My beloved bacon costume has had some adventures lately:

MAKE’n Bacon
My bacon costume made it into MAKE Magazine! I dig the blog, and it turns out the mag is pretty terrific, too. It’s a special Halloween issue, you can pick it up at bookstores & a bunch of grocery stores, too. It’s a little steep for a magazine, at $10, but it’s money well spent. Check me out lookin’ all cured and tasty on page 18! The bacon costume also got a shout-out on the MAKE blog today.

Garth as Bacon

Bacon On, Garth
Garth over at Extreme Craft used my instructions to make his own bacon costume for the Indie Craft Experience that went down in Atlanta a short while back. Look how dashing he is as bacon! (And Garth, I’m sorry for making the lame “party on” reference, I’m sure you’re beyond tired of it. I feel dirty for even saying it. But then I see your beaming, bacony face, and I feel clean again.)

Bacon Takes a College Road Trip
One surreal morning a few months ago, a strange message popped into my email box: it was a plea from a director working on a Disney film, and he just had to have my bacon costume. The next morning. In Connecticut. Which is not very convenient from where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I spent the rest of the morning, afternoon and evening working out logistics with the production office. First, they were going to send a courier to come get it, but no courier service would deal with it because it didn’t have a box. “Well, what do you normally ship it in?” was the query from the production office — I had to point out that I am not actually a prop shop, I’m just a weird chick with a bacon costume. The next plan was for them to buy two plane tickets, so I could fly the costume out in person, with the bacon costume seated next to me. I didn’t want to take time off work, but I had my friend Mig all lined up and ready to hop on a flight — he’s good for these random adventures, and I love him so for it. But then we weren’t sure if we’d be able to get the bacon costume through security. So, finally, the production office made arrangements for me to take the bacon costume to a UPS Store, where they made a custom box for it, and then I drove the bacon costume to American Airlines Cargo at the airport, and bacon was on its merry, salty way. It arrived in Stamford bright & early the next morning, ready for its turn in the spotlight.

OMGRAVENLOLWTF?!?

I have no idea how they actually used it, and of course there’s a decent chance it’ll just wind up on the cutting room floor. But it’s exciting nonetheless, and I look forward to bacon’s big debut. The film? Oh my, that’s the best part. It’s a Raven-Symoné vehicle. By Disney. With Martin Lawrence. Called College Road Trip. Please, please, please let Raven be the one they put in the bacon costume. That would be seven different kinds of rad.

You Know You Want To
So, I got the costume back last week, and it’s in grand shape, ready for another outing. I loved being bacon last year for Halloween, but I think it’s someone else’s turn this year — anyone out there who lives in the Bay Area who wants to borrow it for Halloween? Make me an offer. Points for creativity over value in your offering.

The nations of the world, by Yakko Warner:

Think the voice actor was doing it in multiple takes? Think he was reading the lyrics from from a cheat sheet? Think again!

Here’s one of my favorite Halloween memories of all time: the Halloween Toys R Us commercial. I love the moody music, the animation style, and the top-shelf voiceover. Watching it makes me feel like a kid again. I know it’s a blatant rip off of the It’s Halloween Charlie Brown! “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!”* opening credits, which is even more of a favorite of mine … but I can’t find a clip of that on Youtube. Happy Halloween everybody!

*OMG I Got the title of the Charlie Brown special wrong. GREAT PUMPKIN WILL YOU FORGIVE ME? … I’m doomed …

Neato Coolville has done it again with another amazing post. This time it is a collection of giant advertising characters, including several Paul Bunyons, a couple of Big Texs, a spaceman, and even a lumbering Alfred E. Newman. Be sure to check them all out.

Everyone here at the Junkyard Clubhouse love a good flapjack. So I was quite thrilled to see Neato Coolville‘s post about the Perkins Pancake House menu. It’s a great example of the wonderful design sensibilities of the the midcentury. The colors work well with our blog, too. Neato Coolville has full scans on the inside menu as, well.

Gwen Verdon was ahead of her time: here she is with two dancers, performing a Bob Fosse-choreographed routine on the Ed Sullivan show, to Unk’s 2006 crunkular odyssey, “Walk it Out.”

Okay, okay, the original song was “Mexican Breakfast,” and is equally awesome. But it’s uncanny, no?

It took me well into my second viewing to realize she has sunglasses lurking deep in that ‘fro.

[via Perez Hilton]

And you’re a lifeline of wonder on this Planet Earth! Here is Disney World’s O Canada! movie in astounding Circlevision, brought to you by Chreestopher straight from the Canada pavilion at Epcot:

Don’t want to sit through the whole film? Philistine! Alright, here’s what you really want: pure, uncut Canadian idolatry, in glorious musical form:

Canada, we salute you!

A 7-Eleven right here in our stomping grounds has been transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart. Twelve 7-Elevens in total got this treatment, and this is the only one here in the Bay Area (View location on Google Maps):

Grade-A use of duct tape

I was a little disappointed to see Bart & Milhouse flanking the Kwik-E-Mart logo, it kind of took away from any authenticity, but it’s a silly quibble, really. They did a better and more thorough job than I was expecting. One nice touch is that a bunch of paper signs have been hung up all over the store using scraps of duct tape. I have no idea if the haphazard appearance was intentional, I prefer to think it was not.

Another nice touch — pink frosted donuts with sprinkles, watched over by Chief Wiggum:

Sprinklicious!

And of course, Comic Book Guy at the porn stand:

Ralph at the popsicle case:

My dongue ith thtuckh.

Blue Woo Hoo Squishee

There was no shortage of Buzz Cola, Krusty-Os or Squishees, but sadly Duff Beer was nowhere to be found (nor the German import, Düff).

There are a number of other strange Simpson products as part of the tie-in, including a Turkish Bathhouse Homer Simpson doll, and a Homer Simpson cookie that was baked in China and looks utterly inedible. I’ll try to add pics of those later.

Buz Cola 2.99

Fancy!

This soda fountain was extra fancy — each spigot had an option to add a dollop of cherry, vanilla or lemon flavoring to the soda. Snazzy!

Apu says “Please loiter again soon!”

You can see the complete photo tour at Humuhumu’s Life in Photos.

Milk comes out of my nose whenever I listen to this song … even when I’m not drinking milk. http://fullualuealuealeuale.ytmnd.com/

The other day as I was doing some dishes, I was wondering if anyone actually still soaks their hands in Palmolive. When I was a kid, it made me feel so very elegant and grown up. And then, as often happens, my thoughts turned to YouTube.

YouTube also has the original Madge commercial — the quality on that one is pretty poor, though.