Jack’s Old & Busted Blog

My new Goth-Country band will be called “Trailerfire.” My new Punk-Country band will be called “P.I.G.”

My favorite camera right now is an Olympus 35 EC-2 from c. 1971. It’s a classic version of a “point-and-shoot,” but quite different from its modern cousins.

It has a fast 42mm 2.8 lens and a very bright viewfinder (not a rangefinder, mind you — it has zone focusing, where you guess from four distance settings, or set it precisely using the clearly marked scale on the lens). This kind of speed is perfect for low light candids. The lens alone sets it apart from what you would buy today.

I rarely use a flash on the EC, but it does have a nice, foolproof flash exposure “system.” It uses the flashmatic method, which means the flash fires at full output, and the camera adjusts the aperture based on distance (and the output of the flash, which is selectable on the camera). So, as long as your focus is reasonably accurate, the flash will be, too.

I’ve gotten some amazingly sharp pics from this little jewel. Exposure can be dicey, because I have to use 1.5v alkalines instead of the 1.35v mercury cells it needs (saving the environment, I guess). Therefore, I have to set the film speed a bit slower than normal to compensate.

I’ve had more fun with this camera than any I’ve owned (a gaggle of Nikon SLR stuff, various P&S), with the possible exception of my SX-70, which has its own special kind of photo-funkiness.

I got this one on ebay for about $10. Amazing, eh?

Check out the new search function for “this site.” It’s powered by Atomz and works real swell. I haven’t done much with search templates, but the results are there. I had to do some tweaking with the site template to get it to pick up the archives, because the links are dynamically generated in Blogger (if anyone needs to know how to do this, email me).

I like the search function; It’s hard for me to keep up with rants, and I don’t like to be repetitive.

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Yes, you can still find some copies of “Razorback Walk-On” in selected Wal-Mart and Dollar-Saver stores.

It’s more than a blog, it’s a mind movie!
For some reason this morning, I am thinking about the time one of our relatives showed up at my parents’ house with a U-Haul full of vanity press books he’d been hawking to Wal-Mart. The short novel was entitled, “Razorback Walk-On.”

What I remember about the books (and I still have a big stack of them) is a phrase printed on the red cover: “It’s more than a book, it’s a mind movie!”

The more I think about this phrase, the more I realize how it applies to most of the good books I have read. Visual literacy is more important than textual literacy in our culture now, and fiction mainly serves to fill in the gaps between episodic theatrical releases (of course, I am talking about mainstream fiction, not the stuff they pretend is important up there in da un-a-vars-i-ty).

I can’t pretend anymore that I’d rather read the book than see the movie.

Finished a 150-mile Poker Run today. Saw some beautiful scenery and the weather was just right, almost fall-like. We didn’t have a good hand, but we did get a special card entering us into a drawing for that giant Honda VLX bike. If we win, we’ll sell it and get one of those new Minis.

It was nice to see so many different riders represented. In today’s bike market, it makes about as much sense to buy a Harley as it does a Cadillac. There are just too many good choices out there. But, hey, if ya need the brand identity, go for it.

The nicest thing about BMWs is how easy they are to work on. In 20 minutes today, I popped out all the brake pads and resurfaced them. Voila! No more break squeal! (Das skreechen in der squeezum-stoppens ist kaput!)

We should all be very afraid of the looming crackdown on file sharers. Yep, that’s shar-ERS not shar-ING.

This heralds the New, Digital McCarthyism, in which we are all asked, “Have you now or have you ever downloaded a copyrighted MP3?” Get ready to hand over a list of friends who “shared” a new hit song with you a few weeks ago. Don’t worry if you can’t remember; your ISP keeps a list.

More likely, we’ll all just be herded into “retail-containment” facilities, where we’ll pay for our malappropriated files with hard labor, busting rocks to the tune of (licensed) Muzac. It could happen. Look how much money the big media companies donate to political causes.

What we need now is Art to combat this assault on liberty. Remember the fun Zappa had with the PMRC in the 80s? Remember Dee Snider testifying in front of Tipper Gore? Too bad the current crop of musical artists are political eunuchs. We need for Art to be free. At least, we need real Art to be free. I’d be happy if the record companies would just admit 90 percent of the crap they put out is fake, like wrestling. Go ahead and enforce copyright on that stuff; I’d not notice.

If there’s going to be an uprising, it’ll have to come from the least commerically viable music genre — the one with the least to lose when all real music becomes open source — the one cheapest to produce. Yes, Bluegrass is the answer! Radical, hardcore, anti-RIAA, high-lonesome hootenanny!

Coming soon:

“I File-shared Your Heart, Now Your Love’s All Over Town”

RIP, Biscuit, the large one-eyed orange cat. He was a good companion for many years, moving with me to various locales without a complaint. Diabetes and old age (12?) were the culprits. He was mercifully dispatched by a caring vet and among friends.

He spent the last few years down the street from us most of the time, mainly with a family whose children pretty much adopted him. Being an “only cat” made it difficult for him to get along with our other animals. We still considered him part of our family, though, as did the many people on our street who fed him. He would nap on a different porch each day, which, for a cat, has to be pretty close to paradise.

I’m not sure what kitty-heaven is like, but if it’s any better for cats than this world, I’d like a shot at it.

So long, old pal.