20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, here are some photos from my family's 1980 trip to West Germany and East Germany.

Planning my next obscure comic-book costume

Halloween is just over and we're still months away from Comic-Con, but it's not too early to plan my costume.

I'm thinking Monsieur Mallah. Which means, of course, that I'll also need Brain.

These two are like Tristan and Isolde, if Tristan were a super-intelligent, French-accented, bandolier-toting male gorilla and Isolde were an evil scientist whose bitter rival turned him into a brain in a jar. The tale of the two star-crossed lovers was first told in Grant Morrison's epic run on Doom Patrol where we saw Brain (temporarily housed in Cliff Steele's Robotman body) confessing his love for Monsieur Mallah...

...before the two were tragically and explosively torn asunder.

(The less said about the repeat of this plotline in Salvation Run, the better. Ugh.)

If I want models, DC has sells a set of small action figures called Mallah's Revenge:

I've already got the gorilla costume, given to me many years ago by the redhead. I've used it in a few costumes over the years.

So that's a lot of the costume right there. The rest is just choosing among accessories:

Banjo versus TV week 87: Halloween party jam

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 10/25/2009 through 10/31/2009.

I went to a Halloween costume party and was asked to "bring your music stuff." I interpreted that pretty broadly, so I brought two banjos, two guitars, a gutbucket and a washboard. The costumers jammed for hours.

(Pictured: Weeping Angel and a Viking. I wore my tool costume.)

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Things I learned at this week's banjo lesson:

• I showed off my skill at Cripple Creek and the variations I'd come up with. But David pointed out a problem with my variations. I'd changed the song from...

  A Part
  G---|C-G-|G---|D-G-|G---|C-G-|G---|D-G-||
  
  B Part
  G---|G---|G---|D-G-|G---|G---|G---|D-G-||

  ...to...

  A Part
  G---|C-G-|G---|D---|G---|C-G-|G---|D-G-||
  
  B Part
  G---|G---|G---|D---|G---|G---|G---|D-G-||

  See how I kept it in D for the whole fourth measure of both parts? I liked the sound of that because it held the tension until the second repeat of the sequence. But David pointed out that it would sound awkward when playing with other people.
  
  He suggested that I might keep my variation, but that I'd have to walk people through it and let them know that this is a non-standard Cripple Creek. (Maybe I'll call it Cripple Creed.)
  
  As an example of a variation on Cripple Creek, David played Susie Monick's Wicked Witch Breakdown from the album "Melting Pots".
  
  
• We worked on my solo for Bay Rum Blues, which I'll be playing on November 14th for Chicago's Second Annual Battle of the Jug Bands.
  
  Basically, since the song is a VI-II-V-I number in A, I'll be capoing at the second fret and playing a two-measure lick for each of the four keys:
  
  Intro
  
  
  
  E (VI)
  
  
  
  B (II)
  
  
  
  ...or...
  
  
  
  D (V)
  
  
  
  G (I)
  
  
  
  David notes that I can use these VI-II-V-I tricks on Salty Dog, Rag Mama and other ragtime songs.
• I'll also be playing Sun Brimmer's Blues at the battle. For this, I'll be walking (skipping?) along the jazz pentatonic:
  
  
  
  Toss in a little string bending and I'm good to go.

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Also in the last week:

• My iPhone is getting kinda full of songs. Mostly banjo stuff.
  
  
• The redhead wants me to learn I'm Movin' On, which was famously performed by Ray Charles...
  
  
  
  ...but was originally by Hank Snow.
  
  
• I rented The Fairly OddParents in Fairy Idol from NetFlix. But even though it has a running gag about the banjo...
  
  
  
  ...it doesn't really have enough banjo to satisfy the Banjo versus TV project rules...
  
  
  
  ...so it just counts as TV time.

Cross-posted at J.R.'s Banjo Hangout blog

I'm sorry, you're just a tool...for Halloween!

Add this to my gallery of Halloween costumes: a Tool from Tool Academy.

Materials

• Black suit jacket
• Black- and red-striped necktie
• Fabric glue
• For badges
  • Cardstock
  • Double-sided carpet tape
• Misc. iron-on and stick-on rhinestones. I went to Michael's and purchased:
  • Winged love
  • Peace sign
  • Rhinestone fleur de lis
  • Tranfsermations rhinestone alphabet
• Iron-on transfer paper for dark fabrics

Construction notes for rhinestones

I tried applying the iron-on rhinestones directly to the jacket, but was impossible to get the jacket to lay flat enough, especially for the shoulders. So here's how to use the sleeve material to apply your rhinestones.

1. Cut off the sleeves of the jacket. Don't throw them out; you're going to use those sleeves.
2. Cut along the seam of the sleeve to create a flat piece of sleeve material. Your jacket probably has two layers of cloth; cut away the interior layer of the sleeve and discard that interior layer.
3. Use part of the sleeve material to test the iron-ons and the glitter/glue.
4. Follow the instructions to apply the jeweled iron-on rhinestones to the sleeve material.
   
   
5. Cut the sleeve material around the rhinestone image to create patches.
   
   
6. Apply the patches to the jacket with fabric glue.

Images for iron-on transfers and badges

Tool Academy logo:

Badges:

I created graphics for each badge by taking a screen shot of the badges from the Tool Academy credits and copying each badge to its own image file.

Beard

For an appropriately toolish style I chose "Rap Industry Standard" from Jon Dyer's Quest For Every Beard Type.

The bad news is that I couldn't get the pencil-thing jawline thing quite right. The worse news is that the redhead likes what I did with my beard so now I have to keep a goatee.

Seventy-Six Trombones

Via my friend Bill, here's the Ambassadors of Harmony telling the story of when Gilmore, Pat Conway, the Great Creatore, W.C. Handy and John Phillips Sousa all came to town on the very same historic day!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Dad and the boys at Santa's Village, 1968.

Preorder The Devil's Alphabet

My friend and college roommate Daryl Gregory's next novel, The Devil's Alphabet is available for preorder on Amazon.

What are you waiting for? Order today!

Moral foundations questionnaire

My results from the moral foundation questionnaire at YourMorals.Org:

I found this questionnaire because a friend sent me a link to the TED talk Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives, which is really good. (Thanks, Becky!)

Banjo versus TV week 86: Jug Band Battle prep and Steve Martin

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 10/18/2009 through 10/24/2009.

The Brass Note Jug Band is getting ready to compete in Chicago's Second Annual Battle of the Jug Bands.

We're a geographically diverse band with members from Tennessee, Oregon and Illinois. We won't get the whole band together to practice until the day of the competition so we're practicing by playing along to recordings from albums. Two of our recordings were in different keys than we wanted so I used Audacity to change their pitch to our desired key.

Then I put the songs onto my iPhone, changing the icons to remind me which instrument I'll be playing for each song.

The big challenge for me will be the banjo part on Bay Rum Blues, which calls for the chords F#, B, E7 and A. I could do that without a capo...

F#	B	E7	A

...and the F# chord would require me to finally get good at switching to that F position, something I've been bad at for two years now. I already know A and B. That E7 would be easy.

Or I could capo at the second fret...

F#	B	E7	A

...which makes for still-easier chords. That F# is the same as the E chord I'm used to playing.

I'll probably go with the capo so I can try out a little up-the-neck stuff.

One other thing that's kind of a challenge: The kazoo part in Sun Brimmer's Blues, which you can hear here.

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Also in the last week:

• You know from my very first banjo post that I love Steve Martin. This week the redhead and I saw Steve perform with Steep Canyon Rangers at The New Palace Theatre Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago. It looked a little...like this:
  
  
• My estimation of the ratio of Steve playing clawhammer versus Scruggs style during the performance:
  
  
• I already have Steve Martin's CDs The Crow, The Steve Martin Brothers, A Wild And Crazy Guy, Let's Get Small and the audio edition of Born Standing Up, A Comic's Life , so what was I to purchase at the concession area of the concert? Two Steep Canyon Ranger albums:
  
  
• Speaking of CD purchases, look what I got cheap from Half Price Books:
  
  
• Purchased through Amazon, so not as cheap but essential nonetheless::
  
  

Scandal, internal conflict, general backstabbing...

I'm reading Japanese Business Culture and Practices: A Guide to Twenty-First Century Japanese Business. Jon P. Alston's dedications and acknowledgements entry is pretty juicy.

Banjo versus TV week 85: Roll your own banjo mute

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 10/11/2009 through 10/17/2009.

I had some time to kill at an airport terminal and I had my banjo but no mute. I wanted to practice, but I didn't want to disturb people.

So I rolled a mute out of paper napkins.

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Also in the last week:

• I came across the Banjo LiteCase at Stewart-MacDonald.
  
  
  
  I sure like the looks of it! Let's add this to J.R.'s wish list.
• I've been reviewing that DVD of Blazing Bluegrass Banjo Vol 1: Developing Jamming Skills with Greg Cahill. The tabs that come with it are handy, but a little incomplete. I wanted to add his scale practice to my daily routine and it wasn't included in the tabs. So I tabbed it out myself. Here ya go:
  
  
• I got this CD because some day I want to learn Viva Las Vegas on the banjo:
  
  

Banjo versus TV week 84: Point your toe if you're going to tag the song

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 10/4/2009 through 10/10/2009.

I went to Costello's Bluegrass Jam, played along and earned one more stamp on my sandwich card.

Only five more stamps until my free sandwich!

At the jam, Dale showed me a trick I haven't seen before. You know how you raise your foot to indicate that you're going to end a song at a jam? Like this:

Well, Dale said that he went to a jam in Florida where they added a pointed toe...

...to indicate that you're not just going to end it, but you're going to end it with a tag.

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Also in the last week:

• I ordered up a copy of Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.
  
  
• Saw the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Old Town School of Folk Music. What a show!
  
  The banjo was an African instrument, brought to America and appropriated by white men in blackface. (I'm looking at you, Joel Sweeney.)
  
  It's great to see the Caroline Chocolate Drops bring the banjo back towards its roots. The group's entire style of music draws from a long tradition of African-American string bands.
• I picked up a couple of CCD CDs that I didn't have:
  
  
• I've been watching two DVDs from Greg Cahill (of Special Consensus fame) that I rented from NetFlix: Blazing Bluegrass Banjo Vol 1: Developing Jamming Skills and Blazing Bluegrass Banjo Vol 2: Expanding Stylistic Variety.
  
  
  
  They're really good, but NetFlix doesn't include the tabs that ship with the purchased version. So I ordered them up from Amazon.

Cross-posted at J.R. Jenks' blog

Banjo versus TV week 83: Going back to Cripple Creek

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 9/27/2009 through 10/3/2009.

David, my banjo teacher, recently discovered that I had never really learned Cripple Creek. I just kind of whizzed past it when I was just starting out.

So this week has been all about Cripple Creek, over and over again.

Here's Tony Trischka, playing it the way it oughta be played.

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Also in the last week:

• I love my new-to-me Nechville banjo, but I need a little more capo capability than its railroad spikes offer. I occasionally want to capo the fifth string where there isn't a spike. So I'm trying out Earl's Suspender Capo. We'll see how I like it.
• Got a nifty chair/instrument stand gadget: Farley's StagePlayer 2 Guitar Stand Stool with Foot Rest.
  
  
  
  The promo pictures show a guitar, but it works well for a banjo, too.

Mark your calendar: Chicago's Second Annual Battle of the Jug Bands

It's the Big C's big B. It's the Second City's second annual. The battle that's big in the city that butchers pig.

Yes, it's Chicago's Second Annual Battle of the Jug Bands. We've got a space, a line-up, a poster and everything!

Who?	You, watching opening act Northside Southpaws and cheering on six competing jug bands: The Barehand Jug Band, Strictly Jug Nuts, Deep Fried Pickle Project, The Hump Night Thumpers, The Brass Note Jug Band and The Schticklers.
What?	No-holds-barred jug band action.
When?	Saturday, November 12th at 7:00 pm
Where?	Morseland, 1218 W Morse Ave, Chicago, IL 60626, (773)764-8900
Why?	Because last year was so much fun.
How much?	Seven bucks, cheap!

I'll be there, competing as part of The Brass Note Jug Band. You should be there, too.

Banjo versus TV week 82: Move that tailpiece

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 9/20/2009 through 9/26/2009.

I'm continuing to fix up those four low- to mid-end banjos. This week I took a good tailpiece from one banjo and used it to replace the broken tailpiece on another.

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Also in the last week:

• Got a Shubb radius capo for my Nechville banjo. The non-radiused capo wasn't hitting all of the strings.
• Spent a chunk of time photocopying music from my banjo books to put into one easy-to-carry binder. For a binder, I used the Cardinal 09261 Vertical Easel Ring Binder, which doubles as a music stand.
  
  

Banjo versus TV week 81: Jug Band Jubilee

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 9/13/2009 through 9/19/2009.

I made that decision and went to the National Jug Band Jubilee in Louisville, Kentucky. I had a most excellent time.

The lineup was terrific. I took lots of pictures.

Lost Shoe String Band (Bloomington, IN)	Pholly (Noblesville, IN)
Deep Fried Pickle Project (Coloma, MI)	Y'uns (Knoxville, TN)
Smokin' Fez Monkeys (Akron, OH)	Old Southern Jug Blowers (Japan)
Devine's Jug Band (San Francisco, CA)	Juggernaut Jug Band (Louisville, KY)
Earl McDonald memorial	Jug band workshop

Update 10/17/2009:

Arlo Leach has posted a nice video from the post-Jubilee, late-night jam session.

That's my washboard that Peter Menta ("Washboard Slim") is playing. He makes it sound good!

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Also in the last week:

• I've accumulated a few low- to mid-end banjos and each has a major shortcoming:
  
  
  
  So I'm starting to move parts between them with the plan of turning four troubled banjos into three good ones.

Air Force One

I saw Barack outside a cafe in Frisco

I'm in San Francisco. Barack is in San Francisco. And this guy is in San Francisco.

Yes, that's our president as a balloon.

The guy's secret is the use of a magic marker to add detail. Another example: I gave him a couple of bucks for letting me take the photo and he gave me this turtle.

Banjo versus TV week 80: Fall 2009 TV season

A check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s ongoing plan to spend more time on his banjo than on TV. This post covers 09/06/2009 through 09/12/2009. And yes, it's very late. Been busy.

Here at the Banjo versus TV project I'm not all about the banjo. There's TV, too. So this week, since it's the start of the fall season and there's not a lot going on with the banjo, let's take a look at the TV side of the scale.

Here are the fall season shows I'm watching right now and how much time each one puts on the scale each week.

Show	Minutes
Amazing Race	44
Dollhouse	44
FlashForward	44
Glee	44
Heroes	44
Models of the Runway	22
Project Runway	44
So You Think You Can Dance	44
Tool Academy 2	44
Total	396

So that's 6 hours 36 minutes of TV watching, which means 6 hours 36 minutes of banjo just to balance out the week.

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Also in the last week:

• Skipped the Wednesday night jam at the Montrose so I could watch Glee and So You Think You Can Dance with the redhead.
• Ran across a cool banjo t-shirt.
  
  
  
  Let's add this one to J.R.'s wish list. Blue XL.

Chicago eliminated from Olympics in first round

Eliminated.