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?

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.

Backlit keyboard on the fritz....

My beloved backlit keyboard my Matias has died. Well, not really but it’s space bar popped off, and I cannot get it back on. I guess working too late and hitting the space bar too hard will do that. Maybe I can blame photoshop for crashing….ah, nope. It was my fault.

If you are not familiar with the Matias keyboard, I suggest you check them out.

the keyboard from the Maxtrix….

This is an amazing keyboard, nearly matching the Mac form factor, and you can change the color to boot. Perfect for those people, like myself who work almost entirely in the dark!

Maxwell Point Tunnel in 3D

Back when I was a kid, I saw lots of tunnels, lava tubes and caves. From Minnesota, to Hawaii, to Oregon, and Washington. I love exploring caves. When I was about six my parents took my sister and I to see the tunnel carved into a cliff in Oceanside, Oregon. This tunnel was the only way to get to Tunnel Beach, that is without a boat. Well the tunnel is open off and on, but closes now and again due to rockslides, cave-ins and other erosive dangers. Here is a a 3D shot of the tunnel from 2010.

Now on Instagram...

Well, I did it. I kept running into roadblocks posting links to my current works due to them being on social media. I loathe social media. It seems….artificial. But felt I had to do it. I’m building a new presence on Instagram to showcase my professional work as well as personal.

I am a novice at this, so if you have any suggestions out there, please let me know!

Meow.

Silver Falls in 3D

Shot some images at Silver Falls State Park sometime ago, here are the 3D images. I wasn’t able to capture many shots of the falls due to the large number of people at the part that day. My 2 exposure method makes things difficult but not impossible if the images need to be edited.

Stairs to Lower South Falls

Lower South Falls

The Wrap Cover

A late post, I did not get word that this went to press last December, but I worked on some images appearing in the December 2021 Issue of The Wrap (International Edition), including the cover.

I usually don’t get to see my stuff in print unless I run down to a newsstand, but who does that anymore? Luckily this was posted as a readable magazine via flipdocs.com. You can see the whole magazine and check out my images on the cover and on pages 14 & 15. Link is here!

You can also see other images I did on The Wrap’s page! Photos by Jeff Vespa.

Kylie Jefferson Images for Birks Jewelry

Got to work on these amazing images of Kylie Jefferson shot by Jeff Vespa. Jeff shot a video as well, and you can check it out below.

Website: https://www.maisonbirks.com/en_us/kylie-jefferson-birks-splash

The Great Mazinga....in 3D

When I was my daughter’s age, I was really into the Shogun warriors. I had several of them, though only one of the 24” figures. For my birthday, I got this amazing AMT Model of the Great Mazinga, and my dad built it for me. I still have it so I shot it in 3D, just for kicks!

That box was sure exciting back in ‘77!

COVID Sale ending

After about 2 years, I am ending my “covid sale” on retouching services. Nothing lasts forever, except maybe this silly pandemic!

Jan 31st is the last day for the sale.

Licorice Pizza

Just saw the new Paul Thomas Anderson picture, Licorice Pizza, and absolutely adored it. Matter of fact, I braved the pandemic and saw it twice, in 70mm no less.

I’m a huge fan of PT Andersons work, been a big fan since Boogie Nights, and love pretty much all of his flicks. The past several releases have been hard to catch in the theater due to myself becoming a father, but now that my girl is older, I can make more trips to the movies! Seeing PTA’s films on the big screen is a real treat, and the cinematography is mind blowing.

Soundtrack album looks like a pinball backglass!

Check out this amazing article about Michael Bauman, discussing his lighting on the film!

https://thefilmstage.com/michael-bauman-licorice-pizza-cinematography-paul-thomas-anderson/