Category: History

Hot Links of the Beat Generation

Geese Teeth here.

“Zoom Zoom Zoom” by Jimmy and the Barbarellos is great a capella.

What’s your favorite number? Tell this guy.

Click and scroll down for the Snooty Cam. You’ll like it.

Interview with a 1-year old, with subtitles.

“It’s A Good Life” was a short story written by Jerome Bixby in 1953 that was turned into one of the creepiest Twilight Zone episodes ever.

Beat Generation was written by Rod McKuen.

The Late Country Dick Montana had a solo EP. Listen to snippets here (NSFW).

Wow. I’d never heard of “Action Park.” This amusement park was so dangerous the owners were forced to buy additional ambulances for the local hospital.  Lemur King mentioned it here, with additional links here, here and here.

Heading to Senegal this summer? An English-Wolof dictionary might come in handy.

Conway’s Game of Life is a fun curiosity from a few decades ago.

Ever seen a hook-faced conehead? You will if you click here.

Saturday Matinee – Glassblowing, Giant Rabbits, Paul Reubens, Delinquents, Riding the Curb

I took glassblowing in college in the middle of winter. Pure awesome. The instructors all had scars, and our own teacher accidentally sat on glow worm. Burned his ass in glass class.

The biggest danger was blowing the bubble. Inhale super-heated air by accident and you’re gonna die. [h/t Woosk]

Night of the Lepus Trailer. Big bunnies be eatin’ and killin’.

Pee Wee Herman Unmasked! Interview with Paul Reubens.

Mr. Grimes was a dick. I like him, at least in the first half of this instructional video from 1947.

11 years later, Mr. Grime’s protégés were curb dragging in 1958 L.A.

Have a great weekend and be back here tomorrow for more fun.

By Wednesday, Johnson Had Gone Scooters.


[Found here.]

The .Gif Friday Post No.184 – Atlantis, 1st Base, Iguana Caress

[Found here, here and here.]

Saturday Matinee – AGW Explained, Pug Sings Batman Theme, Jackson Browne & David Lindley Rip Off Originals, The Everly Brothers Rip Off Jackson Brown & The Original Zodiacs Rocked

Okay, before some copyright dweeb tries to attack me for slander, that title is pure sarcasm. It’s a joke.

I hadn’t seen this entertaining summary, but apparently it’s been bouncing around the internest for a while.
[h/t whatever]

Here’s a Blast from the Past, and it’s exactly as I remember it.
[h/t John DiFool]

Here’s a video that I bet you’ve not seen. Jackson Browne with David Lindley, live on Buenafuente, singing a compilation of Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs’ “Stay” and “Love Is Strange,” a 1957 hit by Mickey & Sylvia.  (Note that the original version of “Stay” was the shortest song –  99 seconds – ever to become a No. 1 Hit.)

Here’s “Love Is Strange” <—-click) as performed by The Everly Brothers:

“Stay” is perhaps the greatest doowop song of all time, given the amount of doo and the wopness, all compressed into a hit that runs a minute and a half plus 9 seconds. There is only one vid on the Utoobage of the original performance, and here it is:

That makes the requisite number of five videos complete. Have a great weekend folks, and be back here tomorrow for more stuff.

Independence Day 4 July 1918

I might have posted these before. They are envelopes decorated by my great-grandfather and mailed to his son (my grand-uncle) who was stationed in France in the U.S. Signal Corps in WWI. Walter received them on 10 August 1918, and replied with this letter:

“…I saw a peach of an air battle last night. Believe me that is exciting stuff to see them diving and darting around like a couple of birds. That’s about all I can tell you. I can’t tell you who licked. Some of the best fliers are located near us. I guess there are a few “aces” among the bunch.

…Pap says the war will be over in a year making it July 4th 1919. I don’t want to shatter his hopes but I think about the fall of 1920 myself. That is simply my estimate. Maybe last longer or maybe  not as long.”

Late last year I asked Walter’s daughter if she’d allow me to post her father’s letters, in sequence beginning in February 1918, as if in real time. For personal reasons she declined, and I’ll respect her wishes.

Meanwhile, I hope all of you still have the same number of fingers and toes as you did yesterday at this time.

Independence Day

In Congress, July 4, 1776,

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Continue reading “Independence Day”

Captain Kangaroo 1927-2004 [Updated]

Captain Kangaroo, aka Bob Keeshan, was my favorite as a lil’ tad. There he is, with a pocket full of carrots, and Bunny Rabbit in the other. My memory of Cap’n K does not include that screaming red jacket. It had to be blue, because I watched him every day in glorious black and white. Now check this out:

Yep. Captain Kangaroo liked Heineken. BTW, the urban legend is false – Bob Keeshan did NOT fight on Iwo Jima in WWII, and neither did Lee Marvin, although both were Marines.  Film at 11.

[Update: Apparently that photo is from a Halloween party circa 1980 something, and is not Bob Keeshan. It’s still awesome. Hat tip to Dave.]

[UPDATE 2023: The Full Story!]

The Real Captain Hook?

London’s Miss Zena Dare, in a pantomime production of  “Peter Pan,” 1906.

[Found here.]

STAX Stay In School

Stay in School, Don’t Be a Dropout (1967) was not a commercial release and less than 10,000 copies are known to exist in its original vinyl format.

Guess what’s in Bunk’s old vinyl collection!

This is a DJ album, distributed to R&B/Soul radio stations in urban areas. It’s got no lead-in tracks, meaning that the DJ had to pick what announcement or song he wanted to play and place the needle by hand. Stax/Volt was clever, in that the tracks of songs they were selling were preceded by public service announcements by the artists themselves.

“Hi, this is the big O, Otis Redding.
I was just standing here thinking about you,
Thought I’d write a song about you,
And dedicate it to you.
Take a listen.”

More info on this nice collectible here. Click to enlarge, check out the playlist, and read the commendation from Vice President Hubert Humphrey. There’s some great stuff on this album.