Building the Sonic Arsenal.....

I started getting into music when I was young. When I was 5, my parents got me a three-octave, 12-button-chord Organaire organ for Christmas. They thought it was a good way for me to develop my eye-hand coordination, which at the time was pretty horrible. They soon upgraded the organ to a Thomas Californian 261 organ. I guess they liked the young man who played organ at the mall so much that they wanted me to be like him. Ugh.

In 4th grade, at the urging of my parents, I started clarinet lessons. In junior high, I transitioned from clarinet to alto clarinet to bass clarinet. I played bass clarinet in my high school marching band, wind ensemble, and pit orchestra for the school musicals. When I started college, I put the clarinet in the closet. (The bass clarinet belonged to the school district, so it stayed behind.) I didn't even play in the pep band. After I graduated from college, I met some filkers -- science fiction fans who were musicians. And so I started hanging with that crowd. I also dug out the clarinet I had stashed away years before.

( I liked playing again. )

Another put-off project.........

Years ago, I purchased a complete set of The Photo partworks magazines, published by Marshall Cavendish UK. The series is like a photography tutorial; the issues form volumes that can be referenced like an encyclopedia or dictionary. I'd like to put these into binders, but the series has been published so long ago (early 1980s) that I doubt the "official" binders are available from the publisher. To complicate things, the magazines are A4 size, not 8 1/2 x 11.

My current plan is to get 100 A4 magazine holder straps and 7 4-ring A4 binders to fit. (There's a grand total of 98 issues.) Yes, this will involve ordering items from the UK, which may make it more expensive. At this time, I don't know of any domestic supplier of A4 binding supplies. Any suggestions?