Retro Y'all!

Still jumping.  In place, mostly.



Someone should do one of these rap battle style brags about being a junker.  Seriously.

Big sale at the Peddlers Mall today.

Retro Y'all

Been doing a lot of jumping lately, but feel I don't have much to show for it.  Oh well.



At least I'm still getting my clothes on the right way.  Seriously, was that not the stupidest gimmick ever?

Comic shop sale today.

JUMP! JUMP!

Not quite a ramble, yet not quite a post

I am seriously trying to get back in the groove here.  I have things I want to say, even if no one is left to read them. I am committing to blog every day this week.  How about them apples?

Last week was our junk set out week, but the trucks seem to be running behind. Our street and the ones around us have not been cleared yet.  That means two things. First, I still got some hunting to do. Second, I've got a chance to clear a few things out of the shed really quickly.  Yay on both counts!

That also means I'm being quick and brief here.

Our washing machine gave up the ghost recently.  It was almost 20 years old, so it's not surprising.  The new one finally arrived yesterday.  So I am also doing laundry.

Sales suck right now.  Didn't even go to my absolute favorite church sale on Saturday.  I will, however, be going to the Comic Con in Frankfort next month.

Tucker and I are bachelors this week.  Keith is out of town for job training in Owensboro.  I am seeing cartoons and pizza in our future.

I have some pics to share, but I got a new phone last month and I just realized I don't have Dropbox on it yet.  Getting ready to rectify that.

We went to see John Prine over the weekend.  It was an awesome show, as always.  The opener was a 'young man who was new to me, Colter Wall.  He's got to be the oldest musical soul I've heard since Gillian Welch.  Like her, he creates this traditional-sounding music, with an overlay of gothic, ethereal, haunting sadness.  Imagine Woody Guthrie and Marty Robbins mixed together and interpreted by the titular riders from "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and you kind of get the idea.  Of course, I loved him.  And, of course, he's your Music for Monday.  Enjoy.



I'll have more to say about the concert tomorrow.

Retro Y'all!

This is kind of my truth at this moment.

Retro Y'all!

Believe it or not, I woke up this morning reciting this one as some sort of bizarre Shatneresque spoken word performance.

C'mon!  C'mon! C'mon!

Do.

The Loco.

Motion.

With ME!

Did anyone else ever have to do this in 6th-grade PE?  Like every Friday?  Or at least on the Fridays when there wasn't square dancing? (Seriously.  On all of the above counts.)

I'm off to the first church sale of the season!  Plus a new Peddlers Mall opening!  Plus half off Saturday at Goodwill! Plus 75% off at a thrift I don't normally go to! 

There WILL be a Mazda shot tomorrow!

All together now:

Jump Up!

Jump.

Back!

Now.

I think.

YOU.

Have got.

THE KNACK!

Retro Y'all!

Can one get more retro than Andy Griffith?



I think not.

Monday Rambles

LOOKIE HERE!

It's Monday!  I'm rambling!  Will wonders never cease?

QUESTIONS WHICH DEMAND AN ANSWER

Has my forehead always been this wrinkly?  Also, is my hair thinning?

STRANGE WEEK

This is going to be an unusual week for us here.  I have treatment tomorrow.  If I feel up to it, I'm going to go see Black Panther afterwards.  If not, I'll be seeing it later in the week, for sure. 

Keith is heading to Arkansas after dropping me off at the cancer center.  It's moving day for his mother, and he's going to help out.  It's been a long, stressful journey for everyone concerned--one that demands its own post.  Tucker and I will be holding down the fort here.  Woo hoo!  Cartoons all the time!

WRAPPING THINGS UP

After today, I should have the big booth redo I've been working on for several weeks now completed.  I've just got a few more things to do, including taking pics, and I'll be able to do the big reveal here.  This has been a real challenge this time around.

Just as soon as I would get one part done, a really large prominent item would sell, meaning I'd have to start on that part all over again.  Then junk set out hit last week while I was still working on the booth, adding in more big, new stuff to deal with.  On top of all this, Keith has been inspired by his mother's ordeal to start downsizing, which means more things for me to deal with. (So. Many. Books.)  On the other hand, getting that crap out of the house has been nice.  We even got a new bed to celebrate.

Speaking of junk set out, it was kind of short this time around.  It rained off and on. It was cold.  Not much stuff got put out.  Regular spots didn't participate. Then, the trucks came through extremely early in the week and it was all over.  Despite all of this, I did get two mice Mazda loads of stuff.  I just finished getting pictures of it all, so I'll be sharing those too.

MUSIC FOR MONDAY

Not much else to talk about right now, so let's cut right to a very special Music for Monday.  Seriously, even if you normally skip these videos, check this one out.  It's awesome!



Old Sesame Street kicks ass.

Have a good week!  Watch out for wrinkly foreheads and buckets with holes!

No Ramble Today!

Sorry, everyone, but I won't be rambling this week due to EXTREME busy-ness.  Due to partly to circumstances I could not control and partly to my own poor planning skills, I am smack dab in the middle of Junk Set Out AND a massive booth re-do.  I barely even know what my name is right now.

I'll get some first looks at the booth re-do and the first finds of the set out later this week.

In the meantime, enjoy this little bit of booth staging humor:

Also, here's the latest odd couple to cross my path:

When I bought the bird hatching figurine, the cashier told me that I would never sell something that ugly.  In one of those wonderful twists of fate and junking, she was the cashier who rang it out a week later to a customer who was totally tickled to find it!

I guess I can also give you all some music for Monday:



Hope your week is filled with happy teddy bears, decorated wig heads, and--of course--the right shoes!

See ya!

PS Lok at it this way:  It may not be rambly, but it is on Monday!  Woo hoo!

Retro Y'all!

C'mon, Willie!  Get outta here!

It's three in the morning already and Mammaw has to get up in a few hours to get ready for the Beauty Pageant!

She needs her beauty reat!

Scram!

Shoo!

While Mammaw defends her crown, I'll be busy at the Goodwill half-off sale and the 2nd anniversary sale at the vendor mall across the street from the Peddlers Mall.

Musical Math

The Great 

John Prine

+

The Late, Great 

Tom Petty

=

Total

Freaking
Awesomeness!!!

Enjoy!

Special Thanks to Keith for sending this to me!

Super Sexy-Pants Midweek Ramble!

I keep trying(and failing) to get an actual Monday Ramble out, but it doesn't seem to be working very well.  Let's go with this one for this week, at least.

First up a question:

Do these sunglasses make me look all, you know, celebrity and stuff?  (Probably not.  The scraggly-ass goatee is looking particularly scraggly-ass here.  Brad Pitt can pull that shit off.  Me?  not so much.)

Cold, windy and wet this week, but no freezing temps and no snow.  We've had too many days of that over the past couple of weeks.  I declared a little while ago that I wasn't leaving the house until the temp was above 20, then promptly spent several days drinking hot chocolate, eating pie, and watching cartoons.  I am so over this winter.

I have definitely come to understand why some large mammals hibernate during the cold months.  I'm wondering how I can sign up for that program myself, since I am also a large mammal.  I just need to find an electric blanket that will stay on for three months and teach the cat to feed himself and scoop the litter box.

I'm working on a major booth redo, but it's going painfully slow.  I'll have pics when I get done, if I get done.  It's been a good January, sales-wise.  I haven't really had a post-holiday dip, which usually happens after New Year's.  I've been on a bit of a roll since the week before Christmas, even with the store closing for a couple of days due to weather.  Small furniture and higher-priced items are really moving right now.

2017 was kind of average as far as booth sales went.  I set a huge record in March, then crashed hard in April.  Summer was better than usual.  Fall would have been, except that I took an extra booth during a rent special to try and move some furniture, then barely broke even.  I ditched it when the special was over.  November and December were super-good.

Tine for another pic.

That was my anniversary gift from Keith.  We decided not to do Christmas presents this year, just a small anniversary gift each.  My collection of Batman shirts keeps growing.

Tucker is starting his daily rampage through the house.  It's crazed kitty time!  (Or, as I like to call it: "Go, Speed Racer, Go!")  Life with kittens, I tell you.

I made a super-major comic score at an estate sale last week.  Nearly 100 issues of one of my primary comic obsessions.  I plan on sharing it soon.  I actually want to do an in-depth sort of look at the four kinds of comics that make me go "Squee!" when I find them.  One them you can already guess, vintage romance comics.  I'll go ahead and surprise you all by saying that none of the other three are Batman or Wonder Woman.

And with that, I'll leave you with some Midweek Music.

Retro Y'all!

I've come to believe that Waylon Jennings doesn't quite get the credit he deserves as a songwriter.  For some reason, when people talk about the great country music songwriters, he doesn't seem to get mentioned often.



Fun Fact;  According to Wikipedia, this song was inspired by an article Jennings read about Tina Turner.

Retro Y'all!

Another earworm they play at the Peddlers Mall all the time. If it's gonna be stuck in my head, I'm gonna share that "joy" with you all.  This one is dedicated to the customer who was walking up the aisle singing along at the same time that I was working, also singing along.



This one is a twofer treat as we get back into the Retro Y'all groove.  I had a hard time picking which version of this song to feature, since there are two well known versions of it, both equally popular and both equally retro.  In the end I decided to include them both.

That was Tanya Tucker.  Now here's Helen Reddy.



I have to say that I prefer Tucker's version.  I'm always attracted to good, old-fashioned twangy country, plus I love the harmonies and the gospel choir feel of the ending better.  Although, that odd little dance step Reddy is doing is really cure, in an awkward sort of way.

Fun Facts:

My mother hated this song, for some reason.  She had some kind of Helen Reddy's greatest hits LP and played "I am Woman" over and over (and over) again after she and my father split.  She would always rush to the stereo to stop it before "Delta Dawn" could come on.

According to Wikipedia, this was almost released as single by Bette Midler, until Helen Reddy released it first.

Until I researched the song, I had no idea Helen Reddy was from Australia.

Happy Sixth Month Anniversary of the Last Time I Blogged!

Or, as the rest of the world calls it:

HAPPY NEWS YEAR'S DAY!!!!

Geez, the lengths I will go to for a joke...  I had to clam up for six months to make this one work.  I hope it was worth it.

Okay, seriously, I'm alive and there will be explanations forthcoming, as soon as I've had a chance to get my blogging feet back under me.

How about some festively appropriate, yet fully retro celebratory music?



Consider that chorus my promise to you.  (All together now!)

I will be with you again!

Maybe even as soon as tomorrow?  Maybe.

In the meantime, I am off to the last day of the Big Flea in hopes of snatching up some great deals in the antique wing.  It's a New Year's tradition, after all.

Thanks for sticking with me.  You all rock harder than U2.

Speaking of which, is there any other band from that post-punk/new wave era that has managed to stay together and relevant all these years later?  I can't think of any.  This song has all elements that made early U2 so memorable--powerful bass and drums, Bono's slightly eerie vocals, and the Edge's even more slightly eerie guitar, plus that little piano riff.  I just love it.

Also, how young they all were back then!  (How young we all were back then.  Sigh...)

I picked this particular clip to use because drummer Larry Mullen Jr is wearing that motorcycle jacket he used to wear a lot back in those days.  It's one of things I remember most about early U2.  Motorcycle  jackets are cool.  I wish mine still fit.  It...um...shrunk in the closet.

Yes, leather will do that.

Sad as that may sound, I did replace it recently with a brand new leather bomber jacket in my size I found at the Peddler's Mall right around my birthday.  It's cool too.  And warm.  Which is good right now.  If I remember, I'll get a pic of it.

Happy 2018 folks!

Be back soon.

Retro Y'all!

In between getting Tucker down off the drapes and out of my hair (Literally.  He loves my hair and Keith's beard and considers them his personal playgrounds.)  I've been binge-watching old episodes of the E! show Hollywood Mysteries and Scandals, which just goes to show how out of touch I am with modern life.  Everyone else marathons Game of Thrones. I gorge on old entertainment documentaries. I'll never be cool.

 Anyway, there was an ep on Bobby Darin and this got stuck in my head.  Enjoy.



The song has a fascinating history, by the way.  For a bonus treat, click here for the German version by composer Kurt Weill's wife, Lotte Lenye.

Have a safe holiday weekend everyone.  Wear your sunscreen and be careful with the fireworks.

Elegy for Adam West

I've hesitated to post this, because I don't want to be seen as making light of his death or the loss his family and friends are feeling right now.  Still, there's something in it that pretty perfectly sums up that very loss.  At least for me.

There were several times in the Batman series when the Caped Crusaders have been presumed dead and Gotham City goes into full-fledged mourning.  This is not from one of those episodes.  In fact, Batman isn't even visible in this scene, which is one of my three favorite scenes from the whole show.  Nevertheless, this is one of those scenes that pretty much sums up the appeal and beauty of the whole show. 

Victor Buono as King Tut seemed to relish his every moment on screen, tearing into every line in order to take it straight over the top chewing every bit of scenery to a pulp as he went there.  Adam West brought that same relish to his portrayal of Batman, only where Buono over-played, he chose to under-play.  His Batman is one that's smooth as hell, cool as all get out, and totally in on the joke, even though he appears to be clueless at times.  You have to watch West closely to pick up on everything he packs into his performance.  It's as stuffed with goodies as Batman's utility belt.

Back to the scene.  Batman and Robin are trying to rescue a kidnapped heiress from the clutches of King Tut, who wants to make her his Cleopatra.  Robin has been nabbed by Tut's men and tied up.  Batman, after a brief Bat-Fight, was clobbered by Tut and placed in a sarcophagus.  This leads to the cliff-hanger ending, as Tut submerges the sarcophagus in a vat of water in order to drown Batman.

And we get this wonderful bit of dialogue:



We had just laid down for a post-yard sale nap on Saturday, when Keith decided to check his phone for news.  He rolled over, shook me and said: "I hate to wake you up with bad news, but Adam West has died."  My first thought was:  "He's on his way to that great, big belfry in the sky."

I know there are those who would probably prefer to use "Bat Cave" in that sentence, but it seems much more appropriate to me to use a line from the show itself.

I'm just a bit too young to have caught the show in its original run.  I had not even turned two when it debuted!  I've watched the reruns since the 70's, though, making up for lost time.  Adam West was a aprt of my childhood, teen-agerdom, and adulthood.  This was one of those blows that hurt.  At this point, unless I've missed somebody, only Julie Newmar and Burt Ward are still with us.  Everyone else is off having a grand cast reunion.  Maybe it's in the belfry.  Maybe it's in the Bat Cave.  Meanwhile, the rest of us are left without a Bat-Channel to tune into tomorrow to see how Batman gets out of this one.

Farewell, Adam West.  Thanks for all the Bat-Memories.  You're already missed.

Retro Y'all!

There's really only one way to go this weekend:



After all, it is Wonder Woman Day!  This is, of course, due to the much-anticipated, long-awaited movie release.  It's finally here.

Since it's also junk set out weekend, I won't be going for a few days, but I am looking forward to it.

BONUS:  The episode these credits were lifted from guest-starred Anne Francis!

To Provoke the Thoughts

A while back, I wrote a post about the the nature of photography and how it's changed in the digital age.  I still wonder what is going to be at the estate sales of the future in place of boxes of family photos. 

Monday, when I was trying to find the blog post I wrote about my mother's death for a post on the Book of Faces, I stumbled across four or five older posts in a row that had deleted videos embedded in them.  On the one hand, this makes me a little sad, given that this blog is a record of the last twelve years of my life, off and on.  On the other hand, do I really want to go back and clean up 1000+ old posts when there are much better (and more fun) uses of my time?

John Green works a bit with both those ideas in this interesting video.  If you don't know who he is, check out the vlogbrothers YouTube channel.  It's pretty awesome. 

Retro Y'all!

This one is stuck in my head a lot these days, because it plays at least once a day in the Peddlers Mall.  I chose this version over the others on YouTube because of the "enthusiastic" hand clappers in the background.  Can you imagine putting "Back Up Hand Clapper" on your resume?  (Although I do have a secret fantasy of shaking a mad tambourine onstage with a happening band for one special performance.  Too bad I have no sense of rhythm.)

By the way, as much as I love Madonna, we'll not ever talk about her cover version.  Talk about something that should have been shot down as soon as it was proposed.  Some songs are sacrosanct classics, you know.

I have memories of being about fourth or fifth grade and getting an LP for Christmas--one of those educational types--that was all original songs for kids about American history.  I can still remember snippets of the songs.  The one about the stock market crash in 1929 had a chanted refrain ("Stocks are going up!  Going up!") that kept building and building until the crash happens.  I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the album or who put it out.  Of course, my copy is long, long gone.

It's one of those things I would love to find one day at a thrift, if only to prove to myself that I am not hallucinating and that the opening song really, inexplicably, was......American Pie!  Surely, I cannot be misremembering something as bizarre at that.  Surely.

The reason this sticks out in my mind is because I remember having to ask my mother what "rye" was the first couple of times I heard it.  I thought that the good old boys were drinking whiskey and eating bread, but since the song said they were "drinking whiskey and rye" I thought they were putting the bread into the whiskey.  YUCK!

I also had to ask what a "levee" was.

I've never been able to turn up anything on the internet about this album.  I just keep running into references to Don McLean, Madonna, or that damn movie.  Anyone who could help me prove that I'm not insane would be much appreciated. I know I'm not making this up in my head.

If you need or would like to read an interpretation of the lyrics, you can start here.  There are several others out there.

Retro Y'all (Black History Month Edition)

I probably should have done this one closer to Valentine's Day, but whatever.

You know those songs that instantly turn you back into a teenager in high school, reliving all the agony and ecstasy that is adolescent romance?  It seems that many of mine were sung by Lionel Richie.

The first one is long, but it's a threefur, plus bonus Soul Train stings.





Yes, I sang along with all three of these.  At the top of my lungs.

Don't even ask if I got weepy.  Hell, I cry at cat food commercials.