Retro Thing

Stylish Last-Minute Retro Gifts

Just because you've still got a couple of people to buy for on your Christmas list doesn't mean you have to resort to a frenetic trip to a crowded mall. There's still time to order online, and there are lots of affordable gifts that vintage aficionados will be happy to receive this year. Here are a few for under $100, curated by the Retro Thing elves.

SANGEAN WR-11 AM/FM Table Top Radio ($78)

Terrestrial analog radio still rules the roost in North America, and a decent AM/FM radio can be surprisingly useful. The Sangean WR-11 sounds great, costs well under $100 and features a real wood case and old-school styling -- a perfect countertop companion for the kitchen or workshop. Best of all, there are no monthly charges. 

Antennas Direct DB4E TV Antenna ($59)

Make 2014 the year you dump overpriced cable TV. If you live in or near a decently sized city, there's a good chance you can receive a half dozen or more digital HD television channels over the air. The good news is that over the air broadcasts are less compressed than their cable or satellite equivalents. The bad news? Digital television is an all-or-nothing proposition. While analog TV just got fuzzy with a poor antenna, digital broadcasts degrade to a pixellated mess. That's why a good antenna is essential. 

This long range model from Antennas Direct offers great suburban coverage (up to 65 mile range) without breaking the bank or requiring a signal amplifier. And if you're a satellite subscriber, you might be able to reuse your mounting post and the coax cable run from the roof. 

Sennheiser HD201 Over-Ear Headphones ($20)

Great sound for only $20? Seriously. I bought a pair of these surprisingly good headphones for my kid this year. Sadly, he spotted them in the closet mere hours before my wife began her annual present wrapping frenzy. Sennheiser is a storied German audio manufacturer that makes an astonishingly broad array of headphones. These may be inexpensive, but they offer clean and uncolored sound in a relatively sturdy package that could easily retail for twice as much. 

Seiko 5 Automatic Wristwatch ($50 and up)

I mention these every year, simply because the Seiko 5 is a rare bargain. My only warning is that giving someone an automatic watch with a clear back can lead to an expensive collecting habit. The basic models with canvas strap start at only $50, although a variety of attractive cases and metal straps can easily push the price to $100 or more. Don't expect quartz accuracy from a mechanical self-winding wristwatch, but they can be quite accurate if you take the time to regulate the mechanism (an easy task, if you're not scared of removing the back). 

HP 35s Scientific Calculator ($45)

Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP 35 -- the first handheld scientific calculator -- on February 1st 1972. It carried a list price of $395 and cemented HP's position at the forefront of the calculator business for decades to come. Almost forty years later, they're back with the HP 35s -- an affordable retro-styled handheld. It offers standard and Reverse Polish notation, 100+ built-in functions and constants and a classic Mad Men style. Assuming 1970s advertising execs could actually do math, that is...

Schiit Magni Headphone Amplifier ($100)

Schiit makes some brilliant headphone amps, and the Magni is their most affordable. Don't let the price fool you -- it's an excellent introduction to the world of hi-fi headphone amplification. You can spend a few dollars more for a model with a hybrid tube/solid state signal path, but this one is good enough that 99% of listeners will be ecstatically happy. 

Audio Technica AT-LP60USB Automatic Turntable with USB ($100)

I mentioned the non-USB version of this turntable on Retro Thing earlier this year because it's an excellent value. This version is slightly more expensive, but in return you get a USB jack for easy connection to your computer. Apart from that, things are straightforward. It plays 45 RPM and 33 1/3 RPM discs and has a switchable built-in pre-amplifier (just in case your modern stereo system doesn't have a phono input). 

That's it for this year's Retro Thing gift roundup. We hope it sparks a few brilliant present ideas and that you have a fantastic holiday, wherever you are and whomever you're with. 

1980s Sony Portable Square Speakers Rock As Hard As Round Ones

This may be a dangerous topic to bring up, but the youth simply doen't know how to party. I've been to get-togethers thrown by well-intentioned millennials who don't seem to understand how exactly a party is supposed to jam. Maybe I should be grateful since I live in a building filled with college students, but... man! We really need to drop some serious knowledge on what music is supposed to sound like.

I'm not even talking about their music choices (though I'll say that dubstep is for when you're all up in da club, not sitting around playing X-box). I'm talking about amplitude. Too often I've seen an iPod connected to a standalone dock with speakers the size of a nickel. Or music hissing out of  laptop speakers. That's not a party. Sure, those solutions are far more portable than my 4 foot high speaker towers (which one of the millennials in my life laughingly labeled "old school"), but it pretty much sounds like you're taking your favorite tunes and frying them up in a pan.

How about a compromise? Sony rolled out these portable speakers something like 30 years ago for around $100US. The Walkman revolutionized portable personal music, and these little speakers are the other half of the bargain - sharing your mixtapes with rest of the world.

The APM-090 speaker pair plug into any 1/8" jack (sorry - these speakers are decades too early for bluetooth), have a nice weight to them, and feature those mysterious square Sony speakers from the 80s. We've written about similar speakers before, and my conclusion wasn't a good one. Our readers wrote in to stick up for Sony's unusual square speakers, and they were right. There must have been something wrong with that other pair, because these little guys sound really good an they get really loud.

If you plug a music source into the speakers, you'll hear a little something, but the magic happens when you switch to using the internal amplifiers. The APM-090 can run off of wall power (so you hipster kids  have to use your artisinal AC adapter), or four C sized batteries. There's even room inside to tuck away the cords - nice touch. What looks like a second battery compartment on speaker #2 is actually just spare battery storage (which also meant that Sony could cheap out and use the same mold for both speakers.)

Small minuses - no volume control on the speakers themselves, and no off switch. The speakers automatically power down after a few minutes of not receiving a signal (a trend that a lot of current devices  follow, and I dislike). Also the foam inside the battery compartments has turned to tar, but that's true of a lot of electronics from the era. These little boxes kick out the tunes, and with the square speakers look sleek doing it. Ebay has these (and many other styles) pretty often in the $30-60 range, and I'd say it's money well spent.

The coolest thing about these speakers (besides the square speaker cones - I did mention that, right?) is they tote around on a special custom bracket. The speakers are really locked in there with a screw mechanism that you undo with a coin. Youth of the world, if you're going to bring the tunes to a party, and you can't be bothered to do the right thing and bring along a giant 80s boom box, won't you at least the AMP-090 speakers? You'll look SO indie rock, while actually enjoying your music at an audible level.

-signed,

 the bald guy with the good speakers in 2A

link:

Get your own square-shaped Sony speakers, and help keep Retro Thing rockin'

Developing A New Digital Super 8 Cartridge

Super 8 is a cartridge based movie film format. Developed in 1965 in the shadow of 16mm & Standard 8 film, the design goal was to make filmmaking easier by putting the whole film transport into an easy drop-in cartridge. In the 60s and 70s (and maybe even the 80s), anyone who was holding back from making movies could simply snap a cart into a compact camera and start shooting.

Today, the spiritual successor for easy-breezy home movie making is of course the little video camera built into smartphones. Digital home movies don't face the same 3 minute limit of a Super 8 cartridge (which isn't always a good thing), and most significantly you get synchronized sound. You can even apply digital filters while shooting to get a resulting image that sort of resembles Super 8.

Super 8 has evolved into more of a specialty look for arty projects, music videos and the like. The problem is that while Super 8 camera still have plenty of life in them, the world's supply of the film is dwindling. It's expensive to shoot Super 8, and pretty soon those gorgeous cameras could end up as dusty relics on a forgotten closet shelf.

Nolab has a different idea - one that we've fantasized about many times here on Retro Thing. They are developing a self-contained digital sensor/recorder that is the same size as a Super 8 cartridge. You snap the Nolab cart into your favorite super 8 camera, and the Nolab promises to record 720p 4:3 aspect video (though to be correct, Super 8's aspect is 1.58:1) to the internal SD card. They promise that the recorder will synchronize to the camera's shutter, and in addition to recording "clean" video, you can chose one of two "film look" filters (labeled Ektachrome and Kodachrome!) to apply during recording.

There aren't too many more details available now as Nolab is still in the early stages of development (they report that they have an early working prototype), but we have lots of questions even at this stage. Right now in the professional filmmaking world, there are two smaller "digital film" cameras getting a lot of attention. The Digital Bolex (shipping next week) and the Black Magic Pocket Cinema (one is sitting on my desk right now). Both employ what they call a "super 16" sized sensor. Smaller than a DSLR sensor, but potentially capable of tremendous dynamic range and picture quality, and both can use vintage lenses. Both are also quite expensive, and aimed at the filmmaking crowd.

Will Nolab price their Digital Super 8 Cartridge for this same group, or will it be a more affordable alternative, much the way Super 8 was? The few details on the company's web page point to something aimed at filmmakers, but I'd like to see this competitively priced. At this point they're still only talking about shooting 720p (I'd really like to see at least 1080, if not 2K shooting) with a 5 megapixel sensor. Right now the specs list h.264 format recording, which is really not good enough for the visual artists they should be including in their plans. I also hope that they don't skimp on the sensor, simply relying on the kitsch value of shooting with an old camera to sell units. I also hope that there will be some thought given to recording audio at the same time - I don't relish the "vintage" vibe of synching audio by eye later.
One more thing comes to mind - among the exciting draws of shooting with the new Digital 16 cameras is being able to shoot with vintage 16mm lenses. In the Super 8 world, few cameras had interchangeable lenses. Most were equipped with a permanent zoom lens, and that was it. The charm and nostalgia of the picture comes from the grain quality and color of the final picture rather than esoteric lens choices. I really hope that the Nolab cart is capable of those sorts of evocative visuals. Otherwise I'm just getting nice clean video through an okay lens - something I can do with the phone that's in my pocket right now.

There's clearly more to this than what they're hinting on the website... and you can expect that we'll be watching this project with much interest. I have a half dozen high end Super 8 cameras that are dying to see the sun again.

link:

Developer's website

1986 - Computer Pioneer Grace Hopper On David Letterman

David Letterman:   "How did you know so much about computers then?"
"Amazing Grace" Hopper:  "I didn't. It was the first one."

Today is Rear Admiral Grace Hopper's 107th birthday, and I couldn't be more pleased to see her honored with a Google Doodle. You probably don't know the name, but without her the world would be a very different place. The fact that you're reading these words is thanks to the creativity and talent of this amazing individual way back in the 1950s.

I first learned of Grace Hopper through a guest appearance on the NBC iteration of the Dave Letterman show. Back then I was obsessively video recording Letterman, and then dubbing over choice bits to a compilation tape. Her interview was one of the few non-comedy pieces to make it to my poor battered VHS tape (recorded at the nasty looking 6 hour speed, no less...).

Fortunately I was able to find the same clip on YouTube and share it with you here. She does a much better job telling her own story than I would, so I'll let the clip speak for itself. I'll just say that anyone who uses a computer (i.e. everybody) should really spend 10 minutes watching this clip, and reflect on just how significant Hopper's contributions are to our modern world. Imagine conjuring up those first few words of computer langauge out of the ether (language that was later namechecked by The Firesign Theater in "I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus"). She heled to popularize the term "debugging" after a dead moth gummed up the works of the Mark II computer at Harvard. So humble, so clever, and more than a match for Dave.

I'll close by adding that since seeing this clip 25 years ago, I still refer to packets of pepper as "picoseconds", and when something is delayed I use her "great number of nanoseconds" explanation all. the. time. Please watch this video - you'll be as astonished as I still am of the incredible accomplishments of this incredible person.

link:

Grace Hopper on David Leterman in 1986

The Floppy Disks Preferred By Cookie Elves Who Use PCs

Occasionally a TV ad will update the image of Santa's workshop. Santa pushes aside his inkwell and quill pen to make way for a snazzy new computer - but that's just to help him put together his big trip once a year. What about the other elves in this world faced with logistical challenges all year round?

Keebler has been baking for more than a century, and today is the largest manufacturer of cookies and crackers. In addition to their own signature snacks, back in the 30s they were the first official baker of Girl Scout Cookies (they continue to bake the much coveted cookies today). Before that, the scouts' moms handled it all. Moms really are amazing, aren't they?

The Keebler elves first appeared in 1968 in animated commercials, and went on to be one of the most recognized advertising mascots in the world. We see the elves in the commercials craft each snack by hand, but we never saw any computers or automation. So my question is, how do they explain these floppy disks?

These green (not in the current ecological sense of the word) floppies are double-sided double-density 3.5" disks. The more common 1.44 megabyte HD format of "microfloppy" would come later. These hold a mere 720k. I'm tempted to look at what's on these discs, but I'm certain that the files have elaborate passwords like "ch33z-its" or "elfudge123".

Here's a typical Keebler commercial from the 80s.For voiceover nerds like myself, that's Peter Leeds as the coach elf, Paul Winchell (voice of Tigger & Gargamel) as "Buckets" the rookie, and Walker Edmiston as Ernie the Elf.

Even without looking at the contents of these discs, we can learn one important thing. These floppies come pre-formatted for DOS, which means that those frisky elves resolved the whole PC vs. Mac issue. These days they may have moved on to using tablet computers - tablets whose screens I imagine are constantly covered with tiny fudgy fingerprints - but at least at one point in the 80s we had DOS to thank for our Chips Deluxe and Van'chos.

"The Blues Brothers" Done Proud - Lego Style

The team at Bricktease.com have just posted a painstaking all-Lego recreation of one of the most infamous scenes from 1980's "The Blues Brothers". As both a Chicagoan and a Lego fan, this story is a joyous collision of so many things I still cherish.

As a love letter to Chicago, The Blues Brothers has it all. James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and John Lee Hooker all in the same movie? At the time the film was one of the most expensive comedies ever made. Not coincidentally. the project held the record for the most cars wrecked during filming; 103. I like to think of it as almost a musical since the screen erupts with fantastic performances every few minutes (though there's no sign of typical movie-music saccharine). Seeing Cab Calloway's performance of Minnie the Moocher makes me want to leap out of my chair every single time.

There's an amazing car chase scene though a shopping mall where the boys wreak havoc on stores and shoppers while the cops are in pursuit. It's a great dynamic scene that's shot remarkably well. A Lego movie making group called Bricktease was clearly just as taken by this iconic scene as I was, and they set out to recreate it shot by shot with stop-motion animated Lego.

This is a painstaking task. When you've watched the all-Lego clip, check out this side-by-side comparison, and you'll see just how amazingly close the Lego version is to the original film. There's even a behind-the-scenes video so you can check out just how time intensive this project was. Congratulations to Duncan and the rest of the team! Did ya get mah Cheez Whiz, boy?

link:

Watch this video to see how Bricktease created this amazing project

What It Would Take To Get Me To Buy A PS4

Phantom Fighter on Twitter was inspired by a photo post called "generations" showing an old Atari 2600 resting on top of a Playstation 4. Taking the pixels by the horns, he whipped up this mockup. I must admit that this collection of retro surfaces & textures almost works better on the sinister rhombus that is the PS4 than it did on the whatever-in-the-hell-shape-it-is of the original Atari.

Sadly the Atari PS4 isn't real, and to be honest I don't even know what I'd do with a PS4 if I had one. No paddle controllers = no Kaboom = no deal.

link:

artist's original blog post

This "Black Friday" Madness Is Not A New Thing...

Here in the US (and increasingly [and disturbingly] in other parts of the world), the last few years have given rise to this concept that the Friday after Thanksgiving is a feeding frenzy for Christmas deals. Stores opened earlier and earlier on Friday, offering more and more doorbuster deals. This year I daresay is the craziest yet with some stores opening up on Thursday evening, and a few of the more soulless outfits even posted hours  on Thanksgiving day.

I'm far from the first to observe that Thanksgiving is supposed to be a national holiday, a time to be with the family, and to give a thought to the good things around us. It's not supposed to be about getting into fistfights over a $99 flat screen (another thing I wish I were making up).

For a lot of us, this time on the calendar was when we did our wishing for all the cool stuff we hoped would appear under the tree - and for a lot of us that hasn't changed. Shopping for those toys and gadgets is part of the fun, and I guess for some people so is the round the clock shopping madness. Just to prove that this isn't a recent phenomenon, here is a commercial for Zayre (a chain of big box stores... sort of like a Kmart, but with no scruples) from November 25th 1982. The vaguely David Copperfield looking guy promises that Zayre will stay open for 60 hours straight to make your holiday easier (and to visit hell-on-earth on their employees - just like this year!).