Who is this guy?

Confession time.  Last month I thought I had more content to post when in reality I didn't.  Yes, one could say I sorta got caught with my pants down, but that's pretty much the status quo around here nowadays.

To my surprise I've been doing this extra stupid (and I use "stupid" as a point of pride) for almost 7 years.  It's hard to believe I've managed to maintain this consistently mediocre corner of cyberspace for so long. I intentionally try to never talk about myself very much because this is primarily a "show & tell" type blog, but since I'm running out of the "show" in this post I'm going to get just a little more personal with the "show" this time.  If that makes any sense.

Most every literate person knows Reading is Fundamental.  Books still have a certain prestige in our society - whether they be digital or even "books on tape." People have found profound personal enlightenment in reading religious texts, self-help books, famous works of literature or whatever is popular on Oprah's Book Club list.

I found THAT book that spoke personally to ME when I was in college, and stumbled upon the 1988 book High Weirdness by Mail, by Ivan Stang...

It's the introduction spoke to me directly like nothing else ever has...

If you couldn't read the picture above, please let me make it easier for you by turning it into text...

Do you have “different” tastes?  Intrigued by the bizarre, the kooky,
the kinky — as long as it keeps its distance?  Enjoy getting unsolicited,
unspeakably weird things in the mail — for free?  Love to snicker in
superiority (perhaps largely imagined) at the incredible gullibility of
others?  Enjoy reading the headlines on sleazy tabloids, and ads for
local psychic fortune-tellers?  Appreciate unexpected glimpses of the
strange “realities” behind religions other than your own?  Entranced
by the thought process of the mentally ill?  Bored to tears by any music, video, and literature that isn’t almost shockingly original?

Painfully aware that all the great geniuses and inventors of the past appeared totally insane to everyone around them?

Then...

HAVE WE GOT A HOBBY FOR YOU!!

Specifically it is the "Intrigued by the bizarre, the kooky, the kinky — as long as it keeps its distance?" part in particular which pretty much sums me up.   I think I just might have it placed on my gravestone.

I took this book to heart, and in the early 90's (a time just before the interenet exploded) I was able to mail away for the bizarre and kooky.  I never sent away for any of the truly "scary" things listed in the book.  I wasn't very interested in anything some sort of saucer cult might send, and I certainly didn't want to take the chance of any saucer cults devotees ending up on my doorstep.  Heck I've got enough aggravation from those pesky Jehovah's Witnesses's.

I sent away for much of the nicer stuff.  Like the monster and science fiction models offered by Mike Evans Model Kits, although unfortunately I never got beyond looking at the catalog/newsletter.  You can see I even corrected the address on the book's entry...

Or the wondrous products from Archie McPhee...

Unlike those models, I actually ordered a number of things from Archie McPhee in the 90's.

So that brings us back to last month, when I thought for certain I had a few of these old monster/science fiction model and Archie McPhee catalogs squirreled away somewhere.  When it came time to use them in a post they were nowhere to be found.  After racking my brain I now have a dim memory of cleaning house about 10 years ago and tossing a lot of stuff like that out. I thought with the internet who need to keep the old catalogs.

Well fortunately it appears  like Archie McPhee has archived some of their old catalogs online...

I once had that catalog!

...but I wasn't able to access it.  Maybe you will have a better luck if you wish to check out  the Archie McPhee blog for yourself.

Lastly here's a great link for those who wish to re-live High Weirdness By Mail in modern internet form it's the officially sanctioned High Weirdness By Web.

May the Fourth Be With You

Hey it's May the fourth, and that means it's the unofficial Star Wars day.  Since the internets is made of approximately 67.3% Star Wars content it going to be hard show you something that's never been posted online before, but I'm gonna give it my best shot.

First here's something that probably out there, it's a press kit or lobby photo of the Darth Vader vs. Ben Kenobi light saber fight...

I've never met Mark Hamill, but I had a friend who went to an Autorama where Mark was appearing and picked up this photo... 

That signature isn't "real" in case you're wondering. Hmm, I think I need to watch for Mark Hamill in "Stingray" from MGM.

I did meet Darth Vader, Chewbacca and a Stormtrooper at Toys R Us on October 1, 1977.  Here's what they handed out to the kids...

 The entire Toys R Us giraffe family was there also...

Like every 70's kid I was swept up in the Star Wars mania, and for a while would clip any Star Wars thing I found in the newspaper.  Like this Meijer ad for Star Wars figures...

I remember my mom taking me and a friend to our local Meijer before school one day when they got a shipment of figures.  We were able to pick them right from the shipping box before they were even stocked on the shelves. Thanks Mom!

Here's an ad for the Star Wars Escape from the Death Star board game...

 I never had that game, but I assume I wanted it since I clipped the ad.

Here's a unique ad for a free Super 8 sound 400 foot edition of Star Wars when you buy a movie projector...

Lastly here's a little bit of Star Wars legal news when Fox sued Ideal Toys over their Star Team action figure toys, and "Knight of Darkness" in particular...

I wish someone would upload those 1970's Star Team toy commercials someday.  I always love to post them YouTube commercials, but I came up with nothing this time.

One Night In A Novelty Catalog

Hey folks, it's time once again for one of my wacky animations that makes this blog so popular with the hoi polloi.

The animation is inspired by this months theme of April Fools...


One Night in a Novelty Catalog from David Witt on Vimeo.

I used a 1992 Johnson Smith Company catalog in case there was anyone who might have wondered.

Do you believe in TV Magic?

In my last post I wrote about the "Giant Surprise Catalog of  Professional Magic," and so I thought I might as well continue with that magic theme.

From age five to about twelve I was very interested in magic. Hardly a birthday or Christmas went by without a gift of some sort of new magic trick. My very first trick was a deck of TV Magic Cards.  An advanced magic trick for a five year old I know, but this was due to the frequent commercials featuring magician Marshall Brodien in the 1970's...



At that young age I remember thinking magic was real.  So when I was given the deck I thought the cards were enchanted. It was a cold slap of reality when I quickly learned it was just a trick, and magicians were basically just pretending.  I think magic could probably be used for teaching children logic and critical thinking.

After the TV Magic Cards I received other magic sets by Marshall Brodien, and this is how I got this booklet, Fifty TV Magic Tricks which has a good selection of easy tricks for beginners...

Read the first page "How To Be A Magician."  Maybe if I had stuck with magic beyond the start of adolescence I too could have been the "life of the party"...

Here's a trick (and it's not truly a magic trick, unless you consider a flambé magic) that wouldn't be found in a magic book today that could be read by children...

Booze and fire? Remember kids, don't try this at home - go to a neighbors house!

Lastly, a different kind of "TV magic," I remember being a big fan of this 70's syndicated magic show called Wonderful World of Magic hosted by Bill Bixby...



Extra big bonus points to anyone reading who can remember this show.  IMDb doesn't even list it.

Vick Lawston's Giant Surprise Catalog of Professional Magic

In the spirit of April Fools I thought I'd do a few posts this month about novelties, magic tricks and top it off with a little "fun" original animation.

Inspiration for my April Fools animation came from a skit on Joel Hodgson's The TV Wheel.  The TV Wheel was a ingenious "experiment" from 1995 that unfortunately never got beyond a pilot.  The sketch is "Vick Lawston's Giant Surprise Catalog of Professional Magic."  Paul Feig plays Vick Lawston, and Joel is supposedly the voice of Pumpernickel the monkey. Please watch the sketch below starting at 1:32...




Until I wrote this post I had always assumed that Vick Lawston was a fictional character created for the sketch, but to my 'giant surprise' he and the "Giant Surprise Catalog of  Professional Magic" are 100% real....

Gee, I feel like I'm the last to know. I sure wish I had a copy of that catalog.  The few scans of some of pages I've seen online look priceless.  Vick's son Jeff, who's in the reflective tape business, has a small page devoted to his late father right here. It's the most "official" Vick Lawston site you will find on the interweb. 

Geauga Lake

I haven't posted a brochure in a long while, so let's take a look at this 1978 brochure for the now defunct Geauga Lake amusement park in Aurora, Ohio...

 As you can see 1978 was the first year for the Corkscrew.  The Internet tells me the Corkscrew lasted from 1978 to 1995.  The roller coaster now resides in India at an amusement park called MGM Dizzee World where it's reportedly been re-named "Roller Coaster."

 

Admission in 1978 was $6.50, and adjusted for inflation that's only $23.15 in 2013 dollars.  How many amusement parks in North America have an admission of less than $25 today?   

The Madness of March

What am I going to post this month?

I've gotten in the habit of using a holiday to guide my posts for the given month, and this month we have both Saint Patrick's Day and Easter.  How is one to pick a fitting theme with these competing holidays. They've sorta canceled each other out in my mind. Although it's not that I'm sitting on a amazing stash of fascinating Saint Patrick's Day and Easter related stuff either.

Maybe I could use this post to rant about the upcoming daylight saving time.  It's nothing but a pain.  A quick word to the world leaders and captains of industry who I know are fervent readers of this blog - isn't it about time we pulled the plug on this nonsense people?

Hey speaking about "rich and powerful" readers, I suspect many famous comic artists read my blog also.  For example how many saw the comic strip Lio by Mark Tatulli that ran on Sunday February 17, 2013...

Now check out the blog post I made on December 5, 2007.  It was about homemade Christmas cards I made back in 1990...

Card Front

Inside

I'm sure it's totally a coincidence, or possibly a homage.  

Well back to figuring out what the heck I'm going to post for the rest of the month.