Prepping for a show, and Ye Olde Heavy Metal...

The workshop is set up and staged for several projects, most notably my lovely bride and I are going to try to reproduce a Talavera-ish look on some large plain tera cotta flower pots. Considering the size she wants in real Talavera runs around $80 - $100 per flower pot, and our lawn service has been known to break flower pots when edging around them, I figured we can replicate the general look pretty easily with some $13.00 Home Depot pots and some Ceramics paint, finished off with full gloss brush on lacquer.

We picked the pots up from Home Depot yesterday, and as they had been rained on in the outdoor garden department, they needed to thoroughly dry before I attempted to paint them. So in the shop they went, unfortunately that takes up a LOT of room...

Another project I had, and this one was more time pressing, was to size up some replacement steel rods for my E-Z Up 13 x 13 Pagoda Gazebo Canopy.

The Auto Show is coming up, and my brother in laws body shop is setting up a booth, and he was going to borrow up the Pagoda to use in the booth, which is great, but unfortunately the last time my wife and I took it to the beach, we got run off the beach by some fast severe weather, and I forgot the extension rods that hold the what would be the eaves if this were a normal structure, out away from the verticals.

So I sized up the bores for the rods, and found that they are 1/2", I used some 1/2" hardwood dowel from the craft store to size up how long the rods should be. I talked with the support folks at EZ-Up, they would be more than happy to sell me replacements for $25.00 + S&H by the way... but they couldn't tell me for sure the length, apparently there are 2 different sizes, mine happened to be the 28", so...

Once the lengths were measured, the angle grinder with the HF metal cutoff wheel was brought out, and the rods were cut, the rough edges were dressed off by hand with a file, and the rods were thoroughly cleaned...

For the Auto Show. I won't bother with paint on the rod yet... But once I get done with that, I get the rods back to the shop, they will get thoroughly cleaned, roughed up with some sandpaper, and then primed, and painted. Mostly to keep rust away from the canopy fabric... The end that goes into the fabric pockets are going to be dipped in Plasti-Dip to finish the job up...

Now as promised in the title... I managed to stumble across a Youtube Channel courtesy of none other than Wil Wheaton, yes, I am that geeky that I follow Wil's blog, and have him in my Google+ circles, and controversial or not, I actually LIKED the Wesley Crusher character in Star Trek The Next Generation! but I digress...

Being a child of the 1980s, heavy metal was a staple of the music scene when I was a teen, and of course, as I ripen, uh I mean mature into the graceful (yeah right) age I am now... I find my musical taste varies quiet a bit more, and I appreciate the finer points of true art that I simply wasn't open to at a younger age. Combine that with far too many years with my fall seasons spent at the Renaissance Faire, and yes... I think I have acquired a fondness for the more obscure musical genres...

So without further Adieu, I present to you 2 classically trained harpists Camille and Kennerly with their cover of Iron Maidens "Fear Of The Dark"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPb20fK0R94