Carl Bratcher dot Com - In Your Dreams Are Irregular Ramblings

The Bonne Is Gone

Carl — Fri, 11 May 2012 23:59:57 +0000

Decided to sell the Bonne and with that gone I went on a bit of a spending spree for musical instruments – see the Music Stuff page for what I bought e.g. a Korg T2ex, a Yamaha DX27 amongst other things and other music based snippets like links to good companies etc.

Rugby Supporters

Carl — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 02:26:38 +0000

A family of England rugby supporters head out shopping in Richmond, one Saturday before Christmas.
While in a sport shop, the son picks up a Welsh rugby shirt and says to his sister, “I’ve decided I’m going to be a Welsh supporter and I’d like this shirt for my Christmas present!”
The sister is outraged at this; promptly whacks him round the head and says, “Go talk to mum.”
Off goes the little lad, with Welsh shirt in hand and finds his mother.
“Mum”
“Yes, son?”
“I’ve decided I’m going to be a Welsh supporter and I’d like this shirt for my Christmas present.”
The mother is outraged at this; promptly whacks him round the head and says, “Go talk to your father.” Off he goes with the Welsh shirt in hand and finds his father.
“Dad.”
“Yes, son?”
“I’ve given this a lot of thought; I’ve watched the style of rugby they play and I’ve decided I’m going to be a Welsh rugby supporter and I would like this Welsh shirt for my Christmas present.”
The father is outraged at this; promptly whacks his son round the head and says: “No son of mine is ever going to be seen in THAT!”
About half an hour later, they are all back in the car heading home. The father turns to the son and says: “Son, I hope you’ve learned an important lesson today?”
The son turns to his father and says: “Yes, Father, I have.”
Father says: “Good son, and what is it?”
The son replies: “I’ve only been a Welsh supporter for an hour and I already hate you English bastards!”

Online Auctions

Carl — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:19:23 +0000

As is my want, I spend alot of time wandering online auctions and wholesale sites mainly because I have this continual thought that maybe I might be lucky enough to fall over a bargain. Now of late all I can honestly say I’ve fallen over is total crap, crap as in sellers and whiney buyers – I shall elaborate.

Now I bought a set of Lucas knock off blinkers for the Bonneville off eBay and yes they didn’t arrive, neither did the replacement set they said they sent hmmmm methinks they are trying to take me for a ride – one Paypal refund later and that’s them sorted. Bought another set of Lucas knock off blinkers only these were dearer but I’d dealt with the seller before, anyway within 2 days I get an email saying that one of the blinkers wasn’t up to scratch and the shipping had been delayed by a week. Funny thing is, I got that same email off em when I bought the other set *pondering the significance of such a statement* – anyhoo I sent them an email and told em unless I get by the 2nd March I’ll be requesting a refund.

It gets better ya know I also bought a studio mic pop filter and seeing as I was bored and it was coming up on week three I sent that seller an email asking where it was. Their response? Well it can take up to 40 days for the item to arrive. 40 days????????? where the f**k is it coming from, or more to the point do they feed the pigeons before attaching the items to their legs and sending em on their merry way – 40 days my arse, they also got the 2nd March deadline.
I did however buy a bass guitar from Melbourne, took 5 days to arrive – I unpacked it and inspected it and it looked sweet. Plugged it all in, tuned it then went to do summut, came back an hour later to have a muck about with it and damn near sliced me hand on the bloody great split in the neck – I swore, as you do!! I will give the seller their due, I emailed em, they sent me a prepaid post thingy and said send it back and we’ll give you another, cool now I just wait – again!

Now I did mention whiney buyers too and this was pure 100% classic. A nob head bought a ‘Fender‘ Strat for $325 inc postage ermmm I was pretty sure Strats were a little more expensive, but I digress. The site has a feedback section so I thought I’d check the seller out and what do I find, yep Captain Whiney Buyer Shit Head. And this was his feedback “This guitar is a fake, they sold me a fake, I want my money back” ROFLMFAO I think the price is a giveaway YOU DICK!!

Anyway, here are a few recommendations from yours truly of eBay sellers that in my opinion are bloody good sellers.

ccslightsound – I bought a Behringer 1002FX Mixer, a Behringer C1 Studio Mic and a Behringer UCA202 off this seller and talk about good comms and delivery time.
BelfieldMusic – Bought a triple guitar stand off them
Oz-Supplier – That was the bass
Pick_Guru – bought a 100 mixed medium weight picks and a guitar strap for Dylan who got himself a strat copy and amp, case etc.
Swamp-Industries – bought various studio cabling off them
Jackmusical – bought a basic acoustic guitar rebuild kit for her who must be obeyed, she’s had the thing for nigh on 40 years so I thought I’d tidy it up for her, she can’t play it but her dad bought it for her so thats a good enough reason.
There are a couple more that I won’t add just yet as I’ve only just started dealings with them, although one of em is proving to be a nob head already so we’ll see.

The Joys Of Living In The Arse End Of The World

Carl — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:37:05 +0000

That being Australia, have you seriously tried to get overseas TV channels that actually work for greater than 10 minutes without crackin’ up or shittin’ itself completely??? If you can get TVChile and Chilevision in Australia and it’s NOT supplied bt UBIWorld TV, lemme know coz ever since they took over from Select TV the service has gone to shit – I’ll be fucked if I know why I actually still pay ‘em, maybe it’s in the hope that they’ll sort their shit-house service out.

Well, Here We Go Again

Carl — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:37:33 +0000

Bloody summer, I HATE IT!
Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is like winter here in Oz – well that’s a slight exaggeration, it may be a tad warmer but compared to here it’s nothing. It’s now back to air conditioners, cold showers and that’s at night GRRRRR.

Plus it slows stuff down i.e. me doin work on the Bonneville, it gets so bleeding ‘ot in the shed ya gotta wander outside to get a bitta fresh air and wipe the sweat off. Just on the Bonneville, it’s got an annoying rattle in the top end that I just gotta find and fix. Pulled the front cam out to double check the anti-backlash gear, reset that now I’m changing all the stupid torx screws for allen head bolts in the cam blocks – damn stupid idea are them torx screws.

The only other things I need to do are fit the Lucas tail light, the short Lucas blinkers and the Ped Slicer

Band Reviews

Carl — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:44:13 +0000

Going through the list of stuff I’ve got most of which a lot of you have probably never heard of, I thought I might start this series of band reviews to enlighten those that seek enlightenment .
Not only does it give me a chance to slow my brain down it’ll also give me a chance to listen to stuff I ain’t ‘eard in eons ;) so with that this is the first of no doubt many.

Band: Brainticket
Country of Origin: Germany 1968
Genre: Tripper Rock, Kraut Rock, Psychedelic Rock

This is a band that at first listening seems to be nothing more than a German version of Atomic Rooster, until that is you just let the album play in this case it’s Cottonwoodhill.

I’ve often wondered where all the drugs went in the late 60′s early 70′s but now I know – Germany!! While the likes of Deep Purple, Atomic Rooster, Bloodrock et al were forming the basis of a semi static genre Brainticket were slipping from genre to genre and back again – plus combining them all – including classical. With Cottonwoodhill you are taken on a definate LSD inspired trip involving repetitive heavy Hammond, deep bass lines and spoken word in the form of a semi non-sensical poem – well it seems non-sensical because I can never keep up with her.

If I were to compare them to anyone they would be a mix of King Crimson, Atomic Rooster (latter e.g. Made In England), Pink Floyd (early e.g. Relics/Ummagumma) and early Jethro Tull oh and I supppose you could throw in some Hawkwind and Frank Zappa for his mindless wanderings.

The band was formed in Germany in 1968 with members from a number of different European countries and to the best of my knowledge released 7 albums spread over essentially 4 decades – the albums are:

Cottonwoodhill (mk I)
Psychonaut (mk I)
Celestial Ocean (mk I)
Adventure (mk II)
Voyage (mk II)
Alchemic Universe (2000) (mk III)
Live In Rome 1973 (2001) (mk I)

A brief Google search told me the following. As of August 2011 the band re-formed or should I say one original member re-created the band and is currently touring the US.

So how would I rate this band? Well unless you are in to the likes of King Crimson or Hawkwind or Pink Floyd then you will probably struggle with them, on the other hand if you like the tripper/psychedlic stylings of Pink Floyd’s “Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave Grooving With A Pict” you will probably take to Brainticket. If you like the random key/style changes of King Crimson’s “Great Deceiver” you will probably like Brainticket.

Out of 10 I’d only rate them a 7 as even though I’m a King Crimson, Pink Floyd fan, Brainticket take it to the extreme in regards to genre crossing.

Brainticket on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVjrva6Nx3Y

David’s Triumph

Carl — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:40:36 +0000

A young lad said to his father one day, “dad everyone say’s their bike is the best etc, but yours is the only one in the bible.”
His father replied. “How so mate?”
He said “it says in the bible that David’s Triumph could be heard through out the land.”

I’m At It Again :P

Carl — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:58:17 +0000

Sold the Sporty – I’m not a Harley person to be honest and with that said it went I’ve now got myself a 2001 Triumph Bonneville in Forest Green and Silver, and am totally stoked!!

Granted it’s got 66,000 on the clock (Klm’s not Miles) but to look at it it looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor. Not only are the Bonnies a great looking bike they also handle so this one is a def keeper for sure.

This is the story of Rindercella and her sugly isters.

Carl — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 10:42:03 +0000

Rindercella and her sugly isters lived in a marge lansion. Rindercella worked very hard frubbing sloors, emptying poss pits, and shivelling shot.

At the end of the day, she was knucking fackered. The sugly isters were right bugly astards. One was called Mary Hinge, and the other was called Betty Swallocks; they were really forrible huckers;they had fetty sweet and fatty swannies. The sugly isters had tickets to go to the ball, but the cotton runts would not let Rindercella go.

Suddenly there was a bucking fang, and her gairy fodmother appeared. Her name was Shairy Hithole and she was a light rucking fesbian. She turned a pumpkin and six mite wice into a hucking cuge farriage with six dandy ronkeys who had buge hollocks and digbicks. The gairy fodmother told Rindercella to be back by dimnlight otherwise, there would be a cucking falamity.

At the ball, Rindercella was dancing with the prandsome hince when suddenly the clock struck twelve. “Mist all chucking frighty!!!” said Rindercella, and she ran out tripping barse over ollocks,so dropping her slass glipper.

The very next day, the prandsome hince knocked on Rindercella’s door and the sugly isters let him in.. Suddenly, Betty Swallocks lifted her leg and let off a fig bart.. “Who’sfust jarted?” asked the prandsome hince. “Blame that fugly ucker over there!!” said Mary Hinge.

When the stinking brown cloud had lifted, he tried the slass glipper on both the sugly isters without success and their feet stucking funk.

Betty Swallocks was ducking fisgusted and gave the prandsome hince a knack in the kickers. This was not difficult as he had bucking fuge halls and a hig bard on. He tried the slass glipper on Rindercella and it fitted pucking ferfectly..

Rindercella and the prandsome hince were married. The pransome hince lived his life in lucking fuxury, and Rindercella lived hers with a follen swanny.

Acredited to Ronnie Barker

New Toy LOL

Carl — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:37:44 +0000

After finally letting the XVS1100 go (what a sad day that was) I spent some time looking for something else and almost bought a 1996 Triumph Thunderbird for $4,000 – ALMOST Mark (son-in-law) pointed me at a candy apple red 1988 XLH1200 for $5,000 but he was confident that he could get it for less and he did – he paid a pittance for it you could almost say he stole it LOL well the dude at MCAS said for the $3,700 he paid for it was like stealing it hehe.

It’s got a wide glide kit with 4″ ups that I’m pulling off and returning to stock, a fatbob tank, an S&S Shorty and was rebuilt a while back, the owner rode it till it ran out of rego then just parked it – bargain for me

As you can plainly see, from foto three onwards is how it finally looks apart from the 2″ Ultima Drag Pipes