On a recent trip to Portugal I discovered The Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro Museum. According to its website it's "the most entertaining museum in Lisbon"—and I agree! Polymath Pinheiro was a… Read the rest of the article: Meet Portugal's first cartoonist, Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro

The nationwide group of specialty toy retailers have spoken: sure, Dinosaurs are still number one, but there is new popular theme for toys on the top ten with a bullet:… Read the rest of the article: Capybaras are the toy business's new unicorn

I was so excited to go to Porto's coolest bookstore— no, not that one.  Everybody else can buy their timed ticket (really a prepaid book purchase) to get into Livaria… Read the rest of the article: Check out Porto's other cool bookstore—even if you're not a Tintin fan

If you have a long enough layover, why not take a trip back to the Mad Men era of the 60s and visit the fantastically refurbed TWA terminal? The Eero… Read the rest of the article: Go back in time at JFK's refurbished TWA terminal

One of my favorite places while recently visiting Lisbon was a charming little shop full of vintage dolls and toys: Hospital de Bonecas, The Doll Hospital. In 1830, a herb… Read the rest of the article: Visit Hospital de Bonecas, Lisbon's doll hospital

They were a huge group in the 70s. Their songs "You Made Me So Very Happy," "Spinning Wheel," and "And When I Die" were the very soundtrack of the early… Read the rest of the article: What happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?

I've heard of selling toys in a "blind assortment" (individual toys packed in "surprise" closed boxes—you don't know which one you'll get!), but this recent Mattel Hot Wheels car is… Read the rest of the article: Braille Hot Wheels cars

Just what is a "horological conservator?" Ms. Cox takes care of timepieces, repairs and re-creates antique mechanisms, makes magical automaton birds sing, leads classes in geometric engraving with a Guillochè… Read the rest of the article: Meet horological conservator Brittany Nicole Cox

In time when many cities are seeing the extremes of gentrification, repetitive national chain stores, and the loss of local mom-and-pop retailers, it was a delight to come across a… Read the rest of the article: Meet your fellow mudlarks at this curiosity shop

Mad inventor and artist Tim Hunkin's latest YouTube video is a fun walk through his process for creating a mechanical coin-op game. Hunkin is the long-time explainer of mechanisms in his… Read the rest of the article: "Mad inventor" Tim Hunkin explains how electro-mechanical games are made

The deli-ghtful 2015 documentary "Deli Man" presents the past, present, and future of the Jewish delicatessen in the US. The history of the purveyors of corned beef, pastrami, and pickles… Read the rest of the article: Jewish deli documetary charts their decline

Jdflyback, one of the Internet's insanely great hobbyists, has shared his latest creations. This time he's created an entire batch of guitar amplifiers that use his completely home-made, scratch built… Read the rest of the article: Guitar amps made with home-made vacuum tubes

There's a very special maker space waiting for you up west. "Commander" RR  Anderson and Ms. Darcy have created a fantastic resource that's a joy to visit, in person or… Read the rest of the article: Visit a marvelous maker space and creative re-use store in Tacoma

Recently departed actor M. Emmet Walsh was known for (and took great pride) in portraying his characters so effectively that he disappeared into the roles. It wasn't him "playing a… Read the rest of the article: Meet the real M. Emmet Walsh

Fans of the recently departed Richard Lewis should not miss this long form interview he did with Marc Maron on his podcast WTF. It's an oldie (2011) but a goodie.… Read the rest of the article: Listen to Richard Lewis on a podcast from 2011

April 20th this year again brings Record Store Day. Support your local independent record store and scarf up the latest releases, mostly on LPs. Lots to like, no matter what… Read the rest of the article: Support your local record store on April 20th

The excellent 2018 documentary "Salvador Dali: In Search of Immortality" (imdb) covers the life and career of surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dali and focuses on his 3 largest and longest… Read the rest of the article: Documentaries: "Salvador Dali: In Search of Immortality" and the story of the "Dali house"

If you're of a certain age you might not know their names, but you know their music. This documentary lets you match up faces and names to your favorite 1970s… Read the rest of the article: Meet the rock and roll recording mavens of the 1970s

Dana Gould announces the third season of "Hanging With Doctor Z," his hilarious parody of talk shows starring a certain simian celebrity host from "Planet of the Apes." I can't… Read the rest of the article: Hanging With Doctor Z is a hilarious send-up of talk shows

If the FX series "Feud: Capote vs. The Swans" is too soap opera-esque for you, try this 2019 documentary "The Capote Tapes." Its format follows Capote's life and career using… Read the rest of the article: The Capote Tapes is a "tantalizing" documetary about the writer