Jim Alfredson

Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios

No, it seemed perfectly normal. No one was the least bit surprised. That dream was right after one in which my dad, my brother and I were fighting off these weird intruders at our old house... I think they were aliens of some kind. My dad locked us in the basement and we had to stay perfectly quiet the whole time but unfortunately they got him and starting breaking into the basement, so then we had to fuck them up. We had those big two-handed sword thingies that the Klingons from Star Trek use. I have no idea where that dream came from. I also remember at some point in the dream looking outside the window (it was night) and there were all these explosions rippling towards the house. It was wild.

My wife's pregnancy must be getting to me. Last night I had a dream we were having twins.... ... but it I was pregnant with the other baby!!!!! Seemed plausible at the time. The doctors didn't even blink an eye!

My wife claims that dreams about teeth falling out mean you're worried about money. She read that somewhere. Who knows?

So I take it this has been re-issued finally? Man, I'm out of the loop.

Pic 11 New light fixture. I regret I don't have a picture of the original one. It was HIDEOUS! I had to post this picture because I picked it out and I'm very proud! Pic 12 That same corner from Pic 5 and Pic 8. Looks a lot better, eh? Pic 13 That same corner again after my wife painted the scallops and we added the furniture. All the trim was painted white as well. The Pepto-Bismal pink was no more!! Victory! Pic 14 My wife found the dresser at our local pawn shop for $35. I think it was made in the early 60s. It has dovetail joints in the drawers. It's very solid. But it was ugly. So we painted it white and then used the two shades of yellow for the drawers! The top works perfectly as a changing table! Pic 15 There will soon be a little person sleeping in this crib! It brought tears to my eyes last night just looking at it! Pic 16 Last one. The window all painted white. I repaired the ropes and weights that allow easy opening and closing of the window. I put new trim on the inside of the window and re-glazed the glass on the outside. This room is ready for baby!!! Today I put the first coat of mud on the drywall in the bathroom. The baby is due April 21st and I'm hoping to have the bathroom ready to go before then. Two more coats of mud, some sanding, and then tile the walls (up to five feet). And then paint the un-tiled walls and ceiling. Install fixtures, hook up plumbing and wiring and VOILA! I'll post a photo essay on that one, too!

I said I'd post some pictures, so: The Alfredson Nursery A photo essay of de-Dunkle-fying our baby's room - by Jim Alfredson As many of you know, my wife and I bought our first house back in August of 2003. It is an old house, built in 1909 in a historic section of downtown Lansing. It sits at the corner of Moore's River Drive and Davis Ave., with the beautiful Moore's Park only footsteps to the north and a 120 student elementary school right next to the park, built in 1906. It's a lovely little neighborhood. The home is huge. Big rooms, tall ceilings, big doors and windows, and lots of woodwork, mostly all original and unpainted. Since we moved in, we have been using a little side bedroom as our computer office. But when we learned we were having a baby, we decided to turn it into a nursery and our child's room. It is inbetween our bedroom and the living room, so it's perfect. Here is what the office space looked like when we moved in. It was one of the few rooms in the house that had painted woodwork (but not the doors, thank God!). Pic 1 This is the door that leads into a short hallway. The bathroom is across the hall (which I'm currently renovating), the kitchen is to the left, and our bedroom is to the right. Notice the lovely pink. Everything was painted the same shade of Pepto-Bismal pink. It was hideous. Even the drapes on the window were the same shade and dense as all get out. No light came into the room. Pic 2 This is a terrible picture, but I included it so you could see the ugly drop ceiling. Every room in the house on the first floor, save the living room and dining room, have drop ceilings in them. The kitchen, our bedroom, the bathroom, and this bedroom-soon-to-be-nursery. The first step in the renovation was to remove this. I was scared to remove it because every drop ceiling in the house was hiding something. In the bathroom it was no plaster and exposed pipes. In the kitchen, exposed pipes and a huge whole in the ceiling. In our master bedroom, more pipes and holes. But in the nursery, it was just hiding the fact that they were 6 layers of wallpaper on the ceiling!!!! 6 layers of wallpaper on the ceiling and 8 on the walls. But have no fear, mighty Jim with his toolbelt is here!!!! Pic 3 The first step, after moving everything out of the room (thanks Joe!) and taking down the drop ceiling, was to chip off all the pink on the walls, since that was painted wallpaper and steam would not penetrate. We decided to use steam because the chemical wallpaper removers would not even budge the 8 layers of ancient paper on these walls. Pic 4 Here you can see the first wall I tackled, the outside wall with the window. Notice up in the right hand corner the exposed lathe board. The plaster here had bowed out and had to be repaired. Notice also the blue paint underneath all the drywall. That's the plaster, painted with milk paint! It had a very cool look to it. Milk paint does not cover as evenly as latex or oil, so the color is very rich, with different shades peaking through here and there. I think I'm going to buy some milk paint and paint our bathroom walls (the part of the walls that will not be tiled) with it. Pic 5 Another shot. Notice the ceiling. That's all wallpaper. Yucky. Pic 6 Here I am, hard at work with the steamer. I worked so hard the first day I lost all feeling in both my thumbs. It took two days for my left thumb to return to normal. Not the smartest thing I've ever done, considering I had to play a gig on the second day! Pic 7 After all the walls were done (on the third day), I enlisted more help to do the ceiling. My wife's sister had come up from Florida to help me with the walls, but the ceilings were beyond her reach. So I called up my sister's fiance, Nick. He worked his tail off with me!!! The ceiling was the hardest part of the whole job. They used what seemed like an entire 40-gallon drum of glue to put that stuff up there and it took a lot of elbow grease and steam to get it off. Pic 8 This is the same corner as Pic 5 after all wallpaper was removed and I had primed the walls and the ceiling with 3 coats of Killz. My concern was that when the house was built, they never put a finish coat of plaster on the walls. It was just the horse-hair plaster. They wallpapered directly on top of that. So the walls were very coarse and uneven. I was hoping that putting at least 3 layers of Killz on the walls and ceiling would even and smooth them out. It worked! Pic 9 The window. My bassist from my R&B band came by on the third day and fixed the big plaster hole in the other corner. He did a fantastic job! You cannot even tell it was a hole! Pic 10 My wife is very happy after we finished the first and only coat of yellow paint on the walls. Putting three layers of primer on the walls really helped! It took barely any paint to cover them beautifully!

Could be worse... say, a naked Bob Villa and powertools.

Today I put the first layer of mud on my drywall in the bathroom. Tomorrow some light sanding and the second coat. I will also probably continue striping the trim for the door and window of the bathroom tomorrow, as well as pricing out the tile for the walls. Sunday, more sanding and the final coat of mud for the drywall and then off to Muskegon to play at Dockers!

Wow!!!

Done Moose. Anyone else?

I had a dream the other night similair to SGUD's. I dreamt that I arrived at a gig with my other band (the R&B band) and I was late so they were helping me take my stuff out of the van, including my B3. I let them take the organ in while I grabbed other stuff. When I walked into the venue, I saw that they had somehow managed to tear on of the legs right off the B3!!! WHAT THE HELL!?!? So I spent the rest of the dream trying to fix it in time for the gig. The other night I had a dream that I was loaning my organ to Joey DeFrancesco (which I have done three times in real life). But all of a sudden I was not only loaning the organ, but running sound for his group for an outdoor concert... that was, for some reason, located in the front yard of my childhood home! Joey was set-up on the front porch and there was another stage way off in the distance in the corn field. Joey had two drummers with him for some reason and I was scurrying around trying to get everything to work and then realized I didn't have enough mics to cover two drumsets. I was about to get in my van and get my studio drum mics here at my house when I woke up. Joey was playing the organ and was very happy with the bass, at least!

Ok.

I've been asking that all day! He's MIA!

Why would he? You can do 100,000 times more with any $2,000 synth bought at your local Guitar Center today than with the Fairlight.

1) Sweets - I have the world's largest sweet-tooth, I think. If I had to cut sugar out of my diet completely, I think I would die. 2) Sleep - Man, I love to sleep. I could sleep all day. 3) Money - I'm not very good with it. I have to give it all to my wife or I spend it on stupid things.

I would like to see that.

Be sure to tell him how much joy his music has brought your life. We musicians love to hear that!

A new avatar for someone who loves that SNL skit. I saw this on another forum and had to steal it.

COOL! I like that alto player A LOT on Scone's record. I'll have to remember this one... when I get a little money.

I like Soul Woman and The Yodel. I also like the tunes on Boogaloo and Understanding. Very simple tunes, but plenty of room to explore.

How's Billy Preston's contribution? That man can play the Hammond...

The Mosaic box is well worth the $$$. If only Big John had recorded more. I keep toying with the idea of doing a John Patton tribute record.

Tony Banks was a lot of things, but improvisor is not one of them! That's for sure. Just listen to the live album from 1973. They play those songs exactly as on the record. That's probably one of the things that led to Gabriel's departure. Still, it would've been awesome to see that line-up then. I envy you! For five lads, they certainly put out a lot of sound!! Another band I wish I had seen live is Jethro Tull from the Thick As A Brick days. John Evans does some great Hammond work on that record.

I'm at 98.8% with only two negative feedbacks (that were completely my fault). It happens. Oh well. Does it cost me any bidders? Maybe, but the last stuff I sold on eBay sold in less than 24 hours (all three items, over $100 each).