Trust Me, I'm Not Dismantling Your Childhood -or- Why is Ke$ha on the Radio?

Shameless tie-ins are a dime a dozen. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Addams Family Cereal, Jurassic Park Raptor Bits, Flubber Burgers...I could go on, and, as annoying as I find some of these products, I am not immune to giving into 'blockbuster' consumerism myself. Raise your hand if you own a Marvel Superheroes Monopoly Set. No one? Well, it was a gift! ...that I just hadn't got around to buying for myself. 

My first (memorable) foray into the pandemic was convincing my parents to purchase the 1990 Ninja Turtles' album 'Coming Out Of Our Shells,' which they did after hours of driving to three different Pizza Huts just to find a copy to purchase (Mom & Dad, I love you).


 The end result? Hours upon hours of jamming out to such hits as 'Pizza Power,' No Treaties (After The War), and Tubin'. It's as charming as it is embarrassing (no more embarrassing than recalling those Turtle jams from memory) for all parties involved, but I trust that we've all made similar mistakes. Which leads me into today's find...

Not to be outdone, the Dinosaurs (from TV's Dinosaurs) decided to release their own album in 1992. With such hits as 'I'm The Baby (Gotta Love Me)' and 'Be A Herbivore,' Big Songs screamed onto the music scene, offering us timeless melodies that we'll surely share with generations to come.

'We gotta turn this world around

They can't keep us down

These old dinosaurs who rule our lives

Have been in charge too long'

-Robbie & Spike Sinclair, I Wanna Be King

Sure, it's ridiculous. But I could plop some Ke$ha lyrics down right beside it and you'd never know the difference. And who knows? Maybe in a few years when Michael Bay decides to revamp Dinosaurs for the big screen, this little packet of liner notes may actually be worth something. AND maybe when Michael Bay pitches the idea for the big screen adaptation, Ke$ha's people can put in a bid to be on the soundtrack? AND maybe the soundtrack will only be sold digitally through iTunes during Dino-r(O)ck-Tober? AND maybe McDonalds' can offer download tickets at a fraction of their original cost if you purchase the Dinoburger: The-burger-big-enough-to-feed-a-TRex-(or small village)-but-since-there-are-no-more-dinosaurs-you-will-need-to-look-at-the-burger-as-a-challenge-to-finish-it-rather-than-part-of-a-meal?

I'm actually pretty good at this.

But I digress, some tie-ins are just...well, just great.

while others?

But, seriously, folks, let's all take a moment here to think about what we're buying into. Do you really want anyone else outside of a contemporary time frame to remember who Ke$ha is? Wait, what was I talking about again? Oh, yeah, tie-ins. There are product placements galore in her video "We R Who We R," and if you...what? I'm talking about Ke$ha again? Oh, nevermind...

Just Passing The Time

It feels like forever since I've updated, and, before I dive into a new post, I would like to welcome my new subscribers. I love coming back to find I'm being read by new faces. Thank you!

"I'm going to resist the urge to tell folks they are 'the bunk'."

Annotations can spell disaster for a collector. A year ago, I sold a 1st Edition of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow that looked pristine on the outside but contained a full page of annotations on the title page. This, obviously, had an affect on the amount I sold the book for because, as charming as someone's else take on a story can be, thick blue pen marks--unless they're from the author--are considered a blemish. 

Personally, I enjoy finding annotations, and I enjoy it immensely if they have little to do with the content. My example, on the left, is not about a specific passage in the Everyman's Library edition of Cardinal Newman's Theology & Philosophy, but about Newman's writing as a whole. 

This limerick screams 'disenchanted freshman.' Can't you just picture it? Sitting in a lecture hall, listening to a professor wax intellectual about something you have absolutely no interest in. No? Well, I don't believe you. Everyone's had that one subject (or author/or theme) that they just could not get into. Mine was Mathematics (oh, how I wish that wasn't the case), but I am, and have always been, an Art geek. If I ever become famous, the possibility of Algebra books emerging with Eric Mowery artwork scribbled throughout remains great. 

A 'Firing Squad' of A Good Time!

"Oh, Hello. I didn't hear you come in. No, it's okay, I wasn't doing anything important...just sittin' here, reading the latest issue of Famous Executions. What? You missed the previous issue? Put down what you're doing and go read it, right now! The vintage article on witch burning is absolutely stunning; albeit, the lead-in--a short essay by Cotton Mather--was a bit, well, bland to say the least."



I'm now of the understanding that when my grandparents/parents/elders complained of my violence-dominated culture, they were just ignorant or ashamed of their own.

WWSD?

My friend, Laura, tells this great story about meeting Leonard Nimoy at a Convention and breaking down into hysterics. It would be a first-rate calamity to try and recreate this story, but I hold out the hope that if Mr. Nimoy releases another autobiography he may decide to mention her in one of the chapters. I'm sure he's spent years dealing with rabid fans; however, if Laura's re-creation was accurate, her 'fit' would lend itself well to a chapter about the goings on of the sci-fi convention circuit.

I'm not a big Star Trek fan, by any means, but I absolutely love the affect it has on its fans. Fan fiction, zines, conventions, Star Wars rivalries...fans fully embraced Trekdom and made it their own.

Take today's item, for example.

Vulcan Reflections contains essays about Spock originally published in Spockanalia.

Spockanalia. That's not a typo.

Haven't We Met Before?

 This, I believe, is not a shock to anyone who's a fan of Frank Kelly Freas' artwork or Queen albums, but I enjoy pointing these things out. I look at so many items daily, so it's nice to recognize and immediately know where you've seen it before. In my head, I imagine one of the Queen members saying, "You know what we should do for a cover? I have this really great issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and it's got this crazy robot on the front. We should use that!" 

It means that the members of Queen were into Science Fiction, and, subsequently, helped promote the genre. And, again, please recall my use of the word 'imagine' earlier, because I really don't know what I'm talking about. I just really like this cover.