April 28, 2006

I Heart New York.

We had a meeting here.

With people who work here.

Then, we had a day to ourselves and went here.

When we got home, we celebrated with these.

Posted on April 28, 2006 11:10 PM | link to this entry | Comments (3)

April 25, 2006

One Hint.

Toto, we ain't in Bawltymore anymore. This hotel is pretty sweet.

Posted on April 25, 2006 3:31 PM | link to this entry | Comments (1)

April 24, 2006

A Quick Snapshot.

Things around Idiot Central have been exceptionally busy this past week; we're doing a lot of running, planning, and (hopefully) lining up some good things for the future. I'm not going to have much time to write this week, nor will there be an addition to the Alphabet Project (even though the letter T lends itself to many willing and able participants). But I'll try to post pretty pictures in the next couple of days, so keep your eyes peeled.

Posted on April 24, 2006 1:27 PM | link to this entry

April 22, 2006

Emerson 550.

This set is another recent acquisition (read: the last five years) but I don't recall the circumstances or price. I liked it because it had Emerson lines but more refinements than some of the other, clunkier wooden sets I've seen. I haven't done a whole lot of research on the model, so I don't know much about it. The veneer is in good shape, the tubes are all present, and the cord is in reasonably good shape, so I hope it won't be too hard to clean up, eventually. Knobs also seem to be pretty easy to find, thankfully.

About twelve years ago, I saw one of these Emerson sets in a junk store in Fell's Point for somewhere around $150, and I didn't buy it (I was dirt-poor at the time.) I wish I'd been able to afford it then, because I'm sure it's worth ten times that amount now. I think I'd probably give an eyetooth for one of these.

Posted on April 22, 2006 1:12 PM | link to this entry

April 21, 2006

Smug.

This has been a pretty damn good week for the Lockardugan Design Collective. Superstitious fool that I am, I won't jinx it too much, but I will pass along the news that a piece Jen designed won a Gold Addy (the American Advertising Federation's award for creative design) last night at the Baltimore Regional awards; if I remember correctly, it gets kicked upstairs to the National Addys next. Congratulations, baby.

(Because they suck, there is no listing of winners online as of 10:15 this morning.)

Posted on April 21, 2006 10:02 AM | link to this entry | Comments (2)

April 20, 2006

Philco 46-420

This big beast is a departure from the standard dial-and-knobs-on-front variety, which is one of the reasons I bought it. I was also drawn to the juxtaposition of the pseudo-deco/constructivist lettering on the dial and the sensuous curve on the top. The case was in perfect condition when I bought it, although it now features a 4" crack on the right side thanks to my clumsy cat. It's also one of the biggest bakelite sets I own by about 20%. It came with no back plate and no tubes, so I bought it on faith for $35 and saved up for the guts later. To my delight, after I got a set of tubes installed, it fired right up and sounds very good, although the reception isn't as strong as some of the other sets I own.

This is someone's quote for a "restoration" of an equivalent set ($110 is pricey in my opinion, for a handful of $5 capacitors.) According to this page, it originally sold (in 1946) for $28.85, and it's one of 150,062 made. Here's some more information.

Posted on April 20, 2006 5:15 PM | link to this entry

Philco 48-206

This radio is actually wood, covered with something Philco called "Leatherette". I understand many different versions of this model exist, including square cases, dark knobs, dark dial plastic, and versions with a handle on the top. I like this one best of all, because it's got a streamlined appearance. I bought it for $40 at a time when that was a lot of money for me, but I couldn't pass up the deal: this radio plugged in and worked, the leatherette is in immaculate shape, and the back is intact. And it sounds great.

Posted on April 20, 2006 8:27 AM | link to this entry

April 19, 2006

Everbest TA-56H

This is a curious little radio I bought only a few years ago, because I enjoyed the lines. I don't remember what I paid for it, but it was probably in the $30-40 range. It was manufactured by the Hardware Merchandising Corporation, and I understand it's based on a 1947 or 1948 Crosley Model 58TL or a 57TL (via this site). I haven't cleaned it up, turned it on, or done anything to it other than put it on a shelf, so it has a future date with some Brasso and a tube tester.

Posted on April 19, 2006 2:25 PM | link to this entry | Comments (2)

General Electric Model 202

This is the first radio I ever bought. I found it in a funky little thrift store, in the annex room of a church, across the street from my apartment in college. It was dirty, and it smelled like cigars when it warmed up, but it's one of the loudest and strongest of the radios I have. I bought it for $30 because I liked the idea of listening to the Big Band station that still existed here in Baltimore while I worked, and for that, it didn't let me down. I've seen other variations on the model in stores here and there (most of them more attractive than this) but I have a sentimental attachment to this old beast, even though I don't like the lines, the detailing, or the knobs. This radio makes me think of Lil Jon, not because it's full of crunk juice, but because it's all gold up in the grill.

Posted on April 19, 2006 8:43 AM | link to this entry

Philco Model 48-250

This is one of a series of radios I rescued from a long-forgotten store in Fells Point called John's Antiques. At the time they had a cavernous second floor filled with piles of old merchandise, arranged in some kind of organized fashion to be liquidated. I found, in a back room, a pile of radios covered in dust, and arranged to buy the best of the lot with the money I had. As I recall, there were three versions of this model, and I bought two because they were $20/apiece. This one cleaned up very well and has an excellent tone—warm and rich. Even though it seems to be a common design and plentiful on the market, I like this model's lines because they remind me of an Alco FB-1, a common diesel train engine of that time.

Here's a link to the wiring diagram, scanned into PDF format by a very thorough fellow.

Posted on April 19, 2006 8:22 AM | link to this entry

Rolling My Own.

I got the paper for my DIY light tent in this afternoon, finally, and after dinner I started assembling the frame. The roll of paper I got is 48" wide, plenty big for shooting large objects, and I built a cage out of inexpensive lumber that measures 48" wide by 36" high by 48" deep. There's a plywood platform for the objects to sit on, and the paper hangs on a roll that's part of the framework, so when it gets dirty, I just cut the bottom off and unroll some more. The diffusers are white bedsheets.

It took some time to set up the lights satisfactorally, and I'll probably upgrade to something brighter than 60-watt bulbs, but in about 15 minutes I had decent shots lined up with Canon's Remote Capture application.

My first subjects are the members of my tube radio collection, a hobby of mine that dates back to my first lean years out of college. I'll start with one of my favorites, a Philco that dates to 1942. It's smaller and more compact than the rest (although not the smallest) and the lines are beautiful and sleek. I'll post more of a history of this set later (it's 12:30 and I'm tired) but here's a sneak peek:

I shot about 50 photos this evening. With some practice, and better lighting, this is going to work out well.

Update: WHOA.

Posted on April 19, 2006 12:13 AM | link to this entry | Comments (4)

April 17, 2006

The Stand-Ins.

I have these reoccurring dreams every couple of weeks, where I'm in a house that doesn't look like my house, but I know it's my house, and in order to get to the bedrooms upstairs, I have to crawl through incredibly convoluted passageways and tunnels that get progressively smaller and tighter. It's kind of fun in a spelunking, let's-explore-the-house kind of way, but also unnerving in a claustrophobic, poking-at-the-latent-fear sort of way. I don't know what it means, or what my subconscious is trying to tell me, but I found myself living the dream at Port Discovery this weekend while following two preschool boys through a three-story jungle gym.

The chick at the front desk says that they encourage adults to explore with the kids (which makes sense, because the jungle gym spits out in different places on multiple floors, making it difficult to keep tabs on one's children) but I suspect the guy who designed the jungle gym didn't get that memo. Once you've crawled your 35-year-old body into the bowels of the gym—and let's not kid ourselves here, the gym is the first thing you see after entering, sort of like a three story child vacuum—the twists and turns get progressively smaller and tighter, to the point where you're simultaneously trying to keep up with your child, twist your body upside-down, avoid kicking somebody else's kid who's crawling directly behind your ass, and hoist yourself up through a hole the size of a toilet seat. Not for the faint of heart or weak of spine. The capper is that once your child has made it up two stories of vertebra-twisting rope and maze, there's a freaking slide which ends up back down on the main floor. Jen and I quickly made the decision to play a zone defense, with her stationed at the bottom of the slide with the camera, and me in the second story of the gym to make sure our charges didn't veer off to other sections of the building. (This was after two attempts at wedgie suicide following the boys down the slide.) This strategy proved wise, and we used it for the rest of the afternoon in various patterns—so successful, in fact, Jen helped another kid find his parents (who were still using obsolete man-to-man coverage and trapped somewhere in the cattle chute on Floor 2.)

Don't get me wrong—it was fun, and that place is a good way to kill the better part of a morning until an hour and a half after naptime; I'm just saying from a personal-injury standpoint, there are a few places in the Gaping Maw Of Ropes And Piping that could be optimized for us parental units (or, stand-in parental units, as in our case.) Also, because it's right outside the front door, you will not be able to get past the McDonald's without a Happy Meal before you leave. They've got you coming and going, I'm afraid.

On the whole, our experience as stand-ins went very well. So well, in fact, that we wore those kids down to tired, cranky, crying nubbins by Saturday evening [puffs out chest.] A walk to the park, Port Discovery, a nap, some kite-flying in the park, and a trip to Opie's for ice cream made it an all-American weekend. Plus, the boys got a younger brother in the bargain.

Sunday we contented ourselves with quiet, peaceful outdoor activities; Jen hit the garden and I started rehabbing the windows on the south side of the house, followed by Easter dinner on the grill and some cold beers. I can't remember the last time I slept more soundly. And, I didn't have any dreams about climbing in confined spaces, which was good.

Posted on April 17, 2006 10:23 AM | link to this entry | Comments (2)

April 12, 2006

New Favorite Timesuck.

I stumbled on this site this morning, a blog dedicated to all sorts of awesome old things that I like (cameras, musical instruments (weighted towards keyboards) and robots. This sort of dovetails with the MAKE: blog, with links to all kinds of interesting projects.

Speaking of projects, I have a line on the paper for our light tent, and the lumber is downstairs waiting to be cut. I think I'm going to have to get started on the construction this week while we wait for the supplies to arrive.

Posted on April 12, 2006 8:48 AM | link to this entry | Comments (1)

April 11, 2006

The Smartest Guy in The Room.

Right. That's why he's on trial in the federal courthouse. And on the Alphabet List as letter "S".

Posted on April 11, 2006 11:42 AM | link to this entry

Thanks For Nothing.

So if I read this correctly, Governor Erlich torpedoed the deal because he wouldn't replace his four appointees on the Public Service Commission, who did absolutely nothing when it became clear that our local gas and electricity company would hike rates by 72% this year.

Update: OK, so I read this story in our Alternative Weekly, and now I understand that we as a state sort of poked ourselves in the eye.

Posted on April 11, 2006 8:44 AM | link to this entry

April 9, 2006

A Little More Vehicle History.

When I was a sophomore in college, my parents sent me back to school in a silver Mazda pickup. They'd obviously considered the choice, and now that I look back at it, they were smart: I could move all my crap with it, I couldn't put more than two other people in the cab with me (although I did haul quite a few people around in the back, in less-than-optimal comfort) and I made a pretty good second income moving people around the neighborhood between semesters. My father was kind enough to give it to me as a graduation present after college, and I think he knew that it would come in handy.

I had to sell it sometime around 1997 or so when the amount of oil I was adding each week eclipsed the amount of gas. Two little men showed up in a lowered teal Nissan and drove my little truck away to be chopped, bondoed, and painted primer gray. Since then, I've forced the cars that followed to fit the mold of all-purpose utility vehicle: I stuffed four sheets of plywood into the hatch of my CRX with four bags of ready-mix cement—you'd be surprised how much a Honda will hold. The year I bought the Scout, I hauled the debris of my basement demolition project to the dump in multiple pre-dawn trips. I think the Tortoise probably bore the brunt of my ambitions, though: hauling recycled brick in the trunk across Canton, sheets of drywall on the roof rack—hell, every stick of wood that went into my rowhome, and every bag of cement.

The Jeep has been great for moving building materials around, but where things like yard waste and carpeting are concerned, it's not big enough and I can't wash it out with a hose. And given the amount of garbage we've generated since we've been in this house, I think I'd be broke if I tried to haul it all myself. Our good friend Dave finally got tired of being shanghaiied into helping us haul trash for the umpteenth time, so he lent us Clifford the Big Red Truck on Wednesday.

When switching to a vehicle the length of a schoolbus, the technique of pre-visualization comes in real handy. Simple operations like navigating a parking lot take planning and nerves of steel. One doesn't simply make a lane change, especially with a bedful of yard waste flapping around by the tailgate. Turning a corner brings one much closer to the folks in the opposite lane than they're usually comfortable with (however, the look of terror on their faces is always good for a laugh.) The amount of respect one commands while driving such a truck at the rental office, though, makes up for any inconvenience. We rented the largest tiller at the garage, a 14-horsepower hydraulically powered beast, and within 15 minutes had turned over a 10'x20' patch of grass into arable dirt.

After four trips to the local dump, the piles of leaf bags, small brush, elm bark, and construction debris all disappeared, and our yard began to look presentable again. In a final trip to the Lowe's we picked up a shiny new grill to replace the hand-me-down that fell apart last year and assembled it in time to cook three filets to perfection last night.

This afternoon, I reluctantly turned the keys back over to Dave and we said our goodbyes to the Big Red Truck. I think after the Jeep's time is up we'll have to look into a pickup of our own, but I have to thank Dave again for letting me dream for a few brief, wonderful days.

Posted on April 9, 2006 9:45 PM | link to this entry | Comments (1)

April 7, 2006

Dammit Dammit Dammit.

Why is it that when I'm sitting on several hundred dollars for a purely elective purchase of something impulsive, there's never anything to be had, and when I have no money all the things I'd love to purchase come up on a daily basis on Craigslist? (Corollary: Why am I looking at Craigslist when I have no money? Because I am foolish.)

Last week I dusted off my bass guitar and set up my little Crate amp out in the Doctor's office (it's far enough removed from the rest of the house that if I want to ROCK OUT I don't upset anyone else, and nobody can see me strike my Pete Townsend poses) and started playing again, and it felt good. Like, where the hell have you been for the last three years good. Good enough that I seriously browsed the Musician's Friend catalog and looked at gear I can't afford and made up a list of things I'd like to own in a perfect world. My buddy Dave let me test drive his shiny new Jazz bass on Wednesday, and while it felt totally different from my bass (I have a Steinberger, the bass you saw a lot of in 80's New Wave videos) it felt good to have a solid chunk of wood to play again.

There's a beginner-level upright bass for sale this morning, something I've wanted to own for a long time (I played upright for seven years), but I don't have the money for it. Do I need it? No. I have a guitar that I'm supposed to be learning how to play, but that's sitting in the corner of the front bedroom until our houseguest leaves. Arrgghh! Damn you, Craigslist!

Posted on April 7, 2006 9:43 AM | link to this entry

April 5, 2006

Civics Lesson.

Check out this quick audio interview with George Packer about his article in this week's issue. The article covers a maverick officer's successful attempt to lower the amount of violence in Tal Afar, one of the insurgency's hot spots in Iraq, through unconventional (read: non-Army doctrine) methods. This article dovetails nicely with the book I've been reading, which stresses the desperate need for a new style of military: smaller groups of autonomous soldiers, tasked with the simultaneous role of security, nation-building, humanitarian aid, and training, instead of large Cold War-style troop movements or Rumsfeld's high-tech, no-troops approach.

The article isn't online, but interview is a good start. I may have to find this book as well.

Posted on April 5, 2006 12:35 PM | link to this entry

April 4, 2006

Twofer.

Last week was kind of a blur. Lots of work, business development, and social appointments made for a lean posting schedule and a lack of illustration. Therefore, the R entry for the Alphabet Project is a double shot of scowling people you may recognize.

In other illustration news, I'm slowly working on solutions for the two self-assignments I gave myself last week. One of the mistakes I've commonly made in the past has been to use the first concept that came to my head, which has yielded mixed results. I'm taking more time to develop ideas for these two, with the hope that the result will work better as a solution and as an image. The science illustration has come full-circle about three times so far, from literal to abstract and back to literal again, but I think I now have something that will work well for the solution. The book jacket illustration is harder, because the concept is a very difficult thing to portray cleanly and simply. I'm at the point where I have to pare down the idea to something that won't reflect the entire complexity of the book, which makes things more difficult and easier at the same time.

On today's agenda: Setting the camera up on the tripod and taking some reference shots in the living room for illustration 1.

Posted on April 4, 2006 9:47 AM | link to this entry

April 3, 2006

National Bohemian.

Browsing the crowded aisles of one of our neighborhood antique stores on Sunday, Jen came upon this lovely reminder of our region's brewing history. I bought it for $4 to add to my small collection of National Beer epherma. El Boh has separated from his paper backing by about 1/16 of an inch, and there's some discoloration, but otherwise he's as clean as can be. I have a series of custom-made frames half finished in the basement for my other two National stickers, and I'll have to add this one to the collection.