Really, would any of us have ever been conceived if not for the aphrodisiacal power of records?
(from farbror-sid.se via DarkRoasedtBlend)
5 
Kit Eaton of Gizmodo on RCA’s The Two Thousand:
“Back in 1969 RCA made an attempt at a high-end TV that was a vision of the sets of the year 2000. The Two Thousand was even made in a limited run of 2,000 and cost $2,000. That’s around $12,000 in today’s money, but for that price you got a 23-inch Hi-Lite tube that had ‘such a vivid, detailed picture’ you could ‘even watch it in a brightly-lit room.’ There were even ‘computer-like memory circuits’ that stored your fave channels, and preserved settings for volume and picture control. That must’ve seemed like the future indeed in an era of dial-twiddle-tuning to find the right VHF channel. The full advert page makes fascinating reading.
“‘No motors, no noise and no moving parts to wear out,’ just computer-designed ‘electronic memories‘… fabulous, especially since I remember hunkering down before our old TV to swirl the dial. My Dad used to get me to change the channels, as a kind of intelligent remote control. Nowadays my cat brushes past the touch-controls on my flat-screen LCD TV and does that job for me.”
[Paleofuture via Boing Boing Gadgets]
RCA’s 1969 Two Thousand TV Was Computerized Vision of Future, for $2,000 - Gizmodo
1 
This thing is really cool! Why didn’t it ever catch on? Maybe because it could only be used if you had the hand of a tyrannosaurus?
Retro Selectro: Card Callmaker Ad (1973)
(via BoingBoing)
(via retrospace)
1 
They go great with a glass of milk! You can buy your own here for a mere $500. (via Ben Sisario)
More vintgage ads: cigarette ads that would’ve worked on me.
I’ve never been into cigarettes. I spent so much of my childhood scheming to get my dad to stop smoking that by the time I was at all interested in smoking myself, I felt I’d be too much of a hypocrite if I started. Right this moment, however, I want a cigarette.
Why? Well, maybe because I was just reading a magazine from 1972. It’s a copy of LIFE I bought at a thrift store some months ago. One of the most noticeable things in it is the fact that there’s a cigarette ad on almost every other page. Print cigarette ads were curbed the following year and completely ceased to exist in 1995. And you know what? Thank god! Because, if they started rerunning some of these old ads, I’d be a goner.
(NB: The scanner I’m using is too small for the pages and I’m just not up to scanning twice, cutting pasting, etc. So just deal. Please.)
Here’s the first one I saw:
Indeed, it is good! Is it wrong that this looks so good to me? Nice looking male hand? I like male hands! Ooh, I also like coffee. And Julie Christie-cum-Cleopatra eye makeup. And the turtleneck! Yes! Gimme! This ad is surely suggesting that women are subordinate to men: that we are on a lower level. And that that’s a level that’s a good height for…now I really am I reading too much into this. Maybe it’s the cup. It’s a great looking cup.
This is pretty much how I look when I’m at my desk and realize it’s already 5pm and I’ve only responded to four emails.
I really like the text on the side:
Electronic Mail is a term that’s been bandied about data processing circles for years. Simply put, it means high-speed information transportation. One of the most advanced methods is terminals talking to one another. Your mailbox is the terminal on your desk. Punch a key and today’s correspondence and messages are displayed instantly. Need to notify people immediately of a fast-breaking development? Have your messages delivered to their terminal mailboxes electronically, across the hall or around the world.
(retrospace via boinboing via buzzfeed)
60 
[via intweetion via Vintage Ads]
