Thanksgiving: through the eyes of the plate

I enjoyed Thanksgiving. I think it is one of our best American holidays (if you leave out
the questionable land deal for Manhattan way back when). Here's a travelog of my
weekend with the lovely wife down to Arkansas and back with an eye on the plate.


Obscene tubular food at Laguardia that I did not eat.


Fantastic tubular food at O'Hare Field that we did eat. The older bartender/waiter guy instructed us to "put a finger on top of the pickle to hold the thing together" or else he couldn't be responsible for what happened.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving. There was discussion the night before about turkey cooking methods. ML's sister Kathy had recently purchased a "Roaster". We looked up cooking tips for the Roaster and it didn't look like a very good gadget. Different cooking temps, wildly different cooking times. Warnings about loosing heat when opening the Roaster and so on. I lobbied for the Roasting Bag. I have cooked turkeys with several different methods including deep frying and the cheese cloth aided basting method but the roasting bag wins for me every time. After reading Roaster horror stories aloud from my iPhone it was decided that the Roasting bag would be employed. It really is a fantastic gadget. You'll find it in the spice section.


Here's the bird after it came out of the bag. I tented the bird w tin foil for 30 minutes before carving.

Another great thing about the roasting bag besides the self basting is the ease of which the gravy fixins can
be accessed. Snip the bag and there you go. Ready for gravy.

ML's Mom making the gravy.


A portion of carved bird.


the spread which included inside stuffing, outside stuffing, sweet potatoes, squash, gravy, cranberries, mashed potatoes and...


Deviled eggs on this fantastic Deviled Eggs Presentation Plate.


Here's my plate sans already eaten Deviled Eggs. (I'm way out of control with the Deviled Eggs. I believe it has been detailed before someplace)


I'm including this desert pic (with some seasonal Beaujolais Nouveau in the background) . The desert was good but it was not the focus.

I had decided with that first hot dog at ORD that all bets were off diet-wise so along with more College Football than I've ever watched before in one long weekend came more homestyle cookin. On Friday we went to a restaurant called Debra's Good Eats. My party mostly opted for breakfast fare but I went with the Chicken Fried Steak throwing out the must be a Yankee "not from around here" caveat by requesting the gravy on the side.

I did however go with green beans and mashed potatoes.

Saturday had the most College football games of all and we had a dinner before watching the local finale of Arkansas VS LSU.
ML's mom made her Meatloaf. She likes to do it the way she likes to do it so that means 2 smaller loaves of meat as opposed to a larger one. I believe my friend Chip Robinson would refer to these as "twins".

The aforementioned twins.

Earlier Saturday we had snuck out for a little BBQ. There is quite a bit of good BBQ in Hot Springs. Stubby's is probably #1 in town. McClard's is former Hot Springs resident and 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton's favorite but I really love Roland's BBQ. Roland's used to be in a little shack next to a "Tin Cup" style driving range out on highway 7 just before Hot Springs Village. I went there one afternoon years ago to kill some time and hit through a bucket of balls. Ended up trading some guitar tips for golf tips with the Pro and enjoying some of Roland's great BBQ. Roland's whole family was there on Saturday afternoon when we stopped by. I think they were all heading back to Texas after Thanksgiving. This is one of those points where I was going 'wow' too much to get a good pic but here's my chopped pork sandwich.


The highlight of the College Football action Saturday night was the Hogs. The Arkansas Razorbacks played the nationally rated LSU Tigers. It was a great game, went into overtime but even though Arkansas native Ryan Mallet looked pretty calm at the end kicker Alex Tejada missed that last boot and LSU won the game.

Sunday had us headed back to NYC. After the fabulous hot dog on the way out we were fixated on getting another one on our way back through ORD. We were in a different terminal (TERNIMAL B to Andy York) and there really was no hot dog to be found. There was a Vienna Beef cart but the poor woman was totally overwhelmed so after walking the length of the United Concourse we ended up at an Italian joint for this fine sandwich with grape juice.


I'm thankful for Thanksgiving.

Yeah, Another Gear Post in the small but mighty column

I while back I ordered a custom finger joined 12" combo cabinet for the Fender Pro Jr (detailed earlier here) that I've been
steadfastly dumping money into while I wait for the new super grab and go Doctor Z amps to come out.

A few months before that Chip Robinson (check new website) helped me out by installing an upgraded Mercury Magnetics output transformer. The amp got bigger, had more air on it for sure.


The original Fender transformer is there on the table to the left. Bigger=Better in Transformers

In my quest for a bigger, louder yet lighter rig for local gigs I ordered a "Blues Jr cabinet cut for a Pro Jr" that Mather Cabs in Nashville offers as a standard item. I was able to order it in a custom color (bad ass baby blue of course) that they didn't even list on their site for the nice standard price of $288 including shipping.

Mather said it would be "about 4 weeks" for the cabinet to be delivered. Sure enough. The cabinet showed up 4 weeks later. Beautiful covering. Super lightweight. I started putting it together and noticed a couple screw holes for the chassis didn't line up and their was a gap in between the control panel and the cabinet that I could see through.

I wrote to Mather and Peter Mather wrote me right back to aplogize for the mistake had been made with the cabinet. "Could I used that one while he got me another one?"

Always surprising to run into real customer service these days In a word, Wow.

I used the cab. It sounded great. Put a super lightweight Eminence Tonkerlite with the NEO Magnet in there and the thing was off to the races.

I got the perfect replacement cabinet today. Put it together and it looks and sounds great.
Thanks for your help Chip and thanks to Peter Mather and Meg at New Sensor also.

here's some pics











and of course you have to have the Studio Slips cover for the grab and go.


ah, the after facts....
Original Pro Jr w 10" Speaker-26 lbs
Suped Up Baby Blue Pro Jr w Mercury Transformer, 12" Tonkerlite and Mather Cab-22 lbs

Smokin'? actually Burnin'!

I can't compete with the fabulous youtube clips in Saturday's Hound Blog on the return of James Williamson to Iggy
and The Stooges but....

Check out Johnny Winter!!

The Yankees: Thanks to Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna

Late in the summer of 1980 I was playing guitar in this band with this girl and her manager suggested that it would be a smart move for us all to move to New York so we did.



The first week we were here we played a gig at the Ritz (now known by it's original name Webster Hall) that was filmed for the movie "Urgh-A Music War"). That was quite an event but another event from the end of that summer stuck with me in a bigger way.




When I first got to NYC Joan Jett's manager Kenny Laguna was quick to ask me about my team. "Who's your favorite baseball team?". I had to admit that my punk rock circumstances had taken me away from the act of enjoying baseball but as a kid in Batavia, IL I had followed the Cubs. Wrigley Field was the first place I ever saw a Major League game on great afternoon field trip with a bunch of kids on a yellow school bus. Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and the great broadcaster Jack Brickhouse kept me dialed into the Cubs. I followed the Cubs coverage in the Chicago Tribune, saved the Trib that celebrated Erinie's 500th home run, but when my folks gave up the Trib in favor of the more local Aurora Beacon News whose sports coverage consisted of less than exciting AP wire crap I drifted away from baseball.

So when I told Kenny Laguna that I used to follow the Cubs he replied "You are in New York now. There art 2 teams and you have to decide." Kenny quickly took us all to 2 games. Out to Shea to see the Mets and then to the Bronx to see the Yankees. The decision wasn't really that hard for me.
I felt it was better to move to the American League so I wouldn't end up rooting against the Cubs. Also, in the trips to the 2 NY Stadiums I found everything about the Yankees to be rather stunning. The team, the history, the uniforms and the food at Yankee Stadium were really amazing. I'll always remember going to the bathroom at Shea and teetering on the heels of my cowboy boots through the standing, uh, water. That and the Navy Blue pinstripes. Joan, of course, stuck with her beloved Baltimore Orioles.
And that was always good for continuing banter between Joan and Kenny (which I'm sure continues to this day)

So seeing the Yanks play in the Bronx with Reggie and all sealed the deal. Followed the team on broadcast TV. The Scooter & Bill White years being some of the most entertaining.

The end of this summer of my cycling buddies hooked my lovely wife and I up with some tickets to see the Yanks at their new stadium which really brought me back. We had a fantastic time up there
and it drew me into the post season.


iPhone Pano pic i took at the new Yankee Stadium

I had heard a lot about the new stadium, some good some bad, but I thought it was a fantastic place. The Yankees beat Toronto and I came home with 40 bucks more than I thought I would so it
didn't seem as crazy expensive as it had been described.

Fast forward to the Series. Watched every minute of every game. Was on the road with another band of Yankee fans last weekend and watched last thursday's game in the bar we were playing in DC. We had to go on during the 6th inning but I had downloaded MLB.com's "At Bat Lite" iPhone application which I fired up and set to 15 second refresh on top of my amp. It was exciting to keep track of the game from that angle too. I saw them "win" on my phone. 2 days later we were driving back from Knoxville, TN and listened to the whole game on Sirius Satellite Radio. We'd done that before on the Steve Earle tour due to a hiccup in the TV setup on the tour bus. Still exciting as hell.

The Yanks won their 27th Title. Everybody knows that. The Phillies played a great series.
It was all great baseball.

Yesterday as I was doing some errands on my Cannondale Track bike, not so affectionately named "The Murderburger", I realized I had some free time so I snuck downtown to the vicinity of the Yankees Parade.


"Murderburger"

I really couldn't get too close but it was a blast just being in a huge, positive crowd.



When I was riding back to the East Village on "Murderburger" I remembered going to my first Yankee
game and wanted to thank Kenny Laguna and Joan Jett for taking me there.

Eric Ambel
11-7-2009

Click the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8CtWUY7nvg

Sure, go ahead and ride it.

Earlier this week my friends at Sid's Bikes in NYC snuck me into the industry only Interbike East Outdoor Demo
in Providence, RI. I got to ride a whole bunch of really fantastic 2010 model bikes around Roger Williams Park.
I snapped an iPhone pic of each bike that I rode.

The road loop was around 2 miles in a park and it had some hills, couple tight corners and one rough patch of road.
Great place to compare bikes. They had a Mountain Bike loop and Cyclocross loop also. Cyclocross race was held yesterday on that loop.





Moots RSL Titanium


Rocky Mountain Solo Team


BMC Pro Machine SLC01


Cannondale Six 105 bike


Cannondale Super Six Dura-Ace


Felt F-1


Rocky Mountain's new Buroughs unicrown track/fixed gear fork


Ridley carbon Cyclocross bike


Chris King's Handmade Steel road bike


Felt Z-2 with the new D2 Dura-Ace electronic shifting


Close up on the D2 Electronics


Fuji's '10 Team bike

All the vendors and mechanics were very cool. I brought my own pedals and knowing your seat height was handy for super quick setup.

The Moots was fantastic. It was my first time using SRAM which took all of 5 seconds to get completely used to.
It was probably a mistake to ride the Moots first cause it was incredible but there was nobody at their booth
and the bike beckoned.

DA D-2 electric was nuts. It just shifts immediately. Since it is almost a direct linkage to the derailleur I can't imagine it
going out of adjustment. You can hear the front derailleur mechanisim. The back just moves with the lightest tap.

I'd have to say the Cannondale Six was the nicest 105 level bike (Shimano's mid/low road component group) I've ever been on.

The Felts were mighty good too. F1 is their race bike. The Z2 has more of an 'all day' position but it still had plenty of pop.

The King bike was a blast to ride. It had the steel feel but it was not noodle-ey at all. It was a cool combo of the steel frame with modern stuff like threadless and outboard bearings. Also had 28's on it.

The BMC I rode was not the lightest bike but once you were on it the weight didn't seem to matter at all. It tracked really well.

I rode the Fuji to check out the seatmast thing. Seatmast has its problems. 1 is the difficulty in shipping the bike and the other
is selling it after you have cut the post. But the feel of a seatmast bike is completely different right away. It is definately a more
direct connection to the bike. Traditional clamp/seatpost setup has a lot of the engineering in making the clamp area
strong enough to work with the seatpost. Seatmast can be designed almost solely to work with the ride of the bike.
I didn't get any pics but BMC has a new concept that uses a quill like setup on the bottom of their new seatpost.
The lock is near the saddle and it is just one click turn to lock the post. The seatube has no clamp at all.

I'd never been on a Cyclocross bike before. Cyclocross is a wild thing. Read the Cyclocross Wiki. They had a great course set up for a race that was held there on Saturday.
The 'cross thing was ridiculously fun. Had a smile nailed across my face the whole time. I thought somebodys parents were gonna yell "Hey you god damn kids get offa my lawn"
I can see how a lot of people do Cyclocross single speed. A lot of short blasts of energy. Really cool.

I didn't ride a single mountain bike 'cause I don't want to like Mountain Biking and end up having to buy 3 more bikes.

Now I gotta get my head back into recording and ride up to the Javitz Center to the 2010 AES Show The Auto Show of Pro Recording.

I found myself...

...in this movie trailer.

Over on Fixed Gear NYC there was on of those LA vs NY things going on. Somebody mentioned
the Ramones as the greatest New York band ever and that made me think about hanging out and being an extra on the Rock & Roll High School
movie shoot which was filmed in LA. I clicked on this youtube trailer and well, you know.




Hint-crowd/aviator glasses

A few things for friday

Mix Magazine has a rep as the big, glossy corporate recording mag with content ruled by advertisers but you know, some times a rep just doesn't connect with the facts. Sure, Mix can be just those things but every issue contains at least one fantastic bit and Mix has put them all together in a book called Classic Tracks. The monthly Classic Tracks column dedicates itself to a song and the folks who produced it in very interesting detail. Some amazing stuff in there. The book is for your coffee table. You get get all the columns right here at the Mix Classic Tracks page.

Also of note: the Greg Trooper record that I recorded with Tim Hatfield at the now departed Coyote Studios in 1995 has been released and you can get it from Greg's website and also from iTunes. I've been trying to help get this record finished and out for a long time. Greg had brought some great songs and a great band. Tim and I mixed it this summer at the new studio. Check it out. Greg Trooper: The Williamsburg Affair

Dennis Bean-Larson is the guy who runs the Fixed Gear Gallery website. There's fixed gear bike porn on there every day. Over 10,000 reader submitted bikes so far. Dennis also goes to Interbike which is the annual autoshow of bikes in that heathen hell hole of Las Vegas. Dennis

provides fantastic photo coverage for all of us so we can stay home. Check out his '09 Interbike coverage here.

Esquired 2

I while back I wrote about converting one of my handmade Fretshop Phil Telecasters to a single pickup Esquire style
guitar here in a post titled Esquired.
I did get the guitar done and it looked cool as hell. Sounded pretty damn good too.

I was really excited about the custom Callaham control plate with no switch. Bottle Rockets main man Brian Henneman, who had just gotten his long lost Esquire back, reminded me that I might
be missing one of the coolest Esquire settings. Not the muffly, bassy filter thing but the "Tone Control Bypassed" setting.

It didn't take me long to wrap myself around his way of thinking. I took the guitar up to former Sodowsky ace Norio Imai to
have him instal a pull pot on the tone control. Knob up...... Tone in



Knob down.....straight to the volume



At the recent Yayhoos gigs Dan Baird beta tested the guitar which also received a Norio setup which made it feel happy like it had been to the chiropractor. As you can see from the show of teeth below Dan liked it.



Thanks to everybody who singed up as 'followers' here on Blogger/Knucklehead.
Having a little difficulty with the widget blocking the right side of the photos so I bailed
on the 'follower' widget. You can still click 'follow' up at the top.

Have a good Sunday whether you are watching Sports or not!



iPhone Yankee Stadium Pano pic I took.

Thanks to Yayhoos fans, Bloodshot, Robbie Fulks, Bottle Rockets and more

Took me a while to recover from the short Yayhoos weekend over Sept 5-6.
Our gig at the Mercury and the Bloodshot one in Philly required a crazy amount
of pre planning but ended up going exceptionally smooth.

Thanks so much to the folks that came out to the shows. Really impressive
collection of Yayhoo minded Yayhoo fans at the Mercury on a holiday weekend
late at night. Very impressive. We gave 'em the personality show including
a couple songs we bailed on. To explain the no encore thing... I'm the youngest
Yayhoo and we were all just plain finished, not mad:)

On Sunday the 6th we went down to Philly for the Bloodshot party/mini fest and Google
Maps sent us through Staten Island so Dan could see the Sopranos Bridge. We got to
Philly about an hour early.

We had fun watching the bands. Terry saved the ass of the Deadstring Brothers who's drummer
had quit the day before. We had a great time watching the Bottle Rockets kick it out on their new songs
(read a UK interview with Brian Here)
and then we got to do "50 Minutes".
I'll tell you what, the Yayhoos can do "50 Minutes"
On the way down I told the guys that I had drafted the Robbie Fulks to join us for our last song "Signed, Sealed,
Delivered" dedicated to you know who. Robbie was great. He had the happy feat and it was
a blast to let him "drive the car" for a tune.



If any of you bootleg types find a recording of us w Robbie let me know. I'd love to have a copy