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And that's why I am not a cat person.
Fun trivia: The French horn is from England. The English horn is a reed instrument from Poland/Germany. The Glass Harmonica (or "Armonica") is a series of concentrically arranged glass bowls on a rotating spindle, and the player rubs the edges of the bowls with wet fingers. The hand pan is sometimes called a hang drum, but it's not a drum; it's an idiophone.
Wikipedia says: "An idiophone is a musical instrument that creates sound from the solid material of the instrument itself vibrating, such as a triangle, bell, or xylophone. It does not use strings, air, or stretched animal skin membranes."
I'd love to have a 5-foot baby grand piano. But I don't have room for that and I do have about 120 different pianos in all of my synths, recording VSTs, and about a dozen other places.
...resurfacing for a moment given the discussion on music; instruments
Played on a B3 with the Leslie rotating speaker at a chapel in north central Wisconsin when I was in college. Today these organs are worth a fortune if they are in decent condition.
The Yamaha P2F was a mainstay in the college's practise rooms
Also performed on numerous pianos including Steinway Model D (the full 9' concert grand) the Kawai EX, and Bösendorfer 290 Imperial (which has 97 keys ending in 32' C the lowest note vibrating at 16.35 hz).
If I ever could afford a digital piano it would be one of these:
This is a Nord Grand made in Norway which sounds exactly like Steinway D and uses the same keyboard action as the Kawai EX 9.1' concert grand, Price with wood stand, bench, monitors, and pedals, about 8,100 USD. Yeah more expensive than a used upright but nowhere near as heavy and I can always resort to Bluetooth headphones to not disturb the neighbouring apartments.
OK, fading back into the orchestra pit.
COMPLAINT: Steamworks onboarding process is a PITA! Just completed all the tax information and now I have to wait 2-7 business days for it to be verified. Grrrrrrr!
Complaint: At 02:35am gunfire twice and it sounded like two car windows got shot out either in the parking lot behind the buildings blocking my east view or on the street or in the parking lot at the pub. My heart is racing and both cats are still on high alert.
And Denver want to extend the hours bars can stay open to from 2 to 4 am!? Yeah, let's make it even more dangerous for early workers to go to work.
On this subject: Coincidentally, yesterday afternoon, I heard eight consecutive loud shots from "up the hill" outside my kitchen window. I went out on the porch to see where exactly the sound was coming from and there was another round of five or six. Then I noticed a police car parked at the town park and the officer was walking across the road but paid no attention to the shots, and was just here on another matter and went in to a house on the street and left a few minutes later. I think the shots were someone up in the woods test firing their rifle or using up old ammunition, getting ready for hunting season in a few weeks. This happens every year either behind me up-the-hill, or across the street, down-in-the-swamp.
On Big Pianos: Back in the 90s I was in Denver once and stayed at a chain hotel (Marriott, I think) across the street from the Brown Palace Hotel (fancy old place) but was connected to the Brown Palace via a street overpass on about the 3rd floor. I went down the hallway from my room, walked over the street into the Brown Palace, found the main stairway down and there at the middle landing was a lady playing a full sized concert harp. Cool!
Then I spied the 9-foot Baldwin piano on the main floor in the grand lobby. When the lady was done with her performance. I got brave and went to the piano and played a bit of my best, just to be able to say "been there, done that". And as usual during that period of my life, I was dressed in full leather.
One time, again about 30 years ago, during autumn, in Virginia outside of Washington, DC there was a piano store that had moved several of their upright pianos outside into the parking lot (I guess it was a sale of some sort), the weather had quickly turned cold, and it had started gently snowing, but I sat down and played for about 15 minutes and when I ran out of material I looked around and had gathered a crowd around me. Cool!
I hope the pianos got moved back inside quickly. Again I was dressed in full leather, playing piano, in the snow.
Delicious memories.
Speaking of bucket list goals: One of my cousins was up from Florida visiting me in the Washington DC area. She is a choral singer and has been round the world to various concerts with her group. I took her on a drive around the DC/Virginia area and stopped at Wolf Trap in the middle of the afternoon. The place was open for wandering but no performance was underway. When we wandered into the stage area she ran to the stage, climbed the stairs and stood on the stage for a while, then came back down to me and said, "There, now I can truthfully say I've been on stage at Wolf Trap".
Speaking of Wolf Trap: I attended a performance there once. Opera "Mlada" by Rimsky-Korsakov. Performed by the Bolshoi Theater Company. Meh, interesting, but I would rather have gone to their other presentation of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin". I'm not really an opera fan, so thank god for sur-titles.
The one song in Mlada that is memorable is "The Entry of the Nobles" (or Procession of the Nobles). Wow all sorts of nostalgic memories being dug up. The link to the entry of the Nobles is to the Cincinatti Pops version, and my ex. Max, confessed to me that he once dated Erich Kunzel. Admitting that at the time he didn't know who he was, but that he had a big apartment in Cincinatti and a big piano. If I ever write my book, there will be several chapters on the tales that Max told me of his experiences among the rich & famous.
My Brother is home, we are both doing well.
@SilverGirl That would be lovely. I've been looking at Harpsicles by Rees for years.
OTOH, dogs can actually unalive you, so there's that. I used to have marine fish (see screen name), but they were just too much work. But I do like a good fish tank. Fish are pretty safe unless you're going for the bitey kind.
I wish I had room for a decent keyboard and the hand coordination to play piano. I have long fingers so you'd think it would be comparatively easy for me to learn, but I found out in college that my hands cramp up when I try to play. Not fun. So basically I suck at piano. I do have a couple of guitars, but alas, I suck at that, too. lol. Maybe I should re-take up woodwinds.
I don't live where neighborhood gunfire happens. That must be unnerving. Good luck to those of you who live with it.
Non-complaint: Trip down memory lane: I'm back from the BBQ at the town picnic. Had a great time despite the $45 for three dinners, but it goes to the firemen. Friend then drove us around the back roads of the county to a roadside veggie stand where I bought three ears of corn, just as it was coming in from the field as we arrived. We continued on deeper into Amish country near Cherry Creek and drove past a big Amish barn that had apparently burned last night. A group of Amish men were picking through the still smouldering ashes. We ended up at a little Amish shop that sold candies. I'd already gotten two pieces of pie from the town picnic and didn't need any more sugar in my diet, but I did buy a small bag of her sugar-free chocolate/nut candies. Actually pretty good. We continued on driving down little barely paved roads and finally ended up an on unpaved path that lead past an old fishing camp on the Conewango Creek. I remembered the camp from my childhood in the mid-50s when my father used to visit his friend's cabin there. I remember being out on the small creek in a boat with my dad and his friend while they fished for muskellunge , some of the most miserable times of my young life. I never liked fishing, the fish were big and scary with huge teeth, and the mosquitos back then were horrendous. But all in all, today was a good day.
You have to admire the Amish and how they have managed to avoid technology. It must be a peaceful, if hard working life.
That's actually the one Teen Kiddo went with! The folk at Rees have been super awesome to work with. Very prompt in answering questions and such. 10/10 highly recommend.
Complaint: The car's low tire pressure sensor went off and my son can't get the caps off the valves to fill the tires. Here comes another way to spend money I don't have.
or the deadly poison if you touch them kind
True enough.
Are they plastic or metal caps? You could try carefully gripping them with a pair of pliers to give you a bit of extra leverage.
Metal. He tried pliers but it wouldn't budge. Thanks for the thought, though. We ended up taking it to Tire Warehouse. They fixed what turned out to be a leaking valve on the rear passenger tire, re-filled it, checked that the other tires were fine, and charged us like $40. I thought it was going to be a lot more than that, so I'm relieved. They also said if it leaks again, they'll fix it for free. Free is my favorite.
...good news to hear.
...would have loved to have seen that.both times.
When i lived in Seattle one of the regional banks (now long gone through several acquisitions) had their headquarters located in downtown that had a two level open atrium at street level, In the ground level here was this loverly 1930s 9' Steinway available for people to play on. On off days I would wander in and if nobody else was [laying (sometimes "banging" on its keyboard) I would sit down and play a short mini recital of maybe tow or three works The first time I did so three was applause and when I looked up there were people standing at the railings on the second level.
I sort of became a "semi-regular" there
One afternoon when I walked in I found that the Steinway was removed and in its place, a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial (the one I mentioned in the above post that had 97 keys). I was hesitant at first to sit down as this was the "Rolls Royce" of pianos that, at the time, almost cost as much as a small house. People would walk by look at but not sit down to play, likely figuring it was there for display only . Finally I got the nerve to sit down (half expecting someone to come up and shoo me away) and began to play. I was amazed that didn't happen and was allowed to carry on. For one of the pieces, Debussy's "La cathédrale engloutie! (The Sunken Cathedral) I moved my left hand down an octave at several points in the quieter portions and the effect was almost spine tingling, I could actually feel those low strings vibrating through the keys.
That piano turned out to be a "loaner" while the Steinway was being refurbished (given some the abuse it often received). Yeah the experience of playing on the Imperial spoiled me, but having the old Steinway return was like welcoming an "old friend" (who was healthy again) back.
Happy to hear it!
I do not think I want a mole of salt on my fries. That is too much salt.
Cool! I know, and have played The Sunken Cathedral, I can see where some moments of extra low tones would be completely appropriate for that piece. The sound of a multi-ton bell slow-tolling, at a continuous pace, limited by momentum, monopolizing the background. Notes that shake your chest and rattle windows.
Metal-on-metal corrosion. That might be why it was hard to remove. It doesn't take much for metal parts to be hard to move. Especially with spark plugs, being exposed to heat, salt, dirt, cold (in the north where I grew up). I nearly stripped the plug threads on the engine block of a '73 Pontiac Bonneville; yeesh. 8 cylinder engine, and the cylinder was located on the passenger side of the car all the way in the front. Ended up having to sneak my arm in through the right front wheel well just to get a socket on that plug, ugh.
After that, dad and I started using that silvery goop that keeps metal parts from fusing to each other. I think it was called anti-seize or anti-lock or something like that. But there's one brand available today called "Silver Goop", or at least that's what Google tells me. Haha, truth in advertising!
I guess the trauma was real. I only change spark plugs in roto-tillers, chipper-shredders, and pressure washers now. My lawn mower, edger, weed whacker, leaf blowers, and more are all battery powered now.
My next car will probably be a Tesla (used; in a couple/few years) Electric is becoming more reliable and less fussy to maintian than gas engines. Batteries are more expensive, yes, but all the other gasoline-adjacent things that need to be maintained or replaced are...just not there.
One day, I'll realize that I've replaced my last water pump, spark plugs, catalytic converter, fuel filter, oil filter, oil, or timing belt. But I'll still be driving, so I'll still have to replace tires and batteries. That's okay, I do look forward to that day.
Thank you for adding some random beauty to the world.
Thank you, we try.
You don't have to have a guitar to play music "on stage" in leather.
Everyday wear for me in the '90s. At work or play or out on the town. As a speaker at UNIX computer conferences. In airports. At the Kennedy Center. At the Sydney Opera House. Your friendly neighborhood LeatherGryphon. I was even on the cover (way in the background) of the 1997 gay erotic VHS video entitled "Striptease" directed by Chi-Chi LaRue. He picked me out of the crowd of extras, sat me right at the bar under the bar dancers, and said that I was his token leatherman. It was a fun decade. Been there, done that.
...that's an awesome image. It is also appropriately "concert black",
Never much got into motorcycles myself, Had some difficulty with how the controls were arranged. I could see dyslexia kicking in and hitting the rear brake when I intended to shift gears..
Yet, I could play a pipe organ go figure.
At least on an organ if I pressed the wrong pedal it was just "embarrassing" rather than potentially fatal.
Non-Complaint: One of my news feeds, Axios, linked to a museum with over 5.8 million artwork images to look at. I thought that with this hot summer (or winter in the Southern Hemisphere) and funds being short, maybe a free trip to the museum would be interesting?
I want comments on every one.
No homework, just browse and enjoy the wide variety of art from around the world over the millennia. Or if wanting inspiration, search a period, place or thing.
Oh hey, thanks for that link! That'll be a great resource for Teen Kiddo's homeschooling!
An Observation: Starting at the beginning, a very good place to start. This morning, actually late morning, I glanced out my kitchen window and noticed a doe, a deer, a female deer, standing in a ray, a drop of golden sun. Me, I gasped, as I surprised myself. She was not far but had a long, long way to run. So, I stood there, and watched. "La" I exclaimed, peacefully she stood just so. Tea, a drink with jam and bread was my original goal, but I just stood there and watched the doe.