I drove past this house many times over the years, every year noticing more and more inflatable things slowly taking over the place. Today I stopped by to take some pictures of the “Paulie’s Penguin Playground” located in Olathe. The front, roof, driveway, yard and everything else around the house is covered with every inflatable toy imaginable. There is a passageway through the yard leading to the porch where you can leave a donation to the Leukemia Society or buy the owner’s truck.
Short video look-around:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLKdNtAMQUo
(Pick any two): Merry Happy Holidays Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa!
Other examples of local Christmas Art from Midtown Miscreant and Plog.
British quartet The Beatles which can be approximately translated as the beetles-drummers, was returning to New York from a tour in Washington. A Pullman car carrying the artists was also filled with music critics, photographers and TV correspondents. During the train trip the artists were expected to discuss their views on music, culture and the meaning of life in general.
The train started moving and the journalists got their notepads ready. Suddenly one of the artists, Ringo Starr yelled like a Tarzan and started jumping on the couches like an ape. John Lennon and George Harrison traded pants in public, the ones they were wearing at the time. Then Ringo made the buzzing noises sounding like a film camera, and George climbed on the luggage rack.
But those present in the car weren’t amused for long. The thing is that the “beetles” behave on the stage just like they were acting on the train. “We are worthless musicians” admits George Harrison, the one lying in the luggage rack, “we can’t sing or do anything else with any skill.”
Nevertheless, in only four weeks two and a half million records by the “beetles” were sold in the USA. In Glasgow, England the performance by the quartet was banned after three and a half thousand crazed youths started crashing chairs and walls following the example of the artists. The noise during the concerts is so loud that the artists can’t hear their own singing. This actually makes them happy. Just the opposite, when they can hear each other’s screams they feel that the concert was a failure.
How can one explain the popularity of the quartet “The Beatles”? Even the magazine Newsweek mentions the ad campaign preceding their visit to the US: five million banners with the words “The Beatles are coming” were hanged on the telephone poles; the same number of posters was decorating public restrooms. Their screams named “I want hold your hand” and “Love me do” were played on the radio day and night.
There is no doubt that if Christ himself visited the United States, he wouldn’t get even a tenth of the advertisement.
Most importantly, “beetles” are masters at stirring up the darkest and the most primitive emotions in their audiences. And since most of their fans are between 12 and 16 years old, it’s easy to imagine the “educational” influences of the “beetles”. It only makes sense that fights and fainting are just as an inseparable part of the quartet’s concerts as the reinforced police presence.
Scandalous fame of the hairy “beetles” gave an idea to an American cartoonist Herblock. Since the popularity of one of the leading candidates for the President of the USA from the Republican Party Barry Goldwater is steadily declining, the artist suggested he should a get a “beetle”-like haircut and pick up a guitar.
Although this idea is not that outrageous; beetles – musicians and beetle-candidate have a lot in common. They both appeal to the lowest in human nature, they only know how to scream and mainly rely on the advertisement.
Specialists predict that “beetles” won’t be able to hold on to their success, they are just not in the league. And the same can be said about the senator from Arizona: his speeches are too delusional even for the right-wing of the American “crazies”…
*translated by me
**the article uses the wordplay Beatles-beetles mostly referring to The Beatles pejoratively as bugs.
I know even less about anime than I know about He’Brew beer; that’s why I put on my costume of a “regular overweight white guy” character and visited the Naka-Kon at the Hyatt where I proceeded to totally blend in. I was surprised by the number of visitors from kids in the colorful costumes, to weirdos in giant multi-zippered human-eating pants who walked their girlfriends on a chain, to some middle-aged child-molester-looking characters. Wide-eyed Hyatt employees where yearning for the days of their regular wrinkled-old-people conventions. My pictures didn’t turn out so great but here are a few that I liked:
Trans World Airlines has a special place in American History. On October 21, 1992 a special anniversary flight from Moscow to New York (via Brussels) brought my family and me to this country, full of hopes, dreams and dressed up in full-blown winter attire on a nice 70F fall day. TWA is now a fading memory but some photos from the Life Magazine Archives may remind you of the olden days when the word “stewardess” wasn’t frowned upon, smoking was cool and the sexism was a solid corporate policy.
Learning on someone else’s mistakes is sadly not a quality well-developed in most people, leaving the ones who already know the outcome to sit and watch another crash and burn just to say “I told you so” when it’s all said and done. Many people already have experiences similar to the ones about to be encountered by the American people; they recognize the similarities and know the lessons, but it’s next to impossible to overcome the “it can’t happen here” attitude. Knowing that, I long ago limited the amounts of “I told you so” I dispense on the daily basis.
The above explains why I am not going to dwell on the video below posted by the LAPD:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LciBRRkG_y8
My favorite part is on the 27th second when the actor says “let the law enforcement determine if it’s a threat” and the other one says “let the experts decide”. Anyone with the knowledge of the Soviet history would draw a connection the the Great Purges of 1930’s when regular citizens were encouraged to uncover the “enemies of the state” among their friends, neighbors, co-workers and even relatives. Even small things could be important to the wise authorities, who will then decide if your elderly uncle is really a foreign spy. Authorities wouldn’t send an innocent person to a labor camp for 20 years, right? Most people informed on their friends and relatives with the best and the purest of intentions (except in cases where they wanted to expand their living space once another “spy” gets arrested).
The “authorities” of the Soviet 1930’s would be proud of this video but they had their own means of propaganda.
Be Vigilant! Uncover the enemy under any mask!The enemy is deceitful - be vigilant!Vigilance is our weapon! Be Vigilant!
Written on the snake “Spying, Sabotage, Provocation”.
Foreign spies are seeking out drunks. It's well-known that drunks speak their mind.Militiaman! Be Vigilant! You can't lose your alertness even for a minute!Blabbermouth - enemy's treasure!Be vigilant everywhere. Remember, the enemy is mean and deceitful!Your chatter is helping the enemy!Don't even try!
People, be vigilant! (The snake spells "revanchism")Vigilance is our weapon!Be Vigilant! Comrade, don't let peaceful days fool you! Throw your kindheartedness out! Remember, the enemy is among us!Be vigilant! The enemy doesn't sleep!
Uncle Sam’s bony fingers holding a wad of cash and a binocular peering at the map of the USSR.
Don't Yak! The enemy is listening!The types of spy accessories
Top left: “long tongue” can disclosed military secrets.
Bottom Left: “rose colored glasses” make wolves seem like harmless goats.
Top right: “making elephant out of the fly” (like mountain out of the mole hill).
Bottom right: “catch the enemy’s helpers, be on guard”.
No Chatter! Be on guard, these days even walls are listening! Idle chatter and rumors are not that far from treason!Continue reading →
