The Gobbler

No, this has nothing to do with turkeys. I believe this may have been the site that I've posted early on, but accidentally deleted it. It is one of my favorite Googie sites. Gobbler is a pure Googie. This is from Lileks. Browse through Lileks to see other great stuff like their vintage postcards of motels across the US.

http://www.lileks.com/institute/motel/

Michael & the Alpha Bits

Back in the 1970's the Jackson 5 made several Alpha Bits commercials. I posted only two links, because the other ones were in a bad quality (Of course, you can find them on YouTube). I don't recall seen these commercials, but it's great to see young Michael as he was in the beginning of his career.

Alpha Bits is no longer sold at my local stores. I don't even know if they still exist, but I did find them on Amazon.com a few months ago. From the descriptions of the cereal's reviews, I gathered that it tastes nothing like it used to. They made it "healthier" for the kids. I just looked at Amazon and saw that they currently do not have them.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoLf1CLcoiU



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jWY27wt5y4

Records Anomalies

That is one odd collection. It is all about odd and old records. I've never seen anything like this before. They have various pictures of records from different categories. I liked the "Advertisements" and the "Special Features" sections the best. This site belongs to WFMU freedom radio station in NYC & Hudson Valley.

http://www.wfmu.org/MACrec/index.html

Harvey & Smiley

A few facts from this site. Harvey Ball, a graphic artist from Worcester, Massachusetts, created the smiley face (not Forrest Gump!) in 1963. The State Mutual life Assurance Company hired him to design a logo to cheer up the employees because the company was not doing well. Harvey wanted to do a simple symbol that will bring smile to their face.

Visit the site to find out rest of the story, and story about the original 100 button pins.
.
http://www.bitwisegifts.com/page/bg/CTGY/smiley-face-history

YouTube Woodstock

If you are a former hippie who went to Woodstock in 1969, you might recognize these videos from YouTube. Woodstock took place in Bethel, NY in August 15-17 1969. There were 500,000 people attending the festival. I would like to mention that a while back I watched a wonderful documentary called Woodstock. It was pretty long, but it captured the essence of those three days. I strongly recommend that you watch the movie if you really want to know what it was like, or want to reminisce it . By the way, the famous poster was design by Arnold Skolnick.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=woodstock&search=Search

Secret Fun Spot

I have fun looking up at all the cool retro stuff. This site is a bit different from other retro sites that I've seen. It is ort of campy. The person who does this site is an author as well. His name is Kirk Demarais. There is some info about his prank book called "LIFE OF THE PARTY' A VISUAL HISTORY OF S.S ADAMS MAKERS OF PRANKS & MAGIC FOR 100 YEARS" (that's a long title). Take a look at his blog too

http://www.secretfunspot.com/

Cereal Bits

Cereal Bits is a forum site. It's a super busy forum, but they had some useful stuff to read. Personally, I liked browsing the board, and already saw a post with a link to another nice blog.

http://www.cerealbits.com/

Atom Central

The Atom Central is almost like a mini encyclopedia. It is a small site. But I think it has some useful info. As you can tell from its name, it's about the atomic era. They have various information about the atomic bombs, cold war, tsar bomba, missile defense timeline and a whole bunch other related items (that I didn't even know about).

The site runs by Visual Concept Entertainment(VCE). The company was started by Peter Kuran, an animator, who had just finished working as an animation supervisor for Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) for George Lucas' "The Empire Strikes Back" movie. He has done other 250 movies, such as "Men in Black" and "A Beautiful Mind".

http://www.vce.com/atomcentral.html

Retro Thing Blog

A blog about vintage gadgets and technology of the past. Those of you who miss the old technology will probably enjoy browsing. It is a combination of retro and vintage in various fields.

http://www.retrothing.com/

Roadside Peek

Another "roadside" site to look at. It is somewhat similar to the Roadside America site that I posted yesterday. Note that this site isn't updated regularly.

http://www.roadsidepeek.com/

Yugo To Go

Hey, remember the Yugo car (also called Zastava Koral)? Zastava is the company who builds the car.The car that only cost $3,990. It was born in 1975 and "died" in the US in 1989 (but is still alive and kicking in Serbia). It wasn't until 1989 that this car, made in Serbia (Yugoslavia) was imported by Malcolm Bricklin, into the US until 1991. That car, was so bad, it didn't take long for the sales to suffer. Also, the political situation in East Europe at the time, affected the sales in the US.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VV9NOBYDC4

Do You Remember This Fad?

Some fads to remember... Ah those 8-track tapes. Those were actually cool I think. There are the Bermuda shorts from the 1950's. The breakdancing moves were neats. What about those Rickie Tickie Stickers and the Wacky WallWalkers?

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/16/37-fads-that-swept-the-nation/

Patio Culture

The site's introduction says it all "Welcome to the patio! The place where you grew up if you grew up in the suburban America of the 1960's." It's a great site, they were even mentioned on CNN! So baby boomers, what are 'ya waiting for?

http://www.patioculture.net/

Wanna See Something Weird?

See offbeat places all over the US.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

The Little Big Book Club

Those of you who grew up between the 1940's to 1970's may recall those "big little book" series. The ones that are shown in this link are related to tv shows from those decades.

http://www.tonystrading.co.uk/galleries/tvbooks/whitmanbiglittlebooks.htm


Don't forget to check out this collector's impressive "little big book" collection! It's amazing. From the little big book club site.

http://www.biglittlebooks.com/new-images/index.html

TV Tunes

TV Tune lyrics for cartoons, western, adventure, Action, Drama & comedy from 1940's to present. I was amazed though, to see Star Trek on the list. I never knew that there was a song for Star Trek. Check it out here:

http://www.tvtunesonline.com/

Retro Land

Retro Land is all about pop culture. There is also a forum. Pretty cool.

http://www.retroland.com/

Who is Dr Seuss?

Many of us grew up with Dr. Seuss thanks to the Cat in the Hat. He was well known as a children books author and illustrator, But there was an adult side to him. He also specialized in advertising and political cartoons.

http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dsads/bock/index.shtml


The Political Dr. Seuss
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/politicaldrseuss/

"Jidohanbaiki" Means Vending Machine in Japanese

Japan has a huge variety of vending machines that practically sell anything, even live lobsters, toilet paper, alcohol, ice cream, panties and much more. There is about one machine for every 23 people (Japan has highest number of vending machines per capita). By the end of 2001 they had 5.55 million vending machines!!!

Photomann Travel Photography
http://photomann.com/japan/machines/

Bookrags
http://www.bookrags.com/Vending_machine

Sonic Net
http://www.sonic.net/~anomaly/japan/vending.htm

Pictures from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vending_machine

Pictures from Flicker
http://www.flickr.com/groups/japanese_vending_machines/pool/



*On a side note, during the 1950's the US (I'm not sure about other countries) airports used to have vending machines that sold life insurance policies.

Nostalgia Central

An A to Z "historical" trip to the past. Starting in the 50' and ending up in the 80's.

http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/index.htm

Retro Junk

Cool pop culture retro stuff blast from the 70's to the 90's decades.

http://www.retrojunk.com/

Which Way to Route 66?

Another neat site about the historic route 66. They have maps and directions (including "turn by turn" directions) for each state that the route goes through. There are also galleries of local attractions.

http://www.historic66.com/

Cher & The Osmonds

Ah, those famous smiles and those outfits. What a show it must have been. They sure don't make shows like that anymore, but I kinda miss those old variety shows. They were all about fun and fun.

After checking with www.tv.com, I believe that this episode aired in February 23, 1975. Cher's tv show debuted in 1975; after she and Sonny Bono were divorced in 1974, and their variety show ended. Her show ended in 1976. Later, they both were reunited again.

FYI, Donny (second from left)is 18 years old here.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvJVQYLlj2A