Archive for October, 2007
Last Eight Downloads for the Month
October 30th, 2007I had a devil of a time with eMusic. Their basic plan furnishes customers with 30 downloads a month, and I used up 22 of them this month on a Jackie Wilson compilation. Since most albums have 10-20 tracks, what to do with the remaining eight? Browsing eMusic for individual songs is an interesting experience. […]
Industrial Light and Magic
October 28th, 2007Trying to find a place to share some illustrations scanned from a 1966 issue of Fortune magazine, I started a new flickr group called Vintage Industry. I’m hoping the group members will make this into a virtual storehouse of great vintage industrial imagery — like the two below, which have that gross/cool “messy” painting technique […]
All Singing, All Snacking
October 24th, 2007Tonight I turn over the weblog to ask an important question — whatever happened to those completely unironic TV commercials that emulated movie musicals? Sure, they were corny, but 20-plus years later I still remember them which has to count for something. The mid-’80s jingle for Better Cheddars crackers, for example, is a song that […]
Casino Security Footage Has More Excitement
October 23rd, 2007Can’t say it’s much of a surprise: Viva Laughlin became the first scripted TV show of the new season to get the axe. I tuned into the pilot episode out of curiosity, but couldn’t get past the first 15 minutes or so — the show was so wrong on so many levels. The producers could […]
Book Review: Hand Job
October 21st, 2007Michael Perry’s Hand Job: A Catalog of Type gathers the work of 55 artists who, in rebellion against computers, excel in hand-drawn typography and design. I remember first noticing this trend in the opening credits to Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, with cast and crew names floating around in lettering mimicking the loopy and unpolished […]
The Search Is Over
October 20th, 2007What’s your opinion on videogames and patience? The culmination of months of saving has finally happened — I’m getting a Nintendo Wii! It’s mind boggling that, 11 months later, those things are still hard to come by (unless you’re willing to pay $100 more on eBay, which I’m not). Not a fan of camping out […]
Carthay Circle Land, Here We Come
October 18th, 2007Al Lutz of MiceAge.com provides the skinny on the five year, $1.1 billion expansion for Disney’s California Adventure. A very much needed improvement, I’d say. We went to DCA a couple of years ago, and the experience was underwhelming to say the least. We saw everything we wanted to in a half-day, as opposed to […]
Peel a Wheelie
October 18th, 2007Wicked-cool artwork: Branded In The ’80s takes a look at Weird Wheels stickers, a kustom kar series that owes a big visual debt to Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. I would’ve loved to have pasted these on my Trapper Keeper!
Lucille Ball in Meme
October 17th, 2007William tagged me with a television meme. So let’s turn our brains off and answer some questions, shall we?
1. What TV show have you seen every episode of?I can answer this in two parts. During childhood I’m positively certain I’d seen every episode of such rerun staples as The Brady Bunch, Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, I […]
Sweet Chewy Nostalgia
October 16th, 2007Halloween candy flashback time! The temporarily renamed Neato Ghoulsville writes about Wrapples, the 1970s product for lazy people who crave a quick and easy caramel apple. I remember Wrapples really well — my father was a salesman for Kraft Foods back then, so we had a lot of them around the house. I used to […]
Good Grief!
October 15th, 2007It looks like Ford at Basic Hip Digital Oddio will be shutting down much of his site by the end of the year. Better enjoy stuff like Vertigo: Then and Now before they’re gone forever.
Also: Bill Watterson reviews the new Charles M. Schulz bio for The Wall Street Journal (thanks, Eric!). I can’t wait to […]
Key West with Matt & Christopher
October 14th, 2007Well, it took a week, but the little website I made documenting our trip to Key West is finished. What else is there to say about the trip? It was enjoyable, despite the hot and muggy weather (I brought a pair of jeans but never wore them). The island is about as laid back and […]
Rhapsody in Nitrate
October 12th, 2007There’s a fascinating thread going on the Criterion discussion boards — apparently someone has tracked down what might be the only surviving copy of F.W. Murnau’s lost silent 4 Devils in Tacoma, Washington of all places. The ensuing discussion on intellectual property is an interesting read, not to mention the excited reactions from film lovers. […]
Name That Film on Flickr
October 11th, 2007Lately I’ve been delving into the Name That Film flickr group. It’s not just the fun of trying to guess the film stills captured off DVDs, but a lot of the images have a strange, surreal beauty (like the one above by frequent contributor Poletti). One can especially get a lot of interesting frames from […]
39 and Lovin’ It
October 8th, 2007Today was my 39th birthday. Since I won’t have a Father’s Day or wedding anniversary, it’s the only date-exclusive holiday I have — and I’m grabbing it for all it’s worth. To paraphrase a famous cliché: I’m not getting older, I’m getting better. The celebrating started last Saturday when I received a mailed envelope of […]
