Merry Christmas

I really wanted to have a religious photo for our Christmas cards this year, but with my work and band schedules gone all crazy we just didn't have the time to go 'in search of' besides the one trip downtown mentioned in the previous post.
So I rooted around in my big external drive for stuff from years past, knowing that there are more than a few really good ones that have never been shown to anyone.

Lo and behold, the shot I intended to make this year was already in the bag--I had forgotten it. There are two versions from right after Christmas Eve Mass 2011--the other one had the forcus point shifted to the giant crucifix at St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church, with the tree being blurry. I let Sylvia pick which to use and am very happy with the result.


It's been an amazing year for me.
Never in a million years would I have thought that I would be in a position to gift a 47" Vizio TV. (We had decided on 42" but they were all gone, and the bigger one was only $30 more...)
OMG it's HUGE and the most amazing picture anyone has ever seen!
All our friends and family went HD years ago, but since this TV is new and has all the best specs (like 120hz refresh rate) it's picture quality is insane.

When I enable 1080HD on the cable box, we were both stunned. "Look at the blades of grass! Look at the beads of sweat! It's so pretty!"

Sylvia loves it and was completely surprised (she said "What the crap?") but make no mistake--in this house the living room TV is ALL hers until late at night. I didn't buy it for me at all.
Sadly, it's so big that the giant lazy susan I built for our last set doesn't work cuz it can only be rotated a little before hitting a wall, meaning I can't turn it towards the kitchen during dinner or when I'm camped out at the counter fixing stuff or stringing a bass or tuning a trigger.
Looks like I need a smaller flat screen in the dinette running off the splitter I put in the cable (after our DVR so there's no time delay in the sound).
Oh darn! I think a 26" ought to be about right.


This Holiday Season has been such a joy, not stressing about money for gifts and supplies. Despite my hectic schedule I was (mostly) calm and relaxed.
The best part was all the pleasure I got from giving to charity and helping folks spontaneously.

I hope y'all have had a joyous holiday season, too.

Thank You, Veterans

Fruits Of My Labors

Been working at my new day job for 6 weeks. My hours have more than tripled and I just got a 25% raise, so it looks like the boss is happy with my performance. May have to quit the bands someday if this trend continues. Finally had enough cushion in the bank to splurge a little, so I just bought this:

Hated borrowing a different bass amp for every show, and found this Peavey Mark III Bass amp head at Krazy Kat's for the right price. Made in USA in the early 1980s--the golden age of Peaveys for me, although plenty of their newer stuff is even better. Their amps are THE toughest and most reliable ever made by anyone anywhere so even though it's 30+ years old, after I open it up for cleaning and inspection it will have my complete confidence. Sounds just like I expected, too. Works well with my PV speaker cabinet it's sitting on, though I'm going to get another because more = more. It's been decades since I celebrated a New Amp Day, and it feels great. In semi-related news, a product photo I made for my company's listings was quickly promoted to become THE master photo for that item all across Amazon. Lucky or good I don't know, but it's pretty cool. Should have snuck a small ©kak onto it and added my name and this blog's URL into the jpg's exif data. Does anyone know how to make paragraph breaks in the new Blogger interface???

Not A Bird

While taking a break just outside our warehouse door it occurred to me that I've been ignoring some fine photo-ops:
Due to the prevailing winds, the majority of landings at SA Int'l pass a little to one side of directly overhead.
To take full advantage I'll need to bring a bigger lens for the small planes, but may be okay with the 50mm for the airliners.
When the technical stuff is nailed down, I'll see what I can do when the weather gets interesting, or at night--maybe keep an ear open for special stuff like when the air shows bring in old warbirds.

Could be fun and interesting.

What Are These?

Spotted these things on the underside of a margarita sweet potato leaf:



A closer view:
The must be eggs from some weird insect, but those stalk deals they are suspended upon is a new one on me.
Never seen or heard of such a thing.
Any ideas?



This was taken at the end of my birthday party last weekend:
That's Pinnacle Atomic Hots cinnamon vodka in them there shot glasses. Good stuff.

Our monkey collection grew to eight today, but I can assure you that they aren't all drunks like these two.


********************************

Have you bought a copy of my song Milk Run by Televators from iTunes yet?
99 cents is a good deal since it's like 7 minutes long.
At least 17 people from around the world LOVE my bass playing on this song--you will, too.

(It's also available from just about every other similar music site)

I need your pennies to feed my family and buy beer, so please download your copy today.
Thank you.

Up To My Elbows In Oil

Sylvia got me a nice set of gunsmith screwdriver bits for my birthday, so I was finally ready to tackle this project.
The rifle I'm working on was featured in this post, and it's one of my favorite stories on this blog while also explaining why I didn't want to mess up any screw heads with whatever screwdrivers I had lying around. Gun screws are kinda special, and to do good work you use the right tools for the job.


After removing the action from the stock it turned out that the barrel came unscrewed from the receiver rather easily, which made it way more convenient to deal with the trouble area without 26" and 6 pounds of steel hanging off the end.
Like I figured for a gun from the early 1960s, the trigger was a Timney Sportsman fully adjustable single stage. They still make the same model today.
On mine the sear was locked in place, probably from ancient oils gone gummy.
Some spray cleaner, a little manual activation of the affected part, repeat a few dozen times, then a touch of BreakFree CLP completed the fix.
Just like new 3-lb. crisp trigger ready to go. Sweet!



Next step will be removing the Weaver scope bases to clean underneath, then add LocTite before torquing them down to the recommended specs.
A little polishing on the bolt handle and extractor is in order to get some rust off and make them purty. May want to go the extra mile and get some custom etching done to honor my father's memory and service.


The bore is mirror-bright and the lands are sharp, so a little touch-up on the bluing is all that's needed before reinstalling the barrel.



The scope is a tragically obsolete 4x Weaver--although it was the go-to model back in the day a 300+ yard cartridge deserves at least 12x magnification and a much larger objective lens for more light, not to mention modern lens design and coatings. Target turrets, adjustable objective for parallax control, illuminated mil-dot reticle, bells, whistles.
I have a few specific scopes in mind, but affording one is the problem.

But the plan is to shoot the rifle in original configuration after I finish going over every inch. I want to see what my Dad created for himself with the parts and ideas available at the time. Right now I'm just trying to get it back to original condition, before my uncle and cousin used it during the intervening 46 years.

After that, I doubt I'll keep the original wood stock.
The inside surface is kinda gooey, not sure why.
Buttpad has hardened and cracked and looks like crap.
All of my other rifles have synthetic stocks including an M1 Carbine from World War II which is almost 70 years old but looks like a new modern gun after I got through with it. But I've been looking for a wood stock project for a long time and this is definitely it. Shaving and sanding and fitting and finishing the wood appeals to me, as these are skills that directly translate to making my own bass guitar someday.

Just like my Dad did, I want to spend the time and effort to make this gun as perfect for me now as it was for him back then.
Amateur gunsmithing is probably the only passion we share.
It's interesting that the same hobby grabbed us both so strongly, much like my brother shares his love for anything that flies. Once I was old enough to wonder about my father, when I would ask people what he was like the term "Gun Nut" was usually in the first sentence of their reply. I'm glad we have something in common.

Pretty sure my music career would have driven him insane, just as his love for French culture and crappy obscure cars like Ramblers and Simkas would have brought out my worst side.
Had he lived longer, I'm sure guns would have been the one subject that could always bridge whatever divide we were dealing with, and kept the lines of communication open.

Fawns And Stuff

Spotted in a neighbor's front yard recently:

Judging by size I guess they were born in the most recent batch.
Taller than cats, but not by a whole lot.

While daytime deer sightings are common, unguarded babies are another story.


If they are munching people's gardening they're obviously weaned and mama must have decided it was time to boot them out of the nest:
Too bad mama didn't school them on the dangers of the 'hood.
I was doing yard stuff, then creeping close for pictures, and the expected fear response never kicked-in.
Kinda worried about these little guys...



While navigating Blogger to make this post I noticed something odd on top of my dashboard:
I cropped it tight, but this is actual size.
WTF does it say?


Let's crank up the browser's magnification to 300% and see if it's legible:
Crap...
I hate the new Blogger interface.
It reminds me of the time I tried using Wordpress--not a good experience and I never could get either one to work in a logical or error-free manner.

Hopefully the bugs have been killed by now.

There Be Dragons...

A cool green dragonfly on my jalapeno plants.

Good Show

I have no idea who this guy is: He came up to the stage and asked for a birthday song, so I called him up and I think everyone in the club expected Becky to sing to him.
Nope.
She handed him the mic and went to the bar, then the ladies room.
Birthday boy was stunned for all of 3 seconds, then started singing some old song--Janis Joplin maybe?--and then David, Jaime and I figured it out on the fly.
Hilarious!



Probably my favorite pic of me in a long time, holding down the groove with our giant robot of drums, Jaime Flores: It was a great show, from all reports.

I know that in terms of bass tone and playing, it was by far my favorite.
Having new strings, a new tuner, new main cable, and an amp rig that I could trust and tweak for two weeks prior all made a huge difference in my comfort level.
Exhausted, sweaty, dirty, but fairly happy right now.
Too bad I have to get up in 5 hours and do an early outdoor show with A Beautiful Mess at Trader's Village Flea Market...

Crops Are In--Spurs Are Out

Since moving back to the suburbs I've grown a lot of peppers in my own lazy way.
I found chiltepins growing in the alley, grew a small bush from those seeds plus one from seeds I got from Sylvia's Dad. Still have them both, producing major heat in convenient little packages.
Then jalapenos for a season, followed by those big Anaheim chilis, serranos, and finally banana peppers. Last year I gave up on seeds and mild off-brands and went back to basics with some jalapeno seedlings from HoDep.


I've kept my biggest pot of last year's 'penos, but improved results for this season by planting in the (modified) plastic liner from a half whiskey barrel. All I know is that it took a lot of Miracle Grow soil and is much deeper than anything I've used before.
The results are spectacular.
Never seen leaves so big, plants so tall, or peppers so plentiful. And they grew faster than ever before.


And what peppers they are!
Smooth perfect skins, rich colors, better flavor than any store-boughts, and hot enough for the whole familia.



All I know are the basics: good soil that's as deep as possible and drains well, the right amount of sunlight, lots of water, and some wood mulch on top to protect the roots and dirt. I probably put more effort into meeting the sys-req's for zero $$$ each year than trying to get the best results.

Over the winter months I made mucho progress with my salsa recipe, and the general consensus is that someyear I might beat a mentionable percentage of the stuff in jars and local restaurants. Having fresh jalapenos and the hotter little ones right outside the door makes sense, and it's a nice dream to think of growing ALL my own ingredients someday.



Congrats to the OKC Thunder.
They whipped us fair and square.
Hope they uphold the Western Conference standards and demolish whatever team survives from the East.
LeBron still hasn't proven to me that he deserves a ring, and I would hate to see that loudmouth KG get one this year.
Like everyone else in SA I'm walking wounded, going through the motions and trying to keep myself distracted from the pain of what just happened.

Most Unexpected

Why won't my snake eat???
She's been extremely active lately, as in climbing and cruising all around her tank 24-7 for weeks. You would think all that exercise burns enough calories to make a snake powerful hungry, but there are two mice living in our garage that prove otherwise.

When the timer tripped and lit up her tank the other day, I looked over my shoulder and it took me quite awhile to process what I was seeing:
Snake eggs!
And smaller orange not snake eggs...



Poor girl was exhausted from pushing them out and didn't move a muscle for over 24 hours. Yesterday I was able to harvest them, and clean 'em up for a portrait:


After Googling for a few minutes I found out that it's normal for a captive female corn snake (and other species) to lay eggs and "slugs" without ever coming into contact with a suitable male during breeding season.
Last year at this time Candy was just as active and uninterested in food but didn't push out any weird stuff, although I suspected that her behavior was mating related. She was already an adult when I found her 5 years ago so it's odd that all of a sudden this stuff happens.



Over the next year I might try to find someone local with a suitable male who's interested in breeding. Hopefully I can find a male with normal corn snake colors, since the plethora of selective-bred fancy colors don't interest me as much--Candy being the exception because she's mine and oh so sweet.
I once built an incubator on the fly with stuff laying around the house when a lizard someone gave me dumped a clutch of eggs, and successfully hatched a half dozen babies 2 months later. No reason I couldn't do it again but much better with minimal investment.


When I get the time for dissection, we'll see if there's anything inside these eggs and slugs worth seeing.

Televators Live

Looks like everyone was busy on the 18th
All the people who've asked us "When's the next show?" were absent, but at least I had Sylvia and some of MY friends show up.
A nice reality check for all concerned, highlighting the need to utilize social networks a bit more on the band side (I may be the only one who remembered...) and from the audience perspective it's advisable to NOT miss the show right after we've been playing our asses off in the studio and are smoking hot.

Special thanks to my darling Sylvia for taking some great pictures.



Jaime and his blue Yamahas.



David and his ESP/LTD.



Televators singer Bex shared the mic with Scot Taylor so we could do some Beastie Boys and pay respect.









I really liked having an assload of speakers behind me--looks pretty cool.
Only the 4x10" cabinet on top was connected, but that close to ear-level it's WAY easier to hear what's really going on tone-wise without turning up the volume too far.
Over the last few years with Loud Nine and Televators I've never used the same bass amp system twice, and it's been an education.
I'll go on the record now and say that I finally know for sure exactly what my dream system might look like for both live shows and recording, but I'm also confident that whatever might be available can be made to work.

Milk Run

For some silly reason I expected to have a few days of my normal life before any new unbelievable stuff happened.
I was wrong.
Stay tuned...


Anyway, here are my favorite photos from last Wednesday through Sunday in Austin Texas, in and around Wire Recording Studio.

Phone pic of the rack of snare drums etc in the "kitchen":



Another phone pic of my friend Steve's bass amplifier system, which he graciously loaned me for our recent live shows and the recording sessions:
Over the last few weeks I built some custom cables to hook it all up in various ways, and he gets to keep most of them. Thanks, my brother!
I was "Bi-Amped" which means that the bottom speaker box (4x10" drivers) only had to deal with deeper bass frequencies while the smaller 2x10" top cab handled everything above 220hz, each with their own power amp channel. This is a much more complicated but also more efficient way to handle the full range of tones needed, and gives you way more clarity.
In addition to the 2 microphones on my speakers, I also sent a signal directly to the mixing board which got pumped into whatever vintage gear Stuart Sullivan felt was necessary. The 3+ resulting signals then get stirred back into a cocktail of bass guitar.
When I tore the bass rig down on Sunday I noticed that ALL of my original settings were still intact, meaning that none of the engineers or producer felt the need to sneak into the "Piano Room" where they were isolated to change what I felt was the right sound for Televators.
That was a huge compliment, but we shall see how much of my preferred sound ends up in the finished product.


Becky's vocals were done in this small room just off the main one.
The drawers are full of microphones and spare parts.
The round "Popper Stopper" keeps spit and percussive consonants from hitting the giant vocal mic.
We all had the "Private Q" units seen here. They are headphone amps that have knobs for everyone's instruments, so for example I can choose to have very loud kickdrum and quiet vocals in my ears while recording some parts, then turn up the guitar when I need more.
An incredible time saver, not having to ask the engineers in the control room for personal headphone mixes all the time.
Whoever invented this system deserves free BJs every day.



Taking infrared pics while on break got old pretty quick because it interfered with true rest, but there were some pretty skies early on.



Yes, pianos have lots of strings.
I lit this shot with an LED flashlight while killing time in the bass amp/piano room:
Spent a ton of my spare time in there because of the cool shit to photograph plus a little more private space for chilling out while still having a view of the main control room where all the action was. The AC seemed about 5 degrees cooler, which was nice.
Kept my camera gear and snacks out of everyone's way, too.


Kick drum is the heart and soul of heavy rock. Stuart and Lee made sure we had enough kick to do our music justice.



Some old microphones remind me of embalming tools:



New studio mics are suspended in elastic shock mounts, yet are still photogenic:



In the low-light studio conditions my 50mm-F1.8 lens proved it's worth:
Shallow depth-of-field is fine so long as you pick your focus point with care.


Becky's friend Erin came by on Friday and I'm SO glad she did.
A true pro photographer, she covered all the stuff I wasn't able to shoot due to my bass workload:


IF I can get permission, Erin's photos will complete the story of our experience in the studio.


Rough mixes are done and I hope to hear them tomorrow.
Apparently Paul Barker (bassist during the best years of Ministry) is going to do an extended re-mix of one song, which is eventually destined to be released on vinyl and also become a big part of a movie about fast cars...but I don't know what to believe anymore.
The rest of the album will get recorded in Europe for some reason, even though Austin served us well?


Going on the record, all I can say for sure is that my initial reservations re: promises made and grandiose plans laid have been dashed.
So far, everyone making wild claims has backed them up.

It's getting increasingly difficult to be a skeptic, but that's my nature and I think my responsibility at this point.

The SPURS Are #1 In The West

The night before our mini-vacation we got to use my Christmas present and see the Spurs play Philly.
Best seats I've ever had, and a parking pass to boot--thanks again, Holly!

We had the best time ever!

Here's San Antonio's favorite referee Joey Crawford admitting to Coach Pop that his penis is smaller than a six week old snapping turtle's:
Tim Duncan looks on, having no idea he would earn a technical foul in this game despite not even playing. At the game the announcer pinned the tech on Pop, so we were surprised to learn the truth when we fired up our DVR. Even though it wasn't Crawford's doing, he might have been in trouble had the crowd of 18,000+ found out, seeing as how we haven't forgotten the time he ejected Timmy from that Dallas game a few years back for laughing on the bench.
Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter also wore suits that night, although they escaped the "DND--Old" that Timmy got entered into the stats on his own behalf.


Bruce Bowen had his number retired a few days before this game, and it brought back many fond memories seeing his jersey in the rafters with the other legends. 21, 20, and 9 are probably next, and they better find a way to enshrine our cranky old coach, too.
Since the year 2000, the SA Spurs are THE #1 franchise in ALL team sports in the USA, period. We have the best win/loss percentage in the last decade and the current one. Better than every other baseball, football, hockey or curling team--not just hoops.



I always try to catch the tip-off because it's the only part of the game when they use spotlights:



Manu Ginobili, the single most amazing and unpredictable player in the NBA:
Did you SEE that pass he made to Patrick Mills last night???


As a bonus, it was Military Appreciation Night. There were many moments before the game and during commercial breaks that brought a tear to your eye.



Danny Green making sure I'm paying attention to the Coyote:
It was super-cool being so damned close to the action you could hear stuff besides whistles and shoes squeaking. A little spoiled now. I want a job as a courtside photog in the worst way, but don't much like the idea of being one of those sweat-sprayed sitting ducks under the basket. I'd like to shoot their faces in coach's huddles during timeout and action shots from above the rim using remote-triggered cameras.


Pop coaches Manu:
Like he needs it. Probably better info flowing from player to coach in this instance. Manu can run a team once his playing days are over. Hell, there are like a half-dozen current NBA coaches who are former Spurs players, and the front-office spread of our alumni is staggering. The whole league is buying what San Antonio is selling.


The Spurs are on a 10-game winning streak right now, and just secured a spot in the playoffs even if they lose every game left in the season.
We have the best record in the tougher Western Conference, which makes us the top dogs in the league as far as I'm concerned. The East can bite me--they stink. Lebron James is never going to get a ring because he sold his balls years ago for shoe cash. He's a franchise and money-making machine but "King James" should read "King Choke". When SA whipped his Cleveland Cavs in the 2007 Finals, Lebron could have learned enough to make it to the next level, but he wasn't paying attention in class.

Our recent acquisitions of Stephen Jackson, Boris Diaw, And Patrick Mills are genius moves for cheap $$, and already paying off.
The bench is crazy skilled and tough as nails. They WANT to win like I want to be able to tan--a LOT.
Our youngest player, 20 year old Kawhi Leonard, is already playing like a seasoned veteran, which is why he's a starter and a closer and a game-changer. We all miss George Hill, but Kawhi is the shit and RJ is already a distant memory.

TD21 looks like a kid again, and is dunking more than he ever has before.
Tony is the best damned point guard in the league right now.
Splitter has SO much junk in his inside game it's almost funny. A few years ago I watched a lot of EuroLeague games just because I knew he would come here eventually, and he was THE best big over there, fighting through double and triple teams with ease. A Duncan fan since he was a boy, this guy is going to be a major part of our future.

Manu is Manu again. We won plenty when he was injured, but Ginobili is our not-so-secret weapon. He can make the impossible happen every night.

Neal and Green and Blair are stepping up and playing like real men.

If we can keep it together and not lose anyone to injuries, there isn't a team that can keep us from our fifth Championship.
How the coaches will trim our roster for the playoffs is beyond me. There's only one guy that isn't performing above and beyond the level required.




I used my "ATT Center" Sony H1 for these pics because of the rule against detachable-lens cameras.
There always seemed to be an exception for the rodeo, which is why I got better quality pics of the action and concert.
This year they enforced the rule for the first time, so after one aborted attempt to enter I straight up LIED to two different screeners to get my Alpha300 into the building.
I think I haven't posted the rodeo/concert pics yet because I feel guilty.


Special Thanks to all my friends that came out to see Televators at Evil Olive last weekend!
Thanks for the beers and kind words.

The stress is mounting--heading up to WireRecording Studio in Austin this coming Wednesday for our big break.
Seriously, why couldn't this have happened 25 years ago when the dream of being famous was important to me?
How did taking a phone call while shopping at ROSS for picture frames and a can opener turn into this big crazy thing?

I'm glad that the band sided with me on including the song that my bass lines sparked into being back in January. The producer wanted to record a different one but we all believe that the 7-minute opus "Milk Run/Cosmic Stream" represents the future sound of Televators, so at least I'll have one of my compositions recorded professionally to serve as my musical legacy after 32 years in this crappy stinking business.

Views Of Texas

A pair of infrared photos using the Sony F828 that Matthew kindly gave me after my F717 died a few years ago:




While cameras are just tools, sometimes they can mean a lot more. Every time I use it, I still re-experience the surprise, gratitude, and elation I felt when opening this unexpected gift.



On the dry side of Canyon Dam:
The story goes that my father took us here to watch construction in progress. I'm sure he was looking forward to fishing the new lake, but never got the chance.

I have a great story about the parking area above the dam, but there's no way I can share it on the internet.

Sadly, with normal lake levels this year there will be a lot of drownings.
People need to realize that being able to swim across a pool don't mean shit when you're in a lake on a hot summer day, and full of beer. Add to that the submerged trees that are full of fishing line and nets and anchor ropes, and it's a recipe for disaster.
If your buddy wants to swim out to an island, distract him however you can.
I have been in serious trouble all alone in the middle of deep water and it's about the worst feeling in the world.



More Views:

See the tiny people on top of the dam?
Unlike Medina and I guess Hoover, Canyon is made of earth and is gigantic.



I got in trouble for leaving out the urinal photo:
I went back and forth while we were there, and at this moment wish I had used it at least once. But to be honest, urinals suck.
Women think they are so convenient and that men are lucky to be able to pee standing up, but like anything in life there are compromises.
I'm going to leave it at that--if you want to know more, ask a man who really cares about hygiene and grooming. If you don't know any, ask your husband.

Drowning Worms

We weren't catching fish, but I guess it's still fishing if you're sitting there quietly and your line is wet...


This part of the Guadalupe is gorgeous, and I guess the water was too cold because there were no tubers to disturb us.











The only catch we witnessed was by one of these fly-fisherman in a small inflatable.
It was in the morning, and I was surprised that they landed anything with all the loud talking they were doing, plus their guide kept splashing the water with his oars despite using an anchor.

It provided a clue as to our lack of success, though--we couldn't quite reach the fish from our shoreline.



Google overhead view shows how shallow it is on the left side (that's our cabin a little below and to the left of center) and even casting halfway across the river you aren't anywhere near the fish.

We had zero results after a few hours at Canyon Lake, too, but at least I had a nibble and saw some big ones in the shallows by the shore.

Not complaining--fishing is fun and relaxing whether you land any or not.