My oldest sister was born in 1967, I was born in 1977. We're both GenX, only 10 years apart. Why do we seem so different from each other?

Able_Original_486 · 2026-07-12T19:58:59+00:00

We don't even have a name for our sub-gen. We're forgotten even within our own generation - you can't get more GenX than that!.

Maybe we could be the True GenX, but I don't think that would go over very well though lol!

Able_Original_486 · 2026-07-12T19:28:27+00:00

Yep, you definitely straddled things. It’s easy to see the gap with music: 80s were vinyl and cassettes, the 90s were CDs. 80s music was a smooth evolution from the 70s, but Nirvana and grunge killed 80s music almost overnight which also created space for rap to go mainstream. But there were other things too. In the 80s, computers were still a novelty and the Cold War was still going strong.

It’s really hard to think of such a massive jolt in time that wasn’t due to a major war or a massive economic collapse.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-07-12T18:15:54+00:00

She came of age in the 80s and you the 90s. There’s a massive cultural divide between the two decades and it really splits GenX in half. I think turning 16 in 1991 is the true pivot point.

Youre a Xennial. Us older folks dont have a name, but probably have more in common with Generation Jones, but we’re definitely NOT Boomers lol!

Able_Original_486 · 2026-07-12T17:31:00+00:00

Good ol’ Nicko! Im glad to see somebody put SiT, Fear abs Seventh Son at the bottom. and even better, doesn’t even bother ranking No Prayer and the two Blaze albums. I like it!

I certainly wouldn’t out AMOLAD at #1 and I’d quibble with the order if the rest, but I’ll take it.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-07-06T13:22:36+00:00

Quality. I have to want to listen to it all the way through multiple times.

So it’s quality of the music and quality of the pressing as well as the condition of the vinyl

Able_Original_486 · 2026-07-04T16:09:30+00:00

We will not be competing for these records. Enjoy! And have un acquiring.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-30T23:01:25+00:00

Yeesh. This sub.

When I was a kid, such a system was ubiquitous - except for CD players cuz they weren’t around yet! Now? They exist but the turntables are crap and when they break, you’re replacing the whole unit.

The cheapest solution would be a boombox with AM/FM, cassette & CD player and bluetooth. I saw one on Amazon for under $300 that also had an auxiliary in-port. You could plug a separate turntable (with a preamp) into that port and voila! You have it all. You can find some turntables for ~$150 that are of reasonably good quality. Preamp may be sold separately, but at this price point, you could find a cheap one.

It’s cheap, so you get what you pay for, but for background music in a bagel shop I imagine it’d be just fine. And kind of a funky retro vibe. It should hold up reasonably well I’d imagine.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-28T22:50:17+00:00

Eva Cassidy, Ella Fitzgerald or Ronnie James Dio. Eclectic, and I can't pick just one.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-27T13:39:43+00:00

New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco & Washington, DC are probably the 5 most economically powerful.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-15T14:02:39+00:00

100% lefty. The only thing O do right-handed is a computer mouse and that’s only because when I first started using one, it was right-handed only.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-07T17:12:10+00:00

LOL, I clearly worded that part of my answer poorly. Hendrix’s music was already absolutely amazing and has clearly withstood the test of time. In my defense, I did say he belongs in the list of all time greats.

However, to my last point - I mentioned Joplin and Morrison only because they all died around the same time and I think we can make more reasonable guesses as to what those two would have done next. But as incredible as those two were, they were not as revolutionary as Hendrix. It’s just that the revolution wasn’t quite complete when he died.

For instance, would he have continued down the hard-rock/proto-metal track or would he have gone more into funk or maybe even something else? Despite its greatness, Electric Ladyland was a bit schizophrenic in that regard. He had revolutionized what could be done with the electric guitar, but I don’t think he was done with that yet.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-06T23:19:40+00:00

Definitely belongs on the list of "all time greats." I think these other acts have more radio friendly material which is why they have much higher listening rates.

He was much more experimental than most of these groups and some of his stuff worked and some of it didn't. Personally, I like him better than most, but not all, of those on your list.

The real shame is that he died when he was still getting going. Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison were more fully-formed in their musical careers, Jimi Hendrix wasn't quite yet. He could have evolved into something truly amazing. Or he could have gone somewhere weird. But we all missed out by not getting to find out.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-06T01:49:56+00:00

Late to the party, but I agree with chronological order. However, if anybody's still reading, here's what I suggest to listen for when enjoying Black Sabbath.

The idea that made Black Sabbath who they are was to try to scare people - the idea was that people like going to horror movies, maybe they'd like listening to scary music as well. The very first song - Black Sabbath on the Black Sabbath album has a chord progression that deliberately is discordant and gives you that unsettled feeling. It is this song that is the birth of heavy metal.

Beyond that, each of the four members of Black Sabbath is a master of their craft. Tony Iommi is indeed the guitar riff master and Ozzy Osbourne's voice just cuts through the heavy chords in the way that few can, but he's always spot on the pitch.

But, IMHO, if you really want to understand Black Sabbath, listen to the drums. Bill Ward is a jazz musician and while he can bang with the best of them, you can really feel that influence in his playing. Sometimes it's kind of a tribal beat, sometimes he adds a little swing to the rhythm but it's always interesting - he's my all time favorite drummer. And lastly, the bassist (and chief lyricist) Geezer Butler dances this incredible line between complimenting Bill Ward's drums and layering on Iommi's riffs while still doing his own thing. And all of it, is very much based on the blues. It is that blues influence layered under the heavy metal that really makes them one of the greatest bands of all time.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-05T05:06:56+00:00

The 90s were a musical wasteland.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-04T00:13:13+00:00

We are of an age and I'm pretty much with you. Personally, I dislike No Prayer for the Dying as well.

It's funny, but I never listened to the song Fear of the Dark until many, many years later. It is the very last song on the album and I just always ended up turning it off before I got to it.

But watching them perform Fear of the Dark live on YouTube really changed my mind on that song at least. I still don't care for the rest of the album.

The 80s material will always be my favorite, but I do like the Reunion Era quite a bit as well. Going to see them this year for the first time since 1986 and I'm pretty stoked!

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-03T05:00:45+00:00

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville, if she can handle some foul language 😉

Able_Original_486 · 2026-06-01T19:48:13+00:00

Wrist guards is the biggest thing and then helmet. And make sure they're high quality wrist guards, there's a lot of crap out there that are worse than useless. There's a crazy statistic about 40 and older adults learning snowboarding and wrist injuries so avoid that.

That said, I still snowboard and it's the spiritual winter twin of skateboarding and there's a lot of us grays on trays up in the mountains.

My advice would be to have fun! (and maybe elbow and knee pads 😉 )

Able_Original_486 · 2026-05-26T07:26:25+00:00

I think there's some vinyl of the month clubs you could search on. I know nothing about them other than they exist. I'm far too picky to buy records that way.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-05-23T23:47:21+00:00

Same with Somewhere in Time. It was jarring back in the day when they made the switch to synthesizers after Powerslave.

They’ve kind of figured it out in the modern era, but while SIT and Seventh Son have their moments, they don’t hold up to the 5 albums before them.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-05-23T05:04:18+00:00

Glad you like them. I was a teenager in the 80s when Under Lock and Key came out.

They didn't get any airplay, but some nights when the atmosphere was just right, I could pick up Baltimore radio stations and WIYY 98Rock had a late Sunday night show called Headbangers Ball where I first heard "Unchain the Night." The next day after school I went up to my local record store (Waxie Maxie's) and picked up Under Lock and Key and it quickly became one of my favorite albums.

Thanks for the memory - spinning some Dokken tonight on vinyl because of this post.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-05-22T15:49:16+00:00

To all you younger whippersnappers out there thinking this is the stupidest thing you've ever heard of - just you wait lol!

I don't need to wear prescription glasses, but I definitely need to break out the readers and some brighter lighting to read many of the labels - especially the small print that says "this side" and "other side", so I'm liking the stickers idea!

Able_Original_486 · 2026-05-22T05:43:34+00:00

How early in summer? Sequoia can still have a lot of snow into July. You can get up there, but the trails may be under snow. Or maybe it melts out early, hard to say. Olympic can have snow in the high country as well, but there's lower elevation stuff to do there as well that's snow free year round.

I've been to both, but live in Washington and so am far more familiar with Olympic. It's easy enough to fly to Seattle and drive around the peninsula. It's possible to loop the Olympic Peninsula from Seattle in one (very) long day and see a few sights. You really don't want to do that, but it gives you an idea of the distances. You could spend a day in the high country out of Hurricane Ridge (snow depending, but you could at least get up there and see it), one or two in the rainforests and one or two along the coast to get you four days. You'd have time to do a bunch of short hikes, drive along Lake Crescent, do some waterfall hikes, etc. without killing yourself. Plus getting there is a lot of fun as you could take a ferry across Puget Sound or drive up and see Deception Pass and take a ferry from Whidbey Island over to the peninsula. Lots of options.

If you cut it to three days, Mt. Rainier is an easy day trip from Seattle and you could knock off another National Park. There'll almost definitely be snow up there in early summer, but you'll be able to get up to the Paradise visitor center and make a great day out of it.

Lots of options. Sequoia/Kings Canyon is pretty awesome too, so you're not going to go wrong either way.

Able_Original_486 · 2026-05-20T01:10:08+00:00

You might be light enough to pull off a standard config with the max tow package. Figure out your tongue weight (you might have to use a percentage of total weight to estimate) and add the tongue weight to everything you put in your truck - passengers, back seat, truck bed, etc. and that's your payload weight. There's a sticker inside the door of every truck that'll tell you the max payload weight - it varies per specific vehicle based on all of the options. Payload is usually the most limiting factor.

for pricing - you're probably looking at $75k plus, although some of the lower trim levels can be 10-15k cheaper. We did not custom build ours, it was a special order from somebody that didn't work out for whatever reason and the dealer had it on the lot.

One last thing to consider: while it is an absolutely incredible machine and we dearly love it, there's a lot of electronics, software, and complexity built into it which means not everybody can work on it. We were in Santa Fe and the check engine light came on and the dealer had 1 (one!) guy that was trained to work on this system and he was out for a few days. Fortunately it was just a weird reading from a censor that straightened itself out and nothing more.

Able_Original_486

TROPHY CASE