February 24, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 24, 2023, electronics blog coincidence.
Five years ago today: February 24, 2019, the swear words are easy.
Nine years ago today: February 24, 2015, every musician in town.
Random years ago today: February 24, 2010, my last real call-out.

           The next round of squirrel wars goes to our side. By repositioning the main feeder and moving away any points where the rodents can make any short leaps, they are forced to take a run at the cage. The extra weight of landing on the roosts is enough to close the feed ports. Formerly they could scramble lightly enough to defeat the springs. It’s a perfect Florida morning, I turned the birdie sprinkler on at 9:30AM. I opened the windows and read since dawn and you should take the morning off as well. We have a new visitor, a female northern cardinal, a juvenile and unusually strong flyer, by the way she departs the feeders. She’s also a noisy one but when they are pretty that never bothers me.

           If you test three or four microphones on your voice, you’ll find they differ enough that one will “sound” more like your real voice through a speaker. I advised the Prez to check this out at a music store. Mics are also something I consider personal gear. (I wrote this before the missing microphone noted this evening.)
           I believe it has to do with how people think they own voices sound tinny on a tape deck, so finding a microphone match is a matter of trial and error. We have to build our own crowd for a Saturday, but here is a view of the Friday Karaoke show looking across the bar from the stage area. We should be lucky to have that many, as the club is just across the highway from a bunch of water plants, truss mills, and an orange juice factory, all empty on weekends.

           I tested the warning tray on PVC pipe and does not work on the grey conduit that I prefer to work with. By itself, the tray heats to only 170°F, and that quickly drops to max. 140°F when the plastic is introduced. I have a Dremel tool I’m going to rig up to rout recesses for my hinges. I want to try a new style where the lid closes flat, where up to now I’ve always shown a reveal. I soon found the bit in the Dremel is jammed, which is why it was in the Thrift. Don’t you hate people who do that?

           Following club procedure of always producing a mockup, I find installing the transistor on the RAM grid is not at all an easy task. I’m going to have to drill some tiny holes by hand, up to five for each transistor. Nor is the format of transistor pins compatible. One pin has to be bent over another in every configuration, which cannot be chanced (a short if bumped or dropped or moisture), so I may need a second layer of insulating material. And it should be clear plastic so the wiring can be observed in the finished array. I know, I really should be getting some work done on the house. Instead of a break at noon, I grabbed the bass and played that refrain from “For Your Love”, the Yardbirds song from 1962(?). Full volume, but that still a fraction of the sound system I heard last night.

           See this box? It is how they used to ship things before the invention of cardboard. Thousand were employed building shipping crates and this one is from the railroad museum. I examined it with interest, noting the contruction and how it must have been meant for fast production. No fancy joinery is involved, rather wood strips to reinforce every corner joint that matters. The vertical rails fit into tiny notches on the sides. See the extensive branding iron markings, now replace with paper labels. No doubt the boxes were rugged and reuseable, but must have added a chunk to the cost.

Picture of the day.
WWII’s most famous bunker.
(Now a museum.)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           We got us a super-successful opening night at the club. All the telltale signs and audience appleasl was there, including the demographic change in the crowd around 8:00PM. We even got a couple complaints No pics, but here’s a run-down on the gig and behind the scenes. While tonight would represent one of the best ways that anyone could spend a Saturday night when you’re past 45, it also reveals some of the logistics of putting on a show. We arrived around 5:00PM and found we had to spin the entire Karaoke casing around for our guitar cables to read the inputs. The PA itself has a deep bass sound even when trimmed to full treble. (Turns out later we find Cassies husband helpe the owner pick that model, yeppers.)
           The owner was present to see this show, it’s a first and there was a small crowd of around 8 people, mostly dart players after the pool tourney, which ended early. Present by chance were the top staff members and Charlene, there is nobody like Charlene. That’s the one who could have been the one if things had been different. As for the music, it was an instant hit and a success if you judge, as I do, by the number of twenties in the tip bucket. I had left the old band name taped on the side, so this may now be a reincarnation of my former bands and non-bands. This picture is the view toward the stage area, with the neon blue jukebox on the wall. Thus, it leaves a small dance area that I intend to pack on a regular basis.

           One super-factor was a second vindication. My methods of getting a band running are counter to most guitar players, we already know that. Tonight was the second new location that demonstrated the value of experience. People walking to the stage to tell us how they appreciated a band that matched the crowd. Ha, if they only knew, but yes, there were dozens of principles I had imparted on this band that produce this sort of situation. And no, it is never luck, as I said, it involves rehearsing things other reject as wrong, things that only appear when a forceful personality imparts them. It never goes all our way. The Prez lost that beauty of universal microphone clip and the Shure microphone. Ah, it will turn up somewhere.
           Speaking of material, remember I said how once the band was up and running, the wannabes would come out of the woodwork? Sure enough, but my band is trained to say thanks, but we are not looking for a drummmer, a singer, a lead player, etc. It doesn’t end there, we also get plenty of advice on what we should be playing instead of the great show we’ve been putting on. If these people apply the same philosphy to their sex lives, it’s no wonder the divorce rate is what it is.
           Mind you, when one of those advisors is Charlene, you listen up. We have a five item list of what she’d like to hear, the little darling, but between the Prez & I we only recognized one of the tunes. This duo is based on classics that we both already knew, cutting down our efforts by several magnitudes. Learning from scratch is a tough call, especially music that neither of us would naturally listen to. But we’re no dummies, I’ll get after it by tomorrow afternoon, somehow I know some will be slow and over-sentimental Here is the with list:

“Amy” – Travis Tritt
“Don’t Close Your Eyes” – Kieth Whitley
“Rocking Chair” - Goerge Jones
“Write It Down” – George Strait
“It Won’t Be Like This For Long” – Darius Rucker
“Love Me” – Collin Raye

           Stage work has a positive downside, it sounds like a paradox. It works by letting the band know their limitations. The Prez is not a strong voice and I have no natural voice. You can’t crank up the Prez with the volume as it creates a sybilant distortion, and I sing by imitating the voice of the original. I get pretty close with Jimmy Buffet and Johnny Cash, not so much with others. The atmosphere of the crowd changes around 8:00PM, so we quit at 8:15PM. Still, there was a complaint. It will go nowhere against the relatively large group that were evidently loving the music. In fact, we had many people singing along which is one of my trademarks, but the later-on crowd is that bunch who like to “stay young” by pretending to like their teenage kid’s music. Pseudo-rap indie thumpers.

Last Laugh