Remembering Little Rock and Elizabeth Eckford

It's now been 50 years. Frankly, this historic picture has always bothered me, so I thought a little Photoshop defacing was in order:

Sweet Seats

You can always count on Urban Outfitters to come out with retro furnishings and clothing every season, and they're not necessarily for college students, either. These 60s/70s Braeburn Bentwood chairs sell online for $139 pair, and they beat the monotone colors of IKEA's same style, if you're into that sort of thing. More retro patterns and furnishings can be found on Urban Outfitters' site.

Let Bob Dylan Send a Message for You

Everybody's gotta serve somebody, and now it's Bob Dylan's turn. This may be just about the coolest way to plug a new album over the Internet yet: visit DylanMessaging.com, and you can send a clip of Dylan's famous Subterranean Homesick Blues in all of its black-and-white, cue card glory, only YOUR message appears in the cue cards. Of course, Dylan's latest CD (Dylan: His Greatest Songs, due to be released on October 1) gets a plug at the end.

And while you're on the site, check out the video of the remix of Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) by Mark Ronson. This is the first time Dylan has allowed anyone to lay their remixing paws on one of his compostions. Keep your eyes open for the many references to Dylan's lyrical characters and periods of his music career (Hey! I see Lay Lady Lay on Dylan's big brass bed.) I love the remix, although I could've sworn Dylan was always singing "But right now I just wanna lick your a$$" instead of "I'm gonna let you pass." The video reminds me very much of the Beatles' 1995 "Free As a Bird" video, which referenced numerous Beatles songs.

A Simple Solution for Parents Scared of Poisonous Toys Made in China

Buy vintage toys! I recently took a trip down childhood memory lane on ebay and found these beauties. My apologies for swiping these pictures from the original sellers.

First of all, I have fond memories of my Hasbro inch worm ride. If your parents wouldn't buy you a pony, this was the next best thing, and no batteries were necessary. With so many obese kids around today, though, this ride probably wouldn't sustain more than three bounces:



Next, I found a Sit and Spin. Does anyone else remember getting totally sick to your stomach after just a few rotations on this thing? I think today it would make the annual dangerous toy blacklist for causing extreme nausea:



Colorforms rocked! If they got dirty and wouldn't stick after a while, all you had to do was run them under water (or lick them) and they'd be good as new! I had several Peanuts sets including, I'm pretty sure, this one.



Lastly, I found my long lost wooden monkey purely by accident. I was doing a search on eBay for Danish teak furnishes when lo and behold, his old, familiar, geometric face came up. I had no clue that the same spring-jointed chimp that I had as a kid was an Eames era toy. I want my monkey back!



I found all of the items on eBay, but there are numerous resources online for vintage toys; no need to mention where to go to search.

Fab Fridge!

This may just about be the coolest (haw haw!) fridge that I've ever seen. In fact, most of the appliances that SMEG makes are pretty cool and many have a retro edge to them; unfortunately, they appear to currently only be available in Europe. Still, it's fun to poke around on the SMEG site and think about what you could do with your kitchen if only you had a bit of money and Austin Powers was your interior decorator.

Heeeey Youuuu Guyssss! Morgan Freeman Taught Me How to Read!

I once read on a Hollywood gossip site that Morgan Freeman likes to smoke ganja pipes. And when you watch old Electric Company skits like this one, it’s easy to see why: is that Freeman, or a pimped up member of Sly and the Family Stone? Nonetheless, Freeman is one of my favorites actors and he – as well as his "Easy Reader" character from one of my beloved PBS childhood shows – will always have a special place in my heart. One of these days, I’m going to send him a thank you letter for teaching me how to read. "Top to bottom and left to right, reading is easy...and out of sight!"

Hats Off to Mary

On this day in 1970, one of TV's most popular breakthrough shows for a leading female character made its debut: The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It would enjoy success for the next seven years. This picture is of the bronze statue that was unveiled in Mary's honor in downtown Minneapolis in 2002. Love is all around, so if you can't see old episodes on cable, several seasons of the show are available on DVD.

Don't Make it Bad...Oops, Too Late

Within the lyrics of the world's most famous songs...lives a story that has never been told.

That's the cryptic opening message that I get when I enter the site of Across the Universe, a movie opening in limited engagement this week and nationwide the next that is set during the 60s to the Beatles' music. According to the Internet Movie Database, Across the Universe is "is a fictional love story set in the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, the struggle for free speech and civil rights, mind exploration and rock and roll. At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, the story moves from high schools and universities in Massachusetts, Princeton and Ohio to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Detroit riots, Vietnam and the dockyards of Liverpool. A combination of live action and painted and three-dimensional animation, the film is paired with many Beatles songs that defined the time."

Cool!!! A movie set to Beatles music!!! It sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? The problem is Across the Universe looks bad, from the clips I've seen so far on the director's MySpace page. Plus this idea was done before, with equally disastous results. Actually, I think even this 70s monstronsity looks better than Across the Universe. Bummer that someone took down Steve Martin's big musical number of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."