Pedestrian Bridge

Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland. I smell straw.

[Found here.]

Sheena – 40 Years Later

Okay, that’s not “The Sheena,” but close enough.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, paramedic Chris Porsz spent hours walking around Peterborough, a city in eastern England, snapping the photos of the everyday passerby.

More side-by-side photos here [via].

Saturday Matinee – Bert The Turtle, Time for Sushi & Jaco Pastorious

Bert The Turtle showed children how to survive a nuclear attack – assuming they’re far enough away from Ground Zero to have time to react. The film was shown in schools from 1952 into the 1990s.

David Lewandowski‘s “Time for Sushi” (2017) is pure disturbed weirdness. (His 2013 vid “Late For Meeting” is a classic.)

The late Jaco Pastorius was one of the greatest jazz-funk fretless bass players in modern times, IMO. [Video h/t TITH]

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll do something just as fun tomorrow.

“When Death Rides the Rubber” – Popular Mechanics, December 1932

Okay, so who the Hell gave Death a drivers’ license so it could pull this crap in the first place? Why is he selling used tires?

The used tire business has been around for decades, and there’s deceit involved. Check out this recent video:

[Found here via here.]

Saturday Matinee – Turbulence, Laurie Anderson, MiniMall & The We Five

This Is Your Captain speaking. We’re experiencing some minor turbulence and we ask that you stop screaming.” Wild rides were ridden on at the Birmingham Airport 23 February 2017 [via].

Okay, there’s a link to some surreal 1980s Laurie Anderson stuff above, so let’s go to 2010 live for fun.

Anderson was the Ken Nordine of the 80s (without the baritone voice).

MiniMall has a bit of a retro vibe and consists of:
Merced Stratton — composer, ukulele, vocals
Maral Ohan — composer, vocals
Allegra Rosenberg — composer, bass
Wynne Males — trumpet, vocals
Brennan Doyle — drums

[Merced & Wynne ate sandwiches on our rock-n-roll patio recently because Bunkessa knows them. They were all like harmonizing and musical and stuff.]

The “We Five” had this awesome hit in 1965, a cover of Ian & Sylvia‘s song “You Were On My Mind.”

Sylvia Fricker supposedly wrote it in a bathtub in Greenwich Village in 1962. Yeah it’s lip-synched, but it’s still fun as hell. One of these days I need to find out who the lead guitar on the left is because he rocks.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more of you-know-what.

Comb-over Villain

Apparently that’s an early 1900’s theater or movie villain, I don’t know who he was. Maybe he’s Iggy Pop‘s grandfather.

[Image found here, but when I searched for the source all I found were annoying waterstamps, so I restored it a bit.]

Mama’s Got A Squeezebox, Daddy Wants To Drive Railroad Spikes Through His Temples.

“When Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. When Papa ain’t happy, nobody gives a shit.”

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Roy Clark with Buck Trent, The Bros. Landreth & The Reverend Peyton

Roy Clark played a hayseed on the long-running show HeeHaw. He had some serious chops on both guitar and banjo, and Buck Trent was no slouch either. Ignore the title of the vid and the mugging and be amazed.

The Bros. Landreth cranked some serous swamp rock with “Runaway Train” recorded 9 February 2015. Every country band should have a song about a runaway train in my opinion.

“We researched these dangerous Hollywood-style stunts and my best friend Jim Connor volunteered to let me set him on fire inside my house.”Rev. Peyton.

Have a great weekend folks, and make sure that you eat or drink at least one thing that someone says is bad for you.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 492 – Cat Rank, Pink Shag Carpet Runner & Dog Dreams

[Found here, here and here.]

Independence Day: “Let despots remember…”

John Philip Sousa‘s sheet music for “The Stars and Stripes Forever! March” was first published in 1894, and his band recorded it in 1901. Check it out:


[Free audio download of Sousa’s recording here. Wanna see the Conductor’s Sheet Music? Click here.]

It’s been a century and a quarter yet it’s still one of the most recognizable marches in the world, especially around July 4th. An Act of Congress adopted it as the National March of the USA… in 1987. What I didn’t know is that Sousa penned lyrics for his timeless classic, and here is the last refrain:

“Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever;
The gem of the land and the sea,
The ban-ner of the right.
Let despots remember the day,
When our fathers with mighty endeavor,
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.”

Note that The Founding Fathers were all British citizens, right up until the Declaration of Independence. If you’ve never read it, read it; and if you’ve read it, read it again. Then read the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Out loud.

Teach your kids and grandchilluns the meaning and importance of Independence Day, because nobody else will. Tell them how pissed off the colonists were, and why, and then tell them what they eventually did about it. Then grill a buncha hot dogs and hamburgers, take ’em to a local fireworks show and have a great Independence Day Celebration. See ya there!