Random Weekend Stuff.

Stopped in for a bit of thrifting this weekend for the first time in ages. Actually came out with some gems. (No pics, I'm lazy.)

First off, I got someone's old tape of a couple MST3K episodes. Beginning of the End and the MST3K Hour version of War of the Colossal Man. That was kinda cool. Also got the old Rush Through the Camera Lens video which is a collection of some cheesetastic old Rush videos. I find this stuff much more interesting than concert films.

The thing I'm most excited about is the laserdisc set of Happy Harmonies I scored. This is a set of early stuff from Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising who started at Disney and moved on to establish Warner's animation studio. These are all toons from the 30s and early 40s, which are some of my favorites, and this set is probably worth a little more than the $3 I paid for it. There doesn't seem to be any DVD plans for this stuff, so whoo-hoo.

I also put the finishing touch on my red Vistalites, with an early 70s Ludwig logo for the bass drum head. Using the old head as a template, I managed to place the sticker exactly as off center as the original. Hmm...didn't realize that until after the fact, of course.

Also, I bought a set of Protection Racket Nutcases for the Vistas. It was kind of a blind purchase, as I wasn't able to find much info about them, but the company seems to get good marks for their high end stuff. Bags at the budget level tend to be fairly dismal and these seem to be quite a bit better than any thing else in their price range. (I got the set for $130.)

What is different about them is they don't zip up. They have a drawstring at the top and a cover that buckles down over the top. What's nice about this is I can pull the strings tighter and they fit my standard depth drums nicely. (It's hard to find cases for standard depth drums as hardly anyone makes them in a non-custom line anymore.)

While I haven't gigged them out yet, I think these are going to work fine. I still wouldn't want to drop one, but I just need something to keep them from getting scuffed up in transport. Plus, I switch cars a lot and cases can be a little rough on seats.

I have two minor complaints. One, the bass is rather hard to get in the bag. This may just be a problem with any bag at this price point. I made it work, but I felt like I had to wrestle it a bit to get it in there. The other thing is that the bags are pretty ugly. There's a garish logo on the top that I'm not crazy about. Oh well.

Other than that, recording went well. We have one more track to record next weekend and then hopefully we're done. I gotta start building a new web site, so I suppose I should start thinking about that now.

Oh, I'm sitting in on the IndianapolisMusic.net tomorrow night. So be looking out for that.