February 8, 2008

           You’ll have to look close, but there is the yellow bird [just right of center] that has taken up hunting rights in my palm tree. That is less than a yard out the front window, so this causes Pudding-Tat no end of fantasy. While I love the chirping, I confess that I cannot find that bird in my guidebook. It is too large for a goldfinch, the closest color match. There is no truth that I hope it is some endangered species that I could use to block the developers of this trailer court.
           The mercurial flow of performing is about to cause another change in my act. After tonight, there is no doubt when I connect with a room of sentimental over-35’s, I can take them anywhere. This means I develop another sub-presentation of old but truly classic sing-alongs. It is as easy as changing a disk. Probably because that is exactly how it is done.
           Top of the list are always requests, such as “King of the Road” and “After the Gold Rush”. Handing out those wireless mics and really letting them sing was pure genius, but I also know it will not work everywhere. When I work everywhere, I’ll worry about it at that time. Of course, nobody out there has yet figured out how I control the volume of what they sing. Another thing, I sang a duet with a lady tonight. It went okay. The song, I mean.
           I do like to report the tune that gets the crowd and tonight it was the 1960s hit by Leapy Lee, “Little Arrows”. This was one of several dozen tunes I select from to run past the audience in the first half-hour to gauge what they might want. While this is not standard practice, saying I know musicians who actually try to “convince” the audience, it works wonders for me. That is why “Henry the VIII” and “Wolverton Mountain” are now part of my show. Er, no other band dares play them?
           This moves my idea of “live” Karaoke a notch forward. Karaoke has given many people an over-confident idea of their ability. Put another way, they forget the words. At the shop we’ve been tackling this off and on. Sure enough, we’ve located a piece of software will interpret Karaoke files. This is not assurance it will work, but if it is on disk, I am I can get at it. We’ve already got it to play around 75 tunes, none of which are currently in my act. Getting the lyrics to teleprompt is one complicated arrangement.
           So, a few people are not sure about the antenna dominating my spare time these days. I assure you, this is a major undertaking, folks. My calculations (yes, I studied physics) show that an antenna with a normal 150 foot range can easily be beamed close to ten miles “under ideal conditions”, and that is probably the only ideal Florida has left. Be patient, I am developing the technology from scratch. It is not easy and that is why I am starting with the known less effective cantennas. I don’t have a million-dollar lab.
           For example, the phase I’m stuck on right now is the router antenna. For it to function, it must receive all channels of the 2.4GHz frequency, regardless of which channel it transmits over. That means if I have no spare antenna, I should be able to run an Ethernet cable into any handy router and use that for a receiver. It doesn’t work. Why?
           Here’s some easier trivia. If you took a square piece of paper and folded it in half fifty times (yes, I know that even six is impossible), I read that it would be 67 million miles thick.