12.20.2009

Snow

tiny little wifeSignificant stats on this one:
- 22.5 inches
- Second biggest Philly snowstorm on record
- Biggest December snowstorm on record
- Thunder and lightning (!)
- Actually happened during the Fall (before the solstice)

Who wants 2 inches? That looks pretty and vanishes. It's not fun unless it's apocalyptic! Some of you nordic people will doubtless turn up your noses at this "dinky little storm", but then again, you don't have to live through brutal summers, and you probably don't live in a city this big.

(left) Malcolm X Park, West Philadelphia
The wife jumping in the snow drift in front of our house






Abner's is still delivering cheesesteaks! That's reassuring.

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12.09.2009

Atomium Amplification

I have recently repaired or altered everything in this picture in some wayMany people who read this site originally found it while looking for help with repairing or modifying an amplifier. I get a lot of messages asking for help with people's music electronics projects, which is the reason I created the "Tech" label for posts. On occasion, when someone is local, I will actually look at their gear for them, and maybe fix it.

I wanted to offer that service more formally and publicly, almost as a "nonprofit" business, so I've officially started up Atomium Amplification. It's linked in orange on the left sidebar. If you're in the Philly area and need music electronics repaired or modified, I can do it affordably and efficiently, so get in touch.

It's not a day job. I just felt that there was a need for someone to do this kind of work in Philadelphia (and particularly in West Philadelphia), since there are so few music stores and/or service places apart from the big chain stores in the suburbs. When I was younger and took my stuff to other people to have it fixed, I was always disappointed at the opacity of the process and that I never really knew what I was paying for. I wanted to know what was replaced and why, how the diagnosis was done, all about how I could do the same kind of work myself. No one -- whose bread and butter is tech work -- is going to give away that kind of information, and it's unreasonable to expect them to.

But since this isn't a traditional business, I'm going to work in a way that's educational, and actually lets the end-user learn something about their equipment. Of course, if you just want something fixed for cheap and don't have the inclination to deal with the details, that's fine too. But I think I can chip in to fill a hole in the resources available to musicians locally, and help them become more technically self-sufficient in the process.

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