Friday Ephemeraren’t
Yes, a chance to throw together your own pile of links and oddities in the comments. I’ll set the ball rolling with the power of gift bags; a girl who’s got volume; cows and VR, together at last; and a great question of our time: Snake and Tetris – can you play them simultaneously?
Oh, and a perfect illustration of how to be cool about it.
Toxic masculinity.
Non-toxic masculinity.
An Indonesian maid in Saudi Arabia was put to death for killing her boss while he was raping her:
https://nationalfile.com/saudi-arabia-executes-maid-who-killed-man-as-he-raped-her/
I would enjoy hearing that in response an Indonesian mob burned down the Saudi embassy.
how to be cool about it.
Little dude is so chilled. 🙂
Morning, all. Ah, a lie-in, the sweetest plum.
Little dude is so chilled. 🙂
Any shortcoming in exuberance is made up for in style.
Oh, to be so composed, positively nonchalant, while bouncing.
The left is all about being caring and sharing, so they shared this little gift:
https://twitter.com/TheTortorian/status/1199962971054772225
More toxic masculinity. Or toxic something.
….so they shared this little gift…
And as is so often displayed for all to see their superficial grasp on reality.
Regarding ‘ toxic masculinity’, Macy’s Parade in NYC yesterday…the ‘610 Stompers’ are supposedly trying to encourage men to dance. I don’t understand how this is supposed to work.
https://youtu.be/O38xUqJz_qE
“I don’t understand how this is supposed to work.”
Yeah… not gonna happen.
On a side note, though. One of the things I love about America is that an advertising stunt can become an annual national event. The closest we have here is the Lord Mayor’s Show. Definitely classier, and dripping with History, but not quite the same.
This isn’t exactly Ephemeral – quite the opposite, in fact – but a timely reminder* that real socialism has been tried. In America.
On a more Ephemeral note, the surprising history of lane markings.
Well, I found it interesting. I’m not really a party person.
*Okay, it’s a day late. Be thankful that it’s here at all. (See what I did there?)
I’m not really a party person.
The Other Half and I have spent the day clearing out the junk closet, into which, over the years, many things have been shoved. An archaeological excavation ensued, one that entailed a trip to the recycling depot, several trips to the bins, the discovery of various attachments for household items we’ve haven’t actually owned for at least nine years, and herculean feats of hoovering. It’s amazing how much crap you can stuff in a closet. At one point, I thought we were about to discover Narnia.
You wish you had my life.
The Other Half and I have spent the day clearing out the junk closet, into which, over the years, many things have been shoved.
Married bliss. 🙂
Married bliss. 🙂
I found receipts from the 1990s. And a crate of 12” singles. I haven’t owned a turntable in 25 years.
12” singles
Heh. Well there’s a tell. 😉
socialism has been tried. In America
Quite. What’s interesting to me is that I don’t recall that point being raised in either my right-wing parochial school, nor my leftist indoctrinating AP history classes in public high school. But it was the 70’s so…
But also regarding the parade and masculinity…shortly after the 610 group, we were trated to a man in a, what I would regard as womanly, fur coat with a purple/pinkish it’s-not-a-purse-but-really-it-is-wink-wink bag over his shoulder. Don’t recall who he was but perhaps someone else saw that. Of course it could also be a sign of my horrible homophobia combine with my suppressed homosexual tendencies. They tell me it happens.
I haven’t owned a turntable in 25 years.
I have a few LP recordings which are unavailable as CD’s or digital downloads.
Cannot sell my turntable until I can properly convert them to digital form.
On the other hand, I have noticed an increase the number of models of turntable on display in audio stores.
It’s amazing how much crap you can stuff in a closet.
Be thankful you don’t have kids. You’d need at least two junk closets per child.
You’d need at least two junk closets per child.
It isn’t even a particularly big closet. It was just packed with the density of a neutron star.
“clearing out the junk closet”
How many orphaned wall chargers did you find?
Cannot sell my turntable until I can properly convert them to digital form.
Easy as cake, all you need are: 3.5mm to 2-Male RCA Adapter Audio Stereo Cable to plug into the computer mic jack; possibly (depending on your computer) a Pyle Phono Turntable Preamp or similar (both available with a couple of clicks from David’s Amazon link); a copy of easy to use Audacity open source freeware, unless you want to splurge for a full up DAW.
Assemble the bits and Robert is your father’s brother, MP3s.
Meanwhile, speaking of toxic masculinity, Tom Jones, and recording, a previously ganked link.
How many orphaned wall chargers did you find?
I’ll spare you the full itemisation, which would require superhuman patience from everyone concerned. But we did find a plug-in ten-way adaptor, about the size and weight of a small child, all cocooned with grey fluff. Also, half a dozen spare tiles, some neglected tins of paint, and several boxes for phones that I can barely remember. Oh, and three pairs of boots in various stages of fossilisation.
I haven’t owned a turntable in 25 years.
Same here. I’ve still got hundreds of LPs, dozens of 12″ singles and, from an even earlier era, more than a few 7″ singles, including this treasure.
I’ll get my coat.
I’ll get my coat.
[ Watches first three seconds of video. ]
You’ll find your coat outside, in the gutter. On fire.
Have some Christmas music
including this treasure.
Sally Carr could really rock a pair of hot pants and gogo boots though.
[ Bad Steve E, Bad Steve E ]
Also rocked hot pants
♬HOT PANTS! With a little more soul.
More toxic masculinity. Or toxic something
That’s the polar opposite of masculinity.
It’s amazing how much crap you can stuff in a closet.
One of the things I’ve noticed over the years — no matter how much closet space you have, you will fill it.
no matter how much closet space you have, you will fill it.
In the last two hours I’ve opened the door three times just to marvel at its new, streamlined orderliness.
hot pants and gogo boots
As much as the 60s/70s gets dumped on for its complete lack of fashion sense, there were some fun things (I loved my gogo boots & miniskirts).
(I loved my gogo boots & miniskirts).
If anyone’s getting aroused, there’s a 20% surcharge.
[ Opens file marked ‘Darleen’. Adds “fetish-wear enthusiast.” ]
closet
Is that what we British people call a ‘cupboard’ in English?
Is that what we British people call a ‘cupboard’ in English?
It also contains coats and neglected shoes, among other things. So cupboard didn’t sound quite right.
https://flashbak.com/she-wears-short-shorts-55-images-from-the-golden-age-of-hotpants-367548/
So cupboard didn’t sound quite right.
If you ever start saying y’all we’ll be able to pinpoint the exact moment the rot set in.
I loved the Tom Jones video. See also Mireille Mathieu and Elvis.
Assemble the bits and Robert is your father’s brother, MP3s.
While you can easily digitally capture from a turntable, one of the reasons for retaining vinyl records is that they preserve an audio range audio CDs can’t. And MP3s are both lossy and retain even less audio range than CDs.
Capturing the full audio range of a high-fidelity vinyl record is surprisingly more complex than it might at first appear, although there’s all-in-one dedicated hardware that will do it for you.
To settle my poor mind after reading Darleen’s post, I replayed this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3v9unphfi0
I think you may find it rather good.
Noting the theme, Tom Jones with backup singers
And MP3s are both lossy and retain even less audio range than CDs
Bit rate dependent, yet still more than 99.9% of humans can actually hear. Regardless, the point is to be able to play whatever is on the vinyl (and doesn’t exist in digits), on something that plays digits, seeing as how neither car record players nor ones you could fit in a pocket ever really caught on. Personally I make absurdly large WAV files with Reason, and export those with Audacity onto a USB drive to play in the car, but that is because I use Reason for other stuff, and is overkill for the average Joe who wan’t to listen to something on his phone while jogging, doesn’t want to screw with a full up DAW, and doesn’t pretend to be able to tell the difference in sound between $12,000 speaker wires and a dollar store extension cord.
Capturing the full audio range of a high-fidelity vinyl record that anyone can actually hear particularly over background noise (like in a car) is surprisingly easy, especially for an outlay of of about $70US max.
https://flashbak.com/she-wears-short-shorts-55-images-from-the-golden-age-of-hotpants-367548/
Not sure what it is about #15 that makes me think of torpedoes.
And MP3s are both lossy and retain even less audio range than CDs
Bit rate dependent
Sample rate dependent. Like I said, more complex than it appears.
Pictures or it didn’t happen.
Like I said, more complex than it appears.
Neil Young thought he had it figured out with Pono, but no one wanted it and he folded the business.
Then use a different CODEC, such as FLAC.
Sample rate dependent.
Also bit depth and bit rate, if you want to get really pedantic. However, bit rate (also called bitrate for the pedants) is a common measure for exporting, particularly as an MP3. At any rate, as I said, if one already has a turntable and $70, it is surprisingly easy to turn vinyl into digits. If one doesn’t have a turntable, that same 70 frogskins will get you a turntable that records direct MP3 to an SD card or USB stick (available from Amazon at one of David’s links) and give you a perfectly cromulent recording unless one is touting oneself as an “audiophile” and trying to justify $12,000 speaker wires.
The advantage of using a computer over a stand-alone device that records directly, however, is that even with something as simple as Audacity, and of course with a full-up DAW, you can get rid of most or all the hiss, pop, and other noise vinyl is ridden with, (not that anyone is playing their stuff in an anechoic chamber where every defect will be heard). Regardless of which approach one uses, it is far from some arcane and Byzantine process that can only be mastered by recording engineers or computer geeks, though I imagine the latter would like to think it is and that they have some inside track wizardly powers Joe Baggadonuts just trying to play an old album on a phone will never be able to comprehend.
“♬HOT PANTS!”
… aaand Steve single-handedly saves the thread from a fate worse than Eurovision.
““>https://flashbak.com/she-wears-short-shorts-55-images-from-the-golden-age-of-hotpants-367548/”
#40: Ohhhh, Lynda. I was only 8, but she’s still the standard against which all women are measured.
including this treasure.
A selection of the accompanying comments:
– No aids, no terrorism, no speed limit, no worries, freedom… Remember anybody?
– brings back many, many memories, just wish l could turn the clock back.
– They will never know how great it was in the seventies you had to be there
– Simple natural people in the 1970’s. Lovely.
[ Watches to 1:35 of video:
INTRODUCED
THIS WEEK BY
JIMMY
SAVILLE ]
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be!
At any rate, as I said, if one already has a turntable and $70, it is surprisingly easy to turn vinyl into digits.
Daniel Ream was correct saying it’s [far] more complex than it seems. Getting digits is absurdly trivial (even as the topic’s underlying logic soon shows and even without getting into the generational loss of A to D). Getting flesh-and-blood music is not.
I find all this talk about MP3s and lossy and bitrates amusing when I remember most of the music in my life came through the speakers of car and transistor radios.