photography – Tacky Raccoons

Danny’s All-Star Joint, Rickie Lee Jones (1979) Rickie Lee Jones, aka The Duchess of Coolsville, “released her self-titled debut album in 1979 to critical and commercial success. It peaked at No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and spawned the hit single Chuck E.’s in Love, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album went platinum later that year, and earned Jones four Grammy Award nominations in 1980. […] The album included guest appearances by Dr. John, Randy Newman, and Michael McDonald.” [Wiki]
Note: Malwarebytes detected riskware at her official website.

Signs in retirement.

Remembering Robby.

Cluck cluck cluck, etc.

Alabama Turtle Burglar.

Hickshit & boogerwelds.

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks.

A little construction work.

Gov. Gavin makes a tortilla.

Glowfish [via Memo Of The Air].

Demolisity [via Everlasting Blört].

Johanna Van Parijs’ wood mosaics.

1956 Pontiac Star Chief Ambulance.

Hotel Dramatica [via Thompson, blog].

Gabriel’s 300th post on Vankleek Hill Photos.

WMCA-AM (New York) broadcast February 1965.

[Top image: Paranoia panda balloon found here.
“Johnny Panda” was photographed during the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta in the UK, 08 August 2026.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

African Snow

Kitty Viljoen captured elephants enjoying the snow in the Sneeuberg – which translates to Snow Mountain – on the Western Cape of South Africa, where snow set in late last week. She also photographed giraffes in snow in the Karoo semi-desert region. […] Snowfalls are not infrequent across parts of South Africa during the winter, though this cold snap comes late in the season. In July, parts of the country were blanketed after several days of heavy snowfall.
The Guardian, 10 September 2018

[Found here.]

Slum Flat, Oldham 1962

“Mr Sutton Pownall, a gravedigger, lives at Number Two Court, Dickenson Street, Oldham, with his wife Joyce and their five children in a 150 year old house. The family share one bedroom, one kitchen and one living room. They share a key for communal toilets, near to where the dustbins are stacked. His children are Susan, 6, Steve, 5, Sandra, 4, Mark, 3 and Baby Gary, aged 8 months. 1st June 1962.”

The contraption in the brick nook is a coin operated gas meter similar to the one below. Drop in some change and you can heat the flat and cook for a few hours until the timer ran out and you had to feed it again.

“The meter controlled the gas supply to the dwelling’s appliances. In a typical UK flat of the era that had gas, this commonly included both cooking and some form of space heating (plus often hot water), all paid for by feeding coins into the same or similar meters. These systems largely gave way to credit meters, then modern prepayment/smart meters as North Sea gas, central heating, and different payment methods spread.” [via GROK].

Top (colorized) image found here via Google search of this image; caption from here. The original photo and more can be found in a photo essay titled Smog, Slums and Stars in the Making – 25 Pictures of a Lost Era in Oldham, Manchester Evening News, 04 March 2022.

Vintage 1949 coin operated gas meter found here, via here.]

Acyrological Hot Links

Love Theme from The Flight of the Phoenix, The Brass Ring (1966)
The Brass Ring, a group of NYC studio musicians led by saxophonist and arranger Phil Bodner, turned a classic Italian song into The Now Sound (cigarette commercial music) popular in the 1960s. Senza fine (the original version) was written by Italian singer-songwriter Gino Paoli and first recorded in 1961 by Ornella Vanoni. The film version was recorded by Connie Francis, and retitled The Phoenix Love Theme.

Brick tiled floor.

Gas station battle.

Homemade pencils.

Carnivorous couch.

Cerveza del Pacifico.

Nagasaki bus shelters.

Remembering Ol’ Remus.

The Red Baron (no not that one).

Eigendrum [via Memo Of The Air].

Where the rubber meet the roost.

Pennsylvania’s burning ghost town.

Homemade birds [via Everlasting Blört].

Cab Calloway’s Hepster Dictionary (1939).

The Moist Towelette Museum [via Neatorama].

Vintage Czech record sleeves [via sloth unleashed].

Batman & Robin vs. Dangerous Dr. Daka [via Thompson, blog].

[Top image: Shake by Annie Glass (2021). Story and more at My OBT.]

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 15 years ago.

OSU Class of 1923

Although the Ohio State University sports teams didn’t officially adopt their moniker until 1950, they were known unofficially as The Buckeyes since at least 1919. People referred to Ohioans as “buckeyes” years before that, as the name’s relationship with locals goes all the way back to 1788, years before Ohio even became a state.

[OSU yearbook page found here; trivia source here. Related image here.]

Women in Trees

“I love pictures that aren’t perfect, that I know nothing about,then, stories immediately being developing in my mind. For me, the women happen to be taking a Sunday walk with their partners. They are well dressed, look happy, and some of them seem to be really in love. These are young people who went off with a camera, clowned around, and captured their happiness in a snapshot.”

Jochen Raiß (1969-2022), a photo editor based in Hamburg, Germany, found most of the vintage photos in flea markets, scanned them and published his collection in a book Women In Trees (2014).

[Found here.]