I do a lot of grocery shopping. My first reason for picking a store is the price, and second, quality. Appearance and packaging never has input, simply because a quality product at a good price is key. Today I experienced what it is like to go to a grocery store with super cute packaging (and unfortunately, not the best prices).

Fresh & Easy officially wins the prize for BEST PACKAGING…with flying colors! Literally.

I was filled with glee today as I skipped from isle to isle. Every item is so perfectly streamlined, smooth, pretty, simple and well, “fresh and easy” – looking. The meat section was beautiful. Airtight packages with unusually bright pinks, reds, and oranges shining through. The bakery section was lovely, cute cakes and pies, a wonderful font on all of them. Something akin to Century Gothic meets Calibri? Very cute. The colors of the packages matched the item inside. Mango cereal=mango box. Strawberry oatmeal? Strawberry colored box.

I love the mix of 50’s Modern meets 70’s Style. Truly perfected. I hope someone was paid very well for the overhaul they must have done.

Here are some of my very favorites from todays purchases. The butter package is so great! A stack of pancakes for the pancake mix? Genius! Simple, clean, CUTE. Am I the only one that gets this excited?

They all are vibrant amazing colors, totally unique, and these are just a few colors, there are dozens and dozens more and so many different hues & tones. Rax Records first release! Limited edition run of 500. We ship within 2-3 business days after receiving payment. Hooray for new vinyl!!

I scanned them in slightly crooked, but here they are! Zack did the cut outs for the paper construction, I used a scanned image of a painting I made (the fly), and I did the “spine” on the computer. The image on the back was taken in an industrial area of San Diego using magic and a very orange wall.

We spoke with the pressing company earlier today and it looks like the records should be here this week. Then we can turn our living room into a packaging center and get a ton ready for the two big shows with Autolux this weekend. First Soma on Saturday September 26th, and then Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.

Rax Records is our own label composed of money, time, and devotion (but certainly not in that order). This is our very own self-released piece of music. Two songs, 45RPM, mixed vinyl and cute packaging. I’m so happy!

Mixed vinyl means that all the colors at the record press are combined to make a marbleized gray, with splotches of random color. Each record will be completely unique due to the pressing process. We went through United Record Pressing which has been around for ages, they put out some of the earliest Motown records and even served as housing for the touring groups (how cool!). The vinyl is getting pressed (hopefully we’ll get it in a few weeks) and the full-color cover art is done, so the first Dabbers vinyl is almost ready – hooray!

If you haven’t added these volumes to your collection, and you are in love with the aesthetic of 50’s women, fashion, and bodies, please read on. After visiting Powells in August I came home with some books that must be mentioned:
History of Men’s Magazines Vol. 1

History of Men’s Magazines Vol. 2

Here is the info from the Taschen:
In 460 full-color pages, Volume 2 documents the proliferation of men’s magazines following WWII. Before the war France and Germany were the world’s leading producers; after the war the US surged ahead. When a little magazine called Playboy debuted in December 1953 a new breed of sophisticated imitators followed. And when America redefined its obscenity laws in 1957 scores of new and more revealing titles followed. Volume II also covers the early evolution of English men’s magazines, profiles the top five covergirls of the 1950s, and ends with the hilarious ads from the magazines’ back pages. Male girdles, anyone?

SERIOUSLY these volumes are worth the money. Luckily, we got them on sale because it’s Taschens 25th anniversary this year AND Portland has no sales tax. 2 for $50 anyone? Yes!

They are FULL of beautiful women, busts and bellies from 1900-1959. Not just pin-ups, this Taschen beast has 460 pages of photos, scanned images, book covers, magazine covers, excerpts, flashbacks and more amazing graphic design than you can imagine. Black and white, color, screen printed and cartoons, it has every beautiful, disturbing and sometimes shocking image from mens magazines and more from this era.

I can’t get enough of it because the women are so full-bodied and luscious. Not a six-pack in this whole book. A few svelte figures here and there, but mostly thick thighs and high heels.

Two thumbs up.

I also got my hands on:

AND

My eyes have been feasting on these…

The Dabbers went on a day long photography adventure with Sade Williams and her assistant Alenna Sibounhom about a week ago. She shot several rolls of film, black and white, color and all in medium format. These are just a couple. We wore all of our own clothes (she let me borrow a dangly necklace and some hair ties…) and shot around San Diego in North Park, Golden hill, and a random parking lot.

The best part? We finished off the day with some hot ramen and ice cold water.

For more of Sade’s photography: www.sweditorial.com

For more of The Dabbers: www.myspace.com/wearethedabbers

It’s my birthday on Friday, so I made a cute little flyer for our show. Yah!

Photo by Sade Williams.

My page squashes this comic so please click HERE to view it in a readable format, if you like.

The Dabbers have finally finished recording, and have replaced ALL of our songs with the fancy official EP versions of our album “And I Was Like, And They Were All”, which includes two never before posted songs.

All songs recorded/​​mixed/​​produced at Archival Sound, North Park, San Diego 2009.

Speaking of – many, many thanks and credit to our friends @ Archival Sound:
Mitch Wilson: Mixing/​​Recording/​​Burrito eating-totally awesome months of fun)
Kyle Thompson: (Ze Mastering Genius).

We are playing this THIS FRIDAY July 24th @ CASBAH with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone & Concern.

Click on our picture above to be taken to our Myspace page!!
xoxo,
gubba aka Mlle. Dabber