December 2013, in al-Khalifa street, Old Cairo
[Found here.]
A Watched Pot…
The Best Crappiest Speakers Ever Made.
They looked like armadillos boinking a mailbox, and yes, they were speakers. They were virtually indestructible. They hung on the inside of your car window when it was freezing outside and wouldn’t allow you to roll it up all the way.
They were also easily stolen with a pen knife. Lupe had a wall of them in his apartment, all wired together and hooked up to his stereo for a tinny wall of sound. Listening to Led Zeppelin through a dozen drive-in rattlebuzzers was truly something to behold. Truly.
[Found here.]
Another Great Gift Idea: Diesel Books
Diesel, aka Robert Kroese, helped me to get into Big Time Blogging with cordial honest advice. Buy his books, read them, then donate them as gifts to the homeless. –Bunk
Black Friday at Heck’s Department Store
Crumbling Dice & Exploding Billiard Balls
Cellulose nitrate was used to make dice from the late 1860s until the middle of the twentieth century, and the material remains stable for decades. Then, in a flash, they can dramatically decompose. Nitric acid is released in a process called outgassing. The dice cleave, crumble, and then implode.
From Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck by Ricky Jay and Rosamond Purcell, 2002.
[Via Wiki] Because of its explosive nature, not all applications of nitrocellulose were successful. In 1869, with elephants having been poached to near extinction, the billiards industry offered a $10,000 prize to whoever came up with the best replacement for ivory billiard balls. John Wesley Hyatt created the winning replacement, which he created with a new material he discovered called camphored nitrocellulose—the first thermoplastic, better known as celluloid. The invention enjoyed a brief popularity, but the Hyatt balls were extremely flammable, and sometimes portions of the outer shell would explode upon impact. An owner of a billiard saloon in Colorado wrote to Hyatt about the explosive tendencies, saying that he did not mind very much personally but for the fact that every man in his saloon immediately pulled a gun at the sound.
[Found here.]
Saturday Matinee: Swamp Edition – Talking Heads, Ry Cooder, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band & Swamp Dogg
Talking Heads‘ classic “Swamp” performed at the London Wembley Arena 1982. It was released the following year, creeped me out, and I became a TH fan.
Ry Cooder‘s swamp-rock cover of Elvis’ “All Shook Up” may have been posted here before but so what – it’s awesome and it fits the theme of this post.
“Now, Amos Moses was a Cajun. He live by hissef in da swamp.”
This is the best cover of Jerry Reed‘s “Amos Moses” I’ve ever heard. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band took it and made it nasty. (This 1976 video is from the German TV show Pop Scop.)
Jerry Williams Jr. aka Swamp Dogg at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam 10 June 2010. “Synthetic World” has a very cool 60s R&B groove.
That’ll do for this edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great shopping spree, folks.
The .Gif Friday Post No.308 – Hamster Eyeballs, Rambovine & Balancing Baby
Happy Thanksgiving
It amazes me to think that in September 1620, 102 people were so fed up with the English monarchy that they were willing to risk a dangerous late-season voyage across the Atlantic (that lasted over two months at sea) to a new land to establish a free colony.
Disease, scurvy, starvation and weather exposure took their toll, and half of them died before the following spring. In March of 1621, the survivors sought to establish Plymouth Rock, ventured ashore, and met an escaped British slave named Squanto who spoke English.
His first words to William Bradford were:
“Dude. This is a swamp. You f’d up. Y’all gonna die an’ stuff.”
Bradford replied, “Bro, WTF?”
“Here. Plant some of this, but put a fish under it.”
“Dude, no way.”
“Way. Just do it.”
“K. By the way, we got a plow.”
“Get out. You got a what? What you need a plow on a boat for?”
“We got one. You got an ox?”
“Ordered one on Amazon, but he ain’t showed up yet. They walk slow.”
“Cool. We’re gonna pop some pheasant for supper. Y’all wanna come?”
“Hell yeah. We’ll bag some Bambi and see you about 4.”
And the rest is history.
Have a great holiday, folks, and never forget the Reason for Thanksgiving.
[Image from here.]
The Curse of The Red Shirt
“Sorry, lil’ buddy, but it’s true. You’re a goner within 10 minutes of the first commercial.”
The only one who escaped The Curse Of The Red Shirt was Scottie. He was strong. He was invincible. He was Lt. Commander Scott.
[Image found here.]
Tacky Raccoons 