Nifty (and Cheap!) All-in-One 386 Audio Amplifier

Kudos to alert reader Drew Stafford for pointing out this little guy:

That’s compact little ready-to-use LM386-based amplifier, ready for you to add input, speaker, and power (a 9volt battery will do ya), all for under $5, with free shipping (i.e., not a lot more then what you’d pay for components to build such an amplifier yourself). Pretty slick!

*Thanks Drew!*

Dave-o on the Radio (and new DIY freebies)!

Jefferson Public Radio interviewed me last month about DIY musical instruments; you can hear that here: Music From Your Junk Drawer | Jefferson Public Radio FUN FACT: It wasn’t until the last minute that I learned this was a radio call-in show (!!!) Had a very bad moment as I sat on hold, waiting to go live, and flashed on all of the “longtime listeners” I’d heard call-in and harangue NPR hosts over the years (none of which came to pass; there was one caller, he was on-topic and totally lovely).

*BONUS*: We’ve added another project to the free DIY Jam Pack, which now includes full instructions on building a single-string electric guitar, an amp, and a Droid Voicebox voice synth. Please feel free to share that link and spread the love; the more folks building their own instruments, the better!

The Rejected Soundtrack to THE EXORCIST is Fantastic and Fantastically Unnerving

The full story is over at Dangerous Minds (The terrifying rejected ‘Exorcist’ soundtrack the director literally threw out a window | Dangerous Minds), but to cut to the chase, here’s the full rejected score–which I find really quite listenable:

(Aside: Now that I hear it again, this puts me in the mind of John Adams’ beautiful elegy for the victims of 9/11, On the Transmigration of Souls–enough so that I sorta wonder if he ever listened this score. At any rate, even if this score doesn’t appeal, Adams’ piece really is one to listen to, again and again and again.)

Also included in that above-linked Dangerous Minds article is the original “banned” trailer for THE EXORCIST, which used this rejected score.

FUN FACT: Dave can’t watch THE EXORCIST. I’ve read the book, seen one or two of the sequels, but I can’t get more than ~30 minutes or so into the original film (in theaters or on video) before having a panic attack[*] and having to quit. Likewise, I can’t watch that trailer, despite it being just 1:41. I couldn’t even finish the first minute.

Continue reading “The Rejected Soundtrack to THE EXORCIST is Fantastic and Fantastically Unnerving”

My funny, glamorous, gracious Aunt Lola died last night. She was enslaved in Auschwitz at 16. Z”L

I just learned that my Aunt Lola died last night–great aunt, technically, the wife of one of my father’s uncles. Although we’ve lived in the same town for twenty years, Lola and I, I had only seen her a small handful of times during those decades; there’s been bad blood in our family. Not with Lola and me, but elsewhere, and we wound up on different sides. That’s just how it goes.

I loved her very much when I was small. She was small–putting her at my level, as a tall dweeb in a clip-on tie and penny loafers–and glamorous and funny. She glowed. Her rich, thick Czech accent always reminded me of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, which is a not-super-insane association for a boy who watched a ton of TV in the ’80s. I remember one time, at a summer party at my Aunt Denise’s house, at the end of the party, she slipped off her shoes–fancy gold, sharp-toed, high heels. Her toes were twisted and calloused, almost as though her feet had been bound–which I guess they had, although by American women’s fashion, not some out-modded and backward cultural obsession with ideals of beauty (ha! Joke!)

I remember her gingerly stepping from foot to foot on the thick shag in her hose, “Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh!” as though it was hot as coals–and she wasn’t play acting; her feet were aching from the shoes and the standing and the heat of the day. She looked up to see me sitting on the sofa across from her, looking on in dismay.

“Oh David,” she smiled, “Sometimes you need to suffer to be beautiful.”

I didn’t know then that, at 16, she been shipped to Auschwitz like a crate of shoes–a slow three-day train ride, because of the congestion on the tracks created by shipping so many other folks to camps, like cattle or shoes or some other commodity. There she’d been disgorged onto a ramp, and at the bottom stood Dr. Mengele. He was making a selection. Some were sent right, other left. Her folks went one way, she the other. She became my aunt, they became ash. She was stripped and shaved and tattooed and beaten, and sent walking to her new life.

She ended up in the barracks closest to the crematory ovens, and so her job was to sort the belongings of the dead–the clothes, the luggage–searching for jewelry and food and blankets and meds and anything of use. To sort it, to box it up for storage, or to be redistributed to widows and orphans.

There’s more, there’s lots more–heck, there’s a second run-in with Dr. Mengele. You can read and listen to her testimony here.

But I didn’t know any of that when I was small–I mean, I knew all of that, because such stories were not rare where I grew up, nor such survivors. But I did not know her story until I was much older–older than she was when she was enslaved–and I’m still learning bits and pieces, because I never heard it from her.

Which I don’t take personally; there was never a good time to share it with me, and there was no bad blood between us. When I last saw her, even though the folks around her were shooting me and my sisters daggers–gosh, even though one of my cousins later sought me out to hassle me about that chance encounter–Aunt Lola was still as charming and gracious as ever.

And I still loved her very much. Let her name be a blessing.

Her name is Lola Taubman; she sorted the laundry in Hell for a time as a teen, and then lived 72 years more, largely here, largely in good health.

It’s that Time of Year Again: *Happy Xmanukah!!!*

(NOTE: If you’re feeling deja vu, don’t sweat it; I post this every year, because I love you)

I’m a mixed Jew who’s lived in the American Midwest for his entire life. I think these songs, more than anything else I’ve ever written, are honest about that experience.

  • Another Dark Xmastime (FUN FACT: I wrote this during my first year as a fundamentally unemployable stay-at-home dad; my son believes it is an accepted part of the general Xmas Music Canon.)
  • Dreidel Bells (FUN FACT: The beat here is an original GameBoy running an early German Nanoloop cartridge. Both voices are obviously me, but the filters for the robot voice badly overburdened my iBook, causing significant lag–which is why Mr. Roboto struggles so badly to hit his marks.)
  • DreidelDreidelDreidel (FUN FACT: The beat here is a vintage analog Boss DR-55 once owned by POE, crammed through a heavy-metal distortion stompbox.)

Kevin Smith vs. Prince’s Vault (and BONUS: Prince covers “Creep”!!!)

There’s sort of a lot here in this anecdote, both about Prince and Smith as people, and also about fame, and how fame (and different intensities of fame) play out in different folk’s heads. But, finally, it’s about craft, and what good craftspeople do with the works that just don’t pan out.

But, most importantly, it’s a fun story and worth your time.

Continue reading “Kevin Smith vs. Prince’s Vault (and BONUS: Prince covers “Creep”!!!)”