Topic: Port Townsend Post-soak/Decompression

[Slack]

Here is the article that I believe Andy was talking about, from the 12-29-02 Austin American Statesman - very interesting read.

http://home.earthlink.net/~minermusic/corcoran.htm

slack

[uncle bud]

When Andy and Honeyboy first arrived and we were helping them unload the car, Andy pulled out the dulceola, which is smaller than I expected, sat down on the steps to the Bricks, and started playing boogie woogie. Boogie woogie dulceola.

[waxwing]

Hey all, new member here. Also recovering from PT. My second year, and a notch up on the first. Some of you may know me from the Woodshed and maybe Bob and Woody's forum. Some one there just emailed me this forum. Great. Really more of what I'm after. Some of you might recognize me from Ari's morning class or John M's afternooner. Long silver hair and ancient discolored Stella with a large real tortoise inlaid pickgaurd swooping under the strings. I've got a Sov 12 with the same style pickgaurd that I'd wager is a tad more interesting than that Maurer mentioned above. Showed it to Gordie Bushaw and a few others. "The real deal" said Ted Howard (the guy who won the Santa Cruz). It's really fun to play and hear all the different guitars, each with it's own character, and to hear other folks play mine (far better than I am capable of at this point). I'm hoping next year to set up a night when we can all bring our vintage guits to 204, maybe the big room opposite the 'Jook', and really see all of what shows up.
So reading this thread it seems like you weenies go to a different camp than the rest of us. I stayed on the second floor of 225, with an incredible view of the Cascades, Puget Sound, and the beach arching out to the lighthouse. Last year I was fortunate enough to hook up with ths band that comes down from Sitka, Belly Meat. These guys are some serious players and jammers. The thing that impresses me most about them is how much they love each other. I guess living in San Francisco makes me a little jealous of the small town on an island comraderie they have. But, talk about chops. Lee on guit (usually brings a fine sounding Trojan) Gary on harp, Ernie on bass and Ted on mando. Ted's wife Julie added some piano and I was thrilled to play my washboard for their perf of Step It Up And Go.
Another highlight for me was singing a duet of Java Jive with Del when John and Heidi, the Java Gypsies, arrived late with the espresso truck one afternoon. I even remembered the tag "A slice of onion..." when she blanked. What a gal.
Having started a tradition of late Friday night salmon last year we decided to be a little more organized this year. Gary and Ernie(a pro fisherman) found a dockside fish mart, and that afternoon I saw Gary fillet and butterfly an 18 lb white king in about 10 minutes. We bought a little gas grill some veggies and that night treated everyone to BarBQ salmon, veggies and my signature grilled hearts of romaine. Unfortunately by the time we cleaned up, everyone else had crashed so we were left to jam with ourselves. Made it to John M's saturday class though.
There was so much to try to take advantage of. I got a class in with David Evans and one with Steve Cheseborough. Both great. The jugband class looked like a lot of fun but, sadly, I wasn't a part of it.
Hope to meet some of you guys (or maybe I have already) next year. In the meantime, this looks like a great site.
All for now.
John C.

[Slack]

Welcome JohnC, glad you found the site!  I think I know who you are, even though there are lots of folks with long gray hair - so good description.  Sorry I missed your Soverign 12 string, and you missed the Maurer -- did you have a chance to check out Gordy's parlor Maurer?  Very cool.

Your 2nd year and planning on the 3rd?, great to hear, sounds like you are hooked on PT - I think most weenies are in the 5 - 11 year cycle.  It may sound like a different camp as we rebelled against the cafeteria (although I heard it was an improvement this year) and the no dorm playing rule (which has since changed) about 5 years ago and so we now rent housing.

Again, welcome.  If you have any pics, feel free to post them.

cheers,
slack (aka JohnD)

[waxwing]

Hey slack, thanks. Did see Gordy's Maurer, and his incredible mint koa Sov 6. That's a story that I wish would happen to me. Both have so much character. To me, it is one of the wonders of the blues community that so many of these old guits are being cared for. I feel incredibly lucky to have found the guitars I have, and really get such a connection to the music from playing them. I particulatly enjoy hearing others play them. You can bet I'll bring as many as I can squeeze into my '71 VW Squareback next year. I assume everyone here put in a vote for an extra day next year?
Is there somewhere on this forum that I can find instruction on how to post a pic or two?
All for now.
John C.

[Slack]

JohnC,

Yes, I think most voted for the extra day, most of us go 1-3 days early anyway.  If you have PT pics, there is a "Gallery" button at the top of the page and then select "Upload Picture", you'll be prompted to choose a albumn (select Port Townsend 2003) and then there is a "Browse" Button that will allow to to selelct a photo off of your hard drive.  If you want to uplaod a pic into a message just selelct the 'Browse" button at the bottom, select the photo as an attachment and it will display in the message body.

Hope that helps,
slack

[waxwing]

I wish I did have some pics of PT. My partner, Gre, had the digital on her trip to Phoenix. Well, I did give it to her for her Bday. I thought you were inviting pics of guits. I checked out the Galleries and noticed you are far and away the primary contributor. I'll try to help you out in the future. How 'bout a gallery of member's guits?
All for now.
John C.

[Slack]

Hi JohnC,

Yes, well, I'm the administrator and this forum has been up only since May - it is pretty green, so many of those contributions are just trying to get stuff moved from the old Yahoo Groups and build a little content.

Yes!  A gallery of members guitars is a great idea, we've got plenty of guitar nuts around here, so you are welcomed to start one.

cheers,
slack

[uncle bud]

Hi JohnC,

If you're the guy who lent Ari the National then I know who you are and we went to a lot of the same classes this year. I'm the guy with the distinguished hairline (read balding) playing a Larrivee with my left leg propped up on a footstool for tendinitis reasons. Glad the workshop has found another repeat customer. I'll be voting for an extra day as well (haven't sent in my evaluation yet). One consideration that will be strong for the organizers is the increase in cost. It could push the week out of some folks' price range, even if it is a steal at the current price. I know Bruce was concerned about this when I spoke to him about it. Fingers crossed.

Someone came up with the idea (Jeff?) of an extra day of workshop but a cascading schedule for faculty - i.e., they would still only teach four days, some starting on Monday, others starting on Tuesday, perhaps some with a split week etc. This would a) not put increased teaching demands on faculty and b) open up the schedule a bit for those who are torn between taking class X or Y on a given day. Worth a thought, and I may add it to my evaluation.

Welcome to the board!
Andrew --> has no cool old guitars  

[waxwing]

Hey Uncle Bud,
That's me. Ari likes that guit because the action is very easy and the intonation is spot on. Not only am I lucky enough to own such a guit but I also have an incredible luthier here in San Francisco. Gary Brawer is the go to guy for touring pros in a hurry but in between he enjoys working on old guits. He built out the saddle and compensated for each string. He also has one of only two PLEK machines in the states. This is a CNC fret dressing machine that gives the lowest action possible without buzz. Check out the web site at:

http://www.plek.com/indexpl.html

And not all that expensive as it saves quite a bit of labor.

Interesting idea about the cascading workshops. I sure would like a chance to feel like I was missing less. Yeah, PT is a steal. Most of the folks I talked to were up for another day. Had been for years.

I use a footstool, too, but settled on my guit case in classes. I have Carpal Tunnel issues, which turn out to be somewhat whole body/posture related, as well. A great chiro has really helped me out with myofascial release massage. Kinda like Rolfing. I'm pretty much over it now and PT was quite a test.
All for now.
John C.

[Walker T]

Blues Buddies- I just wanted to thanks all of you who helped out with the Blues Buddies program this year. A pleasure. Peace, Walker

[Bill Roggensack]

JohnC

It's good to have you aboard. If I've got you pegged right, we talked on the Keystone Ferry on Sunday morning (with some harp guy playing faeries and shipwreck songs in the background). DougT and I heard all about the 'Sitka Boys' from Sandy (the gal from Queen charlottes who we gave a ride to Vancouver). It sounds like we'd better have a meeting of the minds next year!

Cheers,
FrontPage

[Bill Roggensack]

Rivers:

I had the opportunity to spend about two hours with Andy one evening during which time we disassembled the ducleola so that I could look at the mechanical contraption in detail (you know how us engineers are - we want to know how it works, not how to play it!). While doing that, and consuming a glass of BlackBush, we had a great discussion about Wahsington Phillips (one of my favorite singers) then went down at least 30 other rabbit trails, including American politics.

Check out US Patent nos. 719,641 and 857,380, which were the basis for the Boyd Brothers short-lived business manufacturing dulceolas.

I also got a mini-concert as Andy demonstrated the many features and limitations of dulceola by playing snippets of a wide range of musical styles. So of course, I had to buy 'Dulceola Favorites' - it kind of grows on you, and after listening to it, I told Andy that it made me think of what elevator music might have sounded like at the turn of the last century. In retaliation, he wrote a dedication of the CD booklet that reads something like: "To FrontPage - my main Weenie man". I shall treasure this obscure recording, and put it on some time when unsuspecting friends are over to the house, just to see their reaction.

Andy added 'colour' to the kitchen every morning as he regaled anyone who would listen with his songs and stories. I especially enjoyed some of his talking blues.

Cheers,
FrontPage

Cheers,
FrontPage

[uncle bud]

Blues Buddies- I just wanted to thanks all of you who helped out with the Blues Buddies program this year. A pleasure. Peace, Walker

Walker,

We were glad to help out again.

Cheers,
Andrew

[waxwing]

 Hey FrontPage, I figured you were one of these weenies. Sandy had said she was getting a ride with some guys who rented a house. When I found this forum I figured you were here. Cool. You guys should definitely invite Belly Meat over for some Jammin', and they would really like to swap riffs with some of the profs, too. These guys are also not all that happy with the cafeteria fare. We ate several dinners down town. I think Gary and Ernie tried to bail on the meal plan but if you're in the dorm you gotta pay for it even if you don't eat it. I almost brought my ceramic smoker/BarBQ ( Vintage Japanese, not one of those modern "Green Egg" things. Although it does have modern internals-kinda like an N/RP cone in a vintage Duo). I'd have to build a box on my roof rack to carry it, wouldn't want to have to leave behind any guits. Lee wants me to bring my '61 Fender Princeton, too (I told him it's not prewar). Might have to put new shocks on, though. Hey, I certainly don't mean to be pushy. You guys seem to have a full house and an even fuller table. Maybe we could be neighbors. Are there other houses available on Officer row, and how much does it cost (i.e. how many folks would it take) to rent one? I'm really just pipedreaming here, don't know if those guys would be into it or not. They live kind of a subsistence life in Sitka, and most have college age kids. I somehow spared myself the kids but certainly have known the lifestyle. Anyway, whatever happens, I'm glad I found you guys and look forward to swapping tunes (and guits) with y'all.
All for now.
John C.