Quartz City

Here we go again… <BULLWINKLE>This time fer shure!<BULLWINKLE>

Let’s see… Los Angeles with record rainfall (5″ in 24 hours), snow in the passes, and 60 mph wind gusts with lightning. Sounds like the perfect time to drive cross-country.

Riding shotgun with me are a PowerBook G4, a Rhinovirus Giant Microbe, an ancient scrabble board, several pounds of computer-related detritus, enough data on DVD-Rs to rival most national libraries, an octopus, several months worth of misc.transport.road postings, a lobster, and a 40GB iPod filled with disreputable disco, C-list psychsploitation, several days worth of BBC radio documentaries and Fifth Hope hacker conference audio, and the wiPod guide to free Wi-Fi networks.

Note to anyone contemplating purchasing a BMW: expect to spend $100 a month in repair and maintenance upkeep. It’s worth the hassle if you want to drive a nice car, but don’t complain if you’ve been putting things off for, say, a year and you want to have everything done. Just saying that you need to do the math.

Who knew that a chipped windshield could be repaired? I always thought that the “make cracks disappear” ads were some sort of delusional scam and that the only way to get rid of it was to replace the entire winshield. Sure you might be able to prevent the crack from growing, but you’re stuck with a permanent glass bug splat in your field of vision. Anyway, I was recommended a place that “made the crack” disappear and it worked! Thanks Dee’s Windshield Repair, I don’t have to paint a spider web on it. Here’s how the repair works.

Anyone tracking the lobbyists connections between the auto glass and uncovered gravel truck industries?

Internet icon Thompson The Cat from Bluejake and Hedora, the monster from Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster

Also see the Hedora plush toy

7000 Romaine St. in Hollywood. Site of Howard Hughes‘ old offices.

Everyone else is doing a compilation for the holidays, and well…

Disc 1:

1. XTC - “Psychedelic Christmas”
2. The cast of Twin Peaks - “The Twelve Days Of Christmas”
3. Patsy Raye - “Beatnik’s Wish”
4. The Ravers - “Punk Rock Christmas”
5. Tuscadero - “Holidays R Hell”
6. Dead Moon - “Christmas Rush”
7. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - “Big Yule Log Boogie”
8. Shitbirds - “Christmas Is A Comin’ (May God Bless You)”
9. The Chills - “Christmas Chimes”
10. The Wombles - “Wombling Merry Christmas”
11. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - “Fat Christmas”
12. Sparks - “Thank God It’s Not Christmas”
13. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - “There’s No Lights On the Christmas Tree Mother, They’re Burning Big Louie Tonight”
14. Mystery Science Theater 3000 - “(Let’s Have) A Patrick Swayze Christmas”
15. John Baker - “Christmas Commercial”
16. Man Or Astroman? - “Frosty The Snowman”
17. The Moog Machine - “O Holy Night”
18. August Darnell - “Christmas On Riverside Drive”
19. Hypnobeat - “Jingle Club”
20. The Raveonettes - “The Christmas Song”
21. The Walkmen - “Christmas Party”
22. Martin Mull - “Santa Doesn’t Cop Out on Dope”
23. Patty Duke and Norman Vincent Peale - “You Can Keep Christmas”
24. Half Man Half Biscuit - “All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit”

Disc 2:

1. Six Million Dollar Man - “Christmas Lights”
2. The Flaming Lips - “Christmas At The Zoo”
3. Madness - “Inanity Over Christmas”
4. Mark Mothersbaugh - “Rudolph The Space Deer”
5. The Go Go’s - “I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek”
6. Fountains Of Wayne - “I Want An Alien For Christmas”
7. Patty Marie Jay - “Space Age Santa Claus”
8. Pink Floyd - “Merry Xmas Song”
9. The Dickies - “Silent Night”
10. Grandaddy - “Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland”
11. Katie’s Kitchen - “Cooking A Delicious Holiday Ring Mold”
12. James Brown - “Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto”
13. Saint Etienne - “I Don’t Intend To Spend Christmas Alone”
14. Giant Sand - “Thank You Dreaded Black Ice, Thank You”
15. Thin White Rope - “Christmas Skies”
16. Calexico - “Gift X-change”
17. Martin Mull - “Santafly”
18. Bad News - “Cashing In On Christmas”
19. unknown - “Rocking Disco Santa”
20. Steve Martin & Paul Simon - “Silver Bells”
21. Sally Kellerman - “O Little Town Of Bethlehem”
22. Spectrum - “Santa Claus”
23. Assistant Manager of the Haybridge - “Merry Christmas”

Giant squid stamps, lake monster stamps, and crypto-philately in general. Not to be confused with other crypto-philately.

Are you guys so jaded and cynical about your American readers that you think you can’t sell a magazine over here unless it has some tired old American rock act on it? I was annoyed when you put Santana on the US issue instead of Kate Bush, incredibly irritated when Jim Morrison replaced a striking New Order cover, but you went too far for November 2004. Velvet fucking Revolver instead of John Peel? What the hell? Are you trying to generate negative sales?

“Stories of the Development of Large Scale Scientific Computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory” is a cornucopia of dust age computer hardware photos. Even though these photos are obviously staged shots, they don’t quite have the IBM or DEC product catalog look to them - as if the operators quickly had to shove all their loose paper and notes into their desk drawers.

Gallery One | Gallery Two | Gallery Three | Gallery Four | Gallery Five

“Superstitious remedies are ineffectual and detrimental” a 1933 poster from The Ohara Institute’s collection of Industrial Safety, Public Health, and Cleanliness posters of the Industrial Welfare Association.

JBR links to a collection of vintage airport post cards. Most are instant-swoon vistas of travelers and public spaces, but I really like this post card of the Fairbanks airport. It looks like the Pan Am 707 captain decided to take a quick break in the day to go fishing.

How are things forty years later? World’s Most Dangerous Places author Robert Young Pelton talks about the most dangerous airlines in the world.