Boing Boing » Old school

Edwardians doing bike tricks

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:00:49 +0000

The Guardian commemorates the reissue of Isabel Marks's 1901 classic "Fancy Cycling" by publishing a sweet gallery of Edwardian ladies and gents doing bike tricks: "Marvel as these tailored tricksters demonstrate how to pick up a handkerchief without dismounting, ride backwards while seated on the handlebar, and 'tilting at the ring'"

(Thanks, Jonathan!)

Iron Orchid: tricked-out 1935 Ford coupe

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:22 +0000

Coop snapped this shot of the gorgeous "Iron Orchid," a masterfully decorated 1935 Ford 5 Window Coupe, built by Dave Shuten of Galpin Auto Sports. I don't give a darn about cars, but this one? Hubba hubba. (here's another view).

The Iron Orchid, built by Dave Shuten.

Whale steak ad

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:51:44 +0000

Here's a WWI-era advert for whale steaks. As Bruce Sterling notes, "There’s heaps of whale meat here in the First World War. So much we can’t swallow it all. Cheaper than tuna."

Prime Whale Steak

Amazing, rarely seen Disneyland construction footage

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:21:51 +0000

From the 2011 D23 expo, here's a one-hour presentation by Imagineer Tony Baxter of a trove of vintage, rarely/never seen footage documenting the construction and renovation of Disneyland. The presentation is lively, the footage, amazing. There's so much to love here -- scenes of Imagineers lovingly adding scorchmarks to the sails of the Pirates of the Caribbean galleon with a blowtorch, construction workers tightrope-walking on the Monorail beam, and many, many skybuckets.

"Vintage Disneyland" Presentation with Imagineer Tony Baxter - D23 Expo 2011 (Thanks, Waxy!)

Ross Sisters sing Solid Potato Salad

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 22:00:31 +0000

Here again is a clip of the amazing Ross Sisters performing a wonderful song about potato salad while performing the most amazing contortions and acrobatics -- like Cirque du Soliel crossed with Hee-Haw performed by the Andrews Sisters. It's from 1944's Broadway Rhythm. Xeni did this one back in 2010, but it warrants a re-watch.

The Ross Sisters - Solid Potato Salad (DVD Quality) Full Video

TWA's Idlewild lounge: Escher, eat your heart out

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 03:00:13 +0000

No, it's not a lost Escher print, it's a photo of Saarinen's long-lost TWA lounge at Idlewild, and you can buy it as a print:

Circa 1964. "Trans World Airlines Terminal. Idlewild Airport, Queens, New York." Acetate negative by Balthazar Korab (1926-2013), Hungarian-born architectural photographer who documented the work of Eero Saarinen.

TWA: 1964 (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

Hurrah! It's a new Barenaked Ladies album!

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 21:46:30 +0000

Here's some great news! It's the 25th anniversary of Barenaked Ladies' first album, Gordon, and they're celebrating with a new record: Grinning Streak , which comes out today. They did a Reddit AMA yesterday to promote it, and they're headed out on tour.

I've been watching the band since they were playing the Scarborough Town Centre plaza and promoting a self-titled, single-sided cassette that their moms sold in the crowd, and I've enjoyed all the music they've created since.

Grinning Streak

Anno NTK: 15-year-old tech news just keeps on getting better

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 01:00:42 +0000

It's been just over a year since Anno NTK launched, a kind of Wayback Machine for the wonderful old-school UK tech newsletter Need to Know. Each week, Danny O'Brien will send you a fifteen-year-old edition of NTK, letting you catch up on the tech news of the late 1990s. This week's is especially grand:

Linus "Bigger than Elvis" Torvalds, accompanied by backing singers Alan Cox and Jamie Zawinski, will be fighting off the screaming teenage fans at Duke University's LINUX EXPO '98 this weekend. You're not there, clearly, otherwise you wouldn't be sober enough to read this. You can, however, glean a vicarious buzz by reading the inevitable flurry of announcements on the Website. Not least among them will be the definitive answer to the "Emacs vs Vi" question provided, not by a Magic Eightball, but by a magic *Paintball* face-off. It's the only way.
http://www.linuxexpo.org/
- Linus! Linus! Marry me! MARRY ME! http://www.linuxexpo.org/paintball.html
- looking forward to the cheers:
"H-J-K-L, what can we pipe through ispell? VI!"
"Give us a '(' - Give us another '('! Give us a '('!..."

Anno NTK

Prints of classic "The Land of Make Believe Map"

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:51:46 +0000

(click to embiggen)

Zack sez, "Photographer Allan Rosen-Ducat is reproducing 'The Land of Make Believe,' a popular illustrated map by Jaro Hess that combines more than 50 classic fairy tales, nursery rhymes and more that was highly popular around the time of the Great Depression. The company sells prints of the map, and recent advancements have let them print it on glass and other objects."

"The Land of Make Believe Map", A compilation of western society's most famous fairy tales. (Thanks, Zack!)

Videos of dead media devices

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 26 May 2013 12:50:34 +0000

Don sez, "This guy has over a hundred excellent videos of Old School AV and other electronic equipment. The world's first Credit Card Calculator! The first (pre-BetaMax) VCRs! Wacky little tape recorders that they blew up on "Mission Impossible"! All that stuff that was once futuristic but is now only of the nostalgic future that was."

MKKIANI - YouTube

The Man Who Laughs: grotesque Victor Hugo potboiler was the basis for The Joker

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:54:03 +0000

The Man Who Laughs is a graphic novel adaptation of a 1869 Victor Hugo novel that is chiefly remembered for inspiring a 1928 film whose poster-art, in turn, inspired the character of the Joker.

As legions of disappointed Batman fans have discovered, the Victor Hugo novel is just not very good. It's one of Hugo's later works, written from exile in the Channel Islands, and it's a meandering political treatise grafted onto a novel. But there is a novel in there, buried amongst the self-indulgence and sloppiness, and it's this that author David Hine and illustrator Mark Stafford have teased out to make an absolutely stunning and grotesque new work.

The titular Man of Laughs is Gwynplaine, a horribly deformed boy who rescues a blind baby from her frozen mother's breast and then rescued by a traveling doctor who takes them both in and turns them into performers. They tour the countryside, and Gwynplaine and his blind adopted sister Dea fall in love, even as their mountebank father, Ursus, teaches them about the injustices of the English monarchy and shows them the relationship between the dire poverty around them and the fatted lords and ladies in London.

Gwynplaine's destiny becomes further entangled with the English aristocracy when he is discovered to be a long-lost nobleman himself, and is inducted into the House of Lords, where he makes impassioned, revolutionary speeches that fall on deaf ears -- and is forced to confront that all the riches he's gained have cost him his family and his love.

This adaptation is remarkably streamlined and razor-sharp, flensed of Hugo's excess by Hine's pen; the accompanying grotesque illustrations by Stafford hit the perfect mix of horror and sorrow. The Man Who Laughs is out in the UK now, from the great press Self Made Hero, and will be out in the USA on Oct 1.

The Man Who Laughs

Laxative ad promises tiny poop-scrubbing people for your colon

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:55:17 +0000

This 1919 French laxative ad promises that it will set lose a cadre of tiny sewage workers who will personally scour your colon of impacted poop.

Butt Pirates

Rare, amazing original prospectus for Disneyland

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:36:00 +0000

Dan from the Journal of Ride Theory passed me a copy of the original prospectus for Disneyland -- a rare and wonderful document I've never seen or even heard of before. I'm delighted to bring it to you today. Dan explains:

I like it because I get the sense it's an edited transcript of Walt just making up fun stuff on the fly. I have no evidence for that, but I know he was good at telling stories without a script, and there's something about the phrases used that sounds a bit like Walt talking off the cuff. But what do I know?
I found it ten or so years ago, in the files of Eyerly Rides in Salem. They had a contract to build the Dumbo ride and a windmill Ferris wheel for Disney, but the deal fell through when Lee Eyerly got cancer. Also, Walt insisted the ride must load everybody all at once, while the Eyerlys knew from experience that was an inefficient way to work the queue.
At one point, somebody at Eyerly went to a bookstore and bought a Little Golden Book (or something) of Dumbo so they could have reference pictures in order to design the fiberglass elephants.
Take Walt being intractable, add the Eyerlys insisting they knew their business, then throw in cancer, and the deal fell through -- amicably, as I read the documents. Arrow Development got the contract for Dumbo. It barely worked on opening day and queues have been long for that ride ever since. The Ferris wheel idea wasn't built until Disneyland Paris.
I've got a LOT of transcripts of phone calls on that deal, and a few drawings/diagrams. Scanning all those documents is a one-of-these-days project.

Read it all the way through for an example of horrible, casual racism.

Disneyland Prospectus (Thanks, Dan)

1983's wonderful "Introduction to Machine Code for Beginners"

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:09:44 +0000

Usborne's 1983 classic Introduction to Machine Code for Beginners is an astounding book, written, designed and illustrated by Naomi Reed, Graham Round and Lynne Norman. It uses beautiful infographics and clear writing to provide an introduction to 6502 and Z80 assembler, and it's no wonder that used copies go for as much as $600. I was reminded of it this morning when @amanicdroid tweeted me with a link to a PDF of the book's interior. I'd love to see this book updated for modern computers and reprinted.

@doctorow Have you read "Introduction to Machine Code for Beginners"(1983)? gomsx.net/hansotten/msxd…Illustrations excellent, ages 10(?)-up
— Dr. Chronobiologist (@amanicdroid) May 16, 2013

Record Eater: 1967 record player that ran in any orientation

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 16 May 2013 02:46:31 +0000

Every single thing about this ad is great: the illustration, the typography, the industrial design of the gadget, the copy. What a beauty.

The Record Eater ‘45 rpm’ record player ad, 1967. (via BruceS)

Ne plus ultra of retrogamer wedding cakes

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:07:57 +0000

This amazing retro-gamer wedding cake was made by Wedding Cakes By Nicole of Bunbury, Australia. The cake pays homage to many of the arcade greats:

I created a 3 tier square cake, with each of the sides representing a popular retro platform game. Topped off with a game off Pong, with the score depicting Stephen's "30" years. The board had a joystick, buttons and coin slot. Pacman (my favourite), Donkey Kong, Frogger & Tetris

Dimity asked me to create a cake for her Fiance, Stephen, who loves "old school" computer games. (via Geeks are Sexy)

Supplies for all your punk and punk-related needs

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:05:23 +0000

An undated ad for a punk store in Newcastle offers batty punk tees for a mere £4.50 -- mid-1980s punk revival?

MY GEAR FIXATION IS BACK IN FULL EFFECT. I’M LOSIN’ IT. (via Goths and Punks)

Shell's racist pesticide ad, 1957

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:02:09 +0000

From 1957, a disturbing, patronizing, racist Shell ad for pesticides, selling the superiority of big agribusiness.

Weekend Event - White

Man with pince-nez & smart suit hurls trusses disdainfully

Cory Doctorow — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:38:53 +0000

They just don't make ads like this anymore. "Guy with pince-nez" is great visual shorthand for "Authority figure."

Contest Entry.. Away with trusses!

Anti-war ads from the 1930s

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:00:29 +0000

On the Vintage Ads LiveJournal, a fascinating set of anti-war ads from the 1930s protest group World Peaceways (see the full-sized version to read the text). They ran an anti-imperialist anti-war campaign that described soldiers as pawns in the corrupt games of the rich and powerful, and called on everyday people to refuse to involve America in future wars.

World Peaceways (1930s pacifist/anti-war organization) produced some of the boldest propaganda posters of that era, largely aimed at looking at what had come about in the aftermath of the First World War, including the Depression, and death on a scale the world had not seen before, as well as lasting enmity that was quickly brewing into the Second World War.
The name "World Peaceways" was used in the famous Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever" to represent the pacifist movement that Edith Keeler belonged to. The story claimed that her peace work would keep America out of the war for too long and thus lead to Germany winning and taking over the United States. Kirk HAD to let her die - because if he saved her (as he apparently had) then all of history would change.

Sunday Sampler of Anti-War Ads

When hairdryers looked like mind-control devices

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:23:29 +0000

Every now and again, Dark Roasted Blend busts out a super-set of vintage photos of some gadget, technology, or system from yesteryear that is so surpassingly fantastic that it stops you cold.

Today is a day where such a set has been posted. The photos of Vintage Salon Hair Dryers that Avi Abrams rounded up here are nothing short of spectacular. Every single one of these demands to be dug out of the scrapheap of history, refurbished, and used as a prop in a low-budget science fiction movie. Especially the kraken-hair ones.

Sleek Vintage Salon Hair Dryers

Labs of the heroic age of science

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:46:02 +0000

On IO9, Vincze Miklós has rounded up a beautiful gallery of photos of vintage science labs, from the Renaissance to Pasteur and Edison and ENIAC. Labs like these are the source of the shared dream of what science looks like that dominates our contemporary consciousness, even though most labs today look very different (science, like many other tasks today, looks like: a person with headphones and bad posture typing at a laptop and periodically clutching at her wrists).

Incredible Pictures of Early Science Labs

Old ads for new underwear

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:01:56 +0000

This weekend's contest on the Vintage Ads LiveJournal is old underwear ads, and the group is filling up with some extraordinary pics. Here are some of my faves (click to go through to the original posts).

Unboxing a mysterious trunk in the attic

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:56:32 +0000

Reddit user Lumpytuna found a trunk of wonderful old junque in her attic and videoed the unboxing, as well as posting a great inventory set to Imgur. The ensuing discussion is lively and funny.

Pics! Some of the more interesting contents of the chest in my attic. (imgur.com) (via Reddit)

Mid-century modern kitchen

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:07:21 +0000

Now that's a kitchen!

1950 Armstrong Mid Century Modern Kitchen

How the Pirates of the Caribbean ride came to be

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:45:30 +0000

Here's a sweet mini-doc on the creation of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, the last ride that Walt Disney supervised to completion. Pirates, like the Haunted Mansion, was originally intended as a walk-through museum of old-timey stuff, but the advent of robotic props ("audio-animatronics," whose R&D was funded commissions for the NY World's Fair in 1964) was a breakthrough that changed the way Disney's designers thought about ride possibilities.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN THE RIDE PART1 (via Vintage Parks Disney)

Wyndhamesque missives from Scarfolk, an English horror-town trapped in a 1969-79 loop

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:42:17 +0000

I'm loving the Scarfolk site, where "Dr R Littler" chronicles the mysteries of an English town stuck in a Wyndham-esque loop betwen 1969 and 1979. It's full of the most lovely horrors. It's all so perfectly wrought and so grisly and freaked out and perfectly aged. If only we could all retire to Scarfolk and never grow old!

Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay." For more information please reread.

Scarfolk Council (via Die Puny Humans)

8-bit tubemap

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:56:29 +0000

Chris Evans sez, "I made this 8bit London Underground map a while ago, entirely in Tile Studio with a bit of Gimp to add text."

Finished Super Mario Bros 3 Zone 1 tube map. Now without stupid watermark and decent resolution.

Lincoln Continental

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:26:08 +0000

Three ads for tailfinned Lincoln Continentals are a reminder that one of the best ways to make something amazingly beautiful is to make a million mediocre and terrible things and wait half a century (or more) until the good ones have risen to the top. The suicide door was incredibly dumb, but it sure looked nice, at least when designers lucked into (or were canny enough to create) a pleasing form for them.

Lincoln Continental - Sunday Sample

Then-and-now photos of Disney Parks from early days and today

Cory Doctorow — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:43:37 +0000

A monster photo-post from Imagineering Disney compares vintage shots of the Disney parks with contemporary shots. The only thing more remarkable than the dramatic shifts in some of these shots is the total lack of change in others. I'm particularly relieved by the restraint showed in modding the Tiki Room, which was born in a state of near-total grace and has remained thus ever since.

THEN AND NOW Photo Collection (via The Disney Collector)