Taschen is promoting its limited edition of “The Stan Lee Story,” by Roy Thomas — 1000 copies at $1500 each, available December 5. The book was announced months ago, and the timing with Stan’s death is purely coincidental. Note the date of the photo below.
With the successful repair of my Sony CD 300-disc changer under my belt, I am now confronting the need to fix a broken mechanism in another piece of Sony audio gear. It’s a dual cassette deck I picked up a few years ago for ten bucks at a thrift store.
The TC-WE435 worked perfectly until a couple of days ago, when one of the drives started making a noise and an error message appeared on the LED display. I have taken the cover off and looked inside to see (no surprise) the same thing that the CD changer had — loose belts.
The guy who made this video had the same problem with the same cassette deck model. Let’s see what he did to fix it.
Okay, I watched the video and have ordered a set of four replacement belts for $30, including postage. I hope to have the repair done by this time next week. In the meantime the second drive is still working, but I’ll replace its belts too, of course.
A Facebook group I enjoy is “At the Controls,” featuring vintage photos of control rooms and equipment. Radio station and recording studio photographs are particular favorites.
A picture posted in the group caught my attention immediately. You can see why by recalling my post about the original art for Bernie Krigstein’s “Master Race” being up for auction at Heritage.
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/11/12/roy-thomas-stan-lee-ready-to-leave-this-earth/
I’m sadder than I can say that Stan has died… even though I know, from my recent phone conversations with him, that he was more than ready to leave this Earth. I’m so grateful that, by sheer circumstance, I got to spend a half hour or so with him this past Saturday, less than 48 hours before he passed away. At that time, it was obvious that he lacked much of the old Stan Lee energy that everybody had got to know at conventions and in movie cameos, but when I asked him about future cameos, he expressed a real interest in making them, if he could find a way to do it without their being too much trouble. He asked me about Dann and all the animals on our place (Dann had, at his request, sent him a DVD we made for him a couple of years ago), and got fairly animated when talking about his battles with publisher Martin Goodman over doing Spider-Man. I opined as how maybe the one important creative decision Goodman ever made was when he commissioned Stan to create a super-hero group back in 1961. Stan seemed to get a kick out of that. He posed for a couple of pictures with me, and then the last one with me and my friend and manager John Cimino, who had worked (in concert with Stan’s buddy and handler Jon Bolerjack) to arrange for Stan and me to get together one more time. But I wish I could look forward to seeing him and sparring around with him again. Still, I consider myself so very lucky to have known and worked with him for so many years… one of the most important mythmakers of the 20th century.
Best
Roy
Marvel advertised this 8×10 glossy photo of Stan for a buck in 1968 (fans know the year from the comics on the wall). I bought one and 20 years later I handed it to Stan for an autograph. They were free back then, by the way. Stan looked at me incredulously and asked, “Where did you get this??” I explained, and Stan lived up to his admitted bad memory by having no recollection of the picture.
Sometimes I think the best part of my post-college working life was seeing the incredible advances in technology from the inside of the high-tech industry. I marvel every day at what’s now available to consumers for next to nothing compared to 25 years ago, when I first accessed the Internet from home with a DOS/Windows 3.x computer that, with add-ons, cost $2000, which is equivalent to $3500 today.
For only $100 you can buy a 10-inch tablet with an HD screen, and for another twenty bucks add a Bluetooth keyboard and turn it into very workable desktop computer. 25 years ago that would translate into a measly $70. Some of the new keyboards even include a built-in bracket for holding the tablet, but I’m using an old wire book holder and, no, I still don’t have a smartphone. Those things are expensive!
