About me:
Bill Batty, Jr.
29 years old.

Father of
Julia Valentine,
husband of  Susan

Musician.

One who writes the occasional poem, though not a poet.

Reading:
Now:
?????

Just Finished:
The Maltese Falcon
Dashell Hammett

Listening:
Now:
Tea for the Tillerman
Cat Stevens
MOFI Japanese Vinyl

Just Finished:
Altered Beast
Matthew Sweet
150 Gm Vinyl

Watching:
Now:
Enemy at the Gates
DVD (Rented)
Dolby Digital

Just Finished:
Se7en
Platinum Series
Dolby Digital

Places I go...

sometimes!

The Quiet Storm

The Bagman

Textism

Biz Stone, Genius

A Grave is Full of Deadman's Bones,
or TRAA Archive
 

Link to me!

8/31/2001

Worked late last night: 8a.m. until 9p.m. Gig tonight. Work tomorow morning. Dj gig tomorow afternoon. Gig tomorow night. Take dj gear to Chuck's for wedding. The things a familly man will do. I'm glad I have Moday off. That will give me some time to paint the upstairs window sills!

At work, suring the downtimes, I've been rebuilding 8 computers for our training lab. New motherboards and processors, wipe hard drive, fresh clean installs with a serial number I found on the Internet. (Just kidding, maybe ;-) )

The bass drum head I'm auctioning isn't drawing much attention. Oh well. I can still use it, but it doesn't have the vintage logo it should. Oh, and my WFL hi hat stand came in. It's sweet. My old '58 WFLs are almost back to their origional state. Sweet.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, August 31, 2001

8/30/2001

Man, if it's for sale on ebay, I can find it. Who doesn't want a kangaroo SCROTUM ?!*?*!*?
posted by Billy Rhythm Thursday, August 30, 2001

8/29/2001

I've been real slack with my posting lately. Sorry everyone. I used to check my webstats everyday. You know, to see who hit my page, look at the search logs, see how many hits I get. My host is having a problem, and I haven't had stats since the 9th of August. 20 days. Man, I really miss em. I hope they can get them fixed soon. Last night, I borrowed my friend Jim's Dremel, and ground all the old paint off the Ghost pedal. Now it's naked. I'll take a picture of it so you can see it. At some point, I'm going to make a page devoted to the Ghost pedal.
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, August 29, 2001

8/27/2001

Back to work with me. This was the fastest vacation I have ever had! At one point, I didn't think I'd take my second week, and just cash it in at the end of the year. But I had such a good time taking time off, I may end up taking it anyway.
posted by Billy Rhythm Monday, August 27, 2001

8/24/2001

Well, today I changed the oil in Sue's car, and got the window sills finished. They could probably stand a second coat. And the second floor didn't get done. Anyway... My father wants to know... what exactly happens when you get a cold pain? (A cold pain may be known to you as an "ice cream headache.") Physialogically, what's going on? He also reports the cold pains from Dorman's ice cream are much worse than those from Dairy Queen. Very strange. I'll do some research, and why don't you tell me your cold pain stories.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, August 24, 2001

8/22/2001

Wednesday, or day 3 of vacation. Day one was rainy. We spent it doing general around the house stuff. I did 2 loads of dishes, and the hand washing. Took Julia to run some errands. Blah nothing exciting blah. Yesterday we went to Portland, to Ricetta's for lunch. (Sue and I both agreed it was worth a trip to Portland for nothing other than their great pizza. I had the Ricetta's pie, and Sue and Julia had the Cinquo Formaggio. But of course they added pepperoni to their's.) We also went to The Drum Shop in Portland. I was looking at a Ludwig Supersensitive, you know, one of the snares on my "snares to get" list. Wha theh had was a little beat up. Shane (my guy down there) said they had some cleaner ones in their warehouse, but I wasn't prepared to drop two bills on a snare. After all that fun, we went to the Union Fair. The fireworks were a hoot: it was foggy, and there was no wind so the smoke from preceeding fireworks didn't blow away. By the time the finally came around, you literally could not see the fireworks! Just colors behind the clouds!
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, August 22, 2001

8/20/2001

So here it is, first day of vacation, about 9a.m., and I'm already on the Net. Sue and Julia are still sleeping, and Julia had a fever yesterday. This will be the third year in a row she's been sick over vacation. Pretty consistent for a girl who's only 3. And, it's rainy. No painting the garage today. I got up to make breakfast. The bacon and the coffee are done. I'll make the eggs when they drag their lazy bones out of bed.

My wrist feels much better the last couple of days. Must have been a little touch of tendonitis. I'm glad it's better: nothing worse for a drummer than pain in the wrist. Than God I don't think it's permanent.

I got another snare drum on Friday. Remind me later to tell you all about it. I know you are all dying to hear the story. Right now, I need to check eBay for drum parts. Then, I'm going to see if I can find TweakUI over on Microsoft. There's supposed to be a new version that will work on 98se.
posted by Billy Rhythm Monday, August 20, 2001

8/17/2001

I gotta shoot some props to my buddy Harley at Haley's Classic Machine Works. I had a problem with an old WFL foot pedal, and he fixed me right up good as new. New for a 50 year old foot pedal, that is.



I'll be on vacation all next week, so don't expect many updates. I'll be pullin a Wop, don't you know.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, August 17, 2001

8/14/2001

I ordered one of these today for the church. Now I won't have to pack my own gear in and out each week. The church set me a budget, which I couldn't come in under when I added cymbals. My folks said they would kick in the remaining $25 needed. They're swell people.



An interesting thread came up on the Diana Krall message board. What are your 10 favorite musical acts. I'll be compiling my list, and I'll post it here.



The Greasy Wop has done an update, his first in like 3 weeks. Don't forget to check it out. It's not great, but any news from the wop is o.k.
posted by Billy Rhythm Tuesday, August 14, 2001

8/13/2001

Not much activity here from me this weekend. Went out Friday with Harmonic, Dake, and Cracked. Had a beer at the new Black Bull tavern in Rockland. Eh. Not bad, but not great. Their appetizer menu had only 4 items on it, so if you want a beer and munchies, you do what we did: go to the Waterworks. There we had mussles (very good), cheese stix, and onion rings. Now that's the kind of stuff you want with a beer. And for my Mom, who worries about my alcohol intake--beer count for the weekend: 2.
Then on Saturday I worked at the office until noon. Then I had a DJ gig in Waterville that lasted from 5 pm 'til 10 pm. The groom and his family were from Honduras. Lemme send out some Cuban props to Jim for lending me some CDs. Too bad they didn't like them. The said to me (in broken English) "No salsa, play merenguie!" Now, as a drummer, I know merenguie as a particular rhythm. And to a drummer, salsa means:
a) What you eat on Huevos Rancheros
b) a generic term for danceable Latin music
So what did they mean by a merenguie? Well, it was a fast, two beat, almost polka feel. And rather hokey sounding to this musicians ears. Cheesy keyboard sounds playing bad horn lines and quoting cartoon theme songs. (If you've seene "El Maraiachi," think of that scene where the kid in the bar plays the keyboard. That's what it was like.) But they danced and had a good time.
But that leads me to another thought, and that concerns the (now I know) multi-cultural bastardization of rhythm names for music styles. What they called merenguie (the style) was not anywhere near the merengiue rhythm. Likewise, here in Maine, any slow song is called a waltz, even though a waltz is in 3/4. I always get people asking me to play a waltz, but they wouldn't know a true waltz if it hit them on the head. How many other cultures take rhythm names and make music styles out of them? Email me your answers.
posted by Billy Rhythm Monday, August 13, 2001

8/11/2001

Limited Edition Chestnut Starclassic Drum Set. Yowza! That's purty.
posted by Billy Rhythm Saturday, August 11, 2001

8/10/2001

Here' s a naet site all aboutTrixon drums. They made some strange shaped drums. The Speedfire kits had bass drums that looked like they were melting. I bet it's hard to find heads for those badboys. Here in America, they were also sold under the Vox name brand.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, August 10, 2001

Now this is a beautiful drum. I may have to put a Dunnett Classic snare on my "Snare's to Get" list.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, August 10, 2001

8/9/2001

Here is a cool custom drum site. I'd like to have a nice snare covered in bubinga. Bubinga is such a fun word to say! It's close to the look of rosewood. I'd take one in cordia. too.

I've had some pain in my arm this week. It happened on Friday at my gig--it got all cramped up. All week it has hurt from my wrist to my elbow. So, I've changed chairs at work, and angled my keyboard down. I'll try moist heat too.

I've got some good photos on Ghost pedals. The page should be going up soon.
posted by Billy Rhythm Thursday, August 09, 2001

8/7/2001

Bill, you're an Architect
For you, the world is like one giant puzzle, just waiting to be solved. In your undying quest for the truth, you're best at finding solutions to complex problems. Lucky for all of us, though, you love to share your brilliant thoughts. Your keen analytical skills and understanding of others makes you a vital player in the think tank. You thrive on the collaborative problem-solving process, could trouble shoot for NASA, and won't rest until the questions are answered.

Likely careers:
Psychologist, lawyer, market researcher, military strategist, PR strategist .

Funny... That last one sounds a little like me.
posted by Billy Rhythm Tuesday, August 07, 2001

Emode.com: Your Results Your IQ score is 117

Incredible! What does that mean? Well, the IQ test measures several different areas of thinking, including math skills, logical reasoning, understanding analogies, and object relations. Your verbal, emotional, and social skills aren't taken into account in the score.

If your score didn't come out as high as you'd hoped, keep in mind that there are lots of factors that can affect your performance. Your level of fatigue or your formal education and familiarity with this sort of test can influence your score. And remember that IQ is not a definitive measure of your intelligence. Your score would probably be quite different if we could factor in your verbal, emotional, and social skills. And perhaps more importantly, it's well-known that academic and professional achievement aren't determined solely ? or even primarily ? by intelligence or any other measurable ability. Many of the qualities that bring success can be attributed to differences in culture and schooling rather than to test results.

That said, how do you compare? Well, a score below 70 means that you fall well below the average for most people (Hi,Forrest!). A score between 85 and 99 means that you're somewhat below the average, and a score from 100 to 115 means that your intelligence is rated above the population average. Scores between 115 to 130 mean that your intelligence is well above average. And if you get higher than a 130, you're a total genius (try not to let it go to your head).
posted by Billy Rhythm Tuesday, August 07, 2001

8/6/2001

Here is my Ghost pedal. Sure, it's a little beat up. I'm thinking a little paint might not hurt. But I wanted you to be able to gaze on its vintage beauty.
posted by Billy Rhythm Monday, August 06, 2001

Audio Galaxy. My new Napster. Too bad you can only download one file at a time. But you can find anything. I finally found Charlie Parker's "Famous Alto Break." You remember the story, right? During a taping of "A Night in Tunisa," Charlie takes such a killer break that band cant count itself back in, so the take was aborted. Next time around, they have Miles Davis cover his ears and count the band back in. Crazy.
posted by Billy Rhythm Monday, August 06, 2001

So on Saturday night, I played the Ghost pedal. Man! Hard to believe a pedal 30 years old still feels so good. Very smooth. Very!!! It's a little loose in the joints, and it still is the smoothest pedal I own--over my Tama Iron Cobra, my DW, and my Speed King. I am in the research phase of gathering enough info on the Ghost pedal so I can put a page up on it. Thre's very little info on the net about it. If you have some info email me!
posted by Billy Rhythm Monday, August 06, 2001

8/4/2001

Billy Rhythm runs an auction for a white Starclassic tom. Say it isn't so???
posted by Billy Rhythm Saturday, August 04, 2001

8/3/2001

Yo, yo, yo! Mad props bein' shot out here to Kyle from Cornerstone. I hipped him to my need for an old bakelite style monster phone, and he came through for me! He got me a phone that looks just likethis one. Man, he's got some chits commin' to him!

Also, Adam has once again moved his page, rendering the link that was here unusable. Being that this is the third time in as many weeks, I've pulled the link down, and will replace it as soon as he figures out what his true web adderess will be.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, August 03, 2001

rec.music.makers.percussion
My first foray into newsgroups.
posted by Billy Rhythm Friday, August 03, 2001

8/2/2001

BlogFinder. A search engine for blogs. Very cool.
posted by Billy Rhythm Thursday, August 02, 2001

Heinz Unveils Purple Ketchup in Bid for Kids. Nice... Green ketchup wasn't bad enough, now we have to have in in purple. Stolen from Biz Stone, Genius.
posted by Billy Rhythm Thursday, August 02, 2001

8/1/2001

So, the pictures don't show that much detail, but here they are. This is the 13" before any restoration. This is the same drum inside. Here is the shell, stripped and polished, and this is the 12" drum all done. See, there isn't much difference between before and after in the photos. But in real life, it's a huge improvement.
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, August 01, 2001

And a couple of other things... Some people better start posting some props. I've doled out a new web site name, a fair idea for a t-shirt, and 3 loaves of French toast. You boys better make with the kiss ups, or you'll all go hungry next time!
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, August 01, 2001

It took some time, but I think I got the (what English majors call "right"; and what web authors call "double") justification fixed. And I nixed Adam's button. I probably should change the listening and watching sections, as they haven't been changed in a while.

Got some good search engine hits recently--a couple of poetry related ones as well. Ron over at Random Abstract sent me a link to what he thought was a bad poem, but which I kind of liked. (It's in my email--I'll post a link when I get a minute.) Somebody found me looking for "Sestina for Cartiphilus" and for "Double Dactyle". (Note to self: in misspelling "dactyl," you can generate more hits.)

No drum lesson tonight, so I will be working on the Vistalites. The 12" tom came out beautiful. I'll get a photo up toot sweet.
posted by Billy Rhythm Wednesday, August 01, 2001