Big Band Moog

This just begs one question, WHO thought that THIS was a good idea?

Here is the track listing:

• Aquarius
  
• Walk On By
  
• When You Come Along
  
• Moog In My Soul
  
• Sounds Like Love
  
• T'aint Necessarily Soul
  
• Michelle
  
• Smoke Gets In My Moog
  
• Star Spangled Moog
  
• Pressure Cooker

Illustrated end papers

Who would have thought that the 'end papers' in books could be so beautiful? Click here to see many more fine examples like these two.

Bootleg videogame system from Bahrain with ONE MILLION games!

A bootleg Nintendo Entertainment System with ONE MILLION GAMES you ask? I know, it sounds impossible because therewere, at the most, only a few thousand NES games ever made. But if you lived in Bahrain (for you America centrics Bahrain is in the Middle East and I have actually been there) you could have this system.

Of course they probably aren't all wonderful games like 'Javeling Throw 403' but I would imagine that most of the classics are there. Click here to read more.

Fantastic Family Fitness Fun - a musical odyssey/oddity

WFMU has another outstanding post in the 365 days series, this one is the FANTASTIC FAMILY FITNESS FUN. A 'greatest hits' collection to best all other greatest hits collections for sure. Joannie Gregins, Miss Piggy and Mary Lou Retton all in one place - impossible you say? No, it's not.

link

The Indo-British Jazz Ensemble - Curried Jazz

An interesting mixture of jazz and indian music from 1969 can be had by clicking here.

Don't you just love the album artwork? Notice how is says MUSIC FOR PLEASURE in the top right corner?

Unpublished Space Smith comic

Somewhat crude by today's standards but a fascinating glimpse into a lost part of the golden age of comics. Click the comic book cover to be taken to the story.

Remembering the un-polictically correct breakfast cereal mascots of old...

Click here for a sampling of the history of Sugar Bear, a wonderful comparison of the golden age of advertising art.

The Atari Video Music (is this really what they called it?)

Technabob has an excellent blog post, complete with youtube video, about the ATARI VIDEO MUSIC, a late 1970's relic that was the precursor to the modern day PC MP3 player visualizations.

Weird Advertisements

Click here to see weirdomatic's collection of 'creepy ads.' Check out the Camel ad that is basically telling you to smoke to help you speed skate better!!!

Batman - the TV show

WFMU has an excellent collection of links related to the old Batman tv show including the original ABC opening, the Batusi (remember this absolutely ridiculous episode?), the Burt Ward screen test, the orginal soundtrack (yay!), and much more.

The Golden Age of Videogaming (ATARI 2600)

Retro-Thing blog has an excellent posting about the demise of Atari (as related to Activision). Click here for the details.

Click here for a list of all Activision 2600 titles.

Turkish pop 45

Click here for a couple of Turkish pop songs from the late 1970's.

The first one is actually rather catchy (Şiribim Şiribom) while the second is reminiscent of the cheesiest disco song that one could ever hear.

Thanks to WFMU (again) for posting this baby.

Marvel Comics CIVIL WAR (comic book review)

I am in the process of reading this series of 120 comics or so from the 2006 'mega-event' put out by Marvel Comics. While overall I have found the series a pretty good read, I can't say that it is without problems. As with most comic mega-events (from Marvel or DC) the tie-ins are just too much and start to get a little flimsy the more you get out from the center of the ruckus. The story starts to drag on and I find Iron Man/Tony Stark's actions pretty implausible throughout. I think that the story is trying to be some savvy political commentary over our country's actions since 9/11 but it is too ham-handed/heavy fisted to be as effective as any good politically tinted classic literature of the past (Animal Farm, 1984, etc.).

Overall I do recommend it as a fun read but don't stray too far from the main course. As with most mega-events in the comics world, it starts with a bang and ends with a rather pathetic whimper.

Buy it on Amazon.

Civil War (Marvel Comics)

Outtakes from the 2003 365 Days Project - Part 3

Click here for another FREE album of obscure/weird/outsider music compliments, again, of WFMU.

Steampunk magazine

I am not a big fan of the steampunk movement but I always find it to be a very artistic thing. Click here to download the first three issues of the magazine for FREE. This isn't some amateur pub either, it is professionally produced and easily equivalent to something that you could find on any corner newsstand.

Ken Dodd and the Diddymen

(from the Swapatorium blog)

Two songs from this EP/45 have been posted here. The songs are ok but I just loved the artwork.

Visions of the Future (depicting 2000 from the year 1910)

Click here for an absolutely beautiful set of lithographs depicting the 'future' world of 2000 from the year 1910. The site is in French but the descriptions are fairly vague anyway. This one is titled À l' École (At the School).

A collection of final frames from classic movies and tv shows

Click here to be taken to the Flickr collection of final frames from classic movies and tv shows. This is a very interesting set of pictures that shows only the last frame of many classic films, including the one above. Guess the movie (easy!).

Mad Twists Rock and Roll

Click here to download these nearly lost gems from 1962 and 1963.

Batman by Dostoyevsky (i.e. Hey Kids! Free Comics!)

Click here to see the Batman comic CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

Again With the Comics: Batman by Dostoyevsky

play SIM CITY classic online - FREE!

This one has been available for a while but I had forgotten about it until I read a blog posting last weekend. Play the absolutely classic game online for FREE by clicking here. I remember spending hundreds of hours playing this beauty on my COMMODORE 64 back in the day. If you have never played it you are in for a real treat.

Ratatouille - 2007 - Pixar (a review)

Ok, so call me a cheap bastard! I can't stand taking my family of five to the REAL movie theater that now charges close to nine bucks a pop because, well, I have a really nice home theater setup (58 inch DLP tv with upconverting DVD player) and the quality is almost always better than watching even a first run movie at the theater. Add to that the fact that I don't have to listen to people talking, answering their cell phones, talk on their cell phones, bring their babies to the theaters, pay 10 bucks for popcorn, etc. I think you get my drift here and I think I am not alone...

Anyway, I finally got out to see the latest Disney/Pixar effort, Ratatouille. And it was at the 'cheap' theater (some people still call this the dollar theater for some reason but it is now $3.50 to see a movie here so I was still out seventeen bucks and could have bought the movie for the same price).

Before I review the movie let me rant: it is not ok to bring babies and one year olds to the theater people! We all paid the same amount to see the movie and we did not pay to hear your little darlings cry!

Ok, the movie - I had heard many great things about this movie but personally I feel it was missing the one thing that always makes or breaks Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks movies - adult styled humor. There really was little of this as I found myself rarely laughing at most of the way too juvenile humor.

The characters did not draw me in and the story was rather too fantastic (a bunch of rats cook a gourmet dinner at the end of the movie). I know, it's a cartoon but still....

Pixar has done better, MUCH better. The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, both Toy Story movies are truly examples of art in it's highest form when it comes to this format.

The animation was top notch. Some of the backgrounds were quite beautiful but I found the animation of the people to still be somewhat flat.

Shrek 3 was one of our favorites of the summer and it was in no danger of being knocked off of it's throne at the our house by this one.

The New York Percussion Ensemble - Bach For Percussion (mp3s)

Another great post on WFMU's 365 days blog!

At WFMU Mr. Fab said it sounded like African music but I think it sounds a lot more like those hippy drum lines you see at public parks in large cities.

I listen to a small amount of Bach so I may not be an expert but I don't hear any Bach in these songs.

Even More Celebrities - MP3 comp

Benny Hill, Madonna, Schwarzenneger, Mr. T and much more round out this rather awful update to the first rather aweful compilation.

Click here.

Celebrities - MP3 compilation

John Wayne, William Shatner, Mae West, Anthony Quinn, and the usual gang of suspects are all here. Listen and drop your jaw in amazement at some of these absolutely horrible attempts at singing.

Click here.

This is Os Velhinhos Transviados - Embalados (1965)

I don't know about the music but the album artwork was so enticing that I just had to give it a shot.

Click here.

CB/Ham Radio QSL Gallery

I remember that when I was a kid lots and lots of people were using CB radios (late 1970's). But only a few were trading QSL cards (normally QSL cards were traded after you talked to someone and came from the Amateur Radio world). My mom had a couple of friends that had a wall covered with them and I always thought they were pretty cool, so cool that I commited myself to one day doing the same thing. Something along the lines of 'when I get old enough, I am going to get a bunch of CB radios and start trading QSL cards like Jim and Cathy.' Of course the CB radio fad did a quick death and I lost interest as soon as some other colorful thing came along.

Click here for the gallery.

Vintage throwaway advertising

Click here to see a few sugar packets and some other junk. Actually these are pretty good examples of vintage advertising, mainly because most of them were throwaways and aren't seen very often.

The Girl From U.N.C.L.E (comic book)

Glyph Jockey has posted a complete comic book (read this while you are listening to the soundtrack that I posted previously).

Music From the Third Floor - Volume 2

Click here to get the latest Music From the Third Floor compilation (Bollywood songs).

Nino Nardini - Musique Pour Le Futur (1970)

Here is an oddity from 1970, lots of synth.

The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. - soundtrack

I doubt the RIAA will come and pound down your door for this one.

Charlie's Angels toys

I do remember the show and I remember the toys but I certainly don't remember seeing anyone playing with them. Of course, around this time I was probably somewhere near ten years old so I probably wasn't doing much playing with girls and certainly not with 'girl' toys!

Click here for Plaid Stallion's blog entry.

Ralph Bakshi's MIGHTY MOUSE

The 'all kinds of stuff' blog has a nice posting with some clips from Ralph Bakshi's THE NEW ADVENTURES OF MIGHTY MOUSE cartoon. Really cool and hard to believe they let us kiddies watch this stuff.






Click below to see the opening titles:

Mandom! (Charles Bronson's line of man-care products)

This one seems to be making the blog rounds at the moment. Classic 70's cheese with a twist - Charles Bronson singing (?) and dancing.

Remastered STAR TREK TOS starts this weekend

I pretty much hate it when they tinker with classics but I will definitely be tuning in to this one to see what is up. If nothing else I am hoping that it will be broadcast in HD.

Click here for a schedule.

Oh MC Hammer where are you now?

I watched the funnier than hell Vanilla Ice movie COOL AS ICE recently and it got me to thinking about other 'rappers' of days gone by including this one, who was so popular that he even had his own Saturday morning cartoon.

Later in the day - BOOM! It must be 'Hammer-Time', I just found another Hammer reference - and all in the same day. When was the last time you heard the words 'MC and hammer used together twice in the same day? 1989 I would guess? The video is awesome, highly recommended.





Since we are now doing videos, I may as well throw up a link to the Hammerman opening credits. There are a few more clips availalbe on youtube if you can stand it.

Various Artists - Fairytales Can Come True - UK Popsike From The Late '60s (2007)

Thanks to the Garden of Delights blog for posting this lost rarity - 20 tracks of late 1960's psychedelic tunes from the UK.

Click here for the link.

FREE classic cartoon downloads (iTunes, RSS, direct download)

I have been watching the Channel Frederator podcast for a long time but it had, until now, escaped me that they also have a classic cartoon podcast.

RSS feed
website

Chewbacca imitator on Judge Joe Brown

Click here to see a Chewbacca imitator on the Judge Joe Brown show.

Married With Children (Russian style)

Anyone remember the tv show MARRIED WITH CHILDREN? Apparently they not only remembered it in Russia but SONY decided it was the right time to bring out their own version of the show with lots of amazing similarities.

Click here for a NY Times article about the Russian show. Includes a short video clip.

Storycorps

Here is an interesting idea, have 'regular' people tell stories about their lives and collect them on a website. It may sound kind of dull on the surface but as you explore the site you see that these are the people that made history.

There are thousands of stories to hear, everything from stuff that happened yesterday to events that shaped the nation in the early 1900's.

They also have a podcast if you want to hear some of their favorites.

Vintage railroad safety posters

Some guy took a ride on the Blue Ridge scenic railroad and found these old railroad posters.

This one is just slightly to the point don't you think?

Metal STAR WARS sculptures

Obviously Star Wars has had a major impact on pop-culture (and culture in general). But some of the stuff that I run into from time to time is simply amazing. Click here to see more.

Absolutely FREE and LEGAL ebooks!

Go to Munseys.com and choose from over 20,000 classic books in many ebook formats (including Plucker, Rocket ebook, MS Reader, Acrobat, HTML, zipped, mobipocket, isilo and more).

Thanks to the Groovy Age of Horror for turning me on to this website.