With a Little Embalming Fluid Under the Hood
Built by Barris
Kustom Kars, the
Munster Koach was
made from three
Model T bodies,
coming to a
whopping 18 ft long.
To accommodate
the five members of
the Munster Family
– and meet their
specific
requirements
(there, that’s a nice
way of putting it) –
Barris used a 133
inch frame and a
1927 Model T fiberglass body was grafted into a six door touring roadster. Each family member had their very own compartment, including a laboratory for Grandmpa Munster and a handsome cab rumble seat for Eddie.
The brass radiator and fenders were hand-formed, the velvet interior a suiting “blood red,” the paint-job was done in a Black Pearl Gloss so glossy its stunning sheen could be understood even in black-and-black film, and in 1964, it cost a mere $18,000 to build.
And despite its life meant for studio lots, the Munster Koach was built for power, boasting a 289 Ford Cobra Engine from a 1966 Mustang GT, Jahns high performance pistons, ten chrome plated Stromberg carburators, an Isky cam, and a set of Bobby Barr racing headers. The Munster Mobile reached a top speed of 150 mph (0-45 in 7.2 seconds; 0-60 in 10 seconds; 0-80 in 15.4 seconds), and got three miles to the gallon of embalming fluid.
Link: AACA–The Munsters | Munster Coach
Color Me Little Girly
How was it that Gilding’s mother once put it? Oh, that’s right — that Gilding should have been born a Tommy not a Tami. Now, don’t go conjuring images of a tomboy Gilding; she was and is far from that. Huge breasts and a lack of desire to wear guys pants thrawted that design. Rather, Mommy Gilding has never quite been able to cope with her daughter’s rather open, at times detached, view on sex. Couple that with her ideology that there are just as many girls as there are guys on the list of “Do Not Leave in the Room Alone with Her”. Gilding is quite faithfully a devoted and loyal wife, but given an open ticket — Brittney Spears wouldn’t be safe. Wait, check that. She’s been with K-Fed; who knows what’s coming home with that one. Anyhoo, you get the picture.
But somewhere deep inside, even the jaded Gilding can admit that are a few (very few) little girl things that she would love to have — just this side of frufru minus the urge to puke. Dutch designer Tineke Beunders When I Was Small is one of those things. Presenting this month at the Design Academy Eindenhoven graduate show is a suite of scaled-up doll house furniture and objects. The range includes a coathanger made of a giant paperclip and a dressing table with hinges resembling oversized nails. The dressing table is a full-size scale in the formal idiom of a doll’s house, with rounded forms, unusual proportions, and a green shalacked coating. A plethoric design meant to exude fantasy and whimsy as much as reverie and revelry.
Link: dezeen
Gilding the Ill Lily
Gilding has found herself so ill of her life of lately. Seems so selfish in a world of chaos, yet she can’t stop the postulations that the world is always in chaos, therefore, to reflect on one’s own life and lack of wants and overabundance of personally perscribed ills is a forgivable selfishness. Perhaps it is not in finding the woes in one’s own life that is the sin, but allowing those woes to influence selfish denial in the face of others woes. Gilding is not at the point — at least she doesn’t think she is, and none have pervailed of screaming to the heavens and all who would listen that she is a bitch among bitches, which in and of itself is an indication to Gilding’s feelings of ill in her life. What is life is Gilding isn’t being bitchy? Down-right fucking blah. Just blah — no true emotions of one way or the other.
Perhaps it is the downward spiral of recession that brings Gilding these feelings of grey. Certainly it this recession that meets Gilding with poor odds of obtaining a Small Business Loan. It is this recession that keeps Gilding’s pay rate at such a minimal (to puny proportions) as budget cuts and lack of funding for Florida’s education system prevents any possibility of a raise in the near future. A much needed raise, by the way, for Gilding to qualify for even the most meager of loans. Which is also preventing Gilding from moving out of the temporary abode that she and Mr. Gilding moved into while waiting for moving plans to finalize in Gainseville, where they were to attend the University of Florida. Though any who read this blog knows that that did not happen because budget cuts have restricted Universities across the state from accepting transfer students. And don’t even get Gilding started on how inadequate “handicap accessible” requirements for apartments falls far short from being wheelchair accessible, making living in an apartment for Mr. Gilding nearly impossible. Yet the temporary home we live in isn’t accessible at all either. Its only perk is that it comes free of rent and bills allowing the Gilded Duo to save money for their future endeavors of someday finding a place to move to. And God bless the generosity of family, but living with them doesn’t make liking them any easier.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, but certainly not the worst of it. For it is not the above mentioned that really has Gilding feeling grey. Sure, they play a part, but merely they are the symptoms of consequence that are otherwise endurable. Afterall, recession doesn’t equal depression — well, of the economic proportions…just yet.
No, the greyest of Gilding’s woes is the lacking. The lacking of real desire to craft or create art. Not that ideas have been lacking — oh, far from it. Ideas have been abounding. Gilding just hasn’t had the desire to move forth, to produce, to revel in the glue and grime and paint and messiness of art and craft. Nor has she had the desire to write — not her novels and not this blog.
And as for the blog — usually a font of randomness of all sorts — has suffered from nothing-is-interesting-enough-to-write-about-itis. Seriously, how in a world of such choas, of such idea producing times, does everything seem so trite, contrived, and quite frankly aready thought of. Like regurgitating the same old shit. It is said that nothing is an original idea anymore, but at the least fresh eyes were capable of seeing it in new ways. Gilding hasn’t felt that way about anything she has read or seen of lately. So why write about it? If its not interesting enough to excite reading about it why the fuck would she want to right about it.
Its a sign of sad times when Gilding finds playing Neopets more exciting and interesting than spreading her rantings of a mad woman over the interweb. Oh, by the way, Gilding’s Neopet is a Xweetock. She’s totally, pathetically cute.
Cartooning the Adult Penchant for Diarrhea of the Mouth
The new anthology “Explainers,” which gathers all of Jules Feiffer’s Village Voice strips from 1956 to 1966 is a reintroduction to Feiffer’s basic scheme — to mine the humor of social and political blather; to show, in a funny way, how people talk but never connect.
His neurotic characters yammer on and on, their diarrhea of the mouth part of the fun. This strip is an elaborate back and forth between cat and mouse about established mores, class systems and man’s paternalism toward animals.
A Matchmaker of Ghoulish Proportions
Beginning as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which revelers felt a special closeness with dead relatives and friends, Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic, and superstition. Tricks and treats were left about to help these friendly spirits find their way back to the spirit world.
But many superstition of Halloweed were not focused on the dead, but on the living. And no so sinister as today’s tricks or treats. In particular, many of the superstitions had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands.
In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.
Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.
But let’s not forget all about our ghosts. Of course not. For who do you think would providing this romantic advice. So, for all you romantic revelers out their looking for your one true love, don’t forget to ask your friendly, face-tearing, eyeball gouging ghouly this Halloween.
Link:
History.com
The Coinage Conspiracy
A close friend of Gilding’s is currently working on this project in Austin, Texas, which causes rise to some interesting — and appropriate — debate given the current political changes undergoing in America.
The U.S. Mint is
spending about $12
million on a pilot project
to promote the
presidential dollar coin. The idea of changing American currency from paper to coin has been flirted with several times over the past decade or so, especially when the Euro came out and for the first time set the value of American currency to an equal worth of another country’s. Remeber, it was Nixon who changed the American dollar to currency, but even when the dollar was worth a dollar, it was still worth more than any other countrys’.
The Mint this time is trying to appeal to Americans’ duty to protect the environment — a rather brilliant ploy given the current craze to be eco-friendly. Did you know that America currently has more forest per capita than it did when surveying of the forestry available first started via Roosevelt’s presidency. Yep, we’ve been a plantin’ and protectin’ ever since then and have managed to increase the amount of forest grown in the good ole’ U.S. of A. We just prefer to deforest other countries. But that’s for them to worry about (if you didn’t note the sarcasm in that last little bit, then stop reading. Seriously. This blog isn’t for you.)
This eco-concious campaign stresses that coins last longer than dollar bills, are recyclable, and could save tax money if more people used them. Like that last part there — the could save tax money if more people used them. It’s good to see the government placing more power in the people’s hands. Sort that ole’ ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. People have forgotten all too easily that its not the people that should fear their government, its the government that should fear their people. Ok, seriously, that’s enough of them. Gilding promises not to use another quote in her next paragraph…the one after that? Meh, no guarentees.
Anyhoo, the coins distribution will be starting in four cities — Austin, Charlotte, Grand Rapids, and Portland — and if successful may be expanded to a city near you. You can read more in this USA Today article.
But even more interesting about the coin is what Angry Midwesterner of The 12 Angry Men Blog pointed out in his Conspiracy Theory of the Moment ™. As he puts it (‘cuz this was just hilarious):
I was dismayed, however, to find that there was something very sinister about the new dollar coins, a purposeful omission which suggests a dark and shady conspiracy the likes of which the world has never known…If you look closely you will notice that the word “Liberty” does not appear anywhere on the coin in question…Every coin prior to the new one dollar coin has borne the word “Liberty”, and rightfully so—the ideal of Liberty is at the core of the American belief system and is the foundation upon which the documents which define our country are built.
Quite an interesting thing to leave out, U.S. Mint. And in a time where one candidate elect refuses to pledge allegiance to the flag — to the symbol and voice of our country, and the other candidate elect who should be the epitome of the American ideal given his military background and service to this country yet shies away from addressing the issues with name calling of his opponent. Bad timing to leave this one detail out of the one thing that circulates throughout all other countries of the world at some point or other. Great way to show our nation stands divided.
Oh, and you should finish reading Angry Midwesterner’s post. He ends off with a Ben Franklin quote. Hmm…a man who quotes Franklin — Gilding might be in bloggie adoration…Nah, she’d have to like people for that one to happen.
Link: USA Today | The 12 Angry Men Blog
Editor’s Note:
Gilding misspoke in her original post that Obama will not pledge his allegience to the flag. Gilding was making reference to this picture in which he was photographed not standing with hand over heart. Upon further reading, it appears that the national anthem (though while still appropriate to stand to attention too) was at play and not the recitation of the pledge of allegiance. Perhaps she could have found a better example to run with, and she probably should have. She could also could have gone back into her post and erased that little tidbit but she prefers to show that she, like anyone else, can make an ignorant mistake, only she is willing to admit it.
Make no mistake by believing that Gilding thinks Obama is the antichrist or that he is a Muslim here to destroy us all for thinking so would simply be ludicrous and ridiculous. Gilding thinks quite the opposite, in fact. While Gilding does not believe that this term should be Obama’s presidency, she is not against it. Rather she believes that should Obama win the presidency (as all current polls are favoring) he will run into the same problems that the Carter administration ran into. Remember that Carter, like Obama, was a fairly new upstart in the political arena, was charismatic and won the presidency because the public overwhelmingly liked him and for the electoral college to vote against it would have been their own political suicide. However, the Congress did not like nor did they respect him and Carter met with objection over objection to every bill he proposed. Nothing got done in the Carter administration (certainly not all the things his running platform promised too) not because of his shortcomings but because Congress was obstinant to him in every way because he challenged their own authority as most of Congress had several years under their belt compared to him. Carter was seen as a radical that needed to be tempered and for no good reason. Even by his own party. Gilding fears that Obama will run into this same problem.
On the other side of the coin. McCain hasn’t gone so far as to impress Gilding either. His petty turn to name calling rather than focusing on the issues at hand pisses her off. However, from the upstart Gilding has felt that McCain backs his policy plan for the economy at a more realistic level while Obama is running with the fact that he’s winning and instead speaks of his plan in glorified ambiguities. Simply speaking, his plan draws on the use of funds that simply aren’t there and continues to cut more funding when there isn’t more to be cut without cutting the Federal level off at the knees. Gilding is and quite frankly always has been more of a supporter of State’s rights over that of Federal control. More power should be given to the people via their state because, let’s face it, not every state has the same needs or the same demographic and therefore to try to federally regulate them as such only looks shortsidedly at each state’s problems and lumps them together for one large piture with no true resolution and only more pitfall side effects. The No Child Left Behind campaign shows that. But the Federal government can’t operate on nothing, and it won’t let that happen either. Obama knows that and that is why he speaks of his plan in ambiguous terms. He speaks of cutting taxes for 95% of American’s but does not speak of from where. If truth be told 95% of Americans’ don’t pay income tax so it can be reasonably deduced that this is the percentage that he really speaks of and is successfully floating on the fact that he is saying without really saying what the American people want to hear.
Both candidates have their strong points and both have their faults. Gilding is an Obama supporter — but for the future. In the current crisis that we are in, we need a President that Congress will work with and respect and Gilding just doesn’t see that happening for Obama yet. Give him a few years as a Senator, to earn the pocket friendships in Congress and be the forerunner to some major political policies and then let him take the seat of President.
However, in the longrun, Gilding does not begrudge Obama winning the Presidency. She only hopes his political policies once winning will be better laid out than the ambiguities he is currently floating with.
Thanks to WithcyBitch for pointing out Gilding’s fast tongue.
A Punk Knit Crew
Who says its not punk rock to knit. Get your punk on with designer inspired patterns for the non-conformist knitter. The book is full of patterns for punks, goths, and fans of iconic designers like Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano and other punk legends. Patterns include arm-wamers, mini skirts, and even a clone of the Mohawk hat worn by Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore.
Link: CraftyCrafty | Amazon
Pleasurecrafting
This is probably well worth the corny — or is that horny. Hmmm…they’re probably mutually exlusive. Anyhoo, the creation of collaboration between Marisa Jahn and Steve Shada, the Pleasurecraft is a kit designed to get even the klumsiest klutz laid. This vehicular kit choreographs gesture and landscape to produce an outting full of romance. Outfitted with luxurious pillows, champagne cooler, and easy-to-use instructions complete in the operator’s manual. Pictures indicate what to do next — comb the moustache, don the bowtie, bust out the Tic Tacs and uncork the champagne. Hmmm…wonder if the instructions come complete with Kama Sutra. Nothing worse than a klutz flubbing up his chance at hot sex by shoving it in the wrong hole — or at least an unprepared one.
The Pleasurecraft also takes care of the problem of uncoordinated music and flip-floppy paddle coordination with a built-in water-wheel that is callibrated to the RPM of the River Seine and a Grampohone.
on a more artistic level, the Pleasurecraft questions the human agency in constructing the pictoral imaginary and an ethnographic examination of our species’ mating rituals.
Seems like a whole lotta hooplah for getting some. But even Gilding has to admit, it’s kinda sweet on the comical side. Mr. Gilding would be rewarded for such a play at Gilding’s panties. Then again, he’s just romantically sappy enough to try it. Guess Gilding’s getting a Pleasurecraft for Christmas. Stay tuned for her update on just how luxurious those pillows are .^_~.
M.I.S.S. INSA all tied up
What could be better than bondage and fabulously hot high heels? Uh, the sex that comes afterwards, duh. Anyhoo, this somkin’ hot spread is of last months INSA release of high heels in collaboration with designer Ruth Shaw. M.I.S.S. created the editorial spread featuring these INSA heels bondaged up for a series of shots exploring the world of “Le Rétifisme d’Insa” or “The Shoe Fetish of INSA”.
Via: nitro:licious
Like a 1970′s slasher film, only slightly more fashionable
Just in time for Halloween, nights tucked away with a Laurell K. Hamilton book from the Anita Blake series, pathetically watching TrueBlood with its countless list of horrible actors or reading the actually decent books that they are based on from Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series, or for some friekishly fiendly foreplay and all those other some such scenarios not mentioned but certainly being done. Creepily perfect this month, and Gilding’s current mood, though Mr. Gilding has made it a point to stress that stabbing someone in the jugular for being stupid is a crime, the tour de cou sanglant, or bloody necklace, is but a small demonstration of some of the stunning pieces of jewelry and whatnots created by La Fille du Consul, so make sure to browse around.
As for Gilding’s earlier disdain for HBO’s new series TrueBlood, it wasn’t entirely fair. Gilding guiltily admits watching it; watching B-rate horror flicks has always been a beloved guilty pleasure while having to do the grown up thing and clean the house. And she’s rather fond of that Tara character. She’s a bitch, and a sarcastic sassy damaged one at that.
And while we’re on the subject of otherwise emo jewelry, be sure to pick this up for the emo in your life this Christmas. Bloodshot consists of an etched lucite razor pendant with a ruby red swarvoski crystal drop (seriously, because your emo addled loved one doesn’t have to be a cheapass) and two gothic crosses on a sterling silver chain. And depending on your preference of vampire lore, make sure your loved one isn’t the undead of the stink of burning flesh under the silver chain will most definitely ruin turkey dinner.
Link:
La Fille du Consul | sassisam
Via: trend de la creme
Beetle-Mania
Gilding may have developed a newfound fondness for a member of the rodentia family (namely her recently acquired hamster, Hamtardo — er, Hamtaro), but nothing in this Earth could get her to care for, let alone let in her house, one of these fuckers.
Capitalizing on Columbia’s belated efforts to promote the legal exploitation of its biodiversity, German Viasus of Tunja, Columbia, has made an entrepreneurial living of exporting exotic types of insects (shown with some of his Hercules beetles) to Japan, where beetle-mania is apparently sweeping these shiny hard-shell plated hamster sized creepy-crawlies of ickiness.
Link:
Columbia Cashes in on Beetle-Mania
Casa Per Tutti–The House for Everyone
Designed Prototype
built for the 2008
Architecture Triennale
in Milan, Italy, Casa Per
Tutti, was concieved by
its designers, I-Beam,
as a transitional shelter
for refugees returning to
Kosovo. There was a
need for an alternative
shelter to the typical tent
solution that could
easily realize a solution
to the problem of
housing the displaced
that could then be transformed affordably and easily into a permanent home. The home even realizes its potential as a modular, prefabricated solution to affordable housing. The principal building material is the wooden shipping pallets which are versatile, recyclable, sustainable, easily assembled, and inexpensive.
The evolution of one 16′
by 16′ shelter into a
permanent home
requires approximately
100 palettes nailed or
strapped together and
lifted into place. Tarps
draped over the basic
structure or plastic
corrugated sheets
prevent water
penetration until
enough debris, stone,
mud, earth, wood,
corrugated metal or any
other materials from the immediate surroundings can be gathered to fill the wall cavities and cover the roof. Pallets may be pre-assembled with styrofoam insulation, vapor barrier, plywood or corrugated sheathing prior to shipping. As infrastructure is restored and cement or other materials become available the filled pallets can be covered with stucco, plaster, or roofing tiles transforming the makeshift shelter into a permanent home within a year or two. Consequently, the Pallet House adapts to almost every climate on earth and the basic structure can be built in less than a week for under $3000.
No need for a temporary refugee shelter or inexpensively adaptable natural home? How about building one of these for that childrens playhouse your kids (or in Gilding’s case, nieces & nephews) keep giving you puppy-dog eyes for. Go to your nearest Walmart or Home Depot or some such other capitalistic bane to American economic society and they stack the pallets up outside to be taken for free. Some nails, plastic rain tarps, and imagination and your kid can have one kick-ass playhouse. Build it tall enough and Mommy and Daddy have a naughty playroom when the kids go to bed .^_~.
Oh, by the way, this wasn’t the only design. There are a few others; all using shipping pallets. Clicking on the arrows above the pictures allows you to scroll through more images of that particular design and most give you a full 360 of the structure.
Link:
I-Beam
Cute Enough for a Hamster Kingdom…or that rodent you call a child
The toys on Leafty are as sickeningly sweet as syruppy molasses. Seriously. Gilding has an overwhelming desire to buy every damn one of them and litter her new hamsters’ kingdom with them so he has adorably sweet friends to gnaw on. Oh, yeah, Gilding got a hamster, by the way, and his name is Hamtaro. Yeah, original, she knows. But he looks and acts just like Hamtaro it seemed inescapable. But to beefcake him up a bit we call him Hammy for short. And somehow, Gilding came into posession of the little furball that was supposed to be for her nieces and she still hasn’t quite figured out how it was deemed that the little runt would be leaving with her when she moves, but some devious plan by Mr. Gilding and his brother has landed the little thing in Gilding’s lap and now she finds herself buying the thing toys this very afternoon, in fact.
Oh, yeah, which brings her to Leafty’s toys. Have you checked them out yet. Vomit inducing cuteness aren’t they. Gah, even their creators are a bundle of cuteness, D.Platypus and Cocoakoala. Gilding hasn’t had enough coffee to deal with this and yet here she is writing about them. But that was probably self evident in her glee at having her hamster gnaw on them. That, and she actually likes the little furball. Hard to believe, she knows. More coffee please.
Anyhoo, the Leafty toys are an abundantly growing foray of creatures that live in the Inki Forest. From peoples to plants to rodents there are enough little creatures to make a fairly sizeable collection of them, or keep one said fluffy rodent cousin from boredom.
Link:
Leafty
A chair you can really sink your ass into
And the fork ran away with the spoon. Er…make that melted into the spoon. Sorry, Gilding’s ass is just that hot .^_~.
A chair to serve up that heaping helping of a fat ass of yours while the fork tines around your hair like spaghetti noodles. If this chair doesn’t convince you to run a mile on that eliptical machine every day, then… join the club. Gilding rather likes sitting her plump ass on a pedestal so why not go ahead and offer it up as the meal that it is. The pedastal needed back support anyways.
Link: Spellbound Statues
The Desert Rose of this Christmas Holiday
The Field of Light” installation, consisting of 6,000 acrylic tubes containing optical fibres, is the newest brainchild of Lighting designer, Bruce Munro. To be presented this winter at the Eden Project in Cornwall this winter, this iconic sculpture will be installed on the gras roof of the visitor’s center between the Rainforest and Mediterranean Biomes from November 1st through to Spring 2009.
So what makes this scultpure iconic. Gilding can only surmise it is from the artist’s statement; that this Field of Lights is inspired by the way the desert flowers after a rainstorm. Perhaps th sheer undertaking of the projects abstract representation of a fathomless beauty of nature. Perhaps its just his biggest project.
Ok, perhaps Gilding’s sour mood is peppering this boisterous statement of iconography, but come on–the sculpture’s pretty and all, but iconic? In these times shouldn’t we seeking more out of our iconography. Oh well, at least it is art and not some teeny-bob pop tartlet–er, starlet.
Anyhoo, the sculpture first came to public attention in its scaled down exhibition in the Pirelli Garden in 2004. Field of Light combines surrealism with a passion of nature, finding itself realized some 15 years after Munro first drew its sketches as he traveled the red desert in the barren outback of Australia. Transfixed by the transformation from barren sands to lush oasis after the rains when dormant seeds would bloom and the desert would be teeming with life, the series of sketches refused to leave his mind and thus became the natural subject for his illuminated sculpture. Like the dormant seeds of life in the desert, the fibre optic stems lie dormant during the day and then become gentle rythms of illuminated light after darkness falls.
The Field of Light will be the Eden Projects dramatic backdrop during its Winter Season in which the park is transformed into a winter wonderland for the Christmas holiday.
Link:
dezeen
