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 interest to some goofus . . .
ME: phooey, etc.
>>they took *3 complete pages* of instructions (written on a high
school level, I'd say) just to say, "Write a story about anything
you want."!!! Is it any surprise that after that the kids don't
even know which end is up?
>And, of course, the kids had to be subjected to the complete
instructions. I hope someone in the school at least translated
in a final sentence.
Nope. That wouldn't be fair. It would mean the tester's, and
probably principal's, certification. They could kiss Maryland
goodbye. Watch out - the MSPAP is coming to a state near you.
>>I need to know if the actual magnetic "impressions" last
significantly longer than the few years you can hope for from
disks and diskettes.
>That I don't know. Sorry.
Well, phooey...
>>And I wasn't clear from what you said if I can have 25 files
named "bill", for example, on the zip disk in the same directory
(or folder or whatever they might calli it now.)
>bill1, bill2, bill3, etc., or bill, billy, billyjoe, billiejo,
billybob, if you will, but not all bill.
Phooey on bill1, phooey on bill2, phooey on bill3, phooey on
etc., phooey on billy, phooey on billyjoe, phooey on billiejo,
phooey on billybob...
Phooey on zip drives. Am I the only person on earth who wants to
save his stuff? It's not bigheadedness - it's just plain
sensible.
Here's a couple of recent entertainment experience for me. A few
weeks ago I went to hear the premier performance of an opera
called Agamemnon. That exposed me to a cast of characters from
the Trojan War times, and Greek drama and dramatists, of which I
had known ver little.
The university of Maryland recently ran a sort of marathon on the
Orpheus myth. They performed extracts from 9 different operas on
the story, dating from the first surviving one in 1600, up to
ones by Krenek and Milhaud. (There were also art songs, a dance
piece and a play.) The only one that I knew, and is well known
today, is the opera by Gluck. It was absolutely fascinating to
compare (in 4 sittings) treatments spanning 400 years.
THEE: Roofball
Just getting around to checking out e-mail from other day (Hself
had told me there was message from you about roofball) when I see
there is another entry concerning same. I cannot believe this
many people surf on the net lookin for the true rules.
THEE: Re: phooey, etc.
>Nope. That wouldn't be fair. It would mean the tester's, and
probably principal's, certification. They could kiss Maryland
goodbye. Watch out - the MSPAP is coming to a state near you.
Absurd how such tests work. My students wouldn't follow a set of
directions that long. Attention spans are far too short!
>Phooey on bill1, phooey on bill2, phooey on bill3,
Bill1, 2, 3 were WC, my grandfather, and my dad
>phooey on etc.,
etc. was my brother, bill4.
>phooey on billy, phooey on billyjoe, phooey on billiejo, phooey
on billybob...
Now you're getting too personal, my friend! And I KNOW you're
from Maryland. No Okie would say "phooey" on billy/billie-
anybody.
Yup, those bills are an endangered species, sure 'nuff. Next
time you're in Washington, consider picketing the White House.
To heck with the whales and the least terns . . . save them-thar
bills.
"Least terns?" you ask. They nest on the banks of the Arkansas
River. Think Tulsa. The river runs through it.
>Great story on the Dreamland Waltzes auction.
Did I ever send you the link to the website where my lost
treasure now resides? If not, click on the link & then on the
link to the midi file.
http://www.coneyislandusa.com/museum.shtml
> I went to hear the premier performance of an opera called
Agamemnon.
While you're kicking back, pick up some of the plays. What can
one compare them to? Soap operas . . . with a more intellectual
bent. My first exposure came when I was a high school exchange
student in Denmark. My host family & I went to the one town
movie theatre to see Elektra--performed in Greek with Danish
subtitles. Thank Zeus this was cinema, not pure audio!!! I was
instantly enthralled. Despite the earlier remark, I could follow
a bit of the dialog--not in the Greek, but by making out a word
here and there in the subtitles. During intermission, everyone
filled me in, answering my questions about what I didn't
understand. With that background, I could follow the remainder.
After all, what happens in tragedies?
Hence forth, I started to read on my own. The next summer, I was
working as a proofreader at Look Magazine (Sound "glamorous" for
a kid just out of high school? . . . Just wait; I'll tell that
story below.) During lunch hrs., I went through a couple volumes
of tragedies, unable to put them down until I had to. Keats
wrote a sonnet titled "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer"
that sums up a similar experience, though he was speaking of
Chapman's translations of the epic poems, not of the tragedies.
He was awe-struck; I suppose I was, too.
>The university of Maryland recently ran a sort of marathon on
the Orpheus myth. They performed extracts from 9 different
operas on the story, dating from the first surviving one in 1600,
up to ones by Krenek and Milhaud.
I've taught tragedies for years, but I know little more than
nothing of the operas. My lit anthologies have most often
included Oedipus and/or Antigone, not much selection, yet both
marvels, much to my students amazement. Say "Ancient Greece,"
and students' eyes glaze over; their minds close. Don't
mention the time or place, just spin a yarn, or the start of one,
get them hooked, and then send 'em home to read, and you have a
sure-fire winner that spans all ages and crosses all cultures.
I have a video of Stravinsky's Oedipus performed in Japan,
recorded several years ago from Great Performances on PBS--the
only "Greek" opera with which I'm familiar. I've supplemented
the class assignment with excerpts and, just for the heck of it,
also with P.D.Q. Bach's hilarious parody "Oedipus Tex." Btw,
Jocasta becomes Billie Jo. And, no, not kiddin'! I first heard
it when driving (in the car, not dogies . . . ) and was soon
laughing so hard that I had to pull over into a parking lot to
give the radio my full concentration. Look for the CD titled
"Wanted: Oedipus Tex & Other Choral Calamities"--selections such
as these: Aria: You murdered Your Father" Recitative" When
Billie Jo Heard." I easily found a copy in a Tulsa music store.
There was something else. . . . Yup, I knew it . . . the
glamorous Look Magazine proofreader job, right? You're
picturing the job that shaped a naive kid into a sophisticated
college English professor, right? The proofreader of feature
stories, the corrector of grammar, the stylist extraordinaire . .
. the all-important work that honed those budding skills (if one
can mix metaphors enough to sharpen blossoms) Well, think again.
This was in Des Moines, where I grew up--the home of Look's . . .
subscription processing center. What did I proofread? Did you
ever subscribe to anything only to be irritated that the mailing
label spelled your name incorrectly? Did mail ever fail to reach
you because someone put the wrong address on it? Happens to me
all the time... Know how those little labels are printed? Why
with metal addressograph plates. So I ask again, "What did I
proofread 8-hrs/day? I was given stacks of subscription orders
and trays of addressograph plates, 200 to a tray. These were hot
off the addressograph machines in the next room, where the
equipment operators "typed" in the info, which came out as raised
letters on metal. My job was to compare the information on the
customer's order form to the information on the plate. If eagle-
eye spotted an error, she had a gizmo on her desk that allowed
her to print a copy of the plate onto a small piece of paper.
She then paper clipped the bad plate to the paper and set it
aside. When the full tray had been examined, all bad plates from
the tray, with their corrections marked on the printed paper,
were returned to the addressograph room where a new plate could
be made.
How was I fortunate enough to get this upscale job? When
applying for a job at Look, one took an aptitude test. One
portion of the test involved comparing random combinations of
letters and numbers in one column to those in another column and
circling differences. Only one catch: this was timed. Lucky
me; I was good at it. The personnel manager later told me that
I'd received the highest score ever made on the test by an
applicant in Des Moines.
What was my reward? Reading shiny metal plates 8 hrs/day, 5
days/week under bright lights that created a glare on the plates
. . . all for the great monetary reward of minimum wage minus
10c/hr. Yup, you read that right . . . and I lied about
something. I worked 8 hrs/day 4 days/wk and 7 hrs. on Fridays.
This was the company's cost-cutting measure: work the students
only 39 hrs/week and avoid complying with the minimum wage law
for full-time workers. A step or two above the Calcutta
sweatshops, sure; but not more than three.
So, phooey . . . The next summer I graduated to sorting mail by
zipcodes. This enabled me to get off my derriere & to stand on a
concrete floor 8 hrs/day tossing mail into cubby holes, sorting
first by 1st digit, then taking all numbers beginning with that
digit & sorting by second, and so on. This is one situation
where it's good to have a computer take over the job of a human.
Then there was the time 4 of us were pulled from our department
for a week to assemble photo albums of pics from a big company
convention--another lovely story, but one that will have to leave
you in suspense cuz I'm tired 'n' typed out for tonight.
THEE: Re: phooey, etc.
Phooey . . . and more phooey . . .
The request slips didn't arrive, and I leave tomorrow. Hard to
believe that a letter can reach most foreign locations faster
than it can cross our own country.
I know the location of the Music Division. I'll also take
pencils. I almost never use pencils, but we have a couple
somewhere in the house. My father-in-law used to have a cupboard
full. Once he gave the girls boxes of them, and, guess what, the
erasers all had dry rot. What's the sense of using a pencil
except to use an eraser, I ask you? Heaven knows how long he'd
had 'em.
Really would love to visit the family cemetery plots at Rock
Creek & Mt. Olivet. Not enough time . . . never enough time . .
.
Phooey . . .
THEE: Subject: Monopoly
Hi! I am a college student and my math instructor is British.
We have an extra credit question that we are supposed to research
about British monopoly..... What is the cheapest piece of
property I can purchase if I was playing the British version of
this game?
ME: the shonen go-bangles (just kidding)
Had a gamelon concert at the U. of Md. penciled in on my calendar
for last Saturday night for the longest time. At the last moment
it got pipped by a Gilbert & Sullivan concert up in Gaithersburg
at the high school. It was plenty fun enough.
I walked the Bay Bridge again the week before, for the 15th time.
Bumped into my folks. Found a cool Barbie ball - a perfect
roofball, in fact.
Saw Millionaire tonight. Knew from 9th grade biology that the
bright flashes you see in your eyes are called phosphenes, but
otherwise wouldn't have done well. One poor lady was pretty
upset when she went out early on a roman numeral question. She
figured D = 50 and so chose C = 100 as the biggest of the four
choices.
THEE: Subject: None!
We're getting psyched for our trip, though it is perhaps just a
bit silly. I'll have to pick up the new Go-Go's CD somewhere
between Penn. Station and Rockefeller Center, just in case Hself
gets us backstage.
Did you get my Beeb story today about Yoko threatening some
hapless artist with a suit?
THEE: Thanks, Questions, Quasi Baroque Guitasr
Before I ask you a question, let me express my appreciation and
gratitiude to you for the wonderful work you are doing on your
UNARCHY website. Thank you. My question is twofold: a) The pieces
by Francisco Guerau all end without resolving to the "tonic".
What does this mean? b) How would it help to know the mass per
unit length of a string without first knowing precisely how
different masses per unit length affect the sound and feel on a
given guitar?
P.S. I built a quasi baroque guitar by taking a three quarter
size modern guitar and redrilling the bridge and replacing the
tuning machines with a twelve string set. Comes close; still
haven't found the right string for the first course. Currently
using a ..057 Carbon fiber lute string-the best so far, but still
not quite right.
THEE: Subject: tabs
you have a GREAT site...an eclectic selection of tabs, i am going
to try the vaughn williams and i will let you know...strange to
go the u.k.(weed - he has the best classical tabs) to end up back
here in washington d.c. on your site..."session" is a great term
for 1/2 inning...you know, though, without the infield fly rule
we'd have nothing left about which to argue except the DH
("designated hell" [my son is a pitcher])
ME: I received Easy Classics For Guitar, and I'm think it's
great! What a nice selection! Great job! I hope it stays in
print for a long, long time. I've always figured there can't be
much money to be made publishing guitar music, but this looks to
me like a winner. A wide variety of good, playable music, great
cover, cheap price, a major publisher... Best of luck!
Funny thing was, it probably sat between my front door and the
storm door for 4 or 5 days before I discovered it. I always go
in and out my back door.
Matanya Ophee has (or at least had) an interesting article on his
Editions Orphee website about the Peruvian air. He has traced
the original composition to Manuel Ferrer. He also explains
where the "peruvian" comes from.
If you need another project suggestion, how about the Holland
operatic duos published as a set? I guess that wouldn't be such
a money maker, but I'd love to see them available to the guitar
world. It's probably too wasteful, but I envision an edition
containing both facsimiles of the originals, plus edited versions
ready to perform. I think there are lots of opportunities to
hand off notes from guitar 1 to guitar 2 (or just eliminate them
if guitar 2 already has them) to make the duets easy to play with
no loss of effect. I would also suggest simple arpeggiations in
some places in guitar 2 where Holland has basic boom-chucks. I
might even include a CD - not of a guitar performance, but of
extracts from the operas. Anyhow, for MY money, such an edition
would be a knock-out!
ME: good luck with soundboard!
I just got the latest Soundboard and read Peter Danner's
farewell. That could have been a major disappointment for me
(being a *big* Peter Danner fan) but I can't imagine who might do
a better job with it. Thanks for taking it over! Good luck.
Here are just a few thoughts from a long time reader, for what
they're worth.
When I first became a GFA member back in 1981, I wrote a couple
of times to the Soundboard requesting a Forum-type section where
guitarists could ask questions, answer other people's questions
and share their own discoveries and observations which might be
of interest but not a big enough deal for a full-blown article.
After all these years, I still feel the same way. It could all
be kept at a very high level by the editorial staff, as opposed
to the mostly worthless chatter in internet discussion groups
(which didn't even exist back then, of course.)
I also believe that interesting articles could come from sifting
through all the internet discussion and distilling threads of
interest down to their essence. For that matter, perhaps
Soundboard could find whole articles of exceptional value on the
web and arrange with the writer to edit up a print version for
the magazine.
I often read about a lecture at a guitar festival that sounds
like it would have made a great Soundboard article. For example,
James Buckland presented his research on the terz guitar at a GFA
Festival. I want to know!
Perhaps there aren't many guitarists like me whose main pleasure
is playing lots of new (meaning, previously unfamiliar) music,
but please register my single vote for loads of music in the
Soundboard. In the most recent issue, for example, I wish we had
the *complete* Traviata arrangement by Razzetti.
As always, you are more than welcome to anything in my collection
of public domain music from the Library of Congress.
ME: dvd heaven
We forgot to have a look at your British Monopoly set.
Did I ever tell you how my bid on the Carl Butler and Pearl album
turned out? My $16 bid was the only one until the last day, so
it stayed registered at $3. Then one guy put in a $15 bid. I
suppose he got a shock to see that he was still outbid. Then he
put in a $20 bid which ruled until the final moments when
somebody else topped that in one shot.
Another movie I think I need to see is Interrupted Melody, The
Life Story Of Marjorie Lawrence. A clip from that was played at
LC the other night. It was also screened last Tuesday at a vocal
competition (that was priced for rich people only.)
ME: facsimiles for soundboard
One other thought occurred to me. A small thing I could offer
Soundboard is doctoring up guitar music facsimiles to make them
look like a million dollars for publication. Just connecting
broken lines, filling in noteheads, etc. - nothing more.
THEE: your web
Thanks for the wonderful site. I am a big fan of both Mudarra and
the Beatles. I learned to play "Gallarda" and "Fantasia..." from
the tablature on your site.
THEE: Convinced that young men dressed in suits and ties, who
read novels or the Wall Street Journal while riding the Metro,
have far greater merits than those dressed in jeans, t-shirts,
and boots, driving pickups, and scanning sports scores or gawking
at Playboy centerfolds, my daughters are also ready to return.
Following her tours, Hself has also determined to do an
internship at the LC or National Archives, saying that she might
do a second internship at the Clinton Library. "Then I could
list 'Clinton Intern' on my resume. That ought to get people's
attention," she added.
Next, I look forward to slicing and dicing [of photocopied
music]. Who knows. . . Perhaps with all the practice, I'll
qualify to sell Vegematics at the Oklahoma State Fair.
THEE: Re: good luck with soundboard!
Thanks for your kind words. Peter's achievements have been
enormous, and I'll need all the help I can get to make sure
Soundboard doesn't decline after his departure as the Lute
Society journal did. Your suggestions and your generous offer to
provide music are duly noted and I hope to take advantage of both
in the future.
ME: Subject: ^&*@# 1. ^&@*# 2. ^&*@# 3. ^&@#* 4. ^&#@* Time's
up!
This was supposed to be waiting for you when you got home. It
bounced back twice due to a filled mailbox, near as I can tell.
I'd hate to have to face *your* piled up email, that's for sure!
I'd be glad to get you a Plantation Pastimes upgrade. Don't be
shy about telling me the deadline, if it's on the horizon.
Visited my piano partner Elmer last night, and he played the 3
Grandmother's Songs I copied - 2 spirituals and Camptown Races.
They were all nice. Camptown races sure sounded different (and
cool), but maybe it was me.
I still regret letting you take the ledger-size copies. I feel
like it's my responsibility to get them down to letter size. Plus
I derive great satisfaction doing it. Plus I don't trust normal
people to do it perfectly. (That's not you, of course!) Plus I
could have covered up a few of my goofs, and you'd've been none
the wiser. There was so much hubbub at the copy machines that I
goofed a few magnifications. In at least 2 cases, the plate
number will have to get sliced off the bottom. (If I had done
it, I'll bet you would've never noticed!) I suppose it'll take a
more eloquent person than me to explain to the world why 1st-
generation copies of hard-to-get material *must* be done as as if
those copies will become the masters. There are lots of reasons
for this, the least of which, but powerful nonetheless, and
easiest to argue, is that they very well *could* become the
masters for a variety of reasons not limited to theft, loss,
crumbling to dust or destruction in wars or by terrorist bombs.
The Wagner-on-silent-film-fest on Thursday night at LC's Mary
Pickford theater was thoroughly fascinating and fun. They also
had nonsilent clips, including the Tristan und Isolde scene from
Willy the Opera-singing Whale. I saw that probably 30 years ago
or so, and ever since, I've been dying to see it again.
>"Least terns?" you ask. They nest on the banks of the Arkansas
River. Think Tulsa. The river runs through it.
Gotcha. (But where's Tulsa?) My dictionary has least
flycatchers, but no terns.
About my little chuckle over the new age radio show, I promise it
wasn't about the music, to which I have no objection, and a few
records of it in my own collection, but about (what seems to me)
the unlikeliness of early 20th C. American music being aired on
such a radio program. What could be more different? In
comparison, rap, disco, Wagner, Stavinsky, folk musics, Philip
Glass, muzak... might be considered mainstream new age.
My first attempt at reading a translation of Agamemnon was not
successful. I just couldn't bash the jumble of words into
subjects and predicates, plus there were so many names that I
would have to stop and read up on. I put it on the back burner
for now.
Thanks for the P.D.Q. Bach recommendation. I also have had good
laughs at his things, one example being his Blaues Gras Cantata,
which has some great bilingual puns (German/English). My friend
Hself just groans at the thought of P.D.Q. Bach, but my claim is
that Schickele's music is very good, irrespective of the humor.
>One portion of the test involved comparing random combinations
of letters and numbers in one column to those in another column
and circling differences. Only one catch: this was timed.
Lucky me; I was good at it. The personnel manager later told me
that I'd received the highest score ever made on the test by an
applicant in Des Moines.
Funny! It really illustrates a big difference between your brain
and mine. I think it was about 10th grade when we took an
aptitude test and part of it was just as you described. When the
tester explained what we were to do in that section, everybody
laughed, thinking how could anything be so easy? But, of course,
the point was, *how many* could you do in the 30 seconds or 1
minute. There was an outburst of "Wha', huh?" when time was
called, because nobody expected such a short time limit. When I
heard a few kids discuss the test afterwards, everybody mentioned
completing a significantly greater number of comparisons in that
section than me (with only one exception, Mike Hself), so I just
kept my trap shut.
>The next summer I graduated to sorting mail by zipcodes. This
enabled me to get off my derriere & to stand on a concrete floor
8 hrs/day tossing mail into cubby holes, sorting 1st by 1st
digit, then taking all numbers beginning with that digit &
sorting by second, and so on. This is one situation where it's
good to have a computer take over the job of a human.
With one drawback - one *big*, *huge*, *monstrous* drawback.
Automated post office equipment destroys mail! I won't go into
all my personal experiences in recent years. I was shocked to
find out very recently from my friend Hself, a long-time (and
eternally disgruntled, although I don't think he does much at
all) USPS employee that rigid items are forbidden in envelopes!
Their darn machines are designed to bend your mail around
spindles! If a key or CD or stiff card comes through, the
envelope will get ripped up, and the machine will break down.
(Which serves 'em right, I say.) And why can't they at least
tell the public about this???
At my friend's house last night we visited the Coney Island
Museum site. Enjoyed the Dreamland Waltz cover and music very
much - probably my best music-on-the-web experience to date.
I've got him all enthused about Suds and Battle Of The Sexes, by
the way.
THEE: Re: ^&*@# 1. ^&@*# 2. ^&*@# 3. ^&@#* 4. ^&#@* Time's
up!
My mail used to be worse than it is these days. It was a nasty
sight after being gone for two weeks, even if much of it was junk
mail I could delete without reading. Gotta be careful, though,
because it's easy to mistake the junk mail for the good mail;
some of my friends use obscenities (or masked ones) for subject
lines. ;-) [I suspect my subject line joke flopped. Those
aren't obscenities, or, if they are, that's not the point. It's
a proofreading aptitude test.]
Thank God for major sheet music collectors like Elliott Adams in
Sacramento. He supplied piles of covers for the last issue [of
the Rag-Time Ephemeralist]. Don't think I ever told you Adams'
story. He's the pianist who recorded "The Sand-Dancers" and the
collector who sent me the music. People tell me he has the
largest privately-owned ragtime era sheet music collection in the
country. How did he start it? As a Cub Scout during WWII, he
was helping with a curbside paper drive. You know, an early
recycling effort before the term appeared. Part of the plea:
Check your attics. Drag out all that old sheet music. After all,
who plays the piano anymore now that we have radios . . ." So
picture a little uniformed lad standing on the curb, helping
people unload piles of paper as they drive up to drop it off.
"What's this colorful stuff?" he asks himself. "Hey, I like
these pictures . . ." He begins sorting out the wheat from the
chaff--uh, er, the sheet music from the newspapers, etc., setting
the music aside in a stack, then in a box, then in boxes . . .
and more boxes . . . hauling it all home, much to his scout
leader's dismay. Surprising we didn't lose the war, isn't it? A
subversive was born that day . . . as was a lifelong collection.
So who is this guy who plays ragtime and undermines the military?
He's a dermatologist by profession.
As far as we know, only Adams plays "The Sand-Dancers" because
only Adams has a copy of the music. (He has also written glowing
comments about the piece and, when I first sent him some
biographical info on WC, he immediately replied, "I always
suspected Wm. Christopher O'Hare was a highly trained musician!
There's a grandeur about his work that you don't find in other
early rags."
. . . Which reminds me of the e-mail I had this week from Claes
Ringqvist, another doc (cardiologist), who plays ragtime cornet
in a group in Sundvall, Sweden. Claes also founded the Swedish
Bunk Johnson Society. Seems he became enthralled with Johnson, a
black cornetest, when Claes was a kid. He then took up the
cornet himself. After founding the group years later, he was at
a cardiology conference in the US. He noticed that most of the
docs were from hospitals named for people. You know,
insignificant places like Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins. So what
did Claes do? When asked for his hospital name, he began
writing, "Bunk Johnson Memorial Hospital, Sundvall, Sweden." Now
he gets all his professional mail from the US sent to that
address, and the local hospital has a well-known, though
unofficial, name.
>My dictionary has least flycatchers, but no terns.
No, no, . . . NO! . . .that's not it . . . not in the least!
Around here, we have least terns and scissor-tailed flycatchers,
the latter our state bird. You've got that danged Eastern
dictionary again.
>About my new age radio show chuckle, I promise it wasn't about
the music, to which I have no objection, and a few records of it
in my own collection...
Yanni makes me yawn, but I have some good "new age-y" Native
American CDs. Imagine them, will you.
>What could be more different? In comparison, rap, disco,
Wagner, Stavinsky, folk musics, Philip Glass, muzak... might be
considered mainstream new age.
Pretty different, true, but oddly Cindy's listeners liked the
change of pace. We had several calls while on the air. After I
made my quick exit she recieved more. In three hours, we covered
everything from black Broadway's In Dahomey (1903) to WC to
Treemonisha to a lot of talk about the history of ragtime, the
controversies surrounding it (Recall the little article you sent
and imagine what white folks said if a black man would condemn it
so harshly.)
>My first attempt at reading a translation of Agamemnon was not
successful.
Try Antigone and Oedipus. Of course, you've gotta read Oedipus
Rex before listening to Oedipus Tex. Ignore most of the Chorus
stuff. A lot of it's incomprehensible if you don't happen to be
an ancient Greek religious fanatic with a fetish for genealogy
and family curses. Read the cast list. Then read the dialog,
thinking "soap opera" all the while. It works for my students.
>My friend just groans at the thought of P.D.Q. Bach, but my
claim is that Schickele's music is very good, irrespective of the
humor.
Terrific stuff. I'm told that when the first publicity about
P.D.Q. came out years ago, the musicologists were going wild.
Took them a while to figure out what was going on, that it was
all a hoax. I think they had to hear the first recording.
We've got those town names, too [I joked about street name Quanah
sounding more like a place name.] How about Quapaw or Tahlequah,
the latter the Cherokee tribal capital to this day. Walk the
downtown streets just an hour from here, and you'd see all the
street signs in both Cherokee and English. Also some signs on
businesses. Still a Cherokee newspaper, too. And the university
in town, with a student body of about 17% Native American must
still teach English to some of the students as a second language.
No kiddin'. What ever happened to Carlisle Indian School????
Just cut off their hair, make 'em dress in whitey's clothes, ban
their religions and languages . . . Good ol' American ways, the
land of tolerance and freedom . . .
>At my friend's house last night we visited the Coney Island
Museum site. Enjoyed the Dreamland Waltz cover and music very
much - probably my best music-on-the-web experience to date.
I've got him all enthused about Suds and Battle Of The Sexes,
by the way.
Glad to see the enthusiasm spreading. Sure wish I knew if ol' WC
is lookin' down and grinnin' 'bout all this. Or maybe just
shaking his head and asking, "How crazy are they, anyway?"
Wouldn't you love to know what he'd think of his music on the
Internet?
Many folks say that Ophelia is probably the best ragtme orchestra
in the world today . . . and all the members are Norwegian! Ah
well, this year's winner of the Joplin Fest ragtime composing
contest is a young Hungarian, Tomas Ittzes. He's a music teacher
in some public school over there and runs an annual ragtime
festival... Hey, just thought of something. The winning rag is
on the internet as a midi file, as is another Ittzes named for
Ed, "Ed's Running Rag." The new one is "Sedalia Rag." Here's
the link.
http://www.ragtime.nu
THEE: I'm interested in guitar/piano music
How can I get a hold of these. I've been searching for this kind
of music for a while and have only found piano reductions. I want
some genuien guitar/piano music. Any info will greatly
appreciated
THEE: Subject: Beware of dog!
in anticipation of your visit Sat. morning just wanted to warn
you in advance that we've got an 8 pound yapping maniac of a
papillon (breed of dog) who will surely try to drive you away
when you first come up. He quiets down after a few minutes but
nothing I've tried keeps him totally quiet. He's never bitten
anyone!
We've another dog, too -- a sweet bichon who's very loving to
everyone (though she'll roar at people who approach the door,
too).
Hopefully, as they age they'll mellow out (they are 2 & 3
yrs/old).
Look forward to our session!
ME: Re: Comments on Web Site
Thanks for the tips on other piano & guitar music, and the
recording. Actually, my web page just lists pieces that are in
my own collection which I found at the Library of Congress. (I
have other pieces which I bought in modern editions.) I believe
that LC has about a third of all the known 19th C. European
guitar & piano editions, which is very impressive, in my opinion.
They're not obligated to own any of them. By the way I have
found about 25 more pieces at LC since the ones I have listed. I
should add those to my web page. Thanks for making me think
about this.
>Really interesting web site, even if I did not read all already.
Appreciated the remarks about scoratura, the baroque guitar
tablatures and your interest for piano-guitar music. You could
also add a work by Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, dedicated to
Segovia, really nice: Fantasia for Guitar & Piano, op145. You
mentioned a lot form Carulli. The are also some Beethoven
variations on a Mozart theme, originally written for cello &
piano, and transcribed, arranged & more by Carulli himself (I
think it's op66). There is an extraordinary CD from Philippe
Villa (Romantic Guitar) & Carole Carniel (Piano-Forte), playing
Carulli. If you don't know it, I really advise it.
THEE: Re: Yamaha G-50 A
Thanks for the tip-- yes, they do have one on e-bay-- never even
crossed my mind to check there:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1436384791
Looks as though they have one bid for $65!
>Thanks for visiting my site. To be honest, I don't really know
what a Yamaha G-50 A is worth. I've been curious myself. Have
you checked to see if any are being sold on eBay?
>>I saw your article-- what would a guitar like that be worth
today. I have one that my wife wants to sell.
THEE: Subject: guitar and piano pieces
You mentioned a collection of guitar and piano pieces on your
website. I am friends with a classical guitarist, and these
duets are pretty rare. How might I get a copy?
THEE: Mass per unit length
Let me first thank you for the wonderful work you're doing on
your Unarchy site. I took a three quarter- size modern guitar and
redrilled the bridge and added a set of twelve string tuning
machines to it to produce a budget Baroque Guitar. I think it's
quite reasonably effective. My question concerns your statements
about mass per unit length as a standard for buying guitar
strings. I don't see how knowing the mass per unit length of a
string would be more helpful than knowing the string tension,
unless one knew how different masses per unit length felt and
sounded on the instrument. Keep up the good work and the good
fight.
THEE: I have been reading your site about the big bang. To me
all this is very simple. There has never been a big bang. The
reason is the following : until now nobody did found the medium
of light, but if there is a medium then there can not be a big
bang because we don't need singularities in spacetime when there
is a medium for light. The laws of relativity are the same when
there is a medium, but time is moving from one mass to another
mass, as well as energy does. ( supposing that the mass of matery
and maybe antimatery is the medium of light )
THEE: Subject: eBay End of Auction - Item # 1437030289 (Carl Butler and
Perl LP)
Congratulations - this auction successfully ended
Item Title : Carl Butler and Perl LP (Item# 1437030289)
Final Price : $4.00
Auction Ended At : Jun-14-01 10:42:34 PDT
Total number of bids : 1
High-bidder E-mail:donaldsauter@email.com
THEE: Subject: Web-Site
Greetings. My name is David Maurice Hself but I call myself
Dave, you can too. I have posted both original and non-original
(plagerized) work on Weed's web-page
http://alt.venus.co.uk/weed/music/classtab/).
I have had stuff there for quite some time but I just got around
to looking over your web-site which he has a link to on the
bottom of his page. I must say that your web-site is very
thought provoking and entertaining. I really liked the stuff
about evolution, the Big Bang Theory, and the SETI project. I
share your opinion on many things. For example, I have read many
books and found many web-sites both for and against evolution but
I still think the theory is flawed. How can an organ like the
eye evolve? There is no survival benefit to a half evolved eye.
How can evolutionist think that the eye is a result of mutations?
I don't buy it. I think that the creationists are even more
deceived in there beliefs. I do believe that there is another
factor at work besides the "survival of the fitest" theory. I
think that there is a push towards higher intelligence at play.
So, in a effort to re-introduce evolution back into the human
race, I have developed two plans:
1. Mandatory Intelligence Test or be Executed (Euthanised
if that is more appealing) - This would be similar to getting your
driver's license. At a certain age (18 or so) you would be
required to take a standard intelligence test. If you fail you
get one re-test. Fail again and you get put down. The test would
not be extremely difficult or anything. Just simple things like
reading, basic math and language skills. There would also be a
common sense portion to the test. This section would definately
weed out some folks.
2. Safari Duty - This would be similar to Jury Duty. A group
of 30 -50 people would be selected at random to serve. These people
would be carried to an undisclosed locale where they would be placed
in the middle of an enormous enclosure. There would be two doors on
opposite sides of the enclosure. One door would be the exit. The
other door would open to let out several starved lions. The people
would then be fair game for the lions. The weakest, sickest, most
fat and unhealthy would be weeded out in this manner.
I know that these ideas are somewhat inhumane but I think that
they are good ideas for population control and to encourage
people to stay healthy and become educated. In essence, to
create a stronger human race.
I also enjoy being overly critical of word and phrase usage.
Here are some common sayings that I believe are either ridiculous
or have been bastardized.
1. "You want to have your cake and eat it too." Well, if I
have my cake I can do what ever in the hell I want with it. I
believe the saying should be, "You want to eat your cake and have
it too." This would imply wanting the best of both things. I want
to eat my cake yet I still want to have it after i've eaten it.
2. "They were talking about him behind his back." Well,
wouldn't that be his front? If you look at the front of my back,
you are looking at my back. If you go behind my back, you will
find my front. The saying should be, "They were talking about
him to his back."
3. "I have more work to do than I can shake a stick at." I
can shake a stick at damn near anything no matter how big it is.
It may not go away but I sure can shake a stick at it. I think
this saying has to do with a magic wand. Maybe we should say, "I
have more work to do than I can wave a magic wand at."
4. "You need to get on the ball." or "You need to get on
the stick." Is there a difference in degree here? And where did
this saying originate? If I get on a ball or a stick will that
prompt me to get busy? I don't know.
As you can see I am either too analytical or I just like to be
critical of the things we humans think and do. Anyway, I
encourage you to check out my web-site. Not much there but let
me know how you like some of the stuff I have composed. I would
like to share more thoughts and ideas with someone like you. I
really enjoyed (and still am) your web-site. Very thought
provoking. I am attaching 2 files. One is an excerpt from a
book by Alan Watts and the other is a short essay I bagan writing
on the philosophy that he puts forth. It is kind of like a
philosophical extension of his writing. I don't know why I just
thought you might like to read something that is thought
provoking. Think of it as a reciprocal gesture of ideas.
THEE: Re: Carl Butler & Pearl LP
I'm really excited about this. My mom has been trying to replace
her lent-out-and-never-returned copy for about 15 years now. So
she's going to get the surprise of her life. I'm eager to hear
it, too.
THEE: Sadly, I had to close the gallery. I did it for a year,
then the bottom really dropped out when the stock market crashed.
I could have kept going, spending more of my own money, but it
wasn't worth it. I found that many artists were selling to
clients and cutting out my commission. A dose of reality for me!
THEE: Cool Beans & sequels.
Also e-mailed another bidder. Anyhoo, she's a tap dancer & knows
how to do sand dances! In fact, she's met Sandman Simms, perhaps
the best known sand dancer of all. I've used a quote from Simms
in my article--about the sound of the sand being "the brush on
the snaredrum"--all part of my argument about recreating the
music through sound, as in the "canehop effect" of "Levee Revels"
and "Plantation Pastimes." I've drawn a blank on finding
reference sources for cane hops, but now I have the dancer
curious. She'll make a search for me. My kind gestures pay off
repeatedly, so are they really kind or Machiavellian? Let's call
them the former. Sure sounds better . . .
We have Saturday tickets for Naughty Marietta, part of the
Gilbert & Sullivan Festival. Are you saying, "Hey, whoa . . .
Wait a minute! Naughty Marietta . . . Gilbert & Sullivan . .
.???? If so, you're right. Guess they decided to broaden the
festival scope a bit this year. Victor Herbert is probably
happy.
THEE: Re: Life's Unfair
>(1) I get lambasted on your book review page and that
> ungrateful Hself character is called a "friend"
> on your old friends page? Does the phrase "Hunters
> and Collectors" mean anything to you?
Geez, man, you were the *inspiration* for my book reports page!
What higher honor can there be???
>(2) Was it just me, or was Paul McCartney's TV special
> just a trifle self-serving? Did he and Linda really
> run the farm all by themselves?
Was that the Wings special? I saw it at Hself's house. I think
we both thought it was a drag. Did the farm actually get "run"?
Dunno.
>(3) Regarding that song Wings played, "The Mess I'm In",
> or something like that: isn't that a rip-off, lyrically
> and melodically, of The Band's "The Shape I'm In"?
>Inquiring minds want to know.
Well, you sure came to the wrong place. But, you've got me
curious. Maybe I can find a copy of the Band song on some live
Dylan album or something and make a comparative listen. Have
made some truly great discoveries recently, though. Have you
ever heard the original Golden Slumbers (English lullaby)? I
have 2 recordings now. Biggest discovery was a day or 2 ago. I
found that that "Domino" song that Paul sings to the I Me Mine
backing at the end of Sweet Apple Trax Vol 2 is a real song! It
was interpolated into my gala performance of Die Fledermaus by
Mario del Monico (who interpolated Vesti la giubba into the
1987 film The Untouchables). George rips off another one!!!!
>Sincerely,
> You know who this is!
You too.
ME:
Thanks for the feedback on my website. I still laugh every time
I think about your accelerated evolution plans for humans.
You've got your work cut out for you. But, I've always despaired
of getting our number system converted over from base 10 to base
8 (*tons* of advantages) - and just recently I had a brainstorm
on how to accomplish it. We'll just make base 8 numbers the
standard when we create and implement a simple, universal second
language. All I need to do is write up 2 web pages, and we're on
our way!
I also have a web-page-waiting-to-happen called "words and such"
that will be a dump of all the funny word usages I've accumulated
over the years.
THEE: Re: Matchbox
Thanks a lot for the info. I'll incorporate Blind
Lemon in my web page when I get around to it. I'm no blues
expert, and if I had heard Blind Lemon Jefferson's version of
Matchbox Blues once, I probably wouldn't have been sure if it was
original with him. But now I see everybody is in agreement that
he gets credit. Thanks again.
>On your Beatles trivia page you are correct. Matchbox was not
written by Carl Perkins but by an old Blues guitarist by the name
of Blind Lemon Jefferson.
ME: Re: Wine vs water
>In the wine-water-teaspoon problem, strictly speaking a full
teaspoon of wine was transfered to the water glass and less than
a full teaspoon of water was transfered back. The question
didn't ask about final states so the fact that some wine went
back to make everything even is not part of the answer.
Actually, I think the question *is* about final states. The
question was, after all the transfers, is there more wine in the
water, or water in the wine? That's what trips most people up,
that more wine is transferred to the water than water to the
wine, but in the end there's as much water in the wine as wine in
the water. Thanks for the interest and keeping me honest and on
my toes.
ME: baroque guitar and mpl
You are the very first person to tell me that you rigged up your
own baroque guitar based on my suggestion. Right now I'm in a
mode of just using a single-strung guitar (with terz guitar
strings) and adding high octaves for the 4th and 5th strings. I
guess I was never totally happy with the strings I experimented
with on the baroque guitar. I was always hoping somebody would
pick up the ball and say, "Here's exactly what you need for a
great baroque guitar sound and feel on a modified modern guitar!"
About your questions:
a) The pieces by Francisco Guerau all end without resolving to
the "tonic". What does this mean?
Your guess is as good as mine. The best I can do (based on
*nothing*) is that maybe he just figured the last chord was so
obvious it was an insult to the player's intelligence to write it
out. Still, it's sure not obvious to me exactly what notes he
would have played.
b) How would it help to know the mass per unit length of a string
without first knowing precisely how different masses per unit
length affect the sound and feel on a given guitar?
The mass per unit length doesn't "effect" the sound and the feel
of the string - that would be the material the string is made of.
I think the most fundamental requirement when choosing a string
is that it has to be *playable* when tuned to the desired note -
not too hard to press, not so flabby that it slaps against all
the frets, and more or less the same tension as the other
strings. Given a variety of string manufacturers making strings
of different materials, I guess then it would be up to the
guitarist to experiment with the different string materials to
see which he thinks sounds and feels the best. But at least he'd
always be able to choose strings that give him the exact, desired
tension on his guitar.
You also phrased the question as: "I don't see how knowing the
mass per unit length of a string would be more helpful than
knowing the string tension unless one knew how different masses
per unit length felt and sounded on the instrument."
The confusion there is you *don't* and *can't* know the string
tension when you choose a string by its "gauge" (diameter.)
That's why you *need* mass per unit length, so you can buy a
string that you know will have the desired tension when tuned to
the specified note.
Make any sense? I know have a hard time saying it clearly.
By the way, I just put up Antoine Carre's baroque guitar book on
my site in modern (ascii) tablature. There's a few typos in the
explanatory material, but the tablature should be in good shape.
ME: I unloaded my ideas of what the world needs in the way of an
archival system for computer files, but I didn't mention a
safeguard that would have to be very simple and very cheap for
computer makers to implement - a second hard disk in every
computer that mimics *exactly* what happens on the main hard
disk. When either one of them crashes, you will have
*everything*. Then you make an exact copy of the the one that
didn't crash, and you're up and running. Simple as that...
[I've been told this is not so simple.]
I checked Anthology out of the library a few days ago. I know
I've become an old curmudgeon, but I hate it. Obviously, I
didn't jump into it without my biases, but it only confirms my
belief that interviews are the poorest form of journalism. For a
tiny fraction the effort they could have produced something
infinitely more valuable - just slap together all the primary
source material on a cd-rom. If anyone wants a Beatle
autobiography, here's what you do: Don't start from scratch. The
story has been told a million times; all we need now are gaps
filled, and clarifications and corrections. Give each Beatle a
copy of Davies, Norman and Brown, a red pen, and, if you want to
go crazy with high-tech, a voice-actuated cassette recorder.
There.
And lucky for me I'm not a visual person and barely see pictures
in books, because, if I were, what they did in Anthology [not a
single caption!!!] would send me up the nearest bell tower with a
high-powered rifle.
Current reading is Rudolf Bing's autobiography. Lots of good
stories in opera.
ME: Re: your web
>Thanks for the wonderful site. I am a big fan of both Mudarra
and the Beatles. I learned to play "Gallarda" and "Fantasia..."
from the tablature on your site.
Thank you for the kind words. I don't think anyone has ever
written before to say they actually played some of the pieces on
my site. Still, it's something I would do just because I "have
to". By the way, I just put up a bunch of music by baroque
guitarist Anthoine Carre. It's easy to add a few octave notes to
play on the modern guitar. Start with some of the simpler
menuets and gavotes.
ME: Re: Question about Sanz's Canarios
Thanks for your interest in my Sanz tablatures. I was always
kind of disappointed when I put them up the world didn't come
hollering, "Hey, please put *all* of them up!"
To answer your question, yes, Sanz has 2 Canarios in his book (or
is it 3 books in one?) One Canarios is in G (Book 2, page 6) and
the other is in D (Book 1, page 8). What really amazes me about
your question is that I would think the Canarios in D is the
famous one! It's been published and played and recorded to
death! Not that the piece ever wears out... But somehow you
became familiar first with the lesser known one in G. Yes,
there's a lot of similarity between the 2 pieces. I hope that
helps.
>Thanks for releasing sanz's tabs on the web.
>The few original tabs and facsimile of Sanz's Canarios I saw
correspond to the one you give here, in G major.
>However, there exists an arrangement by Emilio Pujol, in D
major, quite different but whose second part seems to closely
correspond to the first version. Is Pujol's Score an arrangement
of another Canarios by Sanz ? Or is this version on your site
(and also on the facsimile I saw) incomplete ? Or has Pujol taken
a lot of freedom in the adaptation ?
ME: more mudarra
I've been thinking about you recently because I've been seeing
some new Mudarra publications come out. A guitarist local to my
area has one called "Guitar Music From Tres Libros de Musica"
published by Mel Bay. I guess, like the title says, it's *just*
the music for guitar (not vihuela).
And I got an email from Keith Calmes, who put out the excellent
"Masterpieces of the 16th C. Guitar" book by Mel Bay, saying,
"Next out is a transcription of Mudarra's 2nd book, which we are
calling The Eight Masterpieces of Alonso Mudarra. Let me know
what you think. It should be out in a month."
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