Archive for May, 2007
Will They Call It Pottersville?
May 31st, 2007Okay, I don’t really care that much for J.K. Rowling, but how cool is the projected Harry Potter theme park, set to open at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in 2009? Those artist renderings are way cool.
Goodbye Charlie
May 31st, 2007Charles McNulty of the L.A. Times remembers Charles Nelson Reilly, drawing parallels between Reilly and Paul Lynde and going into his considerable theatrical career. As a child, I had an intense liking of Reilly on Match Game and Lynde on Hollywood Squares. Years before I had any inklings on what being gay meant, these two […]
The Harriet Files
May 30th, 2007I have to admit to harboring a weird fascination with Harriet Klausner, Amazon.com’s most prolific book reviewer. She’s a self-described speed reader who logs in multiple reviews each day, mostly appearing on the day a book is published. She never fails to give a book four or five stars, claiming to skip out on analyzing […]
Military Style Hare Cut
May 28th, 2007Happy Memorial Day. In honor of our fighting men and women, let’s watch Bugs Bunny, fat Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig shilling war bonds to the tune of Any Bonds Today? Because nothing says “patriotism” like Bugs doing an Al Jolson impersonation:
The Mystery of Bag X-13D
May 26th, 2007If anybody is curious about Doritos flavor X-13D, packaged in a plain black bag with “All American Classic” as your only clue, the chips taste exactly like a McDonalds cheeseburger. Eating them reminds me of the amazing scientific advances which allow mankind to put so many different flavors in a nondescript orange powder. You get […]
Lesley Affair
May 23rd, 2007My pal Patrick recently added to his LiveJournal a neato bootleg compilation from 2001 called Love Her By Name: A Lesley Gore Tribute. Most of the selections are contemporary to Miss Gore’s ’60s heyday, although there are a few stunning newer numbers such as Rasputina’s coffeehouse-feminist take on “You Don’t Own Me”. I loves me […]
Richard Amsel’s Sparkle and Shine
May 22nd, 2007Richard Amsel is one of my favorite illustrators from the ’70s and ’80s. Amsel first came to prominence when, as a college student, he won a contest to illustrate the poster for Barbra Streisand’s Hello Dolly. His portrait of Bette Midler on The Divine Miss M has become an icon of album cover art. He […]
Lost Weekend
May 20th, 2007Jean Luc Godard’s Weekend arrived from Netflix last week. I kind of half-heartedly put it on my queue since we’ve seen a few of Godard’s other films (we didn’t enjoy all of them; My Life to Live is probably the best). After some more research, however, I decided I wasn’t in the mood for trenchant […]
Howard Pierce Desktop Patterns
May 18th, 2007Thought I’d share these nifty patterns I made back in 2000 — try them out for a cool “Desert Modernism” look. These are based on photos we took of the roofline borders on sculptor Howard Pierce’s home in Joshua Tree, California. The talented Mr. Pierce, who died in 1994, made his name designing whimsical ceramic […]
Boob Tubing
May 17th, 2007It always happens to me. The major TV networks have all announced their Fall schedules, and the two new shows we chose to watch — Jericho and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip — have both gotten the axe.
Actually, Jericho was more Christopher’s show and I just went along for the ride; its lousy but […]
Book Review: Fly Now!
May 16th, 2007Consumer note: although
Fly Now!: The Poster Collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is published by National Geographic, it doesn’t contain a single nature photograph (the closest might be a ’70s poster showing a flock of flamingos). What it does have are dozens of gorgeous American and European poster designs from the glory […]
Dino-Maintenance
May 15th, 2007A maintenance worker tends to Disneyland’s Primeval World exhibit in 1966, part of the UCLA Department of Special Collections searchable index of photos from the Los Angeles Times and Daily News. For old L.A. aficionados, this one’s a must-see. Another site that one could spend hours poring through, great! (first spotted on The Blackwing Diaries)
Dollops of Sunshine
May 13th, 2007Here we go again — I found another cool/old record weblog while doing some research. This time I was trying to find info on ’60s singer Julie Budd, one of whose songs was included on a Sunshine Pop mix made by my friend Ion (Yesterday’s Sunshine, excellent and if you email me nicely I might […]
Advance to the Next Screen
May 11th, 2007Cartoon Brew linked to an excellent article on educational film strips recently. The Creative Pro piece explains how those old filmstrips basically kick the butt of today’s PowerPoint presentations in terms of conveying information in a concise manner, illustrated with many wonderful images which made me feel like a third grader again. Try not to […]
Jesus in 12″ or Less
May 10th, 2007Where have I been? In the long and sticky process of finding artwork for every song in my iTunes library. While searching for info on a old, campy LP by preacher John Rydgren, I came across the weblog Heavenly Grooves which presents downloads on all sorts of home grown religious recordings from the ’60s to […]
