Category:
1970s
1970s
The C-3PO ‘Golden Rod’ Card
In 1977, Topps issued a set of Star Wars trading cards. The set included one card that would, arguably, become the most infamous card it ever printed. This was the so-called C-3PO 'golden rod' card — so called because it seems to show C-3PO in a state of prominent arousal.
Mel magazine recently posted an article which explores the history of this card. The article makes a couple of interesting points:
First, Topps not only really did issue this card... it printed a lot of them. This isn't a rare card.
Second (and to me this is the most remarkable thing), no one involved in the creation of the card noticed its most salient feature until after it had been released and word started to spread among card collectors.
Finally, there's no evidence that the card was the work of a rogue artist. The most compelling theory about what happened is that a panel on the side of C-3PO's armor plating must have accidentally fallen open, and was in exactly the right position to create the illusion of robotic arousal. And then, for whatever reason, Topps selected that image, out of all the possible ones, to print.
Eventually Topps released a corrected version of the card (below). Apparently this corrected version is rarer, and more collectible, than the original. Though, ideally, a collector would want to have both.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 09, 2021 -
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Category: Movies, Robots, Collectors, 1970s
Robert Ashley’s Automatic Writing
A very odd piece of music composed by Robert Ashley in 1979. An explantion from pitchfork.com:On Automatic Writing, which comprises one 46-minute piece, Ashley repeats the line, “My mind is censoring my own mind,” or a slight variation of it, a dozen times. The composition is based on a recording of the composer’s involuntary speech, a symptom he attributed to a possible “mild form of Tourette’s.” “It is against the ‘law’ of our society to engage in involuntary speech,” he wrote in the liner notes of a 1996 reissue of the record...
In his searching, Ashley distorted his voice to the point of granular gesture on Automatic Writing. (Save for a few moments of clarity, it is only possible to understand what he says by reading the transcription that accompanies the release.) In a rare example of an echo being more legible than its origin, the emotional resonance of his mouth sounds is underscored by a whispered French translation of his involuntary speech performed by long-time collaborator Mimi Johnson. The faraway melody of an organ and the murmurings of a Polymoog, the latter evoking a crate of old-fashioned milk bottles jiggling against each other in transit, hold the space for the two voices. Layered together, these four sonic elements—or characters in an opera, as Ashley saw them—have a proto-ASMR quality, textural and sensual.
In his searching, Ashley distorted his voice to the point of granular gesture on Automatic Writing. (Save for a few moments of clarity, it is only possible to understand what he says by reading the transcription that accompanies the release.) In a rare example of an echo being more legible than its origin, the emotional resonance of his mouth sounds is underscored by a whispered French translation of his involuntary speech performed by long-time collaborator Mimi Johnson. The faraway melody of an organ and the murmurings of a Polymoog, the latter evoking a crate of old-fashioned milk bottles jiggling against each other in transit, hold the space for the two voices. Layered together, these four sonic elements—or characters in an opera, as Ashley saw them—have a proto-ASMR quality, textural and sensual.
I think the whole piece would work well as the soundtrack to a horror movie.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 05, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: Music, 1970s
Peanuts Cast Does “Roundabout”
This is the newest in a series, others to be found here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 12, 2021 -
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Category: Music, Homages, Pastiches, Tributes and Borrowings, Cartoons, 1970s
Catweazle
The Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 05, 2021 -
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Category: Eccentrics, History, Historical Figure, Magic and Illusions and Sleight of Hand, Television, 1970s
Animal psychic clears dog of eating owner
After Dean Goodman crashed his car into a canyon in early 1978, something ate his body. His mother assumed it was his German shepherd, Prince, who had survived the crash and remained at the scene for three weeks until Goodman's body was found. She wanted the dog put down.More details from Skeptical Inquirer magazine (Winter 1978):
this gross injustice was narrowly averted when North Hollywood psychic Beatrice Lydecker interviewed the dog and found that Prince had in fact been wrongfully accused. "I have this ESP with animals," Mrs. Lydecker explained. "Prince had been traumatized by the accident. All Prince could talk about was his dead master."
Coyotes and wild dogs, the German shepherd said, had eaten the body, despite Prince's valiant efforts to drive them off. The canine hero's life was spared, owing to this timely information. A local police sergeant observed, "She says she got the information from the dog—and I've no evidence to dispute that."
Coyotes and wild dogs, the German shepherd said, had eaten the body, despite Prince's valiant efforts to drive them off. The canine hero's life was spared, owing to this timely information. A local police sergeant observed, "She says she got the information from the dog—and I've no evidence to dispute that."
Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Feb 28, 1978
As far as I can tell, Beatrice Lydecker is still active, and still talking with animals. She's got a website where she sells various "natural products," as well as her book: You Too Can Talk With the Animals.
Beatrice Lydecker - 1988 press photo
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 04, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: Paranormal, Dogs, 1970s
Pickle Peace Plan
The Pickle Peace Plan was championed by the Picklers Planetary Unity Party which, in turn, was a creation of the Pickle Packers International, an industry association. It had two main planks:- Instead of a red telephone or bomb button, heads of governments should have a jar of pickles handy. At the first sign of hostility, they would send pickles to each other instead of missiles.
- If war did break out, all politicians would be required to don uniforms and do the fighting while everyone else watched it on television.
William R. Moore, executive vice president of the Pickle Packers International, noted, "We picklers think that with such a peace plan, both sides would either come to a quick armistice or talk themselves to death. Either way, we the public would benefit by such action."
Desert Sun - Feb 2, 1979
Fort Worth Star Telegram - Nov 6, 1976
Oil City Derrick - Nov 6, 1976
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 30, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Food, Pickles, War, 1970s
Close Encounters Hologram
Extraterrestrial-attracting jewelry!
Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 29, 2020 -
Comments (2)
Category: Aliens, Jewelry, Movies, 1970s
The TopPop Video Archives
The Wikipedia page, from which:TopPop was the first regular dedicated pop music television series in the Dutch language area. The Netherlands broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from September 22, 1970, to June 27, 1988.
Scores of videos at their YouTube site, many of which, like the one below, are pleasingly daft. Flute and zither quasi-disco easy-listening? Why not!
Many thanks to pal Peter Danssaert!
Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 28, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Music, 1970s, 1980s, Europe
The Wombles
Their Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 26, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Cryptozoology, Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack, Television, Environmentalism and Ecology, Stop-motion Animation, 1970s
Phone Calls From the Dead
As opposed to phone calls from telemarketers, who are more like the living dead."Scientific" parapsychologists D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless have recently discovered a startling fact: that dozens of people have had telephone calls from the dead. "The weight of evidence has convinced us that there are surviving spirits making attempts to contact living people" through the telephone, Bayless told the National Enquirer. Their new book, Phone Calls from the Dead, describes fifty such cases. Unfortunately, if the person receiving the call realizes that he is speaking to a spirit from the Beyond, the call is usually over within seconds, they say. Some postmortem calls arrive, appropriately enough, over dead telephone lines. Rogo believes that these calls occur when a spirit manipulates electrical impulses in the phone to reproduce the sound of its own voice. "We've stumbled on a whole new mothod of psychic communication!" says Rogo.
— The Skeptical Inquirer - Summer 1979
— The Skeptical Inquirer - Summer 1979
Posted By: Alex - Wed Dec 23, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Paranormal, Books, 1970s
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