Unexpected crossover: BucKet-Pop

Since my current favourite cartoon Summer Camp Island was removed from streaming services I've been thinking obsessively about shows I love that I don't have any copies of and how I can do my part in digital conservation. This is how I found out that Keeping up Appearances was not only released in the US as an AMAZING cottagecore style design DVD box set complete with tweed pouch and Violet, Daisy and Rose themed seed pouches (!!!) but also that a man I do not know in the Amazon product reviews took the trouble to upload a video review of the entire thing which I'm sure he's entirely unaware of looks exactly like a YouTube K-pop album review complete with photo card pulls. 

Of course I have saved it and uploaded here so you can enjoy it as much as I have. Feel free to take and upload it to the internet archive for future generations.

Does that mean I can have your Sylvanian Family collection?

Just making my annual little blog post/tiny scream into the internet void to announce that Orla is my favourite Derry Girl (surprising no one) and I would very much like to think me choosing to dedicate a post to my long lost Talkboy in 2021 resulted in it making an appearance onto the show. 

Bit confused by how late 2000s that t-shirt is though. It's very trickle down Cobrasnake.

The Sound of a Tool Chest Falling Down The Stairs

Since the pandemic has robbed me of one of my favourite activities, rummaging through other people's unwanted items, I have taken to treating our attic as my very own charity shop where everything is free and the only good cause that is being supported is my entertainment. Pretty much every item I've ever owned is tucked away in a veritable landscape of cardboard boxes (you know how as a kid you'd make buildings out of boxes and pretend to be a giant? like that) and whilst some people might correctly identify this as a hoarding problem I've been having the time of my life rediscovering some of these things, some of which were huge parts of my childhood I had long forgotten about. Which brings me to this guy.

You know something is a big deal when I break out the glitter paper

Yes, it's really him, the Talkboy. This was originally a prize in a Home Alone 2 sweepstakes competition and as far as I know was never available in stores in the Netherlands so for a very brief but happy time I genuinely thought this item was made specifically to be awarded to me and I was the only non-fictional child to actually own one, which I think says a lot about the kind of adult I turned out to be, but also how life pre-internet allowed for a certain kind of magical thinking that is now sadly lost forever.

It still had a tape inside and it took me quite a while to listen to it, mainly because like everyone else I hate hearing the sound of my own voice but also because that thing takes 4 whole batteries and in this USB powered new world that's just not something anyone just has on hand anymore. I was convinced it would be a recording of the high pitched squeaky voice "radio show" I used to record on it but actually it was a mixtape of songs that I recorded straight off the radio using the "Slow" playback option (yes, the "Credit card? You got it" one) so I could play them back at normal speed as an Alvin and the Chipmunks style rendition and laugh my little easily amused ass off. So much of my childhood (and I'll be perfectly honest: my teens) was spent playing with this thing and I'm not going to lie, I am kind of sad that I now have a computer that can easily give me a million renditions of mine and other people's voices, several of which are squeaky, but it would just not be the same. Maybe it's time to consider starting another hyper specific local radio station.

Some Oscar Wilde quote

Spent too much time on Tumblr, discovered the dark academia tag and now I’m getting mega nostalgic over my past London “aesthetic” photography tendencies so of course I am sharing these unpublished winter scenes with you:

Got a Siamese cat finger puppet as a “joke gift” but the joke is on them because it is surprisingly versatile and entertaining.

What Would Willow Wear: Gingerbread

Okay so according to my site stats the post I wrote about Willow Rosenberg fashion is pretty much the most popular thing that has ever come out of my hands that isn't cat treats in front of a mostly cat-based audience. The more "vintage" Buffy the Vampire Slayer becomes the more amazing these outfits get and my burning wish to do more Willow fashion recaps is starting to overpower my fear of being seen creating content for the sake of producing clickbait, so since the world is ending (again??) I am just going to do whatever the hell I want and that is posting pics of Willow Rosenberg's outfits with commentary entirely out of chronological order.

What else am I going to do, actual work? Get out of here.

Okay so the episode I will be covering today is one of my all-time favs: Gingerbread. Buffy and Willow are suspected of murdering a bunch of creepy German children as part of some sort of occult ritual and almost end up getting burned at the stake. Does extreme heat hinder their fashion sense at all? Like hell it does.

We start out with Willow (who has recently reconciled with Oz after making the worst mistake a girl could possibly make, which is making out with Xander) at the lunch table discussing birthday things and wearing another top tier stripes-across-the-sleeves 90s jumper. I may be detecting a hint of mohair here but it might also just be VHS resolution fuzz.

Ever wondered what "Being smug over having absent parents" looks like? This is it.

Public Service Announcement

There's a new Shunkan album out and it's SO GOOD

Go listen to it please, that is all.

Friday Find: Pokefasu Cat Patches

Just dropped everything trying to find out where I can buy these AMAZING patches from Pokefasu. Can you believe how incredibly cute and cleverly detailed these are?

Pizza Cat

Takoyaki Tiger

Haircare Lion

Curry Panda

While there sadly don't seem to be any shops outside of Japan stocking these (yet!) there is a nice list of Japanese stockists and a contact form you can use if you're brave/extremely bilingual, so the path to amazing patches - I think these might even have pinbacks? It just keeps getting better - is right in front of you. Don't just go by my snack leaning examples: there are hamsters, shiba inu, panthers and loads of other animals doing a variety of ridiculously cute and hilarious embroidered things.

Go check out Pokefasu online or follow them on Instagram!

Just found this blog that features vintage children's space ephemera and am now having the time of my life. Go look at it NOW.

Let's celebrate this special day

It's Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's birthday! What better opportunity to shamelessly promote some of my photos from all the London concerts she blessed us with that I got to attend (which is every single one of them)

Koko

Roundhouse

Shepherds Bush Empire

Islington Academy

Happy birthday Kyary! May you live forever.

Cornelius -『未来の人へ』Dear Future Person

Just letting everyone know that Cornelius has new music out AND it is accompanied with this cute cat/E.T. mashup video

Ikegami Yoriyuki

Have recently become obsessed with the super dreamy and creative illustrations of Ikegami Yoriyuki after seeing this picture of the tiger bed of my dreams:

http://ororororog.tumblr.com/post/161342738072/ororororog-insomnia

Isn't it just the best? Go check it out!

Christmas things in London

This year I went to London right when Christmas shopping season was getting started and took a ridiculous amount of pictures because Christmas? Two months in advance? Sign me up!

Then I realised I have nowhere to put them and it might be a good idea to fire up the old blog again so they all have a proper place to live and be enjoyed by everyone's eyeballs. Please ignore the fact that this took me almost two months to post, on Christmas Eve, which in blogging world I think is the last acceptable day on which you can post general Christmas content that isn't a giant gift haul.

Let's Christmas
I gave you my heart
But luckily I kept the receipt
So that the very next day
You could exchange it for something
You actually wanted

Preparing my comeback

In the meantime you can look at this picture of this delicious sherbet coloured house.

In case anyone is planning a trip to South Korea...

I'd really appreciate it if you could bring me back some of these ridiculous dinosaur ring pops.

Metric, Shepherd's Bush Empire

If Emily Haines is not in your Coolest Women Alive list then I cannot take you seriously as a human being.

Salyu X Salyu

I finally invested in a Mark III! First gig I got to shoot with it: Cornelius + Salyu's Salyu X Salyu project at the Jazz Cafe in Camden. It was amazing.

I am the best at shopping. The best of all time.

Today’s find: Catholic style bracelet...

THE CAT EDITION. Isn't it just the best thing you have ever seen?? I should start a web series. “Skeletor goes shopping for accessories.” 

White Denim + White Arrows

Hey! Remember when I used to actually go out and do stuff? And then came back home and wrote about it?

...no, me neither. It's hot. Please go easy on me. My mouse pad keeps sticking to my arms.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took of White Denim and White Arrows last week. Sweat galore!

Graham Coxon at the Forum