OK, I don’t need a new project this summer, but I’ve recklessly put another one on my plate. I found the ARP Omni II pictured above on Craigslist for a pretty good price due to a couple issues I’ll mention in a minute. So why bother buying an ARP Omni II you might ask? Good question! The Omni II was a popular “string synth” from the late ’70s to early ’80s and was used by bands as diverse as Joy Division and Supertramp. The whole string synth fad came about in the early ’70s as an alternative to the Melotron, which was an expensive and cumbersome tape-based proto-sampler keyboard. The idea behind the first string synth, the Eminent, was synthesize string sounds rather than play back tape recorded strings like the Melotron. The Eminent lead to the Solina which lead to the ARP Omni I/II, which I guess used the basic design of the Solina but added a couple of additional features. Pretty much every synth manufacture offered some kind of string synth back in the day (probably thanks to disco) including Roland, Yamaha, and Korg. The key to any of these old string synths is the built in analog chorus/phase effects — without it, a string synth just sounds kind of bland.
The Omni II is a bit of an odd beast even by ARP standards. It is basically three analog synths in one box sharing a common keyboard. It’s neither monophonic (meaning it plays one note at a time) or polyphonic (meaning it plays chords) but paraphonic which means that it is capable of playing all the notes on the keyboard using something called divide down technology. Polyphonic synths were quite rare in the ’70s. On of the few was the the Prophet 5, but it was also quite expensive. These string synths used the same technology as transistor based organs used allowing for chords but cost far less than standard polyphonic synths.
So what does my Omni need in the way of repairs? Well for one, all the ‘E’ notes sustain when I play the string sounds, which means there is probably a blown capacitor on one of the circuit boards. This is a pretty common issue with a lot of ARP synths from the ’70s. I guess the Omni was the product that keep the company executives in cocaine and champaign, but to maximize profits, I think they cut corners where ever they could — like using cheap capacitors prone to failure. I’m also gonna need to either clean or replace all the sliders. I think someone tried to clean them with WD40 or similar, so now they’re pretty much shot. Right now I’m leaning toward replacing, since pretty much all the parts used on the Omni are still being made. Below are some links for other Omni owners to use when sourcing parts.
ARP Sliders
http://www.synthrestore.co.uk
Arp Omni II Switches
https://www.vintagevibe.com
Arp Omni II Chorus Phaser Chip
https://www.vintagevibe.com
Arp Omni II Synth and Bass Voice Chip
https://www.vintagevibe.com
Arp Omni II Voicing Circuit Chip
https://www.vintagevibe.com
Arp String Ensemble Bass Section OP Amp
https://www.vintagevibe.com
Arp String Ensemble Knobs
https://www.vintagevibe.com
ARP Omni II Problems
http://www.vintagesynth.com
Parts List
http://peterunderdog.com
Hear the Omni II in action on one of the best songs ever…
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
http://www.youtube.com
June 30th, 2009
I’m On a Boat
http://www.hulu.com
28 West Side Days Later Story
http://www.youtube.com
Top 10 Rock Star Cameos in Movies
http://www.scene-stealers.com
School Lunch from Around the World
http://interestingemailforwards.blogspot.com
June 25th, 2009
When weather allows, I’ve been wandering Northwest Portland and observing the diverse built environment. While Northwest is largely affluent, there are still pockets of light industry, so the mix of architectural styles is fascinating. While my tastes in residential architecture skew to the more modernist end of the spectrum, I’ve also come to appreciate fine examples of older style homes that can’t be found elsewhere in the city. Northwest is also an enjoyable place to stroll around because of all the hidden urban treasures, like obscure public stairs sandwiched between hillside houses. This area is also probably one of the oldest sections of Portland. Many streets are named after early settlers (Lovejoy, Quimby, Flanders, et al) and a few rehabbed structures still remain from the turn-of-the-century era illustrating creative adaptive reuse.
Trolley Lofts
I would have never guessed this structure use to serve as a trolley barn if I hadn’t found a weathered placard on the other side of the block. Signs of old trolley tracks are all over this area – probably due to the usual chronically deferred street repair. I don’t know if this happened in other cities, but it looks like Portland wiped out its old trolley lineds by simply paving over the tracks. But back to the trolley lofts. A couple of these units are for sale, like a lot of condo buildings here in town, so I’ve had a chance to read the sales flyers. I even had a chance to tour one, but I declined due to lack of time. It would have also seemed weird touring a 700K loft I would never be able to afford. But the lofts seem really nice from the sales pictures I’ve seen. And the square footage is around 2,000+ which is quite generous for this area.
West Hills
This is where Portland’s old money lives and the stale architectural reflect this. Not much in the way a mid-century modern, but there are a few ’70s homes that have been renovated nicely. I know there is a Skylab designed residence in the area (from the movie Twlight?), but I just haven’t run into it yet. The West Hills are a wonderful place to take a relaxing walk (or difficult run) since it’s such a peaceful area, but I often feel uncomfortable walking amongst all the million dollar homes. I mean, you never see anyone out working in the yard or playing with children, even though every driveway has at least two cars in it.
Portland Fire Station #17
At first I thought this little firehouse was still in use, but then I went to the Portland Fire Bureau website and it wasn’t listed as an active station. I suppose it’s too small to actually accommodate emergency vehicles, but I guess I thought that maybe it’s still used for administrative purpose. Not quite sure what the building houses today.
Thurman Street Lofts
Look, I like this recent trend toward using wood cladding. The Randy Rapaport/Holst Architecture condo on Belmont is a great example of this. But this (Holst?) building just got it all wrong. There should be a balance here, some kind of contrast to the color and texture provide by the vertical slats. This building makes about as much sense as Segway polo. And if the overuse of wood slats wasn’t bad enough, it’s compounded by the fact it’s not even being well maintained. Would it kill the HOA to power wash the exterior once a year and either water seal or stain it? UPDATE: I’ve found some images of the original Holst design and it has different types of siding and it looks far better than the finished product. What happened?
June 23rd, 2009
How Green Is Your Takeaway Container?
http://www.chow.com
Russian Mobile Nuclear Power Plants
http://englishrussia.com
Last Roundup for the People’s Telescope
http://www.nytimes.com
14-Year-Old Hit by Meteorite
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
June 22nd, 2009
Last weekend I did something I should have done years ago: grilled some salmon on a cedar plank (well, truth be told, Stacy actually did all of the culinary heavy lifting). As an Oregonian, I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never tried grilling salmon on planks before, even though it’s one of those things that seem to be uniquely Oregonian. Typically, I grill my salmon ghetto style — relying on a lemon/butter/pepper marinade I brush on the fish. But after trying the cedar plank salmon, I won’t be going back to my low end grilling ways.
After savoring this wonderful salmon, I started thinking about how rarely I actually enjoy this native fish due to the high cost (around $20.00 a pound for fresh Chinook). Before the damming of the Columbia and its tributaries, salmon were in abundance here in Oregon. Of course when all these mega dams were built during the height of the Great Depression, such project were seen as life saving economic engines, providing power for the allied war machine and post war water to SE Washington agricultural endeavours. But the dams also left a legacy of environmental destruction, essentially destroying the world’s greatest fishing run. It’s amazing to recall that before the dams were constructed, salmon was cheaper than chicken. Now wild salmon is considered a delicacy.
While the building of the dams along the Columbia is somewhat forgivable since our forefathers had the best of intentions, the latest environmental threat is not: liquefied natural gas, or LNG. California, who has for decades coveted our water, now wants us to provide them with more LNG for their exploding population. The logical location for an LNG terminal would be Long Beach or the Bay Area, but Californians don’t actually want such a facility sitting in their backyard. The next option was to place a terminal in BC, where an LNG pipeline already exists running south to CA, but our maple syrup swilling friends to the north said “no way hoser!” to that one. So where did the Californians look next? Why little old Astoria near the mouth of the Colombia River. Never mind the proposed LNG site is nowhere near an existing pipeline. And who should care the proposed site is also prime salmon spawning grounds? This is basically economic colonialism: California has a GDP similar to that of Italy’s while Oregon’s is probably closer to, say, maybe Libya? The biggest danger this project poses the the connector pipeline from Astoria to the existing north/south TransCanada line out in Eastern Oregon. This connector pipeline would cross the coast range, smash through wine country, then cut through Mount Hood National Forest before reaching Maupin along the pristine Deschutes River.
Those opposing LNG here in Oregon are a diverse lot, including farmers, fisherman, local business leaders, and property rights advocates (and of course environmentalists). The proposed pipeline pretty much has something to piss off everyone. For fishermen, it means destruction of salmon spawning grounds and access to fishing areas, since a massive security zone would be established around the LNG terminal. Farmers are not thrilled about having some of their land condemned for the right of way. Oh, I forgot to mention the homeland security aspect of the project. LNG is extremely explosive, and the terminal on the Columbia River would store vast amounts of LNG. These huge storage tanks would make idea targets for terrorist, both foreign and domestic, and exploding tanks would cause unthinkable desctruction. Really, LNG offers nothing to Oregonians and I hope we can somehow kill this horrible project.
June 12th, 2009
Readers of this blog might remember a series of posts from ‘06 about Oregon’s lost Cold War infrastructure…you know, those missives about abandon bomb shelters and radar stations dotting the state. Well someone responded in the comments section about a lost Continuation of Government (COG) and/or Presidential Emergency Facility (PEF) near Bend and possibly called CPIC/West or CIA-ISTAC. I’ve been meaning to investigate this mystery further, but I just haven’t had the time to do more than a cursory query of the inter-webs. So here is what I know so far: The site is supposedly located at 23861 Dodds Road just east of Bend. I haven’t actually driven out there to confirm, but Google maps clearly shows some infrastructure in the area. Those who have looked into the site report that it’s owned by the Army and operated by the Oregon National Guard. Currently, the Guard is running something called the Oregon National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program (ONGYCP) at the location. There was an article in something called The Source in July of 1998 about the facility and it possibly mentioned the bunker portion had been dismantled and/or sealed. It’s also possible there is a companion site at the Redmond Municipal Airport, which is just to the north. Cursorily, I don’t see anything that looks like COGesque, like a microwave communication tower or satellite dish farm or helipad. Of course those could have been dismantled some time ago, so I don’t know if that’s worth mentioning or not. There is a rather extensive microwave site in Bend, but I don’t know how close it is to CPIC/West.
It’s unclear when the site was developed or how extensive the bunkers were, but it was originally called a “night vision device testing & evaluation facility” by the Army. This may have been a cover story to shield the real COG role of the site. Still, it’s unclear as to what the usefulness of the site would have been in the event of some kind of national emergency. Looking at the Redmond airport, it doesn’t look like it could handle the current 747 variant of Air Force One. But I have seen pictures of civilian 767s at the airport. And I do know that the Regan administration went on a massive COG spending spree in the mid ’80s, so this site might have been part of that infrastructure program that also included converting former SAGE sites into COG sites. But I’m confused why Bend would have been chosen as a COG or PEF site. I would have picked Klamath Falls since Kingsley Field has an airfield worthy of large aircraft. Of course K-Falls would have been a secondary nuclear target during the Cold War, so maybe Bend would have made a safe haven in the event of an all out nuclear holocaust.
COG as it stands today is kind of a mess from what I gather. On 9/11, the Vice President was quietly whisked away to “an undisclosed location” (which was really just a bunker below the Naval Observatory), but many top Federal officials were left scratching their heads regarding what they were suppose to do. Even the securing of the president seemed half-assed. I remember seeing news footage of him at all these SAC airbases, which seem like the last place you would want to go during a national emergency since they would be natural targets for evil-doers. My understanding was the COG system had moved way from harden facilities after the introduction of precise atomic warheads in the late ’70s to mobile command units run by FEMA. 9/11 suggested this system either no longer exists or was never effectively implemented. Of course there have always been rumors concerning some kind of secret COG subway system in DC, but the only “evidence” of this are ghost spurs off the current Metro system. Personally, I like the idea of mobile command posts utilizing our fine national park system. To me that seems like an effective and cheap solution to our COG problem. It probably won’t hurt to have plan that could be shared with government officials and employees in the event of a national emergency either.
Finally, there is another mystery closer to home. I’ve heard about an electronic listening station built off of NE Halsey around 148th avenue sometime in 1941. Apparently this was a WWII and Cold War listening post that was replaced in 1971 by the sprawling NSA complex in Yakima. The PDX site might have also captured a Japanese transmission regarding the attach of Pearl Harbor. Probably an interesting story there!
June 6th, 2009
50 Strange Buildings of the World
http://villageofjoy.com
The Architecture of Car Parks
http://www.guardian.co.uk
The Best Houses of all Time in L.A.
http://www.latimes.com
Danmarks Nationalbank
http://www.dailyicon.net
May 30th, 2009
Stacy and I took advantage of the lovely weather over Memorial Day weekend and sampled wines at various Willamette Valley wineries. We started on Sunday afternoon in the Dundee area, then moved south toward Silverton so we could spend Sunday night at the Moonstone Resort at the Oregon Garden, and then spent Monday bumming around Bethel Heights. What follows is an abbreviated review of the various locales we visited and some uninformed notes on the wines we sampled:
Medici
Our first stop of the trip because this winery is supposedly rarely open for tastings. Not only were the Medici wines available, they also had tastings from Sineann. From an architectural standpoint, the place is nothing special. The tasting room occupies a narrow space above the winery and doesn’t offer anything visually interesting; although the view of the vineyard from the dormer windows is quite nice. And how about the wines? Both the Medici and Sineann selections we sampled were great. I bought a bottle of the ‘07 Abondante…a pretty straight ahead crowd pleaser.
Domaine Drouhin
This is one of those few wineries in Oregon that seems like it belongs somewhere else. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because it’s cool having something completely unique to visit, but I wouldn’t want to see all local wineries trend in this direction. The building housing the winery and tasting room is nothing short of amazing. The location, high above Dundee, offers the best vista of any local winery I’ve ever visited. It’s almost like you’re in another country looking out across the vineyards down into the hazy valley. Of course all the wine they offer is fantastic. We started with a Pino Gris that had this wonderful minerally taste probably due to it’s French heritage (I think most of the grapes actually came from France). The Pinot Noirs we tried were also fantastic. Not overly “oaky” unlike some others we tasted.
Ponzi & Dundee Bistro
We had early dinner reservations for the Dundee Bistro, but enough time to fit in one more round of sampling at the Ponzi tasting room. Not only were Ponzi wines offered up, three guess wineries were represented as well: Antica Terra, Ayoub, and Dusky Goose. I’ve always associated Ponzi wines with the lower end often found in local supermarkets, but everything we tried was excellent — maybe they have stepped up their game in recent years? The guest wines were impressive as well. Dinner at the Dundee Bistro was delicious. Stacy had the bacon-wrapped pork over cheese polenta and I had the fried rockfish with truffle fries, which was one of the most unique takes on fish and chips I’ve ever had. We spit the coconut semi-fredo for dessert which was to die for.
Cristom
This is an old reliable winery we have visited before. In fact, Stacy is a member of their wine club, so we paid no tasting fee for this round. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed with one of their Pinots, the Jefferson — a wine I’ve enjoyed in the past. I felt it had too much of an oaky overtone, which to my taste buds overpowered all the other flavors. The Margorie was excellent, yet expensive, so I bought a split (half bottle).
Witness Tree
Probably the most disappointing of all the wineries we visited was Witness Tree, which is near Cristom, but closer to the road. There really is no tasting room to speak of, rather, they did the pourings in the uncharming winery space. I actually didn’t taste any of the wines, but Stacy reported they were pretty “meh”. I was hoping to pick up a bottle of their ever popular table wine, but that was nowhere to be found. I suppose they sold out earlier in the weekend.
The Tasting Room in Carlton
It’s been years since I’ve visited Carlton, so it was a surprise to see how much this little town has changed. I don’t remember the exact name of the place where we stopped for lunch and a tasting, but we had some wonderful wines from Owen Roe, which is kind of a cult classic winery these days. It was a bit of good luck stumbling into the tasting, since Owen Roe doesn’t normally offer tastings to the public. Not surprisingly, everything we tried was outstanding.
May 28th, 2009
Brigitte Bardot - Contact
http://www.youtube.com
Firekites - Autumn Story
http://vimeo.com
Animal Collective - My Girls
http://www.youtube.com
Tom Jones - She’s a Lady
http://www.youtube.com
May 23rd, 2009
First off, I’m not really a rabid Star Trek fan. I’m not a Trekker or Trekkie or whatever they like to be called these days and I’ve certainly never attended a Star Trek convention. I’m not a socialist per se either, but I do regard modern socialist ideology born of progressive Western European thinking in a sympathetic light. I’m not going to use this post to write a screed on the left leaning political subtext evident in all of the Star Trek shows and movies, since I’m sure one could find dissertations floating around on the matter, but I will point out a few themes I found interesting from the series.
No State Sanctioned Religion
Isn’t one of the cornerstones of socialism a strong separation of church and state? Remember The Wrath of Khan and Spock’s funeral at the end? Remember the readings from the Bible? Of course you don’t, because at every Trek funeral, wedding, or birth, religion is kicked to the curb. And the original Gene Roddenberry series had a decidedly anti-religious tone just to make it clear Trek doesn’t dig on the creator. Of course there was that Shatner directed movies where they go to center of the galaxy to find heaven or something like that. Frankly I don’t even remember which movie that was (maybe five?). That one with Kim Cattrall as a Vulcan?
Bernard L. Madoff No More
OK, so I’ve never seen that NG episode where a 20th century financial guy is unfrozen and immediately wants to know how his investments are doing. The douche-nozzle is crushed when Captain Picard informs him that the days of investments houses and “too big to fail” banks are over. Apparently in the Star Trek universe, personal growth is prized over the squandering of wealth. Smells a lot like socialism to me!
Capitalism = Bad
Just to make it clear Star Trek has no love for the free market philosophy, in the mid ’90s series Deep Space Nine, we’re introduced to the devious ways of the Ferengi, a money grubbing species of aliens that look like garden gnomes. I guess toward the end of the series Ferengi society falls apart and becomes a welfare state. Hooray for the free market!
Militarism = Good
While Starfleet does its best to solve conflicts with diplomacy, they seem to have no qualms about opening up a can of whoop-ass at the drop of a hat. And is it just me, or is every spacecraft in Starfleet armed to the teeth? When Kirk isn’t bedding green women, he’s either delivering a karate chop to some poor alien or gleefully firing photon torpedoes from the bridge of the starship Enterprise. Of course as we all know socialism has never been synonymous with peacefulness, so we shouldn’t be surprised by Starfleet’s bellicose attitude.
So what about this new “reboot” of the Star Trek franchise? Will we see more socialist proselytizing from this re-imagining of the Star Trek universe? I saw the new movie last weekend and can report that while I enjoyed it immensely, it’s devoid of any substantial exploration of compelling social issues. There was some interesting stuff about Spock being bullied as a kid because he was half human, but that was about it. On an unrelated note, I thought the casting of Simon Peg from Shaun of the Dead as a young Scotty was brilliant. I did have some trouble following the whole time travel business. I’ve always found time travel stuff in Star Trek to be tired – kind of lazy writing I guess. Can we get Quentin Tarantino to write and direct the next installment please?
May 13th, 2009
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