Saturday, December 13, 2014

Accordions, Inside and Out

 I have too many accordions.  Eight altogether.  Two are in excellent condition.  One is a toy.  The other five are in various needs of repair.  


 Here is a full sized black accordion ("George") that's about 60 years old.  It was given to me by a friend who wanted to repair it for his father, but decided it was too far gone to repair completely. 


 The bellows are in okay shape, and so are the keys.  But the wax holding the reed blocks in place has completely dried out!  Most of the blocks therefore have fallen into the body of the accordion.  Setting them back into place would be quite a chore.  I may save the reeds to keep as extra parts for other accordions, although I don't know how to check them for pitch without installing them into an accordion first!


 The other accordion ("Piccoletta") is a child's beginner accordion I picked up at an estate sale.  It had one faulty keyboard reed, and one faulty bass valve.  I fixed the bad reed block by resetting it, but I can't figure out why the valve is blocked.  I need to rip it open again. 







Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Video Diary 12.9.14

I'm starting a video diary series.  I'll film what's interesting to me and give my thoughts.  Here's the first one!
"Christkindlmarket, Atheism, and the Big Bang"

A Visit to Our New Park

Swings! A choo-choo train! And slides! We have a great new playground in the neighborhood. Here are the highlights of our trip.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Five Leading Men

Errol Flynn, "The Dawn Patrol," 1938.


James Garner, "The Americanization of Emily," 1964.


Rock Hudson, "All That Heaven Allows" 1955.



Albert Prejean, "Sous le toits de Paris," 1930.



John Wayne, "Stagecoach," 1939.