Unfortunate decline

There’s a band that I rather like, which had a delightful, quirky, original initial album on a small, local label.

Then they had a “major label” debut, which was almost as good.

The next album after that was just okay. And their most recent one is -- to me, at least -- frankly disappointing.

And, that’s a shame. 'Cause their first two albums were something really special.


--GG

Less hair

I did my semiannual haircut a few days ago -- with the help of my 5yo daughter. Funny thing: every time I have a haircut, I end up with less hair. And I don't just mean **shorter** -- I mean that the count decreases. Either that, or my forehead it just expanding.

These photos are all by my 5yo daughter.


This first one is the ''before''. I can't be bothered (and/or am too cheap!) to go to the barber's, so I wait until my hair gets long enough to start annoying me, and then I shave it back.

I think this is the bushiest my beard has ever been: usually I'll shave it back two or three times between haircuts -- but not this time.



Here, I've shaved off my chin. I think it looks a bit Edwardian: with the right suit and hat, I could run for the Senate in the 1880s. But the wife didn't like it.



Another stage in the evolution (or, de-evolution?). I think I look a bit like Isaac Asimov.



Yet another one. Looks like someone glued a small animal pelt to my jaw.



Almost there. My wife says that I look the youngest with the longer hair, but no beard (beards add age to men). The longer hair somewhat disguises my receding hairline. But -- eh.



And -- the final product!


Ayep!


--GG

Fun with telemarketers

This happened a day or so ago.

My wife overheard, and said that telemarketers must love me (not!), as I tend to deviate from their pre-scripted response options.

I like messing with them -- but not in a cruel way. I'm always friendly -- jovial, even.

(For you Sociology majors: it's a bit of a "breaching experiment".)


Telemarketer: Hello! This is [name] from [some mortgage refinancing place]. How are you today?

Me: Hi! Fine, thank you! So -- whatcha selling?

TM: (slightly off-beat -- people must not ask how **he's** doing) I'm fine, thank you for asking. I was wondering --

Me: Hey, that's great! So -- whatcha selling?

TM: Oh, we're not selling anything -- we just offer advice.

Me: Ah! Well, I don't need that: My mom and dad give me advice. And they don't charge me money.

TM: (flustered) Ah. Oh. Um -- well, I hope you have a nice day.

Me: You too! Thanks for the call! :)


And **that's** why I haven't bothered with the "do not call" list. :)


--GG

Random thoughts

Three random thoughts:

1) This afternoon I meant to log a few more hours on my timesheet (I'm at home today with the boys). But ended up spending an hour and a half instant-messaging with my Guitar Cousin. Good stuff; should do that more often.

2) Time (hours and minutes; minutes and seconds) is a base 60 counting system: We don't say "one hour and sixty minutes" -- we say "two hours". Noticed this as I was adding up my timesheet. (Clearly, I already knew how to add minutes into hours; just never thought to interpret it as "base sixty" before.

3) As I was making myself a snack: I **do** like a nice cup of tea… :)


--GG

Good content will go viral

The lady from The Dresden Dolls -- in one of her blog entries -- makes a good point (below).

I don't **totally** agree -- but it's a good general point, IMO.

(Uncouth words altered, and long paragraph broken up a bit.)


if you want to take part in the cosmic-web-4.0-uber-progressive-exchange-of-love-and-money, your art has to be GOOD. and we all know good art doesn’t exist.

nor does bad art.

but at least a couple people out there are going to have to think your art is good, or you’re screwed. i mean, seriously, you’re just [hosed].

nobody can help you if the world isn’t interested in your content. the internet cannot help you, facebook cannot help you, twitter cannot help you, major labels and millions of dollars of promotion cannot help you (well…maybe they can, but you’ll wind up [hosed] in the long run when the cocaine hangover wears off and you’re faced with the reality of your autotuned hollow existence).

there’s a LOT of audience out there. chances are if your [stuff] is good, people somewhere will be excited. and people love being excited, and they love sharing [stuff] they are excited about with their friends. so i refuse to believe that your [stuff] is amazing if you tell me you’re putting out tons of content and nobody cares about it. all you need is 5 friends to tell their friends about how amazing your [nifty] song is. the rest does itself; we live in a viral world.

speech over.


My caveat to this is that first you do have to (1) have five friends with similar tastes, who are (2) willing to spam their friends about your stuff. :)


--GG

Crowbar name

I thought this was interesting: the old-timey (like, the 1600s) name for a crowbar is an "iron crow".

According to this.


--GG

Wherefore art thou Chromeo

I've noticed that most people's musical tastes seize up about the time they leave high school or college. I've always tried to battle against that by occasionally listening to the radio, and watching the local music video show ("Rage") at night while I brush my teeth.

I think I'm (mostly) succeeding, in that there's several "modern" bands (i.e. bands that have become famous in the last five years) that I enjoy.


Just last night, I saw the music video on Rage for a two-person band called Chromeo. It might be suitable for folks my age (i.e., "from the 1980s"), as they make use of synths, vocoders, and drum machines. Depending on the song, they're reminiscent of Toto, Duran Duran, Cory Hart, and other bands I can't quite recall.

Their MySpace page is here: includes streaming audio, as well as some of their music videos.

Pleasantly, they don't seem to take themselves too seriously.


Three things of possible side interest: (1) They're Canadian! (2) One guy is Jewish, and the other is Arabic, about which (according to the Wikipedia article), "The two childhood friends jokingly describe themselves as "the only successful Arab/Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture."; and (3) They had a music video performance on Yo! Gabba Gabba (about the importance of washing your hands).


--GG

Need to tube

Well, I signed up for a YouTube account (but under a different name than Gye Greene).

Now what? ;)

When the kids are older (and thus, less labor-intensive), I have a film short I want to do -- plus a few music video ideas. But for now? Just watch, I guess.


--GG

Kerbside treasure number one

Once a year, the Brisbane City Council declares it "kerbside week" (or some-such), where people can pile their bulky garbage (e.g. chairs, dishwashers) by their driveway, and a week or so later the garbage collectors pick it up.

Of course, myself and other like-minded scroungers stop by and seize the good stuff: lumber, chairs, stools, suitcases, and etc. (Those are just "for instance" examples: I personally don't bother w/ suitcases.)

Sometime here I'll do a post on all the treasures I've seized for this round. Today's post is just on a pair of answering machines.


It was raining a bit today, so they got a little wet. No apparent damage, though -- just some leaves stuck to it (see above).

Completely disassembled one; left the other one intact, since it doesn't save much storage space to take it apart.


Salvaged components included a transformer (yellow circle on left), which I'll do something clever with audio electronics (in the future...) -- and a solenoid (an electromagent, with a metal bar that extends or retracts, depending on the direction of the current) -- also something musical -- maybe trigger it with a pushbutton so it hits a bell or a cymbal. Since I have the other (identical!) answering machine, I'll have a pair of each of these.



Also two capstan(?) rollers (from the tape transports). When I disassemble the other ans. machine, I'll have four of them: make a little cart (trolley?) to roll on the workbench, or maybe a sharpening guide for chisels.



Two outgoing message cassette tapes, two "messages" tapes, and a speaker (plus another speaker in the currently-intact ans. machine). I'll wire the two speakers in parallel, mount them in a wooden box, and use them as "special effect"-sounding speakers for a guitar amp (16 ohms each, so 8 ohms in parallel, which is standard for guitar amps). The tapes will provide people's voices to be (possibly) used as snippets and samples in songs (e.g., "Uhh - hi! This is Bob. Give me a call.")



A funny switch which completes the circuit when something touches the two wires. Maybe something funky on a guitar? And three slider switches, to select between options. Again, maybe on an electric guitar.



A volume knob, and a selector switch (plus one of each in the intact answering machine). All sorts of electric guitar or electronics uses. And another transformer off to the side.



A little motor (plus another in the other answering machine), and a red and a green LED (plus another set in the other machine). Motor could be used to "bow" a string, for a sustained drone sound; LEDs have all sorts of amusing uses. Oh -- and a few misc. springs.


Also had a whole lotta small screws, and washers. Kept 'em, as they don't take up much room to store, and might come in handy.


--GG

Gives me hope for the future

Today while grabbing a bite to eat at a multi-national fast-food corporation, I saw two people in their early to mid 20s. Their manner of interacting showed that they were **clearly** dating.

Both were speaking English -- but judging by their accents, both were immigrants to this country. And judging by their appearance and the differing tonalities of their accents, they each came from completely different continents.

I like that: it gives me hope for the future.


My wife commented that their parents, however, might not be too happy about their dating. Maybe that's true; maybe that isn't. But if their parent's **aren't** happy about it, perhaps that's the kick up the backside that the parents NEED.


--GG

Musical dreams

Last night -- or technically, this morning -- I dreamed that I was invited to play bass on stage with The Grates, just for one song (I was guesting, or some-such). I got up there, plugged in, the crowd was screaming -- and then the headstock somehow sheared off, directly behind the nut.

I thought maybe I’d be able to carry on regardless, as the nut was keeping the bass strings in place -- but then they stripped out. Pah.

I went up to one of the mics and declared, “Well, the head of my bass seems to be missing. No head, no string tension; no string tension, no tuning. It’s a physics thing.”

Then I spied one of Patience’s back-up guitars, on a guitar stand back by the amps. (In reality, she does vocals, but doesn't play an instrument; in my dream, she also played guitar.) I asked if I could borrow it, and she hesitantly agreed. So I plugged it in to the bass amp, and played my basslines as single note riffs on the guitar: worked well enough.


Two underlying sources to my dream, I think: one, that I read in a concert review that they’re now travelling with a bassist: it used to be that a central aspect of their sound was that they were simply drums, guitar, and vocals -- no bass. And two, that I’m -- apparently -- missing being in a band.


--GG

Learning to talk music

I have a theory, which I haven't yet done a good job of testing.

When learning their first language, people don't take lessons in how to talk. No formal classes; no workbooks. They just listen to those around them, imitate, and (probably) self-correct. With a lot of practice, they learn a language.

I think that learning a musical instrument can be done the same way. Once you have a fingering chart, so you know which positions make which sounds -- and you've been shown the correct way to hold and manipulate the instrument -- that if you just noodle around with it for a half hour or an hour a day, that eventually (six months? a year?), you'll learn to "talk". That is, you'll think the sound you want to make, and your hands will naturally move to make those sounds, without your conscious thought.

Kinda like whistling, I suppose: it just kinda "happens".


For various reasons -- a lack of time, and/or a lack of discipline -- I haven't been able to correctly test this approach. Maybe with the violin...


--GG

We tend to gravitate

I've noticed that people who play musical instruments tend to gravitate towards one specific instrument. My Guitar Cousin, for example, started out on the flute -- but most of his songwriting and recording features the guitar. He owns an electric bass, but I'm not sure how much he uses it: certainly, he's not doing funky, exploratory bass playing. And although he has an electronic drum kit, I don't think he uses it much.

And I don't think "the instrument you started on" has much to do with your preferences -- beyond getting you in to playing music. As I said, Guitar Cousin started on the flute. I started with an alto recorder -- but as soon as I got my first electric guitar, the alto recorder totally dropped by the wayside.


I think there's two components to what instrument you gravitate to. One is the interface -- the way you access the sound-generating process. Broadly speaking, there's fingering strings, hitting stuff (usually with sticks), playing a keyboard, or blowing on a tube while pushing buttons. Note that this is distinct from the usual classification of "how is the sound produced": vibrating strings, vibrating membranes, vibrating columns of air, and etc.

For myself, my preferences vary. I currently tend towards stringed instruments -- but I think that may be because I'm used to the interface. Even though I enjoy synthesizers, I still feel awkward with musical keyboards -- although presumably that would change with additional "face time" with them. And I do enjoy the control over the dynamics that you get with wind (including brass) instruments. Oh! And playing the drums is quite visceral -- good stuff!!!


The other component is the sound: even though the flute, clarinet, and trumpet (for example) work via vibrating columns of air, their sounds are quite different. So I can understand how one sound (or another) would simply resonate with a person.


Which brings me to the actual point of this post.

As mentioned, I recently bought an inexpensive violin. Last night I let the kids try it out (under **much** supervision!). The two boys (2.5 y.o. each) had a quick dabble -- but The Girl (nearly six) wanted to keep playing. However, because it was a full-size violin, she wasn't able to reach the violin neck -- which is a major limitation.

Still, she clearly enjoyed playing it. She even asked (IIRC) if she could have one for her birthday.

I asked her which she liked better: the violin, or the guitar (she's dabbled on my guitars before). She said the violin. When I asked her why, she said, "Because it has a nice gentle sound." Fair enough: enjoying the sound is a totally valid reason to prefer a certain instrument.


Hmm... I remembered that the store where I bought my full-size violin (AU$99, marked down to AU$69) also had two half-size violins for the same price. However, it had been over a week: would they still be there?

So, while running some errands this morning (Sunday, Aug. 15th), we stopped by that store. I didn't tell The Girl what I was up to: why raise hopes, only to be disappointed? At first, it seemed that they were sold out. HOWEVER -- just moved to a different shelf. Hooray!!!

I told The Girl that I would be buying the violin for **myself** -- but that she could borrow it and play it as much as she wanted. If she played it a lot, then when she was a bit older I would either give her that violin (depending on how attached to it she became), or buy her another one for herself. But also that she didn't **have** to play it a lot, if she didn't want to -- that if she got bored with playing it, that would be fine, as well (she just wouldn't get the violin). That seemed to make sense to her.

I opened the case to inventory the contents: yep, all there. Black -- I think she would've preferred a red one if it was available, but since this was the last one...


Got home, and she asked if she could play it. I said that we had to have lunch, put the boys down for a nap, and that I would have to set the violin up first (the bridge needed installing, and the strings tightening). Had lunch, put the boys down for a nap while she went off to her room to draw. I fell asleep; The Girl came in and woke me up.

Set up the violin; showed her how to rosin the bow and care for the bow and violin. She started playing it (or at least: making sounds, with enjoyment). Kept at it for a surpring length of time: no melody yet, but at least she was getting a good, and consistent, tone.

She put it down, to talk to me a bit. I asked her if she was done. "I want to practice some more," she said. OK, fine. :)

Eventually the boys woke up, so we packed the violin away. The Lady came home; we all went to a park.

Got home, and The Girl wanted to play the violin **some more**. Unlike the piano (she's taking piano lessons), where she practices only to accrue additional "points" towards the "treasure box" at the music lesson school -- and even then, we have to ask/tell her to practice. With this, it's intrinsic (i.e., built-in) rather than extrinsic (i.e., external) motivation that's driving her.


So, she's in bed asleep now. We'll see whether this interest in the violin continues.

If not, well -- I have a half-size violin, with two additional young children. So maybe the boys will have a go.


--GG

Cool like Slag

I have an inexpensive violin from my Grandfather: he didn't play, but himself inherited it from his best friend, whose wife played it. But I haven't used it yet, as it needs a bit of tidying -- and more importantly, a new bow (or, the existing one to be re-haired). Either way, it would be AU$50-$70 for a bargain basement bow, and a similar price to get it re-haired.


On August 5th I was running errands, and made the rounds of some of the local pawn shops. Saw a no-name electric guitar -- no strings, might or might not work -- for AU$69. Tempting: use it for parts?

Later that day, I stopped by Aldi (vaguely like an intersection of Trader Joe's and a **very** small Costco), and saw that the "student violins" at were on the clearance table, marked down from AU$99 to AU$69 (US$59). Two were 1/2 size, but one was full size. The box indicated that the full-size one was white: not my favorite color, but better than red (the original colors available seemed to be white, blue, black, and red).

My dad has a saying that "you can only spend money once". Debated it a bit, and decided that I had more immediate use of a functioning (but inexpensive) violin than a set of spare guitar parts that I wouldn't use for 2-3 years, anyhow.

So, went back later that day and got it. Figured that at that price, not much different than getting my existing bow fixed.


Checked the contents of the case before buying. Curiously, the bridge was separate in the violin case, wrapped in tissue paper: gotta install it yourself. Luckily I have a few reference books on violins, which tell you where to line it up.

Livingstone brand, FWIW. Came with rosin, bow, and (as mentioned) the bridge wrapped separately in paper; blue nylon cloth hard padded case; also a spare set of strings.


Finally got around to setting it up on Aug. 11th. Oddly, it turns out to be a brown stain color (i.e., you can see the wood grain, but the actual wood was originally a lighter color). Funny that when I opened the case to check the contents that I didn't notice the color!


Today's August 14th, and have dabbled with it every evening since then. For various reasons, my guitars are tucked away and hard to get to; two of the three keys on my trumpet keep sticking (need to get that looked at); and the trombone is just too loud to play after everyone's gone to bed.

But, the violin is accessible (right next to my desk), and not too loud (my desk is at the other end of the house).

We'll see how long I manage to keep practicing -- and how long before I become adequate. :)


--GG

Violin advantage

I've dabbled with trumpet and trombone, and am now dabbling with the violin (more on that in another blog entry).

On advantage of violins over wind instruments is that when you put it away at the end of a session, you can close up the case right away -- because it's not damp on the inside. (With my trumpet and trombone, I like to let them air out a bit, before closing up the case.

FWIW.


--GG

Steampunk projects

Steampunk is -- as I understand it -- a Victorian-period science-fiction re-imagining, where "futuristic" technology is based on steam, gears, and hydraulics, rather than electronics and microprocessors. Lotsa wood and brass.

Came across a website -- a group blog, really -- that showcases different people's projects.

Includes a school bus conversion into a motor home; a Stratocaster electric guitar; a Mac Mini (wow!!!); a PC mod (which preceded the Mac Mini mod); and a small motorcycle.


Groovy.


--GG

Karen Carpenter

Occasionally a topic will abruptly occur to me, and I do a Wikipedia search on it.

So: Karen Carpenter was one-half of the brother-sister duo, The Carpenters.


From Wikipedia:

When Karen entered Downey High School, she joined the school band. The conductor (who had previously taught her older brother) gave her the glockenspiel, an instrument she disliked. After admiring the performance of a friend named Frankie Chavez, she asked the conductor if she could play the drums instead.[6] Drumming came naturally to Carpenter, and she practiced for several hours a day.



And:

Many people are unaware that Karen had an impeccable ability to play the drums, in part because the public wanted a singing Karen Carpenter, rather than a drumming Karen Carpenter[citation needed]. However, according to Richard Carpenter in an interview, Karen always considered herself a "drummer who sang."


That's pretty danged cool.


--GG

Heroic efforts

My de-facto hobby appears to be "sawing logs in half, by hand": for the last two months (or more?) I've been doing more of that than making things out of wood, or playing music.


At work, on the far side of the main parking lot is a group of brushpiles -- a staging area for the groundskeepsers -- big ol' piles of grass clippings, and pruned branches waiting to be mulched. I always swing past to see if there's anything interesting: I have standing permission from the head groundskeeper guy to grab interesting pieces of wood.

On August 3rd, I brought home a fairly large log: 40cm (18 inches) in diameter, and 60cm (two feet) long (see photo). Not too big if you're a professional logger -- but large enough if you're hefting it into the trunk of your car. And pretty darned heavy: after I cut it in half, I weighed myself plus each half, then subtracted my weight. The total of the two halves was 172 lbs (78 kg) -- basically, what **I** weigh! Explains why it was so hard to get into the boot (sorry: "trunk").


After about three sessions, totaling four to six hours of sorry (sorry, didn't keep precise track), I managed to cut it in half. I needed to do that so that it wouldn't split as it dried: if it splits in undesirable places, that reduces the amount of useable lumber you can extract.

Famous woodworking editor Chris Schwarz has commented several times that ripsawing by hand is perilously close to actual work. In deference to the French style of ripsawing which he advocates, I did spend some time sawing whilst sitting: I sat on a wooden chair, offset from the log to allow the free swing of my arm; then I put the log up on a smaller log (positioned like a chopping block).

Oh: once the cut was well underway, I alternated arms. A **lot**.


So far this is the largest piece of wood I've sawed through: made me wish I had a larger saw -- maybe one of those one-person crosscut saws, but re-filed as a rip saw. (Someday...) Because the length of the saw blade was only slightly longer than the wood itself, it was a bit tricky sawing through it (see photo).

I'm partway through halving the existing halves -- thus ending up with four quarters. Then I'll cut the remainder into slabs and beams. I'm hoping that as the pieces of wood become thinner, they'll be faster to cut through (e.g., quartering it is faster than halving).


It's not **hard** work -- just a little slow. Depending on your mindset, it's either tedious or meditative.

I **could** use a chainsaw -- but the kerf (thickness of cut) is about a quarter of an inch. Given the relatively small diameter of the log, I'd rather leave that quarter-inch on the lumber, rather than on the ground as sawdust.


After two or three years of the wood seasoning (i.e., drying out until the moisture content stabilizes), I'll turn it into a adolescent-sized workbench -- which can double as a simple desk, if needed.


(Final photo by my 5 y.o. daughter)


--GG

Five infinite foods

Alrighty: Imagine that you're in some sort of situation (space station? magic cabin in the woods?) where you can select five foods or drinks (water's a freebie) where you can have as much of them as you like -- but **only** those five foods (or drinks). And you have a magic body where you can as much of these things as you want, with no caloric or nutritional implications.

What would your fixed roster of an infinite amount of five foods be?


For me:

• (Alfy's) pepperoni and mushroom pizza
• chocolate chocolate-chip muffins OR brownies
• cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream OR vanilla milkshakes
• beef burritos(?) with refried beans, sour cream, cheese, shredded lettuce and guacamole
• deviled eggs

Runners-up:

• beef eggrolls
• fried rice
• corn Chex

Notice that there are no slushies on my list. Slushies are actually my nonfat substitute for milkshakes...


--GG

(8/8/10 Addendum: downgrade the ice cream/milkshake, and insert butter and garlic mashed potatoes; also, I'm toying with downgrading the pizza, for this one Indian dish that I really like, but can never remember the name)

Slushie of destiny

A friend was inspired by my post on Slushies, and sent me this photo:



At first, the photo reminded me of The Lady of the Lake, offering up Excaliber:



But, then, I took a closer look at the Slushie cup:



"Whoever shall pull this straw from this Slushie cup shall be the rightful King."


Dig it. :)


--GG

Three book recommendations

Three book suggestions. I may have mentioned these in past blog postings -- but that's OK, they bear repeating. :)


GRACIE: A LOVE STORY, by George Burns. (Autobiographical, about meeting, marrying, and living with his wife, Gracie Allen; amusing, and very sweet.)

TOM'S MIDNIGHT GARDEN, by Philippa Pearce. (Fiction, kid's book; possibly my favorite book ever; the last page always makes me tear up, it's so perfect.)

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR, AND SIX MORE, by Roald Dahl. (The guy who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A bunch of short stories, and a medium-length one. In my opinion, three of the short stories are kinda slow -- but the longer one, and the other three shorties more than make up for it.)


--GG

Treasure hunting

On a rotating basis, the various neighborhoods in Brisbane have periods of about a week when they pile junk-ish things on the kerb. People walking or driving by can stop, sift through, and take anything that appeals. And about a week later, the garbage collectors take the rest.



Sunday, on the way home from church I grabbed a few pieces of wood (including a 4" x 4" beam that would make an excellent workbench leg!), three wooden drawers (for workshop storage, once I build a frame around them), and a wooden shelf. Oh! And a metal three-level rack, which is intended to hold a phonograph player and stereo, with the bottom having vertical dividers for your LPs. But I'm using it to hold "in progress" wood, under the eaves.




Today, went back and got a mostly-empty old-timey wooden radio cabinet. It's kinda like the photos, above -- except the radio components, and knobs, had been removed. The only electronics remaining was the somewhat torn speaker, a transformer on the underside of the speaker, and an audio cable coming from them. I'll use this thing as a speaker cabinet for my guitar amps, just for the novelty value -- either with the speaker repaired (I'll give it a try), or with a different speaker.




I also picked up a pair of portable (folding!) plastic sawhorses. They're intact, except for some overspray on the top from a black spray paint can. Also, one of the locking devices on the side of one of the sawhorses is missing -- but I can just use a stout piece of cord, tied as a loop, to keep the legs from splaying.


The sawhorses look pretty much like this, except that the blue bits in the photo are actually yellow.

Nothing fancy. But, not bad, for **free**!!! In woodworking, it's good to have a few extra sawhorses.


--GG

Recording gear bang for the buck

At the moment, what ''fun money'' I have goes towards woodworking stuff -- probably 'cause I can accomplish woodworking things without much space or dedicated setup, and in relatively little snippets of time.


Once I **do** get some time -- time to record, and time to set up the space and equipment **to** record -- I'm planning on getting these:

• These are supposed to be bizarrely good for the price: $300 ribbon mics by Cascade Microphones, from Olympia, Washington.
• And of course, the FMR mic pre is supposed to be insanely good, as well (regardless of the price -- although it's $500 for two channels). And the rest of their stuff, too (see the sidebar in the link).
  

Both are on my "to get" list, when I go back to work full-time (and thus have more discretionary income -- and ironically [hopefully!] more time to record). No point in getting them right now...


--GG