Celebrate The Man In Black

The Original Outlaw

This past weekend while everyone else was standing in line to see The Dark Knight, I pulled out my Best Of Johnny Cash Show DVD and relived some of the greatest music ever made. Despite the blockbuster biopic about The Man In Black (Walk The Line starring Joaquin Phoenix), and the subsequent renewed interest in his career, few in today’s generation have witnessed his groundbreaking TV variety show which aired from 1969 to 1971.

Always the rebel, Cash wasn’t afraid to mix genres and host acts as diverse (and potentially controversial in their day) as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Louis Armstrong and Stevie Wonder in an era when homogeny reigned supreme on network TV. Not to say Cash wasn’t proud of his country roots–George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings and the inimitable June Carter Cash all graced his show as well.

This incredible DVD collection features 23 live performances including Cash singing “Walk The Line,” and “Ring Of Fire,“ many of the guest stars mentioned above, and nostalgic, unpredictable variety segments. It’s recorded bona-fide proof that Johnny Cash was a pioneer in every sense of the word!

Need more Cash? Our tribute Johnny T-shirt features a majestic image of the larger-than-life figure on the front and his faux signature on the back. It’s a salute to country music, blues, and rock and roll. Johnny Cash made all three of them his own. And the world is a better place for it!

Grease Is The Word!

The Pink Ladies Are Back & Better Than Ever!

I feel I can admit to you guys that when Grease first came out 30 (really?) years ago, I became so obsessed with Olivia Newton-John, that I made my mom buy me a flannel nightgown just like the one Sandy wears in the sleepover scene so that I could practice singing “Hopelessly Devoted To You’ into my hairbrush night after night. I honestly don’t know how many times I made my mother take me to see Danny and Kenickie hold court with the coolest girls in the universe–The Pink Ladies!

Sure, the Frankie Valli song was great. The duets between Olivia and Vinnie Barbarino were magical. And the whole “boy meets Australian girl at the beach/disses her/wins her back at carnival where girl is painted into shiny Lycra pants” theme was mesmerizing.

But to a 9 year-old girl just entering the awkward Ugly Duckling phase of adolescence, The Pink Ladies were the girls I desperately wanted to be friends with. They were cool, tough, and funny. I knew, even at nine, that I was supposed to identify with sweet Sandy and aspire to ever-lasting love in a pleated poodle skirt.

But, honestly? It was Rizzo I empathized with the most. She tried so hard to keep her guard up when, deep down, she was a mess just like me! Besides, she was played by Stockard Channing and I thought “Stockard” was the coolest name ever besides Cher and Daphne from Scooby-Doo.

Frenchy’s hot pink helmet hair and Marty Maraschino (another great name) with her wallet-full of boyfriends were the perfect comic foils. Ask any girl between the ages of 30 and 60 to hum a few bars of “Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee,” and I’ll bet you get the whole song, complete with props!

We love those Ladies because they connect us to the fun of the 1950’s–and to our own childhoods. We don’t get to sing songs in our PJs with girlfriends much these days, but we can play with these new Mattel Barbie dolls based on our favorite Grease trio!

Sandy, Frenchy and Rizzo are more fun than ever in our set of 3 collectible Grease dolls. From Sandy’s pom poms to Rizzo’s pencil skirt, they bring back wonderful memories. My daughter had to pry them out of my hands and now she won’t give them back! She loves Grease, too! I guess it’s her turn. She just turned eight and I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure I caught her singing into her hairbrush the other night...

We go together like ramma lamma lamma–ka dinga da dinga dong!

Led Zeppelin—The Song (Thankfully) Remains The Same!

February 15, 1969: The feverishly-anticipated, self-titled debut album by Led Zeppelin entered the album charts, going to #10.

Before The Internet, buying concert tickets was not as easy as clicking a mouse.

When your favorite band announced a show, if you really really wanted good seats, you dug out the folding chairs and camped outside the box office hours or even days before they began selling tickets.

In 1975, Led Zeppelin sold out not one—but THREE—consecutive Madison Square Garden concerts in four hours!

That’s basically the equivalent of someone today selling out three concerts in 4 seconds. Okay, not exactly, but you get the idea.

More than 30 years later, fans worldwide are crossing their fingers that the mighty Zep may roar once again.

On December 10th, 2007, the surviving members of the band, (Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones) along with late drummer John Bonham’s son, Jason, on drums (an established drummer in his own right) played a historic concert at London’s O2 Arena as part of a tribute to their beloved friend, Atlantic Records founder, Ahmet Ertegun, who passed away on December 14, 2006.

Reviews were unanimously ecstatic!
Fans and critics proclaimed it “the concert of the century!”
Some people paid $14,000 a ticket!

I didn't get to go and may never fully recover...

As we wait with bated breath to see if the O2 appearance spirals into a “2008 reunion tour,” pledge your allegiance to one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time in our brand-spanking-new Led Zeppelin T-Shirt!

Whether you’re an old school fan of Page, Plant, Jones and the original God Of Thunder, John Bonham—or discovering them for the first time— you’re sure to become swept up in their cosmic elixir of blues, hard rock, folk, and interstellar magic.

Besides—(to borrow the line from Almost Famous) the guitar playing is ”incendiary!”

See you in “Kashmir!”

Deals Of The Week!

Fabulous Finds For My Faithful Friends!

What do a secret spy, storybook sweeties, sexy starlet, swingin’ singer, and super-small soldier have in common? They’re all waiting for you in our Deals Of The Week!

I’ve collected 5 of my favorite winter pick-me-ups and given them special sale prices just in time for some well-needed “post-holiday retail therapy!”

The Lost Files Of Nancy Drew brings back fond memories of hiding under the covers past bedtime with a book and a flashlight, enchanted by Nancy’s moxy as she foiled the bad guys while looking like a prom queen. This interactive book is packed with neat pull-out/fold-up pieces celebrating the world’s spunkiest teenage detective!

Be careful! The Raggedy Ann and Andy Nesting Dolls look innocent on the outside, but once you start playing with them, it’s impossible to stop! I keep mine on my desk at work and I kid you not, every day somebody tries to sneak off with them!What happened to starlets like Marilyn who actually looked like women? All of these itty-bitty stick figure celebutants are a tad freakish. Bring back true Hollywood glamour with the cozy Marilyn Classic Pose Throw, and celebrate the beauty of real women!Did someone order a hunka hunka burnin’ love? Of all the phases of his colorful career, The King’s reign in Vegas held some of his most exciting moments. Keep a little piece of his magic close to you with the limited edition Elvis Las Vegas Figurine.

Encourage your inner child to play! Our movie collectible Munchkin Soldier Doll is an adorable recreation of the 1939 Wizard Of Oz character who so-warmly welcomed Dorothy and Toto to Munchkinland (after that mishap where her house fell on the lady with the red shoes).

All of these familiar faces are the perfect antidote to grey winter days stuck inside the house. After all, what’s more fun than Elvis stuck inside a too-tight crazy jumpsuit?

Get Your Yuletide Groove On!

December 1965—The Grateful Dead Play Their First Show

I hope you’re remembering to stop and sip the eggnog as we descend deeper into Holiday Mania! I’ll tell you—one thing that adds to my shopping stress is the music we’re forced to endure in some of the department stores! Nothing against chestnuts or dashing through the snow, but let’s just say that some renditions of holiday classics are in the bargain bin for a reason! My secret weapon? Why, The Grateful Dead, of course!

When I’m in the car alone (because we all know the torture of listening to our kids ridicule our golden oldies) and I’m up to here with fa-la-las, I put in my CD of American Beauty and pretty soon, the honking traffic dissipates into the stratosphere. The Dead fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, country, jazz, psychedelia—even gospel—for a brew no other band could dream of duplicating (although many have tried). Songs like “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Box Of Rain” are perfect introductions to their genius and, as stated above, a dreamy antidote to holiday frustration! Celebrate the anniversary of their first concert at the legendary San Francisco Fillmore on this day in 1965. It truly was, as they say, the beginning of an era!

Think Jerry’s guitar solos were “puzzling?” Try your luck at this cool 500-piece puzzle ingeniously combining individual classic photos of the rock icon to form one large mosaic sure to wind up on your wall. Fancy yourself as the ultimate Deadhead? Then our Grateful Dead Trivia Game is for you! Players collect "concert tickets" by answering interactive and trivia questions spanning the band’s history from Pigpen to Ratdog.

The Generation They Called “X”

Nirvana’s Nevermind Released Sept. 24th, 1991

There are certain things that make your Aunt Betty feel her age: buying a nice sauvignon blanc and not being asked for ID; accepting that “misses” fashions are never as cool as “20-something” fashions; not knowing who most of the bands on MTV are these days (causing laughter and ridicule from my kids)...and the list goes on!

But when I realized it’s now been over 15 years since Nirvana’s Nevermind album came out, I really felt the cobwebs starting to settle. I vividly remember the first time I heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” I was driving home from work, tires hugging a winding curve, when the local DJ announced he was going to play “a song from a new alternative band with a lot of buzz.” I already knew who Nirvana were, and owned their first album, Bleach, but figured they’d remain under the radar like so many other “indie” bands of that era.

The minute I heard the opening guitar riff to “Teen Spirit” I knew the world was about to change.

Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic had unleashed all the fear and frustration we wayward Gen X kids had felt since 1983. At least those of us who were more like The Breakfast Club’s free-thinking John Bender than the sushi-eating Claire.

Every generation has its musical lightning rods: Sinatra, Lennon and McCartney, Bowie, Bono. What made Cobain one of these is that 16 years later, “Come As You Are,” “Lithium,” “Heart Shaped Box,” and one of my personal favorites, “Pennyroyal Tea” all sound just as exciting (and a tad unnerving) as they did a decade ago.

That “lightning in a bottle” effect is what turns melancholy musicians from Aberdeen, Washington into icons, even when most of their music cautioned against the very concept.

So, for all of you Gen X-ers out there, take a moment and remember the first time you heard Nevermind. Because it influenced everything you’re hearing today.

KISS® Inducted Into Hollywood Walk Of Fame August 11, 1999

For KISS, Every Day Is A Walk Of Fame!

"Man, if there’s one thing KISS will never do, it’s a...disco song!"—Lex, Detroit Rock City .

That line is hilarious for the same reason "...if you think Mick Jagger will still be out there trying to be a rock star at age fifty, you’re sadly sadly mistaken" from Almost Famous is hilarious.

Both of those movies take place before we knew it was possible for KISS to go disco or Jagger to belt out "Brown Sugar" well past 50. Ahh...the sweet ignorance of youth.

One year after Detroit Rock City took place (1978), Gene, Paul, Peter and Ace released “I Was Made For Loving You” to the dismay and horror of many a KISS Army soldier. The smash hit ushered in the Dynasty-era KISS, and not long after, founding members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley jumped ship.

But many rock fans who came of age in the ‘70s forgave them for that disco misstep because KISS were an unstoppable force, a keystone in every record collection, and cohorts for many-a-crazy teenage memory.

To this day, I get goosebumps when I listen to Ace Frehley’s solo during “Shock Me” from KISS Alive II. This morning I heard “Hard Luck Woman” on the radio as I drove to work—seven hours later, I’m still humming it in my head. And I will always, no matter what, list KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park as one of my favorite films, right in-between Serpico and Ordinary People, because as cheesy as that 1978 made-for-TV movie was, it took the fantastic magic of KISS and condensed it...kind of like Jell-O.

And I, for one, am glad KISS received their very own Hollywood Walk of Fame Star on August 11th, 1999. It summed-up what the rest of us had known for decades—that throughout the various incarnations, musical experimentation (Music From The Elder, anyone?) make-up removal and reunion tours—they were always fun. Larger than life, in your face, “these go to eleven,” flying fireworks-fun. And these days, fun is pretty hard to find.

Who’s your favorite member of KISS? What’s your favorite album? Check out our Kiss-a-licious Kollection of memorabilia including the set of 4 Pint Glasses with album cover artwork, the Love Gun Long-Sleeved T-Shirt, the Gene Simmons T-Shirt and lots more!

And break out those KISS CDs, crank up the stereo and remember what good times are all about!