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Stacey (the wife) and I just acquired ourselves a camper for FREE! It's a little bit old and needs some repairs, but we're really excited about it. Since it was made in 1985 (the same year as the Casio SK-1 keyboard), its got that nice funky orange interior and the wallpaper is horrid. We're probably going to repaint the inside something more cheery. Maybe bright green or something to that nature. Tomorrow, I'm going to rip out the rest of the flooring. The roof leaked, and the particle board floor started to deteriorate. So, I'm going to put in some insulation and then replace the floor with plywood. I'll probably stop by a carpet store and see if I can get a cheap piece of linoleum to put over the top. Other than that, we've got to fix the leak in the roof, and then I think it'll be liveable. We've always wanted a camper.
In other news, Stacey and I ran in the Spokane River Run last weekend. Stacey did an awesome job in her run. She got first place in her age group, but the real kicker is that her race was 31 miles long! Can you believe that? Check out her blog to get the full details. I only ran the 10 km race. I finished 6th out of 28 in my age group. Since I wasn't planning on doing much, I was pretty happy with my finish. We've got another race coming up this weekend in Lewiston, ID. This one is another 10 km run, but it's on road instead of trail. We both much prefer the trails. It also has a free beer and a free boat ride across the Snake River at the end. | | |
| Okay, I probably mentioned that I write songs on occasion. Unfortunately, I don't get a lot of opportunities to record them. I hope to record some more in the future. In the meantime, here's a page with some songs that I recorded with my old band NAWW (see previous blogs). I'm doing the singing bit and some theremin playing, and my friend Booger is playing the guitar, etc... He also did all of the background tracks in MIDI. We recorded these at Shawnee Community College in Ullin, IL. We only have samples available, but perhaps that's enough. Click below to listen to the songs.
SONGS
I hope you liked them. Keep coming back for more.
Thanks.
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| This is a new type of entry that I'll be posting every now and then. I'll highlight one of the many pieces of equipment that I use to make my songs. Most of them are quite crappy, but that's why I like them so much. I think they all deserve their time in the spotlight. So, for my first spotlight, I bring to you the Casio SK-1. It's a real gem!
Apparently, this little keyboard is known as the cheapest sampler in the world. I think it was made back in 1985, and it has a total sampling time of 1.4 seconds. So, you can record really short phrases and play them back in a variety of pitches using the tiny keys. It actually has a lot of really fun features. My favorites are the portamento effect and the synth patches. Oh yeah, the "human voice" sound is really funny too.
I've actually used the SK-1 in live performances with my old band North American Wash & Wax. It was a huge success during our song "Billy." Part of its charm is that it loses its memory every time you shut it off. Thus, you cannot save any samples. This allows for some nice impromptu samples during the live shows. You can sample your own voice or somebody from the audience. It's really a great little lo-fi machine.
I've noticed that there seems to be a community of SK-1 modifiers out there in cyberspace. They tweak their little samplers to make a variety of new effects. I would like to do this, but I'm afraid of ruining the only one I have. I saw one SK-1 mod that had an Atari joystick attached that acted as a pitch bender. I would love to have that. Using a joystick to control your keyboard's sound has some definite live showmanship potential.
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http://dogbomb.comicgenesis.com
I've got something to show you.  Click on the link above and you can see my online comic, Dog Bomb! I haven't been updating it lately, but the comic will continue when I get a little more time. It has an ongoing story. So, it'll make more sense if you go to the very beginning. Just click on the "First" button under the current comic, and then the "Next" button to go through them in order. Enjoy!
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I just wrote a new song called "Can I Play on the Roof Today?" I really like this one. When I was a kid, I loved going up on the roof of the house. I liked to pretend that it was a pirate ship or something with alligators swimming down below.
Also, here's a picture of me playing a tenor banjo. Note the intense concentration on my part. In the background, you can see my friend Rick playing the concertina.
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