Category: gear

A very long time ago (1985) I was a Gibson guitar player – The Gibson Les Paul guitars are awesome for Rock, Blues, Jazz, pretty much whatever you want to play. And I played this one in a few eighties bands… in a life a long time ago. That said, I was not a big…

I’ve often thought that God has to have a sense of humour. Moments after creation, the supreme being paused for a moment, and during a millisecond of pique, created Papua New Guinea as an exercise in extremes. For Papua New Guinea is a land of unapologetic beauty, impossibly isolated mountain ranges, with waterfalls emptying into…

This time of year I really enjoy hearty vegetable soups – on dark and dreary late Fall and early Winter weekend evenings, there are few things more satisfying that healthy and filling wholesome vegetable soup. This new Instant Pot recipe feels like it’s destined to be a classic. Ingredients 3 Tbsp Butter 2 tsp Olive…

Recently one of my colleagues at the University of Victoria loaned me one of his studio tools that he was thinking of parting with – The Zoom H24 24-channel digital portable recorder. Now for the record, way back when I first started recording multi-track style I was using a cassette tape based TASCAM 244 –…

If you are much under the age of 40, the concept of “radio, the medium that reaches the masses” is probably not a thing that resonates with you. But for many residents of British Columbia, over the last 70 years, if you lived in an out of the way place, CBC Shortwave on 6160 Khz…

When we first moved into our new house, one of the first neighbours to pop by was Alfons. He lives on the street parallel to our and shares part of a back fence. An enthusiastic gardener and outdoorsman, Alfons represents all the good things about good neighbours – engaged, good humoured and genuinely interested in…

This week, my nephew William (an aspiring guitar player), and I (a guitar slinger since the mid-70’s) had the pleasure of seeing finger style guitar player Tommy Emmanuel – in person at the Mcpherson Playhouse in Victoria, B.C. Arguably one of the hardest working solo acts in the business, Tommy has been touring for over…

Starbucks is dedicated to hiring 10,000 veterans and military spouses in the next five years. Organized in part by Starbucks board member and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Seattle coffee giant said it hopes to “enlist” the unique communication, leadership and problem-solving skills most veterans and their families already have. Quoting a recent L.A.…

Wifi – Safe: Yes or no? In an era of great technological advance, the question always arises – how good are these advances, conveniences and marvels of technology for us… in general? You know, our health… mental and physical. I, for one, am typing this blog entry on a Macbook Pro connected through a secure…

Having acquiesced to pressure from my chief significant other (she) having grown tired of watching me hover over my Asus Eee PC 4G (and its 7” screen) like a microbiologist examining a specimen… I finally departed mid-2007 and came into the modern times with a Toshiba Netbook model NB555D. In good time too – we…