Category: Retro & Vintage

Andy Loomis’ Twenty Kids

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Andrew Loomis was a successful graphic artist that authored several excellent “how to” books on illustration in a variety of media. The page above is from “Fun With A Pencil,” a book my grandfather had that I memorized when I was a young tad.

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First published in 1939, this book has all the basics of graphic design covered, with an emphasis on cartooning and caricature of the human form. Proportion, balance, lighting, perspective are all covered with graphic examples.

I had forgotten about the book until Loomis’ name popped up at Neatorama and memory bells went off in my brain… couldn’t be the same Loomis, but it was.

Now his books, including his first one “Fun With A Pencil,” may be downloaded for free via link found at Process Junkie. The download is a .rar zip file with every page in .pdf format. I had to chase down another shareware program to open it. Believe me, the trouble is worth it.

Red Sox’ Ballcaps are Full of It

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Cincinnati, Ohio, Crosley Field – (Strutts News Services)
Red Sox relief pitcher Lannie Foosers was dismayed to find a flaw in the SoxBox of Secret Weapons. In order to “Run Faster, Jump Higher,” team management outfitted all players with baseball caps (head caps for baseball) manufactured by Keds and made entirely of Flubber.

Almost entirely. The revolutionary headgear, designed to be worn on the head as gear, was manufactured with Type X-WR Velcro, a combination of common Velcro infused with SuperGlue. The resulting chemical product was intended to secure the gear to a player’s pate to enhance his performance, without detection.

Mr. Foosers, while airborne, managed to detach his cap from his head and avoid a potentially life threatening situation.

Bob “The Bobster” Bieber (RF, bats left, no record to speak of) bruised his head repeatedly on the concrete ceiling of the dugout before Foosers became airborne. The caps were painfully removed from the rest of the team and no other problems were reported.

The Red Sox went on to win the exhibition game against the East Overshoe (PA) Scorpions of something to something else in extra innings, and nobody cared. Ditto.

[Photo via Drudge.]

Greetings Red Sox Faithful Readers.
Stick around as often as you like. -Bunk

Saturday Matinee: One Domino Trashes a Town, and unrelated stuff

According to Arbroath, this was Guiness’ most expensive television advertisement to date, costing 10m pounds (about $2.1 million US bucks). Filmed in a village in Argentina, the whole town came out to watch. If our crack webminers can find a link to a “making of” video, we’ll update this post, but it’s more likely we’ll just tip a stout and be done with it.

Totally unrelated to the video above, our crack webminers turned up a video from 1970, from the Flip Wilson Show. This broadcast changed my life… or at least a good part of it.

The band appeared at Woodstock. Yes, that Woodstock, 1969. These guys played alongside Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Crosby Stills & Nash, Mountain, Arlo Guthrie, Country Joe & the Finch, Richie Havens, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, Melanie, Joan B. Depressed, Bobby Bieber and the SlimJims, Brittney Spears, etc.

Bunk was too young to attend Woodstock, but Bunk was allowed to watch TV. This is what Bunky witnessed at his grandparents house and loved it. ShaNaNa was IT.

This was Bunk’s introduction to DooWop. ShaNaNa sent me on a mission to hear the original versions by the Marcels, the Paragons, Dion, Gene Chandler, the Isley Brothers, the Zodiacs, the Del-Vikings, the Chips, the Chords, the Channels, Harvey & the Moonglows, Shep and the Limelights, the Ronnettes, the Shirelles, Leon Redbone, Led Zeppelin, Dread Zeppelin, Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Police, the Ramones, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, the Stray Cats, Frank Zappa, the Aquabats, the Skatalites, Moms Mabley and the Beat Farmers (featuring the late Country Dick Montana)… and not necessarily in that order. Oh, and I forgot the Solid Voidz featuring Big Don P.

Fill in the band(s) I might have missed in the comments section.

Saturday Matinee: 3 Shouts, then Bluto Eats It

The original “Shout” by the Isley Brothers of Blue Ash, Ohio, limp-sinking in 1959:

Then white people in the recording industry decided to like it. Joey Dee & the Starlighters had a minor hit with it in 1962. Here’s the Shangri-las’ version, from 1963(?). No wonder it didn’t make the charts:

Then it was resurrected by Otis Day & the Knights, from National Lampoon’s “Animal House” in 1978.

As a bonus, here’s your favorite “Animal House” scene:

Thanks for watching. See you back here tomorrow.

Faith Enhancer

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Just in time for All Soul’s Day.

Yes, folks, we’ve all seen it on TV, the one and only “Miraculously Pepper-Minty Faith-Enhancing Breathspray.”

Made from habanero chili oil, all it takes is one little squirt into your mouth, and you’ll be yelling, “OH GOD! O MY GOD!” and praying that there’s some milk left in the fridge.
—————-
Habanero chilis make you smarter.

I’d read about them. A friend had given me five little orange ones he’d grown himself. Something that small and pretty couldn’t be that bad, I told myself, and I dared myself to try one, or rather, a small part of one, and I ate a fingernail-sized slice late one night several years ago.

I have a deep and profound respect for the habanero.

It was sweet, pleasant at first, until it jumped up and filled my entire field of vision. Flaming sweat was spitting out of my forehead when I took a lick of salt (one remedy) and I jammed my fist into the refrigerator for the quart of milk without opening the door. “OH GOD!” I yanked the milk out by its udders ignoring the jagged metal that cut my forearm.

I drank the whole quart, and finally the pain subsided. Whew… at least I could say that I’d eaten the habanero. But I found out that it wasn’t done with me yet.

Relieved, and with natural endorphins jumping around in my brain, I headed for bed, got my night-chonis on, brushed my teeth. Then I took out my contacts. “OH, GOD!” A minute amount of the habanero oil had not washed off of my fingers, and now my eyes were shooting flames.

I took the contact lenses, washed them thoroughly, dumped them into the little canister with the magic cleaning tablets, and went to bed.

Next morning. Forgot about the habaneros. Fetched my contacts from the little canister. Put them in my eyes. “OH, GOD!” I decided to ride it out, and it subsided, leaving me red eyed.

And I learned that the habenero wasn’t done with me yet. Later that afternoon while sitting next to the bathtub… “OH, GOD.”

—————–
True Story, and I learned from it. Hope you did too.
[Photo source: Chiquiworld.]

Have a Sam the Sham Halloween

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Is it just me, or are they dancing to “Wooly Bully” by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs?

Alternate .mp3 version of “Wooly Bully” is available at here along with some other freebees. Rhino Records put out a Best Of compilation on vinyl decades ago, and it’s prolly available on CD.

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“Hey there, Little Red Ridin’ Hood… You sure are lookin’ good… You’re everthang that a Big Bad Wolf could want… Ooooooow!”

Saturday Matinee: Halloween

Sorry to pop your bubble of modern-day belief, but Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, was NOT a celebration of Satan’s birthday. It was a pagan custom designed to keep evil spirits from taking possession of their souls. The evil dead walked on this night, searching for souls to take. The preventative antidote was to dress up as the evil spirits themselves, and thus confuse them through the night so that they could take no souls.

Then Disney came along to give 5-year-olds nightmares with this:

[Link found here.]

But wait! There’s more! Several years ago a friend emailed me this:

Lastly, Karen from SNTC reminded me of the scariest one of all.
Mary’s Back.

Cinderella Slipper Search Engine

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The first thought that came to mind when I saw this was,
“Well, whip me, beat me, and call me Irma.”
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Deliberately changing the topic, this Bunk is fascinated by the words that some folks use to find Tacky Raccoons. Here’s a list of recent search engine terms:

ascii raccoon
woody pecker cat
alpaca snot
lunch lady
the chips rubber biscuit
mint hassenpfeffer
batmobile magnets
raccoons chewing sprinkler heads

I’d dodge feeding Mrs. Strutt’s cat for a day just to find out what those internet surfers were really looking for, especially “woody pecker cat” and “alpaca snot.” I hope they found what they were looking for here. If anyone has a better link for those two search terms, please post it in the comments. I’ll update this post and help hundreds, if not thousands of people searching for the same things.

P.S. I’ll accept hassenpfeffer recipes, too, mint or otherwise.

[Photo, with link to other odd footwear here, and Snopes has the Cinderella Slipper myth busted here.]

Somewhere in Kansas

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All that and caught without an oil can. Dorothy’s not gonna have fun today.

[Original photo from GadgetConcierge.]

“I Only Have Eye, For You…”

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The Flamingos had a hit with this one in 1959.
“Dubopshibop… oo-ooh, Dubopshibop.”

[Source.]