This is what happens when a playground equipment designer watches the movie Frankenstein one too many times on the late, late show. The screws are a dead giveaway.

It’s a playful tribute to the sci-fi superstar stylized as a cross between a giant toy robot and birdcage with googly eyes, and long reaching arms that double as side-by-side slides.

Beautifully finished in a striking shade of bright orange the monster stands out in the master planned suburban scale sandbox his feet are stuck in.

Three floors up two children play inside his head while a young lady is hunched over on the first floor of his two-story torso. He is part observation deck, part thrill ride, part jungle gym, and part pop art for the park.

By any playground standards, artistic or otherwise, before or since, this park monster is amazing!

Here’s to he monster, the playful pop art in the park and YOU!

January 16, 2010
Los Angeles

Cat-eyed teenage girls consume chocolate frosted white sheet cake in a less than dainty manner sure not to please their charm school teacher. Their painted lips match the traditional print on the slip-covered sofa they are gathered on. Plastic straws in several pastel shades emerge from mostly empty bottles of Pepsi, America’s second favorite refreshing cola beverage,. The beautiful bottles share the coffee table with festive napkins, forks and plates of uneaten remains of hot dogs and pork and beans.

The South gave us soft drinks! We have North Carolina to thank for Pepsi, the sparkling cola beverage with the peppy name. A pharmacist there first concocted it in 1898, several years after Coca Cola was first consumed in neighboring Georgia where it was invented in 1885. The Coca Cola we drink to day is a bit different than the original formula. But it’s still addictive. No, the Coca name didn’t come from coconut, it came from cocaine. Scandalous! The granddaddy of all soft drinks began, according to the legend, as refreshing, attitude altering beverage called cocawine, a blend of cocaine and wine. How festive!

Speaking of Coca Cola… have you seen the NEW Coca-Cola can shaped like the classic coke bottle? You won’t believe your eyes! And it’s SO adorable! I hadn’t seen it until I opened up my hotel room fridge in Seattle and there it was. I could believe it! It’s as though a can and a bottle had a baby. I was a FOOL not to grab one… and of course now I can’t find one anywhere.

Speaking of cake have you made a Cherpumple yet? I DARE YOU TO TRY! Click here to see how!

Here’s to cake with Pepsi, Coke with coke, and YOU!

January 7, 2010
Los Angeles

A basement ceiling bouquet of colorful crepe paper hangs twisted and streaming over a pair of party guests posing with nylon stockings stretched over their heads. Why collectively as a society have we turned our backs on crepe paper as party decor? It’s SO festive and fun! And covering our heads with nylons for memorable party portraits, what has happened to that New Years tradition? Perhaps it never was one. But it’s never too late to make it one… in 2010. Yes, two thousand ten. It has such a SCI-FI ring to it. We really are living in the future! Lets savor it and make the most of every moment.

Here’s to a happy crepe paper and nylon new years and YOU!

…and Happy New DECADE TOO!

December 31, 2009
Los Angeles

Master flocker Larry Deminter, proudly poses with one of his very special Christmas confections. Freshly flocked trees are his holiday specialty. This one is a tri-toned tabletop tree in lime, light pink and bright pink. Larry can flock a tree any color you want including black.

Frankly, I’ve always had a wondering eye for flocked Christmas trees, especially when flocked in color. So this year when I spotted lime green, periwinkle blue and peach flocked trees displayed at the local neighborhood tree lot I pulled the car right up and hopped without skipping a beat. Standing beneath the red and white striped tent and surrounded by a impressive, fragrant selection of fine cut pines a variety of shapes and sizes my imagination was inspired and my spirit soared. After several questions including how many flocking colors do you have? And how many colors can u do on a single tree? The answers were 15 and two or three, I ordered tall tree flocked in shocking pink. Curious about flocking, (isn’t everyone?), and how one becomes a flocker, I introduced myself to the flocker and I got more than I bargained for.

I began talking to Larry and was quite impressed by his family history in the tree business. Turns out he learned the seasonal tree trade when he was boy. His father began selling Christmas tress at the corner of Central and Vernon Avenues in South LA in 1950. His family maintains that lot to this day every holiday season in addition to three others in Culver City, Hollywood and the Los Feliz Costco parking lot, where I met him and this image was captured.

Over the next few days I returned to the lot several times and ordered two more flocked trees -the tri-tone u see in the pic and another in fire engine red knick-named the “Red Devil” Christmas tree. I gave it away at my retro holiday slide show in Hollywood.

The next morning the wind was howling at high speeds when I went back to tell Larry what a big hit the Christmas tree giveaway was and to thank him for flocking it special. When I got there it looked like the wind had attacked the place like a tornado. Trees were blown over in every direction. I looked over at Larry’s flocking booth and it was completely gone. Only a mashed, muddy mound of multicolored flocking remained. I asked what happen to the flocking tent? It blew away the wind. Where’s Larry? He’s gone and wasn’t coming back.

I stood there in the bluster among the windswept trees and red and white tent slapping in the breeze. For a moment I truly believed I was in some sort of crazy Christmas fairy tale where the flocking booth flew away with the flocker in it flocking a tree.

THANK YOU, LARRY, for the flocking!

Here’s to flock, flocking, flockers, flocked Christmas trees, Larry and YOU!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December 25, 2009
Los Angeles

The flash of a flashbulb reflects in the living room window through which we see a tinsel-trimmed tree and someone peeking at the backside of a bevy of backyard beauties.  This is the valley of the dolls! Which ones are real? Meet Patti Playpal! She is a “companion doll.”

The contrast between the big dolls and their little owners, or lack there of, is shocking and proves there’s quite a difference between a baby doll and a life-size plastic playmate. Seems Patti is less like a doll and more like a special friend. They can even share clothing. And they need to because the dolls are better dressed.

All but the young lady on the right looks into the camera.  Perhaps she looks away in shame for she is the only one with a Patti Playpal wannabe, a fake, a fraud. Size-wise the faux Patti is slightly more monstrous, and judging by her hair and eyes, looks like she stuck her finger in a light socket.

The first Patti Playpal was born in 1959 at the Ideal Toy Company in New York City, the same fine company that introduced teddy bears to the world in 1903!

What I wanna know is… where are all the Patti Playpals and their playmates now!?

Here’s to Patti, her pals, Teddy, the Ideal Toy Company and YOU!

December 15, 2009
Los Angeles

PS! Join me THIS SUNDAY AFTERNOON, DEC 20th @ 2pm at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood… for my RETRO HOLIDAY SLIDE SHOW! Celebrate New Years, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas like you never have before. Your imagination will be inspired and your holiday spirit will soar! …also in Seattle, WA on Dec 27 and Portland, OR, Dec 29

CLICK HERE FOR TIX & INFO

Gleaming silver stars hang from frizzly-foiled canes fixed to stylish streetlamps towering above signs, signals, bus benches and painted curbs. Is this an obstacle course or an intersection? There is no traffic; no flag and the sidewalks are deserted. It’s Sunday and the store is closed.

Architecturally speaking, this is what happens when a streamline modern ocean liner of the ‘30s and the famous flying wing of the ‘40s have a baby. Less, of course, the potted vines sprouting over the trio of terraces. As if passing motorists don’t have enough to look at and out for already, MAY CO is clearly spelled out twice in golden metal-framed yellow neon readable at any speed.

Line-wise, little relieves this smooth slab-sided, curved cornered department store spectacular with the exception of its nearly hypnotic asymmetry. Don’t stare too long! Let’s lovingly call this style: late-streamline early mid-century mod minimalism.  And a very rare example of it at that.

Miraculously this streamlined suburban super store still stands at the corner of Martin Luther King and Crenshaw Blvds, in the Crenshaw District, one of my favorite LA neighborhoods to explore. The May name marked the building until 2005 when Macys, the granddaddy of all grand department stores, took control.

Macy’s started in NYC in 1878 one year after May Company began in Leadville, Colorado. By the end of the 1920’s Macy’s had morphed into the nations largest department store. Ultimately it would become a retail beast that would swallow its competition including the second and third largest stores ever, Hudson’s in Detroit and Marshall Field in Chicago.

Here’s to May Company, Marshall Field, Hudson’s Macy’s and YOU,

Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles, CA
Dec 8, 2009

The Cherpumple is the desert version of the Turducken. It’s a three-layer cake with a pie stuffed in each layer. YUM! Cherpumple is short for CHERry, PUMpkin and apPLE pie. The apple pie is baked in spice cake, the pumpkin in yellow and the cherry in white. I DARE YOU TO TRY IT AT HOME!…& SEND PIX! Share your Cherpumple “Monster” Pie Cake creation!

The inspiration for the Cherpumple came from the typical desert table selection you would find at one of my family’s holiday celebrations. Seems there’s always cherry, pumpkin, and apple pie and a cake that’s a family tradition. It has a layer of spice and a layer of yellow. Since I always want to have a piece of each of the pies and the cake I figured why not make that waaaaaaaay more convenient. So I baked them all together as one and the Cherpumple was born.

CLICK TO WATCH THE DEMO ON YOUTUBE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp4yWTLIPaE

THE CHERPUMPLE “MONSTER” PIE CAKE

1 8″ frozen pumpkin pie
1 box spice cake mix

1 8″ frozen apple pie –
1 box yellow cake mix

1 8″ frozen cherry pie
1 box white cake mix

eggs and oil according to the cake mix

3 tall tubs of cream cheese frosting

3 8.5″ round cake pans

Bake pies according to instructions and cool to room temperature overnight. Mix cake batter according to instructions. For each layer pour about 1 1/3 cup of batter in the cake pan. Carefully de-tin the baked pie and place it face up on top of the batter in the cake pan.  Push down lightly to release any trapped air. Pour enough batter on top to cover the pie. Bake according to box instructions. Cool and remove from pans the frost it like you mean it.

Since it’s the most wonderful time of the year …perhaps the cream cheese frosting should be dyed mint green!  And, yes, you can serve your Cherpumple FLAMING! Then you can call it CHERPUMPLE PIE CAKE FLAMBE! Why, oh why didn’t think of that sooner? Well actually I did but I was afraid that I would burn the vintage stove shop down where we filmed the video. I’ve heard those old stoves have a lot of trapped gas!

…BTW, to serve your “monster” pie cake FLAMING …its easy… just make a little puddle of lemon extract in the frosting on the top of your cake. Just before you light it gather friends and family around, turn out the lights and watch it burn. Make sure to have 911 on speed dial just in case.  Just how would you explain to your nosy neighbors that the desert version of the turducken burned your house down and singed theirs? Be fully prepared for gasps and ahhhhs as your guests see pie inside cake for the first time. Cherpumple ala mode anyone? Pie cake and ice cream go SO well together.

Here’s to my Cherpumple, your Cherpumple and YOU!!!

Dec 3, 2009

A warm blob of red-tinted and pepperminted spun sugar is displayed with great pride. From that sweet, striped, blob, and hundreds more just like it, the candy cane man, Jerry Rowley, skillfully pulls, twists, cuts and hooks more than 75,000 candy canes by hand every holiday season. Just moments before, the seasonal blob was flaming hot sugar boiling over in a copper kettle. When it bubbles just right he pours it out on a marble slab to cool down a bit just in time to be spun, divided, dyed and flavored.

Fresh, handcrafted candy canes have been the specialty of the house at Logan’s since it opened in 1933. Jerry began his apprenticeship there thirty-six years ago at the age of twelve. A few years later he bought the place and has been perfecting his sweet skills ever since. So much so he’s a master of his culinary craft. Who knew spun sugar could be SO iridescent….and SO tasty too! Several years ago he created the “world’s largest candy cane,” which hangs in the store reminding us all he’s not just the Candy Cane Man…He’s the Candy Cane King!

Rare in the world of candy making are handmade candy canes. It wouldn’t take a candy connoisseur to tell you that most of the worlds candy canes are machine made in giant batches in big industrial factories. If there are any other candy stores in the county that makes their own canes I wanna know about them!

Logan’s Candy is a tremendous source of my hometown pride. It simply would be Christmas to me without a one of Jerry’s fresh handmade candy canes to keep and a dozen or two more to hand out to friends and relations. Thank you, Jerry Rowley, for keeping the cherished tradition of candy cane making alive, YOU are my hometown holiday hero!

Who is your hometown holiday hero?

Here’s to Jerry, his candy canes and YOU!

November 26, 2009

P. S. Jerry will do a special candy cane making demo for my HOMETOWN HOLIDAY TOUR group, SUNDAY AFT, DEC, 13, click here for info & tix.

P.S.S. Next SATURDAY NIGHT, DEC 5th @ 8PM in PASADENA is my first RETRO HOLIDAY SLIDE SHOW of the season! click here for info & tix.

On the left is the turkey tiki meatloaf in 2007 served up fresh and proud on a mound of dyed-orange mashed potatoes in a vintage electric skillet. On the right is the same turkey tiki shrunk nearly in half after spending two years completely undisturbed in my refrigerator. To give you a idea of the degree of shrinkage, the “before” was shaped and baked in the 14” aluminum dish that the “after” is shown in. Mold has consumed his pineapple chunk mouth and left maraschino cherry eye.

YES, I DID THE UNTHINKABLE… I left my turkey tiki in the fridge for two years! …I know, IT’S SHOCKING!  Did he smell? You would think so, but no. I never intended to keep him but after dinner was served and all the guests went home I couldn’t bear to just throw him away. He was the centerpiece not the main course. I’d made several normal turkey meatloaves to actually slice and serve. So after he sat posed on the dinner table for hours I was sure making a giant leftover turkey tiki sandwich for lunch the next day was out of the question.

So I put him back in the tin pan he was baked in, covered him up tight with foil and cleared a big spot for him on the top shelf of the fridge. It was supposed to be for just a couple of days until I could say goodbye. Those days turned into weeks. Of course I kept waiting for him to smell. But since he never did he remained. As the weeks turned into months I began thinking of him as a science project. Every time I opened the fridge I felt a childlike sense of wonder. But not once did I ever peek.

Then yesterday on the 717th day of his refrigeration, without any premeditation or tainted turkey scent in the kitchen air, I suddenly decided it was time to excavate. So I opened the fridge and delicately moved his aluminum tomb the to countertop. I took a deep breath and pulled back the foil. I looked at him and he looked at me…with one maraschino cherry eyeball.  We had a moment. My childlike curiosity had been satisfied.

I held my breath certain poison mold spores were flying through the air as I escorted him outside and gently placed him in the bottom of an empty trash barrel.  Moments later I heard the trash truck pull up. I ran outside like was going to save him. But it was too late he was gone. Of course I stood there feeling guilty.

So many questions…Why did I let him go?…  What’s in that delicious packaged meatloaf seasoning anyway?…
And what will your turkey tiki look like in two years?

CLICK HERE for all my TURKEY TIKI THANKSGIVING DINNER RECIPIES

Here’s to one-eyed shrunken turkey tikis and YOU!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Los Angeles
November 19, 2009

A waitress shows off a waffle like it’s a baseball glove. In her other hand two coffee cups and cream and sugar are balanced on a tray. She is ready to serve you… and play catch. Her crisp paper hat and spotless apron speak of cleanliness. Her powdered peaches and cream complexion glows like the neon handwriting that gives the place an identity. The jet black ’53 Pontiac thinks the picture window is a big mirror. You look beautiful, darling! The muted color scheme of the blue-green-grey building, under planted pink planter and blond furniture compliment the curtains which match the waffle.

Where there is a waffle there is a waffle iron. Everyone knows you can’t have a waffle without an iron the same way you can’t have wrinkle free clothes without an iron… that is, unless you wear polyester and permanent press all the time! Speaking of waffles, you can waffle but you can’t pancake. From time to time, usually around breakfast time, I find myself waffling between waffles and pancakes. Do you ever waffle that way?

Waffles have been on the menu somewhere for more than seven centuries. We humans have been enjoying the molded-crispy-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside taste treat sensation ever since. Especially when served drowning in melting creamery butter and maple syrup that actually dripped out of a maple tree in Vermont.

Dutch pilgrims introduced waffles, as the called them in the old country, to early Americans in the early 1600s. The word derives from wafer. In 1911 the fine folks at General Electric perfected waffle iron electrification. When frozen waffles debuted in supermarket freezers in 1953 they were called “Froffles,” short for frozen waffles, the same way Fritos is short for fried tortillas. But the clever name didn’t stick. In 1955 the toaster treats were renamed Eggos.

1955 was a banner year in the waffle world. That’s when the first Waffle House opened in suburban Atlanta. Over the years they have expanded to more than 1500 stores in the US (mostly in the south) and Canada serving 24/7/365. Yes, waffles are big business. To date they have served up nearly 500 billion waffles and almost one trillion cups of coffee. To celebrate their success, in 2008, the original Waffle House was restored “back to the way it was in 1955,” and became the Waffle House Museum serving up what else? Waffle House history. Sounds tasty to me! So the next time you’re in Atlanta don’t waffle over going to the Waffle House Museum, GO!

Here’s to the waitress, the waffles, the Waffle House and YOU!

Los Angeles, CA,
November 13, 2009