For those unfamiliar with the subject, there is a wide variation in quality for volume pedals. First of all, avoid any that are battery powered, they are a waste of time and money. It is plain silly to rely on a battery when an unpowered version does the job. After that, make sure of two qualities: that the pedal will not slide on most flooring material, and that the pedal offers gentle resistance to your foot motions. The latter is important on stage when you remove your foot or return it to the pedal. Without resistance, the natural uneveness of foot pressure will change the volume. The Ernie Ball is nearly ideal. It has vecro-like grips on the bottom. And you can easily see the string and spring assembly under the foot pad, ensuring the pedal only moves when you mean it. Notice the rugged all-metal construction. There is a tuner port, you know, for guitarists who can't manage to stay in tune for love nor money. I'd rather see that replaced with a "minimum volume" knob, but otherwise, I use Ernie Ball pedals exclusively for serious stage work.
Let's talk trains. Yippee! The City of New Orleans costs $216 coach class. The ride is just short of twenty hours and the food service is, by reputation, horrendous. Nor is the train anything like the original as sung by Arlo Guthrie. It has changed hands and names several times, even the route has been altered somewhere in Tennessee. That fare is one-way and there is still the problem of getting to and from NOLA. Still, all this is within good reason and I am planning the trip for this summer.
As with most Amtrak passenger links, there are berths and accommodations available at a price. We can all easily stay awake on a trip that long and the potential for a nap through the prairies has not changed that much in a few centuries. They will transport a bicycle for $15 extra. Unlike Greyhound, Amtrak shows full examples of their coach seats, and I would reserve a window seat, where reading lamps are guaranteed. (Got that, Greyhound. The lights stay on. Some ignorant employee cannot turn them off and threaten to have the riders who complain with police arrest at the next stop.)
Wikipedia does a good job of describing the actual train, although like many contemporary encyclopedias, they delve a little too much into issues. To see the cars themselves, visit the Amtrak site for 3D cartoon views. My favorite cars are the tall ones that sit 14 feet off the ground, “streamliners” I think they are called. They cost around $2.5 million each back when that was lots of money. The City of New Orleans was one of the last to get them when it was finally realized the line had tourist potential.
Also new to me was the fact that American railways are assigned “grades”, and passenger train lines are first grade. I still hope in my lifetime, a high speed rail link makes coast-to-coast travel available. Just think, twelve hours to California without the hell of airports. I was musing that instead of the train making stops, which will degenerate into a political mud pit, why not a system of uncoupling the last car of the train as a destination is approached?
While the front of the train carries on at speed, the last car would gradually coast to a stop. You know, for the type of people who absolutely have to get off at Deming, NM. Later, a donkey engine could collect the cars for an off-peak run back to either terminus, or with sidings at intervals. Popular Mechanics, now there is an idea that beats that affair you have with blimps.
For today’s trivia, I’ll poke fun at horoscopes. The ruling theory behind the astrologic principle is that there is a “force” from the planets that affects people, the highest conviction being that this influence does not diminish with distance. Thus, a huge planet like Jupiter has exactly the same influence as a tiny planet like Venus. Trouble is, around 70 new planets have been discovered orbiting other stars. It will be truly wondrous how the believers account for that. My fascination with horoscopes is that others actually follow them.
