Brand Spankin' New Coasters

Whether you're protecting your mid-century teak coffee table or that great buy from IKEA, you need coasters. Here are our newest:

Paint-By-Numbers

Aloha

South of the Border

We Heart Rare Bird Finds

We were wondering where all that Rody traffic was coming from... Turns out those kids over at Rare Bird Finds linked to us in their Rody post yesterday. Thank you!

Dashboard Saints

New and ready to grace your dashboard:

Caring for Oilcloth

As you may have noticed, we're all about oilcloth right now. Oilcloth is pretty indestructible (as long as you keep the scissors away) but sometimes needs a little help. First, always handwash with soap and water - oilcloth does not like washing machines or dryers. Second, to get folds out of oilcloth, simply hang it up in a warm place and soon they'll be gone. That's pretty much all you need to know about taking care of lovely, kitschy oilcloth.

New Stuff

Humans cannot live on retro and kitsch alone, and so here are three chart topping hits from some current, red hot musical groups.



Okay, this first one is from a group that broke up around a year ago. Not so red hot, I guess. Very sad to see Sleater-Kinney go. The video for "Jumpers" isn't really about what the song is about, or at least not directly. I'm not sure I'd know what the song was about if I hadn't by chance read this disturbing article first.



This next one, "Young Folks," by the Swedish group, Peter, Bjorn & John, qualifies as a bona fide indie smash hit tune and whatnot. Talk about your infectious and contagious hooks... this one should be reported to the CDC. Put on your hazmat suit, or better yet, just give in to it.



As far as this last one, "Destroy Everything You Touch" by the British group, Ladytron, goes... I love the densely layered synth action and the ominous, mysterious lyrics. Makes me feel like going out and fighting vampires or doing some international espionage. But hey, that's just me.

Souvenir Travel Plates

I love travel souvenirs. Especially those tacky little plastic magnets in the shape of states, sno-domes and vintage souvenir plates. Here are a few from my collection (and yes, I need to paint that wall):

Junkyard

I was so blown away by this video the first time I saw it that I didn't realize that this is one of those "live" TV appearances that isn't really live at all - Nick is lip synching and the band is just pretending to play. Oh well. Still though, seeing Birthday Party sort of doing their thing at the height of their powers... well, this is a rare artifact for sure.

It's so strange, I'm not sure what to say about it... bass player Tracey Pew scares me, guitarist Rowland S. Howard is spazzing out in a very 80s sort of way that you just don't see anymore, and singer Nick Cave, even at such a young age, is already sporting a cocktail and cigarette foreshadowing his later loungey persona.

If you click through to YouTube, you'll see that there isn't much info about this clip except that it was from an appearance on a German TV show called Gotterdammerung (what a name!), shot in 1982. Imagine kicking back in your lederhosen for a stein or two, turning on the telly and seeing this! Gotterdammerung indeed!