Right from the start something jumped out at me: there has been a real change in the level of mallet playing. The marimba has really taken hold as a solo instrument and the quality of playing is dramatically improved – the accuracy and musicality of the performances was very impressive.

There were several interesting compositions also, including one that I was unfamiliar with, the second movement of October Night, by Michael Burritt. St. Louis has always had (at least in my lifetime) a strong tradition of orchestral percussion and now it looks as if solo marimba playing is catching up rapidly.

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The exam wasn’t so bad at a $30 copay, but Ray-Bans (or any other decent frames) were over $300. If I wanted progressive lenses (and being a proto geezer, I did) that would be another $300. If I wanted Transition lenses, that’s another $100. That comes to over $700 for a new pair of specs! I guess they’re fishing for insurance dough. Though I have decent health insurance, the vision care is pretty minimal. All of this prompted a mission to find cheaper cheaters.

Step 1. The exam.

When you get your exam, have the optometrist give you a written prescription. They might not offer it, but they should be happy to give it to you.

Step 2. Find some frames.

This is where most people get hung up. The eye wear industry wants you to think this is arcane knowledge. It isn’t. If you have a pair of glasses that you are currently wearing, check the size. Mine say 51-18-145 on the left temple. The 51 is the width of the lens: 51mm. The 18 means the bridge of the nose is 18mm. 145mm is the length of the temple. I’ve found that a millimeter or two doesn’t matter much. I bought my last two pairs of frames on eBay. Sights like FramesDirect are also good. My current pair (the clear ones in the picture above) were around $30 including shipping. That’s another dirty little secret of the eye wear biz: frames are marked up about 1000%. I met a frame sales rep once who clued me into that.

Step 3. The lenses.

When I bought my latest frames on eBay, I got an email from the seller (here’s a link to his eBay store) saying that he offered lenses at deep discounts. As usual, I was skeptical and just bought the frames. My plan was to get the lenses made at a local shop. I called LensCrafters and they said progressive lenses were $310. Yikes! No joy there. I emailed the guy who sold me the frames. He could do progressive lenses for $89–I could scan my prescription and send it to him as a jpg. I was still a bit leery but I figured I wouldn’t be out that much dough if things went awry, so I sent the frames back and waited. (I could have gotten the Transitions for another $80 or so but I tightened up, instead opting for clip-on shades from Cocoons Eyewear. I like them but you have to keep them in a case, keep track of them, etc. I should have popped for the Transitions.)

In a week or so I had my new specs. I tried them on and was very happy – they looked great and I could see! Also, in some small way I felt like I was sticking it to the Man. Or Woman.

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My friend Randy Max found these in a box in his mom’s basement and scanned them for me.

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Here’s a video of a new tune that Dan wrote and I like how it turned out.

Wire Pilots – one more tune from Duff’s from Leslie Peters on Vimeo.

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Here’s the story. A couple of days ago we got an email from a friend who moved with his family to the west coast a few years back. I had sold him the Rogers kit, but to tell you the truth I kind of forgot about it.

In the email he told us his son (our kids were preschool buddies) had started playing the drums, so when I got some video links of the kit in action I was stoked. It’s amazing that these instruments are still in circulation inspiring a whole new generation of kids to play!

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Ted's Half Sour Pickletini

A bit of history. I am very fond of the half sour Russian pickles that are found in hand-packed containers at Global Foods Market in Kirkwood, MO. They can be found in a refrigerated case at the back of the store, not far from the deli counter. As I mentioned earlier, I gravitate toward the gin martini but I have long been aware of the Russian fondness for eating pickles while quaffing vodka so I decided that perhaps the two would play nicely in the same glass. I can tell you now that they do.

I started by dropping a few half sour pickle slices into a chilled martini glass. Then I made a straightforward martini by filling a steel shaker with ice, splashing in a bit of vermouth and four ounces of Absolut (cheaper vodka will do in a pinch) and shaking like the dickens until it got uncomfortably cold. That last bit is an important step–you have to shake for at least thirty seconds.

I poured the icy mixture into the pre-pickled glass and voila: the Pickletini was born! If you can’t get the aforementioned half sour variety, I think any Polish style dill pickle would suffice.

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I would practice on Friday nights when my fellow high school students were out partying and puking. It’s hard to describe the endorphin rush that I got on those lonely evenings but it was the best thing in the world; I was into being a musical monk. Later on I joined a Mariachi band (that’s another post) and lugged the marimba all over town in my folk’s International Travelall, the original Family Truckster (see pic below). My wife noticed a similarity between the Travelall and the Scion xB that I drive now. Hmmm.

Years later I was playing mostly timpani and didn’t need the old axe so much so I returned it to its owner. She turned around and let other aspiring drummers borrow it and eventually one of them bought it from her. He took the bars to the famed Century Mallet Instruments company in Chicago and had the them refinished and tuned. For another twist in the story, that’s the same place the marimba was made back in the 1940s; Century Mallets is housed in the old Deagan building!

Fast forward to 2009. I got a new student who told me that she had a nice old 4 octave Deagan marimba to practice on. Needless to say, this rang a bell. It turns out that her uncle was the guy who bought the marimba from my mom’s friend years ago! Dinky world. A couple of weeks ago I went over for a reunion of sorts. I played a couple of things for them and got my picture took. Observe:

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The stock part

The basic problem with the stock part is that the teeth were too far apart, which made tuning the drums akin to an Olympic sport. I could tune an A but when I went to change it to a B, the ratchet teeth forced the pedal into a B that was a quarter tone sharp. I’d have to reach across the drum and turn the fine tuner for the B. If I put the drum back to an A, I’d have to go back to the fine tuner and undo that move. Needless to say, pristine tuning was difficult.

Now that the new parts have been installed, that is a thing of the past. Basically the drums work like they’re supposed to; my self esteem as one who can play the timps in tune is restored! Thanks Falls Percussion…

The New Part

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Red Weather (Tom Fulton, me, Lisa Campbell, Dan)

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