hard-core naturalism

20 cents >  She Devils Stories by Barbara Sheen . an interesting find , i didn't know anything about the author or the book , but i liked the look of it & the back cover snippets & quickly read it from cover to cover

blow speed racer blow

$1 >  some sort of a hand held fan or paddle , but i'm not sure what this is or anything about it . at first i thought it was Speed Racer , but when i looked at Speed Racer's pic's on the internet i realised that this aint Speedy at all & that's not his girl Trixie either ... they're some sort of impostors. i dunno anything about this sorta stuff . if someone out there does i'd be kinda interested to know who these characters are & the story behind this item ?

girlcussion

50 cents >  ... not sure what to call this one & no idea of its origins . it's a kind of hand held percussion instrument decorated with a painting of a 50's style 'girlie' sitting in a cocktail glass . it makes a fairly annoying ding ding sound on it's own but sounds o.k. with other percussion . also found that it make some interesting sounds when using the dinger thing to strike the strings of electric guitar or bass , kinda of like a piano hammer hitting a piano wire ... only more random . 

kaleidoscopic vibrations

$ 3 >  four track tape in near mint condition of Kaleidoscopic Vibrations by Perrey & Kingsley recorded in 1967 using Moog Synthesizer & the Ondioline . this was a flea market find i picked up a few year ago along with a bunch of other 4 track tapes for $3 each .

d.i.y. musique concrete

$3 >  flea market purchase . oxford university press 1971 . good condition . what else d'ya wanna know ?

beer powered radio !!

50 cents > from Dick Smiths Fun Way Into Electronics 1979 a recent op shop purchase . 

suitcase record player

$8 >  HMV stereophonic automatic electrogram ... thats what is says . it's a  suitcase style record player not that you'd wanna carry it around ... it weighs a ton ! the lid is a speaker & detaches as in the pic . it doesn't have a radio it just plays records at either 16/33/45 or 78 rpm . you can stack up a bunch of records & it'll play one then drop the next one down & play it & so on & so forth , it's a regular party machine ... i bought this at a second hand shop around 1996 & it's been my only way to play vinyl since . which is the main reason i cant upload any vinyl to this blog , as it doesn't have any outputs . a specialist repair shop told me that it 's a 1957 model . i've googled it but can't find any more info . i wouldn't even think of parting with it , but i do think of getting a more modern turntable & amp from time to time .

budgetbilly

$1 >   from the closing down sale of Synaesthesia Records , you just never knew what you might find there  ....

ant men !

20 cents >  1969 u.s.a. reprint of this 1955 apocalyptic paperback set in the central australian desert.  written by Eric North a pseudonym for australian author Bernard Cronin 1884-1968 . i bought this book  at Camberwell market coincidentally the same melbourne suburb that the author lived & died in according to wikipedia ...

knitted breakfast

$12 >  not from an op shop or market , bought from a small regional art gallery in queensland 

hand painted by daisy pitty

$3 >   a small 180mm x 122mm china plate hand painted with a landscape of Haasts Bluff [i think] in the MacDonnell Ranges . done in the style of the great Aboriginal water colour artist Albert Namatjira who was of the Arrernte people & from the Hermannsburg Mission in central Australia . i can't find any information on this artist who's last name has been obviously anglosised . i have never seen another plate like this one , but thats not to say there aren't any ...

feedtime on cassette

50 cents each >  i didn't buy these , they were given to me by someone i worked with who saw me in a feedtime t-shirt once ... a very observant fellow ... he came up to me one day & said "i found some cassettes in an op shop that may interest you"  he then handed me these still shrink wrapped cassettes . he didn't want them & wouldn't take anything for them , so ... if you're out there steve , you sir are a true gentleman .

as familiar as i was/am with this band [i was at the recording sessions for 'shovel'] i had never seen these albums on cassette before . they were released on Rough Trade in the U.S. only . just before the label went bankrupt & folded in the late '80's / early 90's . 

"all the kids are here they all look the same"

50 cents >  1983 'Death Party' 7 inch 33 rpm single by 'Gun Club' produced by Chris Stein of Blondie & J.L. Pierce ... strangely the title track is the b side .  i found this in a pile of the usual scratchy old crappy op shop faves & it just jumped out at me.  the cover is a bit trashed but the vinyl is very good . i use to have this on a 12 inch 45 but it disappeared into the bermuda triangle that has claimed so many records over the years . i also saw them in brisbane around this time with the line up of Jeffery Lee Peirce, Kid Congo, Patricia Morrison & Spencer p Jones & Billy from 'The Johnnys' i remember being impressed at the time .

capitalist

$2>  canaries for pleasure & profit 1965  by Cliff Newby paperback

 >> click to enlarge you just gotta see their little hairdo's 

communist

20 cents>   'little red book' quotations from chairman Mao Tse-Tung 1967 second english language edition vinyl cover 

birds on piano

$4  > Olivier Messiaen 'Catalogue d'oiseaux' [catalogue of birds] 4 lp box set bought at the same op shop on the same day as the Xenakis box in a previous post . this beautifully packaged box by french composer Messiaen [1908 - 1992] played by pianist Yvonne Loriod on the Record Society of Australia label [!] is a nice thing to have & it's a great listen too

 Messiaen on birds