Music

 ONe of the up sides of unemployment is more free time.

It seems to be an age since I was regularly able to post here.  Commuting into Dorchester to work at the bookshop took up far too much time; then I'd get home feeling absolutely wiped and collapse.

I'm still feeling very stressed, but I'm finding ways of coping.

Therapeutic granddaughter is high on the list.  Her parents are very understanding and we have permission to loan her when needed (as long as we do sensible things like giving them advance warning).

I'm also taking up pipe and tabor with a vengeance.   Vengeance is almost a scarily apropriate word in this case. Being around a beginner pipe and tabor player can be a painful experience.  A tabor pipe is all overblow notes.  This gives it the ability to cut through a lot of background noise as it's high pitched and piercing.

Because it's a three hole instrument, it can be held in one hand and all the fingering is done with that one hand - two fingers actually hold the pipe and the other two and the thumb are used to cover the holes.  That's why so many of the notes are overblows as there are a limited number of combinations of three holes.

The advantage of a one-handed pipe is that the other hand is free to beat a small drum.

This is what makes pipe and tabor such a good stress buster.  By the time you're trying to play a pipe which is all overblow notes (ie, you don't just have to remember which holes to cover, but also how hard you have to blow) and, at the same time, beat a regular rhythm with the drum (a bit like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time), you have no spare mental space for the things that are stressing you.

The moment you think of something else, you'll make a mistake with the music and have to start all over again.

I won't scare you with my really bad playing.  Here's someone who can play much better than I can.  If you scroll along to around the one minute mark, you'll get a close up of the musician.  Pipe and tabor were a very combination for medieval dancing, and for morris before fiddles became widespread.

"GMM at Bledington" (Watch on YouTube)

A sentence chain meme

 From ffutures

Grab the nearest book. Find the 5th sentence on page 23. Append it to the paragraph below. Append your name to the list below of people who have contributed to the paragraph. Post the result to your LJ.


They also talk of our being guilty of injustice, and their being the victims of an unjustifiable war. Brandy, and Tom got increasingly close-mouthed and sour. Although a certain sense of tripartite society survived down to Christian times, the three classes described in the Eddic poem "Rigdthula" bear little resemblance to Dumezil's three. It is often argued, and still oftener thought, that none but bad men would desire to weaken these salutary beliefs; and there can be nothing wrong, it is thought, in restraining bad men, and prohibiting what only such men would wish to practice.

At its nearest point the wall was little more than one league from the City, and that was south-eastward. When he saw Jack Hare jump towards the fire, and the Practical Man brandishing the toasting-fork, Sir Isaac grabbed the strings of gravitational force that bound Jack to his destiny and PULLED--- That's a seventy-four gun privateer, besides. To honour a group of British nobles, treacherously slain at a conference by Hengist's guards, Aurelius decides to erect a great monument near Amesbury. That being so, he did not chortle when he went upstairs. Let stand. This ensures that when the garbage collector runs, it has complete access to the memory in the heap and can perform its tasks safely without the threat of being preempted by another thread. And then you may begin to laugh. The data are stored in Column 1 and renamed "Age."

Pull your hand back. I don't remember that any secrets were revealed to me, nor do I remember any avid curiosity on my part to learn something I wasn't supposed to--perhaps I was too young to know what to listen for. You don't remember how awful it is being normal. Highlight the desired state tax table and press Enter. Abraham had now reached a ripe old age, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. The third lieutenant started, then said a little weakly, "Huzzah for Captain Riley."

"Oh," said Pooh. In fact White had carelessly placed the team in Nip without realising it. The "well" symbol (obviously the Existentialist mirror image) combined with the shockingly distraught "feathers" impales with one word a vast social fallacy (man's flight-wish exposed for what it is).

It is not easy to do nothing and not mind it, not mind the hours passing, the hours of the morning passing and then the hours of the afternoon, and one day passing, and the next passing, while you do nothing. (Original manuscript is on gray paper, resulting in poor copy quality.)


1) Ranger Rick - 2) Rialian - 3) Elenbarathi - 4) Starsandfishes - 5) Echthros - 6) Doltaghey - 7) Ebonhost - 8) Tibicina 9) Browngirl 10) ceo 11) roozle 12) quietann 13) Dale (achinhibitor) 14) tigerbright 15) autographedcat 16) kitanzi xvii) annonynous 18) thnidu 19) singinglark 20) curiouswombat21) ffutures 22) coth 23) watervole