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i picked up some more control switches for current (and future) circuit bending projects, and a volume/reject button– but the coolest acquisitions were the two pinballs from thunderball (thanks ray!): i was able to generate a loop effect just by rolling them around on the touch and tell toy.

danny williams and i recorded a bunch of stuff tuesday morning. motivation and muse came from zelda, cybill shepherd, and heavy tremolo.
chill tremolo
naked cybil
zelda

went back to the burger stand for dinner with my nephew, reggie, tuesday night.  that place has a WIDE variety of sauces to go with their fries. whoever came up with this idea is a marketing genius. it forces you to eat your fries one at a time so you can try each sauce: guinness wheat, chipotle, cherry something, roasted marshmallow, weird mustard… and alot more than i can remember.

getting these sounds from the touch and tell toy finally made me feel like a circuit bender… the next item on the agenda, attach a potentiometer to alter the pitch… kinda like slowing down a record from 45 rpm to 33 1/3 rpm.

the latest accomplishment on my circuit bending journey was making a reset button on a texas instruments touch and tell toy. a reset button allows me to flip a switch instead of taking out the batteries when the toy “crashes” and the audio locks up. i basically cannibalized an AFC switch from an old sears radio, and re-purposed it on the touch and tell. had a minor scare when a wire came loose during the exchange, but i had the schematics from a printout and was able to re-attach it correctly.

i was privileged to work with phil hall aka philthy phil on his last day on his last shift. it was halloween so he was biggie smalls, and i was a spaghetti western guy. we talked about circuit bending & phil’s upcoming website, and other stuff i can’t remember. then i played 3 songs for him (long way home, rock me on the water, congratulations), and it was over. i’ll miss you at homer’s phil, but i look forward to contributing work to your website. shine on you crazy diamond.

AT LAST…  i have discovered multiple circuit bends on a $2 toy that i picked up at the salvation army thrift store. i also found out who started this whole circuit bending thing. really hoping he responds to an email i sent yesterday. in the meantime, i’m gonna practice my soldering skills before adding toggle switches and knobs to this project. here are the sounds i recorded earlier:
first recorded bend
sick cow
the blue truck

drew is getting married today. he asked me to be an usher. it’s not because i’m good at seating people, it’s because i can recognize potentially dangerous people and then direct them outside. i’m more of a wedding bouncer. i don’t actually expect to exercise my authority, but thinking about the possibilities makes my job more interesting.

last night i ventured into the night w/drew and tim. drew is getting married saturday. tim and i are in the wedding party. after a few schedule adjustments and a little procrastination the outing started at o’dowd’s (for eddie delahunt music), moved to jack in the box (for 50 cent tacos), and ended in jail. wait… hang on… that last part was just wishful thinking.

i seem to be at an impasse with the vtech ABC jungle fun toy. i have dismantled it to access every circuit that i know of, made multiple contacts, but i can’t get it to bend. i REALLY want this to work because it already came with an audio output.