zrath

My living room TV has died.
I had noticed some edge-of-screen wonkiness in the past few days, and I figured it was my S-Video switchbox's doing.
The sibling and I were watching "Alpha Dog" on DVD last night and the picture went wonky at the 20-minute mark.
The image shrank horizontally, wibbled all over the place, then the TV shut itself down and would not come on again.
A Sony 27" Trinitron with then cutting-edge Picture-In-Picture, it was purchased in May 1995 at my local branch of the late
great Montgomery Ward (aka Monkey Ward, aka Scotty Ward [Montgomery "Scotty" Scott Ward]) department store chain of yore.
It was on sale and I still had to empty my pockets for loose change because I had mistimated the sales tax.
("Mistimated", as in "miss-estimated". It's a new word. I just made it up. Thank you, drive through!)
I was accompanied by my roommate of the time period, a disreputable fellow a few of you might have known as "Lycan",
who disappeared a few years ago and whom no one seems to miss. He had to turn out his pockets for spare change too.
We managed to scrounge enough scratch to pay for the TV and get it back to my apartment.
I was planning to get a laserdisc player at the time, so I wanted to be sure to have a decent TV with an S-Video In.
This TV had that plus 2 additional Composite Ins and the aforementioned PiP. And it was a Sony so the colors were gorgeous.
I got a lot of mileage out of that TV. I played all my laserdiscs on it. It was host to both of my PSXs, my Jaguar, my XEGS,
my PS2 (which served as DVD player exclusively for the first 6 months of its life), my LD player, my DVD player, and 2 VCRs.
It was used for cable TV and DirecTV. When my Hi-8 camcorder was working, I used that TV to view my videos.
It was a good TV. I will miss it.
I will not miss its heft though. Sucker weighed a ton and was lacking in the good-places-to-grip-it department.
After it failed last night, I disconnected it and put aside for later disposal.
I substituted my bedroom TV, an ancient 1982 Sony Trinitron 17" unit that survived 3 earthquakes.
The picture quality ain't all that hot but it works and we watched the rest of "Alpha Dog" on it.
It's so old that it doesn't have Composite In, only Coaxial. I have to use the VCR to interface the DVD to it.
So anyway, a new TV must be bought. I'm hoping for a flat screen of some kind, in the 27-32" range, nothing too fancy.
There is no money for such a purchase right now. Hopefully, the Sibling will get what's owed him some time this month.
I know he will be willing to pitch in for a new TV set. :)


eMusic has been adding more Fax Label releases to its library, eventhough I thought they had everything already.
Among the bewildering additions are "The Fires Of Ork 2", which I wasn't even sure existed. "The Fires Of Ork" is a
collaboration between Pete Namlook (owner of the Fax Label and a dedicated ambient artist) and Geir Jensen (most commonly
known under his Biosphere moniker). The former specializes in a sound nicknamed "polar ambient", which has a certain
palpable frostiness and desolation to it (as in, the impression of vast, icy, windy landscapes). It's pretty nifty stuff.
The first "Ork" is one of my mostest favorite Fax release EVAR so I can't wait to download the sequel and enjoy it.
I have to wait until Regeneration Time. I used up all my downloads, and I can't afford any Booster Packs right now.
There also seems to be a "Psychonavigation 5" and an "Outland 5" (both Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook), eventhough I thought
they had stopped at "4". And there's a Tetsu Inoue album I've never heard of, called "Inland". Tetsu Inoue released two of
my mostest favorite Fax albums: "Organic Cloud" and "Electro Harmonix". He always brings good stuff to the table.
As if that wasn't enough, there's also an heretofore unknown to me collaboration between Namlook and Jochem Paap,
aka Dutch techno wonder Speedy-J, called "pp · nmlk" ("paap · namlook" without the vowels).
And rounding out this Fax buffet, we have not one but TWO CD compilations of rare vinyl releases! Dude!

But wait! There's more! eMusic also added two EP reissues of old The Black Dog stuff! In other words, Proto-Plaid!!!
("Virtual" and the impossible-to-find-up-to-this-point "Techno Playtime")
And an old Luke Slater release under the Planetary Assault System moniker (which eMusic misspelled as "Assualt").
I don't know when I'll be able to download it all!

Methinks a certain Squiddle cancelled his subscription prematurely...