Category: Retro & Vintage

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine Blatter!

A geometric tree made from greenery found outdoors was described in a December 1956 “Better Homes and Gardens” spread called “Decorate with Nature’s gifts.” (From Mid-Century Christmas)

 

This image from a 1960 Alcoa Aluminum newsletter shows a family pulling the tubes off the branches of an aluminum tree and then decorating it with ornaments. Via Alcoa Records, Detre Library & Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center. (From Mid-Century Christmas)

 

An ultra-Modern Christmas tree of candle holders and starbursts was shot for the December 1961 issue of “House Beautiful.” (From Mid-Century Christmas, reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.)

[Found in here, via here.]

Saturday Matinee – Lindy Hop Showdown, The Wrecking Crew, Tommy Tedesco & The Memphis Group

Pure awesome. Girl in the stripes gets my vote [via].

“The Wrecking Crew” recorded some killer stuff, and you’ve likely never heard of them because they weren’t named  “The Wrecking Crew” until 1990. Their peak years were 1962-73 when they worked with Phil Spector. They weren’t a solid unit as the musicians came and went, but the music WAS solid, no matter who was sitting in at the time.

Tommy Tedesco, one of the greatest session musicians ever, was a member of the post-defacto-named Wrecking Crew. Tedesco was one of those rare people who, if told something was a musical instrument, could play it flawlessly.

Now about “The Memphis Group.” Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Al Jackson & Booker Jones provided the backup for some amazing recording artists, but you already knew that.

Have a great weekend, folks and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 514 – Tree Trimming by Hand, Tree Trimming Trapeze, Brute-Force Tree Trimming & Hand Trimming by Tree

[Found here, here, here and here.]

Vote for Bobby!

[Found here.]

We Remember- 7 December 1941

Correction. WAR was declared upon U.S. by Japan by the unprovoked attack, and the U.S. responded.

Dad always stamped his letters with this:

Nothing Much Happened Today.

[Found here. More in the “NMHT” category here.]

Saturday Matinee – Christopher Ameruoso, Sonia Sanchez, & The Rave-Ups.

Don’t know much about these two, but I’ll say this. Christopher Ameruoso has a nice cigar-box slide style, but he’d do better without his cutesy mugging. On the other hand, any woman who can slap a lime green stand-up bass like Sonia Sanchez gets my vote.

Serious PsychoPunkaBilly there, and Sanchez slaps the hell out of that bass. Let’s take it down a notch. I was about to post The Rave Ups’ classic “In My Gremlin” but maybe we should go with this instead.

What a great groove. The Rave-Ups were underrated and deserved more recognition IMO, but MO doesn’t count, by the way.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll do something different tomorrow.

P.S. To the guy who got out of his truck to tell me that my brake lights were out, THANK YOU. It explains a couple of close calls I saw in my rear view mirror…

The .Gif Friday Post No. 512 – “Does This Ever Happen To You?”


All are clips from late-night TV ads for helpful gizmos. The lady in the gray pullover goes through a dozen eggs every morning, but Tape Measure Guy is my favorite.

[All .gifs found here via here.]

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Continue reading “The .Gif Friday Post No. 512 – “Does This Ever Happen To You?””

Thanksgiving Pageant ca. 1910 Louisville, Kansas

[Image found here.]

We Wish You All A Very Happy Thanksgiving.

On The Way To Grandma’s House

Top image found here, and it’s apparently the artwork of Nicolo Sturiano, aka H. Hargrove. The produce stand doesn’t cast a shadow, and there’s something hinky with the General Store windows, but I like the style.

Hear the crickets in the background of the JC video? That’s my ringtone and I never turn it off. Never, because I never have to. I just look around the baseboards and then continue with the important stuff like nothing happened. Like going back to consuming massive quantities of animals, vegetables, tubers, fruits and nuts…  at least on Thanksgiving.