Valentine's Day 2026: Group Photo

 

    Hey, not everybody loves Valentine's Day.

    1981's Canadian slasher My Bloody Valentine is good time, and I think I'll give that Blu-Ray in the middle a spin tonight since I'll have the house to myself.

    I probably wouldn't have bought the soundtrack on LP, but Waxwork Records slashed the price in half last Feb. 14, for a one-day-only sale. I thought that was pretty funny.

    For a long time the DVD on the left was the only way to see the uncut version of the film. Wow, this newer edit goes a lot harder than what I watched on HBO back in the day.

Unplanned Listening Parties

    I bought Tone Loc's Loc'After Dark on a whim. I thought it would be fun to hear "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Media" again, and that would be that. Nope. I listened to the whole album.

        I didn't have a choice.

    As soon as the first beats of "On Fire (Remix)" filled our basement, Ellie, our Great Pyrenees, sprinted down the stairs, tore around the corner, and sat right in front of where I was standing. She was wildly wagging her tail. I thought for sure she wanted to go out to the backyard to potty or play, but the tail stopped moving when I asked her.

    I rubber her behind her ears with both hands and asked, "What do you want then?" She stood up, walked over to my chair, and stole my seat in a single jump. 

     "You like this music?" 

    

    She thumped her tail once on the arm of he chair.

      I sighed and look the smaller chair next to her. She thumped the chair a few more times in thanks. Then she closed her eyes. For the next 50 minutes we enjoyed Tone Loc's gravelly raps.

    This has happened before. I knew I could move about the room as much as I wanted. I could even leave the basement. I just couldn't turn the music off. If I did, then she would slide off the chair, slowly walk out of the room looking at me from over her shoulder with her tail dragging on the carpet. Then she would go upstairs to pout. 

    It's quite a performance. 

    

    Also, I'm a pushover. 

    

    A couple of days later I gave John Mayall's USA Union LP a test spin. I brought this home from Goodwill because it was in decent shape and I thought it looked interesting. 

    No offense to the memory of the late "Godfather of English Blues," but I wasn't feeling his no-drum vibe. I was reaching for the tone arm when Ellie and our cat Bo quickly entered the room together.

    Ellie took my chair again, and Bo parked himself on the album's gatefold sleeve. I was stuck again. 

    

    I put my foot down after playing side two and moved onto a different record. Neither one minded. They were asleep. 

"Mixing It Up" with Vintage Electronics pt. 2

    Last summer I began watching the YouTube channel Born2beRad. While the host was talking about his favorite physical medias, I could see a small tube TV in the background silently playing a movie. I really liked the idea of placing a small TV/ DVD combo unit in the corner or on a shelf and playing random movies on mute. It's the media equivalent of a lava lamp.    

    I revisited my old haunts and came up empty handed.  After a few weeks of no luck, I decided to use what I already had at home.

    This trio is on a book case in our basement. I've written about the 13" Panasonic TV before. Char used to use it for playing Animal Crossing on the Game Cube and later on the 360. She has since moved on to the Switch. I like the Panasonic DVD player because when you first turn it on the words "Welcome to DVD World" scroll by on the display. I often say back, "Why, thank you." A friend at work gave me the JVC VCR. 

    

    I could use a blu-ray player with the CRT TV, but I'd have to change the player's output resolution to 480i and I didn't want to think that hard. DVDs look great on this old TV as it is.

    I had a lot of fun in December playing muted Christmas movies like How the Grinch Stole Christmas along with various Christmas LPs. It was like giving the film a new soundtrack.

    I probably would have kept these three in action for quite some time, but I think I found a replacement. I had an appointment last Wednesday, and that gave me a few hours to kill before I picked Char up from school. I got to go thrifting at time when I'm usually working. That's when I found this.

    It's an Emerson TV/DVD combo with a 9 inch screen, and it stands proudly at 12 inches tall. This CRT is exactly what I have been looking for. The size was right, the price was right ($15), and it had been well taken care of. The only problem was there was no remote. Usually this is a deal-breaker for me. Experience has taught me that buying the missing remote can easily cost three times what I paid for the player. This time I ignored my own rules of thrift.

    I discovered that if I played a movie and the DVD's menu selection was already highlighting "Play," then I'd be good to go. I could press the "Play" button on the unit, and the movie would fire right up. I was out of luck if anything else was highlighted on the menu. 

    Gemini universal remotes are my favorite solution in a situation like this. The remotes from this era have codes that even work with Laser Disc players for crying out loud. 

    Find what type of device you want to control (DVD), find the brand name you have (Emerson), follow the steps for entering the first code (241), and then press the power button the remote. If your device turns off you're golden. If not, then repeat these steps with the next code. 

    

    Pro tip: Try adding a 0 in front of the code number if none of the listed codes work. My correct code is 0247.

     It works!

    It took me awhile to discover that I had to press the "Menu" button twice before trying to navigate the DVD's menu. If I didn't, then I'd switch the screen from DVD to TV static and have to start all over and watch the introduction programing again. Irritating. 

    Using the Gemini remote did allow me to change the display language from Spanish to English. That was nice.

    So, I now had a basic, working remote for the TV. I could have stopped there, but I went shopping to see if I could find the correct remote. 

    See what I mean about finding the exact remote that you need being expensive?  It was time to do some more research.

    

    The CRT Database states that my CRT, "Requires a compatible remote with a "Picture" button in order to access picture settings (Emerson, Sylvania, Symphonic, Magnavox).

    Hmmmm... a "compatible" remote? Let's look for similar remotes from those other brands mentioned...

    

    To make a long story short, I bought a Magnavox remote for my Emerson TV.

     The Magnavox remote is a little discolored from age, but that's okay. So am I. And for once a remote was actually cheaper than the player's price (by ten cents). The button layout was exactly like the Emerson's. The function names were slightly different: "Standby/On" vs. "Power,"ect... but I had hopes this wouldn't be a waste of time. 

    It wasn't. Every button on the Magnavox eemote works with the Emerson TV. I'm stoked to have a fully working TV/DVD combo. Thanks, CRT Database!

It's another mixed match that works just fine.

"Mixing It Up" with Vintage Electronics pt. 1

    I like playing CDs with my old Pioneer CD player, but taking out the 6-disc magazine to play a single CD is a somewhat of a clunky process, but whatever. This image from the Pioneer manual can explain it better than I can.

   I spotted a solution while shopping online for another cartridge. Pioneer made a magazine the size of a 6-disc that would mimic the action of a single, sliding disc tray. Pretty cool.

    My new problem was that most online stores were sold out (see above), or the magazines for sale on eBay were too expensive. 

    While shopping I noticed that many 6-disc magazines looked alike despite being labeled with different company logos. I found a single disc magazine for a Denon CD player on eBay that looked like it would work, and it was quite a bit cheaper than a Pioneer one. 

    I asked AI if they could be compatible. 

    Sorry AI, but I didn't believe you. I bought the Denon one anyway.

    

    

    Here's the Denon in it's new Pioneer home. Fits like a glove.

    

    I like how enthusiastically the magazine ejects, "Pow! Here's your disc, friend!" It's the show after the show. 

    I suppose I could cover the Denon logo with paint or tape, but that would ruin the fun. Things don't have to be all matchy-matchy all the time.