It's been a nice weekend of just kicking back, relaxing, and celebrating.

To celebrate my Mom's majority Irish ancestry that we didn't know she had until after some recent DNA testing (oral tradition isn't always accurate), we celebrated St. Patrick's Day on Saturday with me cooking a traditional St. Patrick's Day feast of corned beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and a wee bit of Guinness to wash it all down - it turned out to be a good feast!

Dad passed away before we found out about Mom's Irish ancestry, but he definitely would have enjoyed celebrating it with us!

The Day family has always enjoyed a good time centered around a family meal, humor & laughter, and a little music to create a festive atmosphere, and when you get to be 93 like Mom, it's all the more reason to celebrate life and family! Cheers!

Mom was looking forward to checking out my 60 year old Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers (same age as me!) that I bought for my bedroom system.

They were a hit with Mom, she really loved the Corona's looks, the way they sat unobtrusively in the room corners, and the way they filled the room with the jazz flowing out of them. Mom mentioned a couple of times over the course of the day how much she liked those vintage Altec 832A Corona loudspeakers!

The wood chest in the photo above contains a lot of the family history, so a future goal is to get it all in order and do a bit of research to fill in some more of the gaps.

Motorcycle riding and racing has been a bit of a tradition in the Day family, with my Dad riding an Indian Scout around Seattle in his younger days, and me racing motocross on Sunday's as a kid. We'd all go to the Sunday races together and have a good time as a family and with friends.

My vintage Honda CR450 street bike in the photo above is in need of some TLC, as it's not running, and has been sitting in the garage neglected. It's on my lengthy to-do list. I'm pretty sure that having both a dirt bike and a street bike is central to being a happy and zen human being!

After finishing up dinner at my place we convened to Mom's place for the evening to watch the St. Louis round of AMA supercross, so it was like old times at the races! We cheered Eli Tomac and Zach Osborne on to their race wins, and they were both impressive and dominating wins!

Now we have a new Saturday tradition of having a nice dinner together followed by watching the motorcycle races - what fun!

After a nice Saturday of family, food, music, and motorbikes, it was time for a little Sunday music & audio games.

First up was working on the Duelund crossovers of my Westminster's. A couple of posts ago I told you about trying some Duelund DCA12GA wire in the HF circuit of the crossovers.

I know, I know, using 12 gauge wire in HF crossover sections is crazy big and probably isn't the best idea, but I thought it would be fun to try it to hear what happens. I'm easily entertained!

The DCA12GA sounded pretty good actually, but I think the DCA20GA is a better choice for the HF's, but I still wanted to try half DCA12GA & half DCA20GA before I gave up on the experiment, so that's what I thought I'd do on this Sunday afternoon.

I removed the length of DCA12GA from HF circuit on the amp side of the crossover and replaced it with the DCA20GA I've been using lately.

I then powered up the system and let it warm up for a bit, before I put on a familiar record, the 45RPM Analogue Productions version of Getz / Gilberto.

It's interesting hearing the differences in presentation a simple wire substitution can accomplish.

For example, what really stood out was how the presentation of tempo & melody were affected by the heavier gauge DCA12GA wire, as it noticeably slowed down the "feel" of the tempo, making it feel more relaxed, and made the melody less articulate and expressive sounding as it flowed over time. On the other hand, the DCA12GA adds an enchanting sense of spaciousness and provides a nice overall tonal balance.

The half & half arrangement of DCA12GA & DCA20GA was pretty much as you would expect, having a presentation that fell mid-way between the two as individual wiring for the HF crossover circuits.

I'm going to let the DCA12GA & DCA20GA combo play in for a while before I decide which wiring scheme I'll settle on.

After that, I think I'll try the DCA12GA in the LF section of the crossover to hear what happens, which is altogether more sensible that trying it in the HF crossover circuits, but what fun!

Next I put on the copy of Skip James' Today! that I found on Discogs (thanks for the recommendation, Peter!).

I haven't listened to Today! before, so I didn't have a before / after baseline, but I liked what I was hearing with the DCA20GA & DCA12GA combo.

I really enjoyed Skip James' Great Depression era vibe and lyrics, it reminded me of my own family's Depression era history, when everyone was dirt poor.

James' father was a bootlegger (like my Grandfather's "Uncle Bid") who reformed and became a preacher man (unlike Uncle Bid).

This is seriously good music, and James' impressive finger picking on the guitar in open D minor tuning, and falsetto singing, took me happily by surprise, and he showed some impressive chops playing the piano on side two as well.

As corny as it might sound, Skip James reminded me a little of Neil Young with his virtuosity on both the guitar & piano, and his falsetto singing, with the exception that he was a bluesman that preceded Neil Young by quite a lengthy span of time.

If you get a chance to buy a Skip James album, just do it, he is an important part of music history and documents an important period of time of music in the USA that influenced man later artists. I predict you'll enjoy Mr. James as much as I have - recommended!

Ok, that's all for now, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!