December 29, 2006
January is Reeding (and Writing) Month
This coming January at the Complex will be devoted largely to reed instruments-- clariboos. As I've often woefully noted, it's a struggle to find time for reeds, since most workshop hours get blown on flutes. In fact, it's probably been a good two years since a brand-new clariboo emerged from the studio... but that's about to change.
Although I may not manage any Resolutions for 2007 which would stick for the entire year, I ought to be able to pull off a measly month's worth of perseverence... So, January is hereby Reed Month!
Say, that's a good concept: let's divide the whole year into one-month compartments! Thus, my New Year's Resolution for 2007 is... To set a definite overall goal for each individual month of the year, and to concentrate on warding off apathy, sloth and dissipation-- specifically in pursuit of substantial and steady progress toward each month's designated goal.
Sounds like a plan; dividing a whole year's worth of potential procrastination into twelve distinct packets and setting different goals for each should be a useful strategy. So, we'll see how it works out in January and take it from there. Report on that coming in about... a month. Meanwhile, it's not too early to think about possible resolutions for February. Hmmmm.
As for the Writing mentioned in this entry's title, we'll try to pick up the pace on that, too-- and perhaps even get some work done on long-neglected subjects up in the Button Departments: stale site material that I literally haven't even glanced at in three years! *Shudder* (Talk about long-overdue revisions: that task should probably get its own dedicated month. How about February, come to think of it?)
Anyway, y'all have a good New Year's Eve if I haven't caught you again before then. I actually have a gig that night, sitting in with a quirky marching band I resigned from about three years ago. Should be fun! --r.
Posted by Romy
04:02 PM PST
December 26, 2006
Back to the workshop
Tomorrow it's back to the workshop in earnest for this elf. Been quite a while since any seriously productive activity over there-- the last real burst happened just before the New Orleans tour, well over a month ago. How these moons fly by!
I also promise to rework this site's "splash page" text by, oh, early 2007. All of that stale schtick about Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Michael Moore, et. al. is long overdue for an update... After all, where are Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton and Brad Pitt, not to mention soooo many other brilliant, riveting, ultra-fascinating, aristocratic mega-celebrities du jour? These shocking oversights will soon be remedied, we promise. Anyway, back with something tomorrow... --r.
Posted by Romy
07:50 PM PST
December 24, 2006
Brief Santa report
SantaAlc (Picture)
--Uh-oh: Looks like Santa found the rubbing alcohol, so I'll have to hide it more carefully next year.
What a wild and crazy time we had yesterday while carousing with a horde of disorderly Santas! More pictures of that presently...
Ho ho ho, he said "presently!"
...but right now I've gotta go shopping for tomorrow's dinner ingredients; it's a fairly ambitious list this year. Catch y'all again tomorrow, kids-- now be good! --r.
Posted by Romy
02:32 PM PST
December 21, 2006
Solstice Resolution: Less Tolerance
Good news: the Sun God/dess has promised to gradually swing back in this hemisphere's direction after today, thanks to my sacrifices and clean living. As His/Her authorized, sanctified and certified ambassador to Earth, I've allowed to accept tithes on the Sun God/dess's behalf-- and as of December 2006, Paypal is now accepted.
If you disagree with any of the above, you are a nonfidel. As such, death is your destiny, sooner or later: sooner if we can catch you unawares in mortal form, and later if you escape for now, only to eventually expire of "natural" causes. In either case, your eternal afterlife will be spent in dying anew every instant, in the agonizing inferno of mighty Sol's core. Yes, this is the fate reserved for nonfidels, so repent and tithe while there is still a chance.
Our main resolution for this Solstice is to harbor far less tolerance. There is too much tolerance of deeply irrational belief and behavior in this world, so off come the gloves: no more misguided "tolerance," "inclusiveness," "broadmindedness," "empathy," or other mealy-minded sentiments; no more holding back for the sake of "politeness," no more "respect" for archaic "cultural traditions" and ludicrous "religious" delusions. From now on, we will sweepingly denounce and dismiss entire continents' contents of contemptible fools-- starting today with Antarctica.
Antarcticans may feel safe because they are far from the wrath of Sun God/dess, but they are fools. Why, just last night in a movie theater I witnessed a commercial, obviously produced by devious Antarcticans, which depicts penguins and polar bears cavorting in the very same habitat! Do they think that WE are the fools and will believe this rubbish? They call this commercial "Arctic Beach Party," which is a vile slander of the true Arctic: after all, everyone of consequence is aware that in order to see the penguin and the polar bear in proximity, one must visit a zoo! There is no polar bear within 12,000 miles of a penguin in the natural order of things, and all informed citizens of this landmass have been taught this from an early age. Here is the Antarcticans' criminally slanderous commercial.
--See? Antarcticans, YOU are the fools! And the terrible revenge of the Sun God/dess will burn you in the end-- also in the middle and everywhere else. REPENT AND TITHE, FOOLISH ANTARCTICANS!
Coming next: intolerance of Australia.
Posted by Romy
01:03 PM PST
December 19, 2006
Egregiously premature laptop problems (updated)
What a pain: this laptop is less than a month old, and there have been two separate problems in the last 24 hours. Yesterday it refused to power up, regardless of whether the AC adaptor was plugged in or not. Removing and reinstalling the battery seems to have cleared that one up for now... but a new glitch just cropped up moments ago: one of the letter *eys is completely incapacitated! Actually, this is more than a mere glitch: it's a critical and ominous problem.
It's the first letter in *itchen, *atrina, *ill Bill, *ettle, *arma, *aleidoscope, *ettledrum, *evin Bacon, *evin Federline, *orea, *im chee, *ingfisher, *idney, *aya*, *atydid, *angaroo, *etchup... well, you've probably figured it out by now.
At this rate, every other letter will be an asteris* within a few more wee*s, so we may have to establish a different code symbol for each different letter *ey as they progressively fail. What's Hewett-Pac*ard's problem, anyway? This doesn't exactly inspire confidence in this contraption's long-term durability, and at this point I'm about ready to ta*e it bac* and start over from scratch. Unfortunately it may not be that simple--what a major pain in the nec*! The laptop honeymoon sure didn't last long.
That's about all I can ta*e of this nonsense for now, so catch you later when I can find a fully functional *eyboard somewhere. --r.
===================================================
(Early-evening update) Well, despite the dizzying rush of technological innovation in our time, the oldest fixes are apparently still the best. Just now I took the laptop out of its case, fired it up, then gave it a solid *whack* with the ol' fist... just as I used to do with a malfunctioning Coke machine in the seventh-grade lunchroom. Lo and behold: it's now working properly again! KKkkkkKKKK.... see?
It appears that Hewlett Packard products require firm discipline: you've just gotta let 'em know who's boss. Hope things settle down soon though, since I'm not a natural discipline dispenser by temperament.
Posted by Romy
12:27 PM PST
December 18, 2006
A Modest Proposal
On a few previous occasions we've discussed the fujara, which is a monstrous (in the most favorable sense) folk flute. It’s a completely unique instrument from a tiny geographical area: the mountainous regions of Slovakia. Those lonely Slovak shepherds certainly were inspired in a madcap, iconoclastic and deeply appealing way, eh?
Acoustically speaking, the instrument is a hugely overgrown tabor pipe, or overtone flute. Tabor pipes are (usually) small flutes which were designed to be played with just three fingers of one hand, leaving the other hand free to play the tabor itself, which is a small drum. This early “one man band” arrangement was especially prominent during the European troubadour period.
Instruments of the tabor-pipe family take advantage of the fact that a flute with a very narrow bore relative to its length will emphasize the upper notes or harmonics of the overtone series. Since higher overtones are so close together -- as one ascends higher in the harmonic series, the musical intervals become more closely spaced -- the player can easily produce a full diatonic scale and more with just three finger holes, modulating the air pressure in order to overblow various harmonics as needed.
Fujaras and tabor pipes belong to the very diverse fipple flute family: broadly speaking, those whose airstream is automatically directed against the sounding edge via some sort of ducting system. The best-known, most highly evolved and musically versatile fipple-flute example is probably the recorder. In contrast, transverse flutes require the player to focus the air with his or her lips, forming an embouchure.
Fipple flutes are comparatively “easy to play" for beginners (arguably making them "harder to listen to" for innocent bystanders.) Since the aspiring (expiring?) musician merely blows into the instrument using no specialized lip technique, some sort of sound will inevitably result. On the other hand, lip-focused, embouchure-based flutes require more practice at first, but the player is ultimately rewarded with much more control over the musical results, since the size and angle of the airstream can be subtly adjusted to great effect.
All of which has me thinking: what if a transverse flute were constructed with the general proportions of a fujara? This would require a five or six-foot long tube with a bore diameter of about ¾”, which would be simple to rig up on an experimental basis using modern PVC plumbers’ pipe. In order to reach the fingerholes, it’d be necessary to build the instrument in “recurved” fashion -- but that would be no problem given the ready availability of U-joint pipe fittings and the like.
With this embouchure-based arrangement, the additional overtone control might yield extremely interesting results. One might expect the experimental instrument to sound similar to a fujara, but perhaps with additional effects made possible via direct lip control.
I haven't found any reports of other makers' experiments along such lines, but it certainly seems worth trying. We'll be off to the plumbing supply store soon to assemble the needed parts, so stay tuned for eventual news of the Transverse Fujara experiment! As usual in these parts it's full speed ahead, tradition be damned. Rah, humbug! --r.
Posted by Romy
01:28 PM PST
December 15, 2006
Overwrought blogging by candlelight
Good evening! Tonight the wind is fairly howling here at the Swamp Shack, and the darkling clouds are dense and oppressive: scudding madly across the moonless sky in thrall to this mighty, blustering Nor’wester, they blot out the stars, and cast streaming shadows in shades of black and blacker upon the brooding, restless landscape. Driven rain pelts my fogged windowpane, and cones blown from the tempest-tossed pines* thud upon the roof, in percussive counterpoint to the whistle and moan of the surging sky.
In other words, it’s a dark and stormy night.
In fact, the electricity’s just gone out for the second time this season, and this message is being typed by candlelight and laptop battery. It might be prudent to save a bit of that laptop juice, since there’s no telling how long the outage may last… A strong Pacific front is blasting the Northwest, and there are reportedly gusts of 100 mph or more at the coast. We in the inland valleys are usually spared the worst of such onslaughts, with winds in the mere 60s forecast for tonight.
How did I ever survive without this laptop? It’s only been about three weeks, but already the thing is a veritable appendage, a vital organ of expression. How swiftly our paradigms shift in this dizzying age of technology!
Perhaps you’ve seen news of the three “experienced” mountaineers currently stranded on Mt. Hood, only an hour away via fair-weather highway. When I read of their plight a few days ago, my first thought was What in the world are they doing up there in weather like this? Indeed, the general course of our current tempest had been forecast long in advance.
Despite its popularity among casual mountaineers -- Mount Hood is the second most-climbed peak in the world, after Japan’s Mt. Fuji -- it’s not to be trifled with, and has claimed many lives. Years ago I ascended Hood in late May, and even in that comparatively mild season the summit was bitterly cold and windy, and a scant five minutes were spent in soaking up the triumphant vista before beating a hasty, shivering retreat.
Unfortunately, I concluded days ago that the odds do not favor those lost climbers. According to reports, they had taken one of the more difficult routes up Hood, and were packed lightly in anticipation of a quick transit. The fact that at least one of the party had extensive experience on far more formidable peaks may have led them to regard this expedition lightly, and to attempt it in questionable weather.
For properly prepared and prudent mountaineers, climbing Mt. Hood in the winter is no great feat. But even on this comparatively “easy” peak, foul weather can quickly turn a routine trek into a grim, life-threatening ordeal. Whether on Hood or Everest, when the chips are down and Nature sends her worst, unwary parties may pay the ultimate price.
The batteries are running low now, so see you tomorrow…
(Next day) Ahhhh... electricity and Internet access again! Upon rising this morning, we were dismayed to see that the boat had been blown away by the storm (a friend’s small outboard-equipped skiff has been anchored at the Shack since last summer.) At first I assumed that any chance of recovering the boat was small; it might well have drifted clear down to where the Tualatin river joins the Willamette -- and just below that junction lies the large and impassable Willamette Falls. Not good…
However, amazingly enough the boat was snagged against the neighbor’s dock a short distance downriver! It’s impossible to walk along the bank to that point, so after ensuring that the boat wouldn’t break free and drift away, I drove to the hardware store and purchased 100 feet of rope, tied a bottle to the rope’s end, and after several attempts succeeded in throwing the bottle out far enough for the current to carry it down to the neighbor's dock. After walking around, fishing out the bottle and tying the rope to the boat, I returned to our yard and hauled the skiff back upriver.
It turned out that he stake to which the boat had been moored, which seemed more than strong enough, had been completely bent over by the storm’s force. The rope is now stretched across the yard and tied to a three-foot diameter ash tree --so unless that blows over, we should be OK for a while! --r.
================================================================
*Actually, they're Douglas Fir trees. But "pines" read better in that context. (May I see your literary license please, sir?)
Posted by Romy
01:47 PM PST
December 11, 2006
The world of Wikipedia
I frequently link to Wikipedia articles on various subjects, and its overall accuracy and usefulness is somewhat surprising. Presumably, such accuracy will only improve over time; after all, we're still in the very early stages of this massive Wiki experiment: a rapidly evolving summation and dissemination of human knowledge via the Internet, with minimal editorial oversight.
Of course there's still much that's awkward, poorly written and questionably accurate in Wikipedia. About three months ago I finally started pitching in-- in fact, the first article I revised was about Swan Lake, of all things. Since that first tentative tweak, it's become second nature to look for obvious improvement opportunities in Wikipedia entries, a couple dozen of which have received such "improvements." Contributing constructively to the massive body of human knowledge-- or so we hope.
The current Wikipedia entry on bamboo flutes is quite lame, consisting of nothing more than a batch of links to articles about the same old boring, traditional *yawn* ethnic instruments that have been around for like, forever. So, where's the cutting-edge, contemporary bamboo-flute content?
--Hah! That'll be the day. It's ironic that for the one area in which I have some level of expertise, I'm skittish about submitting substantive contributions. Thing is, just about anyone who comes along afterward could wipe out a lot of hard work with a few keystrokes: in fact, a few months ago there was more comprehensive bamboo-flute information on Wikipedia than there is now, but someone deleted all of that, reducing the entry to its current clutch of mere links. Bamboo flutes hardly seem like a controversial topic likely to ignite a Wiki War, but...
I'd probably be better served writing *the book* on my own before sticking out my Wiki neck very far. But in the meantime, perhaps I'll try discreetly adding another link to the entry as it currently stands... Must think about the range of possible content for such an addition; a very interesting challenge. Hmmmm.
In other news, this site has oozed up to "bamboo flutes" hit #30ish on Google! About time, G-Spot.
See y'all again soon-- hey, less than two weeks until the Winter Solstice! Longer Northern Hemisphere days are right around the corner. --r.
Posted by Romy
12:42 PM PST
December 10, 2006
Ho ho ho
What luck: while walking in downtown Portland yesterday afternoon, we happened to stumble on a horde of demented Santas-- over 400 of them, in fact. A couple of my photos are at top here.
This is an event known variously as SantaCon, Santa Rampage, etc., and it's been catching on worldwide in the past few years. In fact, Portland was home to some of the earliest and most notorious of these crazed gatherings. Although I'd certainly heard of the event, it was only through sheer happenstance that we encountered the group yesterday-- and guess what? There's another Portland Santacon scheduled for Saturday the 23rd! Oh boy: just under two weeks to get our costumes together...
More background online here. That's about it for now; just wanted to share some holiday cheer with y'all. Off to work on the costume now... ho ho ho!
--r.
Posted by Romy
03:26 PM PST
December 8, 2006
Friday, Dec. 8th
As was noted a day or two ago the site gallery is getting out of hand, especially the Personal Pictures section; there are so many pages of photos posted that it's a mite overwhelming. I ought to finally go out and get that digital SLR now... once I've seen how superior the results can be, all existing site pictures will instantly become obsolete-- and we can then start over from scratch.
--Naaah: it might be possible to reshoot many of the Instruments section pictures, but the Personal ones aren't so easily replaceable. The most practical course might be to break the galleries down into smaller sub-categories, so that no single section is laden with a zillion photos. Also, I've just now started looking seriously at Yahoo Photos, and it seems to be an effective and useful service; we could stick a lot of overflow over there. Testing, testing...
(That link may not be here for long; just want to see how it works... many or most of those photos are already in the site gallery, and it'll take a while to reorganize everything.) --Oh, and then there's always MySpace, where I've had a profile for nearly two years, but haven't done a thing with it... about time we got some bamboo-flute video action happening, don't you think? Ahh, potential projects for the New Year abound.
Sheesh: today I noticed that one of the earlier blog entries was showing about 76 "comments," and sure enough a tsunami of vulgar span had overrun the entry. What' up with those slimeballs, anyway? This is more than a small inconvenience: it's a major headache with serious consequences, requiring much vigilance and actual Work to keep those spam-jackals at bay! They should all be summarily executed, as we've advocated in the past. Fortunately, the attacked entry was short and inconsequential, and rather than laboriously deleting each of the spam messages, I closed the entire thing. (Brainsander, if that's not adequate action to deny the spamjackals whatever advantage they're seeking by preying on my site, would you please make it so? Thanks.)
OK, whatever we decide to do with the galleries, more pictures in a day or two. Say, remember Kill Bill? Of course you do: for a year or so a while back, KB totally dominated the production line here at the Complex. So many new bamboo-flute wannabes were spawned by that film, and it seemed like we did nothing but make KB-inspired flutes for months on end. Good thing that the craze finally ebbed...
Having said that, I just finished a "Black Mamba" model flute-staff for old times' sake: it's in C minor, with a very dark maroon-brown finish, and is about 55" long overall. Anyone in the market for a Black Mamba? --rb
Posted by Romy
03:56 PM PST
December 7, 2006
Hope, Arkansas
It seemed essential to visit Hope, Arkansas on our recent Southern trip, since it was only a couple of miles out of the way back to Dallas, thence to fly home. After all, Hope was the birthplace of Billy Jeff Clinton, whose presidential library we had visited a couple of days earlier in Little Rock. But most significantly, in Hope thousands of FEMA trailers originally purchased by the federal government for emergency Katrina hurricane housing were stored; they've been languishing unused for many moons, in a vast open field at the airport.
Thus, a quick visit to the World's Largest Trailer Park (minus actual inhabitants) was appropriate as a sort of coda to the sobering reality of our New Orleans hurricane tour.
Unfortunately, as things worked out it was after dark when we pulled into Hope. However, the moon was full and I was determined to check out the trailers, and perhaps to stop by the Clinton house if we could find it. Hope's a pretty small place, so for a while we drove around haphazardly, hoping (har) to stumble on one of those happenin' places in Hope.
This vain hope bore no fruit, but finally we spotted three police cars in a parking lot; several cops were standing by the cars talking. We pulled over and rolled down the window:
"Hi, we're just passing through town and wanted to see a couple of things... first, could you tell us where the Bill Clinton house is?"
One of the cops stepped forward and pointed down the road: "Well, there are actually two Clinton houses in Hope. Main one's just a few blocks that way; big house on the left, you can't miss it. The other one I'm not going to tell you about, since it's after dark now." (?)
"OK...just down that way... great. The other thing is, could you tell us where the FEMA trailers are?"
Hearing this, the gaggle of cops all cracked up; obviously a highly entertaining inquiry! Chuckling, the officer who'd directed us toward the Clinton house said, "You're not with the press, are you?" He then pointed in another direction: "The trailers are about three, four miles straight out that way, and I Guar-an-TEE you're not going to miss THOSE!"
Thanking him, we set out, promptly found the Clinton house and took a quick snapshot, then headed toward the trailers. It seemed to take quite a while and to be farther than the policeman had indicated... but suddenly, there they were, looming white in the ghostly moonlight: More trailer-houses than you could shake a stick at, Billy Jeff! We drove past, then doubled back again, marvelling at this monumentally inglorious spectacle. Must Take Picture, but it was so dark!
Finally, I selected a gated gravel driveway into the field as the best impromptu photo op for the conditions, pulled up with the car's headlights illuminating the gate and (faintly) a row of trailers farther back, and hopped out. Let's see: set flash, frame first picture... we'll compose this shot with that hand-scrawled "No Trespassing" sign as its main subject...
No sooner had I pressed the shutter than a truck came barrelling down an access road, headed our way: a bright spotlight on its roof was deployed and shone blindingly in our faces. The vehicle lurched to a stop just a few feet away, on the other side of the locked gate; three burly dudes were visible inside. At that moment I was fumbling with the mini-tripod, intending to set it up on the car roof and get a better time-exposure shot of the moonlight-illuminated trailers. The truck window rolled down:
"Can I help you?"
"Oh, no problem," I replied. "I'm just setting up to get a picture of the trailers here."
"Well, we don't want you taking pictures around here. Have to ask you to leave now."
"Oh, really-- no pictures?" I said.
"Nope-- just move along now," answered the goon.
Unfortunately, I meekly complied with this directive, not fully grasping how outrageous it truly was until we had backed out of the driveway and were back on the highway. In retrospect, I should have stuck the camera right in that goon's face and gotten a good shot of him mid-threat... However, at that instant we hadn't exactly been positioned for a quick escape; our car engine was shut off and the guards were only a few feet away. Probably wouldn't have been the smartest move under the circumstances; I was out of my element there in rural Arkansas and not in a position to miss the flight back home due to a little minor "misunderstanding" and consequent jail stay!
I do have to hand it to the Swamp Witch: once we were pulling away, she rolled down her window and screamed out a torrent of appropriate abuse: something to the effect that this was supposed to be a free country, that as a taxpayer those trailers were "hers" too, and that the guard-goons resembled certain unsavory anatomical orifices-- in fact, their parents hadn't even been married, as she pointed out loudly. --Leave it to a spunky Arkansas girl to set things straight! Yeee--HAWWWW!!!!
Well, gotta run for now... more reflections on this soon. --r.
Posted by Romy
05:36 PM PST
Wooden lip plates, and the world's largest trailer park
Although many if not most of the flutes in the Instruments gallery have wooden lip plates, we've been out of the required stock for quite a while. Many customers specifically request wood, and although there's no detectable musical difference between bamboo and wooden plates, they're admittedly attractive. Well, I'm happy to announce that a new supply of lip-plate blanks has reached the studio, so we'll finally be able to fill new orders for wood. For the moment only cocobolo and African blackwood are available, but I'll try to get a couple of additional woods prepared in the next few weeks.
What else... well, there are a few new trip pictures on page nine of the personal pics gallery. I have a good story about being chased away from the FEMA trailer storage lot in Hope, Arkansas-- where there's yet more flagrant Katrina incompetence on display. The story will appear in a day or two; meantime there are a couple of related photos among the new gallery shots. Back soon,
r.
Posted by Romy
01:26 PM PST
December 6, 2006
Return to the Pacific Northwest
We've been back from the Texas-Louisiana-Missisippi-Arkansas-Texas trip for about 24 hours now. It'll take weeks to digest the eventful course of that sojourn, both figuratively and foodwise. Why, I've barely begun the resettling and reflection phase at this point: who could have imagined that it'd be possible to visit the First, Second, and Third Worlds in the course of one short drive through those five four USA 2006 states? Anyway, many more pics and observations coming soon... soon in Southern reckoning, that is.
Hey, why haven't there been more viewings of the New Orleans hurricane photos on page 8 of our Personal Pictures gallery? Sheesh, it was a lot of work shooting and editing those-- and the smell: man, that was a harrowing scene! Regardless of the droves who stay away from our New Orleans shots, we'll post some more in a day or two. Anyway, the personal pics gallery section is getting somewhat out of hand volume-wise so we don't really blame y'all for being slow to catch up. I could get used to this Southern time consciousness, in fact.
We'll pursue a few other substantial revisions on the site over the rest of December-- no specific promises at this point, but check back in a week or so, y'hear? The grits should work out of my system by then. --r.
Posted by Romy
06:00 PM PST
December 3, 2006
Heigh ho
Well, there certainly hasn't been a lot of activity on the site lately, other than a few quick notes and some Katrina pictures from New Orleans... it's been quite the whirl of social activity here in Little Rock, what with the enormous pool of Swamp Witch relatives and friends in this locality. After brunch today with yet more relatives, the two of us will escape to the country lodge for a quiet spell.
Anyway, we'll catch y'all again after a restful spell at Lamar Lodge. No heat out there 'cept for the fireplace, and it's been a mite chilly lately. Should be fun, though-- an' I do look forward to seeing the lodge since I've heard so many stories about SW's childhood idylls out there. --r.
Posted by Romy
08:11 AM PST
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