Waiting for Volvoic

[JohnM]

I am sitting here in my shop waiting for Wyatt to arrive and spend the weekend with us. The weather is set to deteriorate and get kind of tornado-y as the day wears on, so we'll probably spend most time indoors. I did make it very clear that he is not to repair anything while he is here! LOL!

Sure has been quiet on the board lately . . . Nipper got your tongues?

John M

[MordEth]

John,

Hopefully you have a great weekend with Wyatt. I’m sure he wants to hear your Uncle Josh and Hawaiian music collections...

Sure has been quiet on the board lately . . . Nipper got your tongues?

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve been busy with a few projects...and there should be additions to the manuals archive soon.

Enjoy your weekend!

— MordEth

[richardh]

John,

Hopefully you have a great weekend with Wyatt. I’m sure he wants to hear your Uncle Josh and Hawaiian music collections...

— MordEth

Well, if your stuck inside here is some Hawaiian muzak to get the party going...so grab some Poi, your grass skirts and get on down!!

http://www.box.net/shared/vkgkiabpqd


RJ

[JohnM]

Thanks for the suggestion, Richard! He just texted me and he's about 75 miles away, so I guess I'd better get busy! I actually like a lot of modern Hawaiian music like the albums Gabby Pahinui and his sons did with Ry Cooder. And of course, Lauri in coconut shells and a grass skirt doesn't hurt!

BTW, I heard one of the worst/best jokes I've ever heard last night and I must share.

Here we go:

What is the world's worst pick-up line . . . ever?

"Excuse me miss . . . but does this rag smell like chloroform?"

Sorry!

John M

[Brad]

Sure has been quiet on the board lately . . . Nipper got your tongues?

John M

I was on a cruise this past week totally out of touch with the internet and any connection to the real world. It was fabulous. I have a lot of threads to catch up on. It will take a while, but should be fun.

[MordEth]

I was on a cruise this past week totally out of touch with the internet and any connection to the real world. It was fabulous.

Hopefully John and Wyatt enjoyed their weekend as much as you enjoyed your cruise—especially if he didn’t take my record suggestions to heart.

John: How’s moving into the new location treating you? Does it feel like home yet, or do you need to get a few more phonographs placed and in use?

— MordEth

[JohnM]

Although we've only been in here about a month — and still don't have everything moved in from the other house — we feel completely at home here. Thank you for asking. The storefront on the first floor still retains all of it's original tin ceilings and walls which are very fancy and beautiful. The first floor exterior has a cast-iron front that was produced locally, and the huge front windows are glazed in bronze. A skylight directly over the old time photo studio goes all the way to the roof. This forms a two-story light well on the second and third floors that floods the second floor office and library with light. The building — which is 168' long — was originally built in stages. A two story structure at the back of the lot along the alley was the original house while the larger three story structure with the storefront on mainstreet housed the family's businesses: a brewery, a bakery, and a confectionery. The open space between the buildings was some sort of yard/garden. As the family prospered, the yard was roofed over and another floor added in the new section. The front building was redone with a different room layout and wide, thick moldings were added around the doors, windows, and baseboards to convert they old work spaces to a nice home. Because the yard was roofed over, the old exterior wall of the front building is now the interior wall of the library. The light coming through the two-story light well (which is 80' back in the middle of the building), not only illuminates the library, but pours through the old exterior windows into the front section of the townhouse, so when in that part of the house, the effect is of daylight through exterior windows, even though you are halfway back in the building! For this reason, Lauri has dubbed it 'The Outside-In House'. I hope I'm conveying this well enough in words . . . It is beautiful in real life. One of the photos Dave will attach shows a view looking up the light well from the studio. At any rate, the townhouse above is 4000sf, three full baths, two bedrooms. The master bath off the third floor master bedroom has the loo and a bidet in a seperate room, his/her pedastal sinks, and a large tiled his/her tiled shower with two Grohe 'Shower Machines'. I usually have that bathroom all to myself, though, because Lauri has claimed the other bathroom on the third floor that has an original clawfoot tub for long soaks. It is an absolutely beautiful home and yes, we are very comfortable and at home here. Thank you so much for asking.

Wyatt had a wonderful time. My goal was relaxation so we spent all of our time examining machines, listening to records, eating, drinking Guinness, and talking. Before he left yesterday, he couldn't stand it and just had to tweak the reproducer (to great effect!) on my Vic VI. The boy just can't help it! I hope he had as good of a time as I did! That was the first time we had actually met, but now he's like family.

After going over my nickel-plated I-A/Opera hybrid with a fine tooth comb, we made some interesting discoveries and formulated an interesting hypothesis. We need to do more research, but we hope we may be on to something regarding the origins of at least some of these machines.

John M

[brianu]

that really looks like a great set-up you've got there... just be careful though of those great machines (especially the VI) that you've got on display in the front windows... I used to have a small spot for things in an antique co-op in my town, and was amazed at how quickly - and drastically - sunlight blasting in through those front windows could alter the finish on furniture (and machines) set up in the display areas just behind them.

[JohnM]

Brian,
Thanks! I appreciate the advice and your concern. Actually, the VI and the Home were only in the window for the photos. The little Q stays there, but it is a junker.
John M

[JohnM]

I began repainting the cast iron facade of the building yesterday. Victorians preferred rich, dark colors -- a fact routinely ignored in many modern interpretations -- so we're going with a dark blackish raspberry brown satin gloss base color, with the decorative detailing and stylized plant forms in dark green, moss green, gourd yellow, burnt orange, carnelian red, and I'll dust off some of my old sign-maker gilding skills and gild some of the details such as the tips of the red poppy blossoms, the centers of the flowers, and the shells with 22K leaf. Just the first coat of dark paint really harmonized with the photographs in the window and made both the detail of the bronze glazing as well as the white tin walls of the shop interior really pop. It also strongly sets our building apart from the two rather ho-hum paint jobs (similar to our old one) on the buildings flanking it. I am currently searching for a 96" wooden door that is mostly beveled glass to replace the short, ugly, unwelcoming modern door that is there now, but in the meantime I suppose I'll paint the existing door deep green . . . haven't made up my mind, yet. Any suggestions?
John M