LT Saloon

Libraries

Reading is entertainment, as well as educational, right? I wasn’t sure where to put this on site. I admit: this is a cousin, but it also explains how libraries, last bastion and depository for our knowledge, our imagination and creativity, are dealing with budget cuts in a time where we only seem to have money to occupy, kill and decide for others what form of governance they should have.

Nothing in the article is that partisan in nature. That’s me. And I stand by that statement as firmly as supposed patriots stand by theirs.

HARTLAND, Maine — John Clark often says he runs Hartland Public Library more like a hardware store than a library.

“At a hardware store, you don’t want to find a predominance of washers that fit faucets from 10 years ago,” said Clark. “That’s my theory with books.”

In addition to his hardware store theory, Clark has another scheme at work: swap shop.

“I can turn a paperback into an audio book,” said the bearded, bespectacled librarian who’s more likely than not to throw a well-intentioned barb at incoming patrons. “I ship books all over the world.”

And from all over the world, he receives as well.

He toted Friday’s receipts, each clad in its own postal packaging, in a plastic shopping bag: An Ethan Hawke movie, audio books by Garrison Keillor, Ted Dekker and Dave Luckett, and books by Lori Foster and Clinton McKinzie.

“This cost $36.95,” said Clark, glancing at the back of Keillor’s 2007 audio book called “Pontoon.” “I traded two books for this.”

Chances are, those two books were duplicates of what’s on the Hartland library’s shelves. Or maybe Clark decided there wouldn’t be enough interest from patrons, vis-a-vis his hardware store theory.

On the same day, Clark had packaged seven books to ship out — paying all the postage personally — though he said both the incoming and outgoing stacks were smaller than average. Web sites make it possible. Clark has 800 books listed on www.bookmooch.com, 1,500 on www.swaptree.com and 2,500 on www.paperbackswap.com. He keeps a wish list of items he’s looking for, as do librarians and individuals all over the world. Computers do the matching.

In an era when any publicly funded institution has to spend wisely, Clark manages to make a lot out of a little. His annual buying budget of $4,400 comes from donations, grants, and proceeds from the library’s endowment. His salary and other operating expenses are covered by contributions from the towns of Hartland, St. Albans and Palmyra.

While he said the library has enjoyed steady public funding in recent years, it still operates on a bare-bones budget. Clark is the only employee, paid for 34 hours a week. There are situations like that all over Maine, said Stephanie Zurinski, the Maine State Library’s central Maine liaison.

Link

Soupy Sales: 83

Courtesy latimes and AP

Soupy Sales is dead at 83, one of my icons I base my routines on.
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Sound Off About Sound On: An Amplification Journal

This edition: EQ

Must be nice to have “roadies” and tech support like engineers to mix you live.

Well at least some idiot isn’t dropping my amp: I am.

Or some moron isn’t scewing up the sound or dropping a minature Stonehenge with dancing midgets: I am… well except the midgets/Stone part.

But I have become convinced that I need to do more EQ. I always have, and of course I’m very focused on it when I mix. But live, well it’s one more piece of tech to fail and set up when sometimes I’m left with little time. But I have found every room is so damn specific. I have yet to find one setting that works for all.

In reality each room needs to be tuned to. The gigs I have done that too sound so superior to my ears I would dop it every time. But…

The show must go on no matter what.

I find the major problem with a room is the mid range and that can vary from high mids to low. Gyms are a nightmare and always will be. But cutting lows and mids does help. You would think highs since the there are so many more paks to the “waves,” if you want to refer to them as waves. In reality sound isn’t “waves” unless it’s one frequency and fairly pure: “white” in nature. Almost all sound is beyond “pink” in my opinion.

More on specific frequecies later on, if I get a chance.

But, for now, on with the show!

-30-

Sound Off About Sound On is a column by Ken Carman that offers advice regarding unusual amplification needs: especially for smaller audiences of a unique nature.

©Copyright 2009
Ken Carman
all rights reserved

Sound Off About Sound On: an Amplication Journal

This edition: “Where the %$#@! do I put my amp?“

(Or: Getting a little more specific about “where?”)

If you use FM, or transmitted, amplification you may be thinking too one dimensionally.

I phrased it that way because various people have various terms for “sound without wires.”

Let’s start out by admitting that this has gotten a lot better tech-wise. Used to be every little am/fm or other broadcast had a chance to change what you were amplifying: other than just you. Rooms sometimes were impossible to amplify depending on what was inside the walls and the room itself. Hell, trucks passing by were a headache, especially with my first very cheap Radio Shack fm. The new stuff is so much better. Ask your dealer what’s best. I use the high priced end of the Audio Technica line myself, though I’ve never been the biggest fan of their other equipment: specifically microphones.

If you do use it, please stop placing your amps on stage near you. That’s not taking advantage of your system. I often place it in back so the audience gets a little bounce-echo from both directions: live and amplified. It can cause feedback. I do recommend headsets. The lavalier is problematic: not directional enough.

A word of warning: they do not make great recordings overall. The more cardiod specific a mic, generally the less I’d use it for recording. Think of it: the very design of your mic is editing out part of the sound.

I actually place it to the side more than to the back, but pointed a bit towards the back, or at least slightly angled towards it.

Also remember, if you interact with your audience a lot like I do you might have to walk there. Be prepared to try your best to keep your back to the mic without being too awkward.

And may you have better sound in your next gig.

-30-

Sound Off About Sound On is a column by Ken Carman that offers advice regarding unusual amplification needs: especially for smaller audiences of a unique nature.

©Copyright 2009
Ken Carman
all rights reserved

Playing with Dolls

I don’t own a TV so what shows I see are those available through free on-line sites like HULU.com. I have been intrigued by a program called Dollhouse. The premise is that there are a group of people “dolls” who have their memories erased. When they are off duty they relax in a spa setting with people who speak quietly and enjoy sauna’s and swimming. When they are engaged in an assignment, their brain is programmed with the minds of people who are experts in the field. In this way the very wealthy can hire the best secret agent, ransom negotiator or sex toy that can be. The tension comes through an disgraced FBI agent who is intent on proving the existence of the Dollhouse, and through the problems that result when the programming doesn’t go exactly as planned. 

I like the interaction between the lead players. The director is suitably hard nosed but with a hint of underlying humanity though perhaps tainted by sadism. Echo the most visible doll is played well by Eliza Dushku and her relationship with her “handler”  played by Harry Lennix is sweet without being sticky. Topher , the computer geek, played by Franz Kranz is way to freaked out to be accepted in the crucial position he holds but I can deal with that.

For a while it seemed they were going to take the plot down the wrong road with too much emphasis on sex. Oh here’s Echo as a pole dancer, and this week she’s a prostitute etc. It seems like this has been ironed out and the plots seem to continue in a more thought provoking way. I especially liked episode 10. Echo is imprinted with the memories of the director’s murdered friend and goes back to her own funeral. Good imagination of things you might want or not want to learn about how your family percieved you.

All in all an interesting thought experiment with pretty girls and handsome men, action and adventure, and, PLOT and DIALOGUE! Not what we’re used to getting from tv. Oh and the characters are good looking in different ways – not just boobs in low cut shirts, including a love interest who by Hollywood standards is plus sized, an oddly rugged hansome lead and Mr. Lennix who’s appeal is communicated by a face that expresses volumes without words.

Movie Review: Knowing

Cage is one of those actors that is just a tad too dry and sedate for me, but I felt this worked well with Knowing. The premise, if you haven’t heard, is that a time capsule for a school contains a “picture” drawn by a little girl that consists of numbers. She furiously wrote the numbers instead of the picture of the future requested by her teacher. But these numbers are far better than a drawing: they predicted the future. Most of that has already passed, but there are more numbers left. Just a few.

Most of the movie is the actors trying to play catch up with the dead on accuracy of the predictions and their personal relationships. The film is shot with a lot of blue-ish gray hues and is quite intense.

There is an interesting alien element to the script that gets fully reveled as it progresses, and one wonders if this isn’t just another example of multi-layered relationship expose’, only human/alien, that runs so deep through this movie.

It’s not the best movie, by any means, but the special effects and emotional intensity of it might make it worthy of a big screen viewing, rather than a rental. Catch it quick: there is about to be a big influx of new movies including the newest in the Trek franchise. It surely will get bumped soon in your area, if it hasn’t already.

I won’t spoil it, even though I find the movie quite predictable. Yet that doesn’t seem to hurt it in the slightest. Let’s just say if you have to have a happy ending you may, or may not, want to go to this movie. Depends upon your definition of “happy.”

New Artist

From what I gather Lindsay Mac has been attracting interest for about two years, but as of late she’s really been getting attention. She trained classically on cello and learned to love the cello… disliked the training. Instead she plays the cello like a guitar. Strum, finger pick and harmonics with a unique; yet a somewhat cross between Dar Williams/Sara Bareilles voice.

U-Tube had plenty to offer. Here’s one…

Sound Off About Sound On: an Amplification Journal

When I first started performing shows for children I assumed, being of sound stage voice, and having a large stage-oriented mind, “Hey, I’ll be up close. Probably won’t even have to project that much.”

I hate being wrong. I swear children are born with megaphones implanted in the vocal chords.

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On TV Now

It’s very light fare. I wouldn’t go there is something more mentally challenging or with dense scripting were available. But Reaper is good fun. You have a just barely beyond kid employee of a Home Depot-like store, his wannabe/not wannabe girlfriend, his two buds who help him track down people escaped from Hell: one’s a helpless romantic so desperate he recently decided to take up with a demon, and the other is an over weight sex-crazed pervert who somehow doesn’t manage to turn every woman off on the planet the innuendo-laced litany he spouts.

Even Satan is good for a few laughs.

The side stories are about as interesting as the souls he needs to send back to Hell and the odd vessels Satan gives him to catch them.

If you’re looking for Hellish fun without all those dark brooding Supernatural-like clouds hanging heavy, try Reaper.

They Dreamed of Bushwacking Barbara

You may remember my Inspection column from a few months back about Jay Ward. I mentioned the show they had on briefly called,Fractured Flickers. I just happened to run into this today. The hilarious thing is Ward would make sure the guest didn’t know what was actually going to happen during the interview. This was planned and, even once it became obvious amongst industry types that they were going to do something off kilter, the guest never allowed to know what. I think Barbara Eden handled this quite well.