Like Burgess Meredith in The Twilight Zone
My friend Eric showed me Library Thing a few weeks ago, and now I’ve finally gotten around to trying it out. You can catalogue your book collection there and compare it with other users. Kind of nifty. I reached 200 titles before the site asked me to cough up money for a paying membership. Having just gone through a $1,500 car repair bill, I decided to pass for now — but those first 200 books (about three quarters of the total library) are entered are right there on my profile for the world to see. The latest acquisitions are the 2003 All-Music Guide To Country, purchased used at the library for $5, and a New York Times crossword puzzle book bought at Borders last weekend.
I noticed that three bloggers I read have libraries listed there: John of Robot Johnny, William of Robot Action Boy, and Bibi of Bibi’s Box. Anybody else got a library to share?
Generation YouTube
Tom Scocca of The New York Observer sums up the vast appeal of the web’s latest plaything with The YouTube Devolution. Below I’ve assembled links to the clips that Scocca references in the article. Now, I’m a sometimes busy guy with lots of deadlines. But I also finding myself losing lots of productivity time searching for obscure stuff at that damn site. Do they have the video for “Can’t Shake Loose,” an ’80s-tastic solo single from ABBA’s Agnetha Faltskög? Yes. What about a clip from the short-lived sitcom The Ellen Burstyn Show with Megan Mullally as Burstyn’s daughter? Well, not yet — but while I was looking for that I found this fantastically kitschy 9 minute fashion show from 1985’s Night of 100 Stars. See what I mean? Fudge.
The Pixies on The Dennis Miller Show (1991)
The Pixies’ “Velouria” music video
British sitcom Heil Honey I’m Home (part 1 of 2)
Now We Are Six
I didn’t notice when the anniversary passed by earlier this month, but I’ve been doing scrubbles.net for six years now. Six years! The mind boggles.
I was going to say something here about how much I’ve grown over these last few years, but after looking through the Wayback Machine archives for this site, I’d have to say no. This weblog essentially hasn’t changed that much since 2000, except that individual posts have gotten longer, more thoughful, but also more sporadic. Anybody remember when I posted a bunch of stuff in a day, every day? Then I’d apologize if I missed a day? For a laugh, peruse the first month archive page. That month I posted about goofy old music, Photoshop abuse, stupid parents, and forgotten TV commercials containing Broadway-esque musical numbers. Same ‘ol me!
Cereal Killers
On eBay for boo coo bucks: Walt Disney Studios’ 1939 Christmas card using characters from the soon to be released Pinocchio. Remember when Disney stood for class and quality entertainment? (sigh) On a similar note, watch the sprightly animated Rice Krispies cereal commercial below. It was produced by a competing studio that same year, 1939, but one can completely see the Disney influence. Those two kiddies are kind of weird looking, however — I can’t put my finger on why that’s so. (p.s. this was uploaded to YouTube by the proprietress of Bibi’s Box. p.p.s. thanks to Christopher for the eBay link.)
The Girls in Gold Boots
Anyone with a passing interest in miniskirted a-go-go ephemera should head over to Derrick Bostrom’s, where he has two albums by The Golddiggers available for download. The Golddiggers were a popular troupe of dancing chorus girls on The Dean Martin Show, appearing weekly and later spinning off to their own variety show. Singing wasn’t exactly the ladies’ primary forté, but that didn’t prevent them from recording of course. UPDATE: The albums have been removed.
Love the cover art on The Golddiggers … Today! LP (click for more detail).
Get Ready to Match the Stars
Has anybody been checking out GSN’s countdown of The 50 Greatest Game Shows? They’ll be devoting three hours a week to this until August 31st, airing full episodes of their choices whenever possible. Quibble with the list all you want, but I think it’s neat to see groovy old episodes of Treasure Hunt and Tattletales in prime time. I’m leery that GSN will slot in too many of their own shows (such as the ridiculously easy Hollywood Showdown, ranked at #46), but the list has been pretty fairly chosen so far with equal emphasis on popularity and impact.
I’m looking forward to finding out how GSN’s rankings stack up to my own personal top 10, listed below. #10, by the way, was an obscure 1989-90 show on American Movie Classics hosted by the one and only Gene Rayburn.
1. What’s My Line?. A class act all the way, in dreamy black and white.
2. Jeopardy. Proof that “game show” and “intelligent” are not mutually exclusive.
3. The Price Is Right. Here’s hoping GSN will have a classic ’70s-’80s episode to share.
4. Match Game. Wacka-wacka good.
5. Super Password. Been watching a lot of this one lately — addictively ’80s.
6. Sale of the Century. Spent many lunch hours at home watching this one.
7. The Joker’s Wild. I can remember being mesmerized by those spinning graphics.
8. Tic Tac Dough. Watch out for the dragon.
9. Hollywood Squares. Paul Lynde was my childhood idol! Little did I know.
10. The Movie Masters. Short-lived but fondly remembered.
The Feel-Good Feud of the Summer
This Joel Siegel vs. Kevin Smith thing? Hilarious. Siegel’s always been a hack, and now he’s a rude hack. Smith’s a sloppy filmmaker and I don’t really get his appeal, but at least his response to the situation was refreshingly honest. Two thumbs up, dudes.
Gruesome Twosome: Looks 10, Musical Ability 3 Edition
Alyssa Milano: “One Last Dance”
CD: Do You See Me?, 1992
Audrey Landers: “Playa Blanca”
LP: Wo Der Südwind Weht, 1984 | BUY
Tell Lindsay and Paris the news: back in the ’80s and early ’90s, sexy celebs ventured overseas to sing so Americans wouldn’t have the, uh, pleasure of hearing them. Dallas siren Audrey Landers enjoyed a successful recording career in Germany, predating fellow thespian David Hasselhoff by a few years. “Playa Blanca” satisfied the uniquely German appetite for queasy, synthetic dance music with tropical beats. If the personnel involved sounded as if they had too many banana daiquiries, that’s okay. Later on, Alyssa Milano spent a time supplementing her Who’s the Boss? checks by being the Japanese Debbie Gibson. “One Last Dance” is a wimpy ballad that owes its melody to Natalie Cole’s “Miss You Like Crazy”, but Alyssa’s voice has a certain clunky appeal. Do You See Me?, unfortunately, marks her last singing effort to date. C’mon, Alyssa, we need you back in the recording studio!
I Want My Soothing Footage of Animals and Flowers
Every Sunday we like to watch CBS Sunday Morning, especially the “nature moment” at the end. Christopher always brings up how CBS ought to release an entire DVD of their greatest nature footage. Well, now that the network has launched a customized DVD service, his dream may come true. Although Sunday Morning counts among the news programs available, the current offerings are on the slim side. But maybe, perhaps it’ll happen! Can’t wait to experience those frolicking sea otters from c.2002 again.
U.S. Steel and Disney’s Modular Tomorrow
Sorry, I have another video find to post here. We just upgraded our DSL, so now the YouTube’s not as choppy as before. They still need to up the quality on the clips, but I digress. Here’s a short promotional film U.S. Steel made in 1971 to brag about its new modular construction method for Walt Disney World’s swanky Contemporary Hotel. Dynamic narration, a happy caucasian family and groovy background music add to the time capsule element. Now I want to know: what happened to all those hospitals, schools and offices promised using this exciting new modular construction?
Hey Sister Soul Sister
I come bearing vintage performance clips of my favorite ’70s ladies, dig? Our first clip has The Three Degrees singing their singature hit, “When Will I See You Again” — in Japanese. Apparently the foxy trio starred in their own TV special over there (see YouTube for other clips). The number is surprisingly not the train wreck it coulda been; they acquainted themselves well with another language. All the while looking fabulous, of course.
Here’s lovely and vivacious Freda Payne performing on The Mike Douglas Show in 1975. Although “Yours To Have” didn’t set the world afire like “Band of Gold” did, Ms. Payne gives her all and appears elegant as ever. Note the way she casually tosses her microphone offstage at the end — classy!
Fawning Over Flora
Ward Jenkins has completed a nifty post on Jim Flora’s 1957 childrens book, The Day the Cow Sneezed, comparing Flora’s never-before-seen original mockups to the final printed pages.
Thursday Miscellany
Because it’s too hot to go into detail:
- TV Squad: Remembering Toonheads. Sad fact — Cartoon Network no longer has Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, or anything pre-Scooby Doo on its schedule. Cartoon Alley on TCM is a good alternative, but they’ve been in repeats since January (new episodes resume in September).
- New York magazine: In Defense of Star Jones Reynolds. Hmm, even during her fat years she was pretty freaky. The upside to all this is how “star jones” has taken hold as a verb, i.e. “I heard that she star jonesed the catering and gown at her lavish wedding.”
- Interviews with super-cool bloggers Eye of the Goof and Exclamation Mark. Congratulations to both!
- IFC will be premiering a new documentary this Sunday, Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema. Looks promising.
- 1,500 of Your Favorite ’80s Videos, via William at Robot Action Boy. I heartily recommend the two awesomely awesome Electric Dreams clips — Philip Oakey’s “Together In Electric Dreams” and “The Duel” by Giorgio Moroder.
Polos for Dummies
I don’t clothes shop very often, but once in a while I’ll check the Old Navy to see what they’ve got. I always head directly for the 50% Off racks, of course. What did I find? Lots of shirts in bright, traffic safety cone orange. Old Navy has a longstanding, strange attraction to orange clothing, a color that only looks good on dark-skinned blacks. I also saw racks of striped cotton polos in odd shades of brown, yellow, orange (again!) and blue. It looked like my wardrobe from 1982. The shirts have been silk screened or embroidered with kitsch imagery from that period: wild horses, sunsets, birds, sporty numbers and inscrutable words. One might think that Old Navy has an insiduous plan to turn America into a nation of Junior High chess geeks, but I can kind of see what they were going after. For kids in their 20s, this is the visual equivalent of comfort food. They wear it with irony, but secretly cherish the goofiness of stuff they couldn’t properly appreciate as infants.
P.S. I didn’t leave Old Navy empty handed that day, having purchased a comfy bright yellow tee with blue accent stitching (very Greg Brady) and one of those darn cotton polos: a plain powder blue number with flying birds on the back.
Look On Up at the Bottom
I dug this hilarious Beyond the Valley of the Dolls recap with an ample supply of screencaps. The writer on Dolly Read’s voice: “Kelly’s accent goes from cockney to Cali in two seconds. It’s like a 4-second, one-woman production of My Fair Lady set in L.A. And who wouldn’t want to see that?” The weblog entry even has a comment from the film’s Casey, actress Cynthia Myers. (via Jonno)
