Sunday, July 12, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
one does tend to go on
Sorry if I'm boring you with guitar notes, but I thought this quote from Steve van Zandt of Bruce Sprinsteen's E-Street Band (via dangerousmeta) was pretty funny:
Ha ha. I did that. I learned to pick out a Sor study at about one-third of the designated tempo and posted a video of myself playing it on Facebook for my friends.
It was more about gratitude than performance, really. A couple of my friends had encouraged me to play - one of them even gave me a couple guitars, an acoustic and an electric - and I just wanted to let them know I was keeping at it. (The electric guitar went off to live with Amy and her friends when she moved out. It's a better environment for it - they play loud. One must find one's proper niche.)
I promised my FB friends I'd eventually learn how to play the song right and post an update later. I need a lot of work. We're talking years.
I don't see myself ever standing up in front of a barroom crowd and making people dance. I'm working on a simplified waltz by Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841) right now. It's a pretty piece of music, but I just don't see the kids getting up out of their seats for it.
Still. I get van Zandt's point. It's one thing to play for yourself and another thing to play for others, no matter the genre. I was listening to something by Segovia on my iPod the other day that sent a wave of happiness from my spine out through my fingertips. I'd like to send shivers like that up someone else's spine someday, either with my guitar or with a painting or a photo or with words. (Actually, people have reacted that way to my work once or twice. It does make me happy to be able to communicate something real to someone.)
Who knows, maybe I'll learn to strum a little. I mean, kids make whole careers out of G, C and D.
I found myself repeating a phrase in my head earlier today: "The world's happiness begins with your own." I puzzled over that for a while and later heard myself answer, "Perhaps. But sooner or later you have to let it flow." (I have unusual conversations with myself. They're often agonizingly repetitive and circular and repetitive and circular and sometimes last for years without making any progress toward any real insight.)
Oh, on a different note (hardy har): I uploaded some new classical guitar CDs to my iTunes library. An algorithm in the software evaluated them and characterized them as "low complexity." HA HA HA yeah right. Computers are stupid.
"Kids are now going from their rooms where they are learning the rudiments of playing and they go right to MySpace and Facebook. They are skipping the most important stage of their life, which is the bar-band stage...the energy that comes when you compel people to dance stays with you your whole career -- whether you are playing to 100,000 people at Glastonbury or 1,000 kids in a club."
Ha ha. I did that. I learned to pick out a Sor study at about one-third of the designated tempo and posted a video of myself playing it on Facebook for my friends.
It was more about gratitude than performance, really. A couple of my friends had encouraged me to play - one of them even gave me a couple guitars, an acoustic and an electric - and I just wanted to let them know I was keeping at it. (The electric guitar went off to live with Amy and her friends when she moved out. It's a better environment for it - they play loud. One must find one's proper niche.)
I promised my FB friends I'd eventually learn how to play the song right and post an update later. I need a lot of work. We're talking years.
I don't see myself ever standing up in front of a barroom crowd and making people dance. I'm working on a simplified waltz by Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841) right now. It's a pretty piece of music, but I just don't see the kids getting up out of their seats for it.
Still. I get van Zandt's point. It's one thing to play for yourself and another thing to play for others, no matter the genre. I was listening to something by Segovia on my iPod the other day that sent a wave of happiness from my spine out through my fingertips. I'd like to send shivers like that up someone else's spine someday, either with my guitar or with a painting or a photo or with words. (Actually, people have reacted that way to my work once or twice. It does make me happy to be able to communicate something real to someone.)
Who knows, maybe I'll learn to strum a little. I mean, kids make whole careers out of G, C and D.
I found myself repeating a phrase in my head earlier today: "The world's happiness begins with your own." I puzzled over that for a while and later heard myself answer, "Perhaps. But sooner or later you have to let it flow." (I have unusual conversations with myself. They're often agonizingly repetitive and circular and repetitive and circular and sometimes last for years without making any progress toward any real insight.)
Oh, on a different note (hardy har): I uploaded some new classical guitar CDs to my iTunes library. An algorithm in the software evaluated them and characterized them as "low complexity." HA HA HA yeah right. Computers are stupid.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
when you hear bells, look up
Just got back from a nice sunset ride. The sun was 10 or 15 minutes below the horizon when I came up from behind on a woman talking on her cell phone. As it was getting dark, I didn't want to startle her, so instead of giving my bell a good solid thwack I pinged it twice gently. She immediately looked straight up into the sky and said into her phone, "I'm hearing bells..."
I gave her a nod as I passed, along with a nice, friendly, "Howdy, ma'am," but sorry, no, I ain't no angel.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
well dang it
I've been mulling the purchase of a DSLR. I'm leaning toward the new Pentax K-7, but I'll wait till the reviews come out and the price drops a little. The bigger problem is, for the kind of photography I usually do I'd want a long lens, and the one I'm eyeballing, the DA*300mm f4, is like $1200. Dang.
But just for kicks, I took Sarah's K200D out with me today with the 50mm f1.7 from my dad's old ME Super. (That's one of the reasons I like Pentax - brand loyalty, plus you can use legacy glass.) I had a little trouble figuring out the correct settings for a manual lens on a digital AF camera, but I got a couple good shots.
Forgot how wide you can open up an f1.7...
These next two are at higher f-stops, but they're really the ones that are making it hard to ignore the DSLR call. I love the versatility of my Panasonic, but the color, image quality and creative possibilites of the DSLR are hard to resist. Didn't make the decision-making process any easier. Nuts.
(The turtle from the set below was also from the Pentax.)
But just for kicks, I took Sarah's K200D out with me today with the 50mm f1.7 from my dad's old ME Super. (That's one of the reasons I like Pentax - brand loyalty, plus you can use legacy glass.) I had a little trouble figuring out the correct settings for a manual lens on a digital AF camera, but I got a couple good shots.
Forgot how wide you can open up an f1.7...
These next two are at higher f-stops, but they're really the ones that are making it hard to ignore the DSLR call. I love the versatility of my Panasonic, but the color, image quality and creative possibilites of the DSLR are hard to resist. Didn't make the decision-making process any easier. Nuts.
(The turtle from the set below was also from the Pentax.)
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