1.17.2010

Viva Mexico!

So I'm getting ready to head off for a long overdue vacation to Mexico! I've never been, but I've heard it's amazing. I'll get some time on the beach, as well as numerous days exploring the old Mayan ruins on the Yucatan peninsula.

So, unfortunately in my excitement the only thing I can focus on is the trip, so today you all get treated to Mexican eye candy!



Famous artist Frida Kahlo's father - Guillermo Kahlo - in 1899. From here





Mexico railways poster from the late 1940s, from here





Movie still from "The Aztec Mummy vs. the Human Robot" - shot in 1957.


The image above actually comes from a site with an interesting article and some clips about 50s sci-fi movies filmed in Mexico. Who knew they had such a sci-fi fad as well? Read more about it here



Barbie and Ken from 1964. Info about their outfits here




I also love 50s hand-painted Mexican circle skirts. Below are some great ones to buy online...



Only $50 here



$99 here




This one is $150, but that's all embroidered! Buy it here

1.11.2010

Video of the week

I'm sure most people have seen this as it seems to have gone completely viral, but I just can't help watching it over and over again....

Happy Monday everyone!

1.08.2010

Happy Birthday Elvis

Today would have been Elvis Presley's 75th birthday. I wasn't around when he was alive and that pains me so. I just don't think I'll ever see anyone like him in my lifetime.

So here's to his birthday with some pictures and music to remember him by...













Quite possibly one of my favorite songs:


I'm not the biggest fan of older Elvis, but something about this song and him doing it once he'd fallen a bit out of fashion is just so heartbreaking for me



1.04.2010

Rockabilly Life

I think a lot of what gets people interested in vintage clothing, hairstyles, lifestyles, etc, is music. As people are growing up they gain a basic interest in old movies, and old music, and their tastes evolve as they learn more and more musicians. Most people know about Elvis or Buddy Holly, but rockabilly people will tell you about Bill Haley or Gene Vincent. Those people tend to have themselves immersed in a lifestyle, dressing as they would have if they lived 50 years ago.  I find the vintage lifestyle is fairly often intertwined with a real interest in rockabilly music.

Well I found a site, though it doesn't seem fully developed (just over 80 members), that should be a really great tool for anyone interested in not just rockabilly music, but a rockabilly and vintage lifestyle.



On the rockabilly network  you can interact with other people with similar interests. You can listen to music and see suggestions for little known singers and bands. You can also see what events might be going on in your area relating to your interests. I know too often I find out once it's too late about car shows or concerts.

Another great site for listening to music is Rockabilly podcasts  They have a variety of podcasts that you can load onto your itunes/ipod and listen to on your computer. I'm never a huge fan of radio announcers, and some have more talking than others, but they do have great music and help pass slow days at work.

Lastly, the Subculture Collective stands as little rougher, psychobilly version of the Rockabilly Network. The music, podcasts, and information on this site is geared towards psychobilly music more than rockabilly and vintage classics, but if you're interested in it, it's a great resource.





1.02.2010

Happy New Year!



Happy New Year/New Decade everyone!

12.31.2009

A year in photos


I read about this project a while back and told myself I would start on January 1st, 2010. New year, new decade. Every day you take a picture of something, anything. New events, new friends, new food, the change in seasons, the change in me. I don't know yet if I'll post the pictures here, maybe a couple here and there, if I should keep a seperate blog for all of them, or just keep them filed away for myself. Maybe I'll post once a month with all 30 photos for that month. Something to think about.

For those who aren't familiar with the project, you can read about it here

Everyone have a safe and happy New Year!

12.30.2009

New Year's Eve

One of the many great things about New York City is that we get the biggest and most watched New Year's Eve celebration. In preparation (2010 is only mere days away!) I figured I'd take you through the history of our famous event.


History of the Times Square New Year's Eve and the Infamous Ball


New York in 1904 was a city on the verge of tremendous changes - and, not surprisingly, many of those changes had their genesis in the bustling energy and thronged streets of Times Square. Two innovations that would completely transform the Crossroads of the World debuted in 1904: the opening of the city's first subway line, and the first-ever celebration of New Year's Eve in Times Square. This inaugural bash commemorated the official opening of the new headquarters of The New York Times. The impressive Times Tower, marooned on a tiny triangle of land at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway and 42nd Street, was at the time Manhattan's second-tallest building -- the tallest if measured from the bottom of its three massive sub-basements, built to handle the heavy weight demands of The Times' up-to-date printing equipment.

The building was the focus of an unprecedented New Year's Eve celebration. Ochs spared no expense to ensure a party for the ages. An all-day street festival culminated in a fireworks display set off from the base of the tower, and at midnight the joyful sound of cheering, rattles and noisemakers from the over 200,000 attendees could be heard, it was said, from as far away as Croton-on-Hudson, thirty miles north along the Hudson River.



Two years later, the city banned the fireworks display - but Ochs was undaunted. He arranged to have a large, illuminated seven-hundred-pound iron and wood ball lowered from the tower flagpole precisely at midnight to signal the end of 1907 and the beginning of 1908.

In 1914, The New York Times outgrew Times Tower and relocated to 229 West 43rd Street. By then, New Year's Eve in Times Square was already a permanent part of our cultural fabric.


New Year's Eve Ball, 1978. Photo credit - The New York Times

The first balls:


The first New Year's Eve Ball, made of iron and wood and adorned with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds. It was built by a young immigrant metalworker named Jacob Starr, and for most of the twentieth century the company he founded, sign maker Artkraft Strauss, was responsible for lowering the ball.

As part of the 1907-1908 festivities, waiters in the fabled "lobster palaces" and other deluxe eateries in hotels surrounding Times Square were supplied with battery-powered top hats emblazoned with the numbers "1908" fashioned of tiny light bulbs. At the stroke of midnight, they all "flipped their lids" and the year on their foreheads lit up in conjunction with the numbers "1908" on the parapet of the Times Tower lighting up to signal the arrival of the new year.

The Ball has been lowered every year since 1907, with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when the ceremony was suspended due to the wartime "dimout" of lights in New York City. Nevertheless, the crowds still gathered in Times Square in those years and greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by the ringing of chimes from sound trucks parked at the base of the tower - a harkening-back to the earlier celebrations at Trinity Church, where crowds would gather to "ring out the old, ring in the new."

In 1920, a 400 pound ball made entirely of wrought iron replaced the original. In 1955, the iron ball was replaced with an aluminum ball weighing a mere 200 pounds. This aluminum Ball remained unchanged until the 1980s, when red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the Ball into an apple for the "I Love New York" marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988. After seven years, the traditional glowing white Ball with white light bulbs and without the green stem returned to brightly light the sky above Times Square. In 1995, the Ball was upgraded with aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but the aluminum ball was lowered for the last time in 1998.



The 2000-2007 Waterford Crystal ball


The Times Square New Year's Eve Ball 2000-2007


For Times Square 2000, the millennium celebration at the Crossroads of the World, the New Year's Eve Ball was completely redesigned by Waterford Crystal. The new crystal Ball combined the latest in technology with the most traditional of materials, reminding us of our past as we gazed into the future and the beginning of a new millennium.
The Ball was a geodesic sphere, six feet in diameter, and weighed approximately 1,070 pounds. It was covered with a total of 504 Waterford crystal triangles that varied in size and ranged in length from 4.75 inches to 5.75 inches per side.



The new LED crystal ball


The New New Year's Eve Ball

The new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball is a 12 foot geodesic sphere, double the size of previous Balls, and weighs 11,875 pounds. Covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals and powered by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDS, the new Ball is capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people still gather around the Tower, now known as One Times Square, and wait for hours in the cold of a New York winter for the famous Ball-lowering ceremony. Thanks to satellite technology, a worldwide audience estimated at over one billion people watches the ceremony each year. The lowering of the Ball has become the world's symbolic welcome to the New Year.



All info from Times Square Alliance

12.28.2009

The holidays are over

Phew, so I made it through Christmas intact! I hope everyone had an amazing time and you're all getting warmed up for the new decade. I figured I'd just leave you with two quick pictures from my holiday


It's a terrible picture, but we have an artificial black Christmas tree. We try and always decorate monochromatically, so this year was all about the red, black and white.



Me and my hubby. Unfortunately I was getting ready to go out and you can't see my great 40s dress, but there is my favorite cashmere sweater with black fur collar and rhinestone buttons. You also can't go wrong with a holiday headband and ornament earrings!

12.24.2009

One more sleep until Christmas!!!



I can't believe Christmas is almost here. After fighting past the tourists daily on the streets, braving the cold for some holiday market excitement, and our giant snowstorm last weekend it's finally almost here.



I hope everyone has a merry holiday and spends it surrounded by love, I know I will.

12.22.2009

Doctors and Nurses

I don't like going to the doctor's at all. I don't like needles, having my blood drawn, the smell in the offices, all their questions, and I especially don't like the idea that there could be something wrong with me.
Unfortunately I've had some problems lately and I don't have a choice anymore and have an appointment tomorrow. Last time it equaled hospital visit + neurologist and not really any relief, so I'm trying to keep my mind off of it. I figured what better way than with some quality eye candy - this time with a little medical spin.


Shall we?


Two lovely Red Cross nurses. Could you imagine someone helping you in that outfit? They look much lovelier than what I'm used to, and I'll take 'em!  Picture from here




Somehow I doubt I'd be comfortable getting doled out a prescription from here. I don't even like the jar that holds the tongue depressors! Bottles from here




Is it just me or does the girl look alot like Marilyn? The label says "General First Aid Kit, Johnson & Johnson", and the way she's on a stage makes me think maybe it was from a tv show where they did live ads? Lovely lady in spring-o-lators with robot from here



Let's hope my doctors don't look nearly as intrigued looking at my charts. Image from here



And because I can't do anything without a dose of art - one of my favorites, Richard Prince, did a whole series on Nurses. They're based on all the vintage books with nurses on the cover. I love them terribly.