Saturday, May 12, 2018

What's inside a Tomy Digital Diamond from 1978?



I've posted a bunch of new videos to my Modern Classic YouTube channel since the Quad 8 video a year ago - I'll be going through and retro-posting a bunch more, and eventually they'll all have their own blog to live on. But for now, check out my little teardown of a Tomy Digital Diamond electro-mechanical baseball game from 1978. I've owned it for 40 years, and this is my first time taking it apart!

Scandal US tour!



Has it been almost a year since I've written anything here? Well, that changes now!

It's also been a while since I've written anything about SCANDAL, but I've got a couple of good reasons to now. The first is that they're coming back to the US, and more helpful for me, to New York City this time! If anyone hasn't heard, here's the list of announced dates on what looks like a very hastily written up (or just intentionally lo-fi) official flyer from the band's Facebook:


For the image-averse, that's:

Sep 5/PlayStation Theater/New York, NY
Sep 7/The Regency Ballroom/San Francisco, CA
Sep 9/House of Blues/Anaheim, CA
Sep 16/The Bomb Factory/Dallas, TX

I've already got my VIP ticket to the NYC show - couldn't pass up that chance, because it may never come again.

You can get tickets to the NY and SF shows here; the Anaheim show here and the Dallas show here. I've previously written about how they're the best live band I've ever seen (something you can see for yourself on any of their many live DVD's and Blu-Rays), so don't miss them if you have the chance to go.

Also, have you heard their new album Honey? It smokes! Buy it!

Platform Syndrome (at top) was released a couple of months ago, but it leads off the album and it just goes on from there. I love this song, and the album. They are not slowing down. If anything, they've gone in a lot of different, more extreme directions as they've gotten older and been unleashed to write all their own songs. Their punk songs are even more punk than they used to be, and their heavy songs even heavier. But at the same time, there's a full-on R&B song on this album (and it's actually kind of great).

I do think it's mastered way too hot with audible clipping all over the place and a bit of a transistor radio-ish overall sound. Kind of a shame and a disservice to the band, but the music's pretty incredible if you can get past that. (And I suspect most people can.)

Bring on September!

About This Blog

This is increasingly not a blog about Alphabet City, New York. I used to live in the East Village and work on Avenue B, but I no longer do. Why don't I change the name if I'm writing about Japan and video games and guitars? Because New Yorkers are well-rounded people with varied interests, and mine have gone increasingly off the rails over the years. And I don't feel like changing the name. I do still write about New York City sometimes.

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