TAKE ME HOME?

Find A Friend At The Florida Keys Spca

The Keys Weekly family loves animals as much as our friends at the Florida Keys SPCA do, and we’re honored each week to showcase some “furever” friends that are ready, waiting and available for adoption at the organization’s Key West campus.

From cats and dogs to Guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, reptiles and birds, the perfect addition to your family is waiting for you. The SPCA’s knowledgeable staff will help with advice and care tips while working to ensure a good fit between each pet and its people.

The SPCA’s Golden Paw program also provides special assistance with vet bills and medications for special-needs and older animals that require a little extra TLC. Check these pages each week for just a few of the animals waiting for a home and see them all at fkspca.org.

The Ploggers jumped over to Stock Island for the Feb. 10 cleanup on College Road. In just one hour, 23 volunteers collected 230 pounds of trash, 13 pounds of recycling, three golf balls and four gallons of cigarette butts. This could be a record number of butts collected in one hour. Thanks to our host, Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, and thank you to all the volunteers who come out each week, from our locals who show up every Friday to the visitors who see the article in the Key West Weekly and want to give back. Follow our efforts on social media: #PloggingtheKeys #litterattractslitter #keepkeywestbeautiful

One hour a week makes a huge difference, and volunteers are welcome every Friday and some Saturday mornings, from 8 to 9 a.m., when the Key West Ploggers clean up a designated area of the island.

Gloves, pickers, buckets, vests, hand sanitizer and a parking pass are provided to all volunteers.

A troubling number of cigarette butts and plastic bags have been included in recent hauls. Please remember your reusable bags when shopping so we can keep the plastic off the streets, parking lots and, most importantly, out of the water. And dispose of cigarette butts in any receptacle rather than the street or sidewalk, as from there, they easily end up in the ocean.

The city of Key West and its residents ask everyone to do their part to help keep Key West beautiful. With simple steps like making sure you bag your trash before putting it in your Waste Management trash cans or Dumpsters, and making sure the lids on Dumpsters are closed, will keep a lot of trash from blowing into the streets. Call Waste Manage- ment at 305-296-8297 for any furniture items left on the city right of way.

Please pick up around your home or apartment complex. Every piece of trash picked up is one less that may end up in the ocean that surrounds and sustains our island community. It is not just the large items you can see easily when you are walking, but the smaller items such as bottle caps and cigarette butts that are collected by the volunteers that make the biggest difference.

It takes committed community involvement to Keep Key West Beautiful and we are making progress with every cleanup event and every spot that’s adopted. Call Dorian Patton at 305-809-3782 to find out how your business, nonprofit or club can help.

— Contributed cleanup from 8 to 9 a.m.

Feb. 17: North Roosevelt at the VFW (Meet in the VFW parking lot.)

Feb. 24: Eaton & Whitehead streets (Meet in the parking lot of First Horizon Bank.)

Ezekiel is a 14-year-old male domestic shorthair. He’s a sweet senior who loves treats, gets along with other cats and would like a soft blanket to nap on.

Candy Star is a 1-year-old female domestic shorthair. She can be shy at first, but with patience and love, could be a wonderful cat companion.

Lele is a 4½-year-old female medium mixed breed. She loves going on walks, playing with toys and will need an energetic home without any other animal in it.

Rudy is an adult male rat. Rudy, Gene and Bob are a trio of rats that are looking for their furever home together. They love snuggling in their hammock and running up and down the cages playing together.

Lemon is a 2-year-old female domestic shorthair. She’s a spunky girl who loves to play, could be trained to do tricks and would love a kitty friend.

Pay Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

The sound guy.

To quote a famous movie, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

In the business of the everyday rock band, behind that curtain is the sound guy.

For the audience, the audio engineer is the most important part of the band. In your average band situation many, if not all, of the instruments played are mic’d. That means all the sound the microphones pick up first go to the sound guy, then to the speakers, then to your ears.

That’s not to say you wouldn’t hear the drums or bass or guitar without the sound guy, but that would be all you heard. And the amount of each instrument or voice that you heard would be inconsistent at best. The volume of instruments can vary greatly from song to song, depending on the material being played, and the intensity of the player. What you as a listener hear is what is called a “front of house” mix.

The sound guy creates this using knowledge of microphones, acoustics, equipment and the most useful tool, a good ear. They will take two guitars that sound similar and, using several different pieces of gear, separate them out while keeping their tonal similarities intact. The same overlapping of tone happens down below with the kick drum and the bass guitar. As they battle for the same foundation-filling space, the sound guy must work to find a harmonious balance for the listener.

The singer, yielding an acoustic instrument in an electric instrument world, loves a talented sound guy.

The most useful tool a singer has is the stage monitor. A speaker pointed toward the player is how the bass player hears the singer while standing

Ray West

... a professional musician, singer, actor and executive director of the Key West Music Awards, is known to sacrifice his comfort for that of his cat.

next to the drummer. The sound guy supplies the speaker in front of the player with whatever the player needs to hear so he or she knows where they are in the music at all times. This, like everything the sound guy does, also requires good communication skills. In other words, always be nice to the sound guy.

All this aside, the sound guy has to have command of many different pieces of equipment. From a guitar cable to a compressor/limiter, from a microphone stand to the creation of a Baxandall shelf shape on a 31band equalizer, the sound guy is like the plumber. It’s not the few hours the plumber was working that you pay for, it’s the years of experience that allowed the job to only take a few hours.

And perhaps most importantly, a great sound guy has great ears. Along with knowledge of acoustics, the sound guy is able to shape the sound of all the combined microphones, speakers, and instruments into a ball of discernible and pleasing sound.

As the night goes on, adjustments need to be made. As more people enter the room, more sound is absorbed and the sound guy accommodates. As the drummer’s girlfriend flirts with another guy, he begins to strike his instrument a bit harder. The sound guy rides the volume slider to tame the sounds of a breaking heart.

So the next time you buy a round for a great-sounding band, don’t forget to look in the back of the room for the man (or woman) behind the curtain.