Los Angeles - My City

A day at the shop

2012-01-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

Many of my friends know that my own shop is in the complex that is known as 65 Amps. I am one of the folks that are in this tone haven that is not only where 65 Amps produces their amps but is also the home of Colossal Cable ( http://www.colossalcable.com/ ) and a development home for folks like Simon Higgs (pretty amazing pedals and designs). Mike Franceschini is the head tech over at 65 Amps during the day and his own shop, Classic Amp is within walking distance down the street. As a side note, Mike has worked for more amp companies than I can begin to list ... Rivera, VHT, Bogner .... the list goes on and on. He is a personal tech to many big names, a player himself and maintains the classic collections of folks like Lon Cohen Studio Rentals, History for Hire, SIR, Center Staging and others. Yeah ... he is my favorite tech.

The complex changes for the most part every day. Different folks come in and out and the compliment of equipment is always in flux. There are always some great classic amps and guitars around as Dan Boul brings pieces from his personal vintage collection into the shop on a rotating basis. I think his newest amp is from 1971 as a side note.

Having my own shop in the 65 Amps complex and acting as a consultant for them allows me to see what is going on and watch the development of new products. From time to time I take a few minutes and take some snapshots of the activities over at the shop. These shots are generally sent in real time to facebook, twitter, google buzz, diggit, stumble upon and about 30 other places as one touch of the send button on my phone is all it takes.

So .... here are some of the shots that I took today that I have in their own flickr album so I could have this little slideshow below. It all started today when I was pleased to see the sound booth where amps go through their final QA testing back in place after the booth spent time at 2012 Winter NAMM.

Things we said (did) today

2012-01-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

For some reason, when I started to think about the subject of this post a song that was always a favorite of mine by The Beatles became the title of this post. The text below is from one of my flickr albums:

My friend Kerri is a professional product photographer. Kerri photographs things like furniture, light fixtures, and shoots food photos for some food publications. She has a studio in Toluca Lake California. She is also one heck of a chef. Kerri and I share a number of friends and some of the folks reading this are friends and colleagues with her on various social media sites or work with her.

Kerri has an office manager / assistant, Gabriela. Gabriela is also a photographer, graphic artist and is involved a bit in the fashion industry (yet does not complain about my lack of fashion sense).

We share some activities at times and since I typically write about or photograph via my cell many activities I was asked by Gabriela to put some of this in one place. I guess this will be the place. I will also have this set up as an ongoing and updated slide show in a blog post as I already have a lot of info there.

The order of this may initially be out of sequence but I will try to arrange things properly with the most recent activity first when time permits.

If you click on any of the photos in the slideshow you should be redirected to flickr and there may be a caption or explanation on the photo. You should also be able to turn options on and off which would show or hide comments / captions with the "show info" tab at the top of the slideshow. One more point - the dates shown on the photos are the date the photos were uploaded to flickr which in many cases are not the date the photo was taken as I tend to batch upload to flickr. However, many of my cell shots are sent in real time to facebook and twitter.

There are other blogs pieces that go into some of the details. This link should bring them up as a set:
http://la-economy.blogspot.com/search/label/Gabriela-Kerri

Tamales to Microphones. Legal Antics to Art

2012-01-12T17:23:00.001-08:00

The day in photos and commentary.

From tamales to classic microphones. From legal antics to art. Thanks to Clyde Beswick at CB1 gallery, Kerri Cambell, my son Jack, the folks at Mezz, Gabriela, Keith, the folks in all the bands during the evening and everybody in the sessions last night.

The day started early as I had to have my son at jury duty at 8:30am. I planned to only spend part of the day with him but as my interest grew in the antics of the court system I deceided to stay the remainder of the day.

About 9:30am there was a break so we had something for breakfast. This photo is deceptive. These tamales are about a foot long.

Many more photos below with a bit of dialogue

Van Nuys courthouse at about 9:30am.

Those tamales came out of the big silver pot on the left.

Not a great lunch. Near the courthouse so they have something of a captive audience.

But ... when one is hungry you tend to eat just about anything.

When jury duty was over we went to my son's mother's house where I dropped him off with his brother.

After visiting both my boys in the early evening for a bit I headed off for the evening with eight friends.

One Thursday night each month is L.A. Art Walk. We have some friends that are gallery, club and bar owners and we generally attend the event each month.

Five of our group opted to take a car and the other four of us took the Metro redline to Pershing Square where we started our evening.

Our group fragmented somewhat quickly and some of the dialogue during the evening can be seen on facebook as a few of us posted or commented last night while we were out. A few times I used a friends iPhone where I could access things just as I do online. It was quite a step from my smart phone that is not quite as smart.

First stop ... CB1 Gallery. This may be my favorite gallery in downtown Los Angeles.

Clyde Beswick, owner of CB1 Gallery, always has a smile waiting.

The above shots are my shots of Lisa Adams work. My friend Kerri is a huge fan of Lisa's work. Kerry is a professional photographer who has a very high tech studio in Toluca Lake between Noho and Burbank. Kerri is also an artist.

The work of Osvaldo Trujillo stopped two folks in their tracks for a long period of contemplation.

Next stop was the book and record store. I never remember the name but it is also on 5th just east of CB1. The joint was jumpin' to use an old expression.

My thought in a place like this .... Natalie heaven.

The record store. My thought in a place like this - Jack heaven, Joe Bourdet heaven, Mr. Wayne heaven.

First band of the evening. Guitar player is the fellow on the right. We discussed his rig.

That is a 1968 Gibson ES-335 in the shot.

Next stop was dinner. I played with Gabriela's cell phone and experimented with its low light capability when no flash was used trying to move dishes around to best use available light. The shots come out smaller, perhaps due to the way she has her phone set for photo quality.

The upper dish is chicken parmigiana. The lower dish are very large grilled prawns (shrimp) with pasta and vegetables.

Kerri and her group were trying to find us. I was receiving facebook comments to my status updates to my cell phone from her. I was not receiving her texts for a while, perhaps due to reception in some areas. I sent her the above photo with the caption "we are here". This was our next music stop, the Mezz bar on the second floor where you see that blue light.

The doorman cracked himself up when he realized he was in some sort of work trance as he carded folks at the door. His trance? He carded me until he actually looked at me. We know each other with compounded the joke.

Side note ... I think I may have been the only person inside that was not carded :)

We were in time for the second band.

Looking at the rig, tone was not an expectation. Volume was.

We stayed for a while and then Gabriela and I headed back to the Metro redline for a trip to Hollywood and Vine. I called band management and asked if I could bring a friend along. They said I could. I had also been asked not to post the name of the band or any details of the sessions that were starting at midnight. Gabriela had been to some of the great studios before but not this one.

A lot of music history has been made in this studio all hours of the day but I would not be surprised if some of the most interesting work happened in sessions after midnight.

They sure have a lot of wonderful microphones in this place.

And ... with a final OK to post this from the band and their management where they confirmed that I had not said too much I will sign off for now.

P.S. My friend sat in the control room and the engineers explained the recording console/desk and let her move faders. The band members talked to her extensively. One of them asked for her phone number. She smiled and did not comply in a very nice and funny way.

Great Pasadena Sandwiches

2012-01-11T09:57:00.000-08:00

A bit late on this post but better late than never.

Not expensive. Ample portions. Ultra tasty.

http://pasadenasandwichcompany.com/

It's Casual-The Red Line

2012-01-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

Combining music with thoughts about L.A. traffic. This is one area where heavy rock and metal are a total match.

1-10-2012 Japanese Lunch

2012-01-10T13:19:00.001-08:00

1-10-2012 Japanese Lunch, originally uploaded by myles111us.

Happy Days Ahead!

2012-01-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

I received this today in my email.

No big explanation. No big sales pitch. Direct and to the point so this must be true.

Looks like fun and crazy days are just around the corner!

Click on the image for the full size version if this size is hard to read.

1/11/12

Even more money is just around the corner!

As a point of interest, the email directly above was actually received on 1/11/12, a full day after the first message in this post. The sender has their system clock set earlier to assure their message is generally at the top of your inbox on many mail systems.

New Year's Eve Dinner

2012-01-09T17:10:00.000-08:00

A little late on the post but here is dinner from New Year's Eve.

Thanks to Natalie for the dinner. Thanks to my son for the shots during dinner as his cellphone has a flash and mine does not.

1-2-12 Sushi

2012-01-09T17:04:00.003-08:00

1-2-12 , originally uploaded by myles111us.
What has been happening over the last week or so?
This is only my first plate of perhaps four plus plates.

Jack at the range 1-8-12

2012-01-09T17:04:00.001-08:00

Jack at the range 1-8-12, originally uploaded by myles111us.
What has been happening over the last week or so? Feel free to click on the photo for more information.

Great way to start 2012

2012-01-09T17:03:00.003-08:00

Great way to start 2012, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been happening the last week or so

Exception

2012-01-09T17:03:00.001-08:00

Exception, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been happening the last week or so

99% of the time I have an amplifier shot as the background on my cell phone. This is the 1% exception.

Garlic Halibut

2012-01-09T17:00:00.003-08:00

Garlic Halibut, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been happening the last week or so.

This shot really goes with the garlic bread shot a few shots from this one.

My commentary on facebook:

I am over at the house where one of my two boys live and both the boys are eating there tonight. I pointed this photo out to their mom and said ... you should make something like this. Her reply "oh yeah, I meant to make that". She always did have a great sense of humor. She is not a big fan of cooking but she did have a few nice things in her repertoire.

Who says size doesn't matter.

2012-01-09T17:00:00.001-08:00

Who says size doesn't matter., originally uploaded by myles111us.
What has been happening over the last week or so?
Prototype Ventura combo from the folks at www.65amps.com

Amp work 1-9-12

2012-01-09T16:59:00.001-08:00

Amp work 1-9-12, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been going on the last week or so? More details on flickr on the caption for this shot if you choose to click on the photo.

Lunch 1-9-12

2012-01-09T16:58:00.001-08:00

Lunch 1-9-12, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been going on the last week or so?

Mercury Magnetics pistol stand

2012-01-09T16:57:00.001-08:00

Mercury Magnetics pistol stand, originally uploaded by myles111us.

What has been going on the last week or so? Thanks to Joe Bourdet over at www.65amps.com for performing the front sight work. Joe is one of the founders, guitar, vocals, keys, writing at http://inthewhisperingpines.com/index.html

Captain Nemo - My Idol

2012-01-01T09:20:00.000-08:00

As my first post for 2012 I am resurrecting an older post. Many of us on this day are looking forward to what the future may hold. The next Presidential election is this year, the economy is in the trash, we have some of our countries most promising people deployed in harms way thousands of miles away.

I seems we have not learned much from the past when it comes to not repeating the same mistakes we have made before. Perhaps what the past holds are memories and what gave us experience we utilize today.

I thought I would look back on some of my own past on this day. A past that has, in some ways join the present as thanks to social media I have reconnected with some of the people who have shared my life when I lived at sea.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has been my favorite book since I was a child. The boat I lived on for over three years was named after Captain Nemo. Below are some of the pieces of my life in the past.

Some of my friends know this three year story. Most of you do not. One of the log entries is below.

These are some excerpts from my sailing log books that were converted from hand written text to electronic format about a half a dozen years ago.

Anybody that came aboard Spirit of Nemo could write in the Ships Log. They could write whatever they wished. Nothing was off limits. In some of the log entries you will see the writing of others at times.

Another time, other places, another life.

I had been an employee of Data General Corporation for almost seven years when I went through a divorce. I wanted to take a 90 day leave of absence to gather my thoughts. I stocked up my boat and ran off. 90 days turned into years.

My time aboard Spirit of Nemo started in 1979. This log entry is from a later period in my journey. This piece is at the point where I met Wendy. This seemed like a good place to start for those that do not know the story. I will try to paint an initial picture with a little background history.

I met Wendy on a Tuesday, April 7th, 1981 in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.

She was from Lansing Michigan. She was a law student that had taken a bit time off from school. She wanted a break. She had flown to California to take a week cruise to Mexico with her boyfriend Mark.

I met her on the cruise ship docks. She was sitting all alone on a bench overlooking the cruise ship dock area and the sea. She looked upset and unhappy.

I started a conversation with her. I learned that she and her boyfriend had a fight. I learned he was also the sort of fellow that would hit her on a regular basis.

I offered my talents to “blind side him” in an alley. All she needed to do was take a walk with him to a secluded spot. She and I could pick somewhere down by the docks.

She declined my offer of expertise and my methods of problem solving. I learned that the two of them had been together for about almost a year.

She wanted to leave him but she had no way to get home. She did not have much reserve cash. She did have a credit card but her return flight was already included in her cruise. She wanted to explore other less costly ways of returning home. She wanted to try to come up with a plan to change her return flight if possible without incurring additional expense.

Wendy asked if I could help her get her things off the ship. She did not want to cross paths with her boyfriend. She just wanted to get her things and get away.

I told her how to go about this by going back to the ship and explaining things to the purser staff. She asked if I would go with her to help.

I went to the ship with her and had one of the crew at the gangway contact a purser. I worked with the purser to have somebody see if her boyfriend was in the cabin. He was not. The purser then escorted Wendy to her cabin where she packed her things and left a note for Mark. I never did learn what she wrote in the note.

She was packed and off the ship in less than 25 minutes.

Wendy said she needed time to think. She did not know what to do next. She was worried that Mark would call her parents. Her parents would become very worried when they learned she had run off all alone in Mexico. The prospect of a daughter jumping ship alone in Mexico is not something I’d take easily if I had a daughter. I told her that she really had to call her parents. I told her I would help her get a flight back home before I left Puerto Vallarta. Wendy called home. Her mother was very upset.

By Tuesday evening Wendy and I had talked a lot. She asked if she could stay with me for a day or two before going back home. She just needed to calm down a bit and gather her thoughts. Wendy moved aboard Nemo. Wendy moved into my cabin and I relocated my things to the forward cabin.

The logs entries which I am uploading into some blog posts start at about this point in time where I met Wendy in April of 1981. The entire log set starts in 1979.

4/09/1981 Puerto Vallarta Mexico

1645 – Even though summer is a few months off there have been a few thunderstorms rolling in and a bit of rain on and off. Wendy has been aboard two days and I find her story very interesting.

I had Wendy move into my cabin and I moved into the forward cabin. I always loved the V berth as long as I am in port. The shots below are after the first update to the front stateroom which was in late 1980.

Today we took the bus to El Jorullo. We walked around the town and had a fun lunch that was pretty darn good at a cost of about $1.85 for the two of us. I bought her a silver bracelet that she saw in a shop that she fell in love with.

We got back to PV in the mid afternoon and sat on the docks at Guadalupe Victoria and just talked and talked and talked.

1815 – Wendy is still down at times. I suggested we dress up and go out for a nice dinner.

2120 – We had dinner at La Palapa. We shared a number of things that were all great. The crab strudel appetizer was almost enough for our entire dinner. We split a roasted stuffed chicken breast and some of the daily fresh fish. Paulo gave us one of the romantic tables right on the sand and gave Wendy some flowers. I think this made her day.

We stopped at Café Magaña to listen to some music but they had some sort of soccer TV thing on so we left. They are known for their BBQ ribs with about 15 different sauces but I think we were both too full to eat.

2300 – We walked on the beach after dinner and back to Nemo for the night. I do not know what Wendy is planning for the next few days and I have no idea what I am doing myself! Am I getting in trouble again? She is a sweetheart and I know Eric will read me the riot act if he ever found out that I was sentimental or taken in by her or if give Wendy a lump of cash to help her get back home. Maybe I will not tell him anything.

The photos taken below are just a few of thousands. They were taken with cameras that ranged from 110 format to 120/620 format and 35mm. Most of the grainy shots were from my 110 format waterproof/underwater Minolta camera that could fit in my pocket and was usually handy.

There is not any explanation on the shots in these slide shows. There is information and explanations on many of them on flickr or on facebook. On facebook there are many shots in the album called "Places I ended up thanks to Spirit of Nemo, Spitfire and Echo"

-the end for the moment-

Burbank Water and Power - Fail?

2011-12-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

December 28 2011 I received my utility bill from Burbank Water and Power.

I was somewhat shocked that nobody had called me or visited me from BWP earlier in the month. I would have thought that with the hourly metering they have in their system it would have triggered some sort of alarm.

Clearly there must be a geyser at my house or some sort of major event where water would be noticed flowing down the street in a river.

My average yearly consumption went from 45 gallons per day to over 545 gallons per day. My usage for the year went from 1,466 gallons to 18,011 gallons.

I called them.

My first call was answered by Carina on 12/29/11 at 8:15am. She was courteous on the phone and looked into the situation. She had the meter read while I waited and confirmed the current read was not a data entry error of some sort. She said somebody would call me by 1/3/12.

It is easy for me to check for running water in my house as each time I leave the house I walk right by the piping that enters the house. If any water is running I hear the water.

I walked outside and listened. There was no running water. I checked all outside faucets. All fine.

I read the electronic meter. My running use was zero. No leaks. I turned on the hose and rechecked the use. The meter indicated water was being consumed. I turned off the hose and the usage returned to zero.

I called BWP back at 9:00am 12/29/11 to tell them there was no leak.

My call was answered by Jack. He said he was a supervisor. We talked for quite a while but really did not communicate.

Jack said that between 12/8 and 12/21 my usage had increased far beyond my usage since I had lived in the house. He asked questions about new lawns, guests (where there would have needed to be hundreds to confirm his thought process) and we talked about leaks where I had to give him the facts over and over.

Jack's thought process was, if the electronic meter says something is so then it must be so. He kept repeating his faulty logic; if the meter was faulty it would still read faulty. I kept trying to tell him that electronics can have intermittent failures.

Bottom line - He said I have to pay the bill. If I want to dispute the bill, after paying it, I could write a letter to his boss. Write a letter in this era of his electronic meter and billing that he is not willing to accept a possible fault in the system? Bad customer service Jack.

I tried to get Jack to visualize just how much water it would take to confirm his data. Tsunami in Burbank? He held the line; if the meter says it is so it must be so. He would not adjust the bill and offered no help at all.

I asked if the bill was $50,000 would he consider the possibility of a problem? He said no. The data is the data.

Water theft between 12/8 and 12/21? Not too likely as I am back and forth at my house all day and did not go on vacation during that period. The most likely scenario is an electronic meter problem.

Kudos Burbank Water and Power. You have a closed minded, narrow thinking and technically deficient employee that makes customers unhappy.

If you want to come to some sort of resolution to turn around a very dissatisfied customer you know where you can find me.

Update: Jack told me to write a letter if I had a complaint. I went to the Burbank Water and Power website and used their system to write the following letter:

I was told by Jack in your customer service office today 12/29/11 to write a letter if I had a complaint. Consider this my letter.

I am paying my bill but am not at all satisfied with the service of Jack in your customer service organization.

Details are on my blog which has over 60,000 subscribers and has been read over 6 million times. AT&T follows me on twitter as one example after a few posts were done on them, some ongoing.

You folks are now the latest piece. If you want to talk about looking into my problem you know where to find me.

http://la-economy.blogspot.com/2011/12/burbank-water-and-power-customer.html

Myles S. Rose

A comment on this post from facebook:

Lynne Robin Green the new elec meters are ripping us off here, i had excessive rates ever since they installed it, and its true they dont come investigate why, they just say oh its gotta be right and you pay it..I've seen many letters in the burbank leader of folks complaining too..its not fair.

20 minutes ago · · 1

The main issue I have with the folks here is their total belief that there is no reason to question the technology. I was also told by the first customer service person I spoke to that the daily range of error allowed is 1 unit which can be 500 gallons. Well, when my use is 45 or so gallons a day I find this margin of error beyond unreasonable.

Update: I have been hearing back from folks with the same overcharge problems. Could this be a conspiracy within the City of Burbank?

This would be an easy way to collect additional money in a corrupt way. Just overcharge a customer once a year or so, rotate customers so they can be given the same story I was given. Stories of possible leak, variances allowed in the technology / system, or tell them to write a letter and given them the run around in that way.

Most folks would just drop it. Folks that know me can see what is going to happen in my case. I do not let corruption triumph if there is an action which I can take.

The data is posted above. The logic, facts and information. It seems that what would be fair is for them to charge me my typical usage and absorb a one time anomaly that makes no sense to anybody other than Jack at Burbank Water and Power. I hope somebody out there can teach Jack at BWP something about technology. He seemed to think very little about the power of social media and thought it was not of much value.

Update: I talked to Sean Aquino from Burbank Water and Power at about 1:45pm. He supplied me with more data. He will be sending me an email with some reported findings.

He informed me that they did see high readings and did sent a meter reader to my house to check the meter when they saw the reading that were out of character. I was told a note was left at my house on 12/22/11. I received no note. I am not saying a note was not left. It may have blown away or whatever.

I told Sean that perhaps no note had been left as there was no leak that the technician / reader would have found. .

Sean told me that during the suspect period my water usage was up to 1,500 gallons per day. My normal usage is about 50 gallons per day.

My usage for the billing period of 33 days in December was 17,952 gallons.
My usage for the prior month (28 days) was 2,500 gallons.

I would like to state that at this point Sean Aquino is doing a good job of working with me. I will be posting what I receive via email from him in this post.

12/31/11 Update. I received this email yesterday:

Thank you for your email. I truly regret that you are not happy with the service Jack provided. I will review the call with him and we will look for ways to better assist our customers in the future. I have examined your account and the water usage history at xxxxxxxx and the findings of my investigation are as follows:

• Your normal daily water usage is usually between .10-.13 HCF, roughly 75-90 gallons. Each HCF, or water billing unit, is equivalent to 748 gallons of water.

• Beginning on December 7 through December 21, your daily water usage went from less than 1 HCF per day up to between 1-2 HCF’s.

• Because we recognized that this was well above your normal water usage, we sent a meter reader to your property, on December 22nd, to verify the read.

• The meter reader verified the read as accurate and left a courtesy tag on your door stating that you may want to look for a leak as the water read was verified as higher than normal.

• After verification was received, on December 22nd, your bill was released for mailing. Your water usage between November 18 and December 22 was billed at 24.08 HCF for the month. The usage between December 7 and December 21 accounted for almost 95% of the billing period’s water usage.

• Your water usage went back down to less than 1 HCF per day beginning on December 21.

Per our conversation, please see the attachment for your daily water usage report. If you have any other questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you,

Sean Aquino
Customer Service Supervisor
BWP Call Center

Reading Date/Time	Reading	Consumption
12/29/2011 2:00 PM	74.45	.06
12/28/2011 11:00 PM	74.39	.11
12/27/2011 11:59 PM	74.28	.08
12/26/2011 11:59 PM	74.20	.10
12/25/2011 11:59 PM	74.10	.10
12/24/2011 11:59 PM	74.00	.13
12/23/2011 11:58 PM	73.87	.10
12/22/2011 11:00 PM	73.77	.10
12/21/2011 11:00 PM	73.67	.75
12/20/2011 11:00 PM	72.92	1.44
12/19/2011 11:57 PM	71.48	1.46
12/18/2011 11:57 PM	70.02	1.46
12/17/2011 11:57 PM	68.56	1.55
12/16/2011 11:57 PM	67.01	1.52
12/15/2011 1156 PM	65.49	1.56
12/14/2011 11:56 PM	63.93	1.57
12/13/2011 11:56 PM	62.36	1.60
12/12/2011 11:56 PM	60.76	1.78
12/11/2011 11:00 PM	58.98	1.72
12/10/2011 11:00 PM	57.26	1.69
12/9/2011 11:00 PM	55.57	1.83
12/8/2011 11:00 PM	53.74	1.89
12/7/2011 11:54 PM	51.85	1.21
12/6/2011 11:54 PM	50.64	.15
12/5/2011 11:54 PM	50.49	.13
12/4/2011 11:54 PM	50.36	.09
12/3/2011 11:53 PM	50.27	.11
12/2/2011 11:53 PM	50.16	.10
12/1/2011 11:53 PM	50.06	.12
11/30/2011 11:53 PM	49.94	.15
11/29/2011 11:00 PM	49.79	.14
11/28/2011 11:52 PM	49.65	.13
11/27/2011 11:52 PM	49.52	.16
11/26/2011 11:52 PM	49.36	.07
11/25/2011 11:51 PM	49.29	.07
11/24/2011 11:51 PM	49.22	.09
11/23/2011 11:51 PM	49.13	.12
11/22/2011 11:51 PM	49.01	.16
11/21/2011 11:50 PM	48.85	.13

I would like to state that these folks are working with me and the level of service and communication has been very good.

I received a call yesterday from a gal who heads up their technical side. I will post her name if I receive an email with the information.

We talked for quite a while. She supplied me with two possible scenarios which she had seen in the past at other locations. I was able to show her that they were not applicable to my problem.

We came to an agreement about what would be done if the meter shows any abnormal increase, a meter person would be dispatched immediately to investigate and I would be contacted. This might isolate a possible meter problem.

I am waiting to hear about a possible credit. I don't know if this issue may work as a typical civil case but it is pretty clear than by a preponderance of evidence the case would be in my favor. The burden of proof should be on BWP and I have data and complaints from other people about meter problems and billing problems.

I will keep this post updated when there are changes or additional information is available.

1-9-2012 4:45pm pst
I just went out to look at my meter reading. I did not want another surprise. My meter had NO display at all. I don't know if that is normal or not but it is a concern. The last time I looked when I was having the problems and looking for leaks there was a display.

Hopefully when this is turned back on it will not be reset with some wild number.

I will send this updated blog to BWP.

My letter to Sean:

Sean,

I have a concern as I just tried to read my meter. In the past there was a reading that I could see. Today, no display.

I just updated my blog with the following:

1-9-2012 4:45pm pst

I just went out to look at my meter reading. I did not want another surprise. My meter had NO display at all. I don't know if that is normal or not but it is a concern. The last time I looked when I was having the problems and looking for leaks there was a display.

Hopefully when this is turned back on it will not be reset with some wild number.

I will send this updated blog to BWP.

I will look forward to your reply and I will keep my blog post active.

I was never sent the contact information from the tech person you had talk to me as she said you would do as a side note.

If there is a surprise this month I will escalate this.

The blog can be seen at http://la-economy.blogspot.com/2011/12/burbank-water-and-power-customer.html

1/8/12 - False alarm. No problem. I was looking at the meter in the late evening and the display requires a light source as it is solar. I used a flashlight and all looks fine including the current reading.

1/11/12
Sean from BWP called me during lunch and gave me an update.

He has been helpful and proactive in regard to my problem. He and I have agreed on a course of action to try to isolate any problem that may surface in the future.

At this time I have no complaints with Burbank Water and Power and feel they have been responsive to the problem which is being watched. Sean also sent me the technical contact information I had been waiting to receive.

I will add any updates if there are updates in the future.

-the end for the moment -

Dinner and a show - typical Friday night?

2011-12-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

I copied this review from Yelp. I wanted to post links in the review but felt the Yelp folks might not approve of links. The band was terrific and I talked to a lot of technical people and guitarists through the evening about guitar amplifiers so I felt providing links was anything other than contra-indicated.

The Yelp review:

A group of us ate here on Friday night before a show at the House of Blues.

The restaurant is in a hotel which brought back a few memories from my past. The hotel used to be the Hyatt Hotel that was a bit of rock history in the past.

The name of the restaurant, RH came from the nickname for the Hyatt in the past; riot house. Remember when The Who tossed the room TVs out the window onto Sunset? I digress....

As far as prices go, I am not sure of the Yelp $ $$ $$$ $$$$ breakdown but things seemed on the high side. Then again, on the Sunset Strip most everything is either on the high side or more expensive than some similar items in other parts of Los Angeles.

Dinner and show tickets were compensation for my work:

As they say in the commercials ....

1. Amp attention; Tune up, bias adjustment. (just part of the service)

2. Level for the show: Level and EQ adjust on FOH console (just part of the service)

3. Advice (priceless).

The most time was spent on advice talking about two amps from my friends over at 65 Amps; Empire and Producer. The talk continued throughout dinner.

Bottom line ... dinner and the show was no charge for my friend and I. There was additional compensation which will end up being spent on my boys over their winter break from school.

Folks that know me are probably not too surprised as my digression. Should I get back to my thoughts on the restaurant?

The staff was attentive and the service at our table was very good.

I was taking some photos and said they may be sent to facebook, twitter and yelp. Yelp was a magic word. One free glass of wine with each entree if you mention Yelp. Just a heads up for my friends. In our own case my friend and I were served more than one free glass.

There were two types of foie gras on the menu. One was a terrine and the other was seared. We did not get either but perhaps another time. I just mention it because it was on the menu and I love the stuff.

The seared was $27 for three ounces which Kerri thought was fair in this area. The terrine was $18 on the menu.

6 oysters, $22. Seemed a little steep but then again, we are on Sunset. They were good and were fresh. Our group consumed $88 worth of oysters.

I am not a fan of mussels but there were two orders for our group. They looked great and smelled great. Cooked in white wine. Perhaps I will copy one of the shots off Yelp of this dish as my shots are dark and fuzzy from my cellphone. I might even post this on my L.A. Blog as I do post a lot of things there.

Kerri had a beet and romaine salad that she said was very good. Normally I do not concern myself with price and prefer to order what looks good not what fits a budget. Still, $12 for a salad seemed a bit pricey. I suppose when others are picking up the bill I look at prices as a courtesy and consideration. The work I performed was second nature and I was already being compensated with the comped show and my usual seating at either the monitor console or FOH console. The second part of my compensation was in my ability to introduce the band to my thinking on them using the right tool for the job, the right amp for the job and the compensation for my advice here is putting folks on a better path to practice their craft.

Outstanding bread. Five stars! Might not seem that important to some folks but it shows attention to detail and care on such a wonderful staple.

Roasted chicken and lobster. Yes, one combination item. Excellent. A few people ordered this item and were quite happy.

The mushroom risotto was excellent. The roasted vegetables were also stir fried and served with wild rice. Also excellent.

New York steak, ordered ultra rare. Served properly, was tender and flavorful.

The seared halibut was quite good. I had a taste from another in our group.

Dinner prices were quite reasonable compared to some of the appetizer items. Perhaps those oysters came from a very exotic place?

Side orders are $7 each. There is a nice selection and the ones we had were quite good.

In the end it was a great evening.

http://www.hyatt.com/gallery/rhlaxss2009/index.html (the restaurant)
http://www.direngrey.co.jp/english/top.html (the band)
http://www.65amps.com (the talk)

Jon McNaughton - an artist with a gift

2011-12-15T14:22:00.001-08:00

Jon McNaughton - an artist with a gift and a message

More at http://www.mcnaughtonart.com/

Yahoo Customer Service

2011-12-07T20:44:00.001-08:00

I have noticed that Yahoo has had more problems in the last six months that all the problems I have had with them over ten years. Their service used to be top notch. Not so anymore.

I am currently having an issue with them which I will be tracking.

More below.

This is how my current problem is being handled.

I started by looking at the posted known problems and FAQs where the issue did not show up. I then contacted customer service on chat.

Please wait for a Yahoo! agent to respond. You are currently number 1 in the queue. Your estimated wait time is 0 minutes, 1 seconds.

You are now chatting with Daniella

Your Issue ID for this chat is LTK5390708990X

Daniella: Hi! Welcome to our Yahoo! Mail Live Chat service. I'm glad you've joined us.

Daniella: Thank you for providing us the details of your issue.

myles: This will all be saved and possibly put on my blog

Daniella: As I gathered, you want to know why you're having problem utilizing the Notepad feature on you're yahoo! Mail account. Am I correct?

myles: I have already posted some of my issue to twitter.

myles: Yes, all my notepad data is gone

myles: Not a lot of faith my saved emails from years are secure anymore either after seeing this.

Daniella: I see. Thank you for confirming.

Daniella: I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you. Rest assured that I will do my utmost best to assist you with this.

Daniella: The Yahoo! Account you’re having concerns with is: myles111us@yahoo.com. Am I right?

myles: Yes

myles: but I cannot access notepad data from my other email address tied into my websute

Daniella: All right. Thank you for confirming again Myles.

Daniella: Allow me a moment to check on this concern.

Daniella: Thank you for waiting.

Daniella: We were advised by the Yahoo! Notepad Team, in case we’ve received this kind of concern, to redirect it to them so that they could further check and troubleshoot this matter on their end.

Daniella: Let me help you get in touch with them through the link below:

Daniella: Yahoo! Notepad Help Form.

Daniella: You will receive a notification through your mail/alternate email address once this issue has been investigated.

Daniella: Kindly wait for their email within 24-48 hours to give them time to check on your concern and hopefully find the immediate resolution to it.

Daniella: Again, our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you.

Daniella: In the meantime, would there be anything else I can assist you with?

myles: You want ME to run around and deal with this issue? YOUR issue?

myles: Yes - YOU can assist me with THIS issue.

Daniella: Please take this up with them as they should be able to resolve your concern and answer any queries.

myles: Have a supervisor take a look at this link http://la-economy.blogspot.com/2010/11/at-so-wrong-is-every-way.html

myles: You folks are about to be next.

Daniella: I'm really apologize about this issue. But, the Yahoo! Notepad Team have the right tools to further address this concern you are encountering.

myles: The problem is simple and direct.

myles: OK ... I will contact them after being blown off by you DANIELLA

Daniella: I believe that's the only thing we can advise you as of the moment.

Daniella: I am really sorry this has been an upsetting experience for you.

Daniella: Is there anything else I can be of assistance?

myles: This dialog has been copied. I will be publishing. Looks as if you are now in good company with AT&T.

Daniella: Again, I am profuse with apologies for the inconvenience this has been causing you.

Daniella: Would that be all for now?

myles: I just sent the info to where you directed me.

Daniella: Kindly wait for their email within 24-48 hours to give them time to check on your concern and hopefully find the immediate resolution to it.

myles: I expect a delay and then a form letter as that is your degraded normal practice.

Daniella: Thank you very much for the effort.

myles: In the past your service and reliability was much better.

Daniella: Would there be anything else I can assist you with?

myles: No, and for the record, you assisted me with nothing other than passing off the problem and wasting my time.

myles: Thanks for nothing.

Daniella: You're most welcome.

To be continued.

12/8/11

This morning I received am email from Yahoo.

Hello,

This is an automated message regarding your recent request for Yahoo!
Notepad Customer Care support. Your message was received, and you will
hear back from us within the next 24 hours with an answer.

Thank you for reaching out to us. We look forward to helping you!

Sincerely,

Yahoo! Customer Care

Upgrade to a Safer Version of Internet Explorer 8

Download Nowhttp://yhoo.it/duCKHc

**Please do not respond to this message as no one will receive it.

As a side note, I do have Internet Explorer 8. I also upgraded to their new mail system when it was released but fell back after finding features missing and many bugs. There was no easy fallback to the prior version and I had to contact them. Features such as calendar and notepad did not work anymore. Seems as if their mistakes are now finding their way into older versions of their software.

I found the two lines in their letter that highlighted in red amusing in a sad sort of way but this is what was expected.

To be continued. At this time, no help, no information, no update and no fix.

Update from this morning via email:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Rivals Customer Care

I'm sorry to hear that your Yahoo! Notepad data is missing.

We would like to thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We
have informed our engineering team. They are currently working to
resolve this issue. We appreciate your patience while we correct this
issue.

If you have any other questions or can provide further information
regarding this issue, please reply to this email referencing this ticket
number: 5212348.

Please note that due to varying factors that go into resolving this type
of issue such as diagnosis, troubleshooting, and implementing the fix,
we will not be able to provide an estimated time on when this issue will
be resolved. However, we do plan on having this issue resolved as soon
as possible; and we appreciate your patience while we work on a
resolution.

Thank you for choosing Yahoo! Notepad. We appreciate having you as a
customer.

Regards,

Apollo

Yahoo! Notepad Customer Care
Notepad General

For assistance with all Yahoo! services, please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/

New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - better than ever!

You have to love the lack of even the most simple regression testing on the most basic features these folks overlooked. I spent two decades in Software QA. Since I seem to have brought this issue to their attention it would be nice to be compensated in some manner. Sure YAHOO are free services when it comes to searches and email but I do pay each month for my website and they do collect on the ads they sell which I see when logging onto many of their sites or applications.

So ... I will send another link to twitter on this post and perhaps one of the folks can contact me back via twitter and we can explore the concept of compensation for me finding the problem rather than their engineers.

YahooCare Yahoo! Customer Care

@myles111us @yahoomail @AndyMuir22 Please provide url after launch; page source information from Notepad -XX- page to the Support incident

16 hours ago

YahooCare Yahoo! Customer Care

@myles111us @yahoomail @AndyMuir22 Do you see same issue on a different browser?

16 hours ago

As a side note I had already reported earlier that this problem was on Chrome, IE8 and Firefox.

YahooCare Yahoo! Customer Care

@myles111us @AndyMuir22 Follow/DM your Yahoo! ID & we'll add you to the bug ticket that Engineering is working on.

14 hours ago

myles111us

My yahoo ID is myles111us - please keep me informed on this issue.

12 hours ago

12/9/11

Some dialogue went back and forth on twitter late yesterday. Yahoo asked for my yahoo ID to send me updates. I have not seen an update as of yet but this morning I checked to find my data was back and the issue was resolved.

I had a twitter message from them at 10am. The problem seems to have been resolved but their internal communication seems to have a few issues. I sent them my Yahoo ID yesterday. I received the reply below mid morning today.

YahooCare

Will do - here is the bug ticket # for reference: Ticket 5202651

6 minutes ago

The problem resolution was quite fast but I have a bit of an issue with the lack of regression testing on the part of the Yahoo software development team and the clear lack of QA.

I have not been contacted as of this time about some sort of compensation for being the person to find this problem with their software. The head of their QA department or organization should be docked a day of pay and send it to me as I performed their job.

If I am contacted I will post updates.

Aspen Pittman / Groove Tubes - The Legacy Continues

2011-11-28T10:47:00.001-08:00

How many times has somebody said to you, "just let it go?" How many times have you heard the saying that goes something like, evil can only succeed when good men do nothing?

I don't hold onto things. It is more that I take action when I am reminded of certain things which brought to my attention. Sometimes past subjects are brought back to my attention.

I find it impossible to turn away from certain parts of what I see in my own life. The homeless. People taking advantage of others. Bullies. Hurt animals in the street. People who cheat hard working musicians out of their money. People taking the credit for the work of others. I am sure you get the picture.

A great amp tech and guitar player is in this shot. He was one of many folks taken advantage of by the man in the self portrait above who is Aspen Pittman.

More below...

In the last few days I have been participating in a dialogue on a music forum for Guitar Player Magazine where I am a moderator and have a column called "Feel Free to Ask Myles" where there are close to a million views. The following is copied from the last posts that is one of many pieces of writing on the subjects of Aspen Pittman and his antics.

The initial question seemed simple enough. It did not initially dawn on me that there was no mention of one of the pieces of information I always provided on these sets, the location where the tube was to be placed.

Myles - I need some guidance please. I own a Marshall HAZE40C. I purchased the SAG MHG pre amp tubes.

Based on the numbers written on the boxes which tubes should go in V1,V2 and V3

They are as follows

94.3-89.4 ecc83s
85-85 ecc83s
MPI 12ax7

I know you are very familar with these

Are these the gain ratings? Which order should I place in the amp?

Thanks

Mark

...........

Mark,

Put them in the order you have them listed. The one with the highest number generally does best in the first gain stage, V1.

The MPI is the phase inverter and will be the last preamp tube, the one generally farthest from the input jack and most close to the output tubes.

If you have any other questions feel free to contact me.

_________________________
Myles S. Rose

.........

Myles,

I just received another SAG MHG trio with the numbers
85.6-90
89-89
MPI

I know the MPI goes in V3.

Which order do the other two go? The reason I am asking because the 89-89 is the caveat to the generally higher number goes in V1. It always seems that one of the tubes has the same paired number. The one trio I asked previously was 85-85. I guess I am needing to know what the numbers are referring to. Are these tubes double triodes and are the numbers rating each part of the tube? My understanding is that one part of the tube would be for the clean and one for the gain. Is this correct? The one tube with the balance of 89-89 is throwing me. I need to know for this set where the 89-89 should go.

Thanks and Happy Holidays to you

..........

Mark,

These should be marked V1, V2 and MPI on the stickers. They are not? If they were made by me they were.

89-89 just happens to be matched as far as actual gain but the traces may not have matched over the entire range of the tube for other factors so it is not an MPI.

You can use the first two tubes in this case in either position depending on personal taste.

_________________________
Myles S. Rose

.......

Myles,

Thanks for the response. They are Not marked V1,V2,V3 on the stickers. The only one that is marked is the MPI. The other two just have the stickers and the hand written numbers.

Thanks

......

Mark,

If you can take a photo of the stickers so I can see if it is my writing it will tell me if Fender is trying to do this now or if they are my original sets. If Fender is trying to do this all bets are off as it was my system and my test gear that I used to make these sets. It would also be helpful to know what the make/type of tubes are in the set, all three of them.

_________________________
Myles S. Rose

........

Myles,

Tubes are 2 ecc83s and 1 12AX7 MPI

I can't tell the make. They are re labeled Groove tubes. Your original sets would only last so long as stock. At some point after you stopped doing this they would have to continue themselves based on your original blueprinting.

........

Mark,

Does not matter, I did not make these, that is not my writing and I do not know how they are calculating those numbers as it is not simple or fast to calculate.

I also always numbered the tubes V1, V2 and MPI. Looks whoever is making up this stuff has no clue as to what is going on. I would go back to the seller and have the seller give you a technical contact to the maker, ask them for an explanation in writing and post it here. There is way too much smoke and mirror nonsense that goes on these days where big companies find many ways to take money out of the pocket of hard working musicians.

If they cannot explain how they do what they do, the method they use etc., then it is all bogus.

If you take a photo of the tubes out of the box I will be able to tell what they are (your photo here was fine) and see if they are pulling some nonsense in that area too.

Any advice I gave before on this set can be tossed out the window as it was based on me thinking I made up the set and those numbers were my numbers which took into account transconductance, true gain, plate current, plate resistance, rise time and the curve traces of the tube. If they cannot even take the time to put V position on the tube it may indicate that they have no idea what they are trying to accomplish.

Myles

.........

Side note ...

if "85" is supposed to be gain then there is nothing hi gain about this tube at all. 85 is the average gain today of a sub-standard production 12AX7.

From trying to peek through the box window I see the GT sticker on the tube (not my era at all) and what looks like short plates. If those tubes are Sovtek 12AX7WA/B/C then they are contra-indicated and not at all suitable for a high gain kit. I will be able to confirm if you send a photo of the tubes out of the box.

The MPI needs to be a different tube, a long plate tube as another point.

The MHG kits and other SAG kits, including the MPI, were my products that were developed before I went to GT. Aspen Pittman marketed my product but it was my product. When I left GT I did not sell MY product to Fender. Fender has not contacted me in regard to payment for my product as a side note.

_________________________
Myles S. Rose

.....................

The far left tube is labeled the 12AX7 MPI. The two on the right are labeled as ecc83s. These were purchased from Guitar Center and are being marketed as SAG MHG from Groove Tubes.

........

Mark,

The two on the right are JJ ECC83S/12AX7. Three years ago these were the highest gain production tubes. That is no longer the case. They also now have a high percentage of problems such as rattle and low life. They compress quickly and are not a good choice the way they work these days for pedal use as they compress too quickly.

The "mpi" is a short plate Chinese 12AX7C, not a proper design for an MPI.

If you are in the area and would like to bring the MPI to the shop I would be happy to curve trace the tube in front of you and we can discover if you were sold anything of truth for your hard earned money.

Guitar Center is a fine organization. They sell items on the belief that the vendor is providing what was promised. They bought these SAG kits (by the way, SAG (special applications group) was also my name used by GT which they probably copyrighted as they did to so many other folks material) in good faith. To be fair to Fender, they also believed what Aspen Pittman sold to them in good faith. If they would have checked before handing Aspen "the check" with MANY other people things may have turned out differently.

GC is not the one to think bad things about. Fender doesn't know any better either as Aspen probably misrepresented the process and origin of the process to them. It is Aspen Pittman who is the father of these problems which come from his actions such as omissions of the facts when he sold Groove Tubes to Fender.

_________________________
Myles S. Rose

.........

Myles I really appreciate the response. The reason I got the second set was because the first set did have a problem and GC sent me out another without even asking for the first set back. I am in Miami so I could not stop by as much as I would be honored to. I would be willing to send the tube to you in the interest of truth. You could perform any tests necessary and you could send me back the tubes when done. My amp was not liking this set as it was cutting out on the gain channel. Let me know via PM what address I should send the tubes to.

Also could recommend to me or do you sell any high gain sets that I purchase? I will send you info via PM so if you wish to contact me we could discuss. I feel you are acting very responsible and appreciate your candor. I think the results from this will be of particular interest to many people.

.............

Mark,

I really don't take time to ship things back and forth and the point has already been established that these are not the product that I developed or produced. No additional verification is needed to establish that point on my part.

My advice in the future would be to stay away from these sets until Fender takes some sort of action to understand what they are producing and selling.

My shop is in the complex at 65 Amps and I do not sell these kits but if there is enough interest somebody might talk to Dan Boul over at 65 Amps or somebody like Rob Hull at www.tubedepot.com I would be happy to work with either one of them.

Myles

...............

The original dialogue can be found at: http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2361548#Post2361548

A few other links to posts in my blog where Aspen Pittman is mentioned:

http://la-economy.blogspot.com/2010/08/music-related-question-on-gt-5751m.html

http://la-economy.blogspot.com/2011/02/vacuum-tube-post-from-past.html

Update:

There have been some interesting comments on some of the social network sites in regard to this post. One person asked me to recall the China Incident.

When I was at GT we did a lot of business with Shuguang in China. They were the vendor for the 12AX7M, EL34M, 6L6GE, 6L6HP, 5881C, 5751M, 6CA7GE and perhaps some I have forgotten.

On one occasion Aspen went to China to have a meeting at the Shuguang factory.

During my evening I received a call from Aspen. He told me to write down a phone number in China and call him back from my home phone. I was surprised he did not charge the call to his own home phone, the GT business phone, his credit card or just call from the factory where he was. He assured me I would be reimbursed.

I called him back immediately. He was trying to figure out how to program a piece of test gear that I used daily yet he thought he knew how to use which was not at all the case. To complicate matters, the PC he was using had a Chinese keyboard. Actually, not a big deal as he was not all that adept on computers anyway.

For the next hour or more I was on the line with him. Every few minutes he would yell at the Chinese folks, ordering them to get this or that or to do one thing or another. I heard slur after slur in reference to the factory folks that were right there. I thought that perhaps the Chinese would drag him off somewhere and do what might have been fair to do to the man. No such luck. He came back to GT a few days later. Future tubes from Shuguang dropped in quality again.

A few weeks later my hard copy phone bill arrived for hundreds of dollars. Sigrid Pittman (Sigi), the CFO did not want to pay my bill. She said the charges were way too high. I told her to check with Aspen and if I was not paid immediately I was heading out the door directly to the labor relations board. She paid.

The main issue I am trying to get across here is the disrespectful way in which Aspen treated our vendor. This was not a one time occurrence and in fact this type of behavior was commonplace at Groove Tubes.

Below is a letter that was written over a period six years. These are my own opinions based on my own observations. If you have any doubts about the overall content of the situation here all one has to do is contact a prior Groove Tubes employee, perhaps ANY of them.

My time spent at Groove Tubes generally provided something worth documenting many times each week just in case ....

This post seemed like a good vehicle to include portions of one of the versions of this material. This piece was never proof read or checked for any spelling or grammar errors. This piece was just one piece of the notes to myself and shared in the past with a limited number of close friends who were directly effected by Aspen and Sigrid Pittman. Please excuse grammar, spelling and other errors as most of this was written quickly in the past.

Regarding the incidents below: I generally made sure that disagreements or arguments were not behind closed doors. I would do my best to assure that there were multiple witnesses to the events. The final showdown was on the last day of GT before it was turned over to Fender on August 15, 2008 where Sigrid Pittman had a total melt down in front of the entire compliment of GT personnel.

Aspen Pittman and Groove Tubes

My personal thoughts and observations over six years

Well folks … August 15, 2008 was my last day at Groove Tubes. I started writing this many months ago but I felt there was some new material to include.

I went to work for Groove Tubes in May of 2002. I had known some of the people there for many years before that time.

In the almost six years I have been at Groove tubes I have learned quite a bit about GT’s owner, founder and current President Aspen Pittman and his wife and CFO of GT, Sigrid Pittman.

I would like to state here that these are my personal feelings and observations. If Aspen Pittman takes offense at any of this and does not like my own personal opinions and wants to take legal steps against me then it may be left to the court system in a civil case to look at the evidence and history at GT.

If one collects the history from virtually any past employee the court may find a preponderance of the evidence weighing strongly against Groove Tubes.

I have personally witnessed an employee being scolded for going to the bathroom.

I have personally witnessed employees being yelled at, swore at, belittled, and treated with a lack of respect in many ways over the years.

There are literally dozens of people that would be able to confirm this and add their own experiences to the roster of items of employee treatment at Groove Tubes. This is one of many issues to understand.

Hourly employees are not paid when the factory shuts down. The factory does not observe any of the more common legal holidays. If UPS does not work and pick up on a given day the factory may shut down. On that day these hourly employees are not paid at all. I believe Christmas, if on a workday is one of the few legal paid GT holidays and may be the only one. I could be wrong here and there may be as many as two paid holidays per year.

In my own case: I can supply thousands of time stamped and dated emails supporting GT customers in my role of their sole tech support person that were written seven days a week at all hours of the day and night. I was paid for four hours each day, five days a week (unpaid on holidays as everybody else even when I worked) as the agreement I made when I hired on at GT.

I was to work part time so I would be able to attend to my own business. For the entire time I worked for GT I exceeded my hours of expected work not only outside of the GT office but even in the GT office. If you look at my timecards which GT has to keep on hand by law, you will see that virtually every single day my four hours were exceeded yet I was only paid for four hours per day.

In the first three or more years I would have hours logged on the clock from before 7:30am until as late as 3:00pm or even later.

On a few occasions where I had in excess of 30 hours on the clock when expected to work 20 hours I had some sort of issue arise where I asked if I could come in a few hours later or leave a few hours early. I was ALWAYS docked for those hours.

If I had 28 hours on the clock and left 2 hours early I was only paid for 18 hours for the week, those 2 hours being non-paid on 20 hours of work expected.

The GT time clock is set as to not accumulate time until exactly 7:30am no matter what time you punch your time card. If you punch in five minutes early there is no issue other than you are not paid. If you punch in at 7:31am you may receive a lecture, and probably will receive a lecture if this happened more often than one pay period.

I used to feel sorry for the two dozen or so employees who would stand in line waiting for 7:30 on the clock face as the last few at the end of the line may not have been able to clock in until 7:31am. You think this is nothing? One minute on Sigi’s book was grounds for an employee be lectured in front of others as well as being written up.

I was originally an employee on salary contracted for 20 hours per week. At one point Sigi convinced Aspen to make me an hourly employee. As a side note, a person cannot waive their legal rights even if the sign a document doing so as this is not legal. I have hundreds if not thousands of hours of unpaid work that will show up on the time clock cards.

As far as Sigi convincing Aspen to do things, this was commonplace. Virtually any incident between any employee and Sigi would result in Sigi running … literally running or walking at a very brisk pace, in a direct line to Aspen’s office. She would close the door in most cases but not in all cased and she would start her yelling at him (the door did little to reduce the ongoing dialogue by the entire sales and office staff).

When Sigi was done yelling, Aspen would then have the employee that had the issue with Sigi come to his office to talk to them as this was a demand of Sigi. In a few cases of my own, even after Aspen saw that Sigi was wrong I would be asked to apologize to her.

The reason I was asked to apologize was because Aspen and I were friends and it was easy to ask this of me while impossible for him to ask Sigi, his wife. There were numerous occasions over the years where on Monday morning Aspen would tell me of a tortured weekend he suffered because Sigi and I had a difference of some kind on Friday.

There were other occasions where I was commanded, not asked but ordered to apologize to her.

Typically when Sigi and I had an issue where others had been called in for assistance to make her understand simple accounting issues or business issues and she did not see the logic and continued on her rampage I would just leave the building. This would upset her even more and she would take it out on Aspen.

I have been doing my best to avoid harsh or foul language here but there is an expression that anybody that speaks or understands English as the most basic level will understand no matter what their education, race, or religious belief. Pu&^y Whipped. If this was in the dictionary there should be a picture of Aspen Pittman. I apologize for stepping of some line in these last few thoughts but we all make mistakes and writing this was not was not very professional or considerate but I am sure it made the final point on at least one subject.

On the last the last day at GT business I was talking to Steve Good, the General Manager, in the doorway to his office. Sigi interrupted (as she was always the most important person in her mind) and was upset about one or more of the hundreds of things that were not addressed in time for GT to close down business on the last day.

I turned to her and said, “Sigi, don’t panic” with a smile, trying to calm her down. She turned to me, and in front of Steve and at least four other people told me that the reason I never need to panic is because I have never done anything but stand around and I don’t work and I do nothing and I am worthless. She did not recall that in six years I took what was basically scrap and sold it for over $975,000 over the time I was at GT, ran their website, was their highest level of support and her husband had countless emails which I had copied him on which I answered questions from customers and others seven days a week in the late afternoons, evenings, and weekends. She did not take into account that I had been asked to build and answer all questions to the GT Myspace webpage (which was also outside of my duties).

Somebody once said in a book that Aspen Pittman was something of a cross between P.T. Barnum and Billy Graham the evangelist. This is an observation that I can see. P.T. Barnum was a showman and Aspen himself puts on a great act. Billy Graham is a religious figure and Aspen Pittman touts himself as a Christian. From my experience, Aspen does not treat other people in a Christian manner but perhaps I do not actually understand what a true Christian manner may be. I have little religious education or formal training. Perhaps I should say that Aspen does not treat people nicely in general as one human being should treat another rather than call religion into the picture.

Stepping away from religious education it is notable to mention that Aspen Pittman has no formal education. Every product that GT has developed may have started as a brief idea in Aspen’s mind but it was the work and sweat of others who brought the product to life. Technically, Aspen is really little more than a parrot who will repeat what he has heard whether it is right or wrong. If he is wrong he will blame others more often than not. I personally cannot think of a single instance where Aspen has admitted something was his fault but I am sure that things cannot be this absolute and I may have missed something.

Aspen is a big Bush fan and feels our presence in the mid east is correct. Aspen was never in military service. He has no idea what it is like when a life is lost and how it impacts those left behind who were related to the lost service person.

There is a wall at GT where Aspen hung framed WWII medals. The medals are from somebody in his family. His relative was a PFC and the only medals were ones that were given out to everybody as a matter of course who served in WWII.

I once had a bit of a discussion on the point of military service and his lack of expertise when it came to understanding what a person in the service experiences. My short email was replied to in typical Aspen fashion. I was wrong, he was right and how could I waste time on emails such as this. The email from me was written on my own time by the way. What I thought was his final reply was simply that he didn’t have anymore time for my nonsense. That was followed by three pages of his banter. I did not reply but I did laugh the next morning at the framed medals outside his office door which he did not earn.

I have to give credit to Aspen for some things. In 1979 when he founded GT people were not generally aware of the importance of matched tubes in the output stage of music amplifiers. Aspen brought the importance of this to the public eye and was one of the first people to offer matched tubes. Back in the late seventies and early eighties GT was one of the few companies matching tubes.

Today there are many companies that understand the benefit of matched tubes and offer matched sets as standard products at substantially reduced cost to the consumer. How come GT is so much more pricy than other tube vendors you may ask? The reason is quite simple. GT uses a system that was developed in 1979 or so that rates tubes on their distortion rating principle. This method subjects a given tube under test to conventional voltages and its output is displayed on a scale that has a range of 200 or more points. This range is broken down into ten more manageable rating numbers, 1 through 10. A number rating 1 being a tube that will distort earlier and a #10 rating will be the tube that will distort the latest. If one takes a tube of a #5 or #6 GT rating, which is in the middle of the rating scale one finds it falls right into standard tube design spec for a given tube type. To be accurate from my point of view, there is little reason to use a tube with anything other than a middle rating.

Middle ratings are tubes that meet design spec. Middle spec ratings are what the amp makers expect a tube should do. Mesa Boogie is a believer in this and they have six color codes that all fall within proper spec ratings and their amplifiers do not have or need an adjustable bias to compensate for tubes that fall outside of spec.

In any case, rather than toss out the weak tubes or the overly strong tubes that would run hotter in most amps without a rebias, GT gives them rating numbers and a purpose in life via Aspen’s P.T. Barnum flair for the dramatic. In essence, tubes with low or high numbers have a problem. It may be a slipped grid wire or other things but in all cases they are tubes that did not meet design spec and are just a problem waiting to happen. As an example, Aspen states that 8-10 rating are great for amps that want high clean headroom; bass amps and hifi amps. I can supply names and contact info of high end audio folks that had many problems with high ratings and their problems were resolved when they did nothing more than go to a tube that had a plate current that was within design spec.

The GT method of test is very time consuming and therefore costly from a labor standpoint. This is one reason for the high cost of GT output tubes. Back in the early eighties this was one of the only methods. Today there are great test devices made by folks like Maxi-Matcher that do the same matching job in a fraction of the time. What I am saying here is pretty simple if you did not grasp it: You can get the same product at the same quality at less cost from other vendors. Well … not exactly. To take things one step further, if a given vendor gives you a matched set of tubes within 1mA of each other you may find this is an even better match than the spread of the GT matched tubes, at a lower cost to the consumer.

If somebody has a concern about where to get tubes that will do the same thing as GT tubes did for them in a specific rating I already have vendors and suppliers that can supply tubes with the same specs and performance at a greatly reduced cost, generally around 50% less cost to the amp builder as well as the end consumer. During my six plus years as their Tech Support, webmaster, internet sales person and head of the Special Applications Group I did my own testing on tubes for amplifier companies and customers who became personal friends.

When Aspen sold GT to Fender in June of 2008, to me it was like a sale of outdated Boeing 707s and DC8s with gas guzzling engines, “steam” cockpits, primitive avionics, and a four man flight crew requirement being sold to some unknowledgeable party in a day of FADEC controlled engines and glass panel cockpits. Keeping that old tube test gear was a challenge for the guy that built it and now that he is also GT history only time will tell if Fender will be able to expensively match tubes where the end result is the end user NOT knowing the plate current and the time required to do the matching is ten times more than somebody who needs little if any training using a modern piece of gear … yes … that Boeing 707 versus the current Airbus or Boeing 777 example rears it’s head again as a great example!

Preamp tubes? People that know me or who have worked with me know this is my specialty and forte. Tubes for my personal clients are measured for Transconductance, plate current output, plate resistance and true / actual gain. I can take a dozen tubes out of GT tested Gold Series Premium stock and have just as much of a spread in quality as I will find from any other vendor. No better or worse with spec spreads that can easily range 50% away from design spec. Preamp tubes are a crap shoot no matter where you get them. If you can’t fathom this I will offer this challenge to anybody: Go out and buy any three GT Gold Series preamp tubes of the SAME KIND … such as 12AX7R2, ECC83S or whatever. Bring them to me and I will test them with you watching over my shoulder. If you have three 12AX7M tubes that test will be even more interesting as they are the most inconsistent tube produced today by a very wide margin.

In regard to Aspen's "Silver Series" ... don't even get me started. They were a way to sell substandard or rejected tubes and were not matched in any way at all which was nothing short of thoughtless to the user of output tubes which had many problems.

My personal opinion is that Aspen Pittman is an evil person. Evil? Yes. He touts being a Christian but if you talk to ANYBODY that worked at GT and ask them for their story on how he treats people you may find some other details. You can also ask people about his people skills, management skills and you might ask even others that never worked for GT about his business practices (Tom McNeil at Ruby Tubes / Magic Parts is one of many that can shed light in this area).

My feelings are based on six plus years of seeing Aspen treat people badly. Aspen scolds people and talks down to them.

You might see if Steve Good, the General Manager at GT for the last five plus years has something to say. Steve was promised that in five years he would be running GT and Aspen would retire. In the time Steve ran GT he grew the company to over two times its value and income which exceeded the agreement between Aspen and Steve. Basically Aspen, (who identifies himself as an honest Christian), lied to Steve and went back on his word and agreement.

As much as you may find if you look to dig below the surface of Aspen, his wife Sigi (Sigrid Pittman) makes Aspen look tame. I realize I have written about Sigi earlier in this bit of writing but other observations come to mind that are interesting. These also tie into the final day at GT.

If a single mother needed to come in an hour late due to her child having an emergency Aspen’s wife Sigrid Pittman might just lecture the employee on their return to work telling the mother that a child is not GT’s problem and if a child is going to impact their performance (even if this happened only a single time to an otherwise “perfect” employee) they should seek employment elsewhere.

Sigrid Pittman was the CFO of Groove Tubes. One example which was ongoing was when there was an issue between Sigi and myself regarding Pay Pal which GT uses for their Ebay business. Money had come into the account but before it could be transferred to the bank Aspen purchased something on ebay and this was paid for out of the Pal Pal account without first transferring the paypal balance to the bank to keep the accounting straight. Even with the simple audit trail of “$100 in - $50 spent – only $50 left to transfer” Sigi balked and requested detailed information from me. I gave her the Pay Pal audit trail but she could not comprehend it. (If this is hard to believe I have multiple witnesses). Sigi became upset with me and started yelling at me so I left the building for the day. The next day I was commanded, yes, commanded by Aspen to go in and apologize to his wife. This is also a common GT activity. At GT the employee is never right.

On August 15, 2008 at 11:30pm there was a group photo taken of the final employees. Aspen asked his wife Sigi to sit in the center front row for the photo. She has been sitting off to one extreme side of the front row and I was at the rear on the other side. Sigi told Aspen, by yelling to him across the street where the camera was, that she would not move her seat because that would be closer to me and she then went on a diatribe for a while on how much she hated me and continued on with her antics (remember … this is the CFO of a multi million dollar company who just totally lost it in front of everybody) … and Aspen could do little more than stand there dumfounded hoping she would just stop. If he would have said anything it would have just called even more attention to her. Upon going into the building after the photo the employees chanted with raised hands …. Myles … Myles … as in that prison movie where the chant was Attica … Attica. Everybody had just had enough of her over the years and this was a final straw for the employees who could not remain passive any longer.

If there is a lawyer reading this I would say this would be one heck of a slam dunk case compared to most any case of this type you have ever had. I shy away from using what I call “absolutes” such as always or never but the treatment of employees at GT from the management / owner level is as close to absolute as things get. The main workload for the lawyer would be to have a low level office worker do little more than subpoena employee names and contacts and contact each one. Yes, each and every employee past or present. Just start alphabetically at the top of the list and work your way down. I would be surprised if you could find a single employee that did not have a number of stories to tell. Keep in mind that in June the sale of most GT assets and the GT name was sold to Fender. I do not know the amount but many have said it is millions of dollars. GT as a company or Fender as a company never hurt anybody. This was solely done by Aspen Pittman and Sigrid Pittman and there are now some deep pockets there which do not even include a vintage car collection and property.

If Sigrid Pittman were a combat pilot her aircraft would be marked aces high if the count criteria were the amount of employees she has caused to break down and cry.

If there is a family emergency call that comes into work Sigrid Pittman and Aspen Pittman may talk to them about “doing family business in the workplace”. These “talks” at times are in front of other employees which is unprofessional on one hand but at least there are a half a dozen witnesses to these all too common events.

Day to day common consideration of the feelings of others has no place in the Groove Tubes work environment and this is illustrated on a daily basis. You want to stand up for a moment and stretch? Don’t make a sound or you will get a lecture about “bodily noises” in the workplace. I have been scolded by Sigrid for yawning, stretching, or just letting out a sigh when a difficult task had been completed. There are multiple witnesses to these instances and there are dozens of these instances.

Sigrid becomes so upset at so many things that nobody would even be able to notice if they were looking hard that she is thought of as something of a joke by most if not all GT employees over all the years she was the company CFO or had anything to do with the company.

To move on to another issue that comes to my mind. Aspen takes credit for the work of others most of the time. Yes, he did give me a little credit for the year of work I put into The Tube Amp Book but in five years that may be the only credit I have been given over the years. I am sure one could find dozens of people at other companies now who developed things at GT where their work, concept or idea was prior to their employment at GT where they were given no credit and GT received the credit and financial gain. In my own case, the products kits such as the Marshall High Gain kit and Fender kits were my product for my clients long before I came to GT. If Aspen wants to argue these points perhaps a courtroom in a class action suit would be the proper venue. Perhaps one partner in a law office could take the personal damage suits and labor relations issues and another partner could take the business issues as there are stories there as well.

My intent here is to let people know a little more about Aspen Pittman and Groove Tubes while they also become more informed as to current testing methods, other vendor thoughts, and want tubes that sound great while having more choices at less expense. The quality will be equal to or greater than the quality of GT products based on my measurements, testing and comparison over the last years at GT. With the more modern test equipment available today you may find a better match within one milliamp from other vendors rather than a broad 10 point rating match on the GT scale. Higher accuracy which is done faster on modern equipment is what other vendors offer while costing the consumer less. During my time at GT and prior to GT I tested not only GT products but also the offerings of many competitors. If you have looked at my own personal website you know I have always had an extensive list of great vacuum tube vendors.

My intension is to educate people. GT was in the forefront of tube design, testing and sales in its heyday a few decades ago. Today they are nothing more than a common reseller with the exception of a handful of tubes which are made in other factories. If you are an amp maker, amp user, retail store or just a hobbyist that needs tubes in large or small quantities drop me a note and I will give you a number of options. I can provide you with multiple options and contacts.

I have been working since I was eight years old. I have never seen any employer treat their workers so badly.

In my original draft of this long before the sale of GT to Fender I wrote this: GT is behind the times by at least a decade in their testing methods, pricing, and use of tools such as the Internet. It is time for them to regroup or just close the doors. The employees that would need to find work elsewhere would be happier in the end at virtually any other place of work from my personal point of view and probably the point of view of any employee which has left GT.

Why did I stick around? To try to help Steve Good, the general manager and a terrific fellow make a change. I stayed to stand up for many people who were concerned or worried about their jobs who could not stand up for themselves as they were concerned about loosing their job. I stayed to document the truth on items such as the 12AX7M Mullard reissue from GT which has gone through more than a dozen re-tooling changes and as of November 2007 was still the least consistent 12AX7 with the lowest gain of any 12AX7 tube made today by anybody.

If you would like your own GT / Groove Tubes experience added to this piece of writing which may become a growing document please send me what you have to say and I will be happy to include your thoughts. I would ask for things that can be verified if necessary if they are not your own personal observations or experience.

Myles S. Rose

The end for the moment ....

Thanksgiving 2011 at Union Rescue Mission

2011-11-19T15:01:00.001-08:00

The photos in this album were taken on November 19, 2011 at Union Rescue Mission in Downtown Los Angeles. This was the 120th Thanksgiving event by Union Rescue Mission.

Hundreds of volunteers served in excess of 3,000 meals. It took a lot of help to feed thousands on this special day. Many of my friends helped directly and I mentioned all of you that I knew about on my blog post which has been active since 2010 at http://la-economy.blogspot.com/2010/11/help-me-provide-thanksgiving-meals-at.htmlOnce again, thank you all very much.

The even was more than just a great meal. There were hot showers, free hygiene supplies, fresh socks, live entertainment and more.

More below.

Union Rescue Mission is the largest mission in the United States sitting at ground zero in Skid Row which has the highest homeless population of any city in America.

The initial shots here are from my cell phone. These were uploaded in real time to facebook and twitter. There are many more shots which I will upload over the next few days which I took with a more conventional camera.

In the last few days I received a number of requests from folks asking me if they could volunteer to help. This event is one where you need to sign up to volunteer months in advance. Keep that in mind if you wish to volunteer next year on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

In the meantime, you can help in many other ways. Head to the URM website at http://www.urm.org/ to stay informed and see the various ways you can help. URM helps the homeless 365 days a year, 24 hours a day and always needs donations, volunteers, clothes and supplies of all kinds and more.

It takes a lot of help to serve over 5,000 people at Thanksgiving.

Eight guest were seated at each table served by four servers who brought food to each guest.

As most things at Union Rescue Mission, things were organized and efficient. A well oiled machine that could teach the military a thing or two. Then again, even of URM could teach organization I do not think they could show others how operate with this degree or organization AND compassion.

The slide show below will be expanded over the next few days as more photos are uploaded. These shots were all taken during the 2011 event at URM. In my flickr albums I have other shots of prior URM events.

I may be mistaken but I think the video below is from 2009 but is applicable today. In 2010 the event served twice as many people. This year in 2011 the numbers doubled again. The economy is taking a toll on many more people each month.

Whether you have strong religious beliefs or not, the video below shows many aspects of skid row and the homeless.

Sleeping on Skid Row Thanksgiving Eve from Enoch Magazine on Vimeo.

Thank you to the hundreds (literally) of volunteers, to the staff of Union Rescue Mission, to Andy Bales CEO of Union Rescue Mission and his staff, and to the folks below who are my personal friends who stepped up and donated this year. Many of you also helped last year as well. This list is not complete by any means. These are the people that I shared dialogue with where I was personally aware of their direct involvement.

Tammy Knight-Gibbons - http://www.cupcapesfalmouth.com/
Michael Zaite and Family / Dr. Z Amps - http://www.drzamps.com/
Loni Specter - http://www.ampshow.com/
Dan Boul and Family / 65 Amps - http://www.65amps.com/
Mercury Magnetics - http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/ - Amazing iron!
Victor Rocha - http://www.pechanga.net/ - http://www.pechanga.com/
George Metropoulos - http://metroamp.com/
Wallace Amplification - http://wallaceamps.com/
Darryn Waites - http://www.tuskbuffer.net/
Sam Hunter - http://www.samhunterart.com/
RIT Music - http://www.hollandrit.com/
Lynne Robin Green
CEO & President Lansdowne/Winston/Bloor/Hoffman House Music Publishers
http://www.lwbhmusicpublishers.com/
Tony Conley - http://rockguitardaily.blogspot.com/
Carp Amplification - http://www.carpamps.com/
Carrie and Dave Gonsalves
Gary Hooker
Jennifer Moody
Eric Carpenter
Ken Krupnik Music
Dennis Tudor
Newport Slim
Ignazio Vagnone
Dave Asmussen
Dara Stevenson
Richard Clinton
Bruce Cooke
Jacob Moses
Larry David Cohen
Don Genaro
Camaray Davalos
Mooch Dih
Joseph Glosz
Jason Pastrana
Pete Klindt
Dave Arthur
Peggy Loveman-Sherer
Ed Supple
Renae Lackey
Heitor Iglesias de Paula
Randy Creath
Hans Egil
Patrick Murphy
Kevin Lamb
Eric Carpenter
David Mendenhall
Kim Rose
Natalie Rose
Mark Ennis and Marlene
Mary Kline

The Z amp community from http://ztalk.proboards.com/
Dr. Z, Michael Zaite - the man himself - Godfather/Owner/Creator Z Amplification http://www.drzamps.com/
Paul (TRANE) - New Mexico - Dr. Z amp Forum
Albert from NW Indiana; the Dr. Z Forum
Zed from the Dr. Z Forum
"Z" Steve from the Dr. Z Forum
Edward Balaschak - Eschak on the Z Forum
Scotty from Texas on the Dr. Z Forum
6strang (aka Paul) Big Rapids, MI - Dr. Z Amp Forum
mpa93 - Ontario - Dr. Z Amp Forum
Tony L Stovall - T-R☼CK ♫ on the Dr. Z Forum - Tennessee
Lee (maddog) from Texas - Dr. Z Amp Forum
heynewguy(aka Bill) from New Jersey - Dr. Z Amp Forum
Robert (aka meanslide) from California - Dr. Z Amp Forum
PaulT (Bluzman) - Dr. Z Amp Forum
Jennifer from Florida - Dr. Z Amp Forum
randalp3000 from Michigan - Dr. Z Amp Forum
Peter Graham - Dr. Z Amp Forum
Bob (rjc1811) - Dr. Z Amp Forum
rockinmac - Northwest NC, Dr. Z Amp Forum
Nick MkII (Nicholas) - Dr. Z Amp Forum
twoscoobysnacks - Dr. Z Amp Forum and http://www.warriorcry.org/
number9 - Dr. Z Amp Forum
roscoenyc from NYC - Dr. Z Amp Forum
Ignatius? (Gary) - Dr. Z Amp Forum
GuitarZ - West Chester, PA - Dr. Z Amp Forum - http://www.mikezband.com/
Don - Midwest U.S. - Global Moderator on the Dr. Z Amp Forum
Eddie from Ohio from the Dr. Z Forum
Tom Breitsch aka cap10toons- Dr. Z Amp Forum
Mike (aka doctorice) - Dr. Z Amp Forum

The gang from http://www.musicplayer.com/ / Guitar Player Magazine
Caevan O'Shite
Bluesape
Sharkman
WPsmith

A few hours at 65 Amps

2011-11-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

These photos are the raw files. No cropping, enhancing, editing etc. Typically I at least tend to look over the shots and perhaps crop a bit or color correct. Not so this time as I used a small camera rather than my cellphone camera.

More below...

These shot were taken at http://www.65amps.com/ on November 2, 2011, a Wednesday. Dan Boul, the founder of 65 Amps has a weekly webcast at noon PST which is interactive. These broadcasts are recorded so folks that miss the webcast can look at the saved video at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/london-pro-info

Today's broadcast was the prototype of The Producer amplifier and the new 4x12 cabinet which has been released. During the webcast one cabinet was in the office on camera while another was in the shop and mic'd up for the broadcast.

I grabbed my small camera out of my car and took some shots before and during the broadcast of some areas of the shop over at 65 Amps.

You can either look at the shots individually at http://www.flickr.com/photos/myles111us/sets/72157627914583433/ or view the slideshow of the shots below.