Candy buttons.

Got these at The Streets of Old Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Here's a refresher course.

Read more!

Arts & crafts.

Finished my little art project Sunday morning. Two candle sconces made from reclaimed barnwood. I'll be the envy of Greendale, most certainly.

Read more!

You do mean "meringue lemon" pie, no?

Had a craving late last night. $7.00 for this piece of meringue/shit. Thinking of heading back to the grocery store with pie in hand and giving them a piece of my meringue. There's enough of it.

Read more!

TGIF! presents...The Beach Boys "Re-Do It Again"!

I love that headline.

The Beach Boys (my favorite band of all-time) began their 50th anniversary reunion tour and will headline the Marcus Amphitheater on Sunday, July 1 at Summerfest in Milwaukee. My brother and I will be in the 3rd row, front center. Let's make a party of it!

In this video:  Brian Wilson (whom I met), Al Jardine, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston & David Marks (playing guitar at the 1:30 mark and who was a BB for a year and eight months and performed on their first four albums), various members of Brian's touring band including Jeff Foskett singing high notes at the :40 mark (whom I know and who's been playing with the BB's & Brian Wilson forever)  and at the :29 mark playing drums is John Cowsill (who's been playing drums for Love & Johnston's BB group for a few years) of The Cowsills, who I also met. Sadly, but forever in our hearts and souls, Dennis & Carl Wilson have both passed.

Read more!

"You press the button, we do the rest."

Remember those old Kodak negative frames I bought at an antique store a couple weeks ago? Here's the one I had to get fitted for glass. Genius idea, whoever thought of it. Pictured (left to right - me, Uncle Fran Ircink and Brother Jason) up at the Rainbow Flowage in Lake Tomahawk back in 2002 during our annual walleye fishing trip...the year I caught my trophy smallie.

23 days....

Read more!

TGIF! presents...Fun's "We Are Young"! For Zol.

headed to Madison this afternoon for the Wisconsin Film Festival and the screening of our short film, PASS THE SALT, PLEASE, on Saturday afternoon.

gonna check out what's happening on 60's flash-back State Street and see what the radicals are up to who wanna oust my state's governor and see a bunch of other people's films and eat free food and slam a beer and scope out film chicks and steal a kayak dressed only in a deerskin thong and paddle across Lake Mendota in search of the elusive whooping cranes there and then paddle back just in time to see our film screening at Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace 'cause Frank was a hardcore mofo and then check out some more films - maybe even some 50-minute films that are being touted as "shorts" and then i'm gonna have another beer, perhaps a Spotted Cow which is brewed in Madison - maybe i'll have a few Spotted Cows - and get shit-faced 'cause that Spotted Cow shit will do that to a man and then i'll steal some pot from some hippy and get high and visit with my hall director, Bob Wade, who i worked for while i was an RA at UW-Whitewater and haven't seen in a million years and he & i can find out where all the cheap, coed hookers hang out at and then i'm gonna settle down quickly 'cause i'll be visiting with Uncle Fran Ircink, Aunt Mary and Cousin James and maybe have some more brewski's 'cause i'm staying overnight there and talk about huntin' & fishin' and the all those good times we spent together 'cause I'M FUCKIN' YOUNG, dammit!

well - maybe not so young. hang in there, Zol, ya little bitch, 'cause YOU ARE YOUNG, too! i love you!

Read more!

So long, Dick Clark. You get a 100.

Great song and interview with my boys, The Beach Boys, on their first American Bandstand appearance. You will be missed, Mr. Clark.

Read more!

"SB 1040 isn't fair." Not if you wanna retire at 47, it isn't.

We're talking teachers and teachers' unions. But this time, not in Wisconsin - but Michigan.

So the state of Michigan wants to renegotiate health benefits for teachers. What's new? From the article, "The proposed legislation continues the 3 percent employee contribution to retiree health care and further increases out-of-pocket contributions to a total of 8 to 11 percent of salary. And current employees would have to be 60 years old before they could receive any health care benefits. Retirees would see an increase in their health care premiums."

But it gets better. The Michigan Education Association (the union), offers testimony by a number of teachers on this senate bill, but leads with Terri List. Ms. List had planned - (now pay attenton to this) - to retire in three years at the age of.....(ready?)....47. Under SB 1040, she wouldn't qualify for health benefits until aged 60.

“I understand we have to tighten our belts, but we don’t have to use a tourniquet and cut off the blood supply entirely.” - Ms. List

Ms. List is 44. She wants to retire at 47. And the teachers' union in Michigan is making her a martyr.

It probably would've been a smarter move to leave Ms. List's comment about retiring at 47 out of the article, no? And the unions wonder why they're not liked by many. More on Ms. List...if you can stomach her. (There's a teacher pictured in this article but she's not identified as Ms. List so I didn't put her picture up. So I posted Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" instead. Smile!)

Read more!

"Cause I'm a picker, I'm a grinner...."

"...I'm a lover. And I'm a sinner. Playin' my music in the sun."
- excerpt from "The Joker", by The Steve Miller Band (Steve's from Milwaukee, by the way)

My latest foray into antiquing, primitives and the like yielded some cool finds. This handle fastening device (above) was a three-in-one tool manufactured by Bridgeport Hardware Manufacturing. The patent was issued to Willis F. Hobbs on October 6, 1914. "Iroquois" is marked on one side of the handle - may be the style of tool, not sure. Apparently it was pretty common in the grocery business as a crate-hammer-box-hatchet-pry bar. Picked it up for $20. Ebay prices ranged from $30 - $150 (never used) and it comes in a variety of styles.

Titled "Spring" and reminiscent of a Currier & Ives print. I also like the frame.

Ten bucks. Never know what to do with all those votive candles I have.

Box with leather strap. I'll figure out some use for it.

Two bucks at the Prairie Chicken Festival in Wisconsin Rapids. Reader's Digest knows everything.

Beeswax taper candle. If they had known it was beeswax, it would've been higher than $3.50.

Funnel. Jas & I can use this when we go sugaring. No chance of maple syrup dripping over the bottles.

Unique pulley system doo-dad. I've never seen one like this before. Gonna leave it just like that and hang it on the wall.

Kodak negative contact print frames. Probably late 1800's. Picture frames.

Read more!

PTSP screens @ Florida Film Festival, April 15 & 19!

Shit. We screened at Noon (FL time) today and then again at 4 pm on Thursday. Check out the link here.

Read more!

PTSP wins at WorldFest!

Soooo...apparently our short film, PASS THE SALT, PLEASE, had been chosen by the WorldFest jury panel as an award-winner. We'll either win a Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze award which will be announced on the evening of April 21st. However, our film is not screening at WorldFest, April 13-22.

Huh. The WorldFest International Film Festival site is here.

Read more!

TGIF! presents...The Civil Wars' "Kingdom Come"!

Brand new! From The Hunger Games soundtrack!

Read more!

what Leroy Butler said...

...if the referees call the game right, Minnesota’s in the Super Bowl because they can kick a field goal from - like the 35, Sparky, instead of the 50…I think Brett Favre and Minnesota got an unfair shake. They did not throw the flags and I wanna know why, in the 2009 investigation, what did the referee – what was his comment. He was standing right there – Brett went to him and told him, 'Look man, they’re hitting me', and the ref said, ‘I gotcha, I gotcha, I gotcha’. They hit him (Favre) 3 more times during the stretch of that and was it worth it? Was all this worth it?...

- Leroy Butler, former Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packer on ESPN's 1250AM The Big Show in Milwaukee, commenting on the 2009 NFC Championship game between the Minnesota Vikings and New Orlean Saints during a discussion on "Bountygate". NO beat MN in OT and went on to win the SB. Funny though - I don't recall any of the guys on The Big Show talking like this when it happened three years ago.

Read more!

He is Risen. Easter Sunday.

Read more!

Good Friday..."Jesus Christ Superstar: Trial Before Pilate (including 39 lashes)"

Read more!

Birds.

We've noticed an inordinate number of robins hanging around the cemetery. And they're hanging out in groups - 5, 6 or 7 at a time. And they're pretty brazen - not venturing too far away from us.

There are approximately 15 billion living birds in the United States at any single moment. There are 313, 292, 591 people in the US (as of this moment).

If every single person living in the US went outside at the same time and all those birds woke up on the wrong side of the nest and decided to attack us – that’s 48 birds per person. They would peck the shit out of us.

Have a nice walk in the park.

Read more!

"Where'd ya go Pop Culture Chick #10? Joi Lansing.

Joi Lansing (I couldn't recall her name at first) popped into my head when I heard that Earl Scruggs, banjo extraordinaire, had just passed away. It was Flatt (Lester) & Scruggs that made "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" a hit, as well as "The Ballad of The Beverly Hills", appearing on the show a number of times. Joi played Lester's wife Gladys (his real wife was also named Gladys).

Aside from acting in B-movies and on television, Joi was a pin-up girl (no shit) and a nightclub performer. Sadly, she passed away in 1972 at the age of 43 from breast cancer.

Here's more info on Joi and a video of her singing. And a quick glimpse of Joi on The Beverly Hillbillies at the 24:02 mark. Va-va-va-Vooooom!

Read more!