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scott thompson gave me a banjo last sunday. he paid $20 for it at a garage sale down in branson, but after the novelty wore off he asked “do you want it?” i took it before he could change his mind. now i’ve never played the banjo before, but i could still come up with a little riff to put on this song that needed something. the lyrics might be hard to make out in some places, so i’ll show them here:

he was swingin’ through the trees
with a rhythm that was far from human
but the little furry creatures ran for cover
when he hit the ground

he moved with purpose
like a new car still in the factory
you could hear him yodel like a train
on his way into town

he was the stuff of legend
but he was just a man
he didn’t need a reservation
he could sit wherever he wanted

he knows where the bodies are buried
because he put ‘em there
but they all had it coming
everybody makes a choice

don’t look him in the eye
unless you wanna die
you better count to ten
before you do it again

this is what my first tabletop teeter totter looks like. it’s super basic with a sphere on one side and a square on the other. my plan is for two people to sit across from each other, and give voices to the objects on the teeter totter. it might sound goofy, but my goal is peace, resolution, and hopefully new realizations. here’s a video that shows the progression of this particular model.

36 years ago in a galaxy far far away, someone made a radio adaptation of the first star wars movie. it was really cool to hear mark hammill and anthony daniels doing the voices of luke skywalker and C3P0. i unearthed this treasure last week, and i’m already up to episode 7 (there are 13). may the force be with me when it’s over.

if you’ve been asking the same question about this blog, the latest action has been on the days at the makerspace. that’s where i’m documenting the progress of the talk and listen teeter totter project. today i’ll be going back there to re-make my first table top teeter totter. the first one had some design flaws.

one of the seat belt buckles in the jeep stopped latching a few weeks ago. it kinda surprised me because it’s only 24 years old (1993 cherokee). now i’ve had cars that were built in the 1960′s and 70′s, and they still had working seat belts thirty years past their prime! (sigh) i drove around with a jumper cable holding everything in place for spite before i took it apart & fixed it. the latching mechanism inside reminds me of a space invader.

i started my residency at the makerspace last week. the staff suggested that i use tinkercad, “a simple, online 3D design and 3D printing app for everyone,” to make my own lanyard badge. it took me a few hours, but i did it. the 3D printer only took 47 minutes to turn this…into THIS!this week i’ll make my first tabletop teeter totter in two pieces. i designed the teeter board late friday afternoon.

last night i saw the breakfast club on the big screen again. the last time i saw it in theaters, i was just out of high school. now it’s 30 years later & it’s part of an 80′s film series at a local theater. michael gurau sent me the link on facebook, and said he’d never seen it in the theater. i said “let’s go!” there are other movies on that list that i’d like to see again, but the breakfast club holds a special place for me. it was one of the first movies that didn’t weed out the dark parts of high school. the breakfast club went beyond comedy & focused on subjects that divided and united us. can’t buy me love was another movie that dealt w/the same chasm between similar cliqués.

so there’s a movie about a guy named dave who makes a cardboard maze in his living room while his girlfriend is out of town. it was playing at tapcade which is the only place where i can see weird movies, play old video games, and eat street tacos. one of the bartenders told me the movie was “pretty cool.” after playing space invaders, dig dug, galaga, and popeye i went home & watched the trailer. “whoa!” i said to no one in particular & then i downloaded the whole thing from amazon. this movie has a little romance, a lot of comedy, and a bloodthirsty minotaur. the bartender was right.

i got together to jam with a couple of friends wednesday night. chris, clay, and i started playing when we were in our 20′s. a LOT of water has gone under that bridge since then… a lot of performances have been saved and mangled, and a lot of band names have been scrawled on posters. our latest music moniker is motel mancini. we’ve played under that name since 2015 at the river market. a couple of weeks ago someone flashed the bat signal, and we all gathered at the bat cave aka chris’ house. here’s a couple of minutes from our 3 hour jam.

schedules have been cleared, the planets are lining up, law enforcement officials have been paid off, and three amigos are getting ready for a long overdue jam session on wednesday! chris and clay texted me a few days ago, and asked if we could all play in a garage studio that i’m renting. i replied “sure! it doesn’t have air conditioning or a bathroom, but sure!” chris quickly offered his house as an alternate location.