My friend Marc from Canada is visiting at the moment, we dont get to see each other nearly enough, the last time Marc was here was in Aprill 2005, we had a short holiday in Melbourne staying with Phillip whilst there Marc and i got to visit the Andy Warhol ‘Time capsules’ exhibition, it was a fun day but very intense, Marc and i have both admired Andy for many years. The following photos were taken at the exhibition.
Just to keep Tyson
happy and quiet, I am today revisiting the ‘Tingle film and video archive’ I have dug out a favorite of many of us here in the Tammy inner circle, this is another golden moment from ‘Pot of gold/Pot luck’ what we have here is a maniacal bell ringer!, I kid you not, the little dynamo is/was called ‘Piffy’, this lad had a heap of mini cow bells laid out on the table before him, each tuned to perfection, the backing track would start and off he’d go, not just the melody .. oh no, the Piffster even had the harmony parts worked out.
About half way through the song the tempo suddenly doubled in time, sending poor Piffy into a whirl, he was like someone with ADD who’d never seen a ritalin pill!.
Bernard the judge gave I believe a perfect score of ’40’.
The response to Piffy was amazing when this show was rebroadcast years later, the next week as a surprise they brought Piffy back all grown up, but no less manic.
Photo # 1 Here we see Piffy revving up, is that a ruffled shirt I see under the satin jumpsuit?
Photo # 2 Piffy the performer, even during this complex song Piffy never stopped smiling, in this photo we can see he wasn’t sticking to the melody, here I think with multiple bells he was forming a complex CM7 chord, he may even have used the old trick of dampening the bells.
Photo # 3 Bernard has found a star, in what is believed to be the only time in his career as a judge, Bernard gifts Piffy with a perfect ’40’.
Photo # 4 Years later Piffy made a return to TV to prove has was no less talented and no less manic, it’s heartening to see Piffys lack of teeth had resolved itself by the time of his comeback.
Still the coolest place in Sydney, where else can you find advertisments for Iggy Pop and eczama within a few feet of each other?, it’s the only place i could live if i ever have to move to the big smoke, spent the last day of my summer holidays just walking the streets, shopping and eating and drinking (lots) as with any inner city place, on a hot summers day there is no place hotter, all that ashphelt and cement = hot hot hot.
Hmmm, me thinks it might be time to call the refrigerator mechanic in.
If there is one thing I cant stand is an artist who announces their retirement only to make a spectacular comeback when either the taxman comes knocking, or they realize they cant live with out the roar .. Or groan, of the crowd. One such person is the Aussie singer John Farnham who for a myriad of reasons I just cant stand, I was filled with glee when only a couple of years ago he hung up his touring boots and called it a day, alas I now read in our local paper that he will be returning to the concert stage with a show in my home town, please John, just go away.
Ahhhh, the America i love. While visiting the U.S we had the chance to visit the site of this truely tacky and sad incident, THIS is the sort of thing that will always draw me back to the U.S.
October 24, 2005; Page A1
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Last Wednesday, the furry red Muppet named Elmo learned that Hollywood Boulevard is a long, long way from Sesame Street.
In plain sight of children and tourists, Elmo — or at least, a man named Don Harper in a knockoff Elmo costume — was arrested here by the Los Angeles Police Department. Elmo was taken down by a special task force created to combat a growing nuisance in the Hollywood tourist district: famous costumed characters who try to be photographed with tourists and sometimes badger them relentlessly for tips.
LAPD officers, posing as clueless foreign tourists in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater, also busted Mr. Incredible, the superhero from the animated hit “The Incredibles,” as well as a man dressed as the villain from the “Scream” movie franchise. The icons were arrested and could face charges ranging from illegal vending to aggressive begging.
But today, police estimate anywhere from 70 to 80 characters work the one-block stretch that includes not only the Chinese Theater, but also the Kodak Theater (home of the Academy Awards) and a new retail and entertainment center called Hollywood & Highland.
“When I first started here 13 years ago, you had Charlie Chaplin hanging around [the] Chinese Theater, and that was it,” says Leron Gubler, president and chief executive of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. “Now, they’re multiplying like rabbits.”
The characters — have gotten more aggressive both with tourists and each other. Fights erupt over precious sidewalk space, especially when two of the same characters show up. Characters grab tourists as they walk down the street. Some of the scarier costumed entertainers jump out at the crowd and frighten children. Perhaps most worrisome is the practice of demanding tips from foreign tourists who don’t know the custom, language or currency.
Mr. Harper, the 40-year-old Elmo, says he was set up by the cops. But upon returning to his spot a day after his arrest, he conceded that things are tense these days among the characters, who form cliques and alliances to defend their turf and make money. Mr. Harper, for example, says his Elmo is a foe of Batman and Superman, but in cahoots with Mr. Incredible, SpongeBob SquarePants and at least one of the half-dozen Spider-Men who prowl the street.
A few weeks ago I splurged and brought myself a DVD recorder, the best thing about this is how easy it is to transfer old video tapes to DVD. At last count I had over 670 hours of video tape of all sorts of things I’ve taped over the years, to teach myself how to use this new machine I thought I should dig out some interesting stuff and have a play around with it.
The first thing I reached for was my old episodes of ‘Pot of gold/Pot luck’,
this was an amateur talent show that showcased some truly hideous performances, but best of all one of the judges was Bernard King, Bernard was merciless in his judging and no one was spared his barbs. After transferring the show to DVD I have been going through the episodes getting screen captures of some of the contestants.
The first one I’m featuring was a guy called Todd Rixon, he was a dancer .. of sorts, flailing and prancing around the stage, he was letting fly with a few high kicks until one was a little too high, in an instant he had snapped his ham string muscle.
Photo # 1 The twang heard around the world, as Todd goes for one high kick too many and comes unstuck when his hamstring gives way
Photo # 2 Here we see Todd spiraling out of control as he bravely attempts to uphold the adage ‘The show must go on’, alas as we can see by the contorted feet and body in mid spasm Todd was only going one place, and that was down.
Photo # 3 The greatest indignity of all, poor Todd having to be held up by host Ernie Sigley, what a trouper Todd was, before his final collapse and acknowledgement of defeat when he realized his legs no longer worked, he tried to incorporate some Michael Jackson ‘Beat it-esque’ hand moves to deflect attention from his flagging legs. Bernard, in a rare moment of kindness realized you cant kick a man when there is a very real chance he may never dance again, so he kindly offered up a score of 20 sympathy points.
The last of Marta for today, with the seasons changing faster than Jocelyne Wildenstein’s face, i thought today we would feature Marta in a fetching winter creation, i know we have a few months to go, but if you want to be ahead of the field then you better get copying, and knitting, to emulate Marta’s look before every two bit slapper is pulling on the winter woolies.
Photo # 1
Marta shows that a jumper can never be too tight, or too green.
Photo # 2
Here Marta proves that red and green CAN be seen, even if you’re not going to the snow this season follow Marta’s lead and carry skis and stock’s with you at all times, the word here is accessories.
Photo # 3
Never mind you wont be within 500 kilometers of snow this year, THESE are the glasses to be seen wearing around town this winter, and i dont mean to be tiresome but once again Marta scores a hole in one by matching her jumper with mint green earings.
For whatever bizzare reason our regional tv station here in Wollongong WIN 4 has decided to start playing reruns of classic Aussie cop shows and drama’s at 3.00am each morning, and they have a different show every day of the week, so far we’ve had the ‘Sullivan’s’ ‘Division 4’ ‘Holiday island’ ‘Matlock’ and ‘Skyways’ (still waiting for the episode featuring a VERY young Kylie and Jason to be shown) better spark up the old vcr and catch these while i can.
‘Spose there wasnt enough room on the guy’s
t-shirt to say what he really wanted to say, still .. short and to the point does the trick.
I have this clipping on my notice board at home, i get pretty disheartend when i see the complacency that has overrun the gay community not only here in Aussie but world wide, not that i’m judging too harshly, our community is tired, battle scarred and bruised in the Neocon world we now live in, it’s an interesting, yet scarey .. bordering on terrifying time we now live in, and people my age (40) are at the right age to really notice the change, it was only recently .. maybe less than ten years ago, where it seemed we were moving forward with rights, relationship acknowledgement, freedom, sense of community.
We were on a roll, but now over the past few years we have had to watch as this has started to grind to a halt, as the world has shifted into an oppresive conservative age. This has all happend so quick, and it’s especially noticable down here in Aussie, where gay rights and legislation are being repealed!?, still what do you expect when something as basic as workers rights are being smashed and levelled on a daily basis.
Still, what i cling to is the notion that ‘The tide go’s in, the tide go’s out’ and that this madness wont spiral out of control and people will remember what we had and how far we had come, and then gasp it back before too much more is lost.
It will take three things for this to happen, people (Mr, Ms amd Mrs Joe Average) will have to be ..
* Less fearful of what the government feeds us
* Less greedy
* Less complacent.
This is a serious Tammy signing off.
Right now i was supposed to be visiting Melbourne, but due to one thing and another i couldnt get there, the big disappointment for me missing the trip was i wont be going on an adventure with my old friend and dance party partner Beryl, we recently discovered that one of our shared heroes ‘Rose Porteous’ has moved to Toorak in Melbourne, for as long as i can remember Beryl and i have plotted and planned a meeting with Rose, but it was somewhat hindered by the fact that Rose lived in Perth.
Beryl and i have laid some ground work, including meeting Roses husband, but alas still no Rose contact for us.
I’m hoping that while Beryl is in Melbourne he’ll be able to make contact with Rose, or at the very least confirm her location.
Tho not as professional as me at celebrity stalking, Beryl has done okay on occasion, as the photo of Beryl with Tonya Harding below proves, the other photo is of Rose during one of her infamous fashion parades.
This story was printed in our local paper the ‘Illawarra Mercury’ and no, it wasnt April fools day.
B O-derant: Once again change is forcing me into financial straits, i’ve been driven into another round of mass purchasing after Rexona decided to change the recipe of my favorite underarm deoderant, oh that all the worlds problems should be so trivial i hear you bleat, but for me this is a disaster, it can take months or years to find the right spray for the right person.
With my old faithful i have 24 hour protection from odours, no staining, no itch .. alas now some insane person at Rexona HQ has decided that well enough wasnt good enough, so they have changed the recipe for the nook and cranny CFC propelled whiffsome mist, the ‘New and improved’ spray is nothing less than vulgar, i recoiled in horror upon my first squirt, it smells like one of those strawberry scented toilet deodourisers, like a fruit bowl has exploded under your arm. By the end of the first day of my trialling the new spray i fully expected to find a nest of wasps under my arms.
In true Tammy fashion i went out in search of the last stocks of the prized canisters, i found one little store that had a few last cans of old stock, so i swept them up and plonked down the cash.
I know i’m only delaying the enevitable, but really .. some things in life shouldnt be screwed with, thats underarm, toothpaste and soap.
In the below you can also spot my present from Adam of the ‘Oral-B ultrasonic toothbrush’ have you ever had one of these in your mouth? i suggest you try it.
While staying down the coast Adam noticed this sign by the indoor pool, i understand the no diving symbol, but what does the one showing a caricature of someone pulling the back of their shorts down ban?
Another of my early crushes (besides the perfectly moulded ‘Big Jim’) was Leif Garrett, i really had to keep that one under wraps. I read yesterday that Leif was arrested for fair evasion on the subway and drug possesion, i got to thinking about all those people who become huge stars and celebrities for one, maybe two years and then POW!, it’s all over and best gig they can land is Celebrity big brother or something equally as humiliating. How do these people make money?, what do they do with their days?.
This week the world lost the feisty actress Shelly Winters, i’ve always had a soft spot for Shelly and even at a young age recognised her camp value in the Poseidon adventure, one of my all time favorite movies .. love the Irwin Allen disaster movies. I remember when i was pretty young watching Bette Midler do an impersonation of Shelly’s charactor drowning in the Poseidon Adventure accompanied by her yelps of ‘Manny! Manny!’. I must thank Tyson
for turning up the attached photo for me. Now .. how do i get my hands on one of these Shelly dolls?
Whilst visiting Los Angeles one of the big thrills for me was getting to visit a heap of recording studios where most of my favorite music has been recorded, i’ll be posting more photos later of different studios, here i am at ‘Ocean way’ studios 6050 W Sunset Blvd, this is where some of ‘Good vibrations’ was recorded in the 60’s and where most recently Paul McCartney recorded his best ever solo album ‘Chaos and creation in the backyard’ i’ve attached a screen capture of Paul arriving at the studio as well as some i took.
Scanning ebay and the toys on there i came across two toys that were my absolute favorites to recieve when i was a kid, the first being a ‘Shaker Maker’ where you got to make junket/jelly like wobbly statues which would dry hard and you then painted up, which i might add NEVER came out looking like the ones on the box, however my all time favorite toy i got as a child was the ‘Big Jim Country Camper’ .. THIS was the creme del la creme of toys, oh how i wish i still had this, my friend Marc still has his pristine AND still in it’s original box (Adam if you’re reading this .. here is a *hint* for my next birthday) i used to be mad on collecting action figures, i had them all GI Joe (with REAL beard) Action Jackson and hottest of all ‘Big Jim’, man he was one handsome piece of plastic, there was a bearded model or a clean shaven one, i of course went for the clean shaven one, i even tried to shave my bearded GI Joe with TRAGIC results, it looked as if he’d been attacked by a razor blade wielding maniac .. which i guess in a way he was. Do you think it’s possible for a kid to have a crush on an action figure? Big Jim still looks pretty good for something that sprung from a Mattel mould.
Sea Change: Last weekend Adam and i took the opertunity to get away down the coast for a couple of days, for both of us it was a welcome return to old stomping ground, Adam used to go to Lak Conjola and i went to Burril Lake for our summer holidays as kids. It brought back a flood of memories for me as i walked around the camping ground we used to go to, pointing out every signifigant tree and blade of grass to Adam and probably boring him into a stupor along the way. The bonus of the trip was meeting up with our ‘old’ friend Beryl who was holidaying with friends nearby, we were lucky enough to bum a dinner invitation and spent a beautiful night having dinner outdoors with good company, the next day we got to show Beryl around some of the places we knew down there, by a strange twist my sister and neice were staying in a holiday house just up the road from ‘Rancho Beryl’ so we got a visit in there as well, this was fun as the place where my sister was staying was like a little time warp from the sixties, right down to the original furnishings and decorations, i’ve attached a few photos taken in the house, i even got a pic of a retro fly strip from the 70’s left haning next to the orange/red/pink-ish velvet curtains. If you look closely at the pic of Beryl, Adam and i next to the lake you can see the water rippling behind us, thats because an out of control dog was in the water behind us and you can see delicate Beryl is poised ready to squeal.
Cleaning out an old sash bag i used to lug around (no, not a man purse) i found languishing in the bottom the ticket stub to the first movie Adam and i ever went to see, in fact this was only the second time we’d met, the first time was the weekend before. The photo below was taken of Adam and i this past weekend at the theatre in Sydney.
Recently Adam introduced a new concept into the household ‘Surprise present day’ this is where one random day of the year, out of the blue we get each other a present, dosnt have to be on the same day, or even month. Not so long ago Adam presented me with a gift wrapped package, the inaugaral ‘Surprise present day’. After meticulously (i’m famous for it) unwrapping the present i pulled aside the wrapper to find a fully autographed copy of Joan Crawfords book ‘My way of life’, in celebration Adam also decided to photoshop my face into an old Joan Crawford movie poster .. nice.
After watching Johnny Depp in ‘Charley and the chocolate factory’ i realised that i’ve always had a thing for ‘Bangs’, you know those little bits of hair that drop around your ears, but your fringe stays short, sort of a mutated mullet, i’ve had a scratch around the ‘Tingle photo archives’ and come up with a couple of examples.
Ahhhh, how sweet it is .. any ‘collectors’ out there probably have a ‘Wants list’, this is a list of your most desired items that you collect. For about 20 years #1 on my video wants list has been the early 1970’s action/adventure show ‘Primus’, this show was sort of a modern version of ‘Sea hunt’, in all my years of collecting i’ve never met anyone who even remembers the show, let alone having a copy on video tape, as far as i know it was never repeated after it’s first airing.
Imagine my joy when last Friday i scanned around ebay and found someone selling a copy of four episodes on video, got it at a really good price too. Now i have to look up my list and see whats next to get on my hit list.
After breakfast on the beach it was time for a reality check, i had to go out (kicking and screaming) and be locked in the theatre for the afternoon to play drums for a show, normally this is fun, but today it was just SO warm and sunny outside i really didnt want to go in, but .. the show must go on, and on it did. Below is a photo of the show band, from left to right is Brett (bass), Jan Maree ( MD and keyboards), Me (drums) and Adam (piano)
Phillip has been visiting from Melbourne these last couple of weeks, last Sunday we got up early-ish and had the most fantastic breakfast on the balcony of the Novotel hotel, each time i go there i kick myself for not making it a more regular event, it seriously has one of the best views in the world, looking out over a beautiful surf beach and our harbour, i’ve lived here all my life and i still find myself stopping and looking out at the view in wonder, sometimes we just dont know how lucky we are.
Not much to say really ..
Friday last i decided i HAD to have a release for my repressed shopping urges, as it’s now only a few short weeks until we head to the States my spending has been massively curtailed, so it was decided to send me out op shopping, this way i would get to unleash my contained urges without spending top dollar, for me it’s ALWAYS been about quantity over quality.
I was on holidays and i knew Tyson had a break from uni, knowing he shares my passion for ‘scoring a bargain’ i invited him along, on the understanding that he wouldnt undercut me on any purchases, it was a pretty succesful day, with me outlaying around $40.00 tops, and coming home with a car full of goodies.
The photos:
1) Foot:
2) Broiler: Some used foot spa’s, WHO would buy these crusty receptacles!?
3) Hot Dogs: A specialised weiner shop?, i wonder if ‘Pink soup’ will be on the
menu.
4) Jazzercise: I couldnt bring myself to purchase this video, even i now draw the
line at buying VHS.
5) Monster: I cant stand these inflatable advertising goiters, they unnerve me
not as much as those high powered, fan driven, dancing wind puppets you see
outside used car yards.
6) Burger movement: lucky we had eaten lunch just before we got to this op shop,
as we found a tepid bag of fast food abandoned on the window sill of this store.
At last my first book will soon be out, prepare yourself to hunker down for a long session of ‘licking and flicking’ as you go into a page turning frenzy reading the illustrated adventures of your very own Tammy Tingles.
The last few days i’ve been digging through my OLD photo albums, i’m digging up all sorts of things .. the one thing i’ve noticed is how bad the printing is on most of them so i’ve had to try and fix them in photoshop, the other is i’ve always had a pretty good hand at taking photos and never really taking out of focus shots, i’ll give myself that. I really became interested in photography when i was about eleven and found an OLD box brownie, probably the one that took the attached black and white photo of me as a baby patting my sisters cat, those photos were never in focus but as time went on i started to take a few interesting photos, even if it was just a ‘click and wind’ camera. The photos below are just a couple i found in my old albums 1) is a pic of me as a toddler taken using a ‘box brownie’. 2) is a pic taken in our backyard of me holding my cat Choo Choo (most of my cats were named after ‘Top cat’ characters) .. this photo also highlights a rather troublesome ‘stance’ by myself, friends now concerned and bothered by my current pale complexion will be pleased to see that as an eleven year old i did actually have a tan. 3) Itook this pic of my cat Choo Choo, i remeber i wanted the grass in the foreground to be in focus, i sort of like this primitive shot (i was only eleven after all)
Now the weather is warming up here i KNOW Adam is going to try and lure me out to go bush walking, call me old fashioned .. but if it doesnt have a travelator i dont want to know, my idea of walking in the wild is crossing the grassy median strip out the front of my house, and even then i take machete and hiking boots (OOH, bindi’s!!) this pic was taken at Fitzroy falls, not really in the ‘scrub’ but still, it WAS an uneven surface!.
Old Tamala is over the moon, i stand here before you
braying out a fanfare of unmitigated joy, from the
flatual pit of my arms, blurting out an ode to
announce we Just got confirmation that we’ve landed
seats for Paul’s second Anaheim show on Saturday the
12th of November ..
Tah dah!!
So not only will i now be going to see Paul on the
Friday, but now on the Saturday night i
will be able to take Adam to see his first ever rock
(rawk) concert .. i’m excited about this, but a little
concerned, i think the wildest concert Adam has been
to was a street theatre recital of ‘The cat in the
hat’ performed by a troop of desperate backpacking
‘sock puppeteers’ ..
How will he cope with my ‘Ringo Klaus-ian’ moments,
which will basically last for an hour before the
concert, all during it, and probably for the next year
after!?
Its that time again where i feature some more of Mata Hairies stunning fashions, i grabbed these stills from my set of Lancelot Link dvd’s, these are only from the first disc, later in the series i think the producers realised what a glamour they had in Marta, and thus started to dress her in some REALLY funky clothes i’ll have these on the blog soon.
Photo (1) shows that Marta has been trained to sit with perfect poise, and check out the rock on her finger.
Photo (2) this ISNT Marta, but rather an extra from the show.
Photo (3) shows Marta can wear any colour, even watermellon, i seriously love her chic close cropped hairdo as well.
Photo (4) this is Marta in disguise as an airhostess, please take note of the wide banded watch which EVERYONE who is anyone is wearing these days, the white bangle is really set off by the dark fur.
Heres another platter from Tammys k-tell record selector .. have i shown you my sock puppet records yet?
Ahhhhhh, my second favorite season after autumn is spring, this is where the buds bloom, and everything smells sweet. How can people rush past a pretty flower? i know i cant and love to grab pics when i can. Smell the flowers.
‘We can be hero’s’ currently screening on the ABC on Wednesday nights is the current ‘must watch situation’ down here in Aussie. Its a mockumentary about five Australians all vying for the title of ‘Australian of the year’ i wont go into details, go to http://www.abc.net.au/tv/heroes/ to get the full rundown, however the character that has caught my eye, and how apt as she has a chronic stigmatism, is ‘Pat Mullins’. I will say no more, other thn the fact that Pat was born with aforementioned stigmatism, and one leg massively shorter than the other.
To work around her disability Pat taught herself at a very young age to roll everywhere, at incredible speeds. I love how Pat has adjusted her fashion to work with her disability, my favorite Pat pret a’ porter moment is to come this week, when she dons a pair of ‘pewter’ heels .. one greatley extended (see below pic). I will leave you with this quote from Pat ‘I may be disabled .. but i can roll’
This past weekend i’ve had Phillip from Melbourne visiting us, he stayed a few days which was fantastic, but it was a tough call for him to end up staying in Wollongong mere days after finishing a three month world trip. We had an absolute laugh trekking around and visiting a few old haunts, To give you a ‘slight’ insight into the man simply known as ‘Phillip’ on Sunday morning i woke up early-ish and was creeping around doing the washing up, the phone in the lounge rang and i raced to answer it before it woke Phillip up, i picked up the phone to find it was Phillip calling me from the next room, he informed me that he was awake, sitting up in bed, ready for breakfast and prepared to recieve visitors.
When i stay at Phillips place he makes me sleeep on a hissing, blurting, deflating air goiter. The pics below are an ‘art’ shot of Phillip i took in the side mirror of the car, the other pic is of Phillip, Adam and myself having breakfast at north Wollongong beach this past weekend.
A friend just sent me this amazing photo of the space shuttle breaking throught the sound barrier, awesome.
Some would call it a quirk, some would call it strange, others i’m sure have different names for it, but old Tamala dosnt like change .. well, not when it comes to her personal cleansing products. In the last few months two of my lathersome staples have been pulled from the shelves and ‘discontinued’ .. oh how i shudder at the finality of that word. First it was my Colgate pump pack tooth paste that got the rissole, then last week when shopping for my favorite ‘Sunflower and honey’ scented soap i saw the dreaded slip of paper on the shelve ‘Discontinued’.
With racing heart i scooped up the remaining few bars and hoofed it to the check out chick, who seeing the panic in my eyes made no attempt at idle chatter. When i got home i called the customer service number on the back wrapper of the soap, they clued me up to where i could score the last few remaining cakes in Wollongong.
I didnt dare wait till next day opening, i swished into town with my pathetic calico ‘greeny’ bags and swooped down upon the store that had the booty, i ran into a girlfriend from work who was also shopping, i was relieved to find out that she wasnt there to challenge me for the covetted cakes, but rather to pick up some eye liner. Knowing me as long as she has, she just gave me a gentle smile when she copped sight of my bags of lather goods.
I’m sad to say that the last of my toothpaste has now gone, i have moved on, but it will never be the same as the golden days of the pump pack, as some sort of solice the soap is stretching out quite nicely, i predict i should make it till at least December, before i have to make that all important decision as to what new soap i’ll be moving on to.
Currently being spun on Tammys electrolla ‘Three in one’ is this fab platter of aural delights.
