Saturday Matinee – Food Preparation Tricks, Messer Chups, The Raybeats & Dick Dale

Wish I’d known about these great shortcuts back when I was eating cold Hormel Chili out of the can. [Vid found here.]

Messer Chups cranks some electric surf, and yeah, they’re Russian.

Oleg Gitaracula (Oleg Fomchenkov) – Guitar
Zombierella (Svetlana Nagaeva) – Bass
Rockin Eugene (Evgeny Lomakin) – Drums

“While Messer Chups’ mostly instrumental sound is hard to neatly categorize, it’s safe to say that it would be embraced by fans of rockabilly, horror punk, vintage surf records, Italian slasher films, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Pulp Fiction, lounge music, the theremin, The Cramps, and the theme song from The Munsters.”

That group reminded me of the Raybeats. Their album Guitar Beat is awesome. I have it on vinyl.

Listening to Dick Dale while driving results in a speeding ticket every time. (Don’t ask me how I know.)

Have a great Saturday and a peaceful Easter Sunday.

Grubby Grubby Num Num

[Found here. More about this delicacy below the break.]

Continue reading “Grubby Grubby Num Num”

China V-word Hot Links

Ratted out.

There’s water on Mercury?

Cat learns that he has ears.

R.I.P. Kenny Rogers (1938-2020).

Ootah after the return from the sledge trip.

Fargo police dog sniffs out black market Purell.

Monty Python Black Knight plush action figure.

Glen Greenwald’s list of media lies (and no, he’s not a Republican).

Running out of bumwad? Order it here. If that’s not what you’re looking for, click here.

Wikipedia is actually debating whether or not to delete references to the 1918 Spanish flu. Now about the Wuhan Chinese Asian Corona virus…


“It’s a funny thing… After the fall of communism, everybody in the world agreed that socialism was a failure. Everybody in the world, more or less, agreed that capitalism was a success. And every capitalist country in the world apparently deduced from that that what the west needed was more socialism.” – Milton Friedman 1993.

[Status update: A Humble Request.]


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.


[Top image of canned cheeseburger from here.]

“What’s for supper, hon?”

“Holding the two claws of the bear that her husband shot on the doorstep of their new cabin.”

[Date & location unknown, found in here.]

Saturday Matinee – Max’s Journey to the Moon, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ry Cooder & Taj Mahal

Cool animation required 600 pancakes [found here]).

Bassist Keith Ferguson is ‘playing’ one of Jimmy’s 6 string guitars upside down.”

The original Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1980:
Jimmie Vaughan (guitar), Kim Wilson (vocals/harmonica), Keith Ferguson (guitar) and Mike Buck (drums).

If Things Could Talk (1974)
Ry Cooder – guitars, vocals; Russ Titelman – bass; Jim Keltner & Milt Holland – percussion, drums; Bobby King, Gene Mumford & Cliff Givens – backup vocals. (Mumford & Givens sang with The Dominoes.)
40 years later:

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder play Blind Willie McTell‘s 1928 Statesboro Blues in 2014.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll sure do something or other tomorrow.

Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler! – It’s Mardi Gras!

King Oliver & His Creole Jazz Band – Sugar Foot Stomp (1926)
Louis Armstrong played 2nd cornet, married the piano player Lil Hardin.

Lil Armstrong & Buck Washington – Or Leave Me Alone (1936)
That’s Mrs. Louis Armstrong to you.

Al Hirt – When The Saints Go Marching In
Not sure what year, but I’m pretty sure that’s Pete Fountain on clarinet.

Might as well throw some Cajun into the mix while we’re at it. No idea who the artist is or what year, but the song is called Toot Toot.


Joyeux Mardi Gras!
J’espère que vous en avez un gros!

[Gator roast .gif found here.]

The First Del Taco, Yermo, California

“Ed Hackbarth and David Jameson opened the first Del Taco in Yermo, CA in 1964. With a menu of 19¢ tacos, tostadas, fries and 24¢ cheeseburgers, Del Taco brought in $169 in sales on its first day in business – the equivalent of 900 tacos.”

Seems that the Del Taco pictured above opened in 1961, predating the one that opened in Barstow in 1964. It was originally named “House of the Taco,” er, um, “Casa del Taco.”

$169 in 1961 is about $1,500 in 2020 dollars. Not a bad first day.

[Image found here, caption here.]

UPDATE: Ed Hackbarth Jr. points out that Dave Jameson had nothing to do with the Del Taco Yermo. He joined Ed Hackbarth later 1964-65, opening the Del Taco in Corona CA. – Thanks, Ed.

That’s a cold bowl of noodles.

Greta Thunberg blames you for this, too.

[Found here.]

The View From The Sled Biscuits

[Found here.]

I’d eat it.

This ain’t Turducken, but at least the matted fur was removed.

[Image found here.]