How to Be a Man

Silver Fox

Glenn O'Brien aka "The Style Guy" for GQ is a trip. He was an original member of Andy Warhol's "Factory", produced a movie starring Basquiat, hosted a public-access television show in New York called TV Party, which wikipedia writes, "featured such then underground figures as David Byrne, Klaus Nomi, August Darnell, Fab 5 Freddy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Fekner, Amos Poe, and bands like Blondie, The Clash, DNA, and The Fleshtones."

Wiki also says, "He also attempted a stint as a stand up comedian, was a contributing editor of Allure, Harper's Bazaar, and Creative Director of advertising at Barneys New York. For 10 years, he wrote a monthly column for ArtForum Magazine. He edited Madonna's Sex Book."

That is fantastic.

Add on another gem to the wiki page, because O'Brien released a book entitled "How to be a Man: A Guide to Style and Behavior for the Modern Gentlemen" that is hysterically informative.

Young & Controversial 

O'Brien breaks it into Five Categories; Manhood, Style, Behavior, Culture and Society, and Wisdom.  Each category has multiple subjects, ranging from 'Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow", "The Correct Insult",  and "How to communicate" to "Dealing with Doctors" and simple things like "Socks".  O'Brien's musings are legendary.  He's Brilliant, plain and simple.  He has an intrinsic ability to blend subjects like philosophy, fashion, sports, and art as a means to present logical arguments regarding society.

This book is perfect for the beach or short reading sessions.  Give it a look. You'll read paragraphs like this one [regarding style]:

Style is about setting yourself apart, being unique and authentic, being what the stylish Sam and Sham called "in with the out crowd". That professional paragon of style Noel Coward said, "I have never felt the necessity of being with it.  I'm all for staying in my place.' Your place is your own being. Baseball hitters talk about "staying within themselves." Having style is staying within yourself. It's about the way you work. To riff on the hitter's metaphor, it's about "working the count," how you deal with what's thrown at you. 

Style is different. If we hear something from a sax or see something made by a pencil and recognize it as new, that's style. Wyndham Lewis said, "The best artist is the imperfect artist." The perfect artist is finished. He's done. He has found it; he's not looking for it.  The genuine stylist is too caught up in developing and applying his modus operandi to the job to rest.  

Style can be how you draw, how you play the cello, how your write, or how you dance, but it also be how you speak and how you tie your tie. Style isn't taste. As Lewis said, "Taste is dead emotion, or a mentally treated and preserved emotion." Style is spontaneous emotion, you feel your way through the world. You dig for it, you find it, and you put it out in the world.

I guess it's what Smokey Robinson called, "the way you do the things you do."

There's a reason they call him, "Style Guy".

Of course, you could just watch this repeatedly: