture of like one of my kids. Yeah. Yeah. And they're little kids. They're, they're never not moving. They're practically vibrating all the time. Right. And so that can be kind of tough. But outside of that, I think for a lot of the type of photography where you see something that's not moving and you want to take a picture of it, a car, a watch, or whatever, I think that's something that everybody should be considering. My brother just bought an a6000 and wrote me. And as soon as he wrote me, I was like, don't buy any lenses. I got stuff here for you. He's coming to visit me in a couple weeks. on his way to Japan and I was like, don't buy any, don't buy any lenses. I got, I got, I got you. So I picked them up a couple of like adapters.
Unknown Yeah.
James And, uh, and so I'll set them up with, uh, like a Helios and, uh, uh, probably a, uh, Canon 50 one eight.
Jason Heaton Oh, Japan is just, Japan is a dangerous place if you're into cameras. And if he, he, if he just got a camera and he's starting to get into that sort of thing, it's, uh, there's a spectacular kind of set of used camera stores and kind of the same area of Tokyo. And it's like, if he wanders in there, you almost can't leave without, you know, buying something spectacular.
James Oh, for sure. Yeah, I think that would be super tempting. It's not unlike watches, you see these stores where they have that, you know, the little glass front areas, and it's just like, yeah, they couldn't, there's no more square inch watch or lens. Yeah. Yeah, the the camera thing has been really great. It brings me so much so much happiness. I mean, like I like it at a gear level. Yeah, I like that. It's not hugely expensive. What I actually kind of like about it, too, is like I was saying, is a lot of these things, like if you spend $50 on something and then like you don't use it for a couple of months. Yeah. You're just going to give it to someone. Right. Right. So these things live like they live on. They have like because because they have no because they have no autofocus. They're not tied to cameras that really aged out. Right. Like a film camera, like an AE-1P is the same now as it was a while ago, but you look at something like that, that Canon that I bought for $5. Yeah. It's worth about five bucks. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And, and so it's, it's really strange where these generations of technology start to reflect back on, on like what's useful and what isn't. And now digital, digital became so ubiquitous so quickly. Yeah. And then the quality is still is increasing. I mean, now we have, like, since you and I last did an episode, we have full frame mirrorless from Nikon and Canon. Yeah. And a new cooperation between Panasonic and Leica. Like, we could go deep into that stuff. Yeah. I would love a chance to shoot any of it. Yeah. But there's like, like full frame mirrorless is definitely the next big wing. Yep. And what I like about that is it's all still fully adaptable to old lenses. Yeah. Yeah. And I like that, like, it's like the other thing to consider is a lot of these lenses that do have autofocus, you can adapt them using a more expensive adapter and maintain the AF. Yeah, it's usually not as fast as the the native focusing system. But man, it really is like a world we're like now, you can really kind of be agnostic to a lens system, especially if you don't need AF. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Heaton So people certainly got along for decades without autofocus. So you know, it's, It's definitely doable. We should probably talk about watches a little bit, right? I mean, I think we both picked up something since we last spoke, kind of on the inexpensive side, but I think yours takes the cake for super inexpensive.
James I've got a couple cheap gold Casios, which are maybe the most fun money I've ever spent on a watch. A couple? Oh, I didn't know about that. Yeah. So I have one that the piece is already on Hodinkee. I can link to it. It's kind of a world timer with a gold bracelet. It's plastic. The case is plastic. The bracelet's metal. I'm still wearing it almost all the time. Like, I just really like it. Wow. And I've started sleeping with a watch on because these digital watches, they weigh nothing and they have a backlight. So I don't sleep that well. I'm not that great of a sleeper these days. So I'm up kind of at various times during the night. And I find that these I find that these ones with the backlight are actually pretty handy. They don't, they're not as bulky as like a dive watch that has a bunch of loom. I can, like, I can't really sleep with a big Seiko on. Yeah. So I have this one, which is the A500WGA-9DF world timer, which I really love. And it was 45 bucks. And I also have an F-91W. So the F91 is very famous. It's like the entry level Casio digital. Yeah. Super, super basic. But I bought this one because it's a gold tone case. that kind of has like a fully matte finish on a black rubber strap. If this thing weighs like 20 grams, I'd be surprised. And the other thing I like about it is it has like the even previous generation backlight. So like the, the, the world timer one doesn't have like Indiglo. It has like an led on the edge of the display that shines across it. Oh yeah. Which I like, but it's fairly bright. But this, um, this F 91 is even cheaper. Oh yeah. So it has a little LED on the edge of the display, it's just not that bright. So it's really... This is a really nice watch to check what time it is at 2.30 in the morning when you're kind of rolling around in bed and not like... I get tired of like you wanna check the time on your phone and it's so bright. It's bright enough to wake up the person next to you in bed easily. And so, yeah, I like these F91s. I'm just kind of enjoying cheap Casios right now, and the one, the piece for the World Timer went up, and if you dig the style, they make a steel one as well. I think it's a super handy watch, especially if you travel a lot and you don't want to carry something, a watch that you're concerned about or don't want to bang up around, depending on, you know, how you feel about wearing the watch. And I think these are fun. Super fun, really.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned middle of the night time checks, because I'm kind of in the throes of jet lag from my recent trip. And, and I find that that's when having some loom or some sort of a time display in the middle of the night, you know, you wake up and it's so disorienting. You don't know, especially this time of year here in Minnesota, it's, it's dark till almost eight o'clock in the morning. And I'm like, is it 3am or is it five 30? Cause there's a big difference when you're jet lagged. Like it feels better if it's five 30 and, um, yeah. So a little, a little trickling sort of backlight would be, would be handy.
James Yeah, I like them. I don't know, if you can have more fun for 50 bucks when it comes to watches, especially as a palette cleanser where I'm normally wearing a Rolex or I'm addicted to wearing the Doxa, it's on... Yeah. I pretty much wear it every day, all day. Yeah. And especially if I'm home and I don't need a second time zone, but these are really fun to switch up and I've been wearing the F91 while running because you don't even feel it on your wrist. Oh, yeah, yeah. And it has a chronograph, so I know when to turn around. Yeah. But you picked up a vintage piece, right?
Jason Heaton I did. Yeah. It was, it was a bit of an impulse buy. In fact, I, I think it was either while I was on my trip last week or, or just before I left, um, our, our good buddy over there, retro watch guy, um, based in Colorado, uh, Jordan. Yeah. He had put up, um, something on Instagram, uh, about this little aqua dive dive watch model. I think it's reference five, six, six, and kind of a quirky kind of squarish case. Um, really beautiful dial. with a big lollipop sweep hand. And it was in like perfect condition. And he even had the box, the papers, the receipt from the store where it was bought. You know, and that kind of stuff usually doesn't matter to me, but it just, it was, it was just kind of the right price at the right time. And I had been kind of chasing something else that was exponentially more expensive than that and sort of was a little disheartened when I came to the conclusion that I probably wasn't going to get that one. And then this came along and I was like, okay, this will, this will kind of you know, uh, soften the blow a little bit. And, uh, it came the day after I got home and, and it's just a fun little watch. I haven't measured it, but it's, it's quite small and it's not, uh, it's not kind of a hardcore tool dive watch, but it's, it's just the right sort of, uh, lightweight, fun little sports watch that looks good on a bunch of straps. And, um, funny, I was looking at the kind of faded out little flimsy paper receipt and it was, it was originally bought in 1975 for $59 with tax. from a place just a few miles from where I grew up. So I thought it was really kind of a neat little score.
James That's great, man. It's a really sweet little watch, too. And Jordan's got lots of great stuff. That's retrowatchguy.com or retrowatchguy on Instagram. He's got lots of fantastic stuff. I showed you that chronograph that I missed. Yeah.
Unknown The gold one?
James Yeah, man, I shouldn't have slept on that. It was just crazy. Like Walkman, uh, with bright colors and like a gold, gold tone case, I would be wearing that constantly. Uh, hopefully, you know, one of those pops up, uh, sometime in the future. But speaking of vintage watches, I got to see a handful of great stuff, uh, went down for a week for that, uh, UTA pop-up with Hodenke. Oh yeah. So, I mean, that was all over the site. It was all over my Instagram. So I don't know necessarily how much explanation is needed, but I did just want to say thank you to everyone who came out and, you know, chatted me up about TGN and came to say hi and stopped by just to see the watches and be friendly. We had essentially office hours for a week at this space, and it was this gorgeous space. We did a couple of meetups, we did a couple of podcasts, and it came together really, really well. And I got a chance to essentially wear a gold AP all week, like a vintage gold Royal Oak, which is super fun, like way too much fun. And it didn't, though, because, you know, you can't lie a Royal Oak flat.
Unknown Yeah, right.
James It couldn't fit in the display cases. So I came across it in the stock for the the shop that they were running along with the pop up. And I was like, hey, what's up with this? And they're like, you can't fit it in the display case. And I was like, I'll wear it around. Do you guys a favor? And and so, yeah, it was it was a really great time. The meetups were super fun. A lot of great people showed up and we had more than a handful of listeners. that came, you know, just to say hi and offer some support and, you know, wish that the show was coming back soon. So anytime we get a chance to meet up with anyone who's a listener is super fun. And I had a blast in L.A. I hope Hodinkee elects to do something like that again soon. Nice.
Jason Heaton Very cool. Yeah, it is fun to meet people in person and hope we get to do more of that.
James For sure. Well, I think I think we're mostly caught up, wouldn't you say? I think so. Yeah. We could jump into final notes. Yeah, let's do it.
Jason Heaton Go ahead. What's your first one?
James My first one is a movie called Mountains of Storms, which if you're an adventure movie aficionado, you will have heard of and possibly seen. But it was basically a movie made about Doug Tompkins and Yvonne Chouinard, along with a couple other guys, you know, traveled down to Patagonia to climb Mount Fitzroy. Oh, yeah. And they made this movie about it. It's been considered kind of an underground cult classic, a little bit hard to find. And they're re-releasing the film. And according to adventure-journal.com, which is a great site you should definitely be following. But according to them, after kind of a week of doing like live screenings at various Patagonia stores around North America, which, you know, they did in Vancouver last night and I just wasn't able to make it. They will be releasing the film online on the 9th. I believe this episode of TGN comes out on the 11th. So if you're listening to this, you should be able to, I don't know if it's going to be like a buy the film or donate to a cause and get the film or just stream it online. I have no idea, but once I know I will put it in the show notes as I'm very excited to see this movie. I think it's going to be really cool. They put out a really simple, straightforward trailer. We've talked a lot about Shannard and Tompkins in the past, you know, heroes, legends, all of that. And I think it'll be really fun to be able to see that movie.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think we've talked about it before, but I think if, uh, as kind of a nice little, uh, precursor to that, or even a followup to that, um, the film and book, uh, 180 degrees South was absolutely was inspired by this, uh, mountain of storms. Uh, the, the creator of that Jeff Johnson, who's a longtime Patagonia guy and photographer, he, um, he had seen this, this film somewhere, I guess, cause he, he works with Patagonia. And so if you watch 180 degrees South, it, uh, It intersperses some footage from Mountain of Storms, and even the little bit of footage looks really cool. And those guys, when they set out on that trip back in the 60s, they called themselves conquerors of the useless. And I think it was kind of that philosophy that Shannard still has. It's just that sort of devil may care, I'm doing what I want kind of mentality. I don't know, I think even nowadays it still rings so true with so many of the heroes that you and I talk about a lot.
James Absolutely. And I mean, the Adventure Journal in their write up, you know, this was all done in 1968. Yeah. So this is for the 50th anniversary of the film. But for the write up, they said, you know, it's kind of one part Jacques Cousteau project, one part Endless Summer and one part Wes Anderson, which is kind of like, yeah, Okay, you're coming right at us with that. That's right in the lane. So I'm excited, and by the time you're listening to this, I believe you'll be able to find it online. And even if there's a small cost, I still think it's a great option for Final Notes.
Jason Heaton Yeah. My first one today is a fairly short article. It was on Popular Mechanics, and it's called How the U.S. is Recovering Oil from a Nuked Warship. So not a very imaginative title, but it tells exactly what it's about. People might be familiar with Bikini Atoll, which is a coral atoll in the Pacific where the U.S. did a lot of atomic bomb testing. For sure. And they would sort of anchor entire fleets of kind of retired warships in the waters around the atoll, and then they were dropping these atomic bombs and seeing kind of what the effects were. Well, you know, as luck would have it, some of these ships didn't entirely break apart, and a lot of them were carrying hazardous material like oil and fuel and things like that. And one of them was a ship called the Prince Eugen, which was a German warship that was captured during World War II, and they used that as one of the target ships. And during the bombing, I think they bombed it twice and it didn't sink, but it kind of turned turtle, capsized and sank, and it's in very shallow water there. But now, of course, after 70 some years, the hull is starting to corrode to the point where I think it's 124,000 gallons or something of heavy fuel oil is inside and it's starting to leak out. So the Navy has undertaken this effort to get that oil out before it leaks and just creates this environmental disaster. So this article kind of goes into you know, what the Navy's doing with the ship, how they're planning to get the oil out using a hot tapping technique with divers and a support ship. And so it's kind of an interesting story, short read, but there's an embedded video and some really kind of cool photos. So check that out. That's my first offering today.
James Very cool. My Next Pick is a website that sells kind of a range of products. It's the Observer Collection. And this is a website run by a gentleman that I believe we spoke about before, Robert Spangle, who's at thousandyardstyle on Instagram. Oh, yeah. Robert and I were kind of DMing over the past little while, and then I met him while I was in L.A. for a piece for an upcoming project with Hodinkee. And the Observer Collection stuff is pretty interesting. It's all like Robert travels a ton. So it's all very finely tuned travel gear that has a very specific aesthetic and very high quality. So the two things that I've experienced so far, the first one is called the Peacekeeper, that's P-I-E-C-E. Oh, yeah. And it's two pieces. So he makes these really beautiful bags, and with the offcuts of some of the suede used with the bags, the bags are called tangos, with the offcuts, he applies a sticker backing and then it's essentially two pieces of suede, and you stick them on your laptop where your wrists touch the laptop, and it keeps your bracelet or the buckle on your NATO or whatever from annoyingly rubbing against the metal or plastic, depending on your laptop. And I always, depending on the strap I'm wearing, I think a lot of people, if I know I have a bunch of work to do at a laptop, I'll take the watch off. But if you're at an airport, or at some lounge, that's not a great idea, depending on where you are. If you're at home, who cares? You take it off, you put it on your table, the watch is at no risk. But if you're at a coffee shop or, like I said, an airport lounge or something like... Anyways, I was kind of skeptical when we were DMing and he said, Hey, I'll send you something. It looks like you do a fair amount of travel. Let me know what you think. And I didn't know what he'd send. And he sent these things and I absolutely love them. They've been on my laptop now for probably a couple months. And my feedback is that they are great. I have a mid 2014 MacBook Pro. He's tested it on several different types, but for mine, it does not impede the opening or closing of the lid. I would say you probably don't need both stickers because obviously you probably only have a watch on one wrist, but you might have bracelets or something on the other wrist, depending on your decisions there. The reason I think that you stick both on is so that there's no asymmetry in pressure to the screen. Oh, sure. But I've really liked these. They're $21. They're made from offcuts, so it's kind of like a non-waste project, which I really like as well. And if you're the type that, you know, works on a laptop frequently and finds that the watch is kind of annoying, maybe this is an option. So I'll throw the link in the show notes, of course, but that's the Observer Collection Peacekeeper.
Unknown Yeah.
James The other one is kind of a travel wallet, which I'm just starting to get into, but it's called the Papa Passport Wallet. And it has all these pockets that are specifically designed for like carrying different types of travel paperwork.
Unknown Yeah.
James Whether it's like a Paris bus pass is a certain width or the tube pass is a certain width, or there's some spot for cash or a notebook and a passport. There's like a front pocket that allows you to carry a boarding pass, but not have to take it out of the wallet to have it scanned.
Unknown Oh yeah.
James It's again, just kind of like he's taken something like feedback from doing so much travel and applied it to kind of a very niche project. Sure. But if you like the idea of having kind of a one space in your bag for a pen, all of your kind of travel cards, cash, and then things like could be a small phone or a boarding pass can slot in the front, Pretty cool. Made out of really gorgeous leather. I have a black one here. And this one's a little bit more expensive, but I think if you see the handiwork, if you go to the website and kind of see what goes into it, you'd get it. This is about $165. And really, really cool. Robert, thank you for setting me up with both of those. Both have been really handy as I've been traveling. So really, really neat stuff with the Observer Collection. And yeah, that's my other final note.
Jason Heaton Nice. Well, my last one today is, it's a beautiful book that I bought a couple of weeks ago. It's called Rural Britannia, When British Sports Cars Saved a Nation. And, you know, we talk about cars a lot on the show. You know, I've got an old Land Rover, old British vehicle, and I've always had this sort of love of old British sports cars. And so this book was an easy hook for me when I first kind of heard about it. It's a slightly oversized kind of coffee table style art book with a lot of just beautiful original photography in it. Kind of the basic structure of the book is a brief introduction followed by kind of big chapters about each of the big British car manufacturers, the big sports car makers of the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s. For sure. AC, Aston Martin, Austin-Healey, MG, Mini, Triumph, Jag, etc. And it's a very deep dive. It's a very dense look at each brand to the point where I might have sort of gleaned over some of it because it was a little more information than I wanted. But if you're into that stuff, if you really nerd out on the ins and outs of who owned the company and why they changed ownership and what the strategy was for this type of breaks and et cetera, et cetera, this is the book for you. But if you're someone who just likes gorgeous studio photography of the most beautiful, in my opinion, beautiful uh, roadsters and sports cars. Uh, it's also just a spectacular book and the colors, the cover, sorry, that the slip cover is just this beautiful, of course, British racing green with just a, a simple, uh, jag XK on the, on the cover, the XK 120, um, with a simple title, just, just beautiful minimalist design, um, beautifully produced. And, uh, the book, uh, Petrolicious, I think sells it in their store, but their shipping's a bit high. I found it on Amazon. It's about an $89 book. So for a book of that quality, it's not unreasonably expensive. It's certainly up there. But yeah, check it out. It's gorgeous. It is. It's a really, really, really worthwhile book. So check that out.
James And that's what I got for the week. Okay. So I think that's a show. And as always, thanks so much for listening. Hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey, and you can follow the show at The Graynado. Big thanks to Hodinkee for supporting the show and definitely go back and start listening to past episodes of Hodinkee Radio. There's some really fascinating guests there and it's an entirely different format than TGN. If you have any questions for us, concerns, whatever, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is Siesta by JazzArt via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from the explorer, David Livingstone, who said, I will go anywhere provided it be forward.