My 50's era Shop

My latest acquisition this week; a Fosteria Steam Iron! $5.
It's odd how happy I am about finding this old beast and it's kind of funny thinking about how horrified my grandmother would be about me getting all of this "old" equipment on purpose. All I can say is they don't make things the way they used to. You may or may not know that I personally own three sewing machines; two Singers made in 1950 and 1951 (you can look this information up if you have the serial number HERE) and a Kenmore, probably made in the mid-1970's.

This iron needed a little cleaning on the front but it's a gem. You plug it in and it's hot within seconds. If you drop it, it does not shatter into tiny plastic pieces. The steam comes pouring out almost imediatley, and although it lacks a steam on demand button, such a feature isn't really missed when you have an iron that just Works!
The only down side to this old beast; takes a long time to cool down and won't automatically shut off when not in use.
The disposable culture that we've developed is horrid when you look at these old machines built over 60 years ago that work better than any top of the line equivalents made in 2009. This is the reason that we're drowning in landfills and consumerism. I for one would gladly pay extra to get an iron like the one I just bought for $5 if I thought it would last for another 60 years! However that is not where we are right now and I will just have to revel in good fortunes like this finding me at the "junk" store.

Bargian?

I found this in Oakland...

Pinkies in the air please,
this is a fancy town where $50 scarves are in the "Bargain basket".

What ever happened to X?

Sometimes you wonder what ever happened with an old friend of yours... and then Facebook puts it in perfect perspective;

Research and the summer of What the hell?!

I've just got to get this off my chest. This month a certain university to which I am an alumnus put out this publicity poster:

Seriously? Where did they get their research? Possibly from a photo like this:

It's a bit insulting to Real hippies and to anyone who's ever been to a Phish concert, or anyone who has lived in Berkeley or San Francisco (to present day), to Ben and Jerry... For one thing there's no facial stubble, hell there's no body hair! Their nails are spick and span, and their fake fake wigs are rather too well groomed...

Here are Real hippies;
Please note the grime, the nappy crazy hair, the mismatch clothing, the lack of neon colors... and look at that facial hair! Screw razors man... hippies don't shave when 'the man' says they should. Below, look at this woman's unibrow, she doesn't care... that's the freakin' point!
Real hippies; Look at their muddy feet, look at the lack of bras (the one in the publicity shot is so obviously a foam bra I want to puke on it... come on Ohio... Mark Twain always said that you were a good ten years behind the times, so in theory this should all be more current to you.
I hope that the publicity shot was just put together in haste because if the whole show looks like this I'm going to have to go get a new piece of academic paper from Yale or somewhere that I can point to and say "I trained There!"

Emeryville Marina...

You may recall a post from over a year ago about driftwood art near the Emeryville marina. (I was going to post a link but I cannot find the original post... If I find it, I'll update) The artists make this a habit.


This week they've made a beach shelter.