Rega Planar One

The Rega Planar One is Rega's latest entry into the turntable market. Now anyone with a job can own one of the best turntables on the market for under $400.00. The best thing is it comes with the cartridge already mounted, so, in the words of Stereophile magazine, you "remove it from its box, plug it in, snap the hinged dustcover in place, put the platter and mat on the subplatter, place the counterweight on the tonearm, rotate the counterweight toward the bearing until it can move no farther, slide the antiskating control toward the notch labeled "2," and play records."

No installation or balancing necessary. Magic!

One Got Fat: 1963 Bicycle Safety Film

From Wikipedia: In the film, ten friends whom are children with monkey masks and tails, plan on going to the park for a picnic. They all ride there on their bikes, but each one meets a certain fate on their way to the park, because they did not follow a certain bike rule, like not making hand signals, forgetting to read signs, not riding with traffic, riding double, or riding on the sidewalk, one by one each of the friends makes a mistake and suffers an interesting fate.

You can also download this from the Internet Archive.

Monty Python - The Fish Slapping Dance

Presented for your enjoyment.

The Minutemen from The Watchmen Movie

From Newsarama comes this photo of the Minutemen from the upcoming Watchmen movie.

March 6 cannot come fast enough.

Folding Bicycles

I'm considering buying a folding bike for several reasons: it can easily integrate (hopefully) into the existing public transit system, I can store it in my cubicle at work, and it will eat up a lot less floor space in my apartment than my current mountain bike.

The Toronto Transit Commission are a little vague on the rules for taking these onto the subway and buses; they say no bikes during rush hour, but if this is folded up will it be a problem?

There's a few shops around Toronto that sell these; to date I've seen listings from Broadway Cycle, Cyclepath and Urbane Cyclist. I've seen a few around town and those riding them look comfortable on them. Maybe I'll start visiting some shops on the weekend and see what these are like.

Update: I didn't get a chance to visit any stored this weekend, but I did see quite a few on the streets of Toronto. Is this a new trend for urban cycling?

Klaus Nomi - Lightning Strikes

From Wikipedia:

Klaus Sperber (January 24, 1944 - August 6, 1983), better known as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for remarkable vocal performances and an unusual, otherworldly, elfin stage persona. Nomi is remembered for bizarrely theatrical live performances, heavy make-up, unusual costumes, and a highly stylized signature hairdo which flaunted a receding hairline. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classic opera to covers of 1960s pop standards like Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Lou Christie's "Lightnin' Strikes".

You're either going to love or hate this video. I'm in the former. It's otherworldly and different and that's what music is to me.

Crazy Fun Pizza La Toppings Ad

I love this.

GEM Dandy Hydraulic Record Cleaning Apparatus

From the Stephen Mejias Blog at Stereophile comes the GEM Dandy Hydraulic Record Cleaning Apparatus. Looking like someones abandoned PVC pipe project this is apparently one of the best record cleaners on the market. Anyone who's been scared off by the high price of audiophile record cleaners will note these sell for a paltry 149 USD (!!!). Compared to what most of us spend on vinyl this isn't much money, and anyone serious about good sound from their system will want as little debris between the record grooves and the stylus. Anyone who's listened to a cleaned record will tell you how quiet a record can be, and how much detail you're missing. This one's definitely on the radar.

The Psychotronic (Movie) Guide to Archive.org

File this under life changing blog posts: Fanboy.com posted this link to Eye of the Goof: The Psychotronics guide to Archive.org. I've known about public domain concerts available for download from the Internet Archive, but have never explored the movies that are available. Apparently there are quite a few cult favorites available for download, many in MPEG 2 format.

So far I've watched The Amazing Mr. X, The Amazing Transparent Man, The Ape, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Carnival of Souls. This weekend I've got The Last Man on Earth and Kansas City Confidential lined up. There's more than a few bad ones, but for the price I'm sure you won't care. Download speeds are fairly slow, so I would allow a movie to download overnight.

Suffice to say if you're tired of what the Hollywood treadmill has to offer these days then definitely check this out. At least give Carnival of Souls a watch. You won't regret it.

A new vinyl moment with The Breeders

I love The Breeders. It took awhile for Last Splash to grow on me, but once it did I was hooked on this band. I was glad to have caught them on their tour for their new album Mountain Battles. The album is available now; I ordered mine from my local record shop Around Again here in Toronto.

I love the fact that new vinyl comes with MP3 downloads. The MP3 files for this album are encoded at a respectable 256 kb/s. I can't imagine paying for 128 kb/s DRM encoded (anymore).