Things That Annoy You

[wr250]

Throwback annoyance:

People that didn't rewind VHS tapes.

Be Kind Rewind.

should we rewind dvd's too ?

[jazmunda]

should we rewind dvd's too ?

It's the polite thing to do.

When DVDs became the medium that video stores transferred over to my pet peeve was getting home only to have an unplayable drink coaster due to a scratch.

[guildnavigator]

All the rental chains I used to go to around here are closed. Mine is a 7-eleven convenience store now.

Stopped going there years ago anyways. And I still have some of their DVDs, haha. I probably paid for them somehow, I seem to remember them charging me 20 bucks for disappearing movies a few times.

Anybody else lose their local video rental store? What's there now?

[Birdie]

Anybody else lose their local video rental store? What's there now?

They are all gone around here, too. There are only Redbox kiosks for movie rentals now. Man, that is one idea I wish I would have invested in 10 years ago....Redbox and 5 Guys.

[jazmunda]

Anybody else lose their local video rental store? What's there now?

All mine are gone too. The Blockbuster is now a blood bank.

There actually is still a mom and pop store still around but I haven't been there in over 10 years (well before I stopped hiring movies when torrents came on the scene) because I owed them a shit ton on a movie I never returned. I wonder what the late fee is up to now?

[FightTheFuture]

Three things saved  me when I came back from...''the war'': God, alternative medicine, and an old-fashioned work ethic.

It's incredible to me that most, if not all of those, are currently experiencing image problems.

[Yorkshire pud]

It's the polite thing to do.

When DVDs became the medium that video stores transferred over to my pet peeve was getting home only to have an unplayable drink coaster due to a scratch.

He he, yeah, do you remember when CD's came out and they were impervious to angle grinders, jam, bending, chipping etc? That myth soon got dropped from the marketing didn't it?

[analog kid]

I've tried Rational Emotive Therapy myself and found it worked but you have to constantly monitor your thoughts to turn the negative into positive. It's challenging, but it does make a difference after a while.

Some of the most profound "Doors of Perception" experiences I ever had were in college when we were fooling around with psilocybin and mescalin. Never a bad experience, always left me with something to think about, although years later the color yellow-green still makes me physically nauseous, a small side effect. I'd being interested in what the research turns up.

The Ayawaska-like hallucinogen is called Iboga (new to me). Here's an article from a person who underwent a session with it.

"I have a newfound depth of concentration, and my thoughts are crisp and clear. Thanks to this laser-like focus, my procrastination habits have largely become a thing of the past. I find myself drinking about a quarter as much alcohol as I normally drink, and I seem to be handling stress better.

Also, my measuring systems seem to be retuned â€" I’m extremely aware of how empty or full my stomach is, and of how loudly or softly I’m speaking. I’m optimistic that it permanently switched off my migraines, but only time will tell. Although the iboga experience was intense and unpleasant at times, it brought me to so many realizations and showed me so many amazing things. It was completely worth it."

Here's a great story about a terminally ill patient who took part in the John Hopkins research program to alleviate their fear of dying (if I don't have this story mixed up with another one), and here's an article on the John Hopkins research about the lasting positive effects of psilocybin.

[jazmunda]

He he, yeah, do you remember when CD's came out and they were impervious to angle grinders, jam, bending, chipping etc? That myth soon got dropped from the marketing didn't it?

Nothing worse than when your favourite CD got scratched and your favourite song was unlistenable. Just as bad was when your favourite mixed tape cassette, that you sat by the radio for hours just to record a song, got chewed up by you boom box or walkman. Also when your battery started to die on your walkman and the song would get all slow and distorted. I miss those days.

Any of you real oldies have vinyl horror stories?

[steelbot]

Any of you real oldies have vinyl horror stories?

Hell I can remember messing up my friends dad's cheech and chong vinyl - we listened to it because of the cuss words at that age more than the pot references, but we weren't supposed to listen to it at all, and his dad came in the front door of the house, so we scrammed out the back ...my buddy had drug the needle all the way across the record.  Yeah well, we didn't get away with it for long needless to say. 

[Yorkshire pud]

Nothing worse than when your favourite CD got scratched and your favourite song was unlistenable. Just as bad was when your favourite mixed tape cassette, that you sat by the radio for hours just to record a song, got chewed up by you boom box or walkman. Also when your battery started to die on your walkman and the song would get all slow and distorted. I miss those days.

Any of you real oldies have vinyl horror stories?

Sort of...Mainly involving me and my old man's collection of 78's. Mainly mono, mainly irreplaceable..

My youngest brother carried on that particular tradition with mine. I invested in a Thorens turntable in about 1981 ish, Technics cassette deck and amp. The amp had the super fangled DBX noise reduction on either cassette or disc (LP), and very few LP's were encoded with DBX, and cost a fortune. So I bought expensive cassette tapes and recorded my entire LP collection onto tape using DBX, no noise, no hiss, beauty. Worked differently to Dolby A and B, but Dolby C I believe was similar to DBX.

Anyway, my youngest brother liked stuffing sandwiches into the cassette doors......

[analog kid]

Hell I can remember messing up my friends dad's cheech and chong vinyl - we listened to it because of the cuss words at that age more than the pot references, but we weren't supposed to listen to it at all, and his dad came in the front door of the house, so we scrammed out the back ...my buddy had drug the needle all the way across the record.  Yeah well, we didn't get away with it for long needless to say.

We had all the Cheech and Chong vinyls including the one with the big rolling paper. I guy stole them who's now a cop in a K-9 unit who does marijuana busts. Not really a point to this story, except that the dude can eat a dick.

[Juan]

The 78s were more or less impervious to anything but dropping.  They shattered easily.  LPs (and 45s) were made of thin plastic that would warp.  You'd get lots of wow and flutter, plus the normal rumble from the needle.  If you didn't have a properly balanced tone arm, the needle would either dig into the record and wear it out, or would skate across the record and not play. Of course, the sound of scratches is now incorporated as an effect into digital recordings.  Any old-time DJ has stories about playing a long running record (Stairway To Heaven) while going to the bathroom, and returning to find the record scratched and playing the same passage over and over.  (Going to the bathroom was a euphemism for stepping outside to smoke a joint, going out to meet the girl who had just dived, nude, into the pool that provided transmitter cooling water, etc.)

Edison records, BTW, were recorded so that the needle moved up and down.  Victor recordings (a method everyone but Edison employed) moved the needle side to side.

There was also a 16 2/3 RPM (marked 16) record.  It was rather low fidelity and was used mostly for recording talk and interview programs for radio stations.  It was also used for the first talking books.

Anything else you children want to know about vinyl?

[Yorkshire pud]

It's reminded me this thread of a tragic tale that happened to the late father of a very dear friend of mine. He had every 7 inch single the Beatles recorded (including some obscure stuff in German from Hamburg)..He kept it in an un-marked un-labeled cardborad box, in his mothers attic. Anyway, she had this clear out of stuff she didn't want anymore....... I'll let you join the dots. 

[Yorkshire pud]

Anything else you children want to know about vinyl?

Ask Juan: Would you choose a Rega tone arm over a Linn Basik on a Linn Sondek? Or would you just go for the Rega Planer 3?

[Treading Water]

Ask Juan: Would you choose a Rega tone arm over a Linn Basik on a Linn Sondek? Or would you just go for the Rega Planer 3?

Is this a stylus joke??       

[Yorkshire pud]

Is this a stylus joke??       

Not exactly, it's a tone arm enquiry ..   Cartridges and styluses will be the next question...

[wr250]

premier radio not offering up old art bells shows for sale on cd/dvd. they could do this by the year (for example 1997 all shows). instead they dole them out 1 per week, for eternity...

[Yorkshire pud]

premier radio not offering up old art bells shows for sale on cd/dvd. they could do this by the year (for example 1997 all shows). instead they dole them out 1 per week, for eternity...

Treat em mean, keep em keen....

[bateman]

Raw onions. I feel like I'm eating an apple made of BO.

[jazmunda]

Raw onions. I feel like I'm eating an apple made of BO.

Why are you mistaking raw onions for apples?

http://youtu.be/yecNfSLnxp8

[jazmunda]

Annoyance of yesteryear:

Not being able to contact someone in an emergency

Annoyance of today:

Able to be contacted for the most useless, annoying things 24/7 no matter where the fuck I am.

[analog kid]

Raw onions. I feel like I'm eating an apple made of BO.

There's an old Spaghetti Western where the bad guy eats raw onions and drinks hot coffee straight from the kettle. Because eating a raw onion was considered as bad as pouring boiling hot liquid down one's throat.

[Unquenchable Angst]

I was more into the Firesign Theatre than Cheech and Chong though I do still have The Big Bambu album. I collected LP's for years . Had a lot of old comedy albums that got stolen when I was in college. Half the collection is classical music. Have some Pete Townsand that were limited pressings devoted to Meher Baba, Be Here Now set that Ram Das made and such eclectic spiritual stuff, Folk Music, Moody Blues and such.
Used to have a McIntosh 6200 integrated amp, Klipsch Cornwalls, B&O turntable, McIntosh FM tuner, Reel to Reel 10.5 hubs, cassette, the whole schmuck. Only lived in one place for one year 20 years that had enough space for the Klipsche's to 'breathe'. Now I just have the LP's and a Sony turntable but no amps and spearkers. Kind of been buying computers and or 'puter parts for last 15 years. Mosfets died in one channel of the Mac, sold off the rest or gave it away to get out of spending another winter in Idaho . My speakers are (or were) in a movie theater in Driggs, Idaho doing what they were built to do. Got spoiled by the McIntosh, can't afford another. Went to Hawai'i on the money I got for the Klipsches.

[Birdie]

We still have the giant rolling paper that came with the Up In Smoke record. Wonder if it is worth any money? I imagine most of them were used...

[jazmunda]

We still have the giant rolling paper that came with the Up In Smoke record. Wonder if it is worth any money? I imagine most of them were used...

There's a collector for everything except Noory's back catalogue.

[steelbot]

We still have the giant rolling paper that came with the Up In Smoke record. Wonder if it is worth any money? I imagine most of them were used...

lol no idea - but as with most paper - wouldn't it be a little brittle now?? Even having been inside a record sleeve??  I don't know so i'm asking really...

[aldousburbank]

We still have the giant rolling paper that came with the Up In Smoke record. Wonder if it is worth any money? I imagine most of them were used...

69 bucks. Send to Aldous. Hurry!

[bateman]

There's an old Spaghetti Western where the bad guy eats raw onions and drinks hot coffee straight from the kettle. Because eating a raw onion was considered as bad as pouring boiling hot liquid down one's throat.

That sounds about right.

[Birdie]

lol no idea - but as with most paper - wouldn't it be a little brittle now?? Even having been inside a record sleeve??  I don't know so i'm asking really...

Last time I looked at it, maybe 10 years ago, it felt ok. We have a lot of records lined up on a shelf, tightly together, so maybe the compression is sealing it in the cover and keeping it from drying out?   

And my bad, it is the Big Bambu record, not Up in Smoke. I just looked on ebay (sadly, prices are not impressive) and recognized the cover art.