Thanks, and a tip o' the tall white Goof hat to Bedazzled! for pointing me to Mark London's HEAVYPAPERZ weblog, where Mark reports that the so-called "Mayor of Sunset Strip," Rodney Bingenheimer, was awarded his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week. I wonder what Rod's rival claimant to the Strip's mayoral office, Kim Fowley, thinks of that?

This week, it's Kustom Kar King, George Barris, creator of the Batmobile, Munster Coach, and the ZZR Surfmobile shown above, who's being honored by having a Los Angeles street named after him.

[Link: Rodney Bingenheimer]
[Link: George Barris]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Future Was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim showcases the amazing concept art and models of the man who produced some of the most memorable sets and vehicles from classic the Gerry Anderson series, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, The Secret Service, and UFO.

Mike hasn't been resting on his laurels since then. He's currently working on a film project called Agent Crush. Mmm, looks SuperMarionated!

[Link: The Future Was FAB]
[Link: The Mike Trim Art Blog]
[Link: Agent Crush]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

At last, the movie that holds the answers to all the beatnik questions that I've been asking, such as:

1) What's the deal with those black berets, goatees, and leotards?
2) Why doesn't your poetry rhyme?
3) Where can I get that cool Beatnik font?
4) When can we get high and SMOKE, cats?

[Link: The Beatniks][via PCL]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Behold this gallery of ultra-bitchin', melty-skull gearshift knobs, created by the legendary Norm "Woo Woo" Grabowski [Link], inventor of the T-bucket hot rod [Link] driven by Ed "Kookie" Burns in 77 Sunset Strip, and B-movie star of essential teen exploitation flick, High School Confidential.

[Link: Norm Grabowski Shift-knob Gallery]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 7:49 PM | Permalink

Not content with their goat-choking array of fabulous websites about Tiki and UI design, Humuhumu and Hanford Lemoore have now created Junkyard Clubhouse, a site for everything else they find cool, strange, and fun...like bacon!

[Link: Junkyard Clubhouse]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I normally don't blog blatantly commercial websites, but the shameless link-whoring of Troy Zimmerman convinced me to post about Fez-O-Rama, and in particular, their Fez of the Week collection of one-off, custom hipster headware. I'm particularly amused by this "meta-fez" design. Be sure to check out their line of production fezzes that include some very spiffy Tiki designs.

[Link: Fez of the Week]

Posted by MrBaliHai at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)