PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

A LEGO Christmas Special from Monsieur Caron

 

Marc Andre Caron posted a link in a comment in a post of mine and I watched his Christmas short about Santa's sleigh troubles and thought it was fun. You can watch it and be the judge. It's so easy to embed a video, just cut and paste, I don't know why I don't do it more often. Check out Marc's other videos on his YouTube page. Have a Merry Christmas too. If you don't celebrate Christmas, enjoy the days off for the holidays, if you're working. I know I've got two four day weekends coming up and there's a ton of stuff to watch on my shelf. I hope to get some of that watched as well as get some serious lazing about done.

The Man In The Moat

Here's the entrance to the Yoshiwara Quarter outside Edo. It's sometime in the 1800's. The guards of the quarter have found a dead man floating in the moat.
    

The quarter has high walls and a moat to keep the girls in and trouble out. That moat turns out to be a handy place to dump a body. That's why the guards keep a ladder handy. I built the thing on 6 32by32 baseplates. That way I can move it.

   

You can see more pictures at Flickr or MOCpages. The idea for this came from the movie Sakuran. Mike brought a copy to Friday Night Movies night. I honestly haven't captured that movies amazing colors but it inspired me to build this over the next 6 weeks. A lot of little things took a while to figure out. I wanted to use the printed wall pieces. I like them, they add a lot to a scene. Since they are 6 studs wide I needed to work out how many to use and where they go in relation to the edges of the 6 modules.

  
I really wanted to make the main brothel a red and black building. The balcony railing was the first think I figured out. I like the way the main bedroom turned out. I started thinking that was going to be the main oiran's room but it now I think it's the main room of the couple that own the place. They don't look too nice.

Harry Potter Bookends

 
 
 
I am excited to see new HP sets coming and it got me interested in making some more HP works. I started wanting to make some bookends and it morphed into this. There are 29 minifigs and that barely makes a dent in the cast. You can see more pictures of some of the scenes at my Flickr photostream or on MOCpages.

 

City of the Living Dead

 
I just love this comic cover. Soon as I saw it I wanted to keep a copy for later revisiting. I say that but I have so many things like this that I never get back to. Burn them onto dvdr's and forget about them. Maybe when I retire. The cover might be the best thing about the book. I sure like that pose and the creepy skull guy. I'd probably have bought that comic if I had seen it on a newstand but I wasn't around in 1952 to pick it up. It's an Avon Comic. They broke into the publishing world in 1941 and for a while they published a lot of comic books. I'd never seen a copy of City of the Living Dead for sale but it wasn't something I was looking for either. It doesn't have a number and looks like it was a one shot from the little mention on the internet. I don't know where my Overtreet Priceguide is right now or I could look it up. Maybe they'd have something about it. Oh well. It'll turn up.

I found this over at the Digital Comic Museum. It's a place, like the Internet Archive, that collects public domain material and puts it out for people to download for free. The DCM only deals in comic books, old comic books, ones published before the mid-1950's. They are better organized than the IA, but you've got to register before you can download stuff. No charge, easy to do, downloads are quick. The comics are sorted by company and title. Not all runs are complete by any means but there are plenty of entertaining books to be seen. In the Avon section I found several issues of The Saint, a comic book adaptation of the Leslie Charteris crime series about my favorite globetrotting rapscallion Simon Templer. They weren't as good as the prose work but entertaining for me who has always had a soft spot for the TV series with Roger Moore. I have read many of the novels and collections of short stories and pretty much enjoyed them.

     

I thought the ads were fun to look at. Here's the best from the issue. The story art is really colorful and interesting to look at, even if it's not all great. The first story in the book is the strongest in art and writing. It's titled City of the Living Dead and the art's by A. C. Hollingsworth. I don't know who wrote it. A group of archologists travel to Mexico, and against the advice of the locals, they go to a dangerous and forbidden city populated by the living dead. I know when I hear about that sort of place I immediately want to rush over and see what's up. Lots of people die. Like that's a big surprise. The stories are about average for a horror comic, certainly not EC quality but readable. There are three more stories and a two page prose story. It's a good reason to stop in at the Digital Comic Museum and take a look around. They have lots of other entertaining books to look at. Lots of horror, science fiction, crime, western, humor and romance comics to pick from. Here's the Hollingworth splash page and the one to the witches story. That's some weird ass shit, huh.

   

Fireball XL5

 
Sperhauk sent me a link to a video over on YouTube. It's by some computer guy who's taken the ships and sets from the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson TV show Fireball XL5, created CGI models of them, and then added some music to create a tribute to the original show. The video is in color and it's rather cool. Fun to watch. I like the headquarter building, all tall with wings, like a totem pole.

 
The 1962 show was in black and white and puppets were the actors. Not an attractive bunch let me tell you. And the eyebrows, man, they are something. I used to watch this show. I can't remember a thing about it. There were 39 episodes and you can buy them on dvd. The series was about a ship, the Fireball XL5, which was commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac of World Space Patrol. That's their head quarters below with the XL5 ready to blast off to some adventure on a different planet each week.

 
The Anderson's did a lot of that sort of show under the Supermarionation brand. Thunderbirds, SuperCar, Joe 90 and later UFO with real people. I watched most of them when they were new to the world and haven't really wanted to go back and see them again even though I have become somewhat nostalgic about TV from the 50's and 60's.

     
 
 

The Three Robbers by Erik Smit and Gene Deitch

 
Funny how unexpected links pop up and lead you down an interesting road to a new surprise. I always say the more you know the more jokes you get. Erik Smit adapted a children's book to bricks and posted the story to Flickr.  The Three Robbers by Tomi Ungerer is a 1961 illustrated children's book about some robbers that collect a vast treasure by robbin' coaches. Sounds like fun to me. During one robbery they find nothing in the coach but a small girl who's delighted to meet them. Rather than let he go off to live with her wicked aunt they take her with them to their hideout where they hoard their gold. She gets them to use their treasure to help orphan kids. The whole story is depicted in those 20 pictures above. I like the micro castle and town. The coach looks intriguing. Erik puts a link to a short 1971 film adaptation by Gene Deitch. The film was entertaining enough. He didn't mention it on Flickr so I am betting Erik might not know that Gene Deitch is the father of underground comic artists Kim and Simon Deitch. Kim is still producing entertaining comics of an oddly strange nature.

One Less Nail In My Coffin

Even though my doctor would disapprove I couldn't resist picking up a bag of Sweethearts. I was interested in the new flavors, though I had a bad feeling about this purchase. I should have put the bag back on the shelf and went home. I did not like the new flavors at all and I'm not alone. Here's a guy who didn't like them. He has a poll. The Candy Blog has a good review of the new product and some pictures of the new candies. That's where the pic of the new candies below came from. It's a pretty entertaining blog about candy. Me like candy. The food guy at the Chicago Tribune rated each flavor, and he's not too happy either. They make me think of SweetTarts, there's a bit of a bite to them, and I don't care for SweetTarts. Here's the email I sent to the company.

Contact Reason: Complaints
Comments: I purchased a bag of sweethearts candies today. This was even after seeing the list of flavors on the back. I do not like the new flavors at all and feel that I wasted my $2.29. I will feed them to the squirrels so they would not totally go to waste. I miss the old lack of flavors.

 

It's snowing too much right now to leave them out for the squirrels. Maybe after it stops. We'll see if they take them back to their nests. I got a response today from the New England Confectionary Company, who changed the flavors after 145 years. According to Terry it was because their customers asked for it. Here's her response.

Dear Garth:

I wanted to personally thank you for all of your input on our new Sweethearts.  They are a great US made product and I am glad to hear you are a longtime fan. Over the years, our number one product requests have been -around producing a more flavorful and softer product. Sweethearts have been America’s favorite Valentine’s Day candy for over 145 years now and we needed to ensure that Sweethearts continue to delight people of all ages.

It’s never easy to change something that hasn’t been changed for a very long time and we appreciate your support as we continue to come up with new flavors and ways to say “I Love You”. Here’s more information about all of our exciting changes:

Our new softer Original Flavors now include: Green Apple, Blue Raspberry, Strawberry, Lemon, Grape and Orange. The color of the hearts were changed to match the flavors so people could tell what flavor they were eating before they even tried them. The new expressions on the Sweethearts were chosen by over 10,000 Americans at mysweethearts.com back in the summer. The complete list of the top new sayings includes both contemporary expressions like Tweet® Me and Text Me and beloved classics like “Love Me” and “Sweet Pea.” The packaging was changed to make the product easier to find at shelf. And, our little 1oz boxes are now slightly smaller with no window, to be more sustainable and easier to handle for tiny kid’s hands. The back of our 1oz boxes was also changed so that kids could write in their To/From names in pencil.  You can find the old flavors at the following locations: Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar, 99 Cent Only, Freds, Odd Lots, Wakefern, and Sav A Lot.

If you are looking for something to share with the little girls in your life be sure to check out our new Sweethearts Dazzled Tarts with flavors including: Pink Lemonade, Wild Berry Grape, Sour Apple, Watermelon, Extreme Tangerine and Blue Raspberry. These new Sweethearts are dazzled and have crowns and shoes on them!

So, thank you for your feedback and please stick with us. Let us know what you think of our other Sweetheart products. Also, check out mysweethearts.com for free recipe ideas and craft projects.

Best,

Theresa Denis

Customer Service

New England Confectionery

 
Back to me.I thought it was interesting that the older of the candy is available at those dollar stores. They changed the flavors in the middle of the production run. I read that in the Candy Blog. It doesn't really matter, they lost me as a customer. The other thing I found interesting was her mentioning that they changed the packaging to "make the product easier to find at shelf." I couldn't see it to easily at the local Walgreens since the new package blended in with all the other pastel packages on the shelf. That distinctive red package of the old conversation hearts was a stand out on the shelf. I also liked seeing what was inside the package. I liked the yellow ones best. I did read on one or another of those pages that they changed the NECCO Wafer candy too. More natural. I haven't seen those yet. I don't know where that picture of the gal in the underwear came from but it made me laugh. Here's a nice picture of an old NECCO Wafer Truck. I like cool advertising stuff like that.

 

Avon Fantasy Reader Covers

 

 

I found these covers to some Avon Fantasy Readers online. I thought they were great. I used to have some of these but I can't remember which ones. They were reprints in paperback form of 1930's pulp stories. They came out in the 50's. I have a feeling that the covers are reprints from pulps too but I don't know which ones and I'm too lazy to go check. I have a feeling there are sites that have more covers for many of those old science fiction and fantasy pulps but I haven't checked that. Just another thing to get suckered into collection 'cause it's there. I'll enjoy these for now. 
 

Song of the South

 
For some reason Disney hasn't had a nice dvd release of Song Of The South yet so the bootleggers will have to do if you want to see this 1946 film. You can find copies all over the place. Most seem to be from the Japanese Laserdisc or the British DVD. Someone gave me a copy of what I think is the British DVD. You can find a copy here, here's a place that has it for $7.99. Perhaps someday Disney will do up a nice disc and we can buy that too. It's a tough one, people are unhappy no matter what you do. I'm prefectly happy to watch the one I have right now, but I'd sure like a nice Platinium Edition 2 - dvd set that had lots of production art and the like on it. It could happen. I know it's a hot potato, but once you explain how to handle them, they aren't so dangerous.

It's post Civil War and Johnny and his Mom go to live with his Grandmother who lives on a nice plantation in the south. Lots of black people live on the plantation, working as share croppers. Johnny takes a likin' to Uncle Remus and his stories but mom thinks the elderly man is a bad influence on her son. It gets worse and worse and Johnny is knocked down by a bull. It's sad but he'll be ok. Uncle Remus can fix it with a dose of Brer Rabbit. Johnny makes friends with two local children, both of them poor, one black and one white. You can read a more detailed synopsis of the movie at Christian Willis's site. There's a puppy in there too. It's sentimental melodrama, and I got a tear at the end. It's pretty to look at and the animation is some of the companies best. I even like the songs by Johnny Mercer.

    
That's Uncle Remus in his cabin with the three kids, then it's Johnny, Toby and Ginny. They're all pretty cute. Uncle Remus tells the Brer Rabbit stories to illustrate a moral lesson. The kids learn. There's some conflict with Johnny's mom and just about everyone else. She'll get over that eventually, fixed by singin' and story tellin'. I like stories.

    
 
I really developed an affection for the Brer Rabbit that Paul Murry drew in Walt Disney Comics and Stories. Murry drew a ton of art for Western, all kinds of characters and stories. Western Publishing was the company that made Disney Comics from the 1930's to the 1970's. Disney tried doing comics back in the 1990's but it was a failure. I'm mostly interested in the old books. That's Dell Four Color 129 from December 1946. That's pretty old. It adapts some of the animated parts of the Song of the South. You can read the rest of the tar baby story plus another whole story here. The inking is by Carl Buettner. I really have a great respect for both Murry and Buettner. They created some very entertaining stories and some really nice artwork in their comic stories. For me Paul Murry is right up there with Carl Barks as a comic creator.

Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant - Illustrated by Andrew Colanga

   

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Andrew posted this 2 part YouTube video and I took a look. I used to listen to that song a lot back in the 70's. It's enjoyable and there's a good melody and chorus. Andrew has illustrated the song with a shit load of black and white drawings. They are pretty enjoyable too, a nice compliment to the song. It's a long song, over 18 minutes, and there are a lot of drawings. Took him a month. I'm getting tired thinking about it. I see Arlo revisited his song 30 years later. I'm kind'a missing the hat. Great job, AC. Have a crime free Thanksgiving everyone.