John Hendow

Last night The Preons had a really great practice. We’ve been getting into some interesting stuff lately with experimentation and exploratory free-form sections. The band has been working on songs for the upcoming recording sessions and it’s beginning to sound more solid. We should be ready to start putting down the reference tracks pretty soon. Last night we spent some time running through older material as well… it had been a while since we ran through songs like “Listing and Lost”, “Grove of the Patriarchs”, and “The Conflict of the Cobra Kai”. While we were at it, we dug into “48 Express” and “Charlie Munden”. It’s interesting to hear how the band has solidified and become more relaxed. We haven’t played a live show in a while, and we’re definitely ready to hit the stage again soon.

I almost never read the Sunday comics any more. However, today I discovered the author of “Pearls Before Swine” (Stephen Pastis) has an awesomely funny blog site. It also happens to be a WordPress site, which makes it ever awesomer. Enjoy.

On Saturday 2/13 the 1 Uppers performed at Slim’s Last Chance Chili Shack in Seattle. It’s a cozy bar with a great vibe, and we were definitely in our element with great chili, tasty beer (served in jelly jars) and a cozy stage. We were the final act on a three-band bill, so we spent time  listening to the other bands play and chatting with friends. Our set was pretty tight and felt great. My fellow electric guitarist Kris Geren wasn’t here for the gig, which left me with some BIG boots to stumble around in. First off, I couldn’t figure out how to set up my amp… I like to have it on the floor because it benefits from the bass coupling effect when sitting directly on stage. But it would have been firing right into my ankles, which isn’t any good for being able to hear it. I wound up pulling a chair up on stage and perching the amp on top. This worked pretty well and I could hear myself at a moderate volume.

The set consisted of the usual mix of originals and covers. I felt that it went well. Jon Hyde and I spent the evening flipping solos back and forth, sometimes sharing sections and trading ideas. On the Lloyd Green tune “3 Picks” I had a double solo, covering a section that usually goes to Kris. This was one of those moments when I did my best to sound like two guitarists, rather than attempting to simply run a solo throughout the entire section. It’s always interesting to have this kind of challenge. We played an original “Fall Back” at a slow pace, which brought out a new level of melancholy. As we started that song it seemed like we were struggling with whether to pick it up or play it slower. Within 16 bars we had settled into the tempo and it became a great rendition.

All in all, a good night with the band and fun one. The 1 Uppers rhythm section is very solid, and it’s a gas to set up those great country grooves with Caben and Eric.  Jon Hyde rocked the steel as always. David was in good form, and played a fine show despite battling a cold. I look forward to the next gig, and to having Kris return to the fold. If you haven’t visited the 1 Uppers web site lately, I’ve made a few updates. Stop on by and click around.

Blade Runner is my favorite movie. I’ve seen it in the theater on each of the various releases and it continues to hold its position as my #1 fave. I’ve been considering the purchase of the film in DVD but with so many versions – and now the various BluRay versions – it seemed like a huge effort to determine which one to get. Well, it was made pretty simple earlier today when I found this special online offering the 5 DVD BluRay mega-mondo-ubercool edition for $14. As of mid-day 2/17 it still worked, so if you’re reading this post and it interests you, get on over there and start clicking.

So spake Rutger Hauer, reciting the final lines of replicant Roy Batty: I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams … glitter in the dark near Tanhauser Gate. All those … moments will be lost … in time, like tears … in rain. Time … to die.

The main thing about getting and staying in shape is that you have to do it. Back when I was at Starbucks I took advantage of the generous offer they made to employees; they provided membership and coaching at a fitness organization. I was probably in the best shape of my life at that point. I’ve been a little scattered and haven’t kept up the weights and cardio, and I can tell! So, it’s back to the gym for me!

Today I moved this site to a new host. That’s pretty cool.

I admit that I’m one of those users who modifies gear and is always wishing there was just one more feature aboard… and as such I provide feedback to most of my gear manufacturers. One of the mainstays on my pedalboard is the Line6 POD XTLive, which I’ve had for a number of years and like reasonably well. I haven’t upgraded to the X3Live because it didn’t seem like a justifiable expense for the feature set.

But if Line6 were to build a new POD to my specs, I’d be the first guy to buy it. Here is the list of features it should have in my shiny imagination:

• Make this unit physically smaller. It’s too large and heavy considering what it does. I’d like to see the unit scaled down by at least 1/3. Make it the same size as the M9, but keep the expression pedal. Put the switches a little closer together. If this beastie occupied less space on my pedalboard I’d be much happier.
• Get rid of the plastic stomp switches and replace them with standard metal switches. These should be lit when active.
• The small LCD is fine for displaying multiple lines of text. I’d like to see an additional readout that is visible from eye level on stage. It should be capable of displaying at least 8 characters of text at 1″ tall.
• Get rid of the external transformer and put this inside the unit. I know this seems counter to my first request of making it smaller. It should be possible put the transformer inside the unit and having a standard IEC power cord.
• Make the pertinent button labels backlit from inside the unit. If this is impractical (uh, how much can an LED cost?), how about allowing the USB connector on the back of the unit to power a laptop LED gooseneck light? That way we can see our pedalboards on dark stages. Another benefit of having a powered USB port: you could plug in your iPhone charger right into your pedalboard. I frequently charge my phone between soundcheck and the gig, and this would be a simple way to do it.
• Get rid of MIDI on this unit. In fact, let’s get rid of MIDI entirely on everything. USB  for the win! It’s bidirectional, faster, and more reliable / stable. MIDI is akin to the telegraph. It served its purpose when the buffalo still roamed. But it’s the year 2010, and while we didn’t get those cool jetpacks as promised (dammit!) we can at least embrace USB and allow our music toys to gracefully daisy-chain.
• Include a physical docking space where the Line6 wireless receiver can be integrated right into the unit and powered interally. Or just build this in. The Line6 wireless systems are great. I love mine. Build it right into the unit please.
• Wanna get REAL crazy? Let’s put Bluetooth capabilities into this system and build a small Bluetooth retrofit for guitars. I’d love to control patch changes wirelessly by turning a knob or pressing a button on my guitar. Or put the transmitter on my guitar strap, right on the wireless unit I’m already using!

Hey Line6, if you use my ideas you owe me a beer. And one of these new units. And a pony.

According to the Google blog there is a possibility that some test communities might get Gigabit fiber (!) installed on a test basis. I find this interesting for several reasons, and think Google may be in a position to get a respectable bit of market share on this initiative. On a nationwide basis there we’re seeing a slow implementation of fiber to most communities, and what’s available isn’t all that fast compared with European and Asian markets. I’m in the technology industry and specialize in big-bandwidth projects. It doesn’t matter why the US has lagged behind in building and delivering this service. What’s important is that more and more end users are abandoning their Cable TV in favor of getting entertainment via the cloud. The value in a high-speed broadband connection cannot be over-emphasized; we’re already seeing SaaS and cloud-based storage become commonplace for household consumers – and Google has been in front of this wave (pun intended) for most of it. So, commoditizing the delivery of broadband itself allows us to have reasonably powerful machines at home with cloud scalability available on demand, along with nearly limitless storage. All that magic power and space exists “out there”, can be centrally managed / backed up for security and efficiency, and a fat pipe means it behaves more as if it were right inside your local machine.

Yes, it also means we can watch high-quality video on demand and eventually consume media without being shackled to the inaction of profit-driven cable / satellite providers. My gripes with Comcast digital TV have little to do with the content itself; it’s that their delivery vehicle is so clunky… horrid slow ugly interfaces on the menus / DVR, miserable artifact-laden over-compression and near-daily error messages popping up on clicking “next page”. Comcast’s broadband internet isn’t fast enough to allow my media computer to be the only source of video signal, and proprietary hardware / software decoding is how they optimize their content (and retain an end-to-end monopoly on its management). With legitimate competition for TRUE broadband delivery, those other providers will need to step it up; ultimately that’s good for everyone including them. Google, I await your shiny fiber photons with great anticipation.

The 1 Uppers will be performing this Saturday at Slim’s. As part of my preparation for this weekend’s gig I’m doing some practicing at home. It’s also an opportunity to continue the fine-tunining of the pedalboard. We are likely to surprise the audience with a few new items, and naturally you’ll be hearing some favorites as well. The band has been working on recording a CD and we’re making good progress on it. Hopefully we’ll be ready to begin mixing and mastering this recording in the next month or so. I still need to finish up some solos and stuff, so a couple more studio days loom in the near distance. Come on out this weekend and hear The 1 Uppers!

This weekend we extended our subscription to The Seattle Opera through the 2010-2011 season. The operas scheduled for next season are all wonderful selections:

• Tristan and Isolde (Wagner)
• Lucia de Lammermoor (Donizetti)
• Barber of Seville (Rossini)
• Don Quixote (Massenet)
• The Magic Flute (Mozart)

I’m unfamiliar with the Donizetti opera, so this will be an interesting first exposure to it. The others are absolute classics and very familiar to music majors. I recall analyzing The Magic Flute for several weeks in a cross-functional music / history class. For the Rossini opera, we’ll be studying “The Rabbit of Seville” to ensure we’ve got our scalp-massage choreography ready.

If you’re inclined to see an opera for the first time, I recommend The Barber of Seville as a great starting point. If you’re looking for something with vocal pyrotechnics, get tickets for The Magic Flute.