OLD SCHOOL TOY STORE INDEX

If you are looking to reminisce about all the old toy stores you went to as a leisure suited youth of the 70s and early 80s, look no further than the Gallery of Vintage Toy Stores, put together by the fine folks at Plaid Stallions. If you thought we had some funky fresh toy emporiums here in New York, get a load of some of these spots in other parts of the country. Star Wars endcaps. Walls of Lego playsets. Full-on daps to Montgomery Wards! Holla!

My personal favorite is a store called Stuffnpuffs, which sounds more like a head shop than a toy store, if you ask me.



And nothing beats this wall of old school Atari, Intellivision and Colecovision at the defunct mall shop The Game Player.



And vintage gamers will totally appreciate this display at Child World as well.


For more retroactive fun, visit www.plaidstallions.com

Young Seth Green in a 1987 Play World commerical:

BRAINGAMES

Anyone who ever had HBO back in the early 80s is sure to remember this quirky educational short series that ran for a brief time before they featured some kind of children's programming. Here are some clips I found off YouTube. As one of the first families who had "Home Box" on our block in Levittown, NY, Braingames was definitely required viewing in the house.

And now, a word from our SPONSORS

Welcome Back, WPIX!

It is really great to the best local TV station in New York make a comeback after over a decade of hostile corporate occupation by Warner Bros. and their racist frog.

But though WPIX may be back in name, they are still a long way away from their glory days of the 70s and 80s, with its psychedelic TV movie bumpers, an Action News team that puts Ron Burgundy to shame and, of course,those great editorials from station head Richard N. Hughes that came on right before the Odd Couple.

All praises to TapThat2012 and the other folks who posted these clips on YouTube and providing great memories for all of us TV zombies who grew up in the Tri-State area in the 70s and 80s. -"Whipped in Whippany"

BONNIE RAITT, JOHN HAMMOND AND LOWELL GEORGE JAMMIN' IN HEMPSTEAD!

Check out this amazing FM broadcast I found on Guitars 101 of Bonnie Raitt and John Hammond jamming with Lowell George of Little Feat, recorded live at the old Ultrasonic Studios in Hempstead, NY for WLIR-FM on October 17, 1972.

Enjoy!

01. Intro
02. Love Me Like A Man
03. Under The Falling Sky
04. Talk
05. Love Has No Pride
06. Talk
07. Going Down To Louisiana
08. Talk
09. Can't Find My Way Home
10. Tuning
11. Big Road
12. You Got To Know How
13. Talk
14. Apolitical Blues
15. Talk
16. Come Ride In My Automobile
17. Talk
18. As The Years Go Passing By
19. Watch My Pony Ride
20. I Can't Be Satisfied
21. Sky Is Crying
22. Tuning
23. Honest I Do
24. Talk
25. It's Too Late


http://rapidshare.com/files/18125743...part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/18125740...part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/18127789...part3.rar.html

Steve Wonder Meets Grover

Check out these clip from a 1973 episode of Sesame Street with guest Stevie Wonder. First there's a little cute back-and-forth with Grover, before getting the band together and knocking Mr. Hooper's socks off with a funkdafied rendition of "Superstition". My boy's four-month-old son was lovin' this shit! -Ed.

The Caldor Rainbow

Nicholas DeMaio is a 23-year-old photographer from Farmington, CT and the author of The Caldor Rainbow, an amazing Blogger site dedicated to the preservation of dead, dilapidated and long-gone buildings that once housed some of the department stores, hardware shops, electronics boutiques and fast food eateries that once made America a weird, wild, colorful rainbow of retail that gave even the littlest town its own unique flavor during the 60s, 70s and 80s before Wal-Mart and Target stomped a big mudhole of globalization into all their asses and shut 'em all down.

Now every town you go to all looks the same. Well, almost every. The Caldor Rainbow, not to mention DeMaio's Flickr photostream(http://www.flickr.com/photos/10073060@N00/), boldly aims to document any old pieces of retail Americana left in the country, and does an excellent job documenting if I don't say so myself.

Please check him out at www.thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com and prepare to get pulled back in time.