Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
Battery included, people. Just slip it over your finger and go to town. Are you fucking kidding me, Knickerbocker?
What looks more like a dildo, the E.T. Finger or LJN’s Dune Sandworm?
Knickerbocker went out of business in 1982, by the way. Hard to say why.
The first poster is by Clifford Charles Seeley for Berkeley Bonaparte, 1967. Seeley did several rock posters in the same style, including Jefferson Airplane and Hendrix. The identification of Haight Ashbury with Middle Earth was popular among residents at the time.
The second poster (below) displays Barbara Remington art from the first authorized paperback edition of The Fellowship of the Ring. There’s also a 1968 jigsaw puzzle featuring all of the images from the trilogy side by side.
The “Come to Middle Earth” and “Frodo Lives!” memes were employed (or co-opted, depending on your point of view) during the extensive marketing campaign for Bakshi’s 1978 animated feature.
“Then will you see Gandalf the Grey uncloaked” is what Gandalf says in The Fellowship of the Ring after Bilbo refuses to give up the ring, eventually threatening the wizard by touching the hilt of his sword.
The artist is Mark Kanen, who did several designs for Berkeley Bonaparte, a poster art company and head shop founded in San Francisco in 1967.
(Image via Hake’s)
You gorgeous monster! Ask and I shall obey.
(Background on Warpo’s Legends of Cthulhu line is here.)
No waiting, pardner.
Poulsbo, Washington’s Almo Theatre closed in 1987. One screen, one aisle, millions of memories.
(Photo and info via Cinema Treasures)
The geek is Patrick Rothfuss, who discovered D&D in the early ’80s, became a writer of fantasy novels, and recently found himself listed in Appendix E of the new Dungeon Master’s Guide. Read the hilarious and heartfelt story—he takes the sleeveless t-shirt head on, don’t worry—at his website.
I bet you’d forgotten about the Aerobie, the “flying ring” first sold in 1984. Because so many of us demanded a more aerodynamic flying disc, preferably one designed by an engineer.
You’ve heard of space disco, but… epic fantasy disco? Compare the funky version to Leonard Rosenman’s original score below.
Note the play on words in the “artist” name: Aragorn Ballroom, as opposed to Aragon Ballroom, a famous Chicago venue; and, in lieu of `orchestra’, we have ‘orc-estra’.
(Album cover image via Ripping Yarns)
Kenner’s The Real Ghostbusters was after my time, but damn, this is how you get a kid’s attention.
(Images via eBay)
2 Warps to Neptune 