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Hollywood Midget Movie Stars.
They started as
popular vaudevillians. (From a
review: "The chief feature, however, was the ten scenes in which the Singer Midgets appeared. The Midget strong man, the Midget conjurer, the Midget "Cleopatra" with the winning ways--these and many more were there.") They stormed the
New York stage. They were members of
The Lollipop Guild (YouTube link), as well as playing other
Munchkins. They were suspected of being
German sympathizers. But they may be best remembered for starring in the world's first
all-midget musical western. Now available for your viewing pleasure from YouTube: Part
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 7:27 PM on January 21, 2008
(32 comments)
Virtual Tour of Steve's Weird House.
"Stephen resides in a Victorian home that is a cluttered combination of museum, library and art gallery, decorated with that old-world Addam's Family charm. Not only is every inch of every wall covered with art, but all the ceilings are also decorated." (
Via.)
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 3:14 PM on December 23, 2007
(23 comments)
All hail 70s-era Shatner! He began his career with some rather prestigious projects, appearing in
The Brothers Karamazov and
Judgment at Nuremberg, as well as some rather high profile appearance in
Twilight Zone and
Alfred Hitchcock Presents. But even then, there were hints of exploitation, such as 1961's
The Explosive Generation, in which Shatner played a teacher whose job is endangered when she speaks
candidly to kids about sex. And there was 1962's
The Intruder, a Roger Corman film from 1963 in which Shatner
played a carpetbagging racist inciting violence in a southern town. (
Clip.) And, of course, there was
Incubus from 1965,
a horror film in Esperanto. (
Clip.) But, after
Star Trek, at the start of the 70s, something went haywire.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 1:09 PM on November 16, 2007
(64 comments)
Darling it's better down where it's wetter.
For $2.5 million, this beautiful home can be yours:
Jelly-fish 45, designed by Giancarlo Zema is a floating dwelling unit for up to six persons. It's spacious dimensions are 10 metres high with a diameter of over 15 metres. The Jelly-fish 45 would be ideally situated in sea parks, atolls, bays and seas rich in flora and fauna. The Jelly-fish 45 allows the sea dwelling owners to live either above or below sea level in perfect harmony with the ocean environment.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 12:11 PM on October 3, 2007
(54 comments)
Bitters.
This sharp-flavored, slightly medicinal liqueur, originally used as an
aperitif, remains one of the defining ingredients in many classic cocktails, including the
Manhattan, the
Pink Gin, the
Champagne Cocktail, and the
Sazerac. Some popular herbal liqueurs, such as
Campari and
Jägermeister, are essentially just big bottles of bitters. But bitters had fallen on hard times, with most bars stocking only one brand,
Angostura, or, if they were particularly sophisticated (or Southern), a second option,
Peychaud's.
Orange bitters, once an essential ingredient in the
Martini, were forgotten and impossible to purchase. Times have changed, with companies such as
Fee Brothers,
Regan's, the
Bitter Truth, and even
Angostura, releasing their own versions of the orange stuff. In fact, bitters in enjoying something of a renaissance, with bars experimenting with
making their own. Hobbyists, in the meanwhile, are
reviving lost recipes.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 8:45 AM on August 1, 2007
(74 comments)
Rose and Camellia.
Flash Friday. It's in Japanese, so I don't know which girl is Rose and which is Camellia. But I do know this -- they resolve their problems by slapping each other. Instructions are in Japanese as well, but it's pretty simple: Click "attack" and run your mouse over your opponent's face to slap, click "evasion" and run your mouse over yourself to dodge a slap.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 12:56 AM on July 20, 2007
(16 comments)
People pictures;
Or, Photographs by Mole and Thomas, E.O. Goldbeck, and Others, Taken Between the years 1915 – 1920, and Consisting of Many People Lined Up and Posed in Such a Way that they Resemble Human Heads, the Statue of Liberty, Eagles, and Other Great Patriotic Symbols of This Nation.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 12:53 PM on July 11, 2007
(16 comments)
We could wait for NASA to build that permanent moon base they keep promising. Or we could just turn our apartments on earth into our own
moon bases,
space ships, or
spy pads.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 6:49 AM on February 19, 2007
(12 comments)
The Year of Roosevelt Franklin.
High on the list of
forgotten Sesame Street characters is one
Roosevelt Franklin, a reddish purple muppet with pointed black hair and a distinctly hep style of speech (provided by the late
Matt Robinson, the show's original Gordon). Despite Roosevelt's funky musical sensibilities (demonstrated in an album called
My Name is Roosevelt Franklin, later
released as
The Year of Roosevelt Franklin), the character's
classroom behavior was, well, quite frankly,
poison. His constant misbehavior in school might have been fun to watch, but was seen as representing a negative stereotype and a bad example, and so it was
adieu Franklin.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 6:15 AM on January 30, 2007
(23 comments)
So this is Christmas and what have you done? Well, if you've been to Jesus's manger, you're made of clay, and you're from Spain,
you probably pooped. (
Previously.)(
Via.)
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 6:31 PM on December 10, 2006
(18 comments)
Why is the elephant the symbol of the GOP? In large part, we can thank cartoonist
Thomas Nast, who, on November 7 of 1874, published
this cartoon, showing Republicans as a rampaging elephant tearing up the flimsy planks of the Democratic Party. He wasn't just a man who made elephants though; considered to be the father of political cartooning, Nast's illustrations helped bring down
Boss Tweed, argued for the
abolition of slavery, and hated the
Irish.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 2:36 PM on October 8, 2006
(20 comments)
Sure, Louis Farrakhan talks about
UFOs. And, yes, some people think he had a hand in the death of
Malcolm X. And maybe a case can be made that he isn't the most
tolerant of men. Be that as it may, he was a
suburb calypso singer.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 4:10 PM on September 7, 2006
(22 comments)
A little more than a year after leaving New Orleans, I miss the culture of sophisticated drinking. Sure, maybe not on Bourbon Street, home of the sickly sweet
hurricane and
Hand Grenade. But you head off Bourbon and you can get a very pleasant
Pimms cup at the
Napoleon House. And just down the street is a military antiques store that was once the pharmacy where
Antoine Amadie Peychaud invented the
sazerac, which lays claims to being the word's oldest cocktail. Any good bartender in New Orleans will be able to make you one; finding a sazerac-capable bartender outside the city is almost impossible. Of course, just outside the French Quarter, in the Fairmont Hotel, is the
Sazerac bar, but, surprisingly, their specialty is not the sazerac, but the favorite drink of
Huey Long, the delicious
Ramos Gin Fizz. Nearby, back in the Quarter, on an upper floor of the
Pharmacy Museum, was the former home of the
Museum of the American Cocktail -- now seemingly in transit after Katrina. At the opening, cocktail chef
Dale Degroff served up his specialty --
pre-Prohibition cocktails, including a
brandy crusta that still makes me weep from the pleasure of it. Sure, up here in Minneapolis we
invented the
cosmopolitan, but somehow a drink that's also become popular as a
perfume doesn't have that same Crescent City je ne sais quoi.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie
at 12:56 PM on September 4, 2006
(36 comments)
