One year ago today: March 13, 2018, turn up the oatmeal!
Five years ago today: March 13 , 2014, but I'm not 'that' drunk . . .
Nine years ago today: March 13, 2010, political interference.
Random years ago today: March 13, 2007, the French granddaughter.
A lovely day and here is a photo I call “Trouble Brewing”. That’s a murder of crows in the background, and whoever invented that collective term knew exactly what this dog was thinking. I get turned around too easily in the wood trails around here. The dogs kind of drag me where they think it’s best. That’s the day, feeding and walking animals. They had me jogging for almost three blogs. Well, more of a light trot, not actually running. I went aerobic there for a few moments.
What's this then? The latest Swiss voting machines are being scrutinized for being vulnerable to hacking? Give me ten bucks and I'll tell you why that is. Okay, I'll lend you the ten bucks, but the reason the machines will never work right is two-fold. They are not programmed, they are coded, and the code is done by millennials who innately cannot fathom there were computers that worked before 2004. I have one using XP and I would not give it up for anything. Well, almost anything, Taylor. And last evening, I spent an hour learning the real bass line to "Longfellow Serenade". None of the on-line versions are right, though many have stretches that are accurate.
To any bassists out there, give that tune a try. I'm more convinced now than a month ago that there is something characteristic that ties Diamond's bass lines together. I'm determined to find it. I know it has something to do with major 7ths, both ascending and descending. That alone breaks the rules. It also makes it a task for me to decipher my ear. It's a subtle difference at a part of the scale that has always burdened my ear. On the other hand, we have a compatibility in that he often changes the key of the bass line a full measure before the chord. I may not be describing that right. I've never seen this technique addressed anywhere.
Again, Glenn and ilk, I'm not saying I invented this. I'm saying I independently derived it. Sure, I understand you may have done it all before. But if so, you never said, and you certainly never discussed it as a method to be developed as assistance to all your wonderful 'original' music. I have at least consciously pursued the idea, and fully admit it is one of the tactics I use to pre-empt show-ff lead players.
St. Petersburg University.
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Here's a commentary on German manufacturing quality. Near the end of the Second World War, Germany was single-handedly fighting almost every country in the world that could be strong-armed into borrowing money, er, I mean, the Allies. Of course, I meant the Allies. At the last moment, why, even countries like Chile were fighting for our freedom. And if you want an 'A' on that exam, you better say so, too. The Germans began producing "tank hunters", a larger caliber gun mounting with limited traverse on a tank chassis. It means you pretty much had to keep the whole tank pointed toward the enemy. And with that enemy mortgaged into eternity by the central banks, targets were plentiful. Sign here and you're an "Ally".
I discovered a number of these units are still carried on inventories in countries like Syria. This is a still from a 1991 military parade. I'd recognize this anywhere. It is a 75mm cannon, with pig-snout mantlet, married to the chassis of a Panzer Mk IV. Behind the turret is a weld-on storage compartment. Since nobody buys one tank, there must be several locations where these units are mothballed. Sure, they would be no match for modern tanks, but stop and think about that. The things that make them modern also make them fragile--and to the right opponent, vulnerable.
If these old German designs are properly stored, they likely still run. In skilled hands they could do a lot of damage. These Centurion and Abrams tanks need immense crews of mechanics and technicians to keep them ready. No way they could stand a year in storage, the truth is probably that they require constant upkeep to stay parked. Not to mention the vast array of satellites and computers to keep them capable. So, all Syria has to do if Israel ever gets into a real tangle is wait. At the end of even 30 days, these German (pssst, millennials, that's German, not Nazi) tanks could be the only runners left.
Don't worry, it won't happen. The official story is that all the panzers everywhere have been scrapped. If they survive despite that story, the tanks would still have to be crewed properly. I'm reminded of the time Nixon (US pres.) asked Dayan (Israeli defence minister) if Israel had the best army in the world. Dayan replied he couldn't say because the only opponents they'd ever fought were Arabs.
[Author's note: as a research project, you might want to compile a list of countries that did not borrow money to fight Germany during World War II. You would find the list very familiar today, and hopefully, very disturbed to know what's happened to those countries since then.]
ADDENDUM
Where was I? I was going to give an example of when you rely on strangers. (A reminder here that any such examples given in this blog are 'detuned'.) Two years ago, Lorna, from New York. She's going to mind the place instead of me. She's got some things to take care of in Nashville, and it's only two weeks, and that should work out for everybody. Lorna is New Age, has her own business, a great supporter of whales, and all this while I'm thinking, "Lorna, huh? New York, huh?"
This place is like the cabin regarding services. Near the city but not in it. Trying to buy anything after hours can become an expedition. Two weeks later, think of finding this situation. You get home at 11:30PM after a delayed flight. It's moonless, it's raining, you are exhausted. You are famished. Every scrap, every morsel of food in the house has been eaten and not replaced. Not even a cracker left in the cupboards. Wait, there is a final indignity. Also, no toilet paper.
This gives you a glimmer of what I'm doing here so far from home, when I have my own matters to tend to back at the cabin. But, who can you trust? I've had related instances, you get home to discover they'd done 50 loads of laundry, or run the electric to five times normal. In the long run, though, my favorite remains the people who put empty jars and packages back in the cupboards. I conclude there is a psychosis attached to that one.
Now much as I like new adventure, and by now you see difference in the pace of the blog, I am still away from home. I miss my work shed already and I'm not vegetarian. It's little things, but it is lots of them. Like I don't have my microwave out on the balcony to protect the pets and I happen to like tea that has no medicinal qualities.
