16 WEIRD RECORD COVERS FROM THE VALUE VILLAGE IN WOODINVILLE, WA.!

Man, I am just useless in the A.M.! I had to take the kiddies into school this morning (a task I usually never have to undertake) and, bleary-brained without coffee or many glorious hours of uninterrupted sleep, I had to make a decision: go home and go back to bed OR slowly point my car towards the thrift store? What to do, what to do? Well, the winner is YOU because I decided to power through the mental fog and grab some more weirdo record visuals from the bins! Click on the photos to enlarge and please to enjoy (and wish me an early goodnight)!

Between the beard, the rainbow, that font, and a song called "King of the Jews," it is indeed, WHAT A DAY!

Read More

SONGS TO GET YOU THROUGH SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR HELL: SELECTIONS FROM THE "SINGING SCIENCE" LPS (1961)

(March) Never leave things to the last minute, I said.

(April) Really, it's best to just get on your tasks right away.

(end of April) Hey, what's going on with the Science Fair project?

(NOW) OH. I SEE. IT'S DUE MONDAY. I SEE. HOW SURPRISING THAT NOTHING HAS BEEN STARTED FOR IT YET!

Parents, it's Science Fair time! Many of you are now covered in glue, eggs, vinegar, dirt, Sharpie, and copious bitter tears, trying to assist your child in cobbling up an experiment to display an understanding of the scientific method. Quite a few of you will use this opportunity to revisit your youth and get the stellar grade you believe YOU YOURSELF DESERVE through your child. Some of you will sit on your TV couch and watch "Real Housewives of Akron"while trying to convince your child that doing the laundry counts as science. Most of us do more than we should, in order to avoid the failure our child will reap for handing in a posterboard with one angry black line scribbled on it and a chicken on a leash.

Anyway, I extend my sympathies to my struggling parental brethren, and suggest a nice vodka soda along with the songs of "Space Science" --  part of the early '60s "Singing Science" children's musical series written by Hy Zaret and Lou Singer (and a few were also covered years later by They Might Be Giants, FYI). I hope these inspire a cool mid-century Mad Men-meets-Romper Room home vibe for you...and maybe think about two vodka sodas. Please to enjoy.

Read More

HAIKU TIME: AIRPLANE

O, Silver Bullet!
You smell of stale air, fuel,
Burnt coffee, always.

Floor lighting! Air mask!
Floatation device! In that
Event, we are toast.

Captain! Turn off the
Seatbelt sign NOW! Or I shall
Pee my pants in shame.

O, Peanuts! Pretzels!
You salty time-wasters, you.
Now I need water.

BAM! In getting up
To let child go pee, I bruise
My leg on seat arm.

The in-flight mag is
Always greasy-feeling and
Creeps me out a lot.

I drop my earbud
Case, and drop to the floor to
Retrieve; I look nuts.

Clueless passenger!
Your carry-on won't fit and
Never, ever would.

A newborn baby
Behind me the one time I
Fly first class...of course.

"Cruising Altitude?"
A misnomer. Better phrase:
"Really eff-ing high."

Almost home, green and
Water; if my bags made it,
We are good to go.

Read More

IPHONE PHOTO ROUNDUP: MISS ELEVEN'S PRETTY PLANT PICS FROM FLORIDA!

Remember that day that Monica, Miss Eleven, and I went to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida? Well, my daughter grabbed my iPhone and took photos, too! I've uploaded them to her own nature photo blog, All Flowers Have A Story. I hope you will take a moment to view them and enjoy her own take on such tropical beauty. Thank you!

All Flowers Have A Story

Read More

21 MORE WEIRD RECORD COVERS & KNICK-KNACKS FROM SOUTH FLORIDA THRIFT STORES!

Well, I'm back home in Washington after a leisurely 18 DAY vacation in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, the laundry is running, the dishwasher is running, Miss Eleven is back in school, and I've mostly unpacked the four fat suitcases I brought back! But I've got one more thing to do to wrap up my visit, which is bring TO YOU the last bunch of strangeness from my Florida thrift store jaunts! Please to enjoy!

Who wouldn't want a ceramic plaque of a freaked-out naked dude with a toupée battling a nasty towel-stealing Dachshund?

Read More

PHOTOS: JACUZZI BOYS & CAVE OF SWIMMERS @ GRAMPS, MIAMI, FLORIDA 4/18/14

Just whyyyyy does one extend a vacation in Florida, hmm? Well, in my case, it was lots of good reasons INCLUDING the chance to see the fab Jacuzzi Boys perform in their hometown of Miami, Florida again, and at one of my favorite cool places, Gramps!

Read More

10 REASONS TO AVOID DRIVING IN SOUTH FLORIDA

(DISCLAIMER: OK, so yes, I do have my own anxiety issues with driving, but THIS IS ALL TRUE! Really. Ask any resident or scientific survey!)

Raise your hand if you love driving on the streets and highways of high-density urban America! Come on! Anyone? Hello? Anyone? Well, of course no one does, and everyone complains about how traffic gets worse and worse, commutes get longer and longer, and people on the road are crazier now than back in the day. But, I AM TELLING YOU, the craziest of the craziest are in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale metro area. Here's why!

1. Getting cut off constantly. It's every man or woman or manatee for themselves on these roads, which means the concept of "defensive driving" is EXTRA important. You will find that if someone wants to get in front of you to go to Publix, or cross 4 lanes of traffic in 2 seconds at 70 MPH because it's FUN, or go completely horizontal in front of you and just SIT, they will. Constantly, all day and all night.

2. No one uses turn signals. You are supposed to read all the minds of all the other drivers and adjust your driving accordingly. Also, the slow drift to the right from the car in front of you may turn into the sudden veer to the left at any moment.

3. Motorcyclist death wishes. There's no other way to explain the bro with no helmet wearing shorts and a cutoff t-shirt weaving in-between cars on I-95 in speeds in excess of 100 MPH. This is not uncommon, by the way.

4. The invisible nighttime bicyclist. Apparently, there are legions of men wearing all black clothes on black bikes with no lights and no helmets that weave all over the roads the second the sun goes down.

5. No pedestrians use crosswalks. If I had a nickel for every person I have seen crossing the street in the most dangerous way possible, even when a crosswalk is just a few feet away, I would be unimaginably wealthy. This jaywalking proclivity includes all cultures, ages, and ranges of mental stability. Diagonal through a busy intersection? Sure, take your time! Crossing 4 lanes of traffic, including maneuvering over a large grassy median strip, pushing an empty grocery cart with one hand and holding the hand of a toddler with the other? Why not? Stepping off the curb in front of a line of speeding cars just because the place you want to go is just right there in front of you across the street and you want to get there NOW? Efficient! 

6. Horns. BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEP BEEEEP! For any reason, any time. Maybe just to announce, "BEEEP! Hey, it's great to be alive today! BEEEEEEEP!" Also, swears.

7. French-Canadian bicyclists: Nous ne se soucient pas de vos règles de trafic américain stupide!

8. Hummers. Hummers are ridiculous anyway, but add a Hummer and the diplog who bought it in with all the rest of this and it's extra intolerable. 

9. Hoards of Tourists and Very Very Very Old People. They don't know where they are going.

10. Flooding. Rain = flooded streets = a mess for drivers. Eventually, global warming will solve this problem by just covering the entire South Florida area with many feet of water so you don't have to worry about driving here at all anymore!

I love coming down here to visit all my cool pals, but do I drive here? NNNNNNNOPE!

Read More

24 MORE WEIRD RECORD COVERS FROM SOUTH FLORIDA THRIFT STORES!

Tomorrow we fly back to Seattle, but I've got one more THRIFT EXPLOSION for you from our Florida forays! Please to enjoy these funky finds from the dusty past!

Hey, couples, here's your next Halloween costume idea!

Read More

PHOTOS: FAIRCHILD TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA 4/11/14

What a cool day Miss Eleven and I had yesterday here in South Florida! Our friend, the talented photographer Monica McGivern, kindly offered to take us on an afternoon outing of our choice, and we all agreed on where to go: the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in lovely Coral Gables. I can't recommend it enough -- it was so peaceful and beautiful. We strolled around the pathways through the gardens for a couple of hours, passing by lakes, giant gnarly trees, crazy-colorful flowers and darting lizards, had a delicious lunch in the cafe, and hung out in the "Wings of the Tropics" butterfly conservatory, marveling at each new discovery. We all took photographs along the way, and here are mine to share with you. Thank you, Monica! Please to enjoy, and click on the images to enlarge!

Read More

18 WEIRD KNICK KNACKS AND GEE GAWS FROM SOUTH FLORIDA THRIFT STORES!

OK, pals! I've rested my weary traveler thrifter bones for a bit, had a tiny mason jar filled with sake, and am ready to bring you some of the unusual items I've come across in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area thrift stores in the last few days. I love people. Please to enjoy!

INFINITE ROLLEYES.

Read More

GO SEE MY PHOTOS (AND READ DAVID VON BADER'S REVIEW) OF THE ZOMBIES LIVE IN FLORIDA 4/8/14!

What a great treat to be able while here in South Florida on vacation to see a truly fantastic show by British Invasion legends The Zombies AND photograph it for the Broward - Palm Beach New Times AND to work with my friend, writer David Von Bader once more! Please go and click RIGHT HERE to read David's excellent review and see my photos, won't you?

Many thanks to Liz Tracy, David Von Bader, all the very nice people at the Mardi Gras Casino, and of course, The Zombies!! Don't miss them if you have a chance to see them!

Read More

25 WEIRD RECORD COVERS FROM A THRIFT STORE IN NORTH MIAMI, FLORIDA!

Oh, MAN. This was an intense thrifting experience, to say the least! This store, close to Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood, was SO busy! People here were serious shoppers, even waiting at the work bay doors for more huge carts to be wheeled out from the back as to pick through them even before the workers could get things on the shelves! Carts pushing everywhere! AIEEE! But I persevered through the record bins for YOU! Here's today South Florida selection of silliness! Please to enjoy!

This should've been called "The BAD Surprise Box." Yeesh!

Read More

50 YEARS LATER, A LITTLE UNEXPECTED BEATLES MOMENT

As regulars of Popthomology know, I love to hunt for strange and wonderful things at thrift stores as often as I can; there is always something that makes me smile. A few weeks ago, I picked up an old Christian kids' book, mainly for some of the graphics and illustrations to use in a future art project:

Read More

PLEASE GO SEE THE NEW WEBSITE FOR THE INTELLIGENCE THAT I MADE!

You may not believe it, but it's true: sometimes I can be a bit of a pest. Oh yes, once I get some goal set in my cranium, I can be rather relentless until my vision is realized, and this sometimes includes bugging other people. Around this time last year, I started pestering Lars Finberg,  lead cranium of one of my favorite bands, The Intelligence.

"Lars!" I said. "Your band really needs to have a website!"

"Yes!" he replied. "That's true!"

"Hey! Lars!" I continued. "You know what? A website for your band would be a really good thing!"

"I know!" Lars agreed. "That would sure be nice!"

"LARS!"

"YES?"

"WEBSITE!"

And this went on pleasantly enough for awhile with me making faces of determination at Lars and Lars making faces of affirmation at me, until I decided, WELL, maybe I can actually DO something about this rather than just pest around. I am not a website designer and code makes me jumpy, but am relatively not dumb and thought "something is better than nothing, so just try." Lars encouraged my hesitant-but-hopeful effort, and through lots and lots of trial and error and emails and me nervously making changes in template code, we've come up with a website that is definitely better than nothing, and that will serve to host all kinds of info about the band, which was heretofore scattered all over the interwebs. It will continue to be a work-in-progress and likely replaced someday by a more "pro" version, but for today, goal realized! Thank you for checking it out!

The Intelligence (http://www.theintelligenceband.com)

Read More