Wrong Side of The Art has many cool and lurid exploitation posters, but the Honky Tonk Girl posters that warn us she’s “Forbidden to live with decent society” are showstoppers.

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Philco PC, beautiful retro industrial design by Dave Schultze of SchultzeWORKS.

The design of the “Philco PC” was inspired by the 1954 design classic Philco Predicta, as well as an eclectic mixture of modern minimalism, the steampunk movement, and antiques. As lead designer Dave Schultze explains, “The result is a design aesthetic that blends multiple elements of the familiar, but with some surprisingly fresh styling that just so happens to house a state-of-the-art Windows 7 PC.”

via Ubergizmo

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The Edwardian Ball Weekend 2010 takes place this weekend at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco with The Edwardian World’s Faire on Friday, January 22nd and The 10th Annual Edwardian Ball on Saturday, January 23rd.

The award-winning Edwardian Ball transforms the historic Regency Ballroom into a garden of delights, Friday and Saturday January 22nd and 23rd, 2010. Join a magical outdoors-indoor symphony of music, theatre, dance, art, storytelling, circus arts, fashion, technology, and, of course, the art & stories of Edward Gorey. The festivities feature a dizzying assortment of artists and performers, where high-flying trapezes and steam-powered machines paint an elegant backdrop for costumed ballgoers reveling through the night. Here, the old world meets the world-to-be with an unforgettable tip of the top hat, cinch of the corset, and a splash of absinthe poured over a silver spoon.

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Penny Design has a great series of movies reinterpreted as Atari 2600 Video Games.

via The Daily What

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If you’ve lost your shirt to TSA and are betting it all on a last-minute standby, why not wander over to Terminal 3 for some true gambling history. San Francisco International Airport is currently hosting, “For Amusement Only: Slot Machines and Other Gambling Devices of the Mechanical Age”. Vintage gambling devices of all make and marvel are on display through May 2010. The machines are behind glass so hold on to your buffalo nickels.

While killing time before an early morning flight, I snapped a few photos of show. The exhibit space stretches along a corridor with a moving walkway. It’s mesmerizing to stare at these things while people seem to float by in the background.

There are more photos in my Flickr set.

The objects are on loan from Joe Welch’s San Bruno American Antique Museum.

Here is the orginal press release.

photos by Josh Ellingson

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Stéphane Massa-Bidal imagines what it might look like if popular web services where created decades ago and came manuals. Here’s the full series of his cover illustrations.

via Nowhere Else

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Portland based Mac software company Panic finally launched their own blog and it rocks. Their latest blog post imagines what it would have been like if Panic were around in 1982 and their apps were actually Atari 2600 video games. To illustrate this concept, they created wonderful artwork which is available through their store.

Clearly “inspired” by existing Atari 2600 games, with cringe-inducing graphics (at one point, a tester confused a smiley face for a wagon wheel) and inscrutable gameplay (”Rotate joystick to fire!”, read the manual of one), the games, once thought to be the savior of the company, almost heralded its demise.

via Phillip Bowden

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The Footnotes of Mad Men is an wonderful blog that is must read for fans of the brilliant AMC television series Mad Men. The blog is written by Natasha Vargas-Cooper who digs deep into the historic events and cultural themes featured on the show. They’ve just announced that Harper Collins will be adapting the blog into a book. Congratulations guys!

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Mad Men Explained in 60 Seconds by Landline TV

via Rachel Mercer

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In anticipation of the premier of Mad Men season 3 on August 16th, AMC has launched Mad Men Yourself, featuring character illustrations by Dyna Moe.

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guest post by Al Ridenour

So the new Star Trek film made a good at drawing kids into their parent’s (or grandparent’s) sci-fi franchise, but it’s not like Roddenberry wasn’t trying to get with the kids back in 1969. What else would explain this exquisitely ham-fisted jam by the “Space Hippies” of episode #76, “The Way to Eden”, wherein Spock grudgingly breaks out his Vulcan harp for a bit of musical diplomacy.

Of course, the real-life Nimoy was anything but grudging in his pursuit of musical stardom, and these strivings — along with the occasional nod to the breathless rhapsodies of Shatner and other ST notables — are admirably documented at Maiden Wine, with troves of all-but-lost treasures including never-before-seen footage from Nimoy’s notorious “Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” music video.

Naturally, all of this has inspired fans to join the musical chorus in a variety of ways, whether it’s hand-carving “an exact working replica” the aforementioned Vulcan harp. (It’s tuned to a diatonic, dontcha know!), dressing up as the “Mugato” and moshing with Sacramento’s Trekker punks, The No Kill I or recording novelty rockers like “Jim Beam Me Up” with Sacramento’s OTHER rival Trekkie band Warp 11.

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guest post by Burstein!

photo by unknown

The crew from the Neverwas Haul, which is a mobile Victorian era house straight out of novel by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells that traverses the dusty playa of Black Rock City, are selling some of their artifacts from a future that never was in The Neverwas Haul Explorers Supply Depot in Etsy. These rare creations are primarily attire accouterments including monocles, goggles, goggle lenses and cuff links. Each one is handmade, beautiful and the proceeds will go to the next amazing art project, which is rumored to be a steam powered car and calliope.

photo by unknown

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guest post by Burstein!

photo by Ani Niow

Ani Niow asked the question “What happens when you’re an engineering student with a minor in sexuality and you find yourself funemployed?” The answer, make steampunk vibrator, of course. It weights about a pound, is smooth to the touch, and, yes, it sorta works. When Ani tried it with steam, apparently it got too hot to touch, and I presume this meant too hot for the goonies. That said, it does work off of compressed air. If you happen to know of or have a more powerful boiler than a pressure cooker that is available, she would be interested.

In the meantime, you can see it at Femina Potens until the end of the month.

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guest post by Burstein!

These vintage PSA’s from the 1976 swine flu outbreak is everything we love about retro PSA’s. Quotes like “Swine flu? I’m too fast for it to catch me!” Or “Betty’s mother gave it to her best friend, Dotty. But Dotty had a heart condition and she died.” I just love the messaging of “Get a swine flu shot or you you will kill your grandmother’s best friend.” They are like trailers for a 1970’s horror film.

via Scot Hampton

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Tweed Rides – group bicycle events in which riders eschew spandex in favor of elegant, vintage-inspired riding attire – are growing in popularity, with newly-announced rides in San Francisco, Chicago, and Sydney, Australia.

photo by Rubin Starset

On the recently-launched  SFTweed blog, self-described “Tweedpunk” Colin Fahrion has announced that the Second San Francisco Tweed Ride will take place this coming Thursday, April 30th.

Once again, we fine bastions of tweed bicivility will gather to show the city how to really ride in style! Fortunately, Spring is upon us, and the night has begun to be pushed back by the day. As such, the sun shall still grace our ride, giving all passersby a chance to bask in our grand tweediness! Our last ride was a joyful time with games, contests, and of course the sharpest dressed company a cyclist could ask for.

In addition to the games, contests, and prizes that proved so popular during the inaugural San Francisco Tweed Ride, Thursday’s ride has a special surprise: a mid-route musical performance by the fabulous “post-industrial-folk-noir” septet Corpus Callosum! 

photo by Fenchurch!

Moving Eastward, Chicago’s first Tweed Ride will take place this coming Saturday, May 2nd. Organized by the fine dapper folks at The Chainlink, their event takes special inspiration from no less of an historical figure than The Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill.

The 2nd of May 2009 marks the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s invention of his exquisitely dry martini: copious amounts of gin poured over crushed ice while he observed the vermouth from across the room. The route, designed by the Right Honorable Lee Diamond, is 10 civilized miles meandering past (and into) some of The Windy City’s most infamous (and still open) speakeasies.

Like the SF Tweed Ride, Winston’s Tweed Ride will host contests for Most Dapper Chap, Most Snappy Lass, Most Stylish Noble Steed, Most Inspired Interpretation of Tweediness, and Best Mustache (open to both lads and inventive lasses).

image by unknown

Meanwhile, from the other side of the world, vintage cycling haberdashery Rocket Fuel brings us news of the first Sydney Tweed Ride.

image by RocketFuelStyle

Following the fine style of London, San Francisco, Auckland and soon Chicago. Sydney is having it’s very own Tweed Ride. So gather your most dapper or ladylike apparel and join us for a spin around the city and a fine cup of tea!

From London to San Francisco, or the Windy City to a Land Down Under, clearly the appeal of Tweed knows no bounds.

Interested in becoming one of the cogwheelnoscenti? The latest news of all things two-wheeled and tweedy can be had on SFTweed’s RSS feed, via their Jaunty Mailer, or on twitter @sftweed.

photo by Binx

See previously: Critical Masterpiece – The Tweed Ride Debuts in San Francisco

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guest post by Burstein!

“You must not fail, Zero M. This mission is critical…” With those words the commercial for the Zero M Sonic Blaster staring a young Kurt Russell opens and quickly turns into bizarre parody world where a lone 10 year old and his ruptured eardrum is gamely protecting his home with poofs of air. The Blaster itself is effectively a hand-pumped compressed air gun, which did not make the approval of Consumer Reports back in 1966:

The Mattel Agent Zero M Sonic Blaster 5530 fires compressed air with a deafening blast. Our measurements top out at 157 dB–above a level that can do permanent damage to the hearing of an adult. We rate the toy Not Acceptable.

Check out the other fun retro reviews and photos as posted by Mikl-em back in the day.

via RetroThing

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guest post by Burstein!

Although the tag line for Dork Yearbook is “the way we wish we weren’t,” I find these photos exceptionally sweet and endearing. They truly take me back to my excitement of going over to my friend’s house for a sleep over where we would dissemble his 486 and pretend we were adults on BBSes.

Joel Johnson began Dork Yearbook as a series of posts on Boing Boing Gadgets and they were so successful that he turned it into its own Tumbler blog.

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The 8-Bit Tarot Project by Lunar Bistro, based on the classic Rider-Waite tarot deck.

See Previously: 8 Bit Waterslide In Real Life

via Waxy

image via Lunar Bistro

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guest post by RICK!

“8-Bit Waterslide In Real Life” by Tea & Cheese

via Metafilter

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guest post by Jackson West

While checking for new movies added to Hulu, I stumbled across the 1971 film The Organization. It stars Sidney Poitier reprising his role as Lt. Virgil Tibbs from In the Heat of the Night.  Except this time he’s on the trail of a bunch of heroin smugglin’ honkies with the help of some concerned Teamsters in San Francisco (including a very young Raul Julia).  It’s standard seventies caper flick fare, though with a  multi-culti cast, funky electro-jazz soundtrack and of course great views of The City.  The highlight is the final chase scene, which takes place underneath Market Street while the Muni and BART tunnels were still under construction. It’s the equivalent of a full-nude peep show for public transportation fetishists.

See Previously:

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- The Times of Harvey Milk Documentary Now on Hulu

- 7th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride by Improv Everywhere

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