Monday, July 18, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
The Golden Experience
My day off yesterday was dedicated to attaining a long-saught-after collectable. It necessitated a day trip to Golden, British Columbia - about two and a half hours west of Calgary. The collectable in question is photographed at the end of this blog post, but the story and the process is far more interesting than the picture of the item.
As you know, I collect vintage audio: radios, tape recorders, phonographs and so forth. I finally found the matching set of speakers to the Yamaha EM 200 mixer; a photo of which resides currently on the sidebar. The only challenge is that I found the speakers in Victoria, British Columbia - a fair jaunt from home. The good news is that my friend Dave's friend Ian lives in Victoria these days. He also happens to travel regularly between Victoria and Golden.
Get the picture? ;) <---I think that's the first time in the history of the Armchair that I've used a sideways smiley in a post.
It's been several months setting up the deal. I was excited to hear from Ian when he'd made plans at the end of May to come out in June. It's a bit of a double celebration actually, since I haven't really travelled anywhere recreationally since my 40th a year ago January. The prospect of a day away with no set schedule was exciting.
I was to meet Ian at 1:30 since his plan was to have lunch with his daughter until around 1:00. So, I left at around 8:00 AM and took my time, stopping along the way to smell the roses.
FIRST STOP WAS LAC DES ARC SINCE I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE VIEW ACROSS THE WATER TO THE PLANT AT EXSHAW.
WITH NO PLANS TO STOP OVER TO USE FACILITIES IN THE NATIONAL PARK, I BYPASSED THE CHECK STAND AT THE BANFF GATES.
My plan was to take the Bow Valley Parkway - the old highway between Banff and Lake Louise. It adds another 40 minutes to the 55 KM run, but is well worth the drive if you have the time. My friend Mike in Ontario used to say there are two seasons: Winter and Road Repair. He wasn't kidding. Just east of the Bow Valley Parkway turnoff, construction! What I didn't notice in time was that there was a break in the temporary barricade to access the turnoff. I continued on to the exit for Sunshine Ski Village, then looped around and back to catch the Parkway exit heading eastbound.
I'd noticed that many of the familiar signs had been replaced by a new style. I've decided I don't really like them. I prefer the vintage-style yellow-on-brown to the new white-on-navey.
COMPARING NEW TO OLD. NEW IS EASIER TO READ, BUT OLD IS MORE... RUSTIC IMHO.
I LOVE HOW THE PARKWAY ROAD SPLITS INTO SINGLE LANES AROUND PIECES OF ROCK.
NEARING LAKE LOUISE, THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE STRETCHES. THE SPEED LIMIT HAS BEEN REDUCED SINCE MY LAST RUN, FROM 80 KM/H DOWN TO 60 KM/H ON THE STRAIGHTAWAYS AND TO AS LOW AS 30 KM/H ON SOME OF THE SINGLE-LANE STRETCHES. I ALSO NOTICED A SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE IN THE VOLUME OF CYCLISTS. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT. THE UPSIDE? YOU GET TO SAVOUR THE SCENERY. :) <---Sideways Smiley #2
BEING THE TRAIN BUFF I AM, I WOULD BE REMISS IF I DIDN'T PHOTOGRAPH THE RAIL SIGHTS IN B.C. MY NEXT STOP WAS THE SPIRAL TUNNELS.
NEARING GOLDEN, THE FAMILIAR GREEN OF THE FRASER RIVER WITH - SURPRISE, SURPRISE - A TRAIN TRACK!
AT THE KICKING HORSE REST STOP PART WAY DOWN THE HILL TOWARD GOLDEN - LOOKING EAST UP THE HILL.
LOOKING WEST, DOWN THE HILL
I had about an hour for lunch before meeting Ian, so remembering this little cottage-style restaurant near the Husky, I pulled in... only to discover it was no longer cottage-y. It was now the Golden Grizzly - a BBQ style cookhouse. No worries! After a sizeable Greek-chicken salad I met up with Ian who didn't have a whole lot of time to visit, so we had a brief chat and I was on my way.
If you know me, even in the least, you know I'm always on the lookout for coconut cream pie. Of course, anywhere there's a truck stop or a diner chances are there's coconut cream pie. I stopped at the Husky on the highway, and sure enough...
COCONUT CREAM PIE AND COFFEE! THE COFFEE WAS A DISAPPOINTMENT, BUT THE PIE - NOT BAD. :D <---a pie-smiley
Golden has rail yards, so I simply had to go in search of interesting track shots. Sadly, but not surprisingly, there was construction on the bridge that leads to downtown Golden, else I would have captured some fabulous overhead shots of the rails. In lieu, I drove over the bridge and followed the road around to the same tracks, but on ground level. There was a convenient place for me to park the van, then hop on to the road bed.
AFTER I SHOT THIS ONE...
...I LUCKED OUT - A TRAIN!!
ON THE TRANS CANADA FOR THE JOURNEY HOME, I SNAPPED THIS: AN OVERPASS FOR WILDLIFE. THERE ARE SEVERAL OF THESE BUILT UP TO ALLOW ANIMALS TO CROSS THE HIGHWAY SAFELY.
HOME SWEET HOME - THE YAMAHA S4115H SPEAKERS SET IN PLACE.
These seemingly oversized-for-the-space speakers remind me of this ad from around the same time the speakers were built:
THE SLOGAN WAS: "IS IT LIVE, OR IS IT MEMOREX?"
Yup, that'll be me watching a good action flick... something to do the speakers justice: Top Gun, methinks!
As you know, I collect vintage audio: radios, tape recorders, phonographs and so forth. I finally found the matching set of speakers to the Yamaha EM 200 mixer; a photo of which resides currently on the sidebar. The only challenge is that I found the speakers in Victoria, British Columbia - a fair jaunt from home. The good news is that my friend Dave's friend Ian lives in Victoria these days. He also happens to travel regularly between Victoria and Golden.
Get the picture? ;) <---I think that's the first time in the history of the Armchair that I've used a sideways smiley in a post.
It's been several months setting up the deal. I was excited to hear from Ian when he'd made plans at the end of May to come out in June. It's a bit of a double celebration actually, since I haven't really travelled anywhere recreationally since my 40th a year ago January. The prospect of a day away with no set schedule was exciting.
I was to meet Ian at 1:30 since his plan was to have lunch with his daughter until around 1:00. So, I left at around 8:00 AM and took my time, stopping along the way to smell the roses.
FIRST STOP WAS LAC DES ARC SINCE I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE VIEW ACROSS THE WATER TO THE PLANT AT EXSHAW.
WITH NO PLANS TO STOP OVER TO USE FACILITIES IN THE NATIONAL PARK, I BYPASSED THE CHECK STAND AT THE BANFF GATES.
My plan was to take the Bow Valley Parkway - the old highway between Banff and Lake Louise. It adds another 40 minutes to the 55 KM run, but is well worth the drive if you have the time. My friend Mike in Ontario used to say there are two seasons: Winter and Road Repair. He wasn't kidding. Just east of the Bow Valley Parkway turnoff, construction! What I didn't notice in time was that there was a break in the temporary barricade to access the turnoff. I continued on to the exit for Sunshine Ski Village, then looped around and back to catch the Parkway exit heading eastbound.
I'd noticed that many of the familiar signs had been replaced by a new style. I've decided I don't really like them. I prefer the vintage-style yellow-on-brown to the new white-on-navey.
COMPARING NEW TO OLD. NEW IS EASIER TO READ, BUT OLD IS MORE... RUSTIC IMHO.
I LOVE HOW THE PARKWAY ROAD SPLITS INTO SINGLE LANES AROUND PIECES OF ROCK.
NEARING LAKE LOUISE, THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE STRETCHES. THE SPEED LIMIT HAS BEEN REDUCED SINCE MY LAST RUN, FROM 80 KM/H DOWN TO 60 KM/H ON THE STRAIGHTAWAYS AND TO AS LOW AS 30 KM/H ON SOME OF THE SINGLE-LANE STRETCHES. I ALSO NOTICED A SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE IN THE VOLUME OF CYCLISTS. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT. THE UPSIDE? YOU GET TO SAVOUR THE SCENERY. :) <---Sideways Smiley #2
BEING THE TRAIN BUFF I AM, I WOULD BE REMISS IF I DIDN'T PHOTOGRAPH THE RAIL SIGHTS IN B.C. MY NEXT STOP WAS THE SPIRAL TUNNELS.
NEARING GOLDEN, THE FAMILIAR GREEN OF THE FRASER RIVER WITH - SURPRISE, SURPRISE - A TRAIN TRACK!
AT THE KICKING HORSE REST STOP PART WAY DOWN THE HILL TOWARD GOLDEN - LOOKING EAST UP THE HILL.
LOOKING WEST, DOWN THE HILL
I had about an hour for lunch before meeting Ian, so remembering this little cottage-style restaurant near the Husky, I pulled in... only to discover it was no longer cottage-y. It was now the Golden Grizzly - a BBQ style cookhouse. No worries! After a sizeable Greek-chicken salad I met up with Ian who didn't have a whole lot of time to visit, so we had a brief chat and I was on my way.
If you know me, even in the least, you know I'm always on the lookout for coconut cream pie. Of course, anywhere there's a truck stop or a diner chances are there's coconut cream pie. I stopped at the Husky on the highway, and sure enough...
COCONUT CREAM PIE AND COFFEE! THE COFFEE WAS A DISAPPOINTMENT, BUT THE PIE - NOT BAD. :D <---a pie-smiley
Golden has rail yards, so I simply had to go in search of interesting track shots. Sadly, but not surprisingly, there was construction on the bridge that leads to downtown Golden, else I would have captured some fabulous overhead shots of the rails. In lieu, I drove over the bridge and followed the road around to the same tracks, but on ground level. There was a convenient place for me to park the van, then hop on to the road bed.
AFTER I SHOT THIS ONE...
...I LUCKED OUT - A TRAIN!!
ON THE TRANS CANADA FOR THE JOURNEY HOME, I SNAPPED THIS: AN OVERPASS FOR WILDLIFE. THERE ARE SEVERAL OF THESE BUILT UP TO ALLOW ANIMALS TO CROSS THE HIGHWAY SAFELY.
HOME SWEET HOME - THE YAMAHA S4115H SPEAKERS SET IN PLACE.
These seemingly oversized-for-the-space speakers remind me of this ad from around the same time the speakers were built:
THE SLOGAN WAS: "IS IT LIVE, OR IS IT MEMOREX?"
Yup, that'll be me watching a good action flick... something to do the speakers justice: Top Gun, methinks!
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Effective marketing strategy
This seen in my travels today...
It's a whole new angle that I never thought the Conservatives would have taken, but apparently it worked!
It's a whole new angle that I never thought the Conservatives would have taken, but apparently it worked!
Saturday, May 07, 2011
Sir Mix A Lot
Today it's rainy and cold. I'm staying inside with the intention of cleaning house and re-cooping lost time. For the last two weeks I've been down with a really nasty cold/flu thing. I have the tolerance for about three days of downtime. After that, I get grumpy.
Despite barely feeling better, I did manage to pull off a charity event last Sunday at Eau Claire Market. I think the motivation was there to simply get out of the house after being sick for ten days!
I arrived around 7:00 AM
As I stood outside my van, I realized just how sunny it was. I had to take this shot to prove it.
After the tent guys put up our stage and after the band showed up (they were on time, so I did big happy claps!) and obviously skipping ahead a few hours of Turtle labour, here is the stage: complete and ready to rock!
The band that came out was a group of fellows who had played in 2s and 3s, but never all together. They had jammed the night before and figured it would work... and did it ever work! They came up with a name twenty minutes before the show and called themselves the Plaid Philosophers!
Back at the mix station, everything is in place - including my prized Midas console. It was the first show I'd done with it, and it was DREAMY!!
Picture the nicest car you've ever driven - everything's at your fingertips and in the right place. Control with precision!
I've come to love my label maker. My handwriting is notoriously illegible, so when control-central is neatly labelled it's easy to make quick, last-second adjustments. To explain briefly how the console works, it simply has a volume control for each of the various inputs.
From left to right we see: MC Handheld microphone, Bass Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Vocal Mic 1, Drum Vocal Mic (which they changed on the fly to the keyboard vocal), Vocal Mic 2, Electric Guitar, Saxophone, Keyboard, Kick drum, Tom1, Tom2, Snare 1, Snare 2, and two overhead mics for cymbals. The other inputs were not used except the one labelled DJ which was the DJ rack on the other table - allowing me to play music for background.
The red buttons are ON/OFF to allow you to turn any one of the channels off without changing its set volume.
The yellow and red knobs are volume controls for stage speakers, allowing you to send the signal from that channel to any one or all of four speakers on stage so the musicians can hear what they're playing.
The green knobs allow you to apply effects like delay or reverb. The processor isn't on-board and I didn't get a picture of it specifically, but it's mounted in one of the racks shown two photos back.
The knobs in the light blue section are essentially Bass, Midrange and Treble controls for each of the channels.
Everything's really quite simple, but the art of mixing is creating the correct balance of volumes and tone control to make the mix sound "right".
SOAPBOX TIME: One of my pet peeves with sound guys in general is that so many of them allow the vocals to be buried under the music. The first thing I do in a mix is to make sure the vocals are at the front. I then bring the instruments in behind to compliment. It makes my blood boil to hear a bad mix by some highly-paid "professional" - ESPECIALLY when people are paying big money for their tickets.
Energy 101.5 was the sponsoring radio station. A fellow came to me just before sound check to ask if we could tie in his receiver so that we could play the radio station as background music between events. I figured, "Perfect!" (less work for T.G.!)
At the time I thought this shot was kinda cool. Dunno why.
From the mix station looking forward.
Some people in costume!
A gym troop came out to entertain.
The Mayor made an appearance to say a few words.
A really great day, and I have nothing but rave reviews for the Plaid Philosophers: absolutely genuine guys not to mention extremely talented musicians. They too had complimentary and kind words for me, which really makes the job fulfilling and worthwhile.
Despite barely feeling better, I did manage to pull off a charity event last Sunday at Eau Claire Market. I think the motivation was there to simply get out of the house after being sick for ten days!
I arrived around 7:00 AM
As I stood outside my van, I realized just how sunny it was. I had to take this shot to prove it.
After the tent guys put up our stage and after the band showed up (they were on time, so I did big happy claps!) and obviously skipping ahead a few hours of Turtle labour, here is the stage: complete and ready to rock!
The band that came out was a group of fellows who had played in 2s and 3s, but never all together. They had jammed the night before and figured it would work... and did it ever work! They came up with a name twenty minutes before the show and called themselves the Plaid Philosophers!
Back at the mix station, everything is in place - including my prized Midas console. It was the first show I'd done with it, and it was DREAMY!!
Picture the nicest car you've ever driven - everything's at your fingertips and in the right place. Control with precision!
I've come to love my label maker. My handwriting is notoriously illegible, so when control-central is neatly labelled it's easy to make quick, last-second adjustments. To explain briefly how the console works, it simply has a volume control for each of the various inputs.
From left to right we see: MC Handheld microphone, Bass Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Vocal Mic 1, Drum Vocal Mic (which they changed on the fly to the keyboard vocal), Vocal Mic 2, Electric Guitar, Saxophone, Keyboard, Kick drum, Tom1, Tom2, Snare 1, Snare 2, and two overhead mics for cymbals. The other inputs were not used except the one labelled DJ which was the DJ rack on the other table - allowing me to play music for background.
The red buttons are ON/OFF to allow you to turn any one of the channels off without changing its set volume.
The yellow and red knobs are volume controls for stage speakers, allowing you to send the signal from that channel to any one or all of four speakers on stage so the musicians can hear what they're playing.
The green knobs allow you to apply effects like delay or reverb. The processor isn't on-board and I didn't get a picture of it specifically, but it's mounted in one of the racks shown two photos back.
The knobs in the light blue section are essentially Bass, Midrange and Treble controls for each of the channels.
Everything's really quite simple, but the art of mixing is creating the correct balance of volumes and tone control to make the mix sound "right".
SOAPBOX TIME: One of my pet peeves with sound guys in general is that so many of them allow the vocals to be buried under the music. The first thing I do in a mix is to make sure the vocals are at the front. I then bring the instruments in behind to compliment. It makes my blood boil to hear a bad mix by some highly-paid "professional" - ESPECIALLY when people are paying big money for their tickets.
Energy 101.5 was the sponsoring radio station. A fellow came to me just before sound check to ask if we could tie in his receiver so that we could play the radio station as background music between events. I figured, "Perfect!" (less work for T.G.!)
At the time I thought this shot was kinda cool. Dunno why.
From the mix station looking forward.
Some people in costume!
A gym troop came out to entertain.
The Mayor made an appearance to say a few words.
A really great day, and I have nothing but rave reviews for the Plaid Philosophers: absolutely genuine guys not to mention extremely talented musicians. They too had complimentary and kind words for me, which really makes the job fulfilling and worthwhile.
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About Me
- Turtle Guy
- Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- English student, Pottery enthusiast, Yoga novice and lover of all people. I make friends over a warm handshake and a beverage. I discover, every day, someone willing to help me along my path.