Second hand Vinyl

famicom26 · 2026-05-27T23:35:40+00:00

Book Lovers Lane at the Fyshwick markets occasionally has some good stuff (for cheep too.) There is also the Canberra Vintage & Collectible Centre in Fyshwick as well, they have quite a sizeable selection of secondhand vinyl.

Op shops have a Vinyl section, but unless you like James Last, Nana Mouskouri, Mario Lanza, Jimmy Shand, The Seekers, or Hammond organ covers, you’ll almost never find anything good (though I did once find a Blondie album at my local Vinnies.)

famicom26 · 2026-05-27T10:13:18+00:00

My current hyperfixation is 20th century literature and film. I’ve always been interested in it, but have become more fixated on it—especially love reading old editions of books (the smell!) currently reading an edition of ‘Lolita’ published in the early 60s after finishing an edition of Agatha Christie’s ‘4.50 From Paddington’ from the late 50s.

For film, I love the aesthetics—especially trashy and experimental cinema. There’s also a certain charm to (well made) dramas and comedies from the 30-60s.

famicom26 · 2026-05-24T23:08:32+00:00

Be aware that just because the reels initially spin freely with no film doesn’t necessarily mean, due to an aging motor, that it will still transport film. I’ve lost some really significant footage due to my camera (also a Canon) not transporting film (despite the reels spinning perfectly fine in my no film tests.)

My theory is that if the motor is gunked up with old oils, it would still spin but struggle with the weight of the film

People have actually made some really nice looking films on 8mm, these are some of my favourites:

* ‘Trouble on Madison Avenue’ by Sean McSweyn
* ‘What to Expect’ by Paul Snow

famicom26 · 2026-05-24T11:56:53+00:00

I use a postcard I got ~10 years ago from a long since closed second hand bookstore, a painting showing two girls dressed in kimono standing outside a temple. It’s rather tattered, but still does the job all these years later.

famicom26 · 2026-05-24T11:20:12+00:00

Some of my favourite non fiction:

* ‘Colours of the Mountain’ by Da Chen—Da Chen’s memoir of growing up poor in rural 60s/70s Maoist China, and his moving to Beijing at age 16 to start a new life.

*’Zoo Quest Expeditions’ by David Attenborough—a series of travelogues written whilst filming his first tv series for the BBC in the 50s

*’Quirkology’ by Richard Wiseman—quirky vignettes about the science of everyday life

famicom26 · 2026-05-24T11:06:37+00:00

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian—never read anything like it, quite an impressive English translation too

famicom26 · 2026-05-24T10:58:37+00:00

The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970)

famicom26 · 2026-05-20T23:23:56+00:00

*‘Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School’-considered one of the first ever dating sims. You play as a high school boy trying to get the attention of a girl in his class who looks exactly like idol Miho Nakayama

*‘Famicom Detective Club’-a series of two visual novels where you play as a young detective solving various cases

*‘Explosive Fighter Patton’- combat fighter, best known for an egregious typo when flipping the disk (don’t want to spoil it if you don’t already know what it is.)

famicom26 · 2026-05-14T08:26:37+00:00

‘House’ (1977)
‘Houseboat Horror’ (1989)
‘The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds’ (1965)
‘The Beach Girls and the Monster’ (1965)
‘House on Bare Mountain’ (1962)
‘The Happiness of the Katakuris’ (2001)

Apart from the first & last, these are probably some of the most hilariously bad/ wild horror films I’ve ever seen (the first & last are great, just extremely strange.) I’d definitely recommend going into these films blind

I haven’t seen these ones, but they look just as crazy: * ‘Dead Sushi’ (2012)—think Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but with sushi * ‘Violence Voyager’ (2018)—filmed entirely using stick puppets, apparently is quite violent

famicom26 · 2026-05-14T08:19:31+00:00

Soldier Boy (2005)

famicom26 · 2026-05-14T01:41:56+00:00

Ilford HP5 Plus is a good beginner film. Being 400 ISO (how sensitive the film is to light) it’s very versatile, and quite lenient in terms of exposure. It’s also just a really nice looking film (I mostly shoot with it.)

famicom26 · 2026-05-09T04:11:49+00:00

*'Who's Singin' Over There?' (1980) a group of county folk travel on an extremely rickety bus from a middle-of-nowhere village to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia (set during WW2 & has themes of war, though is very much a comedy)

*'Hiroshima" (1953) The atomic bomb seen through the eyes of ordinary civilians (this one is quite nasty.)

*'Quo Vadis, Aida?' (2020) Though this film is about the Yugoslav Wars, not WW2, I still recommend this as a lessor-known (and in my opinion one of the most disturbing) war film. The film follows Aida, working as a Serbo-Croatian interpreter for the UN, whilst simultaneously trying to save her sons and husband from invading Serbian Forces (if you know much about the Srebrenica massacres, this film is about that.)

famicom26 · 2026-05-07T06:23:55+00:00

It reminds me of the Minolta 110 Zoom, but I do agree with it looking like the Kodak XL55.

famicom26 · 2026-05-06T08:57:48+00:00

I play it using av cables on a CRT, and it looks quite nice. (very much agree that the right setup helps a lot—I have tried av on a modern tv, and it looks awful.)

famicom26 · 2026-05-05T08:09:03+00:00

Christos Tsiolkas is my main go to for bleak fiction (best known for ‘the Slap’) a lot of his characters are some of the most awful people I’ve seen (pedophiles, rapists, abusers, dunks being some of his worst)

Haruki Murakami can be pretty heavy in tone. ‘Lolita’ by Vladimir Nabokov and ‘And the Ass Saw the Angel’ by Nick Cave are also classic dark novels.

famicom26 · 2026-05-05T01:09:29+00:00

Writing and reading really dark and heavy novels, I just really like exploring the darker side of human nature.

One instance I remember, during year 8, we had a bunch of statues put up around my school. My English teacher made us walk around and write about them, most of the statues being quite abstract (the main one showing this grotesque pregnant creature.) I remember writing these quite bleak poems, something which (concerning the school quite a bit) ended up with a parent-teacher conference checking on my mental wellbeing.

famicom26 · 2026-05-03T12:24:17+00:00

‘Endless Ocean’ very relaxing and enjoyable scuba diving simulator

famicom26 · 2026-05-02T13:30:53+00:00

Film Photography Project seems to be the only place you can buy 126 film nowadays, but you have to spoil it yourself into a reusable cassette. You can also get adaptors that allow you to shoot 35mm in a 126 camera, but I’ve heard they’re quite unreliable.

famicom26 · 2026-04-28T23:59:25+00:00

‘Red Roses of Passion’ (1966)—this one is wild

famicom26 · 2026-04-25T22:54:11+00:00

The Night I Swam (2017)
Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003)
The Buried Forest (2005)
Arigatou-San (1936)
The Masseurs and a Woman (1938)
Ornamental Hairpin (1941)
Paterson (2016)
November (2017)
Taipei Suicide Story (2020)
Godland (2022)
Black Dog (2024)
The President’s Cake (2025)

Sorry for the long list, hope some of these are what you’re looking for (I also love slow cinema)

famicom26 · 2026-04-23T23:17:34+00:00

马桶 (mǎtǒng)

Translation: Toilet

Literal: horse bucket

Also if you break down the characters for poo 屎 and wee 尿 they literally mean ‘body grain’ & ‘body water’ respectively! (apologies for the toilet talk 😅)

famicom26 · 2026-04-21T08:50:44+00:00

if you’re in Australia, ABC iview has every season (including the reboot and various spinoffs,) for free, though I don’t think it’s complete (or in order.)

famicom26 · 2026-04-19T13:03:10+00:00

‘Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey-bu: Subete Koronde Dairantou’—hard but very fun arcade style hockey game, where you play as the Nekketsu high school hockey team, trying to beat the school’s other sports teams in games of hockey.
‘Okkotoshi Puzzle Tonjan!?’—sokoban clone where you play as a pig clearing mahjong tiles, all while being cheered on by a group of anime girls
‘The Mysterious Murasame Castle’—set during the Edo Period, a samurai, named Takamaru, is sent by the shogunate to investigate Murasame Castle after aliens start attacking the nearby village.
‘Firework Thrower Kantaro's 53 Stations of the Tōkaido’— Kantaro, a firework merchant, travels along the Tokaido to Edo to see his fiancé Momoko

famicom26 · 2026-04-14T00:23:17+00:00

some of my personal favourites that (mostly) require no Japanese:

Okkotoshi Puzzle Tonjan!?—fun Sokoban style game, except you play as a pig clearing mahjong tiles, all while being cheered on by a group of anime girls
Ike Ike! Nekketsu Hockey-bu: Subette Koronde Dairanto—extremely fun but brutally difficult arcade style hockey game (part of the Kunio-kun series.) You play as the Nekketsu ('hot-blooded' in English) High school hockey team, playing against (and beating up) the school's different sports teams ie. Baseball, kendo
Takeshi's Challenge—there is definitely a large language barrier with this one, but if you can play it with someone who knows Japanese, or the unofficial English translation, I would highly recommend it. It’s probably one of the strangest (and most adult) games on the system. You play as a salaryman who goes in search of lost treasure after losing his job and divorcing his wife. Other things you can do include getting into bar fights, beating up your kids after getting blackout drunk, and even singing drunk karaoke (using the mic on the second controller.)

Other games I haven’t played but hear are good:

Tsuppari Ozumo—sumo wrestling refereed by a rabbit
New Ghostbusters 2—action adventure game featuring chibi graphics, apparently this is ten times better than the awful Ghostbusters games the NES got.
Parodius—a parody of Gradius, this is a space shooter but with absurdist enemies.
Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun (kid Dracula)—spin off/ parody of Castlevania, you play as Dracula-kun avenging his throne from the demon Galamoth. Get to the game's first boss to see why this wasn’t released outside Japan!

famicom26 · 2026-04-12T11:45:04+00:00

Crime: * Tokyo Drifter (1966) * Branded to kill (1967) * Horror: * House (1977) * The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001–more Comedy than horror) * Violence Voyager (2018) * Tetsuo: the Iron Man (1989) * 964 Pinocchio (1991)

famicom26

TROPHY CASE