1. Peter P. Plasencia – While on a search for some cool Jules Verne ephemera (for some reason), I came across Peter P. Plasencia. Plasencia was an illustrator for children’s books among other things, and his illustrations are pretty terrific. Here’s some art he did for a book called Jules Verne: The Man Who Invented the Future:
And a few illustrations from Space Alphabet, shared on Wardomatic:
Really beautiful, inspiring stuff – particularly so when done in homage to Verne, one of the great futurists.
2. The Mysterious Cities of Gold – Another early-ish Nickelodeon gem in the US, this was a Japanese-French animated series about a young Spanish boy named Esteban who travelled to the New World to find the Cities of Gold as well as his father. I was so obsessed with this show as a second grader; I’m a tiny bit ashamed to admit I would act out the opening song in my own interpretive dance.
3. Color 1930s-40s – CBS News has a post featuring rare color photos from the 1930s-40s. The feature is titled “Rare Color Photos from the 1930s-40s”. The cool thing about this post is that it features rare color photos from the 1930s-40s.
That’s all I’ve got.
4. Pom Poms – Pie Shops shares this Waffle Whiffer post of a box of Pom Poms candy from 1977 – featuring a Happy Days sweepstakes and a mail-in offer for your own Fonzie doll!
5. Putting the Dog to Sleep – I haven’t been able to stop listening to this song. I considered posting a live version, but the studio version nails it.
6. What?! – A sixth thing? It’s all right, you’ll be okay. Just a brief note that I’ve added a new sample page for my latest book, arizona, on the book’s page. I’m also including it here.
-ds