One of the first albums I ever bought (it was actually a cassette tape) was Dead Man’s Party by Oingo Boingo in 1985. I was 13 years old at the time and thought that Danny Elfman (the lead singer of Oingo Boingo) and his crew were the most amazing and “creepiest” band ever (in the 1980′s we did not use the term “gothic”).
The album Dead Man’s Party was quite popular back when I was a teen, because it had several songs that were featured in movies that appealed to teenagers. For example, the song Dead Man’s Party was played by the band in the Rodney Dangerfield film Back to School and the song Weird Science was written for the 1985 movie of the same name. Now looking back- I think Danny Elfman was probably a marketing genius as well as a first rate composer with all these movie tie-ins to the album.
Danny Elfman has since gone on to compose the theme song for The Simpsons as well as many songs for current films. My favorite film that features Danny Elfman’s voice and composing talents would definitely have to be The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the movie- Danny Elfman is the singing voice of the irresistible lead character Jack Skellington- the leader of Halloween Town who decides for a change he would like a turn at running and improving upon Santa Claus’ main gig- Christmas.
I could go on and on writing about the considerable influence Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman have had on the music industry for decades… but did you know they have been around since the early seventies? Maybe you have been a fan of Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman for years like me and yet you did not know that the band started out as The Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo in 1972. Here’s a fun video from 1976 showing the band in their early days on the 1970′s television show- The Gong Show. Enjoy!
I am still enjoying the company of my Mom who is with me on vacation. She flew out to Wisconsin at the beginning of this month to relax and unwind with her grand kids and I. While she’s here I naturally cut back on being online, to better enjoy her company. Next week- I promise two things… a real blog post from me and I will be back to visiting my favorite online blogs and haunts.
Until then- here are some of the new listings for this week in my ETSY store.
Here’s a lovely vintage brooch from Avon.
This lovely pink enamel flower brooch is vintage Sarah Coventry.
This small treasure is an old locket marked Liberty 1 – 20 12K GF.
It has a lovely floral pattern on the front which has a blank space for engraving.
There is a new selection of vintage travel charms to commemorate your special vacation this summer.
We also carry a wide variety of other unique and beautiful charms,
like this sterling and guilloche charm of Saint Mary.
I figure everyone is still basking in the joys of a lazy July 4th weekend, so I will keep the blogging short and sweet. Remember this classic ride on toy from the 1970′s. This should make you all warm and fuzzy feeling all over. It’s the Hasbro Romper Room Inchworm! The cool thing about inchworm was the way you had to bounce up and down to propel inchworm forward.
Inchworm I love you!
Ad taken from the November 1976 Family Circle.
Here’s the commercial for Inchworm from the mid 1970′s – unfortunately it’s a little dark.
Last week was rather troubling, somehow my computer picked up a virus or was attacked by some malware. I am not sure of all the gory details, because I just wanted it fixed immediately. Luckily my husband was able to get me back up and running quickly- although at the time it seemed like days and weeks transpired…
It was really stressful wondering how long it would take and when I would be able to get back on schedule. While I was offline quite a bit, I used the time to catch up quite a bit of reading and projects around the house. It was actually pretty cathartic to be offline for more then 12 hours at a time- although I would not recommend having your computer attacked in order to escape being tuned into the internet 24/7.
I am smiling now that this messy incident seems to be behind me and speaking of smiling… I happened to run into this beautiful smile last week in the November 1976 issue of Family Circle. When I saw this shampoo ad for Wella Balsam with the lovely Farrah, who was then Mrs. Fawcett-Majors; I immediately wondered how long it had been since she had passed away. After a quick Google search, I was surprised to learn that it had been a year already. It’s shocking how fast times flies!
Anyway- I don’t know if there is a lesson to be learned or even a real blog post here in the making. Of course, you know the old adage “Life is too short…,” well it is and I would just add try to make the most of life no matter how short or long your may be and do spend more of that time offline.
Well I am off! I am going back to reading the wonderful library books I checked out last week.
See you soon,
Michelle
Farrah Fawcett Majors for Wella Balsam Shampoo 1976
Summer is supposed to be a slow time of the year… when people kick back and relax I suppose, but for me there is really nothing very relaxing about having five children home from school.
The older boys stay up until the wee hours of the night playing shoot em up video games. While the youngest and Mom (that’s me) struggle with trying to maintain some semblance of a normal schedule.
About the one thing you can count on to be slow in summer is internet retail sales and so I am taking some time out this summer to sort of revitalize my online store. Besides culling the inventory and moving some of it out in favor of new items… I have been trying to be a little more creative when taking pictures of my store inventory. Continued…
Summer is supposed to be a slow time of the year… when people kick back and relax I suppose, but for me there is really nothing very relaxing about having five children home from school.
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