Saturday, November 29, 2008

Sesame Street's Funky Chimes



This is possibly my favorite song, ever.

Created sometime in the early 70's, this musical interlude was featured at the end of Sesame Street episodes. Nicknamed "Funky Chimes", the tune was placed between the show's final credits and the PBS identification.

When Funky Chimes was retired in the early 1990's, I thought I'd never hear my beloved wah-wah electric guitar and tubular bells ever again. With the advent of the Internet (where you can truly find anything), I've stumbled upon a high quality extended version, created by Youtube user roboshuffle...

Needless to say, I love it!

I've extracted the audio and converted it to mp3 format, so I can enjoy Funky Chimes on my iPod whenever I want...

Monday, November 24, 2008

Vintage Ad: 7-Up in Milk

I can't believe this 1950's ad encouraged mothers to add soda to kids' milk.

And I quote: "Mothers know that this is a wholesome combination"...
Yikes!

image source unknown

Sunday, November 16, 2008

U.S. Hostess Raincoat and Handbag

As a collector of Expo 67 paraphernalia, I've always dreamt of actually owning something that a hostess wore.

Well... dreams do come true!

I regularly peruse eBay's Expo 67 auctions. A few weeks ago, I noticed the official raincoat and handbag worn by U.S. pavilion hostesses up for auction.

I watched that auction day in and day out. I was prepared to bid whatever it would take to get this ultra-rare item...

Lucky for me, it only took $33.00 (U.S.)!

The coat's label tells us it was made by Travelcoats by Naman.

The label inside the handbag identifies it as an Expo 67 artifact.

A hostess in her raincoat.



images: (1, 2, 3) author's own
(4) images: www.canada.com/montrealgazette

Monday, November 3, 2008

The Memories of Angels



I'm totally excited about this fab new film from the National Film Board.

The Memories of Angels is a stunning portrait of Montreal in the 1950's and 60's, in "sights, sounds and music". Culled from vintage NFB stockshots, the film lies somewhere between poetry, documentary and essay. Without narration, this film effectively paints the portrait of a city that underwent massive transformations in the years leading up to, and during, Expo 67.

Like a DJ mixing music, director Luc Bourdon skillfully "remixed" scenes of a bygone city: busy streets of people, motor cars and streetcars, children playing in yards and lanes, bustling department stores during Christmas, panoramic views of Expo 67... to name but a few. Aesthetically interesting to me was the contrast of black and white and color footage.

The Memories of Angels is playing at Ex-Centris until November 13, 2008.

Place Ville Marie was only one of many grand scale projects in the 1960's.

St-Catherine street's vegas-style neon signs.

Dunn's, a smoked-meat institution in Montreal.

Québecois legend Félix Leclerc with a young Dominique Michel.

Think that snow removal was better in the good old days? Think again!

Montreal's shining moment in the 1960's: Expo 67.

images: nfb.ca