From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V11 #172 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 Friday, August 11 2006 Volume 11 : Number 172 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: At the pub with Crackers pt 2 ["C.D. Cracknell" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:27:37 -0400 From: "C.D. Cracknell" Subject: Re: Alloy: At the pub with Crackers pt 2 Keith Stansell wrote: > Crackers came > though for me and got the attention of the staff. They have a nice > selection of microbrews there - I had a tasty amber. > > Yeah if you're sitting at the bar in the Winking Judge and are in the middle of the conversation the staff won't interupt you. That was my bad for not explaining the local customs. > We went on for hours - nearly seven hours to be exact. Somehow I managed to > nurse 3 beers over the seven hours. My nipple sure got soggy. (credit: Emo > Phillips for that line). I didn't want to have too many because I had an > hour long drive back to Toronto and it is a 3 day weekend there, so the > police would be out in force. > > Yeah it was a real hoot. The time really flew and I had... well... significantly more than three pints. A count of the leftovers in my wallet the next morning subtracted from what I know I went into the pub with puts my estimate at eight pints (I had had a few while you were lost between Brantford and Burlington so I was probably really good and pissed by the end of the night. I know 85 lbs ago 8 pints would have been a typical night out and left me a little tipsy, but with my new svelt frame 5 pints does what 8 pints used to and 8 pints makes me very drunk indeed. There's a funny video taken in that very pub the first time I got my drunk on after having lost my weight when Science Ninja Big Ten was playing there. Reminds me of that one Simpsons episode where they go to Duff Gardens and Bart and Milhouse ride this ride that simulates being drunk and Milhouse comes up to Bart and puts his arm around him and says "This.. this is the guy... this guy is the guy I was talkin' 'bout....". Good thing I'm a happy drunk. > The night ended with Crackers at the poorly tuned piano taking requests from > people in the pub. Some songs he declined to do, but could have he said if > asked two beers earlier. Crackers thought that would be a good album name: > "Two Beers Too Late". He did a pretty good job of some Billy Joel but > really kicked in when a regular requested one of his own songs. It was a > song about Joseph Stalin. > > Two Beers Too Late indeed. I remember sitting down at the piano, but I don't remember what I played. I played Joseph Stalin? Holy crap. That must have been a very fucked up version of the song. > So - as usual, a good time was had - because Alloy people are the coolest > people on the flat earth. > I had a real hoot. It was really great. Next time you're in town we'll have to do it again and this time I'll sit down at the piano two pints earlier. Hehehehe. Crackers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:54:48 -0400 From: "C.D. Cracknell" Subject: Alloy: It lives! IT LIVES! Well yesterday I got to work on something I've been neglecting for quite some time, an electronic restoration of Thomas's Casio AZ-1 MIDI controller. Having toured around the world for over a decade it was more than fair to say that despite the increadably awesome flightcase it was packed in, this keyboard was in nowhere near mint condition (which is what made it so very cool, pondering what and where Thomas may have been doing to deliver each scratch and dent). The sustain button was no longer functioning and the system to hold the strap in place was looking pretty sad and sorry and actually collapsed completely during the last rehearsal. On top of all this you have to keep in mind the keyboard itself is about 20 years old and ancient electronics, especially well used ancient electronics, have a habit of showing their age after awhile. Switches go flakey, pots go wonkey, solder connections go unconnecty. So yesterday I popped the machine open and spent several hours giving it a complete overhaul. It's a pretty interesting machine internally. Now adays it would probably all be on a single chip but it would have been very high-tech for its day. The keyboard was very interesting, definetly not the usual spring and wire contact system you saw on most velocity sensitive keyboards. The contacts are completely sealed which is why after 20 years and much use and abuse every key still functions flawlessly. There was evidence of abuse by some form of fluid on the interior of the keyboard showing that somebody had on at least one occaision dumped a considerable amount of liquid inside the machine. It has been too long evaporated for me to identify the liquid and I contemplated scrapping a sample off to send away for DNA testing on the off chance that perhaps some jealous musician playing a gig with Thomas happened to come upon the AZ-1 alone backstage and took the opportunity to befoul it in some very ungentlemanly fashion (Howard Jones, did you piddle on Thomas's strap-on?). In the end I decided to just clean up what I could of the residue that didn't appear to be holding things together. The strap anchoring mechanism was restored to its proper functional state. All pots were thoroughly cleaned (the pitch bend and volume controllers had been giving me some grief which is to be expected after all this time), all switch contacts cleaned and repaired, all that was unsoldered was soldered again and several hours later I have a fully electronically restored Casio AZ-1 that functions as well now as it did the very first day it came out of the box. I have to say it's a very good thing the AZ-1 was in a slightly deteriorated condition when I got it or else Thomas might not have retired it for his sleek new Roland AX-1. Not only is this Casio AZ-1 an awesome piece of musical history it's also one hell of a sweet ride as a MIDI controller. Crackers ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V11 #172 ****************************