The slow Death of a workhorse...

My 2013 Mac Pro “trashcan” is dying. I have had many issues in the past with it, but found it to be a solid and stable workhorse of a computer that lasted over nine years. That’s Moores Law times four, meaning this computer was pretty much obsolete after half of its lifetime. Sad too, This machine was an interesting innovation that could have been something more had the overall computer industry adopted Thunderbolt 2 expandability.

Over the years I have replaced 2 logic boards, 1 aftermarket hard drive, and 1stick of RAM, but my latest update to MacOS Montery seems to have been the straw that broke the camels back.

Kong on Mad: 60¢, Chimp

King Kong in this 1976 Mad magazine! Unfortunately I couldn’t find any pages with the story on the internet, except for what is below. I wish I had this issue!

Not sure what this cover implies….

Woman King Cover for The Wrap

I just got the artwork for a rush job I did last November, for the cover of The Wrap featuring the cast of “The Woman King” movie! Photography by Jeff Vespa.

1966 King Kong Show

While I did know this existed, it was way before my time. Still, since there were so many shows in syndication when I was a kid, I’m sad to say I never saw this cartoon. It would have been great to see this just before I sat down to watch Speed Racer as a lad.

This was produced by Rankin/Bass, the creators of the great holiday specials Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Santa Clause is Coming to town!

Another Kong Lobby Card from 1976

Here is another great lobby card for the 1976 King Kong movie. This one is not as cool as the other one I posted back in August, but its the only one of 2of the 12 released that were not stills from the film. Pretty awesome art of Kong showing that snake who’s boss!

Kong with his Karaoke mic, jungle style

Graveyard in Hawaii

Happy Halloween, so here are a couple of 3D images of a graveyard shot in Hawaii. I know, its not very spooky but it is a graveyard!

This next one is a little hard to see, but if you look into the center and let your eyes focus and relax it will come to you.

Happy Halloween!

Another Jim Beam/King Kong advert

Here is another variation of the King Kong/Jim Beam/Ripleys advertisement that appeared in newspapers in 1977. This time without the cocktail recipe (I guess nobody believed there would be a king kong drink without bananas in it!

Plastic Recycling/Polystyrene

A couple of months ago I reported on this blog my recycling of Extruded Polystyrene Foam, commonly known as Styrofoam. Well a friend of mine, recently informed me that company, Agilyx, does a whole lot more. There are a number of plastics, some recyclable curbside, some not, that can also be taken to Agilyx. Many of these things are regularly used by people all over this country and just thrown into our trash when we are done. Things like Clear Plastic Silverware, Coffee Cup Lids, and even Bread-Bag Clips. Who’d a thunk?

Even red kegger cups? Wow!

Again, the place is called Agilyx, and they are located in Tigard.

Here is a link to their site, and a link to the stuff they can do.

Lets get moving on recycling more than just dumping stuff in the blue bin and forgetting about it!

King Kong Glasses from 1976

Remember when you could get collective glasses from your favorite fast food restaurant promoting the latest movie? Well back as far as 1976 (and before that too) you could get something commemorating your favorite film, and one of mine is of course King Kong. I never got these, when they came out, I was six. But my sister got me a set of four of them a number of years ago. I have only 4 of the same glass, unfortunately (it would be nice to have the whole set).

The back reads “A crazed kong destroys the skull island wall in his search for the blond sacrifice and the island invaders).

The Full Set

I’m still looking for the remaining 3 to complete the set!

After 2 1/2 years of avoidance, got COVID

Title says it all. Threw a f*ck COVID party and got sick. It was a bummer, but thankfully I was vaccinated and the sickness didn’t hang around for long. I slept 30 hours in 2 days, then had a mild sore throat for 1. And that was it. Life moves on!

Out of 13 people at the party only 3 others got it. and one of them was the schmuck who infected the rest of us. Could have been worse I guess!

Wow! Dig this King Kong Lobby Card

I really wish I could give credit to the artist. This lobby card from the 1976 Dino De Laurentiis production of King Kong looks like concept art. Its super cool, and I’ll be looking for one to add to my collection. The number on the lower left reads 76/212. Does that mean they only printed 212 of these? I find that odd because of the hype this movie had when it came out, I’d think there were more of them out there but what do I know?

King Kong Jim Beam Ad

Here is an advertisement from a newspaper, with a recipe for a “King Kong Cocktail!” made with, you guessed it, Jim Beam. I would love to see this on a shirt!

hmmmmm, no banana in it?

Styrofoam Recycling

Extruded Polystyrene Foam, commonly called “styrofoam” is a commonly used packing material and insulator that has been around for well over a half a century. Patented in 1947, it has been used in packaging, and as a building material. Made from chemicals, this stuff is light and cheap to produce, yet is generally considered to be non-biodegrade. Curbside recycling of foam is nonexistent, at leas here in Portland (or any other place I have lived for that matter). It is, unfortunately, a non-biodegradable pollutant, and has infected our natural resources, rivers, forests, oceans. Not to mention our own cities, where ignorant individuals place them in recycling bins only to have them thrown back into the trash, or on a windy day can be just blown down our streets.

Polystyrene Foam takes from 500 to One Million Years to degrade. Think about that. We are creating products that are made to be thrown away that will never degrade in any of our lifetimes. There must be some way to get rid of this stuff. And luckily there is.

I want to call out everyones attention to a company called Agylix, based in Tigard that recycles Extruded Polystyrene Foam, and they do it for free. There is a 24 hour drop off so you can get rid of the packaging from that new TV you got, or from the lawn furniture you purchased that required assembly. And they do it for free. They make it back into other products, but at least it is still used, and not put into our ecosystems.

Here is their address:

Agilyx

13240 SW Wall Street
Tigard, OR 97223

….and a link to their recycling center:

https://www.agilyx.com/tigard/drop-off/

Amazing King Kong Statue

So many years ago, while living in Los Angeles, my girlfriend and I were invited up to Malibu to visit a friend of a friend who was housesitting for some wealthy folks who probably would not have wanted a bunch of strangers partying in their house and enjoying their hot tub. The visit was not memorable and I probably would have forgotten all about it had it not been for the amazing King Kong statue they had in their living room. I had never seen anything like this, and was drooling all over it. It was nearly 2 feet tall, and very detailed.

Why didn’t I steal this when I had the chance?

Having already owned the Jim Beam Decanter, I noticed the head of this sculpture had a similar flat head, peaking at the top, and sloping down to the eyebrows. I wonder if the decanter was designed from this statue, but simplified for mass production and to hold the booze.

Decanter on Left, Statue on the Right….

I really wish I was able to snag one of these decades ago, before anyone had any idea about value. They are going from 2-4K on eBay.

Audiophile journey first steps

So long ago I thought I had a “nice stereo” and yes I was wrong, naive, and unrefined in my tates. I had some decent vintage audio equipment that was pleasant to listen to, with warm, tube amplified sound, but was pretty much used for casual listening. I inherited a decent Dual 1219 from my father who picked it up in the 70s while serving in ‘Nam. It was a direct drive with a nice wooded chassis that looked and sounded great. Unfortunately, it broke down, and when it happened, I was moving (and moving away from vinyl) and decided it wasn’t worth keeping-which was a mistake but whatever.

Back then I was more into getting music into my computer and instead of going the route of having mp3s and using napster, I opened for the highest resolution I knew about. I ripped all my CDs in ALAC, or Apple Lossless on a measly 80GB hard drive (which I thought at the time would be more that adequate). Vinyl or any other playback type. The computer 20 years ago had some Cambridge Soundworks speakers with a lil sub woofer that I thought sounded great (what did I know). But I really wished I could play a lot of the stuff on my vintage system in the other room. That would have involved a long wire, until that is, this came out:

Airport Express! This thing was RAD!

In 2004 Apple released the Airport Express, and it was so sweet. I could now attach this to the RCA input on the Motorola Three Channel credenza I had in the living room, and wirelessly stream to the other room. I did not know at the time that the audio was compressed to AAC, but it worked really well. That is unless someone was using the microwave, in which case the music would have a hiccup or interruption. Later versions would stream at 16bit/44.1kHz which is CD quality.

I loved this thing, and bought several so I could put one in each room that had a stereo. Unfortunately, Apple discontinued this in 2018, and failed to replace it with a new product. Seems streaming compressed audio was more lucrative. So I had to search out other alternatives…..

King Kong Jim Beam Decanter

Years ago I found this awesome King Kong Jim Beam Decanter at a thrift store (back when you could actually find cool stuff at thrift stores). It is one of my most prized gorilla themed possessions.

After looking around the internet, I found an image of the bottle in the box. Man I wish I had one of these!

Awesome box!

Polaroid SX-70 Turns 50

The Polaroid SX-70, one of my favorite cameras turns 50 today. The compact, foldable camera that you could put in your pocket (provided you have HUGE pockets) was a masterpiece of engineering. The image at a press of a button made instant photography truly instant (well after about 3 minutes wait). The film was far less wasteful and messy and anyone who used the older Polaroid pack film, with its sheets of wet emulsion that were lightly acidic.

I still have my Silver and brown leather camera. Polaroid is now selling used models of these on their website for 400 bucks! Makes me wish I could find my 600 series with the sonar focus and flash, as these are fetching more!

I bought some of the film recently and noticed the cartridge was labeled “impossible”. Makes me wonder if when polaroid was reformed did they absorb the impossible project, or is this just impossible under a different name. The film was fun, but if my memory servers me right, the new film is a bit slower than the original counterpart.

Check out this great article on the the SX-70:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90744347/polaroid-sx-70

Safari Inn Motel in 3D

Any True Romance fans out there? About 8 years ago i had to go to LA for a wedding and decided to stay at the Safari Inn in Burbank California. The exterior and pool was really cool. The rooms? Meh. Nothing special inside.

Always liked you Clarence, always have, always will….

HiFi musings

I love listening to music, and even more so, if it sounds really good. I consider myself and “audiophile” and have several different systems to enjoy music on. Most people I know are not so picky about how they listen their musis.

So recently I have been learning that I am not alone in the Audiophile world. I know that people all over the world consider themselves “audiophiles” and that the definition of that is completely relative from person to person. What I am talking bout is that when the pandemic happened we were all cooped up in our homes with nothing to do, so we focused on our hobbies, and enhancing the quality of our home life.

Many of us focused on music, and how it is delivered to us, how it sounds and what we can do to enhance that experience. And, many companies focused on putting out products for us to hear more and better sounds. Some of us audiophiles focused on better speakers, or headphones, while others invested in a new DAC, or turntable to enhance that experience.

Vinyl records, once the “old” way to experience sound has shown a resurgence over the last decade or two, but according to NME Vinyl record sales are at the highest in 30 years for 2021. Amazon.com has a vinyl of the month club, bringing back memories of Columbia House offers, where they sent you an album of the month after you got a bunch of them for a penny or a buck (depending on the year of course).

WOW! A bunch of records I DON’T want!

Being someone who listens to music ALL THE TIME, this is very exciting, and I have been chasing the best possible sound, on a budget, that I can experience. It is a very fun and rewarding hobby, that somehow never really finishes. Every time I add a new piece of equipment, there is another variable I am trying to eliminate or enhance.

This is an exciting time for audiophiles, with all these amazing options available, at what was reasonable cost (we’ll see how inflation tackles this). I plan to explore my journey and setup in future posts. Stay tuned!

King Kong Concept Art

While lurking around the internet one day, I stumbled across this wonderful oil painting of Kong. The artist, David J. Negron painted this in 1976 for the De Larentiis King Kong film. Pretty awesome, and not something you find often.