Cratedigger goes to the movies--Poor Pretty Eddie

This is a disturbing trash film that a college friend sent over. I would consider it to be a Hicksploitation film, if I had to use a genre title.

Poor Pretty Eddie stars Leslie Uggams, Shelley Winters and Slim Pickens. The real star for me is Ted Cassidy who portrays the loyal Keno character. Yes, it is Ted "Lurch" Cassidy.

Uggams portrays a popular singer that decides to take a solo road trip in her early 60s white Bentley. Not a good choice to go into the county that has Bertha, and her cast of stars that include the title character, Eddie, who fancies himself an Elvis impersonator.

Of course the Bentley overheats in Bertha's front yard. She meets Eddie in a bar, where he rents her a Batesesque cabin and plots ways to keep Uggams there at the compound so that he can violate her.

Shelley Winters is a drunken has been that surrounds herself with losers like Eddie and Keno, that give her ego a boost with their presence. Immediately she is jealous of Uggams, but does nothing when she asks for her help after being attacked by Eddie.

I like trash, but I really found nothing entertaining about this film, I mean Shanty Tramp seemd like fine cinema compared to this. It was cool to see Cassidy late in his career, but it is hard to make the stretch that he is acting. Shelley Winters seems to be playing herslf here, I wonder if she was drinking for real onset... I know I almost needed a cold beer after viewing this mess.

Good Guys Show Joliet IL 092207 part un

Iowahawk called me up yesterday am to see if I was interested in checking out the Good Guys Show at the Route 66 Raceway in Joilet. I was to drive the support vehicle (modern daily driver) behind the 2 hotrods in the 90 mile caravan to Joliet. A cohort named Wingnutz joined us in his big block powered 31 roadster done 60s drag style. That is one fast 1780 lb machine!

Iowahawk took the Coupe of Justice out for the day. The Alexander Bros. would have been proud.


Some shots above of Pete & Jakes' former 29 shop truck, done in a cool 70s style.
Above are two cool A roadsters, the one on the left is a flathead-powered 29 done in a 48 style and the one on the left is pure 60s survivor with a choice Buick Nailhead for motivation.
Shot here includes Wingnuts 60s style drag machine (11 sec time slip, claimed 135 top speed so far!!!)
This shot includes the Coupe of Justice on the left. What a day, time to go count my pennies...

Good Guys Show Joliet IL 092207 part deux

This was a tremendous 32 5 window coupe. It looked pretty much untouched by the hands of time. It had a 59 Pontiac motor in it, and basically everything else that Henry put in it in 1932. The owner scored it this summer in Nebraska. Iowahawk and I thought it was the best car at the show.

This was a cool 63 Rivi. The fade away paint was pretty trick. My crappy camera does not do it justice.

The Revolution Will Not Be Motorized

This mix explores two of my favorite things, soul / funk music and bikes. It is not all about cars and guitars…

Dear reader, from my vantage point, it is also about gears (3 speed Raleigh!), beers (Red Stripe, yo), and funky tunes played loudly.

One of the best moments of this past summer was trekking with a 1000 other cyclists through the Southwest Side of our fair city aka tha hood, and listening to Curtis Mayfield’s live double album on a 800 watt bicycle trailer-drawn sound system.

This set of tracks was thoughtfully crafted for your listening pleasure with that thought and vibe in mind.

Special thanks to cover model, a. toots for assistance in digging a couple of the sides out of the bottom of some musty crates.

Hope you dig it.


The revolution will not be motorized- a cratedigger mix

01 Gil Scott Heron Intro / The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
02 Soul Searchers Blow Your Whistle Sussex
03 Curley Moore Shelleys’ Rubber Band House of The Fox
04 Gunga Din Crabcakes Crypt Comp
05 Lavell Hardy Women of The World Rojac
06 Mandrill Fencewalk (LP Version) Polydor
07 Ripple See The Light GRC
08 James Brown Just Enough Room Polydor (LP cut)
09 Eddie Floyd Woodman Stax
10 Wylie & Simtec Do It Like Mommy Shama
11 100 Proof I’d Rather Fight Than Switch Hot Wax
12 Rufus Thomas The Push and Pull Pt 1 Stax
13 Bloodstone Peter’s Jones London
14 Johnnie Nash Stir It Up Epic

Download here:

Something new at Cratedigger Labs

I have been looking on and off for a while to obtain a pair of the mighty 1200s. As usual, I had a budget number and a condition level in mind as I looked for a pair of Technics 1200s.

At the end of yesterday afternoon, I saw a promising ad on craigslist and came up with the decks above. I had to borrow a truck and head into the West Loop, Greektown area to pick them up.

I am stoked. Oh, and DJ QBert signed these...

Live from cratedigger labs...

As you can see in the pic above, sound has been undergoing some testing chez cd. A while back, I hit a garage sale and picked up the 1990 Cerwin Vega 2 way speakers that you see in the foreground on the floor. They are extremely clean, but the surround foam on both cabinets was toast. From my preliminary tests, the tweets seemed perfect. They were $10.00.

I found some dudes that said they could hook me up with new foam. I called them and the conversation convinced me that they were worthy of the job.

I received the rebuilt woofers yesterday via UPS, and hooked up the 8 inch woofers in the ported cabinets. The positive side is clearly marked on the clips, and obviously the wires are color coded accordingly.

Tonight, I commenced testing.

I installed the speaker lines on the Speaker B selection on the Pioneer receiver that I have been using, leaving the ARs hooked up to Speaker A.

It should be noted that these speakers are sitting on my padded carpeting and are not my preferred 12-18 inches from the wall. Still, the bass is thumping...

I first listened to some Godfather and then moved over to Return of The DJ v. 2. So far so good, now moving over to the AIF version of The Colonels' Little Unique Mix.

Just another reason to find a bigger and better amp.

Cratedigger Record Cleaner

I had a very successful digging expedition yesterday. I found a couple of new veins of funky and soulful 45s to mine. Since these spots were what I would consider "real" digging, some of the very cost effective discs were pretty dirty.

I figured that if there weren't warped, too scratched or cracked, I could clean them at home. Well, that seemed like a good idea at the time...

One of the 45s, a cover of Mighty Mighty, looked like a listener had spilled milk (White Russian?!?) all over it before it was laid to rest in the basement of a bar, or someplace that is equally damp.

In the past, I have been using a damp piece of flannel to wipe some of the more dirty records down, and that has worked pretty well up to this point. But this method wasn't doing it for Mighty Mighty.

I did some quick research, in the dark recesses of my mind as well as on the internet, and I came up with the idea of using some alcohol and some water to clean the record.

I found an old Tilex bottle, and rinsed it out a few times to get out any remaining product. Then I grabbed a shot glass and filled it with some isopropyl alcohol (70%) and dumped it into the Tilex bottle.

Then, I started some water to boil in my kettle. My thought was that distilled water should be cleaner than tap water on the dirty records, no need to add more minerals and gunk to an already soiled record.

Once the water boiled, I added three shots of my distilled water to the Tilex bottle.

I tried out the spray on the Mighty Mighty side, and then wiped with a clean piece of flannel from an old pair of pajamas. The grunge lifted right off the grooves and resulted in a noticeably more listenable 45.

So here it is, take one part isopropyl alcohol, three parts distilled water and wipe with a clean piece of flannel.

This is my no buck (0$) response to the old DiscWasher from back in the 80s.