a wall of sound

the fruits of a shameless plea...plus a sweet thrift store deal on a working fisher stereo shelf system [circa 1984], cabinet, & large floor speakers...plus a little time, ingenuity, & reckless disregard for how it should be done... [view from above & behind]

...equals one kick-ass home audio experience! just look at how thrilled sofie is as she enjoys the flaming lips cover of bohemian rhapsody at high volume. when you sit in the chair, you feel immersed in sound, much like being suspended underwater... only less drying off afterward. special thanks to melissa c, cathy & tim, the j family, my wife, & community thrift store.

phase one, the gathering, is now complete. before i could clearly articulate my plan, i had to be sure of what i would have to work with. the idea spawned from being unwilling to part with $300 for the Bose SoundDock, & reading about the flaming lips' parking lot experiments, boombox concerts, & 4-disc zaireeka! album [meant to be played simultaneously on 4 different stereos]. i thought it would be amazing to be able to construct a wall of sound out of these various old speakers & stereos. the result of the variance in size, output, quality, proximity, etc of all this mismatched audio equipment would be unrivaled! i have it set up now in usable condition, but my next step will be to find a way to integrate it all together permanently. until today i have been using my ipod's itrip fm transmitter to play off of all the different boomboxes simultaneously, but it is about to break. tonight i bought a cable to allow me to plug the ipod directly into the stereo system, but as of now it can't accomodate all of these wonderful speakers... begin phase 2

p.s. i'm still open to any other donations that anyone is looking to get rid of...

sofie & jöe enjoy a couple of hours on the couch watching
the fearless freaks [photo by amanda]

well, i have finally done it. finally put all my eggs in one basket, finally whittled my obligations down to only one job. i made the call yesterday & quit my [by now] only 1 day-a-week construction job. my boss was keeping me on, more for my sake than his, & we parted on good terms. no more excuses for not getting things done, caught up, & staying caught up. i can put all my energies toward therapy & continue full speed on the trajectory i started almost 3 years ago when i enrolled in grad school.

not that i hated the construction job or anything, it was just frustrating to work a full day's manual labor knowing that i could make the same amount of money in only a few hours, & be using my training instead of being the guy who doesn't really know what the hell he's doing. it was fun while it lasted, & i wouldn't have wanted to work with any other group. it really did save me from a pretty miserable job situation previously. but i'm happy to be movin' on. here's to everyone finding satisfaction in whatever you do...

i dreamed a dream

i have never been much of an audiophile... or at least never one who has been willing or able to spend much money on whatever the gadget of the day might happen to be. as far as listening to my music goes, i have always been content with whatever i could get my hands on for mode of play. from the humble beginnings of a cheap gpx walkman to a nicer sony walkman, then a cd boombox followed by discman, then years later moving on to a minidisc player & now ipod, i have usually been well behind the times [i didn't even start listening to any music regularly until the 9th grade, & even then it was contemorary christian!]. i am certainly not complaining, especially since i got my minidisc player/ recorder on clearance & my ipod for free... & remember those glorious days of napster?

anyway, in keeping with my fashion of maximizing listening pleasure while minimizing cost, i have had an epiphany. it came this past week while i was reading Staring at Sound. cutting to the point, the flaming lips released a 4 disc album meant to be played simultaneously on 4 different cd players... the way each disc was mixed, along with the arrangement of 4 cd players apparently had results greater than the sum of its parts. i can't share my idea yet, lest some of you steal it & sabotage my plans [though i'm sure if you've read between the lines, you have already figured it out]. i have a humble request:

give me your tired, your poor, your old/unused but working stereo speakers & equipment that is out in the garage, boomboxes, computer speakers, etc, your huddled masses yearning to breath free...

i'll also probably be soliciting some of you for technical assistance... that's right andy, ryan, i'm lookin at you. keep in mind that this is an entirely selfish request, & while others may be able to share in my enjoyment, i am not asking you to lend me anything you ever want back. help me make the next leap in my own personal music listening enjoyment!

i lift my lamp beside the golden door...

-postscript-
just leave me a message here or on myspace if you have any donations, & i'll gladly come by to pick them up. also, if anyone has any leads on a decent working record player... i might be intere$ted.

poetry

the gold in the mountain of our madness- the flaming lips

they started up the hill

with their young lives exploding still

they loved to dream and run

they had the grass and the trees and the sun

they dreamed of the gold they’d find

at the top of the hill as they climbed

no one would ever doubt

their spirit and strength could never run out

-there they go-

but the hill was steep and long

they never thought they’d be wrong

it wasn’t a hill at all

it was a mountain a thousand feet tall

with the gold still in their minds

they used their young lives to climb and climb

by the time they got to the peak

they were old and they were weak

there was no gold that they could find

it was all just in their minds

they’d dreamed and they had run

they found the grass and the trees and the sun

they said ‘what do we do now?

spend the rest of our lives climbin back down?

or we can treasure what we find

and make it golden in our minds’

-that’s what we’ll do-

sleep study

[the metronap sleep pod]

who's up for another sleep study?! this one pays $400 & involves 2 overnights in the sleep lab. the only catch is, they put a tube through your nose down into your throat to measure the ph in your esophagus while you sleep. something about reflux/ heartburn during sleep... but they are looking for individuals who do NOT currently have those problems. there is NO experimental medication involved. call dr. goodrich @ the lynn health science institute 405.602.3956. i'm going in in the morning for my physical. they only have a few spots left, so call soon. tell em jöe sentcha!