Category: The Publications

Check one off for whichever you think should win the title of our new profile photo!

The Aesthetic

The Picnic

The people of the mid 1900s were absolutely fascinated with the idea of all things foreign and futuristic. Many of the motifs for decor, accents, and conversation pieces really reflected this. Simplified designs and sketches of motifs like pineapples, flamingoes, Chinese cultural symbols, and French-inspired accessories were highly prized by these households for their fanciful uniqueness. In the summer months (which are nearly among us now), there was a particular interest in the idea of tropical paradise that captivated the minds of most everyone of the infamous Midcentury.

There was reciprocal influence between society and the media: In postwar America, people pawned over the artifacts and pictures of places that the armed forces toured. They craved unique conversation pieces like Buddha statues and palm trees. The exotic interests were self-evident in media, too. Songs like “Come Fly with Me”, “Faraway Places”, and “Stranger in Paradise” (Harpie’s favorite), were radio-famous from crooners like Bing Crosby, Ol’ Blue Eyes, and others. All of them had the element of fantasy and vacation close to heart.

Still not enough? Let’s take care to check out the history of the lawn flamingo. Those blasted plastic creations of modernized art have been a staple of Landscape Americana since 1957. You can thank Donald Featherstone for the charming little birdies! As a sculpture at first, this guy was on quite a roll with this assignment of his. Read the full articles here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/28099/brief-history-plastic-pink-flamingo, http://savetheflamingos.org/lawn-flamingo-history… Feel free to strut your feathers and grab one while they’re hot (pink, that is). This is probably the most iconic of the motifs used in the middle of the century, and can arguably be the most recognizeable symbol of suburban Americana.

Want more? We can go as far as subdivide the fascination with the faraway places into two more distinct categories. There were two broad localities that drew the eyes of America: Island paradises in the Pacific and Asia. The palm trees and pineapples are pretty self-explanatory: they come from the love of tropical adventure fantasies. But, the exotic kimonos, Japanese maples, and ornate tea sets speak volumes of more oriental tongues. Our only theory of what fueled this renewed interest in the Far East has to be, yup- you guessed it: World War 2. There are so many things that this world-altering war (pun intended) triggered.

Consider this: your sweetheart leaves for war and is coming home safe per your latest letter exchange. He brings back souvenirs from his travels. Japan’s tea and photographs of pagodas and China’s fine silk kimonos and cheongsams leave you breathless. You simply must show them off at bridge club next week! Suddenly, the dry goods from Asia become coveted and adored by the entire nation.

Some other motifs from the mid century come from design elements in guitar shops,

This is an Eastman airlines guitar, this embodies the bold styling from the mid century for me. It has the look of a classic car, bold accents,hard curves, and they sound like classic guitars because of their unique build style, and are unmistakably a motif of mid century design elements.

The other end of the spectrum in guitar designs is my favourite guitar designs of all time, the telecaster;

While simple and not as bold a design, its a symbol of classic rock and roll, and embodies the simple yet effective style of engineering that brought us to today, I still like it classic myself tho ;).

In March, one of my closest friends decided it was time for him to go to boot camp to become a member of the United States Navy. It’s anxious and hopeful news for all his family and friends. The ambition and drive it takes to embark on a journey like this is quite outstanding, to say the very least.

His enrollment in boot camp has my gears turning for all the unity and patriotism that has been documented and centralized around the servicemembers of the USA over the years. Primarily the two World Wars sparked a massive movement for American culture, unity, teamwork, and a spirit of being ‘all in this together’. One thing that young women would do for these men (gender segregation was still quite prevalent back in that age) while they served abroad is write letters back and forth to bridge the gap of thousands of miles traveled from home. Naturally, I decided to do the same for P. since boot camp is noted for its extreme physical demands and mental discipline.

In general, before the 1960s, there was an association between contributing to war efforts and benevolence in America. Of course, wherever you come from, there is a sense of pride attached, so this isn’t all that uncommon. What none of these predominantly young women (and the servicemembers’ families) didn’t realize was that these letters would profoundly affect the future of giving to American troops abroad. Today, we observe things that go above and beyond the call of need-based care packages overseas. Operation Shoebox, for example, takes the idea of packing supplies and letters to a whole new level and truly personalizes the experience of gift receiving for the armed forces. It is an excellent and simple notion of patriotism and pride to support just one person.

So P. and I, although he doesn’t yet know I’ve been writing about his recent pen pal history, have been in the same circumstance. His boot camp sure isn’t overseas, but it still took him many miles from home. Check out some of these letters back and forth from the two World Wars! For security purposes, I can’t disclose the letters I’ve sent back and forth with P., but I can say that there was a twang of homesickness at first. I think that the support and motivation from us civilians back home gave him a great sense of determination and drive throughout his experiences. For all that you do- thank you so much for serving our country! Cheers and congratulations on graduating boot camp, P.!

I don’t often watch TV. What I do, however, participate in often is flipping channels vigorously before shutting off the set. A few months ago, I found a few good pieces to share with my readers. The Astronaut Wives Club (AWC) went strong through its season, receiving high praise for its accuracy and overall throwback appeal. With a little more dry humor and historical reference, Another Period seeks to mock modern-day reality shows with its satirical, Victorian style. Buzzfeed has published an article about vintage lingerie, see here. But actually it would be treason to say just one article of theirs focuses on the epics of yesteryear: The top of the page suggests an entire section that falls under ‘Rewind”! I decided to do some exploring of course, and for those who are interested, this section has some real throwbacks in it, but its focus is on media and ’90s and ’80s funzies.

Some advertisements, like this one from Progressive Insurance, leave behind the romanticized versions of mid-century America for tones of reform. Flo is here seen arguing against the male figure that she too can handle the work a man can. Classically 1950s gender roles have been removed over the years, and this is a perfect opportunity to remind my readers that revivalism is about restoring the positive aspects of yesteryears: discrimination of any kind is not endorsed by authentic revivalists, especially the writers here at RR. Sometimes the past can be overwhelming, and so it is important to keep it in perspective. No year is without its flaws. The romanticism of a given decade is what appeals to us, but we must understand that no time was perfect. Of course, on the same strain, don’t let the mass media big cheeses dissuade you from bringing back the simplicity and can-do attitude of the 1950s.

What strikes me the most is The pro-retro propaganda! Check out this Kohler faucet commercial, for starters. The decade-by-decade snippets give us emphasis on the appeal of ‘timeless’ household features. The greatest ad this semester for the vintage lover in us all was the Pledge/Johnson & Johnson commercial for Thanksgiving. This heartwarming sentiment bridges the generation gap in as little as one minute. It shows the kind of timeless love that anyone can hope for. Another fascinating discovery I’ve made this year is the viciously overpriced store, Anthropologie. I’d never visited until this year prior to Black Friday, and from the moment I set foot inside, I was transported to a world of revivalist fantasy. Unfortunately, this is a very high-end store, and their prices reflect it, to the dismay of the graduate-student-budget writers like myself.

http://9gag.com/gag/aOVoKWE?ref=fbp 9GAG, another popular boredom-relief site, also picked up on the craving for vintage things. Check out their amazing pics!

Craving more media? These guys are inspired by the vintage movement too! Find another we missed? Post it to our facebook page! Stay Curious!

Hello darlings! The Retro Revival Blog has experienced some serious growth in readers and in outreach since this time last year. We wanted to take a moment to say thank you so much to each of our readers for making us one of the most revered resources for vintage and retro culture. Thank you!! We have some interesting updates for all of you out there, so here it goes!

First thing is we now have email capabilities set up. For suggestions or comments (or really any feedback), both of us authors have addresses right here. We will likely respond within 24 hours of your message. We encourage everyone to reach us anytime at Harpie@retrorevivalblog.com and MannyDylan@retrorevivalblog.com Cheers!

Another neat tidbit is that we have a better set schedule for our posts so we don’t overwhelm your inboxes. Once a month we will publish unless something comes up. In addition to our publication piece, we will alternate months with a second post that talks music or style to keep things lively. Clicks’ Pics will be available as they come. Turns out, I will be delayed in producing those because my poor camera doesn’t like the spools I fed it before. Lesson harshly learned.

Also, as we are able to schedule, we will try to work on a few “Retro Reviews” which will be included in an article format as well as a video format from someplace in the field.

Finally, as some of you are aware, The Retro Revival Blog is on Facebook and Twitter in addition to our custom domain. We post the most frequent extras and bonuses at Facebook.com/retrorevivalblog Our Twitter name @RetroRevivalist is also rather active.

Thank you one and all for your incredible support and reading! We will continue diligently finding our retro niche in this modern world and reporting to you. Cheers to the start of a picnic season~ Stay Curious!

The Retro Revival authors wanted to take a moment to thank all of our readers for making our new domain, http://retrorevivalblog.com a howling success. At this time, we also wanted to make sure all of our readers were aware of our Facebook page: facebook.com/retrorevivalblog

It’s a rather nifty networking tool, and we encourage you all to ‘like’ us on Facebook to keep up with all our timeless trinkets we post day to day. At the end of each month, for those who are not attached to social media, we will be compiling our links and tidbits into a blog post for your convenience. The more likes, the more we will find for you to enjoy! Stay curious!

~Harpie Lyn & Manny Dylan

Click for our Facebook Page!

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It is not everyday that we experience the loss of a friend. Most upsetting is when someone’s life is cut too short. On January 14th, my family of friends lost Joanna: a spirited, beautiful young woman with love in her heart and happiness flooding her mind. Her kindness and warmth was contagious to everyone around her. A creative soul, a brilliant mind, and a perfect friend, the Retro Revival will cease editing and publishing until January 24th to pay respects to our fallen family member.

If you believe in the human spirit, then you also must be confident that life doesn’t end; it simply changes. Family is not limited to blood and biology, but extends itself to wherever there is love.

Be blessed, and we’ll see you again. Until then, you’ll be looking out for us from a different angle. Friendship is timeless.

Around Christmas, I take a lot of pride in the gifts I give. Sometimes, my closest friends and I don’t exchange out of budget and opt to spend time together, but there was one opportunity I couldn’t say no to. For JMCS, whose photography I’ve always admired, I was asked to deliver a full box of working, retro cameras from as early as immediate post-WW2. Fascinated, I dug my hands into cleaning them up. The gifting was one to remember, with a majestically awestruck JMCS sitting cross-legged on my floor: His wide eyes gazed hungrily at the contents. One camera in particular though, my hands wouldn’t let go of.

It too, was no beauty queen when it arrived, but the subtle charms of midcentury make me all too sympathetic. It’s a Kodak Duaflex for those interested. Initially I was going to name him Kilroy, but after remembering the peeping nature of the historic character…. Perhaps that’s not appropriate… At all! Clicks, as he came to be known (for the sound of course), is going on quite an adventure for his first reels of film. He’s a natural fit for the Retro Revival!

With the wonderful pointers from JMCS, I managed to get manual film ordered online. I know what you’re thinking. Old car parts are stupid-expensive, so obsolete camera film must be pricey too! It’s a proud day for revivalists because a 12-picture film reel is $3.00. Yup. Three US dollars. Make shipping worthwhile and stock up at once! These little gems are not only aesthetically pleasing, but the hobby is dirt cheap! Move over, Instagram!

Now let’s clear something up. We’re not here to bash the digital world. We’re here to promote a broad skill set. The generations following millennials won’t understand the concepts of getting film developed or winding the camera film after a shot is taken unless we teach them. It’s not their fault- technology is ever-progressive. These are just normative, which makes learning dated skills all the more important.

Clicks’ first weeks here were just before Christmas. Thanks to B&H, I was able to get film relatively quickly. Of course, I also got educated relatively quickly. These oldies (but goodies) are very particular and sometimes require meticulous tweaking in order to work. The $20 worth of 120 film was Jerry-rigged again and again without much success. It continued to get stuck when reeling. Frazzled, I turned to the experts (Joseph). This may take some time, so Clicks’ debut may be delayed. Until then, we will provide updates on his progress as they become available.

Clicks’ first adventures will be developed and scanned into his own column on RR, which will hopefully be ready to come in August. Clicks’ Pics will feature all kinds of things from artsy snapshots of my dog, nature, cityscapes, and more. So stay tuned: this little box camera’s second life is sure to be a fun one!

If you’re interested in tying out one of these timeless gems for yourself, usually I’d recommend a website like etsy.com for a healthy search. Truthfully the cheapest way to acquire a working camera from yesteryear is to shop your local antiques stores or take a trip to vintage hotspots like New Hope, Somerville, or other (respectively local) Antique Meccas. For specific questions regarding film types and finding your photographic match, try JMCS at DeviantArt

Post your scanned pictures on Clicks’ Pics if you’re thinking of developing some film yourself!