Quartz City – Page 63 – by Chris Barrus

Things I Like (May 2005)

1. The “op-art carnival vs. 1970s futurism” design aesthetic of Braniff Airlines.

2. The “Visual Music” exhibition at MOCA in Los Angeles. Don’t miss the companion book.

3. The ridiculously charming and catchy Volkswagen Jetta ad known as “Independence Day.”

4. The fantastically groovy 1966 cult German television show Raumpatrouille.

5. Logic System. YMO spin off band that circulates around moogsploitation, straight-up technopop, and leftover tracks from the Cosmos television series. I somehow picture this playing at a western-themed truck stop in Japan somewhere.

B-24

I started a new job in South Pasadena so I’ve been taking the train to work, but Friday was an exception. The last thing I expect to see in heavy traffic at the I-710/I-405 interchange is a fly-by by a fully operational B-24 bomber and I was so stunned by it and the neat buzz the engines made that I forgot to take a picture until it was well out over downtown Long Beach.

Apparently it’s at LGB for a couple days.

616 – The Distant Neighbor of the Beast

End Times researchers, reprogram your calculators.

A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it’s actually the far less ominous 616.

In a related story Grand Rapids, Michigan files to have it’s area code changed.

Dear Apple…

Dear Apple,

Thank you for the following improvements in Tiger:

Reducing the time it takes to launch an app.
Making the default screenshot format PNG instead of PDF.
Changing Safari so that when it errors out on a web page it displays an actual error page instead of that silly sheet that flows out of the toolbar.

Everything else looks kinda cool, but I like these best right now

Gebrauchsgraphik

Go directly to this Flickr photoset of selections from the German graphic design mag Gebrauchsgraphik. Do it now, I’ll wait.

[via The Cartoonist]

Lagonda in the hood

It’s rare enough to see a one-time “car of the future”, especially when it’s just parked down the street, but I’ve been driving past this Lagonda every day for a couple months now and can’t help but smile.

The first time I saw one was at the LA car show in 1976 or so and I instantly wanted one. OK, so I was eleven years old and it looked a lot like a Hot Wheels car as designed by Derek Meddings. In practice though, the futurism wasn’t quite as reliable as people thought and it eventually just became a big car. Still awesome-looking though.

Cover art for ILMiXor Vol. 2

Still chugging along through cover art for the ILMiXor series. Here’s art for Volume 2, subtitled “Pop Top 40 From Another World.”

That cover image came from Dmitry Popov’s terrific “Drive Back In Time” photograph series. Worth checking out when you have the time.

(previous post on ILMiXor Vol. 1 art)

Mastermind Then & Now

Thirty years ago I was addicted to the game Mastermind. The game itself was great, but it was the box cover that added to the overall allure. Who’s the guy and the girl? Secret agent and boss? Crime lord and assassin? Fast forward to 2003 and the true story of the Mastermind box.

And don’t miss one of the best ILX threads ever.

Things I Like (April 2005)

1. The retrofuturism of Tales Of Future Past.

2. The ABC Movie Of The Week. Specially the opening graphics.

3. Italian Police Lamborghinis

4. The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project

5. Penny Postcards. There are lots of vintage post card sites on the web, this is one of the better ones.

6. The 1947 Project blog which is a day by by account of crime, vice, and free-floating hostility in 1947 Los Angeles.

Harbie The Seal

Bringing up the Shady Dell again, I was wondering about the origin of Harbie – the faded fiberglass seal that greets you at the boat. I figured he was some old mascot for some forgotten business, but I couldn’t help but think as to how a seal which generally goes with the ocean found it’s way out to the Arizona desert mountains near the Mexico border.

Enter Google…

Right off the bat, a photo of a vintage Harbie turns up at RoadsidePeek.com. Apparently, Harbie is the mascot of Harbor Gasoline – a Los Angeles/Orange County chain of gas stations that lasted through to the early 1970s. Can’t remember Harbor Gas at all, but it probably never made it down to south O.C. at all.

Alumni of Hawthorne High School remember Harbie a lot. A Harbie was spotted at a Colorado River resort (could this one be the Shady Dell Harbie?) and another remembers the gas station…

Do you remember the Harbor gas station at 115th and Inglewood ave. Had the little plastic seal and even had decals. Name of seal was “Harbie”.

Another alumni remembers a Harbie at an Anaheim trailer park…

There are two posted at the entrance of a trailer park on Harbor Blvd in Anaheim (Harbor and Chapman?, just south of the Target store.)

Meanwhile, these folks find a Harbie out near the Channel Islands beach:

we lived in a waterfront apartment in channel islands while we waited for our house to be built. there was a playground opposite the apartment where aly fell in love with a horrible old fiberglass seal called ‘harbie’