K.O. Ogilvie: Recommendations for Isolation Fun

I’m a bit of an eclectic person, so having one category of recommendations will be impossible. I created a few categories of stuff.

Armchair Travel – (since very few of us will actually be going anywhere) I love to travel. I love to find the unique little nooks, tucked away places that only the locals may know about. My “go-to” source is Atlas Obscura. http://www.atlasobscura.com/

I’ve been a fan since its inception in 2009. Packed full of trips, experiences, oddities, and local folks and their stories, the curious, the weird, the fabulous. Other terrific armchair travel sites:

•  Since they’re currently closed and we miss them! National Parks Virtual Tours: https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/take-virtual-visit-national-…
• To plan your next adventure, Roadtrippers: https://roadtrippers.com/
• Instagram. Seriously. Where do you want to go? My favs are Hidden Scotland and Iceland Explore. But you go where you want to go.

Props- Among the many things I do for a living, I also design and build props. Eric Hart’s Prop Agenda is a wonderful resource. Filled with “how-tos”, product links, tips, and prop theater history. http://www.props.eric-hart.com/ It’s prop person’s rabbit hole of a website. More great resources for prop makers and makers in general:

• Fake N Bake – all things prop food. Just don’t eat it! Also has an historical food time line link. https://www.fakenbakeblog.com/ Look for Fake Food Friday!
• Make Magazine https://makezine.com/ and Make Community https://make.co/ All things maker! Crafts, technology, science, education, lots of maker projects in all categories.

Vintage Anything and Everything- “Ever get the feeling you’re living in the wrong time?” How To Be A Retronaut https://www.howtobearetronaut.com/ Just go there. Retronaut, https://retronaut.com/ a sub site, is filled with vintage images and information behind them.

Vintage Online architectural slavage. Yum:

• Old Good Things - https://ogtstore.com/
• Recycling the Past - https://www.recyclingthepast.com/
• Black Dog Salvage - https://shop.blackdogsalvage.com/

OR visit a salvage yard near you!

Vintage World:

• The Smithsonian Open Access Site - https://www.si.edu/openaccess download any one of the Smithsonian’s available images and freely share! Without asking!

Vintage packaging Jason Liebig collects packaging and labels. He has over 8600 pages on his flickr account. Don’t say I didn’t warn you… https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonliebigstuff/

Vintage cooking – PIES https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/73869/8-forgotten-pie-recipes-we-sh… Because PIE! I love pie. Out of this list, Buttermilk Chess Pie is something

I’ve made 100 times. It’s killer. But please- learn to make your own pie crust. It’s sooo much better. And even I can do it!

Entertainments:

Movies I can watch over and over:

• The Thin Man, (1934) and all of the sequels. Myrna Loy and William Powell. Lots of sleuthing and alcoholic beverages. And Myrna Loy!!
• All About Eve (1950) Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm. Winner for Best Picture. Backstage drama and backstabbing!
• The Artist (2011) And lovely homage to the silent era of films. And the French guy is adorable.
• About Time (2013) I may have cried a little.
•  Gilda (1946) Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford. Great American film noir. You could make it a drinking game with the number of times Gilda says, “Johnny”… not that we have…but you could. Narrated by a dead guy.
• The African Queen (1952) Hepburn, Bogart, gin, big river, blowing up Nazis… need I say more?
• Sunset Blvd (1950) Gloria Swanson. I mean, come on!
• And pretty much this list: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/100-best-films-ever-hollywood-favorites-818512/item/all-eve-hollywoods-100-favorite-818428

Music I can listen to over and over:

• Talk about eclectic. This list became ridiculously long. So, I omitted it.

TV shows I can watch over and over:

• The Carol Burnett Show. The best variety show ever and will never be duplicated.
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show. “You’ve got spunk. I hate spunk!”
• The Dick Van Dyke Show.
• The Bob Newhart Show I’m sensing a trend….
• Mom. Alison Janney, right? Not just funny, but sometimes it left you a little melancholy. There often was a stabbing point that got you right in the heart.
• Friends
• The Twilight Zone (The universe where we currently reside)
• The West Wing (I wish we resided in that universe)

Good Books that became less than good movies:

• Where’d You Go, Bernadette? Really fun, engaging book. The movie? Not so much.
• Cloud Atlas Great book….TERRIBLE MOVIE. The attempt should have never been made.
• The Help I will get pushback on this one, but really, the book is much better.
• The Girl on The Train Ugh.
• Doubt – Okay it was a play, not a book. But the movie was terrible.
• The Goldfinch. Full disclosure, this is my wife, Jana’s addition. To quote her, “Even if I hadn’t read the beautiful book, it was a horrible movie. Broke my heart.” She’salmost always right. But don’t tell her I said that.

Art - You Can Too!

• Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting. https://www.youtube.com/user/BobRossInc Episodes are available on YouTube and they’re just great. Grab a paint brush and make happy little trees.
• Boarding All Rows. https://www.boardingallrows.com/ Learn to do lino cuts! Very meditative, and fun with sharp objects.

• White air-dry stone clay. Fun with sculpting! https://activaproducts.com/products/10-58-oz-of-white-premier-clay Sandable, carvable, paintable. I used it to make the rabbit heads for Edward Tulane and you can get it at Jane’s Artifacts.
• Sketchbook Skool https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sketchbook+skool Are you sitting in a coffee house, wishing you knew how to start a groovy sketch book so you could sketch that odd guy reading the paper? Here’s some tips and tricks! And just do it!

Curiosities and Uncategorized:

• Messy Nessy. Cabinet of curiosities. Hours of enjoyment. One of my favorite, all time sites. https://www.messynessychic.com/
• The Scale of the Universe http://htwins.net/scale2/ a little mind blowing.
• Chuck Lorre, the producer for many TV series including Mom, Big Bang Theory, Will & Grace, has a website with all of the vanity cards for every episode of every series. http://chucklorre.com/?s=5
• Cat Bounce. Seconds of enjoyment. https://cat-bounce.com/

Thanks for playing!