READIN: as of May 31, 2020

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READIN started out as a place for me to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly) how to design a web site.

There has been some mission drift here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of the main things I write about here are reading books, listening to (and playing) music, and watching the movies. Also I write about the work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.

The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.

See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.

READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.

Friday, May 22nd, 2020

🦋 viola d'ottone: neck geometry

Here is how the two-piece neck is shaped --

Next step is cutting the mortise in the upper neck and finalizing the length!

posted afternoon of May 22nd, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about viola d'ottone

Thursday, May 21st, 2020

🦋 viola d'ottone: alignment

Today I did a first rough fit of the tailpiece and neck into the viola d'ottone. I'm overjoyed to see everything lining up straight, I was quite convinced there would be a misalignment that I'd have to correct for.

posted evening of May 21st, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about Luthery

Wednesday, May 20th, 2020

busy being born, and busy
dying. Busy
with decisions and revisions
which a minute will reverse. Busy
busy busy
believing foma
and doubting

the strength to force the moment
to its crisis.

posted morning of May 20th, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about Poetry

Monday, May 11th, 2020

🦋 Ten books

So the ten books that first occur to me as "books that have profoundly influenced my worldview" (whatever those words mean) are, and I posted them in the order that they occurred to me yesterday and today:

Snow (Orhan Pamuk, Turkey 2002)
Bicameral Mind (Jaynes, US 1976)
INFINITE JEST (dfw, US 1996)
El arte de la resurrección (Hernán Rivera Letelier, Chile 2010)
Bleak House (Dickens, UK 1853)
The Autograph Man (Smith, UK 2002)
Manituana (Wu Ming, Italy 2007)
Debt (Graeber, US 2011)
Regeneration Through Violence (Slotkin, US 1973)
The Unknown University (Bolaño, Chile 2011)

(9 should probably have an asterisk by it, I don't think I ever actually read the whole book.)

I'm happy with this list. I would recommend any of these books highly, were a friend to come to me looking for reading material. Maybe 9. should trade places with #11, "Blindness" by Saramago. I have blogged many of these reads, not all.

posted afternoon of May 11th, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about Readings

Sunday, May 10th, 2020

🦋 Nametag Rag

From The Modesto Kid and his Imaginary Ragtime Ensemble,

Score beneath the fold

↷read the rest...

posted evening of May 10th, 2020: Respond
➳ More posts about Songwriting

Tuesday, April 28th, 2020

🦋 viola d'ottone: second thoughts about the neck

I think I need to laminate the brass viola's neck out of two pieces, so the grain in the upper neck and pegbox/scroll can be straight. I do not think it will be strong enough going at an angle across the grain as it is currently laid out [cf]. I have a pretty clear mental picture of what the joint should look like.

posted morning of April 28th, 2020: 1 response
➳ More posts about Projects

Monday, April 27th, 2020

🦋 viola d'ottone: cutting the neck

I've laid out the neck for my brass viola. Next step will be cutting the outline and the tenon. I will leave the full thickness of the board in place until the neck fits into the viola body straight and lined up with the tail.