09Feb 2022 by R&O No Comments
10 Vinyl Records You Need To Own

10 Vinyl Records You Need To Own

Entertainment, Music
As mentioned in a previous post, vinyl is back but it's expensive and harder to find than ever before. The battle these days is to find copies of surviving or reissued albums worth your time and money. I suggest you get yourself copies of the following ten albums which may be available in your local record store or on Discogs, eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and one of the many online sources for quality vinyl. Be warned that you may have to hunt for quality copies as most have not been reissued. My tastes are eclectic and may or may not be your cup of tea but have a listen to cuts from each album using the YouTube player below. If you're reasonably impressed, do yourself a favour and get a…
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17Jan 2022 by R&O No Comments
Vinyl Gold

Vinyl Gold

Music, Observations
I started collecting vinyl records back in the early 70's when my dear mum bought me a 45rpm copy of Cream's Crossroads from a junk store on Fort Street in Victoria. And so began my love of the format that was king until October 1, 1982 when the first commercial compact disc, Billy Joel's 52nd Street, was released in Japan. After that, it was a downward spiral for the format that had ruled the music market my entire life. I embraced compact discs like everyone else as their size, durability and ability to play an entire album without flipping the record easily made my vinyl collection obsolete within a short period of time. Everything about the CD was great. Except the sound. My first CD purchase was Dou3le by the…
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03Jul 2020 by R&O No Comments
My little mixer

My little mixer

Life, Music
Way back in 1983, my brother and I discovered the Realistic 32-1200B Stereo Mixing Console, a relatively cheap little mixer available only at our local Radio Shack store. It was a revelation as it allowed us to produce quality mixed tapes for ourselves, each other and friends using two turntables and copious amounts of time. These were the days before digital audio, streaming services and Amazon Alexa. Mixing music was time consuming and required a certain amount of skill and those that were blessed with our quality mixed tapes were appreciative and usually requested more. The price was an issue. The 1983 price of USD $119.95 (as shows in the US catalogue below) converted to 2020 dollars is $308.78 and then converted to 2020 CDN dollars is $418.80. That would…
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13Sep 2014 by R&O No Comments
U2 Toilet Virus

U2 Toilet Virus

Entertainment, Internet, Music, Rants, Technology
I was cleaning my house yesterday and finally got around to scrubbing out the toilet, my least favourite job and the most emotionally traumatizing part of the home sanitation process. Lifting the toilet seat I was quite shocked to discover U2's new release 'Songs of Innocence' floating around in the bowl. I don't listen to U2, don't like their music and really dislike the uber-douche Bono along with his disingenuous, hand-wringing, self-aggrandizing, political whinging. He's a wanker with silly sunglasses. After some investigation I discovered that U2 has reached agreements with every municipal government to have the their shit album pumped into every home on the planet. Shiny new copies of their lame aural effort will be pushed through water systems and into the poop-pots of every household on the…
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