Posts Tagged with "kitsch"

The “Official” Beers of Knoxville’s World’s Fair?

October 1st, 2009 at 10:51 am by Mark
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     Umm… Okay, yes, we had the Strohaus, but …

The Official Beers of the 1982 World's Fair

     And there I thought, back in 1982, the “official” beers would have been any of those nine colors of World’s Fair Beer, which was easily as bad as the swill Jimmy Carter’s brother made

     Ahh, but who the Hell am I to argue with this beautiful — and oh-so-tasteful — mirror-placque from back in the day…?

The Rude Street Peters

August 4th, 2007 at 3:59 pm by Mark
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Rude Street Peters

Live at The Pilot Light in Knoxville’s Old City

Saturday, August 4th – 9PM – $5 Cover

Where redneck meets punk — and kitsch collides with bitch — you’ll always find the Rude Street Peters!  Once touted as “Knoxville’s drunkest band,” the Peters have enjoyed two decades of cult-like following. 

With hits like “Snakesnatch” and “Stumbling Tumbleweeds,” the band continues to be a splinter in the eye of those who consider that all music should be for mass consumption.  Put simply:  They beligerantly don’t give a f$*& what you think.

From their site:

The Rude Street PetersMOONSHINE SWILLIN’, DOPE SMOKIN’ PUNK ROCK FOR THE WHOLE FUCKIN’ FAMILY ! WITH THE I.Q. OF A RETARDED MULE AND THE LIVERS OF 49 GEORGE JONES’ , THE PETERS MAKE MUSIC THAT BELONGS IN A SNAKE HANDLIN’ CHURCH JUST AS MUCH AS IT’S AT HOME IN THE SMOKIEST OF DIVE BARS. BUY OUR SHIT HERE OR HERE.

     So … Hey … Be there … Or don’t.

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Pink Flamingo Passes Away

October 20th, 2006 at 4:37 am by Mark
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     It’s time to bid a fond farewell to a favorite, formerly famous, front-yard fowl.  Alas, the Pink Flamingo is no more, dead at a mere forty-nine years of age.
     Union Products, of Leominster, Mass., has finally given up production of these unsightly eyesores due to financial problems.

     According to the original article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, paid tribute to the infamous bird that has been immortalized everywhere — from the John Waters’ movie Pink Flamingos, to bachelor parties and lawns across America.

“Let’s face it,” he said. “As iconic emblems of kitsch, there are two pillars of cheesy, campyness in the American pantheon. One is the velvet Elvis. The other is the pink flamingo.”

The birth of the plastic pink flamingo in 1957 coincided with the booming interest in Florida, Thompson said, making it possible for those in other parts of the country to have a little piece of the Sunshine State’s mystique in their yard.

By the late ’70s, according to Thompson, the pink flamingo became a symbol of bad taste. It was considered trash culture and embraced by folks with a wise-guy attitude. They knew better (wink, wink) but embraced the iconic symbol anyway.

By the late ’80s and early ’90s, he said we learned to make fun of pop culture items such as the pink flamingo as well as appreciate them.

“The pink flamingo has gone from a piece of the Florida boom and Florida exotica to being a symbol of trash culture to now becoming a combination of all we know — kitsch, history, simplicity and elegance,” Thompson said.

Until recently, Mike Smollon was one of the folks who put the pink flamingo in the kitsch category.

But during a recent trip to Massachusetts, the Boynton Beach firefighter and battalion chief had an epiphany.

After reading a story in the Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg, Mass.) about the closing of the factory, he bought 12 pairs of flamingos.

“I never owned a pink flamingo before,” Smollon said. “To be honest, I used to think this was the kind of a thing only a girl would put in her yard. But when I found out the factory was closing, I thought this is something historical happening.”

Smollon went to the factory and bought 11 sets of pink flamingos and one set of the commemorative gold flamingos that were made for 2007, which would have been the bird’s 50th birthday. He plans to keep a few and give the rest to flamingo-loving friends.

Flamingo fever hit and he searched the Internet for Don Featherstone, the kitchy bird’s creator. When he learned that Featherstone lived only about five minutes from his hotel, he called him and asked if he could come over and get his photograph taken with him.

Not only did Featherstone and his wife, Nancy, come out of the house wearing matching pink shirts adored with green flamingos, the artist autographed two sets of flamingos. Smollon also bought a copy of Featherstone’s book, The Original Pink Flamingos: Splendor on the Grass (Schiffer Publishing, 1999), which he autographed for an extra $5.

After Smollon returned home, he bought a set of pink flamingos from the 1950s for $39 on eBay.

“Now I have one of the first sets made and one of the last sets made,” he said. “I have my own private collection.”

     Of course, it’s lived a full life at only 49, growing from an Annoying Adornment to the King of Kitsch.

     Don’t forget to check out the Mockumentary, “The Pink Flamingo: Ambassador of the American Lawn.”

The Shat Hits the Fan

August 6th, 2006 at 2:43 am by Mark
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     (Yeah, their title, not mine — weird!)

     Ok, yet another in the list of “reasons I should not be awake.”

     Comedy Central is airing the Celebrity Roast of William Shatner on August, 20th at 10PM US/Eastern.

     That’s gotta be funny.

     I mean, he isn’t.

     Much.

     But he’s certainly provided plenty of propellant — pardon the pun — over the last forty years to assist in the conflagration… so many things… But the coup-de-grace has to be that bad music with Leonard Nimoy

     Gives me chills just thinking about it.

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Hello, Kitschy!

August 2nd, 2006 at 10:43 pm by Mark
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Hello, Vader!

     I wrote the title … that’s about all the “clever” I can muster for this one.
     *shakes head in disapproval*

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