Brazil in the 1960’s: a paradise of cool and suave. The nonchalant sentiment of an age typified by effortless class took musical form in Bossa Nova. Characterized by its smooth beats, cool sensibility, a slight off-tune rhythm, Bossa Nova created a whole culture which valued nothing at all, but simple existence. Singers like Astrud Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim created a form of expression where...

It’s funny how viewing an object can trigger long forgotten memories. Such is the case of the brutalist style wall hanging purchased recently for my vintage shop. Created by Finesse Originals during the 70s, it features a fiberglass rendering of a fisherman pulling his net from the water. The strong jagged lines of the fisherman along with the rugged and dark backdrop of the hanging...

In 1992, I was performing extensively under the stage name Jimmy Ross through Orange and Los Angeles Counties as a solo pianist/vocalist entertainer and occasionally in jazz trio and quartet settings. I had just started a double emphasis graduate program in piano and vocal performance at California State University. I was performing two nights a week across the street from where Diana Krall was performing,...

As a seller of vintage goods, I am fortunate to come upon some wonderful relics of our Mid-Century Modern era, a short lived but incredibly artistic and innovative time period. Many of the companies that produced these goods are no longer in existence, but there is one furniture company that has stood the test of time. That company is Flexsteel out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Flexsteel,...

Kill Your Darlings begins in the early 1940s, with Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) surprising his poet father with the news that he has been accepted into New York’s Columbia University. His mother’s mental issues have forced him to grow up fast but Ginsberg is still unworldly, and a chance meeting with fellow student Lucien Carr opens his eyes to a world of strong drugs, freeform...

The Holiday season is upon us, so it is time to pull out all those swanky and kitschy retro christmas advertisements from the past! These hand drawn illustrations are so awesome. Produced in mid century America they perfectly depicts the happy-go-lucky mentality of those decades. Which one do you like the best? From all of us, to all of you – Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah...

I was five years old when my mom showed me an advertisement for Mattel’s Barbie doll wearing that iconic black and white bathing suit, which had already been out since the late 50s. It was my first memorable exposure and I was immediately taken in by the grown up looking doll. That Christmas I received my first “Barbie,” though I’m pretty sure she was a...