Met with Shanti last night for a decision-making demi-rehearsal – I’m going to be filling in again for them in a few shows this summer. I already know most of the material, again, and while there are a couple of new additions, they’re quite simple to play, so yay! Easy work. I’ll announce dates when I have time to look them up, but the first shows will be in Oregon, in May.

Everything else is Norwescon. Hey, look, I made a gong! It’s an ornamental tray, really, but it sounds kinda good. In fact, it’s right at that quality point where you think, “Y’know, I could use this on a recording,” before you realise it isn’t actually that good. But still, that’s a quality point, and is pretty damn good for a Can$5 thrift store find in Victoria.

The real reason I’m building it, of course, is Cascadia’s Got Talent!, our kitschy talent show on Saturday. We had a serving-tray-gong already, and I’m very thankful for Jordan for making it, but it was kind of low to the ground and not as obvious behind the judges. This one… will be obvious. HEY LOOK WE HAVE PROPS!

Okay, a prop. Still.

The giant frame breaks down for transport. This isn’t a picture of that, broken down; it’s the three vinyl-banner frames I made in earlier years. But they look remarkably similar, go fig.

Makes 3 banner holders, just add FORCE.

I need some way to label the pipe segments that isn’t visible once the frame is assembled. This year I’m just using clear tape (which I’ll remove after assembly) but that’s a pain because I’ll have to relabel it after every disassembly. There must be some way. Anybody got ideas?