More on those VFD displays

I mentioned earlier that I’ve been a little obsessed with VFD displays. The “retro” technology reminds me of MiniDiscs and other ‘80s-’90s tech before color displays became the norm. They simultaneously look low-resolution and high-resolution with the refresh rate often being quite high it seems.

This video above explains how to buy one and program it while the video below shows how they still exist in a lot of appliances and cheap tech today.

MUTEMATH - Remain

I get really sad and emotional whenever I hear this song from MUTEMATH. If I remember correctly, I believe it was the song they released in conjunction with the announcement that they were going on permanent hiatus as a band.

The music video here was uploaded at the start of the pandemic lockdown.

MUTEMATH was my young adult years, the music that played in the background of many memories in my head. I went to their early concerts when they were filling small venues as opening acts and then later when they headlined tours for themselves. There’s something about this particular song that seems like a bookend not only to the band itself, but to a time and place in my own life when things seemed clearer and more sure. I’ve yet to quantify it in words, even for myself, but I think pandemic lockdown messed with my head. This song reminds me a little bit of the time before all that.

Driving through Malibu before the fires

This video here is one of the clearest artifacts from Malibu before the devastating fires that leveled the surrounding area earlier this year. This was a drive that I had done many times before and it saddens me that it hardly exists this way anymore.

VFD Displays

I’ve been obsessed with vacuum fluorescent display technology lately. Otherwise known as VFD, these displays were popular on Japanese electronics and stereo systems.

Look at these guys ring a 34,000-pound bell

I don’t really have anything to add here. Just a cool video.

In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Wow. I just finished In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson and it at times felt like a parallel world of what is currently happening in the United States. I’ve never read Larson’s other books before but I have heard great things about how he manages to weave true stories of history with great storytelling.

In The Garden of Beasts is a slow-boil recollection of one American family’s journey as ambassadors in Germany during the rise of the Hitler regime. It recounts the horror of realizing that the general public did not really see Hitler as that bad of a guy, but rather just a sorta-crazy person who can’t possibly ever take control. Hitler’s rise to power was not immediate and in fact was often dismissed by people as sensational news (sounds like what the US is doing now). As a reader, I couldn’t help but see the events of history mirroring what is happening today in the US.

How they make the Oscar statuette

Hmm, I had no idea the Oscar statuette is covered in actual gold.

Dora, Yerkwood, Walker County, Alabama

The incredible book Dora, Yerkwood, Walker County, Alabama by Fumi Nagasaka is currently on sale at Amazon for $44. The book follows some incredible characters down in rural Alabama during the 2016 US Presidential election and shortly after. It’s a road-trip sort of book with amazing portraits of the people in that community. Pick it up today!