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First, would I have you know, for every gift
Or sacrifice, there are—or there may be—
Two kinds of gratitude: the sudden kind
We feel for what we take, the larger kind
We feel for what we give. Once we have learned
As much as this, we know the truth has been
Told over to the world a thousand times;—
But we have had no ears to listen yet
For more than fragments of it: we have heard
A murmur now and then, and echo here
And there, and we have made great music of it;
And we have made innumerable books
To please the Unknown God. Time throws away
Dead thousands of them, but the God that knows
No death denies not one: the books all count,
The songs all count; and yet God’s music has
No modes, his language has no adjectives.—Edwin Arlington Robinson
Have any of you read "Under the Jaguar Sun" by Italo Calvino? (I am speaking of the story which is the first story in the book of the same name.) It grabbed me when I read it yesterday morning, like he was writing about me. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else had a strong reaction to the story and what you thought about it.
I have "Iron Chef America" playing, half-watched, on the TV. (Pizza Dough battle.)
In the 40 minutes I've been watching, they have had two different adverts for sprays that remove pet urine odors.
Ignoring the aesthetic issues a moment: What does this say about the Food Network's demographic?
One of those ads promised to "remove invisible odors."
It's the visible odors you've really got to watch out for.
I never knew you could make cheese balloons until I saw that show.
I never knew you could make cheese balloons until I saw that show.
After the unfortunate business of the R103 over Wensleydale, they went out of fashion until after the war.
"Cheese balloon" sounds like a euphemism for a certain invisible odor.
Today, I found Kaiju Big Battel (sic). I've yet to plumb its depths, but be sure to check out the DVD trailer. Caution: Sound, Quicktime file loads in page!
Basically, WWF (or WWE as its now known) meets old Japanese monster movies. If they ever get to Seattle, I'll be there!
I've got a guess for what "God's music has no modes" could mean--it's all essentially unique and doesn't divide into types--but I can't figure out what's intended by "his language has no adjectives". Why adjectives?
The part about books seems to say that God values everything that people make, but there's more to adjectives than good vs. bad.
Does anybody know the origin of Shangri La? Of course, it comes from James Hilton's wonderful novel "Lost Horizon", but did Hilton make the name up? Or does it actually mean anything?
The reason I'm asking is because of the miniseries "Into the West". I haven't watched it, but I saw one excerpt where one character refers to California as the Shangri La of the West. And it's set around 1850, I think. It's probably just an anachronism - like Tom sizemore in "Saving Private Ryan" when he yells 'Let's rock & roll!'
I have a question about the new Harry Potter book, having finished it yesterday: don't worry, I'm not going to discuss anything involving the plot or the characters, or the setting--no spoilers here. I just have a question that Our Glorious Hosts in their editorial hats, or Tom Whitmore as extremely well-read collector, or Mr. Ford as damn good professional writer could probably answer easily if they've read it.
Am I mistaken, or is Chapter 2 the longest "As you know, Bob" in the history of young adult fiction? Because halfway through the chapter I found myself fondly remembering the well-integrated ending of Pel Toro's Galaxy 666, and the explanations of Meyer Meyer's name in the 87th Precinct series. I liked the book overall, and I expected something like the small overview included in Chapter 1 for those just starting to read Rowling's books, but this...
Teresa, thank you for posting this poem. It's a better expression of the reasons I bind books than I have been able to come up with myself. It shows, as well, why I gave away my early bindings and still felt rewarded.
I think the Unknown God has no ajectives because it doesn't evaluate quality the way the self-critical craftsman does, though I agree that it's not clearly stated. My dad's like that too, and gets a lot of my daring experiments as a result.
I'm neck-deep now in the bindings I'm doing for Worldcon (another source of the larger gratitude, but no more on that here till All is Revealed). I think I'll copy this poem out onto some scrap of paper to refer to as I bind.
And speaking of things done badly but (I hope) still appreciated, the Atlanta Nights binding is done and ready for its charity auction. I was going to wait till my new site is up and running, so bidders can see pictures, but that's only a few days away now. And I won't be displaying it at Worldcon, because, frankly. it doesn't show me in a very good light as a binder. (Except insofar as it reflects the text in the design and style, of course...)
Mr Macdonald, will you or one of your representatives be at the con for a handoff, or shall I post it somewhere?
Nancy Lebovitz:
"'his language has no adjectives'. Why adjectives?"
In Process Theology, does one say "God's language has no adverbs?"
Does Sunday School instruction have no ejaculations? Oh, those multi-hundred megabuck lawsuits. Never mind.
Completely OT (if one can be OT in an O.Thread?) Has anyone else been struck by the little "From the Wires" headline/linky-thing on Salon just now, the one that reads "Miles' Space Assignment Raises Questions"???
I guess it's clear I don't watch enough CNN (er, actually I don't watch any CNN, as I can't get cable in my building) because Miles O'Brien certainly wasn't the first Miles to spring to mind when I spotted that!
>http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8BD94CO0.html
When I saw that title, I assumed it had something to do with the number of plane seats assigned to frequent flyer programs.
Bruce E. Durocher II:
I take it that you were as satisfied with Chapter 1 as was I?
"Am I mistaken, or is Chapter 2 the longest 'As you know, Bob' in the history of young adult fiction?"
Actually, this was a change of pace from the prior chapter, but it gave me an interesting World War II espionage novel sense. You know, top SS guys arguing about who's personally closest to Hitler?
One key to my expectations to Harry Potter 6 was the growing question: "just what is the interface between the magical and muggle worlds here?"
Chapter 1 addresses that head on.
But, related: how clear is it that the muggle world here is NOT our mundane reality? When did it diverge?
We've heard from J. K. R. why America doesn't appear in the saga. But, internal to the novels (and not her concerns about fan reactions), why?
Where is the saga, in the ensemble of all possible fictional universes?
I mean, I believe that Nicholas Flamel was a real person in our History, and all that.
But how did Magic come to the Harry Potter world, by way of contrast to "Lud-in-the-Mist" or Susanna Clarke's "namless slave," or J.R.R. Tolkien?
And, finally, is there any way that we can tell until Book 7, whether or not J.K.R. has Pulled It Off? Not in sales, of course (i'd pred8cted after Book 1 that she'd be the first Billionare author). But in what she's doing in Subcreation.
Is she reacting to WWII, the Cold War, The War on Terrorism, the War of the Books [Swift], anything so grossly hostorical, or what?
Dr. George Hockney reminds me that the Ballentine edition of Tolkien has an author's introduction where he denies LOTR is allegory, or related to World War II. J.R.R.T. then gives a hint of the outlines of an alternate history in which he DID write LOTR in terms of WW II.
Change of topic: Back in Open Thread 36, Jill Smith was looking for a children's book in which the kids were turned into mice, and I told her that I thought it was The Witch Next Door by Ruth Nash. Nope. The author's name is Ruth Chew (not Nash), and I must have the title wrong. I'm not sure which of Chew's several zillion books it was, though.
Sorry to steer you wrong before, Jill. I hope this correction helps.
--Mary Aileen
Nancy: I take him to mean that to God every single thing in creation is unique, its own glorious noun. (Or if you prefer, its own unique verb.) It is an alternate statement of what you understood by "God's music has no modes" which I was a little confused by. A fragment of Borges comes to mind here (probably misquoting badly): "The steps a man traces from birth to his death form a geometric figure of inconceivable complexity. The Divine Mind grasps that shape as easily as we grasp a triangle."
Thought folks might like to see some pretty (mathematical) pictures.
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/newton/
(Fractals based on the Newton-Raphson approximation for finding the roots of an equation)
At the bottom of a graphic featured in the enlarged version of this page for the Bello Script font linked-to from the New York Times' piece about the same (reg. req.) is something that is both better than lorem ipsum and is also a sneek-peak of the opening of the Bad Magic sequel:
We took a breezy excursion and gathered jonquils from the river slopes. Sweet marjoram grew in luxuriant profusion by the window that overlooked the Aztec city. Jaded zombies acted quietly, but kept driving their oxen forward.
(There's also a nice echo of Molly Bloom in the beginning; good going, Stephan.)
Aha! Unscrupulous cattlemen are using zombies to drive oxen. Now we know where BSE comes from!
Brains! Braaaiiins!
Michael Turyn:
Actually, those are rather pretty pangram, much more novelistic than "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." I personally like:
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
We promptly judged antique ivory buckles for the next prize.
and some of the others at Pangrams. There are other pangram sites on the web.
The "perfect" pangrams, exactrly 26 letters long, require Roman numerals, or denizens of deepest crosswordpuzzlia, and are incomprehensible without footnotes.
It's probably just an anachronism - like Tom sizemore in "Saving Private Ryan" when he yells 'Let's rock & roll!'I haven't seen SPR in a while, and don't have a copy to hand, but are you sure he didn't say, "Let's lock & load!"?
I've seen sugestions that the phrase was orginally "load & lock" in WWII (which makes a bit more sense with an M1 Garand), but was reversed by John Wayne in 1949's Sands of Iwo Jima.
It wasn't until Vietnam that troops began substituting the sound-alike "let's rock & roll" as they headed out on patrol.
As for Shangri-La, the OED, the American Heritage, and Merriam-Webster's Third all attribute it to Hilton's novel.
I always thought that Sisyphus, that great sinner of Greek mythology, before some dyslexic monk inked it backwards on a parchment, was doomed to gaze once again at his private Hill and say, with infinite weariness, "Let's roll a rock!"
For my good deeds for today
I introduced Sisyphus his rock to C4
Drained Tantalus' pool
Ate all his grapes
And left my Ionian translation
Of Buddhism for Dummies
To the person who invented iced coffee:
Thank you. Thank you, you wonderful bastard.
Stefan - I'd like to offer an addition to your words of thanks - Thank you Peet's for making decaf coffee that actually tastes like good quality coffee - even on ice, which I'm enjoying this very instant.
"Two kinds of gratitude: the sudden kind
We feel for what we take, the larger kind
We feel for what we give."
A great description of one reason that the open source movement is so compelling for many people...and, Jules, thanks for the fractal image links. Because of your post, it strikes me that this crew might like these Electric Sheep (run by a friend, Scott Draves; and disclosure, I composed a soundtrack for a DVD of this work).
Electric Sheep is open source algorithmic art/artificial life propagating via p2p (and is named after Philip K. Dick's work of course):
Thanks, Glen. Just like I figured, a western where someone refers to Shangri La is a sign that someone dropped the ball behind the camera. Or in front of it. Or somewhere.
As for "Saving Private Ryan", I don't think Sizemore said 'lock and load'. But I haven't seen that scene in quite some time. I did catch some other bits on TV not long ago and I thought: hey, isn't that the guy from the Riddick movies? And, HEY, the wrong Ryan is Nathan Filion from "Firefly".
Nancy wrote:
I've got a guess for what "God's music has no modes" could mean--it's all essentially unique and doesn't divide into types--but I can't figure out what's intended by "his language has no adjectives". Why adjectives?
My guess about the modes is that they're using the word here in the musical sense, which refers to seven different scale-types extrapolated from ancient Greek mathematical and musical writings and appropriated by medieval churchmen. They're a traditional mode of writing music, and many sound as off to modern ears (most of us are trained to hear in terms of a Western European cultural musical scale tradition) today as, say, the harmonics of Indian music or traditional Japanese koto. Like them, with time you can listen and learn to appreciate subtleties--it's just harder than, say, listening to Bach.
The two places I have been able to find public examples of these other modes are at the Kendall Square T stop in Boston (the "Pythagoras" public artwork seems to play a true Pythagorean scale--pump the handle slowly, and it only works on one side of the station), or the fancy 50-dollar six-foot windchimes you sometimes see hung in garden and hardware stores. These last will often have a tag telling you the history and harmonics of the mode in question.
A lovely quote from Robert Jourdain's "Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy" explains it better:
There is actually more than one kind of Pythagorean scale. The gaps left by the five excluded tones can be distributed in various patterns to produce seven different scales, and these form the classical church modes that bore fancy Greek names like Phyrgian and Mixo-Lydian [...] With time, we've settled upon just two of the seven, the Ionian and Aeolian modes, which today we call the major and minor scales. Both kinds of scale are conducive to building extended harmonies, and they work well in combination. But they are not heaven-sent.
Dripgate continues, how I wish there would be an end to Roving leaks and that he and his boss and that whole crew get flushed down into the barred dungeon cells....
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jason_le_050714_report_shows_karl_ro.htm
Report Shows Karl Rove May Have Lied to Federal Agents, a Federal Crime, During Oct 2003 Testimony Into CIA Agent Leak
by Jason Leopold
>Looks like Karl Rove did break the law, the same federal law that got Martha Stewart sentenced to six months in prison...
Moreover, evidence suggests that President Bush was aware as early as October 2003 that Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, were the sources who leaked Plame’s undercover CIA status to reporters and after the president was briefed about the issue the president said publicly that the source of the leak will never be found.
A great deal of your Appalachian folk music is modal.
I notice particularly in the Sidelight Rove to the Rescue that never once in the course of the story does Karl Rove mention Valerie Plame by name.
Wow, talk about your keeping secret that which should be secret!
This is more fun when you recall who originated the phrase "corridors of power."
Tory Stories: Neo-Con Novels
by Jeet Heer
Toro (May 2005)
"... Lynne Cheney, the vice-president’s wife, has written three novels, as well as several children’s books. Before becoming the vice-president’s chief of staff, Lewis Libby made his literary debut with a historical romance set in early twentieth-century Japan. And, Richard Perle, who has been a formidable advocate for an aggressive foreign policy as the erstwhile chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board (DPB), is the author of a Cold War thriller. At the DPB, Perle shares the table with Newt Gingrich, who also has a thriller to his credit..."
"... The presence of so many novelists in the corridors of power raises all sorts of questions. For starters, is there some hidden link between a powerful imagination and real-world power politics? And, what do these novels tell us about how political decision-makers really see the world? ..."
Larry Brennan, I have seen a live Kaiju show. They perform all over the place, so don't feel obliged to trek to Seattle; I saw them in NYC, and I know they were playing Philly a month later. It was one of the most aggressively weird things I'd ever seen, and not just because I'd been awake for something like 24 hours straight by that point. The giant crimefighting bananas fought their evil twins, and Silver Potato (with the nice arms) got clobbered by a bunch of flagrant cheaters, and the steel cage was filled with little cardboard skyscrapers. Plus! The opening act was the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players! So, yeah, a singularly surreal evening. (More details in my blog entry here if you're interested.)
Andrew - Thanks for the link to your Kaiju experience. Now I want to go even more. BTW - Seattle's not a trek for me, I live there, er, here. It's just that Kaiju seems to have their Battels mostly on the East Coast.
My thanks go to Peets for their free tea samples, and for their swiping the jasmine-tea/lime-juice combination from Vietnamese restaurants without mucking it up too much---I've in fact had worse in some restaurants.
The lime juice cuts the soapiness of the (cheap) jasmine tea, the half-dose (for tea-drinkers) of caffeine is just the thing if the last dose has worn off but it's too late for another whole cup.
I must admit, though, that their teas don't hold a lumen to those available from the Upton Tea company, uptontea.com.....ummmmm, Uva.
For that matter, fresh whole-leaf Lipton is quite good by my lights (all tea is good _to_ my lights), and the bag stuff adequate if fresh. I think many people get driven to premium teas because their general experience of Lipton emerges from of a box that's been sitting on their paren[t's,ts'] kitchen shelf for a decade.
The review by Laura Miller of Harry Potter 6 on Salon is thoughtful, but has spoilers. I agree with her that ""Half-Blood Prince" comes together, making it not quite the most graceful novel in the series, but perhaps the most impressive."
Also, of interest to me as I continue research on my General Theory of Genres (and the SFRA 2006 theme of "Genres in Collison"): "The penultimate book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was always destined to be the trickiest of all seven novels. The books are a clever mixture of two hallowed genres -- the British boarding school adventure and epic fantasy..."
An interesting point is the connection between the fantasy and our contemporary reality, which begins to be clearer in HP6. Did I already mention J.R.R. Tolien's denial that LOTR connects in any way with WWII?
"... What Rowling clearly didn't plan out in advance are the novels' alternately amusing and somber reflections of current events.... here the echoes show an eerie sense of timing. Now that even the bureaucratic Ministry of Magic has finally admitted that Voldemort is back and can strike anywhere at any time, a rash of mysterious deaths and acts of violence have the wizard community spooked."
"In the wizard world's version of the War on Terror, friends, neighbors, even relatives, might be under an 'Imperius Curse,' forced to secretly aid the schemes of Voldemort and his underlings, the Death Eaters.... The Ministry of Magic hasn't really got a handle on the situation, but it has managed to arrest three harmless people... in order to convince citizens that it's doing something."
Feeling Safer Yet?
Maybe Rove should be extolled for not breaking the speed limit driving in front of a police car recording car speeds... The law I think is rather explicit that it's EXPOSING an agent is the crime--one doesn't have to provide an actual name if the person can be identified in other fashion such as "person who lives at this address and [sufficient information to narrow the person down to that person] or "married to X," or other information that make for unambiguous identification. The name never has to be mentioned to blow someone's cover and get them identified as an operative and expose the people who were their contacts thereby also.
There is a muskrat resident in drainage ditch in the center of the locality I live in. That creature is a much higher integrity lifeform than anything involved in the Oaf's Oval Orifice Operations.
James, what was the remark about Appalachian folk music being modal in response to?
(I ask because I missed whatever it is and I'm interested in reading it)
Adding to James's remark -- perhaps the best-known modal tune is "What'll We Do with a Drunken Sailor". (Dorian mode: pick it out in D on a keyboard and you'll find you use all and only white keys; minor and major modes would both require black keys.)
"Scarborough Fair" is also in the Dorian mode.
Mixolydian examples include "She Moved Through The Fair," "My Lagan Love," and "Lola."
The Aeolian mode is the same as the modern minor scale, but is still considered modal if you don't raise the seventh degree even for cadences.
I can't think of any famous tunes in Phrygian, Lydian, or Locrian, but heavy metal guitarists like the former, and John Kirkpatrick wrote a song in the Locrian mode as a sort of tour de force.
Lucy: I was replying to Cassandra's post of July 18, 2005, 09:29 AM.
Hard to believe no one has asked this yet, so it is time for intervention:
Where does the theomusical postulate cited above place the Holy Modal Rounders?
Who the heck is Clement?
inquiring minds want to know.
Anyone have a good link that sums her up?
She was confirmed 99-0 back in 2001, so either she's good enough that everyone supported her, or a bunch of senators weren't doing their job.
I was going to ask which of the modes' Greek names translate to "pentatonic" and "heptatonic" which are the modes I'm used to talking about, but a quick google indicates that none of them do, because they all have half steps in them and the lack of half steps kind of defines the pentatonic and heptatonic scales. So now I'm confused. I did take a music theory class thirty-five years ago, but it was taught by a choir teacher who put Ayn Rand quotes on the board every day and we only dealt with major and minor there. Anybody know of a good basic, basic, basic ethnomusicology book? (not something New Agey: something more, well, scientific)
Knowing from previous exchanges in & around this area, that there might be a fair amount of interest in medicaments here, I wondered if this might create a bit of a stir.
Bitter pill poppers cut costs by Mark Coultan [Sydney Morning] Herald Correspondent in New York (July 20, 2005)
The US has the highest prices for medicines in the world, so five American states have decided to import them from Australia ... Under US pressure, the Canadian Health Minister, Ujjal Dosanjh, recently announced moves to restrict the export of personal prescription drugs ...
The scheme, I-SaveRx, operates in Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri and Vermont and allows residents to buy cheaper drugs by having prescriptions, written by American doctors, filled in other countries, including Canada, Ireland and Britain ... Australian drugs [are], on average, 51 per cent cheaper than in the US. Canadian drugs are 31 per cent cheaper ...
It is illegal to export Australian drugs subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme but other drugs are often cheaper in Australia because drug manufacturers have to compete with PBS-approved medicines.
The combined population of the five US states participating in the I-SaveRx scheme is more than the population of Australia and a potentially large market for Australian drug manufacturers and pharmacists.
perhaps the best-known modal tune is "What'll We Do with a Drunken Sailor"
Much Spanish music is in the Phrygian mode; I'm not sure if this is related to the lowest note on a standard-tuned guitar being 'E' and 'E' Phrygian comprising the same tones as the other two most popular scales: 'A' Aeolian and 'C' Ionian (Major). A lot of heavy metal music uses unusual modes too. Metallica's "Harvester of Sorrow" is in E Phrygian.
I understand that the Dorian mode is popular in Jazz. According to wikipedia, Hendrix's "Purple Haze" is in Dorian, also. Blues uses an 8-note scale that's a cross between Aeolian and Lydian (IIRC, it is an Aeolian or natural minor scale that has an additional sharpened 4th tone, which would usually be considered part of the Lydian mode).
My roommate has a copy of Cat Bordhi's latest knitting book, The Second Tresury of Magical Knitting, and is contemplating the possibilty of converting one of the felted Jester Tentacle Bags into something a bit more Lovecraftian. In addition to wrestling with the question of whether Cthulhu would be greenish- black, instead of blackish-green, she's wrestling with the issue of cilia. I think this is mostly because she wants an excuse to blend eyelash yarn in with the wool, but does anyone here have a position on Cthulhu with cilia, vs. Cthulhu without?
On the extreme off-chance that anyone here would want to look at a website where they can see knitted baskets with moebius-strip handles, here's Ms. Bordhi's: http://www.catbordhi.com
To clarify for those who aren't familiar with these modes, this is the way I think is easiest to understand it: there are 7 modes, which can be thought of as rotations of the standard 7 tone scale; the "natural minor" is Aeolian, "natural major" is Ionian, etc. So, if you play with the white keys on a piano keyboard, you get A Aeolian (or Natural Minor), B Locrian, C Ionian (or Major), D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian and G Mixolydian. As you'll see, Locrian is really tough to use well. The rest can be quite interesting though.
That would be Treasury. I checked that twice, too.
Those look like fun books, fidelio! I'm glad there's that preview of the second book, the projects look quite good.
You may also be interested in these:
Knithulhu
Cthulhu Mask (untested pattern, AFAIK. The creator has fibro and was unable to make it.)
Lucy: "pentatonic" and "heptatonic" aren't modes, at least not in the sense used here; all the named modes are heptatonic (having seven discrete tones).
Wrt not including half steps: what did you get from Google? 3 of the first 4 items I get from "heptatonic" (Va Tech dictionary, Wikipedia, and Britannica) say right in the summary that it includes major and minor scales. I have heard of a scale composed of six whole tones, but don't think I've heard any music written in it. (I suspect it would sound strangely atonal -- the unevenly-placed halftones give us some reference point for the home tone even if they're placed differently in different modes.)
The usual pentatonic scale doesn't have halftones (it has to cover the same ground in fewer notes). It's plausible in terms of simple harmonics, but I expect somebody has come up with a stretched-and-compressed pentatonic scale with a halftone -- just as some joker came up with the "scala enigmatica" (C, Db, E#, F#, G#, A#, B, C if memory serves -- it's been a long time since I did the "Ave Maria" Verdi wrote in it just to disprove the claim that it couldn't be harmonized.)
"scala enigmatica" (C, Db, E#, F#, G#, A#, B, C if memory serves
That'll teach me to post a fact without googling; a bit of poking led me to this encyclopedic list; if I read the notation right, I forgot that it was an octatonic scale, e.g. C, Db, E, F, F#, G#, A#, B, C.
Oh well, I already know IE6 losed -- it's just what I have. Try http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/doc/modename.html -- a collection of a great many things I've never heard of.
I've always wondered - why are the modes named after names of ancient kingdoms in Asia Minor?
Alex - medieval romanticization, AFAIK. No relationship to the actual kingdoms.
CHip - I'm led to understand that the bits of the Phantom's opera Don Juan Triumphant in Phantom of the Opera are written in a whole tone scale. They don't last long! Trying to create your link.
I've gotten a little mileage once in a while by playing in one whole-tone scale with my right hand (on the piano) and in the other with my left. Just for funky playing around stuff, of course. (It's more interesting - to me anyway - to play left-hand black and right-hand white...now THAT's weird.)
Just a random comment from left field. I think I'm gonna miss y'all while I'm in the UK. Like in that aching longing for a community that I belong to. It was such a great break this last weeked (in Tulsa from Thursday evening until Monday, road trip takes 4 hours), to come here and get away. The hotel had free high-speed ethernet and (probably unknown to them) a pretty fast, free wireless thingie.
The con in Tulsa was satisfying in a lot of other ways, in that I got to spend time with one of my best friends(we all were in college together), and another very good writer-friend that doesn't get out much, and who used to live very much remotely from just about Everything Deliberately.
Unfortunatey, Making Light is probably the most ephemeral thing I look at AT LEAST daily, and IF we can get online on the Dell laptop that belongs to the bid in the UK, it's going to be doing things like checking email.
We're leaving Friday night (7/22) and not going to be back until Monday night, 8/8. Sigh. I AM going to do a travelogue while I'm away, probably longhand on a pad then transcribed, I'll post my LJ access then.
CHip (...with help from Xopher):
Your Encyclopedic List of ALL the modes made my brain explode.
Thank you.
Okay, I am thoroughly overwhelmed by the list of modes. I did find a bunch of pentatonics listed there, and some others that will break my head if I think about them (two notes! That's not possible!)
I think I am remembering something incorrectly when I use the name :heptatonic" -- it lodged in my memory as the name for another kind of scale with no half-steps, but that seems to be wrong.
Backing up from the modes page there's a page for a program called Scala -- Much more technical than I would ever need.
Is Scottish pentatonic the name for the scale used on the Great Highland bagpipe? What is the name for that used in "Shady Grove?" (or "Little Betty Ann," same tune)"Little Maggie?"
Lucy, so far as I know, the Great Pipe uses a mixolydian scale. (F is really F-sharp, etc.)
This fellow has a more complete discussion of the subject than I should prove capable of.
Graydon, thanks. I don't know how I listened to my kid's bagpipe corps for four years and missed those two half-steps. Actually, I do: preconceived notions.
It was altogether very interesting, and explains quite clearly without ever saying so why you so seldom see ensembles of pipes and other melodic instruments, and probably also expl;ains why some people hear them as unmusical -- the tuning is not even myxolidian, as the intervals are non-standard with respect to other Western instruments.
I wonder what the Real Mackenzies and other groups of their ilk do about tuning.
medieval romanticization, AFAIK.
Didn't Plato refer to a couple of the modes by name? Or is that just an artifact of the translation I read? If so, any idea what names he used to refer to the modes?
Those looking for an interesting take on the Kansas school board fiasco, er, conference may wish to read this open letter to the KSB, just brought to my attention on LiveJournal. I believe this letter brings a new and interesting viewpoint to the debate on teaching intelligent design in the classroom.
(Did I manage to keep a straight face all the way through that?)
Spotted on Making Light over the past few weeks, courtesy of one of its most prolific posters:
"...my correspondance with Feynman about poetry, which led to our often anthologized sonnet, was (through malpractice by a permissions editor) left out of the new collection of letters edited by daughter Michelle Feynman..."
"...his wife, now ex-wife, worked very hard to make me an unperson in the History of Nanotechnology..."
"I know exactly what it feels like to be fired with no proper cause..."
"...supporters of the plagiarists that cost me my aerospace career, and a quarter of a megabuck or so in legal fees..."
"...the fault is at the feet of my (former) attorney..."
"The uncertainty was also due to a weirdo named Ron Jones ..."
I will be combing further back in the archives to gather material for my upcoming biography: They're All Out to Get Me: The Many Enemies of Jonathan Vos Post, and Why He is Nowhere Near as Famous or Successful as He Deserves to Be.
Lucy --
You're welcome! ("Into the making of a piper go seven years"; I put in two and a half of them twenty five years ago, and have recently been attempting to see how much I've forgotten.)
Pipe bands, at least the higher end pipe bands, put a good deal of effort into making sure everyone's chanters play well together; it's not a given that any two stands of great pipes, even any two that are excellent for solo play, will get along musically.
So I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that getting along with other instruments entirely is such a challenge.
You can get small pipes that use traditional A and D scales (good for playing English and Irish folk dance music); I have heard those used in company with stringed instruments for dance bands.
The really traditional pipes, well, I have heard recordings of someone playing a replica of the Great Speckled Pipe, which dates from the early 1700s. (This is all via my memory, so I could be a bit off, there. Pre-1745, is the interesting bit.)
Two drones, with twisty square bores (drilled with a red-hot iron bar!) and a chanter carved out internally with narrow knives; irregular elliptical bore with a variable, rather than a constant, change in section from reed to sole.
It gives one a feeling for just what wild music it must have been, when the MacCrimmons taught it by singing and the Western musical tradition didn't want to know.
(this is a tactful way of saying "makes the hair on the back of one's neck not so much stand up as attempt to run away".)
the tuning is not even myxolidian, as the intervals are non-standard with respect to other Western instruments.
Quick pedantic note: "Mixolydian" (or any of the modes) is defined purely by its sequence of half- and whole-steps, and is independent of the tuning system used. In medieval times it would have been Pythagorean tuning; in the Renaissance, mean-tone (which is not worlds away from bagpipe tuning, sharing the 5/4 major third); in the Baroque, well temperament; in modern use, equal temperament. But all would be called Mixolydian.
Since this is an open thread -- James Doohan, Scotty on Star Trek, has passed away.
Thank you for not saying "beamed up." I'm thoroughly tired of that already.
Jimcat:
Your point is well-taken. There is a legitimate question as to whether my position is paranoid, or not paranoid enough.
It might not matter to anyone but me, my friends, and my family, but for the fact that Feynman, Nanotechnology, fatal corruption of the Space Shuttle contractors, and the like are objectively important.
By being in the right place at the right time, in terms of being before the early adopters, I have also been unusually exposed to politics and personalities in these fields.
I have a risky and somewhat self-defeating romanticism about acting in ways that I consider heroic, but which can equally well be taken as confrontational and provocative of those in power.
I have no problem with the Feynman family, quite the opposite, as I stay in touch with Feynman's sister, and daughter. That a permissions editor utterly failed to pass on extensive materials to Michelle Feynman, and this lapse resulting in my initially selected for inclusion in the collection of letters, then cut, was surely the fault of the permissions editor -- Michelle told me so.
That's not a "they're out to get me" stance. It's more of a "sh*t happens" stance, and my being unforgiving of those under whose aegis it happens.
I have a nuanced awareness of fame, as anyone living in Greater Hollywood must have, as well as anyone who's been close to celebrities who've suffered for their celebrity. I am not interested in being more famous. I have done work in several fields which I think has a degree of immortality, but that's for History to judge.
I agree that I'd like to have earned more money, but I have, as say, acted NOT in my immediate economic self-interest, but according to my perceived code of conduct for how authors and scientists are supposed to behave, as well as those tasked with, say, preventing death, and having management side with a lunatic and make policy decisions which did, in fact, lead to death.
Lone cowboy --> Noir detective. Myths of America. But I am taking an ethical position, as I see it, and am suffering for it. I know that I run the risk of seeming, well, eccentric to the point of irritating. But in the Making Light community, I get some very kind and constructive feedback, and am willing to have my hand slapped when my tone gets strident.
Thank you for taking the time to evaluate my position in this. Your opinion is self-consistent. And, once again, I may be wrong.
The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (SFM) in partnership with the Seattle International Film Festival Group (SIFF), today announced the launch of the first-annual Science Fiction Short Film Festival, to promote and encourage awareness, appreciation and understanding of the art of science fiction cinema.
The press release is here.
JVP, your explanation just makes it worse.
Need a job? Apply to Google Copernicus.
Marilee:
Thank you.
I consider myself an intellectual. That means that I define myself, in part, as someone who lives FOR ideas.
It seems to me that the mass of men and women live FROM ideas.
What Caltech woefully failed to teach me was that the world is also filled with scoundrels who live FROM the work of people who live FOR ideas.
It took me years to realize that academic and scientific protocol does not stay the hands of these malefactors, who (from my point of view) not only lack conscience, but watch others carefully for signs of conscience, which mark us as targets.
I am eternally grateful to SFWA Grievance, which at least ensured that I could keep some partial advances from books where there came to be a difference of opinion. And to MWA Legal Defense Fund, which helped me when I was arrested for asking those uncomfortable questions as a Town Council meeting about marked bills in officials' hands. And to the National Writers Union, which was doing fine in getting me credit and pay for my work as Technical Consultant on Philadelphia Experiment 2 until the grievance officer lost the files. And for other writers and scientists who have taken my side, in part because I do have some loyal friends, and in part because if you don't stand up for the intellectual property rights of oddballs who get ripped off, there may be nobody to help you when you get ripped off.
It took me more years to realize that one could litigate, to recover financial damages.
It has taken 15 years of litigation, sometimes successful, to realize that winning lawsuits and recovering money from crooked employers and publishers does NOT result in anyone admitted that one was right in the first place, let alone right to have proven so in court.
Hence my father's advice to me, posed as a question: "Would you rather be right, or happy."
My answer at the time was "Both!"
I no longer think that possible.
In a sense, the remedy for having one's freely disseminated ideas claimed and profitable used by others, who defensively attack you when you raise your voice in protest, is this: keep having good ideas. They can't all be stolen.
As I say, History will judge which ideas were good. Problem is, History is written by the victors. The easiest time to revise an incorrect account of History is when the parties are all still alive. Otherwise, the only option for the non-rich non-powerful is: outlive the parasites. Then tell the story as you know is right, without rude interruptions.
As to being fired without cause, I'd say: unless you can go to work knowing that you will choose to do the right thing, even at the risk of gettinbg fired, you should be working in some other field.
In addition to the Google lunar job, they have a lunar version of their aerial photography online at http://moon.google.com . Be sure to check the detail at the maximum zoom level.
Just thought some of you might be interested in this.
Jeremy Osner wrote:
Didn't Plato refer to a couple of the modes by name? Or is that just an artifact of the translation I read? If so, any idea what names he used to refer to the modes?
Yes, there were Greek modes named by region. Then, in the middle ages, there was a big revival of interest in Boethius' and Pythagoras' writings about music, and the church modes we know now (dorian etc) are all named after the Greek modes.
More recently still, people have been trying to reconstruct musical instruments of antiquity and, from them and the writings and the few surviving fragments of written music, perform ancient Greek music. There's a CD.
JVP, your reply to Marilee just made it worse. Try saying less unless people specifically ask for details.
Tim: I don't see how what you said changes what Graydon said or what I said. Graydon said bagpipes are mixolydian because of the pattern of whole steps and half steps. I said that they deviate from the mixolydian because the intervals are not all standard half steps and whole steps. The most prominent deviation I read about in Graydon's link is that the top A is flat relative to the rest of the scale. It gives a reason for it, but I think what it does is make the pipes sound sharper and shriller.
I don't know where else to put this but on an open thread: last night I dreamed that the Making Light regulars were helping me clean out an elderly aunt's home after she'd died. We were sorting the neat stuff from the useless, and James Macdonald was extremely helpful on the subject of how to safely dispose of various medical supplies and which things could be usefully donated to low-income clinics.
Those of you I know in person or have seen in photos did not look like yourselves, though. Lydy, for example, was a curly-haired, very very short platinum blonde. I kept asking her how she'd done it (leaving aside *why*), and she kept saying it was for the masquerade after my aunt's funeral. (None of my actual aunts have had masquerades at their funerals. Perhaps I should feel cheated.)
The brain is a very strange place.
vassilissa and Marilee:
My son suggest that someone write a book or story entitled: "Stop Blogging, You're Only Making It Worse." He also thinks the Olens' nanny was foolish for keeping her blog. He is disgusted by his fellow teeneagers wasting times on blog, and thinks I'm old enough to know better.
Teresa:
Oh. I thought that the Flypaper Theory particle would link to:
How a Fly Escapes Your Swat
By LiveScience Staff
posted: 12 July 2005
Trying to swat a fly can be among the most frustrating household activities. Now scientists know why it is so hard.
The fly's escape secret: It jumps rather than just trying to fly.
In a new study, researchers were interested in how a fly's brain executes the life-saving move. Gwyneth Card of the California Institute of Technology dropped black disks from different angles, each on course to squash a fly. She videotaped the scenes....
===
That, of course, reminded me of the line:
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / They kill us for their sport."
[King Lear IV.i.37–38]
Also, I wondered what her grant application looked like...
And I do agree with Patrick's link about what I suspected:
"Is Your Boss a Psychopath?"
Fast Company
From: Issue 96 | July 2005 | Page 44 By: Alan Deutschman Illustrations by: Christian Northeast
"Odds are you've run across one of these characters in your career. They're glib, charming, manipulative, deceitful, ruthless -- and very, very destructive. And there may be lots of them in America's corner offices."
"... 1% of the general population that isn't burdened by conscience. Psychopaths have a profound lack of empathy. They use other people callously and remorselessly for their own ends. They seduce victims with a hypnotic charm that masks their true nature as pathological liars, master con artists, and heartless manipulators. Easily bored, they crave constant stimulation, so they seek thrills from real-life "games" they can win -- and take pleasure from their power over other people."
So those of us who have many jobs and many collaborators are statistically likely to have roughly 1% of them claim credit for our ideas, fire us without cause, and that sort of thing. It's not me. It's a numbers game...
If it hasn't happened to you, just wait until you have also submitted 1,200 publications, and have as lengthy a resume as mine. There's a psychopath out there waiting for you to roll the dice one more time...
I've called my father a lot of things, but according to the Hare, he's a corporate psychopath. I wonder how much of that goes away with Alzheimers.
I said that they deviate from the mixolydian because the intervals are not all standard half steps and whole steps
This is what I'm (again, very pedantically) disagreeing with. Whether an interval is a half or whole step depends on its musical function rather than its exact tuning. If that weren't true, we wouldn't really be able to talk about the mode, since the tuning in use when it was named is no longer in use.
So the bagpipe's scale is just as Mixolydian as one on your piano. Same mode, different tuning. This is why we recognize "Amazing Grace" or "Scotland the Brave" on either instrument.
But, of course, you're exactly right that this tuning difference is very important in giving the pipes their distinctive sound. Like I said, I'm being very pedantic, probably pointlessly so.
The most prominent deviation I read about in Graydon's link is that the top A is flat relative to the rest of the scale.
That is definitely the weirdest thing about it. Octaves are usually constant across tuning systems (except gamelan). Other than that, it's a typical just intonation tuning (to the extent there is such a thing).
Speaking of "Amazing Grace" and just intonation, the Kronos Quartet's performance of Ben Johnston's theme-and-variations version of "Amazing Grace" (on White Man Sleeps) is a great place to start listening to just-intonation music.
What I like about stringed instruments (quite coincidentally, the only type I play), is that the tuning is totally up to the player. Now that said -- on a guitar you don't have much choice about the size of a half step, it's all laid out for you. But on a violin -- on a violin, you are free to create your own step sizes according to your ear and the placement of your fingers. I imagine trombonists feel the same freedom.
about all this neat music stuff:
Is there a book? I mean something for someone who's not a musician. A layman's book that helps the musically ignorant understand modes and scales and tuning and intervals.
Maybe with a CD?
Paging Philadelphia convention fandom: These people need you. They're planning "Eschacon" (as in Eschaton) for Labor Day weekend in Philadalphia and, judging from the comment sections, seem to be trying to invent the art of the convention from the ground up.
My recommendations of basic music books for beginners:
Aaron Copland's "What to Listen for in Music." A very good, basic introduction. Mostly helpful for someone who does not already play or sing music.
As quoted from above, Robert Jourdain's "Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures our Imaginations." Serious reams of notes and a bibliography--no fluff here. The meat of the book deals with sciences ranging from psychology to pure anatomy; later on you get into chapters that might start answering questions like "why does Chopin make me cry?" Starts off at the basic (chapter one is entitled "From sound...") and goes from there. The best basic music book I've seen. For people who already play or perform, this book will give them lovely anecdotes and a new appreciation. For beginners, it opens a world.
For a really technical but historically fascinating discussion on modes and temperament, "Temperament" by Stuart Isacoff is good.
Marilee: From experience I can tell you that if the Alzheimer's goes on long enough everything goes away. One thing that made a real difference in my father in the earlier stages was that they gave him the 1/week version of Prozac. He'd resisted taking the stuff before because it made him feel "weird", but during the failing fitully stage it made him a much more pleasant person to be around. I'm pretty firmly convinced the biochemical problem is from that side of the family -- his father, my paternal grandfather -- had the same sort of depression. And one of great granpa's wives is not spoken of -- I found out she died in an asylum -- which could easily have been depression. Anyway, since mother had taken over making sure he took the proper pills at the proper time it was easy to slip the Prozac in and just tell him it was one more thing the doctor had prescribed.
MKK
Patrick:
Regarding your "Google Earth, Google Moon, and Beyond?" link, your readers may or may not know that NASA already has partially implemented the top level domains:
.moon
.mercury
.venus
.mars
.jupiter
.uranus
.pluto
for the purposes of a planned web-based XML thingie for data from planetary probes.
Will there be a big showdown between Google, NASA, and Virgin Galactic over others? And how about the confusion between .xxx and .eros? Heavenly bodies, you know?
Speaking of "Amazing Grace"
Umm. We weren't. We were speaking of Great Highland Bagpipes.
Yes, I know how you got there -- but "Amazing Grace" was never a bagpipe tune until about the time that it showed up in that Star Trek movie (no, I don't think anybody thinks that was the initiator of it). My kid's bagpipe teacher is generally opposed to it, but when the school had yet another kid washed off the rocks he taught the pipers that tune because he knew that's what people expect nowadays for funerals.
It is pretty on the pipes.
I can add a data point to that: my one bagpipe record (not counting some albums with intermittent uilleann or Northumbrian pipes) is called Highland Pipes And Drums (Including Amazing Grace).
So in 1977, AG was popular enough on pipes to be a selling point.
It is odd that an American tune should end up associated with the Highland pipes. But at least it's a great tune.
Working in DC late last night,
He didn't looked left he only looks right.
He blocks out all thought of libety,
A skunk needing squashing in the land gone unfree.
You got your dead skunk
In the middle of the Rove
Dead skunk in the middle of the Rove
Dead skunk in the middle of the Rove
Stinking to high heaven
The Bush regime, that ain't no rose.
See Faux News and hold your nose.
The whole world looks and the whole world sees,
And it reeks in your olfactory.
(chorus)
Ari Fleischer gone and Colin Powell too,
But Karl Rove's got more dirty tricks to do,
It's a lying shame the vile things he's done
A dead skunk in comparison's a bright shining sun,
(chorus)
There's a huge stench arising from within DC,
For the legions of Dobson it's a place to be
And watch as they take all our liberty,
That dead skunk far better off than you and me,
You got your dead skunk
In the middle of the Rove
Dead skunk in the middle of the Rove
Dead skunk in the middle of the Rove
Stinking to high heaven
For anyone still moping about being unable to afford Glasgow this year, round trip air tickets from Newark (NJ) to Manchester (UK) were still at $795 last night, including taxes. There are trains from Manchester to Glasgow and Edinburgh - it's a few hours, but direct. That's how John and I are going.
I priced it again because I wanted to change our return flight by half a day, and I wanted to know the damages. The price hadn't changed at all, so we only had to pay the change fees ($200 each, so bad enough by themselves).
Our beloved choir director, organist and friend is leaving! He's taken a wonderful job at a wonderful church in Asheville, NC, and we are bereft. August 14 is his last Sunday here, and we were due back from the UK that afternoon. So now we'll get back the night before instead. *sigh*
About the Christmas in Tokyo billboard (sidelights), my wife translated it at "Christ was killed and Christmas was born"
I guess they kinda mixed up Good Friday and Christmas. Ah, the Japanese.
What con was this in Tulsa, just across the state line from me, that I missed?
Iran has executed two teenage boys for homosexuality.
The older one was 18, and the "offenses" were committed about two years ago; they've been in prison being tortured ever since.
I know it's not reasonable for this to change my opinion so that I'm now in favor of forced regime change in Iran. I expect I'll calm down. Right now nothing would give me more pleasure than to garrotte the members of that "Islamic Court" with piano wire; I'd consider their blood flowing over my hands a holy blessing.
Wow, I sure hope I do calm down. I've told my coworkers Do Not Feed the Christopher today. I heard about this a couple of hours ago, and I'm still in a rage. I really, really want to kill someone.
I think it was seeing the pictures of them with the nooses around their necks that did it.
Goddam murdering assholes.
Amazing Grace's quite inexplicable (to me, anyway) popularity for funerals aside, the traditional tune, and the one still played at Commonwealth military funerals where there's a piper, and not a bugler, is The Flowers of the Forest.
It has the advantages of being an old tune, of being wrought as a lament, and of being capable of a greater dignity of expression in skilled hands, at least as I see these things.
It's kinda like how Scotland the Brave can be readily outdone as either boast or menace by a number of much more obscure traditional marches.
Xopher: The most alarming thing about that story is that could be argued as reason for a forced regime change here in America, as well.
Adamsj - it was Conestoga, Jim, Margene and I were fan guests of honor and Brad Denton did a bitchin' toastmaster intro for all of us (it helps == or not==that we've known Brad for mumblty-mumpfh years). They've already posted next year's guests, see
http://www.sftulsa.org/
I hate missing this as much as I hate missing our local convention, ConQuesT (always Memorial Day). And their plays are wondrous.
Many of you out there will be mildly pleased to learn that a new 'international' Serenity trailer has gone online.
I dunno, Will. While gays are certainly oppressed here, and there are certainly factions that would like to kill us all, no one (much less a teenage boy) has been executed with that as the legal justification AFAIK. There was a guy whose homosexuality was an argument in favor of the death penalty in a murder case, but that's as far as it goes.
Tim Walters, I always thought the melody of "Amazing Grace" was a Scots pipe tune; am I wrong? The words are American, I know that. And if the tune is too, I suspect it's Appalachian - in that area the Celtic cultural influence is very strongly felt, and a lot of the music from there could easily be Scots or Irish if one didn't know its true provenance.
Xopher, thank you for the link, I hadn't heard. (Now I'm seething too, and a bit ill, really, but knowledge is better than not knowledge).
Xopher: I hope you didn't take my comment as trying to reduce the severity or atrocity of the story to which you linked. It made me ill.
A lot of things make me ill. And your point is valid, i.e., America only oppresses gays but doesn't actually intentionally *target* them (yet). I just wonder, when you deny individuals their liberties and pursuits of happiness, how far away are other "inalienable rights"?
Will, I didn't. We're cool.
And I know. Even the Pagan community has been seriously discussing whether we might need to flee this country at some point in the future...Margo Adler led one such discussion recently, saying that her grandparents fled Europe, leaving behind other people who said it could never happen there, that they were safe...and who subsequently died in the camps.
As a Gay Pagan (and leftie), I'm not sure what patch they'd sew on my uniform. I hope I never find out.
Nigeria has issues beyond sending spam. The first 3 stories are one case, the last is another. Nigerian man sentenced to stoning for gay sex ABC Online, Australia - 8 Jul 2005 (Short piece)
Nigerian faces death by stoning for gay sex PM - Thursday, 14 July , 2005 (Transcript of longer radio piece) ... Nigerian women have also had their sentences overturned. But for men involved in homosexual sex, there's been little response ...
Nigerian man sentenced to death after admitting to gay sex Southern Voice Online, Friday, July 15, 2005 (printer-friendly version)
Gay Nigerian men face being stoned to death Mail & Guardian Online, 13 July 2005
Xopher:
My mother's parents liked to play Mahjong at the beach with friends who happened to be concentration camp survivors. I found myself speculating, as a child, what number I would someday get for my tattoo.
One of my brothers married the daughter of two concentration camp survivors.
A great uncle of mine was the only survivor of a village, when the Nazis stuffed the entire village into the synagogue, then burnt it down -- my relative hid under the stairs outside.
Another relative on my father's side escaped a death camp and fought with the Polish partisans against the Nazis.
At Boeing, I had a writer friend who dated the most depressed ladey I'd seen in years. Turns out that she's been a child sex slave of nazi officers at a death camp. They "liked" her. She survived. But at what cost?
Oh yes, it can happen here. It did in WWII if you were Japanese (and in aomse cases, Italian). Is is in Gitmo.
It can happen after they round up the guns, as they did in the Warsaw ghetto.
If you wore eyeglasses, the Khmer Rouge would kill you on the grounds that you could read books, and thus could have Ideas.
How big a step is it from burning Harry Potter books to burning pagans?
Cassandra-- Thanks for the recommendations. They sound like just what I'm looking for.
*clicks over to Amazon*
Comments on Open thread 46: