Last Nights Gig Went Well

OK, so last night I played an event at the Jefferson County Historical Society and was pleased with how I did. I played just fine. No complaints. I will add that it was the first time I have used the LR Baggs GigPro pre-amp. What a terrific little piece of equipment. More on that at a later date. Am in a hurry at the moment.

Car on Snowy Highway

A car travels North on a snowy, icy  interstate Rt. 81 in Watertown, N.Y.   photo by Gary Walts

Yesterday began with a temperature of 4 below zero at my home in Chaumont, NY.  By mid day it was 22 above. I was one of 3 entertainers to play at a spaghetti dinner fund raising event at the Italian American Club in Watertown. I played for one hour, 12:00 to 1:00
How did I do? Well, sucky I thought. I did get very positive feed back from the people that were there, including my fellow musicians. What I do not understand is how I can play so well one night ( as I did a couple weeks ago at Cafe Mira)  and then so poorly (by comparison) another time. I suppose it all boils down to you have good days and you have bad days. 
Here is an example: At Cafe Mira I played an arrangement of the Beatles tune Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by the Australian guitaris Joe Washington. It is a fun arrangement but difficult. In recent months I have been polishing it up and it is still not to the level I would trulky like it to be, but, It's pretty darn close. I am comfortable with it. I've played it out frequently in the last few months and it always goes over well. I played it GREAT at cafe Mira. But yesterday, I forgot a passage. I fumbled all over for a couple of moments wondering what in the Hell was I doing, where was I going? It is in comprehensible to me how such things occur. I also had big trouble with Elton John's Your Song as arranged by Larry Beekman. It started in the opening measure. I stuck with it though and after some confusion pulled it off. It is such things that drove me to abandon music some 25 or so years ago and just stick with photography.

Tomorrow, Valentines Day I am playing an event at the Jefferson County Historical Society, something with a chocolate and wine theme. We will see how that goes.
Good night all.

Winter Photo: Weeds in Snow

This Winter photo was snapped in Pulaski NY a couple of weeks ago. I parked my car in a bank parking lot  and spotted these weeds standing in the snow. The background is a cement wall of a building. The photo was made with a Nikon D7000 with a 70-200mm Nikon f2.8 lens. The lens creates a shallow depth of field that throws the background so far out of focus it is not recognizable.

These weeds caught my eye as I was parking my car in a bank parking lot. Snap snap... another Winter Photo.

So far February has been typical for northern New York.  It was 3 below zero here in Chaumont this morning. Today I had the pleasure of photographing Tom Dotterer at his liquor store on North Salina St in Syracuse. He is 77 years old and a well known baseball coach for many years at Christian Brothers Academy. About a week ago he was shot in the eye during a robbery of his store. The gun was a pellet gun of some sort so the wound was not life threatening. In fact, he was back to work at the store the next day. Sadly though, some days later his eye had to be surgically removed. The photos I made today will be published this Sunday. Tom Dotterer is a great man. He talked much about philosophy and his love of books and poetry. I was most impressed. I actually met him a couple of years ago when I photographed him for the sports section of the Post-Standard while he was coaching a baseball game.  There was no time to get to know him  then. It's funny how things work out. If I had not stayed on with the Post or had not been offered a position with our new company, Syracuse Media Group, I would not have had today's experience.

Snow Today on Super Bowl Sunday

Woke up on Super Bowl Sunday to a lot of snow here in Chaumont, NY. The photos are of my house on Washington St, and a view looking down Washington Street as seen from the end of my drive way.

Photo of Snow Plow in Pulaski, N.Y.

I snapped this photo of a snow plow from the window of my car while parked on the side of the street. This is Port St. in the village of Pulaski, N.Y.

We are well into the thick of Winter here in Northern NY. For the past week temperatures have been below zero to single digits above zero. However, yesterday it began to warm some. This evening there is a bit of freezing rain. Freezing rain can be one of the most trecherous of weather conditions.

Tonight I played background music during the cocktail hour at the North Country Arts Council annaul dinner. The event was held at Maggies on the River Restaurant in Watertown, NY. My cousin Juanita & her husband Steve turned out for the event. Also, my good friend Greg Lago from Clayton was there. we sat together for dinner. Greg is a great, all around artist. His specialty is wood engraving, but he is also a consumate wood sculptor and painter, AND, an all around intellect. It was a great pleasue being with him as I have not seen him since this past August. The dinner was held in a LARGE room. I had my Fishman Solo Amp turned up high, more so than I usually use it. There were easily over 150 people there. all mof thos folks chatting made it difficult for me to hear myself play. I does not seem like that could be possible, but it is. I must get a monitor of some sort for these situations.

Open Mic Night At Aubrey's In Cape Vincent N.Y.

The photos presented here were snapped by me during an open mic night at Aubrey's Restaurant in Cape Vincent, NY.  The event was hosted by my long time friend Phil Dumond. He had been after me for a long time to come down and play, so finally, this past saturday I did just that. While there I snapped some photos. It was a really fun time. Phil is a very entertaining fellow and a terrific host. I played a few pieces and did OK. I have played better before.  If my sound were a bit louder I think I would have done better. I find that I can never get enough volume when plugged into some one elses syste. With my Fishman Solo Amp I do just fine. The problem has to do with nylong strung classical guitar. It has a piezo electric crystal pick up in that was installed back around 1987. It was one of the first of that sort available. I suppose there are newer devices I could replace it with. But, I believe all I need is a pre-amp. I have a Zoom A2 effects box that I though would work as a preamp, but that didn't really give me much more boost. So, a couple days ago I ordered an LR Baggs GigPro universal preamp. I am hoping it will be just the thing to boost me up in such situations.

Tom O'Rile, 2nd frm left on bass. Far right is Paul ferguson on keyboard. 2nd from right on guitar is Phil Dumond.

Ian Wagbone.

Otherwise, I was only mildly nervous so I don't think that affected my playing too much. It seems to me my playing is always better when I can hear myself playing loud & clear. With that in mind I have also been thinking about a wireless in ear monitor. That may be the ticket.

2002 Dodge Caravan Radiator Repair

This is me holding the worn out radiator I removed from my 2002 Dodge Caravan. My red, 2005 Caravan is in the background also.

My 2002 Dodge Caravan has had a leaky radiator for quite some time. I put some Bars leak in it a while back and it seemed to slow the leak considerably. Recently it has gotten worse. A close inspection showed I needed to replace the unit. I bought one at Auto Zone. It came to $151.00 and change, including tax. Removing the old one & installing the new on was easy. There are 5 small screws that hold a splash shield in place. The sheild spans the width of the radiator and is located on top of the radiator area. A cross member that secures the upper part of the radiator was removed by removing 4 bolts. All on top, easy to see and access. Two cooling fans held in place by a single screw each, also easy to see & get at. Unplug the electric connections to the fans. set the fans aside. Undo the upper & lower radiator hoses, lift out the old radiator. Put the new on in place & reattach everything. The entire job took me one hour and forty minutes. That time includes cleaning up and putting all of the tools away. It was a pretty nice day for working on it outdoors: 30 degrees, partly sunny, no wind. I hope all is well in your world.

I Buy A Used Ramirez R4 Classical Guitar

I play my 1984 Guild Mark V classical guitar at a wedding December 21, 2012

A couple weeks ago I bought a used Ramirez R4 classical guitar. I have been looking for another guitar but good ones do not show up locally very often. I searched Guitar Center's web site and found four of these Ramirez guitars, one each at four different stores around the country. I bought the one from their Fairfax, Virginia store. These guitars sell new for $3,000.00. I paid $1,500.00. That was the price at all of their stores for this model used instrument. This one was made in 2007. The experience wasn't the easiest. I spent a lot of time on the phone with an inexperienced employee which resulted in a convoluted mess with my credit card. I had to call the card company and spent more time trying to get that all sorted out. All told i was a solid two weeks trying to make the purchase and get the guitar delivered to my local Guitar Center store in Syracuse, N.Y. Finally, the big day arrived. I went to the store, opened up the box took it out it inspect & play it. It was a very nice looking instrument, appeared well made. I strummed a chord & it was out of tune, in fact the strings were loose. No problem, I began to tune. The first thing I noticed was the tuning machines felt somewhat cheap. They worked OK, just had a cheap feel. The ones on my 1984 Guild Mark V are vastly superior. After it was tuned I discovered almost every fretted note rattled or buzzed. There was no way you could play this guitar with a solid rest stroke. It was horrible. A closer examination revealed that once upon a time the bridge had lifted up causing an arched shaped cavity between it & the body. This cavity had been filled with some sort of epoxy or glue, and done poorly. My suspicion is that someone left this guitar in the sun or the heat and then initiated a home repair, botched it up and left the guitar in a most unsatisfactory state of playability. The GREAT part of this story is that Guitar Center has a terrific return policy. The would have let me take it home to evaluate for 30 days. However, it only took 15 minutes in the store to discover it was flawed. So they cheerfully refunded (credited my credit card)my money. All of it. I didn't even have to pay for shipping or handling. That was terrific. My final feeling about the R4 is that they are probably a good instrument, however, I would never buy a guitar for $3,000.00 that had cheesey tuners like this one did. In fact, for $1500.00 you should get much better tuning machines.

New Years Day 2013

Happy New Year everyone. Today is New Years day, the first day of 2013. I am hoping for a productive, fruitful year.
Today is also the 24th day I have been ill with a cold or infection of some sort. It will not go away. It began on Sunday, Dec. 9th when I awoke with a mild sore throat. That soreness was gone the next day, but since then I have had assorted bouts of sneezing, coughing, sinus congestion and the like. It's been mild enough that it has not detracted from me from my normal routine. Maybe more tired than normal. I simply am not myself and I am getting fed up with it. I suppose I better get the doctors.

It is 8:30pm and the temperature outside is 10 degrees.

I snapped this snowman on Leray St. in Watertown, N.Y. I used a Nikon D7000 with a 70-200mm f2.8 Nikon lens.

I have been watching episodes of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone sporadically throughout the day on the Syfy Channel. That series was some of the all time best TV ever aired. Well written, well produced.

Dressing In Layers For Winter Warmth Outdoors

Winter is now well upon us here in Northern N.Y. Yesterday it was a mere 7 degrees F. Last night was windy and began to snow. This morning there was a good 12 to 18 inches of snow with drifts over 2 feet. Blowing and drifting snow can create some unusual shapes and patterns that no person could duplicate. The picture presented here was of a snow formation in a kitchen window of my home in Chaumont, NY. What is interesting is that somehow the wind managed to blow minute bits of snow between the storm wind and the screen, causing it to pile up in the form you see in the photo. The base of the storm window, where it meets the sill, has two small weep holes. They permit moisture from condensation to exit. As best as I can figure, the wind blew the minute, icy snow particles through these weep holes.

Snow formation in my kitchen window, Chaumont, N.Y.   photo by Gary Walts

Today's high temperature reached 23F. I was supposed to teach guitar today, but one by one my students called to say they would not be there, so I had the day off. At 1:00 I went out and shoveled the driveway & sidewalk. I did some other puttering around, brought in dome firewood from the wood pile, walked to the store and the like. All told I spent a solid four hours out doors. I never felt cold. The key thing to staying warm outside in Winter is to wear layers. I was wearing a turtle neck shirt. Over that a flannel shirt. Then a fleece vest. On top of all that I was wearing a long sleeved fleece with a zippered turtle neck. Then I had on Winter boots and a knit hat, a toque. In my opinion a toque is an essential Winter garment. The next is a turtle neck or any other zippered garment that comes up around the neck like a turtle neck. I usually do not wear long underwear until the temperature starts getting near zero. I have also found that with a good pair of Winter boots I never need more than one pair of socks. In fact, I believe that most people wearing more than one pair of socks have cold feet. I believe it is because the socks are too small and doubling them compresses them, defeating the insulating value of the layers. That effect is compounded by cramming their double socked feet into their normal shoes or boots, compressing everything even more. On occasion I wear two pair of socks, but that is rare. 99.5% of the time it is just one. When I do wear a second pair they are made of wool and are much larger than my everyday socks. I have small feet. For most of my adut life I have worn a size 8 1/2 to 9 shoe. The width of the shoe dictates whether it's the 8.5 or the nine. Anyhow, my Winter boots are a size 10. This gives my single, or double socked feet plenty of room. No restrictions. My feet stay warm. So, to stay comfortable outdoors for extended perionds dress in thre to five layers on your upper body. My lower body gets by with two to three layers. That would be regular underwear briefs and pants, or long underwear and pants. For athird layer it would be roomy overalls or extra large jeans, or snow pants. For my feet it is a good Winter boot with one or two pair of socks. If I have the maximum number of layers as out lined above, I can spend a good four hours in 20 below zero weather comfortably.

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

It is Christmas Eve, 2012 and I have linked to a video of me playing It Came Upon A Midnight Clear. This is a Christmas song composed by Richard S. Willis (February 10, 1819 – May 10, 1900) The arrangement I am playing is by John Fahey (February 28, 1939 – February 22, 2001) I kept it short, no repeats. We had some family over for a couple of hours this evening, tomorrow we go to The Better half's daughter's house for Christmas dinner. Hope you all have a very merry Christmas.