Love And Rockets, Vol.5

Ahhh, time once again for the annual offering from Los Bros Hernandez, still keeping us up to date with Maggie and Hopey and the folks from the village of Los Palomar, and introducing us to new characters as well!

Favorite Halloween Stories: Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons

  So here’s another one of those stories about the long and convoluted ways I had to go through to get my hands on another cherished childhood story, and this one involves a perfect fit for this year’s Halloween Entry: A fun ghost story called Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons!
  I’d always loved the English Reader books we read in Elementary school, enjoying those stories was one school-related thing I would do even at home, after school,  and during my free time on the weekends! But sadly, as each year came to a close and we had to return those books, those stories became no more than memories that I would think about every now and then. That is until I was a little bit older and realized most of those stories were in fact printed elsewhere and with a little bit of digging, you might actually FIND the books you loved so much!
  Perusing Swap Meets, Garage Sales and Used Bookstores helped me get my hands on a lot of those children stories, and with the advent of online services like ebay and amazon.com, I was able to pretty much recreate my childhood library book by book, story by story! But one story I REALLY wanted to get was “Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons”, a tale about a boy who scares a ghost and then blackmails him into teaching him how to disappear!

Oh MAN, did I love this story! Jimmy is a kid whose Aunt is having trouble renting out a house because it is supposedly haunted, and sure enough when he goes to inspect the place, a ghost comes sailing down the stairs and scares him right out the door! When Jimmy has time to calm down, however, he gets angry for being scared by such a thing. When he goes back to the house, he sees the ghost inside dancing and laughing at the prank he’d pulled on him,  and Jimmy is so incensed that he sticks his head in the door and yells "BOO!” at the top of his lungs, making the ghost jump and scream in fear!
  Naturally, the ghost doesn’t want Jimmy running around telling people he got the one-up on him, and after regaining composure, tells him that if he'll keep quiet, the ghost will teach him some tricks like vanishing. Jimmy takes him up on his offer, but still has to deal with getting the ghost to move out so they can rent the place. The Ghost refuses to move, so Jimmy and his Aunt move in, and hilarious hijinks arise! 
  Aw, such a great story, and in addition to the fun tale, the artwork was just superb. I found that even years later I fondly remembered what each picture looked like. I remembered the pic of Jimmy scaring the ghost on the banister. I remembered Jimmy’s Aunt giving the ghost smelling salts to revive him. And most of all, I remembered the splash page illustration that prefaced the story: an image of the ghost and Jimmy talking framed by a window of a Haunted House! I just HAD to find this story!

   After I had gotten to be pretty good at finding what I wanted on ebay, it was time to focus on the harder-to-get books, and Jimmy takes Vanishing Lessons was on the top of the list! First, going online I found out the author’s name was Walter R. Brooks, and with this information, it was onto ebay! In no time at all, I found a few sellers who had it up for auction, and soon I had copy coming my way! 

Original Book

   When I finally got ahold of it a few days later and perused the pages, I should have been in Seventh Heaven…but instead, I was puzzled. Something about it wasn’t quite right… Oh sure, the story itself was pretty much what I remembered, but the illustrations  didn’t look ANYTHING like the ones in the English Reader. In fact, I didn’t like it at all! Far from the fun, bright and ZANY illustrations I remembered, these were dour and scratchy looking…

Original Story artwork by Don Bolognese

No offense to the artist Don Bolognese, but part of the reason I loved the story so much was for the (admittedly 70’s-ish looking) illustrations, and these didn’t look like them in the least! Finally I realized the only solution: I had to find a copy of the original English Reader on ebay!
   This was a bit harder, because I couldn’t’ remember which one of those books the Ghost story was in! I DID find out that the books were all published by GINN under the name of Theodore Clymer, and once the covers for those came up on ebay, I purchased any of them that looked familiar! After months of ordering , I got my hands on a bunch of great books that contained other stories I loved, and then when I got a copy of the book All Sorts Of Things, the final story at the back was the Jimmy story I remembered so well!

All Sorts Of Things, GINN Reader

  Ah, each page’s illustrations kept blowing my mind with nostalgia, they were exactly how I remembered them, so vibrant and full of wonderment!!! Add to gether witht the marvelous story and you've got yourself a terrific Halloween story to re-read  for many years to come! Take a trip down Memory Lane with me and read along with these scans of Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons!

A Tribute To the Blue Nosed Witch...

I've already talked about my infinite love of the Children's Halloween Story of the Blue Nosed Witch by Margaret Embry, and one year at the Record Store I was working at, I decided to pay tribute to my beloved childhood story by using Blue Nosed Witch Blanche as the decoration for that month's "Upcoming Releases" Glass Bulletin Board outside. Don't know if there were many who knew who the witch was (nobody at work did), but it was a Halloweeney theme nonetheless!
 When Halloween was over and I put the displays into the storeroom, I decided to put Blanche in the window of the room. Was pretty funny because for months after that, you could see Blanche in the window, and at night, you could see her silhouette in the window!
This went on til they finally cleared out the room! LOLOL

Favorite Albums: "Their Satanic Majesties' Request" by The Rolling Stones

Maybe you can blame it on me being really young when I first got it, (like 12-14 yrs old), but THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES' REQUEST is probably my favorite of all the early Rolling Stones albums! 
While we all know that this album is the one labeled as "The album where the Stones tried to do Sgt Peppers", being a HUGE Beatles fan, rather than a deterrent, this labeling made me want to hear it even MORE! Growing up, I was DYING to get my hands on this album, the Colorful Psychedelic flicker-card cover ALONE made me want it bad! When I eventually saved up enough money to get it, I dove in head first and immersed myself in it, and I was NOT disappointed! The Stones' one and only "psychedelic phase" was as high as the moon and as trippy as a dream, I must have played that thing over and over again for weeks, getting into the music and staring at the strange, spacey artwork on the covers, gatefold and inside sleeves! 

 While not your usual Stones fare, I love all of these songs, from the well-known classics like "She's a Rainbow" and "2000 Light Years From Home"...

...the artsy minstrel sounding songs like "Lantern" and "Citadel", (How can these songs sound so folksy with those tasty Richards licks gracing them? Too awesome!)

...the super catchy and funky "Gomper", the Beatlesy rip-off "Why Don't We Sing This Song Together" and "On With the Show" (complete with Jagger trying to do his nasally Paul McCartney voice), and even the zany Bill Wyman tune "In Another Land"...gosh, even just typing these titles is taking me back to my teenage years locked in my room and spacing out listening to this album!

  Don’t get me wrong, I love ALL the Stones albums from the first Introduction LP to the intense 70’s albums like Exile On Main Street, down through Emotional Resuce, Dirty Work and later ones like Steel Wheels, etc, but there is really something special I hold in my heart for this one particular album!

The Who "Baba O' Riley"

My all-time favorite performance of Baba O'Riley", from the legendary "Kids Are Alright" Movie. Insanely powerful John Entwistle bass riff introduction, then when Pete jumps in blasting those incredible Townshend power chords on, the whole stage electrifies! Everyone's so into this performance and I love how Moonie always mugs when he knows the camera is on him!

Vanessa & Ralph Still in the Running on Amazing Race 20 (so Far)

I'm grateful to still have Vanessa and Ralph in the running here on Episode 6 of The Amazing Race 20. Not only is Vanessa the Sexiest racer in this Race (though in the above pic she looks less made up than usual, having swam underwater in the last roadblock), she keeps the faith with her hot and awesomely suggestive quotes such as these past episode's gems during a challenge where they had to find the magic apple hidden in a carload full of 'em:

Vanessa: (Jumping out of the trunk of the car after rooting around the apples for the clue) 

"I Hope That's the FIRST and LAST time I'll ever be in the trunk of a car" LOL

And later as a Man yells at them from the sidelines:

Ralph: “Either that guy is telling us to go faster, or he’s looking at Vanessa’s Melons.”

Vanessa: “I don’t think he can even SEE my Melons…But I AM going Commando!”

Well, maybe that GUY wasn't checking it out, but I certainly was! Hope this team can keep up as the Race progresses! They came in second to last this time...Oooh, that's cutting it close!

The Descendants' Shailene Woodley

Shailene Woodley in The Descendants

 Living here in Hawaii, I was really looking forward to the much-praised George Clooney movie The Descendants, the story of a local man named Matt King who must come to terms with his wife’s passing while negotiating a huge land-deal that holds a huge community in balance. and while that film was terrific and gave me everything I hoped it would, the thing that really made the story for me was the interaction  he had between his daughters, and in particular, the older daughter Alexandra, played by actress Shailene Woodley.

George Clooney, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller

Amara Miller as Scottie and Shailene Woodley as Alexandra

Shailene Woodley! Holy CRAP, where did this luscious young thing COME FROM? With a Sharp, Sassy and totally SEXY attitude, she came onto the screen like a no-nonsense, loud cussin’ locomotive, talking down to her Dad like SHE was the parent and HE was the kid! The scenes and dialog between Clooney and Woodley are fierce and fiery, and I just loved watching the two of them go at it, Alex breathing sparks as poor Dad Clooney tries to keep up!

Father and Daughter: Clooney as Matt King and Shailene as Alex

With her intense, arching eyebrows and condescending look, she takes control of every scene she’s in like a fresh-faced Rosmund Pike (with just a dash of Julia Roberts for good measure) ready to duke it out like Marcia Brady running for Class President, making her a package too cool to contain!

Above and Below: Dealing with Frustration

Chewing Out her Little Sister with Sid (Nick Krause) looking on

And besides all of that larger-than-life attitude, Shailene’s rocking’ the sexiest lil body, a wonderful figure that we are treated to many, many grateful times during the course of the movie! When You’ve a got a story with the backdrop of beautiful Hawaii, it only makes sense to have such a hottie running around in as many bkini outfits as possible!

Looking Lovely on the Shore

As well as lounging at the Pool!

Keeping sure to avoid tan lines...

And always remembering to tie back up before getting up!

Ahhh, looking forward to seeing MORE of this lovely young lass…

Notes on Amazing Race 20

It occurred to me while watching the latest chapter of Amazing Race 20 of how much contestant Vanessa Macias (the only resident cutie left on the show since Asian babes Misa and Maiya got eliminated) reminds me of exotic British model Leilani Dowding. They’ve been building Vanessa (and her teammate beau Ralph) up as the season’s trolls, but I find their comments more humorous than cutting, and anyway, hell, if trolls are gonna look like Vanessa, I’ll take it! 

Gotta love when she finds the next challenge is to taste 14 different salamis, and she coyly says “I haven’t had that much salami since high school, haha!” nudge, nudge, wink, wink, LOL! 

Hope this fun team doesn’t get eliminated for a long time to come!

Memories of an Indian Chief Tootsie Roll Wrapper

I remember back when we were little kids on one of my visits to my Aunt's house, my cousin Jan coming out and excitedly telling me she'd gotten a Tootsie Roll Pop Wrapper with an INDIAN on it! When I said I had NO IDEA what she was talking about, she told me, "Don't you know? When you find a wrapper with an Indian Chief on it, you get a FREE TOOTSIE ROLL POP!"


Well, I hadn't heard THAT one before, but, intrigued by such a proposition, agreed to go down with her to the corner liquor store where we ususally bought our candy to watch her redeem it. Sauntering into the store, Jan picked up a new Tootsie Roll Pop from the rack and went to the cashier. Before the lady could ring her up, she placed the Indian wrapper on the counter in front of her. "I have a wrapper with the Indian Chief on it." Jan said proudly, 'So that means I can get a free one, right?"


Well, that Chinese lady behind the counter squinted her eyes in a puzzled way and said (in the way only an old Chinese lady could), "EHHH?!"


Hmmm. This wasn't what Jan was expecting. "They said that if the wrapper has an Indian Chief, I can get a free Tootsie Roll Pop?" Jan began again.


The lady slowly but firmly started shaking her head, and pushed the wrapper back to her. Needless to say, we walked out of that store without any free candy THAT Day!


Walking back to the house, I actually felt kind of bad seeing as how bummed out Jan was, but her disappointment wouldn't last long- the very next week I was over at her house, she exclaimed, You gotta see what I got!"  She ran into the house and came out with a ziplock bag containing a withered weed or something in it. "Look!" she said proudly- "A Four-Leaf Clover I found in the yard yesterday!" And indeed, upon closer inspection, it WAS! AHAHAHA, That girl was always a true-believer in the wonderment of childhood!


*PS* Growing Up, I'd always wondered just WHERE Jan got it in her head that she could get a free pop with an Indian Chief Wrapper, but going online, I was to find that this was a widely held belief among kids since, like, forever! An early Urban Legend, just for us kids!
And completely false, to boot!

A Disneyfied Rap Song: "Super Bass"

There’s this terrific video making the rounds of this cute young girl playing her rendition of the Nicki Minaj song “Super Bass” with a decidedly sunny and uplifting twist to it! With her tursty ukulele and crystal clear voice, she takes the rap song and turns it into a positively “Disneyfied” poppy version (tho with all the swear words intact, so beware!)…You don’t have to know the Nicky Minaj version to enjoy it, but if you do, your appreciation of this wonderful arrangement can only increase a hundredfold!

Online buzz says this girl’s name is Nicole, though she goes by “uuuuuuuuukewithme” on Youtube, LOL. Besides this awesome cover, she does several others, all with the same cheerful demeanor and spunkiness! And Hey...Reading further online, it seems like EVERYONE is out there covering this song on Ukulele...WTH...? Is this some new kind of trend? "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips" for a new generation? AHAHA!