Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site ever
April 23, 2023
Art, Guitars and Music, Weird Beatles Leave a comment
I often have this little fantasy dream in which, on Saturday, July 6, 1957, when Paul McCartney met John Lennon, there was a little bit where the two of them were alone together. John asked Paul, “Okay; you’re good. What would you bring to my band?”
And Paul gives out with this 6-1/2 minutes and says, “Because 12 years from now, our music together will conclude with that.”
And John says, “Lemme think about it . . .”
March 16, 2023
Art, Comic Books, Strange and Pointless Leave a comment
So without getting political about it, the attached may soon be of real value. Not crypto-currency; let’s call it comi-currency.
If the attempted use of this gets you in a jam, please don’t come crying to me.
February 10, 2023
Art, Guitars and Music 6 Comments
This won’t be a full-blown review, but simply a post to show some photos of my 1981 Les Paul Custom I was lucky enough to find on Reverb.com a few years ago. Bracing myself for Patty’s sweet little “You bought another WHAT?!?!?!?” comment, I waited as best I could for the FedEx guy so I could slide that packing box into the garage unseen. Didn’t work, never has! Wives can smell a new guitar.
Anyway, this lovely unit is darn near mint and so lovely. For the folks who know about such niceties, it has Tim Shaw pickups, and the seldom-seen speed-wind tuners and the diamond-shaped strap knobs. It’s so clean and unmodified; the “gold-plating” on the hardware is still pretty-much intact and that stuff goes away if you just look too hard at it.
It has the low and wide frets, not unlike my old Mosrite, and they don’t bother me a bit.
According to a 1981 Gibson price list I found online, this baby cost $1,049 and another $99.50 for the chainsaw case. Thanks to whomever bought this baby, played it for a month or so, and then slid it under their bed!
Only problem is that it weighs 10-1/2 pounds. Well, I play sitting down, anyhow. ENJOY THE PHOTOS!!!
February 10, 2023
Adventures as a customer!, Art, MYSTERIES!!!, Strange and Pointless, Weird Leave a comment
Slip on these anti-static slippers and turn the temp down; these computers run hot! Plug into an orange outlet and let’s welcome the day by saying goodbye to some old friends:
Goodbye to QuarkXPress, Aldus Freehand, Pagemaker, WordPerfect, Word Star, Ventura Publisher, Harvard Graphics, Corel Draw, Digital Darkroom, ColorStudio, ImageStudio, Aldus Persuation, Lotus 123,Lotus Symphony, StuffIt . . .
And to our old pals, Digital Nation, Apple eVillage, and Compuserve.
It’s been fun, floppy disks, Winchester drives, Zip disks, SyQuest disks, Jaz disks.
I still have my Mac Portable but I waved bye-bye to my Apple IIe, my Apple Newton, my Apple Lisa, and my Timex/Sinclair! I never could afford the Next!!!
My wife made my toss the little aquarium I made from my original Mac after our second replacement beta fish died
October 11, 2021
Art cartoons, digital art 1 Comment
Hey, there! Now that I’m mostly retired and resettled in my old stomping grounds of SW Somewhere-or-other, I’ve decided to start drawing again.
What prompted this insanity was reading some old “Thimble Theatre” cartoons by the brilliant EC Segar. My drawing style, 35 years ago, was like a bad combination of George Herriman, R Crumb, and Segar, and that won’t change. Don’t expect too much!
So here is my first effort: Our backyard oak tree with a squirrel and a blue jay eating peanuts, provided by Patty. Shortly after her first toss yesterday morning, we had—at one time—four doves, three squirrels, a bunny, three woodpeckers, and a blue jay.
Enjoy and more to come!
August 14, 2019
Art, Fountain Pens Yard-O-Led 2 Comments
Shipping a lovely fountain pen hand-crafted with care by a few skilled English artisans back to the factory became an expensive lesson!
How could that happen?
As much as I hate to admit it, I should have looked into the process of shipping something overseas from the US. You can perhaps benefit from my ignorance, and it won’t cost you a dime!
Follow this story here!
Background: This lovely Yard-O-Led pen is a 2001 Viceroy Standard lined fountain pen with a #5 medium nib. Absolutely gorgeous pen! I purchased it used and it just didn’t write as well as it should. It was a hard-starter and railroaded, which means it sometimes made a parallel double line of ink when pressure was applied during writing. I decided to send it back to Yard-O-Led in England to have the pen inspected and a broad nib installed.
If you are unfamiliar with YOL pens, they are crafted with astonishing care by a small operation in Birmingham, England. Made of solid and hallmarked sterling silver, the looks, balance, and obvious craftsmanship of these pens are second to none. I have many wonderful fountain pens, some of which exceed the Yard-O-Leds in price, but nothing comes close to how nice these pens look and feel in the hand.
The nibs are solid gold, plated with nickel, so the nib color matches the rest of the pen. Nice!
Yard-O-Led fountain pens can use either a international ink cartridge or the provided ink converter. The cap is not threaded, but closed with a satisfying click when slipped on. I like that a lot!
First update! The shipping from the US to Birmingham, England, was PRICEY! Even using the cheapest rate offered by UPS, my chosen carrier, the shipping was $135.
I insured the pen for $1,300, and that was probably a mistake. Even though the pen was just being sent to Yard-O-Led for repair, my package was hung up in UK Customs. I had to create an invoice for the package. Then, I was charged by UK Customs $400. YIKES!
Of course, all this took a week of back and forth.
I must say the folks at Yard-O-Led were as helpful as they could be. Once the pen was finally in their hands, I was emailed an extremely detailed list of what was wrong with the nib and feeding mechanism, exactly what needed repair or replacement, and, because of my out-of-pocket costs, YOL very kindly waived my repair fee and the return shipping.
They did not have to do that.
Neither the high shipping cost nor the UK Customs fee was going into their pocket.
The Yard-O-Led staff I emailed with could not have been more helpful and kind. And, though I hate to admit it, I was cranky at this whole situation. So the YOL staff maintained a totally professional attitude while dealing with an upset client who clearly didn’t understand how to ship something overseas in a cost-effective way.
Should I have guessed what would happen with my shipment to YOL? Probably, but I have not shipped to the UK before, and was unfamiliar with the process.
The YOL staff said my repairs, including a week of testing the pen, should be completed and the pen shipped to me the week of Labor Day!
Please check in a few days and I’ll give a review of the pen and how it writes with its new broad nib.
The return of my Yard-O-Led pen!
Wow! My pen came back a couple of weeks ago. Many things prevented me from writing this, and I apologize for that. I could not be happier. First, some photos:
The new nib—broad, this time—rocks! Of course it’s smooth, but it seems to use any ink with no problems and I just love the line width. The line it produces might be a tad thinner than some other broad nibs I have from other makers, but it’s just perfect for me. Starts perfectly, no railroading, and perfect in terms of wetness. Yes!
I’ve used several inks so far, and have settled—for now, at least—on Rohrer & Klingner Verdigris, which I’d describe as a dark blue-green/black. I love it. I got mine from Brian Goulet of Goulet Pens in a sample assortment, and immediately bought a bottle. Great ink and perfect for this pen.
Perhaps I have far too many luxury pens, but this one takes the cake and the others are, sadly, being ignored. This Yard-O-Led is my daily writer now and I can’t imagine that changing. Here’s why:
I told you how well it writes. Beyond that, there is a serene elegance that no other pen I have can approach. Look at the photos of either end of the pen. Classic design and proportions. I find myself just gazing at this thing. It soothes me. Just so perfect!
Another quality of my Yard-O-Led is the oddly satisfying click it makes when you replace the cap. I much prefer a non-threaded cap for some reason, and have few: a wonderful 1990s ST Dupont Fidelio, a 1960s Montblanc 14 (broad italic nib!), my Parker 51s and 75s, but none have this distinct quality when being closed. I guess my Parker 75s come closest to this feel and sound, and perhaps it’s because they, too, are sterling silver. This pen posts perfectly, by the way.
Finally, a huge thanks to Alex Roden, Yard-O-Led’s workshop manager, and Sandra Floyd for the unmatched service they provided for me. Their pride in their product and their commitment to quality are a benefit to Yard-O-Led, and to us—the happy Yard-O-Led owners!
December 27, 2015
Art, Guitars and Music Billy Gibbons, Blackguard, Broadcaster, Leo Fender, Nacho Baños, NachoCaster, Nocaster, Stratocaster, Tele, Telecaster 8 Comments
Anyone who’s read my eclectic blog knows my love and reverence for Leo Fender and his creations. Here’s the story of a gentleman who shares that and uses it to make the world a better place.
Tragic but true:
Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, there were few who had much interest in older instruments. You could buy ‘em cheap, because they were just old guitars.
Here’s a photo of our old Boy Howdy Band, taken in Naples, Florida, in June, 1972. From left to right are my still-best friend, John Klingler, drummer Mike Collins, and me on bass. My bass back then was a used Gibson EB-3. The guitar John’s holding is a 1952 Fender Telecaster.
Old Teles and their predecessors — made by Leo Fender’s small company from 1950 to 1954 — are now reverently called “Blackguards,” because of the single-ply black pickguards Leo fitted them with. These early Fender guitars — the Esquire, Broadcaster, one with no model name now called a “NoCaster,” and the Telecaster — all looked much alike, sharing the neck headstock, body shape, pickguards, and control layout.
Today, John’s Telecaster, if in nice condition, would be worth $50,000 or more. John bought it in Tampa for $250 in 1972 and proceeded to sand it to bare wood, stain it, route a hole for an old humbucking pickup in the neck position, and fit it with a pickguard he made.
I watched him do it and neither of us gave it much thought. John was handy and was just customizing an old guitar.
After playing the modified Tele for a few months, John sold it to someone for $250 and bought a beautiful Gibson Firebird. But this little anecdote just proves that old Telecasters were not, at that time, recognized as being particularly valuable . . . except by a few unusually perceptive people.
Meet Nacho Baños:
Let’s meet someone who was not only perceptive, but went on to “write the book” on old Teles and related Fender guitars. He’s regarded as the world’s foremost expert on Leo Fender’s guitars, and, happily, is generous enough to share that info with anyone.
Nacho Baños, a native of Spain, was in the U.S. working on his MBA in the early 1990s. He fell in love with the Telecaster, especially the original Teles. He scrimped and saved to buy them when he could, and over the years began to amass an incredible amount of info. He took photos of Teles and their component parts, and talked with others who shared his enthusiasm. Nacho is an absolute gentleman with a engaging personality, and soon gained a worldwide reputation for his knowledge and the kindness with which he shared it. The attached ToneQuest Report magazine has his bio and an interview, and I urge you to read it. They call Nacho The King of the Telecasters, and he is, of course, that and more:
The book:
Eventually, Nacho decided to write a book, and THE BLACKGUARD — Telecaster Style Guitars from 1950- 1954, was published in 2004 or so and is considered the bible of Telecaster lore. At over 400 pages, the 12” x 12” book, with its slipcover, weighs over 10 pounds and has over 2,000 highly detailed color photos of 50 early Esquires, Broadcasters, NoCasters and Telecasters. The amount of info in this volume is stunning.
Nacho self-published 5,500 of these books, and, knowing print production like I do, I suspect that he sold them at about half of what they cost him to print. Proceeds from the book went — I told you Nacho was an absolute gentleman — to establish a foundation building homes and a school for the poor in India and providing clean water in Africa.
I treasure my copy (#3196), not only for the images and information in it, but for the gracious inscription Nacho penned in my copy. The book is out-of-print — if you see one for sale, buy it — but this website has many photos and gives you an idea of Nachos’ love and knowledge:
The Blackguard Book
Nacho nails the Blackguard:
With the help of some famed guitar-slingers and old-world craftsmen, Nacho has somehow arranged to make a few reproductions of some early Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars. They are jawdroppingly accurate, and — best of all — they are sold at about a tenth of what a vintage guitar costs. As lovers of fine old paintings revere every crack in the varnish on an old masterpiece, so do those of us who love the old Fenders.
Two gents who know their Teles! Nacho and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.
Using the best components money can buy, and guided by years of examining — and owning and playing — hundreds of the old Fenders, Nacho has nailed the look, feel, and tone of these old classics. Uncanny. He also recreates Statocasters from the days of Buddy Holly.
Here’s the website to learn more and see some photos of these guitars:
Labors of love from a man whose love for Leo Fender’s creations have shaped his life and brought joy to so many other guitar lovers. And, along the way, homes for families, and a school for their kids, and clean water for whose who wouldn’t otherwise have it.
Leo would be proud.
November 8, 2014
Art, Comic Books, Old Photos, Strange and Pointless Billy the Kid, kid comic books Leave a comment
William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. c.1859-1861 – July 14, 1881), also known as William Antrim and Kid Antrim, was a 19th-century gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War in New Mexico and became a frontier outlaw in the American West. According to legend, he killed twenty-one men, but it is generally believed he only killed eight. He killed his first man on August 17, 1877, at around 17 years of age.
At the time Bonney was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett at Pete Maxwell’s place at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, the nickname of “Billy, The Kid” (note the comma and capitalization used back then) had just started being applied to him. He was usually just called The Kid. The usage of calling a young person a “kid” was known for hundreds of years prior to Bonney, but it seems to have only become common around the 1840s.
In the world of comic books, there have been a great many Kids. In a quick search, I found a few for you:
Colorado Kid
Cheyenne Kid
Arizona Kid
Durango Kid
Cisco Kid
Apache Kid
Sundance Kid
Reno Kid
Two-Gun Kid
Kid Slade
Kid from Dodge City
Frisco Kid
Kid Cowboy
Presto Kid
Texas Kid
Ringo Kid
Oklahoma Kid
Cotton Kid
Hollywood Kid
Star Kid
Outlaw Kid
Kid Montana
Western Kid
Rawhide Kid
Fargo Kid
Kid Colt
Billy the Kid
Stardust Kid
Lemonade Kid
Dynamite Kid
Many of these were published by Timely/Atlas/Marvel, and they also put out a comic book called Tough Kid Squad during WWII:
In Italy, a comic book publisher printed a version of the Superman character, using old American comic book art (at least in the couple of examples I have) and called him the Nembo Kid:
Nembo Kid translates, I believe, to “Cloud Man,” and that’s a little odd sounding to me. Maybe it plays better in Italian. Because Superman’s “S” shield wouldn’t work for a guy who’s name started with an N, the Italian publisher just blanked it out and colored the empty pentagon shape yellow or sometimes red. I really liked how that Italian comic publisher colored Batman. Since they were playing with Batman’s colors, they could easily have fixed what I considered Robin’s biggest defect: his naked legs. Just color his legs green, yellow, or red, for God’s sake. But, nooooo:
There was also a Quality Comics character named Kid Eternity. He had a particularly lame costume and his power was that a fat angel could help him summon real and fictional folks from the past to help in his adventures. I don’t much care for Kid Eternity, though his stories usually had some great art, which was true of all the Quality Comics line. After an impressive Golden Age run with great characters like the Blackhawks, Plastic Man, the Spirit, and tons of others, their publisher, Busy Arnold, packed it up in the early 1950s. He sold his characters to DC Comics and retired to Naples, Florida. Had I known, of course, that he was living in Naples I would have looked him up!!!
Other “Kid” characters, like Kid Flash, came and went, but the Western comic books with their army of Kids are what we’re here for today. Enjoy these great covers!
Great posture was as important as skill with a six-gun for this kid:
Of all the Atlas/Marvel Western kids, none had a better costume than the Ringo Kid:
Painted comic book covers weren’t common in old comics, and I never liked them. They just seemed jarring to me when used for a throwaway art form:
Billy the Kid made it into comic books a couple of times. In Fawcett Comic’s version, he was a goat:
Later, as published by the abysmally written, printed, and, said some, Mafia-connected Charlton Comics, he was a human, though out of register on the interior pages. I despised Charlton Comics; even if the art was good, the crap stories and bottom-of-the-barrel printing offended me:
Here are some other kids from the West.
EXCITING UPDATE!
Can’t believe it’s been a year since I posted to my blog. I blame myself. Anyway, if you keep up with the news, you’ll have heard that a third, previously unknown photo of Billy the Kid has come to light. It shows him, of all things, playing croquet in 1878 with his pals at their hideout in New Mexico. It’s estimated to bring $5 million at auction, but you can see it here for free!
Billy is shown on the right in this closeup of the 4″x5″ tintype. Since it’s a tintype, the left-to-right is flopped, as in the original of the photo at the top of this blog entry. I corrected the left-to-right then, but am too lazy this evening.
But wait; there’s more! Here’s a Billy the Kid comic book cover from a series published by Toby Comics in the early 1950s:
And, finally, a Durango Kid cover from the long-running series published by Magazine Enterprises:
June 1, 2014
Art, Cars I've Known, Guitars and Music Barris Kustom guitar, Batmobile, Bob Shade, Carvin AP6, Carvin pickup, George Barris, Hallmark Guitar, Monkeemobile, Munster Koach Leave a comment
One of my more unusual guitars is a Hallmark Barris Kustom from Bob Shade. This guitar is shaped and painted to replicate custom-hotrod-builder George Barris’ personal crest. Barris, a buddy of Shade, is the fellow who designed what I consider to be the koolest kar ever made: The TV show Batmobile:
Barris is called the King of the Kustomizers; he also designed and built the Munster Koach, the Beverly Hillbillies’ truck, the Kitt car, the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee, and the MonkeeMobile, among a host of others:
Back to this guitar. Bob, whom I’ve known for 20 years, has given me some good deals and trades on guitars and in return I’ve given him my trifling skills as a photographer, writer, and/or sketch artist/designer. We have fun together because we love guitars and kool kars and we both have a wacky sense of humor. Since the Barris Kustom guitar Bob made as a six-stringed version of Barris’ crest is either a prototype or a mistake, it doesn’t have exactly the same control circuitry his production models have. It has a single knob for volume and a single Shade-recreation of the early 1950s Carvin AP6 pickup. No tone control.
That being said, it is one of the best-sounding and playing guitars I have. It has a maple/rosewood neck of the Tele/Strat scale, though bound. It’s a solid body and fairly lightweight. It comes with Bob’s version of the old Mosrite tremolo. The Carvin-clone pickup gives it a spanky yet very articulate sound, especially since I use LaBella light-gauge flatwound strings on all of my electric guitars. It sure doesn’t look like a run-of-the-mill guitar, does it?
Played through one of my old Fender tube amps at jams and such, this guitar is amazing. Like an acoustic guitar, the lack of tone controls or a second pickup forces the player to make any sound changes with his fingers: Where the pick or fingers strike the strings, how hard, how frequently. With that AP6-type pickup, all those dynamics come through and it just sounds great in any mix and on any song, whether it’s Blind Albert Reed, Buddy Holly, or John Denver.
Kool guitar!!! Thanks, Bob and George!!!
August 11, 2013
Art, Comic Books 75 Years of DC Comics, DC Comics, Paul Levitz 2 Comments
A precursor of The Office’s Jim Halpert looks at comics on sale. Oddly enough, not one DC comic on this rack. Based on the cover of Don Winslow of the Navy #26 and Red Band Comics #4 or 5 (both used the same art!), this was taken in March of 1945.
As a kid, I would read any comic book I could get my hands on, but my favorites were DC Comics. The writing, characters and production values were, to me, the best of anything out there. I liked other brands, like Harvey, Archies and Dell, but DC was tops.
Marvel Comics, at that time, was not making superhero comics; their offerings were mainly books about monsters or takeoffs on comics produced by other companies. If Harvey Comics put out Casper, the Friendly Ghost, Marvel would put out Homer, the Happy Ghost, and Charlton Comics, the bottom of the barrel in production values, put out Timmy, the Timid Ghost. One day, I’ll do a blog entry on the laughable print quality of Charlton Comics; they were usually printed so far out of register that they looked like the old red-blue 3-D comics.
So it was mainly DC for me!
My primary fascination was the drawing, but I was also intrigued by the production aspects of the things:
• How did they get from typewriter and pencil to the finished book?
• How did they print the 64 colors used?
• How come some comics used line screens for colors and some used dot screens?
• How did they get the logos and such so perfect on each issue?
• Who owned the company (DC at that time was called National Periodical Publications, Inc)?
• How did all the drugstores and newsstands get these books on the racks every other Tuesday morning?
• How much did the ads in the books cost and did they bring in dimes from the readers?
• How many copies of each comic did they print?
• How come some comics were monthlies and some were bi-monthlies?
• Why was the cost a dime?
What kind of company makes comic books?!?!??
When I was a kid, drugs stores were the best place to buy comics, as they seemed to carry all the issues published. Based on the cover of Action Comics #243 in this photo, it was taken in May of 1958. Yes; I am a geek! Had this photo been taken in Pascagoula, Mississippi, that could have been me in the pale jacket reading Strange Tales #65.
That was the stuff I wondered about.
I needed the following book: 75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking, written by Paul Levitz, former president and publisher of DC Comics.
Nice touch: The title lettering mimics the lettering used on DC’s Action and Adventure comic book titles.
720 pages in a large, 15-1/2″ x 11-1/2″ format, weighing in at about 15 pounds, this is a stunner of a book. Absolutely engrossing, written in an amusing yet authoritative style, it’s simply the best history of comic books out there, and I’ve read ’em all. It’s expensive at over $150, but if that’s what it costs, so be it. It’s well worth more than that.
The book, heavily illustrated with comic covers and interior pages as you might expect, is augmented by rare photos of DC folks, from founders Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz to production folks like Sol Harrison, Jack Adler, and, of course, many of the art and writing talents from DC’s history. Associated media, like cartoons, TV shows and films are well covered, too.
For me, whose interest in primarily in the marketing and print-production aspects of the comic books, a fascinating discovery was the cover/sales chart sheets kept by Irwin Donenfeld, Irwin was the son of DC co-founder Harry Donenfeld, and was co-owner, editorial director and vice-president of DC from about 1948 to 1968. These hand-drawn charts showed the covers of each DC comic by month, with notations of the size of the print run and percentage of copies sold written under each cover.
Notice the Batman logo change on this series of covers from the mid-1960s; one of Irwin Donenfeld’s sales charts.
Brilliant.
75 Years of DC Comics: Buy it, borrow it or check it out from a library; it is an amazing piece of work! You will learn something new on every page and the visual appeal is breathtaking. Here’s the Barnes & Noble info:
Jim's World and Welcome To It 