Memories of Memorial Day

Another ranch gathering over the Memorial Day weekend led to the usual excesses...  beer, tequila, and food...  and music, which is never excessive itself but does stimulate the other excesses.

As the happy campers arrived, high camping fashion was in evidence, particularly hats.

Gathering around the fire (the weather was great, but by evening things cooled off significantly), the music began.

There were some technical issues....  (can you guess?).

The evening meal was carnivore heaven...

Later we howled at the moon...  feeling cheated by the skimpy (if it occurred at all) lunar eclipse.  But the full moon itself was a wonder.

For some, the night ended early (others lasted way into the early morning hours).

The next morning we had a jammie contest.  The winners, both days:

Finally, after enumerable cups of coffee (and a few shots) breakfast began.  First, the bacon ritual...

Rosemary brought a homemade wok (derived from a farm implement) to cook an amazing fritata...

After breakfast, the serious drinking and partying began.  More music, more tequila, more patently untrue tales of fantastic adventures and amazing sexual prowess...  

At some point, the sixties were revived with a bra burning (of sorts).  

The great white hunter went out to shoot cute coyotes...  which tend to bite off the ears and noses of his sheep.

Rosemary, ever the culinary leader, organized a spring roll factory for an afternoon snack...

But the afternoon finally took its toll...  

All revived for the evening festivities...  most too unmentionable and thankfully unrecorded for this humble blog.

But the next morning, everyone woke fresh and happy.

Rosemary again brought out here "wok", and proceded to cook up all the extra bacon, eggs, and vegies remaining in people's coolers.  Her kitchen sink breakfast proved a big hit.

All in all, a wonderful time...  and thanks to the Berts for hosting.

However, there was a very sad note to the weekend.  Annie, the Bert's dog, was found dead under their truck on Saturday afternoon.  What problem caused her death is unknown...  how this could happen to a happy and active animal is a mystery and was quite a shock to all.  We extend our sympathies to Bill and Julie and share their sadness.

Some Crazy Ass Jazz

While I was recovering from a hole drilled in my head, Willis had another gig with Buck's Vibe at Steamer's in Orange County.  Steamer's usually videos the gigs, and I was lucky enough to get a DVD copy of this night.  The video itself is crappy, but the audio holds up well.  One tune in particular grabbed me, a version of Ramblin' by Ornette Coleman, one of my favorite jazz musicians.

What's rather unique is that this Buck's Vibe version of a New York City tune starts out with a New Orleans beat and then visits Nashville on it's way through a 16 minute tour de force.

You can download or listen to the tune here.

Crazy ass jazz indeed!

Mom's Day

A friend sent this along...  Thank you Mr. Zappa.

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.