Author: stx

The Coast Is Clear

Miscellaneous

I’m partial to buying what some what call junk from Aliexpress, so recently I had a need for some cheap coasters and figured I’d have a look there for something suitable. There’s little point in my buying those in Switzerland, they’ll be 10 times the price.

There’s the danger of buying something from Aliexpress that turns out to be a photo or a poster of the item if I’m not careful, especially it seems in the area of toolsets, but that’s part of the thrill I guess. And I realise I’m probably subjecting myself to the whims of big Algorithm feeding into big data for the Chinese Government, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. And I really needed a Do Not Disturb sign for my office door.

Anyway, I found some vinyl coasters that were a couple of bucks and that’s kind of my thing, so I bought a pack and it’s arrived today.

Pen
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November 15th 1896, The Phonoscope

Miscellaneous
The Phonoscope

“A Monthly Journal Devoted to Scientific & Amusement Inventions appertaining to Sound & Sight.”

VOICES OF THE DEAD. - The Possibilities of the Talking Machine. EDISON. How he Works and Rests. TALKING MACHINES. The Phonograph, Graphophone, Gramophone and Metaphone. AUTOMATIC SLOT MACHINES. New Devices and Items of General Interest. ’GRAPHS, ’PHONES AND ’SCOPES. The Artograph, Zero graph, Radiophone, Megaphone and Cathoscope. THE X-RAYS. Its Successful Practical Uses. Dangerous Effects by Its Use. RECENT INVENTIONS. The Duplex Diaphragm. The Multiplex Phonograph. THE TALKING MACHINE LITIGATION. Dispute Between the Phonograph and Graphophone Interests. PICTURE PROJECTING DEVICES. Devices for Project ing, Enlarging and Animating Photographs of Objects in Motion. The Vitascope, Phantoscope, Eidoloscope, Bio graph, Cinematographe, Theatrograph and Kineopticon. NEW RECORDS FOR TALKING MACHINES. New Records Manufactured by the Leading Companies. THE LATEST POPULAR SONGS. List of the latest successes. ITEMS OF INTEREST. Trade Notes. News and Interviews. Foreign Correspondence. New Films for Projecting Devices. Exhibitors Directory. Letters. Talent. Screen Squibs. General .News Relating to Inventions Appertaining to Sound and Sight.
Principle Features of this Number.

As ever, many thanks to the unsleeping scanner of World Radio History for this gem. We’ll get to the charts of the era eventually, but not before some unspeakable horrors and duplicity.

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January 1987, LM Magazine 00

LM

(This was originally posted in 2019, but with a crappy scanned version of the magazine. Finally got round to revisiting it properly.)

This is the preview issue of LM given away with Crash, Zzap & whatever the Amstrad one was called. Tone is a bit different from the proper issues, but it’s kind of a gateway issue.

This was the belly band wrapper which stuck the mag to it’s computer sibling at Christmas 1986.
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The Fantastic Adventures of Adam Ant

Comics
Tops insert Promo for the Fantastic Adventures of Adam Ant
Tops Promo (inner)
Tops Promo (back)

The Fantastic Adventures of Adam Ant was a comic strip appearing in Tops (later TV Tops) magazine, published by DC Thomson as a rival to Look-In Magazine. I’ve been trying to find scans of this for some time, it’s not been easy to track down but I’ve gathered bits and pieces so it’s probably time to try and assemble it all in one place. The story is barely coherent (even less so when I’ve only been able to source one page of an issue) but the core theme appears to be a Quantum Leap-ish time travel plot with various personas worn by Adam.

The magazine featured photos of Adam pretty much every week so this is someone’s logical conclusion to ensure constant appearances of his name at the very least. The artwork was believed to be by Maureen Gray and her husband, Gordon, at least initially. The scans presented here are a mix of Mag-a-zone content from flickr, comicvine and ebay seller images. I think I scanned a couple of these, but I can’t seem to find them for sure.

Anyway, I’ll update when I find more images. I think the strip skipped a few weeks here and there and went on hiatus between 31 & 38 but again, I can’t be sure right now.

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Schrödinger’s Chart

Miscellaneous
Ravestabs at the ready!
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September 29th 1979, Record Mirror

Record Mirror

At the beginning of 1979 James Hamilton invented BPMs as a way of describing music that would become a fundamental tool in a DJ’s assortment. These numbers helped to categorise and sort music, and could help a DJ craft a set on theme and pitch. Anyway, these numbers didn’t go away.

Ask for Maurice
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