The weekend Thread

[Brian Krashpad]

Nice slow weekend.

On Saturday went down to Orlando (2 hours south) w/missus and son and had lunch w/daughter for a belated birthday celebration, plus a little shopping. At the restaurant a total stranger stopped us and asked her if she was a model. And after her runway gig a couple weeks ago, I guess she is. Here's a pic after shopping:



Played guitar on three songs at church this morning, played the T-60, w/Ravelle in reserve. Played mandolin on a fourth.

Went to see Dark Knight Rises w/son this afternoon. Pretty cool. Liked it better than the second one, and way better than the first.

[poodlesrule]

Wow... 14+ hours of music over two days at the Lowell Folk Festival... Some rain. We did not even get to see all the bands!
(Lowell is a former textile mill town, which has rebounded in a big way in the past twenty years)

Got my fill of Cajun-pop with FeuFollet (I have to admit I saw them three times!), danced to an super-drive band from Zimbabwe, enjoyed the fun Brazilian quartet, then more dance music with a band from Santo Domingo, some bluegrass, Hawaian and Navajo traditional dances.

We consider this (free) festival to be a local treasure and do contribute.

One of the things I enjoy seeing there is folks with disabilities being able to participate, blend in the crowd, almost unnoticed, and enjoy the music. Much easier than at a more traditional venue.

Huge attendance, superb organization, as usual. A lot of work from the city and park rangers (part of city is national/historical park) goes into making the city streets ready for normal activities by Monday morning!

One of these days, now that my sweetie is going off work soon, a trip to Louisiana in order...! I even looked at real estate listings last night... We already had a Zydeco thing going at home, now it's Cajun...

[deeaa*]

I spent the weekend cruising a lake a hundred miles north here, a lake with the biggest open areas in Finland - I guess the only lake pretty much where there are places the other shores vanish into the horizon completely.

We drove our small boat all round the lake...just took it there with a trailer, left the car there by a river and boated half a day northbound to my sister's cottage where we slept, and then boated crisscross around the lake the entire next day and then returned to the river and hauled the boat back south to our home town.

It was not without some adventure either...at one point we had false information about the nearest fuel supply and as a result had to ride an extra 2-hour ride over the lake to get enough fuel to get us back, and the fuel depot was well over half a mile from the harbor...luckily a local guy saw us and pitied the kids I suppose, and me hauling the fuel tank towards the station and offered a ride there and back...I would have been exhausted if I'd had to haul the tank all the way for sure, really glad there was some good people there...

Anyway, it was so beautiful over there...the lake system I spent my childhood summers at, sailing my small boat around...but I never made it as far as we did this time, we cruised round the entire system at ~40km per hour speed over two days...terrific stuff, sandy, deserted beaches and government-built shelters / lean-to's and fireplaces here and there where you can roast sausages and sleep if need be...just a few boats there the entire trip, practically all just wilderness. Saw some elk swimming etc, picked berries and such, swam at shores where probably only a few people visit over the entire year. And now is the peak of the summer to boot, weather so warm the kids can go naked all day long basically and the lake water is also warm like in pools basically. Great stuff!

After that the missus however was so exhausted I took the boys to our cottage and we've been here two days now the three of us, swimming and shooting BB's and grilling and doing odd jobs to pass the time...really feels like a summer holiday finally. I could just spend a week here just now with ease and just tinker with re-painting the terrace or whatever, but I guess tomorrow we have to head back to the city.

[Brian Krashpad]

Friday: took Rockmobile in for a brake job, should be done today. Fortunately under 4 Benjamins. I guess I was right to coast into stoplights for the last month. Daughter arrived from college, having relationship probs and rather distraught. No "I told you so's" from us.

Saturday: mowed 2/3 of front yard, stopped by rain. Practice at 5 p.m. at church, went to office for 7 p.m. practice but had to scratch because drummer couldn't get back into town until at least 8:30.

Sunday: Played last of the summer "combined" 10:30 services at church (next week we go back to 2 services, trad at 8:30 and "blended" at 11:00), only did 2 songs since the choir had a couple numbers. Played the '52 RI since I've decided she'll be the guitar at my next Crash Pad gig. Should really be playing her much more often. Took daughter back to school in ORL, got back at 11 p.m.

[deeaa*]

At the end of the summer sometimes it's about the best times for some boating. Visited some island campsites around the town, here's a couple of pics. All taken with my htc cell phone.

A panorama from the lean-to site we stayed roasting sausages for a while just south of the city center:


A view of the city center from the north, you can just see the tower (observation; has a restaurant & cafe etc.) on top of the hill that's in the middle, and one of the ski-jumping towers.


Also met batman! (Or woman...) sleeping at the lean-to.

[Brian Krashpad]

At the end of the summer sometimes it's about the best times for some boating. Visited some island campsites around the town, here's a couple of pics. All taken with my htc cell phone.

Pics are great as usual Dee!

Had a crazy weekend. Played a political gig at the Civic Media Center, a leftist "library and reading room", there were a few people moshing that turned into a momentary firstfight. Stupid fecking kids. No pics of the drama though:



Saturday morning I had church band practice, Sat. night I went to a show, opening were the Ruins from South Florida, though their singer is here in GNV; iirc their drummer used to be in BIG punk band DRI:



Headlining were the Mutley Chix, a reunion of an '80's all-grrl local band that I used to go see back in the day, I still know a couple of the Chix who are still local and currently in bands:



Played the 11 o'clock service Sunday. Went home and made laminates for our Labor Daze II show next weekend:



Here's our vicious guard dog, Sadie, guarding the laminates:



Listened to the earlier of two local music radio shows, we didn't get played but the organizer for our next show Labor Daze was on and chatted up the show bigtime and performed live. Then went to a free all-day fest called AM/FM 5 for a few hours in the early evening and saw another 4 or 5 bands, also saw it's organizer (wanna maybe play the next AM/FM) and ran into the Labor Daze organizer and the DJ from the earlier of the 2 local music radio shows I'd just listened to. Came home and Crash Pad got played on the later of the two local music radio shows.

Whew!

[Commodore 64***]

Playing an outdoor gig tomorrow, hopefully will have some pics and vid.

[bigoldron]

Playing an outdoor gig tomorrow, hopefully will have some pics and vid.

Have a blast Commodore! Can't wait to see some pics!

[Brian Krashpad]

Have a blast Commodore! Can't wait to see some pics!

^This!

[Commodore 64***]

It was an outdoor gig, and the remnants of Isaac blasted us...so we had to reschedule. At this point I don't know when we will do the gig.

[deeaa*]

Went to see my kid's elementary school today, open doors day. Schools sure have changed from the time I was there :-) Took a few photos if someone is in the profession and interested. I'm especially jealous of those huge smartboards in every room...I have to do with a measley laptop and a video projector at my own school, no fancy touchscreens.



Here's the general location. The school is by this pond. I actually lived my childhood right here by the pond as well.



School yard.



Classroom. They have half a dozen classrooms with instruments. Every room has the smartboard, which is basically a 100" or so Windows 7 HD video touchscreen computer system.



I guess this is sewing and arts & crafts room.



Woodwork - nothing really fancy, it's for 7-10 year olds after all. Basic welding kits etc. in climate controlled booths on other side.



The whole building is socks only, or moccasins. Nobody can enter with outdoor shoes, so these shoe racks are everywhere.



Apparently mathematics class going on. Surprisingly few students in the class.



Some sort of study area with language headphones etc.



The actual music class.



Finally they served some brownies the pupils had made themselves. My kid liked his a lot :-)

[Tig***]

Impressive school, to say the least. I wish US school systems were as advanced!

[Brian Krashpad]

Impressive school, to say the least. I wish US school systems were as advanced!

Took the words out of my mouth Tig.

Speaking as a former teacher (middle school) and teaching law student (taught legal writing in my second and third year of law school, to 1 L's) married to a current teacher (20+ years as adult ed, now on 2nd year teaching first grade).

The current "teaching is testing" climate in the US is atrocious, a thinly-failed union-busting attempt to penalize teachers stuck teaching poor kids and kids whose first language is not English, as well as the "charter-school" hoax, are nothing less than an outright attempt to kill public education and privatize it as a gift to large corporations.

Sickening, honestly.

[tjcurtin1]

The Finnish school system is often - and from what I hear, rightly - touted as the best in the world:Smithsonian Magazine did a great story on them a year or so ago. Teachers have authority to meet the needs of the kids in their classes instead of being dictated to do one-size-fits all. and they don't do the whole testing stuff until late high school when they do an all-Europe test (which the Finnish kids do great on...) As you can see from D's pics, lots of arts and hands-on experiences - and they still have recess, too! Oh, did I mention that teaching is a HIGHLY REGARDED and RESPECTED profession in Finland?

On another note; D, I am telling my class the Kalevala stories this fall (this is the Finnish cultural mythic epic; they largely inspired Tolkien in writing the Lord of the Ring ) Such wonderful stories, and the children love them!

[Tig***]

Enjoyed great weather, the occasional old war bird or jet flyover, and the new Taylor GS Mini.
The refrigerator keeps blowing the ground fault receptacle's breaker. Looks like a new fridge is on the horizon.

You don't see this from your yard everyday...

[marnold***]

The Tigers got swept. I want my mommy.

[Brian Krashpad]

Great warbird pic Tig! Invasion Stripes!

Sorry about the Tigers Rev.

Hung out and watched the Gators eke out another ugly win over Mizzou on telly yesterday. Unfortunately Georgia also won, as did Bama, neither of which results were pleasing to me. Oh well, maybe Auburn will upset Georgia.

Had a fun Sunday morning, fellow Fretter Warren stopped by my church. It was fun, kinda weird that I ended up not playing any guitar today on a day when one of my guitar buddies was there, but the songs the band did were pretty trad and there wasn't really anything for a guitar to "do." Plus we have another guitarist who was going to play rhythm, so all I was gonna do was muddy things up. Although I guess I coulda fingerpicked triads further up the neck, I do that a lot to keep from doubling rhythm strums with the other guy.

It's rare for me to play banjo, but just before I left to go pick up a guitar (at the office, on the way to church) I ended up not playing (ha, best-laid plans, wot?), a Mumford & Sons viddy came on and put me in a banjofication mood, so I grabbed the 5-string on the way out the door. The first song we were to do was in E, not a very banjo-friendly key (at least not when you tune to open G, as I do), but I reckoned E, A, and B weren't all that different from C, F, and G (basically the only chords I know on banjo, haha), just a different key.

Now, if I really knew what I was doing I just would've moved the capo on the banjo and played the chord shapes for C, F, and G on different frets, but that woulda required more thinkification than I was prepared to muster at 9:30 in the a. of m. So instead, I figured out an E chord by sliding the F chord I do know back a half-step, which was actually a slightly easier chord since one of the notes for an F chord (which has no open notes in the tuning I use) was fretted on the first fret, and thus became a lovely open note.

With me so far?

OK, so I figured out what E was. I still needed A and B. Since I was using a F-shape for the E chord (just lifting one finger up on the open string), I just slid the same F-shape up to where it needed to be to make A and B, and voila! My left hand could stay in the exact same shape for all 3 chords, just with one finger lifted for the E chord.

Ah, but what about the high drone string? (5-string banjos have a high string that is seldom fretted and just played open in all chords, or avoided if it clashes.) I honestly don't know enough about banjo to even know what that note it is, but I'm guessing it's a G. Which does not really gibe with E, A, or B. So I retuned the drone string by ear, I'm guessing to an E, which sounded perfect with all 3 chords.

Voila! Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy! Learn the rules, then break them.

Oh, and on the other 2 songs I played mandolin.

Good times.

Warren took this shot of us up in the loft while practicing before service, you can see my head over the edge of the railing, and my banjo beneath it:



He came upstairs after the service and we got a pic together:

[Zip]

New suit for church: $243.00
New shoes for church: $74.00
EVH striped guitar in church: priceless

[sunvalleylaw]

Nice guys!


Friday, finished a really crazy day at work. Watched a movie with the kids whilst my wife played bridge.

Saturday: - Took the kids to a "Punkin' Chuckin' event. Great fun! Took the dog skateboarding around a development with nice smooth roads and no houses. (they finished the development right at the crash, and so the place has sat empty. Great place to run the dog and skate around though).

This Dad and son were having some luck chucking some punkin' He brought his inner Celt and was juggling and tossing the pumpkins too.








Sunday - 4 hour long mountain bike tour with my wife and some friends out west of town. Very fun! We never get to do long things together like that.


My lovely wife and our hound (Really Vizsla) at the top of "Lamb's Gulch".


Friends cresting the top of "Bull Dog"