Today I sacrificed five hours of my Saturday to an activity I enjoy slightly more than moving furniture - building it. We built a microwave stand and a pantry out of two kits - the inside of my right hand is now sore from screwing. I see the whole "do it yourself" thing as a scourge. There are folks who do it well, and I applaud them, but I don't want to be one of them. I think it has become such a big deal only as there are now TV shows with skinny, braless interior designers running around with a paintbrush and saying "look how easy it is - anyone can do it." Well, anyone can plunk out "Smoke on the Water" on a piano with one finger, but does that make you a musician? I can screw together Part "A" to Part "C", but that doesn't make me a carpenter, and I feel the result reflects that.
The TV shows make "doing it yourself" look sexy. How sexy is it to get a wad of latex paint in your eye, or a nail in your foot? Think about it.
Today I heard the whole of the new Zez Confrey disc on Warner Classics. It is an Artis Wodehouse production along the lines of her previous Gerhwin and Jelly Roll Morton discs. While I don't think the public will embrace this project as readily as they did the others, it is certainly a long overdue service she has performed on behalf of Mr. Confrey. The album is magnificent, and the music is all easily enjoyable. Made my workday go a little faster.
Also enjoying the Johann Rudolf Ahle disc on Bis performed by Maasaki Suzki and the New Bach-Collegium of Japan. Ahle, whose name is only seen in hymnals these days, was described in his day as "the German Monteverdi" and his music is a tasty fusion of the German descending line and the rapid-fire, madrigal-like vocal writing that you hear in Italian Renaissance musc. It's sensational stuff, and a real discovery on the part of Suzuki and his ensemble.
My cassette deck, which I have been using for ten years (it was given to me by my father in California, and he had already used it for some time) finally died last week. The right side of the player has always played back too fast, so I avoided using that side. For some months a belt has been squealing on the left side, but it hasn't affected the play, so I was just careful and tried to avoid using it a lot. This week the belt gave way and it hasn't been able to play back at a constant speed.
I went to Radio Shack yesterday on another mission, and while I was there decided to look for a cassette player. They had only the store display model, marked down to a mere fifty dollars. The other mission didn't pan out, and I used the credit on my return as part payment on the cassette deck. The unusually helpful Radio Shack clerk (most of them are idiots) told me that my new purchase will be the last cassette deck that they would be selling, and that they'd be getting no more in after that. It's an "RCA" (meaning that it's built by Motorola), sounds decent, and has levers rather than solenoids. It has Dolby "b" type only, so I will probably have to get the older deck serviced so I can continue to play the Dolby "C" cassettes I made.
So, the purpose of this boring ramble is simply this - if you have a lot of cassettes, and only a broken-down cassette player, now's the time to get a new one, as the machines are being clearanced out. You won't be able to beat the prices, and probably in a matter of months you won't be able to find the machines at the consumer level at all. The expensive Nakamichi decks made for professional use, of course, will continue to be available for some time yet, and I hope to get one someday. But for now that option is far too cost prohibitive, and I have nearly 2,000 cassettes to transfer representing the better part of my life' s work as a musician. So I just couldn't wait for any other shoe to drop in this matter, and perhaps some of you shouldn't either.
The Harold Lloyd festival on TCM begins at 8pm tomorrow ET. Don't bother with the Simpsons, it's a repeat.
Uncle Dave Lewis
Uncle Dave Lewis