Fresh Type

Do Not Bid Until Christmas: What People Are Watching on eBay

Usually when people watch items on eBay around this time of year, it’s because they have a special gift in mind for a certain someone. But we’ve noticed a surprising number of auctions with scores of watchers that don’t end until Christmas day. Will a lot of certain someones be getting slips of paper in their stockings with a URL written on them? If so, good luck with that. So for … (continue reading)

The High Price of a Funky Christmas

When it comes to Christmas albums, the top dogs on our Christmas records page are usually The Beatles, which mailed flexi-discs to its fans from 1963 to 1970, and Pearl Jam, which has been pressing 45s and 10-inch vinyl for members of its Ten Club since 1991 (skipping a year in 1994). … (continue reading)

Before Sesame Street and Electric Mayhem, a Crude Kermit Lip Synced Pop Standards

When “The Muppets” storms the world’s multiplexes this holiday season, there will no doubt be lots of little kids who, thanks to “Sesame Street,” will associate the wide-mouthed cloth puppets with learning to count to 10 and reciting their ABCs. But for many of their Gen-X parents and Baby Boomer grandparents, “The Muppets” will conjure school lunch boxes, flannel pajamas, and brightly colored … (continue reading)

If ‘Pan Am’ Takes a Nosedive, It Won’t Be For a Lack of Authentic, Vintage Props

When the 2011 fall television season made its noisy debut in September, two shows stood out for their potential to generate the same level of retro-cool buzz as “Mad Men.” One was NBC’s “The Playboy Club,” which explored the lives of Playboy bunnies in 1960s Chicago—it was quickly cancelled. The other was ABC’s “Pan Am,” which followed four stewardesses based in New York … (continue reading)

Mummies and Monkey Skulls: ‘Oddities’ Host Ryan Matthew Cohn on Creepy Antiques

Halloween is the time of year when people reveal their most ghoulish fears and fantasies, decorating their houses with fake mummies, plastic skulls and skeletons, and eerie contorted faces carved into apples and pumpkins. But for a certain breed of collector, like artist Ryan Matthew Cohn (pictured above, in a photo by Sergio Royzen), this sort of decor is just not creepy enough. Such … (continue reading)

The Grateful Dead’s Great Big Carbon Footprint

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I loved the music of the Grateful Dead. I grew up in Marin County where most of the band members lived, attended the high school where the phrase 420 was coined (or so I’m told…), and spent some of the best nights of my life in front of the early incarnations of the band’s legendary Wall of … (continue reading)

Digging Up the Weirdest Old Books and Comics From the Thrift-Store Bargain Bins

When we first encountered Alan Scherstuhl’s “Studies in Crap” column over at the “SF Weekly,” we knew he was one of us. Every week, he goes digging around thrift stores and flea markets looking for that special book that speaks to him. Sometimes its a Kool-Aid Man comic book where the oversize beverage pitcher busts into orbiting … (continue reading)

The Inside Scoop on the Fake Barf Industry

Have you ever stopped to contemplate the existence of rubber barf? It opens up enough philosophical quandaries to make your head spin. Who would ever think of such a thing? Why would he feel the need to manufacture it?

Fortunately, Stan and Mardi Timm, the foremost experts on famed novelty company H. Fishlove & Co., have the answers to these vexing questions. The couple even got a personal … (continue reading)

When Being a Lesbian Was Profitable, For Men

The times they are a-changing: Last weekend, lesbian couple Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd made history, exchanging the first gay-marriage nuptials in New York State. Just a few days before, President Obama certified the repeal of the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy in the U.S. military. But homosexuality has not always so understood and accepted in U.S. society. In fact, in mid-century America, being a lesbian was seen as aberrant and morally corrupt, and because of its social stigma, authors willing … (continue reading)

Found Photos: When Rock Lost Its Innocence

On February 26, 1955, a Cleveland deejay named Tommy Edwards became the first music promoter to book a Southern singing sensation named Elvis Presley north of the Mason-Dixon line. The event was the Hillbilly Jamboree at Cleveland’s Circle Theater. That fall, Edwards brought Presley back to the Cleveland area for several more shows, including one on October 20, 1955, at Brooklyn High School. On that … (continue reading)

1951 Maserati GP, Low Miles, Needs Paint

People are always telling us about their collections. Some even send us links to Web pages they’ve built. Naturally we encourage them to post their stuff on Show & Tell, but every once in a while a collection stops us in our tracks.
“Mint-condition cars don’t have the same kind of soul.”
That’s what happened when we heard from Michael Spengler, a German photographer who is … (continue reading)