It’s July 1st, which means it’s Canada Day! Have a happy one, everybody!
And to celebrate, click on the video above — it’s Toronto 1980s garage-punk band, The Supreme Bagg Team, covering a most Canadian classic tune in the most Canadian possible way. (Gen Xers, the blink-and-you’ll miss-them images will induce deep nostalgia.)
While waiting for our flight to Toronto, I went to the bathroom in Tampa’s airport, where I saw this attachment in the stalls:
It’s The Pouch, an acrylic bag or item holder that’s been making increasing appearances in public bathroom stalls over the past decade.
But the Pouches at Tampa airport are unlike others I’ve seen. They differ in one key way, with this sticker:
That’s right — it’s a “do not jam your baby into the Pouch for hands-free pooping” sticker!
I have this question: Was there an incident that led to the sticker, or are they anticipating that someone might try to use it as a baby-holder?
(To be fair: the “Pouch” name and logo, along with the fact that kangaroos actually carry their young in their pouches, might lead people to think that’s it’s supposed to be baby storage.)
Over the past few weeks, I’ve tripled the number of keyboards in my office (the electronic music kind of keyboards, not the typing kind). As a result, I’ve probably more than tripled the amount of music I’ve played as well.
Before I took up the accordion, I played the synth. I’ll continue to play the squeezebox, but it’s also nice to get back to my roots.
About five weeks ago, I drove to a Steak n Shake in Valrico to meet someone to buy their Yamaha DJX, a dance music keyboard released in 1998, and a keyboard I regret not buying back then.
A day after I bought it, I did a little “DAWless jam” (that’s the term the kids use these days for “playing a physical instrument without the aid of computer software”) on the DJX. I started recording, picked a beat, and jammed for a couple of minutes.
Afterward, I gave the recording a listen and thought, “this needs to be on a 1990s cyberpunk-style video.” So I took the track, grabbed some cyberpunk clips from Canva and Pixabay, and assembled this video in Camtasia:
All told, I recorded the jam in under ten minutes, and put the video together over a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon.
The other keyboard I regret not buying back then was the Yamaha DJX II, the follow-up dance music keyboard to the DJX, released in 2000. In more than a few ways, the DJX is a better keyboard than its successor, but damn, the DJX II is a better rhythm machine than the original.
Rare as the DJX is, the DJX II is even more so. I found the DJX through good ol’ manual Googling. I found the DJX II only because I’d cobbled together a little Python script to comb through Craigslist’s “musical instruments” pages in cities all over the U.S. for a DJX II. As I wrote in an article I wrote earlier, it worked.
On Saturday, I recorded another DAWless jam, this time on the DJX II, and here’s the result. No video this time — just the audio of me pretending to be the backup band for Morcheeba or Lamb or Tricky:
Among other things, I make technology videos, which I post on the Global Nerdy YouTube channel. While I think I have a pretty good narrating voice (I’ve been told time and again that I should be on the radio), a video still benefits from having a good soundtrack. I already do the writing, presenting, and graphics — why not also do the music?
My videos already incorporate my music, and there’ll be more — both videos and music — soon!
Hey, Tampa friends! My friend Sam let me know that the Tampa Indian Christian Association is holding their Indian Christian Day festivities this coming Saturday, June 28th from 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m..
Indian Christian Day celebrates the arrival of St. Thomas the Apostle, who’s credited with having brought Christianity to India around 50 A.D.. This is a free event, open to all, and it includes lunch!
Find out more about this Saturday’s events at the Tampa Indian Christian Association’s site.
Last month, I bought the Yamaha DJX pictured below from someone in Valrico who’d put it up for sale on Facebook Marketplace…
It’s similar to the electronic “band in a box” keyboards you can buy at Costco or your preferred “big box” store, but with one very important difference: it was made specifically for hip-hop and electronic dance music. Even though it was released in 1998, it still sounds fresh and fun.
I wrote about the DJX in this article, which I ended with:
Aside from making music with the DJX, I’m also keeping an eye out for its even more rare little brother, the DJX 2…
I enjoyed the DJX so much that I decided to try to find its successor, the DJX II, which was released in 2000. Rare and precious as the DJX is, the DJX II is even more so. If you enter the term DJX into a Google Shopping search, you’ll see a couple of DJX keyboards, and a few more DJX IIB devices, which were DJX IIs with the keyboard replaced by a CD scratch wheel…
…but you’re not likely to see any results for the DJX II keyboard with its distinctive alternating dark grey/light grey “white keys.”
After a couple of days’ of typing in search terms on Google, I did what I always end up doing: I wrote a Python script to automate the process for me. In addition to checking Google, it also scoured a number of Craigslist sites, and that’s how I found this listing:
I contacted the seller, who’s a really nice guy, but didn’t want to deal with shipping and electronic payments. He wanted to sell to someone who could pick it up in person and confirm for themselves that it was in perfect working order, and pay in cash. Personally, I can’t blame him.
I thought about hiring someone from Taskrabbit to pick it up and ship it to me, but I decided to go on my social media accounts and ask…
Fortunately, like Cassian Andor…
My friend Meghan, who moved to Phoenix not too long ago, stepped up. I sent money for the keyboard, shipping, and her time, and on Friday, it arrived in a very big, very well-padded box.
I’m now the proud owner of a Yamaha DJX and DJX II:
…and my office is looking increasingly like Fatboy Slim’s supervillain lair:
For the curiousIf you’re wondering why I’m so excited to own a 25-year-old keyboard, here’s a couple of looks at its features. This one’s from four years ago…
…while this one was posted just last month:
When the DJX II was released, Yamaha made the then-unusual move of creating a promotional video:
Here’s yet another reminder to double-check your work before putting it out into the world.
My neighborhood, Seminole Heights, has at least a half-dozen Little Free Libraries that I’m aware of. I always check to see if there’s something interesting or amusing in them, and I’m rarely disappointed.
Case in point: Close Encounters of the Sexy Kind, an airport novel written by Karen Kelley, which I found at the Little Free Library in Whatever Pops.
I get the feeling that many of this sort of book will be largely be written by AIs soon, if it hasn’t already happened.
Don’t ever change, Little Free Library…
