Newport Guitar Festival

A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to my local NPR station, WLRN, and they were playing "South Florida Arts Beat" a show dedicated to informing the public about art and music events happening all over South Florida. I missed the first few minutes and Ed Bell's guest was talking about a Guitar Festival coming to Miami Beach on April 11-13, 2008.

I thought that it was going to be some sort of open air concert, but I was mistaken. When the guest, the show's promoter, said that it was going to be at the Miami Beach Convention Center, I thought hemeant the Jackie Gleason Theater next door. As it turns out, the Newport Guitar Festival is not a concert, but a Luthiers Convention.

From wikipedia: A luthier (IPA: /ˈljuːtiɚ/) is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. The word luthier comes from the French word for lute, "luth".

So this wasn't a festival of guitar players, but of guitar makers. "Fascinating", I thought. Here is a centuries old profession still thriving in the 21st century. The show was not to have any of the major manufacturers; this was all about luthiers who still make their insturments by hand.

Also, April in Miami-Dade County has a "Take Your Daughter to Work" Day, so I availed myself of the opportunity to introduce my 10 year old daughter to the less glamorous side of technical journalism - hoofing through a trade show. She was also my assistant photographer and did a fine showing for her first time out.

If you are a person who thinks "a guitar is a guitar" then you need to come to this show next year and be enlightened. That statement is as off as saying all cars are the same.

We were both amazed at the craftsmanship of the instruments on display there, some valued at over $30,000! Acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass guitars, lutes, and mandolins of all sizes, shapes and materials were on display.

Russ Strobel Guitars had their amazing Folding Guitars on display. These mini-instruments are full-featured electric guitars that can fit inside a standard briefcase! Their String Keeper System prevents the guitar strings from getting tangled. Bung a belt-mounted Danelectro HoneyTone Amp in the mix and you are ready to jam while you walk!

Genius.

This next part shows us what would've happened if Gregor Mendel majored in Woodshop instead of botany. Weird hybrid instuments like a guitar-harp, a banjolin, and a guitar-viola crossbreed shows the innovative spirit is still alive in this business.

Other guitars on display were works of art by themselves. The amount of detail in these instruments is staggering. Some were elegant, some were cool, some were whimsical and some were just plain weird.

First up, Blueberry Guitars enhances their aready beautiful guitars with relief carvings and embedded artwork in the frets. Horses run free and Chinese dragons snake their way around these masterworks.

Jeanfranco Gadotti of Gadotti Guitars, shows us designs that are thin, elegant, and almost Bauhaus in their simplicity. Various woods are combined to give a racy look to these finely crafted works. Small touches, like a magneticly mounted cap over the electronics (all powered by a 9-volt battery) keeps the lines of the guitar silky smooth.

Marlin Guitars shows us that whimsy has its place in guitar design as well. Now I know where Gwar goes for their instruments...

Jonathan Plant of Plant Guitars answers the question "What if Captain Nemo played an electric guitar instead of a pipe organ?" These instruments are works of art all by themselves, combining sculpture and instrumentality in one package.

Wow, some of this stuff was quite mind-blowing. Add to that the free mini-concerts (by folks with real talent) and the ability to try out any of the instuments there (behind the stands of course) and you have yourself the makings of a wonderful cultural experience.

I would like to thank the promoters for bringing this wonderful show to South Florida, WLRN for spreading the word, and my lovely daughter for humoring her dad ( and she may have actually learned something here, heh).

You can see the entire gallery of photos here.

Moving back to the Mac: Of mice and macs

When buying a Mac, Apple goes out of its way to make the out-of-the-box experience as pleasent as possible. For new users or folks who are a bit squemish about computers, they do an excellent job.

But for those of who are more computer-savvy, being given the monorail tour of the primrose path may not suit us. Apple and other, 3rd party peripheral makers are there to cater to the more sophisticated crowds.

Take the lowly mouse for example. Apple bundles it's Mighty Mouse with every iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Pro they make. This mouse will serve you well if you follow the path set before you by the House of Jobs. However, if you are used the left-click, right-click world of the PC, the Mighty Mouse may not seem so mighty. True, it does support right-clicking and it has a (tiny) scroll wheel (pea-sized ball, actually) and for regular use (surfing the web, e-mail, office productivity type stuff) it is quite servicable. It even comes in a bluetooth wireless version which looks exactly the same one I photographed, sans the wire. Stray into the Pro apps, or any Adobe product, or any 3D content creation suite and you begin to hit the envelope with this mouse.

Some users have reported that the Mighty Mouse's trackball is prone to getting gummed up with skin oils. This can usually be cleared up with a duster.

My sister is a hybrid Mac/PC user. She has an iMac for her everyday stuff and a powerhouse PC workstation for her work (she's a teleradiologist). For a while there she was swearing on a stack of bibles over the ergonomic benefits of a proper trackball. The unit was very comfortable but suffers from the same problems as the Mighty Mouse regarding its use in graphically intensive applications that require precision pointer control.

The third device I tried is from Razer. Best known for their line of PC gaming peripherals, Razer almost singlehandedly created the concept of the gaming mouse. Using their vast knowledge of high-performance peripheral design, Razer has charged into Mac territory with their Pro|Solutions line of peripherals. The Pro|Click mouse is based on their very popluar Diamondback gaming mouse. Looking very much like a white clad Diamondback, the mouse shares it's PC version's strengths (ambidextrous design, ultra-precise control, hi-res laser diode sensor, and extensive software controls) and weakneses (slightly less than optimal ergonomic design for the sake of ambidextrous use). Still, the mouse allows me to flick the cursor across my 30" screen without having to lift it up and yet affords me the control I need to work in Photoshop, Aperture and Lightwave 3D.

So, if you find that the bundled Mighty Mouse is not enough for you, take a look at the Razer Pro|Click. You won't be disappointed. The Razer Pro|Click is available at your local Apple Store and online at Apple.com, Razerpro.com and various other online retailers.