One year ago today: December 27, 2016, the most dreadful tunes.
Five years ago today: December 27, 2012, on fantasy wealth.
Nine years ago today: December 27, 2008, is still missing.
Random years ago today: December 27, 2006, I give up slow music.
Returning to blog normality. Because I don’t have any other photos for you, here is my Xmas eve output of newspaper puzzles. These are all from the Tampa Bay Times, about the only reason to buy that liberal rag. Every columnist from that paper is terrified of expressing anything but the sappiest view of anything. But we all recognize this brand of hypocrite. Eight by ten glossy put-on for the world, but goes home and beats up his wife and kids, then head’s for the nearest whore house. It’s just that the Tampa bunch are so particularly creepy about it.
These puzzles I do in the coffee shop, which draws more than a few looks and comments. Alas, never from babes, but then, I can’t find a coffee shop where any of those hang out. I told you years ago, there is almost a total lack of babes in this state. So I get comments from old men and even older ladies. They’ll tell me I’m really good at the puzzles. I guess they figure I don’t know that. But I never let them see what I’m writing and I’ll tell you why.
If you look closely at the squares, you’ll find mistakes. Let me find one for you. Ah, the first puzzle at the top, the first word is wrong. But the fact that I know it is wrong says I left it on purpose. This is because I do the puzzles in ink. The word I got wrong is 4 down; instead of ‘aloe’ it should be ‘sloe’. Mark my words if I let these geniuses see that, they’d point it out if they could. It’s their duty to let me know I’m not as smart as they are should they ever put their minds to it. This I know from my upbringing.
Ah, but there are other times I did correct mistakes. What’s with that? Easy, it means I was struggling with the answer and got it from filling in the other clues until it hit me. The crypto puzzles are not for everybody, but most of the nowadays solutions are not from traditional letter frequency but from pattern recognition. That’s changed since I was young.
The answer in the Jumble is not filled in. I often don’t bother when I figure it out before I’ve finished the scrambled clues. This one is ‘local chapters’. There is plain something unwholesome about people who would watch somebody else working a puzzle rather than go get their own. That should explain why I hesitate to let anyone see my solutions.
Naples, Italy.
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Whether or not anything flies, this afternoon was phenomenal. All of this centers around the guitar lady I met for an audition. No matter if anything works out, I met a real individual in the music field. The lady from Coombe. (Later, she misspelled the word, it is Combee.) It’s in the northeast end, not in Australia. That’s the lady music teacher who must, therefore, know or be aware of theory. Theory is a strange musical animal. It is not really needed most of the time, but it is super-handy when trying to explain something to another musician. (Theory is also not needed when the guitar player already knows everything and thusforth never needs anything explained.) Pay attention here, this has potential.
The lady guitarist was something else. She had played in the 80s and 90s, though not since. That accounts for the 18 year gap which was quite evident, but she’ll get it back. However not only did she know theory, she was a veteran of putting a successful band together. And there is a narrow definition of what is successful. It means a live band that consistently plays out regularly over a period of years with the same members and makes money. Should any one of those elements be missing, it is not successful. Not one of the musicians I’ve gigged with in Florida has ever put such a band together. Hell, not even close.
Merely playing in a band does not compare. Even the five-piece I was in played only once every three months and never made a penny of profit. That band cost me money. There is a huge difference between creating a band and just playing in one; it is the same gulf as between management and labor. Imagine my glee to meet someone who’s done it. There were practically no teething problems and in an hour and a half, we covered 17 tunes—not one of which she had ever played before. Once she glommed onto the unique strum of each tune, the arrangement was practically stage-ready.
This is a different approach to the usual method of sitting down and going over the tunes one by one until it is drilled into everybody’s skull, the bonehead approach. Right, Glen? I was closely watching the learning process and if she is adapting quickly. Contrast this with the average guitarist who won’t even try. How do I know she’s getting it? Because she is running into the same barriers I did in the same order. I can think of twenty guitar players who never got that far. It’s because they don’t want to play rhythm, they wanna play guitar.
I’ve learned the indirect approach to this technique. I take my own guitar along as well as the bass and ask that they play the same strum as me without knowing what song we are going to play. That way, they won’t lapse into “guitar mode”. This falls short of giving lessons but you would be surprised how many guitar players can’t or won’t learn it—despite the fact I’ve made it clear beforehand that unless they already know this system, they will have to learn it or quit wasting my time. She not only learned it (sort of) but instantly saw the potential. And said she was enthused. It is something different. I did not say better, just different.
But damn rights it is better. A word of caution here. Every tune we went over was one I had already personally arranged. She was playing the finished product along with the bassist who created the moves. There is no guarantee that this is the form things will take, and not every tune can be properly arranged for duo presentation, the important word being ‘properly’. What really sold her was memorizing the strum independently without knowing the song being learned. Later, once the bass line was applied, she could always instantly name the tune. Instead of playing “the guitar part”, she was playing the rhythm. It is an amazingly effective system for that fact alone.
Here is the chart I use when referring to what chords to play on the bass, although I do not actual play any chords, I often play scale notes were they add something missing. I'll say again I am not into the theory that the correct way to play anything is by ear. I say use anything advantage you can. I read music, tablature, chord charts, cheatsheets, and in a pinch, a video. (I'm appalled how many guitarists can't read a chord pattern when I show it to them using the bass neck.)
{Author’s note: I often spend hours to find one suitable song for these arrangements. In the process, I find many more songs that are not good candidates. While most every song could conceivably be of use, there is one that hands down is worst--yet if you talk to a guitar player he will swear it’s one of the best. That tune is “House of the Rising Sun”. If it could be done well, I would have by now.
This typifies the difference between theory and practice. The guitar player not only thinks he’s done it, he thinks he’s done a magnificent job. And anybody who don’t think so must be musically crippled. Right, Glen? Ah, just go play that dreary Mary Jane song again.]
Visit sunny Naples, Italy.
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ADDENDUM
I’m as interested in reading theory electronics as building things and I’ve been uncovering complaints about the Arduino PWM. (I’m predicting PWM to be the next big thing in electronics and robotics.) As soon as I get a desk, I’m hauling my micro-controllers out. Right now, they are packed in a dust-proof environment. After studying the topic, I’m semi-convinced that PWM was added to the
Before continuing, newcomers take a look at this visual. This is the type of motor that requires pulse width modulation to operate. It has a different power cable style and you may notice the casing has mounting clips. This motor is designed to rotate to and hold at a certain position based on the signal being received. That’s the whining noise you hear on some toys. Without PWM, using servos eats up your battery power. With PWM, this motor detects the duty cycle (off-on cycle) of the incoming signal.
I use only Arduino Uno and Mega boards, leaning more toward programming than wiring, but I’ve done both. When I hit a glitch, I presumed it was my pin assignments, but now I’m hearing increasing reports that it is the Arduino itself. If you activate PWM on one pin, it disables “at least one other pin”. That explains some of the failures I’ve had. I may have incorrectly blamed those servo boards I got from Hacktronics. My servos would often stutter in place without turning. I’ll be taking a closer look.
This was a problem I encountered, but my solution was to add another Arduino board to handle the overload. That can get expensive, especially on the newer Arduinos which do not have removable chips. Nobody has yet marketed a cheap Arduino “read only” board, cheap as in the $4 range. Using up a true Arduino costs ten times that. Most beginners and dabblers balk at spending $80 for a simple two-board project, plus it ties up your equipment.
This was what stalled my improved flight simulator. I blamed myself because it was one of my most complicated designs to date. Then at this late date I hear it could be the micro-controller. As usual, a few years later, the experts catch up.
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