As tourists from the US to Hawaii after World War II, many began to bring home colorful but cheesy looking shirts and sundresses that would be cause for much amusement among friends.
[Alfred] Shaheen began to change that in 1948 when he opened Shaheen’s of Honolulu and began designing, printing and producing “aloha” shirts, dresses and other ready-to-wear clothing of better quality.
I’m a big fan of Hawaiian shirts. At one point about half of my shirts were of the Hawaiian variety. Now I’m down to about 10.
1) Fireworks. 3rd of July. 4th of July. Lots of fireworks everywhere.
2) Dolphins show up in my town. There’s nothing special about dolphins showing up in the waters around a beach town, unless you’re in a town that’s directly downstream from New York Filthy. No one thought anything more than a clam could exist in the waters around my town, but the dolphins arrived and stayed and now they’re in danger of dying because the rivers are icing over. Actually 3 have died so far. Read more about the dolphins on Navasink River Dolphins blog.
August 2008
1) Spaghetti cat. Spaghetti cat appeared randomly on a morning variety show on the Fox channel and it quickly became an internet meme, as well as a staple character on the Soup show on E!.
2) Camping in the Catskills. I hadn’t been camping since 1996, and then it was in Texas and the campsite was quite dry. This August I went camping in the NY Catskills with a group of friends as part of a bachelor party. The key to a more pleasant camping experience is dryness and a thick pad under your tent — I had neither, but I can’t complain, cause I also had beer.
1) Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry & Paul. A great discovery. Two British comedians delivering some of the funniest and clever comedy of the year. Search them out on YouTube.
2) Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head. 2008 wasn’t a great year for new/interesting/obnoixious music, but there were a few tracks that caught my attention, like this track from a band called (of all things) Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head.
2008 was more or less a dreadful year, but it wasn’t at all boring. Here’s a look back at stuff (other than politics, the economy, the gas prices, my swollen gall bladder) that made 2008 interesting:
January 2008
1) Spark is a Diamond: spunky dance-rock band from Philly with a singer whose voice sounds like she’s on a diet of steel wool and rubbing alcohol.
2) Cartoon Dump: a troupe of comic actors parodying kids shows and crappy cartoons. Makes me pine for days of small, comic plays like Coed Prison Sluts.
3) Mah na mah na vindication. For a while I was wrapped up in some web debates about the appearance of the mah na mah na creatures on Sesame Street. Most said they were only on the Muppets, but eventually the truth came to light. They appeared on Sesame Street prior to the Muppet Show.
4) USAvich Bunny Cartoons, were some of the most creative and well done cartoons I’ve seen in a long time. There’s from Japan, but they don’t look like anime. Funny, and loaded with the type of slapstick goodness that made the Looney Tunes and Ren and Stimpy so great.
5) Lasagna Cat is a series of live action remakes of Garfield comic strips. Most Lasagna Cat episodes immediately dissolve into a psychedelic trainwreck, but that’s what made it all so special.
6) The Giants Win the Superbowl. I’m not an immense sports fan, but for some reason I got wrapped up in the playoffs and Superbowl featuring local-team, the East Rutherford Giants. Part of the fun was that they were underdogs, and also that Carl from the Aquateen Hunger Force was rooting for them.
February 2008
1) The RPM Challenge! Record an album in one month. The fruits of my labor came in the form of my space-core opus The Secret Lives of Satellites, Probes and Rovers, which you can download and/or listen to for free.
March 2008
1) Zero Punctuation saves me money. Zero Punctuation is a series of video game reviews presented in a comic, rapid-fire cartoon style. The reviews are often hilarious, but most importantly they’re completely honest. In the past I’ve bought quite a few video games that were absolute rubbish or unplayable by a casual gamer like myself (who pretty much only enjoys games featuring rodents with guns). Zero Punctuation saved me about $300 this year by pointing out what shit video games can be, and thus preventing me from buying them. Portal and Ratchet & Clank were my favorite games of the year, in spite of the fact that both came out in 2007.
2) Torchwood. In spite of a few scenes that had me hitting the fast forward button (the “johnny cakes” scenes), Torchwood was quite enjoyable. Not as great as Doctor Who, but quality TV sci-fi none the less. Here’s Owen transforming into Papa Lazarou, which will only make sense if you’re from Great Britain or watched a lot of British TV.
2) ShamWow infomercials were about as entertaining as commercials get. Perhaps you caught the commercial while watching Rock of Love 2?
3) Another Season of the Peep Show. There’s a lot of great British TV lately, and thankfully all of it shows up on YouTube. No waiting for BBC American or DVDs. Peep Show might be the funniest TV show ever… if not it’s in the top 10. So says my brain.
2) Machine Girl was absurd and gory. I’ll take a Japanese school girl with a machine gun arm over Rose McGowan with a machine gun leg any day.
3) My Obsession with the Saturn Sky. The American car companies are all tanking and taking billions of our tax dollars — all because I didn’t buy a Saturn Sky. I came so close to buying one. What stopped me? I read some reviews that they weren’t comfortable, and then my renewed interest in my 7 year-old Honda, once I realized I was getting 33 MPG during the height of the great oil price flim-flam of 2008.
June 2008
1) TV Funhouse finally comes to DVD. A classic kids show parody for adults from the Clinton years. About once a year I would email Doug asking him when the show would be released, so I’m glad it has so I can stop harassing him.
2) Ohio Vacation. Yes! I drove 900 or so miles to Cincinnati during the height of the high gas prices, to stay at my friends Roy’s house, to check out the brood XIV cicadas. Along the way I got a picture of the world’s largest Horseshoe Crab, shopped at a Circle K (as in “trouble’s afoot), shopped at a WalMart for the first time (the car needed new tires, what can I say), and I discovered Gold Star chilly, which is freaking awesome.
Most people (and when I say most, I been 17) know David Liebe Hart and his puppets (”that look like they were dragged from a fire”) from Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, but before that (and maybe now) he and his puppets were on a show called The Junior Christian Science Lesson Show. David Liebe Hart’s been profiled on Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe . Just watch. “The closest thing to a nightmare that I’ve ever seen”.
More DLH:
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Most people know Sam Raimi from the Spider-Man movies, and some know him from the Evil Dead trillogy. Within the Woods is a short film by Raimi that preceeded the Evil Dead films, but clearly set the stage for them. You can watch it on Dailymotion until the lawyers take it down.
“Mystique is Pregnant” featuring Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romijn Stamos O’Connell. I wonder if they got Marvel’s approval for this — wait, it’s a parody. As long as they don’t sell Mystique is Pregnant merch, they’re fine.
He kids, it’s Rap the Musical! Seems to be made with a sense of irony and detachment as if rap would be a passing fad. Rap has come to dominate music today, and in the process, may have become as boring, cliched and monotonous as all other popular music.
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