Got a blog and need an ironic image to go with your topical post? "People still smoke? WTF LOL!" Well then, check out the Vintage Ad Browser (complete with vintage design and technology). It should give you all the retro kitsch imagery you need to get your point across. (Yes, of course I'll be using it.)

Website: www.vintageadbrowser.com (via lifehacker)

Handy Site for Screw-It-Yourselfers: There, I Fixed It

Santastic: Very cool customizable "From Santa" video for the kiddies.

"It's Funny Because It's True": Eight ways to kill an idea

Do They Know It's Christmas? The Award-winning Canadian hardcore band Fucked Up has just released their star-studded remake of the Band Aid holiday classic. It features Andrew W.K., Bob Mould, David Cross, Ezra Koenig, GZA, Kevin Drew, Kyp Malone, Tegan & Sara & Yo La Tengo. It's quite good. Grab it on iTunes.

Behold Our Domain! Russia unveils new Sochi 2014 Olympic logo, the first to include a URL.

Jawbox! J Robbins and Co. performed live for the first time since the 90s. Thanks to Hulu you do not have to watch the entire Mr. Giggles Show, just the good parts.  View Jawbox performance plus two bonus songs!

Your Positivity Positively Blows: Why Fake Optimism Is the Worst Way to Deal with Life's Problems

Never Disappoints: National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009

See The Photos That Inspired The Art: Norman Rockwell's use of Models and Photos

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is Back! Win Tickets to MST3K Cinematic Titanic Dec. 31! (compliments of Geekadelphia)

Cinematic Titanic, the new feature-length movie riffing show from the creator and original cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000, continues the tradition of riffing on the unfathomable, the horribly great, and the just plain 'cheesy' movies of the past.

Living on The Edge: Clifftop Communities

When You're About to Lose Your Marbles and Tell Entire Sales Team How Your Really Feel About Their Input: Don't. Calm down, take a breath and think of this:

King Kong Bundy, Jack Black, the Dances with Wolves guy? Excellent. I love old tech ads and I love watching celebs awkwardly shill for odd products. Here's a nice collection from Adfreak. BTW, Jason Alexander’s McDLT Commercial is still the all-time greatest worst celeb product endorsement.

Website: adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/

Hungry for some tasty, low-cal distractions before the big holiday? Here's a bowl of some cheese-filled trivia nuggets to feed your ever-expanding pop culture belly.

World's 50 Best Restaurants in The World
... that will never let my annoying vegetarian ass in the door.

Largest Stadiums in The World
A quarter million people packed in one place to watch cars go vroom vroom.

Longest Running TV Shows
"Quarterlife" just missed by 632 episodes.

Worst Talk Shows in TV History
I have the entire 5-month run of "McEnroe" on Blu-ray.

The Most Expensive Beers in the World
I'll wait for the Vielle Bon Secours Lite.

Top-Selling Video Games Of All Time
Every game involves either serious violence or worse, a stupid little plastic guitar. We are doomed.

The 20 Most Expensive Domain Names
On a related note: "flooz.com" is now the cheapest.

The 10 Largest U.S. Bankruptcies
Don't worry, the CEOs are fine.

All Time Worldwide Movie Box Office
Sorry, that dumb boat movie still tops the list.

Largest Roller Coaster Drops
Also known as the "Largest Collection of Vomit Deposited on Other Peoples' Backs."

World's Fastest Drummers
Yep, "Stop-n-Go" Rice, "Cool Hands" LeCompte, "Tommy Gun" Grosset, all your favorites are here.

Top Ten Most Expensive Paintings Of All Time
What, no Thomas Kinkade!

The Most Expensive Photographs Ever Sold
This just in: a photo of Lindsey Lohan buying a pregnancy test kit and a bottle of Vodka just broke the record.

Best-Selling Albums by American Idol Alumni
Fun Fact: Season 1 contestant Nikki McKibbin has bought all these CDs.

The 50 Worst Cars of All Time
My dad owned about 6 of these... maybe more.

Top 10 Fastest Cars in the World
My dad owned none of these.

Top 10 Novelty Songs
Shouldn't Weezer and Fergie own this list?

The World's 10 Biggest Robberies
Oddly, The producers of the last two "Pirates of the Caribbean" flicks are not on the list.

Best-Selling Books of All Time
If your a fan of religion and magic (I know, same thing), this list's for you!

10 Biggest Computer Flops of All Time
"Hi NeXT and Newton, I'd like you to meet Vista."

America's Top-Selling Albums of All Time
Since kids aren't buying CDs anymore, this list may never change. Those dirty hippies will soar forever.

Most Expensive Wines of All Time
... bought by the biggest ass-heads of all time (FYI, The Thomas Jefferson bottles are fakes)

Joey Chestnut's Competitive Eating Records
Listen closely and you can hear his withering, deep-fired heart gasping in pain, "Stop, please Lord, stop..."

Biggest Box-Office Bombs
"Pluto Nash": Budget: $100,000,000 - Gross: $4,411,102. Wow! Many more doozies.

Top 25 Highest Grossing Domestic Horror Films of All Time
Is "Jaws" really a horror flick? What about those "Mummy" movies? Definitely debatable.

World's Most Expensive Homes
Why does this make me yearn to see the World's Most Destructive Earthquakes?

Top 500 Modern Rock Songs
Normally, these lists are pathetic, but I must give WOXY credit for putting together a very solid list.

The World's 10 Most Wanted Criminals
If sighted, approach the criminal quickly and aggressively and yell, "I got him! I got him!" while preparing to tackle.

The 10 highest-paid CEOs
Ha ha Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum, Lawrence Ellison of Oracle more than twice as much as you! Loser.

Enjoy browsing hundreds of scintillating sci-fi book covers from Penguin Publishing. Artwork and photography by the likes of René Magritte, Max Ernst, Victor Vasarely, Adrian Chesterman, Véronique Rolland, Franco Grignani and many more.

Website: www.penguinsciencefiction.org

Enjoy these wonderful "found" photos from the John Maloof Collection:

"This was created in dedication to the photographer Vivian Maier, a street photographer from the 1950s - 1970s. Vivian's work was discovered at an auction here in Chicago where she lived for 50 years but was originally a native to France. Her discovered work includes over 40,000 mostly medium format negatives. Born February 1, 1926 and passed away on Tuesday, April 21, 2009."

Website: www.vivianmaier.blogspot.com

(via @parkview & @brookpete)

On one memorable Halloween when I was little, my mom forgot to make us costumes so my dad picked up a couple prepackaged gems from our local variety store (Schatzows 5 & 10) on his way home from work. A tremendous amount of thought was not put into the purchase.

The costume box contained a semi-pliable mask (decorated with lead paint, I'm sure) and a chintzy, plastic smock that displayed the theme of the costume in an extremely budget fashion.

My older brother chose first and was lucky enough to get the Vinnie Barbarino costume (pretty cool) and he got to do his spot-on "What? Where? Why?" and "I'm so confu-used!" routine. Good stuff, D.J.

Unfortunately, I got stuck with the frightfully afroed and mustachioed Mr. Kotter. (Neat, thanks Dad, the Kotter smock has all the sweathogs on the front too. That way I'll never forget them.)

An eight-year old dressed up as a schlubby, middle-age hack comic with absolutely no acting chops is not a pretty sight. I was less than motivated to go out and beg for candy. But I did, and lets just say, some tears spewed out of those little round eye holes. Little Mr. Kotter was a total wuss.

The website RetroCrush has posted the worst of these infamous, highly-flammable outfits including Chachi, Fat Albert, Space Ghost, GI Joe, the Care Bears and many more. Enjoy the painful memories, I gotta to go see my therapist now.

Have any bad costume memories you want to share? Share here.

Website: www.retrocrush.com

Originally posted October 27, 2007

Wow, there sure are lots of gossip and snark-filled websites out there bombarding you with heaps upon heaps of the negative, the nasty and the nonsense (our favorite). Some fun, so pretty despicable, most leaving you with that less-than-fresh feeling in your soul. Remedy?  Today I stumbled across a website every that is  refreshingly different, dare I say sweet... and stylish to boot.

Before the fanny packs and Andrea Bocelli concerts, your parents (and grandparents) were once free-wheeling, fashion-forward, and super awesome.

After viewing a couple of these retro gems, I got choked up pretty quickly because my parents were also very awesome and sadly, they are no longer with us. That's Patty and Don pictured above back in 1967 (honeymoon, I think). Lovely folks with darn good taste.

Website: My Parents Were Awesome

Taxis. What can't they do? First there was "Taxicab Confessions" then "Cash Cab" and now this cozy little music series from the streets of London. An impressive list of indie artists (Calexico, Death Cab for Cutie, The National, My Morning Jacket, The Walkmen, plus many more) have performed intimate Black Cab Sessions in the back of city taxis while motoring through the metro area. Some of these artists  have been interviewed on UsedWigs Radio, too (Dawn Landes, Jeffrey Lewis and Daniel Johnston). Well, how about that!

See whole list here: www.blackcabsessions.com

In particular, I loved the Maximo Park performance, The Doves (above) and Richard Thompson (below):

(via @greghoyboy)

Mark Mothersbaugh at the Starwood

The Ramones on Sunset Boulevard 1978

“You Will Never Work in This Town Again” Robert Plant 1978

Many many more evocative  shots of The Beatles, Sinatra, Matt Dillon, The Sex Pistols, Debbie Harry, Muhammad Ali:  Start Slide show here.

Website: www.bradelterman.com