Been riding a lot

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ZoWie
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by ZoWie »

This newspaper will self destruct in eight seconds. Good luck, L.A..

At the time, Mission Impossible was still in syndication, and besides, old celebrities never die, they just become someone you have to look up in wiki to remember their credits.

The current LA Times might knock off a couple of ants, but even that's a long shot.
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by ZoWie »

Seriously.

Film making always had a technical overlay that you don't have with live stage performances, but now the artistry really does seem to be in the special fx, the CGI, and of course the editing which can still always make or break a movie. The line between live and animation gets thinner every year.

The thing is that movies were a fully realized art form made by movie people. TV was TV, and a different more intimate medium with different people doing it. The big screen was a different directorial style than the little one at home. No one watched on the crappy cell phones of the time. Even on a computer, it just wasn't the same. Everyone saw potential but it wasn't quite there yet.

Now that it's there, I don't like what the moving image has turned into. Seems like everything's the same mishmosh of corporate same old same old, and the audio-visual media are all really the same crud on different screens. I find myself appreciating live theater a lot more.
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Libertas
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by Libertas »

Never forget once in a theater when I was a kid and a trailer came on for a new Jerry Lewis movie and at the end he comes on the screen, not in character and says something to the effect of "going to a theater to see a movie is still the best entertainment money can buy!"

Something like that. It was the simplicity of what he said and the truth to it, because I for one can be completely LOST in a movie theater or found, for that matter.

I outgrew his humor of course, but at one time when I was a kid, he was the god of funny.


Or it might have been "still the best way you can spend a couple hours." I mean how and where else can you become immersed in something that sends you around the world if you are watching a James Bond movie, for instance, or into side splitting laughter if a comedy and do it for a couple bucks.
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by ZoWie »

It's the immersion. The only other medium that you get that in is live theater. In the dark, with the movie and the story, one loses themselves for a brief moment.

Somehow putting on a headset and getting nauseous to an augmented reality is not the same. Watching anything at home is not the same. Watching on a cell phone is not even close.

There's a place for all the other stuff, but it's too bad that movies seem to be turning into all the other stuff, only bigger and louder, and with ONLY IN THEATERS on the ads for what otherwise is the same kind of stuff they're promoting for the 30 or so streaming channels we're all supposed to get excited about.

They even stream theatrical projection now. When I started out, you young whippersnapper, we hoisted 40 pound reels onto projectors and mag film decks. At the end of a reel, there was a little dot, and you started the motor on the other projector and hit the dowsers when the second dot came up.

Now...... well, it is literally the same product as everything else only bigger and louder. McLuhan had something with his medium is the message stuff. Making the same crap for theaters and home and streaming it from some server farm. Only difference is the venue and the resolution. THAT is not FILM MAKING.
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Re: Been riding a lot

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ZoWie wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:43 pm It's the immersion. The only other medium that you get that in is live theater. In the dark, with the movie and the story, one loses themselves for a brief moment.

Somehow putting on a headset and getting nauseous to an augmented reality is not the same. Watching anything at home is not the same. Watching on a cell phone is not even close.

There's a place for all the other stuff, but it's too bad that movies seem to be turning into all the other stuff, only bigger and louder, and with ONLY IN THEATERS on the ads for what otherwise is the same kind of stuff they're promoting for the 30 or so streaming channels we're all supposed to get excited about.

They even stream theatrical projection now. When I started out, you young whippersnapper, we hoisted 40 pound reels onto projectors and mag film decks. At the end of a reel, there was a little dot, and you started the motor on the other projector and hit the dowsers when the second dot came up.

Now...... well, it is literally the same product as everything else only bigger and louder. McLuhan had something with his medium is the message stuff. Making the same crap for theaters and home and streaming it from some server farm. Only difference is the venue and the resolution. THAT is not FILM MAKING.
When I watch old movies I always look for that dot. Yes I am weird.
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Re: Been riding a lot

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ZoWie wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:43 pm I once heard projectionist wouldn't watch the entire film but would be busy doing other things like reading a book. What they would do is insert a coin towards the end of the reel and when they heard it hit the floor they'd get to the other projector and prepare to start it. I don't know if that's true because it seems it would damage the film and make the reels off balanced.
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Re: Been riding a lot

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Projectionists in those old booths had lots of tricks. I don't think a dime would damage the film, but by my time it wasn't hard to know when a changeover was coming. We had buzzers and stuff. I learned how to project to pick up extra bucks in movie school and then sometimes in a couple of non-IA revival houses when I was between gigs doing above the line stuff that actually went into production. I didn't take work away from the IA. Not an option. Lots of movie geeks did it. People who really lived and breathed movies could pick up a few bucks that way.

You would see little pairs of lines on the ceiling or walls of the booth seemingly at random. Some projectionist who had been using the old carbon arcs put them there. Thing was that the light from the arc was so strong and actinic that any little hole in the lamphouse would focus a perfect image of the carbons on any surface it hit, then with the lines the guy knew the arc was in trim without having to walk over and check it. Didn't need it with zenons. Just turn on the thing and leave it on until closing time, because it ages the lamp faster to keep striking it. The senior projectionist would change the zenons when the hours hit bingo on the meter... that was not a simple process and definitely above my pay grade. Then it all went to platters and you'd have one projectionist babysitting 6 machines in a multiplex. We the hard core could see the difference in 1/24 of a second, but movie people aren't the ticket buying public, after all.

I honestly don't know if very much first run stuff even has prints made any more. It all went to digital, just like everything else. Mostly you still see a few film museums and such with vintage equipment and someone who knows how run it, so audiences can see how it used to look. (Hint: get everything right and it looks awesome.) I loved the arclight in Hollywood that could even run 3-panel Cinerama with the sound on interlocked mag film dummies, but it closed due to Covid.

Movies are kind of a sad business right now. The fun went out of it when it became just another part of the digital entertainment colossus.
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by bradman »

ProfX wrote: Sun Jul 03, 2022 6:25 am The Loyal Order of Riders!
Image

"Hey, can we move our meetings to the rec center instead? The commute out here is brutal." :lol:

(OK, "Brian," who says that, is not in this image. :mrgreen: )

True confession: I have ridden a number of motorized vehicles other than automobiles, but never a motorcycle. Or a snowmobile.

We can debate if the Moped I used in Cancun, and almost wrecked :D , counts.
:D i finally caught sight of the brutal commute....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ_AXIV9-kQ

i get it now :lol:

In our little pack of motley loyal riders, i would be the denial guy. i even have a small sticker they bought me the first year our crew went to Sturgis, which was the first year of Covid. For my denials of going into packed towns and crowds i received a nice little sticker from them for my motorcycle. "Designated Asshole" was all it said. :) Hey, we tested negative before we left, and negative after we arrived home. :D
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ZoWie
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Re: Been riding a lot

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The first year, Sturgis caused more cases than anything else I ever read about, including that cruise ship that started it in Northern California. I don't recall how many, but some estimates were well into the hundreds of thousands. Too bad it's all guesswork given our current medical system.

I'll never understand why disease protection is a political issue, but it is.

BTW, someone ran a great diagram of climate change and Wavy Weather. The "before" picture was the normal summer jet stream running around the northern latitudes in pretty much a straight line. The "after" picture was the current global sine wave with huge peaks and dips, like one used to expect to see in the winter. That's apparently confirmed as what's causing the trouble in Europe and part of the US this year. We have proof of climate change, and we know what caused it.
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Re: Been riding a lot

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ZoWie wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 1:56 pm The first year, Sturgis caused more cases than anything else I ever read about, including that cruise ship that started it in Northern California. I don't recall how many, but some estimates were well into the hundreds of thousands. Too bad it's all guesswork given our current medical system.

I'll never understand why disease protection is a political issue, but it is.

BTW, someone ran a great diagram of climate change and Wavy Weather. The "before" picture was the normal summer jet stream running around the northern latitudes in pretty much a straight line. The "after" picture was the current global sine wave with huge peaks and dips, like one used to expect to see in the winter. That's apparently confirmed as what's causing the trouble in Europe and part of the US this year. We have proof of climate change, and we know what caused it.
The ONLY reason it became a political issue where it had never been before, is trump and those who followed his lead in other nations.

In the communities that had REASON to distrust the govt, that is a different story. But 99.999999999999999999% of those making noise about the vax and masks are NOT in those categories.

I mean holy FUCK, we see it RIGHT HERE on this board. The same stupid trump arguments about masks and who should wear them...Makes an ADULT want to go SCREAMING into the night!
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Re: Been riding a lot

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Screaming into the night won't help either.
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by bradman »

First year> i know. We had a front row seat.

By the second year? Well, that's the year the Trump Train tried to run my ass over. Anything having to do with liberal commerce disappeared about that time. Been losing interest ever since then. Why visit some place you're not wanted?

i've been thinking lately, there's better options for our motley crew.
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Re: Been riding a lot

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The cultural divide is getting to me. Not just the racial stuff, and the immigrant stuff, and the masks/vax vs anti-masks/vax, and the rush by half the people back to the 19th Century, but the way technology has been misused to turn everything into lowest-common-denominator machine-generated relentlessly-promoted corporate dreck.

The Home Run Derby was always hype, but it was fun hype. Not this year. It was chopped up in little boxes and all about baseball stars filling in the space between what was really important, namely the almost continuous promotion of giant business conglomerates. The home runs were just because they had to put something in the spaces that weren't selling a technological product, and of course they sell celebrity, so you can't even call that real content.

The field was so filled with machines that one could barely find the people in it all. Some machines made fire. Some shot out CO2. Many of them were to capture images for broadcast over automated digital fiber whatever aka The Cloud.

Some of the machines that captured images were the Steadicam. I know a lot about that setup. It kills your back. Camera operators always complained a lot about it, and later on my physical therapist told me that Steadicam operators with bad backs were among her primary sources of business. The great technology delusion machine is killing us.

Next they'll force us to wear those ridiculous VR headsets to consume media, and we'll all become drones.

Yes, get out and ride. We must revive experience. There must be real bumps and turns in the road, real G-loads on the body, and real wind in the face. Time for me to gas up the speedy little car ($100 please) and join you out on the planet.
"We must remember that we cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation." --Liz Cheney, Republican, 7/21/22
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Re: Been riding a lot

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It's for sanity sake.

Since the current heat levels finally arrived here, it's a bit to hot to ride from 12 noon to 8-9 that night. So, my son and i had planned a midnight ride. It's a bit more of a risk with night time deer and critter crossings. But if you take the right precautions such as, stay on fenced off freeways, open county roads that have large cut right of ways without a lot of corners, stay off of deeply wooded roads, slow down a bit, and it's worth the risk. We rode from Mpls. to Duluth, took in the lights of Duluth, (it's beautiful coming in over the hill to see the whole town lit up from the top) enjoyed the cool weather, and what little of the stars that could be seen.

Like the weather, ya can't let the antivax/maskers get you down. Fuck 'em both. Life's to short to give up on making memories at this stage of the game. With better defined precautions, i'm going back in.
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Re: Been riding a lot

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I still need to buy an e bike. My current stress relief during spare time is playing guitar and landscaping. We have nice trails around here to take advantage of. Although, I if I buy an e bike, my son will want an e bike too, then it starts getting pricey….
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Re: Been riding a lot

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Drak wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:43 am I still need to buy an e bike. My current stress relief during spare time is playing guitar and landscaping. We have nice trails around here to take advantage of. Although, I if I buy an e bike, my son will want an e bike too, then it starts getting pricey….
Every time i walk out of the Harley dealership i leave with one thought in my mind. I coulda picked a cheaper hobby for retirement. :)

As my wife is fond of saying, you only live once. Why save it all for old age only to tip over and miss the fun.

Harley has a pretty fancy E bike now. ;)
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Re: Been riding a lot

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bradman wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:54 am Every time i walk out of the Harley dealership i leave with one thought in my mind. I coulda picked a cheaper hobby for retirement. :)

As my wife is fond of saying, you only live once. Why save it all for old age only to tip over and miss the fun.

Harley has a pretty fancy E bike now. ;)
It could be worse. Buddy of mine bought an Indian. There's a lot of those small-production Harley knockoff companies that REALLY reach into big bucks - but they sure are beautiful.
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Re: Been riding a lot

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gounion wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:57 am It could be worse. Buddy of mine bought an Indian. There's a lot of those small-production Harley knockoff companies that REALLY reach into big bucks - but they sure are beautiful.
If it's a newer model, he bought a Polaris....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Motorcycles
With Victory, Polaris objectively created high quality, American-made cruisers, baggers and touring bikes. However, subjectively, Victory could not capture the legacy and emotion Harley-Davidson enjoys from its owners. Polaris solved this problem by purchasing and reviving the Indian Motorcycle brand in 2011. Once it became clear that Indian could better compete with Harley-Davidson on an emotional level, Polaris decided its production capacity and resources would be better devoted to its Indian brand
[bold] It's hard to explain. For someone like me it starts with the "classic looks". From there it's a 50/50 shot......

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/question325.htm
There is no denying that a Harley-Davidson motorcycle has a unique sound, especially if the mufflers have been removed! Even with the mufflers on, however, it sounds different from other motorcycles. The reason for the sound has to do with the way the engine is designed.
+
A Harley engine has two pistons. The difference in the Harley engine is that the crankshaft has only one pin, and both pistons connect to it. This design, combined with the V arrangement of the cylinders, means that the pistons cannot fire at even intervals. Instead of one piston firing every 360 degrees, a Harley engine goes like this:

A piston fires.
The next piston fires at 315 degrees.
There is a 405-degree gap.
A piston fires.
The next piston fires at 315 degrees.
There is a 405-degree gap.
And the cycle continues.

At idle, you can hear the pop-pop sound followed by a pause. So its sound is pop-pop...pop-pop...pop-pop. That is the unique sound you hear!
They got to pop pop wrong. It's potato potato potato potato.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAWB7laXY8w

That's where the 50/50 comes in. You either fall in love with the sound and unique vibration/power stroke, or you don't. It's like a hit and miss engine. Some find them fascinating, some don't.
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ZoWie
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by ZoWie »

So that's why the Harley idles like that. I thought it was just weird cam timing. Thanks for the info.
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by bradman »

Wanna have fun with a hard core Harley biker? If he's riding a v-twin, tell him he's riding on something that has an obsolete drive train. They'll know what you are suggesting. Getting them to admit it is another thing.

The first bikes, like cars, were single cylinders. When they added another cylinder it was added in a v fashion. For Harley, to keep production costs down, they attached the second piston to the same crank pin the first piston had been attached to. It was a cheap cheat, but the sound was born. It didn't take long for the car manufacture's to realize it was better to put the cylinders in line and balance the crank. It was smoother and far more reliable. Other bike manufacture's followed. Harley played with the change over the years but always lost business when they lost the sound. A Harley v twin is, basically, the same engine platform they created in 1909. Not many of the hard core will admit that.

The transmission goes about the same way. The first transmissions weren't what you could call synchronized, which on a Harley, caused a distinct "clunk" when you put it in gear. Synchronize the transmission, lose the sound. To this day, Harley still has the same clunk.

Given that, when you buy a Harley v-twin, you're thinking with your heart and not your head. If it's a smooth and more reliable ride you desire, buy a Goldwing.
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by gounion »

bradman wrote: Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:44 am If it's a newer model, he bought a Polaris....
I think this is what he bought.

Image
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Re: Been riding a lot

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gounion wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 9:59 am I think this is what he bought.

Image
Yup, it's a Polaris. Beautiful bike, eh.

To get a real Indian you have to go back to 53.....

Image

My first Harley.......
Image

Bought it just before retirement. i love that style and had always ridden something similar but always foreign up till then. i fell in love with it the moment i sat on it. i figured it'd take me all the way to the grave. Little did i know, i was thinking with my heart and not my head. My heart said i was still 20 when my head said, you're getting old numbnuts. It only took a year of riding before the head won out. My head took my bones suggestion and now we ride this..... :D
Image
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by gounion »

Look, I REALIZE that the original Indian motorcycle company went out of business a LONG time ago. I KNOW that.

Another company has taken up the name and idea of the original Indians. They sure look nice. I have no idea otherwise about them.

Not interested in buying or riding a motorcycle at this time of my life. The vast majority of my friends who ride, ride a Harley. Most of them seem to have trikes. I'm glad that Harley is union made. As a matter of fact, after the AMF debacle, it was the union that SAVED Harley-Davidson. In 2000, I got to tour the Kansas City plant with the union.

With the miles I've put on the last 25 years, I prefer a comfortable car with air conditioning. It's just transportation, nothing more.
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by bradman »

gounion wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 10:53 am Look, I REALIZE that the original Indian motorcycle company went out of business a LONG time ago. I KNOW that.

Another company has taken up the name and idea of the original Indians. They sure look nice. I have no idea otherwise about them.

Not interested in buying or riding a motorcycle at this time of my life. The vast majority of my friends who ride, ride a Harley. Most of them seem to have trikes. I'm glad that Harley is union made. As a matter of fact, after the AMF debacle, it was the union that SAVED Harley-Davidson. In 2000, I got to tour the Kansas City plant with the union.

With the miles I've put on the last 25 years, I prefer a comfortable car with air conditioning. It's just transportation, nothing more.
SORRY. i have an interest in bikes and like talking about the history of them.

Three things saved Harley. The union, Ronnie ray gun, and the descendants of Harley Davidson buying the company back to save the name/tradition. They've been in and out of the woods since then. They're kinda damned if they do and damned if they don't. The Buell was meant for the new generation...

https://www.mckeewallwork.com/lp_insigh ... ike-yours/
But after just six years, Harley killed Buell. The move was ostensibly a reaction to its core demographic: Harley’s traditional audience didn’t like sharing its identity with the new kid on the block, and Harley chose to tie its brand to a product and a demographic rather than a spirit and an idea. There’s been nothing like Buell for almost two decades, and Harley has retreated to its comfortable and well-known lineup of classic V-twin bikes built for Boomers. But today, aging Boomers are buying fewer motorcycles, which is why the decision to end Buell coincides almost perfectly with the beginning of the decline that the giant still hasn’t been able to reverse.
Attract the young generation and lose the old. Stick with the old, and you lose the young. (i do have hopes for their E bikes)

Add this and things start to look really shaky. Hoarding shares...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOwxxsPaogY

All that aside, the union is one of the reasons i bought a Harley. To the point where most will buy after market parts from Amazon for their Harleys, i don't. Even though i can get parts on line, i sometimes pay twice the price by buying directly from Harley. Supporting the union is worth the price.
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Re: Been riding a lot

Post by bradman »

It was a nice ride..........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFDFX4Ao-UY
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