Futuristic Visions from The Eastern Block

Eastern block science fiction has always been fascinating to me. Dark Roasted Blend has recently posted a rather large collection of art from the 1930's to the 1970's.

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Star Wars Worth 1000 Photoshopping Contest

Worth.1000 has posted the results from another excellent Photoshop contest, perhaps the best one that they have done to this date.

See Prince Yoda Charles, Cheney The Hutt, Princess Beia (Mr. Bean as Princess Leia), and many more.

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Really Crappy Christmas Music - April Winchell.com

If you have never been to April Winchell's web site now is as good a time as any. Most of the music that she has posted would be right at home on the Dr. Demento show but lots of it is even more eclectic than that.

Hundreds of MP3 downloads are available including 80 holiday tunes but I wouldn't recommend putting these on your iPod and hitting shuffle at your next family gathering as some of the MP3's from this site tend to get a bit raunchy.

Link

Extremely Large Monster Collection

I thought I was an obsessive collector but instead of collecting a few things of everything this guy has concentrated on just classic monsters.

I don't think that my wife would let me take over a room in our house just for a collection of stuff anyway...

Link

Oh Where Have You Gone Steve Austin? (The Six Million Dollar Man)

With the return of the new BIONIC WOMAN show on NBC (which is actually an ok tv show, despite what you may have heard), I was hoping that interest in the original bionic person, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, would rise but so far I haven't seen any indication that this is going to happen. At least give us the show on DVD people!

There is a nice summary/story about the show on Nostalgia Central.

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And let us not forget the toys!

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Archie Comics and Fashion

Glyph Jockey has posted a bunch of cover scans to some Archie books and also a Flickr group link.

The Flickr group seems to say it best so I will leave it to them:

'Realism' is likely not a term that could (or should) ever be used in reference to Archie comics, but this collection of images circa 1965 - 1970 do pretty well in illustrating some of what was 'happening' in the youth culture and pop culture of that time.

Link (Glyph Jockey)
Link (Flickr)

Christmas Albums From the Past

Pebbles and Bam-Bam Singing Songs of Christmas
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Spike Jones "Let's Sing A Song Of Christmas" (Verve Records)
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Courtesy of the Universal Horror Sounds Blog. From 1964.
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Television Tunes - A Near-Complete Collection of TV Theme Songs in MP3

3000+ downloadable theme songs from some of your favorite (and not so favorite) tv shows. There are 21 different versions of the Babylon 5 theme!

There is also a 'Name That Theme Game' that will test your useless knowledge of pop culture lore.

Link

Star Trek - The Newspaper Comic

Star Trek comics at Amazon.com


Plaid Stallions is running the old newspaper Star Trek strips but I have to warn you, it is going to take a long while before we get anywhere as he is only posting three strips per WEEK!!!

Come on man, step it up! (but, oh yeah, thanks!)


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Top 10 Geeky Holiday Gifts For Your Child

I'm sure that as the blog world continues to grow that we will be inundated with Top 10 gift lists as the holiday seasons come and go but this one really caught my eye. The Geek Parenting blog has a 'Top 10 Geeky Holiday Gifts For Your Oddball Child' posting with links to allow easy purchase.

Where else can you find such things as:

• Gelli Baff - a gel that you put in your bath to turn it into purple slime
• Stuffed Giant Microbes
• Cold War Unicorns Playset
• Oscar Wilde Action Figure
  

Link

Hang Stan (a Flash Hangman game)

Here is a simple one with nice cutesy graphics. Try hanging the pig to see what happens. This might be a cute game for your kids to play and it should be playable on the Wii (and maybe even the PSP?)


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Print and Fold Toys

Download the PDF, print (preferably on a color laser printer), cut the pattern out from the paper, and tape together. It helps to use thicker paper and there is a collection of 22 patterns to download.

These things would look fabulous in my office and I will definitely be printing a few of them for display there.

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Doc Savage - An Ongoing Book Series Review

A few days ago I highlighted Beyond the Groovy Age of Horror's book reviews of an old Dracula series so I wanted to also direct those of you interested in the old pulp fiction character DOC SAVAGE to the reviews section of this blog in which you can find over 20 reviews (and increasing weekly) for various stories by Kenneth Robeson.

I recently found a stash of about 40 of these books at our local thrift store for fifty cents a piece and they regularly show up at these locations if you are interested in acquiring a few stories to read for yourself. They are definitely a fun read, if not somewhat standard, that will take you back to the thrilling days of pulp fiction.

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ABC Saturday morning cartoons from 1966

King Kong (1966 - ABC - intro)

Animated King Kong on DVD at Amazon.com

Milton the Monster (1966 - ABC - intro)

Milton the Monster on DVD at Amazon.com

The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1966 - ABC - a cartoon with none of the original voices)

The Beatles Cartoon at Ebay

Hoppity Hooper (1966 - ABC - you should recognize many of the classic character voicework)

Hoppity Hooper on DVD at Amazon.com

Magilla Gorilla (1966 - ABC - original opening with original commercials)

Magilla Gorilla on DVD at Amazon.com

Star Wars Toy Commercials

From 1978, R2-D2 and C3PO hawk their goods:


From the RETURN OF THE JEDI area, here is one of those goofy action figure commercials that always seemed to make them look more fun than they actually were:


And before you go out to shop for your Star Wars toys, don't forget to have a bowl of C3PO's:

1970's Toy Commercials

To 'celebrate' the first shopping day of the holiday season I bring you the 1970's, in the form of tv toy commercials:

I never had the Bing Bang Boing thing but we had lots of those SSP racers!

Psycho (the 2007 remake)

What is it with the remakes? Cool it already. Or at least do it with potatoes.

Steam Trek (Star Trek meets Steampunk)

Star Trek - you've probably heard of this? - and steampunk crash together and make this silent movie style video.

What Do YOU Want For Christmas? How About a Disco Playset?

I know, you are an adult who tires of hearing 'What do you want for Christmas?'. well, I have the perfect answer to your question.

Link

(thanks to Plaid Stallions once again for this absolutely wonderful retro post)

The 'Dracula' Book Series

Beyond the Groovy Age of Horror (Curt Purcell) regularly posts genre paperback reviews. Here is a link to a series of Dracula books that I have never heard about (but wish I did!). He has, temporarily, moved away from the horror genre but is presently doing some excellent pulp detective reviews.

Sounds kind of like a rip on the classic pulp fiction series - i.e. The Drums of Dracula and the Drums of Fu Manchu (by Sax Rohmer) - but I am still very intrigued. I have a decent sized paperback collection and pick these things up whenever I find them at the thrift stores. I could buy them on Ebay but it is more fun to find them in the thrift stores.

Warning: if you start exploring the site beware that there are some blog postings about hardcore Italian porno/horror comics with graphic illustrations.

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Radar On the Highway (from May 1956)

The Modern Mechanix blog has been posting lots of neat old magazine articles and I just had to share this one. Here is a quote from the article:

ONE DAY SOON you may be speeding along a lightly traveled highway and find that electronics has indeed arrived. In fact, it has arrived to the tune of a wailing siren and a big, flashing red light— you have been caught by a radar speed meter. Much to your chagrin, the poor motorist with the flat tire, parked at the side of the road, was really a highway patrol car.

The complete article is available for your reading pleasure.

Link

The World's Worst Records (mp3)

I found this one at work this morning and just had to rush and post it NOW! WFMU has posted the two volume set, THE WORLD'S WORST RECORDS. I can't download MP3's at work so I can't offer any comment but I will steal a quote from WFMU's blog posting:

'Of all the world's records 98% are boring. The 1% that are good, have been talked and written about so much, they've started to get boring too.

These records have to do with the remaining 1% - The records you love to hate.'

Link

Star Trek's Ultra Cheesy Creatures

To celebrate the release of STAR TREK on HD-DVD (yeah, I know, what is the purpose of this?) Wired has a collection of Star Trek's Cheesiest Creatures.

Link


As to the HD-DVD release, I know that the show was originally shot on film which, in theory, is capable of providing HD type resolution and more but it was not shot in widescreen and they have added new 'special' effects (a la George Lucas). I have these on regular dvd and they look pretty good already. No thank you, Paramount!

Bedrock

The All Kinds of Stuff blog has a detailed posting comparing Flintstones animated backgrounds with some big budget animated movie backgrounds.

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The Big Book of Pulps

This book looks excellent and I will definitely be putting in on my Christmas list.

1168 pages of pulp detective goodness for only $16.50!!!

The Big Book of Pulps at Amazon.com

Gallery of Dream Anatomy

Lots of fantastic German anatomical art.

Link

German Cowboy Tunes! (mp3)

Another fine one from WFMU. I doubt that we will ever see this one on cd so 'enjoy' the vinyl rip today.

Link

Rockford Chamber of Commerce (mp3)

Rockford, Illinois - late 1970's - the local chamber of commerce was having a jingle contest and YOU are the particpant. What do you write? Will it be good enough?

(the answers seem to be 'crap' and 'no')


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It's a Spike Jones Christmas (mp3)

The Mostly Ghostly Music Sharing blog has reposted this great Christmas novelty album.

Click here to get it.

Jack Fascinato - Music From a Surplus Store (mp3)

Definitely a product of it's age, check out the 'hipness' radiating from the album cover.

(From the most excellent Xtabay's World blog)
Link

Classic Roadrunner Death Scenes (in Ceramic)

In the 'what the hell were they thinking' department comes this one. The piece shown to the left is titled 'Death Scene: The Roadrunner is Stabbed to Death in a Cactus Patch." Unfortunately most of the pictures do not show enough detail and none of the pieces seem to be for sale.

Link

Super Mario Wedding Cake

This is actually a WEDDING CAKE!!!

Click here for the details. There isn't much but there is a little write-up.

Hanna Barbera's Missed Opportunities

Here is an excellent article dealing with one man's opinion about the demise
of animation in the guise of Hanna Barbera itself. I especially appreciated the fact that he actually appreciated the limited animation style of H-B and he really seems to understand what it takes to make an endearing cartoon character.

Link

The Periodic Table of Comic Books

Here is one that you probably never thought you would see: The Periodic Table of Comic Books. This chart is arranged by element (similar to the periodic table of the elements) as the element appears in a comic book story. You can then click on the panel and see either a full page from the comic which shows the use of said element in the story. Pretty interesting and loaded with lots of golden and silver age comic book goodness.

Saturday Morning Cartoons - ABC 1971

Today we feature ABC's 1971 lineup which includes a number of less well-known cartoons that don't get to see the light of day much any more with the exception of the Road Runner show which seemed to be a staple on Saturday morning programming for a number of years. Does anyone remember Curiosity Shop?

Preview



Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Stand Up?

The Road Runner


Lidsville (complete episode!)

Lidsville on DVD at Amazon.com

The Funky Phantom (opening)


Curiosity Shop (opening)


Jackson 5ive


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Bewitched (yes, they ran Bewitched reruns on Saturday mornings in 1971)


Jonny Quest - The Invisible Monster - Part 1



Jonny Quest - The Invisible Monster - Part 2



Jonny Quest - The Invisible Monster - Part 3

Jonny Quest on DVD at Amazon.com


Lancelot Link - Secret Chimp - The Surfin' Spy


Lancelot Link on DVD at Amazon.com