Moving from the HO Highway over to the “big track” this weekend, I’ll drop this very brief post to highlight a couple of very small recent changes made to the diorama around Drag City Raceway. This is one of the aspects of this hobby that I most enjoy, even if it doesn’t read on the blog with the same excitement as T-Jet rebuilds or Tournament results. Nothing too exciting here for most readers, but its always fun to show off some new Diecast acquisitions “in-situ,”
But First…
…I’m going to bore you with something that will likely be of even LESS interest to my readers but I’m including it anyway since it has certainly influenced the enjoyment of my own life! Namely my loooong overdue installation of a new shower surround in my master bathroom, complete with all new hardware and paint (some still pending).
The original shower surround, cracked and covered with duct tape and with mold in every crevice. A man has his priorities, but living like this for as long as I did was kind of inexcusable; with the holidays past, it was time to finally do something about this!
For years I’ve been living with this nasty cheap yellow-tinted shower surround that was oozing with mold at the edges. I’d been putting off fixing this primarily out of fear of how bad the condition of the walls behind the surround would really be, but after Rob’s visit to house-sit over the X-mas holidays, in which he was so put off by the mess that he took it upon himself to start the demolition I should have started years ago, I was forced to finish it…which is an excellent example of how friendship can sometimes take some odd forms! To his credit, he helped me finish it, and I got some major additional help from my most excellent partner Mr. Patrick, all of which was good, because I couldn’t have done it alone!
With the original surround removed, the drywall behind wasn’t great, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared! Some repairs were needed, but it was manageable!
The bill on this was hefty seen in comparison to collecting toy cars or old records, but as far as (partial) bathroom remodels go, it got finished for a pretty reasonable figure. That’s still money that has come out of the toys, but sometimes these things can’t be helped, and this was one that I had let go for far too long! So, thanks again to my friends and loved ones for standing by me and helping me out; I and my guests now have a decent and clean place to bathe, which, as we all know, can be a real treat on a cold winter night after a hard day at work!
The finished product! A DIY job by some friends, sure, but even so, a major upgrade to my quality of life!
Now, with house mods out of the way, let’s head down to the track and check out the latest goings-on at Drag City!
We’ll start in the parking lot, where a mainline casting of the Hot Wheels ’77 Fireboid has been swapped for a premium version of the same casting. The white with baby blue interior is realistic-it was a popular color combo on the real car-and the detail on this model is fantastic, particularly the wheels!
Some recent acquisitions still packaged including an expensive HW Garage issue of the Ferrari 512M courtesy of CO Diecast, about to be opened!
That HW Garage premium Ferrari very carefully opened and parked at the Inspection Station where it took the place of a mainllne version of the same casting in yellow, which has now in turn been moved to the Ferrari bay in Pit RowOver in the Paddock, a rare 1977 Porsche 934 RSR, the FIA Group 4 homologation special version of the famous 911 Turbo, winds its way into the spectator-heavy parking area braced by a pair of Jaguars. In mean-looking matte black with stripes in fluorescent green, this is one of the best entries yet in the Hot Wheels “Neon Speeders” rangeOver by the track at the queue for qualifying, the excellent yellow Porsche 917K that has been on the diorama since it was built has finally been retired to the case to make way for an equally yellow race-spec’d Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona. This is one of the coolest Hot Wheels mainlines released in 2025-if not THE coolest-and there was no way this wasn’t going to wind up at Drag City!And to drive that point home – don’t know if you noticed it in the pic above focused on the yellow 512M – but the red version of the 365 GTB/4 is getting ready for the track in the Ferrari bay in Pit Row!And to wrap things up, here’s one I’ve shown once already: the long-ago purchased but only recently arrived 2025 RLC sELECTIONs car, the resto-mod ’68 Barracuda notchback, headed eastbound on Interstate 8 where it will no doubt be switching lanes to take the upcoming exit to Drag City Raceway!
So there you go: nothing major, but little changes like this keep the scenery interesting and they’re really fun to do! And with that, its another weekend of work for your HB, but I shall return in due time, because there’s always something hot or something cool happening at Drag City!
For the first time in a long while, I’ve just spent a wad of serious money making some new classic Thunderjet acquisitions. My last addition was the battered ‘63 T-Bird I rescued from the 50¢ bin @ CoD, the results of which were almost awesome but taken down a notch toward the end by a shattered screw post. Prior to that, the last time I added anything to The Crew was in February of last year.
Although I bought quite a few cars, my focus was on two goals. Now, one of those goals will be the topic of a future post, which I plan to drop a week from today; the other is the one you see here: filling some holes in the Road Crew collection that I had originally left intentionally but recently had a change of heart about. Specifically: I decided to acquire some good copies of a couple of models I I’ve held in low regard and originally didn’t want: the Chaparral 2A and the McLaren Elva Mk1A.
While I still feel that both of these bodies are among the most disappointing of the Aurora originals, what has changed is that I have a more completionist outlook now, that of a small-time collector, which is NOT how I started out in this hobby! I now want all the Aurora originals represented in The Road Crew, even those that are not amongst my favorites. In addition to that, the sports/racing car section of The Crew is far smaller than the road car/muscle car section, so I thought it needed some punching up.
To satisfy this goal I went looking for less obvious colors and the best examples that I was willing to pay for, and I’m happy to say I scored some really good buys, and also picked up a couple of much more desirable models along the way. These last two were very expensive, but as I’ve said many times, my collection has become extensive enough that the cars I don’t have are the expensive ones, and to continue adding cars is going to cost. So be it: that’s why it’s been so long since I last added anything!
SO! Here’s an up-close look @ 5 of the more recent additions to the Road Crew!
“2 & 7” – The Pair of Chaparral 2A’s
I went for turquoise and red. Neither is “rare”, really, but these are desireable colors that carry price premiums over white and yellow. While hunting for these, I actually had a hard time finding in-tact models, as most of the ones that I saw listed were missing the driver’s heads and some of the exhaust pipes and intake tubes at the back! The turquoise purchase, the first one I made, was a little messy, arriving as it did on a later Tuff Ones chassis with TO wheels, but it was complete and intact, if a little dirty and dusty. Considering the lack of the correct-style chassis, the price was fair but not a bargain (there are few of those left in the wild, kids!) so when it arrived I added a good original closed-rivet chassis of my own and cleaned it up quite a bit with a good warm bath. Some of the images you see here were taken before the more thorough cleaning, but once done it looked pretty good. Subsequent to these pictures being taken, I added a set of Jel Claws to the rear for better traction.
Shortly after the turquoise one, the red one arrived, and it was very nice indeed: “VG+” for sure, to use a term that record collectors are fond of! This one needed virtually nothing; just a little cleaning on the chassis including a set of replacement brushes and we were “off to the races,” pun totally intended.
A Near Mint McLaren
I struggled to choose between blue and green for the Elva, but the green was definitely more expensive due to scarcity, and once I happened upon this extremely clean blue version, I pulled the trigger. Glad I did: it was the right choice! This little jewel is in superb condition, about as good as you can find for a car that has been raced and not in its original packaging. The body was flawless and the chassis, though showing some evidence of racing on the pickup-shoes, was clearly a low mileage original. It did have a lot of corrosion from years of disuse as all long-stored T-Jets do, so it was not operable at first, and I needed to disassemble and clean it to bring it back to life. It didn’t take much, though; I reused all the original parts and had it running in less than an hour! Its tires were too dried out to keep so I replaced the rears with a set of wide Jel Claws 2031’s, and it now sits beside my equally clean red one, the two looking superb side by side in the sports car side of the track parking lot! This may not be one of the best of the Aurora bodies, but these are two fine examples of it nonetheless!
A Very Desirable Cobra
I have a yellow and a tan original Cobra roadster in The Crew already, but I wanted a turquoise one. This is one of the more expensive Auroras due to collector interest and turquoise is a particularly expensive hue, so I had to fork over a lot of scratch for this one, and I was pretty chapped to find when it arrived that the front screw post was badly split. I haven’t been able to find any of those metal repair sleeves for years (they appear to no longer be available, although if anyone out there knows differently, please let me know when I can find some!) so I had to treat this one very gingerly as I took it apart to clean it. The front post held, though, for now. Over time its only going to get worse so if I don’t find a repair sleeve I’ll eventually be fabricating a replacement, but I really don’t want to do that due to this car’s value, so its presence on the track will be spare.
Even so, it ran great after cleaning and oiling the chassis and replaceing the front wheels, which were both banged up from “hammer installation” by a previous owner. I like the way the driver’s head is cocked to one side; that means its not original, but it does give it some nice character; I wonder, how did someone do that? Did they crack the head off and re-glue on it in a different position, or were there some drivers available in years past that came that way? Don’t know, but I like it, and the driver’s red shirt is a nice offset to the turquoise body. So not a perfect purchase, by any means: for the price I paid, that post should NOT have been cracked. Even so, it is beautiful, and other than the cracked post its in superb condition and displays perfectly.
And over on the road side of The Road Crew…
Lastly, we have one that isn’t a sports car: I’ve been looking for another Mercury Cougar to round out my brace of those, but have never been able to decide on a color. I thought I wanted a green one, but that’s one of the harder colors to find and very expensive, so one night last week I decided I wanted a red one! Turns out that was expensive, too, because I bought a really good one and paid accordingly, but it came out of the box needing nothing. A previous owner had clearly already giving the chassis a thorough going-over, as the pick-up shoes were bright and freshly sanded and the whole car was clean inside and out. A dot of oil on the main bearing and it lit up and ran perfectly: didn’t even need tires! Hmmm…that was almost too easy, almost boring! But this is what you should get when you pay what I gave for this one, and it looks great with its blue and white sisters at the east end of the parking lot!
Bonus Round! An old-timer gets a new look and a new attitude!
As mentioned above, the turquiose Chaparral-the first of these arrivals- came on a later Tuff Ones chassis. It didn’t run at first although it had life in it, so I did what I do: a disassembly, cleaning, and rebuild with new pick-up shoes and new brushes, and I also replaced the rear wheels and tires, which were discolored and worn. Once I had it running, I decided to do something I’d been considering for years and swap it under a T-Jet I’ve owned forever: namely the “tri-color” Mark Donohue AMX. This car would originally have come out of the package on a Tuff Ones chassis. I bought it on ePay as a body only back in 2021, originally planning to add it to the Auto World Trans Am fleet, but I then decided the use Auto-World’s own reproduction for that purpose. Since then, the body was mounted on a Frankenstein chassis I cobbled together from a mess of junk parts. It ran very well, mind you, esp since it was equipped with the hard-to-obtain “Hop-Up” 12-tooth rear pinion and associated crown gear and was shod with Jel Claws 2031’s at the rear, making it a very fast car! Even so, it wasn’t “right,” and now that I’m more “collector-minded” than in the past, I decided to use that TO chassis to restore the car to its proper look! It still runs great, and I’m happier with it now! And that Frankenstein chassis? It’s been set aside with a couple more originals that have been gone-through and running clean and strong, ready for whatever bodies I may choose to mount them on in the future!
The Mark Donohue AMX now finally looks RIGHT!
And so there you have it, fellow slot-heads: the latest additions to the Road Crew here at the HO Highway, an “Enclave” of Drag City Raceway in Wardglenn CA! As mentioned, these aren’t the only recent acquisitions: there are 2 more that I have more elaborate plans for, and I’ll be revealing those plans soon enough, so check in with me from time to time, since-ya know-there’s always something exciting happening here at Drag City!
The corner of the living room where the X-mas tree was is now empty and cold 😢
“A change of speed, a change of style A change of scene, with no regrets A chance to watch, admire the distance Still occupied, though you forget Different colours, different shades Over each mistakes were made I took the blame Directionless, so plain to see A loaded gun won’t set you free So you say…”
~ Joy Division
I will remember 2025 principally as a year of loss. Now it is 2026, a year that promises to bring some massive upheavals to your HB’s world; big changes are in the works for this year; I’ve mentioned some of these in previous posts. While wrapping up my affairs and moving on is going to occupy much of the time I don’t spend at work, I will always make time for play, because without play, life is not worth living. To meet that goal, several new and vintage Thunderjets are on their way, including those needed for the long awaited completion of my Group C sports car fleet. All the info on that, and other updates to the diorama and the track, are in store for the weeks to come.
Each RLC special issue comes in a hard cardboard box with a unique ID number stamped above the bar code, which is then also etched into the box inside the box that the car comes in, verifying authenticity and “chain of custody” to current and future collectors
The cars that ringed the base of the X-mas tree are now ready to be “cased.”
Part of the sadness of the arrival of January is the requirement to “de-Christmas.” This has always been difficult for me; as a child I would shed tears every year when the tree was taken down, and now, as an adult, I still can’t help sad little sighs escaping me as I pack up the tree and the ornaments and the lights and decorations and take them to their storage places, marking the beginning of the long colorless slog through winter. At least the weather has been exceptionally nice so far this year…that’s something I will definitely miss about Colorado. For now, I’m spending this weekend on a partial and long-overdue bathroom remodel, which is creating a lot of dust and mess upstairs…a perfect excuse for me to be downstairs in the toy room whenever I can take a break from it!
The 2025 RLC Roundup in pictures
So on this Satuday I bounced between floors, between work and chores and the toys, and as such this seemed like a perfect opportunity to catch up with you, dear readers, on some of the Redline Club purchases of the last year! I’ve profiled some of these already, and there’s a lot of blurred lines between the RLC cars VS other special series, but here’s a closer look at what’s on display and in the collection as a result of the last years Hot Wheels hunting!
I was selective; there were a lot of cars offered throughout 2025, and I only chose to pick up a few of them. When I first signed up for the RLC I expressed my reservations about it, and a lot of those reservations have been confirmed: the RLC cars are very expensive, and that whole thing with the Gulf livery Porsche 959 left a really bad taste in my mouth. The other thing I’m unhappy about is that a lot of these RLC exclusive castings are coming out too big! Again that same complaint: SCALE! A lot of these cars are clearly larger than 1:64, and that’s not what I want to see no matter how nice they are, because I want them to be able to co-exist with all my other die-casts! I can usually make it work with “forced perspective,” but sometimes there are things that just don’t look right unless you squint hard and act very forgiving. Despite these complaints, there’s a lot to like, and there were some really cool castings brought out this year that gave demanding collectors the sugar we were looking for.
So here are a few of the choices I made: let’s see how they stack up against your own!
SCALE, SCALE!
No surprise that one of my favorite releases of 2025 was this awesome Spectraflame red Jaguar E-Type coupe. You know this is one of my favorite cars in history, and since I’ll likely never own the real thing, a model of this caliber is a great substitute! While the wheels aren’t strictly accurate to the real car, that’s of little consequence: they look great, the detailing is great, and overall this is just an awesome model. This one hits the mark 100%! Nice job, Mattel!
So here’s an example of 2 cars that are too big and one that’s too small…
Jason got me this recent MoMA release as an X-mas gift: a car that belongs in that museum if ANY car does! The detail is amazing, but it’s essentially HO scale. What bothers me is putting it next to the coupe version of the exact same car; seen next to the roadster, the two cars should be identical in every dimension, but they’re not even close. Its still a great model and I’m extremely greatful to my cub for picking it out for me – he knows what I like, that’s for sure! – but as much as I like it, I can’t do much more than display it in isolation.
On the other end of the scale is another one I couldn’t pass up: the ‘59 Chevy 2-door wagon. Initially I was going to dunk on Mattel for getting the model name wrong, but it turns out they were right and I was wrong: the Brookwood was the only of the 4 wagon models available in ‘59 as a 2-door, although the same trim level could also be had as a 4-door, which most of them were (causing this confusion: in 1958, the Brookwood model was a 4-door only: the ‘58 2-door wagon was called the Yeoman, a name they used only for that one year! In ‘59 the Yeoman name was dropped-never to appear on a Chevrolet again-and the Brookwood became the bottom-of-the-line wagon). The 2 door wagons from 1958-60 are, as we all know, excessively rare, and if someone were to get ahold of a real one and do it up like this model here, who could complain?! This 2-tone Spectraflame blue scalloped paint job just screams “Kustom Kulture” and its absolutely beautiful, leaving me to complain only about its large size as a hindrance to adding it to my diorama.
It can keep company with another big’un, the “2025 sELECTIONs car,” an awesome highly customized Spectraflame “anti-freeze” ‘68 Plymouth Barracuda notchback. This is the one I waited at least 8 months for between paying for it and getting it, and I bought 3: one for Jason, one to leave packaged, and one to open because I intended to add it to the diorama. I ultimately did, but not where I intended to put it; again, it’s a beautiful model, being all metal and looking like a “resto-mod” with enough vintage touches to be cool, but it’s a little too large to co-exist with most of the rest of the action around the track. The cars on the freeway that borders the layout are all larger than 1:64 (these are mostly Greenlights, some Universal-era Matchboxes, a few Johnny Lightnings) so there’s that “forced perspective” again: as long as I keep likes with likes, it mostly works…just squint a little.
Count The Doors!
I can’t help but think of that famous print ad for the Lincoln Continental convertible from 1962 when I look at my two favorite RLC acquisitions of the year! As much as I love that E-Type coupe, it was these 2 that really took the cake for me!
I’ve mentioned a million times that I once owned a 1:1 scale Lincoln Continental of this vintage, but while mine was a sedan, I know these cars intimately, and this model was simply a must-have no matter what the scale. Having a 1:64-ISH model with 4 opening doors is a kick due to its rarity-there can’t be more than a handful of models in this scale made over the last 50 years with that feature, and presenting it in black with black and white interior, a color combo common on the real car, is only “obvious” because it’s so bitchin’! The ‘61-’63 Lincoln is certainly one of the most beautiful 4-door cars ever made, and its mojo was perfectly captured by this model! Another home run, Mattel!
From the perspective of construction, however, the German equivalent of the Lincoln may be even more impressive! I did a detailed post about about the Mercedes-Benz 600 back when I bought it but before I received it, and after obtaining my “Limit 2 per customer” shipment – one for me, one for Jason – I bought another later on after they announced some were still available. This couldn’t have been an easy or cheap model to make, but they did a magnificent job on it; everything from the wheels to the color is spot-on. The packaging on this one was also the best I’ve seen, as it is easy to open and reclose without damage, allowing a collector to enjoy handling and examining the car and put it back without having to “violate” any virginal sealing. Even though I don’t see it making the diorama at this time, there has to be a future for it, either there or on a diorama I may build in the future. Some things are too cool not to share!
Keeping the Matchbox Flame
No way would I forget my childhood favorite brand, even if it is just an imprint of its biggest rival these days! Matchbox purchases throughout the year have already been well covered here and here, but I think I may have missed a couple I should have have picked up. I did get a lot of the Collector’s Series releases, however, so while they are not as exclusive as the RLC cars, they’re still pretty cool, and a lot cheaper besides!
In spite of it all, my heart still belongs to the Mainlines!
An impulse grab from grocery shopping just a couple of days ago; they just jump right into my cart!
It’s a lifelong thing: I walk through the local grocery store picking up sundries for the week and pass an end cap and there’s one I just can’t pass up. I’ve been doing this since I was a child: all through my teen years, all through my adulthood; even in the decades when I wasn’t actively collecting, I just can’t resist picking one up now and then when it catches my eye.
Looking at some of today’s mainlines which can be bought at Wallyworld for $1.25, I have to wonder: why am I spending $32 on these RLC releases?! A couple of these latest grabs were good enough to land on the diorama, a metallic yellow Mazda RX3 and a “Neon Speeder” release of the VW SP2.
Sure, sometimes we want the premiums, no doubt; but I’m always leery of losing the child-like joy of the cars themselves and letting it be weaponized into “investing in collectibles.” Fortunately, there are enough cool mainlines still being produced to keep that warm feeling of the old days alive; grabbing a cool one on impulse while looking for butter or pasta sauce still brings a smile to my face. It’s the theme of this entire blog, and I can’t say it often enough: toy cars have been a part of my life since I was born, and they always will be!
The fastback version of the ’68 Barracuda, this latest release in bright green with wide black stripes and logos is a 100% throwback to the “Spoilers” of 1970, and is every bit as cool!
What’s in YOUR collection???
You yourself might have made different choices, and like I always say, I’d love to hear from you, fellow die-cast collectors, on what choices you made: what did you add to your collection this year, and what do you think I missed that I should have grabbed? I do have a couple more on the way at this writing-a really cool early 80’s Toyota 4×4 truck and another of the endless renditions of the ‘55 Chevy gasser in a Spectraflame pink and white-but I know I missed a purple ‘72 Chevy Nova pro-stocker I probably should have grabbed, and there’s an Elite64 BMW CSL that looks pretty cool. Open to suggestions, guys!
Can’t think of a better way to wrap up 2025 than taking a ride back to 1988! On the night I came home to CO, my confidant Rob was finishing up a couple of projects on my house that he mayyyyybe shouldn’t have started so late in the game. We got them wrapped up by sundown, which left us a chance to light up the bong, dim the lights, and turn on the ol’ Mr. Christmas Insta-Shape Tree to bring a holiday glow to my living room.
In the midst of talking about…well, everything, somehow the topic of Siouxsie & the Banshees came up. Rob reiterated that of all the band’s catalog, the one song that remained his favorite was the first one he ever heard: namely “The Killing Jar,” from Peepshow, Wonderland / Polydor SHELP 5, September 5, 1988. While the 2nd single released from the album, it garnered more airplay on FM radio in the US at the time than the track that preceded it. Rob wanted to hear the song, so I did what you do in 2025: I pulled it up on streaming, hit play, and let the algorithm pretend it was a record store clerk. It worked — technically. The song happened, the sound came out of the speakers. But a minute in I could feel my brain protesting. Because when it comes to the Banshees, “good enough” isn’t good enough! This isn’t background music, this is ceremony!
Down where this ugly man Seeks his sustenance Down in the blue, midnight flare A glass hand cuts through the water Scything into his twisted roots Then from his eyes Spring fireflies Breathing life Into a roaring disguise
Needles and sins, sins and needles He’s gasping for air In the wishing well Dust to rust, ashes on gashes Hand around the killing jar
So I stopped it and said, f*** this — I have mixes. Real mixes. Different versions. The 12-inch world where bands like this used to play with a song, stretch it, warp it, make it stranger on purpose. No: we’re going to do this right!
I killed the stream and flicked on the stereo system like I was powering up a lab, pulled the Peepshow singles from the record rack, and suddenly the room changed character. Needle drops, sleeves on the coffee table, that first little breath of vinyl noise before the sound locks in — and away we went, rolling out the 12-inchers the way the night deserved! We went into 3 versions of “The Killing Jar,” first up to our necks and then the head dunk, before I moved on to the next single, the opening track that set the tone for the entire album!
“Peek-A-Boo” reminded me that the best studio tricks aren’t tricks at all — they’re meaning. What’s so elegant about it is that the technique isn’t just a cool studio flex — it’s semantic. The band and producer built the track around a reversed loop of a brass-and-drums figure they’d previously arranged and recorded (originally for their cover of John Cale’s “Gun” from the previous album, Through The Looking Glass, in 1986), then flipped it so the groove takes on a bizarre, almost surreal backbeat, as if it were recorded in a room where gravity had somehow inverted. Reversing that bass/drum bed makes the rhythm feel like it’s inhaling: the hits arrive as a swell, the motion pulls you forward instead of punching you back. And then Siouxsie’s delivery sits on top like a narrator who knows exactly what game she’s describing — playful, teasing, predatory. The whole track becomes peek-a-boo as an audio illusion: you think you’re hearing the “front” of things, but you keep getting the backside. Or to put it in a more lascivious way-apropos, considering the lyrics and what the song is actually about: it doesn’t blow, it sucks!
That’s the kind of craft I’ll always worship: not “we added a spooky effect with the computer,” but “we made the physics of the song match the subtext.” You make the world around the band become part of the instrument. And once you start hearing production that way — as a kind of authorship, not decoration — you start hearing an entire lineage of non-digital sorcery hiding in plain sight.
For me, one of the closest cousins to that mentality — in a completely different flavor — is Oingo Boingo at their mid-’80s peak: not a rock band with horns, but a rock orchestra that behaves like they’re in a street fight! Their best material doesn’t just sound arranged — it sounds engineered by people who understand that rhythm is texture and texture is narrative. Sometimes that’s “exotic” instrumentation, sometimes it’s just the way percussion is made to talk, but the underlying mindset is the same: the sound isn’t a skin you apply later; it’s the body of the song.
This is OB’s best album – don’t let anyone tell you otherwiseI
And yes — if you want the quick nod to the obvious household-name examples, you can namecheck the mainstream giants in one sentence and keep moving: Zeppelin turning a building into part of the drum kit on “When The Levee Breaks,” Pink Floyd building a riff out of literal tape splices on “Money”, the Beatles treating tape loops and varispeed like portals on “Strawberry Fields Forever” and numerous other tracks. You don’t have to love those bands to love what they prove: the studio wasn’t just a place to capture music; it was a place to invent it under physical constraints.
From there, the lineage gets cooler and weirder in a way I actually care about. Can are basically the patron saints of “razor blade as instrument,” where the composition doesn’t necessarily happen during the performance — it happens after, when the tape gets cut, looped, and stitched until a jam becomes an organism. Bowie’s “Heroes” is another perfect example of analog technique serving emotion: not “add reverb,” but “earn space.” Multiple microphones at different distances, gating so the room blooms only when the voice pushes harder — intensity literally opening the world around the vocal. And if you want a nod toward the broken-future side of things, Chrome understood that sound could be assembled out of debris — cut-and-paste energy, damaged texture, songs that feel like they’re broadcasting from inside a machine that’s grinding itself to pieces. Different aesthetics, same principle: the process is the point, and the point is meaning.
This is where I start sounding like the cranky archivist I am, but I don’t care: the tragedy of the digital age isn’t that we have more tools — it’s that we lost the friction that forced people to be clever. When tape cost money and edits were irreversible, you didn’t casually “try forty versions.” You committed. You learned what a stairwell does to a snare, what a hallway does to an amp, what happens when you flip time backward and build a pop hook on top like nothing happened. The constraints weren’t a handicap; they were a style of intelligence. Now you can conjure any echo, any distortion, any “vibe” in ten seconds — and you can also skip the part where you actually invent something, because the computer will happily hand you a convincing imitation of ten thousand old inventions. And sure, there are brilliant modern producers — I’m not deaf — but the average listener now lives in a world where every edge can be sanded down, every mistake can be quantized, every risk can be undone. The result isn’t “better.” It’s safer. The machine doesn’t fight back anymore — and most people don’t even realize the fight was the point.
Which is exactly why I shut off streaming that night and started pulling 12-inch sleeves like hymnals.
“Rumble Man” The inventor of the Fuzzbox, still underappreciated even to this day!
And if you want to see just how far back this lineage goes, rewind all the way to the lo-fi primordial ooze: Link Wray, 1958. The legend of “Rumble” isn’t just attitude — it’s physical intervention. He wanted distortion in an era that didn’t want distortion, so he famously punched holes in the speaker cone to force the sound into existence. And for that big haunted echo on later cuts, the folklore points to the same old-school truth: if you don’t have an effects rack, you use a hallway, a stairwell, a building. Space becomes the plugin. Damage becomes the tone. And suddenly the line from Wray’s hacked speaker in 1958 to Siouxsie’s backwards groove in 1988 isn’t a stretch at all — it’s the same instinct wearing different clothes: when the sound you want doesn’t exist yet, you don’t ask permission. You make the world around the band become part of the instrument.
Only a band with the kind of talent, daring, and creativity Siouxsie & the Banshees had could have pulled this off! Trumpets doing that weird, sneering cabaret punctuation, an accordion that makes the whole thing feel like a crooked carnival, a beat that moves wrong on purpose, and lyrics that are basically literate smut with a razor in its garter. And it’s all held together by that core reverse-forward trick: the rhythm doesn’t just groove — it feels like it’s breathing in a way that matches the song’s game. “Peek-A-Boo” is what happens when a band refuses to separate composition from sound. It’s not just a great melody with a cool production trick; the production is the idea. The horns, the accordion, the inside-out pulse, the sly, storybook-dirty lyrics — it all snaps into the same mischievous logic. It’s pop music as stagecraft: the band changing the room, changing the physics, and daring you to notice.
Creeping up the backstairs Slinking into dark stalls Shapeless and slumped in bath chairs Furtive eyes peep out of holes She has many guises She’ll do what you want her to Playing dead and sweet submission Cracks the whip deadpan on cue
I don’t know what all you’re into, but that sounds like a New Year’s Eve party to me! Golly Jeepers, where’d you get those weepers?!
OK dear readers, you all know this one by heart….RIGHT? I mean…if-for some reason-you’ve never heard this, you best grab your headphones and hit “play” RIGHT NOW!
OMG – is THIS what I’m coming back too, really?! It starts before I even get off the plane!
There’s a particular whiplash that hits when you come home after a trip: you go from airports and schedules and “holiday mode” straight back into your own driveway, your own couch, your own to-do list—like the universe flipping a light switch.
This year the landing was actually…good. Quiet, a little nerdy, a little cozy. The kind of post-Christmas decompression I always think I want, and then forget to actually allow myself.
Dec 27: Rob’s House-Sitting Wrap-up
Rob had been holding down the fort while I was gone, so my first night back was basically: re-entry + catching up + tinkering.
A late dinner from the In-N-Out drivethrough….I must have still been “Arizona Dreaming!”
We did what we always do when we’re left unattended:
a little AI poking and prodding
a little web project noodling
a lot of “wait—what if we try this”
And somewhere in there I started the gift-wrapping marathon, because that’s the part of Christmas I never do early enough. I wrapped, re-wrapped, hunted for tape, lost scissors, found scissors, and swore at at least one piece of paper that refused to behave.
(Also: yes, there was a side quest in the mix… but that’s a story for the next post.)
Dec 28: Jason’s Christmas
The next day was the real heart of it: driving over to see Jason; getting there before he got home from work so I could stuff the stockings, dropping off the wrapped gifts, and let the holiday finally become what it’s supposed to be—simple and close-range.
We settled into an evening that felt like it had been engineered specifically for us:
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (vintage cool, perfect background mood: sharp suits, sharp dialogue, sharp corners)
Lasagna (the correct winter food)
Wine (A Spanish Grenache: the correct winter companion)
Then we did the best part: opening presents—slow, no rush, with time to actually look at things and laugh at the choices and appreciate the weird specificity of knowing someone well.
J’s gift to me: A new RLC release of the MoMA E-Type roadster. The scale is wrong-its smaller than 1:64-but the presentation is superb!
I’ll spare you the full inventory list here (I can already hear the internet yawning), but I will say this: the Hot Wheels situation escalated quickly, and I regret nothing.
To be continued…
This post is the quiet, domestic middle chapter: the landing, the catching up, the “home” part of the holiday. The next one is where I get a little more obsessive—because New Year’s Eve deserves something properly curated!
