Archive for January, 2006

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Sequins Aplenty

January 9th, 2006

A YouTube find: vintage performance clips of The Supremes from 1964-77 — the Diana Ross phase, the Jean Terrell phase, and the “three women singing nondescript disco” phase. This took up way too much of my time this morning.

Where the Hell Is My Chiffon?

January 8th, 2006

I don’t usually go for them newfangled thingies known as podcasts, but two lately have been sticking with me. One is a weekly podcast from the nasally voiced but affable guy who runs Retrocrush.com. This week he pontificates on, among other things, the timeless appeal of Olivia Newton-John and Britney hubby/professional hanger-on Kevin Federline’s forthcoming […]

Artistry In Motion

January 7th, 2006

Hip to our love of midcentury art, friends of ours gave us a cool Christmas gift: Tin Lizzie: The Story of the Fabulous Model T Ford by Philip Van Doren Stern (Simon & Shuster, 1955). While the book itself is a pretty straightforward, whimsical look back at the Model T Ford phenomenon, what really stands […]

I Second the Notion

January 4th, 2006

Christopher posted at Just Ask Christopher about the must-see Hayao Miyazaki film fest on Turner Classic Movies this month. Every Thursday, TCM will be playing nine of the animation master’s films — both the English dubbed and original Japanese soundtrack versions. The program also includes two films he produced but didn’t direct, Pom Poko and […]

I Feel Like Chicken Tonight

January 4th, 2006

According to the AP, the old fashioned jingle has fallen out of favor in the advertising biz. Instead, agencies choose the cheaper and more familiar route of using existing pop songs in commercials (sigh). Although I’m no longer in that coveted 18-34 demo, everytime I hear some overexposed rock chestnut trotted out in a commercial, […]

Finger Lickin’ Gone

January 3rd, 2006

David from Other Stream has assembled an interesting page on extinct restaurant chains such as Arthur Treacher’s Fish ‘N Chips, Minnie Pearl’s Fried Chicken and Sambo’s. A former Sambo’s with its original chi-chi ’60s lighting fixtures (but little else, unfortunately) still stands here in downtown Phoenix.

Gruesome Twosome: J’aime Françoise Edition

January 3rd, 2006

Françoise Hardy: “Je Ne Suis Là Pour Personne”
Vogue Records [France] single, 1966 | BUY
Air featuring Françoise Hardy: “Jeanne”
CD: Pop Romantique: French Pop Classics, 1999 | BUY
Today I’m turning the spotlight on one of my fave singers ever, Françoise Hardy. When Ms. Hardy entered the music scene in the early ’60s, she bust open the “girl […]

Rona, We Hardly Knew Ye

January 2nd, 2006

It is here that I note the passing of Rona Jaffe, author of the frothy 1958 novel The Best of Everything. Just before she died, Ms. Jaffe contributed a fascinating audio commentary to the film adaptation’s DVD where she goes into detail about her young life in the ’50s publishing world and in Hollywood (although […]

A Year of Movie Watching

January 1st, 2006

My annual list of films seen for 2005 has been completed with a late New Years Eve showing of the Olivia De Haviland mental institution flick The Snake Pit (it sure beats a slurring Dick Clark). I saw a total of 184 films last year, just about the same amount as in 2004. For completion’s […]

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