Hooked on Needles

Something I realized rather quickly with CD (and also DVD), is the players are commodities. I have never felt the same personal connection for a disc player the way I always have for my speakers, headphones, receivers, turntables, and phono cartridges. Yes, even phono cartridges.

These are a few of the pickups, as cartridges used to be known, that I remember fondly.

The Pickering V15 came installed on my Garrard 40B turntable, way back in early 1972. Five years later, the Stanton 500 was on the Micro-Trak tonearms of the Russco Cue-Master turntables at the radio station.

The Shure M91ED was purchased to replace the Pickering.

The Audio-Technica AT-13Ea lived on my JVC VL-5 turntable.

Artsy Smartsy

Before my cancer diagnosis, I was foolishly getting ambitious about actually doing something fun outside of the house. So I signed up for a drawing class. With my continued participation now in doubt, tonight’s class, the second, may be the last I am able to attend. I should definitely know more about my medical condition tomorrow.

Tonight’s warm-up was a “drawing from the right side of the brain” exercise, copying an upside-down picture, borrowed from a Picasso portrait of Stravinsky. On the left is the drawing as I saw it, on the right is what I drew.

That’s Incredible!

Let’s return to the glory days of DVD, with supplementary material and commentary tracks, two features that were carryovers from LaserDisc. A truly inspired and hilarious example came with the DVD of The Incredibles. It features a recreation of the Synchro-Vox system that’s explained here.

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/in-the-center-ring-part-16/

“The Adventures of Mr. Incredible” without commentary.

With commentary.