random 63 78 86

hello there


well, whilst i have some "closely contested" game of football on i thought that i might as well do one of them "random elements" posts that quite a few of you seem to quite like. can you guess, from the title, what years these all come from? i would not be bothered with such things, really, but there you go.

and here we go, then, in the semi-alphabetical way that blogger or google or whatever has decided to upload these pictures. sorry, i could not be bothered to put them in some sort of chronological or sensible order.

now then. one of the great sayings of the modern world is "oh, if only i had invested a little money in Apple in the 80s or 90s, i would be a billionaire right now". in a factual sense this is true in regards of the implication, but it is not worth beating yourself up over. it was something that under no circumstances you would have done.

Apple were a twat company with a crap product. today they are very much a twat company with some exceptionally crap products, but they figured a way of charging more for them and convincing people to buy them. full on credit for doing that, and i applaud the way they brainwash their clients into feeling somehow superior for owning an expensive crap product. no, my iPod has not returned from the menders.

this image here in many respects shows off their twat ways. yes, that's right, at one point in time they were so desperate to try and sell their awful, horrid computers that they resorted to bribing people with a bicycle. this was at the height of Miami Vice, when everyone was doing cocaine, buying go fast boats and cars what had unconventional door mechanisms on them. not quite an era of people wanting a free bicycle cap and hoping to win an actual bike.

actually, that's Apple, isn't it ? "we will give you the cap, but not let you have the thing you are supposed to have when using the cap". utter, utter twats that are inanely jealous of the concept of drag and drop.

the Argentina 1978 World Cup squad via the medium of a sticker album? can be done.

there are some amazing moustaches and haircuts on the go there, man. i think if you click on the picture it goes a bit bigger, as the bishop said to the housewife.

some of you people like cars, so here you go, here are some of the cars one would have found on the streets and in the garages of 1963. or later, i suppose, presumably they did not all dissolve the moment 1964 popped up and said hello.

i am not really all that much of a car person. that said, some of them are quite smart, and with the correct quality of vibes machine in them i suspect i would be proud to be seen driving around in one or two of them.

this is quite interesting, this is. in this day and age we have come to accept that theatre shows, and as a consequence the tickets for them, are more or less the preserve of ticket touts, block bookers of the internet, merchant bankers and venture capitalists. they all use them as a quasi-currency of sorts, trading, exchanging and giving them all only as part of some business plan.

it is nice to remember a time, then, when theatre was not all merchandise, performance royalties, digital rights management and all such other rubbish. no, a theatre production was a conduit for actors and singers, as well indeed as dancers, to convey their concerns about people who smoked.

i don't think i ever saw Cats. i mean, sure, i have Barbs doing that one song from the show on CD, but i don't think she was ever in the production as such. if the people who did Cats, and wasn't it that Lloyd someone, approached Barbs to be in the production she probably would have said no, pointing out that the show was not called Barbs and thus not a celebration of her good self.

my feeling is mostly that it is a nice gesture of the cast that they care about my health, but also that it is none of their business. how would they like it if i took out adverts saying how worried i was about the health of theatre choreographers?

a bit of seventies sauce for you, then, and a time when clubs for the gentry were not only commonplace and socially acceptable, but an era when they were so celebrated that (sort of) normal magazines ran articles celebrating how class they were.

that's why i always wanted to go into journalism. no, not to write of knocking shops (nice though that would be, obvs, look you see), but because when i grew up journalism was still pure. you could write of something of interest and importance in an unconditional way.

journalism now is all about the money. it's all "what do we get if we publish this story in this way". selling a magazine is important, but these days that has taken a back seat to other "revenue streams". go right ahead, pick up any film or music magazine you like. look at the albums and films which get the best reviews. notice that there is a relation to the best reviewed ones and the number and size of adverts for it, as well as interviews with the artists? yeah, the classic era of Rolling Stone and NME have gone forever.

anyway, here's a look at the gang at the Chicken Ranch. look quite friendly, they do.

i think this place is, or possibly was, somewhere near that Las Vegas place. my mate Shaun keeps saying i should visit and we can go there (Las Vegas, not specifically this club), i may just do that.

Ah, The Color Of Money, or to give it the proper name it should have, The Colour of Money. or, if you like, The Hustler II, since it was a sequel to that other film in which Paul Newman played the same character as he does in this. sorry, can't remember the name of the first film, might have been Fast Eddie or something.

i saw this at the Middlesbrough Odeon, probably a year or so too young for the age certificate thing that the BBFC awarded it but that the staff of the Middlesbrough Odeon really did not care about. i am almost 100% certain i went and saw it with Nicky Sinclair, and possibly Mark Lamplugh too, although in the case of the latter i may have the spelling wrong and i apologize.

boss film it was, and one that for some reason they gave Paul Newman the Best Actor Oscar for. i think it was the case that they had never given him one before, and as everyone else was pretty rubbish that year, why not give it to him.

whoever i saw this with, we soon after played this 9 Ball version of pool that they did in the movie. my Dad, in his wisdom, had converted the garage of our house into a room to house a pool table, which was much appreciated by me and my friends.

we had no idea at all of the rules of this 9 Ball thing, but we did just put the balls in a diamond shape and played it how we remembered them doing it in the movie.

also, this film introduced me to Warren Zevon, but i think i have mentioned this before. Werewolves Of London was on the soundtrack, and thus on the soundtrack tape that i bought. what is a tape? go and google it, or look at other blog posts i have done which have mentioned tapes (there are a few), and read up all about it. in short, tapes are very class indeed. actually, you know what, this film was bloody good. i am going to have a nose around, see if i can find the disc of it in a shop somewhere, watch it again i shall.

as a sort of "where are they now" thing for the stars of this film, Paul Newman is sadly no longer with us, i think that Mary Elizabeth Manthatsareallylongsurnameonio went on and did a few other films, probably one of them that James Cameron made before going all Smurfwank.

Tom Cruise, who as you can see here was considered one of the Sex Stars of 1986 by Playboy magazine, also went on to make a few more movies. some very good ones, as it happens. a lot of people get all wanky and cynical about the Cruise because of whatever made up religion he follows, but what religion someone follows really doesn't factor in it for me when i decide on what film to watch.

well, the last one i saw him in, now that i think, was that Oblivion thing, and to be honest it was really rubbish. it was all fancy special effects and fancy bike riding, no interest or plot of consequence. if you have not seen it, you are probably quite well advised just to skip it, and look at one of his better science fiction ones, like that Minority Report film. boss, that one was.

one of the single best things about the 80s, and something we have all too sadly lost sight of these days, is that everyone - and i mean everyone - tried to look like they worked in the world of Cinema Erotica. this was particularly true of the medical profession, with a strong emphasis on those that took x-rays of feet.

that's just weird, that is. i mean, i understand it is important and that, but what is it that compels and inspires one to say "i want to grow up and do them class x-ray things of the feet of people"? at no stage did it occur to me that it was a viable choice, but maybe i should, looking at how class and stylish you get to be doing it.

in the interests of fairness, then, here is the German side from World Cup 1978, also in the form of stickers.

well, West Germany, of course. there was all that wall business back then, and two Germany country things. i don't think that wall was very nice, and it upset many people, so it was really good and decent of that David Hasselhoff fella to take it down.

bloody hell, i have just had a look at how many pictures i have uploaded here. can i come up with comments for them all? i suspect not, at least not of any decent quality, but i will try.

a controversial one next for you, mind. it is a well known and established fact that Racquet-ball, ladies and gentlemen, does not exist. it was a made up thing to be used as an excuse, a metaphor, or if you like euphemism for selling things of a sexual nature.

like, for instance, this, an item which a friend of mine, the anonymity of which i will protect, rates very highly indeed. very highly.

yeah, that's the one. i think it might have been a different colour, but that is certainly the maker and style of the wanking glove that my mate John Payne declared to be the best one that he ever had, and believe me he has tried lots of them. i am not sure if they still make them anymore, but if they do, he will have one of them, at the least.

here is some sort of VW car that i have absolutely no idea at all why i saved the picture of it for, possibly something to do with the dude stood next to it and i have forgotten what was so amusing.

sorry about that, but then again if you like either that car or the dude stood next to it, splendid, i am most happy that it has been of interest.

there is all sorts to be made of an advert from 1978 which celebrates the economic stability, skill and prowess of Greece, in particular when - as the advert does - compares itself to other nations.

i don't really know all that much of Greece, except what my mate Spiros tells me, but the news reports and that all seem to suggest that the economics of the place now are not quite so celebrated as they were back in 1978.

i wonder if, all these years later, Olympic Holidays are still a going concern? i should maybe write off for one of the brochures they are advertising here, see what comes back to me. probably just my request with "not known at this address" written over the envelope and that. if they are still going and sent me a brochure, well then so much the better, i guess. i would certainly have a gander at it, and then consider a holiday in Greece. i think it was a place called Hotel Jason, or Jason Hotel, that Spiros stayed at, and spoke very highly of it from a strictly man perspective.

speaking of Spiros, here's a picture of some gent gymnasts i found. Spiros likes this sort of thing, so it would be wrong of me not to put this picture here for his, as it were, enjoyment and entertainment.

yeah, i am running out of things to say.

look, here's some more Racquet-Ball (hee hee) stuff. yeah, that knowing smile the chap in this advert is giving tells you all you need to know about what he is really telling you to do.

consistency and durability are indeed key factors to consider, so my mate John Payne has frequently told me in unsolicited conversations and updates about his Racquet-Ball adventures and experimentation.

not that i mind him telling me all about it, but i do wish sometimes he would be a bit more sensitive to the surroundings before dutch ruddering this and rusty tromboning that. no matter how cool you think it is, i can assure you that it is not a good thing to have on your CV, being asked to leave a memorial service because your guest cannot keep quiet about an unusual and unintended use of oven gloves.

if i do not include things about Star Wars then some of my friends, like Jonathan, will not read this post. also, Star Wars things are class. here you go, have a look at these.

not the unconventional spelling of C3PO and R2D2. there was a lot of random factor about their exact spelling, back then, and these seemed to be quite normal ways to write their names out.

here are some other items of merchandise you could have purchased at the time. i would wager that the actual masks looked nowhere near as class as they do in the adverts here.

the Star Wars Super 8 films have some particular memories for me. this was all before video machines were common in the home, and well before - as a consequence - you had films like Star Wars at home to watch as and when you felt like it.

i recall one holiday - could have been Rhyl, or maybe Blackpool - where one of the arcades had a little cinema booth thing. you put in whatever money it wanted, probably 5p or 10p, and you got to watch an entirely random 3 or 4 minute 8mm reel off of Star Wars. class, that seemed at the time. i can't but help feel we are all missing some of the special magic of films these days, what with us being able to download or buy cheaply every film ever made and have them just sat there.

now this is class, this is. a smiling Stephen King tells you this was before 1980, and do they even let people be photographed for professional reasons with a lit cigarette on the go? probably not, not at the least if the cast of Cats had anything to do with it.

why is this before 1980? because Stephen King is smiling, that's why. it is a well known fact that after 1980 Stephen King has not smiled once. he has become so bitter, twisted and miserable over Kubrick's film version of The Shining that he can no longer find anything to be happy about. sad man.

amusingly, the interview contains references to that film adaptation, and indeed Kubrick consulting with King about changes to be made, in particular to the ending. these would be changes that King has, ever since, denied being aware of at all. quite interesting, that is then. anyway, the man should be happy, as he write class books, entertains millions, and had an artist of note adapt one of his novels into a film that was different but equally brilliant.

yeah, i am getting bored of this too, so apologies if the comments drop off. here are some radio and tape deck adverts from 1978 if, for some reason, you were interested in such things.

quite smart tape decks, them two at the bottom are. as opposed to the top, i suppose, were no tape decks are featured.

here is the front of a comic. i have no idea what the hell it is, or what it is saying, but it just looks awesome, man. i may well find myself having a look around for an English version of this - Indians, or Native Americans as they are now known thanks to OJ Simpson's legal team, twatting dinosaurs with a bow and arrow whilst running the risk of being eaten by plants? that's all win, that is.

i think, or at the least suspect, the writing at the bottom suggests that a dinosaur and some plants will be having someone called Andar for lunch. which pretty much covers what we see in the picture, unless Andar's friend twats the dinosaur and the plant with one arrow. which would be quite a class shot.

i have no idea at all what this is, but i want one.

a video writer? sounds smart that does. i think it's a sort of computer that only does writing and printing. a typewriter, if you like, but with an amazing video screen on it. and a floppy drive.

finally (horaay) one of them saucy, make a sex adverts. i am sorry that the quality is not too good, but i am pretty sure you can make out the details.

actually i think that's two adverts, one for men-wow to get "very interesting items", which are no doubt Racquet-Ball (ahem) related and one for an exciting young English widow. i would suspect there's some sort of relation in services between the two, mind.

anyway, that will do. hopefully a few of the pictures, if not the text, will have been of some passing interest to some of you.



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!