From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V8 #206 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Thursday, December 11 2003 Volume 08 : Number 206 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: I Live In A Flight Case [Robin Thurlow ] Re: Alloy: Baby's home. ["Keith Stansell" ] Re: Alloy: Baby's home. [Robin Thurlow ] Re: Alloy: Baby's home. ["Andrea Allen" ] Re: Alloy: Baby's home. ["Crackers" ] Re: Alloy: Baby's home. ["Keith Stansell" ] Re: Alloy: Baby's home. [CJMark@aol.com] Re: Alloy: I Live In A Flight Case [CJMark@aol.com] Re: Alloy: Baby's home. ["Crackers" ] Re: Alloy: Baby's home. ["Keith Stansell" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 08:48:30 -0800 (PST) From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: I Live In A Flight Case Thomas has seen my shimmy - or something like it anyway - tripping on my skirt as I went up to look at the bassist's instrument on stage @ the MOTH literary event I attended with him a few years back. I would have to come up with something far more intriguing than a mere shimmy now to keep his interest! xx ~r New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 16:25:27 -0500 From: "Crackers" Subject: Alloy: Baby's home. UPS man arrived today bringing me my Casio AZ-1. Not even the nasty sting of GST, PST and Customs Brokerage Fees could diminish my joy as I gleefully gave the UPS man the history of the instrument he carried. "Woah! Thomas Dolby? Cool!" he exclaimed. Man, this is quite the flight case it comes in too. Very sturdy indeed. As for the instrument itself, much cosmetic work needs to be done to it. It appears that at one time a bit of duct tape covered the portamento button and there's another bit of ancient hardened duct tape on the back of the neck. I assume Thomas had put them there at one time to prevent accidental triggering of the portamento button when he went for the sustain button and accidental movement of one of the assignable wheels when he went for the pitch bend. Anyone know anything good for removing ancient crusted on tape residue from plastic? Couple of other knocks and bruises and scuffs and dings each a testament to the machine's employment. One of the little knobbies that holds the strap on is missing and the other one is woefully loose. Actually it appeares that the original knob had there had gone missing too and was replaced with a bit of leather strap and a D-ring. That's no worry, quick trip to the music store should yield replacement parts as I'm sure guitar knobbies will do just as well. Plus I'll need to buy myself a nice new strap for it too. I had no batteries handy so I plugged it in with an adaptor and it lit up just fine. I pressed the midi channel select switch that Thomas once mentioned to me was wonky but to my amazement it appeared to work just fine. Had no time to do an indepth test of the beastie as I had to rush to pick up my kids from school. The first thing my son said when I went to pick him up was "Did your Thomas Dolby thing arrive?". Rushed back home and down to the basement geekroom to test it out. Pondered what instrument should be the first to bend its will to the controlling power of the AZ-1. Figured it should be another Casio so I plugged in my Casio LD-80. The LD-80 is a cheap-assed drum machine. It sounds pretty grungy, all 8-bit low resolution samples. I didn't buy the machine for its sound though. I bought it to use as a MIDI controller for percussion. It has 8 large drum pads and two foot pedals on it that can be used via MIDI to control other drum machines. Saddly I suck at drumming, especially with sticks in my hands, but laying down drum tracks with actual pads is much easier than trying to do it with the keys of a keyboard. It's really amazing what a real drummer can do with it though. The drummer in our band has played with it a couple of times and it was pretty awsome what it could do under his expert control. Anyways one of the surprise features of the LD-80 not even mentioned in the manual is that it also contains a General Midi Tone Module inside it so if you control it with a MIDI keyboard, instead of the other way around, you can play 128 different General Midi synth sounds on it like it was a synthesizer. So up to the LD-80 the AZ-1 was mated and much fun did I have noodling away on the wee beastie. I had to put the flight case on a keyboard stand and then the AZ-1 on top of the flight case since there is no way to strap it on at the moment. I'm quite pleased to say that there does not appeare to be any need for me to open the beastie up and tinker about with its guts. Everything seems to be working just fine. I think I'll probably build myself a special midi cable for it that includes a line for the power supply so I won't have to run it off batteries but can still keep it portable. I'll let you all know when I have pictures of me and my preeeeeecious online. As for the chunk of duct tape on the back of the neck. I plan to auction it off on Ebay as a Thomas Dolby collectable to help recoup the expenses of buying the keyboard. I already got an e-mail from the person who was bidding against me telling me it was the wee bit of tape that he was really after. Actually, I've been giving thought to putting some original artwork up for auction. A number of other webcomic artists which much smaller readerships than mine (I currently have about 45000 readers each week) have from time to time auctioned off original artwork of their characters and made a pretty penny from it so I've been contemplating perhaps doing the same thing. I'm thinking maybe a nice picture of Freddy playing the Casio AZ-1 perhaps. I'll let you know if I do. Anyways, thanks a tonne Thomas. Your old keyboard is now in the hands of someone who will cherish it forever. Crackers Ghastly's Ghastly Comic http://ghastlycomic.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 14:44:50 -0700 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. Crackers, I need to check, but I think I might have some footage of Thomas playing said keyboard. It is the clip of him backing for George Clinton on SNL. It has been a while, but I recall he was playing a white guitar-like keyboard of some sort. I'll try to get some stills for you to look at and see if it is the one. - -Keith Denver CO - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Crackers" To: Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 2:25 PM Subject: Alloy: Baby's home. > > UPS man arrived today bringing me my Casio AZ-1. Not even the nasty sting of > GST, PST and Customs Brokerage Fees could diminish my joy as I gleefully > gave the UPS man the history of the instrument he carried. > > "Woah! Thomas Dolby? Cool!" he exclaimed. > > Man, this is quite the flight case it comes in too. Very sturdy indeed. As > for the instrument itself, much cosmetic work needs to be done to it. It > appears that at one time a bit of duct tape covered the portamento button > and there's another bit of ancient hardened duct tape on the back of the > neck. I assume Thomas had put them there at one time to prevent accidental > triggering of the portamento button when he went for the sustain button and > accidental movement of one of the assignable wheels when he went for the > pitch bend. > > Anyone know anything good for removing ancient crusted on tape residue from > plastic? > > Couple of other knocks and bruises and scuffs and dings each a testament to > the machine's employment. One of the little knobbies that holds the strap on > is missing and the other one is woefully loose. Actually it appeares that > the original knob had there had gone missing too and was replaced with a bit > of leather strap and a D-ring. That's no worry, quick trip to the music > store should yield replacement parts as I'm sure guitar knobbies will do > just as well. Plus I'll need to buy myself a nice new strap for it too. > > I had no batteries handy so I plugged it in with an adaptor and it lit up > just fine. I pressed the midi channel select switch that Thomas once > mentioned to me was wonky but to my amazement it appeared to work just fine. > Had no time to do an indepth test of the beastie as I had to rush to pick up > my kids from school. The first thing my son said when I went to pick him up > was "Did your Thomas Dolby thing arrive?". > > Rushed back home and down to the basement geekroom to test it out. Pondered > what instrument should be the first to bend its will to the controlling > power of the AZ-1. Figured it should be another Casio so I plugged in my > Casio LD-80. > > The LD-80 is a cheap-assed drum machine. It sounds pretty grungy, all 8-bit > low resolution samples. I didn't buy the machine for its sound though. I > bought it to use as a MIDI controller for percussion. It has 8 large drum > pads and two foot pedals on it that can be used via MIDI to control other > drum machines. Saddly I suck at drumming, especially with sticks in my > hands, but laying down drum tracks with actual pads is much easier than > trying to do it with the keys of a keyboard. It's really amazing what a real > drummer can do with it though. The drummer in our band has played with it a > couple of times and it was pretty awsome what it could do under his expert > control. Anyways one of the surprise features of the LD-80 not even > mentioned in the manual is that it also contains a General Midi Tone Module > inside it so if you control it with a MIDI keyboard, instead of the other > way around, you can play 128 different General Midi synth sounds on it like > it was a synthesizer. > > So up to the LD-80 the AZ-1 was mated and much fun did I have noodling away > on the wee beastie. I had to put the flight case on a keyboard stand and > then the AZ-1 on top of the flight case since there is no way to strap it on > at the moment. I'm quite pleased to say that there does not appeare to be > any need for me to open the beastie up and tinker about with its guts. > Everything seems to be working just fine. > > I think I'll probably build myself a special midi cable for it that includes > a line for the power supply so I won't have to run it off batteries but can > still keep it portable. I'll let you all know when I have pictures of me and > my preeeeeecious online. > > As for the chunk of duct tape on the back of the neck. I plan to auction it > off on Ebay as a Thomas Dolby collectable to help recoup the expenses of > buying the keyboard. I already got an e-mail from the person who was bidding > against me telling me it was the wee bit of tape that he was really after. > > Actually, I've been giving thought to putting some original artwork up for > auction. A number of other webcomic artists which much smaller readerships > than mine (I currently have about 45000 readers each week) have from time to > time auctioned off original artwork of their characters and made a pretty > penny from it so I've been contemplating perhaps doing the same thing. I'm > thinking maybe a nice picture of Freddy playing the Casio AZ-1 perhaps. I'll > let you know if I do. > > Anyways, thanks a tonne Thomas. Your old keyboard is now in the hands of > someone who will cherish it forever. > > > Crackers > > Ghastly's Ghastly Comic > http://ghastlycomic.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 14:07:21 -0800 (PST) From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. Crackers wrote: "Anyone know anything good for removing ancient crusted on tape residue from plastic?" There are two things I can suggest you try. I'm not familiar with how it might react with the plastic, so I would try a tiny bit of it out first on a place that you can't see, or try it on another, similar piece of plastic. Lighter fluid is what we used to get tape goo off ebony fingerboards when the kids' little rental violins were returned. The lighter fluid coagulated the adhesive & it could be gently rubbed away with a soft cloth, without harming the ebony other than drying it out a bit. Another thing that we use here in Preservation is Avon Skin-So-Soft, to get sticky adhesive off of scissors. It isn't as fast as lighter fluid but it may be more gentle on a fragile, non-porous surface. There is something on the market called Goo-Gone but I've never tried it, not sure what its chemical composition is. The instrument sounds beautiful!! Photos, please, of you with your new baby :) xx ~r New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 16:14:38 -0600 From: "Andrea Allen" Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. Goo Gone works wonders. It's environmentally safe, some sort of citrus thing. It smells like oranges. We used it to get sticky stuff off our lab tables when they first arrived. a. On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 14:07:21 -0800 (PST) Robin Thurlow wrote: > > Crackers wrote: > "Anyone know anything good for removing ancient crusted on tape > residue from plastic?" > > > There are two things I can suggest you try. I'm not familiar with > how it might react with the plastic, so I would try a tiny bit of it > out first on a place that you can't see, or try it on another, > similar piece of plastic. > > Lighter fluid is what we used to get tape goo off ebony fingerboards > when the kids' little rental violins were returned. The lighter > fluid coagulated the adhesive & it could be gently rubbed away with a > soft cloth, without harming the ebony other than drying it out a bit. > > Another thing that we use here in Preservation is Avon Skin-So-Soft, > to get sticky adhesive off of scissors. It isn't as fast as lighter > fluid but it may be more gentle on a fragile, non-porous surface. > > There is something on the market called Goo-Gone but I've never tried > it, not sure what its chemical composition is. > > The instrument sounds beautiful!! Photos, please, of you with your > new baby :) > > xx > ~r > New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 17:23:11 -0500 From: "Crackers" Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keith Stansell" To: > Crackers, I need to check, but I think I might have some footage of Thomas > playing said keyboard. It is the clip of him backing for George Clinton on > SNL. It has been a while, but I recall he was playing a white guitar-like > keyboard of some sort. I'll try to get some stills for you to look at and > see if it is the one. I caught a glimpse of Thomas playing the AZ-1 during the The Wall: Live At Berlin concert back in 1990. It was part of some documentary on Much Music. Thomas was running about playing a solo as the School Teacher. Saddly I didn't know it was on ahead of time and only caught it through some random channel surfing so I didn't get it taped. I wonder if that concert is on DVD? I only know of two Thomas Dolby AZ-1s, there's the one I own (I looooove saying that) and then the black custom paint-job one. Other than that I know Thomas's current strap-on is a bright red Roland AX-1 which he played with David Bowie and he also has a Yamaha KX-5 strap-on but I don't know if there's any significant concert history behind that one although there is a picture of his kicking back and playing the KX-5 on his website here. The KX-5 is actually a pretty cool strap-on, if only it had full sized keys it might have been the strap-on most commonly associated with Thomas. Thomas's Yamaha KX-5 http://thomasdolby.com/gallery/images/popup_images/TMDRpulse88a_popup.jpg Thomas's new Roland AX-1 http://thomasdolby.com/gallery/images/popup_images/Dsc_5367_popup.jpg And, of course, my baby, Thomas's former Casio AZ-1 http://thomasdolby.com/gallery/images/popup_images/TMDR4_popup.jpg It appears you can see the bit of tape wrapped around the bottom of the neck in that picture too. Crackers Ghastly's Ghastly Comic http://ghastlycomic.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 15:37:02 -0700 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. Roger Water's The Wall concert is on DVD. I'll check my SNL footage as well. - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Crackers" To: Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 3:23 PM Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Keith Stansell" > To: > > > Crackers, I need to check, but I think I might have some footage of Thomas > > playing said keyboard. It is the clip of him backing for George Clinton > on > > SNL. It has been a while, but I recall he was playing a white guitar-like > > keyboard of some sort. I'll try to get some stills for you to look at and > > see if it is the one. > > I caught a glimpse of Thomas playing the AZ-1 during the The Wall: Live At > Berlin concert back in 1990. It was part of some documentary on Much Music. > Thomas was running about playing a solo as the School Teacher. Saddly I > didn't know it was on ahead of time and only caught it through some random > channel surfing so I didn't get it taped. I wonder if that concert is on > DVD? > > I only know of two Thomas Dolby AZ-1s, there's the one I own (I looooove > saying that) and then the black custom paint-job one. Other than that I know > Thomas's current strap-on is a bright red Roland AX-1 which he played with > David Bowie and he also has a Yamaha KX-5 strap-on but I don't know if > there's any significant concert history behind that one although there is a > picture of his kicking back and playing the KX-5 on his website here. The > KX-5 is actually a pretty cool strap-on, if only it had full sized keys it > might have been the strap-on most commonly associated with Thomas. > > Thomas's Yamaha KX-5 > http://thomasdolby.com/gallery/images/popup_images/TMDRpulse88a_popup.jpg > Thomas's new Roland AX-1 > http://thomasdolby.com/gallery/images/popup_images/Dsc_5367_popup.jpg > And, of course, my baby, Thomas's former Casio AZ-1 > http://thomasdolby.com/gallery/images/popup_images/TMDR4_popup.jpg > > It appears you can see the bit of tape wrapped around the bottom of the neck > in that picture too. > > > > > Crackers > > Ghastly's Ghastly Comic > http://ghastlycomic.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 19:29:34 EST From: CJMark@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. Hey Crackers.. Congrats on your new addition to the family! It sounds like a great way to start the holiday season and to make it through those cold Canadian winters!!! One of the things I sometimes use to remove tape residue is WD-40. However.. it may damage the plastic too.. so test it somewhere first.. of course. It definitely takes the residue from new tags off of glass or plastic.. but I'm not sure about older residue.. but it should work quite well. Good luck! Ciao for now. Mark ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 19:31:17 EST From: CJMark@aol.com Subject: Re: Alloy: I Live In A Flight Case Robin.. I'm sure you would have no problem enticing us all with your latest shimmy! Thomas included! Mark ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:46:38 -0500 From: "Crackers" Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. Here's a rather infamous little incarnation of my keyboard being played by a rather mean spirited looking fellow. http://ghastlycomic.com/promotional/dolbywall.jpg Thanks for the source pic Thomas. I just had to add the caption. Crackers Ghastly's Ghastly Comic http://ghastlycomic.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:12:13 -0700 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. Just checked the SNL footage - I was wrong - not a white keyboard, not even one that looks like it was supposed to be portable. - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Crackers" To: Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 8:46 PM Subject: Re: Alloy: Baby's home. > > Here's a rather infamous little incarnation of my keyboard being played by a > rather mean spirited looking fellow. > > http://ghastlycomic.com/promotional/dolbywall.jpg > > Thanks for the source pic Thomas. I just had to add the caption. > > Crackers > > Ghastly's Ghastly Comic > http://ghastlycomic.com ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V8 #206 ***************************