Mark Simonson Studio Notebook

A cool blog from Mark Simonson. He is an illustrator and graphic designer. For further information about him (he has an interesting career background) look for it under the bio section.

He has interesting posts about mural sign, signage, typography, record covers..It's hard to describe what he has on his site. However, there is an emphasis on the typography. I strongly recommend this site for those of you who are in the graphic design field.

Mark Simonson Studio
http://www.marksimonson.com/

Israeli Gum Wrappers

A selection of Israeli Chewing Gum Wrappers

Isreal Chewing Gum Wrappers
http://es.geocities.com/drback_cl/israel-chewing-gum-companies/index.html

Once Upon A Time The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade...

Thought it would be interesting to post about the history of Macy's Parade, even though I am late for Thanksgiving or shall I say early?. The tradition of the paradestarted in 1924! In a few years, that'll be a century. Wow.

The first parade was originally called "Macy’s Christmas Parade". The name was changed the following year to "Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade”. Among other interesting historical data, is that there used to be animals in the parades. But that tradition ceased in 1927 out of concerns for children who might be afraid of them. So, instead of animals the Tony Sarg's giant balloons appeared for the first time. The first balloons characters were Felix the Cat, the Dragon, the Elephant, and the Toy Soldier. It's amazing how far the balloons tradition has become.

The original reason for the Parade was to promote the store. It was started by the company's executives, and was well welcomed by the employees who participated in the staging.

History in this site is great, but I really wish that there were more images, especially from the earlier days.

More here at:

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
http://www.wm.edu/amst/370/2005F/sp4/home.htm


If you do want to see more pictures, check them here. It's also a cool site to learn more about the history of this tradition.

NYC Tourist's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade History
http://www.nyctourist.com/macys_history1.htm/a>

Retrolution

The name of the Retrolution's blogger is Kenneth Kjær-Jensen. He is a Danish web designer at www.dhigroup.com He enjoys collecting kitschy stuff, and has nice stuff about nostalgia related items on his blog. There are also cool stuff from Denmark.

Retrolution
http://www.retrolution.dk/

Flickr - apricotX's Hot Box

apricotX has nice little set of cool vintage boxes.

apricotX's Hot Box
http://www.flickr.com/photos/apricot_x/sets/72157600845560869/

Go Shop At Goodwill

Did you know that Goodwill has their own online auction?! There are several sections, just like eBay. But this is a much smaller site. So if you expect something as big as eBay, you'll be disappointed. They have a ton of old toys, and other stuff. Many are dolls. I saw several items from the 50's and the 60's, as well at least one from the late 40's. I was surprised to see these on the goodwill site. I mean, Goodwill isn't exactly eBay, if you know what I mean. They do have a lot of stuff from the 60's and the 70's (or so it seems). There are newer items too.


Shop Goodwill
http://www.shopgoodwill.com/

We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

Have you seen Jaws? What a classic movie! I remember the T-Shirts with Jaws. I did not know that there quite a few Jaws collectables. Large part of the collection includes printed media.


Jaws Collector
http://www.jawscollector.com/jaws2e.html

Vintage British (Mostly) Toys

In this British site there are many games that include vintage board games, jigsaws puzzles, novelty soaps, 33 RPM records, figurines, and lunch boxes, plates and more. Many are British and there are also American Toys. I don't know anything about the store's reputation itself. It does describes itself as "childhood collectables past and present". This page is about TV and Film Character toys. I saw many games and toys that I really liked.

Vectis Direct
http://www.vectisdirect.co.uk/tv_and_film_character_toys.html

Blog - John Nevarez

Holy cow! John Navarez, who is a VizDev and Story Artist for Animation, has TON of other artists and art blogs sites! A lot of them are awesome. Lots of illustration, cartoon/animation, sketches, and painting. I recognized a few of these, but there is so much to look at, that I am not done yet. You gotta check it out, especially if you are in the art medium field or just enjoy art! Thank you John Nevarez for collecting all these links. Oh yeah, he has good stuff in his own blog too of course.

John Nevarez blog
http://john-nevarez.blogspot.com/

British Airlines Museum

Nice site from the British Air Museum. They have the basic stuff, the museum history and images. The photographs are from the 1920's to present. Lots of cool photos.

The British Air Museum
http://www.bamuseum.com/index.html