Operation: Luthier (part 1)

I recently acquired, for free (and via almost entirely legal means) this:



It was dusty bits and pieces of a beat-up kit for a replica Les Paul-style electric guitar (already cleaned and rough sanded before I took these pics). The neck fitting needs to be fully redone, the bridge pickup is AWOL, and the body is all but unfinished -- in short, it's a mess. However, the body seems solid and usable, the neck is complete and the frets & fretboard look OK, the bridge hardware is all there, and the internal electronics are functioning properly.

New project for Jay: see if I can work it into playing condition, and perhaps make it look halfway decent too...


If the project is successful, who knows? (As you can see here, it would be the right guitar for Ace's role in a KISS cover band...)

Happy spring! :)

Heidi's Birthday Adventure

To celebrate Heidi's birthday we decided it was time to visit somewhere new -- a day trip to the small former milling town of North Adams, in the Berkshires in the NW corner of the state. As the milling industry faded, the town was left with a wealth of warehouse space, a portion of which was redeveloped into the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, or MassMoCA.

To fuel up for our adventure, we started our day with breakfast at a local "sugar shack".

Early spring is prime season for maple syrup, and there are a number of these sugar shacks in the upper Pioneer Valley, all open for a month or so during tapping season. A tasty breakfast with super tasty maple syrup makes Heidi smile:

Next, a scenic drive approximately 50 miles up into the sparsely populated Berkshire hills - a very pretty drive this time of year.

A view of the Deerfield River, the hills, and of an impressive stretch of icicles along the highway.

MassMoCA.



Photography is not permitted in most of the gallery spaces, but we did get a few pictures of one exhibit, called "Projections" -- a massive room (roughly the size of two gymnasiums end-to-end) with poetry projected in a constantly moving stream, very cool because of the sheer size and because the work is in motion around you...

So that's how you say it?

A clever (or not, depending upon your point of view and or city of residence) advertisement has gotten a little buzz in the region lately, as Athol is a town just north and east of us.

Here’s the full story.


For those not in the know, there are plenty of town names with unexpected pronunciations here. Amherst is pronounced like “Ammerst”, Worcester is pronounced like “Woostah”, and, Athol is pronounced, well, you can probably figure it out.

As for us? Break week is just a week away, and we can’t wait. Our massive piles of snow are rapidly disappearing, but, like last spring, it has been rather overcast for much of the time, so it has felt a bit dreary despite the warming trend. We’re hoping we’ll get a nice long dose of sunshine soon.

- JBC

And we're free!

Our driveway has been cleared! There was a tense moment when the plow guy briefly got stuck while plowing our drive, but his approach of "gun the engine so hard your tires smoke" did the trick.

When all the roads and driveways are cleared in a few hours there will be a line of pickup trucks (with plows on the front) parked outside the Polish-American club in town. I guess you work up a big thirst hauling all that snow...

Snowed in

Jay and I are sitting in the living room, each with a laptop and cup of coffee. It's like our own little internet cafe. We are waiting for our driveway to be plowed after yet another Nor'easter last night. We're still getting used to the weather here--nowhere near as cold as Minnesota (we're not complaining!) but we're amazed at how quickly snow gets dumped on us! The system for dealing with storms is pretty efficient. Cancellations start the night before, and plows are out quickly. With all the long, winding roads and driveways, though, it's still slow-going the day after a storm.

UMass has a delayed start, but Smith opened right on time, the only one of the Five Collleges to do so. Oh well--until the ice-encrusted snow in our driveway gets cleared we'll just stay put and enjoy our coffee!

We're Back!

Did you miss us?

We traveled to Minnesota for the holidays, spending quality time with family and friends. Lots of babies to hang out with (seven under the age of two!), food to eat, and Guitar Hero to play.




Troy recieved Guitar Hero as a Christmas gift, and of course we all had to try it out. Chad and Holly rocked, Laurie revealed her inner rock-goddess, Jay got booed off the stage the first time he played, Troy scored almost 100% on a Foo Fighters song and Heidi found the game strangely addicting. But perhaps the best moment of all was Heidi's mom, in an effort to encourage Troy's playing efforts, clapping enthusiastically to "Shout at the Devil." Good times...



We got to spend lots of quality time with our nephew, Liam.



He went from barely walking to practically running during our visit.



Liam got a little tangled up in some tape while helping Heidi wrap some gifts.



We got to meet Emma, the daughter of Jay's cousin Kris and Chrissy. So cute!



Heidi's parents gave Jay Wild tickets for Christmas. The Wild lost, but we had such great seats (fourth row!) we didn't mind really mind!



We had our traditional holiday dinner with our college friends. Lots of great food and even better company.



Jay even got to play a song during a performance by his old band.

We also had lots of family Christmas celebrations, spent New Year's Eve with the DL nerds, heard lots about Holly's trip to Thailand, enjoyed some quality time in front of the fireplace at the Clapp's, and just generally had a great visit.

Christmas in less than two weeks? That can't be right?!?

Wow. The academic semester is winding down, schools go into final exams next week. If you talk to or email Heidi over the next few days, be sure to ask her how much work she has to finish before the break. :-)

So, New Englanders aren't big fans of cold temps (anything below 10 degrees F freaks 'em out), but getting a foot of snow in about 8 hours really doesn't phase them -- par for the course, as the saying goes. Still some digging out to do before the next major snow dump starts tomorrow. We might even get our snowshoes out before heading back to MN for the holidays!

- JBC

Turn on the radio in the morning...

Good news: The colleges are starting two hours late today due to inclement weather -- snow and freezing rain.

Bad news: I didn't discover the late start until I arrived at work and found that I was the only one in the building. Oops...

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We got our Christmas tree yesterday! Bought it from a nice fella who grows a bunch of trees in his backyard, wears a lot of camouflage, and has three beat-up pickups in the driveway, one featuring a "Dog is my Co-Pilot" bumper sticker. Customers drive right onto his lawn, then go wandering in search of the perfect tree while a couple of wise-looking hunting dogs patiently follow. When you've picked your winner, he comes running with a chainsaw, chops it down, and sends you on your way...

- Jay

The past two weeks...

Generally, not much happens in my day that could be considered excitement--lots of reading, lots of writing, lots of grading, but not much else. However, the past two weeks have included several events more noteworthy than usual:

1. Bomb scare at UMass. The whole campus was shut down for the morning so the course I teach was canceled. Thank goodness I stayed up late the night before to finish my lecture! Turns out to have been a class project that got into the wrong hands. Don't ask...

2. Visit from Tony. Good times.

3. General student strike at UMass, meaning that students and faculty will stage a walk-out for two days. Issues include no contract for graduate student employees (me!), high fees, and lack of diversity funding.

4. I worked it out so that I could take a little time off from homework to watch the Packers-Vikings play this afternoon, since I hadn't watched a game yet this year. Apparently the Vikings suck so much that Fox doesn't even want to show them anymore, as the network switched to a different game right after the start of the second half. Choice words were yelled at the TV.

5. Ummm, I guess I don't really have a #5. Jay and I did get groceries this morning (our poor fridge practically had tumbleweeds blowing through it) so we'll call that exciting and make it an even 5.

Can't wait to see what the next two weeks have in store!

-hbc

+7 Charisma

Good times were had by all as the honorable Mr. “Llama” Smith, esq. managed a brief overnight trek out to the wilds of Western Mass during his recent trip to Boston.

We saw a few of the sights of our corner of the valley, caught part of the Pats/Colts game on TV, enjoyed tooling around in the rental Jeep Liberty, made the required visit to Pizza Paradiso, and even had time for a quick breakfast at the Bookmill before sending back on the Mass Pike towards Boston.

To use parlance that we know Tony will appreciate: wOOt!

- jbc

Scenes from South Deerfield, part 4

It's been awhile since we posted pics of the neighborhood, so here's a few shots of New England in fall...


Took this shot from our backyard last weekend after a brief storm had just come through. The "hill" in to the right side in the background is Big Sugarloaf, and Mt. Sugarloaf is just out of the frame to the right.
Some views from the top of Mt. Sugarloaf. This is looking south - Connecticut River is in the foreground, Mt. Holyoke range in the distance approx. 10-15 miles.
A few shots looking more south-easterly, across the river towards a town named Sunderland.

Looking nearly due east from Mt. Sugarloaf. Mt. Toby in the background -- supposed to have great hiking trails; we haven't checked it out yet, but it's on our to-do list.

More late night games?

Yes, it appears that we have become Red Sox fans. The Twinkies will still be first in our hearts, but it's hard to resist the spirit of Red Sox Nation. And with Chad and Laurie in Colorado (when did they get a baseball team?) the series should be even more interesting. Will any games be snowed out? Tell us what you think!

How is analysis of Marxist theory like a Marx brothers movie?

As I was reading for my social theory course one of the passages reminded me of the famous contract scene from "A Night at the Opera". You be the judge...

Dialogue from "A Night at the Opera":

Driftwood: Now pay particular attention to this first clause because it's most important. It says the, uh, "The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part." How do you like that? That's pretty neat, eh?
Fiorello: No, it's no good.
Driftwood: What's the matter with it?
Fiorello: I don't know. Let's hear it again.
Driftwood: It says the, uh, "The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part."
Fiorello: (pausing) That sounds a little better this time.
Driftwood: Well, it grows on ya. Would you like to hear it once more?
Fiorello: Uh, just the first part.
Driftwood: What do you mean? The party of the first part?
Fiorello: No, the first part of the party of the first part.
Driftwood: All right. It says the, uh, "The first part of the party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the first part of the party of the first part shall be known in this contract" - look, why should we quarrel about a thing like this? We'll take it right out, eh?
Fiorello: Yeah, it's a too long, anyhow. (They both tear off the tops of their contracts.) Now, what do we got left?

Text from my theory reading:
"However, the reader will not have failed to note one thing. We have discussed the reproduction of the means of production--but not the reproduction of the productive forces. We have therefore ignored the reproduction of what distinguishes the productive forces from the means of production, i.e. the reproduction of labor power." If you really want the citation (and it's good reading, I tell ya) let me know.

Maybe I'll just put the two together and let the party of the first part discuss the reproduction of the conditions of production. It's not like it could get any more confusing than it already is...

Where are the pretty leaves?

We've been patiently waiting for the famously glorious New England fall colors to "pop", but things have been rather muted so far -- lots of green still on the trees -- perhaps because we haven't yet had a first frost. Still planning to bring the camera out on some of the local trails to grab a few shots.

Thanks to all who participated in the "Is it seafood?" poll. The end result, 5 to 5, didn't bring the sought-after closure to this dilemma, but maybe that's okay...

Until next time,

- JBC

Mountain Day

Today is Mountain Day at Smith College – woo hoo! The college’s president selects a nice fall day, traditionally in late September or early October, and cancels all classes and academic events so that students can go out and enjoy the weather. The actual day is a surprise, so there was much speculation on campus that it was going to be last week.

Some residence houses have trips planned to pick apples at local orchards, and others go hiking, canoeing or just out for picnic lunches. Staff do not get the day off, although campus offices are closed. A good, low-key day to catch up on things!

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Heidi and I went to Bub’s BBQ with Boone, Sarah and Rose last night. Out of curiosity I tried the Gator Tail, which turned out not to be the best decision – it was sort of like really tough chicken. This led to a lively discussion about whether I was breaking our plan of ‘no meat, but okay to eat fish and seafood’. The gator tail was listed under Seafood on Bub’s menu, which was good enough for me, but the rest of the dinner party was unconvinced.

Which leads to the audience participation part of our post: please give us your opinion on this weighty matter using the poll to the right of the screen.

- JBC

Sprucing things up

Okay, apparently the "old" template coding I used for the Blapp Report was too 2006 for Blogger, so I had the glorious privilege of rebuilding things tonight.

Alas, the Blapp Report will look a bit different, and different is good, ya? It'll still be us on the other end of this world wide interweb thingy.

- jbc

What the ?!?!

Sorry -- it appears that the formatting of this page has become all gunked up. Will look into it. In the meantime, please excuse our mess...

- jbc

The wrong getaway car

The lead story in yesterday's Greenfield Recorder newspaper. Just so silly that it had to be shared:


GREENFIELD -- An Osgood Street man with a long record of fighting with police had an unpleasant shock -- in fact, several -- Tuesday night.

The first was when Douglas James Aprile, 40, attempted to evade police officers trying to arrest him for disorderly conduct by jumping into the back of a car parked in downtown Greenfield.

To his surprise, he found himself in the back of a car containing two narcotics detectives, Kevin Rowell and Lee Laster.

''He got into the vehicle and said 'Get out of here, the cops are chasing me!' said Greenfield Police Sgt. Ralph Odom later.

''And then he looked at Rowell and said 'Hey, you are a cop!'''

According to Odom, Aprile immediately tried to escape from the vehicle, but was stopped by Laster.

Fun in the Commonwealth!

We had to make the most of what's left of summer, so we headed back to the coast with Mr. Nelson. One day in Rockport to play by the ocean (and eat AMAZING seafood) and one day in Boston. The weather was great, so we were able to walk all of the Freedom Trail in Boston. We took advantage of the subway, too, and managed to avoid getting lost. Best part of the trip? Finding Leinie's on tap at a bar in the North End of Boston. Oddly enough, we found Leinie's a few days earlier at a store in Northampton--we think it's Jeff, so we're encouraging him to come back and visit often!

A few pictures from our adventures:


Jay and Jeff feasted on lobster, which they named Helmut and Garcia.


Jay mourns the loss of tasty Garcia.


The view while we ate dinner. Jeff and Heidi disagree on the location of a really cool object on the horizon.


Fenway!

Recovering from The Bear Who Lumbers

Was awesome to host his majesty, Sir Jeffness, CEO and president of the Nelsonic Party. Trips to emergency rooms were minimal. If any laws were broken, we did not get caught, so they don't count against us.

More detailed updates, and perhaps a few pics, to come soon.

- The Royal We



P.S. Jeff, this one's for you: