JBL On Tour

Speaker systems for iPods and MP3 players tend to come in two varieties: (1) Expensive docking systems that sound great but are too big and unwieldy to drop in a briefcase for a weekend trip. (2) Cheap and flimsy mini-speakers that are small and highly portable but sound terrible.

The JBL On Tour speaker system finds a middle ground between those two extremes. Retailing for about $50, this little gem boasts very respectable sound quality for its size.

I recently bought this system for use with my Palm Treo 700p smartphone running Pocket Tunes software, and I've found it to be a great combination for traveling. It's ideal for use in hotels and B&Bs when you want decent high-fidelity background music to accompany your travels.

The On Tour sports a classy and clever flask-shaped design that opens up to reveal the speakers:



With 3 watts RMS per channel and active equalization (see specs), the On Tour excels at smooth reproduction of most music types at moderate volume levels. The twin 1-inch ported transducers do an admirable job of reproducing bass down to 100Hz. Earth-shaking bass and ear-splitting volume obviously can't be expected with a system this small, but what's notable is that JBL has engineered a miniature speaker system that sounds natural and musical. For fifty bucks, that's quite an accomplishment.

Crash Landing?

Let's hope not.

The Crucible's Fire Arts Festival

Fire aficionados, Victorian steampunk revivalists, and Burning Man enthusiasts had their very own playground in West Oakland this weekend during The Crucible's 8th Annual Fire Arts Festival. A fundraising event for the nonprofit arts collective, the Fire Arts Festival "celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast."

My favorites were the Fire Vortex, two different Tesla coils, a 1920 Steam Traction Engine, several neon light displays -- and numerous fire-breathing sculptures and contraptions that defied description.

Expecting photography to be off-limits, I had unfortunately left my good camera at home. Once it became clear that it was perfectly okay to take pictures, I pulled out my Palm Treo cameraphone and started taking still and moving images; check out the slide show (above) and video (below) for the results. Despite the Treo's low image resolution and poor light sensitivity (or perhaps because of it), I think I was able to capture the trippy ambiance of the event. Enjoy.



Soundtrack to video: "Little Dream In Turquoise" from the album "Traces" by Erik Wøllo.

Jim Campilongo @ Cafe du Nord

I try never to miss an opportunity to hear Jim Campilongo perform live on those all-too-rare occasions when he returns to his home town of San Francisco to play a gig. Steeped in the American traditions of blues, jazz, and country picking, Jim is a highly authentic and original musician. In my humble opinion, he's right up there with rootsy guitar greats such as (the late) Danny Gatton and Junior Brown (both of whom I've had the good fortune to hear live on many occasions).

Monday night's show at Cafe du Nord did not disappoint. I doubt I've ever heard a more sensitive and moving rendition of "Cry Me a River" coaxed from a Telecaster. Switching gears, Jim next played a stormy and brooding tune called "I'm Helen Keller and You're a Waffle Iron" -- which sounded like it could be the soundtrack to a movie written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Lynch. (I was at first mystified by the song title, but a quick bit of googling revealed this old joke: "How did Helen Keller burn her fingers? She tried to read the waffle iron." A clever title for what one supposes is an instrumental tale of love gone wrong.)

I first met Jim Campilongo in August of 2001. I'd just been laid off from a dot-com startup that was going down in flames -- which meant that I suddenly had a lot more free time to play guitar. I decided to take a few lessons to shake off the cobwebs, and found an ad on Craig's List that sounded promising: "Guitar lessons by local recording artist."

When I arrived for my lesson at Jim's house in Brisbane, the first thing that blew me away was his LP collection. I've got a respectable number of albums, but Jim's archive of jazz and country vinyl records appeared to number in the thousands. Jim turned out to be a gracious teacher and a great guy, and I was stoked at the prospect of learning a few tips from such an accomplished musician.

Unfortunately, that turned out to be my one and only lesson with Jim Campilongo. On September 11, Jim happened to be in New York -- and with the restrictions on travel after the attacks, he ended up spending quite a bit of time in the city and making connections with local musicians (including Norah Jones). Eventually, Jim decided to move to NYC permanently. Jim now has a regular Monday night residency at the Living Room. Next time you're in the Big Apple, be sure to check him out.