Category: Retro & Vintage

The Saturday Matinee – ANIJAM, Tommy Pederson & Frank Leightner, John Prine & Iris Dement

“Anijam” was a 1984 animation experiment created by Marv Newland, and appeared in the movie/video series “Animation Celebration.” No plot, just an exercise in surreal animation focused on an odd character named “Foska.” (Watch for some early computer animation sequences.)

“ANIJAM was created by 22 animators, each doing a different sequence. The first drawing of each sequence is the last drawing of the previous sequence. The animators did not know what action came before, or went after their own sequence. The animators were free to create any animation that they wished. They were required to begin and end their sequence with Foska.”

So where do we go after that level of bizarre? How ’bout this:

“The Flight of The Bumble Bee” [ca. 1900] on trombone is VERY tough to do. I could barely double-tongue on trumpet (dugga-dugga), or triple-tongue (dugga-ta-dugga-ta-dugga) but that guy was quadruple tonguing (dugga-dugga-dugga-dugga) on a trombone at high speed. Spike Jones’ band was awesome.

John Prine & Iris Dement at Sessions at West 54th (full concert) February 2014 [via]. The only thing I have against John Prine is/are his forced rhymes, but his voice and songwriting makes up for it. After all, it’s a Big ‘Ol Goofy World.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more fun.

The Best VW Repair Manual Ever: “How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot”

VW CUTAWAY
This predates the “For Dummies” books, and although it focuses on VWs, it’s also a primer on how all the systems in a gasoline-powered car work, how to maintain them, how to diagnose trouble and how to fix it.  It’s written as if your Uncle Joe was coaching you, and the diagrams (and comics) are hand-drawn in Robert Crumb style. I learned a lot from it when I was in my 20s, and the book is still in print via Amazon here.

Even if you don’t own an old VW, get a copy and read it just for fun, enjoy the illustrations, and pass it on to your favorite teenage greasemonkey like I did. (It’s the perfect Christmas gift for someone with a VW, an adjustable wrench, a hammer and a couple of screwdrivers.)

Oh, and click on the image to see the big picture.

Patching a Program

Punch Tape Patch

Yeah. I remember computer paper punch tape. [Found here.]

Still Doomed.

Star Trek Certain Death

We don’t post many captioned images here, but this one made us smile. Even if they changed their tunics, they were doomed by the scriptwriters. The redshirts in StarTrek were always disposable (except for Scotty) and never knew what was coming down.

[Found here via here, and modified it a tad.]

A Small Motor-Driven Machine To Which Can Be Attached Various Implements

Hair Drying Device 1923

[Popular Science, 1923. Found here.]

Have a sammich.

Dagwood Sandwich

[The Dagwood, shamelessly lifted (and slightly modified) from here.]

Saturday Matinee – Halloween Pumpkin Carving, Frank Zappa & Oingo Boingo

Nice pumpkin carving tips. I use an orange Sharpie to mark the design, and carve with a serrated fish boning knife. Pre-designed push-pin patterns are for pussies, and using a Dremel is cheating big time. BTW, this is NOT how to do it.

That’s from Frank Zappa’s MTV Halloween Show 1981 at the Palladium NY. “Doreen” is classic, with doo-wop lyrics and chord patterns done in 4/4 time. “Goblin Girl” is typical FZ snark and innuendo.

The best Halloween Band (IMO) is Oingo Boingo, and they got their start as “The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo on The Gong Show. Pure awesome.

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll be back here tomorrow for more stupid.

The .Gif Friday Post No.352 – Mother Raven, The Birds & Trolling the Gulls

Mother Raven
The Birds Looped
trolling the seagulls

[Found here, here and here.]

Saturday Matinee – The Yoshida Brothers, Mean Mary James & Sarah jaroz

The Yoshida Brothers rock. Here’s their Wiki entry if you’re curious. [via]

Mean Mary James rips traditional song “Cripple Creek” on banjo live at WPRK. You want a faster version? You won’t find it.

Sarah Jarosz on mandolin, with Alex Hargreaves on fiddle and Nathaniel Smith on cello, recorded April 2010, is a nice version of Tom Wait‘s song from “Mule Variations” (1999). Personally, I like Waits’ version better because gravel and petunias work for me on happy songs.

There are some great tunes hidden in the back of Tom Waits’ attic under the Swanson TV Dinner trays, matchbox covers, PEZ dispensers and Bazooka Joe coupons for free 6-inch long telescopes.

Have a great weekend, folks. We’re gonna post something else that’s completely inane tomorrow.

“Friday The 13th Comes On A Monday This Month…”

Van Gogh

“… so we got a whole week of bad luck.”

[The Friday the 13th snark was coopted from Walt Kelly’s classic comic strip Pogo. Image from here – it’s a charcoal sketch by Vincent Van Gogh captioned “Worn Out: At Eternity’s Gate.”]