Gremlins

I'm getting the sneaky suspicion that Gremlins are out to get me.  A bunch of machines I frequently use have all broken down within the last month.  As a musician and graphic designer, I have a rather intense relationship with my machines and I get intensely aggravated when my things don't work.  

It started a little over a month ago when my car sounded like it had laryngitis. It turned out to be a fractured catalytic converter.  Just a few weeks after that, we actually had a really warm day (rare in these parts in May) and I noticed that my cars power was drastically reduced when I turn on the AC button whose little green light was curiously flashing (never seen that before...) .  Consulting the user manual for the vehicle, it told me that my AC was out and I need to call the dealer.  So, I called the dudes who just fixed my car and they said they didn't do air conditioning.  They suggested a Napa Auto Care center.  So, I took it to those guys and they discovered that it was not my AC diminishing the power by that my whole timing mechanism was about to fall apart and I was lucky that I had not been stranded yet.  After all that, they tell me that my AC was, in fact, broken too.  The compressor unit that pumps the air is corroding and bits of it are clogging the air tubes.  After the whole timing belt thing, I couldn't afford to fix the AC as I originally intended.  Luckily, it is only really hot here in Portland 3 months a year.  

While all this car crap is going was going on, my amplifier that I use in Drats!!! took a big dump on itself too!  I was going up to rip a big rock guitar solo on this tune and I couldn't hear myself enough.  I turned up the volume from 5 to 7 and that didn't make much of a difference.  To hell with it... I turned to 10.  At that point, nothing was coming out.  I blew it up somehow.  I messed around with it and couldn't get it to squawk.  Luckily I still had my practice amp around and could continue with the rehearsal.  So, where playing the set a second time around and we get to the same song at the point were I go ballistic on the solo.  I step on my brand new Wah Wah pedal.  I notice it isn't going wah so much .  In fact it is cutting out all the high end frequency.  It was stuck!  I opened the thing and discovered that the whole potentiometer was jarred loose.  I returned it to the retailer the next day.  They fixed it on the spot.  That night, I was using it again and basically the same thing happens and it is broke again.  Today, I took it back again and asked for a new one.  Unfortunately, I bought the last one they had.  They took the potentiometer out and replaced it for me.  Tonight I'll find out if the gremlins are still abound...

Besides the cute 1984 movie, Gremlins and the odd-looking cars from the 70's, I wondered about the mythological roots of gremlins.  I was surprised that it is a fairly recent myth.  One of the earliest recorded utterance of these was from 1929.  It stems from British military airmen whose aircraft were plagued by mechanical problems.  Since World War II, the myth has perpetuated in pop-culture and in my own delusional life.