READIN

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

🦋 Second lesson

This evening I am having my second fiddle lesson with Lisa Gutkin, who impressed me favorably at our first meeting. What I want to work on: blues; "John Hardy"; vibrato; "I'll Fly Away" and a couple of similar folk songs. I was going to go to a lecture on Robert Musil beforehand, but the schedule switched around and I will not be able to make it.

Got my midterm back in Network Systems last night -- I scored 62/100, which in the wacky world of Professor Rubenstein's curves is an A. (Class median was 44.)

We worked on vibrato and blues, and a lot of bow hand exercises. And toward the end of the lesson some work on "John Hardy" and on playing drone notes while I am singing. I can do some really nice stuff jamming on "John Hardy". It is time that I should start keeping a book of what songs I play. Offhand:

• John Hardy was a Desperate Little Man
• Shine On
• I'll Fly Away
• The Louisville Burglar
• St. James Infirmary
• Will the Circle be Unbroken

Anything else?... as I say, time to start keeping a book.

posted afternoon of March 21st, 2006: Respond
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Sunday, March 19th, 2006

I added a "Mineshaft" category at left to reflect the undeniable fact that most of my blogging presence these days is reading Unfogged and related sites.

posted morning of March 19th, 2006: Respond

🦋 One State, One Sentence

There is a fun meme floating around, which I saw at Jackmormon's place and at Matt Weiner's. Neither of them thought to tag me; but I am doing it myself: write one sentence about each state you have visited.

• California: California is my base line for comparison, it is manifold, it defies description.
• Wisconsin: I wish I had been old enough to form a memory of Madison, the summer we lived there.
• Missouri: I love the St. Louis Children's Museum.
• Iowa: All I remember of Iowa is a snowy day and a house with red trim.
• Oregon: My favorite rural experiences took place in Oregon.
• Pennsylvania: Philadelphia is a fine city for walking around.
• New York: A vast number of opportunities to have a good time can be found in the city.
• Illinois: Mostly I remember driving in Chicago, with my newly acquired license, and freaking Gary out with the quality of my driving.
• Florida: I watched Pulp Fiction in Boca Raton.
• Connecticut: Unlike any other place I've been in Connecticut, Danbury seems like a very pleasant town to me.
• Massachussetts: What can I say about Massachussetts that has not already been said?
• New Hampshire: In New Hampshire I learned how to build a chair.
• Vermont: In Vermont we mostly ride our bikes.
• Maine: It took a long time driving to get to Maine but we had fun there.
• Rhode Island: We rounded out our New England tour by walking around Providence.
• District of Columbia: DC is not a very good place to be at loose ends.
• Ohio: I visited Oberlin, and nothing about it seemed distinctively Ohioan.
• New Jersey: I live in New Jersey.
• Kansas: The greatest night sky I can remember having seen was from a Kansas field.

And there are probably some others, but I do not remember them. (Illinois and Florida added after some consultation with my memory.... Oops! And Kansas.)

Update: Jackmormon is now claiming the right to tag me retroactively.

Update: Richard Mason is mandating that everyone join this meme.

posted morning of March 19th, 2006: Respond

Wednesday, March 15th, 2006

🦋 Close Range

Yesterday I started reading the stories in Close Range by Annie Proulx. This will bring my Proulx-reading arc full circle in a way, since I got interested in her by reading "Brokeback Mountain", which is in this book, and the first book I read was Bad Dirt, to which this is sort of a sequel. My early reaction to the book is that the stories are good, but don't blow me away in the same way that the stories in Bad Dirt did -- with those there was a sense of immediacy and freshness that I'm not getting as much here. But that may be because I know what to expect a little better. Also I am missing the thread of connection which was one of my favorite features of Bad Dirt -- at least half the stories there had characters and setting in common, whereas here all that seems to be shared is that the stories occur in Wyoming or feature characters from Wyoming.

posted evening of March 15th, 2006: Respond
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Sunday, March 12th, 2006

🦋 Shine on

Today I played "Shine on" blues, by Big Bill Broonzy, with Bob and Dave. It was the first time I have ever really been satisfied with my fiddle playing on a blues piece. I think also that I could play and sing this song, once I learn the lyrics.

posted evening of March 12th, 2006: Respond

Monday, March 6th, 2006

My current reread of V. is officially over, bogged down in the course of reading about Fausto Maijstral. Over the course of this chapter my relationship to the book went from loving it, to sweating my way through and hoping that the next chapter would be easier going, to reading the sentences for sound with no comprehension. I put a bookmark in on Thursday and haven't picked it up since. So, better luck next time through.

posted evening of March 6th, 2006: Respond
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Monday, February 27th, 2006

Lots of good V. stuff from last February at Josh Blog.

posted morning of February 27th, 2006: Respond
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🦋 Mondaugen's Story

A question: are the dreams of 1904 which Mondaugen undergoes at Foppl's Siege Party, based on experiences that Foppl had in 1904? Or is that even what's going on? The story switches out from what's happening to Mondaugen, into the dreams -- there's no direct statement that Mondaugen is the dreamer, and there are constructions like "Firelily's rider" to keep him masked -- but I'm pretty sure it is Mondaugen. Ad first I thought the experiences were Godolphin's, but now I don't think that would make as much sense as if they were Foppl's.

Update: Yes, the dreamer is definitely Mondaugen -- I found this passage at HyperArts:

"His horse drowsed and collected dew while Mondaugen squirmed on the seat, trying to control anger, confusion, petulance; and below the farthest verge of the Kalahari, that vast death, the tardy sun mocked him."

posted morning of February 27th, 2006: Respond
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Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

🦋 Rereading

I left this comment to Roy's fine post on reading Swann's Way:

Here's a thought: many of the very best books I have read, I have come to in the same way that you came to Swann's Way (which I have not read or even made any serious attemt to) -- as Everests to be clumb, as adversaries to be bested. With all of them that I consider "very best books", there was a metamorphosis at some point, where the reading project turned into something my heart was really in, that I was really enjoying. Frequently I have given up on a book halfway through because this metamorphosis has not yet occurred; and frequently I have gone back to the book in question years later, and found that I enjoyed reading it -- sometimes this has taken multiple cycles of putting it down and coming back to it. Books that I finish without ever feeling like I was digging it, I'm pretty unlikely to go back to.

And even as I typed it I knew I was proving myself wrong -- I am now rereading Pynchon's V., a book which I slogged through to the end of despite losing the thread of, and -- well:

I started the reread last week, and early in the book I remembered how my reaction when I was first reading it was, the storyline set in the present tense, featuring Benny Profane, is a lot of fun though not particularly substantial; and the storyline set in the past, featuring the elder Stencil and any number of other oddball characters, is totally mystifying. And I felt all set to recapitulate that experience of the book when I read the chapter set in Egypt and could not understand what was going on. But as of this evening's reading (the chapter set in Florence) I have gotten in the groove and am loving the book. (It was kind of cool to be reading the scenes in and around Florentine landmarks, after a few nights ago Sylvia and I were reading her children's tour of Florence book, which we bought while we were there this summer. Also: Florence is where I started playing with yo-yos!)

posted evening of February 21st, 2006: Respond
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Saturday, February 18th, 2006

🦋 Keep your lamps trimmed and burning

Some friends were over this afternoon, among them Eileen Eliot, who recently learned "Keep your lamps trimmed and burning" (the Hot Tuna version) from tablature. I was interested because I learned the song a few years ago in the only Woody Mann workshop I ever took, and promptly forgot it. So Eileen showed me the fingerings a couple of times through, and handed me my guitar. I surprised myself by playing a pretty recognizable version straight off the bat, but in first position rather than the fingerings Eileen had been showing me. I was pretty happy about being able to shift it into first position so easily -- it made me feel like I understood the music pretty well -- I have always preferred to play in first position rather than learning new finger positions and playing up the neck.

And, "Keep your lamps" turns out to be a totally addictive tune to play on fiddle. I was whistling it all evening after Eileen showed it to me, and I finally picked up my fiddle to try it out, and the notes just rolled off my bow.

posted evening of February 18th, 2006: Respond
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