TV and Cinema Dramatic Device Suspect

Have you ever just dropped a bowl full of spaghetti, or your highly breakable coffee mug, in reaction to unexpected shocking news?   I have never reacted that way.

Many people on the screen react by dropping breakable things which will make a big mess.   Unless I was directing a spoof or satire I would not be found directing in such a camp manor.  You won't see that absurd dramatic device used in any of my serious dramatic efforts.

Tales from the Oddball Work of Me

the epic garage doors with the santeria wax.  Hard to tell from this but they are textured so that power sanding is out of the question.  Had to hand sand 100% of  this to remove the disaster that happened when stripping.   Now they are doing well, and holding up as intended

This clown lives on that bench just beyond the end of the basketball court at the place where I do most of my odd work, for the wealthy, odd, and peculiarly messy elite of our country and world.  This is definitely a life size clown.  Why is it there?   Don't know.  Maybe the product of a charity auction, and one person connected to this place may be a player on the McBoard.

Other than that I am trying to find some reason for, or value in, my life, but I can't find any.   Maybe I'll table that and try again later.  You catch hell when you win, have good fortune, excel, produce, etc., and that is sick.  Despite those barbs from greedy, jealous types who blame people for success of any sort, it is far better to spend a life building something of worth than to spend it wondering why you are here.

I know many people who are sure their state of being is totally out of their control, and that those who prevail are all either cheaters, evil, or only the beneficiaries of blind luck.  They never really deserve it.  I do not agree.  

The people I know whose lives are very good, and who have built great families did it by making decent choices and working toward it.  They've done more than their "fair share" in life.  Luck is useless if you can't maintain the momentum, or even recognize it when you have it.

Penn And Teller; Sign Water Banning Petition

The mention of hippies in the video title is a little off point.  I'm not sure what the term means in modern life.

What is illustrated is how easily people join causes without any idea what it is they are supporting or opposing.  This happens on every square foot of the public policy playing field; pro-gun control, anti gun control, occupy this or that, don't occupy this or that, everything.

The critical mass may be weighted a little toward the neo-luddite movement, but it is everywhere.  Throw in various religious slants to various issues and non-issues and what we have are people hopping on whichever activist bus flies their preferred colors.

Where it is going is rarely questioned.
All they know is that you will get labelled as being part of the purple bus brigade if you don't hop on the yellow bus.  Either you are with us or you are with them.

So, far too often, people vote, picket and scream about matters of which they know very little, and ignore any facts which might make them question their loyalty to a chosen mob.  It is too bad.  The end result is a very tangled web of regulation, prohibition and other tools which have been the hallmark of human authoritarian constructs for as long as anyone figured out people are easily herded.
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Harmonica Review; follow up

Now I can better guide anyone considering getting a decent harp.   If you play real hard and aren't much of an overblow player, then maybe the Suzuki M-20 Manji is not you.

HOWEVER, if you want a really responsive instrument with a wide dynamic range, M-20 is for you.  I had to become accustomed to the trade off when things are set for over bends and easy response.  You have to play gently, but you can go faster, and control over note bends, and intensity is a real treat.  It does not deny one the expression of passion.

It is possible that I will slowly switch over.  Though I guess I'd stick with Lee Oskar minor keys.  Don't know if Maji makes them.  Anyway, the durability test remains to be conducted.  I should say, it is in process.  Let's hope I can give a good report in several months.  A sensitive harp should last longer if the player learns the trick of playing hard while using very little force on the reeds.

Many advantages.  Better dynamic range. Faster, more control over pitch, shape and volume.

You Call It Pride...

but viewed from outside your group, the effect is often dripping in hostility and an unpleasant sort of jingoistic separatism.

It does get old to those who have never harmed you and your band of whatever

the end

Spending Money Like THEM: harmonica review

Spending money I don't have for that which I do not really need.  Reminds me of guitar players I have known.  They will hock the house for a new guitar (new to them), gadget or accessory that is not essential.  I have been guilty of just such lack of fiduciary conscience.  However THEM can easily have broader reference.

Conscience: from the gypsy words "con" and "science"; the science of con. How to dupe effectively

So, I happened upon a video with Jason Ricci talking up the Suzuki Manji M-20 harp, claiming you can get overblows and overdraws on most notes with little or no tweaking.

couldn't keep still, sorry for the blur

On most harps, you can't do the over-bends without taking the thing apart and messing with the gap and arc of the reeds, embossing the slots in which the reeds vibrate, etc.  Those things are little, and can be brittle.  Also, if you get a reed slightly rotated it will hit the sides of its stall and life goes south.  Very hard to get it back right, in most cases.  I'm batting zero on that.

Jason was right. These harps do play differently.  Not for players who value force over technique.   They are highly responsive to just a whisper of breath, even on the highest note of the C harp.   It takes very little air to get a rich, authoritative tone.

I'm not yet very good at overblows and overdraws.  That is what they are called.  How it works is that you change the shape where the back of your tongue hits the soft part to stop airflow.  Called the H-spot, I guess because it is the part that acts if you were to say "hey" several times in rapid staccato succession.  You feel it as the word is cut at the end.

What happens on a blow note is that you are choking off the normally vibrating blow reed and the draw reed then vibrates at a higher pitch.  Ideally.  Once you master getting the blow reed choked by changing the shape at the back of your mouth, getting the other reed to cooperate is not always so easy.

You know it when you hit it--the tone comes out bright and loud.  The trick is how the air is flowing, not how hard.  Too much force and you get nowhere.

These diatonic harps come in different keys, 2 reeds per hole, 10 holes and in 2 cases notes are repeated.  Just how it is.  Bending notes down in pitch has been in play forever.  Just about any harp off the shelf is good for that.  Bending notes up is a relatively new thing.

For me, the Suzuki Manji M-20  is probably the best bet for incorporating over blows and draws.   Overdraw= when you bend a draw note up in pitch.  You breathe in and out on harmonica--different note drawing than blowing in the same hole.  Can't talk harp without it sounding kinky.

The body or comb is made of some kind of composite synthetic material. It is better than wood or plain plastic, in my book.  If the reeds are as healthy as Ricci claims, then they may last awhile.

I've seen Ricci at seminars and such, and found that he gives information in a way I grasp, and he doesn't ever appear to be leaving stuff out or over complicating things.  I pretty much trust his word.  That's why I bought 2 harps for lots of money I don't have.

Didn't see any in minor key tuning, so I guess I can do it on the major key harps when I become fluent in the bends I'd need.   I can do minors on major key harps now, but the scope is highly limited.

Manji has stainless cover plates which seem much better than the usual.  They have that Marine Band thing with the edges of the reed plates forming sides of the note openings rather than the full plastic face of the Lee Oskar--which is gentler on the lips, usually.  On the Manji, I don't mind the way it feels.

If you want to play fast and bend notes with ease, this is the harp.  But they are pricey.  Cheapest I found was just over $50.  If you can not play gently and be happy, buy something else.  But if you want as broad a range dynamically as I've experienced, the Manji it is.

Lee Oskars are still good.  These have a certain versatility those don't.  If they last like Oskar's harps, then we are on to something.

Why did I get these, and why am I posting this if I don't much feel like playing anywhere?  I sure don't know.   I'm not happy with my inability to create and establish a rhythm that makes me want to dance, and I don't feel what I do brings out any of the thrills I'd hope.  I am strong on tone and nuance and playing clean notes.  Yippy.

I should have been a physicist.
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PS: they can say what they want, but what I think happens on bends like these is that slight changes in the air chamber (back of mouth/top of throat) cause a certain turbulent flow which spins in the right way to affect the reed you are working.  Since you have vibrations involved, one can learn to sense and control it.  You feel it.

Everybody's Talking At Me

I know I should be concerned, and have an opinion on a whole range of issues, preferably assigning the role of hated villain to some group or individual in each case.

Turning to Huffington Post, I find that an easy villain is the GOP because they hate women, are all rabid racists and celebrated after the Newtown massacre.  Perusing other sources, I find that democrats are totalitarian communists who want to enslave me and take any money I may have now or ever.  Sometimes, I must admit, I tend to believe the extreme view of democrats.

However, the truth is that the GOP is as riddled with bad logic, ridiculous causes, and deception as their supposed opponents.

Both the major groups hate libertarians.  With good reason, because anything that trends in favor of a libertarian take, necessarily limits the power of both Republicans and Democrats.   I was a bit surprised to see such vitriol toward libertarians here and there in news forums.  In some circles "libertarian" is as bad an epithet as "republican".  One of those things where the word loses meaning, just becomes an insult of vague definition.

 I'm not sure what all libertarian views are on everything, anyway.  I know I lean that way but I also know they sometimes trip over the ideology.  I rarely find the RNC or DNC have any consistent ideology.   Except that they both avoid embracing individual freedom and autonomy as I wish they would.   And they promote a sick foreign policy which does not yield the taxpayers a lot of benefit.

In my book, the bottom line for both establishment dems and reps is power.  All the rest is rationalization to justify it.  People flock on the bandwagon to mock the presented enemy.

If you don't agree with democrats then you must be republican and want to shoot children, force religion, etc.  So it goes, the "national conversation" is a big game of beg-the-question, skew the study, warp statistics, and otherwise avoid establishing and checking the basic premise of an argument, suggestion, idea.

Don't want government involved in marriage or abortion, then you must be a Godless demon who doesn't care if babies are killed, etc.  Guilty.  I wouldn't personally perform an abortion if I could, would rather it not be done if I were papa and mama says she doesn't want to stay pregnant, but I am in no way in favor of preventing people from having abortions.   In many cases I encourage it.  Not all people should multiply.

Geez, believing what you hear, you'd think the NRA is somehow on trial, or at least responsible for Newtown, that  Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the democrats stupid position on foreign policy and protracted  police actions is somehow less stupid than the establishment republican position.

Garbage.  Expensive, harmful, pesky garbage.  All we really want is some positive personal reinforcement, a degree of comfort, decent food, and abundant sex.  No.  That "we" part of the sentence is unsubstantiated.   It seems most people want to be victims, or vicarious victims so they can have evil ones to hate.  It is the national passtime.

Too bad.  I'm reluctant to say why I'll probably never move back to the South.  Or why I'd not consider living in most big cities anywhere.  Why go where you are hated before they even know you?    Gets old quick.

I will say, whether Obama's fault or not, the hostility of subgroups in the population of the US toward one another seems to have amplified considerably over the last five or six years.   To certain people, that means big money and power.  Too few in a position of influence have good motive not to feed the animosity.  And people follow their team blindly.

If you are liberal you must agree that if you aren't for the proposed gun laws then you hate children, especially the ones slain in Newtown.   If you are conservative then you must care about gay marriage, abortion, and prayer in schools, and be in love with police and other armed government employees with guns.

Personally, I do think the visible, in power, democrats are mostly neo-bolsheviks, and corrupt.

I think most visible, in power, republicans are timid hall monitors, potential theocrats, and corrupt.

Not cool to say, but I believe the dems may have the edge on volume of corruption.  Hard to be sure.  Both groups have thrown away more money that is not theirs than one can even imagine.

Neither outfit is honestly presenting much.   On the side of republicans is the fact that I've heard a few of them suggest abolishing the irs in favor of something simple and less abusive and oppressive.  Not the old school GOP, though.   And then some of them who make sense on the tax thing go and get all entrenched in worry about abortion and gay this and that.

Seriously, can't people understand that, though you don't like or approve of some behaviors, it behooves you to stop short of using the law to force others to live as you do?  If they are not assaulting your rights or personal sovereignty, try to bite the bullet.  Your own freedom  will ultimately suffer, as we have already seen.

Modern day regulatory environment causes me to hesitate to even think of becoming something like a window cleaning service, and I certainly would not create an enterprise that involves hiring employees.  You need to already have plenty of money, and even with all the fees and licenses,  you are probably breaking some rule or open to bizarre lawsuit.  It is good to be poor in a litigious society.

Hilarious that McCain and that charlatan, Schumer were at the border being useless, and some woman scaled the fence to flee Mexico as they watched.  Probably works for McCain or some other official.  Climbs back and forth daily for minimalistic wage, which is maximalistic by Mejico standards.

OK--that sounded like air America or the like, starting off with a very far fetched "probably", then building on it as if it is true.   Al Franken is big on that, as are many of such ilk.  Maybe good for laughs from the unthinking, but contributes zero in truly supporting or refuting an idea.

All there is to do is the immediate list of personal tasks before me.  Screw the rest and hope I can afford the basics.  Maybe I've dropped too far off the mainstream, and maybe not far enough.

World view: Guatemala; 1959 or so

Much of this story will not be told, but the part that I often remember best will be.    In ways, my childhood would classify as "privileged", but not os much if you were there.

Back then, if you wanted to fly Pan Am from east US coast to west. you had to fly all over the place, hopping around Latin America, eventually arriving in San Francisco.  I'm lucky enough to have experienced this prior to and after the universal use of jets by the airlines.

It is a toss up whether my favorite airliner was the DC-6 or the 747.  However I didn't ride anywhere on 747 until much more recently. I liked the DC6 at least as well as 707.  I wasn't in a hurry I guess.

The coolest stop was Guatemala City.  The main lobby of the terminal was full of shoe-shine boys and men.  People selling cool little knives, textiles, etc.  It was nothing for an 8 or 10 year old America kid like me, or my brother, to wander the place on his own, bartering over things and making friends with the shoe-shine kid.  I thought the shoe-shine kids were the coolest of cool.

Everyone really looked happy.  Except the occasional cop/military guy.  I couldn't tell one from the other.

I daydreamed about running away and becoming a shoe shiner in Guatemala City.  But I never did.

That is where I experienced my first tortilla.  We spent the night sometimes and the restaurants were the first ones I actually liked--judging from highly limited experience in life.

It was always my mother, brother and I on these trips.  We flew standby because of my father's job, but he never went, thank God.

I think we did well because we all had respect for people and weren't pushy.  They were always doing little extras.

If I recall, I think that airport was built on a cliff or in a canyon or something.  Pretty sure you could easily either fall off a mountain or fly into one.  We never did.

It never occurred to me back then that some would think that whole thing awful in some way.   It does now.  Paying truant children to shine your shoes!  One man had been there for most of his life.  He sent his son to a university in the USA off the money he saved all those years shining shoes.

One kid I remember was there the two last times we took that trip.  He showed me his method but I didn't speak spanish and don't know what was in the unlabeled bottle.

He didn't drink it.  He brushed it on my highly scuffed shoes after wiping them off with a cloth.  Then he did all the polishing and making the shoeshine rag sing.  Then it seems like he applied more of the clear magic formula.  No one could believe he made those abused shoes look good.  Back the you wore leather shoes ad dressed up to travel, and only spoiled kids wore loafers, which everyone knew were bad for feet and posture.  In other words I had one choice--tie up shoes.  But they stood tall whenever I left Guatemala.

After my first exposure to good jobs for kids in Guatemala, the main thing on my Christmas list was a shoe shine kit.  I never asked for much stuff, so I got things like that.  Sometimes.

I kept that kit for may years, shined my brother's shoes when he had a date in high school.  Had not I been otherwise trapped in my environment, I may have gone into the biz.  Of course, even then, they wouldn't let a 10 year old set up shop in Miami International Airport shining shoes.

And you wonder why I so reject most regulations which cross my credenza.

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Summertime

Couldn't get it to load right.  Here it is Had to just use the link.

Maybe this is a little better.  From last time I played. I've been not playing for a week.  I figured out why I got so fed up with it.  It's complicated and has much more to do with things unrelated.  But not unrelated it seems.  I'll not share my realization.

 

Climbing up a Sand Dune

That's how it is.   You go up some and slide down some, never too sure of the grip or footing.   At least I am not concerned with the "why are we here?" question.  What difference does that make?
The more personal questions involving not giving up and which way to go and why am I my own most formidable nemesis do tend to plague me some.

Oh well.   Some people actually think "we have an obesity crisis".   Life expectancy has grown by leaps and bounds in the last couple of centuries.  Oh my god, some people are fatter than studies indicate is optimal.  Who cares?  Want to lose weight?  Just continue to support all the neo-luddite initiatives afoot, and pretty soon it will be hard to score enough food on the average salary to do aything but starve.

I've decided to go on a hunger strike to show them!   Never did understand hunger strikes.  I oppose you and your policies, therefore I starve myself until you do it my way.  Seriously, if I were The Man you are opposing I would support your starvation more than anyone else.