thriftcrawler 07/21/05

07/21/05

01. Zenith IS-4180 Integrated Stereo System

I saw this at Red White & Blue today and immediately knew I was going to go home with it. I already have a record player, but this thing is also an 8-track player and recorder(!), a cassette player/recorder, and a radio - plus it's just gorgeous. Shiny chrome finish, wood grain, lots of knobs and buttons and an old school LED VU meter. Other features include a 1/4" headphone jack, two 1/8" microphone jacks, Hi-Filter button, Loudness button, AUX in, and plugs for two sets of speakers (which you can run one set at a time, or together.) And now, a few close-ups:

This is my first ever 8-track player/recorder. Great. Another music format I will now undoubtedly begin to collect impusively. I'm not sure what those empty slots behind the 8-track unit itself are for - and no, 8-track cartridges don't fit in them. I have to say I find the look of this thing very appealing, what with the chrome switches, red and green LEDs and slanted cartridge slot bay.

I turned my camera's flash off in order to better capture the rectangular florescence of the glowing VU meter lights. "Twinkle, twinkle," say the VU meter lights. By the way, I've hooked Unit Z up, and it works like a charm. Oh, "Unit Z" is what I named it. "Z" is for "Zenith", y'know. Yep... Unit Z. Sigh. Is it gay to name your audio equipment? C'mon, it's not like I'm ever gonna actually call it that every single time I refer to it even in public and then force all my friends to call it that as well and make them leave if they refuse and then go out and buy some tacky reflective alphabet stickers and spell out "UNIT Z" on the side of it and

Anyway, this lovely prize was mine for the low, low price of only $19.95. It also came with one of those flip-up lids, but I tore it off in a fit of rage. Okay, I just find them annoying, so I removed it.

P.S. - I can't find shit one about this thing on the web. Can you? Let me know. I'm curious about when it was made, technical specs, etc.

02. 3 LPs, 2 SNES games, 1 Sega CD game

I didn't neglect the vinyl/cassettes/8-tracks/CDs/games section at RW&B today just because I found Unit-- I mean just because I found the IS-4180. Here's what else I got:

01. Kiss - Love Gun (Casablanca - 1977)
Seventh album from Kiss (and the fucking fifth in just three years), featuring family favorites such as the title track, "Christine Sixteen" and "Plaster Caster". I've never really gotten into Kiss, and if I'm ever going to, it might as well be now.

02. KISS - Destroyer (Casablanca - 1976)
Their fifth. "Detroit Rock City", "God of Thunder", "Beth" and, like most of their albums, cover art that manages to be silly as fuck, but cool nonetheless.

03. Top Hits of the '70s (Capitol - 1976?)
Really uninteresting MOR from top sleep-inducing artists of the day, such as Andy Kim, Edward Bear and Vicki Lawrence. I bought this for the sexy, if misleading cover art. It's kind of hard to see from the above photograph, but the cover girl's shirt is so thin, you can see not only her nipples, but her areolas as well. The text on the back cover tries to make the mainstream 70s swill on this record sound like some sort of gift from god. "Although rock maintained its dominance of the music scene, it was no longer the simple style of Presley in the '50s and the Beatles in the '60s," - and then it goes directly into a paragraph declaring the greatness of B.J. fucking Thomas. Even funnier is this semi-apologetic sentence near the end which quietly concedes that mainstream 70s music may not have been all that wonderful: "If one is inclined to conclude that the '70s are lagging behind previous decades in musical excitement, then patience is the byword." Yeah, the 70s never did get any better.

04. Thunderstrike (Sega CD)
The one review of this game on Gamefaqs.com says it's good. I'll have to wait till I find a Sega CD system to find out for myself.

05. Super Mario World (SNES)
Can't go wrong with Mario. I lost my original copy, so here's its replacement.

06. Starfox (SNES)
Pretty fun action flight sim. Man, I'm tired. Oh yeah... all games were $2.95 a piece, all albums $1.95 a piece - except Love Gun, which was $2.95. Why?



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01.	Kiss - Love Gun (Casablanca - 1977) Seventh album from Kiss (and the fucking fifth in just three years), featuring family favorites such as the title track, "Christine Sixteen" and "Plaster Caster". I've never really gotten into Kiss, and if I'm ever going to, it might as well be now.
02.	KISS - Destroyer (Casablanca - 1976) Their fifth. "Detroit Rock City", "God of Thunder", "Beth" and, like most of their albums, cover art that manages to be silly as fuck, but cool nonetheless.
03.	Top Hits of the '70s (Capitol - 1976?) Really uninteresting MOR from top sleep-inducing artists of the day, such as Andy Kim, Edward Bear and Vicki Lawrence. I bought this for the sexy, if misleading cover art. It's kind of hard to see from the above photograph, but the cover girl's shirt is so thin, you can see not only her nipples, but her areolas as well. The text on the back cover tries to make the mainstream 70s swill on this record sound like some sort of gift from god. "Although rock maintained its dominance of the music scene, it was no longer the simple style of Presley in the '50s and the Beatles in the '60s," - and then it goes directly into a paragraph declaring the greatness of B.J. fucking Thomas. Even funnier is this semi-apologetic sentence near the end which quietly concedes that mainstream 70s music may not have been all that wonderful: "If one is inclined to conclude that the '70s are lagging behind previous decades in musical excitement, then patience is the byword." Yeah, the 70s never did get any better.
04.	Thunderstrike (Sega CD) The one review of this game on Gamefaqs.com says it's good. I'll have to wait till I find a Sega CD system to find out for myself.
05.	Super Mario World (SNES) Can't go wrong with Mario. I lost my original copy, so here's its replacement.
06.	Starfox (SNES) Pretty fun action flight sim. Man, I'm tired. Oh yeah... all games were $2.95 a piece, all albums $1.95 a piece - except Love Gun, which was $2.95. Why?