“It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it. Nothing had changed except your own attitude: the predestined thing happened in any case. He hardly knew why he had ever rebelled.” – George […]

Maura and I spent a good part of the summer of 2018 clearing out my grandmother’s attic of anything I possibly wanted to keep. There were fewer items on that front than I’d anticipated, though the prospect of shifting heavy crates in the sweltering heat tended to override most feelings of materialistic sentimentality. The most […]

My GRAVE-est apologies for GHOST-ing on yesterday’s post, but I was being tormented by a lost set of car keys and supposedly-but-not-actually faxed important paperwork and other real life terrors more fiendish than any salivating hellbeast. In any case, here’s a cursed artifact from a 1984 Billboard insert covering the rental-driven horror flick boom… While […]

Come one, come all! Feast your eyes on the Only Bumflap That Matters! As the ad — ganked from a 1980 issue of Smash Hits — states, this was merely one of an entire line of hindquarters drapery available for sale. If you were curious about which other artists were available for posterior display, here’s […]

Say, kids, what time is it? It’s crappy merchandising time (which, to be honest, is all the time in the fetid realm of geekdom)! At first glance, the above ad from a 1993 issue of Wizard appears to be just another pitch for some overpriced licensed garbage. Puzzling, but hardly remarkable for an era where […]

Guys, it was 1993. That was well enough into the decade for even sleepyheads like myself to rouse themselves from fitful slumber and catch a whiff of the zeitgeist (redolent of trying to extinguish a tire fire with a tanker full of rancid milk, but that may have just been a Woburn thing). It’s downright […]

This strategic alliance between J.C. Penny and Clairol was the Reagan Era’s answer to the Super Soldier Project — only instead of punching Hitler, the object was to sell as many home perm kits and wide-shouldered blazers as possible. “Gentlemen, our agents have revealed that the Russians have taken a decisive lead in asymmetrical earring […]

It wasn’t the sweat-reeking mix of overconfidence and pleading desperation that baffled me. Nor was it the hand-written scrawl passing as a professional pitch or teaser lyrics that evoke more pathos than pop potential. Those all tend to be a common element in these paid-placement bids to bypass the the big label gatekeepers, though turning […]

It also responds really well to whitewashing and a quick run through a spin cycle, and can be easily tailored for various regional climates and prevailing fashions. Though it does tend to get quite messy with use, you can always leave it for someone else to clean-up after you’re done with it. (DISCLAIMER: Ketchup stains […]

My journey through Panorama has reached its abrupt conclusion with the June 1981 issue, but not before TV Guide‘s doomed-from-the-start bid for an upscale audience served up a chilling glimpse into the World That’s Coming… National Video was one of the first major tape rental chains to emerge from the home video gold rush, and […]