Goodbye White Fang, Black Tooth & Soupy Sales

SOUPY SALES

January 8, 1926 - October 22,2009


Milton Supman (professional name Milton Hines) - more famously known as Soupy Sales - has passed away at the age of 83.

Soupy Sales was a regular visitor to my house when I was a kid. My siblings and I watched his show all the time and I remember first hand some of the stunts he pulled that later became legend (and a bit infamous.) I loved White Fang, which was basically just a big white furry paw - you never saw the rest of White Fang - who threw pies at Soupy. Black Tooth was the same only black and female and she gave Soupy big wet kisses.

His most famous stunt was the time he told the kids in his audience to sneak into their parents bedroom, rummage through their wallets or pants, take out a dollar (which he described as, "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents") and mail it to him. He then told the kids that they would get a postcard from him from Puerto Rico for it. The dollars started rolling in, Soupy tried to explain to the angry parents complaining that it was a joke and the money would be donated to charity, but he was suspended from the show for two weeks. When kids started picketing Channel 5-WNEW it just served to increase Soupy's popularity.

Of course, we've all heard about the "topless dancer behind the door" stunt his crew pulled on him. Remember he would open a door on the set to reveal a celebrity guest or just an arm he would joke with? Well, to Soupy's surprise, his crew once positioned a topless dancer behind the door during the live broadcast (out of range of the show camera but covered with a few strategic balloons).

I didn't find out he had a Twitter account until I read the news of his death - I certainly would have followed him. One of his last tweets was, "Did you kids catch me at the Oscar ceremony last Sunday? Neither did security! KAPOW!" Typical Soupy humor.

Goodbye Soupy, thanks for all the laughs.

Lunch with Soupy, 1959: THE TOPLESS DANCER INCIDENT:

Soupy, White Fang & Pookie:



Soupy talks about those "green pieces of paper":


Read more about Soupy Sales at Wikipedia

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THIRTEEN STUPID CLICHES - Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Thirteen Cliches That REALLY Irritate Me
Sorry, but it's been a really hard week and I'm madder than a hatter, grumpier than an injured mama bear and angrier than a hornet's nest.

(Please indulge me a bit this week in this rant. Yesterday I lost another very dear friend to the evil of cancer and I'm feeling a bit like life is cruel and unfair. My friend battled this disease so bravely for the last several years, always keeping her spirits up and even making plans to help others in the same situation.

Kathy was an extremely talented artisan, a great person to have as a friend and I am feeling the loss of her presence greatly today.)

1. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. B*ll Sh*t! Imitation is simply another person stealing from you because they are too boring or lazy to think for themselves.
2. A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned. A penny isn't even worth a penny in this world anymore and usually a penny earned is spent on rent or food before it will ever see a savings account.
3. When God closes a door he opens a window. Great - does he want me to jump out that window after he slammed the door in my face?
4. Money doesn't buy happiness. Believe me, not having money will not buy you happiness a lot faster!
5. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe - but if I die before I find out the reason what difference does it make? And just because there's a reason doesn't mean I have to like it any better!
6. No one buys the cow if they get the milk for free. Holy Crap, no one buys the cow these days anyway - with the divorce rate it's more like a short term lease. Oh, and I am not fond of being compared to a cow.
7. This hurts me more than it hurts you. You know, if you're hurting me I don't really care how you feel but if it does then GOOD!
8. God never gives you more than you can handle. Then why are there so many people babbling in rubber rooms?
9. Better late than never. Next time the ambulance gets to your house late while you're having a stroke or a heart attack I'll be happy to repeat that to you - unless you died before they get there.
10. Good things come to those who wait. Honestly, I don't have the patience for this.
11. Two heads are better than one. What? On a circus geek? And I'll bet they disagree with each other.
12. This too shall pass. Really? And what good does that do me NOW?
    
13. You'll Survive. Guess what, in the end none of us survive!

Whew. I feel so much better now.

Happy Thursday Thirteen

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MEET THE POP ART DIVAS - Original Pop Art Paintings by Pop Art Diva

I have started painting "real world" again! For the last few years I've concentrated mostly on digital art such as my illustrations, product designs and graphics and I found myself missing the enjoyment of actually moving paint around with a brush.

I wanted to do something that I could paint in my somewhat limited spare time and decided to do a series of miniature original art works called The Pop Art Divas - a style of retro sixties style pop art cartooning that I love to do. I'm doing these as a series of women's faces with a kind of Cirque du Soleil inspiration.

Read more about them and what they are and how I create them at The Original Art of Pop Art Diva.

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13 SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN PARTY RECIPES

Halloween is just two weeks away so this week I'm posting my 13 favorite Halloween Recipes from The Martini Diva and The Diva of Tiny Foods - these are the cocktails and appetizers I would serve at my own Halloween Party:

1. The Slimy Eyeball Martini - How can you not love something you can stick an eyeball in for a garnish??
   
2. The Smashed Pumpkin Martini - this martini actually tastes like pumpkin pie!
3. The Nose Picker Martini - Yes, it's a really good tasting coconut, banana, melon martini but, guys, my favorite part is the name - be good little goblins and drink you boogers, LOL!
4. The Count's Bloodtini - This is a tomato based martini that really tastes good and it looks like you're drinking blood - perfect for the vampire lovers out there!
5. The Jack-O-Lantern Martini - This is one of my favorite martinis - all the rest of the year I call it the Orange Julius Martini but, hey, it's Halloween so toss in a Pumpkin Peep and get your ghoul on.
6. The Spider and Snake Martini - Come on, how can you not love a martini made with Blavod Black Vodka and garnished with gummy worms and spiders?
7. Mad Science Soup Tubes - This is such a fun food - it's basically cold gazpacho soup BUT the kicker is you serve it up in test tubes and display them in a bucket with dry ice - so fun and so tasty!
8. Nose Booger Pickers - Eeeuuww - such a gruesome name for simple grissini (skinny bread sticks) dipped in green colored cheese - they go great with the Nose Picker Martini!
9. Worms in Black Ooze - A gory name for a really delish black bean dip - the worms? chow mien noodles!!! Oh, this one is just fun!
10. Cheezy Finger Food - Yup, cheese molded into severed fingers, hope you're not queasy!
11. Eerie Eyeball Eats - These look like eyeballs but they're tasty mozzarella and olive appetizers.
12. Oh, Dem Bones, Dem Bones - Tender and tasty bone shaped bread sticks - great alone or for dipping with #13.
13. Slimy Green Goo - Spinach Dip, what else? Serve it up in a hollowed out gourd for added holiday flavor.

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John Lennon Remembered - Birthday Memorial

"When The Music's Over" copyright by PopArtDiva.com

Today would have been John Lennon's 69th birthday. John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool on October 9th, 1940 to Julia and Alfred Lennon. He was named after his paternal grandfather, John Lennon and Winston Churchill.

Did you know that John was born during a German Air Raid on London? Another little bit of trivia - Elton John is the godfather of his son Sean Lennon.

Happy Birthday, John - I hope you have achieved the Peace you so badly wanted for the world.
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OLD SCHOOL FRIDAY MEME

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre;
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999;
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version;
4. Post no more than 2 videos of your favorite old school song to take us back down memory lane;
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out;
6. Have fun and don’t forget to leave comments for other participants!

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THIRTEEN LESSONS FOR NEW CAT OWNERS - You poor saps.

1. I no longer have the glass plate from my microwave - I had just washed it, set it on the counter, got interrupted and Tink knocked it to the floor - bye bye microwave plate. Lesson #1 - don't leave anything breakable near the counter edge.
2. A gold bracelet has gone missing. Tink discovered my jewelry box when I accidentally left the lid up. Lesson #2 - Always shut the jewelry box or buy only cheap costume jewelry.
3. I went to the store for groceries. I came home and found my freshly baked banana bread full of little bite holes and the butter licked down to the plate. Lesson #3 - Don't leave the house without putting food somewhere cats can't get to it.
4. Tink has developed a fondness for my little mini paper umbrellas on the bar. Lesson #4 - Don't tease a cat with little paper umbrellas that make crinkly noises and open and close.
5. Tink is fond of dark places and hiding where I can't find him. Lesson #5 - shut all closet and cupboard doors and put a brick on all floor vents! (Yup, he yanked one up and crawled in!)
6. Tink got into my art drawer where I keep various and sundry goodies. He bit into a tube of super glue. After you quit laughing please remember Lesson #6 - Cats look really funny with paper clips, eraser nubs and stamps stuck on their faces but sooner or later you have to get them off. You will not look funny with all the scratches and puncture holes on your hands and arms that will result from this truly agonizing exercise.
7. Don't think your cat is just laying there being lazy as it watches you go about your daily routine. Your cat is watching every move you make and calculating more mischief. Lesson #7 - Once your cat learns how to open the screen door by himself you will never be able to get a nice breeze from that direction again without bungee cords and locks being installed.
8. I've lost three rolls of toilet paper because I was stupid enough to let the cat in the bathroom with me. Lesson #8 - Never let a cat even see a roll of toilet paper, you can also buy a toilet paper protector and struggle with the contraption every time you have to pee. Or just give up and put the damn roll in a drawer for the remainder of the cat's life.
9. Lesson #9 - Cats don't do tricks and don't kid yourself into thinking they do - you'll waste a ton of kitty treats and when you try to get them to do the trick to show off they'll ignore you, twitch their tail, lay down and lick various parts of their bodies just to make you look stupid.
10. Lesson #10 - Twitter is not the cousin of Tweetie - Cats are no good at twitter and can get you banned as a spammer. Close your laptop or at least disable your internet connection if you're leaving the cat loose while you're not at the keyboard. You don't want to know what Tink managed to paw up in under 140 characters - people on Twitter now think I'm a total moron.
11. Wanna keep your toes out of danger when getting in and out of bed? Lesson #11 - It is wise to stuff old suitcases, storage boxes and whatever else you can under your bed unless you like being a moving toe target for your cat playing guerrilla warfare from under the bed.
12. $300 Crystal Ice Buckets and rambunctious cats do not mix. Lesson #12 - Cat proof your house. Put important, expensive and breakable objects away or "Quakehold" or strap them down. Put your great-grandma's hand knitted afghan away in storage, hide your Manolo Blahniks and Jimmy Choos. Whatever you cherish hide until the cat is so fat or so old they don't care about shredding or bouncing them off the floor anymore.
13. Lesson #13 is really simple. Here Kitty, Look! Bacon Toes! is a REALLY STUPID GAME.

To show how my psyche has been affected by being the proud owner of a truly psychotic feline that is possibly devil spawn, here is a little sketch that I started out trying to make into a cute little kitty for a line of cute little kitty drawings. I may never be able to draw a cute little kitty ever again:

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13 Things I love about HALLOWEEN

On October 1st I get out my purple and orange twinkle lights, my jack-o-lanterns and witch decorations and my Halloween spirit. So, since today is October 1st I'm doing my Thursday Thirteen on Halloween!

• THIRTEEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HALLOWEEN
• Candy - I especially love those peanut butter and molasses kisses that come wrapped in black and orange wax paper - you know the ones that pull out your fillings? Love 'em!
• I love the fact that Halloween comes at my favorite time of year - Fall. I love the crisp air, cooler days and cold nights where you finally get to add lots of blankets and feel all safe and secure under that weight!
• I love the falling leaves and the color of the falling leaves - I even did a Nature Design for my Taking Care of Business Store based on these fall leaves - these are a redhead's palette for sure!
• I love going into the stores and seeing all the Halloween merchandise - the tacky, paper thin costumes, the aisles and aisles of trick or treat buckets, face paint, fright wigs and talking skeletons.

• I love Halloween parties - I love the special spooky lighting and fake cobwebs and silly witch decorations.
• I love fog machines - these come out in large numbers for Halloween - I love fake fog, it's so cool and I can imagine if we'd had that when I was a kid what I could have done with it to add mood to my Halloween parties.
• I love those cheesy motion activated boo machines and moving spooky figures that really do take you by surprise when you pass by them in a store or on someone's doorstep.
• I love black and orange jelly beans.

• I REALLY LOVE POPCORN BALLS! For some reason I only make them at Halloween.
• I also love caramel apples but I admit I do make those at times other than Halloween - I've even bought those caramel apple charms suckers (which aren't half bad, btw, if they're still out there).
• I love planning my Halloween costume. Most years I start even before October because my costume is always a big production for me and includes special design and custom sewing.

• I love getting out my huge box of face paint, rubber appliances (for fake scars, noses, etc), my bottle of gum spirits, my jar of flat bottomed crystals that I glue to my face each year, my hair tinting sprays - the whole "transformation tricks" box.
• I love that for one night I get to be a completely different entity - whatever I've chosen that year is who I am until the Witching Hour and it's always a treat to leave boring old me behind for a few magic hours of make believe.

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"FLOOZY" HAS MORE STYLE THAN "HO"

PORTRAIT OF A SOILED DOVE

(13 - well 16 actually - Vintage Words for Workin' Girl)
Earlier today I posted a few of my RANTORIUM EMPORIUM images up over at The Brat in the Hat, one of them was the one below called "Retro Ho - there's no floozy like an old floozy!" For some reason this one tickled quite a few of my readers - the mail I got indicated the word "floozy" had touched a cord in my readership, especially those of us categorized as "boomers". One of the comments was from a dear friend and my fellow Boomer Babe, Joyce Mason who commented, "Ho-ly cow! Tim and I love the word "floozy. . . ."

I am very fond of the word "floozy", it has a certain caché all it's own, lol. In fact, I have a little story about that word and how it started one of the silliest and biggest belly-laughing conversations I've ever had which you "floozy" fans might enjoy. After you read it you'll understand my tag line on the image above "there's no floozy like an old floozy.
CONFESSIONS OF A PAST LIFE MADAM
(previously posted on The Road to Diva - slight rewrites were applied here)

A friend and I were enjoying some Cherry Martinis some time back and we got off on the subject of "women of ill repute". Don't ask me how the conversation got around to that subject, we were, after all, well into our third martini at the time.

We were attempting to come up with all the vintage words for "shady ladies" and ended up with this list:

Tramp, Trollop, Strumpet, Floozy, Tart, Jezebel, Hussy, Harlot, Wench, Chippie, Working Girl, Vamp, and Concubine as well as the terms of "soiled dove", "woman of ill repute", "fallen woman" and "shady ladies".

We were laughing and pointing at each other as we called them out. It was totally goofy and totally fun and we were laughing like a couple of mad women at the archaic terms. I suppose we would not place ourselves in any of those categories and, therefore, it was hilarious to fling them at each other.

Afterwards I got to thinking (yes, I know, thinking always gets me into trouble), but I thought, I like those words. They carry a kind of romance that is absent in our present day vernacular, they have a touch of understanding and humor - maybe because of the eras they come from.

In times past there were only so many jobs a woman could take if she had no husband, family or community to support her. Her choices were pretty much limited to being a teacher, a cook, a seamstress, running a boarding house, taking in laundry or become a "fallen woman". If you had no education or money most of those jobs were out of your reach. If you didn't want to starve there was often only one choice. (Read "Soiled Dove Plea"). In today's world we are not so limited, but it is only recent history where that change has occurred.
Had I been born 100 or so years earlier my life would have been a whole different story! If I had the kind of temperament I have in this century I doubt, very sincerely, if I would have become a farmer's wife, a seamstress or a teacher. I cannot see myself plowing a field, I hate to sew and a school room full of kids is not my idea of a great job. Plus, my personality does not lend itself to being good wife material!

I am convinced I would have eventually become a Madam in some Honky-Tonk in one of the "big cities". I like business, I'm pretty sociable, I like to have a drink now and then, I like flashy clothes, I like to paint my face and I like gambling towns. That pretty much points to career in a past life as the proprietor of a house of ill repute. Of course, being the control freak that I am I would have to be the Madam. I am not one to "work in the field", I'm better at giving orders and letting others do the menial tasks!

Picture me in a lavender satin dress, petticoats so large I knock the whiskey glasses off the tables, lots of ostrich feathers, a good amount of rouge (that's blush to you young 'uns out thar!), my hair dyed an electric shade of pinkish red, big bosoms proudly heaving in my decolletage, enjoying a "snort" while my "girls" earn their keep upstairs adding more silver dollars to my coffers!
Madam Diva welcomes you to her establishment, The Fabulous Fallen Females of Fable Falls are here to entertain you! Put yer pistols behind the bar, grab yer girl and commence to pokin . . . . . .and remember, you'll have to put your dollar on the dresser, Dearie, before we drop our drawers!

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Jim Morrison's Infamous Indecent Exposure Arrest - Criminal Records

This week's Old School Friday theme is Criminal Records - I had to think about that for a moment. Nowadays you have to get arrested or you can't sell a CD, let alone tickets to C-note concerts, so coming up with a band or song is a cinch. Of course, I'm Ms. Retro so I was cruisin' through the sixties in my mind for a song or singer with a "criminal record". I'm not even sure this is exactly what the theme means but that's my take on it, lol.

In my day our rock stars were getting arrested too, most of the time for drug convictions - it was the sixties after all - but it was still shocking to a generation slowly creeping out of the uptight fifties. I remember just about every top band or singer being pinched for some substance abuse violation including but not limited to The Stones, The Beatles . . . oh jeez, why bother? Just figure any rock band from the sixties spent some time in the slammer, lol.

When I saw this theme though the very first thought that came to mind was Jim Morrison's (The Doors) arrest for indecent exposure in 1969 in Coconut Grove, Florida. This was sort of the start of a great number of historical and infamous incidents that happened in 1969 - don't forget that was the same year we landed on the moon and invaded a small upstate NY town for a little party called Woodstock - and I remember the incident quite clearly.

I remember being a little shocked - even though by that time I'd been to a couple of his concerts and knew he was what my Mom would have called "wild". OMG, she had no idea, lol. Also keep in mind that Morrison's nicknames were Mr. Mojo Rising and The Lizard King. Still, I was only 5 years out of Kansas and some of the hayseed was still stuck in my hair. For young girls like me part of Morrison's charm - actually a very large part - was his bad boy behavior. The tight black leather jeans and the "poetic soul" didn't hurt either. What is it about those bad boys?

I'm posting my very favorite of The Doors - Light My Fire. It's my favorite because it had a long version and that long version was a perfect length for cruising to and by all our favorite hang outs with the radio blasting. Yup, nothing like a coke and an order of fries from The Freeze while Jim blasts out of the speakers "Come on baby, Light My Fire" Sure Jim, be happy to.



More on Morrison's indecent exposure arrest and episode

POST SCRIPT! Saturday, September 19th, 2009
Thanks to a comment from Pjazzy below I found a video of the actual performance of The Doors on the Ed Sullivan Show where they DIDN'T change the lyrics to Light My Fire.
The Doors are on this video twice - once singing People Are Strange right at the first and then later singing the infamously unchanged Light My Fire.

BTW, you'll also see The Beach Boys and a few other gems of celebrity appearances on this video! Enjoy!

THE DOORS perform People are Strange & Light My Fire on Ed Sullivan


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Revisiting the Carousel Art of my Past - Art does not age

I'm working on formatting one of my Carousel Drawings from the 80s for my new store Carousel Corner. Back then I fell in love with carousels and merry go rounds and did a whole series of colored pencil drawings based on some of the most famous carvings - Dentzel being probably one of the most famous and well known. I recently came back into possession of a lot of my art from years past and when I opened the portfolio and saw the photos I decided to digitally "remaster" them and put them up on a store just for carousels.

Today I'm getting the Lion and Tiger done and will get all my products done for them sometime later today or tomorrow. I already have several of my horse carousel drawings, cats and a carousel rabbit done and on the store on tees, cups, posters and other gear.

These are the most adorable images for children's rooms - not to mention the childlike adults who love carousels. The beautiful carvings done in the 1800s and the early 1900s by carvers like Dentzel, Muller and others were so intricate and just beautifully painted that I kept my drawings pretty faithful to the originals but I have made some "artistic" changes to suit the drawings themselves.

Funny, I never really think of going back in my art life and revisiting it and that's silly. Art is one of the things that never ages, never loses it's value over time and never becomes passe. These drawings are still lovely, whimsical and - if I do say so myself - beautifully drawn.

I guess you can go home again - if you take your crayons with you.