Wall of vintage

A wall in my office here at Monkey Central:
The map I found inside a book I bought in a thrift store. I picked up the 1938 Liberty Magazine cover and matte at a sale at local art gallery. The little frame next to it contains a postcard I bought from a photographer at Bele Chere, which is a local street festival over in Asheville, NC, which is just across the mountain from me. The black S is a movie marquee letter that fell off the marquee at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, VA. The small framed fish is a watercolor and ink illustration I bought at a local festival and the bigger silver framed piece is an advertisement for a cruise ship company that I got out of a vintage travel magazine.

The council of elders...

...they not only sit in judgment of you, they also sit atop my computer.

There's no swag like monkey swag

My gal of the north country Whiskeymarie sent me this bit o' swag:
That's right, it says, "Dr. Monkey, MD" on it. Since I'm not one of those geeks who leave stuff in the original package in the hopes that it will go up in value, I took my new little guy out and let him roam a bit.
First, he jumped up on the tea shelf in the kitchen.
Then he jumped down into a bowl of chili peppers. He got really really hot in there so next he jumped into the fridge:
After cooling down he felt like he needed to be around some of his own kind so he ran into the living room and he started a conversation with this day of the dead monkey that my friend Keith got me.
The good doctor could not bridge the language barrier though, he's vowed to learn Spanish later as a result of this brief meeting. But finally he found a troop of monkeys he could hang with:
He says he feels right at home now.

Thanks for sending him to me Whiskeymarie, you rock!

She showed me hers so now I have to show her mine

My girl K-Line tagged me with a request to see my blog station. She knows I can refuse most brunettes nothing so here it is:

Now let's pull back so you can see the art I have around my computer:

As you can see we still have not replaced that crime against nature that is hanging over the window but it is not long for this world, I assure you of that.

Now, the rest of you, don't be shy, show us yours!

Our long national nightmare is finally over

Our new mattress came today! It's firm foam mattress that we bought from a locally owned store and it was made right here in TN. They hauled off that torture chamber we laughingly called our old mattress and I hope they burn it or destroy it so no one else has to suffer another night on that thing.

Since I'm a progressive political junkie and since today is Super Tuesday I probably won't be going to sleep on the new mattress until the wee small hours of the morning because I'll be up late watching the returns. But I know it's going to be oh so nice when I do get to lay down on that bad boy. Yay new mattress! Yay locally owned furniture stores! Yay mattress factories in TN!

O, Christmas Tree

The cookie party last Saturday must have put us in the holiday mood because the day after we put up our tree and Sparky decorated the rest of the house for the holidays. For two people who don't go to church or recognize any of the religious mumbo jumbo that goes along with Christmas we sure as hell have a shit load of holiday decorations. And when I say shit load, I mean we have five big boxes and four and a half totes full of Christmas stuff.

Now I'm sure some of you are scratching your heads and wondering why two non-believers would decorate for Christmas and put up a tree. Well it's like this kids, we're both cultural Christians, that is both our families went to church and professed to believe in Christianity as we grew up. Along the way Sparky and I grew out of the need to believe in that stone age stuff. For me, and maybe Sparky too but I really can't speak for her, Christmas is about celebrating the past year and showing family and friends how much you love them. It's also about spending time with and maybe some money on those you love. I like to give presents because I like making people I love happy. I don't go overboard like I used to, mainly because I don't make as much money as I used to, so now I put more thought into what I give to people on my list. I'm also more charitable this time of year, especially when I see the Salvation Army kettles, because when I was a poor kid growing up in the projects in Detroit we were on the receiving end of more than one charity during more than one Christmas.

Anyway, here's a few shots of the Christmas tree we have up at el Casa de Monkey (and yes, it's a fake tree):We have a lot of toy type ornaments, cloth birds, snowmen, and Santas.

That's one of my favorite ornaments, the bushy beard Santa on the bike. We have three of them and when I see them they always make me smile.

Would you look at that? Someone stuck a mini Halloween sock monkey on the tree! Who would have done such a thing?
Probably the same person who hung the other mini sock monkey on the other side of the tree. That red star a new tree topper we got just this year. I really like it. It gives the tree a "Communist" look, especially when you stand back and see all the other red ornaments. Hey, now that I've shown you mine, maybe you'll show me yours.

Inside el Casa de Monkey

It's time that I dropped the curtain on my glittering lifestyle and let you the unwashed masses have a peek inside my life here at el Casa de Monkey. Please do your best not to get jealous and please keep in mind that I got all my things via hard work and clean living, not by theft or mind control as some would have you believe.

So, let's start in the living room.

As you can see I have spared no expense on decorating. The various shades of green in the living room soothe my sometimes tired eyes. This is as far as most of you will ever get should you ever find your way to my spacious and lovely abode. I will allow you to sit on the couch but only after I verify that you have had all your shots.

Just off the living room is the den. This is where I unwind by having a cocktail, watching TV, or practicing my disco dancing moves, one has to keep up with the latest dance craze you know. As you can see I keep a roaring fire going year around. It's none of your business who or what I burn in the fireplace.

Right outside the den is my personal exercise area. I keep fit by playing shuffleboard and by chasing the neighborhood children out of my yard.



I get pretty hungry after working out and cursing at children so by the time I get done my manservant, Barron Manseid, usually has a snack ready for me. Here he is serving up my favorite after workout dish, deep fried brown ooze on noodles.



He fixes all my meals in this state of the art kitchen. As you can see I am a good employer, I allow him to keep a life size photo of the family he never sees anymore, because he works for me 24/7, in my kitchen.


I usually take my meals on my dining room table and Barron, when not serving me, stands discreetly out of my line of vision and sings various operatic arias as I eat. I find it aids in my digestion.

Here is another meal he often prepares for me. It's called turnover surprise with gravy with a side of souffle. The turnover usually contains a different main ingredient every time to insure I never tire of the dish, isn't Manseid the greatest?

Here is where I do the hard work of blogging all day long. This is the nerve center of my empire, my office. Sometimes when I am in a playful mood I take one of the masks off the wall and I sneak down the hall and I come up behind Manseid and I shout gibberish at him when he does not suspect it. We laugh and laugh about it later.

So, as you can see there is nothing sinister going on here at el Casa de Monkey. There are no teenagers being kept against their will in the basement, no small Brazilian children are being used for any types of experiments, and certainly no dogs or cats are ever being harmed on my property. Thanks for stopping by and come again but only if you make an appointment well in advance.

The Real Monkerstein Record Collection

From time to time I like to post weird and wacky looking album covers and I throw in a snarky smart ass comment or two about them. Some of you have asked if I really owned those albums and the answer would be no. But as I have written before I do collect cheesy and artsy album covers and I am allowed to frame and display some of them in our home. Here are some of my favorites that we have currently hanging up here at el Casa de Monkey.


My gf actually found this one. I love the artwork on this one.

I nearly plotzed when I found this cartoony looking album cover. I snapped it up right off.

This is a grouping of album covers we bought and framed. My gf found the two on the left and the one in the bottom center. I found the top center one and the one on the top right at a thrift store in Hickory, NC. The Dave Brubeck cover I found at an antique/thrift store in Morehead City, NC.
I love this one. The big head purple woman juxtaposed with the flame is really cool. I got this one the same place I found the cartoony Porgy and Bess one.
Rod McKuen was one of the first poets I was exposed to, geez that sounds dirty doesn't it? My mother loved loved loved Rod and she bought all his books and albums. I remember listening to this one when I was little, she played it over and over again. When I found this one at a flea market years ago I would have paid up to $20 for it, lucky for me I got it for a buck.

This has to be one of the best covers Elvis has done. It's from his "country" album which I admit I hated when it first came out. But as the years have gone by I have learned to love it. I love the Rhino Records reissue even more because it has that bonus CD with all those extra tracks on it, I especially love the song Psycho on that bonus CD.

We've got more framed covers and I may put them on here one day but that's all for now.