Visiting the Well

Gretsch White Penguin

A new addition to my guitar family. The Gretsch White Penguin - sometimes called (by Gretsch in their propaganda anyway) the 'Holy Grail' of electric guitars. Well it is rare and beautiful. I've never seen one in the flesh before last Saturday when this little beauty was delivered. Got it from Nigel at the Guitar Shop at Paddington in Brisbane. Great place. Go there if you're in town.

The Penguin is pictured here in my lounge room keeping company with its big brother the White Falcon. I think it will sound very fine played through a new VASE Trendsetter 60.

VASE Guitar Amplifiers

An update on our progress. Fellow VASE owner, Graham Whitehouse, wrote the following in reply to a recent enquiry:

"You heard correctly, the re-issue VASE guitar amps are coming. We are currently finalising the Trendsetter 60 which will be the first amp released complete with its companion 3 x 12 speaker cabinet loaded with Celestion Greenback Vintage 25s.

The Trendsetter 60 will be a faithful re-issue of the original; hand-wired with the best available componentry and military precision. All our cabinetry is cut on CNC routers using the best available void-free Birch ply, no chipboard in sight. We've even got the vinyl covering used on the original amps and our transformers are made in Australia to the original specifications, no Chinese out-sourcing here. All assembled right here in Brisbane as they should be.

Beyond the re-issue vintage line, we have already begun our pre-production test runs of the VASE Bass speaker cabs. A couple of select backline hire companies are stocking the V810, our 1600 watt 8 x 10" bass speaker system. These speakers are the classic 810 sound with frequency response to suit the modern bass player. All high-power Neodymium drivers, especially developed for us. As with the vintage gear, all CNC routed, precision crafted cabinets make these a pretty serious bass box; available in 2 x 10, 4 x 10, 6 x 10 & 8 x 10.   

No release date as yet but you could keep an eye on the Vase website, www.vase.com.au <http://www.vase.com.au>  for further developments. The website will be launched just prior to the release of the first amps. Pricing will be listed upon release.

So there you have it. Not long to wait for the reissue of the first new model of these classic valve guitar amps in over 30 years.

Pieces of Eight

I rediscovered a little treasure today that I thought I'd lost.

In 1985 I was given the job of establishing a team of developers to make software for education. We were given quite a free rein with our initial projects and I chose to design an adventure game. I'd been a fan of cliffhanger serials since I was a kid and particularly loved pirates. I'd also been playing adventure games for some years so decided to combine my passions.

I remember sitting down with a sketch book, a set of Rotring pens and some coloured pencils. I drew a very small map of what I considered to be a classic island on which to have an adventure. As I drew the map I created the broad narrative for the story. That little map was the beginning of the project. It was photocopied and enlarged, used to create a 'room map' to assist in refining the game logic, featured as a map in the software guide, appeared as an interactive map on screen, and was a turned into a wall poster.

Pieces of Eight went on to be one of the most successful software games ever developed for schools in Australia and was released for Apple II, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, IBM PC and later Macintosh computers. It won awards and was shown around the world. It really made my name and led me to a career in software development and multimedia. So that original map is a special little thing.

I cut it out of the sketch book and pinned it up on my noticeboard for a few years, and when I moved on it came with me and sort of hung about my offices. A few years ago now, when I left my last job to start my own business it disappeared and until last night I thought I'd left it behind.

I'm writing a paper on creativity and went looking for a particular volume of poetry in my bookshelves. I'm not even sure what made me choose that book - a sixth sense I guess, because tucked away between the pages was my little map. I have no idea why I put it there - because it must have been me. I haven't touched that book in years.

It was a feeling of absolute delight to find it, not that it's particularly impressive, certainly not valuable and hardly going to change my life now - but I know it did then. That little thing represents a tipping point in my professional life and just having it again will allow me to more completely retell the story to others.

Map of Online Communities

Webcomic xkcd has created a great map of online communities. (Moon, you'll love this).

I've wandered around in a few of those lands as a freebooter and mercenary but I guess homebase is in the Blogipeligo.

Where is your home port?

Vale Lobby Loyde

One of Australia’s most influential guitarists over the past 40 years died last weekend from lung cancer. Lobby Loyde was a Queensland country boy and moved to Brisbane in the sixties to play with a number of local bands including the Purple Hearts. Lobby went on to play with the Wild Cherries, Coloured Balls, Aztecs, and Rose Tattoo etc. He was an influential composer and producer of rock and blues and is cited by many musicians from Australia and elsewhere as a prime influence.

I was lucky to meet Lobby last year at the Purple Hearts reunion gig which VASE amps supported. Just being back stage with him and talking about the craft of guitar playing in particular and the history of the music scene in general was a great experience. For all his influence he remained a very humble guy. He was 65.

Read more about him here.

FMOM Industries Wave Disrupter Gun

Every now and again you see something you just have to own. If you're lucky it's something that will be useful. If you're really lucky (which comes in handy if it's expensive) it's not only useful but your partner approves of it. If you're seriously unlucky it's neither of those things, but dammit you just have to have it.

Well I've found one. Those clever characters at the Weta Workshop (who made all those wonderful weapons and armour for the Lord of the Rings franchise) have made the all time great looking raygun. I've wanted one ever since I was a kid. Indeed I've owned a few plastic ones over the years, but this is the real thing (minus the vapourising ray gun bit ala Marvin the Martian). Hey, but you can't have everything I suppose.

Paw, I gotta get me one o' them fancy shootin' irons.

Conference Bike

For miles and miles of smiles ...

Well, it's probably a fair indication of my corporate world-weariness that my first thought in seeing this contraption was one of retribution. Having finally lost the will to live after one too many endless staff meetings I can picture our kamikaze Dilbert inviting six of his mortal enemies from prairie dog town to join him and try out his new toy. Maybe a quick blast down by the Old Cliff Road?

I'm sure the Conference Bike does all the wonderful things it claims and brings happiness and peace to all it touches. Maybe just not to me.

100 Suns

I don’t usually write on topics that have a political bent, there are plenty of other people to do that, but I was checking out some of my blogroll favourites today and came across an entry by Moon River. Moon posts beautiful entries that include visual things I love – evocative images, ancient maps etc. The one that caught my eye today though was one featuring the work of Michael Light.  This book and exhibition, 100 SUNS features images of some (yes, only some) of America’s nuclear tests between 1945 and 1992. Text describing this book and exhibition:

Between 1945 and 1992 the United States detonated 1,149 nuclear test explosions. Until 1962 the tests were conducted in the atmosphere and oceans. 106 of the 216 above ground blasts were exploded 63 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada. The remaining were detonated at the Enewetak or Bikini Atolls in the Pacific Ocean. The immediate and lasting consequences of these tests were unforeseen.

Michael Light's installation, 100 SUNS, was first presented at the Hosfelt Gallery in 2003 and is currently traveling. At the heart of this exhibition are 100 photographs culled by Michael Light from the U.S. National Archives and the records of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The re-photo-graphed images depict above-ground tests at or shortly after the moment of explosion. Utilizing the found photographs along with text and photographic imagery shot by Light, the installation raises palpable issues about "weapons of mass destruction" in the hands of any nation.

The title, 100 SUNS, refers to the response by J. Robert Oppenheimer to the world's first nuclear explosion in New Mexico when he quoted a passage from the Bhagavad Gita, the classic Vedic text, "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth at once in the sky, that would be like the splendour of the Mighty One... I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." This was Oppenheimer's attempt to describe the otherwise indescribable.

These often terrifyingly beautiful images illustrate with absolute clarity why nuclear weapons need to be proscribed. It also showcases the hypocrisy of the members of the ‘nuclear club’ when they threaten to ‘intervene’ when other nations get close to doing something similar, even though they themselves have wreaked untold damage on the environment and the human psyche by carrying out their testing over decades.  It becomes hypocritical when they try to adopt the white hat when pontificating. They be should be honest and don the black before they speak. Fess up. You understand that dark place because you’ve embraced it yourself.

How To Write Good

Thanks to the Notebookism site for this link.

Ever wanted to write betterer than anyone else??? It ain't impossible. Just follow these rools.

Here are some samples:

1. Always avoid alliteration.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague—they're old hat.
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
8. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
9. Contractions aren't necessary.
10. Do not use a foreign word when there is an adequate English quid pro quo.

and the final tip:

    52. And always be sure to finish what

Superhero?

Let's start off the New Year in a highly intelligent and significant fashion.

Which superhero are you?  Take the test.

Apparently I'm the Green Lantern. That's a bit spooky actually as I really enjoyed the comic book as a kid (with Hal Jordan as GL), have two Green lantern t-shirts and a plastic Green Lantern ring that glows in the dark that I got from who knows where about a million years ago.