Slept-on slappers
Post-Samba sneakers, '90s-vibed striped shirts for the low, epic public oceanview cabins & more "unbeatable recon"
Welcome to Blackbird Spyplane.
ENJOY the few remaining Spyplane tees and totes in the Spy Store.
Our roundup of the Best Pants Out is here.
Check our list of the world’s 35 slappiest shops, where Spyfriends have added a ton of gems in the comments.
Mach 3+ city intel for traveling the entire planet is here.
Our newest Home-Goods Guide is here.
The B.L.I.S.S. List — a comprehensive index of Beautiful Life-Improving Spyplane Staples — is here.
— Jonah & Erin
In today’s Plane we’ve got —
YANKING new post-Samba Adidas that are very fly, and slept on.
“Muddy Purple Watch” — the coolest color of 2024 — continues to turn up gems.
Deep-cut ‘90s-era striped shirts no one’s checking for — with the NICE price.
And more unbeatable recon.
Kicking things off —
It’s time for the feature known as “V.I.P. R.A.D.A.R.,” where Vibey Illustrious People come through with Rare And Dope A** Recon.
Today we’ve got intel from one of our favorite contemporary artists, whose new “immersive multimedia installation” just opened at MoMA:
O yes! Shana Moulton works in video & sculpture, playing an alter-ego of herself in strange, surreal, creepy, beautiful, poignant, funny & delightful narratives that explore the intersection of spiritual yearning and “wellness” as it manifests in our deranged consumer culture.
She just debuted a new installation called Meta/Physical Therapy at MoMA, up through April 21, 2024. (Erin wrote about it in her recent Concorde NYC Intel Report.)
You can watch Shana’s Twin Peaks-indebted “Whispering Pines” series on her website, and there’s a good collection of her work on Mubi, too. We first stumbled into her art a decade ago at the Oakland Museum of California, so we were stoked for her to put us on to 3 recommendations of things she loves off the beaten path:
The Steep Ravine cabins, Mount Tamalpais State Park, Marin County, California
“My all-time favorite destination. There are 10 identical ‘environmental cabins’ (no electricity or plumbing) overlooking the ocean, with a small private beach. They were designed in the late 1930s by William Wurster — who I am familiar with through the eponymous Architecture Department building at UC Berkeley, which, along with the old Art Museum, converted me into a brutalist-building lover.
The state-park-owned Steep Ravine cabins, just north of San Francisco. Black-and-white picture by Spyfriend Allen Danze, who, like Shana, loves them “The cabins have everything you need: 5 places to sleep, a stove, and a table with an epic view of the Pacific Ocean. The thing is, it’s really hard to get a reservation. My Mom discovered them in Sunset Magazine in the ‘80s, and we stayed there almost every spring break when I was a kid. Even then, you had to call the State Park system at 8 a.m. exactly 6 months before your travel date to score a reservation.
“If you can’t get a reservation, you can always park on the side of Highway 1 at the gate, walk one stunning mile down to the beach area, or you can cross the 1 and access the Steep Ravine Trail, with its wooden step ladders and bridges going through lush ferns and redwoods.”Dorothea Lange’s To A Cabin
“We managed to reserve Cabin 5 a few years ago, and it had this out-of-print book inside (cover below left), with photos of Dorothea Lange and her family enjoying the cabins back in the ‘50s and ‘60s.”
Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head & Other Drawings by B. Kliban (of Crazy Shirts fame)
“The cabins are just south of Stinson Beach, which has one of my favorite bookstores, Stinson Beach Books. It’s where I discovered koosh balls and the comic book Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head & Other Drawings by B. Kliban of ‘Crazy Shirts’ fame (above) — which introduced me to absurdist cat and instruction-manual humor.”
Shana Moulton is on Instagram here. Her new installation, Meta/Physical Therapy, is at MoMA through April 21, 2024.
Ayyy next up —
These are sick! the first post-“Sambaissance” Adidas to really catch our eyes:
