Trivia that matter
I’d planned to work on music this evening, but it’s hard to concentrate when sirens keep going off nearby.
Update: It looks like the main event is scheduled for Saturday.
Update II: I suppose I should be grateful that there weren’t any tigers loose in the area.
The audio player that I’ve been using no longer works, so I’m trying a new one. Let me know if this doesn’t work for you.
The tune is “Captain Murasa,” yet another piece from the vast Touhou project. I worked on the arrangement for a while, then got sidetracked on other projects. I doubt that I’ll do more with it, so here is my not-quite-satisfactory version as it is. (It’s not entirely my own work; parts of it are almost verbatim from the transcription I worked from. Also, that’s my computer playing, not me.)
Incidentally, if Minamitsu Murasa asks you for a ladle, be sure the one you give her has a hole in it.
(The illustration is from here.)
Update: The new player doesn’t work so well when there are many tunes on a page. Let’s try a different one.
Update II: Uploaded a better-sounding recording.
I don’t care how good your blues band is, 8 a.m. Sunday morning is not the time to rehearse.
I finally finished going through all the pictures from Figments and Filaments last week, and my eyes are bleary. You can see them all here.
I uploaded a picture taken several pairs of glasses ago to How Old Do I Look? The MS robot is not very accurate, but give it credit for originality: throughout my life I’ve been told that I look young for my age, not a decade or two older.
(Via Steven.)
Is that so?
On my way home from Overland Park this past weekend, I listened to Be Bop Deluxe, who fall within the 33-year limit. However, on the way up I listened to Floating Cloud and Onmyouza, both of whom are recent bands active in the 21st century. I recently compiled an iTunes playlist of favorite non-classical tunes. It includes plenty of pieces from my youth by Fairport Convention, Frank Zappa, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Spirit, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Cream and so on. But there are also such artists as the Hot Club of Cowtown, Jun Togawa, ((Hers is the only version of “Pachelbel’s Canon” I can tolerate.)) No Strings Attached, Gjallarhorn, Yuki Kajiura, Rare Air, Mayumi Kojima, Susumu Hirasawa and others whom I never heard until well after my 33rd year.
In fact, I’ve found more music in the past 15 years than in all my years in the previous century, thanks to the internet. I may be atypical, but I don’t think I’m unique. I seriously doubt that I’m the only person my age who actively searches for new music to listen to.
(Via Dustbury.)
… editing the rest of the weekend’s pictures, here are a few videos that might be of interest.
(Via Peregrinations, Borepatch and the Brickmuppet.)
Update: One more, via JCW.
The Dealers’ Hall at Figments and Filaments 2015
Here are a couple of panoramas from the weekend. Above is the dealer’s hall at the Figments and Filaments site; below is the booth of one of the vendors. (If you need fancy trim for a sewing project, Calontir Trim is the place to go.) These are best seen in full-screen.
A couple of specimens I found in the hall at Figments & Filaments this evening.
One recalls the literary writer who, after grasping a story of a Mars voyage as a metaphor for isolation and the precariousness of relationships, realized that at a deeper, more subtle level it might even be a story about an actual trip to Mars!
(From the comments here.)
This is a test of the emergency blogging system. This is only a test. Had this been a real emergency, you would have been instructed to run around in counterclockwise circles waving your laptop overhead, screaming.
(This post should automatically appear on my Facebook and Tumblr pages. Theoretically.)
Update: The “publicize” function in WordPress’ Jetpack works perfectly with Tumblr, which matters very little because I rarely use my Tumblr account. It does not work with Facebook, which matters somewhat more. True, I loathe Facebook and almost never post there. However, it’s the best way to keep tabs on many friends and family, most of whom rarely venture into the more demanding realm of weblogs. It would be convenient for my posts here to automatically appear there, but I’ll have to find some other way to do it.
(If I ever do manage to connect my site to Facebook, it will be interesting to see how many of my “friends” unfriend me when they realize I have conservative tendencies.)
• While I applaud most efforts to annoy prissy leftists, I’m not all that concerned about the “Sad Puppies.” I’ve never regarded the Hugo award as anything but a popularity contest, no more significant than the Nobel Peace Prize. ((It doesn’t help that they’re named for a lousy writer.)) ((The Nebula awards, which are chosen by writers, are more meaningful, but only slightly: in 1971, Gene Wolfe and R.A. Lafferty, the best writer and the most original writer of our time, both lost to Noah Ward.)) It’s hardly worth all the histrionics.
• A useful term: “gong farmer.” (Via Professor Mondo.)
• Yesterday was the twelfth anniversary of the launch of my first weblog. It was not my first website, though; I’ve had a web presence of some sort since the final years of the last century.
Kansas weather is full of surprises. What’s next, oobleck, or fire and brimstone?
Re-Kan — Another Shinto 101 show, like Natsume Yuujin-cho and Mokke. It reminds me of Pupipo, but here the girl who sees things that other people don’t has generally supportive classmates. While there’s no hint of fanservice, there is a cat who behaves like the reincarnation of Mr. Kimura, and that might limit its watchability. I’ll probably watch more.
Shokugeki no Soma — Three minutes into it there were tentacles. Forget it.
Houkago no Pleiades — Formulaic mahou shoujo. However, the girls have distinct personalities, and some of the events take place in a conservatory I’d like to visit. There’s also no hint of fanservice, even in the transformation scene. ((except perhaps for the excessively detailed eyecatch.)) I’ll probably continue watching.
Hibiki! Euphonium — I didn’t find the story and characters as enthralling as Ben, but I wasn’t in band when I did time in high school. I gave up about half-way through the first episode. I might give it another try sometime when I’m less preoccupied.
Update: I sampled a couple more.
Etotama — The first episode seemed like a gag manga adaptation, but apparently it’s an anime original. It was energetic and sometimes funny, but it made very little sense. I might watch another episode to see if the writers have anything in mind beyond chibified kemenomimi, but I don’t have high hopes.
Punch Line — noitaminA has given us probable classics (The Tatami Galaxy, Mononoke), curiosities (Moyashimon) and lots of pretentious drivel (pretty much everything else). And now noitaminA presents outright trash. I made it half-way through, and that’s enough.
I’ve been alternately watching new anime and the radar this evening. A moment ago I noticed a cute little hook in the radar echo. Sure enough, there’s a tornado warning couple of counties west-southwest of here, and the storms are heading east-northeast. I may be visiting the spiders in the basement later tonight. It is now officially springtime in Kansas.
Update (8:34 p.m.): There go the sirens.
A public service from Donald Sensing.
(Via Bayou Renaissance Man.)
For an alternative reading of the stars, see A.M. Yankovic.
