Category: Retro & Vintage

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.

Priorities At The Movies

[Found here.]

Chock Full O’ Vitamin Z



[Found here, by way of here. Click for bigger.]

Saturday Matinee – Cat Fail Sail, Mechanical Principles, & Tom Waits

[Tip ‘o the tarboosh to Mrmacs who found it here and insisted that we post it.]

“Mechanical Principles” – Simple gear actions from 1930 by Ralph Steiner, set to classical music. From the UToobage comments:

Some of the mechanisms featured:
0:16 Positive displacement pump
0:26 Four-stroke engine piston;
0:50 Simple steam engines or pumps;
2:00 Steam engine reversing gear as on ships;
3:10 Differential gear;
4:05 Worm gear;
4:10 Archimedes screw;
5:22 Geneva gear;
5:32 Pawl and ratchet;
5:55 Grasshopper escapement;
7:15 Scotch yokes;
8:07 Positive displacement pump (same as 0:16);
9:29 Wheel and disc integrator used in analog computers;
9:54 Possibly a turbine.

The only other soundtrack I can think of that might go along with that vid would be something by this guy:

Tom Waits’ Private Listening Party. I’m there if you need to get in touch with me. Have a great weekend, be back here tomorrow.

The .Gif Friday Post No.235 – 3 Polaroid LOLS & The First .GIF



16 June was the 25th Birthday of GIFs, according to Fast Company. We missed it, but we’re going to make up for the oversight.

“Choosy programmers choose GIF,” quipped Steve Wilhite of CompuServe, after he created the GIF image compression file format in 1987. It allowed for sequenced upload delays necessary for embedded animations. There’s a nice history of the now ubiquitous .gif on Daily Dot.

Animations above via Cari Vander Yacht. Tip o’ the tarboosh to OddMan for the GIF Birthday link, and here’s the Tacky Raccoons GIF Archive that includes Bunk’s Originals.

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UPDATE: In the interview with Daily Dot (linked above) Steve Wilhite said that he thought the first .GIF animation was of an airplane. This is one of the first that I ever captured, several computers ago:

Here it is, all blowed up, in 5 frames of pixellated glory:

Is this the first .gif animation Wilhite was referring to? I don’t know, but it’s a contender.

[Update 2: Fixed broken link to Daily Dot.]

Look. There.

FAMOUS CRYSTAL CAVE
Pennsylvania
Ice Cream Cone Formation

This great Natural Underground wonder, discovered 1871, is located a short distance off U.S. 222 bertween Allentown and Reading or via U.S. 22. Visited by thousands of persons annually. Trained Guides, Beautiful illuminations. Picnic Park.

Visited by thousands. [Found here.]

Lightsaber – Beta Version

[Found in here.]