Quartz City

Typography symbols are constantly recontextualized, but punctuation marks are eternal. At least until 1962 when the interrobang “‽” was created.

American Martin K. Speckter concocted the interrobang itself in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that ads would look better if advertising copywriters conveyed surprised queries using a single mark.

All about the interrobang. Countdown to when “interrobang” (”exclarotive’ and “exclamaquest” were potential alternate names) is used as a band name begins in 5, 4, 3, 2…

1962 is my last disc (for now) for the CDR 700 Go! project. Sequencing was much more difficult on this than on the other discs, and the best results seemed to happen with just making a new playlist and hitting random play on it.

1. Marc London And Company - “The Theatrical Agent”
2. Dick Dale - “Surf Beat”
3. The Tornadoes - “Telstar”
4. Elvis Presley - “Return To Sender”
5. Booker T. & The MGs - “Green Onions”
6. Little Eva - “The Loco-Motion”
7. The Crystals - “He’s A Rebel”
8. Chubby Checker - “Limbo Rock”
9. Claudine Clark - “Party Lights”
10. Chris Montez - “Let’s Dance”
11. Gene Chandler - “Duke Of Earl”
12. Shelley Fabares - “Johnny Angel”
13. Bobby Boris Pickett - “Monster Mash”
14. Tommy Roe - “Sheila”
15. Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen - “Midnight In Moscow”
16. Mr. Acker Bilk - “Stranger On The Shore”
17. Francoise Hardy - “Le temps de l’amour”
18. Marcie Blaine - “Bobby’s Girl”
19. Brian Hyland - “Sealed With A Kiss”
20. Dickey Lee - “Patches”
21. Bob Dylan - “In My Time Of Dying”
22. Barbara George - “I Know (You Don’t Love Me No More)”
23. Roy Orbison - “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)”
24. Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass - “The Lonely Bull”
25. Ernie Maresca - “Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out)”
26. Joanie Sommers - “Johnny Get Angry”
27. Mary Wells - “The One Who Really Loves You”
28. Dion & The Belmonts - “Little Diane”
29. The Shirelles - “Baby It’s You”
30. Joe Henderson - “Snap Your Fingers”
31. Dee Dee Sharp - “Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes)”
32. Gary U.S. Bonds - “Twist Twist Senora”
33. Sam Cooke - “Twistin’ The Night Away”
34. Connie Francis - “Vacation”
35. Freddy Cannon - “Palisades Park”
36. Billy Joe And The Checkmates - “Percolator (Twist)”
37. Ben E King - “Dont Play That Song”
38. The Angels - “Til”
39. Johnny Crawford - “Your Nose Is Gonna Grow”
40. Stan Getz & Charile Byrd - “Desafinado (single version)”
41. The Starlets - “I Sold My Heart To The Junkman”
42. Brenda Lee - “Heart In Hand”
43. Marty Robbins - “Devil Woman”
44. Ronnie & The Hi-Lites - “I Wish That We Were Married”
45. Jack Ross - “Cinderella”
46. King Curtis - “Soul Twist”
47. The Marvelettes - “Beechwood 4-5789″
48. Rex Allen - “Don’t Go Near The Indians”
49. Ray Stevens - “Ahab The Arab”
50. Ral Donner - “She’s Everything (I Wanted To Be)”
51. The Routers - “Let’s Go (Pony)”
52. Jimmy McGriff - “I’ve Got A Woman (Pts 1 And 2)”
53. Jimmy Smith - “Walk On The Wild Side”
54. Charlie Drake - “My Boomerang Won’t Come Back”
55. Phil McLean - “Small Sad Sam”
56. Gene McDaniels - “The Point Of No Return”
57. Carole King - “It Might As Well Rain Until September”
58. James Ray - “If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody”
59. Joe Dowell - “Little Red Rented Rowboat”
60. Jimmy Dean - “Dear Ivan”
61. Lee Dorsey - “Do Re Mi”
62. Mark Valentino - “The Push And Kick (Stateside)”
63. Trade Martin - “That Stranger Used To Be My Girl”
64. Bobby Bland - “Turn On Your Love Light”
65. Bobby Darin - “Multiplication”
66. Duane Eddy - “The Ballad Of Paladin”
67. Attileo Mineo - “Boeing Spacearium”
68. Gene Moore - Track 28 from Carnival Of Souls soundtrack
69. Nelson Riddle - “Route 66 Theme”
70. The Marketts - “Surfer’s Stomp”
71. Bunker Hill - “Hide And Go Seek (Part 1)”
72. Little Joey & The Flips - “Bongo Stomp”
73. The Miracles - “What’s So Good About Goodbye”
74. Leroy Van Dyke - “If A Woman Answers”
75. Ike & Tina Turner - “Poor Fool”
76. Del Shannon - “Hey Little Girl”
77. Connie Stevens - “Mr. Songwriter”
78. Brook Benton - “Walk On The Wild Side”
79. Frank Slay - “Flying Circle”
80. Marvin Gaye - “Stubborn Kind Of Fellow”
81. Bo Diddley - “You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover”
82. James Brown - “Lost Someone”
83. The Rivingtons - “Papa Oom Mow Mow”
84. Patti Page - “The Boys Night Out”
85. Martin Denny - “A Taste Of Honey”
86. John Coltrane - “Out Of This World”
87. Sheb Wooley & Ben Colder - “That’s My Pa”
88. Little Junior Parker - “Annie Get Your Yo-Yo”
89. Dee Clark - “I’m Going Back To School”
90. Claude King - “The Burning Of Atlanta”
91. The Isley Brothers - “Twistin’ With Linda”
92. Earl Grant - “Sweet Sixteen Bars”
93. Gene Pitney - “If I Didn’t Have A Dime”
94. The Marcels - “My Melancholy Baby”
95. David Rose - “The Stripper”
96. John Lee Hooker - “Boom Boom”
97. Mickey Shorr And The Cutups - “Dr Ben Basey”
98. The Majors - “A Little Bit Now (A Little Bit Later)”
99. Jimmy McCracklin - “Just Got To Know”
100. Frank Sinatra & Sammy Davis Jr. - “Me And My Shadow”
101. Sandy Nelson - “And Then There Were Drums”
102. John D. Loudermilk - “Road Hog”
103. Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford - “Don’t You Worry”
104. Hank Snow - “I’ve Been Everywhere”
105. The Brothers Four - “Blue Water Line”
106. The Corsairs - “I’ll Take You Home”
107. Jan & Dean - “Tennessee”
108. Solomon Burke - “Down In The Valley”
109. Ketty Lester - “Love Letters”
110. The Dukays - “Nite Owl”
111. Jerry Byrd - “Memories Of Maria”
112. Linda Scott - “I Left My Heart In The Balcony”
113. Dave Brubeck - “Unsquare Dance”
114. Janie Grant - “That Greasy Kid Stuff”
115. The Everly Brothers - “I’m Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail”
116. Fats Domino - “Nothing New (Same Old Thing)”
117. Nino Tempo & April Stevens - “Sweet And Lovely”
118. Jerry Reedy - “Goodnight Irene”
119. Bent Fabric - “Alley Cat”
120. Tommy Boyce - “I’ll Remember Carol”
121. The Kingston Trio - “Scotch & Soda”
122. Steve Alaimo - “Mashed Potatoes”
123. Ann Margaret - “What Am I Supposed To Do”
124. The Dovells - “The Jitterbug”
125. Dr. Feelgood & The Interns - “Right String But The Wrong Yo-Yo”
126. Wanda Jackson - “A Little Bitty Tear”
127. The Paris Sisters - “Let Me Be The One”
128. Hank Ballard - “Do You Know How To Twist”
129. Etta James - “Fools Rush In”
130. The Lafayettes - “Life’s Too Short”
131. Alvin & The Chipmunks - “Alvin’s Harmonica”
132. Dinah Washington - “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You”
133. The Megatons - “Shimmy Shimmy Walk (Part 1)”
134. Bobby Gregg - “Potato Peeler”
135. Rick Nelson - “Summertime”
136. Patsy Cline - “Imagine That”
137. Floyd Cramer - “Let’s Go”
138. Bobby Curtola - “Aladdin”
139. Al Casey Combo - “Cookin’”
140. Bill Black - “Twistin White Silver Sands”
141. Aretha Franklin - “Don’t Cry Baby”
142. Danny & The Juniors - “Doin’ The Continental Walk”
143. Jackie Wilson - “I Found Love”
144. Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr - “Sam’s Song (Live)”
145. Count Basie - “The Basie Twist”
146. Johnny Cash - “Bonanza”
147. Henry Mancini - “Hatari”
148. The Supremes - “Your Heart Belongs To Me (Original 45 Mix)”
149. William Bell - “You Don’t Miss Your Water”
150. Marlowe Morris Quintet - “Play The Thing”
151. Dave York and The Beachcombers - “(Let’s Have A) Beach Party”
152. Johnny Horton - “Honky-Tonk Man”
153. The Pearlettes - “Duchess Of Earl”
154. Dave ‘Baby’ Cortez - “Fiesta”
155. The Virtues - “Guitar Boogie Shuffle Twist”
156. James Darren - “Hail To The Conquering Hero”
157. Bruce Channel - “Come On Baby”
158. Maxine Brown - “My Time For Cryin’”
159. Doris Day - “Lover Come Back”
160. Buster Brown - “Sugar Babe”
161. Ruth Brown - “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean”
162. Ann Cole - “Don’t Stop The Wedding”
163. Ernie K-Doe - “Popeye Joe”
164. Allan Sherman - “Sarah Jackman”
165. The Chad Mitchell Trio - “The John Birch Society”
166. Billy Chambers - “Fallout Shelter”
167. Ray & Bob - “Air Travel”
168. Jerry Reed - “Hully Gully Guitar”
169. Tico And The Triumphs - “Motorcycle”
170. The Carroll Brothers - “Sweet Georgia Brown”
171. The Radiants - “Father Knows Best”
172. Don Shirley - “Drown In My Own Tears”
173. The Stompers - “Quarter to Four Stomp”
174. Ray Charles - “You Are My Sunshine”
175. Chuck Jackson - “Any Day Now”
176. Billy Bridge - “Le grand M”
177. Gladys Knight and the Pips - “Letter Full Of Tears”
178. The Orlons - “The Wah Watusi”
179. Alan Watts - “Love You”
180. Brion Gysin - “No, poets don’t own words”
181. Thelonious Monk - “Rhythm-A-Ning”
182. Serge Gainsbourg - “Black Trombone”
183. Sun Ra - “Janus”
184. Charles Mingus - “Ecclusiastics”
185. Lou Reed - “Merry Go Round”
186. Herbie Hancock - “Watermelon Man”
187. Monty Norman - “James Bond Theme”
188. The Eagles - “Bristol Express”
189. Louisiana Red - “Red’s Dream”
190. Les Pingouins - “Oh Les filles”
191. The Beach Boys - “409″
192. The Ventures - “The Intruder”
193. Rachel & The Revolvers - “Number One”
194. The Ramrods - “War Party”
195. Link Wray - “Big City Stomp”
196. Miles Davis - “The Maids Of Cadiz (Take 11)”
197. Ornette Coleman - “Doughnut”
198. Isabelle Aubrey - “Un premier amour”
199. Krzysztof Komeda - “Get Out Of Town”
200. B. Bumble & The Stingers - “Nut Rucker”
201. Herbie Mann & The Bill Evans Trio - “Nirvana”
202. Leny Escudero - “Pour une amourette”
203. Annette Funicello - “Mister Piano Man”
204. Ellie Greenwich - “Big Honky Baby”
205. Jacques Brel - “Une île”
206. Nana Mouskouri - “No Moon At All”
207. The Mixtures - “Rainbow Stomp”
208. Rolf Harris - “Sun Arise”
209. Jo Ann Campbell - “Girl On Wolverton Mountain”

Previous entries on the 1967 and 1973 discs.

Went to see Hero this evening (short review: state of the art hack and slash, worth seeing) and got a dollar bill back in the change that had been stamped with a message saying “Track My Journey Across The U.S.A! Please Enter My Serial Number At www.wheresgeorge.com”

Went to Where’s George and discovered that the bill had initially been marked in Barstow, travelled to Hawaii, and then worked it’s way back to Irvine. Kind of a cool site for triviaspotter types like myself. I’ll let loose a bunch of these on the trip east.

Following from the similar “Yesterday’s Tomorrows” and “Out Of Time“, “Transportation Futuristics” is a treasure dump of retrofuture eye candy with a hundred years’ worth of monorails, SSTs, flying cars, floating cities, etc.

One of my Tivo season passes was set to the French language education series French In Action. I’m notoriously difficult at picking up languages but French In Action’s screwball combination of odd French film, SubGenius-style blipverts, and a wildly gesturing French professor managed to penetrate (if even partially) my built-in frustrations with anything other than English.

With my current “in limbo” living situation I’ve been missing French In Action a lot, but it turns out that all 52 lessons are available on the net. Additionally, Annenberg put enough funding into the show so that most public libraries also have copies.

Best news of all, there’s a Spanish equivalent called Destinos, which is a detective mystery/soap opera/language course telenovela which from the description alone would be the greatest television show ever.

Red Bull drinkers might believe that they’re king of the extreme when it comes to hyper-caffination, and according to the alt.drugs.caffeine FAQ Red Bull does indeed have a lot of it, but it’s a puny #2 behind German soft-drink Afri-Cola who’s apparently been the world leader in saturating caffination for years.

Afri-Cola’s advertising gallery is a remarkable collection of cute animation, inexplicable euro-artiness, and vaguely racy ’70s soft-core. I don’t drink any kind of soft-drink, but the whole Afri-Kola design sense is oddly compelling. Maybe it’s because their logo reminds me of Savage Republic’s logo - both of which are based on the Wehrmacht’s Afrika Korps logo.

I just posted this final message to the Pure-Impure mailing list:

Folks -

-c.

The only replies back encouraged me to go ahead and push the button, so I finished it off. If you’re poking around quartzcity.net looking for archives, there weren’t really any messages - only the occasional ad for “buy my Cocteau Twins rarity on eBay”, but some googling will turn the occasional archive.

Way back prior to 9/11 and the current state of national FUD, The Onion published a famous satire titled “Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over”. Dan Chak revisits the article now and finds that most of the Onion’s predictions have come true.

Had a terrific long weekend out on Catalina Island. OK, it could be just another tourist trap if you let it get to you (especially on a holiday weekend), but if you dig around a bit it’s easy to uncover interesting bits and pieces. Ultimately, any amount of hassle is worth it to have the buffalo burgers at the AVX airport cafe.

I had no idea just how unhappy the lives of rural mailboxes were until I read this Boing Boing thread. I’ll leave the obvious “rural yahoo stupidity” comments as an exercise for the reader, but the follow-up thread on rural mailbox fortification techniques is a hoot.

John Wilson sez: I remember seeing an article in a magazine (popular mechanics?) about 4 or 5 years ago about a guy who went through three mailboxes in quick succession.  He was a welder, so he bought one of those great big mailboxes, and modded it by replacing the sides and bottom with 1/2 inch thick steel, and the top with a section of 1/4 inch steel pipe cut in half.  Mounted it on a big-ass pole, deep hole, lots of concrete, etc.

Couple days later he found a half broken baseball bat at the foot of the mailbox.  Not a dent in the box itself…