Showing posts with label housekeeping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housekeeping. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2013

3 Chords & the Truth: Do you remember?

Somewhere in America today, there is a little girl blue.

You see, when someone asked her "Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio?" she realized that, no, she did not. Truth be told, she barely remembered radio at all.


Her parents, engrossed in the latest episode of 3 Chords & the Truth -- a most excellent podcast, by the way -- said that rock 'n' roll radio hadn't mattered, hadn't really mattered, since the end . . . the end of the century. Maybe the end . . . the end of the '70s.

For some reason, this left the child on needles and pins. She knew that her parents, despite their advanced age, were barely old enough to remember this thing -- was it on television?-- called Hullabaloo.

Upbeat, Shindig and Ed Sullivan, too.

But they remember rock 'n' roll radio.

YES, they remember rock 'n' roll radio. Country, jazz and easy-listening radio, too. Were they anything like that Hullabaloo? Wow. Rock 'n' roll radio. It must have shone brighter than the California sun.

The folks told her radio was a lot like 3 Chords & the Truth is today. In other words, a really Big Show, only back at the end of the century. Back at the end -- the end of the '70s.

But then the country took a swing to the right, and Mom and Dad said it was like everybody just put their teeth up on the windowsill after moving into a one-room country shack. And not even Mr. President has pity on the working man -- unemployed DJs, for instance.

It's all in the game, apparently.


Everybody wants you to pay them their money down. This has caused many to have almost lost their mind in the still of the night. After hearing her parents bare a piece of their hearts, the little girl blue wished she could bring Murray the K and Alan Freed to show and tell.

But she learned the two great DJs were not on Broadway, but instead were long cold, cold, cold in the ground. I don't know about you, but I go to pieces just thinking about it. Mercy, mercy.

THEN the little girl blue thought that, perhaps, she could bring the Big Show to show and tell. That's as close to rock 'n' roll radio you can get now, the folks say. And it makes them feel so young! They dream of lying in bed, with their covers pulled up over their head. Radio playin' so no one could see.

Yes, she thought, we need change, we need it fast. Before rock's just part of the past.

Yes, she thought, she will bring 3 Chords & the Truth to show and tell. She'll rock it like it's the end, the end of the century. Like it's the end, the end of the '70s.

Mom and Dad, she realized, are pretty smart. So's the Big Show.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

3 Chords & the Truth: Don't be chicken, listen!


This week's show is not about chickens.

On the other hand, the music on this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is so good that it just might cockle your doodle do. That's a funny, boy! I say . . . I say, I made a funny! What's wrong with you, boy?! Cat got your sense of humor?!?

I say, that's another funny, boy!

SORRY, the weather's been so bad this week, we're all a little loopy.

So, on the Big Show, we decided to have a little dance party to cheer ourselves up. But you'd better be versatile if you want to join in -- just a word to the wise.

And we're also going to have the mother of all Beatles-covers sets. Really, you'll want to hear this.

Other than that, I got nothing else to add -- other than a giant rooster.

That is all.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, April 06, 2013

3 Chords & the Truth: Rebuilt and relaunched


And we're back . . .

This is the first new 3 Chords & the Truth episode since January, when the Big Show was being produced on an old PC that went BRRRRRRRT -- no, Beano isn't for electronics, alas -- in an overcrowded studio that really needed a facelift. So, it got a facelift.

And a new iMac. With new software.

And some paint.

And a lot of uncluttering.

And we're feeling groovy now.

YES, LIFE ON the Big Show front is good, and so is the music. Well, that's one thing that didn't change -- the good music.

It would have been a bloody shame to do all that remodeling work for the sake of sucky tunes.

Am I making any sense here? Exhaustion, don't you know?

So check out this brand-new episode of our studio-fresh music extravaganza while I enjoy the new digs here. And maybe take a nap.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Soul, crackle and pop

Posting, obviously, has been light here as I break in the new studio and prepare for the big relaunch of 3 Chords & the Truth . . . coming to your computer, tablet, smart phone or MP3 player soon.

Really soon.

So here's the JPEG version of a little sweet soul music in the night.

Be there. Aloha.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

It is finished . . . enough

After a couple of months of work, worry, planning, painting and stringing lots and lots of audio cable, here it is.

Welcome to the newly remodeled and reimagined 3 Chords & the Truth studio. It's all done, right down to a new office chair. Comfy, it is.

The only thing left to do -- apart from catching up with a decade's worth of advancements and changes to the audio-editing program I use (changing from Windows to Mac meant getting the new OS X version of Adobe Audition) -- is getting the old reel-to-reel deck fixed up right and returned to the studio. Other than that . . . we're back in bidness. The Big Show will resume presently.

Pretty spiffy, isn't it?


WHILE Y'ALL are looking at the pictures of your Mighty Favog's remodeling handiwork . . .



. . . your Mighty Favog is going to go take a nap.

Or something.


FINALLY, here's another look at what used to be but is no more, thanks be to God.

And Lowe's.

And several electronics and computer vendors. Nighty night.

Friday, March 01, 2013

This is not the end.


But I can see being done from here, despite losing most of a week to a nasty, nasty winter cold. (I don't think I've ever had a "slight cold" in my life; I get Almost the Flu or nothing at all.)

Anyway, most of the furniture refurbishing and "repurposing" is done. I'm painting the last piece that needs painting now.

Don't ask about getting it out of where it was and getting it to where it is.

After the furniture phase is done comes the wiring of the studio equipment phase. No, bringing you 3 Chords & the Truth is no job for wimps . . . or the technically challenged.

Hang on a sec -- one of my favorite songs is playing on WSM right now. "Aimee" by Pure Prairie League. Yay.

OK, I'm back. And that's about it for now concerning the Great Remodeling.

Aloha.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Waiting for the paint to dry

That's pretty much it, the headline on this post.

I'm sitting here in the big blue chair, drinking Community coffee, listing to BBC Radio 2 on the Internets . . . and writing this on the Surface as I wait for the paint to dry on the former dining room table that's being repurposed for the remodeled 3 Chords & the Truth studio. 

The pictures tell the story. We're getting there.

I rather like the studio curtains, don't you?

Monday, February 18, 2013

I. Hate. Painting.


But, in the ongoing remodel of the 3 Chords & the Truth/Revolution 21 production studio, the painting is done. Alas.

Eventually, these 60-something-year-old wood windows will be replaced; they're fairly well shot. Still, they got a coat of paint -- it may help hold them together for a while longer, who knows?


THE IMPORTANT thing here is that, throughout the whole process, the Wi-Fi never went out. That took a little doing, it did, keeping the Internet plugged in. Yay, me!


DID I mention that I hate painting?

Of course, I'm now moving on to painting the parts of the studio furniture, old and new, that need painting or repainting. One piece that's already fallen under the brush, however, has gotten the coveted Mrs. Favog Seal of Approval.

So, there's that, at least.

Monday, February 04, 2013

Good Lord


Yes, I'm still here. No, I haven't quit the blogging thing or the 3 Chords & the Truth thing.

It's just that this studio-remodeling thing has taken on, to use an overused term, "a life of its own." This, actually, is kind of an understatement.

Please help.

For one thing, the amount of sheer stuff  I had accumulated in there over the years. Scores of old reel-to-reel tapes, for example -- many of them historical treasures from the 1940s and '50s. Man, did I underestimate the process of cleaning it out.

THAT, I don't dare pitch into the trash. Webcor "Electronic Memory" Recording Tape, you are safe . . . as are the 50-something-year old wonders hidden in your ferrite coating.

Anyway, the room now is empty. The walls have been washed and spackled. So has the ceiling.

And the dirty old drapes are gone. And the floor has been rejuvenated. And the light fixture has been replaced. Much cursing was done in the process.

Fortunately, electrocution was avoided.
 

MEANTIME, the new iMac waits in its carton. As do all other manner of gadgetry.

The old production PC sits, unhooked, on a cabinet in the middle of the dining room. I write this on my Microsoft Surface tablet.

Now comes the painting. Stay tuned, folks. We're getting there.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Going . . . going . . . going. . . .


This is the studio where 3 Chords & the Truth is recorded. Or, was the studio as of last week.


Here's the same studio a day ago as the deconstruction and remodeling proceeded . . . deliberately. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Honestly, the crap I've had to take apart. The cables I've had to clean and neatly bundle. 


The books and knickknacks I've had to box up and store. The stuff I've had to knock apart and move out.

The vacuuming! Oy!


Which leads us to today. It's getting there -- or not there, as the case may be.

Deliberately, alas.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

You've gotta have a plan


Before I tear the 3 Chords & the Truth studio the heck up, I thought it might be a good idea to decide what it was supposed to look like when I put it back together.

Voila! A plan.

And it only took a week of looking at office furniture, considering building my own office furniture, looking at more office furniture and drawing up one previous floor plan that was mulled over and found to be wanting. This one, though, I think is a winner.

Everything is to scale, everything has been measured and measured again, and I found a way to repurpose much of what I already had. Best of all, I think we'll be saying goodbye to clutter and being cramped.

OK, I can tear everything the heck up now.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

And that's the way it is. . . .

This is how the Revolution21.org studios look here in Omaha (by God!) Nebraska.

OK, it's "studio" -- singular. "Studios" just sounds better.
Anyway . . . this soon will be how the home of 3 Chords & the Truth was. Past tense.

The place is kind of dingy and way cramped, not to mention a little messy. Sounds like time for a remodel to me.

IT'S BEEN needed for a while, but my official excuse is the new, screamingly fast 27-inch iMac that's soon to replace the ancient Dell that's in here now. Trust me, a 2005 vintage is ancient in PC terms, and I was penny wise and pound foolish when I made that purchase almost eight years ago. The new and extremely tricked out iMac is sorely needed, particularly for audio production.
Soooo . . . while I remodel the studio into something more worthy of a fine Apple product, blogging will be sporadic, and we may miss a new episode of the Big Show or two. I'm hoping the disruption will be more than worth it -- both for me and for you.
Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

3 Chords & the Truth: Yule love this gift


Christmastime is upon us. So consider this your present under the tree.

That's right, it's the 3 Chords & the Truth Christmas show -- just a little holiday token from me to you. This year, the Big Show would like to thank the fine folks at the Tin Cup Retirement Plan for their gracious sponsorship of this special Yuletide musical offering.

In today's world, you can't count on much, but you can count on your Tin Cup.

To me, a lot of this special episode of the Big Show sounds like Christmas -- just like the ones we used to know. Your mileage may vary, depending on how many years you have under your belt, but I think this holiday offering will be just as enjoyable no matter who you are.

AFTER ALL, that's the whole point of 3 Chords & the Truth . . . being enjoyable, no matter who you are. Good music -- and especially good Christmas music -- is funny that way.

So once again, let me thank the fine folks at Tin Cup Retirement Plan for making this holiday extravaganza possible, and also thank you for listening.
May your days be merry and bright,
And may all your Christmases be white
IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Alo-ho-ho-ho-ha.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

3 Chords & the Truth: No lack of shellac


I've got me some old records, some 78s.

The "78" refers to the playing speed  -- 78 rpm -- and 78s are how folks listened to music at home way back there then.

Unsurprisingly to you, I'm sure, I have a lot of these masterpieces on black shellac. Last week, I picked up even more at an Omaha estate sale. All but one are from the 1930s, encompassing the very beginning of what we now know as "the Swing Era" of music.

And I'm sure it's also no surprise to you that we're featuring these old, old discs on this week's episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. Duh.

I'VE GOT some pretty early Benny Goodman in there and some Tommy Dorsey with a young Frank Sinatra on vocals, too. Lots of good stuff from when Grandma and Grandpa were young, and the world was about to learn all about the jitterbug.

That's just how we roll on the Big Show.

There's lots of other good stuff (not on 78s) on the show this week as well, which also is no doubt no shock to you. If it were, I'll bet you wouldn't be reading this to start with . . . or listing to this thing called 3 Chords & the Truth.

This is a program that's all about the music, without discrimination, pretty much.

NO, I take that back. The Big Show does discriminate big time. The bad stuff will not reach your ears -- at least not through any fault of your Mighty Favog or the Revolution 21 empire.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, December 08, 2012

3 Chords & the Truth: It's good


Remember Barq's root beer?

When I was a kid in south Louisiana, there were Barq's advertising signs all over the countryside. They all said the same thing:

Drink Barq's. It's Good.

The perfect slogan -- a call to action plus the perfect rationale. Plus, Barq's was good. Still is.

Well, you just as well could apply the same slogan to this week's delicious episode of 3 Chords & the Truth -- the Revolution 21 music podcast. You just as well could apply it to every episode of the Big Show. So I will.

Listen to 3 Chords & the Truth. It's Good.

And it's right here.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, November 09, 2012

An important reminder


Advanced pickups aren't just good in bars and nightclubs. They're absolutely crucial on phonographs.

That's why it's important not only to play your Miracle Surface long-playing records only on the best equipment, but to make sure you're playing your stereophonic albums on the right equipment.

















After all, an RCA "Living Stereo" LP with the advanced Miracle Surface is a terrible thing to waste.

This important hi-fi reminder comes to you courtesy of Revolution 21 and 3 Chords & the Truth.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

www.TwoWeeksO'Chaos.org


If you type "www.revolution21.org" into your web browser now, something will happen.

That's an improvement over what's been going on here -- or not going on here, actually -- for more than a week. About that, I have just two things to say:
● Never assume that pointing your Internet domain name at this website instead of that will be anything but a harrowing, drawn out, overly complicated and crazy-making experience.

● Avoid Network Solutions as a host for your website or as a registrar for your domain name.
Revolution 21's long not-so-national nightmare began as the web-hosting contract ended. Basically, I didn't want to pay significant green just for Network Solutions, may a camel pass gas in its tent, to host a website that did little other than point you to this blog, 3 Chords & the Truth and where to buy R21 swag. That and a couple of email addresses.

The plan was to leave the domain name -- revolution21.org -- registered at Network Solutions (pretty cheap and the contract had yet to expire) and just have the web address point right here to Revolution 21's Blog for the People. After all, the blog is where all the website action is anyway and, as you've no doubt noticed, it now has several pages for all the same destinations and explanations.

And the hosting is free on Blogger. That, my friends, is a big monetary and operational "Well, DUH!"

EXCEPT. . . .

To redirect your domain name, Google/Blogger gives you one set of instructions and Network Solutions gives you another. Blogger's won't work with Network Solutions -- indeed, the web host rejects one of the DNS addresses Blogger says you must enter -- and Network Solutions' do nothing on the Blogger front.

So you call the technical support at Network Solutions late one night -- actually, early, early one morning -- and the Guy Somewhere in Timbuktu gives you a third set of instructions that turn out to be somewhere on the bad side of bulls***.

So later that day, you send a help request in writing with a detailed summary of the problem and "27 8x10 color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what it is." They say they'll get back to you within a business day.

A business day passes. Nada.

Another half a business day passes. Nada.

You're doing a slow burn, and you do some research on the Web. And from running across many of Network Solutions' unhappy customers who became grateful ex-customers, and from seeing rave reviews of DNS hosting companies that actually can get your domain to work with Blogger, you decide to just transfer your domain to a better place. In this case, that better place is easyDNS in Toronto. Even between the devalued American dollar and the strong Canadian one, the price is what I was paying at That Whose Name I'm Done Uttering.

OF COURSE, after you've signed up with easyDNS -- which will redirect your domain name for you . . . for free -- then TWNIDU starts trying to rekindle the geek romance when you call up to inform them of the coming tech divorce. And then . . . then you hear back from tech support regarding that written help request you sent.

The service rep writes that he's sorry about the delay, and won't you please give him another chance or he won't be able to live with the shame and the loneliness and the regret, that he'll do something drastic if you don't take him back, he swears to God!


ACTUALLY, that's not exactly true. He wrote to apologize for my request being sent to the Group W bench, and to say that TWNIDU could just go ahead and reconfigure my settings and redirect the domain name for me.

For a minimum of $99.

Sorry, dude. The tech support from north of the border is fast, friendly, personal and free . . . and now everything works just fine. And we also find time to chat about beer a little.

Did you know that beer on tap is unheard of in Ontario, and you have to go to the provincial bottle shop to pick up a six-pack? Bien sûr, there are no such stabs at prohibition across the border in Quebec, for the Gallic heart (mine included) requires an unregulated sip, snort, quaff or blast every now and again.

Tonight, when I typed in "www.revolution21.org" and, lo, the blog appeared, I just may have hoisted a couple of cold ones in sudsy tribute to the good people of Canada . . . and their technology sector.

To TWNIDU, I merely say "FU."

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Just to be perfectly clear . . .


I am still a geek.

In this view from the Revolution 21/3 Chords & the Truth studios as we get ready for the 200th episode of the Big Show, the CDs are Karrin Allyson and John Coltrane, the mixer is a Soundcraft Spirit ES stereo model, the microphone preamps run on vacuum tubes and the background on the computer desktop is from a 1944 ad for KOIL radio in Omaha.


Yep, geek.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Monsters.com


I have pretty much drifted through my adult life, doing a little of this and some of that, but still not knowing my true vocation.

No more. Praise the Lord, I saw the light.

I
now know what I was meant to do in life, and I owe this big change in my aimless existence to a couple of big, big dogs by the names of Sadie Sue and Boo Radley.
We have been foster pet-parenting the old girl and her big little brother for the past couple of months while their real parents' house has been torn asunder and put back together in a radically different order. I think the technical term for this is "remodeling," and the aim of this major surgery -- involving sledgehammers, flooring, cabinetry, lots and lots of drywall, lots and lots of tile, lots and lots of construction workers, stainless-steel appliances and a stained-steel I-beam that now holds up the second story -- has been to create the "Kitchen of the Future."

Which, after all this time, labor and -- yes -- money is starting to look a lot like the woo-doo Kitchen of Today.

ANYWAY, I have been reliably informed that big, big dogs and construction workers coming and going is not an optimal combination. So we got the dogs instead of the cool new kitchen.

I know, Molly the (little, little) Dog. It sucks to be you. You will be rewarded with limitless dog treats as you await Mama and me at the Rainbow Bridge when your time on earth is done.

Soooooooo . . . back to my true vocation. These slobbery and hairy weeks at La Casa Favog, as it turns out, have been a time of self-discovery for yours truly. At age 51, to my great surprise, I seem to have an innate talent heretofore unknown to me.

I am a great hair sweeper-upper. An artiste with a broom, as it turns out.

And I just wanted to share this with you. See the top picture? Some of my handiwork from this afternoon. I do this every day, three times a day -- take hairy floors in the living room and kitchen and sweep them clean, creating neat little mountains of fur and then dispatching them out the back door.


I'LL BET
the rabbits and squirrels are scared spitless at the overwhelming scent of danger that now wafts over their previously unremarkable universe.
Tee hee. Just a little devilish lagniappe that comes with my new career, which I discovered on Monsters.com.

After 5½ years of college and decades of drifting between this dead end and that, I now know I can step right into a fulfilling life as a minimum-wage barber-shop floor sweeper.

It's not everybody who, thanks to a couple of monster dogs and a yappy one, stumbles into a perfect career for the new economy. I am a lucky man.