Three Floors Down

DSC_0033 copy, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Face Off

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Roman Relic, Artist Unknown

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Day at the Museum

, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

The Quadrangle area of Springfield Massachusetts includes plenty of culture and art, and is amazingly free for city residents. We rarely take advantage of this geographic anomaly, but a showing of LEGO art by Nathan Sawaya pulled us in. As cool as the LEGO art was, it was the pieces that have been in the same place since I was a kid.

I graduated from Technical High School back in 1981, not long before the school closed. My whole family went to Tech, including my Mom, back in...um, I 'll take a stab at 1957. Situated on the eastern side of the Quad, it used to be a favorite way to get downtown and to the store, McD's, the civic center and buss route home. But it was also a favorite haunt for photo assignments while in school and taking Photography with Mr. Cook.

Armed only with and iPhone and a small Sony camera lite on battery power, I just had to shoot a few images of the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, as well as the The George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, one of two Springfield Museums dedicated to fine and decorative arts. It represents the personal taste and Victorian aesthetic of the collector whose name it bears.

I returned with a Nikon or 2 and tried to get some shots of the aging school that brought me through the courtyard that is now filled with large bronze characters taken from Springfield's own Dr. Seuss. They are tearing the old girl down. Since 1905 Springfield's finest learned math and machining, drafting and drawing, and even a little English and History. They even had an ROTC program my sister and one of my brothers were in. And of course the legendary football program. All that will be history, and I am determined to go find some of my old black and white images from my tenure as a Tech Tiger.

The home of the Tigers will be no more and I am going to have to get over that fence to get some better shots. I am pretty sure the auditorium is still in tact, and would love to capture that. Urbex is fun, but you just don't always have bolt cutters on you, so getting close is tough.

My drums

My drums, originally uploaded by ArcherVision.

Got to love drums. They are always ready to be played. Especially if they are tuned. I think my kit is pretty much as ergonomically set up as I have had it in a while. Continuous tinkering, adding, subtracting and creating new things that like to be struck has been basically an obsession. I suppose I could have worse vices.

At any rate, they are signed Keller shells assembled by Springfield Drum Company and finished with Electric Turquoise, which was used for a time by DW. I found a DW popcorn snare in the same finish, so if course I had to get that. 13 inch solid maple snare, also by Springfield Drum Company has surprisingly won out lately over my other 6 snares, including my 14 Tama Warlord. Something about the 13 is just really nice. Gives you a little extra room, and sounds incredible with the snares thrown. I suppose it is that solid shell, the only solid drum I own, sadly.

Lots of cymbals, mostly Zildjian A Customs, including a flat top ride, a set of Platinum Hats, a set of vintage New Beats, an 18 Sabian Fast Chinese, and Dave Weckl 17 inch Evolution Effecks Crash provide some nice mellow low end. Low and slow.

Gadget run from a brass door bell, chinese cymbal stack, Lenox Hole Saw Kit, a 20 inch classic Rogers kick drum, 8 inch hi hats, oh and the better part of a vintage 1985 Chrome Slingerland kit I am restoring. That really seems to be enough, no?