A Series on The Grateful Dead

Just noticed this morning, over at NPR.  Will get back to it later in the week, as events allow.

All for now, off to ride momentarily.

And Now Bob Weir

Jerry Garcia some time ago, Phil Lesh in late '24, and now  Bob Weir has left the building.  Just the way it goes.

Reminder: Grand Ole Opry's 100th Tonight

Link to earlier blog post here.

ps, the next day Saturday 29th: Pretty amazing show.  It started with Ricky Skaggs whipping out a tune on "Uncle Jimmy" Thompson's first fiddle used on the Grand Ole Opry a century earlier, and then finished up an extra half-hour over the allotted two and a half hour time slot.  Not that anybody complained about that!

pps: Sounded great on AM.

Grand Ole Opry Marks 100 Next Friday

As a reminder (mostly to self), the Grand Ole Opry will have its 100th anniversary show on November 28th – that's next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  Don't forget to tune in.  I have no idea who's on the schedule, but I'm guessing that it'll be all over the WSM web site by this time next week.

Remember, just as with classical music being performed on period instruments (see Academy of Ancient Music), it's far better to listen to the Grand Ole Opry on AM radio.  Fortunately this is fairly simple across most of the eastern half of the United States during dark evening hours: tune to 650 AM just before 8pm EST and you ought to have a listenable signal.  You may have to physically turn a portable radio to point it toward Nashville; their internal antennas are somewhat directional.  Of course, being out of a city center (this is country music after all) and having a good radio will help considerably, but on the whole it's a pretty easy exercise.  If the ionosphere doesn't cooperate (or worse, you're stuck in a city), streaming from the above-linked web site is a lesser but tolerable substitute.

Anyway, don't let this one slide.  Tune in for a little piece of history as it happens.

More 70's than Jimmy Carter on a Moped

My copy of 1973's Buckingham Nicks arrived today, and after two listens through it's pretty good and about what I expected.  That is to say, it is very much in the mode of the eponymous 1975 Fleetwood Mac album, but more country-ish guitar driven and of course missing all the touches the rest of Fleetwood Mac brought to that album.  Fans will immediately recognize the one song that was later re-recorded by the full band, and there are a number of guitar moves that were recognizably recycled later on as well.  The whole feel though is that of an early-mid 70's artifact.  For example, Without A Leg To Stand On has a real Cat Stevens vibe.

Here, have a real review by a real reviewer at Louder Sound.

Hey, if you like it you like it, and I like it.  After years of hearing snips and scraps of the album on various nooks of the internet, it's great to have the entire thing in hand.

From Nashville to Apalach

I see that Mark Wills will be on the Grand Ol Opry both tonight (Friday) and tomorrow.  You can listen on WSM 650 AM or figure it out for online.  I'm sure it'll be for just a couple of songs.  Then, he'll be the headliner at the Seafood Festival on Saturday Nov. 1st.  See y'all there.

Life is Short and Time is Tight. Read the Abstracts.

Over at Books, Bikes, & Boomsticks Tam writes on the problems associated with reading a summary.  Here, it's short, go read the whole thing: Soulless Drones

<insert schmaltzy interlude music here>

OK, we're all back.  For great art, sure, I'll agree that one has to read / listen / watch the entire piece as presented.  However, if you just want to get caught up on the n movies you missed in the Avengers movie series over the past m summers so that you can go to an afternoon matinee and enjoy it with friends – without having to spend a week of catch-up in front of the tube – nah, go ahead and skip to the Wikipedia plot summaries.  You won't have missed much anyway.  Long-series TV shows that start off promising but take a dip in the second year?  Sure, skip ahead with the summaries and see if the third year picks up to determine if it's worth your time to work through the series.  That politics-tainted speculative fiction (i.e., really bad near-future sci-fi) potboiler that everyone's talking about?  Definitely.  You'll want to know a little about what Cousin Hal or Aunt Margaret are going on about at the next family gathering, but you probably don't want to take that 500 page slog.  Again, when it comes to real art don't take any shortcuts, but when it comes to lesser works, go for the bottom line and get on with life.

Taking this a step further, who doesn't cull through the titles, then skim through the half-dozen abstracts, then really read only one or two papers each month in their favorite journals?  There just isn't time enough to keep up in a field any other way.  

Across Franklin County via 80m

I knew it would work – it's only about 26 miles and just over the horizon – but until you actually get it to work, it's best to assume that it doesn't work.  A friend in the Carrabelle area just put up a low 80m dipole (i.e., NVIS sky-warmer), and I've got that 21' zepp stretched horizontally over a rooftop at my place downtown that sort of tunes 80m – the new grounding system has helped a lot – so we had to test this potential link.  Works great, 25 watts was enough to make the hop, and 50 watts cleaned the signal up considerably, so check that box, 80m (i.e., near 3.9 MHz) works well enough for cross-county comms off my tiny zepp.  Good to know, good to have tested and made work.  Will test further this week with the North FL Phone net.

Inset: propagation wheel showing the best bands for this hop.  Surprisingly, 30m looks good here too, but that's digital-only (counting CW as digital), and we were using voice.  As usual for NVIS work, the real answer is 80m by night and 40m by day.  Be sure to click to embiggen the image, because squinting that hard would be ridiculous.

Green line is the short path (26 miles), red line is the long path (24,000 miles).

That accomplished, I dialed over to WSM to listen to the Grand Ole Opry and ran smack into Old Crow Medicine Show's short set.  Not having checked the schedule, that was a treat.  Later, dishes done and while reading the manual for the FT-710, I flipped on WSM again to maybe pick up the Opry's second show, and there they were again.  Second helping!

Phil Lesh Checks Out at 84

Article at Stereogum.  Of unspecified causes, but after surviving hep C, a liver transplant, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and the 60's while leading – not just running with – his crowd, 84's a mighty good run.

I'll sit down with a bottle of red whisky and toast Phil and the rest of his band later this evening.  Not playing any cards though.

Quick Mention: New FT-710

I was having some trouble with the FT-1200's digital port and frankly just hated using the FT-891, so I traded them both in on a new Yaesu FT-710.  I'll post some more on that second one later (it's going to be pretty negative), but on to the new radio and the good news.  The FT-710 came in on Saturday, and now that I've made a few SSB contacts and gotten the digital inputs sorted out, I'll say that (a) the digital signal I/O port stuff easy enough to set up, (b) the noise reduction is amazing and extremely useful, (c) in a handful of contacts I've gotten good signal reports, and (d) I'm keeping it.  Lots to love about this radio, but also lots to get used to.  Control-wise, it's half-way between a tiny backpacker like the FT-857d and a full-size desk monster like the FT-1200.  For the moment though I'll just post some pictures and get on with the day.

Much handier size for my purposes, with everything I need plus a number of things that I don't.

However to be of any use it all it has to play country music.  Does it?  Damn straight.

Picks up WSM just fine.  Eddie Stubbs would approve.  Look at that beautiful double-sideband AM signal on the waterfall.

Much, much more to sort out on this radio, but the basics are all in place.  Two big questions are how much will I take it to the field, and is it enough to justify the expense and clutter of a roll cage for it?  Only time will tell.  Onward to other things for the moment.

One for this Week

It's a slightly upbeat (as much as one can be about these things) song about a life well-lived.  RIP Earl Grey the Cat.

Bob Dylan Plays New Orleans

Article over at the Times-Picayune

The 82-year-old Bob Dylan's New Orleans concert was extremely Bob Dylan-ish

As well it should be.  Wish I'd been there.  The cell phone treatment is a good idea, deserves emulation.

The Keys

But you're probably not going to like 'em all that much.  Behold:

From SMBC sometime last week.  Link here.  Be sure to click through for the mouse-over & big red button.

Still Good for a Laugh

Damn, I remember seeing this on the live broadcast.  Been a while.  For some reason it crossed my path again this week.  The late 70's weren't all bad.

OCMS at the Opry, Tonight AND Tomorrow

650 kilohertz, amplitude modulation, starts at 0100z (8pm EST), & point that antenna towards 36N 86.8W (near Nashville TN).  Or you can cheat and just stream it from here.

Old Crow Medicine Show, Live and bounced off the ionosphere tonight & tomorrow.

In case you need a pre-show refresher, here's your catch-up listen and here's all about the show.

Let's Get This Week Started

Some things are so great that they need no explanation.  Others merely defy explanation.  Some achieve both.

Bill "Sauce Boss" Wharton Plays the AYC

Last night, so if you weren't there you missed it.  Anyway, a mighty fun time was had by all.  I remember seeing him play in the FSU student union back in the 80's, then at the Biloxi Crawfish Festival in '06.  He was good then, and has only improved with time.  What's more, his whole stage act is great.  One minute he's belting out blues edging on blues-rock, then the next he's doing a snake oil salesman impression to promote his hot sauce (see merch table), then he's back to stirring his gumbo pot – with a bowl for everyone (long as it lasts) when they wind down for the evening.  Great listening, great fun.  Go see him if you can!

Links: Sauce Boss main page | Tour Dates | Apalachicola Yacht Club page

Raise One for Joe Strummer!

... for he died 21 years ago today, so Death is now drinking-legal age.  Medium-longish article at LouderSound, mostly a post-Clash biography.  Go & read over this long Christmas weekend.  In the meantime, have a listen:

All I've got for the day.

45 years of The Clash's "Give'em Enough Rope"

As of today!  Article over at UCR.  Scroll down for a bonus article ranking of all Clash albums.  Despite its usual low ranking in these sorts of lists, it's always been a personal favorite.  I never quite clicked with Sandinista! or – despite a handful of excellent tracks – Combat Rock.  Give'em Enough Rope always does the trick though, especially with the lyrics about a jailbird physicist.

Cool cover art, even if I don't agree with the sentiment.

Musical Interlude

Straight from New Orleans, The Tangiers Combo:

That was a fun evening.  More on the group at their web site.