Back when I was a kid, I was very interested in Wacky Package, Topps Cards product parodies. I have a couple of sheets of some of the runs in the late 70s myself, along with two books published by Abrams Books.
Recently I found some newer Wacky Packages produced in the last 15 years or so with a Kong theme. Check them out below:
Looks like he is going to cook her….
130 Natives, 16 helicopters, & 1 hot blonde in each bottle!
After selecting some reasonably priced, decent sounding speakers, I needed a new amplifier. And as I stated in my last HiFi posting, I needed something that could drive a speaker that needed 50-150 Watts per channel. I also was exploring purchasing a new DAC.
What I found was a nice little used amp from Peachtree audio, the Nova 125. This was just a straight Class-D amplifier with no bells or whistles (except for the tube preamp). It has a built in ESS Sabre 9023 DAC, which was perfect for my computer, able to connect via USB, Optical, or Coaxial. The amp has a 6n1p tube preamp which is pretty sweet. Best of all, the amp produces straight up clear sounding music. It was perfect. If you don’t have a decent amp, no need to get a DAC, but if you do have a good amp, then a DAC is a necessity. This one has both!
Back during the pandemic, many people were left at home without any way of enjoying the things they loved doing outside of their homes, so they turned to enhancing their home lives. Many of us were music lovers and since we were spending so much time listening to music on our stereos (not in our cars, head phones, or bluetooth speakers), we started to desire something better than just a Spotify account and some basic speakers to enjoy that music on.
Personally I have always liked the sound of a nice stereo, but things in life took me away from the current audio gear and its nuances. I have a number of vintage components that I enjoy the sound of, especially tube amplifiers. I did not know in what way things have changed over the years, but I will say that the products available for, say, budget or consumer level electronics has gone way downhill in audio quality, making way for convenience and simplicity.
A number of years ago when I was making my work space in the basement of my home, I decided to buy some solid speakers that sounded great and would fill the small space I allocated to work in. After reading several reviews, I settled on a pair of Klipsch R-14M Speakers. They are small, 4” bookshelf speakers, and I assumed they could be driven by any old amplifier. Boy was I wrong, as these babies had to be driven by an amp that had a minimum of 50 watts per channel.
This pulled me down a rabbit hole that lead me to get a special class-D amplifier with a built in DAC. More on that later…
As I have written before, my 2013 Trashcan MacPro has been dying. After upgrading to MacOS Monterey, (which I had to do for a job that required new software) my days were plagued by constant Kernel Panics. Sure, there would be days when I had a solid run, but they were overshadowed by the days which my computer would restart, seemingly at random intervals. There were even times when I would force restart my computer, get things moving again, step away to grab a cup of tea only to find it restarted itself while I was gone!
I knew this thing was old, and my friends and colleges kept telling me to replace it, but I was waiting for Apple to release its new Mac Pro with the Apple Silicon (promised originally to happen by the beginning of 2022). The Mac Studio, currently the fastest and most powerful mac built to date looked promising, but again, I was waiting to see what a new pro level computer could do for me. And besides, I don’t like to get the “first of something” released, waiting for any bugs to be eliminated in next gen machines.
When I was a kid, I always wanted to go to a jungle and delve into its mysteries. Luckily, when I was last in Hawaii, I got to explore a jungle on the East side of the Big Island. Enjoy the 3D images I shot there:
So the day has finally arrived when I threw down Six K on a new computer.
Yikes, SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS?? Yep, you hear right, the new Mac Studio, purchased out of necessity, costs over double what my Mac Pro Trashcan cost me, and it is not expandable. NOT EXPANDABLE. This is why I opted for the higher priced model, hoping it would be staying with me for years to come. This machine has been a bit of a struggle setting up, only because I have been customizing my older machine for so long, I felt I had to do the same on the Studio. Apple has locked out many things that I was able to access via command line or just installing alternative software. For those who want to move to an Apple Silicon machine from an Intel one-watch out. There are many new hoops to jump through before you can modify how your machine is designed to behave….
six K for this lil thing? It better “scream” as Steve Jobs used to say…..
Yeah, fed up I decided to retire this thing. It hasn’t officially died, I can boot it up, and do somethings with it, but for a workstation, it is pretty useless. This thing will be missed (if I can ignore the last couple months of frustration).
kinda looks like a tombstone on its own….
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.
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….
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.
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!
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
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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?
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?
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/
