It Was a GAS!

Quite the night at the Garage on Beck Street.  The Garage All Stars, and they were all stars indeed this night, turned in three sets of great jazz.  The music attracted quite the crowd, a fun social scene this night.  Lots of friends showed up.  Helluva good time.

Park City was well represented, as was edible Wasatch...

The core GAS trio, Cheney, Carr, and Steve Lindeman (subbing for Kevin) were joined by Henry Wolking on trombone and Al Michaels on sax.  Great to see Henry playing again.

The bar was busy keeping up with thirsty fans.  Wendy looked a little stunned at all the activity.

But after she realized I wasn't just another musician sponging free drinks and food, she did a great job of serving up my wine and grub...  but how can you be out of avocado!!!  Still, tip your waitresses well.

The musicians were popular with the ladies...

Thanks to the musicians for great sets of jazz, and to the Garage for a fine establishment and great people.  More to come in the following weeks.  Soon the music will move outside with great views of industrial Salt Lake.

Some Older (and Some Old) Pics From My Vast Collection

Looking through my hard drive files, I've found a number of pics that deserve some attention on this blog.  There's no particular overriding theme to these, no rhyme or reason, just some cool shots bringing back (mostly good) memories.  And, of course, click on the pic for larger size viewing.

A group of women I'm not sure I'd want to fuck with...  (actually, good friends and fabulous people).

Hard to find good Pisco in this country.  Harder still to find this brand.  Damn good stuff, but I never support dictatorships...

I probably shouldn't comment on this picture...  Kinda goes with the bumper sticker, "Strangers Have the Best Candy"...

Lacey's long time friend Victoria during her return to Utah after a zillion years.  Yes, Victoria, summer in Australia means winter in Utah.  

You can't take Joanne out to dinner without her documenting the whole event.  Cute waitress, tho. 

An old friend, Tom Gardner...  the full pic which was edited in his obit.  A brilliant mind, a sheepherder, a very sad loss.

Talk about sister wives...  Me with the one-handers before a Jazz game.

From better days, down at the old Junior's

Maybe the best days are now...  cool girlfriend in Palm Springs

Another cool babe...  my mother from her untamed youth...

Me, doing my best Warren Zevon...

And, finally, the difference between men and women.  Much truth, here...

Ampinstein... It's Alive! It's Alive!

I've always been partial to old Dynaco audio gear.  I built my first Dynakits back in the mid '60s (and the PAS3/Stereo70 tubed combo is still going strong, thanks to Van Alstine mods).   The company is long out of business (Panor Corp acquired the name and at one time produced some very good modern "Dynaco" gear, including a cool tubed CD player which I own to keep my Dynaco jones satisfied.  My completed mods and CD player are here).

Dynaco is mostly known for it's classic tube gear, like the Stereo 70, but Dynaco also produced some very good transistor gear.  The Stereo 120 was one of the first "quality" transistor amps, although, by today's standards, the circuits are woefully lacking.  A zillion years ago, I bought a nonworking Stereo 120 and repaired it.  But it soon was relegated to a storeroom, buried under years of accumulated crap.  I always thought someday I'd update the amp (again, Van Alstine has a cool MOSFET mod, but it always seemed too expensive).  Recently, a new company, Akitika, and its related Update My Dynaco, has produced a new series of modules for the Stereo 120 based on the LM3886 chip.  Now I'm more of a discrete guy, but the 3886 is considered a very cool chip and is used in a number of high quality amplifiers.  The Akitika cards (including a new regulated power supply card) are also very reasonably priced.

So out came the Stereo 120 cadaver, which I then gutted of its old organs and, after a little "grave robbing" at UpDateMyDynaco, I installed the new body parts.  After a hit of electricity, the new Stereo 120 was up and running...  Alive!  And it sounds great!  Here's a couple pics (I call it Ampinstein (Ampzilla was already used), because I kept thinking of the old Boris Karloff movie while I was doing  the construction...  well, maybe it was the brain surgery).

Here's a closeup of the 3886 chip and module.

Now I had to figure out how to use this amp.  I have so much stereo gear around, I have no obvious application for the Ampinstein.  And because it is a power amp, I also need a preamp to drive it, which I don't have.  Well, now in this new era of digital, computer based music, maybe I don't need a preamp.  Can I drive the Ampinstein directly from my MacBook Pro employing the cute little Dragonfly DAC I purchased a year ago? Will I get the control and drive I need for the amp?  So with a little hookup, and lowering every volume level I could find to protect the amp, I fired up both iTunes and alternately Decibel as music players.  I upped the levels and soon was playing beautiful music through the resurrected Stereo 120.

What a desktop system (well, if a little large overall).  Way cool, and I do say so myself.

Brain Salad Surgery

I recently had brain surgery (MVD) for a problem with trigeminal/glossopharyngeal neuralgia.  Big words, and big pain in my tongue off and on for years.  Finally had it properly diagnosed, and when typical drugs stopped doing the job, decided on surgery.  I found, via the internet (yes, it is useful after all), a hot shit surgeon up at the University of Utah Medical Center Dept. of Neurosurgery...  Dr. House!  Thankfully a totally different personality from the TV character, and a confirmed whiz at this type of cranial exploration and correction.  So after a few months of waiting and scheduling everyone's availability for a full month of recuperation (particularly Nurse Lacey, the ultimate candy striper...), I was wheeled into the surgical theater...  Thanks to ELP, I think I must have looked something like this as the crew literally bolted me in (well, a more manly face...).

After 4-6 hours of the most delicate of surgeries, they first of all did find a brain (there was some doubt going in), a severely compressed nerve which was teflon padded from the compressing blood vessel, and a tiny vein shooting through another nerve (clipped and cauterized).  Wow! how can they do this stuff!

So now I'm home, still woozy (like a major concussion) but feeling more comfortable.  Today we removed the bandage and this is what we found (gory stuff)...

And somewhere in there is a quarter-sized titanium plate protecting the replaced skull fragment.  Can't wait to go through airport security!

It may have been the drugs, but I do remember a minor benefit of the hospital stay... something like this... (click on it to increase size)

I'll have more later, hopefully including pictures of the inside of my skull proving once and for all that I am possessed with great brain power (if a little dirty minded).

Downtown Abbey

I've seen 5 minutes of this series.  But it's really popular, and many of my friends are addicted.  So how the hell did I end up communing with the show's star characters?

Maybe the mysterious dragon lady had something to do with it.

Escaping the Murk

Well, we had to get out of town.  The murk was choking us.  Couldn't see downtown from my front window, time to leave...  and it was NAMM!  So off to SoCal we went.

First things first at NAMM was a pic with the booth babe...  you bet!

Pretty cute dress....

As usual, NAMM features a zillion tons of music gear, software, accessories, and weirdos...  Nothing much new this year, but we did find a booth full of curious bass guitars.

Try to get your head wrapped around that...  let alone your fingers.

On a stage outside, we heard the surprise group of the conference...  L'Angelus...  really a great live performance of modern "cajun" and "swamp rock" music.  Terrific energy and a great selection of songs.

NAMM burns you out quite quickly.  So the next day we decided to enjoy some other aspects of the SoCal lifestyle.  Unfortunately, it was the rainy season, so outdoor activities were out.  So we went car shopping....  Rod couldn't believe they had a McClaren dealership in Newport Beach, so we drove down there.  Very nice, and very, very expensive cars.

Then, up the street, was the Tesla dealership.  Too bad they no longer make the roadster.

Finally, on the day we left SoCal, the weather broke giving us sunny skies.  So we decided to take the long way back via Joshua Tree National Park. 

Rod had a trillion dollars worth of camera gear, and was excited to shoot everything in sight.

 Here's a few of his shots (I suspect a little photoshopping was added for color and light).

I got a few shots of my own, mostly plant life (or death, as it may be).

From Joshua Tree, we took Highway 62 through 29 Palms, then east through some very desolate valleys and mountain passes.  What a weird area!  Finally, we headed north to Needles (another rat hole), then further north to Vegas (actually Henderson where I have a favorite hotel of OK but dubious quality and a favorite restaurant of equally dubious quality).  Then the next day back home through blizzards, ice, and snow...  why come back?