Category: Retro & Vintage

Saturday Matinee – Vietnamese Coffee, One Small Plate For Man, Virtual Choir 3.0 & Buster Keaton

“How To Make Vietnamese Coffee.” (Hint: Step 1. Go to Vietnam.)

Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one small step for man…” could be translated “Un petit pas pour l’homme,” and the title of the film is “Un petit plat pour l’homme” can be  translated as “One Small Dish For Man”

3rd year animation project (assigned subject “Kitchen”) from Charron/Onectin via email. Very cool.

Eric Whitacre‘s Virtual Choir 3 is awesome and kinda creepy at the same time.

His call for the Virtual Choir 3.0, which included a purpose-built website to make video collection easier and more uniform, set a new record. It included 3476 videos from 76 different nations, including one from Vanuatu. That is the video you see above.

[Found here.]

Buster Keaton’s 1926 comedy The General is based on a real event. In April 1862 a group of Union volunteers hijacked a Confederate train in Georgia and led the rebels on an 88-mile, six-hour chase through the state, tearing up tracks and cutting telegraph lines as they went and releasing cars behind them to slow their pursuers. The conspirators ran out of fuel just short of Chattanooga, their goal, but the Union awarded a Medal of Honor to most of them for the exploit.
…
“I was more proud of that picture than any I ever made,” Keaton said in 1963. “Because I took an actual happening out of the … history books, and I told the story in detail, too.”

[Found here.]

That’s probably enough stuff to keep you out of trouble for a while. Have a great weekend, folks, and hope tomorrow is cooler.

Freyja & The Skogkatt

From Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda:

Freyja is the most famous of the goddesses. She has in heaven a dwelling which is called Fólkvangr, and when she rides to the battle, one half of the slain belong to her, and the other half to Óðinn… When she goes abroad, she drives in a wagon drawn by two cats.

I’d say those two cats have some nice penmanship, but there’s more to them than that. They were huge, mean and they loved to draw. They were The Skogkatt.

[More here.]

Saturday Matinee – Playing For Change, Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf & Meatloaf

The Stones‘ “Gimme Shelter” by multinational conglomeration Playing For Change, created by American producer Mark Johnson, is very cool. (Watch for Taj Mahal.)

I find it odd that they would choose that particular song, as it’s forever linked to a free rock festival in 1969 that ended up in tragedy at Altamont Speedway, California, much of it due to the actions of the hired “police” – Sonny Barger & The Hell’s Angels.

The event is best known for having been marred by considerable violence, including one homicide and three accidental deaths: two caused by a hit-and-run car accident and one by drowning in an irrigation canal. Four births were reported during the event. Scores were injured, numerous cars were stolen and then abandoned, and there was extensive property damage.

From the same year, Steppenwolf had a hit with the greatest biker song ever – “Born To Be Wild.” Okay, where do we go from here? Oh wait. I know.

That’s for José from Spain who tutored me on cryptanalysis, and recently discovered the wonderworld of Meat Loaf.

Have a great weekend folks, and be back here tomorrow for Day 3 of our 6th Glorious Year of pure awesomenecessity.

Saturday Matinee – The Olympics, Roger Miller, The Clash, Manfred Mann, Pink Floyd & Yeoman Warden

The Olympics were an underrated vocal group (see Walter Ward and the Challengers) and there are few live vids on the Utoobage; however, there’s a nice collection of recordings here.

Roger Miller‘s “England Swings.” I hate that song, and I hope you do, too.

The song was written by Bruce Springsteen, but those guys did it better. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band was underrated here in the States as Mann was stuck with his 1964 cover of The Exciters’ “Do Wah Diddy Diddy.”

Pink Floyd is another Brit treasure who have been around longer than you think. That vid’s from 1969.

The Clash – one of the great early punk bands, influenced and encouraged by The Ramones.

We posted this previously, but it’s worth a repost. Yeoman Warden explains why the Brits were not to be messed with. If you’ve never clicked on a single vid that we’ve posted here, click on that one and pay close attention. Then you’re going to want to hunt down and pay attention to the rest of the 6 part series of awesome.

Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here tomorrow for more stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Computing Cams, 3D Sketch & Jacquelyn Adams

Simple mechanics: Cams!

Cool. More images  here.


While looking for a decent live version of “Welcome to The Machine” I found this. Jacquelyn Adams‘ tribute to Pink Floyd [“Dr. Jacquelyn, Mr. Hyde,”  Horn Day, 10 February 2012, York University, Toronto, Ontario] and it begins with that song.

Given the atrocities of yesterday, we might as well leave the number of vids posted at three, and the selections are in no way a commentary. Hug your kids and loved ones, pray for the victims, and we’ll be back here tomorrow.

Van Gogh’s Shoes 1888

Never saw this one before now. There’s a lot of subtlety and stuff hidden in there if you look at it a bit, and squinting helps.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – 100 Rock Guitar Riffs, Ricky Skaggs, 16mm Clogging in the UK & Dan Hicks

So what if it’s a clandestine advert, it’s cool. I recobanized 95% until he got into No. 66 or so, but I got more than I expected after that. Now let’s talk about some serious pickin’.

That’s Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, playing in a cave in Cumberland Kentucky in 2010. “Salty Dog Blues” is a traditional song with traditional innuendo that dates to the early 1900s.

Imported from the UK ( and elsewhere):

Clogging is the official state dance of Kentucky and North Carolina and was the social dance in the Appalachian Mountains as early as the 18th century. [Wiki]

The Banjo Boy scene from Deliverance shows a local clogging at about 02:50 [link]. Although the movie was entertaining, it promoted the false and insulting stereotype of southerners as a bunch of inbred ignorant hicks.

Speaking of hicks, here’s one of the better ones.

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks with “Milk Shakin’ Mama” from the Flip Wilson Show 1972.

And with that, we’re out of here until tomorrow. Have a great weekend, folks.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 237 – Clam Licker, Nancy’s Trip & The Dance of the Triops

[Top inspired by CDR; 2nd created from this; Triops found here.]

Context is Important

A few years ago we posted that image in puzzlement, and we’re still mystified why a young guy in a skirt and a headband is so pissed at an older man that he needs a piece of furniture to take him down. I mean, look, it’s not a matchup between David and Goliath here. On the other hand, maybe Skirt Boy is playing a prank on the old man by stealing his chair right before grampa is about to sit down, but there’s no need to grab it by the leg.

More likely, the strong young man is going to aid his father and hurl the chair at someone or something out of the frame, like this:

That’s my best guess, Occam’s Razor and all.

Antigravity Nancy

She must have got into Aunt Fritzi’s meds again.

Because I’m a Bushmiller Fan, we’ve created a New Category in our archives. All Nancy All The Time.