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My Kind of Parrot Heads

"Where have you been???" they scream at me when they see I have returned to post another rousing and inspiring bout of dither. I'm sure. I'm sure that's what you're screaming. And you have good reason... because while starting law school in the last two months I have come across something far more important than contract law or criminal statutes: East West Musical Instruments Co.

                         

 

This is a "parrot head" jacket-- the most revered classic model from the brand. Do you see the parrot heads? Genius. Forgot Da Vinci, this is art.

If you've heard of them you are either older than I, really cool, or both. East West was the makers of fine handcrafted leather-wears during the golden age of rock & roll. Their supple and tawny jackets, full of whimsy and bad-ass, were beloved by people like Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and the members of a band I am marginally fond of (obsessed with), Led Zeppelin. If these jackets are good enough for these gods, then they are good enough to substantiate my new purpose in life: to find and own one.

Easier said than done, for to achieve this mighty object I must either have a lot of money (at least $1,000 for a common model), or I must wait like the thrifting spider I am for one of these gems to fall into my ever spinning web of secondhand shopping. I must by necessity choose the latter route, though it will probably happen that I find the money sooner than a tossed-away vintage number I can afford at a flea market in Ukiah.

Why are they so pricey? They don't make them anymore. They'd kaput. Finito. Like all good things, East West Musical Instruments has gone the way of the dodo and the White Stripes... into the foggy mystery of things now extinct and generally difficult to find. This is why I have a new goal. I will find an East West jacket. Hopefully it will fit. If not, I will frame it and mount it above the hearth I am also looking for at every charity shop I pass. If you don't have hand-tooled leather steeped in rock legend in your life, what do you have, really?