Me and Conrad Hilton

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Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Sr. (December 25, 1887 – January 3, 1979) was an American hotelier and founder of the Hilton Hotel chain.

Some quotes from Conrad Hilton:

  • “Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
  • “If you are 100% occupied, you are not charging enough rent.”

Why does Conrad Hilton interest me? Indirectly because we share a first name. But indirectly he was a catalyst for me. If you have the time to read this tedious blog entry – then it just might have a nuggest of wisdom for you…

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The Cirque Bathrobe

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Artists for Cirque Du Soleil’s ZAIA show got their official Cirque bathrobes yesterday. The photos on this post are not of the actual bathrobe – these are pictures a friend sent me making fun of how much I like my bathrobe. And I do love my Cirque bathrobe! It’s heavy and black with a hood and has a gigantic CDS logo in full color on the back. With the hood we all look like Obi Won Kenobi or Sylvester Stallone in Rocky.

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Ewi Midi Notes Stuck

Have an Akai 4000s Ewi midi electronic wind controller and sometimes low midi notes play on their own and stick – usually when turning the instrument off. Anyone encounter this or know a fix?

Answer: This is normal with most electronic instruments. The fix is when shutting down start with the amp first and go backwards in the audio chain. All midi devices from time to time produce stuck notes. Must midi patchbays have a “all notes off” buttom for this reason. Sometimes it just helps to switch the sound on the synth and the stuck note stops.

Stuck notes are usually caused by switching something while a note is playing. In the MIDI protocol synths communicate by sending and receiving “note on” and “note off” and sometimes the “note off” just gets lost.

Freddy Fender and Conrad Askland at Grand Ol Opry

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q6g1_3lgK4

Hey, video of me playing at the Grand Ol Opry in Nashville! “Freddy Fender and Conrad in Nashville” – Ok, more like Freddy and a couple seconds of me that nobody knows. This just got posted on YouTube. Performance of Freddy Fender at the Grand Ol Opry (I think around 2001 – don’t remember). I DO remember we had to wear suit jackets for the performance and be clean shaven – I look like a dork in the video, oh well.

This was Freddy’s last appearance at the Opry, the first appearance in over twenty years. We performed “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”. Thanks to Chris Jurado for posting this.

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