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Day 403a June 30th - Nothing Lasts Forever

Posted by Dave Rat on

The temporary nature of anything and everything may not be readily evident on a daily basis and illusions of foreverness easily seep in as we become comfortable with the things that seem not to be changing. Perhaps these 'permanence illusions' are the underlying culprits for us humans taking so many things in the world around us for granted. The Earth itself, the environment we live, the structures and relationships we build are all temporary existences that we are helpless to perpetuate forever. That does not mean that attention and care spent can not greatly extend the existence and quality of the things we choose to focus on. Or put another way, just because it wont last forever does not mean we should neglect it now.

And then there is the otherside. The grand ol' "ooopsy daisy!" Where you do care, you are carefully and a slip of thought caught a moment too late and poof, damn. This the story of Chad's poor stereo. It is not the first time that we have had to take a peek in here and there seems to be a direct correlation between the smoke coming out of the stereo and when Chad plugs this 120 volt unit into a 240 volt outlet. So back for another round on the operating table

And look, our little yellow friend Thermy has cracked up and lost it in fiery death. Even burning Mr. Magneto next door.

Fortunately, as sad as I am to admit it, Thermy was, shhhhh, "not critical to the operation of this fine Bang and Olufsen stereo" and can be referred to as a "Spare Part." Why would they put spare parts inside? Not quite sure but it is fairly common and has something to do with the complete disconnect between what the designers of things in the company lab envision the real world to be like versus the way the real world actually is. Anyway, I took the poor dead little yellow Thermy and wrapped him in orange coffin gaff tape and affixed him to the power cord as a reminder. Perhaps his life lost will save the remaining survivors.

So here we are.

 

And this is Larry Palm, he was my room mate and snow board partner for many years when I lived up in Big Bear. He is working for Dinosaur Jr. after just finishing up with Pearl Jam and a roadie through and through. Great to see old friends.

And speaking of Dinosaur Jr, how cool is that! Way back over two decades ago they were around in the Black Flag days on SST records and have been crossing paths over the years but this time I had some time to say hello and hang out for a bit, say hey to J!

And then the Peppers and Michael Rother came up to jam.

And that is what I did today,

Dave Rat

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Rachelle on :

great photos of you and your pals! do u still get to the mountains much? too funny - seems like everyone does that once in their life to some piece of electrical equipment .... glad thermy was put to rest in such respect keep em coming!!!! Shell xx

Dave Rat on :

Not much mountain adventuring for me lately but hope to once I settle in to not touring!~

spyder on :

That's a phenomenal photo of Chad, I hope he learned his lesson ;-). (poor Mr. Thermy, though) After seeing another batch of concert photos from the European summer leg of the tour, I'm cursing myself yet again for not making it (I have a stereo that needs fixin', too ;-D). On a more philosophical note (evoked by the introduction in today's entry), I believe human beings are in their essence lazy. We tend to save as much (of our) energy as we possibly can. This drive of ours may derive from the early stages of human evolution when a homo sapiens could make a choice between taking some time to sculpt a beautiful mud statue of his beloved female homo sapiens from a nearby cave and taking some time to join his fellow cave-dwellers and go hunting wabbits...I mean mammoths. The choice is obvious (it probably explains the lack of both ancient mud sculptures and mammoths, as well :-)). The source of this energy-conserving drive doesn't matter, though. The point is that it's here today. It can manifest in the conservation of purely kinetic energy ("Oh, well, somebody else will pick up that plastic wrapper/old washing machine dumped in the forest/oil tanker sinking into the ocean"), as well as emotional energy ("oh, well, somebody else will say 'I'm sorry'/'I love you'/'You're a good friend'). I hate it, absolutely hate it when people say something like "oh, well, what does it matter if I throw that half-eaten lollipop out the window and not into the trash? People do it all the time. What difference could *I* make? There only one of *me* ." It's not like everybody should immediately go and buy themselves an eco-friendly car or start befriending people all over the place. But there's still things each one of us can do, which will definitely benefit our lives and the lives of the people around us (be it now, later in the evening, tommorow or in a hundred years; be it emotionally, physically or mentally; be it our friends, neighbours, schoolmates or planet-dwellers). A person can do *so much* good in his or her life, can have *so much* fun by sharing that fun with others, can learn *so much* new by exploring, reading, talking. In the wise words of 4 Brits: All you need is love (love towards your friends, love towards your planet, love of knowledge, *love of life* ). Sorry for the longwindedness, every few months I seem to feel an urge to write a long, crazy post somewhere :-). Party on!! P.S. @ Dave If you run out of things to blog about after the RHCP tour is over and decide to call it a (blogging-off) day, remember: even the choice between white tube socks and black tube socks can be made interesting and appealing-to-readers if handled correctly ;-).

Dave Rat on :

Cool Cool Spyder, appreciate the words and observations!!

oli on :

hi dave i was waiting for this one to appear to say again thank you for the demonstration of the double hang system. it really was amazing to hear the difference of the vocals coming out of different sources. and thank you again for invitation to your working place and protecting us from the rain, and beeing such a nice host. we enjoyed the evening very much, although i think it was a very short set. hope you are at home by now and have good time there. cheers oli + andrea

Dave Rat on :

And thank ya for joining me anbd having a listen!!

Cliff Skinner on :

Dave. I've got kind of a strange question for you. I am wanting to switch the singer in the band I work for to an OM 7 from the Beta 58 that he currently uses. However. the one problem is that he doesn't like the way the Audix mic feels in his hand, and doesn't want to stray from the 58 he's been using for years now. I was thinking of the possibility of taking the OM 7 guts and putting them into the Beta 58 shell (sort of what you did with the OM 6 in the 421 shell way back on day 116). How easy do you think this would be? I'd have to go out and buy the OM 7 to do this, and don't want it to fail after spending all the money on it (not a very big band, so I have to justify every penny we spend). What are your thoughts? Thanks. Cliff

Dave Rat on :

I don't think it will fit, not even close. Maybe try an OM-1. They have a tapered shaft similar to a 58. Though the Beta 58's are are lighter.

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