The Black Parade

Sounds like a song for the dearly departed.  But it could also be the entry way to our house which is being reshaped with yet another two large black urns, in addition to the one that is already there, as well as the blackened poles and black wall art.  Last week I went for a water wade cum jog in good conditions and today was similar but I jogged along the beach separate from the water. It was really a test of the plantar fasciitis which I have been dogged with for years. This run felt good, just a slow jog to the Dell and back without stopping.  I have been continuing with the CD extractions. I have added an experiment below holding a single photo to accommodate any sound track I want to add. Check your volume or crank it up as so desired.

This one really has a silver lining

Thorn EMI

How old is something before it is officially vintage? There are rules about this sort of thing. One source I found says antique is 100 yar old and vintage is 50 yar old, but is it a problem if the thing that is now vintage was bought by yourself.  Because the record player that I saved up for when I was 12 is now over 50 yar old.  It did not travel well in the move but I just got it back from the Geelong Real Music record store and it has been fixed for $20. I can hear it now, melodiously meandering across SGT Peppers. There is a song on there I am planning to play on my Birthday. Any guesses?

Surrounded by Sound

Two sets of surround sound speakers went in today thanks to Daniels sparky work.  Trying to install this stuff after the house is built is always a pain.  The Big Mother TV has been unveiled however it is rather precariously balanced on an old wooden box we used for the spa area previously. I unpacked another 30 or so boxes today clearing the way for tomorrow's delivery from the van.

TV with a view

Bose wireless for sound but not wireless for power

Music Archive

It has taken over a year but I have completed the ripping of the record collection that had built up over the years.  I accumulated  a total of 74 bands and singers who recorded 134 records, amongst them one triple and several double albums.  The triple was George Harrison while some of the doubles  were from The Who, The Beatles, Jethro Tull and Emmerson Lake and Palmer.   The majority I acquired in the early seventies when I worked at Collins Book Depot. I would buy one album per week.  If I had to choose which album to rate as number one in that list it would be a hard choice but 10CC's Original Soundtrack would be the best.  Honourable mentions to Jethro Tull, Queen and Pink Floyd.  If anyone is interested I can copy all this material onto a USB drive and you will have an instant music library, just send me the drive. 

Beatles White Album - the last one in the list

The Small One - Decca 78 Speed

My audio digitising project has had its first request. I have not tried an antique 78 speed record before now and this double set recorded by Bing Crosby in 1947 was a challenge.  The vinyl layers were so damaged you could see a felt layer underneath where the vinyl used to cover it.  I set the needle to avoid this section but lost only a small part of the narrative.  The amount of recording time is deceiving at the 78 speed.  The double set yielded just 12 minutes of recording.  There are many clicks and pops in the background which, if I can find my way through the spectrographic analysis, may be reduced.

Note bottom right missing

Audio Spectrography reveals many glitches

School's Out

This would have to be one of my original favorite albums from the early seventies. I can remember queuing for tickets at Festival Hall for Alice Cooper. The queue went around the block.  My vinyl record has a scratch which looped endlessly in the digitised copy. But like any file you can edit it and delete the looping section.  It sounds a little messy at the join but the recording has been resurrected. One aspect I have not considered is the creation of the playlists.  One playlist per album is possible in the The Groove App.  I have placed these songs in the "ceiling". If you are outside the're in the cloud, if you are inside the're in the ceiling.  The playlist doesn't seem to stay with the songs but rather attaches to the device, i.e. devices in different rooms need the're own playlists.  I will have to check out the google home devices and chromecast devices.

I used a desk like this once

They come in threes

We watched a rerun of the War of the Worlds where Tom Cruise does a lot of running from the bad guys.  Then during my daily ripping of the old record pile I plucked out the War of the Worlds music version by Jeff Wayne.  I can't even remember buying this and it's a double album.  It is music song and a narrative by Richard Burton and this time it is set in England.  I remember listening to this story numerous times from one end to the other and you need at least 100 minutes for the whole thing.  I must have had plenty of spare time once.  Finally, the mail came and inside was a copy of Red Mars filling another gap in my Hugo  List.  The Martians are invading this address at least.

Records Restarted

I have resumed the ripping and rapping of the original records that I acquired over the years. Before I went OS I managed to get through two thirds of the pile by doing one LP per day.  Today I uncovered a classic in Quadrophenia by The Who one of the best in my collection. There was an old photocopy of a signed Allans Music Store voucher inside the cover, probably dating around 1974.

One of my best Albums ever

I can remember everyone here except "Jenny"

Cartojal

You can research a trip and plan it as you want but there will always be a surprise some where along the way and I think Cartojal may the highlight of the trip.  We were going about our business when we turn into a slightly more crowded, more noisier, more inebriated street scene.  Then we could here music of the Mariachi style, from then on it took 4 hours before we could drag ourselves away to the beach for a quick cool off dip.  They walk the streets with bottles of fruit wine called Cartojal. The bottles come with cups like shot glasses. It is a 15 percent proof brew in a frozen state that slides down so easily in the heat.  The whole street erupts in dancing with moves that everyone knows.

Spanish dancers

Three Cheers for Cartojal

Captain Rock

This is an Aussie work that I bought 40 yar ago.  The track I have featured below was a bit of an anthem when ever the group got together.  It is more remembered for "The Home among the Gumtrees".  The Pirate reminds me of Jack Black from that other School of Rock.  Converting these old records to digital is taking longer than I thought. This one does not have silence between tracks but a series of jokes and other voice overs.

Audacious Music Conversion

The Audacity software would have to be one of the best freeware programs I have downloaded. It is used to record songs on vinyl and convert them to digital MP3s.  I have finished the stack of 45s which amounted  to 80 records for 180 songs.  Around 10 were EPs .  It took another 5 days to get through that lot.
I have now read the manual  prior to trying an LP. Sgt Peppers was the first on the shelf.  The multiple track process works quite well but is still a fiddly thing when entering track titles etc.  I would estimate around 1 hr per LP for its conversion to MP3s.
My Sgt Peppers is one of the original editions complete with the paper cut outs in mint condition. This is one of the more valuable copies but there are still thousands out there. I paid $4 for it.

Old 55

Continuing the digital conversion theme, I have started on the ancient vinyl record pile that accumulated over the years before CDs. I have waded through 64 songs from last century and that is only about  one quarter of the 45s that are in the cupboard.  The quality is reasonable but there are some "noisy" recordings.  Do any of these ring a bell? Aussie bands like Axiom, Madderlake and Chain.  These 64 songs took me three days to convert to wav files.

I remember when I was Young - 1973

No Pain No Gain

That's ok if you are training but us retirees are meant to be putting our feet up, except when your back starts irking and the ever present crooked fingers are giving trouble. That's nothing compared to the pain of trying to replace a broken DVD player. Four weeks ago I placed an order for the next Panasonic model home theatre. Now they tell me its out of production and there is no replacement. I have cables in the walls I say. Sorry we only have floor standing towers.  I have now put in for a Sony complete with another set of six speakers.

Can you have a 12 speaker system?

Mussel Festival Port Arlington

And I don't mean Arnie Schwarzenegger. It was an ideal 23° and the sea food beckoned. One time in France we had a bucket of mussels. They were small but there must have been over a hundred. This time we had about 15 each but they were large. The crowds were large but manageable. Our mussels took 15 minutes but we had a walk while we waited. There were three sound stages all playing different music and all for a $2 entry fee.

After that we called into Jetty Rd beach where I tested my theory on the north facing beach being a better option when the Ocean Groove has an onshore southerly. The theory is good! No cold wind just occasional breezes. It is a flat beach with moss beds close to shore.

Mussel Beach

Cooking Demo

Jetty Rd

Hakuna Matata

I never saw the Lion King when it first came to town 12 yar ago but I did check out the matinee version today.  I think these guys were doing the puppet approach before the "Warhorse" show which I also saw a couple of years back. This was a good show that I would recommend. Not sure how many kids skipped school but it was at least one quarter of the Regent theatre. Don't forget to save up for the extras. Like the new world record we spent on parking at $70 for 3.5 hrs. Then there is the $25 book and the $41 spent on three drinks. Oh well Hakuna Matata.

I still think "Shere Khan" is a better lion name than "Mufasa" or "Simba". "Scar" is not bad though.

 

 

Purple Mermaid

I have another edition of the recent El Nido snorkelling. There was a viewing of a longer film where it was suggested an accompanying sound track would add to the film.  I spent some time trawling through a copy of the "Finding Nemo" DVD looking for the "Under the Sea" section.  After I watched the DVD and the bonus DVD, I worked out that I had the wrong film, it being on the "Little Mermaid". So I got it from ITunes and this is the new clip.

GlanceLot at White Knight

Yes there were medieval scenes on some buildings but Alice stole the show. But then there were many other shows not to mention the world cup cricket which saw an invasion of South African and Indian supporters running around as well. I would say the crowds were tight but not as tight as the Sydney Olympics on Super Saturday.  Our strategy worked well. One night at the Langham and dinner around the corner at the Curve.  Three hours of viewing the sites then 4 hours sleep until 3:00 am. It was a hot February night with 23 degress at 3:00am. Crowds were much less but there were thousands of party goers still out and about. Despite this the queue for the Angel Wings was around 20 deep at 3:30 am.  This was a good thing to cross of the list.

Alice in Wonderland

Angel in the Wings

Alignment of the Planets caused Follow Through Incident

Went to a show called Elemental. Can't remember the last time I went to a planetarium. This was more show than science.  A lot of poetic license was used to illustrate the lastest thinking on weighty matters like the cosmos and bikini design.  All the theories were mentioned Big Bang, Dark Matter, String Theory.  Sometimes a big bang is known to produce dark matter.  Whoever introduced strings into the design of a bikini is to be commended. This also was known as string theory with the final conclusion being tied into knots. Quite a juxtaposing revelation when most problems require unravelling the knotty part. 
All in all the show was worth a look. The use of live music whilst gazing at the night sky brought back memories of walking across an outback plain in South Australia some yar ago. The night sky was so big it seemed heavy with the stars.  Trying to navigate a straight line that night was harder because we just kept star gazing. 

Casey Golden Trio

We checked out the Jazz Club last night.  An intimate venue which lets you get close to the action.  The Casey Golden trio were certainly jazzing the place up. All their own original tunes as well.  Room for a grand piano, drum kit  and somewhere to stand at the bass left the small stage fairly tight. As well as the ABC jazz guys recording for their radio show. Jazz is a different style for us given that we would travel kms to hear Jethro Tull.  Showing my age here again.  This trio work well together. I notice lots of eye contact as part of the concentration to ensure the timing is true. This is calm listening compared to ACDC but well worth going along to the Jazz Club.