For The Love Of Steel

1922 Kitchen

Our 1922 vintage kitchen - complete with Geneva steel sink base.

When we bought our 1922 house in Los Angeles, the kitchen was in need of some serious help.  But we didn’t really have the money to remodel the whole thing.  Still I wanted it to be as nice as we were fixing up the rest of the place, just without all of the expense.  So, we decided to focus on what was existing in the kitchen – and restore around that.  We already owned a vintage stove – and all of the cabinets already in place in the kitchen were original.  So copying a 1946 Hotpoint kitchen ad – we found our color scheme.  But one problem remained – what to do about the kitchen sink – kind of an important thing in this part of the house.  The sink that was there was not usual – probably put in in the 60’s, freestanding – and on a rotting wood cabinet.  It had to go.  And in it’s place, we found a vintage steel sink cabinet in Michigan on eBay, and had it shipped out.  It fit perfectly in that spot – and finished off the “look” we were going for with our kitchen.  It’s a Geneva cabinet – and I’ve fallen in love with having the steel cabinets and the porcelain countertop/drainboard/sink all in one.  Besides looking great – the steel cabinet is really functional and practical.

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Cooking in my vintage kitchen.

And now I want to put in all steel cabinets in the rest of the kitchen.  So, I was thrilled when I came across this post on one of my favorite blogs, Retro Renovation.  For those of you who love that retro kitchen style – this post is a must-read.

Steel Kitchen Cabinets – History, Design and FA

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pegsignded.jpgI’ve heard the story many times over the years… about the poor actress, so distraught with her career in Hollywood that she committed suicide by jumping off the “H” in the Hollywood sign. Her name was Peg Entwistle – and although I could come up with that fact for Trivial Pursuit purposes – I didn’t know much else about her. This is a great article from TCM about who she really was, and what her legacy is today. It fills the gaps in on a fascinating piece of Hollywood lore, and every time I hike up to the sign, I’ll never look at the “H” the same way.

Read the article at Movie Morlocks.

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It’ll be interesting to see what the final outcome of Scott Brown winning the election in Massachusetts will be for Washington. I love how all of the pundits scramble to define it immediately. Yesterday, the news was all about how the “voters had spoken” and Democrats were madly adjusting to the new layout in D.C. While this special election will definitely reshape how the Democrats will do things in Washington now, the broad statement that the somehow this was a major reflection of the people struck me as funny. I mean, this was just an election from one state under special circumstances – and all of a sudden it had become a referendum on everything being done in government. I question that – but it will be interesting to see where this all goes.

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Down On The FarmVille

I have a lot of friends who seem to be addicted to FarmVille on Facebook, but I’ve never been able to quite figure out what all of the fuss is about. Maybe it’s all of those years of being forced to watch HeeHaw when I was growing up? So when I found this YouTube video, it struck a chord – it’s a hilarious spoof that sort of sums it all up for me.

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This is good news for classic film fans who are also tech geeks like myself.

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TCM has launched a very cool iPhone app. It allows you to check the schedule, watch videos, and read their blog. Hopefully, push notifications aren’t far behind for schedule alerts. Now if only I could schedule my Tivo directly from the app!

More at Mashable…

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What’s better in the middle of an El Nino thunderstorm, than a Technicolor rainbow courtesy of Ms. Carmen Miranda? If you’ve never treated yourself or had the pleasure, just check out The Gang’s All Here from 1943. One look at the Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat and you’ll be hooked, I promise you. I wasn’t around to do drugs in the 60’s, but I imagine this must have been what it was like (Busby Berkeley did like his martinis, after all).

Check it out courtesy of the Old Hollywood blog.

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I was reading a great post today on the Bijou Blog, and it reminded me about some of those fantastic old cartoons we used to watch as kids. You know the ones – they’re mostly from the 30’s and 40’s (even though we really didn’t know it at the time) – so the music was usually a bit corny, but also unforgettable. You’ll probably hate me for bringing this up, because once you watch the cartoon below, you won’t be able to get “I Love To Singa” out of your head for the rest of the day!

Boy, what a dilemma!?!  I don’t know if I could hold off – but the promise of two – YIKES!  This has to be one of the cutest and most entertaining web videos I’ve seen in a long time!

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

This is a very interesting article – it amazes me that these conservative groups have been allowed to be so vocal. I’m glad the opposition is finally starting to speak up more. All I can say is that it’s pretty severe when the Vatican comes right out and basically says you’re being too conservative! I mean, how far right can that be?!? It’s so disgusting to me when religion gets used in the name of politics… because that’s all this is… political posturing.

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I was a strange child. My favorite movie when I was three years old was the original “King Kong” from 1933 – I was fascinated by it. I would sit in front of the television on Saturday afternoons watching the old black and whites – a steady diet of Abbott & Costello, Ma & Pa Kettle, Francis The Talking Mule, Shirley Temple films, and many others. I think because we owned a B&W television, I didn’t really know that these films were already 30-40 years old. By the age of six, I was already well-versed in a who’s who of classic film actors, actresses, directors, etc. I was just plain-old fascinated by all of it – and by the time my grandparents gave us a new color set, I didn’t really care that the movies I loved were still mostly in black and white.

But catching those films back then was not so easy – and seeing the true classics was usually even more difficult, often relegated to special airings, or late-nights on the local PBS station. Even with the VCR, many classic films never really saw the light of day – and although cable TV brought some of the more popular films into my home, albeit with commercial interruptions, the true gems still never got airplay. So, when TCM came on the scene in 1994 (and luckily, I was living in Los Angeles by then, and our cable system offered the channel from day one) – it was like a dream come true. That huge catalog of movies – the extras (the shorts, cartoons, travelogues, etc.), the fun programming, and of course, Robert Osborne. (I had the pleasure to meet Robert and Jane Russell several years ago, and he was just as charming in person, as he is on television – secretly, I guess I’ve always wanted his job!) Today, we take access to content for granted so often – and it’s difficult to imagine a world without (or before) TCM – but when it first showed up, it was a god-send – and a true innovation. It’s still my “go-to” channel – a good friend, that reminds me that quality is not dead in the world. It’s held my hand through many long nights, and kept me company when I was feeling lonely – which is more than can be said for many people. So, here’s to you Turner Classic Movies – and may you have many more happy birthdays to come!

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