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Browsing All Posts published on »December, 2010«
Why I don’t think scientists are engaged in a gigantic conspiracy about climate change, Reason #437
Scientists are extreme specialists. Given a little effort (and some expert advice from necessarily more than one source) it is probably possible to stuff the Albert Hall–or many another iconic auditorium–up to the chandeliers with scientists, most of whom, if randomly distributed, would be unable to have a meaningful scientific discussion with any other scientist […]
Once Upon a Time in the Blues There Was Bluesman Prime
December 30, 2010
Once upon a time there was a little cross-eyed boy in Kentucky who grew up with a mess of pickin’ an’ singin’. And since he was littlest, he played the mandolin, and since his voice was highest, he sang high harmony. And that little boy grew up to father bluegrass, that high lonesome sound, […]
The blues is melancholy, right?
December 27, 2010
The blues is melancholy, right? Tough times. Three simple chords and twelve bars. An African-American male with a guitar held together by bailing wire. To a man’s troubled soul, you add a few blue notes, a little trochaic rhythm, and you got the blues, right? Simple. Except that it’s not really so simple, and a […]
A musical imagination
December 26, 2010
“Jerome Brunner, a very musical friend, described to me how once, having put a favourite Mozart record on the turntable, he listened to it with great pleasure, and then went to turn it over to play the other side–only to find that he had never played it in the first place.” Oliver Sacks,Musicophilia, 35
As you always suspected, music is a conspiracy
December 23, 2010
“If there are twelve named notes within an octave, why are there only seven letters (or do re mi syllables)? “After centuries of being forced to eat in the servant’s quarters and to use the back entrance of the castle, this may just be an invention by musicians to make nonmusicians feel inadequate. “The additional […]
doc static says I should write about the blues
December 13, 2010
Doc Static says I should write about the blues. But you know I’ve already had this discussion. (So long ago.) My friend Chuck—who already had admitted to stealing some of my lines for his review of a Doc Watson concert (thank you, Chuck, I accept flattery) and who for a while attended most of the […]
Grandpa Theo
With Malaika
Klick This Pic
An Informal Chronology of the Aboriginal Land Question in BC
Father Theo's Blog 
December 30, 2010
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