davidcedillo.com

the pontiac is a short spoken track from a 3-CD set that tom waits released 11 years ago. it feels more familiar than a gas pedal under my right foot. so click here, close your eyes, and just like me you’ll be sitting with someone’s dad in a greasy spoon near a bus stop on memory lane.

on my way to the makerspace this morning i saw something that made me smile: a white 1964 falcon. for me, it was a sign that i was gonna have a good day. now it’s 7 hours later and i have learned how to do more things at the makerspace, made significant accomplishments on my teeter totter project, and i met some people that are going to help me make the big teeter totter look visually cool. that old falcon was right.

today’s post is a continuation of one i made back in march about saturday mornings. if you read yesterday’s entry & listened to the slow industrial mp3 i put on there, you probably need a “pick me up” here it is.

saturday we’d wake up at seven
wishin’ it was eight
that’s when we could watch cartoons
we were never late

overture
hit the lights
this is it the night of nights
we never wanted it to end

nobody waits today
everybody has a phone
i’ll build a time machine
on my saturdays at home

eatin’ cereal
in my pajamas
got a remote
in my right hand

don’t have to get up
until i shower
and that won’t be
til sometime after noon

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.