First Quake

Disclaimer: Though the following article has a "punchline" it is not meant to belittle or trivialize the situation the people of Japan are going through right now. My heart goes out to them & I hope I myself never have to experience what they are facing. Please remember the victims in your prayers. It's because of this I was reminded of  "incidents" of my own having to do with earthquakes.

                                                              
                                                       First Quake

                                                               by

                                                                  Jay Agan

      An Ohio Saturday afternoon in a Spring of the late 70s & there I am in my Mt. Vernon, apartment watching a flick on ch 10 (WBNS). The fight scene is raging & I'm skarfing a Coke when the house shakes a little. Funny. No truck went by. In fact it was dead quiet outside. Wasn't much of a shake but it felt ..... strange.

      Thirty seconds later it happens again. Now I was sure it wasn't something normal. Earthquake? Couldn't be positive as I had never experienced one before. I get up & dash out of the subdivided house & take a quick look up & down the street. Everything normal. Nothing out of the ordinary.

      I go back in & click on the radio. Within minutes WMVO had the scoop. A couple of tremors hit over a several county area including Knox County.

      A couple days later I'm talking to youngest brother about it & he related the same thing. His two dogs also got to howling a little after.

      My second quake was when I was with the parents in New Jersey while attending tech school in '85. It's about 5 AM Saturday morning when I hear what sounds like a freight train then a slight lurch to the house. Then neighborhood dogs get to barking & howling for a minute or two. "Musta been an earthquake." & I go back to sleep.

      Later that day it's off to the movies. I pass Computer Processing Institute on Rt 4 in Paramus where I attended school, & I notice quite a few cars in the lot. On a Saturday? I didn't think much of it & continued on. At the theater there was a long wait as tickets were being "processed" by hand. The computers were down due to the quake. I figured that was why there were so many cars at the school. This was confirmed there Monday.



Steve Reeves in Hercules Unchained. It was about at this
point in the film when the quake hit. I swear, it's true!
Credit: Warner Bros.


      Oh. The movie I was watching when I experienced my first quake? Hercules Unchained starring Steve Reeves. Honest! Go figure.

                                      Article copyright © 3-12-2011 Jay Agan


Go to Main Page here.

DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

This article (only) may be copied in whole or in part. Please be sure to cite proper credit & backlink.

Boris n' Broadcasting

                                                                
                                                             Boris n' Broadcasting

                                                                           by

                                                                              Jay Agan

      I had been involved in AM & Shortwave DX (Recieving & logging what, how far, & how many stations I could get.) for a couple years. I had heard/read of TV DXing but had not given it much thought. I did end up dabbling in it (27 states & Cuba.) & the following is what got me started.

      Not having cable, we had "over the air" chs 4 (WCLT later WCMH), 6 (WTVN later WSYX), 10 (WBNS), & 34 (WOSU), with a lot of "dead" spectrum space between. Every so often chs 8 (WJW, Cleveland), or 2 (WDTN, Dayton) would come in with a lot of "snow" (One Sunday I got a perfect viewing of The CBS Late Night Movies' airing The Black Scorpion on 8.). Never gave TV DX much thought in spite of the articles I read on it until I was bit by the bug in an interesting way.

      Flipping through the channels one late August afternoon in the early 70s, I saw ch 2 coming in semi snowy. I was about to continue when I recognized the voice & face of Boris Karloff, one of my favorite boogey men. Seems I came in on the tail end of an old Thriller episode from the early 60s. As the reception was almost viewable, I twiddled the fine tune & got it in slightly better.

      The show wound down & as it was the top of the hour, I thought I'd wait for WDTN to ID for the heck of it. Imagine my surprise when it IDed as ch2 KTWO from Casper, Wyoming. Here? In Ohio? WOW!

      It was from that I caught a mild case of the TV DX bug & had quite a bit of fun with it when I wasn't messing with AM or shortwave. (One of the high points was getting chs 2 & 3 out of Cuba within minutes of each other.)

      I always had fun with my radio hobbies but not until that day did I ever think Boris Karloff would have a hand in it. Thank you Mr. Monster.

                                                    Article copyright © Jay Agan

Go to Main Page here.

DISCLAIMER: All images used on this blog are strictly copyrights of their owners. I do not claim credit/ownership for any images used here in my blog unless stated otherwise. If I have offended anyone by posting any images on my blog, please contact me via email and I will remove specified image(s) ASAP.

On the "Chemical Enhancement" of Films

                                                                        by
                                                                            Jay Agan


                        "When I was young & irresponsible, I was young & irresponsible."
                                                 Comment allegedly said by Pres. George W. Bush

         
      The first time I was ever drunk (two shots of Yukon Jack & a beer), I drove home. Yeah. I know. Stupid with a capitol STUPID. Didn't get caught & (Thank God!) no incident/accident. I definitely DO NOT recommend drinking & driving. If you must get drunk (Do you really?), do it at home & have someone hide the keys. Which brings me to this article.

      I get home, marveling at the side effects, & turn on the tv. Nite Owl Theaters' Chiller Night (WBNS ch 10)  was on & half way thru the first feature. The 1941 Jekyl & Hyde with Spencer Tracey. Talk about apropo!

      The tv screen was twice the size it usually was. A black & white set, it had this eerie semi-technicolor blue glow. The sound was enhanced with a "depth" I had never experienced before, not to mention that echo effect. Any movement of the screen, I could more than feel. And there. As Mr. Hyde. Was Spencer Tracey leering down at me. I didn't know people had teeth that big! The films' "poney girl" dream sequence knocked me on my posterior. (Did I just see what I thought I did? Huh? What? Whoa!) I have this flick in my collection, but without the booze, it isn't the same.

     Fast forward about 10 years. The days before I collected films. Desperate for entertainment, I recalled the aforesaid experience, & took up alky again.

     In the late 80s/early 90s, ch 61 had Republic Theater (Rep. Pictures flicks) & another show that had poverty row/public domain movies on late at night. The days of Shock/Son of Shock & other pre-70s film packages on ch 10 & other stations were long gone. Nite Owl Theater was reduced to showing newer & foriegn drek.

     Thanks to beer, I was able to take in flicks I wouldn't be caught watching, dead or sober. Romances, chick flix, singin' cowboy junk, musicals (Yuck!), etc. I passed many of what otherwise would have been boring nights that way.

      It all came to a head one day. Or day after. After taking in "Exterminators In the Year 3000" (along with an 8 pack of malt liquor) on Nite Owl the night before, I spent the first half of Saturday pondering wether or not to pray at the shrine of Ralph. The great porcelain god won out & I gave the unabsorbable poison the ole heave ho.

     I haven't done this in years & doubt I'll ever try again.

     "Uh! Urp! Oh geez! Rrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllph!!"


                                              Article copyright © Jay Agan

Go to MAIN PAGE.