A Geek in Shorewood

Ace

2012-01-25T22:26:00.000-06:00

What a great laugh he has.

Devo + Neil Young

2012-01-13T23:48:00.002-06:00

What the? I still love Devo, but have gotten sick of Neil Young in the last few years. I think it was mainly because our old guitarist was a big fan, and I noticed a similarity in their guitar playing skills. The Live Rust concert is still one of my favorites, but I just can't listen to Neil any more.

Smoke a Pipe

2012-01-13T09:37:00.002-06:00

I miss pipe-smoking. I wish it was still a thing to do.

Toynappers

2011-12-14T08:55:00.001-06:00

What, they were planning on eating the toys?

Cecil & Beany

2011-10-29T15:23:00.002-05:00

I thought it was called Cecil & Beany, but this says it's Time for Beany. Here's a bunch of photos from the show. Note the naked ladies drawn on the back of the set in the top photo.

Occupy Jobs

2011-10-12T08:06:00.001-05:00

Saw this on Facebook. Take that, you smelly hippy losers.

Dummies

2011-10-10T16:08:00.002-05:00

I hate it when people don't think. The family next door has a nanny (beats off–loading them to day care I guess). The nanny doesn't park in their driveway (which is large enough to hold 4 cars), nor does she park in front of their house. Instead, she parks right in front of our mailboxes. So every fucking day the mailman has to stop, shut off the engine, unbuckle, get out, walk 8', deliver the mail, take a picture of the car to document the reason he had to get out of his truck (I asked him about that once), get back in, buckle up, start it up, and continue on his way. I assume it wastes more fuel to restart the engine than it does to idle for 15 seconds. Then we come home in the afternoon and have to do pretty much the same thing, rather than just driving right up to the mailbox. I don't know why the USPS can't issue parking tickets to idiots who constantly park in stupid places.

Quadraphonic!

2011-09-20T08:28:00.003-05:00

Shit! Electrophonic made some pretty crappy stuff compared to others (although the Electrophonic receiver w/8–track and turntable my brother handed down to me when I was a kid lasted for quite a while), but damn, they had some groovy design ideas. Check out this quad system from 1974.

Torpedoes

2011-09-16T12:23:00.004-05:00

We need the old days back. Ya know, when men had secretaries and secretaries wore bullet bras and short skirts. This is from Ironside, season 1, episode 30, 1968. Click to make them bigger.

Alice Cooper Has Gone to Hell

2011-09-14T12:04:00.003-05:00

I was a bit excited when I saw that Alice Cooper released Welcome 2 My Nightmare this year. Then I read that Kesha was on one track (What Baby Wants). Autotune is used heavily on that one and another (I Am Made of You). Nothing hurts the ears more than autotune. Oh, Vincent, what have you done? Bob Ezrin produced it. You'd think he wouldn't've done that to Alice. allmusic.com says that Patterson Hood (Drive-by Truckers) plays guitar on the album, but credits him as a composer. Even that doesn't excuse the user of Kesha and autotune.

Crunchy Bass

2011-08-31T12:17:00.002-05:00

I got Kim a MarkBass Distorsore pedal for her birthday. It can make some far out sounds, from a little bit of vintage overdrive to full–on crunchy fuzz. With knobs for tube drive, low pass, high pass, and clean/distortion mix, the possibilities are endless. She thought it'd be cool on a few songs. It's about time she started messing with sounds.

A Little Present

2011-08-26T22:51:00.002-05:00

If everything goes well Monday morning, I will be employed again, this time at MakeMusic. After my first year at MultiAd, they gave me a raise. As a token of self–congratulations, I bought myself a neat pen that I still keep at my desk. Nothing fancy. It was maybe $25 or so. Keep in mind that my starting salary there was really low for a software engineer. So yeah, a pen. Tonight I decided I deserved more for getting this much better job, so I picked up an Orange Tiny Terror 7W/15W amp and a 112 cabinet. I asked Kim if I have to take it back if I manage to not get the job. She didn't say anything.

Sporting Bazookas?

2011-08-25T12:10:00.001-05:00

It took me a while to realize the bazookas in the lower–right of this ad were actually sights.

Pork Sammiches

2011-08-21T20:42:00.002-05:00

We played the Vadnais Heights Heritage Festival last night. They had a showmobile (take that, Leo!;) for the bands to play on. It was much cleaner than the truck trailer they had in Foreston a few weeks ago. We had plenty of time to set up (I hate being rushed) and they were still serving pork by that time, so woohoo!! But, the pork was overly shredded and sitting in those big rectangular warming tub things (ya know, the white things you'd see food in at a church social), so it wasn't what I was hoping for from a pig roast. Still pretty tasty though.

We played 2 sets, then they had a fireworks show. They gave Denny a CD to play. He had to call the guy, hit start, and count off the first 10 seconds so the guy knew when to start the computerized fireworks show. The last shell exploded almost exactly on the last note of the song. Pretty cool. We played one more set, then as we were tearing down it started getting windy. Some tables had umbrellas, and they all blew over. Then when the little tent they had over the sound board blew over is when I started keeping an eye on the top of the showmobile. I could just see that breaking and come swinging down and smash us against the back wall. Just as we were getting the last half dozen things packed into our trailer did it start pouring. Close call.

The 2 new tunes went over really well; Kravitz' Are You Gonna Go My Way and Is She Really Going out with Him? (I sing that one).

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

2011-08-07T22:58:00.002-05:00

Kim took the week off and we had a staycation. Went to a small zoo one day. Laid in the sun another day. I started getting a cold last Saturday. It slowly got worse and didn't feel like doing anything at all. I felt better one day and recorded some drums (hi Leo!). Turns out that was too much work and it set me back. Laid around another day. Went to a small lake to float around in the sun, but they don't allow floaty things (the sign says something like "No floatation devices (ie toys)", but we asked to be sure if that really meant "that is, no inflatable toys". Nope, it means everything (they need to reword the sign), but she pointed to a small beach about 1/3 of the way around the lake where we could use them. It was a 15–minute walk on a nice path, and only 3 kids were there. So we floated until the clouds got too thick. Cold got worse for the rest of the week/weekend, but I'm feeling better today. We drove out to a big orchard we like to visit every year (usually closer to Fall) and got a bunch of good stuff. One thing even contained apples this time! I grabbed an apple–rhubarb crisp. Oh man is that good. I love rhubarb, but nobody around here ever makes plain rhubarb pie, goddamn it. But I did get my annual jar of rhubarb jam.

Hillbillies

2011-08-05T22:55:00.003-05:00

We went out to dinner tonight at Maynard's on Lake Minnetonka. Nice place, lots of richers, it being a major part of the lake/boating scene and all. An extended white trash looking family took 3 tables next to us. They didn't exactly look like they'd appreciate the place, the food, or especially the prices, but who knows how people come into money these days. Not long after they had been seated, one of the big'uns let her extremely ugly daughter (for some reason reminded me of a leprechaun) out of the stroller and was messing with stuff in the various storage locations in it. I thought, "holy shit, she'd better not whip out a tit and start feeding that little troll." Thankfully, that didn't happen. Nope, it was worse. She changed her fucking diaper right there with people eating all around.

Don't they have an all–you–can–eat food court at Wal–mart where these people should be eating?

Cheap Trick Equipment Crushed in Storm

2011-07-18T22:36:00.001-05:00

We played in an open–side semi trailer this weekend and only suffered sweltering heat and humidity. Cheap Trick had it a bit worse.

I'm Psychic

2011-07-18T14:28:00.002-05:00

I plugged in an old hard drive I haven't used for a while. On it was a bunch of music from somebody else's iPod they sold to somebody else. Kim & I went through most of it a while back. I was going through more today and got to the folders that start with 'T' when I came to a band named The Autumns. I just knew it was going to be some wimpy gay shit. Sure enough, the first song I tried began with some moody "I'm so deep and I'm wearing a cardigan" guitar picking and then the falsetto singing came in. Goodbye, files that are wasting space. Too bad I can't throw the singer in the trash too.

I just wanted to say that.

Google Street View @ Night

2011-07-13T22:47:00.003-05:00

Cool. I've never seen night time Street View shots before. The tall building on the left is Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. My cousin Dondi is enrolling there.

View Larger Map

Wardrobe! Makeup!

2011-07-13T10:34:00.002-05:00

I just happened onto this photo of Kim Novak, possibly on a movie set. She's getting hosed down by a guy wearing the standard workman's clothing of the era, complete with a well–worn cap (with metal vent grommets) and a ciggy. I miss that kind of clothing, although I never wore them.

Anyway, I just thought it was great that she's just standing there being squirted with a garden hose by that working type guy. Today an actress of that class would be surrounded by women and gay men carefully spritzing her with purified sea mist squeegeed drop–by–drop from the leaves of organically grown rubber tree leaves.

That guy is my hero, even though Kim Novak never did much for me.

The Jam - Slow Down

2011-07-08T10:26:00.001-05:00

This might be even faster than Spare Change ever did it.

Ironside

2011-07-01T13:18:00.004-05:00

I ran out of Kojaks on Hulu (the bastards only have 3 or the 5 seasons), so I've been watching Ironside on my lunches. I remembered very little about it, other than Raymond Burr fighting crime in a wheelchair. I also didn't know it started in '67. But here's something I sure don't remember. He and his team drove around in an old armored car (truck), customized with a wheelchair lift in back and hi–tech gadgets inside.

Senior Slants 1982

2011-07-01T11:48:00.004-05:00

From the May 13, 1982 edition of the Keota Eagle, here are the Senior Slants for me and Leo. Actually, mine was in a different edition, but Mom cut it out instead of saving the whole page like she did for Leo. All that Jazz? Really? I must've been listing recent movies I'd seen or something. I don't remember The Octagon at all, but IMDB says:

A martial artist must defeat a plan by ninjas to create a worldwide training camp for terrorists.

Sadly, neither the Space Invaders nor the co–ed locker rooms were ever implemented. Note the little hunk of the Question of the Week—it was particularly clever that week.

Don't get nervous. Click to embiggen.

Sorry, We're Closed!

2011-06-30T23:04:00.002-05:00

The moose out front shoulda told ya.

The Minnesota government is shutting down tonight, right before one of the busiest long weekends of the year. I don't know how many millions the state will lose this weekend just on the state parks that are closed and the fishing licenses that people won't be able to buy. And much will private business lose because people can't take a trip to a state park. What a bunch of morons. Morons for doing this at this time. Morons for doing it at all. Morons for letting things go to hell in the first place. Who's our governor now? Hmm, some guy named Mark Dayton. A democrat. Way to go, hippies.

Hendrix

2011-06-29T22:29:00.001-05:00

Here's a great photo of Jimi getting his hair fixed while he reads a Mad magazine.

Chef Boy-ar-dee Pizza!

2011-06-21T23:08:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite foods. Just add green olives. Makes the house smell great all night.

Battle Dessert

2011-06-12T22:30:00.001-05:00

Ice cream surrounded by a fortress of Jell–o surrounded by gumdrop guards. This is genius!

Tostitos Nacho Cheese

2011-06-07T11:32:00.004-05:00

Seems like I'm constantly telling Kim or somebody about these, but nobody remembers them. I bet Leo does. They need to bring them back. They were so delicious. I couldn't recall what the packaged looked like, but then I found these photos on flickr and went "oh yeah!"

I love the text in the bottom–right corner of the back about not being a litterbug.

'preciate It

2011-06-06T16:40:00.000-05:00

The Beaver, Damn It

2011-05-31T10:58:00.001-05:00

Beav finally gets some attitude.

And then he loses it.

Alice Cooper Comic Book

2011-05-22T22:44:00.001-05:00

Wonder how many of these are out there?

Schlitz

2011-05-17T15:54:00.000-05:00

What the?

Foam Storm

2011-05-13T12:32:00.004-05:00

The problem with filming set–in–NYC Kojak in Los Angeles? Trying to come up with convincing snow. I've never seen them use foam before. It looks like they had the LAFD foam truck drive through and dowse the street and cars with foam.

Starfleet Miranda

2011-04-17T22:35:00.003-05:00

An embroidery of the TNG crew… wearing fruit on their heads. Thank you, internet. I was afraid I'd never get to see that.

Beds

2011-04-16T23:57:00.002-05:00

After sleeping on the same waterbed since around 1977 (well, I'm on the 3rd matress, probably the 4th or 5th heater), it's finally time to move on. It's just too hard to find stuff for it any more. Kim never liked it, but I don't see how. There's nothing better than a waterbed in Winter. I'm going to really miss a pre–warmed bed. I decided we needed to get a California king (same length as a waterbed) instead of a regular king so my feet have plenty of room. I hate it when I sleep in a short bed and my feet are all squished by the sheets. Yeah, it's harder to find sheets in that size, but you can order them online, and it's not like we have to buy new ones all the time. Hell, good ones last for years and years.

The mattress we liked best was one of the Tempur-pedics with a softer layer on top. It felt very waterbeddy for me and firm for Kim. I was hoping Kelly would be there in her little nighty to jump up and down on a demo model for us. (If you don't know who I'm talking about, you need to watch more TV.)

AaaaaAAhhh, the… Frensh

2011-04-06T10:33:00.002-05:00

I might've posted this once before, but in case I didn't.

2011-04-04T19:40:00.003-05:00

Flying my slightly scuffed Lotus Batmobile over Nürburgring.

I forget what I was driving, but it's nice to see that they put seatbelt warning stickers on the visors. Otherwise, I'd be laying on the ceiling, what with the car being all upside–down and stuff.

Clever

2011-04-01T11:35:00.002-05:00

What a great TV show episode title: Close Cover Before Killing. Plus, Ponch makes an appearance. What's he doing in NY on Kojak's beat?

Zombies

2011-03-28T18:39:00.001-05:00

Mixed–up or not, they're still zombies.

Guest Drummer

2011-03-28T10:16:00.001-05:00

This (NSFW) never happens when I play my drums. Maybe I need to play strip clubs and burlesque theaters.

Devo Is Still Devo

2011-03-28T09:48:00.001-05:00

Last night in Texas.

source

Flipped Out! Like, Way Gone!

2011-03-21T22:48:00.001-05:00

There are some incredible cartoon images in this old pamphlet about drugs. Pretty wild stuff.

Mr. Rogers Stuff

2011-03-15T23:11:00.001-05:00

Here's a bunch of interesting stuff about Fred Rogers.

Live Larger? Live Worse? Live Disgusting?

2011-03-14T09:47:00.001-05:00

WalMart needs to change their slogan. This is not living better.

Intruder

2011-03-08T13:54:00.002-06:00

Isolated guitar track from Intruder/Pretty Woman. I always liked those creepy elephant sounds (starting around 0:12) Eddie made with his guitar toward the front of Intruder.

And one of my favorites, Atomic Punk.

Nice 'stache, Moaneeshah

2011-02-27T23:19:00.001-06:00

Really, they don't sell razors in the ghetto?

Star Wars Holiday Special

2011-02-22T11:31:00.002-06:00

I expected this to be really cheesy and kitschy. Nope, it's absolutely lame. It's so gay. Chewie's dad is named Itchy and his son is named Lumpy. Really? That's the best they could come up with? Half of the dialog is just Wookie grunts and gargles. I can't imagine even a little kid liking it back then. Princess Leia and Diahahihnhann Carrrrollllllll sing. Jefferson Starship play space rock. Art Carney plays his annoying old self. Harvey Korman and Maude interact somehow. I let it load overnight and tried to watch it this morning between builds and stuff. After the gay circus hologram thing that ~~Tubby~~ ~~Lardo~~ Lumpy watches on his hologram table with built–in old tape recorder buttons, I couldn't take any more and ended up scrubbing through it to find the neat old commercials, including a horrible one for the union label with people singing and a CBS Newsbreak with a woman with the personality of a brick… a business brick, whatever that is. But look at cute little Valerie Bertinelli pitching Bobby Vinton's Rock n' Rollers special at 1:06:08 ("it's like Grease on wheels").

Tits and Chimps

2011-02-15T09:11:00.001-06:00

What the?

Chimpies

Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay

2011-02-08T09:23:00.002-06:00

That's the actual title of this record. Ali as in Muhammad. It also features Frank Sinatra, Richie Havens, and Howard Cosell. I'm not making this up. I'm downloading it now.

Honky Isn't Spelled with an E

2011-02-07T09:53:00.004-06:00

This must be a record of teenage bubblegum pop. No? Well then maybe christian adult contemporary? Preteen Disney sing–alongs? Liberal smelly hippy folk?

Thanks, Salem

2011-02-05T00:35:00.002-06:00

I'm pretty sure the reason why they no longer allow cigarette commercials on TV was because this one was just too goddamn corny. It ruined cigarette commercials forever.

The Choppers

2011-01-26T10:34:00.004-06:00

I understand what the artist was trying to do here, but didn't he look at the overall picture when he got done and think, "hey, that car is running down the road on giant man legs!" And what's with the midget wrestling? Finally, she's cupping her breast. Heh he-heh.

(As always, you probably need to click the missing image on that site to get the full-size image. Why doesn't he fix that?)

You're probably not surprised that I've seen this movie. Here, dig on the trailer, dad.

Don Knotts for Dodge

2011-01-22T00:28:00.001-06:00

Web Fonts

2011-01-21T09:09:00.001-06:00

Blogger finally added web fonts, since all decent browsers have been supporting them for a while now. Now if we could only rid the world of Arial and Comic Sans.

The Dirty Family Circus

2011-01-19T22:37:00.003-06:00

source

Cute Nurse

2011-01-18T11:26:00.002-06:00

Without a doubt, my favorite part of M*A*S*H the TV show is the extremely good looking nurse that's leading the pack, running toward the camera. She runs nicely. Turns out she was even cuter than she looked in that shot.

Adobe Acrobat Bug

2011-01-07T11:34:00.002-06:00

Adobe might wanna look at their folders once in a while while testing. Looks like somebody thought they could simply append the folder path they wanted to create (Adobe/Acrobat) onto an existing folder's name (Application Support) and the folders would magically appear.

Franks and Something

2011-01-06T23:01:00.000-06:00

Best photo I've seen this week.

Thank You, Internet

2011-01-01T20:45:00.003-06:00

Where else could one casually browse his daily blogs and find unexpected treasures like these? Life is good. I've gotta get myself a monkey.

The Sorrows

2010-12-29T23:24:00.002-06:00

I stumbled onto this video. It's so clean - I'm not sure if it's video or film, but I'm guessing film because of the resolution and the bright lights aren't ghosting. I love love love that snare drum. Damn! And everybody being a little out of tune kinda fits. Although the bass player gets out of whack at one point and sounds like he's a fret too low. Either his bass quickly goes out of tune by a lot or he really is hitting wrong notes.

Xmas Cheer

2010-12-17T22:54:00.001-06:00

This Harrods employee needs to be more gruntled.

Fatties Abound

2010-12-14T15:10:00.003-06:00

46.3 of America is considered obese, leading the world in grossness. Yeah! America! Fuck yeah!

Evans Heads

2010-12-14T10:26:00.002-06:00

Who's the guy that designs and builds machines that make things? I want that job.

Cherry Blossom

2010-12-06T13:25:00.002-06:00

Would this poster make you want to see the movie? Not me. I'm not into freaky balloon animal clown chicks. (If you get a missing image, just click it for the big size. They still haven't addressed that problem at that site.)

I'm Sorry

2010-12-06T13:13:00.003-06:00

I'm really sorry to be the one that causes this aural and visual thing to be entered into your consciousness. Have fun keeping your lunch down.

Porsche 550 Spyder

2010-12-03T15:18:00.003-06:00

This thing is a blast to drive when it's all hopped up and stuff. At Le Mans, coming onto the front straight.

Heading for the Mulsanne Straight, where I got it up to 148mph. And I didn't even pull a James Dean.

Maybe I did pull a James Dean, because I've got no legs to work the pedals! Augh!

Seeburg 1000 Background Music System

2010-12-02T08:26:00.002-06:00

This thing is so damn cool! Watch how the top and bottom axles rotate in opposite directions so the grooves are going the right way for the tonearm. And watch for the entire stack to rise back to the top. I wonder how many stores I heard one of these in?

The guy couldn't figure out that he needed to loosen those wing nuts, which allow the spring suspension to absorb the shocks of him closing the door too hard. And that annoying voice! Where are his brothers Daryll and Daryll?

Mad Magazine

2010-11-30T23:14:00.003-06:00

It's what all the smart guys in the future will read.

Kim got me this Schecter Hellraiser in Black Cherry for my birthday. Can't believe they finally had one in stock that didn't have bats on the fretboard. Coil taps on the volume knobs (yes, 2 knobs so I can go all Ace Frehley with the pickup switch).

How Hard Can It Be?

2010-11-30T16:00:00.002-06:00

We use FileMaker Pro for tracking our bugs at work. It's shared among developers and testers/support. If one person is editing a record, nobody else can use that record; can't even scroll a scrolling text field if it contains more text than is visible (which is a pretty stupid UI peculiarity). Everybody knows this, but it seems like I'm the only person who remembers it when I use the db. Everybody else will leave records "active" and then go do something else or even go home for the day, preventing everybody else from being able to edit it. We've used the same db since about 1998, yet people still do this on a daily basis and I have to send them a message asking if they're done editing the bug, when I really know they just aren't using their goddamn brain. Like right now I'm looking at a bug that's assigned to me and nobody has any business editing, yet somebody in Peoria clicked into it or something and now I can't do a fucking thing.

I'm just bitching. This pisses me off. Ah! 21 minutes later he finally gets my email and clicks out of the bug.

The Bride Wore White

2010-11-26T22:43:00.000-06:00

Everything was white.

For Blowing

2010-11-15T22:44:00.001-06:00

That's what her lips are for.

Jimi

2010-11-15T22:15:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of Jimi Hendrix in the Army, playing a Danelectro.

A Prayer for Cool

2010-11-11T09:16:00.002-06:00

This is great. A modern film shot on Super8. I love the expression Foo Man Lou gives after Smokey hands him a cigarette.

a prayer for cool from Marc Bencivenga on Vimeo.

Flustered by the presence of super smooth biker "Smokey", Foo Man Lou attempts to kick start his new chopper. Frustrated with Foo Man's failed attempts and lack of finesse, Smokey has just about had it until a visit from the divine changes Foo Man Lou forever.

WYSIWYG

2010-11-02T09:26:00.003-05:00

Copped from my 1st-cousin-once-removed's husband's Facebook album.

Bob 1 Hand Injury

2010-10-27T22:50:00.001-05:00

Bob Mothersbaugh sliced his thumb to the bone. Yikes! Maybe they could just glue a pick onto it.

Failed Circus Acts

2010-10-25T13:37:00.001-05:00

This might hurt.

Teach 'em Young

2010-10-23T23:36:00.002-05:00

Teach kids from an early age that it's OK to be fat, lazy hogs, overeat lots and lots of shitty food, and drive little carts around in a store. That kid'll be drunk, dirty, and pregnant by the time she's 15, if she can hold out that long. I bet she can already quote entire Larry the Cable Guy routines from having watched the DVDs over and over while munching on boxes of Ding Dongs and drinking 2 liter bottles of cheap WalMart pop.

hic

2010-10-15T09:53:00.004-05:00

We did this song back in the Dial Tones. Too bad I didn't think of adding those funny sneezes and hiccup. Those are so funny!

This thing has a whole bunch of music videos just like this. Sunny D & Rum (Yum Yum) is sure to be racing up the charts soon.

Rap "Artist" "Helped" "Prevent" "Suicide"

2010-10-13T20:12:00.003-05:00

HA! I say again, HA! This thug has been in trouble for weapons and drugs, and now some suicidal guy decides not to kill himself because some rapper said he could talk to him if he came down? Gimme a break. This is a total marketing ploy to show how nice and good this piece of shit is.

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster

2010-10-05T12:23:00.004-05:00

I had a hankerin' to watch this again a couple weeks ago, realized I didn't have it, and luckily found it at B&N. It's one of my favorite Godzilla movies. I remember wanting to see it so badly when it first came out. It was playing as a double feature at the Washington drive–in. I can't remember what the other movie was, but it was the perfect compliment to it. I pleaded my parents to take me, but it never happened. I was so pissed. It took decades before I finally saw it.

William Shatner, Humble Genius

2010-10-05T09:25:00.001-05:00

From an interview in TIME, Oct. 4, 2010:

If you could share a secret about yourself, what would it be?

The secret is, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. I don’t really know what I’m doing in anything: relationships, driving, talking to you.

Cars of the Rich and Famous (in Their Own Minds)

2010-10-04T15:31:00.004-05:00

Black guys like to take big ugly 4–doors and make them even uglier by painting their favorite food logos all over them and adding big stupid wheels in matching colors. It's usually stuff like Skittles or Reeses. Aren't these choices a little obvious? I'm waiting for the Colt 45 and Kool Filter Kings cars next.

Stephen J. Cannell Died

2010-10-01T23:56:00.002-05:00

That's too bad. He created some of the best TV shows around. Well, except The A Team. Couldn't stand that one.

Zappa Ad

2010-09-30T20:31:00.002-05:00

This is weird. I was reading a Sgt. Fury comic book I downloaded and one of the ads was for Zappa's We're Only in It for the Money album. Normally, ads are for xray glasses, a lifesize Franekstein monster, Sea Monkeys, or a complete set of revolutionary war soldiers (oh boy). This is the first time I've seen an album in a comic book, much less one from Zappa. And look; it's expensive! It says so right there.

Clothes for Stevie Boy

2010-09-30T16:30:00.002-05:00

So that's what I'm supposed to be wearing? Only if I can wear a neat hat with a little feather in it too. Just like Dad's.

Lily Munster

2010-09-29T16:45:00.001-05:00

She was hot.

Sniff Sniff Gaaassssssssssss Phooey!

2010-09-29T16:39:00.002-05:00

This made me laugh. I love the stuff that guy posts. Is the kid responding "phooey" because somebody cut the cheese? If he's supposed to be smelling a natural gas leak in his house, I don't think "phooey" is the correct message to send.

Robot Bikes

2010-09-28T19:02:00.002-05:00

I forgot that Panasonic made bicycles. Apparently their target market was disco space chicks and robots.

Psychedelic Panther

2010-09-22T09:35:00.002-05:00

I love the drawing style of the Pink Panther cartoons. This one ups the ante. The laugh track also helps the weird factor.

TAGS Comic Book

2010-09-16T08:46:00.003-05:00

Well wadda ya know? Here's a comic book for The Andy Griffith Show. I just downloaded it and took a quick peak inside. Anj kinda looks like Anj sometimes, and you can tell which one is Barn and which one is Floyd, etc, but Opie has yellow hair and called Andy "dad" instead of "pa" in his first panel. Oh, and Aunt Bee has a big fluffy pompadour, like some showy Southern evangelist. Still, what a find this is.

BTW, the comic that was posted right before this one was Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys. I hope they fought crime or did funny antics.

Attention! Ninja here!

2010-09-16T08:38:00.003-05:00

As everyone knows, the clothing of a ninja should be garish and bright to draw attention. And to make sure everybody knows who's the ninja in the room, it helps to have the word "Ninja" emblazoned on your headband. The modern ninja wants to be noticed. It must be true because that's what we see here in this movie poster for Ninja Commandments.

Titkerchief

2010-09-14T22:50:00.001-05:00

A few lines in this fake voiceover for a horrible product made me chuckle.

He's Batman

2010-09-13T23:04:00.001-05:00

I'll let this post speak for itself.

Drunks

2010-09-10T14:08:00.002-05:00

Think of people you'd most likely see hanging out every night in a tavern in the late '60s. Not a bar, not a night club, but a honest to goodness tavern. The regulars, who probably don't drive and that's a good thing. They might be married or were at one time. If they still are, they won't be hanging out with their husband or wife because they drink to forget about them. Got them pictured in your head? Five bucks says they look a lot like this. Click on the fullsize image to proceed through the slideshow, and make sure you stick around for the last one, who looks like he could be Ed Asner's dad and needs some absorbent protection.

Wax Nixon

2010-09-08T13:17:00.003-05:00

If this is how they think Nixon looked, I can't wait to see what they do with Obanana.

Truth in Advertising

2010-09-03T11:46:00.001-05:00

The ad men sure were drinking a lot of whisky the day they came up with this one. It's true, but yeah, um…

EQ Woes

2010-09-02T22:47:00.003-05:00

The last few gigs where we've used our own sound equipment, we've had more feedback problems in the front monitors than we used to have in the past. I was blaming it on the new monitors John got, some QSC K10s, which have 500W for the woofer and 500W for the tweeter, which kinda seems like overkill for the tweeter. We've turned to mechanical equalization on Emily's monitor the past couple gigs; tape a towel over the tweeter. Instant squeal–b–gone!

Turns out that our new board is the problem. Allen & Heath decided that for this line of boards, they'd put the aux sends after the EQ, meaning that when the engineer adjusts the EQ so it sounds right in the mains, it also changes the way it sounds in the monitors. More times than not, high end is added to vocals to crisp them up, and high end in vocal monitors is a giant no–no, because it just goes right back into the mic.

The other A&H models (like the one we had before) use the correct design, which feeds the un–EQd signal to the auxes, and even include internal jumpers that one can switch if they're not using the auxes for monitors and really do want an EQd signal sent to them. But the Zed line does not have jumpers. Arg. Their stuff is so genius and well built that I can't understand why they made such a bonehead decision about this.

Short of trading in this barely used board for something that has the exact same features and channels for one that wires the auxes the right way, we need to get EQs for the monitors. So we'll need 4 of them. Amazingly, Alesis makes this really cool 1–rack space 8–channel 30–band digital EQ. It has 100 presets, so we could even have custom setups with minor tweaks for every bar. And everybody can have their own monitor sound the way they want. Woohoo!

Training Orbs

2010-09-01T16:16:00.002-05:00

This guy kinda looks like Milburn Drysdale, president of the Commerce Bank, Beverly Hills, CA.

The Munsters Pilot

2010-09-01T10:26:00.002-05:00

Whoa! Here's a rare find; the color pilot made for The Munsters. While we've all come to know Yvonne De Carlo's Lily, I almost wish they would've stuck with Joan Marshall for the wife role. Yeah, she looks and acts more like Morticia Addams, but she's so hot. Thanks again, Crosseyed Cyclops.

Comic Books & Stuff

2010-08-30T20:26:00.002-05:00

This is a pretty cool site. It's called Beware, There's a Crosseyed Cyclops in My Basement. It seems comic book collectors are huge geeks with nothing else to do but sit around and scan boxes and boxes of comic books all day. And that's great! Wanna read a Perry Mason comic book? How about one from The Munsters? Or four Mr. Ed comic books? Even comic book for The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Yeah, I didn't know any of those had their own comics. There's all sorts of cool stuff there. Maybe read an old Bananas magazine. Better yet, the entire Abbott & Costello Go to Mars movie.

Really, take a month off and start downloading. He makes lots of stuff available almost every day.