Here I am with “a Santa Claus” inside Capwell’s department store at the El Cerrito Plaza shopping center in El Cerrito, near my childhood home in Berkeley, California. Even though I was only five years old at the time, I think I had my doubts about the existence of Santa Claus. It didn’t make sense to me seeing Santa Claus in different stores in a fairly short period of time.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Christmas 1983 Part 1

Part 1

Direct mp3 download or play:  Christmas 1983 Part 2

Part 2

This is everything I recorded on Christmas Day, 1983 at my grandmother’s home in Santa Rosa, California. The recording setup was the same as in “Thanksgiving 1983,” except in place of the Shure SM58, I used my new Electro-Voice DO54 microphone. In addition some material from this recording is likely featured on “The Willsaphone Stupid Show.” I know this to be true, because there is a short piece of splicing tape stuck to the cassette case of this tape. Most of my family tapes from the 1970s and 80s have the splicing tape stuck on their cases. If I’m remembering correctly, it was Don Joyce who did this after dubbing the cassette to open reel tape to be edited with a razor blade, of course.

Video still of testing Electro-Voice DO54 omni directional dynamic microphone. Go here to see video.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Jammers For Jesus

This is a recording from the early 1980s (possibly December 1981) of  mischievous amateur radio operators (hams) that like to have a lot of fun while talking on their radios. On this recording, I used my Bearcat 300 scanner radio at my home in Martinez, California to receive the 146.82 MHz repeater located in the hills of Berkeley, California. The scanner audio was fed to the line input of my Shure M67 mixer and the mixer line out connected to line in on my Superscope C-104 Cassette tape recorder.

Many times these amateur radio operators would play the audio of broadcast stations, and other amateur stations and tapes. Quite often they would make strange noises, not identify their call-signs, use foul language, and make other amateurs upset. I could go on, but if you listen to this and my other recordings  of ham radio jammers, I suspect that it will make quite clear what jamming is all about. Incidentally, this tape is fairly clear of really extreme foul language except for an occasional sexual reference. Maybe it’s because the jammers are discussing religion. Be sure to click here “Ham Radio Jammers” or in the right hand column of this page for more.

Direct mp3 download or play:  The Playboy Channel Sign On Christmas 1983

In the early days of cable television, a lot of channels did not have twenty-four-hour programming. These channels would sign on at or after 5 pm local time, often with much fanfare and fancy graphics. I know this cassette audio recording of The Playboy Channel doesn’t really come through with the dramatic impact they were trying to present, but I think it might give you a sense of how TV was in the early 1980s. I wish I’d had the thousands of dollars it would have cost to buy a really good VCR.

One side of the boxOther side of the box

These are pictures of a box of breakfast cereal I picked up a few years ago at the Seattle Grocery Outlet grocery store.

Direct mp3 download or play:  The Pineapple Express of 12-12-2010

Heavy rain falling on the bamboo behind my house.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Less Rain, More Wind

Less Rain, More Wind

This is some the sound of steady, heavy rain which fell late on December 11th through the middle of December 12th 2010. In a little more than 12 hours, I received three-and-two-thirds inches of rain, and some areas around Seattle received over 10 inches. As you can see on a National Weather Service water vapor satellite picture I included, a stream of white appears to come up from the Hawaiian Islands and head straight for the Pacific Northwest, bypassing California completely. This condition is known as a “Hawaiian” storm, but more recently it goes by the more colorful name “Pineapple Express.” I guess the idea of where pineapples are grown makes this name more dramatic and exciting. To learn more go here.
Since I recently had my house painted, the outside microphones were removed. I simply placed the same microphones in windows about twenty feet apart. More information about how I made this and other recordings of this kind, check out my other posts here.

U. S. National Weather Service water vapor satellite picture, Dec. 12, 2010, 5 AM Pacific Standard Time.

Years ago I owned one of these vacuums. If you don’t do it with Lewyt, you blew it!

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM 12-09-2010

This is a very recent recording of a baby room monitor (BRM) using my AOR AR-3000 communications receiver and a small 900 megahertz antenna. The baby cries and screams and then someone comes into the room and comforts the baby. As with all of my baby monitor recordings, it was received and recorded from within my home.

The picture shows reception at 49.845 MHz, but this baby monitor was actually transmitting on 902.795 MHz.

Small 900 MHZ Antenna

Direct mp4 download or play:  Goth Guy VS. Clothes Dryer

Here is a video that was brought back from the Negativland 2000 tour. I don’t know much about it, but it’s very funny to me to see someone like that beat up on an old household appliance. I laugh every time I see this video. Obviously, the title is something else, but somehow the words “Goth” and “Clothes Dryer” in the same phrase cause me to chuckle.  By the way, if that is actually Velcro burning at the beginning and ending, it must have smelled really awful! Or maybe not, due to microgravity.