World’s first “Chewy nutrition snack – you carry them… they carry you!” Developed for astronauts, Space Food Sticks went to the moon so a year later when Pillsbury knocked out jerky looking logs of chocolate, peanut butter, carmel and chocolate malt, earthlings sucked them up by the bushel full. This is the pamphlet and a hefty 10 cents off coupon towards this pre-Jolt, Red Bull “sustain the energy lift” space stuff.
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I can’t tell you how many Flex-straws I went through as a kid seeing how far I could bend them before the passage of liquid was no longer possible. Coming in “gay pastel colors”, I used to drink out of the salmon and pink ones and used the other colors to make necklaces, form the outline of a baseball field for my marbles and other such childhood crafts and frivolities.
I love the box as much as the straws. The color scheme is fantastic and phrases like “perfect for use in the new soft drink can!” make this a ticking timepiece for the Atomic Age.
According to Wikipedia, the inventor, Joseph Friedman, “observed his young daughter Judith at the counter, struggling to drink out of a straight straw. He took a paper straight straw, inserted a screw and using dental floss, he wrapped the paper into the screw threads, creating corrugations. After removing the screw, the altered paper straw would bend conveniently over the edge of the glass, allowing small children to better reach their beverages.”
This matzoh patterned ‘Let Me People Go’ toilet seat cover is one of the biggest hits in my house when I drag it out every holiday season to greet my Chanukah guests who find reason to let it go after a massive bagels and lox/ 8-gift exchange brunch. Made by Davida, guests seem to enjoy this expression of Judaism even more than the ever popular gefilte fish car plaque.
This can of Song Food has stared at and inspired many a singer at my place including Bob Dylan, James Brown, Cyndi Lauper and hundreds more. I’ve never owned a canary (though my trained parakeet, Pepi, was one of my favorite pets ever), but the can has sat atop every pair of speakers in my recording studio since my very first hit. It first adorned a set of Auratones, excessively cheap but vital sound boxes that no matter how great of speakers you had you always had to play your mixes through to know what they’d sound like on the radio. It’s still sitting on one of my Mackies today.
I love the side of the can that says “MASTER RADIO CANARIES ARE FED EXCLUSIVELY ON HARTZ MOUNTAIN BIRD FOODS.” What’s a Master Radio Canary?
And I love the top where you can send away for a free “canary care” booklet. They had the same offer on the cans of parakeet food. I ordered at least 20 of them and read aloud to Pepi all the time.
This may be my most favorite can I own.
A great kitsch Kristmas or Chanukah gift for your folliclely challenged male friends, this Burt Reynolds-like hair rug would look great protruding from a polyester disco shirt or anything that unbuttons to reveal the beauteous cheese beneath. The chest rug attaches to skin or sparse hair with three pieces of double stick tape and looks pretty until you pull it off, in which case the rash it most likely leaves behind still gives the chest a very distinctive look.
Made by Accoutrements. Fresh patch available at Archie McPhee.
Why I love thee – 1) The fact that this is a Dress Designer Kit and Debbie’s wearing pants? 2) The twisted organs pixie pose that 3) Debbie’s striking in the middle of the street? 4) Her matching hair and lipstick? 5) The shoe/sock combo whatever-it-is on her feet? 6) The Technicolor hues on the box? 6) The perfect Atomic Age font? 7) The fact that it includes “a gay selection of town & country clothes”? I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the answer is all of the above!
This beautiful bit of Kitsch is the winner of the prestigious Classique d’ Camembert award, the highest honor bestowed upon an object submitted to the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch at awmok.com. I thank aKitschionado Slazz for her excellent and discerning taste.
Complete submission at http://www.awmok.com/2009/10/08/colorforms-debbie/
Although it’s all a little worn, this Panasonic Panapet 9V R-70 is one of the most popular transistor radios in history. Music boomed through it throughout the ’70s and it continues to hiss out AM reception like the day it was born. The 4″ high Panapet came in white, red, blue, yellow and green as well as a much rarer lavender and was known for having less static than other transistor radios. It fit comfortably in your palm but if you were really cool you used the handy chain to hang it on your pole lamp or doorknob.
I had a bunch of these but through the years my lust for round electronics focused more on portable hanging ball Videosphere TVs with matching radio/8-track players. Each TV had its own matching Panapet.
It just got freezing in LA. The skies are getting dark and gloomy, you need a heavy coat, it’s very un-LA like. The only thing that makes me feel okay about the cold invading the gorgeous, sunny west coast is that I get to wear my hats. I have a bunch of them that look like objects. This teapot cap keeps my head warm just like the real thing keeps the brewed stuff piping hot. I love this hat because it always stands up proud no matter what rains or snows on it. The only thing I don’t like is tea. Never could stand it, never will. I don’t care if it’s flavored, in ice cream, has 3 pounds of honey in it or what. When it comes to tea, this hat is as close to my mouth as it’ll ever get.
Completely oversized for the two light switches it’s designed to decorate, this textured fake wood plastic switch plate adorned many a wall in the 1970s, with any luck a wood paneled or flocked wallpaper covered one for optimum viewing pleasure. Light switches are usually designed to be only slightly larger than the hole in the wall they’re meant to cover but this Andre The Giant of one stretches to 7″ to accommodate a flower pot sprouting a completely overgrown freak of nature sunflower plant with multiple blooms.
Plastic chef kitchen aids were all the rage in the 1950’s. Most popular among the S&P’s, note pad holders and mixing spoon hangers were these double spoon Jolly Chef spoon rests. In the postwar leisure class spending fury that modernized kitchens all over the world no one wanted their Eggplant Parmesan, Beef Stroganoff or Campbell’s Tomato Soup dripping on their new Okeefe & Merritt so the population of these little guys exploded. Of course, many a noxious fume mixed with the cooking smells as spoon rest after spoon rest melted from sitting too close to a burner. So finding one of these in mint condition is a fantastic gastronomical find. This guy has a scarred lip from a tragic spaghetti accident.
Made by Reliance in the USA, the original paper label on this 6″ x 5″ Jolly Chef reads “Heat resistant Styrene. Keeps Stove Top Clean…Attractive Wall Plaque product.” His chef’s hat has a hole for convenient hanging in case you want to keep him out of harm’s way.
