Back From The Dead….

Last Night, I resurrected my old HP Laptop with a fresh install of Windows 10 so I would have a machine to run the Avid Profile and DiGiCo SD12 Offline Editors on….

I LOVE TOAST

More often than you can possibly imagine when I am hanging around the house, and I need or want a quick snack, I turn to toast.  Toast & Butter, Toast & Honey, Toast & Cream Cheese, Toast & Strawberry Preserves…..It is all good !!

BUT…..Of course to have toast, you have to first, toast the bread.  And for my money, nothing toasts bread like the Kenmore Elite 4 Slice Auto-Lift Long Slot Stainless Steel Toaster.

$115.19 with free Shipping on Amazon.com (Click the Link Below)

https://amzn.to/2LKmgOo

Designed with extra-wide slots that will toast bread of any size or shape, this four-slice, auto-lift, long slot toaster, from Kenmore Elite fits everything from toast to bagels to baguettes. The stainless steel surface looks sleek and is easy to clean, while the LED display is simple to read. Featuring a variety of smart settings, wide range of toast settings, countdown timer and handy retractable cord, this appliance is a kitchen all-star.

• 1-touch auto lift 4-slice long slot capacity for any size bread
• LED display Timer 9 toast settings
• Retractable cord
• Color: Stainless steel
• Dimensions: 15-1/2 W x 9 H x 8 D Weight: 6-1/2 lbs.

I completely Dig this Toaster……you should pick one up for yourself.

$115.19 with free Shipping on Amazon.com (Click the Link Below)

https://amzn.to/2LKmgOo

Back to Vegas…..

After 2 years in the Houston, Texas humidity……on August 12th, I will leave the Lone Star State (again) and make my way back relocating once again to Las Vegas…….I could not be more pleased……..

SKYROCKET tonight at The Continental Club in Houston

It’s gonna be a packed house tonight….

Doing the hurry up and wait…..

It’s Wednesday, and I am back in Houston after spending most of last week in Austin, TX at the TAF&E convention doing monitors for all the showcase acts (10 acts to be exact) on a 24 channel Presonus Studiolive digital console with my iPad….I must say it worked really well….. Ate some great food while I was there too….but today I find myself sitting presently on a cold cement bench outside of the Houston, TX House of Blues with my iPhone where I am doing the hurry up and wait for the load-in with SKYROCKET…. We are here on the main stage tonight for a private party and then back here Friday and Saturday as well…..I arrived early with the hopes of getting my hands on the Soundcraft Vi6 digital console at FOH a little early….but alas I am the first one here……….guess I will just have to chill until the scheduled 3PM load-in…..

WORDS TO LIVE BY…….

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“.. almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

STEVE JOBS, 2005

Steve Jobs gave these quotes I have posted above several years ago at a college graduation speech he made…….In my opinion, they are easily some of the most profound, honest, important and enlightening words ever spoken by just about anyone….

Sent from my iPad 2….

Blake Norris
Houston, Texas

BLAKEWORLD on the IPad….!!!

If you happen to be one of those cool individuals that happens to own an IPad or one of the lucky few like myself that was fortunate enough to get your hands on an IPad 2, then you should check out the new HTML 5 design of my BLAKEWORLD Blog by viewing it with your IPad tablet……it is super cool looking on the IPad thanks to the new HTML 5 code from my sites host at wordpress.com…….it gives it a magazine/Flipbook feel and look……..it gives it a completely different look and feel from when you look at the site on you normal PC or MAC browser…….it’s the BOMB…….

 

Soundbridge???…YEAH…SOUNDBRIDGE!

After decades of live shows, tours, and using various speaker manufacturers various speaker designs from JBL Vertec to Turbosound….VDOSC to D&B, and just about everything in between and on either side, I of course have my favorites, and obviously systems that I am not a big fan of…….but recently back here in Texas, I have found some new speaker boxes that have really impressed me as of late…….they are from a Texas company called Soundbridge……..I first ran into them while freelancing for Tom Bohacek, Scott Powers, and Jade Fontenot at Bayou City Sound here in Houston, TX……

They are the Soundbridge Xyon-7208XY Compact Line Array boxes and the Soundbridge Quad-7218SWX sub boxes.

The top Compact Line Array boxes (Xyon-7208XY) are similar in size and weight to the Adamson
YT10 boxes…….I first used them in Port Arthur, TX at the city’s pre Mardi GRAS Gala about 4 weeks ago…….the 6 boxes per side were flown inside the city’s convention center…..a big room that holds about 5000……they were smooth and crisp sounding and filled the room nicely……very impressive…….

But, it was the bottom end that completely blew me away……the Soundbridge Quad-7218SWX sub boxes were unbelievable…….there were only two boxes per side (four 18’s per side) and not since the old Turbosound Flashlight 21″ subs have so few boxes pushed so much air……simply incredible……tight, punchy, and whammo……a big bottom end that makes that kick drum hit you hard right in the breast plate……bottom end you can feel as well as hear…….just what I like……..

Then, last week in Austin, TX at SXSW 2011 (the South by Southwest Music Festival), I ran into more of the same Soundbridge system boxes on a big outdoor parking lot stage and they sounded great…….(pics below)…….

Hopefully I will have some more chances to use this Soundbridge system and learn more about it……I urge you to got to the Soundbridge website and check them out……

http://www.soundbridge.com/index.html

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SXSW 2011 DAY SIX PRE-CAP…..

6 hours left here at SXSW 2011 in Austin, TX on the final night of the festival…….5 bands left……music stops at 2AM…….load out at 10 AM in the morning (Sunday)…….very tired…….official festival food was the very strange, yet very tasty I might add, chicken or fish waffle taco with syrup and salsa…….well you know what they say…..”Keep AUSTIN weird..!!”…….some guy is standing behind the monitor desk with a sign that says “Shitty Advice…..$1 dollar”……. Probably true……and probably worth a dollar also strangely enough…….

SXSW 2011 DAY FIVE RECAP

Day five here in Austin, TX at SXSW 2011 was actually a pretty dull day at our venue…….of the bands really did anything for me…….rather lackluster……lots of tecno pop…….YAWN…….but we ended the night with a band called THE BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB that was really cool…….earlier in the evening though I was able to break away for several hours of the Digidesign guys took over at the monitor desk and I wondered over to The Continental Club on South Congress and caught THE FLESHTONES……..they are one of those bands I was very into in my college days……it was great seeing them live and band was tight and polished and the old hits brought a ton of memories from my days in Lawrence, KS…….

I also around some time to get away and catch some of the Kansas Jayhawks Basketball tournament game and the Hawks got it done and moved onto the second round……GO JAYHAWKS…….

I also spent some time with several of the Fender Guitar reps and got a cool new t-shirt from them…….

I also found a big outdoor stage with a huge Soundbridge Line Array on it off of west 5th street…….talked to the local sound company and they let me check out their Soundbridge Slice powered Monitor wedges and Drum Fill…….pretty cool……

I fear I am running out of steam and we still have day 6 (the final day of the festival tomorrow) on
Saturday and the load out of the gear on Sunday morning and then the long drive home……

I am gonna need serious sleep next week…….

More tomorrow……