The Bis Key Chronicles

Okay, looking at this picture, which one is blonde? If you can’t pass this test, I’m not talkin’ to you anymore.  ;o)

Well, what say yea puzzle meisters?

Last week the local drug dealer aka vintage instrument seller stopped by my desk a work with a little ‘something’ for me to look at. It was a gorgeous Conn F-mezzo soprano sax from the late 1920’s. Darn the temptation, but this time I went for it.

I immediately made an offer on the instrument, some what lower than what he was asking. Knowing full well that he could sell if for more, we haggled and he gave in about halfway between our best prices. Heck, I have purchased more than a couple of instruments from Matt. I then pinged Merlin who was penning ‘Santa Baby’ as a quartet for me to ask if he could include a sop replacement copy for the f-mezzo.

For those of you wanting to know more about the Conn f-mezzo soprano saxes start here. You can also view a truly well-preserved copy of an original Conn full page ad for this instrument.

Playing this I found the intonation to be very good except on the palm keys. Suzy noted the key heights were way off and something that one of my fav techs could handle rather quickly. When she held the key down to a normal key height, the intonation was immediately better. So after a minor annoyance to take it to a tech we will see how it sounds in ensemble with the rest of the sax quartet. Even more interesting will be how many people will notice it is something special. I’d be surprised if 1 person out of a thousand would think it was something other than an alto sax.

After six weeks of effort our new renters are in the house and we’ve received our first rent check ahead of time and in full. And we don’t have to cover electric and water bills. After we’d had the house painted our last renters moved out and we found new ones.

Here are some of the things we, well mostly Suzy, did to prepare the house for the new renters.

• New carpets in living room, hallway, and two of three bedrooms
• New Kitchen counters installed
• All locks changed and damaged sliding door latch replaced
• Electric Panel box door fixed
• Spot painting on front of house
• Extraneous antennas moved off the roof
• Garage door hole fixed
• Weed and feed spread on yard
• Two  6” to 11” metal posts with concrete dug  out of the yard
• House entry closet doors hung
• Front door weather stripping, kick plate, and action fixed
• Wood removed from property
• Dead tree roots dug out and removed from front yard
• Dining room and kitchen floor replaced
• Downstairs fireplace mantle hung
• Garage decorative exterior lights hung

We finished these items in the last week rush to be done in time for the new renters:

• New dishwasher installed
• Kitchen sink hooked back up
• Master bedroom closet doors hung
• Dining room and kitchen floor trim replaced
• 3 Door/drawer panels in kitchen replaced (if they come in time)
• Downstairs fireplace tiling done
• Top part of upstairs fireplace mantle finished with missing trim pieces added
• Floors vacuumed
• Trash and junk cleaned out of garage
• Wall holes filled, wall plates installed
• Guest bathtub re-caulked

Rumor is the new tenants love the house which is so good to hear.

Some killer pumpkins to get you an early start on the festive ghoulish holiday that is Halloween. I especially send this out for my son and his wife who are exceptional pumpkin carvers:

Enjoy.

A ‘not too’ deep read from WebMC.com:

“I was in the ninth grade when I learned a vital lesson about love. My girlfriend at the time, Amy, was stunningly cute, frighteningly smart and armed with a seemingly endless supply of form-fitting angora sweaters. And me? Let's just say I was an adolescent Chris Robinson to her budding Kate Hudson -- and well aware of my good fortune.

Then one day, as we stood in line for a movie at the mall, Simone Shaw, junior high prom queen, sauntered by. Suddenly Amy turned to me. "Were you looking at her?" she asked. "Do you think she's pretty?"

My mind reeled. Of course I was looking at her! Of course she was pretty! My God, she was Simone Shaw! I paused for a second, then decided to play it straight.

"Well, yeah," I chortled.

Five days later our breakup hit the tabloids (a.k.a. the lunchroom).”

Read more…

I luv Secret #11 – Give us an inch and we’ll give you a lifetime. But I think most of these ‘secrets’ cut both ways. Especially in a successful marriage.

For the most part I can’t relate to the problems many couples have. I suspect that is true because I was fortunate (read lucky) enough to pick a very laid-back, hard-working, and rich girl. (I can say girl because I met her when she was 15 years young.) Suzy is so low maintenance that sometimes I take her for granted. But not often. Especially when I meet some of my friends’ wives and ex’s. ;o)

I purchased a new phone a couple of weeks ago and have been using it ever since. Since it runs Microsoft Window Moble apps which my Blackberry didn’t, within a day I’d set it up, loaded my 200+ contacts from Outlook, and sinc’d my calendar with both Outlook (work) and Microsoft Live (home).

PCmag.com sez:

The HTC Imagio is Verizon's best smartphone in a long time. It's Verizon's first device to come with Windows Mobile 6.5 out of the box. It's also the first smartphone to feature genuine broadcast mobile TV. Overall, the Imagio is a powerful touchscreen device for business-minded globetrotters who value multimedia performance, as well as compatibility with Microsoft's Exchange and Office-based ecosystem.

Read the HTC Imagio (Verizon) full review

But here are the basics:

• Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
• Operating System: Windows Mobile Professional
• Screen Size: 3.6 inches
• Screen Details: 480-by-800, 262K-color TFT LCD resistive touch screen
• Camera: Yes
• Megapixels: 5 MP
• 802.11x: No
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Web Browser: Yes
• Network: GSM, CDMA
• Bands: 800, 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100
• High-Speed Data: 1xRTT, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, EVDO Rev A
• Processor Speed: 528 MHz

I don’t plan on on using the TV capabilities. But that still is very cool.  :o)

Life Magazine photographer Gjon Mili joined with jazz producer and Verve-label owner Norman Granz to produce the short film "Jammin

' the Blues" in 1944 with Lester Young, Red Callendar, Harry Edison, "Big" Sid Catlett, Illinois Jacquet, Barney Kessel, Jo Jones and Marie Bryant. The film was nominated for Best Short Subject at the 1945 Academy Awards, but didn't win.

The pair came together again in 1950 to shoot footage of leading jazz artists of the day, but when funding dried up, the film ceased production and sat on shelves for 50 years (except for a few snippets which found their way onto bootlegs).
Blues For Greasy is one of those pieces shot by Gjon Mili and Norman Granz, using musicians from his Jazz at the Philharmonic tour.

Harry 'Sweets' Edison: trumpet, Lester Young: Tenor Sax, Flip Phillips: Tenor Sax, Bill Harris: Trombone, Hank Jones: Piano, Ray Brown: Bass, Buddy Rich: Drums, Ella Fitzgerald: Vocals

There so much goodness in this video. If this doesn’t start your toes tappin’, nothing will.  :o)

Yes, sweet Amelia was keeping my feet warm again last night. As soon as I hit the alarm off button and grab my glasses she comes up to my face and starts licking me. What’s that about?  :o)

We’ve never had a bed dawg before. When she was younger, we would chase her off the bed at night just to wake up in the morning and find her sleeping at our feet. You can’t fight that. So often we’ll have two cats and a dawg in the bed, Shelby, the ol’ dawg at the side of the bed, and Theo roaming the house.

I found this at Wikipedia in the Vocal Range category. It is fascinating and a good reference.

Sleep as much as you can ....