Why do you go to a cash machine?

A weird thing happened last night - I was at the end of a queue for the cash machine and when it came to my turn I found that the guy who had used it before me had left a big wadge of cash in the machine.  Of course, I called the guy back and pointed out his mistake.

There's a problem with that last statement - the "of course" bit.  There was no-one behind me.  The guy was about to walk off and cross the road.  I will admit that there was a brief fast forward video in my head of me grabbing that cash, jumping in my nearby car and speeding off.  This was accompanied by a couple of parallel thoughts.  How much is there?  What kind of bass could I buy with that?

Thoughtcrime?

I'm glad I did the right thing, but don't get me started on the reasoning behind it because that's whole new box for Pandora to open (did I do it because it's the right thing to do, or did I do it out of fear of the consequences of not doing it?)

What the hell is this?  Psychology?  Sociology?  Criminology?  One thing's for sure - I never thought going to the cash machine could be so thought provoking :)

Radio silence

Apologies for the hiss of static emanating from here, things have been more than a little chaotic here due to a recent family bereavement.

I would say normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, but no-one probably noticed the difference in post frequency anyway ;-)

I'll try and post something more substantive in the near future.

RIP Panda Eyes - 2006 - 2010

Cutting a long story short, Panda Eyes is no more.  No drama, no name calling, no eyeball scratching, Jan the guitarist decided he didn't want to carry on with it.  As part of the core creative duo in the band, it isn't really appropriate to continue with Panda Eyes as an entity or use the songs.

It's a weird time.  Panda Eyes was my first band*, they took a chance on me and I like to think that I did a reasonable job.  I've gone through a number of states since it happened; sadness, anger, emptiness, numbness, resignation and finally thankfulness and hope.  I feel sad for a few reasons, not least the last gig we did I thought it was the best I had ever played.  I joined Panda Eyes because I liked the songs, and ultimately it'll be the songs I miss most. 

Well, the songs are still linked at the side of the blog there. It still makes me a little sad to listen to them but mostly I feel proud of how far I've come along in the one and a half years I played in the band.

Here comes the the hope!  Marie-Claire the singer has asked Chris the drummer and I to start something new with her and we quickly agreed.  New people, new songs, new direction.  Watch this space for developments...

*not counting the one-off ska band I played in mere weeks before my wedding ;)

Home improvements

I had a week off work last week and as well as a bit of socialising I got stuck into a few jobs which needed doing.

Garden stuff - We've made a start on clearing the crap out of our garden and bomb BBQ shelter.  My dad very kindly offered his assistance and his trailer.  Long story short, we moved 3 trailer loads to the dump civic amenity site recycling centre - a load of wood, a load of rocks/bricks/rubble and a load of general junk.  Treasure found so far - an amount of lead cuttings (from flashings presumably), a rear reflector for my bike, some garden tools (hoe, edging shears).  Disappointment of the proceedings - a table saw which had been left to rot in the shelter.

House stuff - Jayne varnished the fireplace surround to make it darker, I replaced the toilet seat (one of the hinges had broken), we tried some colours for the hall/stairs.

Guitar stuff - The body of the Victory Artist is nearly completely sanded (save for some annoying areas in the horns) and it is officially an Artist once more:

Short story: it's a white backed laser water slide transfer, printed black except the writing, covering the whole piece then protected with several coats of Plasti-kote Fast Dry Enamel, cut back in between with 1000 grit sandpaper.

I have found somewhere to make a 5 ply b/w/b/w/b copy of my pickguard and it went yesterday.

Last week I might have drunk some Guinness.

Thank you Schaller!

I mentioned in my last post that I had asked Schaller in Germany for the spare parts I needed to fix the tuner on the Victory bass I'm restoring.  The parts arrived today - in quadruplicate!  Yes, 4 capstans, 4 pinions and 4 screws.  I only needed one of each.  Also in the envelope was a freebie sticker and a set of picks!

What a bunch of champs!

Need tuners?  Get Schaller.  End of discussion.

Gear in: 1981 Gibson Victory Artist

I have been looking for one of these for months.  I haven't seen one (reasonably priced) in the UK since December.  I've had to cast my net further afield, which brings its own problems (mostly US eBayers being sniffy about selling internationally or quoting ridiculous amounts for postage).  A mint example appeared on the market (came into this decade in a time machine type pristine) which made the values spike for a while.  Rubbish like that.

However, this rather sorry looking example appeared and I decided to make it my mission to resurrect it to something approaching its former glory.

The picture doesn't show the half of the problems:

• The bass has been refinished (badly) in dark blue
• Someone thought it'd be a great idea to paint the pickguard in silver Hammerite
• Someone thought it's be a great idea to install a push button switch at the back to connect/disconnect the battery - in a place where you keep nudging it when you play the thing.
• The final insult - someone thought it'd be a great idea to take a blow torch to the back of the neck

Thankfully that's where the problems pretty much end.  Electronically and structurally it seems intact.  All the chrome is in good nick, the only tarnishing is on the screws (I'll soak them in cola to clean them up).  One of the tuners was bust, but that has been temporarily fixed - awaiting parts from Schaller in Germany to do a proper job (at least I think that's what's happening - "We send to you the parts you need" sounds like they're going to do it).  One of the very distinctive "Posi-Lok" strap buttons has been replaced with a standard style one.  I had made contact with a guy in Italy who claimed to have some, but that's gone quiet.  One of the wires had come off the circuit board inside, but that was a quick fix.  The stupid switch is already gone :)

So, the plan is a full refinish.  From my digging around inside, I conclude that the bass was originally Candy Apple Red (which is a layered finish of gold, trans red then clearcoat).  I don't fancy that.  I'm erring towards black, it's the least likely to mess up, but all my other Gibson/Epiphone basses are black, so perhaps a change is necessary.

The cleanup has begun - I was able to polish up the headstock so it's looking a lot nicer now:

A lot of elbow grease later >






The truss rod cover was also coated in that Hammerite and when I removed it the "Artist" logo was gone :(  Will have to try and reinstate that somehow.

 I wonder how I'm going to do this.  Paint it on?  Get a white transfer/decal made somehow?

These things are sent to try us.

By the way, did I mention it sounds great? :)

Chico the cat

After a visit to Mrs Murray's Home for Stray Dogs and Cats and Re-Homing Centre we have a new addition to the family - meet Chico the cat:

He's 1 year old, and according to Jayne is settling in rapidly.  Which, knowing cats, means commandeering the whole house incrementally.  He seems like a friendly sort of chap, so I'm looking forward to having him around.

Orange broadband: doubleplusungood

Don't annoy me, I'm going to blog about it.  If it's out there, Google will find it.

Last night I was poised to strike on a particularly lovely bass guitar, the type of which I have had my eye on for some time now when my broadband decided to throw one of its all too regular wobblies.  I got to the bid confirmation page, then I was frantically clicking on the confirm button but to no avail.  Some might say this is my fault for being an auction sniping git but one's broadband connection ought to be reliable enough to perform this simple web browsing task.

I was incandescent with rage.  This is the final straw in a large bale.  It's never worked properly since it went live.  It's been flaky for days, I contacted them last week and so far no-one's been in touch.  I refuse to call their "support line" and be dragged through troubleshooting my own equipment, on which there is no fault, at my expense.  The last time I finally managed to get to talk to someone who actually has an idea of how broadband works, I was promised a call back to see how it was behaving and it never happened.

Meanwhile, I'm left with a connection which I can't count on working properly any day of the week. I am going to issue a formal complaint, I have never encountered such incompetence in all my life. Ideally, I'd like to be released from my contract with them so I can go find someone who knows what the hell they're talking about.


NEVER EVER THINK OF GOING TO ORANGE FOR BROADBAND.  IF IT WORKS, GREAT.  IF IT DOESN'T, YOU'LL GET NOWHERE LOOKING FOR SUPPORT.

Gig tipoff: Hijak Oscar, Thee Zu, Panda Eyes, Evil Neill

When: Saturday 29th May 2010
Where: The Moorings, Virginia Street, Aberdeen, AB11 5AA
Doors: 8pm
Tax: £3

We're back on stage and we've got some new songs to try out on you.  You should come down anyway, the Moorings is an awesome place, great range of quality beverages to sample!

http://www.myspace.com/hijakoscar
http://www.myspace.com/kalamazoomusic
http://www.myspace.com/pandaeyesaberdeen

last.fm event: http://www.last.fm/event/1532439

My life is currently unbalanced in a good way

I am both pleased and worried by the amount of good fortune I have experienced lately, pleased obviously for all the good stuff and worried about what's in the post to balance things out :)

• Won the Euromillons (well £5.50 of them)
• My vegetable garden is coming along in leaps and bounds
• Got a bunch of debt collectors who have been chasing me since October to admit they made a mistake
• Car passed its MOT first time
• Got a lift to the garage from work by a passing colleague

I'm sure there's other stuff but that's enough to illustrate my point.  What worries me is that things will come around and we'll get hit with a run of bad luck, life has a tendency to even out over the long term.

However, I'm currently sunbathing in a sunbeam :)

Gig reminder: Three Blind Wolves, The Form, Panda Eyes @ Snafu

Just a quick reminder that Panda Eyes will be playing at Snafu tomorrow night (25th March) at Snafu.  Doors at 10, we'll be onstage about 10.30. Hope to see you there :)

blogging == dodo?

A recent tweet from btk got me thinking (I shall quote it here for context):


Seeing as pretty much all ABZ bloggers have stopped blogging we can't have blog-meets anymore. Anyone up for a tweet-up?

Is it true?  Is it symptomatic of a wider phenomenon?  Is everyone lost in BookFace and Twitter?  Maybe it's the fact that every few years something new comes along, everyone goes "ooh" and does that instead.  It's been the same in computing as long as I remember.

8 bits gave way to 16 bits which in turn gave way to 32 bits and we're on the cusp of wholesale acceptance of 64 bits.

Atari gave way to Nintendo who had a fight with Sega then Sony came along and shook everything up before Nintendo pulled a sneaky sideways manoeuvre and captured the imagination with something other than more sound, more graphics and more processing power.

Talkers gave way to instant messenger.


The evolution continues even in social networking - Faceparty -> Bebo/MySpace -> Facebook.


Blogging had its day, but it has been swallowed up by the convenience of Twitter and the sheer omnipresence of BookFace?  Who knows?  There will always be those who prefer the long form of blogging versus the short utterances found on the likes of Twitter.  I see merit in them both.  Facebook can get lost (imho).


People will use whatever the Zeitgeist is this week.  Few lead, many follow and some play in the band until the ship goes down.

Gig tipoff: Three Blind Wolves, Panda Eyes

When: Thursday 25th March 2010
Where: Snafu, 1 Union Street, Aberdeen, AB11 5BU
Doors: 9pm TBC
Tax: £3 (go to The Athenaeum upstairs for a pre gig pint and you might get a free pass...)

It's the Dirty Hearts Club at Snafu and time for a shameless plug for a Panda Eyes gig, of course!  We're leaner, fitter and betterer after a bit of time off and a warm up at a friend's birthday party a couple of weeks ago.  I've never played at Snafu before, really looking forward to it :)

Three Blind Wolves sound like a decent band too, have a listen on their MySpace.

Panda Eyes: http://www.myspace.com/pandaeyesaberdeen
Three Blind Wolves: http://www.myspace.com/threeblindwolves

Last.fm event: http://www.last.fm/event/1451209

Help preserve Union Terrace Gardens

There's lots of info out there on the matter, but I thought I would add my voice to the mix.  I DO NOT support the City Square proposal; the removal of a beautiful green space in the centre of an otherwise rather grey town would pain me greatly.

Personally, I'd rather all they did to Union Terrace Gardens was improve access, host more events there and employ a park attendant or two, but if something must be built, the partial upheaval that the Contemporary Art Centre would cause is much more palatable to me than the utter obliteration which would result from the City Square.

If, like me, you don't want the City Square to go ahead there are things you can do.  Vote NO in any way you can (like in sneaky, one-sided public "consultations").  Another thing you can do is download the super-duper compilation album put together by local artists in support of the Gardens.  You can find it here: http://weheartutg.bandcamp.com/ and you choose how much you want to pay (minimum £1).  All proceeds go towards fighting against the City Square.

I start writing this with a real "what's the point?" kind of thought in my head.  Does anyone actually read this stuff?  Does anyone actually care?  I was reading a thread on a certain local music forum which was making an example of someone who was documenting their entire life in minute detail on Twitter.  Let's just say that ridicule was most definitely on the menu.

Well, for those of you out there not sleeping (or having trouble sleeping), I'm mostly looking forward to this weekend - pay day's on Friday, got a gig with the band on Saturday (it's a birthday party, otherwise I'd be pimping it to the max, but if you really, REALLY want to go then let me know and I'll see what I can do).  Minor highlights will be band practice on Wednesday, and hopefully receiving a missing piece for one of my basses which some kind soul on Basschat seems to be happy to give me for nothing.

Jayne and I recorded a wee song for the IheartUTG CD at the weekend.  It's a reworking of the Burns song "The Slave's Lament".  Considering we recorded it in the bedroom in a few hours with nothing more than a bass, a keyboard, a small plastic tub (improvised drum), a Shure Beta 58A microphone, a USB sound interface and Audacity, I think it came out pretty good.

Jury's still out on the whole earplugs thing - in the three practices I've had since I got them I've had variable results - room 4 in Musical Vision was good, room 2 was passable and room 5 was bloody awful.  There's probably a plethora of reasons why - different amps, different basses, different room dimensions.  They have been great at gigs I have attended though.

Lesson learned: don't skimp on protection

I recently decided to get hold of some half decent earplugs having been pointed in the direction of a good deal on some ER-20 earplugs on eBay.  I've tried cheap foam ones before and while they are useful for getting a snooze on a busy aeroplane, they tend to muffle music unnaturally and make having conversations difficult due to the way they attenuate sound.

I tried out my new ER-20s at a gig this weekend and I have to say I was impressed.  The sound was pretty clear, high frequencies from the drums were still a little muted but nowhere near as bad as with foam.  I was able to have conversations reasonably well.  I walked past (literally feet away) from a loud rock band and didn't even feel the need to blink, it was just like listening at reasonable volume at home.

The big test will come tomorrow when I'll give them a go at band practice.  I tried foam plugs once and it was a disaster - I felt so detached from the rest of the band I couldn't play properly, timing was all over the place.  I'll let you know how I get on :)

Welcome to the temporary home of my internet pollution

Greetings to the 2 people who used to visit wheeee.org and have just made the fateful mistake of thinking "I wonder whatever happened to wheeee.org?", typed the address in (I won't be arrogant enough to assume that one of you kept a shortcut) and ended up here.

It's been down for a few months now, and I'll maybe rant and explain later why this is now appearing, but it's a temporary measure until I get my ISP woes sorted out. Hey, at least there'll be something here.

Then again, if I get into this Blogger thing and can bend it to my will then I might not go back to self hosting...