got a note out of my new Arturia Keylab keyboard. I’d had it for a week, and failed to wrest one semiquaver comprising of anything at all. The deal with this piece of equipment is that all of the sounds are on the manufacturer’s website. It’s kind of a bait and switch where they sell you a printer for peanuts and the ink is where the real money is. The ink is proprietary naturally, like Apple products, you can’t modify them, fix them, or put in parts that Apple doesn’t approve of (because they’re cheaper). Apply this to a music synth, and you get the picture. Before you can play anything you have to register your hunk of plastic that looks like a musical instrument, but really isn’t, and then you have to activate it. You can only do this on one machine as far as I know, so if you don’t like the computer that is registered, you have to delete it and start over. You’re effectively tethered to Arturia for the life of the thing that you bought, and if you want new sounds, you’ll have to pay for them.
I hate all of this of course, however when, after three days of faffing around on the internet, you finally get to hear what it can do, it’s pretty good. Classic synths that used to sell for a lot of money ten years ago are worthless now because all of these sounds have been scooped up by Arturia and they’re yours for not a lot of money. I’ve got a Korg M1 that someone practically begged me to sell to them a few years ago, and now nobody wants one. Life is becoming a subscription service. That’s what the vaccines were about. You get the first shots and then you’re hooked. Some people were saying that after the third booster, you’re immune system has been so compromised that unless you keep getting a new shot every year, you’re not gonna make it. I sincerely hope none of this is true, because if it is. We live in a world that is populated by thoroughly evil people.
I just made some moussaka. After visiting the Turkish restaurant last week, and seeing it on the menu, I thought I’d make some myself. I’ve done this before. It’s just a layer of eggplant and a layer of tomato & meat sauce, and then on top of that, a layer of this white bechamel topping. The white layer is the hardest to make. It’s a meant to be a creamy and thick, yet I’ve only ever achieved it once, and I think by accident. It doesn’t matter, it still tastes good. Some people put potatoes in moussaka as well, but I just bake them separately. This is all very fascinating, I’m sure, but I’ve forgotten where I was in this narrative. We started out talking about Arturia and now we’re talking about Moussaka. Arturia …Moussaka..
Yesterday I was looking through Craigslist ads. I always look at the RV’s. I like the idea of a gigantic motor home, but don’t like the idea of finding a place to park it. The recent movie “Nomadland” about van life, probably didn’t do the RV community much justice. It was portrayed as sad, desperate, and degrading. The book and the movie appear to have been the product of progressive thinking, so I doubt that it’s a full picture of the RV life in any way. The movie made it seem like it was misery from start to finish. But I digress again..
To cut a long story short, one of the Craigslist ads was for a Ford Explorer RV. It wasn’t one of the 33,000 lbs monster homes on wheels. It was more the Francis McDormand basic type. I’m doubtful, looking at the picture, that it’s even an Explorer but maybe it is. There were a few pictures of the inside and the outside, and one odd picture of a man standing in front of what looked like an overturned tree. I have no idea. Does this guy come with the truck? It’s weird man… Take a look for yourself. He could probably play the lead in Nomadland 2. He kind of scares me.