Category: Retro & Vintage

Hot Links of the Sarcophilus harrisii

Jack Harrison, the last survivor who participated in The Great Escape of WWII passed away on 4 June 2010. There’s an interesting interactive illustration of one of the tunnels here. [h/t to Wheels.]

Albino Raccoons.

Who is the Horseboy?

Disgusting prank is disgusting.

Awesome invention by a Ham radio afficionado that fights cancer.

Cadillacs and Album Covers here.  Two more here.

Google is getting so full of information it occasionally collapses under its own weight.

Need a chemical suit? Lookee here.

Live webcam in Amsterdam with sound here.

Speaking of sound, the Zambelli Family is awesome.

Amazing staring contest back stage at the Webby Awards. [via The Presurfer.]

What’s your American dialect? Here’s one test and here’s another.

The Sci-Fi Airshow has an online guided tour. I’m going next week. [via]

Saturday Matinee – The Clarks, Dan Akroyd, Eubie Blake, Tandy & Randy Newman

The Clarks! Tip o’ the Tarboosh to coldwarrior.

Dan Akroyd plays James Cotton‘s version of Ike Turner‘s Rocket 88.

Eubie Blake was awesome. He was 95 in 1978 when this interview was recorded.

During the break there’s  an advertisement for the troublesome RadioShack TRS-80 computer system, using magenetic tape cassettes for data storage. Only cost $599! That’s about $2,000 in today’s dollars. Later on, after users complained about problems with the cassette drives, Tandy eventually offered an awesome 5MB hard drive accessory, about the same size as a PC today, for $1,500 – a whopping $4,900 today.

Okay, 1978 was probably the peak of the (gag) disco phase, and the birth of R&B pop love anthems. There is absolutely nothing that ranked in the top 20 that I’d post here, except for maybe for the Stone’s “Miss You.” Worst song they ever did IMO.

On the other hand, this song made No. 41, and Randy Newman gets kudos for writing the most misunderstood song of the year:

Have a great weekend, folks, and meet me back here tomorrow.

Cephalopod Gas Passing

There’s a happy patient. One squeeze and she’s happy; two squeezes  and she’s dancing on the table; three squeezes and she’s prepared to serve in congress.

[Found here. Nice one, McGoo.]

Saturday Matinee – Swamp Rock, Ben E. King, Boz & Anson

I love this. Swamp rock with the most bizarre low budget video I’ve run across (found here) and it’s not even Cajun.

The video for The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band‘s new song Clap Your Hands was shot in one day in a barn in Indiana. All of the dancers, artists, freaks, weirdos, cowboys, kids, donkeys, bunko steerers, chickens, and regular folks, who are all Hoosiers, all volunteered their time and talent because they believed in the song and the band. The video was directed/produced by the acclaimed music video producer Kevin Custer (Lil Wayne, Soldja Boy, Flogging Molly) who remarked the day of the shoot, it would have cost a fortune to get all of these props back in NYC. To which The Rev. Peyton replied, These arent props they are just crap you find in a barn!

Ben E. King‘s great song as performed by a variety of performers. [Tip o’ the Tarboosh to Leeuna for posting it.]

Cbullitt tossed this one into the comments section a few days ago, and now I have new respect for Boz Scaggs. Here he is with Anson Funderburgh and an allstar lineup, including Blue Lou Marini.

Have a big ‘ol honkin’ great weekend folks.

Jeannie’s Bottle

Her pad wasn’t cool, but Barbara Eden was hot.

Just like Elizabeth Montgomery in “Bewitched,” “I Dream Of Jeannie” gave a lot of teenage boys fodder for late night fireside hypothetical discussions.

[Image found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Laurie, Suzanne & Joanne

The always odd Laurie Anderson can’t pronounce the Espaniel worth a Me Air Duh, but she’s entertaining in her own way.

I was gonna segue into Suzanne Vega, but I forgot how depressing her songs were. So then I looked for Suzy Bogguss, and remembered that I’d already covered her on an earlier Saturday Matinee Post.

So I’m thinking of Suzanne songs and decided to  go with Michael Nesmith’s “Joanne”  because it rhymes. But there are no decent vids on the Utoobage that do justice for the ex-Monkee’s greatest hit, except for this:

Meanwhile, here’s Joanne’s greatest hit. Have a great weekend folks.

Saturday Matinee – American Dialects, W.C. Clark & the Fabulous Thunderbirds

American regional dialects are curious, and when I hear one I haven’t heard in a while I try to identify where the speaker grew up. If you listen closely, you can hear the ancestral accents and phrasing as well: English to the north, Scottish and Irish to the south. As for me, I have no accent, but Mrs. Strutts says I do… I sound a lot like central Ohio mixed with some faint Texan stuff. (Here’s a simple online test if you’re curious what accent mix you have.)

W.C. Clark backed by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and featuring Angela Strehli is an awesome mix of Texas blues. Never heard of W.C. Clark? Try this:

Yep, that’s Stevie Ray Vaughan with W.C. Clark. Next question?

Oh. I understand now.

Visual aids are so important to the presentation.

[Found here.]

Bertha Dlugi’s Contribution to the World

Bertha Dlugi’s invention, patented in 1959, was intended for parakeets and other birds that are allowed to fly freely about the house. “It is … a general object of the present invention to provide a garment to be worn by birds for receiving their excremental discharge to prevent it from being deposited on household furnishings when the bird is at liberty in the home and thereby avoid the consequent unsanitary condition.”

[Image and description from here. Crossposted here.]

Saturday Matinee – Hambone & Hoodlin’, John Mayall & Captain Beefheart

“Learn that you’ll be goodndave.” Now google “eefing.”

Although Jimmy Riddle was one of the last great Eeefers, the Nashville R&B TV show “Night Train” once featured Joe Perkins‘ “Little Eeefin’ Annie.” Jimmy Riddle was the background “eeefer,” and Perkins lip synched it.

Later on, Jimmy Riddle explained it. [Related post, featuring the Hambone Boys, here.] Now, let’s clear the air a tad, with this:

Yep, that’s the great John Mayall. He kicks it at about 1:50 in. Not exactly hambone or hoodlin’ but he’s got it down. Have a great weekend, folks, see you tomorrow.

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Whoa, hold the presses. Just found this excellent clip of  Captain Beefheart’s venture into R&B. Now we’re rollin’. Dim the lights, last song, slow dance, ladies’ choice.