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The Bizarre Easter of Margaret Halpin



Drawing of Easter Egg decorating.  Margaret Halpin, New York, Circa 1950
Collection Jim Linderman
See also the book Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries HERE

Cultural Detritus of Horror: Truck Stop Pornographic Eight Track Tapes






Imagine a guy hauling a double trailer-rig, jacked-up on speed with one hand on the wheel and one in his pants.  The CONCEPT is as bad as the vision...but here comes "Spanky" with a big load.  Pun reluctantly intended.  File these pornographic eight-track tapes under "Cultural detritus" which should  have never happened. 

Someone is driving at dark and listening to cheap, truck stop smut EIGHT TRACK TAPES! 

Online, I find a few sources for information about pornographic eight track tapes.  I CAN tell you there were at least 57 in this series, as I have both number 000 and 057 here.  Collect them ALL.  Local entrepreneurs likely churned them out in seedy neighborhoods along the highway.

These obscurities would fall into the "spoken word" category of recorded sound collecting, but I don't think the fellow who purchased these originally would have alternated the playlist with a stirring speech from Winston Churchill or Robert Frost reading his poetry. 

Everyone understands by now that every advance in media is taken over by sex somehow.  From the camera to the VCR and beyond.  But eight tracks?  Don't come knocking if the rig is rocking SOLO.

All three here were decorated by the same artist.   I guess "cartoonist" is more appropriate.  The scrapheap of popular culture has spit out yet another relic of horror.

Group of X-rated Eight Track Tapes.  No date.  Circa 1970. 

Errol Flynn Amateur Watercolor before the Fall


A Tasmanian Devil smoking.  Errol Flynn was literally the "In like Flynn" guy and it is estimated he slept with 10,000 woman.  He drank "like Flynn" too and by the age of 40 was an alcoholic only offered roles playing an alcoholic, so he took to his boat and sailed the seas.  I wouldn't say he lived as a swashbuckler, but he had a hell of a short life. The studio had plenty of reasons to drop him.

Eventually he began to accept the drunk roles. 

Errol became a member of an elite club I fear is not too select, despite his fame.  That would be the club which drinks a fifth of vodka or more a day.  Wrong decision for anyone.  The fifth became a quart, then two quarts.  When he passed at the age of 59 he was one of those guys they say "had the body of an 85 year old man" about. 

He was married three times. but  who knows how many woman had his children over the course of his film career?  So there must be offspring out there.  Yup.  Sean Flynn, his son, was quite possibly captured by the Khmer Rouge, executed and later became the subject of a song by the Clash. 

Yes, Errol Flynn was born in Tasmania.  He may have been a real-life spy.  He may have been bisexual.  Here he is seen in his handsome Hollywood days.

Amateur drawing of Errol Flynn, circa 1940 Collection Jim Linderman 

Fotofun The Two Forms of Fotofun! Regular, and Real Photo Postcard LAUGH YOUR HEAD OFF








One of my favorite finds is Fotofun!  There were two...one for regular snapshots and one which produced real photo postcards (of a sort)  Both are pretty scarce.  Those of you manipulating photographs might be surprised to know W. J. Glassmacher thought up the gimmick in 1934.



Pair of Treasure Chest Fotofun Novelty Photograph beheading games!   Laugh your HEADS off!  Collection Jim Linderman

Surfa-Tone Tex Products Mid-Century Modern Wall Slurry! Antique Color Chemical Soup for the Wall.




It's SURFA-TONE the Rubber Paint!  In the "antique color" series here, I generally tell a bit of company history, but a brief search is all it took to learn there are too many variations of the "Tex" name in companies.  This one was based in Newark, New Jersey and has probably morphed into some other company by now.  The history is as murky as the waters around Newark.  You know, as you drive towards the big apple you go through a dead zone of swamp before hitting the tunnel?  That murky chemical blend THING?

Search for "Rubberized Paint"  and that goofy "Flex Seal" product is what you'll find first.  You know, the guy who paints the bottom of his boat and scoots over the alligators without springing a leak!  I love when he dips his tools into it and makes a hand-grip like magic!

Now I suspect this product was invented for the parents of the baby boomers.  They all got  tired of rubbing crayon off the walls, so they sealed it off with this magic covering.  I've run my fingers over the paint chips here, and it does feel a bit different.  Oddly, the patter here claims you can wash off lipstick too!  Who kisses a wall?

Surfa-Tone Wall Finish by Tex Products.  No Date (c. 1960?)  Mid-Century Modern Wall Covering pamphlet. Collection Jim Linderman

Schoolgirl Handmade Sewing Instruction Book Antique Vintage Old




I haven't quite figured out the date on this remarkable handmade sewing instruction book, but she received a 95.  What was the teacher looking for?  The cover alone is a 100.  You women out there could date the work inside by the fashions...there are tons of designs, color wheels, mini-pattern projects and all done with beautiful folky precision.  I'll post more one day.  Yes, the cover is 3-D!  The little pattern book on the table has pages!  A great reminder of what a school student was required to do before computers.

Mid-20th Century Sewing handmade sewing class book.  Mixed-media.  Collection Jim Linderman