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READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
(this playlist is preceded aurally by the playing of "Harvest Home" on my fiddle. Its object is mainly to ascertain how many songs in a row my computer can randomize that will keep me interested. And yes, obscurely a manner of bragging about my music collection I guess. For whatever good that does. I'd be glad to put the playlist on a disc and send it to you if you'll pay me potsage, drop me a line. Or better yet you can listen to the first d tracks of the playlist at dtracks.com.)
q. "Free as a Bird" by the Beatles.
a. "Nashville Blues" by the Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band
z. "Chain Mary to the Bed" by Robyn Hitchcock
w. "Ecstasy" by Crooked Still
s. "Winter Love" by Onkel Jose (off of Glass Flesh)
x. "Cold Rain and Snow" by the Grateful Dead
e. "Over You" by the Soft Boys
d. "Too Long" by the Mississippi Sheiks
c. "Caroline Says â…¡" by Robyn Hitchcock and some dialog from him off of Jewels for Sophia,
Hello, you've reached Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese's classic tale of Italian-American manhood, starring Ray Liotta, Bob DeNiro, and Joe Pesci. Unfortunately we're all busting each other's <bleep> at the moment.
Hmm. 50 min... or depending on how many times you repeat it, potentially forever. Many songs on this list that I would like to play and/or sing. (I got the borderline crazy idea that "The L&N don't stop here anymore" lyrics would sound really great sung to the tune of "Nashville Blues". And "Ecstasy"? Yes, "Winter Love", yes...(Other songs that would fit in this general arrangement and key: "Who'll Rock the Cradle," "Sweet Baby's Arms." And on this very mix, "Things ain't what they used to be" is at least a closely related arrangement and key.))
Me and Sylvia were watching The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo with Monique's family. I was initially a bit surprised that we were deeming it age-appropriate for the younger kids; but it turned out Bree-Ann was totally into the book, and kept piping up to say what was going to happen. The remote control for Monique's entertainment center had way too many buttons and knobs on it and I could not figure out how to operate it.
posted morning of January 27th, 2012: Respond ➳ More posts about Dreams
"A Love Which Belongs to the Other Door," the last story and the longest, takes another look, through a different glass, at the subject of Zlatica Didic and his son Zlatko Didic, whom Zupcic (Slavko son of Slavko) first visited in his story "Letters Towards a Novel". Zlatko starts off by saying, "I began writing this story almost twenty years ago..." and suddenly I get a much clearer, more moving vision of the (to be sure small) body of his work -- it all comes together.
Watching The Artist with Ellen and Sylvia last night I was reminded of what a powerful instrument a movie soundtrack is. What a beautful movie! I recommend it for the acting (including Uggie the dog, who is replacing Asta in my affections), for the direction, for the dancing, but maybe most of all for the soundtrack. (I loved that when the movies started featuring sound, the soundtrack featured Pennies from Heaven, as sung by Rose Murphy.) At points the movie was best understood as a soundtrack delivery vehicle.
Update: ...And apparently the soundtrack generated a little controversy of its own...
But, but, so, what if they could listen, could talk back? Bartholomäus Traubeck of Linz has created an experiment treating a tree's rings as the groove of a record. You can read about it and listen to the music he played at TNW. (Thanks for the link, Knight!)
posted morning of January 22nd, 2012: Respond ➳ More posts about Music
I was once again unable to resist cutting up my fiddle, though I think with potentially better results (cf.) this time. I bought a new C string -- a Super Sensitive Red Label from Musician's Friend -- and found it a huge improvement on the string that had come with the instrument. Suddenly I wanted to play on the bottom strings which made me notice a problem with the bridge; namely, when I cut grooves for the strings I did not make enough space to accomodate the width of the C string. So I cut a little more away and have been playing almost exclusively for the past couple of practice sessions on the bottom 3 strings. See whatcha think of this recording I made of "Walkin After Midnight" : After Midnight by The Modesto Kid
posted evening of January 20th, 2012: Respond ➳ More posts about Fiddling
Dora was hurrying now and wanting her lunch. She looked at her watch and found it was tea-time. She remembered that she had been wondering what to do; but now, without her thinking about it, it had become obvious. She must go back to Imber at once. Her real life, her real problems, were at Imber, and since, somewhere, something good existed, it might be that her problems would be solved after all. There was a connexion; obscurely she felt, without yet understanding it, she must hang onto that idea: there was a connexion. She bought a sandwich and took a taxi back to Paddington.
Reading Murdoch's The Bell lately, I have been conflicted as to how I feel about the characters. I identify with them at points; but they have an air of falseness around them, the characters and plot elements seem almost like scenery for Murdoch's philosophizing and fable-telling. Not sure I mean this as a point against the book -- I am liking the book a lot -- but it does seem like an important stylistic element.
Then again I got a similar vibe from The Little Stranger, which was pretty clearly not written for philosophical argument.
posted evening of January 19th, 2012: Respond ➳ More posts about Iris Murdoch
Watching The Artist with Ellen and Sylvia last night I was reminded of what a powerful instrument a movie soundtrack is. What a beautful movie! I recommend it for the acting (including 
