artificial reality.

Birthday Season.

at least that is what he calls it... so we show up... goof off... and hope we get something accomplished as a bonus.... and until Jersey Rick puts some real words down, here are the pictures I managed to snap... still need the YL installation photos... but considering that I arrived late and limping, not too bad... life is good...

 Appalachia in the Fall

 Hoodie Brigade (aka Dixie Iron and Valve)

 Dan's place

 man barn

 a tree man's tools

 you have no idea... thanks, man!

 first LP at Lenwood's since he started drinking again

 had to harvest before the freeze

 best gatefold ever

 I wanna go fishin' with that guy!

 prolly has some Latin name - ask me about tubes!

 platypus

 amazingly, we had music every night, despite the major changes..

 art don't talk, it just sits there and messes with your mind...

 yeah, a lot of this.. it healed me!

 offering to the altar of Darryl - my childhood idol

 the PT Barnum amp - eats tubes...

 and this kept me moving while the soup kicked in

 five inch tonearm

 12 Bones - best veggie plate in memory!

 thanks robert and deb!

 D7.. cranked to 11...

 first new sponge in *years*... gross...

 tacqueria

 stuffed... bi-amplification in a Red State

 globe fiddies coddle the....

 very bad influence:

 baby girl's painting

 as it stands now..

 as the stand stands now

Peace,
Me

YL and Goto..

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I had the opportunity to make a fairly informal comparison of a YL driver and an early Goto driver recently.  As many of you know, Goto and Kondo worked together at YL.  The story is that Goto left when they began to use folded horns.  This was a compromise he just could not accept.  Not sure of the accuracy of that, but that is how it was passed to me....

Goto photos:

so this comparison was not a perfect A>B... it was not really fair to the YL driver as we had to use it below its recommended range.  However, the horns were the same.. and should load the driver just fine to well below where we were crossing... I think we were crossing in the 500 range and the horn is a cast very early Goto horn of about 250Hz flare with a too small mouth... but this is a system that was designed for listening from anywhere.. .upfiring horns.. Altec 416's in a big sealed box below... and TAD 4001's used as tweeters.. even given all of these caveats, it was easy to discern which driver was which...

here are the same horns in one of my old "lashups":

in general, the Goto was a bit richer... which is obvious as it went lower, but this quality extended to the treble as well... the YL was just as quick and delicate, but it had a touch of tizzy.. not a lot, but it was there... neither driver had giant scale, but they did Soul/R&B/Blues well at medium volumes, and the slight feeling of compression worked very well on Nirvana's "D7" from Live at Reading... which was *way* too loud... just awesome...

YL photos:

Peace,
Me

Big Star - Memphis Indie Pioneers...

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too many coincidences lately... watch for them.. it is late in 2012.. but first, the story..

last night I was privileged to see the Big Star documentary at the Indie Memphis Film Festival.  I was invited by Chris Bell's niece.. in turn, I invited one of his best friends... and in this group, the circles of friends all closed quickly... Ardent, the Fry family, the Turleys who started a local restaurant with Chris's family... dang it.. I fell into coincidences again... let's just say small circles... like my friend Tommy, who owns the first amps I ever built, was in the movie!

I need to get to Big Star... move along, 2012...  Big Star was a local band that was a commercial flop... copies of their albums were impossible to find... yet somehow they survived.... almost legend... whisper on the wind... from musician to musician did #1 Record pass... and somehow, despite zero sales and less promotion, an alternative rock album from  early 70's Memphis is here today... Elvis was still around.. Isaac Hayes ruled the other side of town... this record was definitely Memphis, but had no home...

 the music was too far ahead of its time... REM and the Replacements cited Big Star as their major influence..  jangly guitars would belong to college rock, but not for at least another decade... but critics did recognize them... all three of their albums are in Rolling Stone's top 500.... so.. I guess I am saying that if you like Indie.. or college rock... these guys are who you owe... pick up #1 Record... or, perhaps more so, you really need Chris Bell's I am the Cosmos..

(YouTube links and ramblings of an actual music writer are here:  Stereogum)

PS to JC - hey man... there were quite a few partying scenes with Eggleston (yes, audiogeeks, Eggleston Works)... I am wondering if your old man was in this doc as well?  It certainly looked fun!