Joust back from a really nice dinner with my cousins.. Bill and Deb and Jon and Jean. Jon and Jean are here from Wisconsin because Jon, who is my dad’s first cousin, is giving a lecture tomorrow at UVM called
At 2PM in the Silver Mapble Ballroom in the UVM Davis Center. Should be a great talk..
While we were finishing our after dinner Tea, I got a txt from my friend Hilary on the Sanders campaign .. (no..not TAHT Hilary !) . She was at a Bernie rally in Cedar Rapids Iowa.. and the place was full of our light up Bernie signs !> She says the energy there … like the signs.. was electric !
Last night Mike Gordon band tried out the new audience participation instrument that several of us have been working on. It’s called the REEL. It’s a remake of the 30 foot long EEL that I helped design in 2013. It’s about 3 foot across 40 pounds and has 20 audience playable keys. All of it can be controlled remotely through wireless DMX. Designed to either be crowd surfed or carried through the crowd allowed everybody a chance to play along with the band. This new device which is yet another invention of the very creative mind of Mike Gordon…was mostly the work of my friend Collin, his dad Tim and software wizard Loudoun… My role in this one was relativly small. I helped On some of the design considerations, worked some of the software and helped Colin and his dad on tuning and testing. . The amazing thing is that Collin and his dad finish the mechanicals just in time to loaded on a truck to take to Austin and Loudoun was able to integrate his software on the last day. Wondrously everything work together really well. Here’s a picture of the concert from last night
I saw a great video (from Loudin ?) of the the REEL being played by the audience at the MGB show at Emos in Austin last night . Check it out !
Busy day working at home. Bright sun and snow outside. Managed to get a run in just as the sun was going down. Diane reminded me it was getting dark so i borrowed one of the dogs reflective collars..
Just home after a productive trip. So nice to be home with diane, dogs, woodstove and fresh veggies. Trip home was uneventful,. Even with nine hours i was just able to clean out my email backlog.
Two nice small world conicidences on the way home… My friend Joe was on the same plane from Munich Though we didnt see oneanother until we got to Washington . we were able to hang out for a while. Ive always thought we looked like brothers.. The more i know him, the more i think we act like brothers too. Great, great guy
Then, When i was about to get on the plane to vermont.. I ran into our friend Alex. Shes now living in DC ..workding for sen leheys office.. She loves it.she was planning on flying up later, but she had to catch an earlier flight because dc is expecting 2 feet of snow tomorrow ! We got to sit together and catch up. Good thing i came home early. I would have been stuck in the storm onmy way hometomorrow !
