Tramp (Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, 1967)

Good morning!

Matthew and I were sitting around last night after a fun dinner date at Las Maracas with the Huberts (alias, the best people to go get margaritas with), when the subject of Otis Redding came up. I had had "Just One More Day" inexplicably stuck in my head all day, and started running through a string of Youtube videos to illustrate to Matthew some of the finer points of the Stax recording artist's catalog. He is a good sport, and I am a complete nerd when it comes to music I like. Two things that go great together-- me, pontificating on sixties' soul and me, four frozen margaritas into a tequila buzz. At any rate, some of my favorite FAVORITE favorite Otis Redding songs come from this album, King and Queen, which the Big O cut in 1967 alongside fellow soul singer Carla Thomas:

A Youtube search brought up the expected list of videos with still photos of the singer, or a stationary still of the album cover, when what to my wondering eyes should appear....they did a promo video of the song "Tramp"?! Featuring Otis Redding interpreting the lyrics relatively literally? It was like Christmas came early, kids. Take a look:

OH. MY. GOD. Is that Otis in Liberty Overalls with a freakin' hoe in one hand and an expression like, "You got me all wrong?" on his open face? It is. The song, originally recorded by Lowell Fulson, is adapted for the  Otis/Carla duet as a rollicking back and forth insult slingin' session, in which Carla thinks Otis's backwoods ways are a detriment to the future of their relationship, and Otis, dissimilarly, thinks them a strength. 

Verse the first:

Carla: Tramp.

Otis: What you call me?

Carla: Tramp.

Otis: Oh you did?

Carla: You don´t wear continental clothes or stetson hats.

Otis: But I tell you one doggone thing.

It makes me feel good to know one thing.

I know I am a lover.

Carla: A matter of opinion, baby.

Otis: That´s all right. Mama was.

Carla: So?

Otis: Papa, too. And I know little child. Love is all I know to do.

I'm a big fan of the story song, or the spoken word song, or the "you're no good" song, so you can see where this marvelous track intersects on a few fault lines of "fabulous". The album itself is uneven, with "Lovey Dovey" and "Knock on Wood" being the other two standout tracks, but with those three? Heck, it was well worth the price of the record itself!

I almost die every time he hits this exchange, near the end:


Carla: You´re a rat and a tramp. You know what, Otis.
I don´t care what you say, you´re still a tramp.
Otis: What?
Carla: That´s right. You haven´t even got a fat bank roll in your pocket,
you probably haven´t even got twenty five cents.
Otis: I got six Cadillacs, five Lincolns, four Fords, six Mercurys,
three T-birds, Mustang - ooh I´m a lover.

And sure enough, in the video, Otis makes a pretty good case for the things he has, suddenly divested of his work clothes and clad in a slick green suit and tie. He points out the line of cars mentioned in the song, an airplane, and, possibly my favorite, his name on the office wall of Redwal Music, his music offices.

Could he be cuter? Could the idea for the video be more straightforward? In these pre-MTV days, a promotional video like this might play at the beginning of a movie reel in theaters, or feature prominently on a dance band show or variety show, to further sales of the recently released recording. Here's the Soul Brothers Top 20 from the June 22, 1967 issue of Jet magazine, showing the popular charting of "Tramp" at #12:

Things I would like to mention: this list would make a wonderful mix cd, completely intact, as is...and why is there band called "Dyke and the Blazers"? I'm going to have to look into this and get back to you. I know all about "Funky Kingston"...not sure about "Funky Broadway" (Side note: This title was apparently also recorded by the wicked Wilson Pickett...I'm still suspicious).

Anyway! It's a great video, and if you haven't seen it, you should watch the clip in its entirety on Youtube.


Fun facts about the album:

• Isaac Hayes, of "Shaft" and South Park fame, plays keyboards on the King and Queen record. Huh! I think I knew he played piano, but not on this record, so wow.
• Carla Thomas is the daughter of Rufus Thomas, Sun Records pioneer who originally cut the future Elvis hit "Hound Dog". My favorite song of his is "Tiger Man". Soul royalty!
• Future US ambassador to Japan and fellow Tennessean Sen. Howard Baker wrote the liner notes to their album. I can't, in spite of much googling, find out what those liner notes are nor why he wrote them, and my copy of the record's at home. Who knows!
• My beloved Salt n Pepa use the sample of Carla saying "Tramp" in their song of the same name. Get it, SnP! You go on and get it!

Are you a soul fan? What did you think of the "Tramp" video and the song itself? What Motown or Stax record music or recording artists really resonate with you?

IT'S THURSDAY, WE'RE ALMOST TO FRIDAY! I'll see you tomorrow with some more family snaps for Photo Friday. Til then!

Celotex Ceilings (1958-1959)

Good morning!

I'm still on a 1958-1959 kick this week. Do you fellow MCM enthusiasts out there agree that this pair of calendar years boast the MOST out there designs of the Mad Men time period? I am continually knocked off my rocker by how inventive, colorful, and just flat out GORGEOUS interiors were in the last gasp of the fifties'. Perfect example? These Celotex Ceiling ads from Life magazine. Check 'em out!

LOOKAHERE. Red carpet as far as the eye can see, split level sunken living room, fireplace IN THE WALL, wrought iron room divider. I saw a lamp at an estate sale this weekend that was about the same size and design of the hanging fixture over the checkboard table, except it was freestanding and there were two of them. $200 firm or I would have had to figure out a way to incorporate them into the design scheme of my home. HOW. AWESOME. Doesn't the whole room gleam with a kind of atomic age French Quarter aesthetic? SIGN ME UP.

And the hits keep coming! All the Celotex ads from this time period boast similarly jaw-dropping, envy inspiring interiors. Who's even looking at the ceiling, when you have all that delicious Danish modern eye candy to ogle?

Celotex is a British insulation company that opened up shop in the 1920's and is actually still in operation to this day. In the American post-war housing boom, you can imagine that the firm did big business in sound-proof tiling and glitzy sparkles-embedded-in-the-fiberboard ceilings. I remember looking at a house in suburban Madison, outside of Nashville, during the big house-hunting phase that preceded my parents moving in the late nineties' with a very eye-catching ceiling. The tiles were actually pitted with iridescent pieces to the point that the overhead tiles seemed to wink at you as you walked from room to room. Sus and I loved this, obviously...my parents thought it was gauche. Who's to say who was right? The "Vogue" line of ceiling tiles in the first panel seems to be similar.

I feel a little bad for cutting out whatever celebrity couple was featured in the below ad, but I really wanted you, the reader, to focus on what's important-- which, in this case, is that A-line roof, blonde wood paneling, and THE RUG OF MY DREAMS. Look at it! What is it, even! It looks like they've skinned some kind of sci-fi beast to visually tie the room together, and I am ok with that! Beautiful.

I was actually in a house that looked a lot like this out in Donelson last year or the year before, complete with Keane-esque paintings hanging on the wall. I got a bad vibe from the house in question because it was one of those wing ding sales where one of the cashiers was walking around the sale beseeching women to leave their purses in the car. "ABSOLUTELY NO PURSE AT THIS SALE," she kept crowing, as the ladyfolk portion of shoppers instinctively clutched at their handbags like "What? THIS? You mean the thing I keep my money in? How am I gonna pay for things?" There were no smalls or jewelry of value, so it really didn't make sense, but my mom and I dutifully headed back to the Civic, wresting wallets from the insides of our very cluttered pocketbooks. I don't think it's much of a sales technique to insinuate that anyone with a carry-on item must be coming in with the intention of stealing, but, just another real life example of how nutty estate sale companies can be.

That said, I want that enormous owl statuette. Maybe enough to inconspicuously slide it in my oversized stealin' handbag! Lemme at that loot, folks!

I am a big, BIG fan of this couch. See how lovely the low-lying lines of it are, and how those goofy little pillows give it an abstract "pop" of color. The candelabra hanging on the wall is a little strange, but I think I could grow to love it. Do you think you could actually light the tapers without catching that club-paneling wall on fire? I want to find out.

Last but not least, one of the best examples of the Celotex tiles, paired with one of the best interiors, coming with a seal of approval from no less of a hep cat than Steve Allen. Do you know the little bespectacled fifties' tv personality? He did one of the coolest interviews I've ever seen of Jack Kerouac on his television show in 1959 (contemporaneous to this ad! See! How fabulous?!) and also did a pretty cute book called Bop Fables, my copy of which is now for sale in the Etsy shop my sister's working for me (thanks, kid!). How perfect is his wife's titian bouffant there? How about that light fixture and the dividing wall with built in bench? I. LOVE. THIS. ROOM.

Which one of these Celotex interiors do you most favor? Had any run-ins with truly mouth-watering MCM interiors lately? Have any rococo wrought iron touches of interior designing in your own house? Let's talk!!

That's all for today, I gotta get gone-- have a great Wednesday, and I'll see you back here tomorrow! Til then.

Philco Predicta TV (1958-1959)

Good morning!

I appreciate all your well wishes on the engagement party post yesterday! It's exciting to be marking off major milestones on the long trek down the aisle to matrimony. But enough about little old me...it's time to get back to what's really important-- 1950's ads for TV's! Philco's Predicta line from 1958-1959 does not disappoint in the midcentury "eye candy" department. Let's take a look!

Every once and awhile I forget how exciting old television sets used to be. It's easy to become inured to the charms of modern flat screens, because that's essentially all they are: flat screens. The flair and panache of console sets of yore is something from which I think modern tv manufacturers could learn a thing or two. Even a cursory glance through a 1958 Life magazine and these Philco ads will turn your head RIGHT around, serving to remind you of everything that was good about having a gorgeous, space age looking tv as the centerpiece to your late fifties' living room. I know TV gets a bad wrap....the glass teat, the boob tube...other analogies that have to do with suckling mindlessly through a block of tv westerns and daytime soap operas...but in my life, tv's been good to me. And gosh, wouldn't it be even better with a bit of style tacked on. Take a look at this 1958 Predicta model:

 The only complaint you could make about a lot of fifties' tv's would be their lackluster profiles from the back of the unit. I can tell you my 1960 Zenith has a plain, press-board backing with the round portion of the tv's tubes sticking out the back (what do you call that? Old tv geeks, do you know what I'm talking about? Is it the picture tube sticking out? I don't know), and it is nothing to write home about. This Philco has a continuous, gleaming wood finish to both the front and the back of the unit, so you needn't be embarrassed by the unsightliness of its back when the living room layout cries out for a freestanding unit.

Aaaah! Look at this! It looks like the younger cousin of that robot from Lost in Space! I love it!

It's cool how "out there" a lot of these Philco designs from that era were. The Wikipedia page on the Predicta line mentions that its outré design and space age aesthetic was one of the major strengths and weaknesses of the model, and one telecision history page goes on to describe Predicta's creation as follows:

Introduced in 1958, the Philco Predicta line rejuvenated the industry and made TV fun again. In 1957 the economy was experiencing a mild post-war recession causing some manufacturers to try gimmicks to augment sales. Philco didn't quite know what to do; they were perpetually in a state of management turmoil. Clearly, they needed something dramatic to turn things around if they were going to survive as a company. This led Henry Bowes, the marketing vice-president, to set the future direction when he said, "We need a dramatic new concept of TV forms."

The growing popularity of color model televisions (Philco tv's were strictly black and white), resistance to the almost "too atomic" design, and the poor performance of the picture tube on the Predicta spelled out its sad demise in 1960. Philco went bankrupt in 1962, so you could say this line was the last great design hurrah of the seventy year old company.

Look at this portable monitor! Are you for real, 1959 Philco?

 Look how beautiful even the more tame members of the design line are, represented by this "swivel screen consolette". I want to take one home now!

Good news, though-- while I'm sure they are by no means inexpensive, you can still fulfill a life long dream or two to own one of these Predictas via this website, which claims to still sell the stylish sets in this, the year of our Lord 2013! I wonder if they improved upon the quality of the picture at all in the new generation of them.

Seriously, could those be more beautiful? I don't think they could.

If you're interested in more about the original Philco line of Predictas, check out this website, which has a full color pdf scan of the 1959 manual (erroneously labeled as a 1965 line, which would have postdated Philco's bankruptcy. This error is no doubt due to some confusion  about the byline of the ad being "THIS IS 1965", in an effort to underscore the futuristic quality of the design) as well as more info about restoring these beauties.

Which Philco Predicta would you like to bring into your own home? Do you own now or remember from your childhood any crazy vintage tv sets? What do you think about today's crystal quality sets, and how do you stylishly incorporate a boring old flat screen into a mid century modern inspired decor nowadays? I have our living room tv sitting on top of a 1960 Telefunken console stereo, but it's not a perfect situation. A perfect situation would be having that Chalet model Predicta in the above photo to have and to hold in my house!! :)

That's all for today, kids, I gotta get back to work. See you tomorrow!

Engagement-a-palooza Party

Good morning!

Well, somehow I survived-- my three day weekend is at an end! It was a heckuva busy one, too...we threw our engagement party at my house on Friday, had a get together at my mom's house on Saturday, and spent most of Sunday hanging around going through the gift bottles of wine from Friday like they were going to expire first thing Monday morning. I AM A TIRED, TIRED HUMAN. But I did manage to remember to take a few photos to show you all what the party looked like! Wanna see?

I woke up Friday morning, briefly contemplated hitting at least one estate sale, and wrote my Photo Friday blog entry about my great-grandmother on my dad's side. After having some coffee and oatmeal, I sat at the kitchen table making a list of grocery items that I'd need to pull off the party food spread. We ended up having vegan strawberry cupcakes, white bean dip, and lentil Sloppy Joe sliders as far as the "actual cooked by me" part of the menu, and chips and dip, olives, strawberries, cookies, and candy as a "oh, this table looks lonely with just semi-healthy stuff on it!" last minute addition. All the vegan foods came from the Skinny B---- in the Kitch and Skinny B---- Everyday Cookbook, which I'm telling you, are i-n-d-i-s-p-e-n-s-i-b-l-e to my day-to-day cooking. To add to the vegan fare, Rae and Travis brought a chocolate vegan cake with the word "WERK" written in purple icing...this was a sight for sore eyes on Saturday morning, at which point most of it was consumed by Matthew and me over coffee for breakfast. BEST. BREAKFAST. EVER. Thanks, you guys!

 I made these little paper doll standouts last week on my lunch hour, carefully tracing the outlines of some thirties' paper dolls and adding our features to their pre-existing bodies. They stood on the window sill above the kitchen table two by two.  I love how these turned out! I didn't remember to give everyone their own as a souvenir, so if you left before you got one, remind me and I'll give you one of the stack of them we have left over, haha!

For punch, I just made up a huge batch of palomas, which is diet grapefruit soda, lime juice, and a whole bunch of tequila. Our friend Brian got to the house and went "Palomas! How could I have guessed!" because I seriously do drink these every freakin' chance I get (citing the likes of Ernest Hemingway as a fellow devotee of the margarita-like cocktail, by the way!). We had sodas on hand for the non-booze-drinkers, and a box of Franzia white zin (naturally, because we're classy like that).

I also put in a place of pride this framed drawing that usually sits on my bedside table. When Matthew proposed in February of 2011, the ring hadn't arrived on the day he made big reservations at a fancy restaurant, so while he did get down on one knee and the whole shebang in a public place, this little folded sheet of paper stood in for the ruby and diamond ring I've worn every day since it arrived the next afternoon. How sweet is this?! I love having little us-related artifacts all over the house.

Here's the man himself. Please note that his hair does not have any product whatsoever in it, nor has any styling past a quick shake of his head. It "just does that", no joke.

I was fed up with my own hair by Friday afternoon, so I just clamped a hat on over a braid. I love how this outfit turned out though! Very eighties' pop star.

I was so happy so many of our friends could join us! We played Motown all night (you really can't go wrong with a six hour playlist of sixties' R&B and soul) and had a lot of laughs. It's always slightly surreal to have more than four people over to your house, and I think at one point we had something like twenty-five! It was wonderful to see so many people as excited as we are about us gettin' hitched. :)

Matthew asked that his high school friend Robbie and I look like we'd just heard the funniest joke in this picture, so that accounts for our goofy expressions.

Here's a paparazzo picture of our friends Ruthie, Boo, Anna, and Brian. 

My friend Jesse from work and his wife Kirsten (in yellow) and sister  Drew (in blue). I don't know what Matthew told them to look like in the picture, but the thumbs down from Kirsten is my new favorite go-to pose.

Here's newlyweds-themselves Emily and Orion, who are moving to this side of town! I look forward to playing more horribly-wrong card games with them in the near future. Alyx and Brian brought Cards Against Humanity, and probably my favorite part of the night was a fifteen-people strong series of rounds of this game, with the ensuing groans and giggles over HOW BAD some of the card selections can be! How bad were they, you might ask? Check out the pdf you can download for free on their website! THAT. BAD.

It was a fabulous night! I had a great time and remembered why it's so important to try to get together social events like that more often...all the people I like in one place! With food and drinks! Isn't that the very soul of convenience? I have to start being better about throwing ragers, obviously.

So! What did you get into this weekend? Find any great stuff at the sales? What are your must-have party foods, drinks, or games? I'm always looking for good suggestions!

I guess I have to get back to work now....ho-hum. Hope you guys have a fabulous Monday, and I'll see you tomorrow with more vintage tips and quips. Til then!

Photo Friday: A Page Out of the Scrapbooks Edition

Good morning!

It's Photo Friday again, folks! We made it! In continuing with photos from recently scanned family albums, I present to you some of my dad's dad's side of the family. These four pictures are from one page of a scrapbook from the 1930's, mostly featuring my dad's grandmother, Flora.

She's (naturally, of course, given my gene pool) the taller woman in this photo with the beautifully wide cheekbones. I don't know a lot about that side of the family, though her surname was Irish and her people came from Tennessee. In any case, GREAT bone structure. Notice the bow sash at Flora's waist, and the pocket-book-I'd-like-to-have in her right hand. What I love about the above photo was that it took my separating the photo from the page in Paint to notice the little boys crouching impishly in the shadows behind Flora and the unidentified woman. That's my great-uncle George (in the tie, and doesn't he look right smart in it?!) and his younger brother, my great-uncle James. "Surprise! We're in the photo!" they seem to be miming.

Here's Flora again with I think one of her sisters, posted in a rocky outcropping the likes of which I guess you see a lot of in the more scenic parts of Tennessee. I was thinking the background of this photo looks a lot like when my college friends and I would go out to the Tennessee River, up in the mountains a little past Knoxville, and jump in the quarry to swim. This photo would have been taken in Middle rather than East Tennessee, but the geological formations bear striking resemblance to one another! See how the white of their dresses fades out a lot of the detail in sepia tone. Note to self: if you're getting your picture taken in a sunny spot in 1935 or so, wear a darker colored dress to distinguish bodies from backgrounds.

I love this! If you remember from last week, apparently bicycles were a big thing on which to get your photograph made! Here tall, slim Flora strikes a cycling pose with that same characteristic, intense gaze. I love her marcelled hair and the exposed heel of her shoe. Much like the photos from my grandma Hazel's time in the thirties' in Cape Cod look specifically like New England in the styles of buildings and landscapes featured, see how well Tennessee is represented in these photos with the lush tree-filled backgrounds and the clapboard building in this photo.

Last but not least, here she stands with another woman (sorry, no clue) in front of a long, LONG car! Doesn't it look just like a postcard? See her one foot kicked up on the running board, one arm around her companion and the other in a languid pose on the edge of the driver's side window. The hats of both women! The sash again at Flora's waist. The print dress and I think locket necklace on the girl in the print dress. This could be a still from Altman's Thieves Like Us.

So! What do you think of my paternal side of the family's thirties' swagger? Aren't these photos so specific to that time period, in terms of the dress and the backgrounds and the expressions on the faces of the subjects? What's it like meeting another tall member of my family tree? Do you have any photos from this time period in your own family scrapbooks? What were people in your family doing around the Great Depression? Let's talk!

Have a great weekend, folks! I'll let you know how the menu selection goes, I'm off to work up a grocery list. See you all on Monday!

Weekend Finds 3: Mexican Tourist Jacket

Good morning!

It's Thursday! I'm off tomorrow, so I have all day to contemplate what kind of menu to serve at our engagement party Friday night! I know it sounds so Elizabeth Taylor in Father of the Bride, but I thought, as we never had a big to-do when we got engaged in 2011, why not kick out the jams this year to celebrate having set the date? While I am no newcomer to party-throwing, this is my first party as a mostly-vegan, totally vegetarian hostess. I don't much care what my friends eat in front of me, but I'm deathly afraid to serve dishes I haven't had a chance to taste test! Thus, I'm nosing around Pinterest directly after I finish this blog post to nail down some appetizers and a shopping list. If you know any good meat-free, dairy-free, egg-free party foods, please hit up the comment section!

In other news, we've made it to the last of my weekend finds for this week! Check out this Mexican tourist jacket I snagged from the flea market on Sunday:

I think I've mentioned before that it is to my eternal regret that I passed up a jacket a lot like this one at a Dogwood sale about two years ago, for FOUR. DOLLARS. I tried it on, it fit, and I went, "Ya know kid, you've been spending too much on outrageous pieces of vintage you never end up wearing, and this time, I'm puttin' my big foot down, see? Ixnay on the exican-may acket-jay, you get me?" (My inner voice sounds a lot like James Cagney after a mild stroke, apparently) I passed it up, and I've lived to regret it again and again when I see cute, embroidered souvenir jackets online with higher two-digit price tags. What was I thinking?! Atomic Redhead did a fabulous post a little while back about her tourist jacket, complete with online examples, and I could have spit I was so jealous (the mint green on black and black on mint green version are giving me heart palpitations even now).

I actually have one in red, that's a lot like the jacket Janey is wearing with her red squaw dress in that post, but it's a lot larger than I like to wear jackets. Being small waisted and little-of-bust, I really prefer for items to fit tightly (not even fitting, but actually a little too tight) onto the upper portion of my body to contrast with the bottom-heaviness of my pear-shaped figure. You can imagine how excited I was, accordingly, when I was digging through that same guy from last month's tables and tables of moth eaten linens and clothes in the Antique Shed, and found this. If you go to the flea market often, you know who I'm talking about (and if you don't, I described him last month when I bought a boatload of dresses)... he's there almost every month, and it's so strange the quality of clothes he has. This time, as I approached the tables, he said in his same-old Andy Devine voice, "Well, hey there! Do you know I bought a hundred and ten boxes of linens last weekend? There's all kinds of stuff in there, you know the drill-- find something you like!" I picked this and a couple other jackets, then carried my haul to another booth where there was a mirror, and tried each on for size. This one, and a pale yellow Dolman sleeved sixties' suit jacket, made the cut.

Do you see the back of it? Churches? A palm tree? LITTLE FIGHTING CHICKENS? I almost died. And look how tiny the fit is! I will definitely be wearing this a lot in the fall when wool and felt jackets are more weather appropriate.

I am really into these sewing patterns for similar jackets. Can't get to Mexico? Make a swagger jacket in your own home!

1940s Jacket Pattern Vintage McCall 1399 Embroidered Mexican Motif on Felt or Woven Fabric

1940s Childs Jacket and Beret Pattern McCall 1464 Mexican Motif Embroidery Transfers Vintage Sewing Pattern 

Vintage Pattern 1947 Girls Mexican Appliqued Felt Jacket Size 6

Do you have a Mexican tourist jacket to call your own? Do you think they're too much or just enough kitsch? Which one of the patterns you see here or on Atomic Redhead's blog do you like the best? How would YOU style this or one of the oversized swagger ones?

That's all for today, kiddos! I'm off to look at recipes. Have a great Thursday, and I'll see you tomorrow for Photo Friday! Til then.

Weekend Finds 2: BEHOLD, THE MASK

Good morning! Continuing with our week long tribute to things I somehow managed to buy and bring into the house in direct conflict with my "house is too cluttered!" diatribe of two weeks past, I bring you my most exciting score from the flea market last weekend.

My dad and I were SO. BUMMED. SATURDAY. MORNING. If you were in Nashville this weekend, there's no way you missed the pouring rain that made Saturday memorable. We actually got as far as downtown before the two of us morosely came to the conclusion that we would be unable to go through with it, and even if we got out of the car and sacrificed ourselves to the rain gods, who ELSE in their right mind would be out there selling stuff? Sunday morning, we decided to give it a shot and see if all the vendors had cut their losses on Saturday and left. Guess what? SEEMINGLY NONE OF THE VENDORS HAD LEFT.  Yay!

Don't look him directly in his eye! He doesn't like that.

Down in the old Mule Barn around 11 o'clock, there was one woman who I'm pretty sure had been drinking that morning, hollering throughout the stalls that everything in this and that stall was half off. "FIFTY PERCENT! WE CAN'T TAKE ALL THIS HOME WITH US! NAME A PRICE, YOU NEVER KNOoOoOoW!" She followed me into the booth as I picked up this great tribal mask. "What's the price on that? Here, gimme that, I'll go get a price on it," she slurred before I could even get my bearings. "Eddie, how much is this?" Eddie: "It's got a price on it, doesn't it?" Woman: [turns it over] "Well there it is! $35.Steal of the century. I would have marked it a HUNDRED and thirty five dollars. And it's half off that!" In spite of her truly horrible salesmanship, which made me want to scurry out of the booth to get out of her laser beam's radius, I gave her seventeen dollars and fifty cents. [Side note: who in the heck asks for fifty cents in flea market sales? That is insane...almost anyone would have just asked seventeen dollars!] I spent another three or four excruciating minutes while she refused help unraveling the bag she insisted on giving me ("I've got some nails, I might be able to--" "No, no, no no, no, I've got it, I've got it."  She did not have it) before the mask was in my hands and she was out of my life.

Don't be scared, it's just me!

Honestly, this was mostly an impulse buy (as I find a lot of my tribal mask purchases to be, naturally), but when I got it home, I was actually pretty happy with the size and color of the piece. Not to mention those sharp teeth! The mask is old and dusty, and while I don't expect it to show up on Antiques Roadshow any time soon (especially since I didn't get a ticket through their lottery for the 2013 season...maybe next year!), it's definitely not one of those World Market or Pier One reproductions (no shade...well, some shade). The SIZE of it was one of the first things that impressed me. The only other one I've seen for sale that was less than $100 was the one I already have hanging in my den, which might be Indonesia? Thai? Somewhere in that general vicinity. It was at Goodwill in Rivergate for a whopping six bucks (looks a lot like this one, but larger). YAHOOO! Once I get some picture hanging wire to put it up with, it will join its brother.

I really like the kinds of these masks that probably came home with soldiers or world travelers in the forties' up through the seventies'. My grandma had some Asian silk dolls on a display shelf in her living room for y-e-e-e-e-ars that my Uncle Harold brought back from his time in the service there, and it's funny to see that one touch of exotica in an otherwise 100% American-made household. Imagine the soldier or tourist going "Oh, we gotta get that to take home to Maude, she'll FLIP!" My dad and I, walking back towards the antiques shed:

Me: I think that lady was drunk, dude.

Dad: Well, you got you somethin'! That's good!

Me: Yeah, but it's probably haunted.

Dad: Ah, what are the odds that it's haunted...[looking at it appraisingly] I'd say abooooout fifty-fifty.

What do you think? Do you find tribal stuff to be too creepy for inclusion in your home decor? Here are some examples of tribal things from Etsy and Ebay I'd like to take home for my own:

** Fine Tribal EKOI Headdress / Nigeria **

Tribal mask from Kenya carved from wood-with beadwork

Baule Monkey figure, gbekre, Ghana, African Tribal Creations, art, mbra, Baoule

Tribal Mask Dress- 1960's Novelty Print Shift with Zebra Stripes

My house is going to be SO swimming in bad ju-ju if I keep on this path, but how fascinating are these little figures? And that dress!

Do you have any international tchotchkes laying around the house? Have any interest in objects from a specific cultural group or a fascination with a particular country? How likely is this mask to murder me in my sleep? Let's talk!

There's one more "stuff I got" post before Photo Friday...what do you think it will be? See you back here tomorrow! :)