No Interim CEO's Allowed!

Today I was given the job of tossing a bunch of old magazines into the recycle bins at work. Presented with 3 boxes of magazines, I did what anyone would do. I stopped working and starting leafing though the magazines looking for cool ads!
I found this short article on the last page of the July 20, 1988 TIME magazine: "What does Steve Jobs have to do to get some respect? Apple's co-founder is finally back at the core of the company and beginning to put a bite on its decline, but he's still a nobody to security guards. Following his keynote address at the Mac World convention in New York City, Jobs suddenly found himself barred from the main show floor by a zealous young security guard who observed that Jobs didn't have the appropriate pass. When the many Appleistas with him offered him theirs, the security guard threatened to confiscate the passes and call the state troopers. Despite the flurry of frantic cell-phone calls and cries of "Don't you know who this is?" the guard refused to budge. Jobs had to retreat and find a generic pass with which to enter his own convention. Maybe the guard was a Windows user."

Oops! My Streak Comes To An End

Ok, so my experiment to see how long I could go with posting a daily entry has come to an end after 75 days. My first post was on July 30th, and since then I have posted an entry every day... until yesterday when I totally forgot... Oops!
Don't worry though, I do still plan to continue blogging, and I have enough stuff to keep this up forever!

The DEATH Car

One of my favorite movies is "The Car", a 1977 "B" movie about a possessed car. There were others that tried this formula such as Christine, but this was the original. I remember seeing it at the Drive In when I was young and being pretty scared by this large black car that drove around mowing people down. One of the best scenes in the movie occurs at nighth, and as the car driving right though the second story window of a house, with the just the sound of its horn blaring as it crashes through the house! It scared me then, it makes me smile now.
I loved this quote from one of the review of The Car on Amazon.com, "The Car is so extravagantly cheesy as to be almost surreal. To really understand the greatness of The Car, one must compare it to John Carpenter's Christine, another haunted car film based on one of Stephen King's weakest novels. I've seen Christine once and really don't care to view it again. I've seen The Car many times and will watch it every chance I get. Accurately noted by several reviewers, "The Car" is really "Jaws" on land. This souped up automobile is a sleek black Lincoln possessing a fog horn and a bumper the size of Wilford Brimley's mustache. It runs over bikers, hitchhikers and tuba players with hungry ease, tormenting the local yokel police force with demonic glee."

I recently found this painting of a toy truck sitting on the last step of a staircase. I love the title above the painting. Although it has nothing to do with the movie, every time I see this, it makes me chuckle as I imagine someone coming down the stairs and placing their foot on this toy truck, and woosh, the same results as in the movie!

Fast Food Tray Liners

Tonight I bring you yet another of my favorite items to collect... Fast food tray liners. You know, those pieces of paper that fast food restaurants place on your tray to keep your food from touching the tray - and to get you to stare at their advertising. Since I love fast food signage and advertising, it was just natural that I would start taking home the tray liners. I started collecting them over 20 years ago and am always happy to add a new one to the collection. I just love some of the great graphics and slogans that can be found on a good looking tray liner.
Here is something I found about tray liners on a web site that prints them: "A properly executed tray liner quietly provides more marketing punch. It re-enforces the image of freshness and quality on each tray with every order, and is a visual tie-in to your advertising and radio campaigns"
unfortunately for my blog, tray liners tend to be larger than the scanner bed on my scanner, so it means I must do two scans of each tray liner and then stitch them together. So this may be the only tray liner I display on my blog unless I can find an easier way to get them into my computer.
And just in case you think its strange that I collect tray liners... how about this The Original Condiment Packet Museum. And YES, I do have a bunch of these in my possession!

Englishman River Falls

No time tonight, so here is a quick photo of myself at Englishman River Falls on Vancouver Island some time in the early 70's. This used to be my favorite place to vacation every year. I went back many times to have my photo taken at the same spot. Nothing else to say except, wow, look at the cool sweater I am wearing in the photo.

Supreme Shock Sensation of Our Time!

1n 2004 I read on the internet about a movie called The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. It was a 2004 movie, but made to look like a 50's B horror movie. I just had to see this movie , but unfortunately it was being shown at a select few movie houses around North America. To my delight it was showing at Tinseltown in downtown Vancouver. I hopped on the skytrain and headed downtown to see this movie. I was not disappointed! It was everything I had hoped it would be and more... terrible sets, goofy lines, cheesy music, and a talking skeleton with wires making it move. What wasn't to like. I liked the movie so much that I joined the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra Yahoo group, and bought the DVD the day it was released. I also made this desktop for my computer using all the fake merchandise they pictured on their official web site. If you still have not seen this movie and you need to get a hold of a copy and see what you're missing!

It looks like we've got another mystery on our hands

I blogged previously about the fact that Coca Cola BlaK had finally arrived on store shelves in my area. And then yesterday I mentioned that I got a bunch of free samples of Coca Cola BlaK at the cranberry festival in Ft. Langley. Well, tonight I noticed something curious. The original bottles that I purchased say "Cola Coffee Fusion Beverage" on them, and the bottles I got yesterday say "Carbonated Fusion Beverage". Everything else about the bottles is exactly the same.
I used to love playing the game "Clue" where you had to solve the mystery of who done it, in what room, with what object. I also used to love watching Scooby Doo (actually I still do) as they solved all those great mysteries. Well gang, it looks like we have another mystery on our hands.
Let's pretend this is the end of the game and/or the end of the Scooby episode. Here is my explanation of what happened:
First, Coke came up with the brilliant idea of fusing Coca Cola with coffee, two of the most widely consumed beverages. What could be better than mixing them together to make one super money making drink. Next they came up with the packaging, a nice Coke shaped bottle with the name Coca Cola BlaK, and the slogan "Carbonated Fusion Beverage". They then started shipping them to store shelves. As consumers began to find these bottles in their local shops, they began to wonder just what fusion had been added to their beloved Coca Cola? After some initial confusion as to just what this new Coca Cola BlaK was, Coke does a quick tweak to the packaging, and "Cola Coffee Fusion Beverage" bottles begin showing up on store shelves, to which consumers happily buy up all the bottles of this new coffee cola concoction. That explains why Coke was giving away the original bottles of "Carbonated Fusion beverage", to get rid of the remaining stock of non "Cola Coffee Fusion Beverage" bottles, and also why they had the 'Coke Team' there to hand them out, and answer everyone's questions of "What is this stuff?".
And there you have my friends, mystery solved... or is it?

Caroline's Winter Holiday

Today we went to Ft Langley to check out the antique mall there. It turned out to be the cranberry festival in Ft Langley and the streets were packed! We spent some time checking out all the activities and obtained a bunch of free stuff including a bunch of free bottles of Coca Cola BlaK (which I blogged about a few days ago). We then had lunch at a little 50's burger dinner, and then finally it was off to the antique mall. I found a great booth with bookshelves full of books. I picked up a couple of great books including "Walt Disney world" 1981 hardcover, "Since the World Began" 1996 hardcover, and "Caroline's Winter Holiday" 1973 hardcover. All three books were under $5 each, a bargain to be sure! The two Walt Disney World books are full of great photos and the Caroline book has more of Pierre Probst's wonderful drawings!


Check out my blog about my first Caroline book "Caroline at the Ranch".
I also picked up a bunch of WDW postcards, mostly from Epcot's World Showcase, as well as an old "The Bobbsey Twins in the Country" novel as a present for my mother who used to read the Bobbsey Twins books as a young girl.
There really isn't anything more fun that spending a few hours rummaging though an antique mall looking for treasures to add to your collection.

Some Swell Greeting Cards

I wish it was my birthday, so that I could send myself some of these neato birthday cards I found at a thrift store a few years ago. I am guessing that some little old lady decided to get rid of her box of cards under the bed. These are some great old vintage cards with some really nice artwork. There is no date on the cards, a few of them do have the "Wishing Well Greetings" logo on the back as well as "Made it USA".
I originally bought these as gag cards that I was going to send to my friends for birthdays etc. In the end I liked them so much, that I never ended up giving any of them away!

Saludos Amigos

Here is a really nice piece of artwork from the Disney anamated film Saludos Amigos (1942). It is a puzzle from the Jaymar Speciality Co. Inc in Brooklyn New York. Unfortunely there is no date on it, but my guess is its from the 50's or 60's. I picked it up a few years ago at an antique mall in Portland, OR. It was well worth the couple of bucks it cost, as I absolutly love the artwork, and Donald Duck and Jose Carioca are a couple of my favorite Disney characters.

Pluto's Dream House

Recently I was watching a few of my Disney Treasures DVD and I happened to watch a cartoon titled Pluto's Dream House (1940). While watching the cartoon I was especially taken by a shot where they show the blue prints for Pluto's new dog house. I remembered that I can use my screen capture application to save anything on my screen, so I decided to turn the shot from the cartoon into a picture that I could just as a desk top for my Mac.

While I was at it, I also copied the title card for the cartoon. I have always loved cartoon title cards & posters - many times they are the best thing about a cartoon! They are often done by a different artist than the cartoon, and many times it looks like they have spend way more time and money on the title card and poster than they did on the rest of the cartoon.
I like title cards so much that a few months ago, I made this desktop using a bunch of title cards from some of my favorite classic Warner Brothers cartoons.

Coaster Mania

Today I was listening to the current Coaster Radio episode "#223 - All Good Things..." in which the hosts were talking about that fact that they were thinking of ending the show after two seasons of weekly podcasts.
I know how hard it can be doing something such as the podcast for such a long time - I did Firehouse Magazine for 18 years! Although I will miss the podcast for which I have become accustomed to listening to each week, I can understand that nothing can last forever. The fact that they could do a weekly podcast (for free no less) for two seasons is to be commended.
If you have any interested in roller coasters and/or theme parks, you will want to check out their site where you can download and listen to the current show as well as all the past episodes.
If you don't know what a podcast is, in simple terms, its a like a radio show that you can download to your computer to listen to any time you want.
And speaking of things that don't last forever, the Scream Machine coaster that was here in Vancouver at Expo 86, was removed shortly after the Expo was over. The Scream Machine was moved to Six Flags St. Louis and is now known as the Ninja.
Here is a great photo of the Scream Machine coaster from a promotional kit I found a few years ago.

A little bit of trivia: The Scream Machine was used for the establishing shots in the "Terror on the Hell Loop 2000" episode of Get A Life, one of my all time favorite TV shows.

Coca Cola BlaK

Tonight at my local 7-11 I picked up a new addition for my Coca Cola collection called Coca Cola BlaK. It says its a 'cola coffee fusion beverage'. I don't know what that is, but since I don't drink coffee, I don't think I will enjoy this drink. I do plan on trying it just so I know what it tastes like, but not tonight, as its too late at night to be trying some cola coffee fusion beverage.
It comes in a cool classic shaped glass coke bottle, which has a plastic covering over the entire bottle. The only place you can actually see the glass bottle, is at the very bottom where there is no plastic covering the bottle. It has the traditional Coca Cola logo with the name BlaK, and a brand new logo which looks like a leaning zero with a small swoosh / slash through it.
If this is like most other odd ball flavours Coke has come out with, this will become a great collectible in a year or so, as it becomes yet another soon to be forgotten flavoured Coke product.

Great Killer Longhorn

What's hanging on your bathroom wall? I have this really cool Rhaphipodus Hopei (Great Killer Longhorn) hanging on mine.
It's amazing what you can find at a Salvation Army thrift shop. My local Salvation Army had a window full of bugs, and butterflies all shadow boxed and labeled as if they had come from a museum. I went on the Saturday morning when the window display went on sale, and this was the only item I was able to purchase. I got there 30 minutes before the store opened, and there was already about 15 people ahead of me, and they were all there for the bugs and butterflies.
The one I was able to purchase is framed in a 8 1/2 x 11 inch shadow box, and has a small label with the Rhaphipodus Hopei name, followed by Great Killer Longhorn, and finally a name in Japanese. Unfortunately when I looked up Rhaphipodus Hopei in Google, I did not find a my bug, but something that looked more like a beetle. Apparently it looks like I bought something that was mislabelled. O well... Great Killer Longhorn is a pretty cool name for the cool bug I have hanging on my bathroom wall!