Another "Give it Time" Repair

     I wrote about letting "broken" machines work their problems out for themselves in my last post. 

    I'll continue that theme with this Pioneer 6-Disc CD player that I found at the Johnston Goodwill.

The Pioneer turns 30 next year.

    

  It wasn't much of an investment at 10 bucks (I round up). The price tag mislabeled this as a DVD player, but that happens a lot if a member of Gen Z works in the back. This CD player was born before they were, and they might not have seen one before.

    I took the player to an outlet in the store to take it for a test drive. The eject functioned, and the 6-disc magazine popped right out. 

    The magazine was full of the previous owner's music (mostly pop-punk and a folk outlier*). I returned the magazine and watched as CD 1 disappeared into the player and the play counter started moving. It looked like we were good to go.

    I tried getting the Pioneer to move from CD 1 to CD 2 when we got home, but that was a bust. The results were the same for the other CD positions. The Pioneer would only play the first CD.

    Well, shoot. A multi-disc player isn't very useful if it only plays one disc. I considered removing the cover and cleaning the laser lens, but the Pioneer was reading CD 1 without a problem, so I didn't think a cleaning would do much. I was leaning towards taking the player back for a refund.

    Then I considered the CDs. There were six in the magazine. The Pioneer must have been able to play them all at some time in the past, and I seriously doubted the player was broken when it was put into storage.

    Of the six CDs, this one was the most recent. The aptly titled Resurrection from New Found Glory was released in 2014. This made me think that the player had probably only been sitting alone in a basement for a decade or less. I guessed he just needed to get off the couch and stretch his legs. 

    It was time to anthropomorphize the Pioneer and see if he could work out his own problems. I thought, You know what, buddy? You like playing your first CD so much, let's just let you do that for awhile. And that's what we did. I hit play, he loaded the CD, and I walked away. 

    He was done playing the CD fifty minutes later. Okay, friend, let's do it again. Lather, rinse, repeat. Then something happened during the fourth round. At the end of  last track, there was a new noise. It was the clicking of the CDs' trays as they were trading places. 

    He's playing CD 2! Yay!

    I gave him the afternoon to work it out, and he did. By the evening he had successfully played all 6 CDs in order. Nice work, my friend.

    Last night I filled the Pioneer with Xmas CDs, hit the "Random" button, and let him make me a mixtape. He jumped from track to track and tray to tray for an hour without a hitch. 

    

    A CD player's purpose is to entertain. I'm glad he gets to do that again. 

    

    *FYI: The other CDs left in the magazine were Gravity by Our Lady Peace, On the Impossible Past by The Menzingers, Only by the Night by Kings of Leon, White Crosses by Against Me!, and O.C.M.S. by Old Crow Medicine Show.

A "Give it Time" Repair

    Aaron Kaufman was one of the car builders on the reality TV show Fast N' Loud (cancelled in 2020). He said something during one episode that has really stuck with me. I cannot remember his exact words, but Aaron said something like, "There is a certain spirit in old cars that makes them want to run." 

    I really liked the idea that an old car has an inherent desire to do what it was built to do. 

    Now, to be clear, I don't think machines are alive or self-aware. But I do use this idea when I find something that appears to be broken. I anthropomorphize the object by mentally saying to it, How can I help you do what you were designed to do?

    I have learned over the years that sometimes I just have to give the machine a little time to work it out for themselves.

    Take this kitchen timer as an example.

    

    I used to use this at school to time student speeches. I've got a smart phone now, so I thought I'd take the timer home and use when I grill. It wasn't working when I took it out of my desk, but I blamed that on a dead battery.

  I popped in a new battery when I got home. No dice. The screen was still blank. I cleaned the contacts for the battery to no avail. Whacking the timer against the heel of my hand didn't help, either. I was considering grabbing a screwdriver when Daphne walked into the kitchen and asked me what I was doing.

    I explained what was going on, and added at the end, "I could just throw it away, but I think this guy really wants to work. I'm just going to leave the battery in and let it sit for awhile. She smiled and lightly shook her head at me. 

    I checked on Taylor the Timer an hour later. The screen was still blank, but there were signs of life when I spun the battery with my finger. The screen would flicker incoherently. Encouraged, I let him sit on the dining room table overnight.

    His screen was still blank in the morning. I picked him up and gave him a slight tap on his back with my finger. That was all he needed. 

   

    Daphne was walking our dog Ellie at the time. Char and I had to leave to get Char to jazz band rehearsal, so I left Taylor sitting proudly on our kitchen counter where Daphne was sure to see him. I got this text a few minutes later.

    Taylor worked flawlessly the two times we grilled together, and he was wide awake when I took these photos yesterday. 

    Sometimes the first step of a repair is to not use a tool at all.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #31

 October 31: Halloween's back, baby!

    From left to right: Betamax tape, VCR tape, Criterion Collection LaserDisc, DVD, novelization paperback. 

    Yay! I made it. 31 displays in 31 days. I haven't blogged in awhile, and I was feeling rusty. It's been nice to brush off the cobwebs. 

    That was fun, but not as much fun as this: 

    I moved here in August of 1992, and for the past 33 years my favorite holiday has been anticlimactic. The calendar would flip to October 31, but trick-or-treating was already over. Boo. That's not a scary Boo, but a sad one.

    Last year severe storms were predicted for Oct 30, so many towns in the area pushed "Beggars' Night" to the 31st, and guess what? Nothing bad happened. At least that what I was told. We had parent-teacher conferences that night, and I didn't get to hand out candy on Halloween night, again. I had my Flix Brewhouse employee costume all ready to go, and I didn't even get to wear it.

    That's another sad Boo. 

    But this year is different! After a survey was taken by Des Moines city residents, the Des Moines City Council voted last March to permanently move trick-or-treating to the 31st of October. Many local cities, like ours, made that move, too.

    I actually stopped my car and got out to take this picture. Yay!

    I'm not gonna lie. The name "Beggars' Night" has always rubbed me wrong. I'm so glad that tradition has been retired. 

    Our tradition, since 2018, is to project a Halloween family film on the garage door and hand out bags of popcorn and packages of M&M's. That combo is our favorite movie snack.

    I'm leaning towards showing Happy Halloween Scooby-Doo, but I know for sure what I'm wearing tonight.

    As the kids say, "Rate the fit."

Happy Halloween!

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #30

October 30

    Look out! The 31st is right around the corner (and it's holding a knife). 
    I had planned to blog about 1978's original Halloween on the actual day, but my friend Tim surprised me with an October gift, and I decided to stretch this topic to two displays for the last two days of the month. 

    From left to right: The first Halloween film is tense, violent, and scary, but it's not very gory. Still, to air the movie on network TV, they cut some scenes and added 12 minutes of new scenes that were shot during the filming of Halloween II. The "Extended Version" DVD is that television edit. It was released by Anchor Bay, and came with a 16mm "Original Film Cell" display.

    Tim gave me the Halloween / Ash vs. The Evil Dead cartridge for the Nintendo Switch. He also gave me the 35th Anniversary Blu-ray that's next door. I've known Tim for over 20 years, and I might have mentioned Halloween one or ten times to him. Thanks, bud!

    I've bought a handful of UMD movies for the Sony PSP after my friend Robert gave me one for Christmas back in the 2000's. I still have it, Rob, and it still works great! Thanks, again. Of course, Halloween was my first pick.

    The Halloween 25 Years of Terror DVD is still sealed. If I haven't watched in 22 years... I think it's headed to the donation box.

    This is the best Flix Brewhouse souvenir glass I have ever found while thrifting. And that's saying something.

  

Here's a closeup of the film cell. 

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #29

 October 29

    Here's a shelf for 1981's Halloween II. From left to right: a DVD actually purchased new from a big box store, Betamax tape from Goodwill, novelization from the Animal Lifeline Thrift Shop, I found this LP soundtrack at Goodwill at the same time I found the soundtrack for Halloween III. Trust me, I looked for the OG soundtrack, but had no luck. The Blu-ray came from Amazon (snore). 

    When I was growing up the kids in Rock Valley organized themselves into four TV camps: Camp C, Camp H, Camp S, and Camp WDHC. I was in camp H.

    C = Cinemax

    H = HBO

    S = Showtime

    WDHC = We Don't Have Cable

    I was in 7th grade when Halloween II came out on HBO. I had a couple of friends from other camps come over for a watch party while my parents were out for dinner. We accused each other of being frightened when the film got tense, and we all denied being scared at all after it was done. Halloween II ended at 8:30, and the night was very dark when we went outside. 

    My friends yelled and laughed defiantly into the darkness as they mounted their bikes and sped out of the driveway and into the street. Like me, they knew there was nothing to be afraid of.

    They did, however, make sure to only ride underneath the street lights as they pedaled home as fast as they could.

    I went back into the house, quickly turned on all of the lights, and hoped my folks would be back soon.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #28

 October 28

    Spend a a few seconds Googling 1982's Halloween III: Season of the Witch and the first thing mentioned is how much fans hated that Michael Myers wasn't in this movie. Since then the film has been reevaluated and is now considered a minor classic... blah blah blah. Read the title, folks. It's "Season of the Witch." Did they think Michael was gonna fly in on a broom? 
    I had a couple of non anamorphic Halloween III DVDs that I got rid of after buying the Blu-ray on the left. I wish I hadn't, for the sake of this display, but what are you gonna do? Hindsight is 20/20. Much like how fans look at Halloween III today. 

    The LP soundtrack came from Goodwill, and the air freshener is from my buddy Boris. 

    If you ever encounter a Silver Shamrock mask tag (in front of the Blu-ray),please don't poke it with a hairpin. 

    Just trust me on this.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #27

October 27

     There is a long, thin public park a few blocks from where I grew up in Rock Valley, Iowa. The park had fenced off tennis courts on the west end and was flanked by railroad tracks to the north and a gravel parking space on the south. The east end the park petered out until a road cut it off. A long cable supported by wooden stumps that were hand painted white separated the grass, the swing sets, and the slides from the cars parked on the gravel.

    One of my favorite Halloween memories happened in this park, and it only lasted for a moment. 
    I was in sixth grade and dressed as a skeleton. I had a two-part mask that was separated at the jaw hinge. The two parts of the "skull" were stuck to my face with adhesive pads. When I talked the bottom jaw moved with mine. That was a cool effect. The rest of my costume consisted of a black hoodie and black sweat pants adorned with white tape "bones."
    I was running with a pack of five friends, and although we didn't know, this was going to be the last time we went Trick or Treating. That park near my house separated two neighborhoods, and we were running past to get to more houses with their porch lights lit. 

    In an effort to get a head of the group, I turned left, placed a foot on a white stub of a wood fence, and leaped into the air with my legs still pumping. With one fist grasping a bag of candy and the other thrust into the air in celebration, I flew through the night sky and then landed without missing a stride. 

    I turned and saw that my friends had all made similar leaps. I yelled, "Yes!" and they laughed in agreement. Soon, we were through the park, over the tracks, and ringing the nearest doorbell.

    

    And that's it. Just a few perfect seconds for a kid in a costume on a Halloween night. Who needs more than that?

    All I need is chapter one of Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree if I ever want to relive that feeling. 

    Thanks, Ray. 

    Daphne is kind enough to put up this print for me each October. I like Tom Skelton's costume. 

Halloween 2025: Group Photos #25 and 26

      As a parent, and a fan, I have purchased quite a few Scooby-Doo DTV movies for our family to watch. I had the idea that I could collect all of them just by shopping at thrift stores, but that meant tracking down about 50(!) movies and keeping a list of what we already had with me at all times. I gave up pretty quickly when I learned what I was up against. 

    The library became my best resource. Young Charlotte would treat me like a returning hero when I'd come home with a "new" Scooby-Doo movie from the library, so these films all have a soft spot in my heart. 

October 25

    Just about any DTV release would work, but here are the Scooby-Doo movies that I think best represent the Halloween season. 

October 26

    Sentimental shelf! Charlotte picked out and gave me Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales for my birthday when she was 4. She grinned from ear to ear and said, "It's for our mooovie thee-ah-taa!" when I opened it. 

    She also made made this "birthday crown"(with the help of mom) for me to wear when we watched Scooby-Doo together. I want to be buried wearing this crown.

    I first bought Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School on VHS when I stopped at a convenience store on the way home from college. I knew my young nephew (also 4 and the time?) was also visiting my folks, and I thought he might get a kick out of the movie. He did. We watched it twice that weekend. My other nephew and niece also liked Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School and all three requested to see it each time they visited. When we had Charlotte, my mom came to visit, and she handed me the tape and said comically, "Here. It's your turn. I hate this movie." The tape was fried, but I bought a DVD to pay for my sins.

    If I had to come up with an equivalent to Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School at our house, it would have to be Hello Kitty Tells Fairy Tales. Daphne was not a fan. She made light of it when I told her about this post, but back in the day she cringed whenever Char requested to watch it. I know. I was there.

    The bobbleheads are from McDonald's 2021 Happy Meals. Char kept asking for Happy Meals when these were released, but I didn't know why. Turns out she had secretly planned to get Scooby-Doo and Shaggy just so she could give them to me. Excuse me while I get a Kleenex.

    For my money, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is the best film in the series. I was given an original poster from a student who worked in a video store in 1998. He thought I'd like it. He was sooo right. 27 years later, it's still hanging in my classroom. Hard to believe that student is now in his 40s.

    Last month a newly hired custodian stopped by my room to tell me how much he liked my poster, and we talked about the film for awhile. 

    I like that guy.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #24

 October 24

      I've always thought Trick or Treat (1986) was a fun heavy metal horror movie, and the DVD forums lit up when Platinum Disc released the movie as a budget DVD in 2002. This release was a Best Buy exclusive and was seemingly always sold out in the Des Moines area. I finally scored a copy when Daphne and I were visiting Kansas City. 

    The DVD is on the right. The video image looked better than VHS, but screen ratio was full frame. Dang! Gene Simmons (of KISS) has a small role as a DJ, and Ozzy Osborne makes a cameo as a televangelist. Both are featured on the cover despite their brief screen time.

    The Blu-ray in the middle is an Italian import from eBay. The title Morte a 33 Giri translates to Murder at 33 rpm and is a reference to the haunted LP that brings deceased demonic rocker Sammi Curr back from the dead. This bare bones Blu-ray allowed me see Trick or Treat in anamorphic widescreen for the first time.

    The Blu-ray on the left came out last March. The transfer is a "1080p Blu-ray of a 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative approved by Director of Photography Robert Elswit" (Amazon). The Blu-ray looks great and is packed with extra features. 

    I bought the record at Half Price Books back in the 90's when kids were listening to grunge and wearing flannel. No one wanted anything to do with hair metal.

Halloween 2025: Group Photo #23

 October 23

    I agree with this IMDB synopsis.