I am way behind on posting. My J-O-B, video making, house remodeling, class I am taking, and general nerdiness has me swamped. But…. I flew out of Seattle a little while ago and made a little film that has a fantastic view of Mt. Rainier. Enjoy.
Category: Music
Bumpershoot 2016
We have lived in Seattle for almost 8.5 years and 2016 was our first time going to Bumpershoot. When it was announced that Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were headlining – Stamps-With-Foot immediately bought 3-day passes. We saw some really great acts and I very much enjoyed the time I spent with my wife, eating faire-food, and listening to music.
Acts that we saw:
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
G-Easy
Billy Idol
Margo Price
Death Cab for Cutie
Micheal Franti and Spearhead
Tame Impala
Third Eye Blind
Kamasi Washington
Run the Jewels
The Macklemore and Michael Franti shows were our favorite and we are going to see Margo Price at The Tractor Tavern when she comes back to Seattle next month.
Film Friday – Piano Class
The Artistry of Repair:
Cool Hunting Video: Cantabile Piano Arts from Cool Hunting on Vimeo.
The Artistry of Tuning:
Tuner – The third artist from Mattias Burling on Vimeo.
Film Friday – Daniel Roberts Stringworks
Daniel Roberts Stringworks from Matt Treager on Vimeo.
Film Friday – Ed Pressnell: Dulcimer Maker
Film Friday Double Feature – Instrument Making
Film Friday – Merrill Guitars
Film Friday – Ellis Mandolins
Film Friday – Romero Banjos
Ukulele holder for my office
I have the most of the instruments hanging downstairs, but I spend the lion’s share of my day (sometimes night too 🙁 ) in my home-office upstairs. I decided that I needed a little diversion from my computer every now and then and brought a ukulele up to strum and pick when thinking hard or if the J-O-B gets me down – no one can be unhappy while playing the uke, it is physically and psychologically impossible!
I already had the perfect piece for the task: Last year in Seattle I was playing with some scrap oak flooring on the table saw and I made a modern-ish mount for some tool in my shop that I didn’t end up using. Somehow, it got lumped in with the stuff sent to France and I found it while unpacking some hand-planes. I touched it up a little, added a hanger, and mounted it on the wall under my office window – well within reach while I am sitting at either of my desks (drafting & computer). It looks great and matches my office decor AND I have found my self already absently-mindedly finger-picking while thinking on a problem or figuring out why something isn’t working right.
Film Friday – Some Foot-Stomping Music
A little Bluesy foot stomping to get things started. A cigar box guitar, mouth harp and a Farmer Footdrum make a person want to do a little busking. It is a rocking tune that really cranks up about halfway in.
A sweet cover of a sad song. I really like this lady’s voice and I have stripped the audio from this YouTube video and put it on my iPhone in a playlist
A little song set where I am originally from. I have fished in and swam in the Sabine River, saw my first aligator in its waters, BBQed on its banks, drank beer with my toes in its water, canoed a few back channels, and once even bow-fished there for carp and alligator gar.
Guitar and Ukulele wall mounts
One of the last things to deal with at our place in France was all the stringed instruments propped in corners or laying precariously on top of furniture. I wanted them out in view so they would be played instead of put in a closet somewhere, forgotten about. We want a home that is filled with music and if there is a loaner guitar or uke (LOVE the ukulele – have two) about, someone is going to pick one of them up and strum a few cords. There is nothing like a cool evening, sitting outside after a BBQ with someone softly playing a tune or two. I looked at a couple of commercial wall mounts that were pricey and didn’t really go with our decor and decided to make my own. I am sure they would look great in a studio and there was one model that would have been killer in my 15-year-old self’s poster-filled bedroom, but nothing I looked at screamed “hand-crafted” or “classy.” I went through a couple of ideas in my head that wouldn’t have really worked out for various reasons before having a light bulb moment while on a work trip in China: scrap wood + my lathe + U-hooks and some silicone tape = sweet instrument hangers that both blend with our home AND that no one else has.
This past weekend (Easter holiday), I cut five octagon blocks out of some left-over 5 inch thick pine timber and rounded the first one on the lathe. It was meant to be a prototype so I free-handed the curves without really having a design in mind before I started. It looked so great after the stain and wax went on that I took it right in and mounted it to the wall. I turned the others all with different patterns and hung them in a living-room hallway that has an awkward corner. They look great there – if my opinion counts for anything. Now there is room for 2 ukuleles, an acoustic guitar, an electric cigar-box blues machine, and a resonator banjo.
I am working on a Uke hanger for my home office as well. I spend 10+ hours on my computer or on the phone and find that it helps if I can take a little break or strum while thinking about a technical problem that is pissing me off. I wouldn’t be able to do that in a cube.
Film Friday – Guitar Build Double Feature – 12-27-13
Film Friday – From Tree to Violin
The sound of a violin playing causes an almost visceral reaction in anyone within listening distance. It can take you back to a perfect evening with someone remarkable, move you to tears thinking of the long dead, put a smile on your face, start your feet tapping, remind you of a street corner in a small European city, or fill your eyes with the smoke of a long forgotten tiny bar in the Texas Hill Country.
I have an amazing leather-bound book that was my grandfathers. It is a mostly English (a little German) treatise on building a violin and was published in 1889. There are maybe 20 full-sized patterns in it that have been removed, traced, and returned. I have no idea if my grandfather was the tracer or if he ever attempted or built the violin outlined in the book. It could have been a Bucket-List project for him, but I know he touched it and at the very least thumbed through it and looked at it sitting on the shelf that I found it on in his workshop when I was 8. Now it is on my Bucket-List.
Drinking the black stuff in Ireland
I resolved not to travel as much in 2012 as I did in 2011 (over 150K air miles), but I am not off to an auspicious start: by January 17th, I already had just over 9,000 miles and I am booked for another British/European tour in March, but I can say for a fact that 2012 has started off with much sweeter miles, My J-O-B sent me to England and Ireland for 8 days and my sweet little wife, Stamps-With-Foot, got to tag along for the first time in years. I can’t tell you how great it was to have her the with me! I slept great, I didn’t miss her when I saw some new or interesting site since she was right there. I had a dinner date every night and it was guaranteed that would be invited back to her place…
We had a day off in London and a night out in Dublin and we made the most of our time seeing old friends, visiting the V&A, taking the Globe Theatre tour, wandering through the Sherlock Homes “Museum”, visiting favorite shops, drinking Guinness, ogling the floor at Christchurch, more Guinness, and listening to Irish trad music on the top floor of Gogarty’s in Temple Bar. It was a really nice mid-winter diversion for us, though there were some tears shed over Brodie, my wife’s puppy/fur-baby, not being there to snuggle her to sleep…
