My new bass

It's been 15 years since I sold my bass, but today I bought a new one.

After doing careful research to find the best entry-level bass for the money, I settled on the Ibanez GSR200. A good, solid bass with nice features and decent craftsmanship for the cost. I mean, you get what you pay for in musical instruments, but at this point in my life, I do not need to spend a lot on a bass, nor can I afford to. So the GSR200 was my choice.

There were a few used ones on Craigslist, but I was leaning towards a used one at this guitar shop called Guitar Center (it's a chain...I don't know how widespread it is). So I finally got a chance to check it out again today. I wanted to make a decision before it got bought by someone else. I played it and it seemed fine. I'm going to get a little technical here, so if you don't care about technical details, just skip down to the next paragraph. Basses these days sometimes have an active pickup. That means that the guitar has a 9V battery that powers one of the pickups. Kind of like a preamp in a microphone. If this existed 20 years ago when I bought my Peavey Foundation, I hadn't heard about it. I think it's a relatively new feature. I dunno. Anyway, according to the dudes at Guitar Center, it's a feature that the higher-end basses usually have. My research had shown that the GSR200, however, had an active pickup, but the used model I was considering didn't seem to have one. When I asked about it, the guy said that the model in question was from a kit, and the GSR200's that come in a kit (that is, packaged together with a little amp, strap, cord, etc.) do not have the active pickup. Hmm. This was a bit of a bummer. I was really kind of excited about having the active pickup. So as I thought things over, I got a new GSR200 off the wall, plugged it in, and played it a bit. It just sounded better. More responsive. The fretboard felt better, maybe just because it was new instead of a few years old. It was $75 more than the used one, but I decided I'd just work a few sub periods to cover the difference. So I got it. A brand new, black Ibanez GSR200.

When I got home, the real test began. Last Wednesday, I bought a used Peavey KB-60 amplifier off Craigslist. It's 50 watts (despite what the model number might imply), which is more power than I could possibly need for my purposes (but better to have too much than not enough!). Peavey makes good amps. My original bass amp was a 50 watt Peavey. This one is technically a keyboard amp, but everything I had read said that it was a great multi-instrument amp, including bass. When I picked it up, it had a bit of a buzz to it, which made me a little nervous. But amps often buzz a bit, so I chalked it up as negligible. And I hoped in the back of my mind that it was just the dude's bass that was causing it, because the jack on his guitar was really loose. So I plugged my new bass into the amp this afternoon and turned it on. No buzz! And it sounds freaking awesome. I think it sounds better than my bass and amp did 20 years ago. I could never really get a slap and pop effect with my original bass and amp. But with this one, it's easy. Not that I use much slapping and popping, but it's still fun to do once in a while.

So that's it. Now I just need a good microphone that can connect to my computer, and I'll be ready to start adding bass tracks to Baffum's new songs. And I need to practice. My ring finger feels like it's half asleep when I go through my scales. Gotta get in shape again.

Here's some pics of the new bass.

I told Alex to give me his rock-n-roll face in this one.

Vivien likes the "new bass" smell.

Writing Songs

My friend, Steve, and I have been making music together for 20 years. It sounds funny to say that, because it makes us sound old! But it's true. In 1988, we each bought our first electric guitars. Mine was a black cheapo I got at a pawn shop. Paid 100 dollars for it. It didn't even have a brand name (probably got painted over). I think Steve's was a Harmony that he bought at Service Merchandise. My amp was tiny and weak. But it was a start. Within a year, we had formed a true band with our friend Dom and another friend named Steve. We bought a drum set, Dom got a bass guitar...we even bought a second-hand 4-track recorder. We recorded several songs and even played live once for a talent show. It was a blast and we still chuckle about it today.

When our band (Skulk of Thieves) broke up before senior year, Steve and I continued to play music, and even took it up a notch. We auditioned for the school vocal emsemble, Breez, which included a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and a keyboardist. Steve was the guitarist, and I was the bassist. Steve upgraded his guitar and amp, and I bought a new bass and amp. The cool thing about Breez is that for a class period every day we got to play our instruments. Though the music we had to play was not our favorite type of music (Wind Beneath my Wings? C'mon!) it gave us experience with our instruments as well as lots of practice playing in front of live audiences. And yes, the Citrus County Watermelon Festival counts as a live audience. And never discount the value of playing Christmas songs at a nursing home!

On the side, we played covers of the music we liked (REM, Beatles, The Cure, etc.) and wrote some tunes of our own. We called ourselves B.A.F.M., after a crude nickname for Steve's car. Alas, when we graduated from high school, Steve went back to his homeland of Scotland, and it seemed that our musical partnership would be severed. But as Lee Corso would say, not so fast, my friend! We mailed cassette tapes back and forth and continued to share our lives and our favorite music with each other. After living in the States for most of his formative years, Steve had some rough years of depression trying to adjust back to life in Scotland. Many of his early tapes expressed his frustration, and you could tell he wanted to be in the States. I think the tapes were a nice outlet for his sadness and maybe helped him make the transition. One nice result of his longing for Florida was that he came back to visit a couple of times. In those short times he returned, our musical partnership, now called Baffum, continued. We wrote a few more songs and even recorded some with his old guitar teacher.

In 1993, a few months before my wedding, I sold my bass and amp, to help finance our wedding. It was kind of sad, but I felt like it was necessary. A year after our wedding, I bought a classical guitar in Costa Rica, so at least I could continue to play.

Around 1993 or 1994, Steve and I first figured out email, which completely revolutionized our ability to keep in touch with each other. I think the onset of email, and later instant messaging, phased out our audio tapes, which had been mostly filled with discussion and small talk. And later, with the accessibility of CD burners, we just sent CDs of our favorite music to each other. Even this has now phased out, as our music has gone digital thanks to the iPod. We just email songs to each other now.

In the late 90's, the songwriting bug got us again and we sent cassette tapes back and forth, adding tracks to a few songs which we were working on. This was definitely a crude system, with each recording resulting in lower quality. But it was the best we could do at the time.

Recently, Steve has found a program called Garageband, which makes it easy to record music on the computer. So the bug has hit again. I'm in the process of buying a bass. I got a used amp this week off Craigslist. We looked through our songs from years ago and found one that we would use as a trial-run, a kickoff project for our new recording sessions. Steve sent me a rough draft track yesterday and I'm excited at the possibilities. Now I find myself working on lyrics while I'm teaching. This morning I got an idea for a new song and I've been toying around with it in my head. I have a little microphone on my computer at school, so I can record ideas that I get while I'm at work.

I shared all this with Cristina last night, and she asked me a good question: who is our intended audience? It hit me that I do it not so much for any audience, but because I love the act of creating. And I love the collaboration of working on music with Steve. We have many of the same music sensibilities, so we're a good fit. We understand each other musically like twins can understand each other's gibberish. I have no aspirations to perform live, or to make a demo CD to try to get a record deal. That's just crazy talk. We're not the most talented musicians. We don't have great equipment. But we have fun with the process. We love to surprise ourselves. We love the challenge of trying to craft a song that we really like, and the pleasure of knowing that it's ours. Writing lyrics is like writing poetry. It's hard to avoid cliches and pretentiousness and banality. And that adds to the challenge. Which is why we're so slow. The song we're working on now has been a work in progress for about 17 years! We're like the Stanley Kubrick of songwriting. We take forever to apply our craft!

Back to the matter of audience, I'm not even eager to send copies of our stuff to all my family members. It's not that I don't want my family to hear our stuff, I'm just not doing it for them. I'm doing it for me. I do get excited at the positive byproducts which will result from getting back into making music, like being a role model for my kids. They'll see that Sofia isn't the only one making music, and that their dad does it for fun and friendship. Some guys enjoy playing online games, some go bowling, some hang out and watch sports and drink beer. I like to work on songs with my buddy, my musical other-half.

I know I really love something when my sense of time dissolves. It used to happen when I'd be working on a video. I could be at the computer editing and the hours would just fly by without me being hardly aware of it. It's the same thing with music. It's a little tricky creating songs with Steve being across the ocean. But thanks to computers, it's a lot easier. The time difference is really the only obstacle now. When I get home from work, he's gone to bed. At night, when my kids are in bed and I've got some time to collaborate, he's leaving for work. But on the weekends, we can sometimes be online at the same time. And once we get fully set up with our music software, it won't matter as much. When one of us finishes a track, we'll just email the file to the other one and continue the process.

Stay tuned. When we have our first new song, I'll post it.

Sofia's music

I recorded a little bit of Sofia practicing her instruments tonight. Sorry the footage is kind of dark. That's what you get with our camera. Camcorder would have been better, but it's easier to post video from my digital camera.


Star Wars Trumpet from Wayne Eury on Vimeo.
Sofia's band class is doing a cinema retrospective, and the brass section is working on part of the Star Wars music for their exam. Here's a preview!


The Entertainer from Wayne Eury on Vimeo.
This piece is a work in progress, but she's doing pretty well with it, so I figured it was time to share. Even though this piece is an obligatory rite of passage for every piano student, she honestly loves Scott Joplin. Maple Leaf Rag is her favorite, but she's getting her feet wet with this classic.

Food for Thought

I don't post much political stuff on my blog, but this post is an exception. If you're not interested in a healthy debate about the candidates in our upcoming election, then stop reading now! I won't be offended.

One of the things that has always bothered me about Bush is the way he always seems to act so decisively and never waver, even in the face of information that shows he made a bad choice or was just dead wrong. I get it. He's tough. He's determined. To change your mind about something, God forbid, has become anathema. Flip-flop is a bad word. Well, this comic sums it up best...



I think that's what bothers me most about Sarah Palin. I see that same "don't blink, just react, never waver" mentality. I guess some people respect that type of leadership, since we've elected and endured it for 8 years. But I'm ready for something a bit more thoughtful.

Anyway, I read this op-ed piece this morning, written by a conservative, who seems to share my opinion.

Why Experience Matters

By DAVID BROOKS

Philosophical debates arise at the oddest times, and in the heat of this election season, one is now rising in Republican ranks. The narrow question is this: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Most conservatives say yes, on the grounds that something that feels so good could not possibly be wrong. But a few commentators, like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in different ways that she is unready.

The issue starts with an evaluation of Palin, but does not end there. This argument also is over what qualities the country needs in a leader and what are the ultimate sources of wisdom.

There was a time when conservatives did not argue about this. Conservatism was once a frankly elitist movement. Conservatives stood against radical egalitarianism and the destruction of rigorous standards. They stood up for classical education, hard-earned knowledge, experience and prudence. Wisdom was acquired through immersion in the best that has been thought and said.

But, especially in America, there has always been a separate, populist, strain. For those in this school, book knowledge is suspect but practical knowledge is respected. The city is corrupting and the universities are kindergartens for overeducated fools.

The elitists favor sophistication, but the common-sense folk favor simplicity. The elitists favor deliberation, but the populists favor instinct.

This populist tendency produced the term-limits movement based on the belief that time in government destroys character but contact with grass-roots America gives one grounding in real life. And now it has produced Sarah Palin.

Palin is the ultimate small-town renegade rising from the frontier to do battle with the corrupt establishment. Her followers take pride in the way she has aroused fear, hatred and panic in the minds of the liberal elite. The feminists declare that she’s not a real woman because she doesn’t hew to their rigid categories. People who’ve never been in a Wal-Mart think she is parochial because she has never summered in Tuscany.

Look at the condescension and snobbery oozing from elite quarters, her backers say. Look at the endless string of vicious, one-sided attacks in the news media. This is what elites produce. This is why regular people need to take control.

And there’s a serious argument here. In the current Weekly Standard, Steven Hayward argues that the nation’s founders wanted uncertified citizens to hold the highest offices in the land. They did not believe in a separate class of professional executives. They wanted rough and rooted people like Palin.

I would have more sympathy for this view if I hadn’t just lived through the last eight years. For if the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice.

And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first term, it made Bush inept at governance. It turns out that governance, the creation and execution of policy, is hard. It requires acquired skills. Most of all, it requires prudence.

What is prudence? It is the ability to grasp the unique pattern of a specific situation. It is the ability to absorb the vast flow of information and still discern the essential current of events — the things that go together and the things that will never go together. It is the ability to engage in complex deliberations and feel which arguments have the most weight.

How is prudence acquired? Through experience. The prudent leader possesses a repertoire of events, through personal involvement or the study of history, and can apply those models to current circumstances to judge what is important and what is not, who can be persuaded and who can’t, what has worked and what hasn’t.

Experienced leaders can certainly blunder if their minds have rigidified (see: Rumsfeld, Donald), but the records of leaders without long experience and prudence is not good. As George Will pointed out, the founders used the word “experience” 91 times in the Federalist Papers. Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.

Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.

The idea that “the people” will take on and destroy “the establishment” is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is not to throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.

Bella's Snap

Last night, when I was lying down with the kids, Bella announced that she had just snapped her fingers for the first time. It was too dark for me to visually confirm this, but the little sounds coming from her hands were quiet, but unmistakable, 4-year-old finger snaps.

Today, while we had blueberry pancakes for lunch (yes, lunch) Bella was showing off her new skill. So I recorded it for you all.


Bella's Snap from Wayne Eury on Vimeo.

Fryin' Time

I love chicken wings. Who doesn't? But I don't eat chicken wings on a regular basis. For one thing, they're too expensive at restaurants. Good God, this is a part of the chicken that used to practically be a throw-away scrap, or maybe a source of soup stock at best. But some dude in New York cooks up some chicken wings with some hot sauce, and the next thing you know, wings are more expensive than legs and thighs, and everybody's crazy about them, including me.

What's a guy to do? Well, I could make wings at home.

Frying wings, like in a deep fryer, is best, from a taste standpoint. Not having a deep fryer, I've used a big frying pan, but it's so messy that it's a discouraging option. You can bake the wings, but the skin comes out a little too rubbery and greasy. I grilled some wings once, and that wasn't bad, but the skin still didn't crisp up as much as I wanted.

I'd put baking as third choice. Grilling as second choice, and frying as the undisputed winner.

When we were in North Carolina this summer, my parents have a Fry Daddy, a very popular little deep fryer. I fried some chicken wings for my birthday meal, coated them with my favorite sauce (Frank's RedHot...I'm a purist), and they were borderline perfect. The only thing missing was some butter mixed with the sauce to give it a little extra cling. Those wings were so good that it made me want to buy a deep fryer...

As football season kicked off a few weeks ago, I got the urge once again to make my own perfect wings. Restaurant wings, in addition to being expensive, are hit-and-miss. Some places have good wings, some places have average wings, and some are just plain weak. When I've tried wings at restaurants, they're sometimes too dry, too fatty, not saucy enough, too small, you name it. Maybe I'm just too discriminating. I can live with that.

For some reason, Alex wanted onion rings with his birthday meal. Cristina and I love onion rings, but we eat them, oh, I dunno, once a year maybe? But when he said onion rings, I thought to myself, "hmm, that would be another reason to buy a deep fryer. I could get him some crappy, too sweet, onion rings from Sonic...or I could make some REAL onion rings at home. And chicken wings. And hush puppies..."

So I bought a deep fryer. The place I went to didn't have the Fry Daddy, but I got another model by the same company. A little bigger, but not too big that it takes up too much room for the 353 days of the year that I don't use it.

I bought the biggest sweet onion I could find, some onion ring mix, and we made onion rings.

Alex, fighting through the tears, to help with the onion rings.

We thought these looked like a trumpet, the way they stuck together.

And they were delicious. They were devoured as soon as they came out of the fryer and cooled off enough to eat.

I fried some chicken wings too, and they were, dare I say, perfect (I used butter in the sauce).

Now I'm ready to try my own hush puppies.

And one day, in honor of Steve, I might even deep fry a Mars bar. Stay tuned.

The Real Thing...hecho en Meh-hee-co!

If you've read my Costa Rica journals or blog, you know that one of my favorite things about Costa Rica is that you can still get Coca-Cola in glass bottles. It just tastes better. Beer drinkers know that beer tastes best out of glass, and it's the same thing with soda.

Soda made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup tastes better too. It just does. But it's really hard to find soda made with real sugar, since 90% of the soda on the U.S. market is owned by two companies. Sure you can get specialty sodas made with cane sugar. I've done that occasionally. But they're expensive. And sometimes the flavors are kind of fruity. I don't want orange creamsicle soda, even if it is made with real sugar.

I'm not a big soda drinker, by the way. Sure, I drank more than anyone ever should when I worked at a movie theater. But now, other than the occasional Coke at the movies or at a party, I stick to water or tea.

But that doesn't mean I don't love a good, cold Coke in a glass bottle.

One of the advantages of living 4 hours from Mexico is that you can buy Mexican Coke here in Phoenix. Glass bottle. Real cane sugar. It's not cheap, but it's not that much more than buying a Coke from a machine. Maybe you can get Mexican Coke anywhere in the country. I don't know. But I don't recall seeing it in Florida.

As a splurge for this football season, I bought a case of Mexican Coca-Cola today. I'll ice a couple down each Saturday and partake while I watch the Gators. I don't drink alcohol, so I don't feel too bad about this relatively mild indulgence.

Coke...es la cosa verdadera!

Alex's Birthday

Last Saturday was Alex's birthday. Since we've been in Arizona, birthday celebrations have been a bit more low-key, partly because of the heat (we're all born in the summer) and partly because our back yard is so small. Under those conditions, it's hard to have a bunch of kids over for parties like we did in Florida.

So for Alex's 8th birthday, he invited a friend over, Andy. Andy is one of Alex's best friends at school, but until now we've been unable to get them together for a playdate. So it was a special treat for Alex to get to spend the day with Andy.

It's our tradition that on someone's birthday, they get to pick whatever they want for their birthday meal. We decided to make lunch the big meal of the day. Alex wanted Papa John's pizza.


After lunch, I took the kids to Jeepers, an indoor playground kind of place that has carnival-type rides. I took Alex there last year for his birthday, and he wanted to go there again this year. They have little trains, a merry-go-round, bumper cars, and various other rides that go round and make you dizzy.



Best part is it's all indoors! Even though it's getting a little cooler as we head into September, it's still too hot to do stuff outside comfortably.

When we got home, Cristina had baked some birthday brownies and made Alex his own birthday candle.


The day was finished off with Cristina and Alex taking Andy home. And I watched the Gators beat Miami, which hasn't happened since the mid-80's!

The next day, we took Alex to Brilliant Sky and let him pick out a birthday gift. He chose an aquarium-like thing in which you raise "Aquasaurs," little shrimp-like fish. Kind of like Sea Monkeys, but different. And we also got him a Klutz book that teaches you how to fold up a dollar bill into cool shapes, like a ring, or a bow-tie.

Journey to Perfection

High school/college years: ramen noodles...you know, the 18 cent per pack kind, were a main staple in my diet. They're quick. They're tasty. They're relatively filling. They served their purpose well.

Married-with-kids years: the instant ramen all but disappeared from the pantry, although the occasional time I made them for an emergency lunch got my son addicted to them. Soon, he was able to make them himself, and it was one of his life's greatest pleasures, right up there with getting his shoes muddy and fighting with his sisters.

About 5 years ago: I heard an NPR story about ramen noodle restaurants in Japan, and how hugely popular they are. Apparently they are the Japanese equivalent of hamburger places here. There's one on every corner, they're cheap, and everybody loves them. But these are real ramen noodles, not your crappy 18 cent grocery store variety. Hmm. Interesting. I file the story away into the recesses of my brain for future retrieval.

Within the past year: My friend Dom lives in LA. He's married to a Chinese woman named L (her name is Lucinda, but her nickname is L). They like all kinds of food, but, as he shares on a blog post, he's really been into ramen noodles lately. The real kind. Hmm. Interesting.

Dom posts a link to a website that shows how to make a simple miso soup. He claims that something like this, with some ramen noodles, is becoming his favorite meal.

Last week: Dom's mom is visiting them in LA. They take her to their favorite ramen restaurant. As Dom describes the menu in his blog, the NPR story resurfaces in my mind. This time, I am prompted to action. I will make real ramen noodle soup. It will be healthy and excellent. And I will become a god in my son's eyes.

Step 1: find some real ramen noodles. Fresh. Not the fried and dehydrated little bricks of toxicity. The real thing. Cris calls me one day from a huge Chinese grocery store. I tell her to get some real ramen noodles. The clerk shows her the refrigerated case with about 100 different types. We're in business.

The noodles sat in the fridge for several days while I contemplated the next step.

I finally found the link to that miso soup tutorial. I sent Cris to the store to get the ingredients. She didn't go to the Chinese place, though, she went to Sunflower, a health store. She got miso paste, tofu, green onions, and dried seaweed in rectangles, like for sushi. But she didn't get dashi, a soup base made with kelp and fish. She got some kind of fish sauce. Hmm. I would have to improvise.

I decided to use some other seaweed that we had. It was stringy, almost noodle-like. Using chicken broth instead of dashi, I make my first batch of miso ramen soup.



It was pretty. It was fresh. And I'm sure it was healthy. Alex liked the noodles. Bella liked the tofu. And even though we all ate a bowlful...it just wasn't that great. The seaweed was too hair-like and the chicken broth just tasted weird with the miso.

Everyone started out pretty positive, but when it came time for another bowl, or to make lunches for the next day, no one wanted more. First attempt: failure. Not a complete disaster, but still a failure.

I shared my struggles with Dom via email. He was supportive, but didn't offer any concrete advice. I wasn't ready to give up, but I was at a roadblock.

Then, today, a box came in the mail from LA. When I saw who it was addressed from, I asked Cristina "What would Dom be sending us?" I opened it up...


Seaweed, sesame, dried green onions, chili powder, two packages of dashi...

...and some cookie-type things called Moomin biscuits!

What a friend!

This weekend...attempt #2! I will cook ramen noodle soup!

Stay tuned...

Alex knits at school, so here's a video of the best of both worlds!

The Six Steps

When Sofia was young and had weaned, about 3 or 4, I would lay down with her every night till she fell asleep. Sometimes she would have a hard time settling down and falling asleep. I told her it's actually very easy to fall asleep if you just do certain things. I came up with 5 things, to be exact. If you did all 5, you were sure to fall asleep pretty quickly. Pretty soon, she would ask for me to say the Five Steps when she was trying to fall asleep. Eventually, she added a sixth step. The sixth step didn't seem to make as much sense, because you technically don't do it until you've fallen asleep. But she was adamant about adding it. And she always said it with such comfort and joy that I knew it was an important step to her. So it stuck. Even today, I still say it the same way she used to say it.

Anyway, Bella is now at that age, and she often asks for the Six Steps when she's trying to fall asleep. They're nothing revolutionary, but here they are. If you have trouble falling asleep, feel free to try them:

Step 1: Close your eyes.

Step 2: Be very still.

Step 3: Be very quiet.

Step 4: Take deep breaths.

Step 5: Think happy thoughts.

Step 6: is to DREEEAAMM...

Pic of the Day

I'm trying to stay on a roll and post more frequently. I'll keep today's short and post a picture that I thought was funny.

Back to work

Tuesday. I'm back at work. I got almost everything done on my list over the weekend (didn't get to the mail baskets) and even got something that wasn't on my list: a cold. I must have gotten it from Mary's blog. That's what happens when you don't wash your hands after reading someone else's blog.

Oh, I thought of 2 more things that needed to be on my list: wash the dog and cut my hair. The dog got washed, but my hair didn't get cut. Hey, that's till 10 things done from a list of 12. Not bad.

By the way, the Gators won 56 to 10, I got 4 new books for my classroom library, the Turkish food was good, but not as good as last time, and Hamlet 2 was funny. And I did get popcorn and Coke, even after the all-you-can-eat Turkish food. Sometimes you just gotta say "why not."

We got the twin bed out of our room yesterday (that should have been on my list too!) and Bella seemed fine with the idea of now permanently sharing a room with Alex. Although she still came into our bed at 2 am...complaining of hunger! Good thing we keep a supply of cereal by our bed.

I didn't sleep well last night, due to my stuffy nose (and perhaps a 4-year-old in my bed crunching Kashi) so I feel pretty crappy at work today. Just gotta make it through 2 more periods then I can go home and chill. I'm hoping I'll sleep better tonight.