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 . . .
ME: wine in the water
I really enjoyed stepping through your "wine in the water"
solution. No, I hadn't thought of doing it that way.
I have two comments. First, your solution is great in that it
makes no assumption about the mixing of the wine in the water
bucket before the transfer back to the wine bucket, but it seems
to me this introduction of a *new* variable, Z, for the amount of
water transferred back to the wine bucket stems from knowing *in
advance* what the answer will be (perhaps gotten from the simple,
direct, elegant, visualization method.) Otherwise, I suspect the
solver would express the volume of the transferred water in terms
of the bucket and cup volumes after uniform mixing. Second, your
solution is not as general as the elegant visualization method
since it assumes equal bucket volumes.
ME: Mudarra tablature
I'm pleased that you could use my tablature in that way. It
*never* occurred to me that somebody could take my ascii tab and
use it to generate input to commercial tablature-writing
programs.
I am more than a little curious about what form the input to
those tablature programs takes. The way I wrote my own tablature
programs (the first one using the printer graphic mode, and the
second all in ascii), I had 3 separate input files; one for the
fret characters, one for rhythms (plus strum directions) and one
for ornaments. Could you email a small chunk of the .TAB file,
or direct me to one on the web?
It was a considered decision to put ascii tab on the web since
anyone can view it directly without having to fire up a program,
no matter how simple a process that may be. Several people have
asked me if I use or know about Fromino. No, I don't.
Maybe you could educate me a little. Are any of the 3 tab
programs you mention public domain? I suspect they all cost. If
so, how much and where do you get them? What sort of machine do
you need? (I still work on a 286.) How flexible are they? Can
you go from letters to numbers, or vice versa? Right side up to
upside down? Fret characters on the lines or in the spaces?
6-space (i.e. 7-line) tab, like mine and Mel Bay's?
Perhaps it's time for me get on the Fromino bandwagon, assuming
it can generate tab to my specifications.
Thanks again for enhancing my work and bringing it to an even
bigger audience.
THEE: Mudarra tablature
Glad you could get back to me. Thanks again for making the music
available. Someone has asked me already to convert all your
other music also. I didn't do it originaly because I don't have a
guitar and did it primarilly for the lute list. I like guitar,
just don't play one.
As far as the input to the other programs, I wrote directly to
the format as used by the pragram which is confusingly enough
called "TAB". This is the freeware program written by Wayne
Cripps and Rainer Aus Dem Spring.
"TAB" will run fine on your 286 (as it is DOS only), however it
is designed to produce Postscript output which may not be any use
to you. Apparently it has one other output format also but you
should talk to rainer about that. He will send it to you for
free. "TAB" produces magnificent output which I have seen, but I
have not used the program as "Fronimo" is a lot easier and more
convenient to use for me. Fronimo is about as flash a Windows
based program as you would come across. It is fast and stable.
There are Windows 3.1 and Windows 95/98/NT versions only. Even if
you could get a 386 or 486 Fronimo is fine. There is version 1
which works with 3.1 or version 2 which has seperate 16 and 32
bit versions. They are freeware for reading and printing files,
but to save or export you have to register.
The nice thing aboput "Tab" is that the format of the file is
VERY simple. I worked it out just by looking at it.
THEE: Just wondering re. the Fungus book - is that a text only
version of it = in paperback? I used to have a copy which was
page size and cartoon = format. What is behind the give away?
thanks!
THEE: wine in the water
Sorry I didn't make my argument clear enough, probably my English
still needs to be improved. However, let's do it again (I'll try
better this time), hopefully it will answer your two comments.
Let A be the amount of wine in the wine bucket and B be the
amount of water in the water bucket.
Before the moves,
Wine bucket = A(wine)
Water bucket = B(water)
Let C be the amount of wine in the cup being transferred to the
water bucket in the first move. After the first move,
Wine bucket = A(wine) - C(wine) or (A-C)(wine)
Water bucket = B(water) + C(wine)
In the second move, let D be the amount of water and E be the
amount of wine being transferred back to the wine bucket. After
the second move,
Wine bucket = (A-C)(wine) + D(water) + E(wine)
or (A-C+E)(wine) + D(water) {equation 1}
Water bucket = B(water) + C(wine) - [D(water) + E(wine)]
or (B-D)(water) + (C-E)(wine) {equation 2}
Assumption: One cup of wine was transferred in the first move and
the same One cup of wine/water mixture was transferred in the
second move. (if the transferred amounts are different, say one
cup of wine in the first move and NO cup of wine/water mixture in
the second move, we don't need to go any further because the wine
bucket will remain pure and the water bucket now is a mixture.)
If we agree with the assumption then: C = D+E
We can also prove C = D+E this way: The original content of the
wine bucket is A(wine) The final content of the wine bucket is
(A-C+E)(wine) + D(water) or (A-C+E+D)(mixture) Since the same
amount (one cup) was transferred out and back, the volume of the
wine bucket remains unchanged. So, A = (A-C+E+D) or C = D+E
Now, since C = D+E, we can replace E with C-D in equation {1} and
{2}:
Wine bucket= (A-C+E)(wine) + D(water) = (A-C+[C-D])(wine) +
D(water) = (A-D)(wine) + D(water)
Water bucket= (B-D)(water) + (C-E)(wine) = (B-D)(water) +
(C-[C-D])(wine) = (B-D)(water) + D(wine)
The ratio of water/wine in the wine bucket now is : D/(A-D)
{ratio 1} The ratio of wine/water in the water bucket now is :
D/(B-D) {ratio 2}
Now get back to your comment number 2 about the original amount
of wine in the wine bucket and water in the water bucket. This
values have to be the same (i.e. A=B) in order for ratio 1 to
equal ratio 2, so I believe that my assumption of A=B is correct.
If A and B are not the same, say A is twice the amount of B and C
is 1/2 of B. Now if I move a cup of wine to the water bucket and
somehow move back a cup of water to the wine bucket. (this is
possible because of the "mixing independent" characteristic) The
wine bucket now has 3/4 of wine and 1/4 of water. The water
bucket now has 1/2 of wine and 1/2 water. They are NOT the same.
In conclusion, the ratio D/(A-D) shows that it does not depend on
the mixing process, the number of "round trip" transfers, the
original amount of wine and water (A=B, yes), or the volume of
the cup.
Hope you enjoy reading this mumbo jumbo!
By the way, do you play CG? I started CG at 12 and still practice
everyday. Thanks,
THEE: beetle the document
Cool! I had alerted Donald to the fact that "Eat the Document"
was playing on the east and west coasts and that we better start
doing some hard traveling. We didn't move an inch!
We need to know how long Johnny Rhythm actually appears in the
film and any other details you have. We understand that his
cameo occurs in the back seat of a car.
THEE: beetle the document
Went to "Eat the Document" last night. The film is a godawful
mess, interesting only to completists and aging hipsters, though
i had read so many bad things about it i was one of the few in
the audience not to be disappointed. A period piece, but
pretentious and boring, with not enough concert footage. The
highlight of the film is a cameo by the late great John Lennon,
who utters two brilliant lines and then is not heard from again.
It ain't no Love Happy.
THEE: Wine in the water BUCKET
My poor English probably is the disconnect. Your
statement "Is there more wine in the water or water in the
wine?" 99.999% means "Is there more wine in the water bucket or
water in the wine bucket?"
But I interpreted "wine in the water" the ratio of
wine/water in the mixture as I did in the other notes.
However, here is the solution for "wine in the water
BUCKET":
Let A be the amount of wine in the wine bucket and B be
the amount of water in the water bucket.
Before the moves,
Wine bucket = A(wine)
Water bucket = B(water)
Let C be the amount of wine in the cup being transferred
to the water bucket in the first move.
After the first move,
Wine bucket = A(wine) - C(wine) or (A-C)(wine)
Water bucket = B(water) + C(wine)
In the second move, let D be the amount of water and E be
the amount of wine being transferred back to the wine bucket.
After the second move,
Wine bucket = (A-C)(wine) + D(water) + E(wine) or (A-
C+E)(wine) + D(water) {equation 1}
Water bucket = B(water) + C(wine) - [D(water) + E(wine)]
or
(B-D)(water) + (C-E)(wine) {equation 2}
Assumption: One cup of wine was transferred in the first
move and the same One cup of wine/water mixture was transferred
in the second move. (if the transferred amounts are different,
say one cup of wine in the first move and NO cup of wine/water
mixture in the second move, we don't need to go any further
because the wine bucket will remain pure and the water bucket now
is a mixture.)
If we agree with the assumption then:
C = D+E
We can also prove C = D+E this way:
The original content of the wine bucket is A(wine)
The final content of the wine bucket is (A-C+E)(wine) +
D(water) or (A-C+E+D)(mixture)
Since the same amount (one cup) was transferred out and
back, the volume of the wine bucket remains unchanged. So,
A = (A-C+E+D) or D = C-E
Now,
Equation 1 shows the amount of water in the wine bucket
is D
Equation 2 shows the amount of wine in the water bucket
is C-E
We just proved that D = C-E so they are the same.
Sorry for the mumbo jumbo again.
THEE: poema harmonico
Hallo I playing the baroque guitar. Your page with the music of
Guerau is very interesting and a great work. I shall publish the
Poema Harmsnico (the Ms. of the Barcelona library with the
illustration of Carlos II) as soon as posible in the editorial
ALPUERTO (Madrid). We will publish the original (in facsimil) and
the transcription of all the music. Unfortunately the text of the
study will be in spanish.
Saludos from Spain
ME: the net & i
Sorry about the gap in finger-tapping communication. The
performance on Saturday went *great* - many times better than I
could have ever imagined. The audience was *very* enthusiastic.
The man from Levine running the series wants us to do it again.
Some of my family came down. They all know Hself (violin) from
the time she played with my niece in a nursing home. After the
show she gave us a tour of the FDR memorial and the Iwo Jima
memorial. I can't imagine any other D.C. tour guide knowing a
tenth as much or being able to present it .01 as engagingly.
I hope some day you get to spend some extended time with her.
A week or so ago I plowed through Neil Young's Decade album.
That was absolutely phenomenal - even Einstein On The Beach
didn't have a 6-sided song.
I'm a bit shell-shocked by the response I've gotten to postings
to the classical guitar listserve. I floated an idea to make all
the guitar music in the Library of Congress collection available
to everyone for free. Thought I was trying to do something good,
actually. Oh well, no skin off my nose.
THEE: Decade
Good work at the Douglass House! Again, I'm sorry I missed it.
We saw "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," as I told you. Even though the
star was the beautiful Megan Gallagher (I've been a fan since her
mid-'80s work on "Hill Street Blues") and even though she
performed much of the first act in a slip, I was strangely tired
and actually dozed off. By the end of the play, almost three
hours after it started, I was all tingly from sitting for so
long.
Perhaps Neil Young decided to call his LP "Decade" because that's
how long you thought you were spending listening to it. Some of
those long songs are really bad. I agree. Yesterday afternoon,
I listened to Woody Allen's...
Oops, it's shower time. I may continue this from work.
THEE: Subject: Before I so rudely interrupted myself
I've pracically spammed you this morning, but I did say I would
continue the message I started at home.
Anyway, I was listening a bit to the Woody Allen comedy double LP
yesterday. It was excellent. You were with me when I bought it
during a magical record odyssey in September 1992. You even
drove.
THEE: LoC guitar music - list ?
I am interested in receiving your list of 19th-cent. guitar
works; I'm looking expecially on music by "late 19th-century", in
case.
Spreading guitar music can't be considered a business for me, but
something like a mission. So, thank you for that.
Do you mind if I add a link from our JcG website, the ONLY
Italian GUitar web ?
THEE: LoC guitar music - list ?
About your question on how "to get a more authentic and natural
transcription by leaving the Russian guitar music at its original
pitch and tuning strings 1 and 6 down to D". "Anybody out there
with a bunch of music for Russian guitar inclined to test out
this theory? "
I have a collection of pieces of Russian guitar music which
sounds "natural" with that tuning. I have tried since one year
ago with it (most didactical pieces, and relatively few from the
Visotski-Sychra epoque) and I'm looking for new pieces and
suggestions.
THEE: I have another point to make to help disprove the Big Bang
theory. Think about this. If the Big Bang did happen, wouldn't
the light that was created then and for the billions of years
after it already be past us? Since the galaxies would have to be
going away from us at the time of the explosion. So a galaxy
discovered 9 billion lightyears away would be 6 billion years old
at the time,(assuming a 15 bill old universe and they determine
age of the galaxy to actually be 6 bill yr old). But even if the
universe exploded at the speed of light this light would have
been emitted when the galaxy was 6 billion light years away, and
so the light from it would have actually reached us 3 billion
years ago (assuming our galaxy isn't moving). The galaxy would
have to be 9billion lightyears away at the time the light was
emitted for us to see the then 6 billion old galaxy. But it
would actually have been 9 billion years old (assuming nothing
can go faster than light.). I thought about this last year and
wondered if this was a feasible and applicable theory. I don't
know the entire scientific evidence there might be to make my
theory irrelavant but I thought it might be interesting for you.
What do you believe created the universe then?
THEE: Mudarra tablature
I will try to answer your questions "more better".
This is the download site for Fronimo:
ftp://ftp.arcetri.astro.it/pub/fronimo/
fron141.exe = Fronimo 1, Windows 3.1
fron2016.exe = Fronimo 2, Windows 3.1
fron2032.exe = Fronimo 2, Windows 95/98/NT
The main differences are Fronimo1 can read and print .TAB format
and .FT1 format (Fronimo's own). Fronimo2 can read .FT1 and .FT2
(Fronimo 2's own format) but cannot read .TAB format until you
register the program.
I never encountered many 286 PCs with more than 2Mb of RAM but
there were a few with 6Mb. Windows 3.1 should be OK with about
6Mb. Francesco would never have expected the program to run on a
286, but Fronimo 1 is a particularly fast and stable program,
compared to most other windows software so it will probably be
OK. The lowest machine I have run it on is a 486 100Mhz and it
flew. Oh yes, Fronimo can play the music to you if you have a
sound card which is the best way to spot errors.
.FT1 and .FT2 file formats are complicated so it makes sense to
use the more simplistic text based format of .TAB. .TAB format's
natural language seems to be Itallian Tablature, i.e. with no
special header information the resultant format will be italian.
The program I wrot output Italian .TAB format, and then I used
Fronimo to save it as French .TAB format. This way I could be
more sure that the format would be truely correct for the "TAB"
program that I don't use.
Below is a sample from (your) Fantasia 10. Name/composer, I read
straight out of your file. Presumably "-t -f " means French
Tablature. If you leave these out it is Italian Tablature do you
use 0123 instead of abcd.
-t
-f
{AM10. - Fantasia que contrahaza la harpa en la manera de Luduvico. /Alonso Mudarra.}
b
0.a
1 d
b
0 c
0 d
b
Basically a "b" on a line by itself is a bar. If the next
line is another "b" then you get a double bar
If the line starts with w01234 it indicates the timing, Whole,
Half, Quarter etc. If it is dotted, then a "." follows the
timing. Each space following a timing represents a string. That
is it. Simple. Of course there are loads of extras you can add to
it, but the above is enough for an import.
The "TAB" program cannot handle "Spanish" Tablature, only Italian
and French. Fronimo does French, Italian, Neapolitan and German,
5 lines, 6 lines, notes on spaces, notes on lines. It comes with
a bunch of Font alternatives and you can make your own fonts with
a font authoring tool like I have.
The major Tablature Archives are:
.TAB format: ftp://ftp.cs.dartmouth.edu/pub/lute/TabSource
Dartmouth Lute pages
Fronimo Format:
Allan Alexander's page
http://www.albany.net/~dowland/fronimo.html
Mark Wheelers page - Good one for Fronimo info.
http://members.aol.com/MWhee40252/Index.html
Bills Early Music page
http://www.tiac.net/users/billiam/earlymus.htm
Let me know if you want your Mudarra sent back in .TAB or .FT2
format and I'll send it. I have sent it to heaps of people.
Alonso Mudarra is very popular amongst Lute players.
I hope that answers your questions
ME: Subject: ever been reprimanded in front of the whole world?
No need to apologize about the "spam" - I count myself as the
luckiest netter there is to have somebody like you looking after
my best interests. The Paul articles were touching. The "eat
the document" 1st-hand account satisfies me completely. (As far
as seeing the film, but isn't there 5 minutes of JL/BD dialog out
there? Is that outtake footage?) I saw the large Scrabble game
on a Times page one day when I was at the library or in a grocery
store. Checked the same day's Post for an article, but saw none.
Is the month and year of the Woody Allen acquisition documented,
or do you remember things like that? (I'm afraid you do.)
I unsubscribed to the classical guitar listserv. Not in a fit of
spite, but I figured not to would make me the equivalent of a
scolded schoolboy sitting in the corner.
THEE: My album of the week is "The Golden Hits of Lesley Gore."
Sing with me!
It's my puli
And he'll bark if he wants to,
bark if he wants to
You'd bark too,
if you couldn't find your chew.
I e-mailed home a photo of a giant Scrabble tile. Remind me
tomorrow.
The record rumpus in which I bought the Woody Allen LP is etched
upon my mind. It was during my first visit home from law school,
for my brother-in-law's wedding. I seemed to have extraordinary
luck at every record boutique we visited that day.
Glad you've enjoyed my Spams. I've enjoyed melting them. No,
that's wrong!
So, git on over to the Rockpalast tomorrow. I'll whip up some
ghastly Chinese dish, or something for us all to eat, and we've
got a plethora of vid to get to, as well as bringing Hself [puli]
into conflict with "ADitL." [a day in the life]
PS. Talk to me about classical guitar listserv.
THEE: Monopoly Clipart.
As excellent as your page is, I did not see an answer to my
question. Do you know of a site where I might get some clipart
from the monopoly game? Any information would be most welcomed.
THEE: Subject: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
HI! :) IF JIM SAUTER LIVES HERE TELL HIM I SAID...
HAPPY 14TH
BIRTHDAY
FROM A REALLY GOOD FRIEND. HE'D BETTER KNOW WHO IT IS.
: ) = : ) ~: ) :D :P 0 : )
TILT YOUR HEAD 2 THE LEFT. :' ) I LOVE U MAN!
; ) ; ) LYLAB ; ) ;)
FROM,
?
[DS: Sorry, no Jim Sauter here!]
ME: guitar gab
I'd be delighted if you added a link to my guitar pages. I think
JcG is the best jumping off point for classical guitar. Here's
my specific url:
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7049/index.html#guitar
[now http://www.donaldsauter.com/index.html#guitar ]
About my great idea to spread Library of Congress guitar around
for free, I'll have to put that on hold for a while. The
reaction in the CARG-l classical guitar listserve was too brutal.
I thought I was trying to do something good.
Thanks a million for your comments on your experience playing
Russian guitar music on the western guitar. You were the first
to comment. It seems to me there is a big, untapped source of
good music there. I was disappointed by the transcriptions in
Matanya Ophee's Russian Guitar Vol. 1. There are great technical
difficulties in what should be easy little pieces.
ME: tablature programs
Thanks a lot for your extensive and detailed comments about the
tablature programs. Whew, I'm sorry to have put you to so much
trouble! (I realized as I was writing my questions that it was
too much work to ask anybody for.) Your efforts have been shared
with others and I'll be referring to them again.
The main disappointments for me, if I'm interpreting correctly
what *wasn't* said, are that none of the tablature programs
produce modern, Mel Bay-like tablature staffs (6 spaces, 7
lines); and none of them write continuous rhythm information.
Those are fatal drawbacks for me (for all the reasons given in my
tab.htm web page.) Until a commercial program does that, it
looks like I will stick with my own tablature program.
Also wondering if the commercial programs give you control over
fret symbol spacing? Can you stretch the music out to fill a
page neatly, or scrunch it down to fit it on one page, say? Mine
has that capability.
THEE: I know why your phone's busy
I just tried calling. I think you're still on your computer.
This guy that runs the Guitar Group chat group is the supreme
[...]! I'm glad that one guy stuck up for you. What a Jerky Boy
that man is!
Don't misuse public property has to be one of the great
malapropisms of all time, in this case.
ME: Subject: big bang
I'm pretty sure you have picked up on some internal contradiction
in what the cosmologists are saying, but I admit I am still
trying to understand your argument completely. I think we're on
the same wavelength, though. When scientists say they see light
coming from the edge of the universe and dating back to almost
the Big Bang, I always think "Huh??? What are you nuts trying to
say??? That light raced *away* from us from the moment of the
Big Bang."
Any chance you would try to clarify your argument for me? I'm
really interested. About, "What do you believe created the
universe then?" the best I can do is say that I can't comprehend
the universe having a finite age, and I can't comprehend it
having an infinite age. I believe there is something going on
which is far beyond current human knowledge and understanding.
Not very satisfying, I know, but not a remarkable conclusion
considering how "stupid" humans were a measly 100, 1000 or
million years ago. (A hundred years ago we didn't even know
about galaxies!) Just because we're the smartest we've ever been
doesn't mean that we know beans about the workings of the
universe. (Take gravity, for example. Just because we've given
the phenomenon a name doesn't mean we've explained it.)
You wrote:
I have another point to make to help disprove the Big Bang
theory. Think about this. If the Big Bang did happen, wouldn't
the light that was created then and for the billions of years
after it already be past us.
Since the galaxies would have to be going away from us at the
time of the explosion. [Remember that half the time they call it
an "expansion".] So a galaxy discovered 9 billion lightyears away
would be 6 billion years old at the time [What time? When the
light left it?], (assuming a 15 bill old universe and they
determine age of the galaxy to actually be 6 bill yr old [How do
they know that?]). But even if the universe exploded at the speed
of light this light would have been emitted when the galaxy was 6
billion light years away [?], and so the light from it would have
actually reached us 3 billion years ago [?] (assuming our galaxy
isn't moving). The galaxy would have to be 9billion lightyears
away at the time the light was emitted for us to see the then
6 billion old galaxy [?]. But it would actually have been 9
billion years old (assuming nothing can go faster than light.).
THEE: Re: guitar gab
Yes, the link was done at the "s-section" of our JcG Links page.
Can I have the authorization to include a browsable off-line copy
of your website in our annual JcG CD-ROM (in Italian): "1998 Just
CLASSICAL Guitar Websites" ? (The work is done automatically by
a awarded off-line browser).
To be specific about Russian guitar music, I studied a lot of
music and I didn't yet finished to read the material we have. I
was also disappointed by Matanya's transcriptions, clearly not-
playable in most istances. But so far I was able to transcribe
for 6-string guitar with open G-tuning only the following:
A. Sichra: Mazurka G-minor; Variations on the theme of the Ukrainian song
"Oy, mati, mati, kozak y khati". ***
M Vysotski: Mazurka G-major; "Uzh kak pal tuman" (6 string = E) ***
V. Sarenko: Nocturne G-minor *** (from the Orphee catalogue, trancribed 1
tone upper)
P. Ladyzhenski: Vals (G-minor) **
A. Solov'ev: Studies **
L. Menro: Studies *
(no. of * means the difficulty)
Obviously I can play many other music in the regular tuning. I
have an agreement with a young Italian Publishing House to make
available this collection, when it'll be finished. If you have
any more suggestion, it is welcome for me. The music in the key
of "G-minor/major" is likely to be played with 6-string with D-
open tuning, the music in "E-minor/major" is hopefully mostly
playable also with regular tuning.
I tried also with the music by Yuri Sazonov (1872-1934), whose
romances I loved in many istances, but I found always some
passages which are not "natural" or strictly "impossible" to play
with only 6-string. His Variations on the Theme of the Russian
Romance "I met You" can be played almost confortably with the
regular tuning.
I wouldn't worry too much about Matanya's and his *close*
collegues' reactions: if you trust in your way, go straight
forward with it. At JcG we started more then 1 year ago with our
"V. Pocci COllection" which make available 200+ Early 1900 music
scores in the PING-format (professionally speaking, the best free
image-format for Internet, I have no doubt) and now we are ready
to provide all of them with the proprietary Acrobat Reader PDF-
format. Well, that sounds to be a progress for almost of our
readers, but I'd far prefer the PINGs...
ME: uh oh a unarchist in the family
Sorry about putting you through so much web torture. This
morning I took another look and saw that I left out the final
step that actually activates the geoguide codes I inserted. My
hours of work work were not in vain. Everything should work now
(emphasis on should.)
Over-dinner points that occurred to me too late (as they always
do, and why I should never engage in verbal debates) include:
If laws are so darn necessary, can you state accurately even
one of the million or so that you live under, never mind the
other 999,999? (Have you ever even *counted* to a million?)
All the evidence you'll ever need that even bad people know
perfectly well right from wrong: Jeffrey Dahmer knew to hide
what he was doing. The fact that our justice system did not
find him guilty of any wrongdoing indicates that he would be
over-qualified as a judge, lawmaker or lawyer.
Thanks for your support in the guitar philanthropy wars. There
are many reasons why it doesn't bother me, the main one being
that I'll have a heart attack the day that something I have to
offer isn't met with ferocious, knee-jerk rejection. Also,
Matanya has a real flair, and everybody knows the way he is.
ME: guitar web pages
Thanks for adding the link - I am very honored.
By all means, you may include my website on your CD-ROM. Once
again, I am very pleased that you think it is worthy.
I hope someday I get a chance to see the results of some of your
Russian guitar music work. I wonder, even in those cases where
the music is directly playable in E A D G B E tuning if it
wouldn't benefit from an approximation of the Russian guitar
tuning. And it's satisfying to think that you are placing
your fingers where the composer himself did.
Regarding the "impossible" passages in pieces by Yuri Sazonov, I
presume that refers to intricate work on the lowest strings? Any
chance tuning the 5th string to G or B would make things work?
I should figure out how to use PING and take a look at the
collection of music at your site (before it changes to Acrobat
Reader PDF.) I still work on a 286 and view the web in text-only
(one of the reasons for my ascii-tab pages.)
Thanks a million for knowing my language. I apologize for not
knowing yours - Americans are really bad about that.
THEE: Re: tablature programs
>The main disappointments for me, if I'm interpreting what
*wasn't* said correctly, are that none of the tablature programs
produce modern, Mel Bay-like tablature staffs (6 spaces, 7
lines); and none of them write continuous rhythm information.
I can't say for String walker or "TAB" but Fronimo cannot produce
7 line Tablature. It CAN handle notes on spaces instead of notes
on lines. For you, this just means that that chantarelle note
sits at the top of the 6th line rather than between the 6th and
7th.
This as you know is the way French Tablature works. It is easy to
read and is by far the most popular for Lute players. Your
standard "Guitar Tablature" ideas are good, but they won't rub
off on Lute players. Partly because they are quite dogmatic about
historical accuracy and in another way, if you have 14 courses,
it matters little whether there are 6 or 7 lines. I think Mel-Bay
publish 1 Lute book. I have it. The Scottish Lute by Ronn
MacFarlane.
I happen to prefer notes on lines myself (i.e with lines through
the notes). I am not suggesting this is better, it is just the
normal way that Spanish, Italian and Neapolitan tablature were
produced. Since I print on a laser printer, the density of the
lines can be controled independantly and the lines are very very
thin. They don't interfere at all with the notes themselves.
As far as continuous timing symbols. No problems, they can all
do that. This is how I do my Luys Milan. Whether this is good or
not depends on the type of music. For the Luys Milan and Alonso
Mudarra is seems to work. In fact I have a little difficuly
handling the timing sometimes when the timing symbols are
missing. By contrast to this music John Dowland is hopeless if
you print a timing mark above every note. When there are 16 or
32 notes to a bar, you go cross-eyed looking for the change in
countless almost identical looking timing marks. With J.D.
(particularly some of his longer pieces e.g La Mia Barbara) For
this sort of music the symbol indicating a change is valuable,
but I always like to display the first note in every bar at
least. This helps a lot.
>(No need to respond to this, but do the commercial programs give
you control over fret symbol spacing? Can you stretch the music
out to fill a page neatly, or scrunch it down to fit it on one
page, say?
Actually they do this brilliantly. In Fronimo you have point size
choice for note/timing symbols. Since they are "true-type"
geometrically defined fonts, they print at any size without
getting any granularity. You have every option of note spacing,
gaps between staff margins etc. With you Alonso Mudarra I
tailored each piece to just fit on a standard A4 page where
possible by changing these variables. Of course some are two
pages. This makes for very neat printing. In Fronimo 2 you can
also define default note spacing to each different timing, so
that the music will spread out to match its timing. I don't use
this feature, but have seen it used tyo good efect by Robb
MacKillop.
As far as a standard "Modern" Tablature goes, Alain Veylit is the
chap to talk to. His program is far more suited to guitar than
Fronimo which is build entirely to produce historically accurate
Lute/Vihuela and early guitar Tablature. It even does German
Tablature. Alain's "String Walker", however has a particular
option called "Modern Tablature" He is the chap to talk to.
BTW Do you have a Vihuela by chance? They are an interesting
instrument. Sort of raw and woody - just the way I like. More
like a Lute than a classical guitar but not THAT much like a lute
either. I am determined to build myself one just for the Music of
1500 - 1600 Spain.
THEE: I'm listening to "Vegetables" now.
THEE: Subject: Great site!
I just wanted to say "thank you".
I also have a question, while I'm at it: Do you know the tuning
of the baroque lute? (i.e. the first six strings - the bass
"cours" tuning varied, as far as I understand) The reason for my
asking is that as a lute-less former amateur renaissance lute
player (phew!) I pick up the guitar every now and then to play
some old lute pieces. Works excellently, except for a few bass
notes here and there. But I've grown tired of renaissance, except
for Kapsberger maybe, so I thought I'd try to see if any of the
baroque repertoire is playable on the the guitar, in spite of all
bass notes.
THEE: Re: big bang
My point concerning the galaxies that what we see is this. Say
the Big Bang did happen and the universe spread out at the speed
of light but we stayed in the center. Then a galaxy, when it was
1 billion light-years away, would be 1 billion years old and then
the light would take 1 billion years to travel here. So when the
light actually reached us we would be 2 bill years old. So later
the galaxy has gone 6 billion light-years in 6 billion years. So
the light of a 6 billion year old galaxy would reach us in
another 6 billion years, for a combined time of 12 bill years.
But since the Universe is estimated to be between 13-15 bill
years old that light has already passed us. That same galaxy that
we are observing should appear to be 7-9 bill years old. So when
scientists say that they see a galaxy 9 billion light-years away
that appears to be 6 billion years old ( 6 bill years of
development + 9 Bill years of travel of the light= 15 Bill old
Universe) it would be impossible even if galaxies travelled at
the speed of light which is impossible since all mass turns to
energy at the speed of light. Realistically the galaxies have
probably not travelled as far due to a slower speed so ultimately
all light from galaxies would actually be younger than originally
thought making the light from one to two or more year old
galaxies impossible to see since it would have passed us long
ago. If the universe grew at even have the speed of light it
would only have a 7.5 bill lightyear radius now. Making all light
created 7.5 bill years ago (actually probably even 5 bill
years,since the universe is expanding constantly) already gone.
So findings of galaxies only 1 bill years old would disprove the
Big Bang theory. The galaxy would have to be placed 14 bill
lightyears away to start out with so the light could reach us by
now. I personally believe in creation. I believe that God made
everything to look as if it were made in a logical fashion
(evolution over long period of time) but actually created it in 6
days. Think about it this way. God made a picture all at once
without any pieces to the puzzle, but made it so when we looked
at it we could find out logically how it might be put together if
God hadn't done anything. That's just my belief though.
ME: Subject: humpback whale w/ sax
Friday night I heard Alan Bean talk at the Archives. What a
swell guy! His talk, besides being informative and entertaining,
was very heartwarming and uplifting. I stood in the book-signing
line for probably close to an hour (without a book) to say a few
words, shake his hand (twice) and invite him to my website, in
particular, special.htm, the subject matter of which he touched
on in his talk. It seems I'm not the only one to independently
rediscover the Fermi Paradox.
The line was slow-moving precisely because Alan was more than
happy to chat with everyone indefinitely. This was in contrast
to the Archive gestapo ladies who were trying to rush things
along, making sure everybody had their book turned in the proper
direction to save time, disallowing personal inscriptions and
photos and even *lying* about Alan having an engagement he needed
to get to. (Alan leaned over and whispered, "No, I don't.")
There's another one of those National Academy of Science concerts
today (Sunday) that at least look interesting on paper. It
celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Professional Tape Recorder.
Composers include Varese, Margaret Brouwer. Pieces include Poeme
electronique, Diary of an Alien and Fog Tropes. Pre-concert
discussion at 3:00. Concert at 4:00. Free, of course.
ME: Re: Free guitar music from the Library of Congress
TO: (various individuals and publishers)
Thanks for your interest in my idea of disseminating 19th century
guitar music. Under the circumstances, I don't foresee taking
further steps any time soon, so no need to watch your mailbox for
a thick wad of rare, freebie guitar music. Maybe somewhere down
the avenue...
P.S. Hself, I included you in this mailing because of your initial
support ("A most interesting proposition... The whole idea of
the list is to exchange information and sources so that we all
may gain.") I have no idea why my response to the first round of
comments provoked such a hostile reaction.
THEE: What a pity you have buckled under to the likes of that
ogre from Columbus.
THEE: Crazy Sunday
I'm still listening to the "Smiley Smile*Wild Honey" CD. Now I'm
up to track 23, that's 21 tracks beyond where I was when I last
wrote you from home. That's progress.
Am I fooling myself when I say I've heard of Alan Bean? Who is
he?
The world of high-priced tickets:
Last night, our Balto friend came down. He had made a phone call
to a friend who works for the National Hockey League and the
friend hooked us up with four fourth-row tickets to last night's
Washington Capitols' game at MCI Arena. Any guess on the face
value of the tickets? $60 each!
In other ticket news, tickets for the Joni Mitchell/Bob Dylan
show at Cole Field House went on sale the other week. Hself was
going to call and order four. We forgot. On Friday, a friend of
hers decided that she didn't want the tickets she had bought,
so Hself decided to by them from her. Any guess on the cost of
the tickets? $92 for two!! I hope that at that price, you don't
feel left out. I have grave misgivings about dropping that kind
of cash, even if Dylan did give us a nice show back in 1995.
Album update: Yesterday I spun Chet Atkins' "From Nashville With
Love" (1966). This morning I spun Pat Suzuki's "Looking at You"
(1960). The Atkins LP was the last I bought at the Bloomington
record sale in 1995, the Suzuki the first I bought upon my return
to this area before Christmas that year. So it's the end of an
era.
Tomorrow's LP of the week is Rusty Warren's "Banned in Boston?"
Any memory of how I got that one back on Dec. 14, 1995?
PS. "Crazy Sunday" is the name of a story by F. Scott
Fitzgerald. Today is Sunday but it is not crazy, at least not
yet. That reminds me of another Towson trivia question I had for
you: Any idea where the Turnbull Estate is?
ME: Subject: baroque lute
Thanks for stopping by my website. Isn't it funny how hard it is
to find the tuning of the Baroque lute? They might say "d minor
tuning" or something, but they never get specific - as opposed to
the renaissance lute, or vihuela, or baroque guitar, where that's
practically the first thing they talk about. After all, isn't
the tuning the most fundamental characteristic of the instrument?
The November 1985 issue of Classical Guitar magazine had an
article that spelled it out for the 11-course French lute. From
high to low the first 6 strings are
f' d' A F D A,
and then down from there diatonically G, F, E, D, C, .
Note that the top 6 strings span an interval 2 whole-steps less
than that of the modern guitar. The article also indicates that
the first 2 strings were single, the next 3 were unison pairs,
and from the 6th course down were paired with a high octave.
My idea is to one day take the neck from a junked guitar and
stick it on another cheap guitar to give me 12 or 13 strings,
tune it up like a baroque lute and play baroque lute music from
tablature. I stopped playing that music on modern guitar some
years ago in anticipation of my "quasi-baroque lute".
ME: schwanda's bagpipes
Alan Bean was the 4th man to walk on the moon. A few years later
he spent 56 days, I think, in Skylab. That was the record-to-
date.
While I would never pay such prices for tickets, the actual
figures don't shock me. 46 bucks to see Dylan? Isn't that what
we paid to see McCartney from a football field away a decade ago?
I hear prices like $70 and $80 for entertainment at the MCI
center. When you think about it, that's about 2 hours work for a
commoner in this town.
Don't worry about me. The thought of a live, pop concert is most
likely to send me running in the other direction, even if, when I
*do* find myself at one, I make myself enjoy it.
A counter-example: I enjoyed Ringo's King of Broken Hearts very
much on your most recent tape. Nix on Love Me Do.
The wind ensemble concert I went to with Hself the other night was
very enjoyable. It actually had some exciting moments.
About your Rusty Warren record, are you asking me or quizzing me
on where it came from? I have a vague memory of trying to give
you one from a box of auction records from my mom, but you either
already had it, or couldn't accept another Rusty Warren record.
But maybe you took it.
Nope, don't know the Turnbull Estate, either.
THEE: RE: baroque lute
Thanks for helping me! I'll give the fake baroque lute a try now.
Here in Stockholm, Sweden, it's easy to find tablature at musical
libraries, so I should be fine now.
About building a "lute". Here in Sweden there are instrument
building courses where you build your own lute. The result is
usually pretty damn good and you end up with a lute for a
relatively low price. I'm sure you have such courses over there
as well. Still I suppose they might be like 800-1000$ and that's
a lot of money of course. My lute teacher held such courses but I
could never afford to attend them, or perhaps it was a question
of priorities...
Anyway, keep up the good work. I'll stay tuned in - d minor ;-)
THEE: Subject: Pete Towson
Tomorrow's a big day--will Rusty Warren make it into my
collection or not? I listened to side one of "Banned in Boston?"
this morning and things aren't looking good for ol' "lusty
Rusty." I recalled why I didn't like her famous "Knockers Up"
LP. A) She sounds like she's drinking on the job and B) she's
not funny! She talks about private stuff in a sort of unfunny
way. It was all very shocking way back then, I guess, but now we
can pay our taxes to have Ken Starr give us the real deal, so
what's the point? Anyhoo, I still am grateful to you for giving
me the LP.
I'm now listening to the Boys' "Friends*20/20" CD. I had to
pause it; I can't write and listen to "Transcendental Meditation"
at the same time.
Oh, THAT Alan Bean...
I guess the Mitchell/Dylan tickets are cheap by today's
standards--and that's a very bad thing. I cringed when I came
home and saw Hself writing the check.
ME: a few more tablature thoughts
Thanks a million again for the info-packed message. Thanks for
not blasting my standardized tablature ideas. Yes, I'm aware
they won't fly with the early music people. It's unfortunate
what a difference in readability that 7th (top) line makes.
People used to one have a heck of a time with the other.
About this point you made
"if you have 14 courses, it matters little whether there
are 6 or 7 lines."
I had a notion that it was generally, or maybe always, the case
that for strings below the 6th, the "//a" notation was used
rather than more tablature lines. In other words, I thought that
6-string tablature really did handle virtually all plucked string
instruments.
You indicate Fromino will print continuous rhythm, but it sounds
like you get disconnected stems with flag(s) above each fret
character. What I like is for the subdivisions of a quarter note
to be *beamed* together (as described in my proposal, and seen
throughout my ascii tab.) Dowland would look fine that way.
No, I don't have a vihuela. As funny as it may sound, I use a
modern guitar strung with terz guitar strings. I like the live,
bright sound - sounds very "ancient" to me (even though I wasn't
there, ha ha). Works well for renaissance lute and guitar, and
baroque guitar, too. (See my most recent page on playing
Gallot's passacaille on modern guitar.) As I mentioned in my
page on my quasi-baroque guitar, I tip my hat to everyone who
plays the ancient instruments, but I'd go crazy. I have to have
the same modern-guitar fret and string spacing for everything.
Good luck on your vihuela!
THEE: Re: a few more tablature thoughts
>not blasting my standardized tablature ideas.
Law: Any standard is a good idea. Lute people (present company
excluded) helpfully advise that you MUST learn every different
type of Tablature there is, but particularly French and Italian.
I just don't subscribe to this authenticity police attitude, or
the HIP Lute school of "Do it MY way" enthusiasts. Yes Yes In
"Lute Snob" company I will have to hide the fact that I mostly
read Spanish Luys Milan-style Tablature.
I figure they will only let me get away with it if I only play
Luys Milan from it. It is a pity that the only reason I can
think of for learning Italian Tablature is to make other people
happy. pthththth... :)
The a /a //a ///a format is OK I guess. Did you know that after
the 10th course (///a) it becomes 5 6 7 8 9 (for a 15 course
instrument?) I think it will be pretty wierd to play.
>Yes, I'm aware they won't fly with the early music people.
Alternatively find a good wall :) - but seriously they are a very
friendly, helpful and well-meaning bunch by and large, but they
do strive for "Authenticity" above all things. Their hobby I
guess, their choice.
>what a difference in readability that 7th (top) line makes.
People used to one have a heck of a time with the other.
Mmm I can't relate well because my music is on-the-line not on-
the-space. I figure on a guitar you kind of pluck the line. On a
lute you pluck sort-of between two lines he he. Yes I guess I can
see why 7 lines might be easier on the eye.
>You indicate Fromino will print continuous rhythm, but it sounds
like you get disconnected stems with flag(s) above each fret
character. What I like is for the subdivisions of a quarter note
to be *beamed* together (as described in my proposal, and seen
throughout my ascii tab.) Dowland would look fine that way.
I misunderstood. Pretty sure you can do that too, but only with
some note styles. I have printed stuff that way by accident and
have not worked out how to again. Dowland would be fine as you
suggest in that style. In fact and I hate to sound like a lute
snob again but it WOULD be authentic for Elizabethan Tablature
based on the small number of samples I have seen.
>Thanks for telling me about Alain Veylit's program. I'll have
to look into that.
Yes, I think he has a good attitude to the concept of a modern
Tablature. Eventually I will get a registered copy of his program
just to help him along. Fronimo is probably a better program for
my purposes, but is STRICTLY historicaly authentic ONLY. If you
get some French Tablature for, say, 8 course and convert it to
Spanish and print it, the in place of the a and /a you don't get
a 0 and a /0 like you would expect. Fronimo goes to the effort of
NOT printing these. I just get around this by using a custom true
type font and swapping the encodings of a & 0 b & 1, c & 2 etc. i
and j are a little wierd because they don't have a j in French
Tablature.
>Nope, I don't have a vihuela. As funny as it may sound, I use a
modern guitar strung with terz guitar strings. I dig the live,
bright sound - sounds very "ancient" to me (even though I wasn't
there, ha ha). Works well for renaissance lute and guitar, and
baroque guitar, too. (See my most recent page on playing
Gallot's passacaille on modern guitar.) As I mentioned in my
page on my quasi-baroque guitar, I tip my hat to everyone who
plays the ancient instruments, but I'd go crazy. I have to have
the same modern-guitar fret and string spacing for everything.
I have not herd of "terz". I own a couple of guitars but I find
them a bit too difficult to play. They are lent out at the
moment. I tip my hat to you.
You can ignore this, but I guess I prefer the softeness of the
very thin strings and the relative lack of effort required to pin
them to the fretboard. One tends to kind of brush or stroke the
strings of a lute, which is quite satisfying. What I most like is
the sharp-as-a-razor crispness that you get with such a gentle
stroke of a string. There is a sort of raw almost woody quality
to the instrument. My guitar never sounded that good. Yours
might. The Vihuela is even more raw in it's sound than the lute.
Sort of the same but different. (Australian logic speaking
there)
BTW. I use mostly carbon-fibre strings on the Lute. How authentic
is that?
>Good luck on your vihuela!
Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes. I am waiting on a guitar
making book presently to give me all the necessary ground work.
Still can't get over how tiny the instrument is (on the plan) I
mean it is really really tiny.
ME: Subject: guitar music
Sorry about the misunderstanding caused by my use of the word
"freebie". I know that you all were agreeable to reimbursing my
copying and mailing costs. Since that's only pennies per page
and I have no thoughts of skimming off even a fraction of a penny
for myself, I thought that was effectively "free" (like the
"free" offers on the back of cereal boxes.) I defined it that
way in my second article. Admittedly, the word was also chosen
to make a point to Hself.
I don't feel I buckled under to Matanya. Everybody knows the way
he is, and I actually get some good laughs out of what he writes.
I was definitely taken aback by the moderator threatening to
charge me (THE POSTER) and kick me (THE POSTER) off the list.
What happened was, after many, many hours of my effort, I was
nowhere near what I was after - a list of about 8 to 20 people
saying, "I understand what you are offering. Count me in. Here
is my name and address suitable for clipping and using as a
mailing label."
While composing my second article for the list, responding to all
the concerns raised about the first one, there was a voice inside
my head screaming, "THIS IS INSANE, GOING TO ALL THIS WORK TO TRY
TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO ACCEPT MY GIVE-AWAY!!!" The whole idea, as
expressed in both articles, was to disseminate the music as an
*effortless* byproduct of processing it for my own enjoyment.
Another thing that happened was, after coming up with the grand
idea of a patron funding someone (like me) to work full-time
distributing the Library's guitar music - for "free" - to
thousands of guitarists, my initial idea seemed like such small
potatoes.
After receiving your note, my mood has started to brighten again.
I see that it was a mistake to solicit feedback on my idea. I
might try it again, stating clearly what the deal is. Anyone who
likes it, send me your name and address. No discussion. The
listserv waters have been poisoned, but I could post it to the
rmcg usenet group. I would also contact those of you who have
already expressed an interest. The biggest fear is that usenet-
type people won't reimburse me. (I gave away a bunch of Beatle-
related books. Half the people reneged on reimbursing my postage
costs - only about $1.50)
THEE: Subject: Church program + Friday night
Here is what I'm thinking of sending as our program for the
church thing. Let me know if everything (including the order of
performance) looks o.k.
Patowmack Guitar Trio: Bob Wysong, Bev Ross, Don Sauter
Set 1: Preludio, Ralph Paulsen-Bahnsen, 1985
Set 2: Ballo, S. Molinaro, 1591
When Daphne, Anon, 1600
Ronde & Tripla, T. Susato, 1551
Set 3: Trio & Fugue, J.S. Bach
Set 4: Relic, Phillip Houghton, 1982
Gotan, Jorge Cardoso, 1993
ME: Subject: more old plucked strings
Thanks again for your thoughts. I got a lot of chuckles.
The terz guitar was a guitar tuned 3 half-steps higher than the
regular guitar. It was used often in the early 1800s in
combination with other instruments, for instance, terz guitar and
piano, or duets for normal and terz guitar. A lot of times you
can get away with using a capo at the 3rd fret, for instance if
it stays in the 1st position, but it gets hairy if the piece uses
higher positions. Besides being unsure about which fret you are
shooting for, you might actually run out of fingerboard.
Anyhow, the terz strings are much thinner than normal guitar
strings. I don't tune them the full 3 half-steps up, so they are
very light tension on my guitar. I've gotten a sound I really
like from terz strings on two very unremarkable guitars (for
instance, my 30-year-old $50 Yamaha). In both cases I thought,
"Wow, this guitar sounds great - better than I realized!", but
when I put normal strings on, they were back to *very*
unspectacular. It might be just personal taste (or maybe an
active imagination), but it seems to me that terz strings breathe
new life into any old box of a guitar. Now *all* normally tuned
modern guitars - even $15000 Smallmans - sound dead in
comparison, to my ears.
It's hard to discuss sound in words, so maybe when I say "live"
and "bright", and you say "the softness of very thin strings",
maybe we're describing the same thing, who knows, ha ha.
My idea is to one day take the neck from a junked guitar and
stick it on another cheap guitar to give me 12 or 13 strings,
tune it up like a baroque lute and play baroque lute music from
tablature. I envision using an endpiece, like on folk guitars,
and little, movable bridges (like on a japanese koto) for each of
the floating bass strings. I stopped playing that music on
modern guitar some years ago in anticipation of my "quasi-baroque
lute".
When I get around to rigging one up, I figure I'll use either
/1 /2 /3 ... /7
or
/7 /8 /9 ... /13
below my tablature staff.
THEE: Free Program to convert Donald Sauter's Tablature to TAB
format.
To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Hello Lute Netters,
Recently I made available all of Donald Sauters brilliantly
transcribed ascii format pieces by Alonso Mudarra.
I had overwhelming response to requests for music and I have lost
count of the number of people I sent it to.
Donald has also made available music by Francisco Guerau,Francois
Campion,Mozart and Gallot for Baroque and Classical guitar.
I didn't convert these originally because none of it was for lute
(and this is a lute net afterall)
However, I did get a number of requests to convert Donald's other
music so I have re-written my conversion program for those who
wish to do the conversions themselves.
It works on all of the Mudarra and should pretty much do
everything else. You will need to bring across the special
ornamentation symbols manually after convert.
The program: CONVERT.VBS is written in VB script which I chose
because I am familliar with it and the support code "Windows
Scripting Host" is freeware.
I thought it was a little easier for most to read and modify than
the better choice "PERL" - but let us not enter that discussion
here. suffice to say vbScript is a variety of BASIC and BASIC is
supposed to be easy ha ha ha :)
vbScript is quite adequate and fast enough to do the job (an
average convert takes half a second on my Windows 95 Pentium
100.) The negative is that it runs only on a few platforms.
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT x86 and Alpha. It is included
with Windows 98 already.
Everything you need to run it can be downloaded free from:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/
If you want the CONVERT.VBS program (free of course). Mail me.
All for the love of music.
ME: disasters, natural and unnatural
I thought you might be interested in a letter in that day's Times
regarding McCartney and animal rights. According to the writer,
he's changed his opinion on animal testing. The writer is a
spokesperson for some Medical Progress organization and commends
him on his courage to do this.
I was at the library, which is where I saw the papers. Mostly
wanted to read a bit about the big hurricane, since I have a
friend whose hometown is La Ceiba, Honduras, which was a direct
hit. Ceiba was also hit catastrophically in the mid-'70s, before
there were any sort of evacuation plans. Imagine spending a
whole night not knowing if you'll be alive in the morning and
listening helplessly to the screams of hundreds of doomed
neighbors and relatives.
It was a good weekend for recorded sound. I heard one of my all-
time faves twice: Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead by the 5th Estate.
At first I thought the radio station was finally getting with it,
but then it dawned that they were only pulling it out for its
holiday tie-in. I also heard a sublime muzak version of Dear
Prudence in the grocery store which paralyzed me for its
duration.
I did some volunteer "work" at the local elementary school on
Thursday morning. Thought I would be reading to some 1st-graders
who need help, but wound up assisting a math teacher in a 2nd-
grade class, among other things. I watched a fireman give a talk
to a bunch of kids and got pulled up to model some fireman gear.
The kids seem to get a kick out of seeing a new face.
At the last minute, went down to Georgetown last night
[Halloween]. I used my "geetar-playing bandito" costume for a
second time there. I claim that it was the number one fave
costume there, excluding 2 obscene ones. The smiles, laughs and
comments were continuous. As I was heading back to my car, one
person got all excited because she remembered it from "10 years
ago". She yelled "You're back!" Actually, I think it was just 3
years ago.
Regarding one of the obscene ones, I think I got an idea of what
Kenneth Starr's cigar hoopla was all about. Man, it's so hard to
be a hermit in this world.
Getting out of my car this morning, I heard a car engine revving
and barely had time to think, "Now why would somebody be driving
that fast down these little side streets?" before hearing a big
crash. I turned to see a car imbedded in the corner of the house
I was parked next to. I was the first on the scene, and
fortunately there was no blood or external signs of injury. The
elderly woman driver seemed dazed, but my guess is that was the
extent of it. She had just sideswiped the car of someone who was
turning into the church's drive. I don't know whether that
caused her to lose control or whether she was already out of
control at that point. If she had lost a little less control, it
would've been me.
ME: terz strings
When your friend finds a set, I sure hope your buddy is as
pleased with them as I am. Maybe it's all in my head, but they
sound so right for all the old stuff, and completely wrong for
new stuff.
And thanks again for all you've done to get my tab in the hands
of people who might not have found the ascii version acceptable.
For what it's worth (not much to people with state-of-the-art
gear!) I just made a big improvement to the appearance of my own
ascii tab. Instead of sending it straight to the printer, I run
it through a simple BASIC program that substitutes standard
graphic characters for the - and the | . This gives solid 16th
note beams, solid stems and solid bar lines. I'm thrilled! It
looks *real* good now. Now my only dissatisfaction with ascii
tab is the crummy arrowheads (which are easy to redo by hand, but
you'd rather not), 32nd-note beams still need a touch-up, and the
fact that I can't stretch or compress it to fill out pages
exactly. Even that last issue isn't really a concern as long as
the piece fits on 3 pages - the max I can set up and read from on
a music stand. I've put the program on the web page below, even
though I can't imagine a single person actually trying to use it,
haha.
THEE: Re: terz and tab
Sound like you are doing some good stuff with your Tab program.
Been thinking. Since the Wayne Cripps "TAB" format is so simple,
it would be very easy for you to convert them back to your own
format. There is some good stuff on the dartmouth pages, and I
have Luys Milan's Fantasias 1-16 if you want them.
THEE: Subject: Quiet times
That's pretty amazing about the car crash. I'm always shaken up
when I see them, and I've never seen one anything like that. The
other week, I saw one right in front of me. It was little more
than a fender-bender but even though I saw the two cars before
they collided, it was such a shock that I felt like I couldn't
have made a satisfactory witness.
Good job on going down to Georgetown. We went to the beach for
the weekend and had a quiet time of it. We carved pumpkins for
the first time in forever. Fun! (We undercooked the seeds,
though.)
I haven't seen "The New York Times." You say there's a [...]
reference? I need it!
ME: separate the sheeps and the goats
Where is this "New York" hamlet of which you speak? I SAID THE
*TIMES* DAG NAB IT. Sheesh. [ie washington times]
If you can't get your hands on a copy, I'll go back to the
library in a while with a razor blade. Hey, if I don't, somebody
else will.
My Honduran friend has word that her family is safe. I heard on
the radio tonight something like a few thousand fatalities in
Guatemala and Honduras.
Not much else to report on today. Played a bit of football with
the neighbor kids. Made a really cool folding paper puzzle;
remind me to show it to you.
ME: get a job
You can stop sweating over those missing blank lines in my HTML
file. I uploaded it a 3rd time and everything is A-ok now.
Don't ask me how this happened, but I heard an ad on WHFS today.
That's bizarre enough in itself, but it was Century Computing
looking for help. There's a $3000 signing bonus.
My tablature is making a worldwide stir.
P.S.
The moon has a place of the hand in the market. Molly is to the singer
in a tape.
The moon indicates to that Molly " girl, that demonstrates the
neighbor to its face "
and called from Molly this, while it controls the shapes for the hand:
"of the duration if you gave of it, it disappears with the bra
of the inner part of the will,
of, while the duration goes on"
THEE: Congressionally speaking
Glad your friend's family is safe. The magnitude of the tragedy
was finally brought home to me this evening when I taught my ESL
class. Some of the South American students were clearly shaken
up.
ME: washington bullets
Had a good time at LC yesterday. I learned of their recent
acquisition of Lord Soultan's guitar music collection. Who's
Lord Soultan, you might well arsk. I don't know, but in his
collection is a piece dedicated to Lord Soultan by J.A. Nueske.
I'm guessing that would be from around 1805. If Soultan had a
guitar hobby back then, he's cool enough for me. I'll have
to check his collection out.
Got caught in the crazy traffic yesterday. Never 'spected I
would hear the cause of it all, but I saw the Post at school
today. Now I don't feel so bad. As long as there's an
explanation...
Just stuck barcode stickers on library books at school today.
They're gearing up for the computer age. Didn't get to work with
kids, but followed along on an IQ test a group was taking in the
library while I worked there. It was for 1st graders, and some
of the questions were *tough*. Of course, that's the point - to
identify the gifted ones.
What makes Hself cry about the hurricane is, "It's the *poor*
people who die." She used to go to revolutionary-type meetings
as a student and almost went to join the Sandinistas.
Those miserable geoguides are paying off. My statistics for the
last 2 weeks were 524 hits, up from 3 two rounds ago.
THEE: tab printout
As you will see from your website guestbook, I paid a
visit this evening. Very enjoyable site, I must say.
Concerning your tab printing program in BASIC: My computer has a
QuickBASIC interpreter which required only a minor change (" " to
< >) for the BASIC PRTTAB to run; however, the output is not good.
Each line wants to be wider than the page and "folds" itself
over so that the printing is doubled up at the left end of each
line. Vertical spacing is rather loose, also. My limited
knowledge of QBASIC does not run to page/print configurations.
Have you any ideas on what I need to alter to debug the printing?
I'm running win95 (I'm inclined to add "unfortunately") and a
Canon BJC-240 printer, if that makes any difference.
BTW, your publication of all those Mudarra pieces (and any
others) surely took some serious dedication! Thanks very much
for sharing your talents and zeal with the rest of the music
world!
[]
( )
PS--What is the purpose of the function keys at the start of your
program? (KEY 5, 6, 10)
THEE: Up- (and down-) dates
Well, you'll never believe this but we skipped the concert
last night. She was overworked and I was over tired (I'm
fighting some sort of persistent low-level fatigue). I feel
terrible about just throwing money away but it might have been
better than going and having a not-good time.
Sorry you got caught in the Wednesday traffic jam. This
morning's "Post" has a story on how great the police negotiating
team was. What? They shot the guy with some sort of special
gun, which caused the guy to plunge into the river, which was
what he was threatening to do in the first place! Incidentally,
on WETA's "Newshour" that night, one of the special guests
arrived late because of the traffic.
Several e-mails ago, you mentioned that the current "Beatlefan"
has something of interest to fans of the Starr Report in its
first few pages. I didn't see anything. Well, there was a photo
of a nekid gal. Was that what you meant? Tell me, in the late
'90s, when you put a photo of a naked on your album cover do you
really expect any sort of positive response?
ME: tab printout
Thanks for the kind words about my website. The Mudarra tab and
the rest admittedly took a lot of time and effort, but was really
done initially for my own enjoyment. I had written a program to
write tablature in a graphic mode, and then used that as a basis
for a program to write ascii tab, which could then be put up on
the web. It's funny, this ambiguity between work and play. I
mean, when you think about it, consider how much time, effort and
money it takes to go skiing, or to do whatever your hobby is.
I wish I had a quick, surefire answer to your print problem. On
my printer, I just press some buttons on the front to get 96-
character lines. I suppose that for modern printers that has to
be done with a software command to the printer. This is the
longest of longshots, but try adding this line to the basic
program after the OPEN "LPT1:" statement:
72 PRINT #2,CHR$(27)+"M";
which is the command to set an Epson-like printer to elite pitch
(12cpi).
The first problem - the missing < > - is due to web browsers
interpreting angle brackets as HTML commands. Why it has to do
that in the "preformatted" sections, I don't know. The < >
should be there in the unrendered HTML.
I set up those function keys like that so, if I change the
program while in BASIC, I just punch function keys 4, 5 and 6 to
save the changes to disk. I set function key 10 to "SYSTEM" in
all of my basic programs so I just punch F10 to exit BASIC.
ME: lyre-, harp- and cigar-box-guitars
I think it's safe to say there has been a very rare occurrence of
crossed wires in your memory banks. My Kenneth Starr mention was
in regards to Halloween at Georgetown. The Beatlefan joke went
something like, "Did you get the latest Beatlefan? No wonder
Belmo is going out of business. Mighty tough competition..."
Before I forget to mention, I heard a muzak Free As A Bird in the
grocery store a couple of weeks ago. It was great, as how could
it not be? By the way, the coda was not included.
You really don't need this correction, but Lord Soultan in the
last message is really Lord Saltoum. I knew something was amiss
as I was composing the message.
Had a great time at the Classical Mandolin Society convention
this weekend. I didn't partake of the whole thing, but went to
one concert and crashed a few other events. Stayed up till 2:00
both Friday and Saturday nights, playing my fool head off.
Had a behind the scenes look at the Smithsonian plucked-string
musical instrument collection Monday morning. I hoisted in my
bare hands every guitar and guitar-like-object they had. The
oldest only go back to the mid-1700s. In a few cases, I knew
more than the cataloger did.
I put a BASIC program on one of my web pages. I clearly stated
that I can't answer questions about it - you're on your own. Got
an email today asking why it doesn't work just right on some
modern printer. Still, it was a kind note and I wrote back with
the best advice I could muster.
ME: Elfs...
I have done great work in doping out the N to N+1 elfs problem.
THEE: The president is a lyre, but why harp on it
Welcome to Veterans' Day! I really should stop goofing and get
ready for my doctor's appointment.
Speaking of "Belmo," I got a copy a couple days ago. You'll be
thrilled to know that he does have a bigger photo of the
Fireman's new record cover. I ask again, what's the point?
Maybe our conversation went like this:
Me: Love that Starr Report--it's superb pornography!
You: You really don't have to go further than the latest
"Beatlefan."
THEE: I had a great time at the lute seminar, though I don't know
that the lessons I got will help! You might reconsider the
baroque lute house recital (repertoire=Weiss) on Friday night--
hardly anyone has shown interest so it should be quite an
intimate setting.
THEE: Re: trivia question
>> Donald Sauter writes:
>About the last trivia question: S. L. Weiss was the
>certainly best answer, but Allesandro Scarlatti was also
>valid. Ponce's Suite Antigua, written in Paris in 1931,
>was attributed to Allesandro Scarlatti. Segovia recorded
>2 of the 5 movements, Preambulo and Gavota. A fascinating
>article is "Ponce's Baroque Pastiches for Guitar", by
>Peter Kun Frary (Soundboard XIV/3, Fall 1987, p159.)
thanks for added info! you should stop by our bulletin board
when you have something like this to add, and share it with
everyone!
ME: Thanks for the baroque lute invitation. It sounds like an
excuse, but my baroque lute activity is on hold till I cobble
together my own baroque lute and start playing from tablature.
Glad you had a good time with the lute seminar. At the mandolin
convention I could have played all night Fri and Sat. Doug
Back's talk/demo on Foden's Big Trio was as good as such things
get (great!) Had a disappointment after the Smithsonian treat on
Monday - missed connections with a guitar buddy by minutes.
Should have called from the museum.
ME: Eleven elephants exiting an elevator
Thanks for the stupendous visit last night. Covered lots of fun
and interesting territory. (Can't get Papo Roman outa my head.)
Spent another half-day-plus at the elementary school today. Very
enjoyable and satisfying. Of course, I don't have to discipline
anybody (not that anybody needed it) or give grades. Obviously,
there's a lot that would be different "if I were in charge", but
I have no problem working within the system. I even get called
"Mr." Haven't they read my web page??? It's funny, I'll do
anything to change the world, but I won't force my ideas on the
local elementary school.
I think I'm the only one on the 'net tonight - never seen things
fly so fast!
I too am surprised about your upcoming 3 Belmos. You (I think)
had me believing it was folding very shortly - and that was a
while back.
THEE: Subject: Mr. S
You turned me on to that citrus beverage and your brownies were
awesome. Early in the evening, I could smell something good but
the polite-guest side of me didn't say anything, though I wanted
to. Before the wait got unbearable, you popped them out.
The low point of the evening, of course, was the Smashing
Pumpkins CD. Yesterday and today I listened to the remaining six
tracks. The last track was almost bearable but I took pleasure
this morning in noting in my official purchase log--"I decline to
catalog this CD--Nov. 13, 1998." That means I won't index songs
or anything. It's the equivalent of banishment. Phooie on them!
I'm currently reading the "Beatlefan" article on eight-tracks.
You know what? I still don't really understand how they work!
THEE: BCGS Trivia Contest
Thanks for entering the last BCGS trivia contest. John Saldivar
was the winner this time with his answer of "Tonadilla on the
name of SEGOVIA by Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco".
There's a new trivia question on the website now. Come and give
it a try!
--
#+# Baltimore Classical Guitar Society
# http://www.bcgs.org
# webmaster@bcgs.org
_#_ 410-247-5320
( # )
/ O \
( === )
'---'
ME: Subject: junerik subjekt
Chuckled at the Euro-english (what I would call world-english)
article, but have a need to point out that, just because someone
can make fun of something is no evidence of its lack of value. I
mean, I can sing Good Vibrations really stupid . . .
Which reminds me, I heard a gorgeous muzak Julia in the grocery
store tonight. Definitely have to get me job there (if Muzak
continues to refuse to issue LPs.)
Also bought my 2nd bottle of Citra. It was good, eh? I'm not
even a chocolate lover by any stretch, but brownies *are* a
miracle food, no? Cheap, tasty and foolproof. Just remember to
go "cake-like" and dump in the raisins. You got Duncan Hines,
but off-brand Richfood is better.
Took a look at the front page of the Post. Incredibly dumb claim
in the Texas tower shooting anniversary celebration article. I
tried to memorize it and failed, but went something like, "a
shock at the time, but such horror is mind-numbingly ordinary
nowadays." Grrrr...
I don't know which aspect of 8-tracks you don't understand, but I
will go to my grave (or sent there) wondering about the paradox
of the tape outlay/take-up. There's one reel and the tape is
pulled out from the inner part and wraps up around the outer
part. Thus, in one rotation, much more tape is taken up than
pulled out(???)
Just because the Smashing P record was not pleasant listening
doesn't mean the experience itself was a bad one. There is value
in failed experiments. Besides the opportunity for vibrant
conversation, it served to corroborate my notion that, after the
'60s you have to be nuts to buy whole albums. The non-airplay
tracks are guaranteed to be filler - if they can be glorified to
that extent, even. (Oh yeah, it might have sounded ok on a
decent stereo.)
I'm getting near the end of putting geoguides on all my pages.
THEE: Re: junerik subjekt
Glad you enjoyed Euro-English. Of course, it was missing the
punchline I expected. That is, it was turning into German. That
might have taken more thought and knowledge of German to pull
off.
I just bought software over the web--a photo manipulation
program--and I'm having trouble installing it. Do you know how
frustrating that is?
My current listen is Stereolab's CD "Refried Ectoplasm." It's
another 13-track CD that lasts 62 minutes, just like the Smashing
Pumpkins' CD. It's better than "Siamese Dream" but I was biased
going in because of its inflated length.
ME: Our trio played for a Unitarian church service today. We did
4 little sets. It went quite well and we were very much
appreciated. You could tell it was sincere.
Went to a concert today at the National Academy of Science. The
theme was the 100 year anniversary of the tape recorder. I didn't
know that either.
I had reason to play one of the cuts off the Chet Atkins album
you just gave me long-distance to Detroit. Bet you didn't know
my friend Hself has a guitar named Chet. (Her main classical is
Linus.)
A photo-manipulation program, huh? Why do you want to go around
changing history? I thought that was for Stalin's henchmen. I
guess we do need to get the rest of Ringo's ghost out of that
Beeb CD photo, eh? Anyhow, sorry about all the hair-pulling
associated with modern hi-tech.
Is Stereolab the group that did "Jude On A Reggae Trip"?
THEE: Subject: Taping
One hundredth anniversary of the tape recorder? Go on! Do tell.
The photo-manipulation program taint nothin'. You can just
resize photos and convert them to bitmaps (for desktop
wallpaper).
I was reading the February 1958 ish yesterday. There was a
series of articles about the Beats. One of the articles
described a New York party. Among the guests described was an
attractive Asian woman who had graduated from Sarah Lawrence. I
wondered. Then I read a little more closely and found that the
Asian woman was not the woman who went to Sarah Lawrence. Dang!
But the reading made me contemplate backlogs. Here's my current
backlog rundown:
Video--six to nine months.
Music--a little under three years.
Books--three to 15 years.
Magazines--33 years.
ME: corbetta duets
About the Corbetta duets: I should have said, "I'll buy them if
you'll promise to play all of them with me."
Is it too late to add that stipulation?
ME: wire recording backlog: 100 years
From one of the most interesting sets of program notes I've
seen:
"The first patent for magnetic sound recording was issued in 1898
to Vladimar Poulsen, a Danish engineer, whose work evolved from
his knowledge of the telephone. Seeking a way to save telephone
messages [yikes, the dreaded answering machine!!!] he discovered
that wave patterns could be transferred to metal or paper by the
magnetizing energy of electricity. His first recorder used wire
as the recording medium and was called the telegraphone."
Ok, I shouldn't've said "tape" recorder. The concert celebrated
"The 100th Anniversary of the Magnetic Sound Recording."
Here's more: "John Lomax strapped an Edison recording machine
onto his saddle and travelled west recording Western folksongs on
cattle drives, in saloons, and everywhere else. "Home On The
Range" was sung to him by a saloon keeper in San Antonio and was
later transcribed from the recording and first published in
1910."
Wow.
I'm half way through Brenda's latest. First impression is that
it's not quite up to Brenda Lee snuff.
I reread the following a few times without success.
Among the guests described was an attractive Asian woman who had
graduated from Sarah Lawrence. I wondered. Then I read a little more
closely and found that the Asian woman was not the woman who went to
Sarah Lawrence. Dang!
So the Asian woman graduated from, but did not go to, Sarah
Lawrence? Anyhow, we know Yoko didn't graduate. College is way
too square for such a person.
Do you know of a current rap song with a baby crying?
THEE: Re: corbetta duets
Sure, we can go through them.
THEE: 100 years later
Pretty cool about the wire recording device. I recall reading
an article about a wire recorder in a "Life" mag from World War
Two but by then the concept was apparently already almost half a
century old. I wonder if I still have that issue. What did a
1910 recording of "Home on the Range" sound like? I wonder.
In honor of the 100th anniversary, I guess, I understand that
the House Judiciary Committee will release sound excerpts from
the actual Lewinsky-Tripp phone conversations today. I'm not too
psyched.
Sorry if my description of the magazine article seemed
garbled. I was trying to say too much too quickly. To clarify,
the article seemed to mention an Asian woman who graduated from
Sarah Lawrence but it was actually talking about two people, one
was an Asian woman and one graduated from Sarah Lawrence. I
might not even have tried to mention it had I known that Yoko
didn't actually graduate, but I didn't know that.
I watched the first 15 minutes of the "George Martin--In My
Life" documentary last night. Among the highlights (?) so far--
my first experience at hearing George Martin sing! "He can't
sing," said Hself.
THEE: Can you give me an idea about how long Paco will perform on
Friday night. The reason I am asking is that I live a good
distance away. To experience but one selection, of course, would
be a treat.
ME: Thanks for chatting with me the other night about Scrabble.
Two things have come to mind since.
First, I drew a blank trying to remember what other games I
devoted web pages to. Of course! It was good, ol' Monopoly, and
(relative newcomer) Family Feud. I invite you to take a look at
those pages. You might find something usable for your story.
The second concerns Pong, which came up in our talk. It tickles
my funny bone that, when Pong came out, there were serious
discussions about whether or not it would outlast chess. 25
years later we're asking the same thing about its descendants.
Theoretically, what I commit to "print" should be more valuable
and trustworthy than what I spout off the top of my head.
Thanks again. Looking forward to the article.
ME: Subject: you're good at finding freeware, right?
If you ever have a spare moment and wanted to do a pal a favor,
could you track down a freeware "music score editing" program on
the web, something pre-windows? This means something that will
produce crummy-looking, but useful, music on a dot-matrix
printer. It's not for me, if that'll help inspire you to kick
out the jams.
Our guitar trio played last Sunday at a Unitarian Church in the
Silver Spring area. It went very well and we were greatly
appreciated - or else they were the best pack of liars ever.
Don't know if I ever mentioned a recital we helped out with at
the Frederick Douglass Home. That was very nice, too.
Was interviewed last night by a writer for the Journal newspapers
about Scrabble. He's doing an article on "classic board games
vs. hi-tech computer/video games."
ME: Subject: Paco program
I suspect Paco's program will be in the 45-minute range, maybe an
hour if there's an intermission.
This is just an educated guess on my part. He played for us
several years ago and I seem to remember that was what I would
consider a "short recital" - not a full-blown concert.
I hope that's enough to entice you on out. Besides, you can
stick around talking guitar - or playing - till late. Also, we
have an open-stage session before the main performer, so shoot
for 7:30 or 7:45 - with or without your guitar.
ME: Subject: pic cher yer self in a boat on uh ri ver
I thought the Bournemouth Beatle tape story was pretty exciting.
Great to know the discoveries just keep coming. Were we bugged
by the "25 year" calculation?
The Sarah Lawrence mention was well worth it, in any case. Hey,
I'm still not convinced there *isn't* a Yoko connection there,
somewhere.
Speaking of George Martin's singing, I'm still miffed that he
told the whole world in the Making Of Sgt Pepper that John's
melody to LSITKWD [Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds] was all one
note(!!!)
THEE: Subject: Yoko
That Bournemouth story was a tad irritating, yes. It's always a
bad sign when the first word of a story is inaccurate. Can we
really describe a recording from June 1963 as a first concert?
And, yes, have you checked Lewisohn yet to see if they played
Bournemouth in June 1963? I didn't have a chance last night.
The description of the New York beat party made me think that if
Yoko wasn't at that one, she must have been at ones like it. The
whole series of articles on the Beats was fun because, of course,
they're painted as harbingers of the doom of mankind. They're so
different! History shows that humanity didn't collapse then
because of Beats.
Now I'm going to check on-line to see if anyone's issued a 22-CD
box set of the Lewinsky-Tripp phone conversations.
ME: More??? You want some more? Never before has a boy...
The Journal wants to snap my photo tomorrow. Maybe this'll net
me some new scrabble enthusiasts, but I'm not holding my breath.
Spent a very productive and fun day at the Library of Congress.
Found out that the new copy machines *do* have the zoom function
enabled. (Yay!) Found out the 10 cent ledger-size copies will
only last until they get the proper cables to charge 20 cents.
(Boo.)
All the success today was tempered somewhat by the mean
librarians. It's starting to get me down. There's nobody there
who is a better-behaved, more knowledgable and considerate user.
I can't figure it out. I haven't made a study of it, but I don't
notice them picking on anybody else. Do I still look like a
hippy or something?
This on top of mechanic-induced-but-denied car problems.
Still, doing ok. Looking forward to "working" with the kids
tomorrow.
Passed on Last Waltz tonight. Maybe next time.
THEE: Subject: Libes
And here I was, all set to embark on a day of research at the L
of C! I got a copy of "A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle,"
through interlibrary loan. Now I have to dig out the original
material at the Library of Congress. I'll need help from
librarians, though.
Any word on the record convention this Sunday? If it's
impractical to go this time, that's fine.
PS. Today my college roommate asked me in email about the Isle
of Wight. He'd read about the new video release of the Who "Live
at the Isle of Wight." I told him what little I knew, then tried
to quote Harry Georgeson's--"John's been to the Isle of Wight and
why haven't I?"
ME: How To Make A Mud Pie
Along the lines of GH's Isle of Wight question: In a crazier than
normal mood today, even I hauled out a (massacred) Beatle quote.
The photographer apologized for how much trouble she was putting
me through (none, actually), and I had to say, "Shooting is hard
work", and described some of the follow-up LIB dialog. I said
Paul came back with, "Especially for the rabbits." In fact, John
said, "Shooting is exercise", and Paul came back with "Especially
for the birds." In spite of all my inaccuracies, it was worth a
few chuckles. BTW, is this the first recorded instance of Paul's
pro-animal stance?
I have a dum-dum copyright question. What can you do with a
recently published edition of a public domain work? I suppose I
know the answer, but this distinction between something (words or
musical sounds, for example) and its recorded impression (bits of
black ink on a page, for instance.) is confusing to millions of
others, too.
Sorry about the hasty review of Brenda Lee's latest. I've been
playing it over and over, to my great pleasure. Part of me knows
that my first, negative impression of a piece of music frequently
changes, but how does one simultaneously not like something, and
suspect it might be pretty good on future listens?
On the new books cart at LC yesterday, I found a book called
"Rock Stars Do The Dumbest Things". Yes, there were chapters for
Harrison, Lennon, McCartney and Starr. But wait! That's not P.
McCartney, but L! Copyright is 1998. Didn't have time to look
at it.
Had a fun time at school today. Only read with 2 kids. Helped
fill out certificates of good behavior for an upcoming awards
ceremony. Lots of interesting people were passing through the
library because of Career Day. For instance there was a
Washington Post sportswriter, a channel 7 news person, the pastor
of the nearby church, and a naturalist with snakes and skinks,
etc.
THEE: Master of disguise
I'm not familiar with the "especially for the rabbits" quote.
Where's it from? (Am I betraying myself as an imposter?)
PBS aired a very good installment of its "American Experience"
series this week. It was called "America 1900." I dubbed a very
entertaining description of the phonograph for you.
I also watched a little more of "George Martin--In My Life" and
dubbed that. Is John Williams a master guitarist AND a master of
disguise? He looked very different from the two LP photos you
have that I remember. George Martin explained how hard it was to
score and record an orchestral backing to classical guitar. I
guess no one suggested, "Hey, George, don't!" Just so you
shouldn't die of suspense, Williams performed "HCtS." [Here
Comes The Sun]
THEE: I won't be able to make tonight's WGS meeting. I wasn't
able to really prepare the Morricone much (and am not too
interested in the flamenco guitarist) so the excuse is timely!
Perhaps we could prepare the Irish tunes for the December
meeting?
I felt pretty good about the church performance--thought it was
one of our better ones?
THEE: Subject: Evolution FAQ
>Gould writes something I can't make sense of (p258), even after
reading it over and over. Maybe someone can help. "Evolution lies
exposed in the imperfections that record a history of descent.
Why should a rat run, a bat fly, a porpoise swim, and I type this
essay with structures built of the same bones unless we inherited
them from a common ancestor? An engineer, starting from scratch,
could design better limbs in each case."
>What gives? Those animals do extremely well at those activities
with the bones they have. And how could anyone say they have the
same bones???
Because they do have the same bones, the same basic bone
structures, modified over time, and you can see the course of the
modification in the fossil record.
>And what engineer has ever started from scratch on anything? If
this is supposed to serve as an argument for evolution over
"something else", somebody clue me in.
So what is the "something else" you are referring to? What is
your alternative "Lazy Engineer" theory and what is the evidence
for it?
THEE: Subject: wine and water
It seems to me that the confusion is in the phrasing of the
question. The question is not, "is there more water in the wine
BUCKET ..." but, simply, "is there more water in the wine ..."
We must therefore consider them in total, not as separate
mixtures in separate vessels.
Since they are mixtures, the amount of water in wine and vice-
versa will always be the same.
Is this correct?
THEE: Subject: dream problem
I've often experienced the same puzzlement on examining some of
my dreams - the certainty that I could not have come up with the
story myself. The element of surprise, total surprise;
unexpected, clever twists and turns. If I could come up with such
plots, I would be a writer.
The only conclusion I can reach is that our dreams are
susceptible to an outside influence, an intelligence that throws
spanners in the works in such a way that, upon reflection, we
cannot attribute these elements to ourselves. I believe it is the
same intelligence whom Denton is grappling with in "Nature's
Destiny" ...
ME: And you should see them fly, just horrible...
Transcript Poem no. 3
Why Rabbits Don't Fly
John: Shooting is exercise.
Paul: Oh yes, especially for the birds.
I always thought this was a funny Beatle conversation. It's from
the LIB [let it be] album booklet and can be heard on side 6B of
the GB [get back] Journals. Paul describes the inhumane way
pheasants, which otherwise only ever walk, are beat out of the
bush, and then shot. (That's not what's funny.)
John: Never fly if they are beating the bush around you; that is
why rabbits survive. You see, they refuse to fly.
Paul: This is a documentary of how The Beatles work.
Went down to LC again Friday mostly for my own recreation. Want
to take advantage of their 10 cent copies. Friday night went to
see an orchestra with violinist friend Hself in it. This was
in lieu of a guitar society meeting - the first I've missed while
in town. Saturday night I saw my mandolin friend play with the
Baltimore mandolin orchestra at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
Lab. Very nice concert. Sunday baked a cake, and headed up to
Baltimore; my father's birthday. This morning discovered my rear
license plate missing. Spent an afternoon getting a replacement
set. NZC 686 is no more. How does FWW 115 sound? Should we
rename W's "way" or "wee"?
At the mandolin concert, Hself produced the Sunday Journal article
with my photo. The photos are very good; my quotes fall far
short of what my written responses would have been. Beans on
interviews.
I think I forgot to mention I got 717 web hits for the last
accounting period (2 weeks).
So Jessye Norman is our newest favorite American group?
THEE: Subject: All this is that
My new doggie schedule involves getting up super early Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Today I slept almost the entire
bus ride to work because of my early-morning jog 'n' fetch.
I was reading the George Martin interview in the latest
"NafeltaeB"...no, that's wrong! "Beatlefan," and he was talking
about what a massacre Dave Dexter et al did the U.S. LPs.
Suddently I realized that we have a new topic of research! What
exactly did Dave Dexter do? I can only think of "IGY" [i'll get
you] (I think that's the one, you know, the b-side of "FMtY"
[from me to you]). Anyway, it would be interesting to listen to
some egregious examples of U.S. tampering. I'd even be willing
to chart the differences in "IOS." [i'm only sleeping]
We did something last night we haven't done in a long time, we
watched an episode of "The Simpsons." You know what? It was one
of the best ever. Isn't that amazing, after all these years?
The jokes flew fast and furious. At a health-food store, called
Eatie Gourmet, they rampage through the ice cream flavors,
including Xavier Nugat and Sherbert Hoover. Genius!
THEE: If we do meet Saturday, and it's at my house, we could
possibly work on getting a recording of the Irish trio. I think
we ought to do this trio for the December meeting--due to its
folky nature, it seems to fit in well with the holiday season.
Don seems to also want to 'finish' the Chobanian (by which I
suppose he means either perform the last 2 or get a good
recording).
THEE: Subject: Mudarra Tablatures
I just "discovered" your TAB pages -- what a wonderful find.
Thank you EVER so much for taking the time to intabulate all
these works!
Some information on printing TAB for Mac users who may be using
Claris Word (standard Apple software)
Set printer as follows:
Font = Courier 9
All margins = 0.75"
It took me some monkeying around to discover this; if you'd like
to share, great -- and if you think others should work for their
music, then that makes some sense as well!
THEE: Subject: UFOs
Do you believe in aliens visiting Earth? Intelligent life other
than on Earth? It was not clear from your descriptions if you
are or not.
Contact Donald Sauter: send an email; view guestbook; sign guestbook.
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Helpful keywords not in the main text: Hself = generic name, male or female (Himself, Herself). CG = classical guitar; DS = me; LC = LOC = library of congress.
Parents, if you're considering tutoring or supplemental education for your child, you may be interested in my observations on Kumon.