mathman

Picks have arrived. Now to send off care packages to my friends and bandmates.

My 83 cruise and newly added blitz bass will be with me till my death. Both are great basses!

ELP was my first concert. 1975 iirc. did not remember correctly. Looked at the old ticket stub. 1977

As a 13 year kid in the Bible Belt area of Pensacola that had people screaming bible quotes at passing cars... This one interested me very much.

Shark, Cool Cool story. One of the greatest things about being in Florida is Spring Training.

I had a beer in a Gainesville restaurant with Dave Davies and Ray Davies of the Kinks after they had played a concert in Gainesville. For some reason I don't remember why, we went to the bar of the hotel they happened to be staying in. Didn't know they were they but they were really nice. Other than that, I've played along with recordings of lots of great band members....

I just hate trying to listen to the current gotcha style of "reporting" The way they voice the dialogue makes me want to puke.

So, I made this quickly for my friends to share about the amp. Why not share. just a quick roundup of the possible sounds of the amp over an old 60's theme park. What could be better?

So, I really like the built in distortion but the clean channel with the Boss Turbo Distortion DS2 is sublime. Or in your face. One or the other.

It was great to meet you, We either need to skate or play some softball. Not sure which... The amp has a great variety of tones. Perfect match for my Prototype II. Thanks again!

seeing it here also.

also gifted this cool keychain.

Look closely and you can see the Rick Nielsen Autograph.

Was a much better than the show I went to in Tampa a little while back. Not surprised at that but still. Not many.... any Hamers to be found. Shark said he sold his as quickly as possible. He gave me a great deal on a Tech 21 Amp. ( many thanks) Did see one cool bass I would want but not enough to pay for it. And a fender that Kizanski would die for! (jokingly he said)

I could not find these anywhere on Amazon… 😀

are you going? Thinking about Sunday depending on the weather.

Just correcting the record...

The Bears were more pop and less "experimental". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H4fwbB2dRs

Thanks for posting this. Just ordered some for me and my bandmates.

Hear Hear! He also joined up with some of the members of my favorite bar band that never made it but kept playings all these years. The Raisins. They formed a band called the Bears! Some really good stuff.

Update! Freaking love this bass!

Pick of the headstock helps determine which version it is.

When I was teaching Middle school in the last few years we started using Canvas as our online learning platform. It has a decent testing platform built in. What I talk about next may make little sense to anyone, but anyway. I could use the questions and question formats I created in Examview and import them into canvas to create good testing questions of varying formats to really be sure my students were learning what I wanted them to learn. Writing good questions and answers became a bit of a hobby. Anyway. the great thing about testing with Canvas was it had real time tracking of the students testing on the platform. It knew if they left the page of the test. It couldn't track where they went but it had timers so I know when they left the test and when they came back. Sadly, too many kids just never understood that I know when they stopped focusing on the test and either went to another site to cheat or just to f around. And eventually many of them stopped caring.

Mine came today. Perfect bag at a perfect price for a cheap import.

This is also something that bothered me. In the USA we seem to create systems that are intended to help certain people and then it is corrupted by some until it is the antithesis of the original intent. Case in point that affected me daily in the later stages of my career as an Elementary and Middle school teacher. The IDEA law of 1997. For those who don't know it was intended to improve the educational opportunities of kids with mental and physical disabilities. After multiple revisions we get to the point that now emotional disabilities are covered. Which could possibly sound like a good idea but the actual implementation of it is how it has in enshittified. Now the kids who disrupt the classroom are given all the support and "opportunities" to improve their behavior and the students who want to learn have to watch the teacher spend 80% of their time and energy dealing with behavior rather than teaching. I had a student in my 6th grade math class about 8 years ago. He started the year mostly okay but over time he got progressively worse with behavior and academically. So after a few times talking with "parents" it was decided that the grandfather would follow the child during the school day. (as is usually the case with many of these kids, it is their family that fucked them up, none of the parents were involved, an Aunt and the grandfather were raising him.) So, the grandfather follows the kid around and the kid doesn't act out because surprise! his grandfather is watching. Then we have a follow up meeting. The usual response these type of situations is that the "Parent" realizes the kid CAN behave and resolves to do something about it. Not this time. The grandfather decides it is something WE as teachers are doing that causes his behavior. So, not his fault. Fortunately for me this was happening in the last few weeks of school so I was done with him. By the time he left school he had an IEP (individual education plan) because of his "disability". Which was that he said inappropriate things to other students and touched them inappropriately but he couldn't help it. I knew some of the teachers who had him in 7th and 8th grade and they said it was living hell for everyone but that student. This is the most extreme case I experienced. But there were many more. By the end of my career it was more kids and more parents that caused grief. Couldn't wait to get out.