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FEATURED THREADS for 6-1-22

 
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2022 1:47 pm    Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 6-1-22 Reply with quote



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Enjpy the nice gallery of photos below, which I took at the Pipestem Drive-in in West Virgina a few years ago. They're struggling to keep that fine little drive-in alive;

Does anybody remember a cool-but-short-live show called Shannon? Read about it below.

The third post comes from Gord Green and me, concerning moon bases. Check out Buzz Lightbbeer in a space suit. Laughing

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The Return of the Drive-In Theater?

Powerslave214 wrote:
Pipestem is just over an hour from where I live, and there's also the Starlite Drive-In in Christiansburg, VA which is just a few miles from here.

Powerslave214, if you visit the Pipesteam Drive-in this summer I'd love to know if they are still playing the four CDs I created for them as "preshow" and "intermission" programs back around 2006 when I visited my daughter's family there and told the kindly old owner that I would donate my services to enhance the customers' drive-in experience.

Since that was fourteen years ago, perhaps they don't us them anymore, despite the fact that the theater owner and his devoted projectionist, Larry (shown below), were delighted by the CDs when the first played them for their patrons.






However, Larry was planning to buy the drive-in from the owner, and since he was so enthusiastic about my preshow and intermission CDs, he might still be using them. Cool

The Pipestem turned out to be the drive-in of my dreams, not only because it was such a perfect example of the way I remembered drive-in theaters from my youth —






— but also because the owner allowed me to create those CDs which played oldies rock 'n roll and snack bar promos I recorded myself, just to give the theater the friendly character I remembered from my youth.

The only reward I requested for creating the CDs was two of the drive-in speaks they still used, compliments of Larry, the wonderful projectionist, who was especially thrilled the first time he heard the CDs I'd made.










I took the two drive-in speakers home to Georgia, shined them up with steel wool, and installed them on the back deck of my second-floor apartment which faced a beautifully wooded area which had tree limbs that reached the rails of my deck!

My sweet, gray-haired mother once described my apartment as my "nest up in the trees". Very Happy



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I had a gas grill positioned in the corner of the deck, and the two drive-in speakers were hanging from the wooden rails on either side. I could cook hamburgers, steaks, or pork chops on a warm summer evening while playing my original copies of the Pipestem CDs on the stereo in my living room (with the drive-in speakers connected as well), and enjoy the anticipation of the 1950s sci-fi movies I'd chosen on any given evening.









I actually miss my old place in Georgia, with it's lofty back deck surrounded by the wooded area, and my sizzling grill flanked by those vintage drive-in speakers playing my own recreation of the Golden Age of drive-ins.

One of these days I think I'll upload my varous drivi-in tributes to YouTube so you folks can enjoy them. Very Happy

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Shannon (1961 - 1962)
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In addition to the The Man and the Challenge (1959 - 1960), George Nader starred in another TV series which began just one year later. This one wasn't science fiction in the strictest sense, but it was definitely hi-tech (for its time).

The series was called Shannon. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it.
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Nader stars as Joe Shannon, an insurance investigator for the Transport Bonding and Surety Company. Regis Toomey portrayed Shannon's boss, Bill Cochran.

Shannon drove a modern 1961 Buick Special, equipped with cameras, a dictating machine, tape recorders, weapons, and notably, a mobile phone (decades before cell phones) when car phones were rare. The car required a long whip antenna required for the phone.

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I watched several of the 36 episodes that aired, and I was pretty damned impressed by that snazzy Buick.






Actually, the show didn't do the car justice because it was in black & white, and the car used in the series wasn't a convertible. Like so many late 1950s and early 1960s automobiles, the convertible versions had a special quality which the hardtop versions seemed to lack.

I swear to God, this is one of the most beautiful cars I've ever seen in my life! Shocked






This was three years before James Bond's Austin Martin DB 5 in Goldfinger, and frankly I was just as impressed by those less-lethal (and more-useful) devices which Shannon's Buick possessed.

After all, cruising around the city while investigating crimes gave Shannon plenty of opportunities to use his car phone, cameras, and recorders. But accessories like the Austin Martin's oil sprayers, ejection seat, and bulletproof rear shield just aren't needed on a daily basis by a clever guy who travels around in style and unravels mysteries.

In other words, Shannon was a "thinking man's hero", empowered by technology in his efforts to gather information and solve problems. Naturally he could fight when he had to, because his snazzy car had an arsenal of weapons!

He was, in fact, armed and dangerous when the need arose! But his primary mission was to uncover the truth and bring criminals to justice. Cool

YouTube had six episodes of this show (with picture qualities which varied somewhat) when I first stared this thread, but now it's down to only three, so I've updated this post by fixing the three they still have and deleting the ones that no longer work.

Fortunately I downloaded all six when they were available, so I can still watch them. A word to the wise: don't assume that YouTube videos will be around when you finally want to watch them.
Rolling Eyes ____________________________________________________________________

Here's How We'll Build A Cheap, Safe Lunar Base

Gord Green wrote:
So people, save your pee for the Space Program! Gallons of it will have to be shipped off for soft landing on our Lunar neighbor! Either that or supply our brave Astronauts with lots of beer for their voyage!

I thought this was a legitimate science article until I read that last part and realized it was just a rumor started by Trump to encourage men to enlist in his Space Force!

Join the Space Force! The Moon has free beer!



_________________
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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