Canada Not Enemy!

Cobra enemy. Not Canada. PNG up there, or download the SVG.

How to Keep the iPhone Side Button from Activating Siri Without Disabling Siri

Settings > Apple Intellegence & Siri > Talk & Type to Siri > Turn off Press Side Button for Siri

or

Settings > Accessibility > Side Button > Select “Off” under “PRESS AND HOLD TO SPEAK”

I Deleted Facebook 7 Years Ago and Everything’s Fine: A Musician’s Experience

Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads) is making news again that it’s doubling down on being more friendly to shitty behavior and misinformation again, prompting another exodus of people who care about marginalized groups, facts and science. I left Facebook 7 years ago for some of the same reasons, so I thought it might be helpful to give an update on how it’s going.

Service Checklist

Amp techs often throw around the phrase “service the amp,” but what does that really mean? Are all service technicians on the same page when they say they are going to give your amp “a full service?” Probably not. I know what’s on my page, though, and it seems like I’m always refining it, so I thought it would be helpful if I shared my checklist. Yes, it is an actual checklist. It can be hard to keep track of where you are on every repair when you have multiple items, waiting on parts, approvals, or for you to be finished with the previous thing.

Some TLC for My Mesa WalkAbout

My main amp for the past 20 years has been a Mesa WalkAbout Scout 1x15 combo. It’s a very versatile amp. The three band perimetric EQ is great for dialing out feedback for double bass. I’ve only had to have it serviced once about ten years ago when it started making a cracking sound. Well, it started cracking again last week.

20 Years of the Bottom Dwellers

It’s not terribly common for a band to stick together for a whole decade, let alone two! This year, the Bottom Dwellers celebrate our 20th anniversary! We even threw a big ol’ block party. I figured this would be a good occasion to share a few stories.

On Having Guns

I don’t believe citizens should be allowed to have guns. Not to buy, not to inherit, not to have in any capacity. Because efforts to sufficiently regulate them in the United States have been unsuccessful, I think applying a severe social stigma to having one might be the most effective option at this point.

How I Manage A Busy Gig Schedule

I played 100 shows last year, and I’m on track to play at least that many again this year. These aren’t back-to-back touring shows with the same band every night. There is no tour manager, itinerary, or even a single set list to memorize. This is by far the busiest I have ever been, and it’s really quite challenging to manage a schedule like this. I get asked quite frequently how I do it. This is the answer.

Missing Piece

New Music Tuesday: Kassi Valazza, Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

Starved for live music during the pandemic, Kristyn and I stumbled upon Kassi Valazza one evening as we desperately scoured social media to find artists streaming online. We were instantly lost in the somber, delicate delivery of her songs, punctuated by the most tastefully haunting electric guitar. It would be three more years before we got the chance to catch her live.

I Built A Guitar Amplifier From Scratch

I’ve been studying the art of tube amplifier design for about ten years now, and actually repairing them for about five. I love analizing schematics, pouring over the inside of an amp chassis, and studying the layout choices made by the designer. It was only a matter of time before I took a crack at it myself. That time finally came.  

Bell Witch Canceled

Bell Witch has been one of my favorite bands since I discovered them some six years ago. Seeing them live has been a huge priority for me. They came through my area a few times prior to the pandemic, but each time, I was booked myself. And then there was the pandemic, of course.

New Music Tuesday: Julianna Riolino, All Blue

A number of Tuesdays have passed since Julianna Riolino’s incredible first full-length solo record, All Blue dropped (and 188 Tuesdays have passed since I last shared new music with you!), but this record is just so good that I had to break the silence.

The Continuing Downward Spiral of My Commute

Longtime visitors to my website will remember that I once worked my ass off to land a job in the town where I live that was only an 8-minute bike ride from my house. That job moved to a neighboring city at the start of the pandemic, and has been the cause of much turmoil ever since.

The Target Distribution Center in Woodland, CA is HUGE!

I was looking up some directions the other day and couldn’t help but notice the footprint of our local Target Distribution Center. It’s HUGE! After a quick scan of the surrounding area, I determined that not only is it the largest building in town, but the largest in the county, and the greater Sacramento area as a whole.

Luke Bell. Remember In Prime

The light that burns twice as bright burns only half as long.

My Pedalboard for Summer 2022

My pedalboard just got a serious upgrade: a clock!

The True Cost of My Commute

I got sucked into a Twitter thread this week via Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher (@mbonsma) that referenced a Mr. Money Mustache article entitled The True Cost of Commuting. I hadn’t seen this article before, but as someone who regularly sweats the details over how much of my life (and wallet) my commute costs, it found it soberingly gratifying. It’s been a while since I revisited this topic, and a lot has changed since then. We’re due for an update, I think.

Rob Weychert on ProPublica’s Article Layout Framework

Rob Weychert, a Philadelphia-based designer/web developer I’ve been following for decades goes deep on the article layout framework he put developed for ProPublica:

Our articles are built on an underlying grid structure, which varies depending on the size of the reader’s device or browser window. On most mobile phones, the layout is based on a narrow four-column grid. On a tablet, it might be six or eight columns. And in a large desktop browser window, there’s enough room for 14 columns, the largest version of the grid.

[…]

We’ve built all of these layout options into our content management system so they don’t require our producers to have any coding skills to use them. But for code-savvy power users who want to extend the system, it’s built with Column Setter, the open-source tool we developed for grid-based editorial design. We recently updated it with a variety of new features.

As someone who has to revisit this exact issue periodically, it’s really cool to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how it works at one of your favorite news publications, and to hear one of your heroes go deep on fundamentals like this.

Bass Players That Inspire Me

I don’t really get asked this too often, likely because the genres of music I specialize in aren’t necessarily known for great bass players—in the sense of flashy playing. On the contrary, flashy playing is what usually makes a poor bass player. Here are players that inspire me.