Although I have done it all these thirty years or more, although I live my life surrounded by other people who are always doing it, still I think that there are few activities so worthy of inspection as the reading of novels.
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READIN
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.
At The Fiddler's Companion, I found another Napoleon-themed Irish reel: "Napoleon Crossing the Alps". I've been playing it this morning and have uploaded the music in PDF format. I am curious what it means that the key signature is one sharp, but the tune resolves to A -- is this some kind of wacky modal thing? Also weird: The source at Fiddler's Companion has an accidental sharp marked at every occurrence of F♯, which seems redundant and makes the music difficult to read. I removed the accidentals.I was thinking it might be possible to make a medley of "Napoleon Crossing the Rhine" with this; but I'm not sure what kind of transposing I should do or alternately, how to modulate between the two.
Update: My mom (who knows about such things) says, this is Dorian mode:
A tune can be built (and resolve) around any of the notes in the
scale - this is modal writing. The mode that resolves to the 1st
note of the scale is what we call major. The one that resolves to the
6th note is what we call minor. the one that resolves to the second
tone of the (major) scale is called dorian. This modal writing is
used a lot in traditional tunes.
You can get the idea of the sound by playing a scale using only white
notes. First play c-c, that's ionian (major). Then play d-d,
that's dorian. e-e is phrygian , f-f is lydian, g-g is mixolydian. a-a
is æolian (minor), and b-b is locrian.
(Edited with some suggestions from my brother, who also wants to point out that ionian and æolian modes are Not Really major and minor, because tonal music is different from modal music. My sister wanted to point out in this regard that "we have the nerdiest family EVER.")
posted morning of October 19th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Songs
Well obviously not... But it seems to me like there could be a silver lining in the dark cloud that is McCain's campaign tactics of racist innuendo -- if Obama wins (as I am expecting and hoping he will), it will be a pretty significant bit of evidence that racist attacks have lost their appeal with the American electorate -- or that the portion of the electorate they appeal to has shrunk into insignificance.
I've been messing around further with Napoleon Crossing the Rhine; here it is with "Bonaparte's Retreat" added as a chorus. Big jam at Menzel Violins this afternoon, maybe I will lead this tune.
posted morning of October 19th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Music
I wasn't buying as a book collector would, but as a frantic person who was desperate to understand why Turkey was so poor and so troubled.
Pamuk's essay in today's Guardian reminds me a lot of his essays in Part II of Other Colors, "Books and Reading." He talks about reading and imitating the first and second waves of 20th-century Turkish poets, and how that poetry (and the repression of those poets) affected his thinking and his voice.
The second half of the essay however moves into different territory, questions about Turkey's status as a nation and in relation to the West -- this is material that he has written a lot about, much of it collected in the subsequent section of Other Colors, "Politics, Europe, and Other Problems of Being Oneself." The transition -- the sentence I have quoted above -- is a bit of genius, a summary in 26 words of a huge portion of Pamuk's writing and thinking -- there are whole volumes of worthwhile memoir that can be extrapolated from this sentence.
A lovely essay -- go read it! But Ms. Freely: "exalt" does not mean the same thing as "exult". (Apologies if this error is down to the editors rather than the translator.)
I have added an entry for this essay to the Pamuk bibliography I'm maintaining. If you see any other articles that would fit in well there, let me know.
posted morning of October 18th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Orhan Pamuk
I just heard Chris Kofinis on Keith Olbermann's show, saying that this election year could see a realignment similar to that of 1980. Could this be? It seems like in 1980 (from my loose memory of the Reagan years), people who had previously identified themselves as "liberal" or as "Democrats" started thinking of themselves as "conservative" and as "Republicans". Will voting for Obama make people start thinking of themselves as "Democrats" going forward?
This time with politics -- Unfunkked 8: That Ain't Gravy, Lady is available for download. (Also the Apostropher has archived volumes 1 - 7 in one place together, along with "Don't Bogart that Groove" and "Apomerica.")
I'm listening to the first track right now and swinging.
Update (as of track 5): The mix is really smooth and consistent -- transitions from song to song make sense. Shake your bootie, baby.
Update (as of track 10): Listening to this tape is highly recommended as an alternative to watching the debate. Way better use of your mind. I want you to know, exactly how I feel.
Update (as of track 17): This tape saves the best for last. I have never heard of the Lafayette Afro Rock Band before just now. My mind has been expanded. (Some more Lafayette tunes are available at Dr. Okeh's FORREALHEADZ blog.)
The fourth day of next month (a day I can hardly wait for!) will mark the second presidential election I've voted in while living in South Orange. Before that:
One election in Jackson Heights, 2000. I was disappointed about Bush winning but truth be told, I was pretty apathetic that year. Soon afterwards I had cause to feel bad about my apathy.
One election in Sunnyside, 1996. I remember being really keyed up and excited about Clinton being re-elected.
One election in Park Slope, 1992. Was not really very engaged that year, I can't remember what I thought about the election. Pretty sure I voted for Clinton.
One election while a student at Columbia, 1988. I had no clue that year, IIRC I voted for Lenora Fulani or something equally ridiculous and lame. This was the first election I had ever voted in.
All previous elections (that I can remember), I was living at my parents' house in Modesto. I think the earliest election I have any real memory of is 1980.
So: this is the longest I've spent living in one place since childhood! This is also true of Ellen. Wild.
(Also, come to think of it: this is the second election since I started blogging. FWIW.)
Here are three ways a novel can be good: It can appeal to the ear, with fluency of prose and well-chosen words; it can appeal to the mind, with elegant structure and finely crafted plot; and it can appeal to the heart, pulling the reader away from himself and into the personalities of its characters. The first part of In Hovering Flight was appealing mostly to my ear and my mind; but with the return to the present moment in part II and the focus on Scarlet's thoughts, it is starting to get to my heart as well.
