Texas Archives - The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Nov52013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

Film at 11: A Gallery of Vintage TV News Program Ads

Sometimes I know that a post I'm putting together is destined to get 20 views if I'm lucky. But I have to follow my muse wherever she may lead me, and today she leads me to TV newsrooms across the country. I can't say exactly why, but I find these old advertisements for network TV news programs to be just so... quaint? Charming? I don't quite know how to put it. I just love how much these ads convey what it must have been like to watch the news back in the day -- not slick in the least. Just a bunch of square white men (and sometimes white women) reading the day's events. And now the news of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s...

Jul242013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

Vintage 20th Century World’s Fair Postcards (1958 – 1992)

Ephemera

Back for more, eh? As the follow-up to my set of World's Fair postcards covering the first half of the 20th century, here is the second half. This set picks up with Expo 58 in Brussels, which marked the first World's Fair held after World War II. Expo 58 (Brussels, Belgium) Century 21 Exposition (Seattle, 1962) (via Drive-In Mike) 1964 New York's World Fair (via The Pie Shops) Expo 67 (Montreal) (via The Pie Shops) HemisFair '68 (San Antonio, Texas) (via zawleski) Expo '70 (Osaka, Japan) (via Duncan Brown) Expo '74 (Spokane, Washington) (via The Pie Shops) Expo '75 (Okinawa, Japan) (via World's Fair Photos) 1982 World's Fair (Knoxville, Tennessee) 1984 Louisiana World Exposition (New Orleans) Expo '85 (Tsukuba, Japan) (via World's Fair Photos) Expo...

Jun62013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

Vintage 20th Century World’s Fair Postcards (1900 – 1940)

Ephemera, Featured Posts

Getting to a World's Fair is definitely one of the items on my bucket list. But until I can attend one in person, I guess the next best thing will have to be to look at some vintage World's Fair postcards. The selection I present here spans every officially sanctioned and recognized fair and exposition from the first half of the 20th century. Due to the outbreak of World War II, there were no fairs held between 1941 and 1957. The next part of this overview (to be published later) will pick up with Expo 58 and run through Expo '98. Exposition Universelle (Paris, 1900) (via) Pan-American Exposition (Buffalo, 1901) Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis, 1904) (via Brenda) Liège International (Belgium, 1905) (via alanp_photo) Milan International (1906) Irish International...

Mar52013 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

Vintage Daytime Soap Opera Promotional Artwork (1981)

TV & Radio

I don't even like soap operas, especially the daytime variety, but this 1981 promotional image from Procter & Gamble Productions was too cool not to share. It features six P&G soap opera title cards from the 1981-82 television season, which aired on the three major broadcast networks. They are Search for Tomorrow, Another World, Texas, The Edge of Night, As the World Turns, and Guiding Light. A few of these I had never heard of, and now I know why. Texas only aired from 1980 to 1982, while The Edge of Night went off the air in 1984. Only As the World Turns and Guiding Light lasted into the 21st century. Speaking of that last one, my buddy Jeff Giles from Popdose is working on what is sure to be a great book for GL fans, called Llanview in the Afternoon: An Oral History of...

Jun12011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

The 10 Deadliest Atlantic Hurricanes in History

May252011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

Prepare for a funky summer from the New Mastersounds

Music

Unless you're a connoisseur of modern-day funk and soul you likely haven't heard of the New Mastersounds. That's a shame, because for more than a decade this Leeds-based outfit has been churning out some of the tightest, most hip-shaking grooves around. The quartet is currently touring the United States and recording their upcoming album here (Tornillo, Texas to be precise) -- a first for them. In another change, the band will be adding vocals to their previously instrumental attack. To give fans a preview of what's to come, the New Mastersounds recently released a cool behind-the-scenes video for the making of the album, Breaks From the Border. Check it out: Related articles The New Mastersounds: Spring Tour (jambase.com)

May82011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

Sunday Jazz: For Mother’s Day, remember the dash

Music, Sunday Jazz

Mother's Day is typically a time for celebration and joy. But for many, it's a time of reflection and even sadness. This week's edition of Sunday Jazz is, in my estimation, a bit of both. "Tribute" is the final track on Robert Glasper's fantastic 2007 release, In My Element. It was written for Glasper's mother, Kim Yvette Glasper Dobbs, who along with her husband Brian was murdered in April 2004. Kim's impact on her son's life and on his music was incalculable, and so it was only fitting that he recorded and released "Tribute" for her. The song is beautiful any way you approach it, but what elevates it from pure melancholy to joy is the inclusion of Rev. Joe Ratliff's eulogy, delivered at Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. I would kill the spirit of his moving words by analy...

Feb112011 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

Here’s some stuff I enjoyed this week

Internet, Links

Here’s a fresh batch of some quality interweb finds I’ve come across over the last 7 days: Like a scene from one of those apocalypse movies, a graphic photo of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. (Shorpy) The Rock is disturbed to find out that Christina Aguilera was not debuting a new song at the Super Bowl. (Blame It On The Voices) Bet you didn't know so many NFL teams had marching songs, did you? (Album Art Exchange) Now this is what we need to spend time researching - which Chicago Cubs game did Ferris Bueller and friends attend the day they skipped school? (Big League Stew) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in 60-Seconds With Papercraft and Computer Graphics (Geekologie) Really long but really good article detailing film director Paul Haggis' ...

Feb152010 by Chris HolmesNo Comments

Book report: The Worst Hard Time

Books

You ever talk to one of those annoying people who always feels compelled to one-up your tales of woe? You try to get a little sympathy for spraining your ankle, and all they can do is go on about the time they broke their leg twenty years ago. Then there's the other variation, where you try to talk about a difficult situation with an older relative and they bust out the "back in my day..." line to trump you. It's like, enough already old timer. Well here's the thing about the folks who lived through the Dust Bowl of the 1930s - their stories really are worse than your stories. Every time. And they don't have to embellish or exaggerate. The trick is to make those stories readable and engaging, which isn't as easy as it may seem. Fortunately we have Timothy Egan's 2005 work, The Wo...