High-Five Fridays (Stuff We Dug This Week)

Want to give high-fives too? Sure you do!

1) If you don't know how to thrift (and frankly, that frightens us), check out welcome to Thriftland.

2) Everyone needs a paint by number farting unicorn -- or knows someone who does! ...Maybe that's just me?

3) Other things we make the kids do. (Don't call the authorities; they like it, I swear!)

4) Aliens & arson in 1935. (Strange Canadians!)

5) What do you do with a Mingering Mike? (Not sure I'd comply.)

Ode To Elloh

I am totally in love with art by elloh:





The artist blogs too.

Goodman Action Figures

Found this at Lost At E Minor, where Gerry Mak says, "The Big Lebowski is probably one of the most beloved films of our generation, so the soon to be released Dude action figure should be an insanely hot item."



I've never seen The Big Lebowski; so maybe I'm un-cool. But who doesn't want a John Goodman action figure?

Personally, I've always wanted Roseanne action figures. I'd totally love to play with the Connor family. I double-dog-dare you to say you wouldn't either.

Barbie of the Birds

Looking for that perfect Barbie, the "glamorous-yet-about-to-die" kind of doll we've all been craving? Look no further! Barbie, a'la Hitchcock's The Birds:

via

Crappy VHS Covers - HUNDREDS of 'em!

When I was a kid, my mom worked at several different video rental stores during the 80s. As one might expect, I spent a lot of my time in these stores, browsing the shelves, looking at the covers, trying to understand the lurid and titillating R-rated movie covers...and, in case you don't remember, there was so much crap available on video, it was hard to pick the good from the horrible. Nowadays, you go to Blockbuster or Hollywood and they've got shelves full of big-name movies and DVD box sets of TV shows, things proven to be money-draws, and very little of the USA Up All Night variety. You can't find rows and rows of the videos found below any longer, unless you've still got a mom-and-pop owned video store on your block that understands the value of some good schlock.



This website, despite being heavily European in origins (which adds to the fun) has dozens upon dozens of scans of VHS video covers; most are naughty in very European ways (be careful if you're clicking from your place of employment), and they lean largely towards bloody and sexy...preferably both if available.

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner -- But Everyone Can Put Her in a Pocket!

The Dirty Dancing Talking Keychain has five recorded phrases from the movie:

* Nobody puts Baby in a corner.
* I can't even do the meringue!
* I carried a watermelon.
* You're invading my dance space.
* Go back to your playpen, Baby! - The steps aren't enough - feel the music.

At $6.49, that's just over a buck a line!

Susy (Is) Wong

From a 1962 Today's Woman Christmas Ideas magazine (page 142) comes this Susy Wong Doll pattern:



'Cuz nothin' says, "Merry Christmas, female children!" like your very own handmade brothel doll.

The World of Suzie Wong, by Richard Mason, was published in 1957 and the Paramount film (starring William Holden & Nancy Kwan) was released in 1960. (My copy of the book, shown here, is a 1960 paperback printing whoring the movie.)


Hard to even imagine that Fawcett Publications could be ignorant to the connection...

Going from Suzie to Susy won't make a Wong right.

"Some people play hard to get. I play hard to want."

Andrew Dice Clay, Wayne Newton, Priscilla Presley, Morris Day, Lauren Holly, Gilbert Gottfried, Ed O'Neill, Sheila E. & more!

It sounds rather like a Ronco commercial, and maybe it is just that cool... The kind of cool we here at Kitschy Kitschy Coo believe in anyway!

What am I talking about? Why the fab film, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, of course!

Just watched this flick on late night TV recently. I turned the tube on while this fine film was already in progress -- just as Fairlane (Dice Clay) is searching the boat residence of Johnny Crunch (Gottfried), a scene which includes a blow-up doll, a BDSM video tape with Crunch and Colleen Sutton (Presley), and a strange freak of a hit man (Robert Englund). (That alone could have sold me -- but wait! As I said, there's more!)

I turned to hubby and said, "What's this movie?" And he's all like, "It's Ford Fairlane, duh," like I'm some sort of pop culture retard. :snort: The film came out in 1990, and I was all up to my knees in baby poo, thank you very much. So I missed it then. But thanks to TV re-runs and DVD, you too can enjoy the adventures of Ford "Mr. Rock n' Roll Detective" Fairlane.

There's so much to like about this movie. Sure, seeing Morris Day as a Record Producer is cool. And the cameos by 'countless others' (use of air quotes to indicate that you can really count them, I'm just too lazy to do so) makes this fun for those of us who are of a certain age (and like fine wine, we don't breathe -- our actual age anyway). But the film is funny!

Hubby stared at me like I was nuts, telling me folks made fun of it when it came out.

"What, didn't they know camp when they saw it?! Wait a minute, this was 1990, behaviorally, very 1980's, so they had to know camp film..."

"Um, I don't think it was made to be camp -- maybe not even made to be funny..." he retorts.

"Bah, it's the Vin-Man," I say, poo-pooing him now.

"The Vinman?"

"The. Vin. Man."

The look on his face tells me he has no idea that Dice Clay was in Casual Sex, quite possibly one of my Fab-Fave-Films of All Time. (But that is another story, and likely for another place altogether too.)

So to get back to Ford Fairlane...

I adored the rest of the film, and kept an eye on for the next airing -- which I watched late at night, without hubby's snarky comments, thank-you-very-muchly.

Sure, the humor isn't politically correct -- I call that bonus points. Is it derogatory towards women? Err, how can you take a man who hides out a sorority where all the chicks are aerobicizing as anything other than a comment on stupid male fantasies?! If you're not sure that the movie is self-mocking, check out Andrew Dice Clay yelling, "My hair! My hair!" as he falls out a window.

Hey, the movie tag lines included, "Ford Fairlane, rock 'n roll detective. To clients he's the greatest. To everyone else, he's just a dick." And "Private Detective. Public Offender." Doesn't sound like it takes itself seriously to me.

It's a classic -- a cult classic (if not already, it will be) -- and on my gift list, should anyone who buys me gifts be reading here. I wouldn't throw the soundtrack (with Dice Clay singing I Ain't Got You) out of bed for eating crackers either, should a CD be able to do such things.

Oh, and in case anyone asks, my favorite line from the movie is, "Conversation with Zuzu Petals was like masturbating with a cheese grater: slightly amusing, but mostly painful."

Which is about how my husband feels about watching movies with me, I guess. *wink*