A Christmas Music Box 2020…Christmas music in playlist form on Youtube, for your holiday frolics!

My big Christmas tree

Jason consolidated our famous “A Christmas Music Box” holiday collection into a Youtube playlist! Go check it out, and enjoy the season!

This is Haunted Halloween Part 4

Happy Halloween from me and Jason! The fourth installment in our Halloween playlist series is available! Use it for your Halloween party soundtrack! Listen for fun! Do all the good things!

For our previous collections: https://www.strangegirl.com/2011/10/01/audio-collections-this-is-haunted-halloween-is-back-with-more/

A Christmas Music Box on YouTube!

A Christmas Music Box "cover" art
A Christmas Music Box “cover” art.

Merry Christmas, all! Those of you who have enjoyed our “A Christmas Music Box” collection will be happy to know that three volumes’ worth of our monster Christmas playlist is available on YouTube. It’s not the full collection, but it’s what Jason could get up and running in time for the holidays.

2019 Update: Youtube is screwing with our videos, so if they get throttled, here’s a playlist with much of the content.

It’s presented in three parts. To listen to all three parts in order, use this “A Christmas Music Box” playlist.

Each individual part is embedded below, followed by a tracklisting for each…

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Fox California Fashion: Classic movies and nifty vintage dresses

One of my favorite things to do in my hometown is wear vintage and reproduction outfits to see classic movies at the historic Fox California Theater, also known as the Bob Hope Theater.

Vintage Emma Domb at Fox Theater
Vintage Emma Domb at Fox Theater.

After a massive restoration conducted in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this gorgeous 1930 theater is a clean, bright, luminous connection to an earlier time. While you might see anyone from George Lopez to Tony Bennett headlining at the Fox, the best attractions are the ones that offer the visitor a connection to the theater’s roots as a mid 20th century movie palace – the monthly Friends of the Fox classic movie events featuring concerts on the 1928 Robert Morton theater organ!

Click for more Fox Theater and more outfit pictures!

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Spooky audio, video, and reads for your All Hallows’ Eve!

This is Haunted Halloween Collection CD art...
This is Haunted Halloween Collection CD art…

I know it’s still early September, but Halloween’s definitely already in the air. For those of you itching to get into the holiday spirit, here is a curated collection of audio (mostly music, with some sound effects) and video to enjoy while you stay home to serve the trick-or-treaters!

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I <3 WTC

WTC Model
Early 1964: Architect Minoru Yamasaki and Gov. Nelson D. Rockefeller pose with the first “finished” configuration model of the World Trade Center.

This humble post is dedicated to Minoru Yamasaki, modern architectural master, and Guy Tozzoli, the man who directly managed the original World Trade Center project and deeply loved his Twins.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was a source of political contention and financial worry. In the late 1970s, it was a symbol of metropolitan glamor (it was the Emerald City in The Wiz, after all!). In the 1980s and 1990s, it stood for commercial success and tourist fascination. In the early 21st century, it became Ground Zero. And now, for most people, the World Trade Center is back to being the World Trade Center once again, proof that determination can – just as in the 60s and 70s – overcome political strife. Things may never be right in Lower Manhattan again, but things can be good.

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Happy 58th, Disneyland! and the Barstow Family’s “Disneyland Dream”

The Barstow family in Disneyland, 1956
The Barstow family in Disneyland, 1956.

Disneyland’s 58 years old today! To celebrate, here’s the Barstow family’s 1956 D-Land adventure! One of the kids won the trip – a dream vacation to the then-one-year-old theme park – through a 3M cellophane tape contest.

The film – titled “Disneyland Dream” – is a great record of early Disneyland, but it also includes glimpses of old school Knott’s Berry farm and 1950s SoCal in general. These days, it’s hard to imagine northern O.C. covered by anything but pavement and buildings… Continue reading “Happy 58th, Disneyland! and the Barstow Family’s “Disneyland Dream””

Outfit of the Week: Polka dots and gingham things

Okay, so it’s a poor play on “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” but I’m obsessed with dots, gingham, and the song, so it kinda works. More importantly, I just bought a great vintage cotton dress that features gingham polka dots – that feeds two birds with one ball of seed!

It’s got a Kay Whitney label and a super double-layered pocket on the front right. Mega late ’50s style; in fact, my mom saw it and immediately informed me that she and her friends had several dresses like this back in the later 1950s and early 1960s.

Kay Whitney summer dress
Kay Whitney summer dress with Deadly Dames vinyl belt.
Kay Whitney dress fabric
Kay Whitney dress fabric.

And here’s “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” as presented by the Chet Baker Quartet: