Great Scott!

About a month ago I picked up a Scott super 70s, Solid State stereo with a turntable, amp and tape deck.


It was a steal at $50. It came with a janky ass cabinet but I left that in the parking lot of the Goodwill.
The turntable had a broken stylus. I picked up a complete Stanton cartridge for about $40 from needledoctor.com.

I needed some speakers. I have a pair from my DJ days. My place is sorta small and they are kinda big cabinets, each a with 12" sub. So, I went looking for some high end bookshelf speakers, preferably Bose. However, I found a Kenwood surround sound system with one 10" sub and four smaller 4" sattelite woofer/tweeters.

The price was more than right at $25 for the set.

I finally got it all hooked up tonight and it sounds FUCKING RAD!!!

I've been blasting The Sweet, Aerosmith and ZZ Top on VINYL and I could not be more pleased. It's been a while since I've had a decent stereo system. I'm stoked. Aside from the cartridge, I pulled the whole thing together for about $100.

I also got this quasi-modern lamp on sale for $10 with a $2 shade from the craft store.

It just goes to show, even in this crummy economy, great stuff is within reach if you are willing to go out and look for it.

Happy Birthday Lemmy

Lemmy is 63 today.




Thanks to J. Loveless for the kindly heads up.

Never A Good Idea

In a moment of weakness the kids and I stopped at White Castle last night. It has been at least 2 years since I last ate there. Sure, the jalapeno bacon double cheese burger and onion chips tasted good going down. But I was in for a surprise. Around midnight I started feeling some severe intestinal distress. I took a Zantac and drifted off to sleep. I was up and down all night, finally ejecting the evil onion infused spirit from my body around 7am.

White Castle just ain't right. Avoid it at all costs. I will never, ever, eat there again.

Inspiration is the key for 2009

I've been plenty busy lately with my new job. I now commute 45 minutes one way. During my drive my fevered little peanut brain has been thinking about new creative modes of expression and endeavors for the new year.

A couple months my house was burglarized. They got my 2 pistols, my expensive photo scanner and my Kodak 7.2mpx digital camera. I sold my model A truck project parts pile and bought a Fujifilm Finepix S1000 10mpx digital camera as a replacement. It has a natural light selection that is OUT OF SIGHT.

I use that setting almost exclusively.

My recent efforts inspired me to start this blog. It's been a lot of fun and a very rewarding creative outlet. It's also exposed me to photographic creativity of likeminded photographic kulture souls like Nick Reynolds, Guy Bolton and Chopper Dave. I am especially digging Coop's photography; http://positiveapeindex.blogspot.com/. His pics are just as twisted and brilliant as his paintings. I really dig his Polaroid and Leica collections.

Recently I came across some websites about Lomo and Holga cameras.
http://www.lomography.com/
Lomos were originally cheap soviet era cameras made for the proletariat based on a Japanese design.

Holgas were another inexpensive design that take some neato shots with great character, especially the Diana model.

Both take some simply amazing pics without digital trickery.

I am intrigued by the Lomo fisheye cameras and colorsplash flash.

They even make sequential "movie" cameras,


Best of all they are very CHEAP to purchase. I am sold already.

So, in 2009 I resolve to expand my photography into a new realm. Check here often. It ought to be bitchin'.

From the vault, ca. 2006

Chris Pfouts gave me this:

Inspired by this:

I brainstormed with Eric Smith and we came up with this:

It's nice to have generous friends to influence me and to collaborate with.

Turboneger: Apocalypse Dudes complete album live

I'm not an asshole, but...

I have resolved recently to choose my friends and acquaintances more carefully. My resolution is based on my recent experiences during the election. No offense to my long time friends, but it's almost impossible to have a friendly debate with those that have already made their mind up. I don't want to lose any more friends over politics. Most folks these days are more interested in orthodoxy than honest discussion.

Additionaly, it seems like a waste of time to befriend single women unless there exists the possibility of romantic intrigue. Lastly, unless other males or females share my major interests (music, writing, history, moto-culture) or worldview I see no reason to widen my social circles. As in all things with me, these are just general guidelines. Any exceptions will be considered.

That said, let's be friends:
http://www.myspace.com/tiptopdadddy
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=793354866
http://www.youtube.com/user/tiptopdadddy
http://www.culture11.com/user/1884/viewprofile

That is all.