The Acropolis

A picture of the Acropolis from 1988.

Bananas Magazine 1978 Yearbook Back Cover

This is the back cover of the Bananas magazine from yesterday. The humor is pretty edgy for grade school kids, yes? The 1970s were a pretty amazing time period, I think.

Temple of the Dog?

I am a terrible tourist, I should know which temple this is, but I don't. I took the picture in 1988 in Athens.

Bananas Magazine Yearbook 1978

Bananas Magazine was a magazine for kids that was published and distributed (I think) through Scholastic. We used to get monthly order forms in our elementary school classrooms from which we'd pick a few books (if Mom and Dad would buy them) and of course, we had to get Dynomite and Bananas!

I'm sure that grade school me bought several that bit the dust years ago, this one somehow survived. I'll scan some of the pages in the next few weeks to give an idea of the "humor" inside.

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

This is (I think) the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. I took this picture in Athens in 1988.

1988 Topps Mini Leaders #56 Andres Galarraga

This is a 1988 Topps Mini Leaders #56 Andres Galarraga. As I think I said a while ago I had a whole stack of odd cards that don't really fit anywhere, (literally in this case, this is a set of "mini" baseball cards. They were hanging out in a shoe box in my closet.

I like this card because the team Andres "Big Cat" Galarraga played for here no longer exists. The Montreal Expos became (I think) the Washington Nationals. I was lucky enough to go to a couple of games in Montreal before they moved. 

The Parthenon

Here's the big dog of the Acropolis, The Parthenon, Athens, 1988.

1989 Topps Stickers

Here's another of Topps stickers. On the front (the sticker) we have Detroit Tigers great Lou Whitaker and on the back Seattle Mariner Harold Reynolds.

The Erechtheum, Athens, 1988

Here's another picture of The Erechtheum, on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 1988.

Automatic for the People

I always loved the title "Automatic for the people" which I believe comes from a restaurant's motto in Athens, Georgia (Weaver D's Delicious Fine Foods). I loved this album, truly inspired music from a great band. I've posted a couple of scans of this album already- the cover and a couple of the pages from the cool booklet that came with the CD I have. Here's a final scan from that booklet. (I note again that I believe in the importance of copywrite, so I present scans of things I own and will not post booklets etc in their entirety, if you want to see the whole booklet, go buy the CD!) :-)

Swan and Ducks

Here are some fowls for your day. A giant beautiful swan and some ducks. Taken on Lake Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, 1988

Clipped out of the newspaper

I was a rabid Red Sox fan when I was a boy and recently found all my old Red Sox yearbooks. Inside one of them I had taped the Sox batting averages clipped from the Bangor Daily News, I'm sure. I think this is right at the All Star Break, 1977.

The Jet D'Eau Redux

Here's another picture of the famous Jet D'Eau in Geneva, Switzerland. I took this photo in 1988.

Madden 2004 Advertisement

Here's an advertisement for Madden 2004 from EA Sports. It is the back cover of the NBA Live 2004 manual.  

If you're wondering: 

Vikings #11- Daunte Culpepper

Packers  in 2004 #91 R-Kal Truluck in 2003 Joe Johnson

Chargers #89 Ryan Krause

Raiders #24 Charles Woodson

Rams #28 Marshall Faulk

Buccaneers #20 Ronde Barber

The Erechtheum, The Acropolis, Athens, Greece

The Erechtheum on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. I took this picture in 1988. It was built from marble in about 406 BC

Guinness Jazz Festival 1986

Here's a beer mat or coaster from the 1986 Guinness Jazz Festival in Cork.
The coaster advertises Billy Eckstine, Humphrey Lyttelton, Helen Shapiro, Buddy Rich, Mary Coughlan, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Smith, Louis Stewart, Cayenne, Ruby Turner, Wild Bill Davison, Olympia Brass Brand, The Great Guitars, Kerry Lightfoot and dozens more!

October Holiday Weekend 24th-27th

1979 Red Sox Yearbook Dwight Evans

"Dewey" was one of my favorite players. He had a cannon for an arm, great outfielder, and then during his career he transformed his batting approach radically and became one of the better hitters in the game for a few years. I think he was a Walt Hriniak batting disciple.

This is from the 1979 Red Sox yearbook. It was before Dwight Evans could really hit, and before he grew that epic mustache.

Seagulls Just Hanging out

Took this during the summer of 1988. Probably in Reid State Park on the coast of Maine.

Mandarin House Sedona, Arizona

Mandarin House Szechwan Cuisine and Cocktail Lounge

Village of Oak Creek
Castle Rock Plaza
Sedona, Arizona

Matchbook

Jet D'Eau

This is a picture of the Jet d'eau in Geneva, Switzerland in 1988

Here are a couple more...

Here are a couple of scans from REM's great album Automatic for the People.

I really thought I would miss the album art and the liner notes and all the cool stuff that vinyl LP's used to have, then discovered clever artists making wonderful little booklets of art and lyrics and such to go with their compact discs. THIS is what I'll miss now that we're in the digital music era!

American Roadside Farm, 1988

Here's another random picture from the car, 1988, probably Ohio.

Grand Hotel, Southhampton Row, London

Matchbox from the Grand Hotel, Southhampton Row, London, England and also for the Mount Pleasant Hotel, Calthorpe Street, London. and also the London Park Hotel, Elephant and Castle, London.

A couple of Munchen Street Scenes, 1988

A couple of pics of the streets of Munich, 1988.

Rickey Henderson 1988 Starting Lineup Talking Baseball All-Stars

Rickey Henderson
1988 Starting Lineup Talking Baseball All-Stars - Electronic Game American League #23

So I'm going to start taking these cards a little more seriously! I literally have boxes and boxes of them and I found this one just sitting around and scanned it and then googled it to find out what it actually is. Someone is selling one over on Amazon for almost fifty dollars!

True, I could list it for a million dollars, the actual value is what someone will pay, but still, I was pretty sure all cards from the late 1980s were pretty worthless. Looks like I'll be on eBay tonight!

The card is a lot better off than the scan shows, and I got lazy and didn't bother to fix the fact it only scanned some of the back.

I loved Rickey Henderson, glad to see his face smiling up at me, hopefully it's a $50 smile!

The Hofbrauhaus

A couple of pictures of the exterior of the famous Hofbrauhaus in Munich, Germany, 1988.

Philadelphia Skyline 1988

Here's a random picture of Philly (I think) from the car in 1988.

Best Western Executive Inn City Center Portland, Maine

Best Western Executive Inn City Center Portland, Maine

1990 Topps Mini Leaders #70 Barry Bonds

How this skinny young Pittsburgh Pirate became the bulked-up fearsome home run king is one of the key stories in the sport from the "Steroid Era."

Love him or hate him, the guy could hit.

Seagull in flight

I took this picture during the summer of 1988 on the Coast of Maine. Probably Reid State Park.

Traffic in Philadelphia, 1988

Random picture from the car in Philadelphia, 1988. This is what the '80s looked like!

Best Western Quail Hollow Inn Benson, Arizona

Best Western Quail Hollow Inn Benson, Arizona

REM Automatic for the People

I've owned 45's, Vinyl LP's and even 78s. I owned a LOT of cassette tapes and yes, I own a LOT of CD's. I scanned some of the little books that came with CDs and will share some of the better art from them over the next few weeks.

 I love the digital music that is all around us, I can stream music in my car or while I walk down a street- no vinyl or cd's required, but some of the stuff that came with the CD's and the vinyl I miss- I know that digital music still has album art, but it's not as tangible as the old booklets and album covers.

This is absolutely one of my favorite albums and REM always had such great art associated with them. At the time, grunge and harder rock was all the rage in music and REM pops out a largely acoustic and beautiful Automatic for the People. I wore this out I swear!

Schloss Hohenschwangau

Is this an amazing view or what? It's Hohenschwangau Castle or Schloss Hohenschwangau

at the base of Neuschwanstein Castle. I took this picture in 1988.

1991 Fleer Team Logo Stickers

Fleer was one of my favorite baseball card makers because they were really good at producing ugly baseball cards. They tried hard and their designs were consistently bad. They also did away with gum, inserting stickers instead (and this was odd because I think Fleer was a gum company before it was a baseball card company).

Here's a sticker from 1991, the Atlanta Braves. The sticker is in better shape than the scan indicates.

Swans of Geneva

I spent a wonderful few hours on an overcast day in 1988 watching the many swans around Lake Geneva in Switzerland. 

Seagull in Flight

I took this picture during the summer of 1988 on the coast of Maine.

1990 Topps Stickers

Topps stickers were an interesting thing. I don't know if they ever became popular, maybe they are still around. The idea was that you collect all these stickers and then stick them in the right place in a baseball yearbook you could buy. Then, with the stickers gone, the backing of the card that formerly held the stickers is still a collectible card. Surely whoever came up with this at Topps got a promotion.

Here's an example;
The stickers are Kevin Elster of the New York Mets and Tom Gordon of the Kansas City Royals. The card on the back is Carlton Fisk, Hall of Famer with the Chicago White Sox at the time.

Four Casinos one Matchbook

Four Great Casinos

Pioneer Club Las Vegas

Gold Strike Inn Near Hoover Dam

Gold Strike Hotel and Gambling Hall Jean, Nevada

Railroad Pass Hotel Casino Henderson Nevada

Tall Ships Celebration

Tall Ships Celebration, Boothbay Harbor, Maine, Summer 1988.

Roadside Alps

This is a picture I took somewhere in the Bavarian Alps in 1988. I was sooo amazed at Bavaria, everywhere you look it's like a painting!!

Anchorage Motel Pacific City, Oregon

Anchorage Motel Pacific City, Oregon

Irish Ponies

Here are a couple of fine Irish horses I met in Ireland, 1988