Today marks a sad day....no its not the 150th Anniversary of Lincoln's assassination...the 8-Track Museum is closing!  Read about it here.http://russellgold.net/eight-track-museum-closes-dallas-poorer-for-it/.  Guess I need to get to Dallas sometime before July if I want to see it!  :(

Office

We have been getting rid of a lot of stuff (mainly computers and equipment, one of the hazards of living with an IT specialist!).  Now the office is finally coming together, its still has quite a bit of computer equipment, but now its more organized.  I took some photos of my little corner of the office, since the rest of it was a mess at the time these photos were being taken.

 Wall art was a trash find (originally sold by Ikea).  Desk and chair are vintage.  The white shelving is from Ikea, and was eventually moved into the living room and replaced by a vintage credenza.

 Love my bright orange desk chair!

The desk lamp is vintage, the peace hand I got at Marshall's for $7.  The letter S was also a Marshall's purchase that was $5.  The vintage phone was a trash find. 

Here is the Credenza which replaced the Ikea shelving.  Lampshade was purchased at Target from the Liberty of London collection,but the lamp is vintage.  Viking glass is also vintage purchased at a flea market. 

R.I.P.

Sad to hear of the passing of Lou Reed.  You gave us some incredible recordings, you will be missed!
R.I.P. my friend.

Slacker

Sorry for not posting here more often.  I keep neglecting this little blog and sadly, it gets forgotten. But, now that the weather is getting colder (I swear I saw my breath this morning while waiting for the train!)  I'll be spending more time indoors and more time on the computer, which hopefully, will lead me to spending more time nursing this poorly neglected blog.  I should work on it more often, since I love music, especially music from the 60s and 70s which coincidentally is the heyday of the 8-track. I no longer have my 8-track collection, but I have many photos and memories to share about the music, and perhaps some of my concert experiences from the 80s.  So stay posted!

Fragrance from the 70s

When I was a teenager, my favorite scent was Skin Musk. It was by Bonnie Bell, who also had a line of lip smackers that came in fruity flavors.  My favorite was watermelon.  Skin Musk had a sexy smell to it that screamed the 70s.

Another one of my favorites was Love's Baby Soft.  It smelled a little like baby powder, but a bit sweeter and more flowery.  It came in a cute little bottle with a rounded cap that was usually bubble gum pink.  They always tried to advertise it as being sexy scent...but it is seriously sweet and girly.  You smell this and think cake and candy, not sex.

Um...how old is this girl?  She looks to be about 12!  

Another one of my favorites was Charlie.  My mom used to wear this back in the late 70s, but occasionally I would borrow it if I wanted to smell a little more sophisticated, but seriously, how sophisticated can a 13 year old feel?  Anyway, I remember this wonderful commercial starring Shelley Hack and Bobby Short.  It was wonderful and catchy, and if I remember correctly, this played on air from the late 70s to the early 80s.  A great catchy commercial.

Enjoli was a fragrance that had the best commercial.  It was quite memorable...even if the fragrance wasn't.  

Another one of my favorites was Babe by Faberge.  I remember I even tried the Babe deodorant once too, because I loved the fragrance so much.  Margeaux Hemingway used to be the model for the Babe ads.  Hard to believe that she's been gone for 17 years!  

Last, but not least is Jovan Musk.  It was usually a scented oil, but they also had a spray cologne too.  It was musky, sexy and really nice. I wore this one quite a bit, and used to pick it up at my local drug store.  

I wore all of the above scents sometime between 1977 and 1982, which basically covered the time I was in Junior High and High School.  Not sure when I stopped wearing these fragrances....it was a gradual change I suppose, and as I got older I wanted to smell more sophisticated.  

Old Apartment

For the last year I've lived in the suburbs.  At first it was a big change, but now that I am all settled in, I like it.  I've gotten rid of many of the 60s, 70s decorations I had, including most of my 8tracks.  I'm posting  photos of my old place, when it was still Suzy's 8-Track palace....OK, palace its NOT, but it was home for me and my cat Sammy and dog Aspen for several years.  I still miss most of my fun and funky items, but honestly, most of this stuff would just sit on a shelf gathering dust.  I'm trying to go for a more minimal look to my new home, but I thought I would share some images of how my old apartment used to look.  I was going for a late 60s - 70s vibe here.  Sadly, most of the stuff I've ended up either putting it up on Freecycle, Craigslist or carting it over to Goodwill.

 The only thing that I still have from this room is the bookcase and the mirror.

 Lots of orange going on here.  The kitchen table I got off Craigslist, and didn't have it very long, it scratched up pretty easily so I got rid of it.  One of the disadvantages of having a cat who won't stay off the table!

 The only thing I really miss from this room is that groovy swag lamp, also that painting was pretty cool too, even though it was rather beat up and had a warped frame.  I ended up putting it in the trash room of my building and one of the other tenants ended up taking it.  Glad to know that it is most likely hanging on someone's wall.

 An aerial view of the living room.  This was before I purchased the flokati rug. Geez, I'm embarassed by all those video tapes in my TV cabinet.

 My old little stereo and metal cabinet from Ikea.  I still have the big floor pillow, but everything else is gone now.

 Hot pink in the bathroom!  Not sure what look I was going for in the bathroom...but I do love hot pink!

I think I stole these images from Wallpaper of the 70s website and printed and framed them.  They make rather groovy artwork..no?

 Decals from Ikea that I slapped on the fridge.

 When I was a kid, I recall watching the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and loved her apartment!  She had a big "M" on her wall, and I thought, when I get my own place, I'm going to do the same...but with my initial....and I did!  I still have the umbrella stand and the vintage poster advertising a love-in for the Summer of Love, but just about everything else is gone...including the "S".

Sadly, this bookcase was badly damaged during my move, but at least I still have my records to console me.

Hard to believe that most of these are gone now.  Some guy who lives a few towns away from me purchased the whole lot!  At least I know that they went to someone who wants to repair and fix some of those broken players.   Actually, the Weltron did work...but needed some tweaking. The 2XL just stopped powering up at some point, but it did work when I first got it.  The Aquatron needed a new belt, but lit up when you plugged it in.

 Still have these paintings and pictures...the lamp is long gone though.

My incredibly groovy swag lamp....damn I'm gonna miss you!  That willow branch was a trash find, and I ended up giving it to the girl who moved into my apartment, because she liked it.  I told her she could have it and left it in the closet for her when I moved out.  Nice to think that its still there hanging on the wall.


Sadly, this plant died a month after the move, it didn't take to the change very nicely and all the leaves fell off. The smaller one on the top of the bookcase is thriving and now I need to get a larger pot for it.

I still have my orange chair and the white bookcase behind it and the paintings on the wall, but everything else is gone now.  I'm feeling a bit nostalgic looking at these photos...I can even see the ear of my Aspen on the right hand corner, he passed away a couple years ago.

Groovy little paintings that I got for $2 (for both).  I especially love the woman staring at you with intense eyes.

Replaced my white Ikea table with this groovy formica with faux wood top.  I really hated to let this table go, but didn't need it where I was moving to.  I still have the orange chairs and orange stool though.

 My dog Aspen blends in with the rug!  As you can see, I've rearranged the furniture in the room quite a bit.

 I don't think this set up lasted very long, the door would sometimes hit the chair...and it was really annoying!

My cat Sammy, checking out the table...It was a losing battle trying to keep him off table and countertops.  Sadly, he passed away about a year and a half ago.  Both he and Aspen were 15 1/2 years old and left me the same year (6 months apart).   Sammy was with me since he was barely 6 weeks old.  Aspen came to me when he was four and remained with me the rest of his life.

 This was Sammy's favorite chair.  This was taken a few months before he passed away.

 Still have this groovy chair and most of the pottery pictured.

Had this chair for a little while.  Got the chair for $20 and the cushion for $15 at Pier 1 on clearance.  Sadly, it wasn't super comfortable and I ended up putting it up on freecycle not long aferwards.

 Aspen sniffing things out in the back patio.

My sweet baby sleeping in the living room.  This was taken during his last year with me.  I still miss you sweetie!  At times I do miss my old apartment, especially because of my pets and the memories we had together, but I'm really enjoying where I'm living now too.  We have a lovely condo and I've done some painting and decorating.  Its definitely a more minimalist space, but I'm beginning to embrace having less "stuff" in my life.  Looking at these photos I'm amazed that I was able to cram in as much junk as I did!  

Goodbye 8-Tracks

Recently, while cleaning house I made a decision to get rid of most of my 8-Track Collection.  It was a difficult decision that I've wrestled with for the last few months, but I feel it was the right one.  The tapes were basically just sitting around gathering dust.  Had to really take a good look at my stuff and figure out why I was hanging onto things that I wasn't using...and sadly, I realized that I was hanging onto the 8tracks because they reminded me of my childhood.  About a month ago I put the collection up on Craigslist and waited to see if there was any interest.  After about a week, I received an email from one guy who seemed very interested, and when I sent him a sampling of some of the tapes I had, he seemed pretty happy.  When he came over to see the collection, he was impressed and happy to buy them from me.  Even though I'm sad to see many of the tapes go, I'm glad that they went to someone who will cherish them as much as I have.  I did manage to keep a few of my favorite tapes....mainly the k-tel, ronco compilations, some David Bowie, Stones and Donna Summer tapes.  I'm also down to one 8 track player too.  Perhaps one day I'll build up my collection again, but for now its just the tapes and players that I love.

Old photo of my tape collection.  At one time I had over 1,000 tapes in the collection!  Thats nuts!! There is no way I could ever listen to all of these tapes.  

This was taken a couple of years ago...all my 8 tracks and players in all their glory.

Old photo of my favorite 8 track players....sadly, they are all gone now...including the lava lamp.

This is the only player that I have left in my collection...the 8 track boombox.

I'm a little sad to see it all go, but seriously, not sure why I had all this stuff just cluttering up my life, especially when I wasn't even listening to the tapes anymore.  I'm still Suzy 8-Track...with just less 8-track tapes.