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MST3K-OZ #1

Well, that's an official-sounding subject line for a definitely
unofficial collection of rambling thoughts ....

As I've mentioned to one or two of you before at various times, I want
to be able to set up a "forum" for Australian MSTies to be able to
communicate with each other. The odds of all of us getting together at
any one time are pretty slim, given our geographical diversity. I think
it would be cool for all of us to be able to stay in touch and keep
up-to-date with what's happening in the world of MST3K.

If anyone receiving this e-mail thinks this would be not so cool, just
let me know and I'll drop you from the distribution. If you know of
someone else who might like to be involved, please get them to e-mail me
and add them to the list. *I won't add them to the list if they don't
e-mail me first.* Just call me old-fashioned (I also don't want to be
accused of spamming). My various e-mail addresses are at the bottom of
this message.

I guess, also, that I could print this out and photocopy it to
snail-mail anyone not fortunate enough to have e-mail ... if anyone
knows anyone who would like that, let me know and I'll see what I can
do. Of course, if you *do* know someone in that position, you could
print it out yourself and give it to them, right? Hmm?

My recent post to alt.tv.mst3k and aus.sf looking for other Melbourne
MSTies was hardly a roaring success, in that I was not exactly flooded
with e-mail, but it was by no means a total failure. So far it's
introduced me to Mike McClure and his crowd, as well as netting me a
couple of other e-mail contacts (who are all getting this mail) - not
all from Melbourne though. It's a small start, but it's a start
nonetheless.

(For anyone wondering why I didn't also post to rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc,
it's because I posted from work, and the work newsgroups server filters
out all rec.* groups. I'm not sure why they don't filter out the
alt.tv.* stuff as well, but I'm not complaining!)

After a couple of false starts, my VCR and Mike McClure (& friends)
finally connected last month for a day of MST3K viewing. Also present
was Paul Dossett and various hangers-on at my house. (A game of "World
In Flames" was going on in the front room so from time to time curious
wargamers stuck their heads in the door to see what we were all laughing
about.) We started about 1.00pm and went straight through to about
11.00pm. Mike & co. had never seen any of the TV episodes, they only
knew of MST3K: The Movie via video. Paul had seen only The Movie and
the episodes released by Rhino. We had a warm-up of "This is MST3K",
followed by "Mitchell", "Revenge of the Creature", "Godzilla vs.
Megalon" and "The Brain That Wouldn't Die". We also snuck in a showing
of the MST3K "Poopie" tape. All in all, a pretty full day. There was
also much oohing and aahing over my modest little laser disc collection,
a sure-fire way to get on my good side <g>. Mike tells me that seeing
"Dr Who" playing on TV on a Saturday afternoon convinced him to get
Foxtel connected <g>. (Personally, I was amazed by "The Tick" while
waiting for people to show up ... if you're not familiar with this
bizarre little cartoon show, it's definitely worth a look. I don't know
if it's shown on free-to-air TV at all.)

The tentative plan is for a repeat session on Saturday 15 November.
Mark your calendars!

As most of you are aware, a number of tapes in my MST3K collection (and
those that I distribute to others when I make copies) are created by
dubbing the "original" (I use the term loosely) NTSC version to a
"PAL-60" version. (Of course I only do this when I'm borrowing the NTSC
copy, not when it's mine to keep.) The PAL-60 tape will play on any PAL
VCR (not all of us are blessed with NTSC-compatible players) but has
several annoying video artifacts, as it's not a "true" conversion. It's
been my plan for some time to get hold of a conversion device so that I
can do the job properly (and also go from PAL to NTSC so I can send
tapes back to friends in the US) but the fact that the cheapest of these
devices is about $1200 or so, not to mention all the additional cables
and what-not that would have to be connected to the back of my
already-complex hi-fi setup, has been a real dis-incentive. (Not to
mention the little matter of the house that I'm going to be building
soon ....) Still, I do plan for it to happen one day in the (to coin a
phrase) not-too-distant future. For anyone interested, you can check
out the web page www.tenlabs.com for the equipment required and what it
will do. It's an American product but they do have an Australian
distributor (based here in Melbourne). The minimum equipment you
require is two VCRs, at least one of which is able to play NTSC tapes,
as well as the tenlabs box which sits in-between them. If you want to
convert PAL to NTSC, one of the VCRs needs to be able to record NTSC as
well as play. For best results, both VCRs should be hi-fi.

An alternative to the above is a new machine from Samsung. This is a
VCR that has all the conversion hardware built in, so all the problems
about extra sets of cables etc. are avoided. The drawback is the price:
$3000. Yowch. However, it means that all you need is a second VCR -
I'm not sure if the second VCR even needs to have NTSC features.

For anyone just looking for an NTSC-compatible VCR without worrying
about converting anything, in my personal opinion Sony make the best
machines, but they're a little more pricy than most. The Panasonic and
Sharp ranges aren't bad either. For sheer dollar value though, the
Philips VCRs are hard to beat. Nothing very fancy about them, but they
do the job and are pretty much the cheapest brand on the market, so far
as I've been able to determine. (At least they were 12 months ago; I've
noticed that in recent months the Sony and Panasonic top-of-the-line
models have tumbled quite a bit in price.)

As I've mentioned in a previous e-mail that you should all have
received, several new Rhino tapes have just been released. The latest
three are "I Accuse My Parents", "The Atomic Brain" and "Red Zone Cuba".
I'll be placing my order Real Soon Now <g>.

I've also gotten three more tapes from Kim in Canberra to make copies of
- "Bride of the Monster", "Warrior of the Lost World" and (ta-da)
"Manos: The Hands of Fate". I'm particularly pleased with the last, the
only time I've seen the full version of this was when I was in the US
last year (stupidly I didn't think to record it while I was there).
Since then I had received a highly-abbreviated copy with only the movie,
no short and no host segments. Good, but not as good as the "real
thing". "Warrior" I've seen before, and a particularly nasty piece of
work it is (I mean that in a good way). I haven't seen "Bride", but
it's an Ed Wood film - how can you go wrong?

Feedback please! Do people like what I'm doing here? Are there
particular topics that people would like explored? Or am I, in fact,
just a doofus? Contributions from all are welcomed, of course.

Time to push the button ....

Bruce
MSTie #72759

Any of these e-mail addresses will get to me, all are checked regularly:

bprobst@vitgbsd3.telstra.com.au <-- work
bprobst@ibm.net <-- home generic internet
100372.1643@compuserve.com <-- Compuserve (duh)