Lose Yourself to Dance
Monday, May 27th, 2013
Archive for the ‘music’ Category
this party just took a turn for the douche
Thursday, April 18th, 2013Went to a bar tonight that used to be great, a neighbourhood bar in the old Arts Club Theatre. What happened? 14 sports TV screens happened, a contempo remodel, and all the clientele that comes with that stuff. This town just took a turn for the douche.
Lyrebird imitating construction work
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
Lyrebird imitating construction work, Adelaide Zoo. Sound of the city, played back.
Enjoy the music
Wednesday, January 16th, 2013…. and this….
Happy whichever winter holiday you love most, everyone
Monday, December 24th, 2012
Animation from a kinder, gentler, classier time. Designed by R.O. Blechman and animated by Willis Pyle, 1996, for CBS Christmas station identification.
Stereo systems and speakers, 1960s & 70s style
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
Why don’t we do this kind of thing anymore? You saw it a lot in the 1960s and 70s—speakers embedded in display shelves or on a wall, as part of the decor. Maybe it’s partly that components were better looking then, in general, but you could still do this now. Why don’t we? Is it because stereo components are now considered throwaway, and you’d never make built-ins because your components wouldn’t last long enough to justify it? The stereo system above has been in continuous working order since it was installed in the 1970s in Vancouver in an architect’s house. The only change is that a CD player has been added into the built-in box that doubles as display shelf.
Maybe those who rent would be disinclined to make alterations like this, but what about everyone else? Whatever happened to using stereo components as elements in room design? Maybe these items were valued far more highly then than they are now, and not perhaps out of audiophilia so much as an overall sense of design and function.
On a related topic, have you ever tried to get good storage for your vinyl nowadays? Good luck. If the unit above (it’s the wooden credenza thing on the floor) were available now, I’d buy it. It’s beautiful and simple, and it looks like solid wood.
The photo below is from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Greystone Press, 1970. Check out the speakers on the built-in bench or shelf along the wall, the great reel-to-reel deck, and then the amp held up by cupids on the wall. Not to mention the vari-coloured wall, separated into quadrants via different paint colours. So great.
I can’t find further good examples of this setup just at the moment, but here are some entertaining vintage stereo/storage shots: LP storage unit from ancienthistory, And then there’s this, when things go space age. And pots and pans in one drawer, turnable in another via teddy_qui_dit (more here and here),
