I love the Atari 2600, for many reasons. The biggest one is, of course, it was the first video game system I ever owned… and I played the crap out of it. I still remember spending HOURS trying to beat…
Month: September 2014
UX Articles
Embrace user stories to simply align agile and #UX
One of the big topics of conversation in UX circles the past few years has been “Lean UX”, an approach focused on minimizing and reducing design documentation in order to focus more on what is being designed instead of the artifacts. I’m…
Geek, Geek Ephemera, TV
The Warrior’s Battlejacket from Battlestar Galactica!
If you were a fan of Battlestar Galactica in the late 70s, there was one thing you coveted (OK, two things, if you count Jane Seymour or Maren Jensen) – that flight jacket. And you could actually buy one! You,…
Geek Ephemera, TV
The Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook!
I STILL want this. Way back in the 70s, fan-made blueprints of SF settings ships and gear were REALLY popular. It all started with the Star Fleet Technical Manual from Franz Joseph, which provided a lot of unofficial Star Trek…
Geek Ephemera
The Star Wars Sketchbook
Joe Johnston was a designer and illustrator at Lucasfilm in 1976, and he did a lot of work on a little movie they made called Star Wars. He later went on to become a director, bringing us The Rocketeer, Jurassic…
Geek, Geek Ephemera, Movies, TV
Celebrating Pizzazz magazine
Anybody remember Pizzazz Magazine? It was an attempt by Marvel Comics to enter the teen magazine market in the late seventies, and I was a subscriber. I LOVED Pizzazz, because it was a lot more geeky than other magazines (it had a…
Geek Ephemera
Karate Ads from 1975!
Bruce Lee and Karate was REALLY big in the mid-seventies. Like, HUGE! Karate magazines littered newsstands, knock-off B movies were being imported by the boat load, Men were foolishly wearing “Hai Karate”… and mail-order companies popped up EVERYWHERE – selling…
Geek Ephemera
Super Iron-On Transfers!
I love this ad, from the Planet of the Apes Magazine, circa 1975:
Geek, Geek Ephemera
Starlog previews the new show “Quark”
Hindsight being 20-20, we know that the sitcom Quark was an obscure failure in the late seventies, a show that attempted to capitalize on the Star Wars fever that gripped America by doing a sci-fi sitcom. It had a good pedigree (Buck…
Geek Ephemera
Classic Ad: Welcome to the Marvel universe
When the Incredible Hulk TV show came out and was a surprise hit in the late 70s, Marvel cashed in by releasing a black and white (and later color) Hulk magazine. The Rampaging Hulk (later renamed “The Hulk”) featured a lengthy Hulk…
Geek, TV
Happy 50th Anniversary to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.!
“Open Channel D.” This is a heck of a week for spy fans. Last week was the 50th anniversary of the release of Goldfinger, and today marks the 50th anniversary of the first episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. U.N.C.L.E.…
Geek, Geek Ephemera, Movies
Science Fiction’s greatest moments are yours! In 8mm!
CINEMARAMA! Yes, you too can relive your favorite sci-fi moments through the magic of your 8mm film projector!!! These days, we are SOOO spoiled. You can see a movie in theaters, and four months later you can get a blu-ray that…
Geek, Geek Ephemera, Trek
Star Trek: The Coloring Book!
I had great fun at the recent Star Trek Las Vegas convention giving people printouts of scans of some classic Star Trek coloring books. The reactions were priceless, because some of these coloring book pages were… well, INSANE. Here’s a sampling! Print…
Geek, Geek Ephemera
The TARDIS control console!
Next time you are stuck in a TARDIS and need to figure out how to pilot it, fear not! Just print out the following helpful instructions from the Doctor Who Technical Manual and be sure to have them on-hand! Of…
Geek, Geek Ephemera, Trek
Welcome to Geek Ephemera!
It’s another time-wasting project from yours truly! Geek Ephemera (aka GeekEphemera.com) will collect the odd, the weird, and the stuff that was never designed to last. Coloring books! TV ads! Posters! Other oddness! You’ll see it here, thanks to my…
Geek, Movies
Happy 50th Anniversary Goldfinger!
Fifty years ago today, the third James Bond film – Goldfinger – was released to the world. It was a smash hit, and while recognized by many as the “best” Bond film… it actually made less money than the follow-up Thunderball made a year later. I’ve written about Goldfinger before – here’s my critical appraisal – and so I won’t add too many words on top of that, except to say that I can’t believe it’s been half a century since it came out. Wow.
Here’s the title sequence, and the amazing Shirley Bassey belting out that classic theme song:
And here’s a great documentary on the making of the film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvWHehyNBag