Clothes & Shoes

Jackie Robinson Day

Posted by ksquaredno15 on April 16, 2013
Posted in: Clothes & Shoes, Current Events, Entertainment, News, Places of Interest, Sports. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

jackie_robinson_42April 15th is not only known to be the dreaded day that your income tax returns are due, but it’s also known (on a happier note) in the sports world as Jackie Robinson Day.

April 15, 1947 was the day that Jackie Robinson made his major league debut as a Brooklyn Dodger (now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers). He was the first black major league baseball player of the modern era.

I had the opportunity to visit the Dodger stadium on April 9, 2011 while on a Mystery Tour of Los Angeles and the highlight of the tour was a behind the scenes look at the ballpark from a point of view that many people don’t get to see.

The tour started at the top deck level so we could take in an overall view of the stadium, it took us into the Vin Scully press box, through the hallways that feed the different box suites and down to the field and dugout area. The last part of the tour took us through some more corridors past a framed number 42 jersey, the number worn by famed player Jackie Robinson and to a very large wall of Dodger player names. Jackie’s name was right in the middle.

Top deck view of Dodger Stadium

Vin Scully Press Box

Hallway to suites

Dodger field

Wall of player names

Jackie Robinson name on wall

Jackie Robinson shirt

Jackie Robinson’s Website:
http://www.jackierobinson.com/

Wikipedia.com about Jackie Robinson:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson

Faces Then & Now

Posted by ksquaredno15 on March 12, 2013
Posted in: Clothes & Shoes, Entertainment, Movies, Music, Television. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

Sorry for the extended time between posts.

I actually started this post about a week ago and I was just about ready to go public with it this past Monday, March 10, 2013, but just as I was putting the finishing touches on it, I lost the whole posting, so I had to start from scratch again. It could have been because I was trying to change the look of my blog (okay, it was directly related to my fiddling with the blog). Bummer! : |

During the 60′s through 80′s and probably 90′s too, I figure that I probably watched the majority of programming on television at one time or another, just because when using an aerial antenna on your roof, you don’t get a lot of channels, certainly not like the hundreds of channels that are available today on cable, satellite and fiber optic.

Anyway, it’s fun to look back on some of those old shows on reruns and compare what those actors, actresses and singers look like today. I must say, some of them have aged better than others.

Boy George - Singer / Songwriter - Karma Chameleon

Boy George – Singer / Songwriter – Karma Chameleon

Barbara Eden - Actress - I Dream of Jennie

Barbara Eden – Actress – I Dream of Jennie

Ron Howard - Actor - Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show

Ron Howard – Actor – Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show

David McCallum - Actor - Man From U.N.C.L.E. & currently on N.C.I.S.

David McCallum – Actor – Man From U.N.C.L.E. & currently on N.C.I.S.

Diana Rigg - Actress - The Avengers

Diana Rigg – Actress – The Avengers

Audrey Hepburn - Actress - Breakfast at Tiffany's - My Fair Lady

Audrey Hepburn – Actress – Breakfast at Tiffany’s – My Fair Lady

Julie Andrews - Actress - The Sound of Music

Julie Andrews – Actress – The Sound of Music

Olivia Newton John - Singer / Actress - Grease - Also past owner of Koala Blue a clothes store

Olivia Newton John – Singer / Actress – Grease – Also past owner of Koala Blue a clothes store

James Taylor - Singer / Songwriter - Fire and Rain, You've Got a Friend

James Taylor – Singer / Songwriter – Fire and Rain, You’ve Got a Friend

Joan Rivers - Comedian

Joan Rivers – Comedian

Robert Wagner - Actor - It Takes a Thief

Robert Wagner – Actor – It Takes a Thief

John Travolta - Actor - Welcome Back Kotter, Grease, Saturday Night Fever

John Travolta – Actor – Welcome Back Kotter, Grease, Saturday Night Fever

Arnold Schwarzenegger - Body Builder, Actor, Governor - Terminator, Total Recall, True Lies

Arnold Schwarzenegger – Body Builder, Actor, Governor – Terminator, Total Recall, True Lies

Sylvester Stallon - Actor - Rocky, Rambo, Cliff hanger

Sylvester Stallon – Actor – Rocky, Rambo, Cliff hanger

Jack Nicholson - Actor - The Shining

Jack Nicholson – Actor – The Shining

Kirstie Alley - Actress - Cheers

Kirstie Alley – Actress – Cheers

You Asked For It

Posted by ksquaredno15 on July 30, 2012
Posted in: Automotive, Clothes & Shoes, Entertainment, Foods, Household, Info, Lifestyle, Low Tech, Photography, Places of Interest, Sports, Stuff, Technology, Television, Toys, Transportation. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

You Asked For It was an American television show that aired from 1950-1959. Viewers were asked to mail in requests for things they wanted to see on the show. The program showed how things worked, a behind the scenes look at movie effects, curiosities, etc.

The one episode that I remember seeing, was how they made it look like an actor was riding on a moving horse (close-up shot). The horse or fake horse was actually stationary (but would rock back and forth) and the background scenery would move behind the horse creating the illusion that the horse was moving forward. I believe it was in this same episode that they show how they used red colored wax bullets, so when they shot someone in say, a western movie, it would appear as though the person was shot and bleeding.

You know how they say that “Everything old, is new again”. Well, there are a number of current day television shows that take you behind the scenes of how things are done, such as “How It’s Made”. This is a show on the Science Channel and they have a series of episodes that show how just about anything is made. This is somewhat similar, but not quite, because they only show how things are made (hence the title How It’s Made) and they don’t show how special effects are done or any of the other curiosities someone might request. Even good ol’ Mister Rogers on “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood” took you on field trips to show how things were made.

But the one show that comes the closest to the “You Asked For It” show, is a kids show called “Curiosity Quest”. Just like “You Asked For It”, they ask for viewers to send in requests for what they wanted to see. They’ve been to places like, the Vermont Teddy Bear factor showing how the bears are made, how bread, bikes, snowboards are made, to how they train fire fighters. A great show, even for adults that are curious about these things.

Curiosity Quest:
http://www.curiosityquest.org/

A few youTube videos of different You Asked For It episodes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRp55vdxzQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztd5B_rAKAM&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8LVfdKmln8&feature=related

Wikipedia.com–You Asked For It
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Asked_for_It

Earth Shoes

Posted by ksquaredno15 on August 26, 2011
Posted in: Clothes & Shoes, Health. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 8 comments

My parents always use to tell us kids, that clothes styles always come around again, and they were right. Back in the early 1970′s kids in my high school and even college, use to wear overalls and they probably thought that they were wearing the hottest ‘NEW’ fashion trend. I remember my mom saying that she use to hate wearing overalls as a kid, because it reminded her that they use to wear them as work clothes.

Bell bottoms came and went, and then came back again. Same with platform shoes, which brings me to the topic of this post–the Earth Shoes. The Earth Shoes were invented in the 1970′s in Scandinavia and were the brainchild of Danish shoe designer Anna Kalso. She got the idea for the ‘negative heel’ shoes by watching indigenous Brazilians, and the impressions left by their bare footprints as they walked through the beach sand.

original kalso earth shoes

Actually, before writing this post, I thought the Earth Shoes were a thing of the past, but I was only partially right. Back in the ’80s, the Kalso Earth Shoes in their first incarnation had become so popular, they couldn’t keep up with demand, so they were no longer able to sell at retail in the United States. But it was in the 1990′s that the company was revitalized under a new name, Earth, Inc. and in 2001, the Kalso Earth Shoe was officially relaunched.

I had one of the original pairs of the Kalso Earth Shoes, like those shown in the picture above. I never really liked the look of the shoe, I thought they looked like duck feet, but they were comfortable to wear.

kalso earth shoes with box

And as it goes, that Earth Shoe style sole seems to be coming around again in the form of another shoe, Shape Ups by Sketcher. The curved sole is reminiscent of the old Earth Shoes, don’t you think?

Check out the Kalso Earth Shoe website, they have a great story on how they got started and a historical timeline:
http://www.earthbrands.com/kalsoearthshoe