Get Carter starring Sir Michael Caine was released in 1971 and is most likely the best and most well known British gangster movie ever made. Not only does it create an excellent gritty, eerie and gloomy 1970s gray industrial look – but also features a very tasty score by composer and jazz musician Roy Budd, a musical prodigy already having completed a vast musical repertoire at the young age of 8. The above videos document Mr. Budd playing the main theme for the movie accompanied with the opening scene and under it the original uncut trailer for the movie. If you are a fan of Get Carter you should definitely also look into The Long Good Friday starring Bob Hoskins.

Read the full post >

The ever so great Taschen has done it again. This time with tickets to ride, fly, sail and drive, they cover 100-years of traveling from an American perspective. At 392 pages filled with spectacular illustrations, ads and other goodies for only $39.99 it’s a bargain and available to purchase in May. Which is your preferred way of traveling? By land, air or sea?

In less than 100 years, the U.S. mass-produced the automobile, invented airplanes, freeways, motels, even sent men to the Moon. Travel grew ever faster and easier. Above all, it was democratized — enabling millions to explore distant lands, or see their own more fully. At the start of the 20th century, only people with extensive disposable income and time to spare could enjoy leisure travel. By the century’s end, journeys took hours, not days, and mass travel — especially brief air flights — became the new normal. Along the way, ocean liners broke speed records, aerodynamic trains roared down the tracks, stylish boat-plane clippers evolved into jumbo jets. Whether aboard high-speed locomotives or ships, jets, or Greyhound buses — or when setting their own schedule on the open road — Americans demanded ever greater mobility and wider choice of destinations, thereby setting a new standard for travelers around the world.

For some people, the term Burlesque is something that is associated with a exciting, stylish and perhaps also a little more innocent time. But as many things from the past it is being revived and has for the past years made a grand return with lush sets, glamorous costumes, swinging music, cool lighting and of course luscious women moving in rhythm to the crooners’ finger snaps. Meet Gentry de Paris, Burlesque performer, fashionista, entrepreneur and director of the Gentry de Paris Revue in… yes you guessed it, Paris, France. Ultra Swank sits down to talk with her to find out more about how she is bringing back the style of times gone by.

Read the full post >

London, England late 1960s. The height of the flower-power-free-love-lifestyle. Groovy colors, fashion, cars and women. For those of us who were born a few decades too early or anyone who wants to take a stroll down memory lane here’s a sample of very neat color photographs of Swinging London from that period. Depicted are among others Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Carnaby Street, Paddington Street, various cars and Routemaster Buses. Photos found on the lovely Sixties London photogroup on Flickr.

The first Barbie doll was launched in around the same period as the award winning television show Mad Men depicts. So what could be better than to combine the two and release a special Mad Men collectors series for adults. Here’s a fun chance to act out what adventures could happen with Don Draper, his wife Betty and ginger bombshell Joan Holloway in the same bedroom… or then again, maybe not. For anyone who still has a childlike mind the doll versions of Don and Betty Draper, Roger Sterling and Joan Holloway will be available to buy in July with a suggested retail price of $74.95 each. Cigarettes and Martinis not included.

For those of you who saw the posts about the Disneyland home movies taken in 1956, only a year after the park opened will most likely appreciate that the author of those videos have found another treasure from his grandparents home movie archive, San Francisco in 1958. The movie guides us around a few urban scenes, trolley cars and the Golden Gate bridge among many other things. The scene from inside the trolley car reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Vertigo made in the same year. Let’s hope that he next time finds a home movie from New York around the same period. Mad Men anyone?