The House of Googie

Live from America, it's the House of Googie!

It's been a while since I've posted here, but that's because I've been working on something big. Really big.

I'm travelling to America!

To celebrate my 30th birthday, I'll be visiting California, Nevada, and Arizona, the very home of Googie, and taking in the sights. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and plenty of other places, I can't wait to see them all! For a guy from New Zealand who's only visited south-eastern Australia, this is huge.

I'll also be visiting KoHoSo, who some of you may remember from the retro Tumblr community last decade. He's been hard at work finding all sorts of mid-century sights and delights for me, and a lot of this trip couldn't have been done without his help.

Of course, I'll do my best to share some of the Atomic Age goodness that I find here; after more than a decade, I'll finally be able to show my own Googie pictures! And that is very important to me, because Googie is Good™.

Yes, they do, as do my 1959, 1960, and 1961 plans. Indeed, my plans right through to the end of the century look more or less the same.

My, What a Lovely Chest You Have

Gentlemen, does your wife despair of her small chest? Then do the right thing by her and arrange for her to get a nice, big chest for Christmas. I'm sure you'll both get hours of joy and pleasure out of it.

It's Christmas Day, and that means the annual Googiemas ad is hot off the press! This year, we turn our attention to Lane Chests, whose ad in Look magazine's issue for December 28, 1954 brought this ad's headline to mind immediately. I'm a sucker for a good double entendre, but I do hope I haven't made a boob of myself. If I have, I'll be sure to make a clean breast of everything.

Merry Googiemas!

It's never been more affordable to buy several watches to wear all at once, so that if you should be stopped in the street and asked if you know what time it is in Reykjavík or the Chatham Islands, you'll be able to tell them then and there. Honest, someone's bound to come along any moment now and ask... any moment now...

Where's the fun in that? Surely the point is to have a holiday feast with twice the calories.

Each nation has their own Christmas traditions, which, while strange and quaint to other peoples, are firmly embedded and cherished dearly. For example, for many Americans, the most sacred tradition of all is the making of the breakfast toast in their General Electric Automatic Toaster. It's simply not Christmas Day without it.

Have you ever wanted to inscribe the words "go f— yourself" on a bottle of bourbon in genuine 23-carat gold leaf? Then have I got news for you!

For when you want to capture the disappointment in your kids' voices, or the incoherent rambling of Grandpa three whiskies in on Christmas morning, it's Scotch brand magnetic tape for sure!

Nothing would make the little woman happier, nothing at all.

This takes talking to oneself to an entirely new level.

I wouldn't worry about it, he hasn't got anything to put in there anyway.

Isn't it time you enjoyed the world's mightiest head?

Stealing them from the bowling alley is cheaper, just saying.

Knock back of that Puerto Rican Rum, and you won't remember much of Christmas at all.