THIS IS NOT A TEST

d gray

d gray

tried to do his best but could not
Founding member
good episode!

extreme collecting is a sickness. i guess any level of it is.

one day, i looked around at all the shit i was "collecting" and imagined, like you said, someone having to do something with it after i died and felt embarrassed.

that kind of ended it.

well, it narrowed it down to one or two things. or three.

no need to get crazy about not collecting shit... .
 
skiroomalum

skiroomalum

I had a really solid collection of Topps cards as a kid. The need for booze when I was broke in college
took care of those cards for pennies on the dollar. For some reason, I've been investigating card prices
lately and was shocked to see how that market has devalued. I was going to replace some of the ones
( especially Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente) that had some meaning and could have
done so for really reasonable amounts, but thought, what am I going to do with them? There's a freedom
in no longer giving a shit, but also middle-aged sadness in being beyond that.
 
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mjp

mjp

Founding member
Purple Stickpin said:
The baseball card market [...] sure has crashed back to Earth.
Click to expand...
With the exception of a handful of legitimately rare older cards. You could buy a '52 Topps Mantle (ungraded) for one or two grand in the early 90s, depending on condition. I saw half a dozen of them in shops around Los Angeles. Now they sell for six figures. One sold in August for almost $400,000. They say if any of the really high grade ones ever came up for auction they could probably fetch $650,000.

Back in 1986 the guy who bought the stash that included all of the really high grade Mantles that exist today paid $125,000 for the whole case. 42 like-new Mantles in there. He sold them all in the 80s and made $475,000 in the process. If you sold those now you'd probably pull in 10 times more.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I don't blame you, I used to be the same way. That's one of the things I talked about.
 
the only good poet

the only good poet

One retreat after another without peace.
I visited a new dentist yesterday. As she bore down, removing tar, I felt pain and inadvertently let out AH! She paused, then, without reassurance, she returned to the drill. It was unsettling. I have to return in three months. I plan to be scrupulous with the brush in the meantime.
 
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mjp

mjp

Founding member
Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream? THIS IS NOT A TEST #44

The title is a quote from Homer Simpson, but don't we find our truth in our comedy? While we talk about work we'll also gossip about commuting, the skyway system in St. Paul, Bob Marley, counting songs, Greek philosophers, Martin Luther, farming, disease and death, Indians, craftsmen, the rise of the machines, factories, labor unions, computers, small printing shops, accountants, Walmart, pig farms, being a millionaire, meteors, getting a text during dinner, alien invasions, 16 weeks of vacation and stock options, gold watches and bite plates.

http://thisisnotatest.com/kill-my-boss-do-i-dare-live-out-the-american-dream-this-is-not-a-test-44

this-is-number-44.jpg
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
When are you too old to "rock"? THIS IS NOT A TEST #45

Rock and roll, who's game is it? I can tell you. And what about Halloween? What's up with that? Plus a love letter to Sonny Vincent, hate mail to prog rock, the joys of mindlessness, paternity suits, being the captain of your own pirate ship, walking a cat on a leash, interesting hats, true believers, flannel shirts, tar kettles, hallucinations, and Twitter. And yes, that is indeed a picture of Sonny wearing his Beatle boots with pajamas. As if to illustrate a point or something.

http://thisisnotatest.com/when-are-you-too-old-to-rock-this-is-not-a-test-45

this-is-number-45.jpg
 
roni

roni

Apropos de Sonny: Do you remember I've met him in Bamberg many years ago, where he was with a local "musician" who happenes to be a friend of mine, Else Admire? Said guy will release his latest album in 2 weeks (only on vinyl of course - true punk-attitude) and it still sounds (like it always did with Else) like the worst singing AND engineering ever even in terms of punk.

I shot the back-cover of this new LP (it was his idea - so ubercool - to photograph the band in front of an atomic power plant that was about to be abandoned, but still working at the time). I like that guy, I do.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Self-publishing: is it just the vanity press wearing a DIY mask? THIS IS NOT A TEST #46

Self-publishing - what is it? Why should you care? Well I don't know, why should you care about anything? But if it doesn't interest you, we also have renovations, elevators and what people write in them, pissing, the possibility of executing certain types of people (not you), housewives and uneducated dandies, being deemed worthy, Thomas Edison, the mimeograph, X-acto knives, The Nincompoop Quarterly, exposure for artists, Kinkos, anarchy, Achilles, amateurs, cream, burritos, lipstick, Amazon (not the river), pundits, gain, loss, Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, Saturday Night Live and humanity as a whole.

http://thisisnotatest.com/self-publ...ress-wearing-a-diy-mask-this-is-not-a-test-46

this-is-number-46.jpg
 
Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
I usually listen via the Stitcher page proper, and it seems the latest episode (self publishing) hasn't uploaded. Thought I'd mention it, in case this isn't intentional.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Ah, so you're the one! ;) I don't get a lot of action on Stitcher.

They pull the episodes from my RSS feed, I don't upload them, so it's just a problem with their importing this week. They have updating problems sometimes, according to what I've read from others.
 
Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
Well, that's par for the course....as wherever the action is, I'm usually somewhere else.
 
Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
Stitcher still isn't updated, but managed to give it a listen. Great episode, man. Direct to the people indeed!
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Well I figured out why it didn't update, but in the process of doing that I just listened to a minute or two of an episode on Stitcher, and Jesus, it sounds like shit! I spend a lot of time and money making it sound good and they've just compressed it down to a shrill, warbly mess. I'm pulling it off of there as soon as I can.

Sorry Hosho.

But thanks for inadvertently alerting me to what's going on over there. ;)
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Most of the downloads/listens come from iTunes. I don't use it myself, but apparently a big part of the podcast listening world does.

Almost as many downloads come from Soundcloud. I did a test with a free account there where I listed the five most recent episodes, and the number of listeners surprised me, so now I pay for an account that lets me have all of the episodes available.

I'm on a short list to get onto Spotify, they are slowly adding podcasts in a kind of pilot program, but they are adding the popular shows first, naturally. I'm also on something called Tune in, that I'd never heard of, but people listen there too.

Having said all that, I always try to get people to go to the site, you can listen to everything there. It works on a phone or computer, so if you don't have a podcast app that you use, it's probably the best bet.

Google is adding podcasts to the Google Play Music store, and I'm all set up there for whenever they decide to launch. When that happens everyone with an Android phone (the rest of the world that doesn't have iPhones) will have a lot easier time listening to podcasts. One day Google may get with the times and put a podcast player onto Android phones, the way Apple did on iPhones. That would open up a potential audience of, oh, a billion people.

I may also just leave the thing on Stitcher, but there are really so few listeners there that the quality thing really makes me wonder if it's worth it.

How's that for a tedious answer to a simple question?
 
Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
So, Stitcher aside, is the sound quality across the rest relatively consistent...or does one beat the rest hands down?
 
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