December 30, 2013

Happy New Year. Here's Your Tape.


About 15 years ago, the City redeveloped the area around mrguy's studio and he had to move. It was bad enough trying to figure out how to relocate his business and his own belongings, but for years he'd also stored bands' master recordings and mix tapes when they'd forget to pick them up. After ten years of running the studio, there were hundreds of tapes. Argh.

I suggested that mrguy call everybody up and then have an open house -- a last blast for the studio / reunion / tape return. Instead, maddeningly, he insisted on meeting with people individually to return their tapes. Mrguy's strong sense of what is right is one of his more endearing qualities, and one place in which my easy-going Libra doesn't budge. 

His strategy of individual handoffs didn't move a lot of tapes, so they moved with us to our storage space in the old place. Occasionally he'd run into someone at a show who was part of one of the tape-leaving bands, and they would arrange to meet up and hand-off was achieved. Occasionally he'd make a project of it, look people up, and hand off more tapes. Social media (first Myspace, then Facebook), made it much easier. Sometimes he found the bands, and sometimes they found him.

When we moved to the City of Price and Purpose we were down to three 5' high bookcases full of reel-to-reel tape. Now we are down to two very large boxes.

Today began the tape return, City With A View style. Our first visitor was picking up two half inch mixes of his band from 1989. He does lighting now, but lived for a long while in LA (an alibi, it seems, for not being findable before). He laughed when he looked at the track list, which included songs titled "New One" and "Aerosmith," not very helpful when the new song was recorded 24 years ago and you don't remember it. Aerosmith was just what the song *sounded* most like, not what it actually was.

Apropos of tapes, he regaled us with a horrible story of visiting a recording studio in LA that had a back room filled with original tapes from amazing sessions: Aretha Franklin (Never Loved A Man), the first two Television albums -- all just sitting there. The originals. He opened a few of the boxes, and they were the real deal, with track sheets and all. Apparently the record companies that owned them were digitizing them, didn't care what happened to the originals after digitization, and hadn't picked them up. 

Mrguy and I felt ill hearing this. Our visitor opened up Google Maps and showed us where the studio in LA had been. I wanted to drive there immediately and rescue the tapes. Checking, later, a studio no longer exists at that site. Anyway the tape leaver is now a tape haver and our tape collection is down by two little quarter inch reels.

Customer number two today was a friend of a friend from the old days. He's still doing music, like the other guy, and has completed a feature film. How does he suddenly have a twenty-year old and a seventeen-year old? He works for the county and has a sweet house in the county seat. After a nice chat, he gave him a tour of our house.

In the past I have disagreed with mrguy's methodology for tape return, but after two visits today, now I get it. It's really lovely to get to spend some time with these people and give them back their tapes from 1989. I'm ready for the next victim, and wish that I were doing an oral history about this.

December 29, 2013

Type-in!

Ever been to a type-in? Me neither. This week's was hosted by a local typewriter repair shop, and was organized by our friend Blick, of Cack and Blick fame.

It was a fabulous occasion. Nice people, most typewriter bloggers or collectors of some note. There were amazing typewriters on display, some brought in by the typewriter enthusiasts and some for sale by the shop. I have never seen so many beautiful and unusual typewriters in one place.

The typewriter repair shop has been in business for many many years. As you can imagine, they've had some lean times in the last 20 of them, and they had a blast seeing people have so much fun typing and showing off their machines.


This typewriter:



Had a lovely font:



I finally made it into the shop, after peering through the window for a billion years. I brought my purple Remington in to be repaired, as well. 

In a week I get to go back and pick it up.

Can't wait.


Facekini


Summer before last, I saw an awesome blurb in the news about ladies in China wearing something called a facekini, which is a colorful face covering made out of swimsuit fabric. It blocks the sun from your face entirely. I was pretty darned excited about the idea of going out in public wearing a facekini, because one of my superpowers is developing little skin cancers on my face, and I hate wearing sunscreen. I decided I'd much rather make a bold fashion statement with my facekini.

I looked and looked and was unable to find one. Finally, about 8 months ago, I found one on etsy.

I swear to you that there were pictures with this facekini that showed cute girls in hats and sunglasses wearing them. So I bought one. Forgot to tell mrguy.

It arrived, I put it on, entered the kitchen where mrguy was cooking dinner and gave him the reveal. As he described it later to my family, "There are some things you can't unsee!" It was not a good look.

What I discovered was that either the original model for the facekini was a smaller person or I have a plus-sized head. I will let you decide which of these is true. None of my features line up with their intended apertures. And I'm not sure how the sunglasses worked in those cute pictures on etsy, because wearing sunglasses requires assistance from your ears, which the facekini covers up. The worst part of the look is that the mouth hole constrains my lips, making them look disturbingly like a pink and protuberant butt hole. 

Accessories make the outfit, they say, but this one was a dud.

Thanks for the laughs, facekini!


December 25, 2013

Merry Xmas 2013

No blood was shed.

No hospitals were visited.

No arguments were started.

Plus lots of love, lots of salmon, and mrguy's grill made its first journey to the suburbs.

That was Christmas #1. Toward the end of Christmas breakfast, someone mistook an innocuous phrase like "meat loaf" for something more like "breast milk," causing our youngest neph to exclaim "Nobody here understands anybody else."

A few hours' drive later, the tiny Mamoo was our host for Xmas #2. Mrguy made some tasty morsels and we watched an old movie together. Mamoo used to be an usherette when she was a teen, and remembers watching Bwana Devils in 3d. We think we've found our new holiday tradition. Watching a movie was genius.

Back at home with the kitties, our work is done. What a Christmassy day :)

December 8, 2013

Breakfast of Weary Packers

Wow. We're in. Mostly.

When you're super tired, this is what you eat and what you eat it on. Our pizza guy was totally confused to see mrguy answer the door at two different houses this week :)

7:30. Time for bed.


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