Ultra Swank - Retro Adventures

review

Pacific Ocean Park – The Nautical Theme Park Lost to Time

Unless you’re an Angeleno, you’ve probably never heard of Pacific Ocean Park. Even then, you’d have to be of a certain age to remember it. However, if you’re a fan of vintage American TV, you’ve probably seen it: You saw it when Martin Milner’s character took a job at P.O.P. on Route 66 (“Between Hello And Goodbye;” 1962). You saw it when Jack Klugman chased...

Mantiques – A Manly Guide to Cool Stuff
Written by Baron von Swankenstein in Readable

Mantiques – A Manly Guide to Cool Stuff

Lounge Revivalists use a lot of different words for “old” — “vintage,” “retro,” “classic,” and “nostalgic.” And because of our Cold War era preferences, you also see “atomic age” and “mid-century” used as well. One word you don’t see used a lot, at least by men, is “antique.” It’s just not macho. The very word “antique” brings to mind the unmanly concept of fragile porcelain...

Survive the Bomb – A Guide to Nuclear Survival

When I first got into the Lounge Revival scene, I continually wondered why original era Lounge music was so saccharine. It wasn’t all that way, of course. If it were all that way, Lounge Revival would never have become a 1990s fad never mind a modern living subculture. But you have to admit: For every “Fly Me To The Moon” by Frank Sinatra, there’s some...

Jet Age Cooking for the Bachelor Gourmet

It’s off to the kitchen with author James M Kraus author of Jet Age Cooking for the Bachelor Gourmet. Pour a Manhattan to savour while you create Steak Diane, Spaghetti Maria Grazia, Filet of Beef à la TWA and other classic Jet Age cuisine. Available in the US, UK, EU and Japan, the book’s recipes display measurements and temperatures in all popular international formats. It...

Mars Attacks
Written by Baron von Swankenstein in Readable

Mars Attacks

In the middle of the twentieth century, fear and paranoia were ingrained into the subconscious of every American. The 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite had Americans wary of Soviet attack from the skies. And the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 assured the world that Soviet Premier Khrushchev was serious in his threat when he said “We will bury you.” The spectre of mutually assured...

Cult Vegas – The Weirdest! The Wildest! The Swingin’est Town On Earth

The Golden Age of Las Vegas has been over for quite some time. If you don’t count auxiliary members like Shirley MacLaine, Buddy Greco, or Angie Dickinson, the last member of The Rat Pack, Joey Bishop, passed away in 2007. He outlived Frank by 9, Dino by 12, Sammy by 17, and Peter by 23 years. Even the buildings, which are supposed to outlive those...

Stanley Donen’s Arabesque
Written by James Vaughan in Film

Stanley Donen’s Arabesque

arabesque def: 1. a sinuous, spiraling, undulating, or serpentine line or linear motif. Nobody liked the screenplay. After three writers tried to make it better, it was worse! But director Stanley Donen knew, that if the audience would be staring at Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren the whole time, maybe the story really wasn’t all that important. The romantic thriller ‘Arabesque’ was released in 1966. ...

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