Archive for September, 2008

Grand Canyon Diorama

September 30th, 2008

Just back from our long weekend to the “undisclosed location” — Grand Canyon. Although we’re both Arizona natives, it had been a while since we’ve visited our own landmark. My last visit was in 1995, and Christopher hadn’t been there since he was a child — so our trip was long overdue. This was my […]

Friday Miscellany

September 26th, 2008

Kind of a dull week, huh? I uploaded the Viewmaster pics and created a new Two Bunnies and a Duck solely for the one person who was looking forward to it. And designed lots of manga comics for Viz. That’s about it. We’re getting ready to go on a trip to an undisclosed locale this […]

Neat Old View-Masters on Flickr

September 24th, 2008

In the past few days, I’ve finally figured out how to photograph frames from old ViewMaster reels. Yay. A bunch of photos and scans from my own collection can now be seen in this flickr set. The best reels by far are the meticulously constructed 3D versions of cartoons, like the Winnie the Pooh scene […]

Weekly Mishmash: September 14-20

September 21st, 2008

The Forsyte Saga (2002). The result of finishing season one of The Wire and wanting something different — from drug dealers to repressed Victorian socialites. This was a well-mounted and adequately done miniseries, well-cast (I think the leading actress got the part solely due to her close resemblance to John Singer Sargent’s Madame X) and […]

Norman Whitfield’s Funky Business

September 18th, 2008

With the passing of legendary Motown producer and songwriter Norman Whitfield at the age of 67, now is as good a time as any to celebrate his life and music. With what else? Crappy quality video clips! Going back to the beginning, even Whitfield’s earliest Motown productions stood out for having tighter instrumentation and danceability. […]

Steve and Jayne and 8K of RAM

September 17th, 2008

Andy Baio of Waxy.org shares a curio from the past — Computability, in which Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows explain the concept of home computing to the layman of 1984. I think I deserve some kind of award for listening to all 35:45 of Steve and Jayne bantering over modems and monitors. The accompanying hour-long […]

The Naugahyde Nauga

September 16th, 2008

A short history of the Nauga, the Naugahyde Council’s very ’60s mascot (via Coudal). Really interesting and unusual ad campaign, and 40 years on the company still uses the character (!). The Nauga used to look like something from Yellow Submarine to me, but now I see it has more of an Uglydolls appearance that […]

Weekly Mishmash: September 7-13

September 14th, 2008

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. I was inspired to pick this up after reading Slate’s glowing re-evaluation from a couple of months ago. Anne Shirley comes across as a grating goody-goody at times, and the book plods a bit after she matures into a bland teenager. The book is also more episodic […]

Your Very First Time

September 13th, 2008

A.V. Club contributors answer the question: What was the first album you bought with your own money? Yes, the results are as squirm-inducing as imagined.
I can tell you my first album I bought with my own money right off the bat: the soundtrack for Nine To Five, selected from the J.C. Penney record section at […]

Bunnies, Comic #16

September 12th, 2008

New Two Bunnies And A Duck this week. Actually, this one was supposed to be ready last week, but computer problems got in the way. An observation: after six months, it’s becoming apparent that I cannot draw cartoon characters with any consistency whatsoever. The figures in comic #15 are refined to have an appealingly cuddly […]

Rant City

September 10th, 2008

Glenn Erickson goes after several of my pet peeves in one story with When DVD Menus Attack! It’s all covered here: forced previews, anti-piracy warnings, spoilers, and unnecessarily complication designs. I especially hate sitting through the ubiquitous FBI warning screen designed by some government lackey who just opened Photoshop for the first time.
Another worthwhile read […]

Get Back, Loretta

September 8th, 2008

For myself, a memorable Muppet Show moment came when Loretta Lynn sang “One’s On The Way” to a bunch of screaming babies. According to the invaluable Muppet Wiki, this was the first of several appearances for The Babies over the course of the show’s third through fifth seasons.
p.s. We’ve been watching the Season Three DVD […]

Weekly Mishmash: August 3-9

September 7th, 2008

Man’s Castle (1933). Having this rarely-screened Frank Borzage gem show up on TCM recently came as an unexpected treat. In it, Spencer Tracy plays a ne’er do well who barely attempts to make things work with penniless Loretta Young in their shantytown shack. Borzage’s films are almost always about love triumphing over adverse circumstances, and […]

Comp DOA

September 5th, 2008

Two nights ago, I had a little computer situation. The screen on my six year-old iMac went black, just like that.
Granted, it wasn’t completely black. I could still see a very faint impression of windows on a desktop. With some research, we found out that the bulb on the Mac’s LED screen burnt out. The […]

Potty Training

September 3rd, 2008

This commercial for the Mickey Mouse talking phone certainly ranks as a snarkworthy artifact from the ’80s. Namely because “Mickey come over for a potty” almost became the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” of its day: