Lost Week

lostwkndthis morning i looked at my blog and thought “where did the week go?” ray milland lost a weekend to heavy drinking, i just lost a week to: coffee, CPR classes, netflicks, youtube, jeep repairs, and a couple of roadtrips.

Yamaha PSS-80

PSS-80the yamaha name has been used alot in my family. my uncle used to sell yamaha motorcycles, there is a yamaha piano in my mom’s living room, and my first circuit bending project resulted in the death of a yamaha pss-30 keyboard two years ago. it took that long for me to work up the courage to tinker with a yamaha again. my friend roz found this pss-80 model at a thrift store awhile back, and gave it to me. i got these sounds from it yesterday, and everybody lived.

Gone Bananas

hannahjerryandmewe had a good time with mondo beep @ first fridays despite a few snafus. first of all i forgot to bring carrots, so we sent hannah, angie, and rebekah to YJ’s for bananas. then the cold temps started to affect some of my equipment, so jerry amped up his keyboard. then the batteries died on one of the boomboxes, so we plugged everything into the other one, and beeped until we were sore. thanks to everyone who came out. oh, and we taught at least 30 people how to play smoke on the water… on bananas.

Smoke on the Mondo

deep-purple5most guitarists will tell you that the first thing they ever felt cool playing was deep purple’s  smoke on the water. well at tonight’s mondo beep spectacle, we have the carrots tuned up to play that riff. so if you’re headed east past 18th and baltimore, and you’ve never picked up an instrument, you can still play a carrot and make smoke on the water.

Kramer’s Five Dollar Bill

IMG_20131030_125811a few days ago i emailed a story to the gang @ stuck in the 80s. they pulled it out of the reader mailbag on their halloween podcast that was posted yesterday. it’s a story that i originally wrote and submitted to national public radio’s three minute fiction contest. NPR ignored it, but the kindred spirits at stuck in the 80s read the whole thing on their most recent show. thanks guys! here’s the story. also click here if you want to hear that entire podcast, it’s an awesome tribute to an american werewolf in london.

Goodbye Lou

Lou-Reedyesterday i found out that lou reed died over the weekend, sunday to be exact. i had been out of town visiting my sister. this month alone i’ve dealt with 3 deaths among friends and family, all of which were sad and sobering in their own way, but lou reed’s death was different. i had a physical reaction that felt like someone punched me in the stomach. i first heard him in college when one of my roommates played walk on the wild side for me. when i got the news that lou reed was gone yesterday, i hijacked the music @ work and played walk on the wild side, dirty boulevard, what’s good, this magic moment, sweet jane, and iggy pop’s tonight in quick succession.

Living Room Jam

jerry and gearjerry ponzer came over yesterday. we both had the morning off and used the time to circuit bend, brainstorm, and jam. we’re both looking forward to bringing new gear to the sidewalk next friday for mondo beep.

Who Are You

DCIM101MEDIAwas able to get a couple of weird looping bends on the whiz kid plus, and make a quick line out from an old tape recorder and some alligator clips.

Cody’s Quick Stop

cody's in libertyjenny & i took a sunday drive after church and wandered up to liberty, mo. we parked on the square, walked into a tiny beautiqué, and didn’t find anything. THEN we drove down east mill street and saw cody’s quick stop. they had soft serve ice cream. i got the pumpkin flavor and it was amazing.

Give a Man a Fish…

fishermanthere is an old saying that goes, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” well last week my brother in law from omaha showed jenny & i how to FRY fish. thanks dhruba.