Scanning the past

We picked up Pandigital photo scanner thingie this week, a neat little device not much bigger than two cell phones stacked, that scans photos and saves them direct to a memory card. No PC required, although it does come with a USB cable.

Results are pretty good so far. The scan process takes about 4 seconds per photo, and while at 300dpi the images are just okay, it's a decent way to quickly digitize mountains of 4"x6" pics. Alot easier than lining them up on a flatbed.

I already have saved a number of photos I had of Karin, around the condo and on our various outings, as well as a Mt Sherman climb we did in 1992 (?) and one Desolation trip, which I believe was 1997. Will probably throw one or two of these up on Facebook by the by.

Missing the days when the actually photo process date was printed on the backs of prints. Our documentation for all these pictures wasn't real good - relying on memory and bits and pieces in the photos themselves to date them.

It occurred to me, especially scanning the pics of Karin, I could not have managed to do this 5 years ago. No way.

Time blunts, does it not?

Near Floyd Experience

I'm not typically much for cover bands - standard issue critic snootiness, I guess - but I pitched BW on a whim to cover Wish We Were Floyd, a Denver-based Pink Floyd cover band, comprised largely of members of Savage Henry members and a few (quite a few, actually) friends.

I saw Dave Herrera's Westword review of their Cervantes show from last year, and since he's an actual music critic, I was curious as to whether or not their alleged marksmanlike precision was the real deal or simply the unexpected gush of another Floyd fan getting a decent dose.

The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think...(couldn't resist)...but actually, they were pretty good. Note for note precision? Eh...mostly, I suppose. Singer Damon Guerrasio seemed more comfortable with the Waters numbers (he admitted in our interview that Gilmour's voice is very tough to really nail), but the guitar work (Stuart Miller and Glenn Esparza) absolutely slayed the guitar parts. Most of Dark Side, predictably, but for my money the highlights of the evening were a thunderous, triumphant "Mother" and a bruising, melt-the-walls rendition of "Sheep".

And a special mention for Kate Shoup, designated "Screamin' Diva", who sent chills through the Fox audience with a brilliant, mostly-but-not-completely textbook read of the "Great Gig in the Sky". Shockingly effective and utterly gorgeous.

See 'em, Denver area folks. Great stuff...fun show...

Happy Anniversary, Bear

Six years ago today, we were married at the top of Lift 2 at Loveland. Gorgeous day - blue sky, near perfect snow.

I have the picture, and the wedding Coors Light they gave us.

I'll always remember it, and I'll always love you. My Bear.

New music

Steve Roach has released a double live CD of a 2007 performance at Grace Cathedral, in SF. If I had half the mind, I'd try to get a review published somewhere.

Serrie's also got two new releases, both space-themed - not the simpy New Age stuff he occasionally drops into.

May be checking out two or three of these offerings.

Also heard a nice bit on Drone Zone today by an artist named Dan Pound, from a 2006 release called Trance Meditation. Very nice stuff.

Lady who??

I usually don't go much for glitter pop-babes, since they typically chafe against my snooty critic sensibilities...but I think Lady Gaga is kind of cool.

Obama's fall

Must say, his proposal to institute a budget freeze (which doesn't take effect until 2012) draws toxic scorn from the left, and increduluous chuckles from the right.

I mean, seriously, how anyone could call this guy an ideologue is beyond me. The guy plays everything right down the middle - frustrating for those of us who believe that hard 'left' contains remedies to the relentless corporatism and subsequent Wal-Martization of America, but still worthy of some admiration.

Detritus

In my now twice daily attempt to keep my work email with the size/space guidelines (or else they start whacking features like fwding or attachment, kind of lobbing off functionality appendages...), I came across a bit I wrote in 2005 about the closing of Penny Lane, the neo-Beat coffee shop down on Pearl St that fell not unexpectedly 5 years ago to rent pressures.

It was a short recollection of a Fred Frith show I saw there, prompted by a request from Pete Miller to write something like an RIP. The show was sometime in the late eighties - I want to say 1987.

I had the paragraph stored in my drafts for some reason, and oddly, I felt a momentary pang of fear that I could lose it, just like that - and it's a neat little remembrance.

So, here it is.

The crowd, 30 or so of us, were equally constitued of guitar geeks, live music junkies and the usual smattering of East Pearl counterculture undead. Frith, bearing the demeanor of a semi-retired British literature professor, took his place on a stool and proceeded to launch his uniquely merciless assault on twentieth century harmony, an hour or so of bouyant neo-Celt/folk figures adrift in an ocean of ecstatic sonic agony. It was like touring the cosmos from seat of a jalopy amusement park spin-you ride, and you either walked out profoundly confused or profoundly changed, or you weren't paying attention.