25May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Wunder Weener Triple Spiral Hot Dog Slicers

25May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Wunder Weener Triple Spiral Hot Dog Slicers

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I posted this one once before but it’s about hot dogs, it’s Memorial Day and this the best instructional weener video I’ve ever seen. Everything about it – the hand modeling of hot dogs, the abrupt editing, the dialog delivery, plates going out of frame, the product itself, not to mention the use of the American flags – all conspire to make this a klassic Kitsch theatrical event. Don’t miss the dreamy musical montage at the end… and have a glorious dog-filled Memorial Day!

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24May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’The Day – Goldfish and Blue Seafoam Onion Dip

24May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’The Day – Goldfish and Blue Seafoam Onion Dip

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The perfect Memorial Day weekend snack – Goldfish diving into an ocean of blue food colored onion dip. Even your vegetarian guests will be happy!

No summer party here at Willis Wonderland is without a pool full of these beauties. Here’s one of my guests, the lovely Pamela Segall Adlon, of Californication and the voice of Bobby Hill on King Of The Hill, my favorite animated voice (and series) of all time, enjoying a lovely Sea Foam Goldfish appetizer. Not only is it delicious, I’m sure it helps her voice too!

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22May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Happy Friday Foster!

22May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Happy Friday Foster!

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If only for the polyester bellbottomed poolside fashion shows and the razor blades embedded in Pam Grier’s afro, Friday Foster has attained classic blax- and kitschploitation status. This 1972 Dell comic book version, billed as “Action-packed excitment in the fashionable world of the Jet Set” features assistant photographer Foster gone Shaft in the aptly named timepiece, “The Beautiful People”.

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When it began life as a comic strip in The Chicago Tribune and its syndicated papers in 1970 Friday Foster was the first black character lead in a comic book. In 1975, the Friday Foster movie was released.  This is the first issue of the comic book, October, 1972.

See the trailer here! 

And oh yea, they still make Friday Foster dolls. Say hi to “Far-Out Friday”. 

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21May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Watering Can Purse

21May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Watering Can Purse

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Almost didn’t buy this because a) it wasn’t vintage and b) it was SO good I thought it would germinate like weeds in shopping malls throughout the country. But that never happened so I still get lots of oohs and ahhs when I sport this piece of practical Kitsch-meets-great-design.  I have these cans I mean bags in neon green, electric blue and shocking pink as you can never have too many and you never know when you or anything else around you might need watering. The spout is especially practical for pen storage.

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20May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – James Brown, Me & How To Write for Money

20May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – James Brown, Me & How To Write for Money

 

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Here I am with James Brown in my studio in 1984 as we peruse one of my favorite Kitsch books, How To Sing For Money. The Godfather and I used to joke that it should have been called ‘How To Write For Money’ as there were so many ways songwriters got screwed out of royalties and credit, a situation that befell both of us numerous times.

I thought this would be an appropriate Kitsch O’ The Day post in view of my post yesterday on behalf of jilted songwriters everywhere. The book, only the top quarter of which is visible in this photo from Billboard magazine, was published in 1945. Maybe the advice worked back then but it’s irrelevant given the oil slick music industry of the last thirty years.

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I was, thank God, Reality TV before Reality TV existed as I filmed almost every significant moment of my life since I owned my first video cam in 1978. Here we are seconds after we read the book, writing an ode to my dog Orbit, a plain brown baked potato who Mr. Brown loved and let sleep on his mink coat whenever he came over.

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18May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Definitive Boogie Wonderland

18May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – Definitive Boogie Wonderland

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In what could easily turn into Kitsch O’ The Day’s Musical Monday because of all the insane versions of my songs on YouTube, this one by Pink Lady, a Japanese duo who had a short-lived but utterly fantastic cheese wheel of Kitsch tv show in the 1980’s, is way near the top of the heap.  The Oriental opening, bad lip-synching of the pink person on the right,  cheesy choreography, clear fascination with American dancers, glitzy costumes, dorky synth patches, bombastic arrangement and cheap set all add up to musical heaven in Boogie Wonderland.

When I first started having hits, this was the very first cheesy version of one of them I saw. I prayed I could keep knocking ’em out as this is the kind of reward a Kitsch lover such as myself dreams of.

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17May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – I’ll Have Some God With That Cobbler

17May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – I’ll Have Some God With That Cobbler

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God is everywhere, even on a coffee cup.  The Rev. Lyman Liggens served as Minister of the Warren AMC Church in Toledo, Ohio from 1968 into the late 70’s. Among his many achievements was having the foresight to use the institution of coffee cup to promote his cause, a trend that was just picking up steam in those days.  Hope your Sunday is filled with soulful cups and lots of cobbler!

15May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – “Warm Cover Of Toilet Bowl”

15May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – “Warm Cover Of Toilet Bowl”

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Boasting that it’s to be “applied in modern families, hotels, various round toilet bowls”, the packaging for this “warm cover of toilet bowl”, is another spectacular example of translations gone awry. It’s made of “acryl” (new fiber made in China?), “imported rubber band” (wow) “anti-bacterium” (as opposed to the ever popular “bacterial”?), “smell proof” (thank God) and is/are “international fashion domestic decorations, sanitary necessities”.  I’m not quite clear of the difference between “Keep warm in winter, comfortable, heath care and sanitary” and “Use & warm in winter, comfortable, heath care and sanitary” though clearly the translator felt both were worthy of a line. In case of soiling “avoid washing with bleacher” or the “high elastic nylon” will fry up faster than a polyester Disco shirt. Made in China by Shu Mei Lia, there’s no year on the package but I would say it’s timeless.

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14May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – ‘Blonds Have More Fun’ Glasses

14May 2009

Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – ‘Blonds Have More Fun’ Glasses

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As the top layer of my hair has been blond for almost half my life I can’t argue with these glasses. The baked-in blonds are appropriately Russ Meyeresque and, despite the lighting in the photos,  the yellow is bombastically perfect bleached-out-beach-meets-strip-club platinum. Drink up!

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