A day at the shop

Many of my friends know that my own shop is in the complex that is known as 65 Amps.  I am one of the folks that are in this tone haven that is not only where 65 Amps produces their amps but is also the home of Colossal Cable ( http://www.colossalcable.com/ ) and a development home for folks like Simon Higgs (pretty amazing pedals and designs).  Mike Franceschini is the head tech over at 65 Amps during the day and his own shop, Classic Amp is within walking distance down the street.  As a side note, Mike has worked for more amp companies than I can begin to list ... Rivera, VHT, Bogner .... the list goes on and on.  He is a personal tech to many big names, a player himself and maintains the classic collections of folks like Lon Cohen Studio Rentals, History for Hire, SIR, Center Staging and others.  Yeah ... he is my favorite tech.

The complex changes for the most part every day.  Different folks come in and out and the compliment of equipment is always in flux.  There are always some great classic amps and guitars around as Dan Boul brings pieces from his personal vintage collection into the shop on a rotating basis.  I think his newest amp is from 1971 as a side note.

Having my own shop in the 65 Amps complex and acting as a consultant for them allows me to see what is going on and watch the development of new products.  From time to time I take a few minutes and take some snapshots of the activities over at the shop.  These shots are generally sent in real time to facebook, twitter, google buzz, diggit, stumble upon and about 30 other places as one touch of the send button on my phone is all it takes.

So .... here are some of the shots that I took today that I have in their own flickr album so I could have this little slideshow below.  It all started today when I was pleased to see the sound booth where amps go through their final QA testing back in place after the booth spent time at 2012 Winter NAMM.

Click on "read more" for the show.

Things we said (did) today

For some reason, when I started to think about the subject of this post a song that was always a favorite of mine by The Beatles became the title of this post.  The text below is from one of my flickr albums:

My friend Kerri is a professional product photographer. Kerri photographs things like furniture, light fixtures, and shoots food photos for some food publications. She has a studio in Toluca Lake California. She is also one heck of a chef. Kerri and I share a number of friends and some of the folks reading this are friends and colleagues with her on various social media sites or work with her. 

Kerri has an office manager / assistant, Gabriela. Gabriela is also a photographer, graphic artist and is involved a bit in the fashion industry (yet does not complain about my lack of fashion sense). 

We share some activities at times and since I typically write about or photograph via my cell many activities I was asked by Gabriela to put some of this in one place. I guess this will be the place. I will also have this set up as an ongoing and updated slide show in a blog post as I already have a lot of info there. 

The order of this may initially be out of sequence but I will try to arrange things properly with the most recent activity first when time permits.


Click on "read more" for the slideshow.

Tamales to Microphones. Legal Antics to Art

The day in photos and commentary.

From tamales to classic microphones. From legal antics to art. Thanks to Clyde Beswick at CB1 gallery, Kerri Cambell, my son Jack, the folks at Mezz, Gabriela, Keith, the folks in all the bands during the evening and everybody in the sessions last night.

The day started early as I had to have my son at jury duty at 8:30am.  I planned to only spend part of the day with him but as my interest grew in the antics of the court system I deceided to stay the remainder of the day.

About 9:30am there was a break so we had something for breakfast.  This photo is deceptive.  These tamales are about a foot long.

Many more photos below with a bit of dialogue

It's Casual-The Red Line

Combining music with thoughts about L.A. traffic. This is one area where heavy rock and metal are a total match.

New Year's Eve Dinner

A little late on the post but here is dinner from New Year's Eve.

Thanks to Natalie for the dinner.  Thanks to my son for the shots during dinner as his cellphone has a flash and mine does not.

Jack at the range 1-8-12

Jack at the range 1-8-12, originally uploaded by myles111us.
What has been happening over the last week or so?  Feel free to click on the photo for more information.

Great way to start 2012

Great way to start 2012, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been happening the last week or so

Exception

Exception, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been happening the last week or so

99% of the time I have an amplifier shot as the background on my cell phone. This is the 1% exception.

Garlic Halibut

Garlic Halibut, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been happening the last week or so.

This shot really goes with the garlic bread shot below.

My commentary on facebook:

I am over at the house where one of my two boys live and both the boys are eating there tonight. I pointed this photo out to their mom and said ... you should make something like this. Her reply "oh yeah, I meant to make that". She always did have a great sense of humor. She is not a big fan of cooking but she did have a few nice things in her repertoire.

Who says size doesn't matter.

Who says size doesn't matter., originally uploaded by myles111us.
What has been happening over the last week or so?
Prototype Ventura combo from the folks at www.65amps.com 

Mercury Magnetics pistol stand

Mercury Magnetics pistol stand, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been going on the last week or so?  Thanks to Joe Bourdet over at www.65amps.com for performing the front sight work.  Joe is one of the founders, guitar, vocals, keys, writing at http://inthewhisperingpines.com/index.html

Captain Nemo - My Idol

As my first post for 2012 I am resurrecting an older post.  Many of us on this day are looking forward to what the future may hold.  The next Presidential election is this year, the economy is in the trash, we have some of our countries most promising people deployed in harms way thousands of miles away.

I seems we have not learned much from the past when it comes to not repeating the same mistakes we have made before.  Perhaps what the past holds are memories and what gave us experience we utilize today.

I thought I would look back on some of my own past on this day.  A past that has, in some ways join the present as thanks to social media I have reconnected with some of the people who have shared my life when I lived at sea.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has been my favorite book since I was a child.  The boat I lived on for over three years was named after Captain Nemo.  Below are some of the pieces of my life in the past. 

Some of my friends know this three year story.  Most of you do not.  One of the log entries is below.