October 3, 2009

Guess The Mascot

I rarely email quizzes or trivial emails anymore to people, they can be annoying sometimes. Especially, if they are about you,lol. This is a quick quiz about cartoon mascots and is all about having fun. If you are a mascot or a cartoon fanatic this cartoon will be just right up to your alley. Each answer has the mascot pictured in the answer. See if you know their names. Personally, I only knew a few characters' names. My bad!

Four examples:

Who promotes audio fidelity with a pooch?
Who sells car insurance in 15 seconds?
What ursine ranger became eponymous with the highway police?
Which canine takes a bite out of crime?






http://www.mascotcartoon.com/mascot_iq_quiz.shtml

October 2, 2009

Looking For My Old Pony Camera's References



What is good about this site is that you can learn about the history of cameras through the advertising from the 19th century. There may be cameras that used to exist but are extremely hard to find. If there were no ads for this camera, no one would even have known about them. In the second paragraph in cameras' link, it describes such situation.

According to the "Antique & 19th Century Cameras" their purpose is to present historical aspects of the cameras' advertising or the references. They state: "The idea is to build a more complete picture of each item by studying the wide spectrum of model variants and accessories that are not listed in recent collecting books."

Obviously, you will see all the ads and references titles just down below in blue. When an ad or an illustration appears, click on it and you'll see a photograph of the camera. I didn't notice that until after I viewed about three ads. Don't forget to check out the other three sets, multi-lens cameras, view cameras (American and European) and self casing cameras.

Antique And 19th Century Cameras References
http://www.antiquewoodcameras.com/ads.htm

Antique And 19th Century Cameras Main Page
http://www.antiquewoodcameras.com

September 30, 2009

Museum - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History



Many of these historical wood etchings are wonderful with all the little details! Most of them are from the 19th century. I would have liked to see how it works in person. The etching are either in color or black and white. If you click either on the title or the image, you'll may see more related images (usually a series). I recommend that you take a look at the site's main page for further historical railroad exhibitions as well.

Transcontinental Railroad Historic Engravings
http://cprr.org/Museum/Engravings/index.html

September 29, 2009

On A Little Note - Watch Nora Directly On YouTube

I advise you to watch the YouTube video at YouTube. It won't show the entire screen on my blog. It is cut off (I have no control over it. Even if I did, I wouldn't know how anyway). Best click on the link to go to YouTube.


CATcerto. ENTIRE PERFORMANCE. Mindaugas Piecaitis, Nora The Piano Cat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg

The Cat Who Loves Pianos

This is awesome! if you haven't seen it yet I strongly recommend you to see it. It's an official website called "CATcerto" for a piano cat called Nora. This is the famous piano cat, Nora, who practically took over YouTube a while back. On her website you will see her as part of a Lithuanian 12 pieces orchestra. On CATcerto there are other things to browse through,including a whole bunch of interviews! She has great links too. Not only that, she also has her own pages on Twitter and Facebook, as well a blog. How about that, Garfield? Right now, Nora gotta be one of the most famous cat in the world besides Garfield and Morris (in my opinion anyway). Am I missing someone? Tom?

As you can see down below, the entire concert can also be seen on YouTube in an excellent quality and in a widescreen mode. If you click on the user's name on YouTube, you'll see a few more videos of Nora, in a new page. Basically, you can see the videos both on YouTube and CATcerto. Go have fun at CATcerto.

CATcerto - The Official Website

http://www.catcerto.com/index.htm

On YouTube



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg

September 28, 2009

Another Trip Back To The 1970's


From Heritage Images, is a company that markets images (see under "about us" for more detailed information) to other companies and private collectors as well.

Nine pages of 1970's Pop Culture nostalgia! Most are advertising. Even though there 1,928 results (49) pages, after the 9th page the pictures reflect events and milestones that shaped the 1970's. Unfortunately, I was not able to narrow down to specifically the Popular Culture (advertising and fashion, for example).

As you can see, the a link is very long. So I added the link's shorter version if you are having difficulties with the longer link.

Heritage Images - 1970's
http://www.heritage-images.com/Search/SearchPage.aspx?searchterm=1970s&lictype=all&searchtype=KEY&orientation=YYYY&color=ALL&rmCollections=43,46

Heritage Images - 1970's
http://tinyurl.com/yaa87ee

September 27, 2009

Blog - Old Photographs Of Japan

This blog is a great place to view old photos of Japan.These photos were taken from the 1860's to 1930's. It's not often that I see a historical photos of Japan. It makes sense considering that Japan used to be a xenophobic country during that time period. But there are so many other countries that I'd have love to peek through their the past. I particularly enjoyed the photographs of the women. Obviously, they are an integral part of Japan's history. Their clothes, for example, are unique to Japan. Although, when I hear the word "kimono" I also think about the "sari". I have not seen many photographs of Japanese women wearing kimonos during time periods, but mainly in very old movies about the samurais.

Now, this site can be viewed through different methods. Time period, themes, places, photographers and medium.



http://oldphotosjapan.com/en/

Take A Stroll To The Ghost Town


Some ghost towns can be eerie places to visit and yet fascinating if you really think about how they were before the people practically "disappeared". These town are almost literally frozen in time. It's just that they are dusty and in bad shape. This is how I see them. The site reminded me that once my family passed such a town in Nevada, I think. There was this house on a hill that etched in my mind. It looked like the hotel in Psycho. It almost made me believe that it was indeed the Psycho house. It was a little creepy but at the same time it piqued my interest. Maybe I felt this way because still a teen. Hopefully, I'll get to see it again because I want to see its' interiors. Unfortunately, I don't recall the town's name. It must have been sometime in early or mid-80's that I saw it.

The nice thing about this site, is that you can see the buildings' interiors. It's like going back into the past or something like that. No wonder they are called ghost towns. It's weird trying to imagine how these towns once upon a time were full of life. You start to think about the "wild" west and or about the mines and the gold rush. It might make you wonder where those people went. Where are their next to kin? It's not just the buildings that are neglected but also the rusty cars. I guess some people apparently just left their cars out at the open space. Or maybe used the area as a car graveyard. I have no idea. It is as if they were carelessly (or purposely) dumped. Looking at the cars in the photographs I wondered what kind of people drove them when the vehicles were in their prime. Why were they there? Did somebody just wanted to get rid of his or her car? Personally, I love the blue truck in Bodie, CA. It looks like a classic to me in the picture. I wonder what the truck's purpose. But I can only make an educated guess. Maybe for the mines? Transporting people to a mine? Truthfully, I'm a bit biased about this particular town, because that was the name of my dog, Bodie, who killed last year. It's as if I have a strange connection to it only because of its name. Often, when people who met me while I'd be walking Bodie, they'd tell me about this town. They'd always started saying "oh, his name is like this town, Bodie...did you know.." Eventually, I just had to get curious about this town. So maybe some day I'll see it myself.

Scroll down just a bit to see the ghost town list on the main page.

Ghost Town Gallery

http://www.ghosttowngallery.com/