Author: DOuG pRATt

Stop-Motion War

Puppetoons having been mentioned several posts ago, I went looking for George Pal’s “Tulips Shall Grow” from 1942. This copy is better quality than the one posted a few years ago.

As war continues to rage as a result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, here’s another animated WWII curiosity. Note the Communist Russia flag flying proudly next to America’s stars and stripes at the end.

Vampires on Facebook

Gotta laugh at this ridiculous come-on. It was directed at me as a comment on Facebook, in reply to a comment I had made on a comic book group.

How are you doing?? Am Rose,I took time reading your profile over and over…. i like all i read about you. i would love to know more about you and have a longer conversation with you,to see what we both have in common. Please do check my profile and see,if we are both compatible…You feel free to email me anytime and i’ll be glad to get that from you,You are so Handsome..I think i should stop here now and i’ll look forward hearing from you soon. Kind Regards Rose

The vampires are always out there, looking for victims. At the same time I saw that message, this fantastic photo popped up in my Facebook newsfeed.

What a lavish display, especially for a horror flick. Even the lettering is impressive. Wartime before TV. The movie was shown with a Fleischer Popeye cartoon, a Disney Pluto cartoon, and a George Pal Puppetoon, misspelled as “Puppetune.”

I can’t read the cartoon titles, but this is the Pluto cartoon that was released closest to Return of the Vampire. Buy your war bonds here!

 
And now, the feature presentation.

Cast Away

Audio electronics manufacturer Onkyo/Pioneer disappeared for a while, and after a period of uncertainty about its survival the company returned. I first realized they hadn’t gone out of business when my Onkyo — or, as some say, Oinkyo — receiver announced it had a firmware update to install.

The receiver has all of the apps I want, except for SiriusXM. I could use Bluetooth from my Google Pixel 4a phone, but it would have to be kept in proximity with the receiver. Chromecast was the way to go, except it wasn’t working through the SiriusXM app. It would attempt to connect, then give up. The cast icon in TuneIn had only slight success, sputtering badly with a buffering indicator.

The phone was showing only the Onkyo and the Google Chromecast “puck” on the porch TV as available devices. I had no trouble connecting and disconnecting the phone with the Chromecast puck. Which made sense, as both gadgets were made by Google. I opened Google Chrome on a PC and clicked the casting icon on a YouTube video. The browser had a different “cast list” that curiously didn’t include the Onkyo.

So there was some inconsistency to be found in Google’s various software implementations. With that in mind, I decided the thing to do was forget about trying to invoke Chromecast from within the apps. I went to the Google Home settings on the phone. As before, it showed only the two devices. Would a casting connection work, by making the phone send all audio to the receiver?

BOOM! YES! It came up and played instantly with no sputtering. It even directly adjusts the receiver’s volume control. How I love workarounds.