Day Two of the Power Outage

Posted on December 16, 2006 by Gandalfe

We are on day two of the power outage and still there are over 700,000 of us without power. As I look out my library window it is pitch black as far as I can see. Periodically I see a car headlight or two. We must be the only one for miles with a generator. My view is over a lake with houses in between us and the lake and then on the other side of the ridge normally bright with house lights.

The parents spent yesterday and then the night at our house as temps dropped to 31 degrees. Mom and I emptied their freezer and refrigerator into ours so that hundreds of dollars of food wouldn’t go bad. I’ve waited for my neighbors to come knocking but it looks like some of them went to a motel someplace. I also think there are some people who only have wireless phones in their house which doesn’t work if the power goes out. We have three ‘antique’ phones that are still tethered by a cord. They are the only phones besides our cell phones that work during a power outage.

Suzy and I have about two months of food at any given time which is good because we’d have to go pretty far to find an open grocery store and gas station with this power outage in effect. The power company estimated that it will be five days before some of get back on the power grid. This happened to us went we lived in Kent over 12 years ago and that is why we own a generator.

Today I’ll take the generator offline for an hour to check the oil and hook up the replacement trickle charger. I wonder if owning and maintaining a generator is a genetic thang. Because both my brothers have generators or have owned them in the past. It’s nice that three of my parents’ five kids live within ten miles of each other.

Postnote: The power came back around 4 PM. It’s amazing what things we take for granted in life. A day later the grocery stores are still bare but say that by tomorrow (Monday) the trucks will be back to restock the shelves.

Posted in News and politics | 1 Comment

NW Storm leaves 1,000,000 People without Electricity

Posted on December 15, 2006 by Gandalfe

One of the downsides to having so much old growth trees is that when a storm hits the Northwest US, there are a lot of tree that are uprooted. The winds from last night’s storms approached 75 mph in places. The wind sounded like a freight train to us. And the dog hid by our bed last night, a sure sign we were in for a bad storm. It’s amazing how our German Sheppard can suss out this impending storm again and again.

Our cats on the the other hand, the carefree animals that they are are apparently oblivious to the coming storm. I guess they are okay with it because they are inside cats who have never had to deal with the storms.

So imagine trees like this one, only three to four times larger coming down across power lines and roads in three of the four directions I drove this morning. Fortunately now one was hurt. Light crews could not work last night because of the wind. Work and school places are closed. And some people will be without power for as much as five days. If you don’t have a generator, like we do, you will lose everything in your freezer/fridge.

My brother has a generator that turns on automatically. Mine, I have to start. He said he has half the neighborhood at his house. I have my parents so far. But we’ll see how things go tonight when we are the only one on our street with lights on. Personally I hope that doesn’t happen because the power is restored to our street before then. But only time will tell.

Oh, and I’m thinking my daughter and her family who live in the unit we have downstairs is pleased as punch that they live at our house because they don’t have to worry about heating the house, losing food, and the like. Happy Holidays!

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Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Musical New Year!

Posted on December 11, 2006 by Gandalfe

Designed by my designer friend Elaine.

Posted in Holiday | 2 Comments

The Dissonance – A Christmas Concert

Posted on December 9, 2006 by Gandalfe

The Dissonance xTet is as I like to say is where x equals the number of players who show up. Usually there is only one pratice and we pick some nice charts to work on before we join again to give the concert. We met at Crossroads Bellevue to do our first ever Christmas concert. There were solos for anyone who wanted them and some pretty decent charts to pick from thanks to Gary Anderson and yours truly.

                     

Terri                                                                           Brad

                                    

          Suzy                                                                                       Gary

                          

                    JB                                                              John

 And the fabulous eighth grade drummer, Christian aka Gibson Guy because he plays guitar too. We played about fifteen charts including three Christmas sax quartet numbers from the BisKey Sax Quartet books. Two of them were arranged by my fav sax xTet arranger Paul Coats.

This smaller version of the Dissonance was so successful that Gary and I are thinking about setting up a working combo with just five of us at any given time which opens up more venues to play at. We’ll see how that goes. We are looking at what combo arrangements might be available for a February gig.

Posted in Jazz | 3 Comments

Magnificent Pigs

Posted on December 7, 2006 by Gandalfe
Cat is a writer and more importantly, a friend. So I check her blog periodically to read some tasty tidbit of fantasy or gain some insight. I was struck by the singular beauty of this short short story called Magnificent Pigs. It is made even more touching because my sister has Crohn’s disease too. Fortunately Debby is out of the high risk zone.
Posted in Books | 2 Comments

Woodinville Community Band Christmas Concert 2006

Posted on December 7, 2006 by Gandalfe

Ah, another year gone by and it must be time for the Woodinville Community Band (WCB) Christmas concert at Crossroads Bellevue. This year the program was mostly popular and not as jazzy as we’ve done in past years. The audience really appreciated the music and said we haven’t sounded that good in recent times.

I believe the credit goes mostly to Leah, our director who really worked us hard to get us in shape. And a lot of events came into play to make it even more challenging like the ice storm last week, challenges with the facility we rent, and a shortage of some key musicians. I moved to bass clarinet and Gary Anderson moved to French horn this year to fill some shortages.

After the concert we all went to enjoy the WCB Christmas party. Yeah, I said it, Christmas, not Holiday. I’m getting braver in my old age. :o)

Jim Pilgrim entertained us with a number of folk songs and tunes from the 70s and 80s. He donated his time to the party as part of a charity auction for the King County United Way fund drive. Some of us joined in a sang with him too. The party turnout was the best in a long time.

So we still need more French horns, clarinets, oboes, bassoonists. Feel free to contact the band using the link above.

Posted in Music | 1 Comment

Name that Clarinet!

Posted on December 5, 2006 by Gandalfe

This old picture used to be on the Leblanc site but has since disappeared. So I asked some people more knowledgeable than me what they were. Here is what I think is the correct answer:

Ab sopranino

  • Eb sopranino
  • D sopranino
  • C soprano
  • Bb soprano
    A soprano
    (missing basset clarinet in A)
    F basset horn
    Eb alto clar
    Bb bass clar to low Eb
    Bb bass clar to low C
    EEb contralto to low C (paperclip model)
    BBb contrabass to low C (paperclip)
    EEEb octocontralto to low C
    BBBb octocontrabass to low C

And some tidbits of history. The last 2 were built for some exhibition or another in the 1930s. The BBBb was supposedly the lowest pitched wind instrument ever, going down nearly an octave below the piano keyboard. One or the other of them was supposedly lying around the Paris factory as late as the 1970s, but no sign of them has been seen or heard since.

There was (I believe) exactly ONE octocontrabass built, and three octocontraltos. They were all in the private collection of Leon Leblanc, but (again, I believe, but don’t quote me) the octobass and one of the octoaltos now reside with Terje Lerstad.

The octocontrabass sounded an octave below the contrabassoon, which made it indeed one octave lower than the lowest Bb on the piano. Scary! It’s not even a note at that frequency, just a sound effect.

You’ll note that all of the horns in the photo were products of Leblanc Paris. Omitted from the photo were the "bassett clarinet" (which did not exist in their line at that time), the A bass clarinet (which only Selmer has made in modern times, but examples of which have existed since the 1800’s (I used to have an Albert system A bass, manual double octave key and all, that dated to the early 1900’s, so I have personal knowledge with hands on experience in this end of things)), and the clarinet in G (played in Turkey and other such near Balkan locales). So, the Leblanc collection is by no means complete, even if it does include "workshop oddities" (as the English used to term them)…

As for the FB and articulated models, they went out of style and (for the most part) out of production in the 60s.

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How to Add Music to your Spaces Site

Posted on December 5, 2006 by Gandalfe
Lynne wants to know how to add music to her Web site. There are two ways, but I recommend the following:
 
First we need to add the WMP powert toy to your spaces. To do this follow the following steps:

1. Make sure that you’ve signed in (You must sign in using your Windows Live ID before you can edit your space. To sign in, click Sign in in the upper-right corner of your space.) to your space and that you’re in edit mode (One of two modes that you use to work on your space. When you’re in edit mode, you can customize your space, change themes, or add photos or a new blog entry. As you work on your space, you’ll flip between edit and view mode. To get to edit mode, click Edit your space in the upper-right corner.) .

2. In the address bar of your web browser, add &powertoy=musicvideo to the end of the displayed web address.

3. In the web browser, click the Go button next to the address line, and then wait for your space to reload.

4. In your space, click Customize.

5. Click Modules.

6. Click Other, and then click Power Toy: Windows Media.

7. Click Close.

8. Click Save.

Now:

1. goto & sign up at http://filelodge.bolt.com
2. Upload any music file at filelodge. Make sure it is supported by WMP.
3. Add WMP Powertoy to your space. (follow the above procedure to do it)
4. Now copy the link of your music file given to you by filelodge and paste it in WMP powertoy’s "URL" field.
5. Click Save.
6. Done.
 
If that seems like a lot of work, and I’ve not checked this myself because I did it the hard way, get a high school geek friend (btw, I’m a geek so I use that term with with love) to help you. Usually a plate of cookies is the going price.  :o)
Posted in Computers and Internet | 2 Comments

A Parent and Student’s Guide to Buying Musical Instruments

Posted on December 1, 2006 by Gandalfe

There are many cheap instruments currently being shipped in from overseas. They come and go by many names and are sold at the famous "big box" stores as well as some on-line retailers who may or may not have an otherwise reputable business. One such company sells on eBay as Slemer, playing of the world-famous Selmer brand!

The problem with these instruments is that while they look like a great value on the surface, closer inspection reveals an instrument that simply will not perform the tasks for which it is being sold. The beginning student is the most demanding customer of quality musical instruments. Without the basic quality afforded by a handful of specific brands of musical instruments, the beginning student is dealt a severe blow to his/her ability to learn to play at all.

Quality instruments are durable. This means more opportunity to learn and less hassle with a web site or big box retailer who know nothing about real world maintenance and/or repair of musical instruments. The quality is so bad on some of the instruments being offered, they simply don’t play and cannot be made to play correctly, if at all.

Quality instruments are easy to play. While the rest of the band is progressing nicely … the student with the big box brand is struggling to produce a clear tone. Why handicap a student with sub par quality? And should you decide to sell the instrument later, a Selmer will return more money than a Slemer!

These cheap instruments are specifically designed to do one thing; Make a quick profit for the dealer. A dealer who has no conscience and certainly could care less about whether or not a student fails at his/her first and very possibly last attempt at producing music of any kind.

Here is a simple test for checking the quality of an instrument: Ask the school band director or a music teacher before you buy! I’m amazed at how many times a parent will just try to guess.

You will find "first quality" instruments for sale at many local music stores including Mills Music and Kennelly Keys Music. One of my favorite online stores is Kessler & Sons Music in Las Vegas who services new instruments and ship for free. Instruments at these stores pass the tests of band directors and music educators. And if you buy locally, you can start a relationship with a repair tech, that might last you a lifetime.

Here’s what Kessler’s (just one example) has done for me. I wanted a low C bass clarinet. After talking with Chuck Kessler, I am purchasing a used Selmer that was used for the traveling Selmer show this year. The instrument will be like new and tweaked to the max for the show. And I’m getting it at under dealer cost with free shipping. If I don’t like it, I can send it back. I’ve got to tell you though that the four instruments I’ve purchased from Kessler & Sons Music have not been returned. One of them, a Selmer Ref 54 limited edition alto sax has an offer of more than I paid for it because it is such a sweet horn.

Posted in Music | 3 Comments

The Buescher Bass Sax Arrives

Posted on December 1, 2006 by Gandalfe

I am so luving this new addition to the family instrument collection. The lows are so low the house rumbles. There are a number of items that I want to repair and tweak, but overall it is a very nice bass sax and the best of the five I’ve tried so far.

We have a number of sax quintet pieces that call for a bass sax and the jazz ensemble director has said there are some jazz charts that have bass sax parts. I figure it will take a month to get the repairs done and another month to come to terms with the vintage keyworks and unique intonation issues. For example although I can not get a D2 to sound with the normal fingering, it pops out sweet with a side D fingering.

I also have to find a stand for this beastie and a new case as the gig bag that came with it doesn’t protect it well enough. I’ve been researching new cases and they are very difficult to find. Three places say they no longer carry them and two other referred me to custom case makers. It is not made easier by the fact that I would like wheels on the case.

Suzy holding the instrument makes it look even larger. It actually isn’t much bigger than a baritone sax and only a few pounds heavier. But I will need to find a better strap to hold it–maybe I should use a harness instead.

I like the fact that the gold wash on the Buescher sax has aged so well. It has a dark patina that looks pretty cool. I will probably have the neck replated with silver as it is the most worn part of this sax. I would say the rest of the sax has about 80% of the silver still in place.

So the next time you see the Bis Key Sax xTet (where x = the number of players, here’s hoping we’ve integrated the bass sax to be a part of the show. With the sopranino, it would be a very interesting show for many folk. 

Posted in Saxophone | Leave a comment