new vintage in the shop and a new blog!

i hit the motherload of vintage estate sales this past weekend, which means good news for all of you! check the shop for all these goodies! more to come in the following weeks!


(obviously not vintage, ha)
















(ok someone gave me this as a joke...now its your turn)
















i also started a new blog called death comes ripping. i figured i would contain my creepiness to one place when it comes to my serial killer obsession (most of it, anyway..i can't promise it will be totally gone from here!) anyway, if this is your sort of thing as well, feel free to follow.

if there's no photos, it didn't happen

oh, corey feldman.

i don't even know what to say.

although i wish his video projector wouldn't have messed up so i could have seen where he was going and what he was getting at with the clown costume.







































at least he looks good with his shirt off :)

serial killer penpals and postmortem photography

this weekend was all over the place in terms of ups and downs. i could use another weekend just to recover from the weekend!

saturday was filled with awesome. it all started when josh and i finally stopped messing around and went down to the post office together to apply for a p.o. box. i have been saying for years that i wanted to write to serial killers...not because i condone gruesome murders (although there ARE a few people i could think of....ok ok just kidding) but because y'all know about most of my morbid fascinations by now. of course this has the potential to be risky business, but at least another address makes me feel a bit more at ease. if i actually acquire any penpals, i'm toying with the idea of starting a new blog for that. i don't want to freak out people who follow this blog and think i'm a total creep for getting excited when i find a letter in my mailbox...

next, my pal mags stopped over so he and his wife could meet josh for the first time! they also brought me some of the best new york pizza there is! HA!



i was only joking when i told mags to bring some on his visit but he insisted. what an awesome friend! the hot trash with jeff as my special guest will finally take place TOMORROW so be sure to tune in for cool records, silly stories and total madness!

next josh and i went junking with our friend greg. we didn't have much luck out at stores, but i DID find this little guy! anyone know if he is from something or has a name? he has no tags or markings of any kind.



the day would have been a big bust if it weren't for our amazing friends!greg brought josh and i some old satanic/occult/voodoo books. they have really neat illustrations. josh plans to learn how to become invisible.





then my girlfriend phoebe called me over to go through stuff she was cleaning out of her house. it felt like christmas! she gave me such wonderful stuff like picture frames, books, and best of all, OLD PHOTOS! don't ask me why but i have an obsession with other people's photos, especially if they are old. i have a whole shelf at hotel hot trash full of photos i found when i worked at the thrift store.







not only were there neat things like fancy facial hair and vintage cars, but I DO BELIEVE I HAVE NOW ACQUIRED MY FIRST POST MORTEM PHOTO! yes dear readers, yet another creepy obsession of mine. this is something i wanted to start collecting, but i either haven't had the luck to come across unidentified ones or don't have the money to start buying real, honest-to-goodness collections. for those that aren't familiar...post mortems (pms for short) are the practice of taking a photograph of a recently deceased person for the purpose of honoring and remembering them. this was a popular practice up until the 20th century, although it is now often thought of as morbid and strange. if you would like to read up about post mortem photography, here is a good starting point.

i asked the author of a popular PM site for an opinion on whether this is one or not, and he said he believes that it is. what do you think? i present to you: the neatest thing i have gotten in a long time! thanks, phoebe!!


(look at how weird the eyes look..and that one hand that isn't really clutching anything...and how stiff the body looks...)

to make matters even MORE interesting, phoebe believes that this may be a photo she had in her own collection and might be someone from her family! not only does it have her family's city of origin stamped on the back, but she thinks she recognizes the couch the baby is posed on as the one she now owns!! how creepy cool is that?!

the truth is we may never know for sure if this is a pm (unless it IS someone from phoebe's family and she is able to find anything in her family history), but in a way the speculation is an interesting facet all its own.

sunday was mostly a bummer. my family had a surprise party for my grandma's 80th birthday. while it was fun to hang with the family (my family RULES!) there was an akward/scary moment when one of the guests actually had a heartattack in the middle of the party! he had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. i haven't heard anything today but i hope he is ok!! later on josh and i went to a show to see my buddy NOBUNNY but the crowd was lame and rowdy and i got so annoyed i left without even watching the spits play. nobunny was great, as usual. if i ever get my computer fixed, hopefully i will have some nobunny videos to post up in the future.

heres hoping the week only goes up from here!

my love affair with the 1950s

i have such a crush on the 1950s. things were so aesthetically pleasing!


(flickr via galessa's plastics)


(flickr via aroid)


(flickr via x-ray delta one)


(flickr via x-ray delta one)


(flickr via x-ray delta one)


(flickr via x-ray delta one)


(flickr via x-ray delta one)


i love the clothes and the fashion, the home decor and furnishings! give me a car with big fins and lots of chrome any day. i will gladly play my vinyl records day and night, and pack them up in my trusty record tote when i need to take them out to share. saddle shoes, cateye glasses and crinolines under my circle skirt -- YES, PLEASE! i wish i had the option to go hang out at the drive-in or soda shop on a friday nite...instead i'm sitting here on the internet because i don't want to hang out at the mall or whatever. the music was new and exciting, kids knew how to DANCE and women actually had (gasp!) CURVES!

here is the tribute i made to my favorite decade by browsing the 1950s on etsy. this treasury took me a long time because i wouldn't settle until i absolutely loved each and every item and i wanted it to be just right. enjoy!

AT THE HOP!


p.s. speaking of vintage, one of my favorite vintage items to collect are platter paks and record totes for storing 45 rpm records. look for an "inside hotel hot trash" post coming soon featuring my growing collection..!

just popping in

i don't have a lot of time to do a big post because i need to go make dinner before my wolfboy comes home. not much has been going on this week anyway as things were busy last week and are going to be even worse next week...just laying low and enjoying the peace and quiet while it lasts!

here are a few recent thrift scores. i would really like to find some new thrift stores in the area, or to take a little roadtrip and discover some new ones that are a bit farther than we usually travel.

new signs for the house :)





records for .49/ea, including this one of lou christie looking like a total doofus:





vintage pbr stained-glass style glass for josh:



rudy ray moore vhs a.k.a. the almighty dolemite!



a book about the heyday of cleveland rock'n'roll radio station, wmms:






josh played his first show recently as a one man band. it went well and i think i was more nervous than he was! i'm so proud of him :)







check him out on myspace: wolfboy slim and his dirty feets

swamp rat spotted in treasuries

i still haven't seen an improvement in sales since the makeover in swamp rat, but i do think it has improved chances of appearing in other people's treasuries. neat! here is a list of new treasuries that were nice enough to include a print from our shop! quite a few of them are summer carnival-themed, which are some of my absolute FAVORITE! please take a peek and click on some of the great choices...as you can see, we're in very good company!

malt shop romance

candied or just carmel apples?

what's summer without a day at the carnival?

carnival

retro summer fun

athazagoraphobia

whimsy part deux

a little bit of americana for your 4th of july

summer fun


thanks goes out to everyone who featured us from the bottom of our trashy little hearts!

and finally, i'll leave you with a little video clip from one of my favorite artists (and one of my favorite human beings in the world!), NOBUNNY! he will be making his triumphant return to cleveland this sunday and it's been two years since his last visit. there is no way to go wrong with a man in a bunny mask and some tiny undies singing songs about hookers and chuck berry...and besides that, my friend justin is one of the best dudes i've ever met. can't wait!

hot trash happenings

last nite on the radio show, i did an impromptu interview with eric davidson, the lead singer of the new bomb turks.



i say impromptu because although he mentioned he might call, i didn't really think he would! we have made plans to have him as a guest on the show several times when he was back in ohio visiting family but none of them ever happened. so imagine my surprise when i picked up the phone and heard, "ERRRRRRRRRRRIN! it's eric davidson!" i scrambled around to try to remember how to take a call on the air because its been at least 3 years since i've done that and i sure didn't remember. i was nervous because i'm not the "interviewer" type, but things went well and we had a pleasant chat about jello biafra playing shows on boats shaped like ducks (or not) and other such thaaangs.

the main reason he was calling though was to plug his new book, we never learn! the gunk punk undergut 1988-2001. it's an inside look at some of the most significant garage punk bands in recent history, many of which i play on hot trash regularly. i still have to order a copy, but i'm sure its going to be a good read. you can pick up a copy at any major bookstore or order it from the website! tell 'em hot trash sent ya.

next week i'm having a special guest on hot trash: a certain miss firecracker one woman band from cleveland, ohio! she's my good pal and she will be playing a live set on the air, as well as bringing some records to spin and tickling your funnybone with her charm and wit.



the week after (june 15) my special guest will be none other than jeff magnum, bassist of the legendary punk band THE DEAD BOYS. he is one of my dearest friends and we often marvel at the divine intervention that brought us together, since we are both convinced we were meant to be friends. the other day he told me i was "the female version of him," and then corrected himself, saying, "wait, that sounded all wrong. but you know what i mean." some time i will have to do a blog post about how we met and what a great dude he is.


(jeff is the one hiding in the back wearing the red shirt)

make sure you tune in to hear him on his fifth hot trash appearance, where he will be bringing some of his most prized records from his collection (all the way from NYC) and telling stories about the glory days of the dead boys and punk rock. he has been promising to let the cat out of the bag regarding a story involving the dead boys being on tour and getting thrown in jail, so i can't wait to hear THAT one! plus, it will mark the return of the dreaded "do you speak french?" 45 from his first appearance on hot trash in 2004, as well as the hilly krystal favorite about a pig rolling around in the mud. honestly, you just have to hear it for yourself. i love the fact that we both make fun of everything and laugh at everything and hate everything...this is one of the things that cemented our friendship from the beginning! ha. he cracks me up.


finally...here is a teaser playlist from the show last nite. it was a great one with lots of requests! too bad i couldn't find more of what i played on playlist.com.

the hurdy gurdy man

while hanging out with josh and my cousins the other nite, "the hurdy gurdy man" by donovon came on. i have always found this to be an annoying, repulsive, creepy song. i don't think it should exist. well, between that and "atlantis," donovan himself just should not exist. but i digress.



further discussion led amy and beth  to pose this question: what would the hurdy gurdy man look like? we tried to answer this. here are some thoughts:

-it might look a bit like harry from harry and the hendersons, but with more dirt and leaves stuck in his fur.

-it might just be a pile of dirt

-it might resemble that puppet from h.r. pufnstuf

-it would smell like dump, or like it came from the dump, although it probably just came from poo lake

-it "definitely!" has syphilis

-it might wear black rain galoshes and squish around when it walks (and it might channel "zeke the plumber" because of this)

-it would have a deserted cabin in the woods where there were body parts scattered around

-it would be brown or green, or brown AND green

-it might look like that guy with the huge carpet dreadlock hair that used to hang around outside the grog shop

-we think it walks around with its penis hanging out!

-most likely, it would be a pervert that exposed itself to kids

-it would have a long, sloppy mustache that is best described as "whiskers" and it would have particles of food and most of all GRAVY in it all the time!

-it would talk like the creepy, echoy voice of donovan in the song

-basically it would look like a troll, but a dirty, muddy, hairy, smelly, poopy troll


SO. that settles it. what does the hurdy gurdy man look like to YOU?

p.s. this post was taken almost word for word from the conversation the four of us were having. i could not stop laughing. obviously.