Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Is this the Scariest Clown of All Scary Clowns?

At least of all Scary Clowns riding tiny, tiny tricycles.
Just look at this guy!
He's the corpsiest clown ever. Even if you're not scared of clowns, you should be scared of this guy.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Taxidermy from the Four Corners region of Colorado

 This fox was in the window of an antique mall in Pagosa Springs, CO. 
 This bear was in the Lake City, CO Historical Museum, repository of many fine artifacts relating to the Alferd Packer cannibalism case. The bear, which has nothing to do with old Alferd or his dietary idiosyncrasies, stands only about four feet tall. (More on Packer soon!) 
And this baby ostrich stands in what might be described as an antique store or a flea market in Del Norte, CO, operated by a genial old fellow who used to run an ostrich farm. He also once built his own coffin prior to open heart surgery, which he survived. The coffin is standing up in the middle of the store and took him just a few hours to build. If you ever get to Del Norte he's a very good conversationalist and has some odd things for sale. Who doesn't need a stuffed baby ostrich?

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Dodgem, Alber's Flour, the Boardwalk and the beach

 This photograph was given to me by the owner of a small antique store in Alamosa, Colorado, when I was buying a couple of books. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said "Take it." Looks to me like Coney Island, maybe, or Atlantic City, circa 1925. Maybe one of the guys in suits is Nucky Thompson from "Boardwalk Empire."  Click to enlarge and read the ALBER'S FLOUR sign.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Barbara and the Iceman

Here's a novelty postcard I picked up in a small town in the Four Corners region of Colorado. It's from the Baxtone company of Amarillo, part of its Laff-O-Gram series of comical postcards. Like this example several of these were slightly risqué, but what appeals to me about this one is how Film Noir it feels.
 Barbara's relatively realistic, naturalistic depiction looks right out of a low-end romance comic, or a newspaper soap opera strip. Consider the raised hand, as though about to cover her mouth before she can tell hubby another lie, her sidelong glance, her back to her husband and the accusatory ice block:
 She looks like she's wondering how she can convince the amorous ice peddler to knock her old man off. And the poor cuckold of a husband seems to have been drawn by another hand entirely, a grotesque, cartoonish head awkwardly appended to a relatively realistic body:
I'd love to know who drew this.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Little America, Granger, Wyoming, August 27 1938

Found this lovely thing in Indiana a few weeks ago:
This is the kind of weird old-timey Americana I'm always looking for in old pictures. And only two dollars! As always, click to enlarge, there's plenty of satisfying detail in there....

Sunday, August 17, 2014

A modest plea!

Hey! Remember how I hadn't "blogged" (thank you, Dr. Pendarvis, for the loan of the inverted double-commas) in about a year? Well, I started it up again last week, and now I have a request!

Actor Walter Olkewicz, an old and dear friend of my cousin Janet's, is a wonderful character actor whose work you have enjoyed whether you know his name or not. Starting way on TV back with the Rockford Files (his first credit), through Barney Miller, Cheers, Married With Children, Family Ties, Twin Peaks (TWIN PEAKS!!!),Grace Under Fire and Seinfeld, and in movies like The Client and Spielberg's 1941, Walter has been gracing the big and small screens with performances of wit and grace. And he's a wonderful, sweet guy as well. I promise you'd like him.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0647288/?ref_=nv_sr_1

He's now got some serious health problems that insurance isn't covering, and he needs some serious medical work to save his leg. If you can will you please make a donation to the Indigogo campaign below, and if not can you pass the link along via your preferred forms of social media--Facebook, Twitter, your blog, smoke signals, party line telephone, grabbing random strangers by their lapels and demanding they listen?

The muses will smile on you if you do so.

https://www.indiegogo.com/project/help-walter-save-his-leg-and-get-back-to-acting/embedded/821013

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Hey! Remember me?

All right, folks, it's back to active blogging! Here's something I found in the men's restroom of a respectable family restaurant in the Four Corners region of Colorado:
Actually, it was my brother who spotted it and told me I should go have a look. It appears someone was less than enchanted by the "Super Studded" selection!