Waves: heat, sound, and other

Frequency of my blogging is inversely proportional to the productivity in my life.
Ah, if only that were one hundred percent true.

It’s been a hot summer. That has slowed me down, somewhat. I’m guessing that a lot of people in the country have been operating at speeds rated less than normal.

It’s a hot one.

Before the heat hit, we went ‘environment cooling’ shopping. Having seen An Inconvenient Truth, and being from the ‘man is screwing things up’ school of thought, we looked for an alternative to air conditioning. Swamp coolers held promise for areas that are dry. Hey, Southern California is dry!

The premise behind one is that a fan blows through (or sucks) a very fine mist of water. Much finer than the misters used outside in Las Vegas (or the Universal theme park lines), the Swamp Cooler blows slightly damp air. The water pulls the heat out of the air, and Voila!, cooler air. In dry areas, it can cool the air ten degrees.

We got it, I filled it up and turned it on.

We waited; we put our hands in front of it to feel if the air was getting cooler…

We tried this for three days before coming to the realization that, maybe these things work in Tuscan, but in Los Angeles, they aren’t happening.

First, it essentially felt no different than a fan.
Second, you’re supposed to leave the doors and windows open. It’s simply no match for that.
Third, at the end of the day – you have room that is more humid. Humidity, while perhaps decreasing the overall temp by a degree or so, increases the relative ‘feel’ of the temp. So, actually – the swamp cooler just pissed me off.
Fourth, the Swamp Cooler also released what I call, “the smell of impending death”. It’s that damp, musty, ‘plastic’y odor of old folks homes that anyone who has spent time in a senior center will be familiar with.

So, with great disappointment, we returned the Swamp Cooler, and exchanged it for a portable Air Conditioner. We’d heard less then stellar reviews of those also, but with an intent of using it sparingly, one room at a time only, and only when it was really needed, we were hopeful.

Maybe I’ll write about my day of hell in the exchange sometime.

Anyway, the heat hit, and it’s a damned good thing I had AC instead of that Swamp Cooler, cause the humidity went up also (which isn't supposed to happen in Northeastern Los Angeles. It’s the first time in L.A. that I felt like I was back east. The heavy, hot, humid air at night. UGH! Just like Pennsylvania in July. Thankfully, the portable Swamp Cooler was able to pull that out of the bedroom at night.

The 100 plus degrees during the day were also made slightly more bearable. I was able to bring the temps in the office down to a comfortable 85 degrees, and survive.
Final verdict on the Portable AC: It's does the job. It won't win awards, but is very energy efficient and portability factor is good. It's esthetically as pleasing as any prop in Brazil and with its form factor and footprint should be given a name - like R2D2. All in all though, because we don't use AC more than absolutely necessary, it will do.

You know it’s hot when the cat looks forward to being soaked with water.

Dog Days Of Summer

Weather wise, a strange summer indeed. I guess I don’t need to tell U.S. readers that.

The business of making movies has been interspersed with going to the U.S Open of Surfing, Hollywood Bowl concerts, and the occasional summer block-not-so-buster. Also, my present “summer build project” is nearing completion. I wrote earlier about how I was building high-end microphones, and was accumulating parts for a high end mic Preamplifier – well, that project is about 98 percent complete. It’s been fun, interesting and occasionally frustrating. Though quite a bit more complex than any electronic project I’ve tackled in the past, I've only, shocked myself a couple times, burned myself only once and let the smoke out of only one component. Though that part was only a buck, I spent about twenty to locate it. Turning it on, and finally hearing it was very well worthwhile. The sound from this thing is frighteningly good. Besides being a clean, quiet, highly accurate machine, I can also turn up the gain (kinda like volume) to a point that if I aim a microphone out the office window, I can hear what’s going on across the neighborhood.

I feel like Gene Hackman in “The Conversation”; a classic thriller to watch, if you haven’t already.

Beach Crawl

It’s getting hot. Early. Too early in the summer, I say.

I wired up an exhaust fan in the attic, and have been able to bring the overall temp of the house down about ten degrees. Every degree counts when you break 100 degrees. Thankfully, no forest fires yet.

Several nights ago, three days after the full moon to be exact, we, Marianne and myself and our friends (I will call them Mathboy, Opera Girl and Spawn) went to the beach at 10:00 PM with flashlights and beach blanket. Mathboy had been telling us about a childhood experience and we went to also witness it. First, we watched a truly spectacular Moon rise over the ocean, and then we saw the purpose of our journey -- the Grunion Run. I, not being a fishing type of a guy, didn’t know much about Grunion. They are small fish that have the absolutely fascinating trait of crawling, yes crawling, up the beach after a full moon to “get it on”. Females drill a hole into the sand with their tail, and deposit eggs, whereupon, the male hops in and does his thing. Then back into the ocean they go. Or, if they are unfortunate to do this when the public is out, into a bucket more likely, as children of all ages ran around the sand grabbing the fish.
It all happened at the Cabrillo Aquarium and if you are a Socal local, I recommend it. It was a really fun, and wholesome event – for the humans, not the fish. It was also a great way to check out the aquarium, as it too was open. There was a certain vampiric quality to looking at the various fish at midnight. No lines, no crowds, no sun.

Bonfires on the beach completed a classic vision of a southern California night. I could very easily have imagined Frankie and Annette popping out from around the large lifeguard stand.
Perhaps, because the movie the aquarium showed that explained the “Grunion Run” was made around 1955, or perhaps the simple glee with which the kids were running around trying to grab small fish, overall, the entire thing had a certain 1950’s vibe to it.
In a good way.

The L.A. Film Fest starts this week. In an attempt to be an actual “A” list festival, rather than merely pretending to be, they seem to really be going all out. It faces the eternal hurdle of being in a town where people are inundated by movies and film festivals. It’s hard to get excited for every single one. However, it has developed, and I’m looking forward to it, namely because:
Several friends have movies programmed, specifically Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton’s, Brothers of the Head, and my old “The Last Broadcast” partner, Lance Weiler and his movie, Head Trauma. A heady fest, shall we say? Perhaps not. Sorry. I’ll be playing host to a couple people from the East Coast. It’s always interesting to see the town through fresh eyes.

The remastering of The Last Broadcast is finished and delivered to the distributor.  It took a good month and a half to do the job. It’s nice to be done with it. The DVD will quite something; close to four hours of material in addition to the movie. I think something that will appeal to many people, which isn’t even listed as an extra, is that I incorporated the score into the chapter selection screens. Thus, the DVD, for all intents and purposes, is also a soundtrack album.  In doing this, a lot of requests from over the years will finally be fulfilled. It was interesting to go through all the old music tracks, clean them up and remix them. It really hammers home how much the technology has advanced in the nine odd years sine we began that movie.

Writing continues, interspersed by reading scripts, playing the violin, and continuing my latest hobby/fascination of building studio grade audio gear. The microphones having been such a success, I’m undertaking a significantly more difficult project. It will be my official “summer hobby project” – a high end Two Channel Microphone Preamplifier. Lots of components with real electricity coursing through them, I hopefully I won’t let the smoke out of any expensive parts - or myself.
I’ve been ordering up lots of the parts online, but for the moment I’m going to hold on actually placing the orders. Though very convenient, generally cheaper, and less likelihood of the wrong parts, a certain visceral feel is lost by online shopping. For that, a trip to a huge electronic surplus ‘junkyard’ is in order. I’m reminding myself to have fun with the journey as well as the final product. Also, the ideas that spring from these excursions can’t be matched with electronic catalogs.

I’m sure it will be a blog in the future.

We Are DIY

DIY (do it yourself).

However, someone from triple AAA is currently changing one of my car tires – in my own driveway because I ran over a screw last night. Having called someone to come to my house to change a tire is one of the more surreal experiences of the last year. I used to tear apart engines, brake systems, transmissions. I owned a British Sports Car for crying out loud; I had to learn these things. Changing tires is something I would never have imagined calling someone for. Still, it’s kind of novel not to have to raise a finger, and have it done for me. And there is one other reason: I have no jack. So, that takes care of that. Note to self, buy a jack.

As the tire is changed, my research continues on my newest DIY mission.

As any faithful readers know, I have in my spare time taken to fervently practicing the violin again. Well, soon, I will want to record myself. I do own a good Shotgun mic, from location recording work, however, recording the violin with that was awful – like a knife. It’s not meant for that. So, I started doing the late night visits to Ebay and craigslist in the search for a decent used microphone or pair of microphones. A good pair of microphones, even used, is 600 dollars. Pricey, but I’m not shocked – heck I know a sound guy with a 3000 dollar microphone – not even a pair. So, with a few microphones on my “watch” lists, I’ve been doing my thing. I have also been looking at another option…

Last night, I decided to record myself as I practiced (with the evil shotgun) and came to the depressing realization that I am not anywhere near deserving of pair of 600 dollar microphones with which to record myself. So that other option is going to become my main option.

I’m going to build a microphone. When I say I'm going to build a microphone, I don't mean jam a loudspeaker on the end of a pole, jack into a mic input and be done. No, I mean I'm going to attempt to build a high end condenser microphone, maybe even with it's own power supply. If that works, I'll match it with a second one. After doing some research on the net, I discovered that not only is it not impossible, it is quite doable. There are quite a few people doing it, including several making ribbon microphones (the most difficult and sensitive microphones of all) The price differential from “store bought” to DIY is staggering and it could also be a lot of fun. I’ll post pictures of the project. For now, if you’re interested in where I’ve found great info, start here.

So – now that the tire is fixed, I’m going to see if some of the electronic stores in Burbank have the required parts for the guts. I will make sure to not stop by Royer Labs (also in Burbank) and tell them my plan.

Went to the Silver Lake Film Festival to see a movie made by a husband/wife team from my old neck of the woods. It is amazing to see what people are doing these days with digital movie making. What’s also heartening to see is the sheer determination and perseverance that was obvious in the movie. The effects – subtle and in your face were incredible. It was a five year project, and it shows. Congratulations Keith and Faith on The Suicide Notes. May your DIY spirit lead to bigger and easier projects. And remember that thing we were talking about after the movie? –- about where you should be if you make movies… think about it.

Bubbles

The last week, when not working on Diamond Road or some AFM type thing, has been spent on the Hot Tub project. The hot tub project began when I found a Hot Springs hot tub on Craigslist at a price I couldn't resist. With the help of four able-bodied friends and a uhaul rental, we had grunted and groaned our way through picking it up and bringing it back here. We set it down behind the garage - a very unobtrusive place that had an old concrete slab. Perfect except for the fact that an avocado tree's roots had pushed up a part of it, preventing the tub from sitting level. I had thought about leveling it with pavers, but over the weekend I decided to dig under the slab in the hopes of getting leveling it. The hot tub sitting on the slab already, it’s a job I pondered a long time before starting. The first couple of shovels in, I felt good. A couple hours and a mountain of dirt, I was really questioning the sanity of what I had undertaken. I couldn’t help but feel like Steve McQueen in The Great Escape – tunneling under the slab. Eventually though, my digging seemed to have an effect as the guilty corner settled down and lined itself up with the rest, allowing the tub to sit right. I filled it with water, and was pleased to see that it’s only about half an inch deeper on one side than the other. Close enough.

Since the tub required a dedicated circuit, and this house is circuit-impaired to begin with, a friend of mine, experienced in the ways of electricity had put another circuit in the breaker box. Good for the backyard, good for the entire house. Thanks John!

Sunday was spent working on completing the electrical to the hot tub.
It began frustratingly as I attempted to push wire through a pipe in the crawl space to the circuit box. Finally, at my wits end, I called a contracting friend, who is one of my sailing mates for some advice. He dropped everything, came over, and with the expertise born of many a similar job (we pulled all the wires out of the pipe, then added the additional wire and pulled the whole bunch with a wire snake) were able to get a new circuit working. Thanks Dykeman!!
Wiring to and through the garage and to the back area went rel-a-tive-ly smoothly. Note the slight hesitation. There’s still work to be done -- but the end result was working electricity on a dedicated line with a GFI circuit. Ha!
Circuit was flipped, the GFI turned on and for the first time since that day of heavy lifting, a month and a half ago – the beast came awake.
It works! It’s alive. It’s alive.
It leaks.

Well, I knew it would leak. The previous owner told me it did. The pump needs to be rebuilt, which is easy enough. Ordered the parts last night. However, the second leak is a major leak and will be the bugger. As the tub ran, water started pouring out from beneath one corner. After careful peaking and poking, I pulled the redwood siding from that corner and ripped into the insulation beneath to reveal – solid, dry, piping, in other words, nothing. A second wet-test (hot tub owners may get the joke) revealed the leak to be from the other side. Unfortunately that other side is eight inches from the outer garage wall – which means that in addition to pulling more redwood siding off the tub and digging into that side’s insulation, I will also have to move the hot tub away from the garage to do the work. GRRR, cause it’s really, really heavy.

It appears to be a jet leak, meaning a replacement jet, and all sorts of pipe cutting, pvc sealant, etc. Overall, it’s a project for sure. Fortunately, there hasn’t been a sickeningly expensive part needed yet, and seeing the tub run was a thrill which has me looking forward to when it’s done – to that first soak. There is nothing so satisfying as a major DIY project successfully brought to completion. There is a side of me though that is having flashbacks to when I owned a Triumph Spitfire. It always seemed so full of promise, and one repair away from Nirvana. Next to that though, building a hot tub from scratch is a walk in the park. I’m guessing the tub will also be just a tad more reliable. Couldn’t be worse.

Ported.

My VOIP journey seems to have successfully pulled up anchor, set the sails and shut off the motor. (any more sailing expressions and I should be keel hauled… DOH! What I’m talking about is my phone. We’ve been shifting to VOIP, and for the last few weeks, we’ve had both a landline and the packet8 VOIP thing going. The last couple of days, the phone rings have gotten strange – and then all calls started coming via our packet 8 line. However, I was still able to use the landline, and when doing a caller id check, it still registered my old number. This morning, the landline went dead. We are now officially a VOIP only house. It happened much faster than packet8 predicted, weeks faster, which is nice. It’s rare that a time estimate is wildly off IN your favor. When we had the landline concurrently with the packet8 we had the comfort of knowing we could use it if we needed it. Now though, we are entirely in the hands of new technology. For the first couple minutes of that realization, I truly felt like I was at sea when we cut the motors and are relying entirely on wind.

Ironically, as I write this, the internet has gone down. A late night hiccup, most likely. Hopefully. It is indeed an adventure.

Still building

As the tempered glass for the DVD shelf was being made, I built a pergola.
Like the DVD shelf, I designed and built it first in a 3D world and then again in the real world.




This, not being fine furniture, was more a matter of brute force, than fine workmanship. It came together relatively painlessly, and will provide hours of enjoyment. We’re calling it the Mojito Hut though we have yet to put it to use for anything other than escaping from the merciless sun.

Though the air is pretty dead right now, we’re in the midst of Santa Ana winds. It’s brutal. I feel for my friends east of me – Pasadena and further. Here, at 5:20 PM, the temperature reads 95.9 F.
The office needs an air conditioner. Outside, the smell of smoke has grown stronger throughout the day – for the last couple days, forest fires have raged in Chatsworth, forty miles away – and now the smell of smoke as arrived. It’s creepy.

I put the tempered glass shelves into the DVD thing and can now call it complete. Sure, I’ll continue to work on improving the finish – sanding here, varnish there, but I really gotta do other things – like get back to work on movie related things, you know – my job. There are also still boxes that need unpacking and outside, the backyard and patio needs to be cleaned up – post pergola construction. Oh, and that needs to be treated for insects and weather.

As I write this entry, I am on hold, waiting for a representative to help me with my lack of DSL. The ‘on hold’ music is particularly awful; music that the word insipid describes perfectly. Who really listens to this stuff? Who is BUYING it? Someone has to be, for it continues to be produced. I wonder if I’ll ever see a collection of this stuff in one of my friends CD collections? It is also music I have never heard before. It’s like an alternate universe. Are there cocktail parties somewhere where this music is played in the background?

Or is it designed to create a certain percentage of ‘on hold’ attrition – people who just can’t take it anymore? To help tech support from being completely overwhelmed?

I’ve had a lot of response to the question of where the good music is. Thanks. Keep it coming.

As I was cutting 2x8’ boards I’ve was also thinking about the script. Good work -- multitasking is good. Just don’t lose a finger. Now, outside, the office window, I see that the hedges need cutting. It’s something I better do before I attempt to get back to real work, lest it distract me further down the line.

Oop – A representative is going to help me now, I hope.

Question of the day –

What kind of a tree is this?

Pay to be frustrated

Minwax Polyshades suck!
Minwax polyshade crap!
Terrible experience with Minwax polyshade.

There, let google find that and dutifully archive, database and store it.

I’m hoping that I can save someone else from the disappointment and frustration that has been my weekend. See, after looking at a lot of DVD shelves, and not seeing what we were looking for, I decided to build one myself. I designed it in 3d, found out that tempered glass is not too expensive, and researched all kinds of wood, to find what would be the best method of building it. We wanted it to match what we have going on in our “home theater” part of the living room, so Cherry was the color we were looking for.
I decided to go with Poplar – cheap, hard, but easy to use. The thing built quickly – and looked just like my 3d design.  Finishing time, more research – but not enough. I decided to go with Minwax Polyshade Cherry – in order to get the stain and top coat done in one job. Big mistake. The stuff is impossible to work with if you have anything but a flat surface. It takes the worst properties of both varnish and stain and combines them. Basically, if you have an area that is uneven at all, you can’t rub it out like a stain and it WILL darken – like a stain. The stuff drips like varnish, but doesn’t dry like varnish. Basically, it’s like molasses. If you go over it more than twice, it becomes a sticky, mess.
How did this stuff leave the lab?

UGGH!
So, I’m writing this blog as I wait for the stripper to do its job. Meanwhile, an old fashioned can of stain awaits its destination.

There, let Google database that!

So, why is Stefan Avalos, filmmaker, writing about making bookshelves? Well, because I like to. Sometimes I think that the filmmaking process is a means to an end – I need to create, to build, and making movies allows me to do that on many levels. It’s a “jack of all trades” art form.

Lousy Minwax polyshade stain not withstanding, the house continues to come together. I have actually had a chance to start thinking about writing again. I couple new ideas have been floating around, but for now they’ll stay notes, as I work on getting Diamond Road to the next level.

If you found this blog to be boring, please realize, it’s a public service – for anyone who intends to use Minwax Polyshades and does a little research first, I will hopefully have saved them incredible frustration.