I'm back, baby!

Sorry I was out for a day. I seem to have contracted a sleeping sickness of some sort. But Futurama is back, a Korg AC30 is on the way, and all is right in the world.

What's a Korg AC30, you ask? It's a multi-effect system that was used on Achtung Baby (one of many, I'm sure). I want to play with it, so I bought one this afternoon. It's not a rare effect, but it's not being produced anymore. So I found one online in Maryland that was going for $120, and when you look at how you could only get one on eBay for $300, I called Maryland and asked if they shipped.

They do. Bitchin.

Let's show you my new baby:

It's all good.

As far as I can tell, multi-effects systems are sort of frowned upon on the music boards and blogs I look at. I think that a lot of people like the illusion of control that a string of pedals affords. Once you know what an effect pedal is capable of, you can tweak it in your line. For instance, you can dial back the gain if the pedal sounds a little muddy with delay, or you can tweak the delay. The various presets of a multi-effects pedal are not so apparently defined or easily isolated.

I have one multi-effect pedal, a Digitech AP50, which I bought primarily because it was for sale cheap at a pawn shop. Honestly, the dealer and I both looked at it and tried to figure out what it was and did. I asked to plug it in, and I cycled through the presets and found one or two really nifty, stand-out effects that made me tingle with excitement. Of course, the manual is online so I learned exactly what it was doing on each present and how to tweak each sound. In practice, I don't do that too much. I use it more often as a chromatic tuner than anything else, though there are a couple of sounds that I really enjoy and pull out every couple of days.

Here's an example of someone using a Korg A3 for evil.

With respect to my various academic endeavors, my experimental class begins next week, and I am quite excited. Terrified and excited. It will be unlike anything that has ever been attempted in a college setting, as far as I can tell. I only have about 10 sessions with these students, which is just not enough to undo 13 years of failure. But they are new to college. This is a big enough change that any good habits that we can impart to them will stick and have a large effect on their subsequent college career. This is the theory.

Yesterday, I saw my students' SAT scores in reading; they were almost all between 300-400. I think you get that score when you spell your name wrong on the bubble sheet. I'm pretty sure that my other students have the highest SAT average of any public school. My new students took standardized entry "skill" exams the other day, a reading and an English exam. Out of 16 tests administered, there were only two passes. I read through the reading test ahead of time--it was extracting information and these kids couldn't do it. It makes the textbook I have written over the last few months seem...wordy. I'll put in more pictures and illustrations in the next version. A visual text for non-verbal learners is what it will have to be, I think. A big-time textbook publisher will be coming to campus to observe the class. We're hoping for the best. I'd love to have a textbook contract on my CV before the next round of the job hunt. My boss said she thought there was a 75% chance of signing a contract with this outfit. Here's to hoping.

Lastly, Futurama is back, a very smart show that is not afraid to drip with nerdiness. Love it. I was watching the first two new episodes and started to worry that I was spoiled by the movies. Futurama works well on a big canvass. We'll see if they can keep it funky-fresh in the short narrative format.

HJ