Back to index of "this and that in my life" pages by Donald Sauter.
Dedicated to the proposition that every thought that's ever been thunk may be of use or interest to someone . . .
THEE: 2nd Photo--Granny and Second Grandchild
This is photo of myself and little David (born hours after
Ringo's birthday!).
This is a very recent photo of Hself with the bear I spoke of.
He is our first grandchild (born in Hawaii) on September 12 of
1996. This is the same date of James McCartney's birthday,
oddly. What fun!
This is our favorite cat, Dexter Paul Morris. Thought you'd
enjoy a good laugh!
THEE: Re: consonant blends: sn st tr br gr bl sl pv wx cb...
I have no idea what your subject field (above) means! Is that
still more proof that I've forgotten everything I learned in
school?
I had dinner in Adams Morgan last night with Hself. He
remains his same sweet self. Beforehand, at Idle Times Books, I
found a book I'd had my eye out for, Harry Price's bit of
balderdash, "The Most Haunted House in England" (1940). It
concerns a certain Borley Rectory. One of the more interesting
web pages I've found is one on Borley Rectory put up by the son
of the woman who lived at Borley Rectory in the '30s. Alas, he's
mainly trying to sell his own books on the subject.
THEE: I am a lute student and a couple of weeks ago I began to play the
baroque guitar. I would be very interested to get the original
of the Gallot guitar book: could you please write me where the
original Ms. is housed and how can I get a copy of the original?
I could also pay you for sending me a copy if you have a complete
one which is readable enough. Would you give me some tips on
other sources which are not published in faximile editions? I
think your idea about restringing the modern guitar and
publishing your tab for free in the net is great and should bring
more people to this music than the few who actually play
historical instruments. Please note, however ,that in James
Tyler's book on the Early Guitar he gives three different tunings
for three bodies of repertoire ,so only one tuning is not right
for the entire literature. Thank you very me for your time.
THEE: Re: sunday journal
>It's probably thrown out by now, but do you still have that
Sunday Montgomery Journal from Nov 22? I could use a few more
copies.
I did completely forget to check the Journals we get. I'll look
around when I get home tonight. (I'm still not sure if we even
get the Sunday edition)
THEE: Subject: Back to work
I was putting together our takes for the Irish suite & am still
very unhappy with the Adagio/Intro. It just
drags along (takes 2 1/2 minutes compared with
1 to 1 1/2 for each of the other movements). I'd like to try it
substantially quicker. If we meet at my place we can try another
recording, too. As it is, I'd rather "release" the suite without
the Adagio since it seems tediously slow to me (though I know
tastes differ). Maybe the recording of it will sound better the
next time I listen to it.
I'm in a bit of a quandry since Hself and Hself have both said
they'd like to do a WGS recital & I find it hard to say I don't
think their playing warrants one. My response was to say that
maybe we could get a number of people (say 4) to do an early
instrument recital together. I met a few more players at the
recent lute weekend, so perhaps this will be possible.
THEE: 3 gtr
Don't worry about the Irish intro. I'm pretty sure we can work
out something to make us all happy.
ME: he didn't even know who drummed on ps i love you!!!
Took the next step today in getting my sub card. Went in for a
chat with the vice principal. Like everything, it seems like an
interminal process, with the possibility of producing no fruit -
and a possibility of taking a loss. They charge something like
60 bucks to take your fingerprints.
Stuck around and helped in the library and had a good time. My
Journal article is creating lots of stir at the school. Way out
of proportion to its actual value, but attention is nice now and
then, no?
Didn't get your latest email until today, Wednesday. The
8th passed without a single thought about its infamy. But that's
really only a comment on my awareness of the date at any specific
time. It will always rank as one of the most significant
days in my life.
Played duets with mandolin buddy Hself on Tuesday. I thought some
things were universally known, but when I was describing the
flatted submediant chord as the "Peggy Sue" chord (you hear it on
"pretty pretty pretty") it turns out that he's not familiar with
Peggy Sue, and hardly knows the name Buddy Holly, for that
matter. I tried another tack. You hear this flatted submediant
at the end of P.S. I Love You. Well, he didn't know that one
either, although he does recognize the Beatles name. His
knowledge of pop music is impressive, if not downright
formidable, though. For example, he started singing the WW2 era
song, P.S. I Love You. When I played a turn-of-the- century song
Kentucky Babe, which also had the Peggy Sue chord and which I
naturally assumed had been lost to obscurity, he started singing
along! I was floored. What a difference 25 years can make.
I have more questions about Borley Rectory. Prompt me one day.
As always, I have no knack for saying things about the loss of
loved ones, but I hope the activities of the last few days went
well and helped put everybody on an upward swing.
ME: Subject: t.o. posting
Hi t.o. guys,
Just drawing your attention to my posting in response to your
comments on my evolution "FAQ". The subject will be:
Subject: Welcome to my evolution FAQ - round 2
THEE: Subject: But did he notice that the lights had changed?
Thanks for your condolences. This one is a hard one--my uncle
was the picture of health at age 65 and died while working out.
A couple of times I've looked at my aunt and been at a complete
loss for words. People have said it was a good way to go and I
agree but, as I may have already said to you, it would have been
better, say, in the year 2013 or 2018, when he would be a very
old man. Among those at the funeral, after all, was my Great Aunt
Hself, who was 26 when my uncle was born.
We've been going over to Aunt Hself's apartment the last two
evenings and will again tonight, probably. We'll get to meet my
two cousins' children for the first time this weekend, I hope.
That would be a silver lining to this whole affair.
I'm nearing the end of my Philippines book. As I may have told
you, it concerns the U.S. Army's daring capture of a Filipino
rebel leader in 1901. I was impressed that this rebel leader
wound up outliving everyone else in the story (he outlived his
captor by 47 years); he participated in Philippine independence
celebrations in 1946 and finally succumbed just before his 95th
birthday on the somewhat magical date of Feb. 6, 1964. It's been
an interesting century.
THEE: Subject: CDs etc.
Hope you are well and having a good year. I'm afraid I've been
buried in academics this year, teaching a new course I didn't
want, etc. I did make it up to Montreal for the GFA, which was a
fine experience.
I have found a website that resells European CDs; in case you
aren't aware of it, there are a number of guitar & pianoforte
albums from Italy, including the works of Carulli, Diabelli,
Giuliani, the complete (12) Rossini Overtures as transcribed by
Carulli for g & pf, and also works by Noferi, Giardini,
Geminiani, Straube for guitar & keyboard. The price is $5.99 per
CD, the label is Nuova Era, and the website is:
www.berkshirerecoutlet.com
Incidentally, a certain Hself the DC/Maryland area
took a cheap shot at us on the rec.music.classical.guitar group.
Any idea who he is or why he might have done this?
THEE: Subject: I'm sorry, so sorry
Brenda Lee is 54 today. Celebrate!
THEE: Subject: Videotapers' alert
Dunno if you talk to people who like to snag Beatle TV clips but
if so, here's a potential goodie.
A rebroadcast of "The Flip Wilson Show" on the TVLAND cable
channel, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 9:30 p.m., will allegedly featuring
a taped Macca performance.
THEE: Subject: Family Feud questions
We are having a christmas party and would like to play Family
Feud. I need questions that would appeal to my group. We are aged
from about 28-37 years old. Your comments on the rules was helpful
but how should i sequence the questions. Three faceoffs then 1
fast round. Thanks in advance
THEE: Re: Welcome to my evolution FAQ - round 2
> Just describe some interesting transition in generation by
generation steps. Account for all of the descendants of all of
the members of the source species until you arrive at an
established population of the destination species.
You are just limiting yourself so that you do not have to look at
the data.
>I have trouble envisioning it.
That's hardly an argument
ME: Subject: beep beep beep, beep beep beep, beep beep all the way
Went down to LC again on Friday to get more good things. On my
previous visit I got a copy of a piece in beautiful manuscript by
Justin Holland, the black man who was the most important American
guitarist of his time - mid-1800's. At first I wasn't sure it
was in his hand, but since then I've compared it with the letter
he wrote to the president of Oberlin college ("the obstacles I
have met to getting a good education are near insurmountable...")
Thanks for the Brenda Lee birthday notice. I got it today,
Sunday, but coincidentally had played her album (the goodie you
gave me recently) on Friday, her birthday.
Was up in Baltimore County last night, Saturday. My sister and
brother-in-law threw a "company Christmas party". Tom has a
landscaping business; Diane always has ideas for get-togethers.
She bought yo-yos as party favors for everybody. They light up and play
Christmas tunes. So we turned off all the lights and created a
15-yo-yo fire storm.
We also played Taboo. I know you're not a natural gamester, but
if you wouldn't get a kick out of that one, there's definitely
something gone awry with the universe. As always, I had to
adjust the rules from the supplied ones, which, as is always the
case nowadays, are intended to get people rankled with each
other.
THEE: Subject: Spiked
I admire your sister for coming up with a wacky party. That's a
special skill.
Hself and I watched a Betty Grable classic Saturday night, "Moon
Over Miami" (1941). In a scene featuring a band, one of the
players had what looked like (and sounded like) an electric
guitar. I know that it wasn't. It was probably an unamplified,
hollow-body guitar made of steel, right?
Hself drove me to work this morning. Her route, Reno Road to
Massachusetts Avenue, would have worked fine, except we got
caught behind the vice presidential motorcade. Even he was
running late for work this morning.
Today is Spike Jones' birthday. He would have been 87.
Hey, are you thinking record convention next Sunday!?!?!
ME: Subject: christmas gig
I just got a call from Hself, Phyllis' cellist friend. You met
at the Frederick Douglass Home. He wants a guitar duo for a
Christmas party. The bad news is, I can't imagine you being
free. It's December 23, 1:00 to 4:30, in Georgetown.
We would play "a couple of hours". They'll pay $100 per person.
Any chance your company is on holiday that day?
ME: Subject: family feud
About Family Feud, it's never been clear to me how one could
generate a batch of questions himself. The questions themselves
aren't so much the problem - name something that's red; name
something a magician uses; besides people, what do you haul in
your car; name something you use a computer for; etc. - but
coming up with a list of ranked answers would require an actual
survey of a lot of people.
With the published home versions, what I like to do is select
what look like the most fun 2 out of the 3 questions on a sheet,
and then do the fast money round. A typical game may then
consist of 8 questions, say, and 4 fast money rounds, 2 for each
team.
Good luck with your game.
ME: Subject: gallot
Thanks for your interest in my Gallot page. Getting a copy of
the complete manuscript is not easy, as far as I know. I have a
friend who gave me a thick stack (about 4 cm?) of pages from it.
I think that's about half of it. These are all oversized pages.
She made them from microfilm, and because of the size of the
pages, it was not an easy task.
As far as I know, the Gallot book has not been published in
facsimile and anyone who is interested has to make his own copy.
I think the easiest way to go about that is to borrow the
microfilm from the Lute Society of America. I presume you can
look them up on the web for contact information.
About the various tunings of the Baroque guitar, I feel like the
tuning with bass strings on course 4 and 5 does justice to *all*
baroque guitar music, whereas the tunings without bass strings
sound incomplete for a lot of the music - even pieces supposedly
meant to be played without one or both basses. I am far from
confident that we know for sure how each of the composers tuned
his guitar. Even if we did know, do we believe that everyone who
played the music at the time used the composer's stringing? In
any case, my quasi-baroque guitar is no worse off in this matter
than a real one or a copy.
ME: Subject: moon pies
Even before you mentioned it, I noticed that this Sunday is the
Arbutus record convention. Sounds good to me, but is it ok if I
put it at a lower priority than seeing the family? Don't know
yet if we're getting together Sunday.
The other night a WMUC dj put together a set related to the
Vietnamese war. One of the songs was by the Beach Boys, from a
1971 album. I guess you know it.
Before that special, the same dj played Yoko Ono's Why. He
indicated he was pretty knocked out by it. It did sound great.
The Brenda Lee album you gave me recently is called "Sincerely,
Brenda Lee". That explains why I was confused and reluctant to
call it by name. One of her earliest albums is called
"Sincerely, Brenda".
Without looking it up, and pretending I have to put something
down for a test question, I would say that Lew Grade was the
president of ATV, the company that bought up Northern Songs. I
seem to remember that there was some sort of surprise attack, or
something tricky, involved. In the tv show Salute To Sir Lew
Grade, I think John and his band did a song with faces on the
back of their heads, referring to Lew Grade's two-facedness. On
the other hand, this may be a work of fiction.
I'm even less clear about the origin of the electric guitar. Two
names always pop up as pioneers, Les Paul and Leo Fender (I
think). But there is some old blues player who gets mentioned as
"the first". I am vague on the time frame of all this. What you
described sounds like a dobro, but I don't associate that with
band music.
Another example of my sister's wacky party's: for the Hale-Bopp
comet, we had a viewing party (the clouds rolled in just before
party time). Diane had gone through the whole grocery store
buying all the junk foods and drinks that had an astronomy
reference in their names. Not only did we sample the cuisine,
but she had written a story with blanks to be filled in by the
food names.
THEE: Re: christmas gig
Your suspicions are correct. Unfortunately, I didn't have much
vacation time left, and my only remaining days off will be Dec
24, and Dec 30. Sounds like it would've been fun. Oh well...
THEE: Subject: 1974
Now I'm listening to the soundtrack to the as-yet-hardly-released
film "Storefront Hitchcock." He opens with a nice song called
"1974." As usual, there are obscure references, to Syd Barrett's
last year in a studio, to the last year of "Monty Python" on TV.
That was the year I went to England, so it remains fairly clear
in my mind.
I once heard Pete Townshend say that John Lee Hooker invented the
electric guitar by sticking a microphone in an acoustic guitar in
about 1945. When I was in high school, a chap gave a talk about
unusual instruments and one of his prizes was a steel guitar from
the '40s, which sounded electric. I thought that was what I was
seeing in "Moon Over Miami."
I'm also currently listening to an LP called "4 Freshmen and 5
trombones." It's not bad, for those of us who are interested in
the origins of the Beach Boys.
ME: Subject: but she was a frying pan, sang the guy with the
rickenbacher
I was doing some power-yo-yoing today for some neighborhood kids
and the music and lights stopped. Turns out I had dislodged the
battery with the centrifugal force. Luckily, when I popped it
open, it was obvious how to fix it.
You were right, of course, about John and Yoko's comedy. On the
Wedding Album John says, "...to fight the establishment with
their own weapons is no good... because they always win... They
don't know how to handle humour, and peaceful humour, and that's
our message, really."
Later on, upon wakin in the morning, he says, "As I was saying
about bagism, you see, you get in a bag and you jump out the
window. Next thing you know, you have a policeman on your head."
(chuckles)
About Lew Grade and ATV, I earnestly suggest opening Shout! to
page 370 and reading 2 pages. Philip Norman's clarity is
amazing. Assuming what he writes is mostly true, I can't begin
to imagine how someone could pull all that material together.
And this is only 2 pages. I think it's characteristic of the
whole book.
I wonder if you saw an electric dobro in that movie. If so, you
saw a very historic instrument. In 1932 the Dobro company made a
few electric resonator guitars. They weren't a success, but this
made the company the first to market an electric guitar.
The early guy who opened the world's eyes to the electric guitar
was Charlie Christian. He was, by all accounts, a phenomenal
jazz player. (I had said blues.) He worked with the Benny
Goodman band. He died at 23 in 1942. A small consolation is
that he was extensively recorded.
My guitar reference book, which is pretty thorough, actually,
doesn't mention John Lee Hooker and amplified guitar together.
An interesting tidbit: "The first truly successful electric
guitars did not appear on the market until the early 1930s. In
1931 the Rickenbacher company (which spelled its name with an h
in place of the second k in those early days) produced an
electric Hawaiian guitar which was nicknamed the "Frying Pan"
after the shape of its aluminum body."
They say that some players in the late 1920s stuck record player
pickups on the underside of the soundboard.
Arbutus or bust (eventually).
P.S. at least 2 typos above
THEE: Subject: Huh?
I was just checking the Birchmere calendar. On Feb. 23, 1999,
Sir George Martin is listed. What gives?
THEE: Re: but she was a frying pan, sang the guy with the
rickenbacher
Donald, Thanks for the info on electric guitars. If you
disseminate this information, you'll turn the music world on its
head. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking the electric guitar was
strictly a post-World War Two invention.
Today, the Christmas blahs kicked in. Doing Christmas right
takes so much work. Even doing it incompetently, as I do, is
hard. Call me the Grinch but I'm looking forward to Jan. 2.
That's about it. I went out to a going-away party for my best
friend at work tonight. She's thoroughly wacky. I'll really
miss her.
ME: Subject: 10 more shopping days (base 2)
Had fun at school again today. We did reading, time-telling and
pattern recognition and extension. I gave the kids a choice of
an item from my world-famous Crackerjacks prize collection.
I logged on tonight to find a message from the most-famous-
personage-to-date-to-sign-my-guestbook. I suppose Hself knows
the name Eddie Feigner. Unfortunately, I think Eddie missed at
least slightly the import of my softball page.
By the way, I'm starting to give up hope on Sharon Pratt Kelly,
Lani Guinier and Alan Bean. And I thought they were all my
friends...
Latest statistic is 717 web hits over the last 2 weeks. Not bad,
considering my level of inactivity. I really must get hopping on
the Cool Whip Bowl page.
I'm curious about your Christmas blahs. I didn't detect them
Monday night. About the only problem I ever had with Christmas
was the fear of unappreciated presents (both directions). I
doubt that that's a significant concern of yours.
By the way, thanks for the good time Monday night. I bought some
parfum today in lieu of Bobby Jimenez. Good hooch, they mix it
up fresh for you. Deluxe. Tea rose. Can't get it off my hands.
Hope it's appreciated.
THEE: Subject: Thank you, ta
Thank YOU for coming over Monday. It was low-key but I got a
little more Christmas madness out of the way.
This will not be the last message you get from me today.
THEE: Subject: Sir George
Sir George Martin is scheduled to kick out the jams on Tuesday,
Feb. 23, at the Birchmere. Tickets are $27.50. I can say no
more. I can't even tell you honestly that it's THAT George
Martin, although it must be a safe bet.
THEE: Subject: Bobby
From cdnow.com, here's what I find...
Bobby Jimenez
Alma Cubana-Collection Of Popu
CD List $ 16.97
Their price: $15.99
Sorry, that's it.
THEE: Re: lc chore
>The funny (sad) thing is, the LC database programs are now so
hard to use that even the most experienced librarian there says
he does not know how to actually retrieve these publications.
Supposedly, they are working on a new and improved system.
Sounds like software written years ago when it was cool that
computers could do anything useful at all. Now we expect more.
ME: Subject: holiday status report
Went up to Baltimore 2x for the holidays and will go up again
today (Sunday). It was a good Christmas.
Christmas Eve afternoon I spent running around buying a car
battery. It didn't go smoothly, but I got one and I can't
complain because a) that's all part of owning a car and b) the
conditions could have been much worse (miles from home at night
with single-digit temperatures, etc.) Have I ever mentioned
that, while I am obviously not a car buff in the way many people
are, I'm sure I take the miracle of modern transportation less
for granted than just about anybody? Baltimore to
Washington whenever you want in 40 minutes in perfect comfort
under any weather condition for a dollar or two - science
fiction, right?
Thanks for the Bobby Jimenez research. That's a feather in the
web's cap. Why "Sorry"?
Dunno if I'll be fired up for George Martin by then.
On WWMD's Saturday night Big Band show tonight they advertised
the Beatle's Day In The Life photo book twice. "Beatle Fans, if
you think you've seen all the photos..." These are the photos
that were sitting in a shed for 35 years, maybe Robert Freeman's,
I forget.
Did you ask Hself about Eddie Feigner?
ME: Subject: my goof
Yikes! You're right, of course, about the "band around the
earth" problem. Thanks for being so polite in correcting me.
I remembered from 7th grade (a *long* time ago) that the answer
was a little under 2 feet. So, without thinking it through
carefully, I said to myself "6 divided by pi. That's a little
under 2 feet. That's the answer." Now I realize that the
original problem was to add a nice, round *10 feet* to the band,
and 10/(2*pi) gives me that "little under 2 feet" I remembered.
Like you really need to know why I goofed up, huh?
I like your presentation of the goats and gold problem - very
elegant. Though, of course, from the contestant's point of view
the problem is that he doesn't know whether or not the game show
host had a choice.
My claim about vos Savant's presentation is that she didn't make
it absolutely clear that the host was bound to open a door every
time. She didn't unambiguously rule out what you called
"malicious ones who want you to lose and can choose not take
their turn at opening a door after your initial choice."
ME: Subject: old friend
Thanks for your offer of assistance. Actually, I don't need to
actively track my old friends down - just thought they might get
a kick out of finding themselves on my web page and then drop a
note.
If you are at all curious about Hself, he would be 45
now. He went to elementary school in the Woodlawn area of
Baltimore County. He actually walked to the school on Featherbed
Lane. He had some pet hamsters which got loose once while I was
visiting. They almost got lost in some very thick grass. As he
was extracting them from the grass, he referred to them as "very
fragile creatures". That has stuck with me all my life. I have
plagiarized it on many occasions. For instance, when I have to
explain to people why I don't go to movies, it's because I am a
"very fragile creature". Kind of a joky way of saying the actual
truth.
I always remember a nervous habit of Hself's - tugging his socks
up frequently, even when they didn't need it. (I always hated
the feeling of droopy socks, too.) I think he had a very slight
speech impediment and took speech therapy. I think he moved to
Decatur, Georgia (or Decatur, Somewhere) in 5th grade. I
remember thinking, "Decatur? That's a funny sounding and spelled
word."
THEE: Subject: old friend
Donald, Thank you for the input - it was very nice of you, and
amusing. I hope you have a very Happy New Year - drink delicate
wines - they're good for delicate creatures.
THEE: Re: holiday status report
Glad you had a good Christmas. Mine was fine, too.
Christmas Day started out quiet and pleasant with a snowy
exercise session up the hill with Hself. After opening some
gifts and generally hanging out, Hself and I went over to her
eldest brother's house in Darnstown. (They call it North
Potomac.)
Today we're off to see the Nutcracker at the Warner Theatre.
Originally, Hself's Mom bought five tickets, for Hself, me, her,
and two of our nieces. The nieces rebelled, so they're not
going.
I'm kind of looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.
Think about George M. until mid-week or so.
As far as loot goes, I got a bunch of useful things from Hself,
including my first tie rack. Her sister gave me a gift
certificate to Joe's Record Paradise, which I must redeam soon!
What should I ask Hself about Eddie Feigner? I forget.
THEE: Is a field goal actually a change of possession? If you kick and
miss a field goal on 3rd down do you get the ball back for a 4th
down? If you miss the field goal and the ball doesn't make the
end zone, can the kicking team recover and advance the ball?
ME: Subject: dizziness, nausea and the 64 million $ question
Went out tonight to see the Festival of Lights at Watkins Park
over here in PG County. It was quite nice.
Yesterday I got myself a bit ill starting in the afternoon. Had
to cancel out a guitar trio session. Just a half-day sickness.
It used to happen about twice a year as a kid. Now it's much
more infrequent. The crazy thing is I went to bed early and woke
up wide awake at 1:30 with the sickness gone. What to do? Kind
of threw my system off schedule. I walked around the
neighborhood a while, had a sandwich, played guitar and went back
to bed around 3:30.
To be honest, I don't see getting fired up for George Martin.
Nothing personal; I've passed on Ringo with cheaper tickets even.
Hmmm... What does this sentence tell us about the human
condition: "I'm kind of looking forward to going back to work
tomorrow"?
ME: Subject: lc chore
I doubt that I will come across something at LC that will make me
sit up and think, "Hey, here's something for you to
consider!" The main problem is that I get so much pleasure from
things that other people groan at, or downright despise. My
favorite classical guitar genre for some time has been 19th C.
arrangements of operatic themes. Those Opern-Revue works by
Mertz knock me out. It's not too likely I'm going to say, "Hey,
here's a great Balfe opera nobody has touched." Another
example is a turn-of-the-century American guitarist name T. P.
Trinkaus who arranged a million pop tunes of the time for solo
guitar. I have about 20 pages of his arrangements of Victor
Herbert operettas. I'm probably the only person on earth playing
them, and with a big smile, at that.
THEE: Subject: Sir Donald
Sorry about no Sir George. I can't say I'm over-eager but I'll
probably go. Brian Wilson is supposedly touring in the spring,
which is hard to believe.
I was looking forward to returning to work, mainly because I have
a whole different set of toys (most on the computer) to play with
here.
I listened to the Traveling Wilburys' "Vol. 1" the other day.
It was OK in parts.
THEE: LC chore
>My favorite classical guitar genre for some time has been 19th
C. arrangements of operatic themes. Those Opern-Revue works by
Mertz knock me out.
I can count my guitar-arranging heroes on one hand and have
several fingers left over. Mertz is one of them.
THEE: re: the Fermi Paradox
Just a quick note to say I read your web site about the Fermi
Paradox and agree with you.
I have spent alot of time trying to workout the Fermi Paradox
and just cannot figure out how it can be wrong that we are alone.
I have theorised that
1) Everyone hiding as the are scared. I rejected this as surely
at least someone would be screaming turn off the radio you fools.
In any case if someone was destroying or hurting SETIs surely
they would set up a site to attract "fools" to show themselves.
2) When they hit a certain stage of development they go elsewhere.
If this was true though it would take only one to want to explore
this one for them to colonise this universe. In any wise some one
surely would want to go to their roots - like we do to explore
where they came from.
3) We are the first or very close because we are a third
generation sun that has enough metal to create a space colonising
species. But surely some one would beat us by just a few million
years enough to colonise this galaxy.
Even if star colonisation was impossible (I think unlikely)
surely they would use radio. Which we would pick up? Particularly
if they picked an interesting place to place a marker where SETI
would likely to look. They could even create one if they need
too.
At present I think we face a terrible problem that if we are
unique, what is it that makes us unique. What is it about Earth
that is unique.
THEE: Feedback
Please let me introduce myself. My name is Hself. I found
your web site while browsing for a Classical Guitar society in
Washington D.C.
I had to write because . . . well because . . . it's almost scary
how many common interests we have.
* I love to play guitar
* I'm not too keen on Evolution (or I don't find the current
theories compelling enough,)
* I love those counterintuitive puzzles
* I dream of photocopying every piece of guitar music in the
Library of Congress too. (Although I haven't been granted
permission by my wife. I suspect she's worried she'll never
see me again.)
* Finally, my wife and I watch almost no TV.
O.K. - That's five things in common. Not too scary really. How
about my enjoying food and having strange dreams.
Boy your really in luck if you realize, during a dream, that
you're dreaming and that you can control everything. (When you
awake, you'll realize if you're virtuous or not.) From this same
dream, I also was awakened by a friend. That kind of annoyed me.
However, then the phone rang and I woke up for real! By the way,
during this dream, I also dreamt the most incredible piano music.
Definitely the most singular incredible dream I've ever had.
This only happened to me once, and I don't know how/why it worked
except that I was in college and probably not getting enough
sleep.
Well, maybe I'll pursue the Classical Guitar Society someday.
Gotta go.
ME: rules, schmules...
Check out my Password page for my idea of good Password rules.
They're at the end in an Addendum. I wrote 'em for the whole
world, but you can look, too.
http://www.donaldsauter.com/password.htm
Thanks for all the fun and frolic this Christmas.
Quiz:
1. Who said, "Before Elvis, there was *nothing*."
2. Beatles roadie Mal Evans' biggest thrill of all was meeting
his number 1 favorite star in Bel Air, Cal. in Aug 1965. Who was
it?
:srewsnA
nonneL nhoJ :1 sivlE :2
ME: "obituary tracking", as you called it
Here's the month-by-month condensed version of Dave Barry's end-
of-year roundup, eliminating the inessential material:
The beat stops for Sonny Bono.
Henny Youngman, with perfect timing, delivers his final punch
line.
Dr. Spock makes a house call on St. Peter.
Linda McCartney takes wing. Pol Pot goes to Hell.
Frank Sinatra retires for the last time; Bebe rejoins his old pal
Dick; Phil Hartman exits prematurely; Marjory Stoneman Douglas
goes to that big wetlands preserve in the sky.
No June
Baby boomers experience nostalgia overload as Robert Young goes
into permanent reruns; Alan Shepard has his final splashdown; Roy
Roger takes that Happy Trail; and Buffalo Bob finally finds out
what time it is.
The final curtain falls for Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop.
In nonscandal news, Florence Griffith Joyner reaches the finish
line; George Wallace ends his last campaign.
Gene Autry joins Roy for a duet.
In show business, Esther plays her final Rolle.
Keith Richards enlists in the Colombian air force.
---
What's the last one mean? I figured the it was an od.
By the way, in case you got the wrong impression, all live
former-Beatle performances on the Hself Tapes don't get
recorded over. Sometimes, like King of Broken Hearts, the whole
thing survives. Sometimes, like Love Me Do, a representative
snippet is spared. Those tapes are something else, believe you
me.
ME: fermi and us
Thanks for your thoughts on the Fermi Paradox. Very interesting.
You came up with a few angles that had never occurred to me.
Isn't it odd that out of all the talk.origins participants,
*nobody* sees it the way we do?
ME: dreams and guitar
Thanks for the funny message. Please come out to the Washington
Guitar Society. This month the program is a members' recital.
Anybody can play for an appreciative audience. It should be the
3rd or 4th Friday in January. A newsletter should be coming out
soon. Ask for a copy in a week or so.
Your dream was pretty amazing. No, I've never been in control of
what happens in a dream. If I start to wonder if I'm dreaming, I
almost always conclude that, no, this is reality, and here I am
embarrassing myself to death in public in my underwear, or worse.
If I start to think, yeah, this might be a dream, that will lead
to waking up in a few moments.
So you, too, have dreamed incredible music? I've dreamt amazing
orchestral and piano music - and I've never written 2 notes in
real life. I wonder how many people do this. The only other
person I've heard mention it is Linda McCartney.
ME: Subject: lc chore
I'm disappointed that you feel sure you couldn't get permission
to copy the 2nd N--- volume. I mean, I know I couldn't -
I've never in my life gotten anybody in the business world to
agree to anything I think is a perfectly reasonable request. But
I always figured that was just something in my DNA. Obviously,
other people know how to make things happen. In a reasonable
world, you should be able to say to Napoleao, "Hey, I'll give you
$20 for permission to copy your out-of-print book for personal
use." They should say, "Sure, go ahead." Saying "no" doesn't
benefit anybody - themselves included.
That's in a reasonable world. In a perfect world, you should be
able to copy anything you want, and send a compulsory licensing
fee to the appropriate place. I would also bring the copyright
period in line with patents - 17 years. There's just too much
good stuff frozen out there for too long.
And keep in mind that the music itself is public domain, even if
the Napoleao paper and ink rendering is protected till doomsday.
They can't complain about anybody putting out his own N---
publications. (Again, in a reasonable world, they should see
that all N--- arrangements are advertisements for their own
catalog of the original piano versions.)
THEE: Subject: Frustration quoto met Re: rules, schmules
Hi Donald, I just spent about 20 minutes trying to get your web
page to read about your ideas for password. When geocities kept
saying they never heard of your name and my browser couldn't find
the site, I went back to the email page and found I had left out
a /. Picky, picky, picky. But that was enough fun for one
night, so I think, I'll say so long for now. Glad you had fun at
all the get-togethers; we did, too. I'll try the web stuff again
soon.
THEE: Subject: hello again
Well, I read a few more of your articles, and liked them. Please
swing your editor's pen to my signing of your guestbook & delete
my error. I can spell. However, it is apparent I cannot type.
2 random thoughts....
1. Why did my wonderful public education teach me how to use a
lathe (shop class) but only the girls got to take typing class? I
have since used a lathe once, yet interface on a computer via
keyboard daily.
2. The IBM voice to typing dictation program for radiologists is
amazing. I recently watched a Puerto Rican doctor dictate in
heavily accented English, using a very complex vocabulary &
syntax, and the accuracy rate was great. Hopefully something
similar soon for the masses.
Did you hear about the Zen master who approached the hot-dog
vendor and asked him to "Make me One with everything."?
THEE: Subject: Saturday morning?
Hey guys--
Back from sunny Florida where family obligations (to sit around &
chat) kept me from practicing but I'm eager to get back to it (as
soon as I clear the sand from my shoes).
One problem is that I left a stack of music in Florida, which my
Mom said she'd put in the mail (might get it Fri or Sat). It was
all my current stuff, including possibilities for the upcoming
members' recital. It'd be nice if we could decide ahead of time
which piece or pieces we want to do so I can bring copies.
Possibilities-- Pilsl, Ambrosius, Chobanian ...
THEE: Re: "obituary tracking", as you called it
Dave Barry gets my nod for least-funny-column-of-the-year and
that's not just sour grapes (I think). Wow, what poor taste!
Today I read that Honoria Donnelly has died at age 81. That's
her married name. She was the daughter of Gerald and Sar Murphy,
party-throwers of the jazz age. F. Scott Fitzgerald bounced her
on his knee. She was one of the few remaining links to that era.
THEE: Re[2]: Saturday morning?
We tried to work out a program for the upcoming WGS meeting and
came up with--
Pilsl, 2nd movement Morricone Chobanian -- one of the remaining
movements.
So bring these (they're, of course, open to change). Perhaps we
can look at the pieces we started last time, also
(Ambrosius/Stingl).
THEE: Subject: The Bohemian Knights -- or
The Czechs in the Mail
-- Hself
ME: Subject: clicking
I would think that your hardware/software/provider would let you
simply click on a web address right in an email message. Or is
that considered too much fun for the average human to handle?
http://www.donaldsauter.com/password.htm
THEE: letter to editor: TRIM
Dear Prince Georges Gazette,
Here are a few thoughts in response to your editorial, "Is it
time to trim TRIM?"
I moved to Prince George's County at the beginning of 1982. My
"total property taxes" for the first full year were $785.32. In
spite of the so- called "tax freeze" I kept hearing about, my
property taxes rose steadily year by year. I still live in the
exact same house and the "total consolidated tax bill" for 1998
was $1888.10. Some freeze... I hate to think what our county
leaders would help themselves to if the "freeze" were lifted.
I don't claim to be an expert on the problems in
our schools. But I doubt that throwing money at the
perceived problems is the answer. I am certain that there is no
hope for getting maximum achievement from the students in the
current heterogeneous classroom mixtures. Teaching to the slower
students holds the quicker students back; teaching to the quicker
students leaves the slower students in the dust. Grouping
students according to ability wouldn't cost a penny.
Something one might consider do if he's concerned about our schools is
perform volunteer work. I help first-graders at James McHenry
Elementary School with reading and arithmetic one morning per
week. I also help with some clerical chores. I recommend it
highly. Your help will be greatly appreciated by the school, and
the kids will like you. You might find yourself enjoying this
volunteer "work" as much as any of your hobbies.
ME: well wishes and apologies
I took my car out tonight and - yep, you guessed it - the
headlight is *still* burned out. It didn't cross my mind once
after getting home Tuesday night.
Fun with the kiddies again today. Did you know that, in the
spirit of "different necessarily has to be better", our peerless
educators are now teaching 1st-graders subtraction before
addition? The kids I'm helping are as likely to say 4 + 1 = 3 as
the right answer, maybe moreso.
I saw the Spike Lee documentary "4 Little Girls" yesterday at the
College Park Archives. I wouldn't say it was great, but I bawled
for all 102 minutes.
Speaking of Hemingway, you'll have to translate "the past is
another country" into English for me one day, and maybe explain
the inclusion of the Boris Karloff snippet on your tape. It
sounds familiar, by the way.
You and Hself gave me temporary pause regarding the notoriety of
primal scream therapy. I've recovered and am in a position to
state (from experience) that in the mid-70s, you could work
"primal scream" into some joky conversation and not one bright
college student in 10 would have an inkling of what you were
talking about - including Beatle fans. Once when I did this, it
was picked up and unwittingly transmuted into "primeval scream"
by the others.
Sorry to upset you with the Dave Barry snippet. I don't know
what went awry, but the things to keep in mind are that those 12
lines were imbedded in a funny end-of-year roundup which was *44
screens* long, and that, as far as I can tell, in no case were
mean or uncomplimentary or belittling to the deceased. (The
exception being Pol Pot.) "Linda McCartney takes wing" - how
could that be said more poetically? Oh well, what do I know.
By the way, if you can't help me with "Keith Richards enlists in
the Colombian air force", who can??? What the heck does that
mean?????????
THEE: re: LC chore
Are you detecting an atmosphere there in DC over all this fracas
going on in the Senate?
THEE: Subject: Updates
As for my tape, well, I don't really know what "the past is
another country" really means, but the title seemed good for a
tape that celebrates the end of a rich part of my record-
collecting past--my departure from Bloomington. Similarly, I
merely included a snippet from mr. Karloff because it's from one
of the records I bought on my last Tuesday visit to the library
sale. I'm sorry it wasn't something more appropriate, but my
visits to the library ended with more of a whimper than a bang.
This message may have a part two, only I have to get the laundry
out of the washers now.
THEE: Subject: Part Two
I've been meaning to ask you about a CD that is rising to the top
of my pile. It's by the Beatles and it's called "Conquer
America." No, it's not THAT "Conquer America." Here's what a
brief descriptive passage says: "This disc documents the Beatles
[sic] first visit to America and includes interviews with the
group during that visit." Uh, I grow weary of copying, so I'll
leave out the rest. Anyway, do you think I better tape it for
you just to play it safe? Let me know if you're against my doing
so. I'll listen to it and if it's something I don't fully
recognize, I will. Oh yes, it's a Baktabak Limited Edition.
THEE: Subject: Red Robinson goes digital
OK, so the CD called "Conquer America" is what I know as
"Timeless II A Continuation" on Silhouette Music from the early
'80s. It consists of the Murray the K fan club record, a 1966
(misidentified as 1964) press conference in Vancouver and a 1966
press conference in Seattle. A couple tribute songs on my
"Timeless II" picture disk have been sliced. I'm guessing you
don't need it.
We watched a fairly funny new movie on video last night--"The
Wedding Singer." An old lady sings a bit of "Till There Was You"
in the flick and I'm giving serious thought to NOT including it
on my current tape to you. We need something new, exciting, and
different!
THEE: Subject: Scrabble
My roommate and I are
interested in branching out and playing someone other than each
other. Neither of us has ever been in a Scrabble club, so we
have a couple of questions. First what are the dues, if any?
And what should we bring to the club meetings?
Bearing in mind that we know zero, please tell me anything that
you think I should know before showing up at Bowie City Hall some
1st or 3rd Wednesday.
ME: Thanks for the Christmas card and note. The kids look great.
They also look like you. Hmmm.... I wonder if there's a
connection there.
Thanks a million for the Bob Dylan magnet. How do you do it? It
looks great on my new refrigerator. (The old one bit the dust
this summer.)
I also have let my Beatlefan subscription slide. There's a few
reasons for that. My main interest has always been the Beatles
as a group; that's what took the world by storm. I don't keep up
with solo Beatle work now, or what the kids are doing. Anyhow,
if there's something good in Beatlefan, I can eventually see it
in my buddy's copy, although that might be a year later.
Still having a great time with the first-graders, which I'm sure
I mentioned in my Christmas note.
Been looking into getting a regular job again. Still, I'd much
rather work for peanuts doing something I want, like making
guitar music in the Library of Congress available to guitarists
the world over. Oh well, ya can't have everything. And it's not
like I'll be slashing sugar-cane or pulling cotton 12 hours a
day. We've got it pretty easy nowadays and I don't take that for
granted.
ME: Hself, ol' buddy ol' pal ol' bean, I hate to be a wet blanket,
but it behooves me to say that I do everything in my power to
avoid any thought or mention of the President's predicament. I
let my newspaper subscription lapse because I was so sick of it.
(I was sick of it the day the story broke, the exact minute,
even, probably earlier.) The reasons for feeling the way I do
are legion. No one will ever hear them. I will say that any one
of the pictures in your Christmas mailing are a million, nay, a
trillion, times more worthy of the world's attention. (Thanks,
again, by the way!)
Take care.
ME: Thanks for the newsletter. Was the Silent Night arrangement
yours? It goes without saying I feel bad you shoulder the whole
thing by yourself - that's almost unbelievable, actually - but
I'm afraid I still can't face it.
You going to nudge any students to the members' recital? That
"adult ensemble" of yours sounded good.
ME: In the pop music world, I've been plowing unknown byways, as
always. Been digging up lots of arrangements for guitar of turn-
of-the- century pop tunes at the Library of Congress. (Not
*this* turn-of-the-century - that one!) It's kind of neat, in
the absence of sound recordings from that era. Sort of the next
best thing to finding a stack of 100-year-old 45s at the
Salvation Army store. Current fave-rave is "Lucia, My Italian
Maid."
My web site is up to 400 hits per week now - and not a single
visitor knows what I look like. I have a buddy with a scanner,
but he doesn't know how to use it.
ME: Subject: scrabble
The first thing you need to know is that my club is currently
dormant. I gave it a rest for the summer when some members had
conflicts and never cranked it up again.
Just recently there was an article that made a big mention of my
club in the Journal newspapers. I was hoping that would generate
a new round of interest, whereupon I would fire up the club as
fast as I could. There wasn't much response, but with your
interest, we may be reaching a critical mass.
Why don't you give me a call some time. There are some other
active clubs in the area which I can tell you about. Of course,
I want to keep scrabble people who haven't been defiled and
corrupted by tournament-type play to myself.
ME: Subject: melatonin
I'm procrastinating on a lot of self-imposed web projects.
I cause myself about the same stress that school used to.
It turns out that your explanation of "the past is another
country" and the Boris Karloff snippet confirmed my suspicions
exactly. I just thought maybe I was missing something. By the
way, can a wordster like Hself translate "the past is another
country"? (And what does she know about the Colombian air force?
This is gonna kill me, you know.)
Remind me to ask you about Sen Glenn and the sleep experiments.
Nix on putting Conquer America on my tapes. They're for snippets
and miscellany and gems and riff-raff from crazy record
collections and movies and the media. Theoretically, I should
own whole Beatle albums. In this case it sounds like I do, but
even if I didn't then the appropriate action should be a spin-
through at one of our get-togethers. That, or wait for
recordable CDs to get sensible.
THEE: Actually, that Silent Night was John Duarte's from his Carols for
Guitar book. I should have given him credit... OOPS!
I'm gonna try and get a few of my students to play in the members
recital. I may even play on it myself. I might play my newest
piece "Benspiration".
ME: Subject: VOB catalog index
Dear IGRA,
I was looking through the VOB catalog for Kueffner and it seems
to me that there is a gap in the index. There is a page for
Heeren ->Jones and then a page for Lebedeff ->Lindsey.
If the missing page is on the disk, I don't know how to get to it
without a link.
THEE: After my AOL crashed a few months ago, I lost my bookmark to your
web... so, none of those recent hits have been mine. Thanks for
the new address.
Happy 1999 to you too!! Glad you liked the Christmas Card. Our
holidays were nice.
I was disappointed that you and I didn't have a great
conversation at Thanksgiving. I think everyone wanted to
pick your brain for internet things =)
Glad you are having success in your musical interests. I never
heard 'Lucia'... but, I doubt you are surprized.
THEE: I hate the rat race. I was back on 5 day a week.
They wanted me to work 5 again but I said no I'd have to
quit cause being at home with my kids was more important...and
surprise, they understood and let me continue with
4 days! I was lucky. Still wish I was home more though. My kids
are so fun to be with. Now you know how I feel since your working
with the 1st graders. Hself starts pre-school this year - I am
so excited. I will totally be the mom making crafts and baking
goodies for the class!
The magnet was so easy to make, just a sticky backed magnetic
sheet. You should see my fridge!! I cut out all sorts of things
and make magnets of 'em.
THEE: My friend Hself is just discovering Badfinger. Can you
tell me which members have died and when? Ta!
So, "the past is another country" is a mysterious phrase, eh?
I'll try to find where Hem used it. There's a good movie from
the '80s called "Another Country" about a posh British boys'
school in the 1930s. The gag is that some of the students are
the men who would be Soviet spies in the '50s and '60s.
Hself was channel surfing last night and stopped on an interesting
(but not sexual) program on the Learning Channel called "Human
Sexes." I got thrown by the narrator. Then I recognized him--he's the
guy that hosted the Lennon "Man of the Decade" segment. he's
looking quite chipper, though the program itself may have been 10
years old. Hself was so enthralled that she had me tape a later
transmission, so I can advise you on this minor character more
fully.
ME: Subject: exhibit opening rsvp
I am very pleased to accept your invitation to the exhibit
opening for The Beatles: Now And Then.
I look forward to it.
ME: Subject: damping notation
I enjoyed the "Transcriber's Art" column again. Regarding the
Zipoli transcription, though, I have to say that it always breaks
my heart to see so few notes on a single staff so impossible to
play on the guitar.
About stopping notes, I've proposed a simple notation that covers
almost all of the cases you listed. It's simply the letter d
followed by the left or right hand finger that does the damping.
Thus,
d1 d2 d3 d4 dp da dm di
I guess we could add "dh" for the heel of the hand.
While that might not strike one as the most brilliant notation
since heiroglyphics, it is very simple and also consistent with
my other proposed notations which all have 2 parts and start with
a letter. Positions are
C1 C2 C3 ...
Harmonics are
H5 H7 H12 H9 etc.
When I need to notate the damping finger, I write the indication
under the note which needs to be damped - not where the damping
occurs. That's about it, but you might take a look at the
discussion in my web page
http://www.donaldsauter.com/guitar-fingering-notation.htm
ME: Subject: a scanner, ooo-wee
A scanner, huh!?! I've been going nuts wondering why nobody I
know has a scanner. Actually, my buddy Hself has a scanner, but
he doesn't know how to use it - or the rest of his computer. (I
see I already said this in my last email. I was born with
Alzheimer's...)
Never heard Lucia, My Italian Maid???!!! Don't worry, neither
has anybody else. Another goodie is Gypsy Love Song. Ah... me
and my time-travelin' guitar.
Believe me, it was all my fault coming up dry on Thanksgiving. I
was racking my brain, but it was no go. To be honest, I think
I've told you everything there is in my brain. Pretty sad, eh?
ME: Subject: obit tracking, as always
Finally got a headlight and installed it today.
Had another good day at LC yesterday. I have a technique for
getting good (not perfect) margins on 8.5 x 14 pages, but it
slows me down. Now I can only get about 80 copies done in a day.
With the 11 x 17 paper, I could get about 140.
Found out today that the Gazette is just a weekly. I had thought
the occasional copy they throw in my driveway was to tempt
subscribers, but in fact, we get them all. I wrote a letter in
response to an editorial, is why I looked into this.
About Badfinger, Pete Ham hanged himself in April 1975. Tom
Evans committed suicide in 1983. The surviving members are Joey
Molland and Mike Gibbins. I was quite amazed to find Evans death
was that recent, which is why it wasn't in the reference book I
went to, or the early Beatlefans with the Badfinger interviews.
I found the year on the web. There's a rock encyclopedia out
there.
THEE: Subject: In another country
Thanks for the poop on Badfinger. Hself is becoming a
fan of "Straight Up."
I've just been reminded that Hemingway wrote a story called "In
Another Country." I hope I have a copy in my backlog so I can
reread it. I can't recall what it's about.
I watched the 1930 film "The Blue Angel" last night. You know
what song that movie gave the world, don't you? I taped all
three performances of it in the film for you.
Congratulations on both your Library of Congress success and for
getting a headlight.
THEE: Re: a scanner, ooo-wee
I'm doing pretty well with the scanner. I can crop pictures too.
CAN'T seem to get my damn printer to work right though. Keeps
saying it's out of paper... when it isn't.
I don't charge for scanning...but, I don't know how you'd hook em
to your web. I could do em...and put em on a disk. Probaby,
there is an easy way...but, I know how to scan/e-mail em to
me...and save em on a disk ;-) Whatever works!
So...I know everything in your brain...huh...then why didn't the
answer about the water and wine thing come to me immediately!!
HA!
THEE: your page could have saved my relationship
i just read your scrabble page and think that perhaps that had i
read it a year ago, i would still be with my fiancee. she loved
scrabble and so did i. i also play a lot of poker and at the
time was playing a lot of Magic: TG. we played by the standard
rules and in no time my bluffing style started to be a constant
source of friction to the point where we no longer played. you
see, with my old roommates, bluffing was part and parcel of the
game, even the point of some games. we were also old poker hands
so this is not surprising. anyways, she and I played fewer and
fewer games and then broke up. Moral: don't bluff your sweetheart
and use the no-risk challenge rule. Next time I'll remember
this. Damn, do you know how hard it is to find a girl in her 20s
who likes boardgames? you'd think it was easy but of the 4
serious girlfriends i've had (i'm 28), 3 of them HATED board
games. anyhoo, thanks again for your page...i'll keep it
bookmarked for the next one.
THEE: Subject: Flower Song
I thank you very much for the packet of
music you sent. It's nice to have some new material
to mull over. I find I have two other guitar versions of "Flower
Song": One by Herbert Gray (1892), the other by Foden (which
seems to be packed away somethere). The six you mention are all
new to me. This must have been one popular piece. The original
title is "Blumenlied" and is by a German pianist named Gustav
Lange (1830-1899). Slonimsky speaks of him as the composer of
"more than 400 piano pieces, generally facile, elegant, and
effective, and many of which gained great vogue." Loesser
dismisses it as "trash, by high-brow standards; and so was almost
all other piano music of the century." But, then, Loesser was a
high-brow. I'll have to give some thought to any connection with
this to "Farewell to the Flowers." Could be.
I don't know a thing about Trinkaus either, but to keep running
into the name. Yes, he must have kept busy.
THEE: Re: damping notation
Thanks for the note. I like your suggestion on damping notation.
Simple and logical. I will recommend its use as the occasion
arises.
One of my most often used 'dampers' is the back/top of my right
thumb knuckle as the thumb slides in to pluck the next higher
string. 'dp' would not suggest this subtlety but I guess there
will always be limits to any notation.
Regarding barres, I have always disliked the 'C' indication, and
prefer just the Roman numeral with a number subscript to show the
necessary number of strings (as Koonce uses). This gives more
information for the same number of symbols. Of course not using
'C' for barres means that I don't have a symbol for position
(without barre), so I resort to string numbers. I figure that
this gives the same amount of information: for a given note, with
a position symbol you must deduce the string number; with a
string number you must deduce the position.
ME: Subject: pixels
I am getting all charged up with this talk of scanners. I'm sure
all I need is the files on a disk, and I can upload them to my
website. Do you do both JPEG and GIF files?
Oh yeah, listened to the PJ tape again recently. The
sound quality reminds me that I just heard my first home-recorded
CD recently. My friend Hself is a major fan/follower of the band
Gong, and he had one of their live recordings from the mid-70s
transferred to a CD. Well, I guess it's convenient and
indestructable, but it still sounded just like an audience
recording.
Our guitar trio had one of its longest sessions ever today - from
9:30 to about 3:00. Didn't cut one keeper track...
ME: topnotch journalism
The Lanham Gazette is now my favorite newspaper. They printed my
letter in the current edition. Ahhhh, back in the saddle again.
The subject of the Gazette came up today at our guitar trio
session. Hself says his mother wrote a column about senior citizen
topics that appeared in the Rockville and a few other Montgomery
Co. Gazettes about 7 or 8 years ago. Do you know the name
Hself? You probably would have mentioned it before, for
instance at the guitar society meeting.
I looked at a Post at school on Thursday. Spun through the
Richard Cohen piece on Larry Flynt. Man, he makes it hard for a
mature adult not to say DUHHHH. (Not that Richard grasped the
big picture here. No mention of hyprocrisy.)
Yep, I know right off what song came from the Blue Angel. I'm
still impressed about the time you heard John Lennon singing a
very slow, thickly accented, fractured German version, and named
it right off. I was thinking, hey this is so familiar, but what
is it? Plus I had heard it quite a few times before.
WMUC played another 3-hour MLK tribute show tonight. Early
on was something that hit me: "Now where have I heard this
recently?" Within a few more seconds, I realized it was the
Rainmaker song you put on the most recent tape. (Not sure what
the exact tie-in was.) There was another song about some
injustice involving half-breeds from some mid-1800s year (on St.
Patrick day). A main character was named Lidell (Jack, I think).
How's your history?
Got an email from my number one favorite guitar guy in the world -
Peter Danner. His knowledge is awesome; he has a great sense
of humor; he's appropriately eccentric (he smokes a pipe); and
puts lots of fun music (sez me) in the Soundboard, which he
edits.
Got an email from a guy saying that, if he had seen my scrabble
page a few years ago, it would have saved his relationship. He
kept bluffing his girlfriend with bum words, and she took a
walkout powder. As far as I can discern, he's on the level.
THEE: Cool that you were listening to PJ again. I'm still collecting
bootlegs, and they are audience recordings. I've cut back
though...since I really don't listen to them often. After
awhile, you get tired of all the cheering, and neighboring
comments.
I never heard of Gong.
'Keeper track'...what's this?
THEE: Subject: Topnotch journalism?
I'm glad you love the ol' "Gazoo." I got a chuckle from the in-
laws last night when I told the story about the private message
that got put on the front page of the Lanham Gazette you showed
me.
On the way home, we heard a track from John Williams' new CD on
an NPR station that broadcasts from Ocean City and Salisbury, Md.
I did miss Richard Cohen on Larry Flynt. Flynt let us down. I'm
sure there's plenty more dirt out there.
ME: Subject: fingering notation
I envy you - I've never been able to get the back of my thumb to
damp a note as it goes on to play the next higher string.
Thanks for your thoughts on fingering notation. That's one of my
pet topics, of course. I never, ever, ever have any use for
barre notation of any sort. Fingerings show clearly when one lh
finger is needed to press multiple notes. In turning to the
Zipoli transcription for an example, the very first one I zeroed
in on was the barre at the beginning of measure 21. A "-1" in
front of the low C would actually give much more information -
and be much more instantly understandable - than the "VIII---," .
I've always wondered, does anybody actually throw down a barre
simply because they see a barre symbol (of any sort)?
I also never, ever, ever use string numbers. All I need to know
is, given the position I am currently in, which finger will play
the note? Assigning a string number to a note tells you neither
what position you should be in, or which finger to use. (That's
in addition to the shortcoming that string number notation is so
bulky you can hardly write it near the note it applies to.) I
claim I could turn a very straightforward piece into one almost
impossible to read by "fingering" it with gobs and gobs of string
numbers.
Thanks for putting the fingerings smack in front of the notes.
That makes complete sense, and you're maybe the only one who does
it. If you're at all curious how any of the pieces from the
Transcriber's Art would look fingered according to my
specifications, just ask.
I know all of this is peripheral to your impressive contribution
to the guitar world, but I love to talk about it. I wish the
topic would come up again in the Soundboard.
ME: Subject: flowers, etc.
Hope my "discovery" about the Flower pieces isn't a figment of my
imagination. Consider the different sections (including the coda
and cadenza), their key relationships, the number of measures in
each, and most importantly, the texture of the music in each.
About Trinkaus' "Gypsy Love Song", I meant to mention that I make
a few corrections(?) in the first part to make it sound right to
me. For instance, there's a 3-note C7 chord that I change back
to F. Anyhow, I think the 2nd part is beautiful.
Also forgot to mention that I enjoy the Chobanian 2nd movement.
THEE: Know exactly how you feel regarding this Clinton MESS! I
was one of his biggest supporters in '92 and it has been really
heartbreaking to know that he's such a SICKO! He's an abuser of
women, and frankly, I have NO USE FOR SUCH A PERSON! His STATE OF
THE UNION was excellent--that's what he does well--and that kind
of performance is what got the man elected to begin with. But,
NO, this has NEVER been about a private sexual relationship--it's
been about kinky, sick, abusive behavior toward employees. Any
man who would use his power to expect sexual favors from young,
female subordinates--by exposing himself while on the job--even
as governor---God, help us all! That's all I have to say on the
subject. I gathered that you weren't thrilled about the topic to
begin with. After all, YOU ARE A GUY! Most men are EMBARRASSED
about the Clinton details. Makes them all feel uncomfortable.
Anyone for a CIGAR?????
Loved your article on Scrabble. Think it's terrific that you are
bright enough to be so expert at the game--and to be featured in
the newspaper! May I ask why you found it necessary to scratch
out your age?? Do you really think that I don't have a clue to
your age? My guess is that you are in your late 30's--if that!
Am I right? What you have to keep in mind is that we are all
just souls in borrowed bodies--and age is really irrelevant!
THEE: Subject: Cut finger
There's a possibility I'll skip tonight since I cut my little
finger/left hand on the tip (slicing a bagel this morning). It's
not a bad cut, just in a bad place. I'll try playing with a
bandaid when I get back, before leaving home. If it works, I'll
go; if I find it too weird or bloody trying to play with a
bandaid, I'll skip. I guess a pro would always go on.
ME: Subject: track 1 (and only)
One of the pieces played at the members' recital was the Bach
two-part invention in G, the beginning of which is heard in the
AYNIL finale, played on two trumpets.
Helped in the library at school yesterday since Mrs. Hself, the
teacher I help, had to work in the office instead of with the
kids. One of the books I was trying to bring under control was
called Me And The Eggman. Have we ever discussed that last word?
I've known it all my life, even before 1967 because Mr. Kelbel
who owned the farm next to us was an eggman. He sold us eggs and
curd (aka schmierkase aka cottage cheese). The curious thing is
that eggman is not a word, at least in any conventional
collegiate-type American dictionary. The book was copyright 1972
and the content seemed to have nothing to do with walruses or
cornflakes or anything like that, but the first sentence did
contain the word "imagine". The main character was Donald.
Got a CD-rom in the mail from Microsoft on Wednesday. I figured
what the heck. I stuck it in my CD player. What I got was
70:30 of hiss, with a few faint buzzes here and there. There was
one particularly buzzy section, but I can't find my note saying
where it started.
The rest of this message I was ready to send off on Tuesday, but
I lost my connection just then. Haven't found time to go online
till now.
Heard today [Tuesday] that what George Martin has up his sleeve
at the Birchmere is a multimedia presentation on the making of
Sgt. Pepper. That sounds pretty darn interesting. He should do
it at some real auditorium, though. I hope it's sold out by now
to save me the trouble of stewing over it.
I did a little research for you. In the notes to the Hself
Chronology 28, you wondered what the Searcher's 3rd single was
that knocked the Beatles from the No. 1 spot. According to Let's
Go Down The Cavern (Leigh), their 3rd song "Needles And Pins"
entered the UK charts in January 1964 and went to No. 1. C&P's
Melody Maker chart says that IWTHYH dropped to No. 2 on January
11, 1964. That sounds consistent enough to me, especially
considering there were a variety of UK charts. The Searchers had
10 Top 20 hits in the UK (3 No. 1s, and a 2, 3 and 4), which,
along with being from Liverpool, is how they gained a spot in
Beatle Significa. In this country NAP entered the Billboard
charts in March 1964 and went to No. 13. I well remember being
completely knocked out by it.
ME: Subject: disintegrating
Hey, I didn't censor my age for your
benefit. I had a pile of the articles, and I "edited" them all
at the same time. It was kind of jokey, but also derives from my
very strong anti-ageist feelings. What could be a less important
piece of information - of any sort - than a person's age? And
the newspaper has to hammer it home twice. I wish that somehow
the date of a person's birth would never be recorded - and never
remembered by anybody. Not too feasible, huh? I defy anybody to
list one useful purpose that it serves (or, more precisely, one
useful purpose that it would serve in a sensible world.)
I know that Chesapeake is "a fur piece" but do you know about the
Beatle exhibit opening at the Newseum in Rosslyn, Va. on
Wednesday night? There's also a panel discussion about the
Beatles and the media that afternoon.
Also, George Martin is bringing some sort of multi-media "Making
of Sgt. Pepper" show to the Birchmere in D.C. in February.
P.S. I'm 45 - everybody knows that. (I'm so ooooold...)
ME: jpeg o' my heart
Also played some duets at the guitar society meeting tonight.
Had to can the trios since Hself cut her finger slightly this
morning, but just bothersome enough to prevent playing.
Will give a call sometime when I'm in the Baltimore area. I will
have my photos at the ready. Haven't gotten casual about making
long distance phone calls, like the rest of the world has.
Probably never will. Actually, I have a hard time with mini-
distance phone calls.
Lessee... Never heard of steel orchestras; never heard of Papo
Ramon; never heard of Lucia My Italian Maid; and now - never
heard of Gong?!?!?
Neither had I, actually. My buddies have very esoteric tastes, I
guess. How about Billy Childish, or his band Thee Headcoats? He
cranks out an album every couple of weeks and my buddy Hself
tried to keep up, but had to eventually fall by the wayside, of
course.
A keeper track is the recording that's good enough to keep. The
first 57 takes or so are false starts, breakdowns or just plain
crummy. It's hard enough trying to play something half-decently,
but the real heck of it all is that just turning on the tape
recorder makes you flub simple little things that you've been
playing perfectly since the first time you saw the piece.
Grrrr....
THEE: Subject: Mainly Beatles (for a change)
Wow. Congratulations on making the microsoft mailing list.
Don't throw away that CD-ROM. You can use it as I used many of
the CD-ROMs I used to get at BNA, as a colorful coffee coaster.
Thanks for the Searchers poop. We know that "Needls and Pins"
was a pretty big hit, I guess.
For reasons obscure, I listened to a little of that Red Robinson
CD, with the press conferences from 1966. I'm sure it's been
said before (even by me) but Robinson introduces the Beatles as
comic geniuses with "their witty reparte," and then plays tapes
of conferences, where the Fabs are obviously jet-lagged and fed
up with the whole thing. Robinson says, "Hah! You can imagine
the Beatles' reaction to a six-foot DJ dressed as the Jolly green
Giant." Uh, the reaction was probably tedium!
Thanks also for the George Martin grist. I never got myself a
ticket. My excuse is that I do my volunteer teaching that night.
The show does sound potentially interesting.
What can you tell me about an LP called "A Hard Days Night"
starring the Manchesters on Diplomat Records (a product of
Synthetic Plastics Co., Newark), featuring covers of four Fab
tunes (five, if you count "My Bonnie")?
Thee: Re: jpeg o' my heart
I feel totally stupid when you talk about music, cause I've never
heard of ANYONE you mention!! But, since you probably haven't
heard of Concrete Blonde and Goodness...I guess we're even.
I don't use the phone that much any more either. I use it all
day at work, so, that may be why.
I am sure that this scanner has so many features that I just
don't know how to use. I scanned a black & white photo...and
tried to attach it to an e-mail...and it wouldn't work =( The
color ones always seem to work. Maybe I'll have to pretend it's
color and try it.
When Hself's band recorded their CD, he said they could fix even
one NOTE! This sound place had that ability. So, I guess every
track was a keeper...and they pieced the song together.
Rumors exist that there will be a Woodstock '99 in Europe and NY.
Pearl Jam will definitely not play the one in Europe, but their
Rumor Pit newsletter did not mention the one in NY. I don't know
if I'd be up for a weekend of roughing it and spot-a-pot
lines....even for Eddie and the boys...but, it could be an
interesting adventure. One lady I know online is considering it
too. She's in Pittsburgh...married with two kids younger than
mine. I met her in person in DC at a PJ concert. She's not keen
on sleeping in a tent either...so, it's all doubtful.
Yeah, just call when you are in town. Otherwise, I may actually
have to clean this DUMP! Spontaneity means you get to walk in no
matter HOW horribly cluttered the place is ;-)
THEE: Subject: Mainly Leadbelly (for a change)
Additional question: Were you at one time interested in
Leadbelly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night" (which Billy Childish
calls "Black Girl")? I've come across another version.
THEE: Could you give me some info?
I am needing information as to the Ball specifications in the
NFL. Would you be able to send them to me? Thank you! Hope to get
a response real soon!
THEE: Subject: The Beatles 6 Cover.. What are they holding??????
Could they be holding a camera shutter device that is attached
with a chord to the camera for a self portrait photogragh? I
wonder if anyone from "Fabulous Magazine-Fleetway Publications
LTD." is still around to verify the truth? Of course, there are 3
other options.............
ME: Subject: phones, rock, scanners, u-name-it
I got a kick out of your account of Hself's recording sessions.
When I discussed "keeper tracks" I was going to add some jokey
sentence like, "You wouldn't know about all this since in the
pop/rock world, modern technology makes *everything* a keeper
track."
Believe me, nobody is dumber than me about pop music. I've heard
the name Concrete Blonde, but can't associate it with any song or
sound. Nope, draw a blank on Goodness. One problem is, if I do
hear something on a regular station like WHFS, I make absolutely
no effort to listen for artist names. And believe me, it's rare
that I would find a song on WHFS that I will listen to till the
end. I used to listen to the college station WMUC (U. of Md.)
exclusively, and the hour-long sets made it impossible to
associate artist names with songs - not to mention you will
probably never hear the same song twice on WMUC. And have I ever
confided that 99% of the radio I listen to is a beautiful music
station that still exists out in Hagerstown, WWMD? A beautiful
music version of Green Tambourine, or MacArthur Park - man,
that's livin!
Wow, your tale of the telephone is a shocker. I thought
everybody (but me) had achieved a sort of "oneness" with their
phones. In their cars, in the movie theater, walking down the
street, in the bathtub (I guess)... Everywhere, everyplace. I
had a bad experience Tuesday night and couldn't face picking up
the phone all day Wednesday. Usually, I get about half a call
per day, but Wednesday it rang 25 times. Then for the next week
you're bomboarded with, "Why didn't you answer your phone???" and
"Why wasn't your answering machine on???" My view is that it's
just the same as being out sitting on a mountaintop or something.
Nobody could talk to you then, and it's no big deal. Sheesh.
Two days ago, some boisterous guy called. I didn't recognize the
voice, and I couldn't understand him. He said (shouted), "Is _o_
there?" I wasn't sure of the first and last consonants. Coulda
been Don, coulda been Todd, coulda been Dodd coulda been Tonn.
Couldn't get him to say it clearly, couldn't get him to select
from the above multiple choice, and when I asked him to spell it,
he said "Forget it" and hung up. Don't know what sort of fame or
fortune I missed out on.
I've never been a natural pop-music concert goer, even if you
don't have to wallow in the mud. For example, Beatles producer
George Martin is coming to the Birchmere here in DC, and
theoretically I should be thrilled to death about that, and some
friends put the pressure on me, but I just find excuses for not
going (miserable joint, price, traffic, parking, too loud, packed
like sardines...), and wish guys like that wouldn't come around
and try to ruin my hermit-like existence.
ME: Subject: phones and me
Thanks for the CD tip. Unfortunately, I don't drink coffee. By
the way, did you know that I use disc 1 of Anthology 3 as
decoration in my living room. I used to use an extra copy of
disc 2, but realized I *had* to have the green side.
Where Did You Sleep Last Night doesn't ring any bells at all, but
I trust your judgment more than mine as to what I need.
Not a Manchesters expert, but the name does conjure up images of
1964 albums with Beatle-wig drawings on the cover. It sounds
like you have something different from what's listed in
Reinhart's You Can't Do That. He lists Beatlerama by the
Manchesters (Diplomat 2307) with IWTHYH, SLY, My Bonnie and The
Beatles Move. This is the same album as Beatlerama Vol. 1, which
was released on two labels, Diplomat and Guest Star, but with no
group listed. Reinhart also mentions that it sounds like David
Gates singing on a Manchester's single which was written and
arranged by Gates.
THEE: Subject: Tonight
Hey, _o_,
Looking for'ard to visiting tonight. Have the first box ready!
I can say no more!
THEE: Re: phones, rock, scanners, u-name-it
Whew...I won't have to clean =)
Concrete Blonde isn't even around anymore...they had one big
hit...Joey. I like the lead singer's voice. Sometimes I wonder
if I heard her when I visited Hself in Arizona years ago. Her
name is Johnette Napoleon. She's a single act now. I only know
of Goodness cause they opened for Pearl Jam out west. I bought a
CD, but I don't really like them.
Since I got a CD player in the car...and so many bootlegs on
cassette from the PJ concerts...I rarely listen to the radio
anymore. So, I rarely hear any new music. If I do like a song,
I try my darndest to find out WHO is singing it.
I know phones are convenient...but, they are also a pain!! Since
my supervisor quit months ago...people tend to call me about
work. BUT, I am not the supervisor. I like how I can avoid so
much crap...simply by not answering the phone.
I doubt I'd fight the crowds, etc. for any band other than PJ.
Sometimes, I wonder why I bother with them. As I look back over
my wild summer of 6 PJ concerts...I know I loved meeting the
online people I talk to... and seeing Eddie up close...but,
there is still a lot to be said for NOT going to concerts. I do
hate bathroom lines.
THEE: Re: fingering notation
>I envy you - I've never been able to get the back of my thumb to
damp a note as it goes on to play the next higher string.
This is one of seemingly innumerable individual differences that
place a limit on establishing a 'best' fingering. The back-of-
the-thumb maneuver has always been easy and natural for me - but
I can't develop a tremolo no matter how much I work at it.
>Thanks for your thoughts on fingering notation. That's one of
my pet topics, of course. I never, ever, ever have any use for
barre notation of any sort. Fingerings show clearly when one lh
finger is needed to press multiple notes.
What people are used to conditions what they find easiest to
read. One advantage that I find in barre notation is being able
to precisely indicate *when* to place, hinge or lift the barre.
(The last of these is also a type of 'damping' notation).
Sometimes it is most efficient to place the barre *before* the
notes that actually require it.
>In turning to the Zipoli transcription for an example, the very
first one I zeroed in on was the barre at the beginning of
measure 21. A "-1" in front of the low C would actually give
much more information - and be much more instantly understandable
- than the "VIII---," .
I cannot agree that it gives *more* information about how to
finger the C - it gives the same amount. I also think 'instantly
understandable' is partly a product of what is familiar. Because
I have used and of course seen barre notation, if I had come upon
this measure and seen a one on the low C and then again on the
high C my first thought would be that the intent was to move the
1 finger. This would have then seemed ridiculous and I would have
deduced the barre was intended.
I do not see the goal of a fingering notation to be determining
the minimum number of symbols necessary to specify the finger
movements. Any notation requires the player to do some deduction.
Sometimes I will include more than the necessary information.
Look at the last beat of m.22. The 3 finger symbol and the string
number are unnecessary - but they may be helpful. Would you put a
VI position symbol right where the 3 string symbol is? How would
that provide more information?
> I've always wondered, does anybody actually throw down a barre
simply because they see a barre symbol (of any sort)?
I'm not sure what you mean. Are you asking if people follow
fingerings without really thinking about them? I'm sure many do
for any notation. Maybe I am missing your point.
>I claim I could turn a very straightforward piece into one
almost impossible to read by "fingering" it with gobs and gobs of
string numbers.
I agree completely. In researching work I've done on Chopin
transcriptions I found several done by Tarrega. They really are
nearly incomprehensible due to the number and placement of
string numbers. I only use string numbers when there is possible
ambiguity. I also find them useful at times to show that a melody
line follows a particular string for a while. When the player
knows this then he can deduce the positions necessary, and it
helps elucidate the pattern of the music.
>I know all of this is peripheral to your impressive contribution
to the guitar world, but I love to talk about it. I wish the
topic would come up again in the Soundboard.
It could make an article. We could select a short piece, notate
it using different styles, and have an accompanying article in
the form of a dialog about the symbols that makes us both sound
erudite and clever.
THEE: Subject: Rockin'!
Thanks for a most stupendous evening. I enjoyed it, anyway. We
really heated up the ol' CD player, and that's good.
Or, as Link Wray might say: chuga-chuga-bwa-bwa (that's from
"Run Chicken Run," of course).
Thanks also for delightful dessert.
Today is Stephane Grappelli's 91st birthday.
THEE: Subject: Need Help understanding your page?
I really appreciate all the effort that has taken you in order to
create such Web Page and we all can see the great appreciation
that you have for virtuoso Aguado. My name is Hself as a
classical guitar student with no professor to learn from. I
would like to know more about the stuff you have given as a prove
of virtuoso Aguado's works and all the numbers you have written
there.
> The number attached to the note name changes on each C. Thus, the
notes from the guitar's low E are: e0 f0 g0 a0 b0 c1 d1 e1...
> The fewest number of opening notes are provided to differentiate
a given piece from all others with the same key and time
signature. A chord is indicated by its notes run together without
spaces. Accidentals are not shown. An asterisk (*) means the
pieces are the same, although there is a difference in the
opening notes. For theme and variations, or where there is an
introduction section, the theme is indexed here. Harmonic notes
are indicated by "har". The notated (not sounding) note is used.
Time signature slashes are omitted.
Key Time sig. Opening notes Location in complete works (vol/page)
--- --------- ------------- ------------------------ -------------
A 24 a0a1c2. 2/087
A 24 a0a2. 1/064 2/127
A 24 a0c1e1a1. 1/071 2/136
A 24 a0c2 a1. 1/057
A 24 a0c2 e2. 1/062
THEE: Subject: Baltimore Saturday?
Just noticed that the BGCS is having their open recital this
Saturday (starts at 7pm). Their webpage showed a ton of people
played at the last one!
I'm not even certain I will be able to play--these past two
nights I played a little & my wounded finger got a little sore
after a short time (less last night). What do you guys think?
Presuming I'll be o.k., do you want to do the pieces we had
planned for the WGS meeting?
ME: Subject: social games
(This started out as a personal note, but I think I'll edit it a
little and send it to rgb.)
I checked in on rec.games.board and found your thoughtful
response to my suggestions for "fun and friendly" gaming. Thanks
a lot. I agree with almost all of your points. Sure, if
everybody is happy with the official rules - go with 'em. It is
interesting that twice you admitted that you also sometimes have
bad game experiences. For me, even a 20% failure rate is
unacceptable. You say that the sort of person who gets all
worked up is "immature", but I think it's natural for even mature
people to react to perceived injustices. There's always the
inverse-battle cry - "it's only a game!" - but what's the point
of doing it at all if nobody cares - about doing well, about
paying attention, about following the rules, etc.? My eternal
argument is that taking something seriously and having fun with
it are not only *not* mutually exclusive, but go hand in hand.
I'm sure that my suggestions are not "new ideas" in a strict
sense. I'm proposing simplicity, and surely the current excess
baggage that rule-makers pile on games evolved little by little
from formerly simple rules. I will say that I have met no one
else so far who has gotten up the courage to change the rules to
any game. It's like they think they were forged in heaven or
something. More to the point, I have encountered almost nothing
but ferocious opposition to any of my suggestions to make a game
more fun and friendly. People who know me think that I change
rules just for the sake of changing rules. "There he goes
again..." That's why I have to unload my ideas on the internet,
ha ha.
I'm curious about the Victorian entertainments you've collected.
Do they involve equipment, or just rules? How about describing a
few for me/us? Thanks.
ME: Subject: a funny thing happened on the way to baltimore...
Coordinated a visit to the LC music division today with a talk in
their American Treasures exhibit. It was about the Bay Psalm
Book, the first book (1640) printed in what would eventually
become [the country which still to this day has no name.] Quite
interesting. They wouldn't pass it around, though, even after I
told them the music division lets me photocopy lute books from
1538. (Just kidding.) In the Q&A wrap-up, one total jerk had to
ask what the Puritans would have thought of Clinton's behavior.
Have you been to that exhibit? There's a really fascinating
photo of Lincoln from about 3 hours before his Gettysburg
address.
Have we ever talked about answering phones to find absolutely
nothing on the other end?
In pop music news:
The morning after your visit, I heard a beautiful music version
of I Remember You. As we were saying... Also, that was a minor
coincidence about Grapelli's birthday.
Tonight I heard a very strange one on WWMD - a Beach Boys medley.
They strung together Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Wouldn't It
Be Nice and back to Good Vibrations. I don't think I've ever
heard a beautiful music medley before.
Do you know Pow Wow, the Indian boy (loved all the animals in the
woods)?
Heard a country music song about the "lifestyles of the poor and
unfamous" with a line about RC Cola and a Moon Pie. Didn't
Weasel always play some flunky high school bar band group with a
song about that?
o
THEE: I was listening to our earlier pieces on tape, thinking
that we really never 'got' certain ones. It may be worthwhile re-
doing some of the more well written and approachable pieces
(like--Times of the Miraculous. Prolog & Rondo). I'm imagining
Don's response to be that we need to give all the pieces we
haven't tried a shot before going back but I'm not so sure. Of
the 150 or so pieces that I have, certainly some rank musically
as among the best? Ah, well--this is just food for thought.
THEE: Subject: Overdrawn at the memory bank
That L of C exhibit sounds mighty cool. I would like to check it
out. Hself and I have not spent a day downtown since Hself came
on the scene, however.
Speaking of Bill Clinton (as in what would the Puritans have
thought), I hope that when Lewinsky and her mother return to
D.C., now that Lewinsky will have to testify before the Senate,
that some card will say to them at the airport, "We wish you
success...it's good to have the both of you back."
You have mentioned getting one or two phone calls with no one at
the other end. Does it continue to be a problem? That's
annoying. Do you have any enemies?
"Pow Wow, the Indian boy (loved all the animals in the woods)"
and a song played by Weasel concerning "RC Cola and a Moon Pie"
are things that are unfamiliar to me. Sorry.
ME: Subject: where's eddie?
Bit of a stir at school today. A boy ran off and they couldn't
catch him. It was the second day in a row, and yesterday he got
in the creek that splits the neighborhood. So there was some
concern about him coming to harm in the creek. I was walking
home just as the search was cranking up, so I used a little known
path through the woods along the creek to get home, but didn't
see any sign of him.
I didn't think you would know Pow Wow the Indian Boy, a tv
cartoon from the '50s. It was the first song in that great
MST3000 (?) jungle beat medley. I thought that might be the only
one you wouldn't know.
The dead phone calls have been happening for much more than a
year, I'm sure, but have always been a matter of curiosity rather
than annoyance. The explanation the phone company gave me was
vaguely plausible, but, if correct, would apply to everyone, not
just me. So far, no one I've talked to has massive quantities of
dead phone calls, if any.
Think I'll check in on the beatles discussion group tonight to
see what fans have to say about Paul's pro-vulgarity crusade.
ME: Subject: an article for the newsletter
Here's an article for the newsletter. Hself a new member.
We met at the mandolin convention Alexandria some months ago. I
gave him some old newsletters. After he looked a few over, he
asked for a complete set, and joined up. He's a top-notch
guitarist.
I was thinking I could face submitting a piece of music with an
introductory paragraph for the newsletters. Interested? The
drawbacks are: local members don't play the stuff; more expensive
newsletter; more work for you.
========================================================================
Teaching
After having taught guitar for about forty years one can hardly
help but wonder about the result of that labor. I suppose
teachers can never really know what manner of benefit or
influence they have been.
You can only teach as much as your students will allow, and
sometimes that is precious little.
You may spout information until your breath fails, but unless a
student hears and takes something to heart, you have taught
nothing.
If you are a student you should know, that the more resisant you
are to an idea, the less you will learn. The most expensive
thing a student will ever own is disbelief.
A teacher might try to predict how it will go with a student, but
there is no list of dependable prognosticators to this end.
There might be some general idea of the probabilities, but at
best the classifications remain very general, such as: good, bad,
or somewhere in between.
For our convenience we sometimes tend to categorize students, so
that we might give them a mental address.
Some categories might be: good, bad, indifferent, adults, young,
too young, too old, smoke blowers, outright liars, guitar owners,
don't want to be's, piddlers, contemplative dreamers, and
overnight wonders.
The overnight wonders are those that want to do all of their
study and practice in secret so one day they can come bounding
out of the closet and pounce on an unsuspecting world, and amaze
all of their friends. These are the same fools that believe
there can be true learning without honesty.
They are usually good for about three weeks because not enough
secret time can be found to accomplish anything.
It should be remembered that in order to learn to play you must
be honest, and this is what many find to be intolerable.
As for trying to categorize students (if such a thing should be
considered at all) there is only one common ground on which most
of them stand, and that is: To the right, you have those that
say: "Oh, I messed up that note or phrase." And on the left you
have those that say: "That note or phrase keeps messing me up."
If you have a student that stands on the left, you might as well
just go ahead and chuck him out of the window. (open or closed)
If your studio is less than three stories up, you are less likely
to get a clean kill.
I mean, you wouldn't want to wind up with a 150 pound vegetable
that has to be spoon fed. If he is in possession of a good
quality instrument, keep the guitar and throw the bones away.
There will be no profit in such a person because even if there is
a measure of success, he will not be able to protect it in the
future.
If you have a student that stands to the right, then of course,
do your best by him and suffer all questions.
The most frequent and consistently asked question is: "How long
will it take to learn to play?" I have heard only one good
answer to this question, and it is also a question - "How many
pieces of string would it take to reach the moon?"
This question lets you know right away that the inquisitor has no
clue of the nature of the project, and furthermore they will not
be able to afford the time.
It's the same old story; if you have to ask you can't afford it,
but at the same time it's a bargain at any price.
For those that think they would like to learn to play the guitar,
I truly hope there will be perseverance enough to make the
project successful, but until that is determined, try to choose a
studio on the ground floor.
Good luck.
THEE: Subject: Enemies
Sounds like your school has a troubled child on its hands.
There's always at least one, I guess. Any hope that he has
stable parents who can be called in?
You? Enemies? Oh sure, I suppose a lot of auto mechanics out
there don't like the fact that you've told them the emperor has
no clothes, but who else?
THEE: Subject: Linda
Thanks for the excerpts from the chat group discussion on the
Linda "ban." People's dander was already up on the topic, I see.
There was some sharp stuff in there. I'd be afraid to
contribute.
THEE: Re: an article for the newsletter
Thanks for the submission. There are a few things in his article
that I might have to think about. It seems he put a good bit of
concentration on throwing the student out the window. At first
it was funny, but he may have gotten a little carried away.
HMMMMMMMM... just thinking about the political considerations in
Washington.
YES!!!!!!! Send music! It is always welcome. I have a really
cool little bit from the magazine "Astronomy". It turns out
there is a star that is traveling 1000 miles per second... one of
the fastest stars observed by the hubble. At any rate its wake
forms the shape of a guitar. It has been named the "Guitar
Nebula". I'm hoping the photograph prints well in black and
white.
This should be a good newsletter!
ME: Subject: what me paranoid
Does Clinton have an enemies list? My atm wouldn't accept my
personal ID today, even after the bank tried to reset things.
Had to change my PIN, which is ok, but still wonder what
happened.
In the chat about Sir Paul's recent bout of temporary (I hope)
insanity, did you notice a couple of good one-liners, and a
first-hand Beatle history nugget?
A short and successful web search turned up the name of the band
that did "RC Cola And A Moon Pie". It was NRBQ. Surely that has
to ring a bell with you? I swear they were touted by Weasel as
"the world's greatest band" every day for 7 years. You used to
listen to HFS, dincha? I always hated that raggedy bar band
penchant that WHFS had. (My disdain for New Wave was
retrospective, I guess I have to admit.)
After sending off an email late Wednesday night and hitting the
sack, it occurred to me that I forgot all about the grand opening
reception for the Beatles exhibit at the Newseum that night. I
had even responded in the positive to the invitation. Oh well,
no great loss (except possibly for the grub.)
Made another LC trip on Friday. Trying to make maximum
utilization of the 10-cent legal-size copies before they go away.
The time will come when I will kick myself for not having spent
every hour of every day there while one machine still had the
legal-size paper.
Real-life copyright quiz: I want to quote from some letters
written by a guitarist between 1898 and 1906. They were first
published in 1993. Do I need permission? If so, from whom?
(Extra credit: did the magazine that published them need
permission? If so, from whom?)
Funny moment on WWMD today. The regular news reader came on and
said, "Time for the 1:00 news." The 2nd sentence in, he said,
"Reuben tells political, finance and businesssssss...shhhhucks."
Then there was a minute of dead air, and he came back on. "Time
for the 1:00 news..." There was no explanation. Had he jumped
the gun by a minute? He sure sounded disgusted. I was worried
what that shhhhhh... was going to turn into.
ME: Request permission to quote Fiset letters.
I've worked up Zani de Ferranti's Carnival of Venice in ascii
tablature to put on the web. What I would like to do is extract
all of the references to Ferranti and the Carnival of Venice from
the letters of C.F.E. Fiset which you prepared for the Soundboard
a few years ago, and put them on the introductory page.
Including a bit of surrounding material to put each mention in
context, it works out to about 140 lines of this length.
I wanted to run that by you first. Is it ok with you? Do you
think I need to ask the Soundboard for permission? I will give
you and the Soundboard credit, of course, but do I need to say
"Reprinted by permission" - if permission is required, and
assuming it's given?
Those letters are fascinating. Since they were first published
I've come across many more of the composers and pieces Fiset
mentions, including Fiset's own published arrangements. It gives
me such a thrill to hear a person from that era - and a virtuoso
guitarist, at that - talk about them.
ME: Subject: how many rainers?
I noticed recently that a piece of guitar music in my collection,
Drei Sonaten Op. 6 by Francesco Molino (publ. B. Schott's Soehne)
has a handwritten note on the title page:
Fuer Babs . . . . (k)ein Spielsherz [not certain of 1st syllable]
1/4/72 Rainer
I was curious if that was you. I forget where and when I bought
the edition, but it obviously wandered over the years from
Deutschland to a Maryland suburb of Washington D.C.
ME: wgs newletter
I will send an introductory paragraph or 2 about each piece as
it's about to go in the newsletter.
I want the copies I am sending to be used as the masters for
printing the newsletter. That is, I want those pages themselves
to go flying around and around the copy machine feeder. Let me
know if circumstances arise that would prevent that.
The one I have in mind first is the Prayer from Moses in Egypt,
by Rossini, arr. Hayden. But there's some flexibility. If a
2-pager causes insurmountable problems, we could go with the
Gypsy Love Song.
THEE: Subject: Clinton's enemies list
I hope Bill Clinton has an enemies list. He should. But I
figure you're probably pretty low on it, since he wound up
beating you in the 1996 election.
Did you go to the Beatles' exhibit at the Nuseaum? I didn't
follow what you said. If so, how was it? In any event, what
was/is it?
I'm coping with the downstairs neighbor a little better these
days. On the other hand, it was childish of me, perhaps, but he
may have heard his first taste of the Manchesters this morning
through his ceiling. At any rate, I'll be calling our landlady
tomorrow to bring her in. I wish she liked Hself more because
we'll need her help.
THEE: Re: how many rainers?
Donald Sauter wrote:
>Hi Rainer,
>I noticed recently that a piece of guitar music in my
collection, Drei Sonaten Op. 6 by Francesco Molino (publ. B.
Schott's Soehne) has a handwritten note on the title page:
> Fuer Babs . . . . (k)ein Spielsherz [not certain of 1st
syllable]
> 1/4/72 Rainer
>I was curious if that was you. I forget where and when I bought
the edition, but it obviously wandered over the years from
Deutschland to a Maryland suburb of Washington D.C.
He, he, he
Sorry, that wasn't me. Any picture of "Babs" included??
Rainer
PS The music is not very good :(
THEE: Subject: Quarter rolling
Hold one still and roll the other one around it. How many
rotations does the moving quarter make?
1.
Try it.
It appears to be two because the position of the quarter has
moved after 1/2 rotation, making it *appear to have rotated 1*.
If you mark the position where the rotating quarter touches the
stationary one, you will find that the mark does not touch the
other quarter until it is back where it started, making that 1
rotation, not 2.
Like I said, try it !
THEE: Subject: Urk !
After taking a second look, I hide my head in utter shame....
'tis I who was deceived !
Sorry to have bothered you - great web page, kept me occupied for
more time than I had and really enjoyed the SETI page !
(Face beat red from quarter folly)
THEE: Re: disintegrating
Speedy Gonzales here...another e-mailer on the slow road to
China... Sorry for the delay in answering. We are all getting
to the point here in this household that we avoid the BIG MONSTER
in our home office if at all possible--it's so demanding!
Teehee....
Now, my vocab. is going to the dogs and haven't seen "anti-
ageist" in years....loved it! Thanks for explaining in your
brilliantly humorous way why you took out your age from those
newspaper clippings. Have NO IDEA why they would have found it
necessary to include that bit of useless...information TWICE!
Are they really trying to suggest that older boys like to play
with toys also? Chuckle. So, I WAS VERY WRONG ON YOUR AGE (10
YEARS...FROM MY HONEST CALCULATION).. oooohhhhh, SO OLD--can hear
the OTHers calling you!!!!! That having been said, the subject is
NOW CLOSED....until the next time I need to bug you!!!! Birth
date please? I'm not good at guessing that either.
No time for Beatle stuff right now, unfortunately. Didn't make
it to Washington for Stella's Mall visit, and certainly didn't
make it to the White House to be a fly on the wall when Stella
communed with Mrs. Clinton. Thought it was a gutsy move on
Stella's part with that sick adolescent Bill 'round every corner!
Wouldn't have gone anywhere near that place...
Also, I have met that very special Sir George Martin and his
lovely wife. Charming people. Would love to attend the "Making
of Sgt. Pepper" in latter February, however there is no time
right now. Even if Paul McCartney were coming along for the
ride--still couldn't manage it. Hope you'll have the opportunity
to go. If you do, please let me know how it went!!!
THEE: Subject: your football modificatons
i think u need to leave football alone. you probably dont even
play football. you just thought youd try to be cool and make up
some stupid stuff about football. i play football and it is a
mans sport. kickoffs and punts make up the game and are
essential. just keep making up stupid stuff, nobody cares.
ME: Subject: the Mike Sammes singers
Visited my sister and brother-in-law in Springfield while my
parents were there. I don't get over too often even though it's
not far. Played a good game - Geographic Pursuit, I think it was
called. Took my Honduran friend to her bankruptcy proceedings on
Thursday. Got my guitar back from the repairman after about half
a year. That story's too long for typing. Also been waking up
way too early, so I've been very tired, in the sleep-deprivation
sense (as opposed to the over-exertion sense. We need separate
words.)
I've been enjoying Nana Mouskouri's album very much. I listened
to the Canterville Ghost story. I figured out for sure that I
had played the sides in the wrong order by about the middle of
the 4th and last side I played. I had flipped over disc 1 after
playing side one. That's where they put Side 4. That eventually
caused a few continuity problems, but nothing that I couldn't
blame on my own attention deficit disorder. Actually, I enjoyed
the story, and the recorded word experience.
THEE: Subject: She looks more like him than I do
Why did you refer to the Mike Sammes Singers in your last header?
My header comes from a fun video surprise we had Thursday night.
We watched a fine "Avengers" called "The Correct Way to Kill" (I
even have a vague memory that you've watched that episode with
me). Anna Quayle had a hilarious part as a fiercely committed
young Soviet agent who has to work with Steed. I looked up Ms.
Quayle on the Internet Movie Database and only then did I
discover why the name sounded familiar--she was in "A Hard Day's
Night." Yup, she's the one with whom John has the absurdist
discussion. "You don't look like at him at all!" Is Anna Quayle
related to Anthony Quayle--British actor and reader of "The
Canterville Ghost"? Dunno.
THEE: Subject: Update on the news
Some days or weeks ago, I sent you fellows a BBC story about a
special commemorative postage stamp. Well, sorry to say "Dr.
Who" daleks won; they beat John Lennon, Eric Morecambe, etc.
Weird!
Donald, you might want to track down today's (Feb. 8) "Washington
Post," which has a front-page article on jury nulification. I
haven't read it, but my boss did!
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Abbreviations: Hself = generic name, male or female (Himself, Herself). AYNIL = all you need is love. C&P = castleman and podrazik. BCGS = baltimore classical guitar society. WGS = washington guitar society.
Parents, if you're considering tutoring or supplemental education for your child, you may be interested in my observations on Kumon.