Music, Car Crashes, Melting Pavement, Marshall Amps, and More Diving
E-frickin'-gad. I stopped by Bowling Green Music and Sound this afternoon, after running some other errands, to pick up my Fat Strat, which had gone in the shop on Friday for some maintenance and repairs to the input jack. When I left my apartment around 1:30 or so this afternoon, it was 98 degrees out, and god knows what the heat index was when factoring in the humidity. I'm in the shop for about 10 minutes, talking guitars and gear as I am wont to do, and when I step back out into the blast furnace that we call the end of July and get back in my car, the dash thermometer greets me by saying that it's 101 degrees outside. That, and I strongly suspect that the car next to me was almost hubcap-deep in pavement that was melting back into hot-top.
The Fat Strat was, unfortunately, one of three victims of gear mishaps that I had befall me last week. Two Saturdays ago, when we were playing Ottawa Park, something happened that I think fried my trusty Digitech Whammy pedal. During the same gig, I notice that my Fat Strat's input jack is going bad...if I moved it even a bit, I'd lose my signal. And finally, of course, I think my reliable amp blew a speaker or two, as diagnosed by the buzzing and crackling that comes out of the clean channel, especially when the bass settings are anywhere past three.
All of these kind of came to a head Tuesday night when, after feeling suddenly and strongly unsure about my equipment's playability, I plugged everything in and sure enough found out that, well, nothing was producing any sound. So I called the Mad Doctor, and he heroically loaned me his Marshall Valvestate combo amp for use at the gig in downtown Toledo the next afternoon. Definitely different from what I'm used to using, but it fit in nicely, and since my amp's in the shop in Toledo, it's going to be another soldier of Jah. No worries, Mike; the reggae vibes I leave in it won't outshadow any DBT you've cranked through it. :)
Speaking of which, we had a great show outside the main library in downtown T-town. Really big crowd too...over 100, I'd say. Only complaint, aside from the heat out, was that we only played an hour; as much as I love playing, I enjoy the longer shows because we really get a chance to dig into the music.
Friday I went back to Lima to see Becky and spend the weekend with her again; we temporarily satisfied our scuba jones by doing Long Lake in Lima on Friday evening, and Portage Quarry on Saturday morning. Aside from that, it was mostly a quiet weekend of bumming around, which we both needed.
That said, at some point Saturday evening after we went to bed, we woke up when we heard this weird-sounding noise outside...not so much a crash, but more like someone had closed a car door with a trash can (best description I can think of--sue me). The dogs weren't barking, and I didn't hear anything else, so we fell asleep again.
Becky was downstairs first Sunday morning to grab some breakfast--our big activities that morning were weeding and general housecleaning. She's sitting outside on her porch when I come out on the porch, and points out this white Honda Civic that's parked the wrong way on her street, right where I normally park my car, and mentions bemusedly to take a closer look at it. So I do, and this is what I notice:
--that the car apparently used the big tree in front of her house as its braking system, and has completely fucked its front driver's side. Torqued axle, flat tire, bent door frame at the joint, caved in hood, and a nice head-shaped indentation in the windshield where the driver's head actually pierced the safety glass layers. Thiis isn't to mention the bloodstain on the driver's door, of course, not to mention the complete lack of skidmarks anywhere.
--the airbags thankfully deployed, although probably weren't any help to the driver's head. I'm assuming that this upstanding individual, whether he/she was sober, drunk, drunk and scared into being sober, or drunk and scared shitless, wasn't too hurt by the accident, since they removed the license plates and stereo from the car. They, however, forgot to remove the ID tag from the local college down there that they attend, which I made note of.
--that it WAS a nice car, until that bastard of a tree apparently jumped in front of it.
So we called the cops, who showed up promptly, gave them as much information as we could for their report, and chatted idly about the fact that it WAS a nice car until the tree won that little pugilistic bout. And thank god I didn't park in my usual spot because, all things considered (especially in terms of how much my amp repair is going to cost me), getting my car blasted to hell is NOT something I need nor can afford right now.
Other than that, and other than being jobless still, it was a good week and weekend. I've also got a spot of hope job-wise now too (and I hope to hell I'm not jinxing it by mentioning it here), but apparently I'm one of the final candidates for the position of Director of Multicultural Programs at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan. I had a good phone interview last Tuesday, and I was invited to interview in person and visit the campus this coming Wednesday, so send me all the positive vibes you can. I'm actually not nervous about the interview; I know I'm qualified for the position, it'd be something I'd enjoy doing (although I'd have to move up there--Adrian's about 40 miles from Toledo) and it's in higher ed administration, which is what I've been wanting to get back to. Hell, I'm more nervous about still not having a job, and about how hot I'm going to be in my suit if the heat holds up through Wednesday. If this for some reason doesn't pan out, I'm 95% sure that I could get a job as a United Way Loaned Executive again starting in August, but that's only a three-month position, and I'm kind of tired of always seeming to be job-hunting.
Oh yeah...Andy/Satan's wedding is this Saturday...and I get to finally wear a tux, not to mention step all over the maid of honor's feet...
Groovemaster Setlist--Wednesday, July 26th
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Stir It Up
No More Trouble
96 Degrees in the Shade
Natural Mystic
Prophecy
Keep On Moving
Roots
Jump Nyahbingi
Hill and Gully Rider.
The Fat Strat was, unfortunately, one of three victims of gear mishaps that I had befall me last week. Two Saturdays ago, when we were playing Ottawa Park, something happened that I think fried my trusty Digitech Whammy pedal. During the same gig, I notice that my Fat Strat's input jack is going bad...if I moved it even a bit, I'd lose my signal. And finally, of course, I think my reliable amp blew a speaker or two, as diagnosed by the buzzing and crackling that comes out of the clean channel, especially when the bass settings are anywhere past three.
All of these kind of came to a head Tuesday night when, after feeling suddenly and strongly unsure about my equipment's playability, I plugged everything in and sure enough found out that, well, nothing was producing any sound. So I called the Mad Doctor, and he heroically loaned me his Marshall Valvestate combo amp for use at the gig in downtown Toledo the next afternoon. Definitely different from what I'm used to using, but it fit in nicely, and since my amp's in the shop in Toledo, it's going to be another soldier of Jah. No worries, Mike; the reggae vibes I leave in it won't outshadow any DBT you've cranked through it. :)
Speaking of which, we had a great show outside the main library in downtown T-town. Really big crowd too...over 100, I'd say. Only complaint, aside from the heat out, was that we only played an hour; as much as I love playing, I enjoy the longer shows because we really get a chance to dig into the music.
Friday I went back to Lima to see Becky and spend the weekend with her again; we temporarily satisfied our scuba jones by doing Long Lake in Lima on Friday evening, and Portage Quarry on Saturday morning. Aside from that, it was mostly a quiet weekend of bumming around, which we both needed.
That said, at some point Saturday evening after we went to bed, we woke up when we heard this weird-sounding noise outside...not so much a crash, but more like someone had closed a car door with a trash can (best description I can think of--sue me). The dogs weren't barking, and I didn't hear anything else, so we fell asleep again.
Becky was downstairs first Sunday morning to grab some breakfast--our big activities that morning were weeding and general housecleaning. She's sitting outside on her porch when I come out on the porch, and points out this white Honda Civic that's parked the wrong way on her street, right where I normally park my car, and mentions bemusedly to take a closer look at it. So I do, and this is what I notice:
--that the car apparently used the big tree in front of her house as its braking system, and has completely fucked its front driver's side. Torqued axle, flat tire, bent door frame at the joint, caved in hood, and a nice head-shaped indentation in the windshield where the driver's head actually pierced the safety glass layers. Thiis isn't to mention the bloodstain on the driver's door, of course, not to mention the complete lack of skidmarks anywhere.
--the airbags thankfully deployed, although probably weren't any help to the driver's head. I'm assuming that this upstanding individual, whether he/she was sober, drunk, drunk and scared into being sober, or drunk and scared shitless, wasn't too hurt by the accident, since they removed the license plates and stereo from the car. They, however, forgot to remove the ID tag from the local college down there that they attend, which I made note of.
--that it WAS a nice car, until that bastard of a tree apparently jumped in front of it.
So we called the cops, who showed up promptly, gave them as much information as we could for their report, and chatted idly about the fact that it WAS a nice car until the tree won that little pugilistic bout. And thank god I didn't park in my usual spot because, all things considered (especially in terms of how much my amp repair is going to cost me), getting my car blasted to hell is NOT something I need nor can afford right now.
Other than that, and other than being jobless still, it was a good week and weekend. I've also got a spot of hope job-wise now too (and I hope to hell I'm not jinxing it by mentioning it here), but apparently I'm one of the final candidates for the position of Director of Multicultural Programs at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan. I had a good phone interview last Tuesday, and I was invited to interview in person and visit the campus this coming Wednesday, so send me all the positive vibes you can. I'm actually not nervous about the interview; I know I'm qualified for the position, it'd be something I'd enjoy doing (although I'd have to move up there--Adrian's about 40 miles from Toledo) and it's in higher ed administration, which is what I've been wanting to get back to. Hell, I'm more nervous about still not having a job, and about how hot I'm going to be in my suit if the heat holds up through Wednesday. If this for some reason doesn't pan out, I'm 95% sure that I could get a job as a United Way Loaned Executive again starting in August, but that's only a three-month position, and I'm kind of tired of always seeming to be job-hunting.
Oh yeah...Andy/Satan's wedding is this Saturday...and I get to finally wear a tux, not to mention step all over the maid of honor's feet...
Groovemaster Setlist--Wednesday, July 26th
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Stir It Up
No More Trouble
96 Degrees in the Shade
Natural Mystic
Prophecy
Keep On Moving
Roots
Jump Nyahbingi
Hill and Gully Rider.
posted by Reggae Joe at
4:51 PM
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