Aluminum Overcast

Our local EAA Chapter has had the honor of hosting the B-17, Aluminum Overcast, for a couple of days. It is a magnificent aircraft with a long history of serving our country, and I love it.

I was able to get away from work today for a few hours to volunteer and shoot a few pictures. You can see them over at my flickr account. As cool as this plane is, the best part is the people we get to meet.

Yesterday we had several original B-17 pilots and crew come out to see the plane, and take a ride in the ship that saw many of them through some of the greatest deeds in history. I may sound a bit melodramatic, but I don’t think it can ever be overstated just how important that generation was to our country and the world. And getting to stand there with them and listen to their stories of courage and fear is inspiring.

If you get a chance to see the Aluminum Overcast, do so.. Plan to spend some time going through the plane and listening to the stories. If your local EAA chapter is as good as ours you might even get a free meal out of the deal.

B-17 Aluminum Overcast : Official Site

Looks like I got it mostly fixed.. I should go through and 301 all of the new navigation, but I really don’t care.. Let Google take care of itself for a change..

Not sure exactly where the problem is, but things got broken with the last WP update.. I suppose I’ll sort it out when I get the chance.. Good thing this isn’t a business blog..

When my buddy CrankyDave originally told me about the Genie a few days ago I laughed him off.. He said that I shouldn’t laugh about the Genie, but I laughed that off as well.. And then one of my favorite jewelry clients came in to the store and made me a believer..

We’ve made a lot of great jewelry for this customer over the years at Images Jewelers and he came in to pose with his latest bling, a pair of antique coins that we made up in to some stunning cuff links. I saw the pose and thought, oh no, the Genies are trying to tell me something..

So to the Genie King and Genie Princess, I apologize for not being a true believer!!

Just got back from the Taste of Westmont in Westmont, Il.. Had a fantastic time out there visiting with CrankyDave and his less CrankyWife.. (Have I mentioned that it’s more than 100 miles from my house to theirs?)

The Music:

The music was better than last year by a wide stretch.. There is the annual Sunday tribute to Muddy Waters, so that never really changes and can be missed, but Friday and Saturday we awesome.. At least this year’s headliner was worth seeing..

Saturday night features the Moods, a Motown group.. Great music, great show, especially if you like Motown music.. The headliner was American English, the Beatles tribute band.. These guys are good.. Especially if you like the Beatles.. Personally, I’m not a huge fan, and with the depth of the Beatles’ catalog even after two hours of playing I was still hearing people (ahem CrankyDave) complain that their favorite song wasn’t played.. My guess is that the concert would take all day for everyone to be happy.. BTW, I could see me wearing George’s orange suit from the Sgt. Pepper days.. Friday was better for my music wise.. Could be because I only really enjoy the mushroom days of the Beatles and not so much the rest of their stuff..

On Friday they had what they billed as the battle of the tribute bands featuring Reckoning (REM Tribute Band), One World (Police Tribute Band), Elevation (U2 Tribute Band), and Think Floyd (Pink Floyd Tribute Band). The night started early with Reckoning opening, followed by One World and Elevation, and closing the night out with Think Floyd.

I’m not a huge fan of U2 so that probably taints my view of their performance.. I really only liked the first album and after that it just got more and more pretentious to me.. The music was well played, and ‘Bono’ did reasonably well on most of the songs, but of all the bands they seemed to try to hardest to “be” the band they were paying tribute to, and it just comes off as a stage show to me and more acting than singing..

We only caught part of Reckoning.. But what I did hear was fantastic.. Unfortunately they got the 4pm slot on Friday afternoon and it made it hard to get there to listen, especially since it meant sitting in the middle of the street in 90 degree weather..

One World rocked! A couple of the band members play in both One World and Elevation so they had to pull double duty.. The music was outstanding, and they didn’t try to act like the Police.. I think that’s where a lot of tribute bands fall short.. They spend so much effort on trying to ‘look’ like the band that they forget to work on the music.. I would have changed the rotation of the bands and put One World 3rd on the night opening for Think Floyd..

Think Floyd, if you get the chance, go see them!! They were by far the best band of the weekend.. Outstanding guitar work, great vocals, and just a fantastic tribute to one of my favorite bands..

[youtube xybuWPayUnQ]

They didn’t try to ‘look’ like Pink Floyd, just played with a lot of heart and talent some great music..

The Food

Once again the village of Westmont seems to have forgotten that a “taste” of Westmont should include a lot of tasting.. But each year there are fewer and fewer food vendors out there.. This year there were a claimed 13 or 14 food vendors, but we only counted 8 after you dropped the pop/water vendors and things like Dairy Queen selling ice cream.. Maybe it’s the claimed $800 booth fee, maybe it’s the crappy layout that makes it too hard to actually sell anything, or maybe Westmont doesn’t have any decent restaurants any more..

Fortunately places like Johnny’s showed up with the most amazing roast beef and sausage combo (with Jardinara peppers) in the world.. Uncle Bub’s BBQ was there as well, fantastic BBQ ribs, and some small (?) catering company that shows up with these amazing Cuban sandwiches.. KoC was also there with corn on the cob..

Unfortunately that’s about it.. There are a couple of other vendors there, but none worth standing in line for.. Fortunately none of the other booths seem to have much of a line..

I’d like to suggest that the village of Westmont do something about the food.. Maybe lowering the booth prices for the local vendors so that they can afford to be there would be a good idea.. After all, if the local restaurants generate new business from the Taste then they will be paying more in taxes to the village rather than trying to justify the overhead of being at the festival..

Next Year

Just a couple of suggestions for next year..

1. More food!!! Lower that price, there are enough corporate sponsors that there is no need to milk the local restaurants and force them to stay away..
2. Fix the traffic flow around the food vendors.. They used to be in 4 boot blocks making it easier to get around, the way they are now it’s a nightmare to walk around with a friend or wife, you can’t stay close together because of the massive lines blocking everything..
3. PROBLEM CHILD!! Problem Child is a tribute band for AC/DC.. One of Chicago’s best local bands and they would be a blast to see at the taste of Westmont.. Maybe even a double feature with AC/DShe, nah, that might be too much to ask..

[youtube 6KSfZjYKACM]

Created by OnePlusYou

I am a sad robot junkie.

In the early 1970s the Russians followed the American jet train research by sticking two Yak-40 turbo-jet engines to the lead car of an ER22 train. The SVL (high-speed laboratory car) was intended to be used on the Troika Express and during testing is was able to reach speeds of 180mph (250km/hr)..

Like it’s American counterpart it never really went any further than that.. We can only guess, but I suspect that the only more expensive than trying to fly over dirt would be trying to fly over dirt on rails.. Jet fuel costs, noise levels, and probably just the fact that this is plane old silly contributed to the closing of the programs in both countries..

It’s a real shame that when projects like this end there is no budget for storing them for later viewing.

I love weird tech, and it’s really hard to beat the weirdness that the cold war created here and in Russia.. I grew up at the tail end of the cold war that Ronald Reagan, all praise his name, helped bring to an end while I was still in high school.. Anyway, where was I?? Oh, right, jet powered trains.. Really, jet powered trains..

In 1966 New York Central converted a Rail Diesel Car in to a jet powered train by adding a pair of General Electric J47-19 turbojet engines.. Normally these engines sit under the wing tip of a Convair B-36D intercontinental bomber.

To help the train cut through the air better a large nose was added to the train. Apparently it was pretty fast too. It reached 184mph on it’s way to Ohio. Not too bad for a train in the 60s..

The jet trains don’t end here. I found a Russian version made just a few years later.. But more on that in a few days..