Posted by Jerry on May 10th, 2006 — Posted in Journal, Music, Technology
Are you a high-tech folkie? How about taking the complete O’Neill’s Music of Ireland in your pocket to a folk festival! Here’s where Bryan Duggan’s TunePal comes to the fore. I first encountered this wonderful software when I found an early version for my Psion 5MX. Since upgrading to an HP iPaq2750 I have been on the lookout for something that would play .abc format tunes, so I can take an aural reference with me to festivals. Enter Bryan Duggan again – with an updated version for pocket PC (pocket windows 2003+).
The software is easy to instal, and, once you pay the €10 registration fee (ten euros)you can then install a MIDI instruments package that lifts this software into a truly useful package. So you can play the tunes with a fiddle-like sound, and control the volume, and more importantly, the speed of play. That is, you can vary the speed without varying the pitch – so you can slow the tune down to learn it, then speed it up as you get more confident with the tune – or to hear it at session speed.
This will play any .abc tune, and runs very stably on the iPaq. So now I can go armed with literally thousands of tunes, and when I hear one I like at a session, I can retire from the fray and play it over a few times to get it stuck in my head and ready to play for real 🙂
As you can see from the screen shots above (the bulge is an artefact of the camera lens) the interface is simple, clear and easy to navigate. The only further development I would like to see is a means to display the tune as sheet music – but this has a big thumbs up from me – well done Bryan 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on May 7th, 2006 — Posted in Journal, Music, Woodwork
The bodhran is an Irish frame drum. At the recent St Alban’s Festival I gave away my tipper (single double-headed stick) to the bodhran player in the band Mothers of Intention – I figured I would soon enough get around to turning another one.
Today I ventured out to my shed, selected a branch from our mulberry tree – which had died last year in the drought – and cut a suitable length. I mounted it between centres and roughed out the shape. Then I brought out the shape properly, using a spindle gouge, to shape the ends and a nice bead around one-third of the way from one end.
Then I removed the tool rest and sanded the piece and applied a little beeswax polish, before cutting the tipper free and giving a little touch of sandpaper and polish at the ends. And here is the result:
And here it is next to the bodhran 🙂
This should last quite a while!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on May 6th, 2006 — Posted in Journal
This is a must-see exhibition of John Constable’s (1776-1837) work. The exhibition includes his Diploma piece for the Royal Academy depicting a boat passing a lock (painted in 1826, accepted by the Academy 1829). It depicts the Dedham Lock on the River Stour – there are many sketches on this theme included in the exhibition.
The painting “Vale of Dedham” (1827-8) was his last painting of the Stour Valley. Interestingly, the foreground has a poor woman and baby huddled next to a small cooking fire adjacent to a makeshift humpy. They are depicted as part of the landscape, rather than as focii, and are clearly on the margins of the society of the time – perhaps a displaced person from the industrial revolution, and clearly the woman is excluded from the town and its comforts.
This painting of Salisbury Cathedral (1823) shows the spire framed by trees. Churches in Constable’s landscapes are often depicted almost in isolation in otherwise undeveloped sites – as though depicting the enormous use of local resources by the church – leaving no room for the people.
Constable’s cloud scenes – experimental sketches – are almost impressionist in their treatment of the light. Constable concentrated on unique atmospheric effects, which he recorded in sketches. On them he noted the date, time, direction of light, wind, temparature and humidity – they form an excellent historical record of the atmospheric conditions prevailing in England at the time.
Throughout Constable’s work the landscape dominates humanity, and the clouds dominate the landscape as though to show the insignificance of humankind on the landscape. His paintings remind me of Thomas Hardy novels from around that period, in which the landscape is also a character in the novels – always lowering darkly over the human condition.
The other constant in Constable’s paintings was the presence of cows 🙂
Constable said: “We see nothing until we truly understand it”. I think one could also reverse this thought to say: “We understand nothing until we truly see it”.
Outside, the sun cast sharp shadows on the ground, and the cement structure contrasted with the trees in the background.
The exhibition is on until 12 June
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on May 3rd, 2006 — Posted in Journal
Another small textile oddity – this time from Copenhagen, at an exhibition of artists responding to the theme of “time”. Artist Marianne Jørgensen exhibited a military tank wrapped in pink knitted squares, which she solicited from people all over the world. Well it does get cold in Copenhagen – and there are many wonderful ways of reading this … er… warm fuzzy tank 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on May 2nd, 2006 — Posted in Journal
I’ve done a few small cross-stitch kits, and I’ve seen some extraordinary embroideries, and know how much work goes into them. But this one represents a herculaean achievement. This embroidery, of the complete Sistine Chapel ceiling took stitcher Joann Lopianowski-Roberts, nine years to complete – some 2800 hours. It was displayed at a show in Austin, Texas (USA) called: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS-A CELEBRATION OF THIRTY YEARS OF THE AUSTIN STITCHERY GUILD from 10-12 February 2006 – and understandably, it took off a few prizes 🙂
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