READIN: as of December 31, 2019

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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.

Tuesday, December 31st, 2019

🦋 ...What's a few canaries, more or less...

See a headline positing phenomenon X as a "canary in the coal mine" wrt climate change, and my first thought is, we're way past canaries at this point-- the floor of the mine is littered with little yellow corpses, why do we keep on bringing in canaries to test for safety?

The forests are burning.

posted morning of December 31st, 2019: Respond

Friday, December 27th, 2019

🦋 A set of original tunes for the open mic

I've been practicing for the open mic on Monday at Hat City Kitchen, where I'll be playing cello and singing. I was pretty satisfied with my plan to play "Tombstone Blues", "The Raven Rag", and "Jagged Nickel", but then I thought why not make it all originals. I decided I can sing "Rainy Day Woman", so I'm going to open with that.

Sylvia is planning to come along, and assuming she does, I will ask her to film the set. I've invited several people -- this is just about the first time I've done that for an open mic. Real Tom said he will come, and John from Traficantes also said he may. Jerry will try to make it.

The songs are all in G*. Oh well, I haven't got a huge range vocally. Also it is easy key (G minor*) to improvise in on the cello.

I made a couple of changes in "The Raven", the bird is now going to have "he" pronoun instead of "she" and is "a jet-black bird" rather than "pretty". If I can make it work, the last two verses will be a good deal slower than the rest of the song and with extra measure on the first and third line. (Similar to Richard Fariña's version in "The Falcon".)

I am hoping there will be a bass player there who wants to back me up and can work out/follow my changes, they are quite simple but I don't have a chord sheet to give.

*...Wait no, duh, D minor! Not G -- I've been rehearsing these songs in G but I can sing them much better in D. Glad I realized this today (Sunday) & not tomorrow.

posted afternoon of December 27th, 2019: 1 response
➳ More posts about Songwriting

Saturday, December 21st, 2019

🦋 the raven rag

the "the raven" rag for tin-can cello:

posted evening of December 21st, 2019: Respond
➳ More posts about Edgar Allen Poe

Thursday, December 19th, 2019

🦋 Viola da wok

Yesterday I ordered a wok. I'm starting my next metal soundboard instrument, a da gamba tenor violin with carbon steel soundboard¹. A rough sketch of the design:

parts:

wok (14" diameter)
neck + dowel (I'm thinking I will use cherry)
dowel stop (a small piece of wood that will ride on the bottom of the dowel, as a spacer for the tailpiece)
back -- arched maple. Thinking I will use some very pretty wormy maple that I've had in my shop for years and years. It is flatsawn but I think it would resonate. Back will be attached with a kerfed lining which I'll need to make. Soundholes will be on the sides of the back.
tailpiece -- likely will use a 1/4 size cello tailpiece. May need a cork spacer to raise the angle of the tailpiece.
bridge -- maybe a viola da gamba bridge? or a fractional cello bridge? or a viola bridge?
strings (steel) -- the tones I am thinking of are G2, D3, A3, E4 (and possibly B4). Maybe use 1/4 cello strings? The scale length will be something like 20". Or another possibility, tune in fourths E2, A2, D3, G3, B3.
fingerboard
pegs

posted morning of December 19th, 2019: 1 response
➳ More posts about Luthery

Sunday, December 15th, 2019

🦋 a quick couplet

I decay; idk
wtfruok?

posted evening of December 15th, 2019: Respond
➳ More posts about Poetry

🦋 Happy Ragtime Xmas!

Happy holidays all! A new take on an old carol.

The "angels we have heard on high" rag for tin-can cello:

the "silent night/joy to the world" rag for #tincancello:

the "god rest ye merry" rag for strings + tin-can cello:

the "herald angels" rag for strings + tin-can cello:

↷read the rest...

posted morning of December 15th, 2019: 3 responses
➳ More posts about The Tin-can Cello

Monday, December second, 2019

🦋 Labyrinth

posted evening of December second, 2019: 1 response
➳ More posts about Pretty Pictures

Tuesday, November 26th, 2019

🦋 Gluing up

For a while I have had in mind making a viola da gamba type of instrument with a steel wok as its soundboard and an arched maple back. An interesting question is how do you attach the wood to the metal -- I have had in mind screwing it together. Just now I had the thought that a thin wooden lining could be glued to the metal (I guess with Gorilla Glue?) and then attach the back with hide glue.

This way I can make the back much thinner, like a violin back, and not need thickness to screw into. No need to drill holes in the metal -- much better.