Tag: Vinyl

CD

The CD player on Dad’s stereo thing that I’ve been using to listen to all of my Rush records on vinyl works.

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I started listening to everything in order yesterday. Presto, from 1989, is the first Rush studio album that I don’t have on vinyl (did it ever come out on vinyl? I don’t think so) and when I got to that point in the catalog… I just had to listen to it. I don’t have another album on vinyl until Vapor Trails, from 2002. So I guess it’s CDs for the next four releases.

Am I a nerd? Why yes, yes I am.

Records

Yesterday I started listening to every Rush record I own on vinyl, in release order. I have everything up to 1987, after which they stopped releasing their music on vinyl (in large quantities at least). I have a couple of 21st century releases from when vinyl became a thing again. I’m in the office today so I won’t be playing that game again until tomorrow. I did take some Hipstamatic Shake to Shuffle style pics while I was packing up my laptop. Just because.

I’m not one of those people who thinks that vinyl is some magical thing. I just like the vibe. I also like having my father’s record player in my work from home space. It’s nice. I’ll start the Rush thing over again tomorrow at the start of the work day. It’s like having a big playlist from a streaming service except that I have to keep flipping the records.

Spinning Media

I brought this home from my father’s apartment over the weekend. Having it makes me sad and makes me happy at the same time. You could say I am conflicted.

It’s a radio, a CD player, a cassette player (believe it or not), and a turn table all in one. I miss my dad. Also, to make matters worse, today is my mother’s birthday. I miss my mom too. I really don’t like feeling this way.

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Random Lunchtime Thoughts

Just some random things going through my tiny little brain right now.

I don’t get hungry anymore. In this post-gastric bypass universe I go from feeling comfortably satisfied, skip right past normal hungry feelings, and catapult straight to oh my god I am so hungry it hurts why does my stomach hurt so much?

Normally that isn’t a big deal. I have something to eat and I feel better. Some days though, like the last couple of days, it gets a bit annoying. Some days I just can’t get out in front of the problem. I eat something, then an hour or so later I feel the hunger pains coming back. Normally I can go about three hours without any issues. Sometimes, like when I was visiting my father in the hospital and had other things on my mind, I could go twice that without my stomach perking up at all.

Today I finished breakfast at around 8:00am. I started feeling it at a little before 11:00am. I was drinking water at the time and had to pause for 15 minutes before I could eat again so I didn’t get any food into my empty stomach until 11:20. I had a quick snack. I was done at 11:26. The hunger pains were back in full force by 12:11pm. What the hell, bro? I went on lunch at 1:00pm so I made myself wait to eat anything more. I didn’t want to fill my new little stomach pouch before lunch and then throw off my schedule even more. I was able to sneak in a little water which helped a little but come on, stomach… you have to do better than 45 minutes, right?

Change of subject. Television shows that are currently being worked through.

  • Mindhunter on Netflix. I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first of two seasons. It’s creeping me out. Good stuff.
  • Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. I think I am an episode behind. The new season is good. I was nervous when I heard it was moving to Los Angeles, but so far it’s firmly grounded in New York where it belongs. It is also nice to have Paul Rudd back again.
  • Agatha All Along on Disney+. Episode three is out today, I think. I’ll watch it tonight. I’m enjoying it so far.
  • Rings of Power on Amazon Prime. The last couple of episodes feel like a small step back in terms of quality. Word on the street is the next two (the last two episodes of season two) are going to be spectacular. I’m all in.
  • Dark on Netflix. I liked the first season. I’m halfway through the second season and it is struggling to hold my attention.
  • The Orville on Hulu. Season three is a bit of a slog. The episodes are WAY too long and not good enough to justify the time commitment. It’s not bad, it’s just not that good.
  • Futurama on Hulu. Gold. Absolute gold.
  • Exploding Kittens on Netflix. It’s not bad, but I’m having a hard time staying invested in it.
  • Coming Soon: Penguin on Max. The first couple of episodes are out but I haven’t watched them yet. I’ll get to them soon.
  • Coming Soon: Daryl Dixon season two on AMC. The new season kicks off this coming Sunday. I’ll be there.

Dude… that’s a shit load of TV. I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten a couple of shows too.

I have some linens that I took from my father’s apartment. The plan is to donate them somewhere. My sister suggested the MSPCA at Nevins Farm in Methuen. It’s right around the corner from my house. I wasn’t sure if that was something they’d take so I Googled it today. Sure enough, they take bedding. They don’t take pillows or knitted blankets though. If I have any of those I’ll have to bring them somewhere else.

I also took a combination turn table, AM/FM radio, CD player, cassette player from his apartment. I haven’t found a home for it yet. I am thinking that tomorrow I’ll plug it in next to my desk and listen to old Rush records on vinyl while I work. That sounds like a good plan to me.

Okay then. Here’s hoping the hunger pains are taken care of for a few hours at least. I’m crossing my fingers… and symbolically crossing my bypassed digestive system too… whatever that means.

Digital vs Analog Comparison

I started the film page with the idea that I wouldn’t post film images on this page (unless they were reblogged from the other page). I also said I was going to post digital vs film comparisons because… because. So I guess that allows me to post a few film pics, right?

Last week I put on a record and took a spinning media picture. Pretty sure I posted it here. I also took about the same shot with the Nikon Ebay film camera too. I think everything about the digital pic is better, but I also think I prefer the film pic. Maybe I am just an old fashioned sucker.

This one is digital:

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Nikon D90

This one is film:

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Nikon FG-20

Isn’t that interesting?

Now we move to Methuen’s little downtown area, specifically the used record store. I’ve taken this three times, one digital and two film, one with each camera. The two Nikons have a wider lens than the Pentax, so the Pentax is zoomed in much more than the other two, but you’ll get the gist of it.

This one is digital, it’s also portrait:

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Nikon D90

This one is film from the Nikon and it’s landscape:

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Nikon FG-20

This one is Dad’s Pentax. Like I said, it’s zoomed in more. It also has a coloring that might be from the roll of film or it might be from scanning it with my iPhone or maybe it might be because it was within about an hour after sunrise while the other two were later in the morning. I don’t know exactly, but I kinda like it.

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Pentax K1000

Which one do I like best? I think the second one. The Nikon film one. I think I will do the Pentax one again at some point. If I do, I won’t get it developed at CVS and I won’t be scanning it with my iPhone.

Now I just have to try to remember not to reblog whatever posts these film shots end up on. I can do that (but I’ll probably fail).

Spinning Media

Lunchtime photo shoot. I took two pics of a spinning record (Rush – A Farwell to Kings. Side two, track four. Cygnus X-1) with the digital camera and then tried to take the same pic with a film camera. Someday in the distant future I may be able to compare the results.

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Spinning media and a blurred background? WOOHOO!

Vinyl? Me?

Oh this is silly.

A fellow RPM Challenge participant informed us of a site that offers to press your music on vinyl.  That’s kinda funny.  There are actual recording artists trying to release their music on vinyl who can’t because there are so few manufacturing sites that the demand has created a gigantic backlog.  This company is offering it though.  Good for them.  I hope they rake in the business.

I imagined that they would likely charge by the unit with volume discounts.  I was sure their minimum order would be in the thousands.  I Googled them and found this page.  I was right about charging by the unit.  I was wrong about the volume discounts.  More importantly, I was wrong about the minimum order.

Their actual minimum order?  One unit.

Gasp

They charge $30 a unit and their minimum is one unit.  Good lord, how will they ever make money?  Bedroom playing clowns like me will bombard them with single unit orders!

I will admit that the idea of having one of my own projects pressed on vinyl is tempting, but I don’t want to do it.  Nothing I have done is worthy of even that low a cost.  Maybe if I ever finish the best-of thing I’ve been talking about every March for the past five March’s I would think about it for real.  For now though, it’s just a silly nerd daydream*.

 

 

*Also, there is a glaring typo on that page.  I don’t think I can put any faith in their QC if they can’t even proof read.  Sure, I make idiotic typos all the time (in pretty much every post) but I’m not selling anything.  I don’t have to look professional, they kinda do.