KLF issue instructions for getting your book signed

If you want the KLF to sign your book, you’ll need to obey their rules.

On my way to Liverpool for the KLF thing and what’s shaping up to be the greatest book signing in pop history (pic via Kristy off Facebook) pic.twitter.com/nwHBxHwKns

— Peter Robinson (@Popjustice) August 22, 2017

Please listen carefully…

Welcome To The Dark Ages volunteer rules and regulations#k2planthire #jams #klf #theklf 2023 pic.twitter.com/z35sV5sjzD

— Bido Lito! (@BidoLito) August 22, 2017

Anorak

Posted: 23rd, August 2017 | In: Books, Celebrities, Music, The Consumer | Comment

The Chucky Bath Bomb (the Devil incarnate smells of orange soda)

Chucky smells of orange soda. Well, the Chuckie [sic] Bath Bomb based on the demonic character in the Child’s Play horror film series. Made by California’s Loquita Bath and Body , the company’s founder, Mira Perez, explains:

Well the name came from my husband, he says I am a “loca” [crazy] which I have to admit, I can be a loquita in the best way possible. The brand, however, came because I was throughly mesmerized by these bath and body companies catering to the “goth” style and as much as I love the dark or obscure I didn’t feel like it screamed “ME!’ So, I decided to create bombs that were nostalgic and that I could identify with.

Nancy Down’s lips (from The Craft)

Spotter: Rusty Blazenhoff

Anorak

Posted: 18th, August 2017 | In: Film, The Consumer | Comment

For sale: 5 NASA Space Shuttle flights suits

Most old tat is great. Talia Rappa and Skyler Ashworth got some terrific gear at a Florida thrift store’s fire sale: for $1.20 they bought five NASA flight suits.

According to experts at the American Space Museum, the astronauts’ names and flight dates on the white labels seem to match the time astronauts, PhD, Robert A. Parker, PhD, and Charles D. Walker, a payload specialist, flew shuttle missions between 1983 and 1985.

Robert Allan Parker (born December 14, 1936), former Director of the NASA Management Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a retired NASA astronaut. He was a Mission Specialist on two Space Shuttle missions, STS-9 and STS-35.

Charles David “Charlie” Walker (born August 29, 1948) flew on three Space Shuttle missions in 1984 and 1985 as a Payload Specialist for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation.[1] He is the first non-government individual to fly in space.

George Driver “Pinky” Nelson (born July 13, 1950) is an American physicist, astronomer, science educator, and a former NASA astronaut on STS-41-C Challenger, STS-61-C Columbia and STS-26 Discovery

You can buy one of these fantastic artefacts when the finders auction them at the American Space Museum auction on November 4.

Spotter: Click on Orlando

Anorak

Posted: 18th, August 2017 | In: News, Technology, The Consumer | Comment

Charlottesville racist casts off his robes and declares ‘I’m an actor not a Nazi’ (video)

More on the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a would-be white supremacist is casting off his white polo, cap and khakis (apparently dressing like a golfer makes you a fascist. Who knew? Discuss) and tells the counter-demonstrators chasing him he’s not Nazi. He’s just playing dress-ups and shouting in public. He might even be golfer in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“In the hole!”

CJ Hunt recored their conversation:

Since I’m a person of color, my identity is not a uniform I can take off when I am feeling unsafe—when I’m stopped by police or when my white girlfriend and I travel through southern towns where Confederate flags billow from porches and pickup trucks. Like all minorities, I’ve grown used to the way that difference marks me—the burden of being ever ready for the moment my skin turns me into a target for angry white men determined to take back what they think the world owes them.

Maybe the lad’s an actor? In the run-up to the fighting, an LA-based company posted an advert of Craigslist. The company called Crowds on Demand, a “public relations firm specializing in innovative events”, was looking for protestors. For a decent $25 per hour “actors and photographers” were invited to get involved in events in the Charlotte, NC area”n  If you’re “ok with participating in peaceful protests:, then get in touch.”

The ad chimed:

Actors and Photographers Wanted in Charlotte

Crowds on Demand, a Los Angeles-based Public Relations firm specializing in innovative events, is looking for enthusiastic actors and photographers in the Charlotte, NC area to participate in our events. Our events include everything from rallies to protests to corporate PR stunts to celebrity scenes. The biggest qualification is enthusiasm, a “can-do” spirit. Pay will vary by event but typically is $25+ per hour plus reimbursements for gas/parking/Uber/public transit.

For more information about us, please visit www.crowdsondemand.com

If you’re interested in working with us, please reply to this posting with the following info:

Full Name

Prior relevant experience (as an actor/performer, photographer, brand ambassador, political activist, etc)

When are you usually available for work?

Resume (optional)

If you’re a photographer, what equipment do you use?

Are you ok with participating in peaceful protests (optional)?

And a screenshot of the original post:

Crowds on Demand add under a section on their website “Protests and Rallies”:

Are you looking to create a buzz anywhere in the United States? At Crowds on Demand, we provide our clients with protests, rallies, flash-mobs, paparazzi events and other inventive PR stunts. These services are available across the country in every major U.S city, every major U.S metro area and even most smaller cities as well. We provide everything including the people, the materials and even the ideas. You can come to us with a specific plan of action and we can make it happen. OR, you can approach us with a general  idea and we can help you plan the strategy then execute it.

We’ve made campaigns involving hundreds of people come to action in just days. We have a proven record of delivering major wins on even the toughest campaigns and delivering phenomenal experiences with even the most logistically challenging events.

The CEO of Crowds on Demand tells Snopes:

“We were not involved in any capacity with the recent tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those impacted by the violence”

As he asks: “Silly question, but if your cause is worthy of protest then why would you need to pay $25 per hour to get people to show up?”

Fake news isn’t just being made in journalism boiler rooms; it’s being made on the street.

Spotter: GQ

Anorak

Posted: 18th, August 2017 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians, The Consumer | Comment

The Steve Buscemi Galaxy Collage onesie is divine

Who doesn’t want a onesie covered in visions of Steve Buscemi? The “Steve Buscemi Galaxy Collage” onesie is divine.

Spotter: DM

Anorak

Posted: 10th, August 2017 | In: Celebrities, Fashion, The Consumer | Comment

Children’s book confuses readers with 5 bananas graphic

“I imagine a child learning to count from this book and then just being incredibly confused for the rest of their life,” writes GooseHerder on Reddit.

Anorak

Posted: 10th, August 2017 | In: Books, Strange But True | Comment

Meet Kan-chan the enema mascot that goes where the sun doesn’t shine

The Japanese terms for people who like dressing up as toys is kigurumi. The Premier League is full of such people. But in Japan mascots are pretty much everywhere. This week another mascot waddled into life. Representing the Ichijiku Pharmaceutical Company, Kan-chan posed for media in front of Tokyo’s Skytree Building.

Kan-chan is the super-sized soft face of the company’s range of enemas. Oddly, Ichijikusays Kan-chan is a… penguin. The pointy head is not for easy access, rather a “hair accessory”.

And here’s the inevitable plush toy.

Spotter: SoraNews24, Kakeibo Mama, 

Anorak

Posted: 5th, August 2017 | In: News, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment

Longbow expert Robert Hardy (29 October 1925 – 3 August 2017)

The actor Robert Hardy (29 October 1925 – 3 August 2017) has died.

Off screen he became something of an authority on the English longbow, his interest having been stimulated when, as a child, he found two of the weapons in the family attic. He wrote two books on the history of the weapon as well as presenting a BBC documentary on the subject.

Spotter: here

Anorak

Posted: 4th, August 2017 | In: Celebrities, The Consumer | Comment

In Germany you can drink at the UnBrexit pub

In Ahaus, Germany, you can drink at the UnBrexit pub. @cirian75 spotted the place which opened in July this year:

British pubs are closing – patrons driven away by the smoking ban and a lack of cash; pulled home by discount supermarket fizz, central heating, your own toilet, fridges, smart phones and take-away delivery drivers schlepping round anything your heart desires to shove in your pie-hole. The pub, once the hub of British social life has been killed off by wealth.

The UnBrexit is more Harvester than hipster. No stripped brick walls, rickety, eclectic furniture and too-cool-for-school staff who do tattoos with irony and holes with narcissism. This one’s got those vomit-friendly carpets, high seating and a gastropub menu.

The theme pub is on a mission:

The die is cast: Britain will leave the European Union. But only one year after the British have voted to quit the EU, The Unbrexit is our answer to this unexpected referendum: 400 sq m of British ground in the center of Europe. The Unbrexit will be the last British place remaining part of the EU in the near future.

Order your lasagna and chips at the bar.

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, August 2017 | In: News, The Consumer | Comment

Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks clocks and watches

You can buy clocks and watches themed on Monty Python s’s Ministry of Silly Walks. John Cleese’s legs and brolly form the hands.

In Kim “Howard” Johnson’s  The First 20 Years of Monty Python ,  we hear Graham Chapman recall how the ketch came about:

John Cleese and I were writing together one day, and John had been thinking of doing something about anger. He’s very good at it, and he likes that emotion very much indeed. I’d been noticing that there were all sorts of ministries for strange things that were likely to distract people from the main issues of the day, and make it look like the government was doing something. A lot of attention would either go to a drought or a flood that probably didn’t exist anyway, and there seemed to be lots of useless ministries. I thought, why not a Ministry of Anger?

It’s difficult to remember whether it was John’s or my idea, but I do know that the next stage was Silly Walks, which was more ludicrous and petty than an emotion like anger. My house was on a very steep hill, and we saw a man walk past, uphill, stooped very sharply backward, defying the laws of gravity! Well, we thought Silly Walks was a good idea, but we couldn’t quite think how to develop it.

As usual, we were supposed to be writing something else when this idea occurred—anything to prevent us from getting to that work! But we thought we’d better get on to writing what we were supposed to be writing. So we rang up Mike (Palin) and Terry (Jones)—to interrupt them from whatever they were supposed to be doing—and made them write the sketch.

Make your own Silly Walk clock here – or buy one here. The Silly Walk watch is here.

Anorak

Posted: 1st, August 2017 | In: Celebrities, The Consumer, TV & Radio | Comment

Snowglobes top list of confiscated airport items

In a move that should have marketing types swooning, London City airport has issued a Marmite amnesty. Passengers passing through the airport found in possession of the processed spread will not have it seized at customs so long as the jar is the new 70g miniature. Passengers will be offered the chance to exchange any larger jars in their luggage for the smaller pots for free

It’s a move that should prove popular because Marmite was found to be the most common branded food item confiscated from passengers’ hand luggage.

“With 4.5 million passengers travelling through our doors each year, we see all kinds of weird and wonderful restricted items, including Marmite,” says Melanie Burnley, director of customer experience at London City airport. “The Marmite swap is a temporary but popular addition which means that whether you love it or hate it, you’ll still be able to get your Marmite fix when travelling from this airport.”

The airport has listed the 10 most commonly confiscated items:

Snow globes
Jams and spreads
Toiletries
Jars of chutney and pickles
Olive oil
Wine
Spirits
Marmite
Nutella chocolate spread
Furry handcuffs

No sign of knives, bombs, poison and all the other stuff the officials are actually looking for.

Anorak

Posted: 1st, August 2017 | In: News, The Consumer | Comment

Accidental Nazi glitter: Tote bag says “my favorite color is Hitler”

The Tote bag says “My favorite color is GLITTER”. Or does it. It looks a lot like the bag says “My favorite color is Hitler”.

Your to buy on the Belle Chic website for the $12.99.

Anorak

Posted: 30th, July 2017 | In: Fashion, The Consumer | Comment

The ASA war on gender means mum gets the power drill and dad goes to Iceland

The Advertising Standards Authority once complained about this site. An advert featuring Page 3 stunna Lucy Pinder was sexist, they alleged. Pinder welcomed readers to Old Mr Anorak’s throbbing organ, which for filthy lucre had been sheep-dipped in Lynx, the stuff that drives women wild with lust. It was all a lot of nonsense. Pinder was willing. No readers were damaged. And rumours abound of a whole generation of young Anoraks. Now the ASA is going for other “gender-stereotypical” commercials, seeking to censor inappropriate ads “that feature stereotypical gender roles”.

There’ll be no more Pinder presenting her primary sexual characteristics like Saint Agatha in a bikini. No more Oxo mum feeding her family. No more Ronseal man telling us it does “exactly” what it says on the tin. And no more ads for yoghurts in which a baby-voiced female celebrity talks about her “tummy”.

Such amplification of “stereotypical gender roles” can “cause harm”. These ads “reinforce assumptions that adversely limit how people see themselves and how others see them”. It turns out that Lynda Bellingham is a bigger role model than your actual mum and dad.

So mum gets the power drill for Christmas after all, and dad gets a trip to Iceland for own-brand ketchup and other tastes of regret.

How’s that for progress?

Anorak

Posted: 20th, July 2017 | In: Key Posts, News, The Consumer | Comment

Hot Tub Boats: floating sex tanks ahoy!

Rework your 1970s-style disease laden sex tank into an ocean-going vessel. The Hot Tub Boat has ben on Seattle’s Lake Union.

“Well, the hot tub boat is fifteen feet over all, she’s about six feet wide, about close to 400 gallons of water in the hot tub,” says (Seattle-based co-inventor Adam) Karpenske. “It can take six people on the boat at any time.”

“She does her haul speed at about three-and-a-half knots. It’s controlled by a little joy stick. Kind of like a lot of people have equated it to ‘if you ever played Pac-man, you can drive the hot tub boat.'”

Grab your joystick and tug.

Spotter: Hit the water in a Hot Tub Boat, Weird Universe

Anorak

Posted: 20th, July 2017 | In: The Consumer | Comment

They really did call a shopping mall Cum Park Plaza

How do you put a shopping centre in North Church St Burlington, NC, on the map? You call it Cum Park Plaza.

Gang bangers, voyeurs, chronic masturbators and other perverts welcome.

Anorak

Posted: 19th, July 2017 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment

The expensive pre-rolled Cannabis Cigar – yours for $420

To Seattle, where Leira makes very expensive cannabis cigars.

The Potlander has more:

Seattle-based Leira rolls cannabis cigars, the smallest of which is a petite three-and-one-quarter-inch cigarillo size that retails for $110 in Washington shops, like Freedom Market of Longview, where I snagged mine. They sell out “within hours or the weekend they are dropped,” the company told us, as cannabis users splurge on a product that “represents success, luxury, and sophistication.”

This cigarillo includes 4 grams of flower, coated with a half-gram of rosin, wrapped in cannabis leaves. It’s advertised as burning slowly over an hour. They also sell a six-inch Corona, which retails for $420, and which is filled with 12 grams of flower, sealed with 3 grams of rosin and also covered in cannabis leaves, that they claim will burn for us to five hours.

Leira works hard to make the packaging look lux as well: each cannagar is sold in a corked glass jar, topped with drips of purple wax

Spotter: Boing Boing

Anorak

Posted: 18th, July 2017 | In: The Consumer | Comment

Mobikes in the canal restores faith in the spirit of Manchester

In Manchester new Chinese bikes are creating artificial reefs in the city’s waterways. It’s terrific. Although it might not be what the Chinese company behind bicycle sharing service Mobike envisioned when it launched in the UK. Can Mobike disrupt Manchester travel?

I really wanted to believe that Mancunians could be trusted with nice things. Just over a fortnight ago, a Chinese company called Mobike brought 1,000 shiny new silver and orange bikes to my city. Unlockable with a smartphone and available to rent for just 50p for half an hour, they could be ridden wherever you liked within Manchester and Salford and, crucially, could be left anywhere public once you were done.

I was an immediate convert, boasting about the superiority of our new bike-sharing system over London’s, pitying sadsacks in the capital who had to trundle around looking for a docking station. One sunny evening shortly after the launch, I rode a Mobike to Salford Quays, where I swam a mile in the filtered water of the glistening Lowry, reflecting as I did my backstroke that Manchester was starting to feel rather European. I had always fancied living in Copenhagen, where the cyclist is king and the harbour has been turned into a lido. Was I now living that continental dream?

Two weeks on and I fear that a dream is all it was. There are Mobikes in the canal, Mobikes in bins and I am fed up with following the app to a residential street where there is clearly a Mobike stashed in someone’s garden. On launch day, the Chinese designer told me the bikes were basically indestructible and should last four years without maintenance. It took a matter of hours before local scallies worked out how to disable the GPS trackers and smash off the back wheel locks.

On Thursday, none of the eight bikes showing on the app as being near my house were actually there. I was so incensed when I reached the location of the ninth and could see it locked away in a backyard that I lost control of my senses and knocked on the door. A young man opened it and I asked nicely if I could rent the bike. He looked surprised and said, no, it was his, and anyway, he needed it later. I explained that was not how the system worked, that the bikes were public, and that if everyone was as selfish as him the whole thing would collapse. He rolled his eyes and told me I would be trespassing if I dared try to fetch it.

You see, what works in a totalitarian state where everyone’s being monitored doesn’t work in Manchester. Good-oh. Theft isn’t right, of course not. But to assume compliance and that people offered a 50p bike ride home will treat the thing with dutiful respect represents a failure to understand your target market.

PS: Chinese airline Wings of China can update its advice to travellers visiting the UK. The 2016 Air China guide told its passengers to avoid visiting areas of London “populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people” – and “We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling.”

The chapter on Manchester should be a hoot.

Spotter: The Guardian:

Anorak

Posted: 17th, July 2017 | In: Key Posts, News, The Consumer | Comment

Artist turns train tickets into geodesic spheres

Recycle your old travel cards, plastic bottles and playing cards like Nick Sayers, who turns detritus into geodesic spheres. His stuff is held together with joints made by cuts. No glue.

Spotter: make

Anorak

Posted: 12th, July 2017 | In: The Consumer | Comment

Emery Blagdon and His Healing Machine

 

In an unheated shed near Stapleton, Nebraska in the late 1950s, visionary artist Emery Blagdon began twisting pieces of old wire into patterns with pliers, attaching aluminum foil, beads, ribbons and an infinite array of everyday cast-off items. His work became part of a unique environment that he created, believing it could generate natural energy from the earth and help people attain better health. Spurred on by personal tragedy, Blagdon’s obsession to create a “Healing Machine” was life-long as he believed people could be cured by his work.

Spotter: PBS

Anorak

Posted: 11th, July 2017 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment