Monday, September 30, 2002
All aboard for Freedomland, the long-gone theme park shaped like America! It looked like a vacation paradise, an East coast Disneyland -- but the '64 Worlds Fair killed it. I find this stuff utterly fascinating. (via Metafilter)
Speaking of Disneyland -- Paul Pressler has stepped down as CEO of Disney's theme parks, accepting an offer at the Gap. For those who don't know, Pressler has been a thorn in the collective sides of Disneyland fans for years, making one bad quality-cutting decision after another and trying to make the place into a cheezy, glorified mall outlet. Al Lutz's invaluable Disneyland Information Guide has been covering these developments with a barely containable glee. Scroll down his latest update for some funny advice to Pressler's successor - 10 Things NOT To Do.
Sunday, September 29, 2002
Now it can be said, I've turned into an eMusic whore. After reading Kim's enthusiastic writeup of the mp3 download service, I decided to give the two week free trial a chance. Immediately after signing up, Xavier Cugat's cha-chariffic "Cuban Love Song" got downloaded. It's been love ever since. Admittedly, it feels good to pay for a service that's legal and works - for both consumers and the industry - while supporting great indie labels such as Matador, Emperor Norton and Minty Fresh. The majors are also slowly getting involved - Universal has some terrific stuff up, including several vintage gems from Verve and Motown (like that four-disc Supremes box that came out a couple of years ago, drool). What really hooked me, though, is the fact that Fantasy records is with them. Among many other things, Fantasy hold rights to the entire early '70s output of the legendary soul music label Stax. I'll be 80 before I'm finished downloading all I want from the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, the Soul Children, Rufus Thomas, the Dramatics, and much more. Thanks, guys, for giving me a new obsession.
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Memo to Max - I was so thrilled getting an early birthday gift of this and this. How nice of you. Thanks for assembling them; you're the best and your weblog's a gas as always!
Friday, September 27, 2002
Jim's Burnt Offerings - neat site filled with a variety of cigarette graphics, much of them eye-poppingly great. Those vintage '70s Virginia Slims ads take me back. Thank goodness smoking isn't as glamorous or macho as it once was.
Noted without comment - Ten Things I Hate About Tom Cruise.
Thursday, September 26, 2002
A profile of NPR's Terry Gross which makes her out to be the patron saint of radio interviewers. Hmmm, I dunno. Whenever "Fresh Air" happens to be on, I tend to enjoy the guests despite Terry herself. She comes off as well-prepared but strangely distant in her interviews (unsurprisingly, she conducts most of them remotely). Her tentative, pleading method of questioning is the worst. Much of the time, she sounds like a little girl asking her mommy for a cookie.
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The KROQ top 106.7 countdowns of the '80s (via Other Stream) - yowza. The 1987 list is like a musical snapshot of the year I graduated high school.
Monday, September 23, 2002
There's a lot of non-scrubbles stuff going on with me this week. Not the least of which is putting together a twelve page broadsheet for a local institute of higher learning. (potentially damaging stuff taken out) Shudder.
So, this is a roundabout way of saying there might not be as many postings here for the next few days (the art is from these pages about revived Little Big Books; assembled and commented on by the excellent James Lileks).
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Sunday, September 22, 2002
Try to guess what kind of hip, happening place we went to for lunch today. Would you believe Furr's cafeteria? We've been going there often because it's next to our grocery store, it's cheap, the food is pretty good (although their hot dishes aren't kept very hot), and it's a great place for people watching. Eating there, I noticed there are four types of Furr's customers: 1) old people 2) large hispanic or black families 3) people who just came back from church 4) large groups of old, hispanic or black people who just came from church. Maybe it's the regional dishes like fried okra, whipped yams and butter chess pie. Mmmm.
Been watching Thunderbirds repeats on Tech TV every night and enjoying them immensely -- the gadgetry, the tiny modern furniture in their secret island hideaway, the nifty factoids. If Hollywood ever mounts a big budget, live action Thunderbirds movie, here's what my "dream cast" would be:
Scott Tracy - George Clooney. A natural for the oldest Tracy brother and the leader of the group. He sorta looks like a Thunderbird marionette, anyway.
John Tracy - Cuba Gooding Jr. Well, why not?
Virgil Tracy - Ron Livingston. He's already proven himself in a variety of roles. Plus, he's such a cutie. This could make him huge.
Gordon Tracy - Dave Foley. Might be too old, but I defy anyone to look at Gordon and not say "Is that Dave Foley?"
Alan Tracy - Josh Hartnett. Alan's a blonde, but I can so picture Josh playing the devil-may-care baby brother of the group.
Jeff Tracy - James Brolin. The Tracy patriarch may be the hardest one to cast. Brolin is the right age, commands authority and has the right generically handsome looks for the role.
Brains - Giovanni Ribisi. He'd look cute in big glasses.
Tintin - Maggie Cheung. Anyone's who's seen In the Mood for Love knows Ms. Cheung is a goddess. She can handle anything from drama to action to comedy. A role like this could break her into international stardom.
Lady Penelope - Cate Blanchett. This part requires an actress with beauty, a dry wit and loads of style. Cate is the only one who's a winner in all three categories (plus she's already British).
Parker - Bob Hoskins. Hoskins is perfect to play an ex-thief turned loyal butler. Can't you picture him always muttering "Yes, Milady."
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Saturday, September 21, 2002
A Kung Fu Snow White? That sounds pretty cool, actually. Via Snarkcake.
Friday, September 20, 2002
This morning I came across an all day Porky Pig marathon playing on Boomerang. Then I reluctantly headed out to work. Everything's been slightly off kilter since.
Thursday, September 19, 2002
The Onion's A.V. Club has two great interviews this week - Armistead Maupin (who just might be my new hero) and Sarah Vowell.
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
I've been getting into the irreverent movie news and reviews site CHUD lately. For example, check out their Best of the Bachelor DVD writeup with super-snarky photo captions. Plus they have a little report on the Wonder Twins movie - first it was pitched as an action flick, now it's a comedy. At this point I'm guessing that Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog will be involved.
 Enron is selling one its signs. Disappointingly, it's only a regular Enron sign - and not that gloriously awful giant rotating silver monstrosity seen in many a TV news report. Enron's logo design was the final project for the legendary Paul Rand before he died in 1996. He said at the time it was his greatest work (better than the ABC logo?). Methinks, had he lived to see all this brouhaha, he probably would've welcomed the publicity.
Oh, look, the "Men of Enron" issue of Playgirl just came out.
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An intricate tattoo of Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu. Kewl!
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Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Cheap thrill of the day: surreptitiously depositing a book at a busy hotel lobby during lunchtime. Book Crossing is a neat idea - read a book, release it somewhere, then track it on the site. I just registered some books there, and left the first one in a well-traveled and clean place where hopefully someone will find and enjoy it. The experience was like shoplifting in reverse, a naughty thrill without fear of the consequences. I made doubly sure no one saw me as I casually dropped it off. Someday I'd like to stick one in a place so obscure that you'd have to actively seek it out to find it.
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Just bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, and now I'm a happy camper. Elements is exactly like full Photoshop but without some extras - like alpha channels and batch processing - which aren't useful for the home user who just needs something to adjust digital photos for the web and such. I just wanted the upgrade for its Mac OSX compatibility, but what clinched it was the rebates - Adobe is offering an upgrade rebate of $30, and Amazon has an additional $30 off dealie when it's purchased from them (the latter offer expires next week, by the way). P.S. If you buy it through this Amazon link, Scrubbles gets a small cut, too. Sweet deal!
Monday, September 16, 2002
 Willard Scott has the distinction of being the very first Ronald McDonald - and boy was he scary. Even so, these early McDonalds commercials are a hoot. Via Mister Pants.
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Cute listening - old calendar girl radio spots from Otis Fodder's weblog. Historical tidbits with Perky! Instrumental! Backing!
Sunday, September 15, 2002
An illustration art auction full of nice pieces, via boing boing. Since my birthday will be here in less than a month, I submit this or this or this or this as a lovely gift for a certain someone.
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Lazy, not-much-to-do weekend. We watched The Cat's Meow, Peter Bogdonavich's film about the supposed goings on aboard a yacht trip with William Randolph Hearst, Charlie Chaplin and a host of 1920s glitterati. Not a very good movie, I'm afraid. The main problem is in trying to tell a story based on conjecture and gossip and presenting is as a historical fact. Unless Bogdonavich was attempting a dreamlike meditation on '20s frivolity and celebrity - in which case he doesn't go far enough with the stylization. The movie is curiously flat and uninvolving, with a cliche-ridden script. Most of the actors don't look or behave remotely like their real life counterparts. Casting Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies is an interesting idea, but she's far too fragile here - never once suggesting the bawdy, big-boned "good time gal" that Davies apparently was. The only cast member I really liked was Joanna Lumley, delicious and subtle as the novelist Elinor Glyn (although Lumley is far prettier than the dowager-eque Glyn).
Friday, September 13, 2002
"Ewoks from all e-walks of life at a management party." Look at the rest of the photos at that site - incredible! Found at Brushstroke TV, back at last after a summer hiatus.
Thursday, September 12, 2002
The Rise of Anthony Lane - what's supposed to be a simple book review is actually a rather incisive article on the passivity of today's film crit scene. Via Romenesko's Media News.
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 As an artsy teen, I was a huge fan of the '80s era illustrations of Lou Brooks - colorful retro cartoons bursting with pop culture hipness and irony. How neat to find that he has a cool website as well. Of special note: Hollywood Art Attack, a listing of movies that revolve around commercial artists (!!!).
That reminds me - there are not one but two classic Hitchcock films where the profession of industrial designer figures, either in plot or background. The person who can name them - and how - wins my eternal respect (what, you wanna prize or something?).
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I don't know what's worse, the death of Kim Hunter - Stella in Streetcar, Dr. Zira in Planet of the Apes - or how her AP obituary contains stupid, sexist quotes from Elia Kazan.
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Suggestions for what to do on 9-11: Think back and reflect. Seek out a publication you've never read before. Have another cup of coffee. Imagine the possibilities. Play a game of Scrabble. Begin a Halloween project. Start keeping a journal (online or otherwise). Watch a black and white movie. Support your public library. Wave a flag, but don't be obnoxious about it. Take a walk to someplace you'd usually drive. Or do nothing.
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Neat stuff to dig through, if only to see glorious album cover art from a bygone era: Score, Baby! (warning: annoying audio) bills itself as "your guide to groovy soundtracks of the '60s, '70s and beyond." How did I ever miss that one? Love the audio samples accompanying every review, wah-wah guitars aplenty. On a related note, I admire how Jonny is cataloguing his entire record collection online. Looks like it's been structured after his excellent music review site, Musical Taste.
I think Gael once linked to this, but the constantly updated Cavaclade of Bad Bridal Fashions is worth checking into often. As if all those horrid dresses weren't giggle-inducing enough by themselves, every photo comes with a hilarious caption.
Monday, September 09, 2002
 Julie's Tacky Treasures is funny and worth a peek (the name says it all; thanks Boing Boing!) - but take a gander at this picture of giant concrete presidents' heads. It's like a little piece of art. Outstanding!
Fisher Price Adventure People, anybody remember them? These action toys were based on real-life occupations and had a very sensitive, p.c. 70s-80s image. I had this rescue truck. My favorite part was the blond lady action figure, with her no-nonsense powder blue jumpsuit and Kate Jackson-like hairstyle. Apparently her name was Nancy, and her co-worker was Tom. How perfectly beige.
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Sunday, September 08, 2002
Today I saw something at the grocery store that was so, so wrong in its misguided nobleness - a display of Hartz DogNY plush rescue dogs. That's right, you too can comemmorate a day of worldwide tragedy and mourning by buying a cutesy-wootsy stuffed animal. Just imagine the fun when using them to perform rescue missions on trapped Beanie Babies!
I think I'll just become a hermit this Wednesday.
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Friday, September 06, 2002
An intelligent critique of the new Rolling Stone magazine. The addition of more music reviews is a welcome change; RS was always comically inept in the album reviews department. It's amazing how many classics were skipped over by the RS staff over the years, and what was left was a bunch of ridiculous ass-kissing -- such as when they likened the Thompson Twins to the Beatles in 1985.
Enjoy this vintage Kool Aid commercial (mp3 file), one of several tasty tunes at Basic Hip's Digital Oddio. This was performed by Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of Tony the Tiger, narrator of contributor to Disney's Haunted Mansion, living legend.
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The Silver Age Marvel Comics Index (via Dublog) - tons of pretty covers from the '50s-'70s. Fun and useless activity alert: if you are in your thirties, go here and view all the Marvel covers from the month you were born. Here's mine.
Wednesday, September 04, 2002
The forthcoming Christie's vintage film poster auction looks cool, if only to see the various ways movies were marketed around the world. The American designs were generally cluttered and trashy looking, adhering to studio formula - although a surprise will come through, like this Breakfast at Tiffany's poster or anything Saul Bass touched. Japanese posters are similarly overdone - but I like them better. Maybe it's the Japanese letterforms that appeal to me (check the groovy pastel-colored Beyond the Valley of the Dolls poster for proof). The Brits were all over the place, occasionally capable of producing stunning work. Czech and Polish posters are unconventional works of art (compare the U.S. poster for The Birds with the Polish design) that often resembled avant garde theatrical posters. Mexican and Italian posters used luridly detailed illustrations ablaze with wild color. The big surpise, for me anyway, are the Swedish posters from the '30s. Invisible Stripes, Crime and Punishment, Now I'll Tell You - all typical Hollywood movies transformed by the Swedes into peerless Deco beauties.
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Just had a lovely lunch with Chris today. Our workplaces are just down the street from each other in lovely downtown Phoenix. His skyscraper is twice as tall as mine, though, should I be jealous? Thanks, Chris!
Tuesday, September 03, 2002
This behind the scenes at The Onion article takes a lot of time to tell us that they're really just like any other paper. They have tough editorial meetings. They like flannel shirts. Crazy, man, crazy.
It's official. The Disney Channel is now all pre-teen crap, all the time - even at 3 a.m. (L.A. Times via TV Tattle)
Monday, September 02, 2002
The DeZurik Sisters were a unique singing duo active in the '30s-50s. Their gimmick was a trilling yodel so high-pitched that their voices resembled birds (hence their later name, The Cackle Sisters). Weird old music, just my style. Thanks to Otis Fodder for sharing this stuff.
 Question - with all the Sims downloads sites out there, why are 98% of the skins made for fit white women? I have some heavyset male Sims who need a different look besides German Polka Musician and Fat Pimp.
Anyway, I signed up for a membership at 8th Deadly Sim because I love the quality downloads done by the same people at the free 7 Deadly Sims site. The 8DS offerings are mostly geared toward straight, horny adolescent boys, but that's okay. Where else can you make a SimHooters, or put a SimBitchin'Ferrari in the driveway, or fill your SimHome with enough chesty, tacky looking babes to make it resemble the set of Showgirls?
One of my favorite Sim objects is available at 7 Deadly Sims - an Atari 2600, complete with faux wood paneling. Neat!
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Amazing collection of Barbie dolls rejiggered to look like movie stars. Includes my favorite semi-obscure thirties movie goddess - Delores Del Rio. Via I Love Everything.
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