the pod bay door

.: As Dieter used to say on SNL in the early 90’s, I’m as happy as a little girl. My favorite band of the 90s, Boston-based Buffalo Tom, released its first studio album in 9 years this week, Three Easy Pieces. I’ve ordered it from Amazon and it’s on it’s way as we speak. The first tune I heard is the title track, Three Easy Pieces, a rocking, killer tune, sung not by the usual lead singer, Bill Janovitz, but by bass player Chris Colbourn. Janovitz has a much more powerful and growly voice, and I prefer his lead singing over Colbourn (who tends to sing one or two songs per album). But this tune really grabs me, and I’m looking forward to the hearing the whole album in a few days.

I want to be Bill Janovitz when I grow up. I want to play in Buffalo Tom. Guys, do you need another guitarist for the road?

.: It was 34C here today, or just above 93F, and the sun was angry today, my friends. Being outside was like having hot air sucked out of your lungs. We are in the midst of a heat wave in this part of western Canada, with similar temperatures forecast into next week.

.: A couple weeks ago I purchased one of these, the black model with a 160GB drive. It came with a 4G iPod Nano, which I upgraded to an 80G iPod, figuring if I was going to get one (at last), why not get the big one. A few days later, the Blackberry I use via work was upgraded to an 8830 model, which I’m still learning how to use. One thing I did learn quickly was that RIM/Blackberry and Mac don’t play together in the sandbox too well, if at all. RIM, the Canadian company that invented the BB, hasn’t done much to make Blackberries compatible with Apple products. I’ve scanned a few message boards and such, and come to that conclusion rather quickly, having read many messages from Mac-savvy users.

The Mac is Bluetooth enabled, and I was able to synch it with the Blackberry, which is also Bluetooth-friendly. But I cannot send files from the Mac to the BB via Bluetooth, at least not yet. The Mac recognizes that the BB is close by, but an attempt to send a file results in the error message, “The device does not have the necessary services.” This could mean that the BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server), to which it is connected, doesn’t have that service enabled. I’ll explore this further sometime soon. Trying to send a file (like an .mp3, for example) via a USB port doesn’t work because the Mac equivalent of the Blackberry Desktop Manager, called PocketMac SyncManager, doesn’t have that option. If your brain hurts now, I understand.

I’m learning to use the Mac equivalents to Windows commands, and there are a few more to learn (ha!). I have guidance and encouragement from Geoff and Kenton, both MacBook users, who forced encouraged me to try a MacBook, advising that I would never go back to Windows afterwards. Easier said than done in that I still have two Windows machines at home and a Windows desktop at work, but I’m enjoying learning All Things MacBook for the time being. I suspect Keith knows a few things about Macs as well – call it a hunch.

.: I’m off work for two weeks, going nowhere, staying in town. I hope to do some house cleaning, but it may be difficult in this heat. My parents are coming here next Friday. I treated them to two tickets to see the Moody Blues in Winnipeg last night, and they quite enjoyed the show, especially Mom, who has wanted to see them live ever since she heard their albums when I bought them in the early 70s. I also saw their show here in Edmonton on Wednesday, and really enjoyed it a lot. Sure, most of us there were well over 40, but the Moodies play music that meant a lot to me all those years ago, and they play a polished and professional show, with four great backing musicians. The three remaining members of the band, Justin Hayward, John Lodge, and Graeme Edge, clearly enjoy performing and touring, and I’m glad to have been able to see them a second time in a more intimate setting, the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. I saw the previously when they played at Rexall Place, where the Edmonton Oilers play. It’s much better seeing bands I like in smaller, more personal venues. Such was the case when I saw Steely Dan twice in NYC in June, and also Lily Allen there as well.

.: I finally finished reading The World is Flat (expanded edition) today. A great read, really got me thinking about global issues in ways I hadn’t before. Highly recommended. Only took me about a year to finish it. I’m now reading Quantico by Greg Bear, and Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson.

.: I’m still playing with Hardy Drew & The Nancy Boys, with no updates to report. We’re working on recording some demo tracks in David’s basement, and hope to gig again sometime soon.

There is a special joy when you hear a song for the first time, and the opening bars immediately dig into you and won’t let go. There is an emerging artist in Calgary, Anita Athavale, who has released a new album called In the Noise. She is “friends” with us on MySpace. There is a song on her new album called South Pacific, and it’s one of those songs. Watch the video, listen to it in stereo on her site (choose the little music player in the top right hand corner), and tell me you didn’t like it from the start! Even the lyrics hooked me straightaway:

I was half way through the book
When he took it and tossed it
Garage sale trip to boot
To the South Pacific
I don’t know how it ends and
These characters still wait here
In my head
What will become of them?

I never believed in ghosts till I became one to you
I make you feel uneasy I’m sorry (© 2007 Anita Athavale)

I’m so looking forward to seeing her play this song live, hopefully later this fall.  You can buy two copies of her new album on CD Baby, and even with shipping charges, it’s under $20.00. Buy her album and support a highly talented local Alberta artist.

.: That’s all for now.

Who am I, What is This Place?

Welcome to the pod bay door, and thank you for visiting this site. I am Randy Reichardt, a librarian and musician living in Edmonton AB. I was born and raised in St Boniface MB (Winnipeg), and moved to Edmonton in December 1978. Currently I am an engineering librarian at the University of Alberta, and the guitarist in the band, Hardy Boys & Nancy Boys. I am also the guitarist for the Edmonton fiddler, Amelia Kaminski.

This blog began in July 2002 on Blogger. Over time it has changed platforms to Movable Type, and then WordPress. There is no consistent theme on the pod bay door. I will write about whatever, whenever. Early on, I was posting a few times a week, but well into my fifth year of blogging, the initial enthusiasm has waned considerably. That said, I don’t plan to end this activity any time soon, and will continue to maintain my blog, and my domain, for a time to come.

For those wondering, the name is taken from the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. You can hear it about 53 seconds into this clip.

.: I have been tagged by Pam (but wasn’t aware of it until I checked her site), nor was I aware that Christina tagged me about the same thing. Blog memes aren’t my thing, but apparently when one is tagged, one must comply. This is Five Little-Known Things About Me, which doesn’t necessarily mean they are interesting or unique.

1. I was a DJ on the University of Manitoba’s closed-circuit radio station in 1974-1975. Once per show I would read a few “True Facts” from issues of National Lampoon while playing the music from Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance in the background.

2. I have a tiny crease in my skull from slipping and falling against a brick corner on the outside of my junior high school. I slipped on some snow while playing with a friend during lunch hour. I didn’t feel any pain, but a couple seconds later, blood started pouring from my top of my head. In restrospect, this could explain a lot about me.

3. In the mid-1960s I collected comic books. Gabriel, my friend at the time, and I decided to create our own comics, which we wrote, drew and coloured by hand. My super-heroes included Mr IBM and The Prism. I forget the other super-heroes I created, and unfortunately no longer have the comics.

4. I have no affinity for building or repairing things, so any renovations or repairs to my home are always done by friends who are accordingly compensated afterwards. My father, however, can repair and renovate just about anything.

5. The first band I joined was called Ram, when I was in Grade 12, in 1970. Ram was an 11-piece group: two lead singers, two guitars, two trumpets, keyboards, bass, drums, trombone and saxophone. We were together for less than a year. We played cover tunes by Chicago, Led Zeppelin, Iron Butterfly, and others. We once played a outdoor gig on the steps of the Manitoba Legislature Building, but for some reason the horns couldn’t stay in tune. The first song the band learned was Vehicle by the Chicago band, The Ides of March. If you can, find me in the band picture (10 of 11 members were around at that time.)

I’m not sure who to tag next, so I’ll nominate Darcy, Cindi, Tony, Keith, and the newly-married Lauren.

.: About three weeks ago I bought a Maxtor 320GB external drive. Everything was going fine until I linked it to my desktop, a 2002 Dell Dimension 4400. The Dell froze and wouldn’t reboot. A few days later, the Dell was at David’s house (the drummer in HDNB), where its hard drive was made a slave drive, and one of David’s drive temporarily became the computer’s C drive. We copied the contents of my drive to the Maxtor, which took a few days, as the Dell’s USB ports are 1.1. When this task finished, the Dell’s original hard drive was reformatted, and I took the computer home, reloaded XP and Office, and then connected the Maxtor to copy the files back to the C drive. Except that the Dell was telling me that the Maxtor wasn’t formatted. I connected the Maxtor to my laptop with the same results.

So I thought, now what? I surfed the Maxtor site, and learned that there were programs I could use to recover the data on the Maxtor, but of course at a cost. I chose this program, which ran for four days but recovered over 70,000 files from the Maxtor, paid for the licence (which allowed me to copy the files back to the C drive), and finished everything tonight. Lesson learned: back up your important data.

.: Christmas is impending. I’ve been off work since 16 December 2006, and have spent a lot of time resting and laying low. I saw three movies this week: Apocalypto, Casino Royale, and Little Miss Sunshine. I’m behind preparing my Christmas cards, and hope to finish a few more tomorrow. I’ve started the daunting task of cleaning my house, beginning with the basement. I filled six blue and six green bags for garbage pickup this morning, plus two blue bags of shredded paper products. I tossed about fifteen large cardboard boxes into the local recycling bins, and donated five boxes of books to the University of Alberta Libraries this morning (where, coincidentally, I work). I bought two new Uniden cordless phones to replace the aging Uniden phone I’ve had since the mid-90s. In between the foregoing I’ve been finishing last minute Christmas shopping.

.: I was saddened to learn last week that my Little Brother is moving away from Edmonton. I am an In-School Mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters in Edmonton, and my Little Bro, JG, is leaving town. In-School Mentors visit their Littles once a week at their schools, and spend about 45-60 minutes with them once a week. I’ve worked with J for about 18 months, and recently he was teaching me how to play chess. I’ll miss him, but wish him well; he’s a great kid.

.: It hasn’t taken the corporate world long to take advantage of YouTube. NBC, for example, is uploading videos of its shows (or sections thereof) within minutes of a show’s finish. Last Saturday, NBC uploaded the uncensored version of a video featuring guest host Justin Timberlake and cast member Andy Samberg soon after the show ended. The music video is crude but funny – Timberlake plays the boy band schtick to the nines! When the YT video ended, links to a number of other NBC videos appeared, including this one, which includes one brilliantly hilarious scene (extreme sports), and is about an NBC-sponsored site called It’s Your Show. Create an original video (with original music if need be), use the supplied toolkit if applicable, upload the video into an existing category on the site, or create your own category therein. Sounds like fun, if you have enough free time to work on such things.

.: I was born on June 28, 1953, at 0105 hrs, in Winnipeg. Today I turned 53, in the year my age matches my year of birth. It’s a scorching, sunny day in Edmonton, and I am glad to be alive, surrounded by good and caring friends, family, and colleagues. I am fortunate and grateful for many things in life, and today is a good day to reflect on all of them, and give thanks. To everyone who has been or is a part of my life, thank you. – Randy

.: In a previous post, I raved about the brilliant ABC show, Sons & Daughters, easily the funniest network sitcom I’d seen since Seinfeld, and partially improvised to boot. ABC, in classic fashion, showed great faith in the show by cancelling it after 10 episodes, proving yet again, that network television executives cannot recognize talent and creativity when it is staring them right in their collective faces. Scheduling the show opposite American Idyll didn’t help the cause either. I haven’t felt this passionate about a television show being yanked before its time since ABC tanked the equally brilliant My So-Called Life.

A petition to bring the show back to ABC is online and I’d encourage you to sign it.

Fred Goss, the co-creator, Executive Producer, Writer & Director of the show, is on MySpace and YouTube, and posted two short videos that are worth watching. Fred writes, “This is the presentation I used to sell a pilot to NBC last year. It also led to the sale of Sons & Daughters at ABC. I shot this for under 5000.00 dollars and obviously it was worth every penny.” If you haven’t seen Sons & Daughters, the video has very much the same feel as the show, improvisation, actors playing off one another.

Of the following video, Fred writes, “These are a compilation of additional scenes to the weekends presentation. If you haven’t already watched weekends, I recommend that you watch that before watching this.”

As for Sons & Daughters, read this post, a great summary of why the show is so good. Missed the show? Check the links at the bottom of the aforementioned post, which will take to you videos of all the shows, available on YouTube until ABC yanks them. Brilliant stuff, funny, edgy, and worth the time to watch.

.: The band I am in, Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys, played its first gig last night with its current lineup, with me on guitar. We played 14 songs, including 12 originals by David Leigh, the drummer and lead singer. Overall, it went well. Pictures will be posted soon. Many friends and colleagues were in attendance, and my thanks to each of them for taking the time to support my musical escapades.