The Four Ward Schools
Douglas as Education
Aug|17|2008
I’ve been looking at the development of downtown Albuquerque neighborhoods recently, and I’ve always been interested in the old schools of Albuquerque, many of which are still around but have different uses today. Some have a notorious reputation like the Albuquerque Indian School, or a much loved reputation like Old Albuquerque High. Most of these schools are overlooked today – Old Armijo, Aztec, Coronado, Harwood, John Marshall, Lincoln, Montgomery, Old Pajarito, Santa Barbara, Stronghurst, West San Jose. Many of these schools were closed in the mid-seventies, while other closed even earlier. What are the school sites with the oldest schools still in use? Also, what school sites are still used for education.
John Lewis
Aug|16|2008
I’m working at Eugene Field Elementary this year and discovered a famous jazz musician is an alumnus. John Lewis, pianist and music director for the Modern Jazz Quartet. I’m sure only a handful of adults, and no children at the school even know who he is, so I plan to change that this year.
Kaosillator Kunstler
Aug|13|2008
For the new school year I’m add this to the technology unit. I played around with it this evening and the features are simple but very musical. This is basically a trackpad synth, and looping recorder that fits in the palm of your hand and runs off batteries. You can’t save the grooves and there is no midi and only RCA and miniphono out so it is definitely aimed at DJ’s with very little musical background. The quality of the sounds, taken from the Korg Radias Analog modeling synth, are great. The trackpad uses the X axis to contol pitch and the Y axis for velocity, filter, or LFO effects. The phrase length is limited to 8 beats or 16 if you disable the undo feature. This isn’t the main focus of the device anyway. Making music with a few swipes of the finger is why I hope to get younger children creating. I played around a bit, recording a sitar solo over a drum and bass type phrase. Everything was recorded live into Logic.
Kaossilator Raga Sample (ACC file)
Wurly fun
Douglas as Music
Aug|11|2008
I’ve added a really fun tool to my instrument palette. A Wurlitzer 200a Electronic Piano. It is really a Musitronic 214V but that is a long story. Read the rest of this entry »
Avocado and Bacon meet Ice and Cream
Douglas as Food
Aug|5|2008
Amythilda made me some Avocado and Bacon Ice Cream with our new ice cream maker. I have to say I was scared at the thought, especially since I was supposed to eat it all. After tasting the candied bacon, I was sold. The sweet and crunchy bacon bits mixed with the smooth and slightly tart avocado to make a memorable desert. It was more savory than sweet but it does make you want to take another bite, which is what many a dish fails to accomplish. I don’t think you will find it in supermarkets any time soon but for those who are curious about shows like Iron Chef, seek this stuff out.
The Chocolate Champ
Douglas as Guitars and Amps
Aug|5|2008
After a frenzy of amp modding and building, two new projects saw the light of day.
The first is my Chocolate Champ which is a variation on the Microchamp by Adam Alpern. It uses a single-ended 6AQ5 as the output tube and a Read the rest of this entry »
New Canine
Douglas as Pets
Aug|5|2008
We added a member to the family recently. She is very loving except when she’s off the leash, then she becomes deaf and blind but very happy. So far she has learned sit, down, shake, and play dead. Next will be “say your prayers.” Today she jumped in the Rio Grande. I was annoyed but did admire her stylish swimming.
UPDATE: After requests about what breed she is. I have concluded after an exhaustive search using google, that she is a greyhound lab mix.