Allee Willis Blog » Allee Willis

22Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Sweetie Soda Bottle

22Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Sweetie Soda Bottle

Sweetie-soda_1913

I’m not sure what flavor of liquid came in this bottle but the Sweetie logo featuring an early ’50s extra-pert secretarial type sucking on a straw that looks more like a striped cigarette would have had me buying this drink no matter what it tasted like. Beautifully designed with the concentric circles on the pyro-glazed logo echoing the raised flanges of glass above it, the aesthetic effects of this squat little 8″ Sweetie bottle would make anything taste good.

There had to have been at least two flavors of Sweetie soda as some of the bottles are only two colors with the red and white reversed in the graphics. I think Sweetie’s hairstyle is shown off far better in red.

Even with nothing in it the Sweetie bottle weighs over a pound. Which means that no matter what it tasted like Sweetie was one heavy drink!

21Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1950’s Amoeba Candy Dish

21Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1950’s Amoeba Candy Dish

candy-dish,-white-amoebia_1888

This is one of the most popular things in my house. It sits on a bar as you walk from my dining room into the kitchen and has been pumped full of M&Ms since the day I bought it at the Rose Bowl swap meet for 35 cents. My house is pretty much a health food lover’s nightmare anyway but even the strictest vegetarian can’t resist scooping out a handful as they pass by.

This almost foot long honey weighs a ton, almost like it’s made out of cement. Loaded with M&M’s – I top it off every morning so it rises out of the glaze like The Big Rock Candy Mountain – it’s weathered every earthquake since I’ve had it. Everything else around it crashes to the floor yet the faithful candy dish doesn’t shift an inch. So even during the scariest moments there’s always something happy to eat.

20Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Julie Brown, the Astroturf Golf Couch, Food and more…

20Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Julie Brown, the Astroturf Golf Couch, Food and more…

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From 1989 through 1991 I art directed and hand built the set and props for “Just Say Julie”, MTV’s first ever clip show starring (Uptown) Julie Brown. Julie was one of my best friends and we had a ball, especially as it was so early in MTV’s scripted show evolution that no one from the network paid much attention to what we were doing so we just went nuts. We shot 10 shows in three days each of the three years. The art direction budget was insanely small, something like $500. It made no sense financially to do it so my deal was that I could keep everything once the shoot was over. This is when my collection of Kitsch went into serious overdrive. I still have just about everything but none of it so close to my heart as the 14 foot long astroturf couch with sandtrap ashtray and golf club feet that sat in the middle of Julie’s living room.

Many illustrious guests sat on the couch.

Even Elvis showed up one day.

Yesterday, Julie and I both showed up at Street.

We talked about how much freedom we had doing “Just Say Julie” versus what usually goes on in Hollywood where you’re stripped senseless of any brain material once you sign a contract and are beholden to create by committee. But with the (thank God) rise of the Internet, power has been turned back over to the artist if they have the brains and balls to use it, a topic I’ve been obsessed with for almost 20 years.

We did a lot of eating while we talked. We had Moroccan Spiced Winter Squash with popcorn,

Tatsutage Fried Chicken,

Mini Kobe Beef Chili Dogs…

… and Spinach Varenyky, which I forgot to photograph until I finished.

Julie was more diet conscious than I and only ate the insides.

Julie and I have a longstanding history with food. In 1989, she won the Best Food award at my Night of the Living Négligée all girl pajama party with her spectacular “Cabbage In Rollers” appetizer featuring cocktail weenies stuck into a cabbage face with a jar of barbecue sauce sunk into the head.

I know the beautiful cabbage head is hard to see in the photo. You can see it a little better in this one where I’m demonstrating that the rollers are actually edible as Cyndi Lauper turns away in disgust.

Always a reliable party guest for showing up with festive pot luck food, Julie brought some delicious mouthwash to my Smock It To Me (Art Can Taste Bad In Any medium) party in 1991.

All in all, I don’t think Julie or I have lost much of our spunk or drive over the years. I look forward to decades more of friendship, food AND fantastic couches!

19Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Giant Coffee Cup

19Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Giant Coffee Cup

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I never drank coffee before I was 21 and almost fainted in a doctor’s office after he gave me a shot and a big cup of coffee to keep me from going down all the way. Slowly but surely over the next few months I built up a taste to it and by the time I started living in recording studios in the late 70’s when I got my big break with Earth Wind & Fire I was up to 20+ cups a day as social breaks at the coffee machine and playing Pong was the only time I ever saw sunshine.

I never actually used this cup to drink out of, mainly because it was too heavy to pick up full and take a delicate sip from and the coffee was too cold by the time the weight was manageable. So it’s spent three decades as a candy dish, pen holder and even made it on to MTV from 1989-91 as part of “Just Say Julie”, the first music video clip show ever, when it hung in Uptown Julie Brown’s set that I art-directed.

I used to work around the clock. Now I’m at a more human 12 – 16 hours a day. But oftentimes the nights still seem like a bottomless cup.

18Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Get Full

18Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Get Full

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Last night I ate at Street with (L-R) Nancye Ferguson, Buck Henry, Prudence Fenton, me, Susan Feniger, Irene Ramp and Jim Burns. For those of you who might not know who Buck Henry is he’s an hysterical actor who wrote things like The Graduate and Get Smart, which he also created with Mel Brooks.

Last night we Got Full. We ate Kaya Toast, Lamb Kafta Meat Balls, Japanese Shizo Shrimp, Argentine Ricotta Noquis, Graaskaas Aged Gouda Salad, New Jerusalem Bread Salad, Albacore Sashimi, Moroccan Spiced Winter Squash with popcorn, Sautéed Black Kale with Refried White Beans, Sri Lankan Fried Plantains, Moscow Eggplant, Black Bean Soup, Beef Tenderloin Schnitzel, Tatsutage Fried Chicken and the Toffee and Cookie Plate. And once again, I did not Get Smart when it came to proper documentation of our meal as I was talking too much…

… and I forgot to take photos.

Earlier in the day, however, I Got Smart and took a photo of my favorite hot dog in LA:

And my one of my greasy fingers Got Smart when it’s slipped on my camera and shot this photo of lunch:

I was slightly distracted because I was looking at these signs at the restaurant:

What I was really trying to get was a photo of this 1957 Chevy Bel Air being towed in front of Excitement Video, Psychic and …Eria across the street.

Had I’ve been carrying my vintage Get Smart lunchbox I could’ve taken all the day’s spoils home and been munching on them right now as I write this post.

On this bright, sunny Sunday may you all Get Smart and have a fantastically full day!

Photo credit: Prudence Fenton, me

16Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Diver Plunger

16Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Diver Plunger

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Ten years old and Italian, this diver plunger is only about half the size of a normal one but performs his duties ably. Although I’m not about to plunge it into a toilet because of its diminutive size, it rests under the bathroom sink where my cat, Niblet, loves to drink water and waits patiently for hours until I dole out a few drips. As cute as that is, her fur eventually clogs the pipes and it’s then I reach for the diver, always perfectly poised to make the plunge. He delivers every time!

15Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day –1975 Avon Thread and Thimble Cotillion Cologne

15Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day –1975 Avon Thread and Thimble Cotillion Cologne

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This pink spool of thread topped with a silver thimble has probably been empty for decades but still reeks of the one ounce of Avon Cotillion Cologne that once filled it. 3-1/2″ tall, the thimble is made of chrome finish plastic and the bottle is milk glass. I opened it about an hour before I started writing this post and the room still smells like the cosmetics aisle at Woolworths in 1975.

14Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Celery Vase

14Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Vintage Celery Vase

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Anyone who knows me knows that getting me to eat celery or anything else green is no small feat. I’ve always thought that I’m prone to Kitsch because my brain has been tweaked by decades of glorious junk food ingestion. But I’ve been trying to make an effort to at least dunk my toes into the waters on the other side and pulling the stringy-green-stuff-that’s-much-better-for-me-than-a-Twinkie out of something that looks like this is the first step toward reformation.

This anthropomorphic celery is 7″ high and only holds about four healthy stalks. Which is about as much as I can take. I fill it up every morning in hopes of it stopping me from scooping up a handful of M&Ms like everyone else who walks through my dining room does and so far it’s working. I always respond better to things when they are aesthetically pleasing.

I found this guy on eBay. At that time he had an asparagus brother. I was outbid at the last second on that one. I HATE when vintage sets are broken up so wasn’t happy with the seller or the stealth bomber who didn’t have enough sense to go for both of them. But Mr. Celery is very happy here with all his other ceramic friends and I thank him for keeping me very healthy (and mature).

13Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1970 Bottle Flashlight

13Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – 1970 Bottle Flashlight

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As if you’re not lit enough after consuming a few bottles of Schlitz this flashlight made in 1970 will help you light the way. Made in Hong Kong and weighing as much as a sixpack, just twist the cap for double D illumination.

09Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Anthropomorphic Chalkware Pear

09Apr 2010

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Anthropomorphic Chalkware Pear

Anthropomorphic-pear__1734

I’m assuming this happy fellow is a pear although I’m not the world’s biggest fruit and vegetable eater and he does look wayyyy too green. But he’s too shapely to be a green pepper, too smooth to be an avocado and too leafy to be a lime so I’m sticking with pear and hope that any of them that happen to slide down my gullet are a little riper at point of entry.

I love anthropomorphic anything but especially vintage chalkware fruit as they’re always so happy. I especially love this guy because he’s so obviously homemade – lumpy, sloppily painted and bad teeth.