I’ve put together a short bio for future reference, and you can read about the show Skye and I went to in early January here.

Excerpt from iTunes’ posted Biography on Brazzaville.

“Led by Beck saxophonist David Brown, Brazzaville’s exotic, globally minded indie pop was as much a product of Brown’s extensive travels as it was the Los Angeles coffeehouse scene from whence most of its members came.  Born in L.A., Brown had been a teenage runaway and heroin addict before cleaning up and finding a new lease on life from his love of traveling the world on the cheap.  He criss-crossed Europe, South America, and Asia, picking up musical influences from the Far East, Brazil (bossa nova), Africa, and France (cabaret pop), among others.  Eventually, he returned to California, where he studied the saxophone at L.A. City College.  There he first met Beck, and was introduce to a community of artists and musicians centered around the Los Feliz/Silverlake area of L.A.  When Beck hit the big time, he tapped Brown as the saxophonist in his touring band, and invited him to play on the Odelay album.

In 1997, during the world tour supporting Odelay, Brown conceived the idea for Brazzaville, taking the name from the capital of the Congo, which in a recent study had been branded with the worst quality of life of any major city in the world.  Brown added guitar to his instrumental repertoire (which grew to include piano, trombone, and percussion as well), and when he returned to Los Angeles in 1998, he put together a diverse line up of musicians.

Brazzaville recorded a self-titled debut album and released it on Brown’s own South China Sea imprint in 1999.  It received favorable review of its hybrid of indie pop, lounge jazz, world music, and noir-sh atmosphere.  Later that year the Engine label picked up the record’s distribution rights and reissued it under the title 2002.  The follow-up Somnambulista, released in 2001, their third full-length, Rough on Pockmarked Cheeks, appeared in 2002.  Afterwards, Brown relocated to Barcelona and assembled an alternate European lineup of Brazzaville.”

Since this write up on iTunes Brazzaville has release a few more albums, Hastings Street and East L.A. Breeze both in 2006, 21st Century Girl in 2008, Brazzaville in Istanbul in 2009.  Brown has also released a new album titled Teenage Summer Days in 2009 under his name David Arthur Brown.  For more information visit their website Brazzaville-Band.com.  While you’re there check out their Band Manifesto.  It begins with, “Brazzaville is dedicated to the naïve idea that the world is a beautiful place filled with wonder.”  Enough said.

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Years earlier I saw a special screening at the Director’s Guide Theater in Los Angeles of the German Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). They were screening that with Blade Runner (1982), one of my favorite movies, where the art director, David Snyder, was there in person to talk about the visual similarities between Dr. Caligari and Blade Runner. One of the main characters in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was a somnambulist, a sleepwalker, who was under the mind control of Dr. Caligari.  So when I saw the Brazzaville album, Somnambulista, I thought to myself, “Clever name, let’s check these guys out.”

The music is like nothing I have heard before.  It’s a fusion of rock, lounge jazz, and world music with a familiar attitude.  Growing up in Southern California, I was able to identify with some of the lyrics about Los Angeles. I connected to the music and the lyrics that are so poetically written in the word painting style of one of my favorite writers, Jack Kerouac.  Since then I’ve bought all their albums and have been amazed ever since.

Fast-forward 2009.

Earlier in November, I received an email from Facebook about an event I was invited to.  It was from David Arthur Brown, the lead singer from Brazzaville.  It was for a show in January at The Echo in Echo Park.  I told Skye when I got the email.  “Okay, I know what I would like to do for my birthday.”  We bought tickets and waited for January 6th.

Although family time is very important, our new year’s resolution this year was to have at least one ‘date night’ a month, just Skye and me.  Since the birth of our 2 year old we’ve noticed we hadn’t really gone out as ‘adults’ in a while, occasionally but not regularly.  Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with Skyler; he is such a joy to be with.  Once a month isn’t that bad, in way it’s really a win-win situation.  Skyler gets to spend the night over at Nana and Papa and eat ice cream and cookies all night long and Skye and I get to go out to diner and show.

I did a quick search on the Internet as to what kind of restaurants were in the area.  The Echo is off of Sunset Blvd. just north of Echo Park.  The restaurant that caught my eye was called, Masa of Echo Park.  It is an Italian bakery and Café, known for great Chicago style pizza.  My review to be posted.

After dinner we headed down to The Echo, it was just a couple of doors down.  We stood in line to wait for them to let us in.  The line wasn’t too long we were probably 7th or 8th in line.

The doors opened at 830pm, the first show was at 9pm.  The Echo is a rather small but clean venue.  I was impressed.  There was a bar one side, house left.  The stage and a ‘dance floor’/ general admission area about the size of a 2 1/2 car garage.  It wasn’t big but it was big enough.  The opening band was just okay.  They called themselves, Salt Petal.  I really can’t comment on the music much.  The lead singer sang and played the accordion, which was cool but other than that it was really quite unmemorable.  I guess the bad thing was that I feel she didn’t make a connection with the audience.  Still, live music is much better than sticking in a CD until the main event.

10pm and the main event.  Brazzaville was on stage.  Before starting David introduced himself and the band and said if we wanted to hear any songs, just shout them out and they would play it.  They started off with a nice number called “Love is the Answer,” a song about a runaway from their Hastings Street CD.

I was really impressed with the musicality of the band and their leader.  The band was having a good time and the audience was having a good time.  What surprised me was how grateful and polite David was up on stage acknowledging the applause.  He seemed very personable and very passionate about his music.

Now for the drama.  So we were standing about one-third back from the stage, a perfect view of the band when I leaned over to Skye to say, “Wow, we can see the stage.”  Normally when we’d go to events the tallest people or people with the biggest hair will stand or sit in front of us.  I had spoke too soon.  I’m all for enjoying yourself and having a great time, however, there was a group of three people that shoved their way in front of us, an older gentleman, an older lady, and what was maybe their twenty-something year old daughter, not sure.  What I am sure of was that the two women were on their way to being drunk and already past obnoxious.  The guy just kept to himself and kept beat to the music, but the women just bounced around, sang along, would knock into me or Skye with their beer in hand spilling here and there; the big kicker, the older lady’s hair smelled like dead flowers.  Seriously, if you’re going to push your way to the front of a crowd and act obnoxious, please don’t put on old lady perfume. Please, for the love of God! It took me two weeks to get rid of that smell…  I digress.

The concert was awesome, it being a small venue made it even better.  I just wished it could have been a little longer.  The best part of the evening was towards the end when David asked the audience what song we wanted to hear.  Skye asked me what Skyler’s favorite song was that we play in the car for him when he is tired.  “Peach Tree!” she shouted.  Another random voice shouted from the crowd “Yeah, Peach Tree.”  David’s response, “Oh, that’s a good one.”  I was able to record the song on video.  It really is not a very good recording, mainly because I was not using a tripod, and the other reason, because the dead flower hair woman in front of me came back from the restroom halfway through the song and knocked me a few times.  All I could do was laugh.

Okay, the back-story to this song for me.  It’s the first song on their East L.A. Breeze CD.  When Skyler was about 3 weeks old we were going to visit my parents for the weekend in San Diego.  It was our first major car trip that was going to be more than 10 minutes.  Being first time parents everything about babies was pretty much new.  We got 5 minutes down the road and Skyler was still crying uncontrollably, I was about to turn the car around when I switched the music over to this CD.  It’s one of those songs that paints a picture, layer upon layer.  It starts off with a shaker,  chh, chh, chh, chh, chh, chh, chh, chh, then on top of that a smooth count in “One… two…one, two, three, four.”  Enter the guitar and standing bass plucking softly, then violin and it haunting theme, then the poetry of song.  Skyler stopped crying instantly; he sat there in the back wide-awake, just listening.  We headed to San Diego with no problems we just had to play this song a few times until he fell asleep.  To this day I have this CD in the first position on the CD changer in the car.  Skyler is almost 3 and their music still captivates him and me.

More videos can be seen on my website at CounterPointPhotography and on my YouTube Channel.

To hear samples or purchase check them out on iTunes .  For more information visit their website Brazzaville-Band.com.  Check out their Band Manifesto.  It begins with, “Brazzaville is dedicated to the naïve idea that the world is a beautiful place filled with wonder.”  Enough said.

This was the last song to close the set, “Single Apartment.” What a great night!

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I got home and installed the battery as fast as I could.  My son was with my wife at “My Gym” so I had about 45 minutes to get this battery in.

Installation should take about 15 minutes, it took me about 30 minutes, mainly because I double checked everything and took pictures along the way to make sure I didn’t forget anything.  It was dark.

It’s really quite easy.  The battery I installed was a Bosch PremiumPower.  (about $75 USD)

This summer when I have time, I’ll probably install an Optima Red Top and keep this guy as a backup.

Here is what it says on the top:

• CCA @ 0^F : 630
• CA @ 32^F : 785
• RC Mins @ 25 Amps : 90
• Part Number: 86-630B
• Group Size: 86

Uninstallation of Old Battery:

Click open the battery’s negative (black) cover to access the post and nut.  Loosen the negative battery cable nut.

I used a 10mm socket wrench for this.  Pull it off the post and set aside.  Make sure it doesn’t touch anything.

Click open the battery’s positve (red) cover.  Loosen the positive cable nut.  Work it off the post and set aside.  Again make sure this doesn’t touch anything.  Even though it’s not connected to anything it’s just a good habit to keep when working with electrical stuff.

Remove battery vent hose.  It slides right off.

Remove the battery upper box.  Press the locking tabs inward and lift up.  It might be easier to do one side and angle it up to release the other tab.  The tab closest to the fender is a little tight to get your hand in to push the tab.  Angle it out.

Disengage the battery strap.

I used a 13mm socket wrench for this.

Loosen and take off the nut.  Slide strap end up.  This will create the slack you need to take the strap off the other side of the battery’s lower tray’s restraint.  Also this exposes the cleat that holds the base of the battery down.
The cleat fits over a groove that is in the battery and wedges it down.  Remove the cleat by pulling it straight up along the bolt that it sits on.

Here is a picture of the cleat.

You must remove the cleat before you remove the battery.  The 2 pictures above where shot just to show the cleat.  I had already taken the battery out so you can see how it wedges the battery down. Just imagine the battery sitting in the tray. You’ll see in a couple of photos below with the new battery installed.

Remove the battery.

Installation of New Battery:

Note the groove toward the bottom backside of the battery.

Place new battery into lower half of battery tray.  Notice there is no cleat yet.  Make sure, if you are installing a battery intended for a Hummer H3, the groove on the back of the battery is closest to the firewall of the engine compartment.  This is where the safety cleat will clamp down on.

Place safety cleat over bolt and slide down into position.

Place battery strap on the front side, hook into position.

Place end of battery strap over bolt on top of the safety cleat.

Install the retainer nut.  Use that 13mm socket and tighten down.  If the battery you are installing sits a little shorter, wedge it with some material that can take some heat, it gets hot in there.

Install the battery upper box and make sure the tabs click.

Make sure your Positive and Negative battery cables are free from corrosion.  Use a wire brush to clean.  Install the positive (red) cable.  Use the 10mm socket to tighten nut.  Install the Negative cable, tighten the nut.  Close the plastic covers.

Connect the battery vent hose.

All done.  Start her up!

Hey, Leave a comment.  Let me know if you stopped by!  Thanks!

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It doesn’t help that recently my 2 year old has taken a liking to playing in the H3.  He likes turning on the lights, rolling down the windows, opening and closing the sunroof, turning on and off the fan for a good 10 to 15 minutes almost every time we get home and pull into the driveway.  That’s another story.

I threw a question out to my Hummer Friends at HummerXClub.com for their suggestions on what is the best battery on the market for an H3.

“I have a 2006 Hummer H3. What’s the best battery for the rig without too much fuss of installing?”

Many came back with great pictures of their installs.  The overwhelming response was the Optima brand, more specifically, the Optima Red Top.  Well as time passed by my battery grew weaker and weaker.  I still hadn’t pulled the trigger as to which battery I’d get.  In the long run the Optima Red Top would work the best however there were some immediate drawbacks.

Optima Red Top

CONS:

• I’d have to modify the existing battery enclosure in-order to for the optima to fit.  It’s a little taller than the OEM sized battery.
• Possibility, based on current reviews of the battery, that it potentially could be hit or miss on getting one that was DOA or with non-working cells.
• Price.  The Optimas tend to be a little more pricey than your everyday battery.

PROS:

• Well liked and a good name in the wheeling community.
• Powerful battery used in cold weather.
• Sealed and maintenance free and lasts a long time. (As long as you get a problem-free one…)

My dilemma?  How much time would I have to physically replace the battery given the variable of my two year old son?  In a perfect world, a couple of hours and a beer; in the real world, 3.5 minutes and a red-bull.  I needed to find something in the middle.

Let’s jump to the end of the month, December 28th.  The original battery lost it’s mojo.  Not bad, I guess, it lasted a good 3.5 years 62K miles.  I walked out to the parking lot after work, turned the key and there was silence, a silence similar to what I would give in place of vermouth to my dry vodka martini.

I was the last one out to lock up that evening, but luckily my friend and co-worker, Finlay G., was in the area to come back and help jump start it.  He followed me over to the Sear Auto Center, given the lack of time I thought, “Die Hard, that will work.”  Much to my surprise Die Hard/Sears don’t make a battery for the size the H3 needs.  Bummer.  The guy at Sears pointed me over to PepBoys a few miles away.  Jump start and I was on my way.

PepBoys – for some reason the same smell of tires and stale car fresheners has stayed the same over the years.  It triggered memories of when I was a toddler going up and down the aisles with my dad looking for parts for either the Pinto, the Corvair, or the Volaré.  Classic.  I went to the back counter and asked for a battery for the H3, they had one.  And when I say they had one, I mean they had one. One brand and only one in stock.  ”I’ll take it.”

Bosch Premium Plus

CONS:

• I hadn’t done any research on this battery.

PROS:

• I’ll fit.
• I can install with minimal time and effort.

Read the Installation Here.

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There has always been that marketing/sales quote. “If a customer receives good service he’ll tell 1 other person, customer received bad service he’ll tell 10 others.” I’m out to change that in this post.

This week I was pleasantly surprised. I feel, especially with today’s economy, customer service is a differentiating factor I have come to place more weight upon. If I am going to spend my hard-worked money for a product or service there are a few things I expect: knowledge of the product or service that is being provided, mutual respect and a fair price. That being said, the first two criteria can influence the third. Earlier this week I took my H3 in for service. I took it in the Cerritos Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Hummer Service Center where I met Robert D. I was having a “Serv 4WD” in the DIC light up and then go away occasionally. I was due for an Oil Change so I thought I’ll take it in to get the 4WD serviced. I feel, had I taken it somewhere else, I would have had to pay for an oil change and a 4WD service and still not have solved the problem. It ended up being electrical and not a 4WD problem. Nice catch on Robert D’s part to diagnose the problem instead of treating just the symptom.

So here is my plug for Robert D. <plug> If you are in the Los Angeles/Orange County area and need to get your Hummer or any other GM vehicle serviced take it to the Cerritos Pontiac, Buick, GMC, Hummer Service Center, ask for Robo or his real name, and you won’t be disappointed. He knows what he is doing, doesn’t talk down to you when explaining some basic things and a pleasant cool guy.</plug>

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It’s a pretty cool unit.  In addition to the fingerprints, you can also get in via PIN number or mechanical key, which I guess is a fail-safe if you get amnesia and have your fingers chopped off.  There is no worry of power outage either, there’s a secret battery point where you touch a 9V battery to juice it up temporarily since the 4 double ‘A’ batteries are inside on the backside of the unit.

To program it, I had to set up a master print code.  This print is different from the entrance print.  It is only used to program the other 99 entrance codes.  To program the master print I had to remove some hardware and push a couple of buttons in the back at the same time with special tools to activate the unit to accept a master print.  Once that was done I set up the PIN for back up entrance.  I had to prep the unit and then enter my own 8 digit number to create the new PIN.  Once that was completed I put the unit back together and started to program the unit for fingerprint recognition.  There are 99 open slots for fingerprints.  I put my master print down to activate the unit to accept an entrance print, inputted a two digit number, and placed a different finger on the sensor to read it and then read it again.  It beeped telling me it was saved.  I tried and sure enough, I heard the motor turn and activate the handle.  I pushed down on the handle and the door opened.  Pretty cool.

What now, Mr. Spock?!  That’s what I thought…

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Last night I received the SwitchLinc 3-Way Dimmer – INSTEON 3-Way Dimmer Kit from Smarthome (smarthome.com).  What’s nice is that I can order from their website early in the morning and get the product the next day for the low end on shipping.  Their headquarters are about 30 miles away.   The SwitchLinc 3-Way Dimmer – INSTEON 3-Way Dimmer Kit works for lights switches that are three pole switches, meaning two light switches that control the same lights.

The instructions were well written, if I read them when I decided to pull everything out of the walls.  I partially read steps 1 through 6.  I didn’t realize until after there were about 25 steps altogether.  Go fig.  I started at 8:30pm

Needless to say it took me a could of times to get this in the right way.  The first time once all the wires were connected, wrongly connected, the 6 ceiling lights would come on, then go off, flicker, and then repeat.  I thought to myself, sweet, we will just have to get used to that.  After about 10 seconds of that I decided to figure this mess out.

I read the directions word for word and by 11:30pm the lights dimmed on and the family room was with light of any intensity.  Now I know what to do next time.  I’ll have to install another set in our bedroom.  Hopefully this time it will only take me about 30 minutes to get those ones in.  I’ll post when that happens.

Product-wise, these switches are nice to look at, they have a white light that is on the left side of the switch to tell you the intensity of the light strength.  What’s cool is that you can program the lights to ramp up as fast as you want or as slow as you want and to what intensity you want it to go to.  eg. You can set the intesity at 50% of full power and have it take 3 seconds for the lights to slowly ramp up to 50%.  You can tap the pad again and have 100% intensity or you can hold the pad down to ramp up the intesity to whatever you want.  Pretty cool.

For more information check-out Smarthome’s website for more information.   www.smarthome.com

Directlink to this product:
SwitchLinc-3-Way-Dimmer-INSTEON-3-Way-Dimmer-Kit

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I ordered the Cargo Basket and 18” extension from eTrailer.com.  They had the best price and their customer service was top notch.

Basic Rola Roof-Rack (Photo from eTrailer.com)

18 3/4" (Photo from eTrailer.com)

Rola Roof-Rack with Extension (Photo from eTrailer.com)

Features:
•    Black powder coat finish resists rust and corrosion
•    Includes custom fairing to help deflect wind
•    Stylish design

Specs:
•    Universal mounting hardware fits round, square and most factory OEM racks
•    Factory roof rack cross members must not be wider than 3-1/4″
•    Inside Dimensions: 48″ x 37-1/2″ x 4″
•    Extension is available to lengthen carrier by 18-3/4″
•    2 piece steel construction
•    Do not exceed the vehicle manufacturer’s roof rail weight ratings

Installation was a breeze.  The basket came in two pieces plus an extra piece that was the extension.  They slide into the other pieces and screwed in with the provided hardware.  I placed basket up on the roof of the H3 where I wanted it and then snapped the brackets on the basket and crossbars.

Close up of Bracket and Clamps (Photo from eTrailer.com)

I installed this by myself and it took about 45 minutes.  I would have been shorter if it hadn’t been cold and dark but it was all good.  It was the only time I had after our 17-month old son went to bed.

Once it was on the H3 it gave a whole new look.  It sat a little high, but because of the Fairing on the Thule crossbars and the Fairing that is part of the Rola Rack it works great.  The only tweak I need to do is bring the basket one rib up toward the front of the truck.  Right now it’s rear sticks out a little over the roof-line.  It’s not bad, but I’ll see what I could do.  If I didn’t have a sun roof it wouldn’t be a problem I would be able to bring everything forward.

Overhang

Rola on Hummer H3

All-in-all a great piece of gear that I will get it’s use out.  eTrailer.com was great in price, shipping, and customer service with video instructions and write-ups I will definitely visit them again for other cargo needs.

For more information go directly to Rola Roof-Rack Mounted Vortex Cargo Basket at eTrailer.  Or visit Rola’s Website

Also, if this review was helpful to you, I’d like to know.  Leave a comment below!

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H3 OEM Crossbars

Those where not what I wanted, I needed something more substantial so that I could eventually place a safari basket atop the rack.

When I was younger my Dad had a Thule bike rack installed on our 1985 Audi 5000S Turbo. (Now that was a sweet car.) From that point on I’d always leaned towards the Thule Rack System. I know there are a few vendors out there that do the same job, most notably Yakima, however, I went ahead and decided on the Thule Roof-top Rack System. My only reservation was that fact that I couldn’t find any pictures of the rack on a H3. I wasn’t sure if it was going to stick out too high and look stupid or if it would add to the character of the truck.

Here is the set-up for the rack:
430 Tracker II Foot Pack | TK12 Tracker Kit | LB58 Load Bars

I ordered the set online from Amazon. They had the best price and shipping was free. I ordered it in pieces and installed it in phases.

The first to come were the 430 Tracker II Foot Pack.

430 Tracker II Foot Pack

These are just the base units that attach to the existing tracks on the H3. These are basically a permanent install. Permanent in the sense that you don’t’ have to take these off if you want to take off the rack. They will just look like nubs on the rails of you roof by themselves. I installed them on the existing rail and tightened down the flat, square nut with the provided Allen wrench in the position I wanted the crossbars to be parallel to each other.

The “Towers” and Load Bars where next on the list.

TK12 Tracker Kit

58 Inch Load Bars

I ordered the “Towers” (TK12 Tracker Kit) and 58” Load Bars (LB58). I slid the load bar into the square hole on one of the towers. I did that three more times since there are 4 tower and 2 load bars. I did not tighten the clamp for the load bar so that I could adjust it when it was on the roof. I placed the load bar with two towers up on the roof into the preinstalled Foot Pack. They snapped in and then I made sure the load bars were centered on the roof and tightened into place with the provided Allen wrench. I repeated this for the other set to finish the platform.

I added a fairing to cut down on wind noise.

Thule Fairing

That hooks up to the leading load bar pretty simply. You just have to put the fairing together before you hook it up to the roof. Once I placed that up on the roof with the rack, it added to the look of the H3. I was quite happy with the look. It didn’t sit too high on the roof, in fact it gave the H3 some height while adding to it’s square body profile.

For protection I added 4 core locks to the towers.

Core Locks

Since they are easy to take off, it would be easy for anyone to take them off so now they are locked on.

Thule Rack

All-in-all, functional and cool looking; Well-engineered and ready to use. I’m glad these worked out perfectly.

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