10/31/10
Viewer Mail: The Cast of Eerie Publications Performs the Johnson-Smith Horror Record
Just in time for Halloween, Jason of Scar Command found me through my Eerie Publications post to refer this video he made: a mashup of Eerie's cover illustrations and their contemporary, the 1973 Johnson-Smith horror record.
It's fantastic. I'm reminded of the Crazy Mixed-Up Dr. Evil spook show promo of the 60's, and it's pretty much what the inside of my brain looked like when I was pre-pubescent. Now I'll have to buy a pair of those LCD television glasses so this can soak into my retinas at all times. Again, fantastic.
As previously posted, these magazines were a little before my time, but I've been acquiring old copies of them since my teens. They're disturbing, to be sure, but I'm fascinated by kiddie culture during the Johnson and Nixon administrations; it was so grim and perverse. Remember, these magazines were sold in grocery stores and read by kids of all ages.
And I've forgotten how cool the Johnson-Smith record is. This 7" was only available through mail order from the company. This is one side. The other side is separate tracks of the same sound effects, as was common with cheap Halloween records of the era.
Read more about it at the resurrected Scar Stuff blog.
10/23/10
10/22/10
John Carpenter Soundtracks
Carpenter's own synthesizer compositions, arranged in chronological order: Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, Halloween 3.
PummerBug
When this robo-sect is placed outdoors or in a bright spot like a windowsill, the batteries charge during the day from the solar panel. The panel also acts as a photocell to automatically trigger the pulsing LED at nightfall (or if the bug is moved into a dark room). On a full charge, the batteries should easily keep it going until morning, when it will switch back to charging mode. And so on.
the legs are paperclips and shrink tubing, the abdomen which contains the white LED is a section of clear plastic tube that soldering wire is sold in, and the head is a pushbutton wired to disconnect the batteries when pressed. This way you can charge it, turn it off, then throw it into your luggage so it can cheer you up during that winter vacation in Iceland.
The most rewarding thing about this device is that I used components which I'd bought up to 20 years ago, for a variety of projects I was unable to complete; things beyond my abilities that simply didn't work when I turned them on. With the exception of two capacitors, everything came from boxes in my garage, and I still have enough to build a couple more.
I love this nocturnal little 'bot. It has lots more personality than my solar glowworms. But the skill set for making it is definitely "intermediate". I tried building one several years ago and failed, due to both my poor soldering skills and my relative illiteracy with schematics at the time. But if you want to give it a try, here is the design.
10/20/10
Sehr Schön Oktoberfest Geisterbahn
This has been under ownership of the Munich Oktoberfest fairgrounds since 1968, and has reappeared annually.
10/19/10
The Dungeonmaster
This starts a little slow, but give it time; it's an action-packed extravaganza. Helmed by seven different directors (including Futurechimp-Movie-of-the-Week favorite Charles Band), our hero travels through seven different realms to win back his girlfriend, conjuring up a variety of weapons with his magical wristband. Lots of special effects, claymation giants, trolls, zombies, evil puppets, werewolves, mutant bikers, animated dragons… even the metal band W.A.S.P. shows up! Don't miss it!
Banshee Box
I invented this device in just a few hours, and entirely from things I already had sitting around the shop.
It uses little more than a single hex schmitt IC, which retails for 79 cents and is capable of powering up to six oscillators. I'm just using two of them. Their frequencies are controlled by the two knobs. Their audio outputs can be switched on or off using the doorbell and a toggle switch. The other toggle switch controls the power supply (internal 9-volt battery) with a neat-o color changing LED indicator.
I custom-built the box out of plexiglass. The audio output is for a standard 1/4" instrument cable, going directly into a keyboard amp with a built-in effect in this video.
Again, I have to thank the book "Handmade Electronic Music" by Nicolas Collins for showing me the way.
10/18/10
10/17/10
10/16/10
Auction Pick: Halloween Costumes
Click on any of the following images to be directed to the item's respective ebay page:
..as is this Sleestak. Look at that illustration on the torso! Those poor Chakas!
Cruise the post-apocalyptic wasteland that is planet Earth in this vintage Ark II getup!
..as is this Sleestak. Look at that illustration on the torso! Those poor Chakas!Finally, be the belle of the ball this Halloween season as Dr. Zaius.
10/15/10
Blank Generation on Google Video
This excellent punk documentary can be seen in its entirety right here. It covers both the New York scene (Ramones, Television, Patti Smith) and London (Sex Pistols, Clash, Damned, Buzzcocks) comprehensively. It's very well made, and limits its hour-long time to the most nascent years of the music, ending around the time the Pistols broke up in '78.
10/13/10
Flash Gordon Tribute EP
To Commemorate the 30th anniversary of Queen's Flash Gordon soundtrack, the hardest rocking film score of all time, I've done my own interpretation of some of its themes.
It's almost 13 minutes long, but you see, I originally did it as seven different tracks, then decided to mix them together.
When recording this, I tried to stay in the ridiculous-yet-awesome spirit of the film by including dialogue and ostentatious sound effects, like a cross between a rock album and a kid's storybook record. I dig it.
Instruments: Live DAW, 70's keyboard emulators (moog, arp, mellotron), v-drums, guitar, electric bass, theremin, vocoder.
10/10/10
10/6/10
10/5/10
Dick the Switchboard Chimp
from the December 1929 issue of Modern Mechanix:
Dick, one of the chimpanzee residents of the Luna Park Zoo in Los Angeles, California, paid a call to the zoo office the other day and while there he made friends with the telephone operator. When invited to try out the switchboard, Dick pushed and pulled plugs, particularly enjoying using the plugs when a light flashed on the board. He dispensed wrong numbers with carefree abandon and gibbered back at irate phone users who tried to “bawl him out” for his carelessness. He was removed from the chair, however, before he had an opportunity to raise a mob of protesting callers.
10/4/10
FrankenFurby
The Holiday Hit of 1998, Furby continues to impress today. It has touch sensors on the front, back, ears and beak, a sound sensor that responds to hand claps or speech, a motion sensor that knows when you pick it up, and a light sensor that reacts to peek-a-boo or light levels in the room. Ears, eyes, eyelids, beak and body all move correspondingly. It's a wondrous piece of technology.
Unfortunately, it sounds annoying as hell. I've remedied the situation by bending it, as hundreds of others before me have done.
In addition to removing all that cumbersome fur and adding a blacklight-reactive paintjob, I've spliced several wires into the furby's circuitry which trail down to an aluminum project box, where all of the components are located.
A power switch and audio output are on the face panel. Up top, there are two buttons on the left which trigger sounds and movement from the furby (extensions from its abdomen and back sensors, so it doesn't have to be touched to set off sounds). On the right are the bends: a pushbutton to freeze the sound, a toggle switch to lock that sound, and a glitch-switch.
What you hear in this video is recorded from the audio output straight into protools, and is a single-take recording with added filter delay. First you hear it with no bends (it's still a fully functional furby when all switches are off) and then it FrankenFreaks.
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