Foulard Place

FOULARD: sign of quality

2012-01-05T10:20:00.001-08:00

Crabby New Year to you!

2012-01-03T11:36:00.001-08:00

Shouty!

Foulard HATES lifestyle manifestos! Foulard likes people who quietly do exactly want they want to without having to stick it on their wall or share their trite, generic, middle class lifestyle tips with others.

The "manifesto" above has apparently been circulating on "the internets" for a while. I've seen a lot of similar things in blogs like Apartment Therapy--people with trendy apartments/condos often have some sort of quaint print on their wall that says something like "LOVE EVERY MOMENT OF LIFE." in an archaic/industrial typeface. They're really just a reincarnation of this oldie, from the Jonathan Livingston Seagull/Listen to the Warm/Love Is era:


Pros: Not in ALL CAPS Cons: Looks like it was hand-written by hobbits

I don't have an issue with new year's resolutions, and I really don't have a problem with being self-aware and self-determinitive. The thing I like most is to be doing what I want to do (while being a nice person, of course). The thing I hate is anyone telling me what to do or think--and these "prescription for happiness" things do just that. It's like being hectored by a bullying hippie or someone who's just tumbled out of an EST retreat*.

*or Tom Cruise

Last minnit tree and cat

2011-12-24T19:53:00.001-08:00

Holy infant, so tender and wild

"Thank you for this new toy"

Foulard got a late craving for an Xmas tree last weekend, so we got a fake one (discounted) at the drug store a block away from our apartment. Now our place is very jolly!

***
And here's a little Christmas song:

Best resale offer EVER

2011-12-13T11:27:00.003-08:00

From Amazon.com

When you buy this book now for $58.90 and sell it back later for a $2.95 Amazon.com Gift Card,
it could cost you as little as $55.95. Restrictions Apply

Where do I sign up???

Summat and Nowt

2011-12-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'm currently fascinated by Yorkshire accents. This sketch is a pretty good representation of what they sound like, though they occasionally slip up and say "the", which is not used in region.

<p>&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;I</p>

Save Greendale!

2011-12-09T14:40:00.001-08:00

R.I.P. Harry "Bill Gannon" Morgan

2011-12-07T12:46:00.001-08:00

Now he's busting hippies in Heaven.

Harry Morgan was quite funny on Dragnet, and one of the things that makes it watchable. The characterization is actually more subtle than his turn as Col. Potter in M*A*SH. There's a running joke about his character's obsession with wallpaper that's particularly rewarding...

More Xmas picks

2011-12-06T11:08:00.001-08:00

I watched all 81 minutes of this last year, despite a stuttery video feed on the cable channel where I DVR'd it. Luckily for Foulard readers, it's now available on Netflix--in HD, yet.

More normativity than you can shake a stick at

It's the story of an implausibly quaint small town in Alaska that does Christmas big time every year, until the heaviest Baldwin, Daniel, comes to town and starts cramping their style by invoking a little thing called separation of church and state. What a cad! He's a local boy who moved to the big city and has now returned to town to corrupt them with his "cosmopolitan" ways. Ted McGinley plays the mayor, a solid family man who is weirdly fixated on setting up elaborate holiday displays in the town square, or any place that's city property. He has a colorless wife, son, and daughter (she's the angel on the poster). My favorite character is the guy played by "christian comedian" Brad Stine. I originally thought he would turn out to be Jesus, because of his beard, but instead he's just some doofus brother-in-law to McGinley who does a "hilarious" rant against "the PC police" which was the highlight of the movie for me. (He also has a concert video called "Tolerate This", which should show you where he's coming from)

Manic for Jesus

SPOILER ALERT:
It turns out that Daniel Baldwin is just causing all this trouble because he doesn't have a family to spend Xmas with. That's right, he's the grinch. And then he changes his mind and lets them put up their giant manger scene, or something like that.

Recommended for:
Masochists and people with an irrational paranoia about "the war on Christmas".

Foulard's holiday gift giving suggestions

2011-12-05T16:09:00.001-08:00

You will be astonished at the looks on your loved ones' faces when they unwrap these little goodies on the holiday of your choosing.

Grow up, kids!

2011-12-05T14:22:00.001-08:00

Is anyone else tired of seeing those dumb Guy Fawkes/V for Vendetta masks in all the photos of Occupy Wall Street etc. demonstrations?

I get it--you're a mysterious masked avenger striking fear into the heart of the corporations/fascist government etc. Can't you pick something new? Maybe something that's not from an overrated comic book turned into an overrrated movie starring Natalie Portman...expand your cultural literacy, posturing boy-men! (and girls)

It is jolly to go to the cinema!

2011-11-29T15:26:00.001-08:00

Boring Headlines of Our Time

2011-11-23T08:38:00.001-08:00

Rolling Stone names Hendrix best guitarist ever

Legendary musician Jimi Hendrix was named the greatest guitar player in history on Nov. 23 by Rolling Stone magazine in a list compiled by a panel of music experts and top guitar players.

I would have voted for "I.Q." from the Bugaloos, myself.

Please Patronize Our Sponsors!

2011-11-18T08:15:00.001-08:00

Beating a Dead Objectivist

2011-11-15T10:04:00.001-08:00

Okay, here's my third and final post on the terrible Atlas Shrugged movie. But this is funny:

Atlas Productions LLC announced today its plan to replace more than 100,000 title sheets appearing on the Atlas Shrugged Part 1 DVD and Blu-ray versions sold through major retail outlets. These retail versions were packaged with an inaccurate synopsis of Atlas Shrugged. Not affected were the “Special Edition” versions sold online at AtlasShruggedMovie.com.

The 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, is known in philosophical and political circles for presenting a cogent argument advocating a society driven by rational self-interest. On the back of the film's retail DVD and Blu-ray however, the movie’s synopsis contradictorily states “AYN RAND’s timeless novel of courage and self-sacrifice comes to life...”

“It’s embarrassing for sure and of course, regardless of how or why it happened, we’re all feeling responsible right now.” says Scott DeSapio, Atlas Productions’ COO and Communications Director “You can imagine how mortified we all were when we saw the DVD but, it was simply too late - the product was already on shelves all over the Country. It was certainly no surprise when the incredulous emails ensued. The irony is inescapable.”

DeSapio continued “Ultimately, the responsibility falls on us, Atlas Productions. We are putting policies in place now to ensure we avoid these types of unforced errors in the future.”

Harmon Kaslow, CEO of Atlas Productions and Producer of the film stated “As we all well know, the ideas brought to life in Atlas Shrugged are entirely antithetical to the idea of ‘self-sacrifice’ as a virtue. Atlas is quite literally a story about the dangers of self-sacrifice. The error was an unfortunate one and fans of Ayn Rand and Atlas have every right to be upset... and we have every intention of making it right.”

Here's my request--Instead of replacing the cover insert, can they just replace the DVD with a movie that's about the value of self-sacrifice? Something a normal, well-socialized adult human being can relate to?

Improved poster

2011-10-31T15:40:00.003-07:00

Any movie benefits from added Don Knotts.

Quck movie reviews based solely on DVD covers

2011-10-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

Atlas Shrugged (Part One)

This movie seems to be about a businesswoman who had to leave town because she lost her pants. I'm not sure how Ayn Rand got a thousand-page novel out of that!

Was it worth it?

2011-10-27T13:49:00.002-07:00

31 years later, I wonder if the folks at Marvel Comics still think it was a great idea to slap this promotional contest banner across the top of one of their most famous issues ever...

"Comics are a disposable product! Who cares if the cover looks like shit? It's not like anyone will ever make a movie of the X-Men with a $160 million budget..."

The best version of "Jesus Loves Me" I have ever heard...

2011-10-25T12:31:00.001-07:00

Double Whammy

2011-10-24T16:24:00.002-07:00

Finally, a product that combines two of my most-hated things: beanies and hipster beards.

The lost season -- finally on DVD

2011-10-07T10:47:00.001-07:00

For some reason, audiences never took to the new "Jeff"...

Knock Knock Joke I made up

2011-10-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

It goes like this:

"A man traveling backwards through time."

"Who's there?"

"Knock-Knock."

Kindle Fire

2011-09-28T11:37:00.002-07:00

Because superhero movies are that much better when they're six inches wide.

Why don't bands ever break up any more?

2011-09-22T10:38:00.002-07:00

[Update! I was preparing this rant last week, but never got around to publishing it--but now, one of the biggies has given up the ghost. Maybe this will inspire the others to pack it in!]

I remember when I was young and there were a bunch of old geezer bands from the sixties and seventies that kept staying together and touring and putting out horrible new albums, etc--the main offender was the Rolling Stones with their awful eighties records, but then there were lesser bands like the Moody Blues and their godawful "In Your Wildest Dreams" song and (Jefferson) Starship with the singular "We Built This City".

At the time, I never realized that the contemporary hipster bands of the eighties would decide to stay together to milk their aging fan base forever, too. The appropriate behavior for a group would be to put out one good debut album, and follow it up with 1 to 4 albums of lesser quality and then break up as a way of arresting their decline.

Here are a few of the main offenders:

U2 (together 35 years! First single released 31 years ago)

Adam Clayton always looked awful, didn't he?

R.E.M. (together 31 years)

The mopey look that influenced countless jangle pop band photos in the 80s

Sonic Youth (still peddling their hipster cred after 30 years)


Hey, it's that guy from Stranger than Paradise!

Did you forget they ever looked like that, after all these years? What ancient bands do you wish would just stop?

I have but one question: Why isn't Obama doing something about this? I am so disappointed in him!

Internet offer of the day

2011-09-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

Dept. of Not Trying Hard Enough

2011-09-06T12:04:00.001-07:00


I haven't seen one picture where the young guy has his collar buttoned--surely he doesn't show up to work this way? Oh, wait--he's a rebel!

There's a new-ish BBC drama called "The Hour" now airing on TV in the US. It's their attempt to get in on the Mad Men retro-vibe (we're also going to get the US efforts "Pan Am" and "The Playboy Club" this fall--I give them about six weeks). I'm the perfect audience for something set in that time period, since I know a lot about it and find it endlessly fascinating, but I'm also the worst audience for a present-day writer, production designer, actors, etc., since I can get very distracted spotting all the anachronisms.

I tried to give this one a chance last week, but it lost me about five minutes in.

Here's a description of the show's premise:

A spy thriller needs a spine as stiff as James Bond's martini to nickname a character Moneypenny. BBC America's retro-hip “The Hour” — which airs at 10 p.m. Wednesdays — certainly has the nerve, and occasionally even the punch to back it up.

Set in a BBC newsroom in 1956 — more excuse than necessary to doll itself up like a “Mad Men” theme party — “The Hour” doesn't improve on its obvious inspirations.

It deserves points, however, for knowing how to pick them: A show-within-the-show is called “The Man Who Knew,” as if adding “Too Much” would be exactly that.

The show is a tasty cocktail of “Front Page” repartee, soap opera romance, murder mystery and Cold War intrigue, all set to a score that sounds like Henry Mancini warming up for “The Pink Panther.”

The six-part series stars Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon, a talented, hotheaded BBC writer working alongside his beautiful, ambitious producer Bel Rowley (Romola Garai).

He calls her Moneypenny, after the flirtatious secretary in the Bond films. She calls him James, and together they dream of Important Journalism.

There's a big stinking anachronism right there--and one that apparently gets repeated frequently--the Freddie/Bel James/Moneypenny nickname thing is super el-wrongo. While Ian Fleming had been writing the 007 books since 1953 (3 or 4 of them published by 1956), the whole Miss Moneypenny routine isn't in them--it started in the first film, Dr. No, in 1962. (It also seems like a cheap shortcut to spelling out the relationship these two characters have with each other.) It may sound over-picky, but to me it indicates that the writer wasn't that interested in dipping her toes too deeply into any real research, and the whole thing is going to be a kind of glib pseudo-historical cartoon--like a 1970s TV-movie about the forties, with guys with blow-dried hair.

I initially (way back in 1997) watched Mad Men with this jaundiced eye, but found that they rarely let these kinds of boners (no, I mean it like this) get by, and then I got really caught up in the show, because it's good, and Matthew Weiner and company are actually trying. Historical accuracy has traditionally not been a hallmark of movies and TV (and every other medium of fiction), but there seems to be a trend toward making an effort in that regard.

The trick with writing historical fiction is really caring about getting into the time period (and the way people interacted and spoke to each other--it's not only about trivial details). If you're not interested in doing the work, you should stick to things you've actually experienced.

A Date with a Puppet

2011-06-15T15:50:00.001-07:00

Beebo and I are watching the current season of our 'bad' reality TV show, The Bachelor, which is in one of its Bachelorette seasons. The current' B'ette, Ashley the dental student, has to choose between the usual gallery of aspirant doofuses. One of them is a guy named Ames, who looks like a Gerry Anderson TV marionette from the sixties:

To our surprise, he seems to be an intelligent guy, and more normal and even eloquent than most of the dudes in the house this season. Wonder how long he'll last?

Cheesy historical smoldering

2011-06-15T14:13:00.004-07:00

Apparently everybody was deadly serious and very sexy at all times back then...

This Thing Has Flown

2011-06-03T12:44:00.004-07:00

R.I.P. James Arness, the Thing from Another World, better known as Marshal Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke (and brother of Peter Graves)

Foulard knots his foulard

2011-06-01T11:36:00.031-07:00

How does Foulard tie his tie? I know you've been wondering just how he does it. Well, here's the knot I use most often--The Shelby (or Pratt) :

It gives you a neat, symmetrical, tidy knot, with a minimum of effort. I found it years ago, and have pretty much stuck to it. I make an exception with some vintage ties I own, because they're shorter than 2011-era ties. For those, I use the classic four-in-hand.

I wear ties with a width between 2.5 and 3.25 inches, but 2.75 or 3 inches is the ideal width. I like the point of the tie's blade to go just over my belt buckle, but not too far, because I think over-long ties look even worse than over-short ones.

I have a couple of tie bars--a shorter and longer one. The one I use depends on the width of the tie. Sometimes I'll use a binder clip from the office as a secret behind-the-tie way of clipping it to my shirt's placket, if I don't want to be so flashy.

Memorial Day Squirrel

2011-05-30T08:06:00.012-07:00

Our rooftop squirrels have really been gearing up now that Spring has (belatedly) sprung. There are some young ones who are particularly bold and will come right up to our living room window and look in at us and our excited cat.

This little fellow or girl wasn't looking at us, but was just relaxing in the gutter and taking in the street panorama, unaware that a 17-pound feline was intently focused on him.

...and then he got up...

..and moved on.

Deebo is still at the window, waiting for him to come back. What else is a cat going to do?

Don't let Monstro-Reagan kill me!

2011-05-20T15:49:00.002-07:00

You know what kids love? Really cheap computer animation, especially if it's confusedly espousing a mean-spirited political philosophy!

This is from a conservo-educational series of cartoons about a group of multi-ethnic kids traveling back in time to all the important events in the history of the U.S.A. And what's one of the most important events of history, in a totally-not-bad-way? The election of Ronald Reagan:

Savor the ugly animation, the stiff and didactic narration, and the bizarre image of a black girl talking about her grandparents watching (and apparently enjoying) Ronald Reagan movies (though she's never heard of him being president?)! Enjoy the amateurish voices (especially the 'country boy' in overalls)! Imagine what kind of weirdos felt driven to produce this, and why they though anyone could watch it seriously! At least it's shorter than Christmas With a Capital C...

Dig it!

2011-05-17T15:03:00.003-07:00

Mondays, huh?

2011-05-16T11:13:00.004-07:00

Rockin' Out in the Napoleonic Wars

2011-05-13T10:53:00.029-07:00

Last night I started watching the first movie in the Sharpe TV series of the 1990s. It stars Sean (Boromir) Bean as a lower-class soldier in the British Army who gets a field promotion to Lieutenant while the Duke of Wellington is battling with Napoleon's armies in Europe. It was enjoyable, and I think somewhat historically accurate, but there's one choice the producers made that rankles for me.

10 minutes of my life in Microsoft Paint produced this

Part of the soundtrack includes a rockin' mainstream 90s electric guitar, which sounds so anachronistic that it almost takes me all the way out of the circa 1809 setting. I've heard guitar on period films before (I'm thinking of Ennio Morricone's scores for sixties Spaghetti Westerns) and not been bothered by it, but in this case, it really doesn't work for me.

This is social conditioning based on 40+ years of watching movies, where everything is artificial, but there are conventions which are usually obeyed. And it's not as bad as anachronisms in dialogue, or hair, or clothing, etc. It's more of an aesthetic choice. It wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't hate hearing the sound of 80s-90s mainstream music!

Despite that, I liked it (the episode, that is)!

Bonus post: Clifford Stoll explains why the internet will never work

2011-05-09T15:09:00.004-07:00

The Internet? Bah!

Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn't, and will never be, nirvana

by Clifford Stoll
February 27, 1995

After two decades online, I'm perplexed. It's not that I haven't had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I've met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I'm uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Consider today's online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen. How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is tht the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness. Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don't know what to ignore and what's worth reading. Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them—one's a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn't work and the third is an image of a London monument. None answers my question, and my search is periodically interrupted by messages like, "Too many connections, try again later."

Won't the Internet be useful in governing? Internet addicts clamor for government reports. But when Andy Spano ran for county executive in Westchester County, N.Y., he put every press release and position paper onto a bulletin board. In that affluent county, with plenty of computer companies, how many voters logged in? Fewer than 30. Not a good omen.

Point and click:
Then there are those pushing computers into schools. We're told that multimedia will make schoolwork easy and fun. Students will happily learn from animated characters while taught by expertly tailored software.Who needs teachers when you've got computer-aided education? Bah. These expensive toys are difficult to use in classrooms and require extensive teacher training. Sure, kids love videogames—but think of your own experience: can you recall even one educational filmstrip of decades past? I'll bet you remember the two or three great teachers who made a difference in your life.

Clifford Stoll, visionary

Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn't—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

What's missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee. No interactive multimedia display comes close to the excitement of a live concert. And who'd prefer cybersex to the real thing? While the Internet beckons brightly, seductively flashing an icon of knowledge-as-power, this nonplace lures us to surrender our time on earth. A poor substitute it is, this virtual reality where frustration is legion and where—in the holy names of Education and Progress—important aspects of human interactions are relentlessly devalued.

The internet, 15 years ago

2011-05-09T13:40:00.047-07:00

The other day, I was telling Beebo about how Google managed to kill every other search engine when it came along in 1998, due to its competence in working, something which had been sorely lacking in the previous engines. The story below is illustrative of what a different world it was back then:

Browser Deals Push Netscape Stock Up 7.8%

TECH WATCH

April 01, 1996|

From Times Staff and Wire Reports

Netscape Communications Corp. shares rose 7.8% Friday amid expectations that agreements with five Internet search companies will boost the software maker's revenue. Netscape shares rose $3 to $41.50 on Nasdaq after trading as high as $42.50.

Netscape, maker of the most popular Internet browser software, agreed to feature Excite Inc., Infoseek Corp., Lycos Inc., the McKinley Group Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. on its browser and World Wide Web page.

The five companies, which make software that helps people choose sites they like on the Internet global computer network, are expected to pay as much as $5 million each, for a total of $25 million, to Netscape, industry executives said.

News of the agreements, concluded March 20, began to trickle out early last week. "Perhaps people are just beginning to realize now what this means for us," Netscape spokesman Jennifer O'Mahony said in explaining the stock gain.

Yahoo!, Excite, Infoseek and McKinley [what is this?] each said they agreed to pay $5 million for a one-year agreement with Netscape. Lycos officials declined to comment.

Of course, Netscape (as Netscape) is no more. It's odd that a search engine would need to pay a browser for prominent placement -- but the rules were different then. Nobody knew (pre-Google) how to find anything on the internet. Hence the brief period of books being published telling you what websites were hot. Now that would seem really pointless and temporal.

Let's hear it for the arts!

2011-05-09T11:31:00.002-07:00

Someone please make a movie of this STAT!

2011-05-06T11:06:00.004-07:00

Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando 'fled 9/11 in hire car'

Trio reportedly embarked on cross-country dash following terrorist attacks on New York in 2001, claims Taylor's former PA

Liz Taylor and Michael Jackson ... Marlon Brando not pictured as he was buying a KFC family bucket at the time. Possibly. Photograph: Peter Jordan/PA

It may well be the most outlandish road trip since the wheel was invented: a cross-country dash featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The trio reportedly took turns driving, with Brando allegedly fueling himself on a diet of junk food. Details of the trip emerged in a Vanity Fair interview with Tim Mendelson, Taylor's former personal assistant. It came about after Jackson invited the two Hollywood actors to be his guests at a pair of concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden in early September 2001. Following the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the subsequent grounding of all internal flights, the trio were forced to find alternative transport back to the west coast. Mendelson claims they wound up driving a modest rental car all the way to Ohio – a distance of more than 500 miles. The trip was not all plain sailing. "Brando allegedly annoyed his colleagues by stopping at every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway," writes Vanity Fair reporter Sam Kashner. "One can only imagine the shock their appearance caused at gas stations and rest stops across America."But Mendelson's freewheeling picaresque has already hit a bump in the road, with another of Taylor's aides insisting the actor was never in the car. "Elizabeth stayed behind," the anonymous aide told the magazine. "She went to a church to pray, and she went to an armory where people were who couldn't get home or who'd stayed behind to look for the missing. She also went down to Ground Zero, where she met with first responders. Eventually, the airports opened and she flew home." Unhappily, the trio at the centre of Mendelson's story are now unavailable for comment. Brando died in 2004, Jackson in 2009 and Taylor in March of this year. The method of their escape from New York looks set to remain a mystery.

Why is that man lurking in the bushes?

2011-04-13T16:24:00.006-07:00

How to be too obscure in your cultural references

2011-04-04T16:10:00.003-07:00

I just stumbled across a website called famousobjectsfromclassicmovies, which is a quiz where you see a drawing of an object and guess what famous (or recent) movie it comes from.

The one object I couldn't place was this one, because I hadn't gotten around to seeing the movie (you don't see the movie title until you try to guess):

Here's what I thought it was (or at least, the first visual I got in my head):

I still don't know what that spinning top thing is supposed to be....

The Joker is Me!

2011-03-31T09:50:00.000-07:00

After doing karaoke for the second time, I've found that channeling Anthony Newley is one of my areas of strength...

"Konga! Put me down, you fool!"

2011-03-17T14:04:00.008-07:00

One of my favorite actors, Michael Gough, died this week. He lived to be 94, so he'd gotten to that age where you're surprised someone's still around. (but glad!)

My favorite Gough movie is Konga, a terrible and great early 60s British King Kong rip-off. M.G. chews up the scenery with gusto, as he does in many of his films. He plays an evil and lecherous zoologist who has come up with a formula for making living things grow at an astounding and speedy rate. His main test subject is the titular chimp, though he also has a sideline in carnivorous plants. At the same time, he's macking on one of his students, a busty blonde who wouldn't seem to have any interest in science, but since this is a bad movie, she does. In the end, Konga becomes huge and carries Gough around the streets of London, and the blonde gets eaten by a plant.

How bad could it be if Flip - The Dog is there?

2011-03-15T11:55:00.002-07:00

My old address

2011-03-11T15:34:00.001-08:00

From an ad in the Northwest Journal of Education, 1904 -- 98 years before we moved in, 106 years before we moved out!

It's a Richard Deacon kind of day!

2011-03-03T12:19:00.001-08:00

Celebrate it...in all your words and actions!

"I'm not Superwoman"

2011-03-02T10:50:00.006-08:00

Beebo and I were watching The Bachelor last night, and were treated to Brad "Not commitment-phobic now" Womack telling one of the bachelorettes, who was pursuing a dental career, that he didn't 'expect [her] to be Superwoman'. We were delighted, because "I'm not Superwoman" is one of our favorite clichéd phrases.

In case you're not familiar with it, it's what you're supposed to say if you're a woman juggling a career while taking care of your kids, preparing all the meals, and cleaning the house and keeping your marriage alive. Preferably, if you say this, it's the early eighties, since it sounds extremely dated. It's apparently still au courant, though, since I found 162,000 instances of it by doing a Google search.

The earliest reference to 'Superwoman' seems to be from 1976, but most references to it probably stem from the 1984 book, The Superwoman Syndrome.

I'm sure the "men's responses' from 1982 are especially cringe-worthy...

Just to help you keep things straight, here's what Superwoman looks like
(in clip art form):

Has the most important job in the world--motherhood

But don't confuse her with Supergirl:

Has the most important job in the world, if Superman is felled by green Kryptonite

Ted McGinley is ready

2011-02-25T14:42:00.002-08:00

Disc-shoppin'

2011-02-23T09:18:00.005-08:00

Check out this old 60s French EP I found--looks like a fun record, but I don't have a turntable right now, so I can't listen to it.

Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge

2011-02-18T13:56:00.003-08:00

Just in case you missed it, Alan Partridge is back! As the kids would say, 'Foulard likes this [insert thumbs-up thingy]. He's currently only online, sponsored by Foster's Lager, but you can watch it on your TV if you have a Roku or other TV-watching device.

Just to get you started, here's the first episode. AP is now a morning talk DJ on North Norfolk Digital radio, and the series is set up as a webcam on the show:

Time to Rock Out, Swedish Pop Style

2011-02-18T09:58:00.000-08:00

Happy three-day weekend!

I guess someone must want to see this...?

2011-02-15T10:25:00.004-08:00

I remember watching this as a child, since I checked out every new cartoon, but I don't remember it being actually good. I'm not sure who could really sit down in front of the TV and watch 4 discs of this in 2011--would the nostalgia factor be strong enough for someone in his mid-40s? Would an 8 year-old of today be able to watch 1970s limited animation?

Anyway, I liked Mister Jaw better!

Happy Valentine's Day from Foulard!

2011-02-14T16:32:00.003-08:00

He's just waiting for this to all blow over

2011-02-11T08:24:00.007-08:00

A little office redecorating can really improve your mood!

UPDATE: It didn't work!

Tintin, knitted

2011-02-10T15:05:00.000-08:00

The Hidden Horrors of the Seattle Underground

2011-02-09T11:03:00.017-08:00

Kolchak!

Last week, I managed to find a copy of the out-of-print DVD The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler, two early-70s TV movies starring Darrin McGavin as intrepid investigative reporter Carl Kolchak. These were both ABC Movie(s) of the Week, and the first one was the highest-rated TV movie of its time (hence the sequel). Stalker has Kolchak on the trail of a vampire in Las Vegas, but the second one is more interesting to me, because he's after a sort of undead being that lives in the Seattle Underground and is killing young women in Pioneer Square! It's pretty rare to get to see a horror movie set in the city where you live (though in Seattle we have another good one -- The Ring).

Here are some of the local details and mistakes I liked best about it:

J.Pflug!

The first victim of the strangler is waiting at "St. James" street at 3 am for a bus to her home in the "Shoreline Park" neighborhood, after she finishes her gig at a strip club in Pioneer Square. In reality, it would be James street (or 3rd Ave, really) and the Shoreline neighborhood. Also, good luck catching a bus at 3 am in Seattle. And I'm not sure why she would live so far from her job--why not get a place that isn't 12 miles away?
Another dancer at the club, (played by Jo Ann Pflug), is a student at the UW (a scene is filmed in the Red Square!), and lives on a houseboat, like every fictional person who lives in Seattle. She takes a motorboat to get to her classes--I guess walking or ride a bike along the Burke-Gilman trail is too mundane.
There's a scene a bar where all the Seattle journalists are alleged to hang out. This is a fictional device, but it was fun to speculate what this could be--the bar at Vito's, or Victor's 610, or (more dive-ily) Bernard's on Seneca, a place that seems to reek of 1972.
The founder of the Seattle Underground tour, Bill Speidel, makes an appearance in a scene filmed in a Pioneer Square bar call the Blue Banjo, which was a real place (I had to google it during the movie to find out). Later it was called Doc Maynard's (and now seems to be closed, except as a starting point for the Underground tour).
There seems to be some filming in the real Seattle Underground....
...But the final scene takes place in an entirely fictional and huge fantasy version of the Undergound, with tall buildings and a working wrought-iron elevator. I learned from Wikipedia that it's the interior of the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. It's kind of steam-punk (if you will), and it's the way you wish the Underground would be, if you've ever taken the tour.

I highly recommend The Night Strangler to anyone who likes goofy horror movies and has lived in Seattle. Good luck finding it!

It wearies me just to look at the covers...

2011-02-08T15:50:00.002-08:00

These two new DVD releases contain 75% Peter Fonda, which is about 50% too much! (Maybe I'm just saying this because I've already seen the first two--the thought of having to see "Fighting Mad" fills me with extreme redneck revenge car crash ennui...)

Foulard is so sorry...

2011-01-11T15:00:00.003-08:00

...for having not written any new posts this year!

How are you gonna spend your Christmas?

2010-12-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again

2010-12-09T10:08:00.002-08:00

[Edit: I liked it so much that it's now the blog header]
Beebo and I still haven't bought any Xmas cards to send out yet. But we're eying a few candidates. You want to get these things just right. here's one I'm thinking of-what do you think?

Today's question

2010-12-06T16:20:00.001-08:00

Now that my neighborhood (Capitol Hill, Seattle, USA) has one bar that serves that Quebecois delicacy, poutine, and will soon get a "Montreal-style" bagelry, the burning question is: When do we get a deli with smoked meat sandwiches??? Duddy Kravitz wants to know!

In your grill

2010-12-06T06:35:00.002-08:00

I was lying on the floor trying to take a picture of Deebo across the room playing with one of his toys. Then he got curious about what I was doing and walked right up to the camera, so I got this shot.

Potlucks and Me

2010-12-03T12:26:00.003-08:00

You may think it un-American of me, but I really don't like potluck dinners or parties. We're now in the holiday potluck season, and I'm doing my best to dodge attending any.

Here's why I avoid them:

I don't want to eat food that other people have made, unless I know it's going to be good. I have friends who are good cooks, and I'm very happy to eat anything they will give me. I like anything that Beebo prepares, and I like food that I (rarely) cook. I really like eating at restaurants and taverns. But I don't really like eating food that someone in the office made. Baked goods are fine, but I don't want any casserole or anyone's 'great tabbouleh'. There's something kind of icky about it for me, since I'm a picky eater.
I don't like eating at parties, sitting on a couch or standing with a paper plate in my hand. Eating and hobnobbing don't mix for me.
I don't like being expected to provide food for a work party. I think it's weird that non-private sector employers feel comfortable expecting employees to provide for food for a a party that's supposed to be a treat for them (it's usually a different story if you work for some commercial enterprise). Especially if it's a party that happens after work hours! I appreciate that there's not really free money floating around when you work for a non-profit or a university/state office, but it kind of sucks the fun out of it. Even worse is if you work in an office that expects you to pony up money for a work party (it happens)!
In general, I think that if you send out a party invitation, the invitee should be welcome to show up empty-handed without fear of judgment. I think bringing a bottle of wine or some special thing you've whipped up or purchased is a cool and appropriate reaction, but if there's a price of admission...it's not really a party. [Exception: parties given by young, poor people are always BYOB]
Since I don't drive, it's a pain to schlep food to a party. Pot lucks are for people who have cars! And after the party, you always have to schlep some crusty serving dish home. Ecch! Worse, there's often pressure to help clean up after the 'party', so you have to deal with all the dishes you didn't want to eat in the first place.

Summary (for people in a hurry): 1. I don't like potluck food 2. I think cheap-o office parties are lame.

Christmas on the Beeb 1979!

2010-12-02T08:55:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year!

2010-11-30T15:21:00.000-08:00


Guy Foulard, Christmas-Style

Yep, I still hate him

2010-11-22T13:16:00.001-08:00

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

Ebay must-have alert

2010-11-17T10:29:00.001-08:00

Are you a fan of the sketch "Low Budget Tales of Cliched Horror" from the Ben Stiller Show (1992)?

Well, here's your chance to own a piece of it:

"This is a pair of latex gloves made for the BEN STILLER SHOW. The show ran from 1992-1993 and was a comedy TV show starring Ben Stiller and Andy Dick. These gloves are a one of a kind pair sculpted and made for Ben Stiller to wear in a skit in the show. There was only one pair made and the mold was destroyed. There will never be another set. They are in used/unaltered condition. Would be a great addition to your TV / Ben Stiller memorabilia. Comes with a certificate of authenticity."

Starting bid $79.99!

What every adult man needs

2010-11-17T08:19:00.001-08:00

A pocket square rack--gives your dresser that 'my bedroom is a department store' look. Only $65.

I once passed on the opportunity to buy a vintage rooster™ ties store display somewhat like the rack above, but with a plastic rooster head at the top. In a rare moment of practicality, I decided it would be too expensive and difficult to fly it home (I was in Indiana at the time).

Green-o

2010-11-15T14:50:00.001-08:00

Isn't this a lovely tie? It's a mid-sixties Brooks Brothers green paisley number just under 3 inches in width. I've been on a paisley kick lately, so I've been picking them up cheap on Ebay. Green is one of the most elusive tie colors, which makes this one extra-interesting. I haven't bid on this one, since it's above my target price (which is around ten bucks). For some reason, the seller has categorized it as "1950 50S Rockabilly Skinny", which is not accurate.

Visually, it speaks to me of an era where a guy would naturally wear a tie on ordinary occasions, but wants to show that he's a hip dude, so it's an unusually-colored groovy pattern. This same guy might also be sporting some modest sideburns to show that he's not uptight (even if he is). It's a perfect moment in time--attuned to cultural changes, but not fully given in to the slobby excess of the seventies.

Starring Yaphet Kotto as Idi Amin

2010-11-15T10:52:00.003-08:00

Over the weekend, I watched (via Netflix streaming) this well-made TV movie from 1977. I remember hearing about it when it was originally on (5th grade), but didn't see it at the time. And back then, you only got one chance! I got interested because the hijacking and rescue was referenced in a circa 1980 British TV series I like, The Sandbaggers. Raid on Entebbe does what I like a good political/action thriller to do--take its time to set up the story, keep the action grounded in real life, and have a high level of tension.* Since I knew some details of the real-life story, I knew that it would have a fairly upbeat ending, so it wasn't really an unpleasant experience. It's also got a great cast, with the great Martin Balsam, one of my favorite B-movie stars, John Saxon, and especially Yaphet Kotto in the choice role of General Idi Amin Dada, who he plays accurately as cuckoo, dangerous, and extremely annoying. The film has great production values, and by virtue of being made contemporary to the actual event, is chock full of seventies verisimilitude. It was much better than I expected it to be--highly recommended to those who like that kind of thing.

*The first two of these qualifications are largely lost today, due to the need to keep everything on a video game level of excitement and physical implausibility. The third qualification (high level of tension) is often killed by movies failing to take some time to breathe and let the audience build up a feeling of dread.

MC, SC, RB

2010-11-10T09:51:00.003-08:00

I totally got this off of Best Week Ever, but have to post it, since I love Michael Caine, Steve Coogan, and Rob Brydon...and these impersonations are great.

Foulard's Technology Yeses and Noses

2010-11-09T14:45:00.009-08:00

I'm a habitual reader of the blog Unplggd, which is a tech-related offshoot of the Apartment Therapy blog. Like many "professional" blogs, it's basically about shopping, and like many Americans, I get a thrill out of clever little techy gadgets. It's interesting to get a picture of the world its editors and contributors live in: Everyone is a professional urbanite, with dough to toss around on nifty little must-haves. Of course it's 99.99% Mac-centric, because of the cool factor involved there--owning a PC has as much caché as being a regular churchgoer or a member of the military in a large city.

Also, oddly to me, owning a laptop computer is de rigeur--apparently everyone in Uplggd-land is a free-lancer who travels a lot and spends hours doing their biz in coffee shops. In my world, I spend 40 hours a week sitting at a desk in an office, and then I walk home and wake the home PC up and turn it off when I go to bed, then wake it up again at 6:15 am for an hour or so. But I never feel the need to have a computer between work and home, because I'm either walking, shopping, eating, or meeting friends for beer/cocktails. It would be weird/awkward to whip it out to check my email or browse to keep myself amused.

Anyway (Part 2 of this post begins here), I have discovered that I'm out of step with what I'm supposed to be doing, cutting-edge-wise, even though I'm not a luddite at all (and only superficially 'off the grid'). So here's a list:

Foulard Eschews:
Laptop computers (except for the mini one we have for occasional vacations, which I enjoyed having in Waikiki last week).
Facebook--feels like the internet equivalent of going back to high school combined with living in a basement apartment with no curtains and walking around naked all the time. Completely horrifying to me.
Twitter--I can't even figure out how to read these. Definitely too old for this!
Streaming movies and TV shows instead of watching them on DVD--am I the only one who doesn't think the picture looks good enough most of the time? That's really the #1 thing for me when I watch. I can only do the streaming thing when I don't care, or it's allegedly hi-def.
Cell Phones--this is the biggy, and the one that inspired this post. I have occasionally felt pleasure at having mine in certain rare circumstances, but basically, it's just a bill I hate paying. My usage level is the equivalent of buying a large pizza and eating half a slice. I'm planning to downgrade as soon as my contract expires.
Paying money to download individual media (video and music)--I just feel ripped off doing this. It bothers me more than paying three bucks at the video store to rent a crappy VHS did in the dark ages.
Kindle (for now)--I really like physical books, but I don't mind the idea of an e-reader. However, I don't want to pay as much or more to read a book on it--which is the way it seems to be going. Along with the previous topic, it just feels like a scheme cooked up to charge physical content prices for an intangible. Why pay Amazon for something they don't have to keep in a warehouse and mail to me?

Foulard Embraces:
Super-High Speed Internet--Boy, do I love it. I like running the speed test to see just how fast it is, and get grumpy if it doesn't read out as 'Excellent'.
High-Def cable TV with hundreds of channels--I keep reading on line about 'I canceled my cable--now we just stream everything through my [laptop or streaming device]', but I think it's fun just to have all the channels and stuff there all the time, in the old-school manner.
Free downloads--I LOVE downloading old, out-of-print music online for free. I can be as obscure in my tastes as I want, without having to act like a dumb consumer (how commercial downloading makes me feel). I have thousands of hours of music on my PC--music that's only interesting to a tiny handful of people.
Big flat-screen TV, DVDs, Blu-Ray, etc.--As a visual person, I get really fixated on detail and clarity (and proper aspect ratios, of course), and these things allow me to enjoy movies and old TV shows in the most perfect possible manner. I have no nostalgia for old CRT TVs with their 480i resolutions, and clunky, fuzzy videotapes. See also this post.
Writing a blog -- at least when I'm in the mood. [insert wry emoticon here]

I'm leaving out all the middle-american technology I don't engage with: cars, microwave ovens, clothes made of 'fleece'. This list is just my answer to trendy-style rhetorical questions like 'Does anyone use a PC/Desktop any more?' and 'Do you still have cable TV?'. I see consumer tech as a varied bag of tricks--just grab the ones that work for you and leave the rest behind. Come to think of, most of my friends do too, which is the difference between reality and what you read in blogs that make lame statements about what constitutes 'normal' use of technology.

Keep It Flat!

2010-11-09T11:54:00.004-08:00

You know what really irks me? Adding airbrush-y shading to old cartoon characters to tart them up and make them look more "real".

F'r'instance, here's a nice classically flat Bugs Bunny:

...and here's the modern, "improved" B.B.:

Ecch! I'm sure you're as offended as I am.

All the super-flat, limited animation Hanna Barbera characters of my youth have been subjected to the same treatment, which takes away their most appealing quality--their crisp black lines, and flat, bright colors. Check out this poor guy:

Working it!

You can shade him all you want, but he still won't look real.

Office Humor

2010-11-08T15:05:00.006-08:00

I made this cartoon for Beebo last winter while she was still at her old job. Her department was moving to a shiny new building where the peons were all going to get worse offices, while los big-shots got better ones. Normally, I am weary of Star Wars references, but sometimes you just have to go there!

27!

2010-11-04T01:11:00.001-07:00

Beebo and Isaw this episode of The Simpsons while waiting to go out in Waikiki this evening (nous sommes aux vacances). This part cracked me up so much that I wheezed!

My Brilliant Halloween Costume Idea

2010-10-28T10:25:00.001-07:00

A group of people dresses up like failed dot-com era logos and mascots:

Make sure to give me credit when you do this! And send photos.

Feel the Quality, Part 2

2010-10-15T10:36:00.002-07:00

Hallowe'en Costume Shopping Tips

2010-10-06T16:45:00.004-07:00

With these costumes, you can recreate one of my favorite Star Trek - The Original Series episodes: To Walk With the Feet of Giants (from Season Three).

Clowns: They Love Popcorn!

2010-10-06T08:27:00.002-07:00

...especially Popcorn the Clown!

This poor little clown has a full-time job
making popcorn for other clowns to enjoy....

Help me out here, people

2010-09-30T14:27:00.001-07:00

I usually eat lunch at a hospital cafeteria right near my office, partly because it's a low-key place to read and eat and get away from work, and partly because I have a few choices for a lunch with a protein and two sides for six bucks. This way I don't have to bring lunch in from home and eat at my desk or in the break room, and I don't have to go to one of the same few boring lunch places over and over again. Also, this is when I try to eat my vegetables.

One thing that puzzles me, and I'm not getting any help from Google. One cafeteria staple is the 'chicken quarter' -- a leg and thigh that have not been separated, and are served to you in one giant piece. How exactly am I supposed to go about eating one of these big mothers? I don't want to be all Henry VIII and pick it up and knaw on it, especially of it's some sort of messy tandoori-style preparation. On the other hand, when I attempt to cut it up with a fork and knife, I can barely get enough off to feed a small child.

Any ideas? Is there a secret and civilized solution to this problem? Or is it (as I suspect) just an easy and lazy way for the head chef to crank out a lot of substantial-looking entrees with extremely minimal effort?

Easy Poutine

2010-09-29T12:11:00.002-07:00

Not a photo of what I made.

I finally made some full-on Poutine for a snack last Sunday. Here's what I used:

Frozen french fries, baked in the oven (obviously, fresh are better, but this was a quick and easy snack)
Bisto gravy granules (really does make tasty gravy, and you can keep it forever in your cupboard)
Beecher's fresh cheese curds (made locally--the most gourmet part of the snack)

Preheat oven, put your fries in.
Start boiling water for your Bisto.
Chip curds into slightly smaller bits.
Sprinkle curds over finished fries on a nice big platter.
Mix your gravy and then pour all over fries.
Open a beer and enjoy poutine while watching TV. Offer some to the person who went to the store and bought the curds and fries for you.

Family-Friendly

2010-09-27T14:03:00.001-07:00

Here's a fun and stupid thing I found on the internets:

Watch Edited Movies With These
Edited Movies DVD Players

"Now we can finally watch Last Tango in Paris together."

Control the content of movies in your own home. Filter both profanity and offensive scenes while you watch. Without modifying the DVD. Works with over 4000 regular versions of movies that you already own or rent from any video store.

Filter your movies from Graphic Violence, Suggestive Scenes, Strong or Vulgar Language.
Filter popular TV Series like 24 and Lost.
Control the rating of the movies allowed to be played.
Password protected settings.
No waiting for edited movies in the mail or letting someone else decide what you want edited... It's your choice!

What a fascinating and lame idea! I'm sure you could have a wonderfully incoherent movies experience this way, if you pick the right film.

However, what I'd really like is a DVD player that adds sex, violence, and profanity to boring family movies to jazz them up! Or at least a DVD with all the bits they edited out of those 4000 movies...

With Ted McGinley, how can it go wrong?

2010-09-23T14:12:00.004-07:00

Gee whiz...this direct-to-DVD movie looks like it'll be crack for snarky, mocking people (like me). I won't feel like it's really Xmas this year unless I get to see it! I can't imagine it letting me down the way DC 9/11: Time of Crisis did.

My prediction: the guy with the beard turns out to be...Jesus.

Peter Fonda Gives You the Finger

2010-09-15T09:33:00.013-07:00

In the past few months, I've watched three of Peter Fonda's 1970s film efforts--Futureworld, Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry, and most recently, Race with the Devil. All of these were made after Easy Rider, which created the illusion that Peter Fonda had what it took to be a movie star.

In Futureworld, the sequel to Westworld, Fonda is a newspaper reporter (with attitude!) who is investigating strange goings on at Delos, the recently re-opened robot-populated adult amusement park--think Club Med with sex robots and historical recreations. He's aided by perky tv reporter (and old flame) Blythe Danner. The film is a sorry, confused mess of a sci-fi concept, not helped by P.F.'s total lack of charisma and likeability. He really works his 'rebellious' image in this (and all his movies), and just seems like a smug 70s a-hole. See above for his parting shot at the robot bad guys--I can't help but think that was his own improvisation. Peter Fonda just seems like the kind of guy who thinks flipping the bird is really witty.

Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry is a car chase/supermarket robbery movie co-starring odd British actress Susan George. In this one, Pete plays a smug 70s a-hole race car driver (with attitude!), who needs money to buy some great car to race in Nascar, or something like that. It has a fatalistic ending where their car runs into a truck and blows up. (spoiler alert) Also, he gives the finger again.

In Race With the Devil, Fonda, along with the great Warren Oates and their wives (one is Loretta Swit) are being chased across rural Texas by Satanists. Sadly, Peter does not get an opportunity to give the finger in this film, but this is mitigated by the fact that the vehicle he drives is a Winnebago (with attitude!), which is really a central character in the story. Much attention is paid to the impressive fact that it has a microwave oven.

In all these movies, I never saw one moment where Fonda demonstrates any reason why he should have been a movie star--and I'm pretty broadminded about actors in old films. I can usually find something I like, but in this case I'm stymied. Warren Oates, Susan George, and even Blythe Danner have to do a lot of work to make up for the void that is P.F.

No hard feelings, man!

Beebo Alert!

2010-09-10T17:43:00.001-07:00

Hello!
Beebo asked me to alert everyone about some slight changes to her blog. Due to her busy work schedule, Beebo will now be updating her blog weekly, on Saturday. Think of it as really slow tweeting.

Why so sad?

2010-09-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

Is it because you just paid $56 for a t-shirt?

Hallowe'en movie time begins

2010-09-01T10:46:00.003-07:00

Beebo and I kicked off the season of watching scary movies last night--kind of a day early, but it was a dark and rainy night, so I didn't want to squander it. We watched City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel), a nice, efficient little witchcraft story from 1960. It's about a cursed Massachusetts town called Whitewood, where it's apparently always nighttime, and they have a serious fog problem. It was filmed in England, but most of the cast does a passable American accent.

The big name star is Christopher Lee, playing a college professor teaching a course in witchcraft. This is the kind of course you can only take in the movies, from my experience.

It also stars lovely blonde Venetia Stevenson, who was married (at different times) to Russ Tamblyn and Don Everly. The funniest (non-scary) scene in the movie has her lounging in her room (at the creepy Raven's Inn), in a big quilted robe. Hearing that there's a dance going on in the lobby, she decides to take a break from her witchcraft research and join the fun. When she takes off her robe, she's wearing a baroque and ridiculously sexy merry widow with stockings and garters. If you've ever known a woman (or are one), you know that the first thing a girl who's just sitting around by herself does is get into the most comfortable lounging clothes possible. I could buy the part about the 300 year-old witches, and the cursed town, but this is where my suspension of disbelief was stretched a bit too far!

But it's a great movie--highly recommended!

Stella!

2010-08-25T15:45:00.006-07:00

I just learned something interesting: Stella Artois, the beer with the pretentious commercials I have to sit through when I see a foreign movie at one of my local Landmark Cinemas, is nicknamed 'wife beater' in England! That's a different cultural interpretation!

From what I've read, its high-ish alcohol content allegedly makes British men get all 'aggro', though in truth, it's obviously the innate qualities of the louts who drink it that make them act out. However, some of the theories here are rather amusing--some people even think it has 'special chemicals' that turn a normal peace-loving ~~chav~~ fellow into a raging animal:

"I reckon it is true. My Mum used to work in a pub and the effect that stuff had on some of the guys in there was just awful. One in particular found himself with his hands round his girlfriend's neck after a night in it. He hasn't touched it since because he thinks it was because he had been drinking Stella that night. I think maybe it just brings out the very worst in someone, it doesn;t necessarily make them go home and beat seven shades out of the missus. My boyfriend had been drinking it one night when his usual lager was off and we had such a huge row on the way home, I've never seen him so argumentative.

"I think they should be allowed to conduct some kind of study into it, despite what it may do to the sales, because if there really is something in it which makes people behave aggressively, they should either change some of the ingredients or make people fully aware of the risks."

"In my last bar I was forced to change Stella to another lager because everybody who got drunk on it just ended up fighting. When the new lager was introduced there were no longer any problems. So in my experience it is true."

"It really do make some people very aggressive, my local pub will refuse to sell it to some customers."

"A policman told me it is true. It is well known to make men aggresive and abusive."

And my very favorite:

"Good question man, I always get in trouble when drinking that stuff, it couls be from the water they use to make it. Another side effect of Stella, it makes me poop really bad the next day. Anyone else have that problem?"

More information here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-494149/Where-did-wrong-beer-wife-beater.html

Do you want to know what the time is?

2010-08-24T14:39:00.002-07:00

Scary and Inexplicable Yahoo Mail ads

2010-08-24T10:41:00.004-07:00

I find this Zappos computer/puppet customer service person
disturbing, not 'fun'. Now I'm afraid to buy shoes!

So this girl beat up her mom for not having life insurance? Why?
How does that resolve the problem?

Computers and Martinis

2010-08-20T15:56:00.006-07:00

One thing you can say about evil 1970s supercomputers: They know their martini preparation.

In the good-bad 1970 film, Colossus: the Forbin Project, Dr. Forbin (Eric Braeden) is being held prisoner by his creation (Colossus), and has to trick it into letting his secretary visit him, by lying to the computer and saying she's his girlfriend. She's allowed to visit him, conjugally, as long as she takes all her clothes off to make sure she's not sneaking anything in (or that's your story anyway, right, Colossus?). In the guise as Forbin's lady, she makes him a martini. But the computer is watching her carefully! Earlier, Dr. Forbin had explained his vermouth method (pour a large quantity of it over the cubes to 'rinse' them, and then drain it out before adding the gin). Fortunately, the secretary is hip to this, and passes the test.

The best part is in the earlier scene, when Colossus texts THAT IS TOO MUCH VERMOUTH to Forbin.

In the bad-bad 1977 film Demon Seed, super-computer whiz Dr. Anderson (Fritz Weaver) has programmed his house to do everything by spoken instructions, which is not a good idea if it stops listening to you (as it does). In an early scene, however, he gets home from work and requests 'the usual', which turns out to be a martini that he compliments as 'perfect'. I had to wonder how much time he spent creating a robot arm that can spear an olive with a toothpick, though!

Now in 1080P!

2010-08-20T15:27:00.003-07:00

Glad to see that this will now be available in the best possible video and audio presentation!

See Beebo's post if you need clarification...

Edward Scissorhands: ALL GROWED UP!

2010-08-13T14:30:00.004-07:00

Courtesy TMZ.

Yours for just $900!

2010-08-13T12:13:00.001-07:00

A ceramic toothpick holder in the shape of a cute little mouse, as seen in Rob and Laura Petrie's kitchen on The Dick Van Dyke Show!

Today's FOULARD BEST BUY™.

Mad Menned again

2010-08-12T14:26:00.004-07:00

The Mad Men blog has updated their Mad Men Yourself feature, so I've re-done mine again for fun. Here I be:

As you can see, I'm enjoying an Old Fashioned with Don Draper. Note my gold blazer, green turtleneck, and dark slacks--I'm being casual!
(click on the picture for a large version, if you care!)

If it's too loud, you're too old!

2010-08-10T14:58:00.001-07:00

Foulard's Ideal Evening of TV

2010-08-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

Why can't we have shows about middle-aged guys in suits on TV anymore?

Boring Postcards from My Hometown (and one interesting one)

2010-08-03T10:12:00.003-07:00

The monkey ship at the zoo! I remember there being alligators swimming around in the water under the monkeys, but I think I must have made it up, because who wants to take the chance of seeing a little monkey get eaten by an alligator?

Well played, Pete!

2010-08-02T09:53:00.001-07:00

A-seasonally, Mad Men has started at Thanksgiving 1964 this year, and last night's episode was set at Christmas. I'm not going into any spoiler-ish stuff here, but just wanted to point out Pete Campbell's snazzy red narrow-lapel double-breasted blazer, which he's sporting at the office Xmas party. Pete normally wears a blue suit to work, but this is the kid of thing a stylish guy of that time period would pull out of the closet to attend a social function or go out on the town.

Now, of course, no one would wear anything like that in public. I actually have one like this in gold, with big, shiny flat gold buttons and a colorfully patterned lining. But even for me, it's hard to pull this one out for everyday wear!

Foulard -- the Blog That Pays You Back!™

2010-07-29T14:32:00.004-07:00

As a special "Thanks!" to all readers of Foulard, here's a special Early Bird coupon for the restaurant of your choice:

Clip this from your monitor

Just take it to your favorite local bistro and tell them Foulard sent you! If they give you any trouble, just keep repeating that phrase over and over in a loud, aggrieved voice without elaborating.

*Not valid in Delaware.

BeatleToys for adults

2010-07-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

Check out this cute little flash drive:

It's got super-high quality audio of all the Beatles original LPs on it, plus all the artwork etc. Of course, you could get your own little USB drive for 10 bucks and fill it up with all the albums yourself, but this is pretty cute! List price $298--yowsa!

On a related note, most people don't know that John Lennon invented the original iPod (or 'beatleBox'):