PS Blog
Can I just say that now that the new season of Arrested Development is in production, and said production is officially confirmed, I am just THRILLED. Aren’t you.
Man, I really do love that show.
Life
I am kind of bummed by the number of little local restaurants that keep closing. It is said that our lousy economyis making it so hard for such places to stay in business, offering fresh, healthy cuisine as an alternative to fast food, frozen beef-like “meat” and that strange, bitter, red berryish fruit from South America that certain mega-retailers label as strawberries. If you’re thinking of opening your own bistro, I say go for it. Make me something speical and fresh and full of love and I will happily try it. And if looking for restaurant equipment at RapidsWholesale.com fails, there are probably two or three spots with gently and lovingly used gear you can check out.
Sigh.
Life
In recent times, my alumni oriented professional activities have collided big time with fundraising – specifically for nonprofits. Now, I have big respect for the work of many nonprofits. The missions of so many of these groups are admirable and necessary. I really have no issue with most nonprofits I encounter. So, unless it is a thinly veiled hate organization pretending to be something else, I say go ahead and do your thing: donate real estate to charity, give your clunker to the heart association, part with a few bucks… whatever feels right.
Here’s the thing, though. I have found that many of these organizations hire third party vendors to do data research and handle massive fundraising campaigns, and at the end of the day, very little money is actually raised. Well, no, maybe that’s not true. A whole bunch of money is raised, but a huge percentage goes to paying the vendor for the various research and data expenses. Not to mention the letter writing and postage and ginormous telecommunication efforts. It’s just… a drag to realize how few pennies of each dollar will actually make it to the folks who need it.
Of course, this is generally the case when responding to a mailer you receive or something along those lines. If you step up and research a cause you believe in and donate… well, then, most of your cash goes to the source. In most instances, administrative costs do not actually eat up a lot of contributions, or at least not as much as some people might claim. So please don’t think I’m am telling you to keep it close to the vest and stop being generous. My point is just that you must do some of your own due diligence in figuring out where you want to spread the wealth so it is, in fact… spread.
Life
I took the boys to a movie a couple days ago. It was an afternoon showing at the $3 a show theater that has stuff no longer available in most theaters, but not quite yet out on DVD. It’s an old school dive theater from the 70s, and I love it. The projection is a little too dark, the seats are threadbare and squeaky. I feel 13 years old again. And there are rarely more than 12 people at a showing.
Anyway, right before the movie started, a mother with trailer hips and three kids came in. She had a little girl who screamed and cried for nearly the entire 104 minutes. Periodically, the yelling was about the fact that Momma was on the cell phone, and the movie told her Momma wasn’t supposed to be on the cell phone.
Momma’s response?
“Quiet down, people are trying to watch the movie.”
Confessions
I’ve started giving guitar lessons in our little local library. It’s a small group setting and my community service vibe is totally on. In a weird way, I’ve developed a tiny clinical-type voice in the back of my head. I guess talking about all the basic details of something that’s been so close to me for so long has me thinking a little differently. It’s like parenting burgeoning rock and rollers or something.
Of course, seeing the passage of time and realizing that some of my instruments are legimately vintage (not in the ebay “I bought this used so it’s vintage” sense, but actually 25 plus years old). I am actually impressed with the great shape most of my instruments are in considering the time I’ve owned and cared for them, but the little in-case humidifiers and things I occasionally use are not what I imagine many years ago.
Those were the days when I saw the classic Van Halen story about having M&Ms with all the browns removed on their rider. Such rock and roll eccentricities prompted my to imagine a demand for an R.L. Stine title at each gig or something equally ludicrous. In that same mindset I imagined a larger than life (Rosemary Caine fans can chuckle) humidor of sorts with large double doors, opening on a cedar lined, temperature controlled room lined with the classic guitars in my collection.
Ahhh… there’s still time, right?
Life
I can’t believe how fast time passes with kids. My oldest is turning 10 in a couple weeks. Holy crap! Staggering.
We’re shifting stuff around in his room, pulling out the train table and putitng the extension back on the desk I gave him. That would be one of the two desks I used to have in my studio. He gets expanded study space and I have reduced tabletop for rock and rolling.
It’s a good thing I save all this stuff, even if it is way crappier than it used to be. His desk could never support the old school desktop computers we had. Or, God forbid, an electric typewriter. No freakin’ way.
I have this one desk I have tricked out 8 ways from sunday over the years. I’ve attached and removed drawer slides and hutch-like shelves. I’ve drilled holes to snake cables. I’ve attached power strips to the sides. I’ve alternately added risers and removed inches from the legs to allow for varying clearances in different apartments. Now that’s the kind of quality a guy wants in his desk, right?
Incidentally, this latter desk is the one I still have in my studio. It is an “L” style desk that currently supports my hard disk recorder, desktop and widescreen monitor, computer speakers and subwoofer, studio monitor speakers (love my KRKs), a turntable, a dual cassette deck (don’t ask), a lamp, a fan, a phone, and last, but not least, two PA speakers.
Yes, I keep a PA on my desk. What do you have? A laptop?
Wuss.
Life
Speaking of making stuff last… I bought this industrial shelving unit when I graduated for college – my ersatz bureau. Seriously, I had a tiny TV and VCR on one shelf, books on another, and my folded t-shirts and jeans on the others.
I still have those shelves in the garage and they’re way more solid than the ones I bought a couple of years ago. Same chipboard shelf on steel frame except the steel frame is now something not quite steel-ish and made in some far away land. The chipboard is 1/2 inch instead of 3/4 inch, and the weight ratings are in the toilet. My old shelf can hold more on one shelf than all shelves combined on this new unit.
I bought the new one oln sale for roughly twice as much as the old one. I know time has passed, but…come on. What’s happened to expectations of quality? It seems like we are supposed to be happy with something lasting 4 or 5 years these days. Does anyone remember the lifetime guarantee and the expectation that things would actually last a lifetime?