This is just odd. I can't help wondering what could've made this rope jumping record so special and exclusive to boys and men only? And what must occur when, say, a girl or woman happens to overhear a bit of the recording by accident? Does her head explode, or something?
~Image and info taken from the book, 'The Worst Album Covers Ever!' by Nick DiFonzo. Published by Barnes & Noble, Inc.~
Come one, come all, ladies and gentlemen! The time is nigh, once again, for freaky fun. Only, this time we have filthy displays of freakishly shameful fashion on offer for your ridicule and amusement! Shall we begin?
Johnny Weir(d)
Okay, what is with that hair?! It looks like a tiny friend of Johnny's might just pop out of it, as if it were one of those BIG, cheesy birthday cakes... "Thurpriiithe!"
Lady outfit + lady shoes = Go home.
Snooki
I don't even know where to begin with this troll! Did I just type that outloud? Oops. But, seriously, look at what is happening all over this bloppy excuse for a reality "star". And WHO, I wonder, told our darling Snooks that her sausage legs looked good squeezed into those atrocious, mismatched* knee-highs?
*I know that it's "a look", but on her, I'd rather not!
Ke$ha
"Woo-hoo! I'm so fun and fancy free! I do whatever I want, wear whatever I want... I don't even take a shower unless I'm feelin' it, y'know?"
Um, yeah, we know. We can smell you from here.
A.J. McLean
Help me out, here... Is that really the aging former Backstreet Boy, or is it just Strawberry Shortcake on a REALLY BAD day? The adorable stockings are throwing me off.
Rihanna
Now, she MUST have been auditioning for the clown act, here, at Pop Circus, right? All she would've needed was a little bit of face paint and a big red nose!
That's all for now, folks. "Short and sweet, in and out... Leave em' wantin' more!" Somebody said that at some point, somewhere. Don't ask me who, though. See, that's how I leave you wanting more. Good, eh?
Have a terrific weekend, everyone! I'm sure you all deserve it!
She's a 2-year-old Chihuahua mix that Tommy and I recently rescued from the county animal shelter, and the latest addition to our circus family. Since we lost our beloved 14-year-old Mr. Scoots back in February of this year (R.I.P.), we're VERY happy to, once again, have a little animal friend roaming around the house (and fairgrounds).
Aren't those BIG ears great?! Maybe we'll find out she can fly, just like Dumbo! Or, maybe, we'll soon discover that all she can really do is receive satellite radio with those dishes. Even if Esther has no special talents to speak of, we'll love her regardless. Besides, we already do... BIG TIME!
Graham Rawle is such a neat guy... I know, because I've met him! And right before I got to meet him and request to have a quick snapshot taken (about which he was very gracious, btw), I attended a presentation Graham gave discussing his latest work, 'The Wizard of Oz'. The text of the book is actually L. Frank Baum's original story, but all of the imagery is 100% classic Rawle.
Here, take a gander...
This beautiful book cover only hints at thevisual delights that await you, inside!
It looks like Toto is about to be a bite-sized snack for the Cowardly Lion, here. But we all know that's not the case, not with his BFF, Dorothy, around. Besides, even if Dorothy wasn't nearby, that little dog could "Toto"-lly kick Lion's ass all by himself!
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily... Oz is but a dream.
(Or, IS it?)
Here, we see a scene with a completely differenttake, Rawle's take, on the Wicked Witch o' the West's flying monkeys.
(I really dig Graham's sense of humor!)
And speak of the devil, here's the WWoW, now! Weird as she looks (and despite how we expect her to appear because of the MGM classic movie),my understanding is that thisis actually much truer to how she's described in Baum's original book.
That was but a Whitman's Sampler, if you will. The rest of it is just as yummy for your eyes! So if I've piqued your interest, go ahead and pick up a copy of 'The Wizard of Oz', illustrated by Graham Rawle. You won't be disappointed.
Another creation of his, that I absolutely dig with a passion, is his book, 'Woman's World'. He both wrote and illustrated it, however, most of the "illustration" inside of the book is actually all cut 'n' pasted text and embellishments from old women's magazines of the 1940s. If you can believe it, Graham spent 5 years working on this book, and most of that time was spent cutting, collecting, organizing, pasting and basically assembling every word of the story... one by one. Hearing Graham talk about the process in his presentation was absolutely fascinating. I mean, the organizational system, alone, which he devised for the project was so impressive (if not a bit confusing) you could tell that this guy isn't just arty; he's also a smarty. I guess one could say he's an "arty-smarty"! Well, I will anyway...
Check out some of the stuff I'm talking about, below...
This is the cover for the hardback edition.
(The one that I have.)
And this, here, is the wonderful paperback/graphic novel edition.
(I want it, too! That cover appeals to all of my kitsch-y sensibilities!)
This is just a glimpse into the madness... Graham spent an average of 17 hours a day, 7 days a week for 5 years sitting here clipping 'n' pasting. Altogether, a total of 40,000 fragments of text from vintage women's magazines was assembled to tell this unique and strangely charming tale.
And, here, you can see the fruits of his obsessive, slave-type labor. You might suspect that it would be hard to read, but it isn't! In fact, Graham worked at figuring out just the right formula, or words-to-page ratio, that would be easiest for a reader to tolerate. And it works!
As for the story to this intricately composed novel, let me share with you what the dust jacket says. It gives away just enough to set the scene and pull you in...
"Norma Fontaine lives in a world of handy tips and sensible advice. Whether it's choosing the right girdle or honing her feminine allure, she measures life by the standards set in women's magazines. But Norma discovers that the real world is less delightful-and more sinister-than the one portrayed in the glossies. When dark secrets threaten her brother's blossoming romance, Norma must decide whether to sacrifice life in a woman's world for the sake of her brother's happiness. As her decision is slowly revealed, readers realize that, like life in the magazines, Norma isn't quite what she seems."
Intrigued? Good. Now, go find a copy and read it! I think you'll be glad you did.
Look! It's Graham with little ol' me! Like we're "buds", or something.
(Yeah, right... I was lucky he agreed to stand next to me for the photo.)
I don't want to go on FOREVER (and believe me, I could), so I'll cut this one kinda short. I didn't even get to talk about Rawle's 'Diary of an Amateur Photographer' (one of my top faves), or his long-running 'Lost Consonants' series. Oh, well. I guess I'll cover those in a follow-up edition... Really, this man's work is quite prolific, plus everything he does is smart, clever, and funny! I just can't seem to say enough good things about the guy.
I know, how's this sound? Graham Rawle... ARTISTIC GENIUS!
Yep, that about covers it.
~All pics via Google Images, except last personal photo of Anthony w/Graham, courtesy of Tommy Kovac.~
SCRABBLE is a fun, thinking person's word game. You either like the challenge, or you don't. To me, it's that plain and simple. Of course, having a "thing" for letters, words, and wordplay doesn't hurt, either! Another factor that appeals to me about this game (and this shouldn't come as any surprise to my regular readers), is the sense of order which is created as each player places their letter tiles on the big board's symmetrical grid. And, yes... I do prefer the raised-grid version of the playing board. Otherwise, your letter tiles go all wonky, and where's the order in that??! I'll tell you. Nowhere.
Even though I've played it for many years, I've never managed to score a Bingo. You know, that's when you play a word that uses all seven letters on the rack, and it earns you a bonus 50 points. I have witnessed my mother-in-law do this, however. Aaand more than once! Seriously, she kicks major SCRABBLE-butt!
Speaking of butts... Did you know that SCRABBLE was invented by an out-of-work architect named Alfred Mosher Butts? Funny last name, but obviously a pretty smart guy. Attempting to create a game that would use both chance and skill, Butts combined features of anagrams and the crossword puzzle. He first called it LEXIKO, but then changed it to CRISS CROSS WORDS. To decide on letter distribution, Butts studied the front page of The New York Times and did painstaking calculations of letter frequency. His basic cryptographic analysis of our language and his original tile distribution have remained valid for more than 50 years and billions of games played! (Now, if that alone doesn't make him a smarty-pants...)
Alfred M. Butts, sittin' pretty atop Alphabet City.
(Is that a leisure suit?!)
CRISS CROSS WORDS, an early version of SCRABBLE, featured a game board made of architectural blueprint paper glued over an old chess board.
(THAT'S ingenuity for you!)
At first, all established game manufacturers rejected Butts' invention for commercial development. Then, Butts met game-loving entrepreneur, James Brunot, who completely loved the concept. Together, they made some refinements to the rules and design, and most significantly, changed the name to SCRABBLE, a real word which means "to grope frantically." The game was finally trademarked as SCRABBLE Brand Crossword Game in 1948, but the first four years were pretty hard. The Brunots rented an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgington, Connecticut, where with friends they turned out 12 games an hour, stamping letters on wooden tiles one at a time. After a bit, boards, boxes, and tiles were made elsewhere and sent to the factory for assembly and shipping. By 1949, the Brunots had made 2,400 sets on their own and lost $450. As is typical of the game business, the SCRABBLE game gained slow but steady popularity among a comparative handful of consumers. Then in the early 1950s, legend has it that the president of Macy's discovered the game on vacation and ordered some for his store. Within a year, everyone "had to have one" to the point that SCRABBLE games were being rationed to stores around the country.
In 1952, the Brunots realized they could no longer make the games fast enough to meet the growing demand. So they licensed the well-known game manufacturer, Long Island-based Selchow & Righter Company, to market and distribute the games in the U.S. and Canada.
Is all of this just totally boring to y'all? I like nitty-gritty details, so I tend to get carried away... Seriously, let me know in a comment whether you enjoy detailed posts like this occasionally, or if you'd rather I just "SHUT UP, already!"
Well, long story a bit shorter... In 1986, Hasbro purchased SCRABBLE and has owned it ever since. The End. No, not really. It wasn't "The End" for Alfred M. Butts until he passed away in April of 1993 at the age of 93! Of course, he did enjoy spending the later half of his long life playing SCRABBLE with family and friends. I wonder if during his very last game he was able to go out with a Bingo on his rack like:
I1 A1 M3 D2 E1 A1 D2
Super-Duper-Pricey-Fun-Time SCRABBLE!
For only $600 you can have this deluxe version that includes a wood-framed board w/raised grid and turn-table base, 100 letter tiles individually minted and encrusted with 24k gold, and, of course, spacious drawers to store them in.
(I want! I want!)
Tiles with style!
Here are the 24k gold encrusted letter tiles. A bit garish, yes, but also very shiny and quite golden.
I'd better go now. It's my turn to make a word, and I see the perfect opportunity to use a Triple Word Score space...
~All photos via Google Images. History and information via the National Scrabble Association.~
I know one thing for darn sure... There's absolutely no way I could ever deny the fact that I was a child of the seventies. I just love too many iconic things within 1970s pop culture, and I figure it's gotta be a direct result of growing up during that era.
One of the decade's more popular and iconic game shows (and easily my all-time favorite) was the star-studded, fun and risque, 'Match Game'. With show regulars Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly on every episode's celebrity panel, you knew you could always count on those two for laughter inducing entertainment. And if the other 4 stars also wound up being funny, well... that was just icing on the cake! The show still runs on Game Show Network, and I discovered only recently that you can buy a 4-disc 'Best of Match Game' DVD w/30 episodes on it. The DVD has been available since 2006, so I'm currently conducting an investigation into why I wasn't properly notified of the original release date. You probably think I'm kidding, don't you? My husband could tell you a thing or two about how nutty I am for stuff like this. It absolutely drives Tommy up a wall whenever I start "talking shop" about Charles Nelson Reilly, Paul Lynde, JoAnne Worley (Aunt JoAnne!), etc. with friends who share a mutual appreciation for such groovy '70s pop culture. But that's his loss! So much of that stuff just cracks me up, from the funky fashions to the eccentric and hilarious celebrities... And the t.v. shows, natch!
Having a gay old time!
I have no idea if Brett was a real-life friend to Charles outside of the show, but those two got along so well that she seemed like the proverbial hag to his imperiously prissy fag. And I truly mean that in a good way!
They broke the mold when Charles Nelson Reilly came into this world. Just think about the nerve it must have taken, and the high level of self-confidence he must've had in order to be so freely "himself" as a television celebrity of the day. I mean, we're talking about 40 years ago! Granted, I'm fairly sure he never officially came OUT of the closet, but he certainly didn't hide in there, either! He just was who he was. He didn't try to act a certain way that would be considered more socially acceptable.
He was true to himself, and you either liked him, or you didn't. I admire Mr. Reilly for that, neck scarf and all!
Oh, and I also happen to think he was pretty darn hilarious!
"Write down your best answer to THIS!"
The goofily charming and witty host of Match Game, Gene Rayburn, is obviously caught here in one of his more playful moods. I have no clue what he was actually talking about. Although, we can clearly see what it looks like...
(Psst! Get a load of that bow tie on Gene! And is that lady wearing a dark blue denim jacket?)
"Party don't stop till the panties drop!"
Another one of my favorite celebrity panelists, Fannie Flagg, was always upbeat and amusing. Hearing that Southern lilt in her voice was also quite comforting, and somehow added to her comedic flavor.
"Hey, big boy..."
Here, feeling comfortable in its natural environment, we see the reilly creature caught in an act of seduction ritual which is rarely ever witnessed by others.
"I drew a blank! Get it??"
Joyce Bulifant was one of the semi-regular celebs that would come on and be a real hootevery time she was on! She was a bit ditzy, she did have that goofy voice, and she almost always gave odd (wtf?) answers, but there was something quite endearing about her at the same time...
He was suave and debonair, with a nose for fashion...
I never enjoyed Richard Dawson when he hosted The Family Feud, but I did think that he seemed like a pretty cool cat, back on this show! Check out those funky fab styles, too! What must each of those have been called, Purple Plaid Passion and Sailor Boy Chic?!
Unfortunately, it was a much bigger challenge than I had anticipated to find decent enough images online for use here in my post. And that's a bummer because I really wanted to include a few other favorite regular/semi-regular celebs in the gallery such as Betty White, Avery Schreiber, Patti Deutsch, etc. Oh, well. There certainly isn't anything stopping me from doing an update, or a revision, sometime down the road. I bet Tommy would just love that, huh? I know... if/when I do some sort of follow-up post, I'll have to dedicate it to him! Just because I can be a brat that way, once in a while [Insert Muttley's trademark wheezing snicker, here].
Now, I leave you with a little treat. It's quite a funny clip, and a fine example of the sort of uproarious antics they would get into on the show, from time to time. Have fun with it, and prepare to do some snickering of your own...
~All photos and screen captures via Google Images.~
This sizzling HOT super star is doing a fine job of further pushing the boundaries of sex and art in entertainment, just like a certain predecessor. Only, I think that this video might even make Madonna blush!
It's really great, it's over 8 minutes long, and Miss Gaga looks fab-yoo-lous! But folks who tend to have a weak stomach for such sexual shenanigans might want to steer clear of it. It gets that sexual. To clarify, there isn't any nudity. Everything is just very suggestive through body movement and wardrobe, or lack of it.
I'm an adult who isn't the least bit ashamed of my love for toys. I also enjoy board games, art, music, photography, laughter, and just about any good old-fashioned circus. But I really dig pop culture, and that's the main reason I do this blog. I hope that you enjoy the show and come back once in a while to see what's new!
I've got your button, right here! Please, feel free to copy and use as a link from your own blog. I'm sure it would just look terrific!
KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS!
Now see, this nice little girl totally "gets it"! And she also proves a point that I feel very strongly about. I believe children are born completely innocent, with open hearts and open minds. Then, as a child grows and encounters more of their surrounding world, he or she just accepts things and people as they are because the child isn't aware of any reason to feel differently. Unless, of course, they have ignorant, narrow-minded parents who raise them to view our world with hatred and discrimination...
FAMILY FUNHOUSE
You've gotta check this out! Awkward Family Photos.com is such an entertaining website, and real addictive! We ALL probably have at least one or two awkward photos like this in our albums, right?! Click on the "happy" family above for more fine examples of visually documented discomfort...
"STOP CLOWNING AROUND!"
... and visit my husband's website! He's both a writer AND an artist! He's Tommy Kovac!
HERE'S A TASTY TREAT...
Strap on your moon boots and hop in the time machine 'cuz you're gonna be taken on a trip!
