Mark your calendars: 09.04.08

Yacht-rockers Jona & Claire.

Super rad song by amazingly talented super duo group from Portland….YACHT. The Video for their new single, Summer Song, is directed by my new favorite visual mastermind Judah Switzer [who also calls Portland home.]

Crank this shit, throw on your white blazer, and do your best Hall & Oates impersonation….summer is slipping away faster than you think.

YACHT - Summer Song from Jona Bechtolt on Vimeo.

John Lithgow and the rest of The Hendersons are gonna flip their shit when they find out someone killed Harry.  In all seriousness though, this would totally make my daymonth if it turns out to be true….supposedly these sketchy dudes are revealing the details in a press conference tomorrow.  The cynic in me says no way, but the Unsolved Mysteries obsessed kid in me is holding out for it to be true. 

And in Georgia, no less?  Come on, everybody know Bigfoot only stomps in Cascadia.

While perusing The Fix’s blog, I came across this little gem posted up by KEZ. Instant classic. And I know I just said no more cartoon shit, so anyone about to give me a hard time can suck it. These are puppets.

I’ve had this fucking song stuck in my head all week while putting the finishing touches on our Derby Death Carriage, aka Cruel Log, aka Log Flume Supreme….Sorry in advance if the same happens to you.

Free shirt to the first person who emails me with name of the cartoon this was from. Send your answers to orders@hecklewood.com. Include name, address, and shirt size.

I promise this will be the last cartoon post for a looooooong time.

UPDATE: Sorry to all who have emailed the correct answer, Ren and Stimpy, since I posted this. Mr Guggenheim snaked everyone with the correct answer a few minutes after I posted it.

Almost as fun as Flash Mountain…

Now at 80% completion, one shitty Iphone picture of our AMUSING ride is all you’re gonna get until raceday this Saturday. If you happen to make it out to the Soap Box Derby festivities here in Portland, look for the group of drunk lumberjacks.

Until then, here’s another one of my favorite shorts from back in the day. I had totally forgot about this one until a few years back when THE MAN ordered me to traffic school. True story: they actually showed this as a reckless driving educational video, along with the equally amusing video of East German prisoners driving their cars head-on into brick walls and off 30 ft. cliffs. That day ended up not being a total bust.

R.I.P Isaac Hayes….You’ll be missed.

Our friends [and soon-to-be new neighbors] Jason and Stephen at Upper Playground are teaming up with a PDX all-star cast of DJ’s tomorrow for PLAYGROUND FIXTURES, an all-day art and music shindig at Irving Park.

The Fix crew, DJ Beyonda, and Ashley Montague are all getting in on the action….should be a good time if you’re in the area.

Epic artwork, semi-good ice cream, fucking horrible music.

Bear with me, this story’s worth it….

Back in 6th grade, there was this kid named Taylor who lived around the corner from me. The first time I met Taylor was right after I moved to the neighborhood; it was Christmas morning and I was out in my backyard firing metal ball bearings at renegade squirrels with my new slingshot. Taylor wandered into my backyard, which was strange cause it was Christmas and nobody was out and about. So Taylor, he just popped the gate, strolled in my yard, and begins to tell me how I’m shooting my slingshot all wrong. I was still trying to figure out who the hell this kid was, and all I remember thinking was how strange this dude was to be out in the snow wearing only some jeans and a short-sleeved Grateful Dead tye-dye t-shirt.

So started my hatred of hippies, and more specifically, Deadheads. Turns out, Taylors dad was a sort of ski bum up at our local mountain a few miles away, and surprise! surprise! - he loved the Grateful Dead. I honestly don’t remember Taylor wearing anything other than his mangy collection of hand-me-down Dead shirts….

So in High School when ol’ Jerry finally kicked the bucket, our group of friends shoulder tapped for beers and we celebrated. Tayor skipped school that day to stay home and mourn [Ha!] and we went and egged his house that night to put the icing on his hippy-cake.

So to bring this story full-circle, I actually saw Taylor at Mt. Hood last season working as a ski tech rep. I told him we had put out a shirt that he might like, and got his address so I could send him one on the house. He never wrote back to thank me.

So, being that it’s August 8th - the anniversary of Mr. Garcia kicking the bucket - I thought I’d post the one good video The Dead did back in the day [Touch of Grey], and also a video of some crappy band covering NOFX’s “August 8th.”

All joking aside, The Dead had some of my favorite poster art, ever. You might see another flip/tribute/nod to them in the near future [wink, wink].

Oh, and by the way…..You’re welcome Taylor.

Maybe it’s just the decade I identify with the most, but I’ve always thought the 1980’s were the golden era for cartoons. Saturday morning were a nice mix of vintage re-runs, 70’s psychadelic remnants, and now-classic 80’s shows like G.I. JOE, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE, and THUNDERCATS. The thing that always pissed me off about the older shows like Popeye were the not-so-subtle messaging….Even a 6 year old can spot the lame attempt to make eating a nasty can of spinach look like it’s a good idea.

Looking back on those episodes now, the thing that really surprises me is the blatant ethnic stereotypes that were perpetuated. It’s laughable now because of how outlandish it all seems, but still it’s pretty crazy to think how recent these were re-run on TV.

So in Season 7 we’re turning the tables on Popeye….spinach won’t save your sorry-sailor-ass this time.