!wheeee.org

Photo a day 2012 (46/366) - 1981 Gibson Victory Artist

2012-02-15T21:09:00.001Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. I know I've featured this bass before on these pages, but just look at it! It's probably the prettiest bass I own. I'm so glad I was able to rescue it.

Photo a day 2012 (45/366) - Shedio, Mk II

2012-02-15T21:07:00.001Z

Photo taken from the top of the outside stairs. Following on from my picture showing the water damage in the shedio, here is the first attempt to make it watertight - a layer of felt along the ridge.

Photo a day 2012 (44/366) - colourful tea

2012-02-15T21:03:00.004Z

Photo taken in Union Square. I just liked the look of this tea and the swirly patterns of the mesh bag.

Photo a day 2012 (43/366) - mmm, pie

2012-02-12T23:07:00.002Z

Photo taken in my living room. Mmm, pie. No, I didn't make it - pie provided by M&S ;)

Photo a day 2012 (42/366) - a taste of capitalism

2012-02-11T21:28:00.000Z

Photo taken at Starbucks, Union Square, Aberdeen. A cup of coffee that I didn't have to make myself. That is its raison d'être.

Moffat bass bash, videos emerge

2012-02-10T10:21:00.000Z

I had a great time at the Moffat bass bash last weekend. This was the fifth one I have attended and they keep getting better and better.

This year was probably the best one yet - a structured, organised "bassyokey" where we pick songs in advance then go up and take our turns with the house band. A nerve-wracking experience, considering the audience was made up almost exclusively of bass players - most of whom have been playing for many more years than me. It would be like a driving examiner conducting a driving test in a people carrier full of driving examiners.

Anyway, I chose to play the theme from the TV series "True Blood" - if you don't know it it's a song called "Bad Things" originally by Jace Everett. I did OK, a couple of bloops but I held it together. Due to nervousness I lapsed back into bad left hand habits (excessive movement, "any finger will do as long as you get there on time" sort of mentality) which irritated me because I've been trying to get that out of my system.

Anyway, have a video:

There was a vast collection of basses on show as ever. I took a sweep of the room where most of them were:

I had a great time, already looking forward to the next one!

Photo a day 2012 (41/366) - ignoramus

2012-02-10T10:10:00.000Z

Photo taken on Abbey Road, Aberdeen. This is pig-ignorant parking at its best. To the immediate left of the shot the road narrows significantly, so it's a stupid place to park anyway but blocking two people's doorways? It shouldn't really need to be spelled out but I've enlarged the relevant information that this motorist ignored. Of course, if the owner of the car is also the owner of both these doorways then I retract the second point.

It was there all of yesterday and it's still here this morning. Out of interest, how long should you leave it before reporting it abandoned to the police?

Photo a day 2012 (40/366) - sprung a leak :(

2012-02-09T17:50:00.002Z

Photo taken in the shedio. Heavy rain last night and today we have this. Oh dear. Builder is coming to look at it tomorrow, I hope.

Photo a day 2012 (39/366) - guess the substance 2

2012-02-08T20:22:00.001Z

Photo taken in my kitchen. OK, same drill as previous pic - what is it?

Photo a day 2012 (38/366) - guess the substance 1

2012-02-08T20:21:00.003Z

Photo taken in my kitchen. I've been running low on stuff to photograph so I thought I'd play a wee game. What is this?

Photo a day 2012 (37/366) - king of the castle

2012-02-06T19:36:00.002Z

Photo taken in the dining room/storage area for junk. Chico assessing his descent from the top of a vertically stored divan.

Photo a day 2012 (36/366) - bass bash!

2012-02-06T19:34:00.001Z

Photo taken in the Old Well Theatre, Moffat. Some of the basses belonging to me and my friend Rich.

Photo a day 2012 (35/366) - snowy road trip

2012-02-06T19:32:00.002Z

Photo taken in the vicinity of Dundee. On the way down to Moffat, the weather took a turn for the worst. For 5 minutes. Thank you, Scottish weather!

Photo a day 2012 (34/366) - boxed and bagged up

2012-02-03T21:31:00.001Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. Road trip to Moffat tomorrow for the fifth bass bash! Getting pretty excited about it. If it wasn't for the fact that all my shirts are still hanging up it kinda looks like I'm being kicked out of the house :)

Photo a day 2012 (33/366) - rescue mission

2012-02-02T21:18:00.000Z

Photo taken at work. This didn't look good at the start, but I was able to see the files via USB and so it's a case of lifting them off there as quickly as possible before the thing crumbles completely.

Photo a day 2012 (32/366) - practice makes perfect

2012-02-01T22:42:00.002Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. This is a Tascam MP-BT1 bass trainer. For me it's an indispensable tool for learning songs as it can slow songs without altering the pitch, and can also change the pitch without changing the tempo. It can EQ out the bass to a degree for playing along, and it can boost the bass so you can hear it above the rest of the music. I use it for all my silent practice.

Photo a day 2012 (31/366) - h is for...

2012-02-01T22:37:00.000Z

Photo taken in my car. This is the only logo I want to see on any car of mine. Until I win the lottery, that is ;)

Photo a day 2012 (30/366) - harbour at night

2012-01-30T23:53:00.000Z

Photo taken out the living room window. Believe it or not there is a ship leaving the harbour. Thanks to the block of flats you can make out on the right of the picture, we lost our view :(

Photo a day 2012 (29/366) - tookay

2012-01-29T23:46:00.000Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. Couldn't really be bothered today, so have another bass. Specifically a G&L Tribute L-2000.

Photo a day 2012 (28/366) - stella colada

2012-01-29T17:09:00.001Z

Photo taken at The Office. My friend Robert taking some good natured pint customisation in good spirits :)

Photo a day 2012 (27/366) - "DO NOT EAT"

2012-01-27T18:24:00.003Z

Photo taken at work. With new toys comes ... silica gel packets! I've always wondered why the sage advice not to ingest the contents is always in quotation marks. Maybe it is a quotable quote.

Photo a day 2012 (26/366) - bye bye QML

2012-01-26T22:41:00.001Z

Photo taken outside Queen Mother Library, University of Aberdeen. Judging by the fencing off and the Lawrie Demolition sign, I would say that it looks like time has been called on the old library. The new library looms above the doomed building.

Photo a day 2012 (25/366) - if you value your leg, you'll feed me

2012-01-26T00:37:00.000Z

Photo taken in my living room. Chico is showing me how pleased he is to see me when I come home from work. Or maybe he's letting me know what he thinks of my faffing around with a camera when I should be sorting out his dinner.

Photo a day 2012 (24/366) - 1981 Guild B402-A

2012-01-25T00:31:00.000Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. In the first of a series of gratuitous bass photos (yes, run out of inspiration already, eh?), this is a 1981 Guild B402-A. One of only 335 made, which makes it the rarest of all my basses.

Photo a day 2012 (23/366) - tools of the trade

2012-01-23T21:09:00.001Z

Photo taken in my living room. Not feeling very inspired today. These were lying around so I thought I'd line 'em up. Yup, I'm a geek who plays games using dice other than six-sided.

Photo a day 2012 (22/366) - anti-perspirant aftermath

2012-01-22T12:19:00.003Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. I loved the sun shining through the window today, there was this amazing shaft of light with swirly patterns caused by the anti-perspirant in the air. I wonder how much of the stuff actually lands on one's armpits.

Photo a day 2012 (21/366) - Nepalese nosh

2012-01-22T01:07:00.002Z

Photo taken in my living room. A tasty dish from the Gurkha Chef :)

Photo a day 2012 (20/366) - phone charger graveyard

2012-01-21T01:41:00.003Z

Photo taken at home. Hoarding at its worst - something like 8 chargers for phones that we don't even have any more. Bye bye!

Photo a day 2012 (19/366) - your presence is tolerated

2012-01-20T14:32:00.002Z

Photo taken in my house. This is my cat, Chico - pre-feeding. He appears to be not very impressed with my repeated attempts to photograph him. Well, if you'd stop moving around for a few seconds then we wouldn't have these problems, would we? :)

Photo a day 2012 (18/366) - new bed

2012-01-18T23:44:00.001Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. Took most of this evening but we have a new bed now. Another part of the home made ours.

Photo a day 2012 (17/366) - tea == hope

2012-01-17T21:26:00.000Z

Photo taken in my living room. One of my wife's highly stylish cushions. Just learned today that the shop she bought it from has closed down. Maybe the hope travels with the cushion.

Photo a day 2012 (16/366) - the new university library

2012-01-17T01:15:00.001Z

Photo taken at the New Library, University of Aberdeen. I'm not keen on it, but it makes for a pretty dramatic picture.

Photo a day 2012 (15/366) - ball of fur

2012-01-16T11:55:00.001Z

Photo taken in my living room. Central heating for your lap.

Photo a day 2012 (14/366) - nature slowly gaining upper hand

2012-01-14T17:33:00.001Z

Photo taken on Palmerston Road, Aberdeen. Right next to the relatively new and swish Union Square shopping centre you have this, it's another world. I hope that in time this area will be redeveloped and used once again.

Photo a day 2012 (13/366) - sky on fire

2012-01-13T19:38:00.005Z

Photo taken in Old Aberdeen. Lovely sunset tonight.

Photo a day 2012 (12/366) - galileo!

2012-01-13T19:37:00.000Z

Photo taken in my living room. I really like Galileo thermometers, but Wikipedia informs me that they are technically thermoscopes, not thermometers. Of course, Wikipedia does not help further enlightenment because thermoscope redirects to, guess what? That's right - Galileo thermometer ;)

Photo a day 2012 (11/366) - sniffer cat

2012-01-12T11:37:00.002Z

Photo taken in my living room. Chico would really like to know what's in the box, or more accurately he would like the contents of said box removed so he can make a fort/bed out of it.

My first YouTube upload :)

2012-01-11T14:42:00.001Z

Yes, I realise that YouTube has been around for several years now but last night I put up my first video - of course it's of me making a goon of myself on stage with the band.

Jayne was on camcorder duty, thanks darling!

Photo a day 2012 (10/366) - harbour lights

2012-01-10T23:22:00.003Z

Photo taken on St. Fittick's Road, Torry. Still playing with the camera settings - I haven't used it for years!

Photo a day 2012 (9/366) - just press play

2012-01-10T11:40:00.001Z

Photo taken at work. Yes, I did clean the area before I took this shot. Aren't everyone's keyboards a bit filthy when you point a camera in the gaps?

Photo a day 2012 (8/366) - homebrew going down well

2012-01-09T01:12:00.000Z

Photo taken in my living room. Our homebrew has been a big success. It was supposed to be lager, but it's ended up being a strange but very quaffable lager/ale amalgam. No idea how strong it is. We've managed to get through about half of it (we made the best part of 5 gallons) but I think we'll need some help if we're going to finish it before it goes cloudy/sour. Any volunteers? ;)

Photo a day 2012 (7/366) - nostalgia

2012-01-07T23:23:00.001Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. I was having a trawl through some cupboards and found a few things from my past like my first digital camera (a Canon Powershot A40). It's probably about 10 years old but still works, and still takes great pics. I might use it to take some of these photos this year, it's got some pretty nifty features for its age, like manual shutter control (up to 15 seconds). I see some long exposure shots in my future...

Also I recently discovered a recording of my second gig with Panda Eyes back in 2009 and was playing some of the songs on the bass I used most during my time with the band, ahh the memories :)

Photo a day 2012 (6/366) - dmesg devilment

2012-01-06T21:34:00.000Z

Photo taken at my laptop. Basically me in the process of trying to figure out why my MP3 bass trainer was not being recognised. Despite some googling, it basically came good after a few connects and disconnects. Oh well.

Photo a day 2012 (5/366) - Cosy

2012-01-06T00:09:00.002Z

Photo taken in my living room. This year's mild (so far) winter is our fault. We froze our asses off for two winters then this year got a new boiler and a gas fire installed :)

Photo a day 2012 (4/366) - Storm damage

2012-01-04T17:56:00.000Z

Photo taken near Meston Walk, Aberdeen. This tree was damaged during high winds late last year. The portion broke off and blocked the nearby road, such was the size of it.

Photo a day 2012 (3/366) - Elvis was here

2012-01-03T23:59:00.001Z

Photo taken in Jayne's studio. It's a Shure 55SH - a modern update of the "Elvis microphone".

Gig tipoff: Oxbow Lake Band, Scott Cruickshank Trio

2012-01-03T02:10:00.002Z

When: Saturday 14th January 2012
Where: The Moorings, Trinity Quay, Aberdeen
Doors: 8pm
Tax: free before 8.45pm, £3 thereafter

New year, new gigs! Come one and all to the home of pirates and peculiar beers and spirits to see us play the fair stage at the Moorings Bar! We hope we will impress you as much as the drinks list will :)

First band on stage at 9pm, we'll be on at 10.

Photo a day 2012 (2/366) - A left hand view of practice

2012-01-03T01:52:00.000Z

Photo taken in my bedroom. For bass geeks out there, the bass is a 1979 Gibson RD Artist. I was playing Alice Cooper's "School's Out" before and after the photo was taken if memory serves \m/ ;)

Photo a day 2012 (1/366) - A saltire, framed

2012-01-03T01:49:00.000Z

Picture taken at Torry Battery, Aberdeen

Photo a day 2012

2012-01-02T23:33:00.001Z

Happy new year everyone :)

This year I have decided to take on a wee challenge, to take a photograph a day for the whole of this year. They probably won't be up to much as they'll predominantly be phone camera shots, but I'll try to make them interesting. I realise this is the second of January but I did take one on New Year's Day, honest guv!

I'll get the first two up shortly, but I'm away to eat cheese and watch a film.

I wish you all the best for a happy and prosperous 2012.

Gigography for 2011

2011-12-21T10:34:00.001Z

I was writing this (fairly short) list last week when all of a sudden we got asked to play a gig at 3pm on Monday for that night. Glad I held off putting this up :) I am now pretty confident that the gigging business will shut up shop for the festive season.

Chris and I @ Banff Castle, photo courtesy Kate James

06/08/11 - @Whinnyfold Fun Day with The Oxbow Lake Band. Personnel: Me, Chris, Andy, Daryl. Bass: Gibson IV
13/08/11 - @Cruden Bay Gala with The Oxbow Lake Band. Personnel: Me, Chris, Andy, Daryl. Bass: Guild B402-A
22/10/11 - @Banff Castle with The Oxbow Lake Band. Personnel: Me, Chris, Andy, Daryl. Bass: Gibson Victory Artist
29/10/11 - @City Cafe, Aberdeen with The Oxbow Lake Band. Personnel: Me, Chris, Andy, Daryl, Al. Bass: G&L Tribute L-2000
02/12/11 - @Cafe Drummond with The Oxbow Lake Band. Personnel: Me, Chris, Andy, Daryl, Al. Bass: Gibson RD Artist
19/12/11 - @The Lemon Tree with The Oxbow Lake Band. Personnel: Me, Chris, Andy, Daryl, Al. Bass: Gibson IV

Gig count now stands at 19. Not exactly hard working, am I?

Gig tipoff: Oxbow Lake Band, Woodland Roots Orchestra, Omar Bin Mohamed Afif

2011-11-22T11:22:00.001Z

When: Friday 2nd December 2011
Where: Cafe Drummond, Belmont Street, Aberdeen
Doors: 8pm
Tax: £5

Hey folks, it's yet another edition of Shameless Plug for my band. It's the launch of our album "Away From The Mainstream" and I'm really looking forward to it. We've been playing a few small, out of town gigs which have been highly enjoyable but it'll be good to come back to play in one of the established live music venues in town. We'll have support from Omar Bin Mohamed Afif who plays his amazing box guitar (genbre?) and the Woodland Roots Orchestra. DJs after the show, the party goes on until 3am!

Hope to see some of you there!

Proactive ISP support?

2011-11-08T09:55:00.000Z

Well, I hit my first trouble with BE late last night, the connection went down but because I was about to go to bed anyway I just left it. Two things happened.

1) It was working again in the morning
2) I received a text and an email from BE alerting me to the outage.

I have never seen the like before in all my life. This is quite a shock to my system, having recently moved from Orange, where you had to virtually wring someone's neck before they'll A) admit there's a problem with their stuff instead of walking you through pointless diagnostics on your computer and B) actually get around to fixing the damn problem.

Have I mentioned before how utterly woeful and bereft of any technical nous Orange were in my 18 months with them? I might have, but they pissed me off so much that I'll happily ward people off their broadband until the day I die.

To end on a positive note - yay for BE!

October Oxbow gigs! Upgraded bass amplification! Almost!

2011-10-10T10:44:00.004+01:00

Shameless plug time - The Oxbow Lake Band have a couple of gigs this month which I'd like to bring to your attention:

Saturday 22nd October - Banff Castle, Castle Street, Banff

Another new venue for me, I have never played here before in my life. Come to think of it I haven't spent a great deal of time in Banff, despite being schooled 8 miles away in Turriff. I think it was a Turriff vs. Banff school thing (not that I ever felt any affinity with "Turra" - I just went to school there - I'm from Fyvie, another 7 miles further south. Anyone who even suggested I was from Turriff was swiftly corrected.)

Reminiscing aside, it should be an interesting gig. Apparently it's some kind of open session first where anyone who comes along with an instrument can play. Then we play our set. I've never done anything like this before, I'm looking forward to it.

Saturday 29th October - City Cafe, Netherkirkgate, Aberdeen

Another gig, another new place. It's been a long time since I was in this establishment, I think it's changed hands at least twice since. The last time I was in here it was called the City Bar and it was when the bandit jackpot was £6 and wins above a certain threshold were paid out in 20p tokens which could either be fed back into the machine or used to pay for stuff at the bar but curiously not allowed to be exchanged for money. I was in there with a mate and we had a shottie of the bandit. The football was on. We won the jackpot and a repeat, I believe. The machine then proceeded to spit it out 20p at a time, much to the consternation of those watching the football. We got glowered at quite a lot.

Come on down and see us play in a place where I didn't even know bands played!

Upgraded bass amplification!

On Friday I took delivery of a Zoot ZB410 - a 4x10 speaker cabinet which handles 1200W at 4ohms. This reduction in impedance means that I will have 350W available to me instead of the usual 230. Unfortunately the cab arrived slightly damaged in that the HF horn has cracked at the corners and is hanging loose in its mounting hole. Oh dear. Thankfully it was insured in transit. I have sourced a replacement horn and it will be ready for the gigs. The main bonus to all this is that I have replaced my old cab (my trusty Ashdown ABM) which weighed nearly 80lbs. This new cab is a much more svelte 52lbs. But louder ;)

Exciting times ahead, pop pickers.

Alone with my thoughts

2011-08-26T22:24:00.000+01:00

Jayne's away in Birmingham just now at a conference thing. Chico (the cat) has gone outside to take care of business, get some fresh air and maybe hassle some local wildlife. I have wasted most of my day watching films I've already seen.

I haven't been completely useless - I took Jayne to the station, managed to get the recycling out in time, did a load of washing, hung it out to dry, worked on a bass project that I'm building just now, took care of the dishes which had built up, fed the cat and posted a letter for Jayne. But I don't feel like I've made much use of another day out of my allotted time on this planet.

The day is drawing to a close and the only sounds I can hear are the call and response of two clocks ticking at each other, a slight whirr and occasional chatter from the hard drive of my laptop, the clacking of the keys as I type and the very faint drone of a ship in the harbour.

It's times like these when I marvel at how lucky I am to have met someone as amazing as Jayne. It's times like these when I imagine how empty my life would be without her. I hope and pray that we're together for the long haul and that I don't fuck things up, either with a single catastrophic failure or a slow build up of little failures. I know she'll be back in a couple of days, but during the very occasional times we're apart, I get as sad as the sad looking house on the electricity monitor which tells you you've gone over your target consumption for the day.

I love you, Jayne. I miss you and I am just plodding along until you come home again.

xx

The Oxbow Lake

2011-07-07T12:24:00.000+01:00

I think if you've been to 5 practice sessions and you haven't been told to get lost then I think that means you're in. I've joined The Oxbow Lake on bass. It's good to be back in a band again - haven't done anything since December and haven't been in a band properly since August last year. Things are going well - the lessons have really paid off and I'm finding it so much easier to pick up tunes and come up with something on the spot.

Hopefully there'll be some gigging next month. I'll keep you posted.

Taking care of business

2011-04-21T13:28:00.000+01:00

I have decided to sort out some stuff that I should have done years ago.

1) Give blood - it's taken me 17 years of adult life to get around to it, and I'll carry that shame to my grave but last Tuesday I finally gave blood for the first time. No problems - I passed the questionnaire, the interview and the blood iron test and was able to give my donation.

One cool thing is that I'll get to find out my blood group - I have never known this. I'm a bit disappointed that I have to wait 12 weeks to go again - with reference to the guilt/shame above I want to go again! Jayne got a badge for her 10th donation (it was actually her 12th but they forgot to give her the badge at the time - it was a long time ago) and a badge for coming back. The badge score is 2-0 to her and the competitive side of me is craving badges!

Seriously though, everyone who is physically able and medically allowed to give blood should. Help a premature baby live and get a free cup of tea and a biscuit - no brainer!

2) Embark on a course of bass lessons - some of you who have seen/heard me play might be thinking "at last!" but it's been something I've been thinking of doing for a couple of years now. My primary motivation is to improve my sloppy, self-taught technique and learn the whys and hows behind playing. I'm not content to simply play notes because they sound good and to learn songs in a painfully slowly note by note way. Already I'm reaping some benefits from knowing major, natural/harmonic minor scales and pentatonic scales. Some of the theory is taking its sweet time to stick in my head (should have done this 20 years ago!), but I'm confident with continued study and application that I'll get there.

There are other things which are in the process of being sorted, but I can't talk about them right now because they are in the very early fragile stages and the cat isn't ready to be let out of the bag. Cat owners will know that the cat will leave the bag when it is damn well good and ready unless said bag is violently shaken ;)

Equality? Hah!

2011-03-01T10:20:00.000Z

I heard on the radio this morning that the EU has ruled that it is sexist for insurance companies to charge different premiums for people based upon their gender. I nearly ran off the road in surprise ;)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12606610

Of course this means that women's premiums will go up big time, and mine will go up too to pay for all the administration. However, there is one benefit to this outcome - surely it will sound the death knell for Sheila's Wheels. I so despise those adverts. I think the worst one was this:

Women are safer drivers are they? Half the time in that advert they don't even have their hands on the steering wheel. Driving forwards and looking backwards is safe is it? Apparently Sheila's Wheels now do home insurance. Is that home insurance only for women too?

That got me thinking about all the man bashing going around at the moment. Prime culprits for me are:

1) Feminax Express "Pain"-killer

This is the kind of crap I can't stomach. Let's look at the evidence - what has the guy done wrong here? OK, he possibly has his feet on a table which even I would find a little irritating. He chuckles quietly at something on the television - hardly a crime. He is examining the results of a possible nasal or aural excavation and has dropped it on the floor, that's a little disgusting but surely merits little more than a verbal warning. But NO! He is violently ejected out the window by a woman meting out disproportionate summary justice! Take that, man, you utter bane of my life!

2) Oven Pride

This is the worst of the bunch. I can't begin to tell you how demeaning I find this. If you don't think this is sexist then you're an idiot. Sorry. They've also brought out a sequel for Shower and Bath Pride with the same theme. Great - more man bashing.

Why am I writing all this? I've never had to make a claim on my car insurance that was my fault, and I've got 14 years of no claims discount. I can clean and have cleaned ovens before, using nastier chemicals than that Oven Pride stuff. It may work well, but I'm not buying it on principle because of their stupid, sexist adverts. My wife won't mind me saying that I iron better (and more often) than she does. Any woman who has a problem with my behaviour and deals with it in a highly disproportionate way would be shunned like any idiot. "Please stop doing that" or ejected violently out the window. Who's the baddie here?

This man bashing must cease. It isn't funny, it isn't fair, and I don't see why it is tolerated when turn about would most definitely not be fair play. If the roles were reversed in any of these situations, these adverts would be banned very quickly. I think I'm a pretty fair guy - men and women are different, but why can't these differences be seen in a complementary way? There certainly should be no difference in terms of opportunities. If you want to do something, do it - it matters not one jot to me what revision of the human hardware you are. What I strongly object to is putting my television on and being told that I'm rubbish. I'm not. I'm really not. Why am I being made to pay for historical wrongs which I do not and have never perpetrated?

Real estate plug

2011-02-16T21:23:00.000Z

If anyone reading is looking for a property near Glasgow then this recently renovated 2 bed could be the place for you:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29095072.html

It's in Condorrat, which is near Cumbernauld to the north east of Glasgow. If you know someone looking around here then pass it on :)

1981 Gibson Victory Artist - restored!

2011-01-21T12:45:00.000Z

Some of you may remember the bass I bought back in June - a Gibson Victory Artist. Anyone paying attention will remember the awful cosmetic state it was in, but in case you need reminding, here are a couple of pics:

Well, on Wednesday I got it back from my good friend Rich who had performed his magic on the body and neck. Please excuse the large burp of pics but all I can say is wow:

Hats off to Rich, he really has done an amazing job. At the moment the bass is sitting on its own stand while the lacquer hardens some more and some neck adjustments settle down. It sounds amazing, and now it looks amazing too. The only down side to this bass is the weight - that all maple construction makes for a very heavy instrument. To combat this I am waiting for a special strap to arrive which I hope will stop it from destroying my shoulder/back.

Another nail in Windows' coffin

2011-01-17T16:49:00.000Z

I picked up a very cheap laptop a few months ago (a bit bashed, no battery or charger), but to cut a long story short I had a reasonable 2GB Intel Core Solo laptop up and running for about £50. I decided to install Ubuntu on it and have a good go at it.

I used to dabble in Linux many years ago (usually Slackware) but always got frustrated with the software availability and the amount of time it took to fix something I broke if I was tinkering. Things have changed since then - Ubuntu 10.10 is a very polished environment with good package management and both hardware support and software availability has improved greatly.

There are only a couple of things which prevent me from going to Ubuntu permanently. One is the proprietary Windows based CCTV software which I need to keep for the installations I monitor. The other main bugbear was Spotify.

I love Spotify - I don't mind ads and it's great for discovering new and old music alike. Need to practice a set of tunes for a band - just queue them up. Unfortunately a native Linux Spotify is only available to subscribers because they haven't found a way of delivering the ads yet. However, I was surprised and pleased to read last night that Windows Spotify will work quite happily under WINE. Bonus! I gave it a go and apart from a bit of experimenting with audio settings (and having to go against the advice I found online) I got it working. Sweet!

Now all I need is for the antiquated CCTV systems I referred to above to be replaced then it's bye bye Windows!

Gig history to date

2011-01-11T12:25:00.003Z

Happy new year everyone! Being very much between things musically, I decided to look back at all the times I have graced the stage armed with a "big guitar". Not prolific by any means over the past few years but here goes:

Me@The Lemon Tree 03/04/09 - photo: Andy Thorn

09/08@The Music Club (Open mic). Personnel: Me, Jayne, Karel and Charlene. Bass: Squier Bronco
04/10/08@The Tunnels with Sound System. Personnel: Me, Jayne, Scott, Karel, Rich, Ben. Bass: Squier Bronco

03/04/09 - @The Lemon Tree with Panda Eyes. Personnel: Me, Marie-Claire, Jan, Chris, Carol. Bass: Epiphone Les Paul Standard
22/04/09 - @Cafe Drummond with Panda Eyes. Personnel: Me, Marie-Claire, Jan, Chris, Carol. Bass: Epiphone Les Paul Standard
07/08/09 - @The Lemon Tree with Panda Eyes. Personnel: Me, Marie-Claire, Jan, Chris, Carol. Bass: Gibson G-3
30/08/09 - @The Tunnels with Panda Eyes. Personnel: Me, Marie-Claire, Jan, Chris, Carol. Bass: Gibson G-3

Panda Eyes@The Tunnels 09/04/10 - photo: Ryan Simpson

02/10 - @The Tunnels with Panda Eyes. Personnel: Me, Marie-Claire, Jan, Chris. Bass: Gibson G-3
25/03/10 - @Snafu with Panda Eyes. Personnel: Me, Marie-Claire, Jan, Chris. Bass: Gibson G-3
09/04/10 - @The Tunnels with Panda Eyes. Personnel: Me, Marie-Claire, Jan, Chris. Bass: Gibson G-3
29/05/10 - @The Moorings with Panda Eyes. Personnel: Me, Marie-Claire, Jan, Chris. Bass: G&L Tribute L-2000
02/10/10 - @The Tilted Wig with Mr. Flaxman and Friends. Personnel: Me, Jayne, Mr. Flaxman. Bass: Epiphone Les Paul Standard
09/10/10 - @The Tunnels with Sound System. Personnel: Me, Jayne, Karel, Scott, Neil. Bass - G&L Tribute L-2000
27/11/10 - @The Tilted Wig with Flaxman and the Hollowmen. Personnel: Me, Jayne, Mr. Flaxman, Mr. Long Hair. Bass: Danelectro Hodad

I make that 13 appearances on stage so far. Oh well, I hope to get something sorted out in 2011 and add to that number.

Why do you go to a cash machine?

2010-11-04T11:45:00.000Z

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

2010-10-04T17:07:00.000+01:00

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

2010-08-19T15:27:00.001+01:00

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

2010-08-03T10:37:00.000+01:00

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!

2010-07-06T16:15:00.001+01:00

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

2010-07-01T12:06:00.000+01:00

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

2010-06-22T14:40:00.000+01:00

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

2010-05-26T10:08:00.001+01:00

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

2010-05-18T14:57:00.002+01:00

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

2010-05-12T18:36:00.001+01:00

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

2010-03-24T12:25:00.000Z

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?

2010-03-19T10:03:00.000Z

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

2010-03-11T10:07:00.001Z

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

2010-03-03T09:57:00.000Z

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.

2010-02-22T13:20:00.000Z

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

2010-02-02T11:57:00.001Z

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

2010-01-18T14:25:00.000Z

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...