no more blue.

there was a recent post on matrixsynth where someone attempted to strip the anodized paint from his Korg EMX using oven cleaner. it didn't work. but further research indicated that it might work for me, since my EMX is an older version with the "old" paint.

i should note that i've owned my EMX for a few years, and the blue color has bugged me since day one. so i threw caution to the wind and busted out the Easy Off. i looked handsome wearing those yellow rubber gloves.




all told, it took me four applications of oven cleaner, with about 30 minutes "soak time" between each one, to get to down to bare metal. spray, wait, wipe off, repeat. i started to get impatient at the end, so i grabbed some light steel wool to speed the process along. the white stenciled lettering paint started to come off when i did this, revealing a perfectly preserved layer of the blue paint underneath. which is cool, because the blue is darker/provides better contrast with the aluminum.

next time i'd be more careful. i made more than a few mis-strokes with the steel wool that scratched the surface. but this is still a big improvement. to me.

while i was at it, i also swapped out the stock 12AX7 tubes with some vintage sylvania 12AU7's that i had laying around. amazing difference. the tube circuit acts more like a compressor, now, instead of stupid flabby distortion.

180°.

my friend terry is an artist and photographer who's been kicking around the palenville area since the 70's. he always says, "remember to look behind you." and i remembered this morning, and laughed. but hey, nice.

i was a stoner for nissan.

and my larynx screams "adventure."

bass.

this string of lights gave up the ghost last week. so now i can play the bass again.

light/shadow.

stinkbugs. that's what my mom calls them. they seem to be active now, i've seen a few crawling around our window screens.

well, this one got inside and assaulted me at my desk. bounced off my monitor, directly onto the notes i was scribbling. so i took a picture.

the exposure was too long, but the flash managed to create a strong shadow. ghostbug.

the old back yard.

mmmm.

a stogie, a tall-boy and four shooting stars.

and to think i almost went to bed early.

lightroom is nice. lightroom is evil.