Author: Nick Brobeck

My Love Affair with Vinyl

Posted on by

The evening of this blog post, I am going to receive a nice, new, spiffy turntable that we bought over a month ago tomorrow. Details on that to come.

It got me to thinking why I love vinyl so much. I’ll just give you the bullet points.

  • It has a warm, pleasing sound.
  • It has a nice, physical feel.
  • Lots of rare things that haven’t been released on other media, like, ever
  • It just looks good
  • I love a good used record shop, and there are plenty of them in the ATL and other cities
  • I always find a good super-rare bargain!
  • The format has always fascinated me since I was a kid

I distinctly remember that I probably was the only kid in school that would check out LPs from the local library. This was in the mid-90s and they probably didn’t hold onto them much longer after that. One title I loved to check out was the Return of the Jedi soundtrack (RSO Records, 1983). Alas, I don’t think I have that particular pressing myself. I have a Polydor repressing from later in the 80s (date unknown) and a gold vinyl 180-gram repress from 2016. But I digress… (BTW, if you want to see my vinyl collection, you can go here and filter it down by LP, 7/12″ Singles, and for that matter look at my CDs too)

Me and Greg bought our first turntable, a Sony PS-LX250H in 2005, not long after we became a couple. It has served us well for these last 16 years and has never given us a problem. It sounds great.

But there are reasons why I wanted to go with a new, middle-range turntable. Details on that will be in a video on the Nick & Greg YouTube channel in the coming days. You see, I am going to do an unboxing video of the new one! (What, you thought I was going to spill all the beans here?)

Needless to say this purchase has been years in the making. Not on account of affordability, this turntable was always very affordable. It just felt like the right time to do it.

Plus, a 16 year old belt drive turntable has had a good run.

Stay tuned for more!

Random Thoughts – 03/18/2021

Posted on by

I sit here with my mind in a blur. It’s been a hell of a week in Atlanta. I am going to assume the reader by now has heard of the tragic and hateful events that transpired earlier this week.
(However, in case you’ve been living under a rock, go get up to speed.)

I echo what a lot of other people have said, hate has no home in ATL. None whatsoever.

What I do want to talk about is how I personally feel about all of this and how it relates to me.

As a gay man, I have had my fair share of hate, scorn, epithets and what have you thrown at me. It’s not fun. In my travels here, I have driven past the places where this all happened lots of times. I never though anything of them. They are legitimate businesses ran by good people. To have so many lives cut short by a terrorist claiming he was trying to remove sources of his sex addiction is just the most ridiculous thing I have heard in quite a while.

How can a person live with themselves after that.

Gah. I don’t know.

There is lots more to digest out of this, but I don’t want to ramble on. A lot of other people have already said what I am thinking.

Let my good friend Ron educate you a bit:

Atlanta is strong. We won’t let hate win. I know this place is a good one. I still love it here and we will go forward stronger. Say their names.

Obligatory Blog Update – 12/20/2020

Posted on by

OK, so what has happened.

Well, the world is still so far upside-down.

I am still upside-down.

I am not sleeping well. I need to start exercising to try and help that.

We got the condo, we moved in over a month ago. Maybe someday I will get used to the obnoxiously loud engines on 17th Street.

Xmas is this week. We are doing it virtually like most everyone else is and we are OK with that.

Live stream Xmas Night at http://youtube.com/nickandgreg/. Please join us.

Kthxbai.

Dread

Posted on by

With all of the stuff that is happening in life that I have to be enthusiastic about there is always a flip side. It is an inane sense of dread.

Dread for the hopelessness that we as a country are never going to get out of this shit show that we have been in for the last four years.

Dread that it won’t get better.

Dread that we are not going to have the freedoms anymore that we have had for the last two plus centuries.

Dread.

It’s a powerful emotion that consumes me.

The Guide is Alive!

Posted on by

After a couple of days of work, the refurbished Dark Shadows Episode Guide is open and ready for everyone to return!

It has gotten a great redesign with a clean and easy to use menu.

I have to give a lot of credit to my husband Greg for helping out with a lot of issues on the site design I was having.

Do go and take a look at http://darkshadows.nickbrobeck.com/ and let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks for your support.

-Nick B.

A Change of Heart

Posted on by

In the last post, I talked about how the Dark Shadows Episode Guide I ran looked dated. That remains true

I had an eleventh hour epiphany so to speak after a wonderful article about Dark Shadows appeared in the New York Times a few days ago.

I am fortunate to have befriended Wallace McBride and the excellent people who have curated The Collinsport Historical Society, an awesome blog dedicated to the show. I have even contributed an article over there previously.

When that article appeared a few days ago it got me to thinking… people really did love that episode guide. I did actually get a couple of emails about it. They were nice and cordial.

Long story short. I am giving the guide an overhaul and bringing it back. It’ll take a few days but it’ll get there. I have already started work.

Stay tuned!

Leaving it Behind in the Past

Posted on by
Dark Shadows Bumper Card

Recently I decided it was time to close down the Dark Shadows Episode Guide I had curated on the internet for almost two decades. At the time I was a member of the alt.tv.dark_shadows newsgroup after just discovering the reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel.

There posted just about every day were summaries of the episodes as well as the tape date and air date of the shows. I expanded on this slightly adding in the ABC numbering of the episodes (which is a very weird-ass system to this day) and, where applicable, the Worldvision rerun numbers used when the show was in syndication from 1975-1990.

It never needed updating as pretty much all of the information was there.

So, why did I take it down?

It was feeling really outdated to me. I may bring it back in the future in another form. Who knows. It was just that I didn’t want something online to appear so dated and I don’t have the time currently to give it the makeover it deserves. After all, there are some exciting times ahead in life for me and Greg.

So, the guide is gone from my website for now. It’s in the internet archive preserved for those who want to see it. Just go to nickbrobeck.com/darkshadows and it’ll redirect you there after a few seconds.

 

A Minor/Major Change

Posted on by

So I decided that I should make what to some might be a minor change. To others, it might be considered a major change. It by no means is legal yet, that will happen in 2021. But I feel it’s long overdue that I exercise my right to take my husband’s last name.

It’s minor and major to me all at the same time. I won’t go on record as to the specific reasons why I am doing this. I just feel it is the right thing to do.

So, there. It is partially done. At least in the court of social media and this website… whatever the hell that counts for.

Oh, and by the way, lots of exciting stuff is already happening. Details to come soon.

TTFN.

Hi Blog? Why Are You Here?

Posted on by

Maybe this is PJTP. But I wonder why I even need a blog? I mean, with social media being the shit show that it is where if you post an opinion you either get instantly praised or justly vilified. I wonder about the popularity of this very remote corner of the vast internet.

That’s all. Maybe this would have worked better as a Google Plus post. (Oh, right, that’s not a thing anymore.)

Carry on.

RIP Blogging

TQON (The Quarantine of Nick)

Posted on by

Well blog, this is an entry that will go down in history. I guess this entry is just to look back on (if we survive this) and go, “Oh, gee, I remember that…”

If you read that paragraph in Summer 2020 or before that… I apologize for the crassness of that remark given the current situation in the world.

Me and Greg have been doing self-quarantine more or less for almost two weeks as of March 25th, 2020. We only have been out once or twice, practiced social distancing, only to get essential items. Greg has been working from home for over three weeks (the first week was due to an internet outage in his office, which just rolled right into all of this.)

I however have a job that cannot be done remotely so I still have to drive in. However, my employer very smartly has taken a lot of countermeasures in the building to keep my department, which is always separated and tightly locked down anyway, safe from other individuals in our workplace. Most of everyone who can work from home has been for over two weeks now.

You know, I won’t lie, it has been intriguing to me to look on social media and see a lot of friends and acquaintances doing really well and doing what they should. We haven’t posted a lot ourselves (we really should). But we need to do better with that. For example:

I think we need to do a YouTube video about all of this in the next day or so. Visibility is important, especially now.

Trust me, we’re gonna get through all of this together. Remember to trust accurate information from anyone but the orange cheeto and his cronies.

TTFN.