Jack Kirby was born on this day in 1917. The late-50’s comic strip Sky Masters of the Space Force was superbly illustrated by Jack, with perfectly complementary inking by Wally Wood. Note: Kirby/Wood refers to writer Dave Wood, not the unrelated Wally.
The last panel in that strip reminds me of the famous rocket sled tests performed by Dr. John Stapp.
John Stapp (1910-1999)
Stapp’s groundbreaking Air Force work, testing the limits of human endurance under extreme conditions, was nothing like the ghoulishly criminal experiments conducted by the Nazis. Stapp was entirely practical in considering the effects of supersonic flight on pilots, and his data was invaluable when the manned space program began. The 3-point lap belt for cars came from Stapp’s research. The PBS series American Experience profiled Stapp in its “Space Men” documentary.
Spaaaaaaaaaaaace Forrrrrrrrrrce!
Art by Jack Kirby and Wally WoodColor Guide, watercolor on photostat of original art
I hadn’t used the SiriusXM PC application for a while, because it doesn’t support Chromecast. Launching it today, there was only a blank white window.
Uninstall SiriusXM
Go to the Microsoft Store
Install SiriusXM
Launch the app
Okay, so the application is old, with the very surprising implication that it was created using a utility called Nativefier. And I’m supposed to re-create it myself with an updated version of Nativefier? Seriously?
Giving Nativefier a try sounds like fun, especially if Chromecast comes along for the ride. For now I’ll just run the SiriusXM player in Chrome.
On another techy note, I was notified the next WordPress update, to 6.1, will switch from JPG to Google’s new WebP image format. I’ve been experimenting with WebP, and the screenshot above is an example. With adjustment, a significant reduction in file size is possible compared to JPG, with comparable quality.
Everything with my WordPress installation on Bluehost is… uh… it’s working perfectly. There are some minor residual issues on older posts, resulting from the fixes implemented last December, but nothing since then. If ignorance is bliss, and there’s a problem ready to appear that I haven’t seen yet, considering the technology troubles I waded through getting to this point, I’ll enjoy my ignorance.
Having watched part 2 of Light & Magic on Disney+…
… I could be completely happy seeing only the first two installments…
… because as familiar as I was with the story behind the making of Star Wars…
… this documentary really brings back the delighted amazement I felt…
… of seeing it in a movie theater in 1977.
Ralph McQuarrie’s paintings were, for George Lucas, what the Decca audition tape was for the Beatles — the thing that sold the Big Thing. Speaking of the Beatles, Light & Magic makes for quite a contrast with the other big multi-part documentary that’s on Disney+, Get Back. One shows the struggles at the beginning…
The undisclosed use of DSD digital masters is the basis for the lawsuit. Some audiophiles seek out DSD sources, usually in the Super Audio CD format. They’re often the same people who are buying the vinyl releases and, yes, Mofi sells SA-CD! You’d think that would have been enough of a hint for the hardcore vinyl enthusiasts.
There are some extremely expensive CD/SA-CD decks with analog outputs. But the last time I checked, even the least expensive Sony Blu-ray players support SA-CD over HDMI. I have a couple of SA-CD discs that play through my Onkyo A/V receiver’s DAC.
Since the demise of the mainstream hi-fi magazines — Stereo Review, High Fidelity, and Audio — that did actual lab testing, including anechoic chambers for speakers, reviews have been almost entirely subjective. Oh, for the days when you could sit at a stereo store and click a button to immediately switch between two sets of speakers! Customers could make their own subjective judgments, limited only by their budget and the selection of speakers offered by the dealer. (Speaker preferences are ultimately always subjective, but the quality of an HDTV picture can be judged objectively.)
For objective audio equipment testing, today there is Amir at Audio Science Review. Amir doesn’t believe in magical audio snake oil. What about RCA cables for the analog outputs on those expensive SA-CD decks?
I’m staying with the EditDroid documentary from the previous post. Warning: This will be extremely nerdy.
Hidden and forgotten in George Lucas’ archives is the last EditDroid system. Why do those two Pioneer LD-V8000 LaserDisc players look familiar?
That’s because I also have two of them. One to play and one that I hope will be useful for parts, now that I’m having a mechanical problem with the other player.
A composite video source, like LaserDisc, must have the color portion of the signal separated from the brightness, aka chroma and luminance. Towards the end of the analog video era, the best comb filters (some LD players had a built-in filter) were doing a decent job of separation, but there were still artifacts. The digital comb filter in the Onkyo receiver shown above achieves essentially perfect separation of chroma from luminance, converting the composite signal to HDMI.
Jean Rogers in Flash Gordon, 1936
Why does that poster in Ben Burtt’s studio look familiar?
That’s because I also have one.
What became of the EditDroid? It was a case of “hey, you got chocolate in my peanut butter!” Lucas sold his financial interest to Avid Technologies, which saw synergy between the EditDroid and what they were doing with Pro Tools. My first house was in the town where Avid had its headquarters. I read in the paper that Avid had a satellite link to Skywalker Ranch.
Joe Kane’s groundbreaking LaserDisc A Video Standard was hugely influential on the television and video industry. Kane did more than anyone else to raise awareness about poor television picture quality and getting manufacturers to move away from their grossly inaccurate “improvements.” Kane’s influence is seen today in the Filmmaker Mode setting in new TV’s.
I used to follow a magazine called Widescreen Review, with “widescreen” in those pre-DVD days referring to letterboxed movies on LaserDisc. I enjoyed reading the magazine so much, it inspired me to draw this cartoon.
Joe Kane was a Widescreen Review contributor, and in one of his articles he praised the picture quality of the Pioneer LD-V8000 LaserDisc player. Between that and being aware the deck was used in the EditDroid system, I was determined to own one.
Eleanor Lovegren, 1916-1991
Finally, in case someone stumbles on this post wondering if I am the Doug Pratt of The LaserDisc Newsletter, I am not him. Along with yet another Doug Pratt, who used to moderate the Cartooning and Animation Forum, the LaserDisc Doug Pratt is one of the reasons why my Internet handle is DOuG pRATt.
“Gang of Outsiders”, Part 1 of Light & Magic on Disney+, is a fascinating delight to watch. The trailer is a bit over-hyped, as the history of a bunch of obsessed young guys finding each other and working their butts off to take on an impossible technical challenge doesn’t need “Don’t Stop Believing” for emphasis.
Much of the Spring, 1978 issue of Cinefantastique magazine was devoted to Star Wars. If it wasn’t the first coverage of Industrial Light & Magic, then it was certainly the most extensive at that time. I’ve scanned a few pages from the issue.
Cinefantastique, Spring 1978, page 12Cinefantastique, Spring 1978, page 13
One tidbit in the Disney+ documentary is something that I apparently knew from Cinefantastique, but had forgotten long ago. Richard Edlund created the original Pignose guitar amp. Still in business today, I remember seeing ads for the Pignose in Rolling Stone.
The costumes in Star Wars weren’t the responsibility of ILM, but this is the funniest picture in the magazine. Greedo’s trans secret is out!
Cinefantastique, Spring 1978, page 69
I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the series, although I expect my interest might start to taper off once they’re deeply into the digital era and everything turns orange and teal. *Blech!*
An early use of computers in film was the EditDroid, another Lucas technical initiative. I don’t know yet if the system gets mentioned later in the series. Built around programmable LaserDisc players, EditDroid was intended to take the drudgery out film editing.
