For those who are interested in this sort of stuff, here's the info from the poster for the last night of the International Writers Festival here in Ottawa.
Disclaimer: I'm the technical guy/sound technician for the Festival

URSULA K. LE GUIN
with Mike Carey, Jo Walton, and Kelley Armstrong
Saturday, May 2, 2009

6:00 PM - Fantastic Fiction ( Read more... )

I'm about to go shopping for a hearing test, and am wondering what I ought to be asking for.  I intend to call up the doctors that do that sort of thing, and ask detailed questions.

I know that many, maybe most, tests simply check response in octaves, and don't test above 8kHz or below 250Hz (I think that's right). I'd like to know the correct ( Read more... )

Well, new to us, anyhow.

It's a 1988 (yep) Dodge Ram 150, V6, in astonishingly good shape.


( Read more... )

As I mentioned, our van was stolen on the morning of Christmas Eve. The van itself has been found, and is in an impound lot waiting for the insurance appraiser to look at it; the musical equipment that was in the van is all missing.
But being me, I have made a list of the equipment that is missing, with serial numbers when I have them (yes, I ( Read more... )

Well, maybe not all hope, but the police officer that took my initial report said that the van would likely be found in 48 hours, or not at all.
It's been more than 48 hours, but then it's also been Christmas and boxing day and Christmas Eve and such. There's still some hope, but not a lot.
Thanks for the sympathetic comments, folks; they've ( Read more... )

The operative word is, of course, “used to”. Two words, operative two words.

My sweetie, looking out at around 9:30 AM to see how much snow we had to scrape off the van today, saw that there was nothing to scrape snow off of, woke me, and thus began my day of talking to

• the police,
• my insurance agent,
• the police (again),
• my insurance agent (again),
• ( Read more... )

I woke up yesterday morning with my broken foot hurting quite a lot, which it had not been doing.  Considering that I suffer from classic migraine, I believe that "quite a lot" really is quite a lot.  Inspection showed that the cast had broken above the ankle, about 3/4 of the way around, in line with the plaster bandage used to make the thing in ( Read more... )

I got a phone call from the manager of the space, informing me that they would pick up the tab for expenses incurred because of the accident ( Read more... )

That might not be the correct quote. Anyhow...

Your humble servant is currently ensconced in the living room, crutches by his side, cast up to his knee. Argh.

I was setting up some chairs and a table on a stage made up of movable risers, and one of the risers moved as I stepped onto it.  I clearly recall thinking that I'd better present as much of ( Read more... )

Over the past few years, I have become a sound guy as well as/sort of supplanting my bass-playerishness.  I've worked at Jazz/Folk/Blues/whatever festivals, and have concluded that there are too many soundpeople out there who have damaged hearing.

Last weekend was the Ottawa Folk Festival, where I did sound at a side stage and at the alternate main ( Read more... )