In a previous post or two your faithful correspondent has mentioned his fondness for the ukulele. One of the things that yours finds so attractive about the instrument is that it is so unformed. By this I mean that it has not gelled into a particular form of playing.
Acoustic guitars are usually associated with classical or folk music. Electric guitars go with rock, country or jazz. Clarinets equal classical, big band or klezmer music. But the lowly uke manages to cover all those genres and more.
This very day I have received in the mail a CD of Bach music played on the uke, listened to tin pan alley, rock and comic songs all played on the uke. It's a great little instrument and one of it's strengths is that it that it has not been niched.
On the other hand, the dulcimer, one of which I received for Christmas this year, has been niched to death. In reading over books, notations and the Internet, I see that the instrument has been niched to the point of causing it's own death. The niche for the dulcimer is earnest folk music, either American or English. A whole lot of dulcimer players seem to think that by playing the instrument they are preserving a musical tradition that would be lost unless they kept playing Barbara Allen or Boston Boy. Nothing new, nothing funny beside Little Brown Jug.
The average dulcimer player does not seem to have a sense of humor. Their earnestness is almost painful. The wildest they get is to have hummingbird shaped sound holes cut into their instruments. Or a headstock shaped like a dragon. They're either honoring "roots" America with their songs or pretending to be Elizabethan bards with songs about some character longing for his lily white lady while forgetting that Ben Jonson was an awful drunk and that it was more likely that the song sung among the costermongers was more likely to be something comic about old Jake trying to shag Betsy instead of Lancelot longing for Guinevere.
If you go through the Internet sites selling ukuleles and dulcimers you'll see that the ukes are offered with pineapples, tikis, cowboys or flames painted on the sound boards. Uke players and makers have a sense of humor. But you'll have a long, hard search trying to find a dulcimer with anything more "radical" depicted on the instrument than a hummingbird or a lily shaped sound hole. One wants for the day when some musician realizes that a dulcimer can kick out the jams.
Until that day the dulcimer will remain a painfully earnest instrument. That situation ill be good for the dulcimer aficionado, but it won't be any good for the instrument itself. It will become a new sackbut or psalter.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Saturday, December 17, 2005
The Enemy of My Enemy...
Years ago Steve Miller sang a song which contained the phrase, "the pompatus of love." No one could ever figure out exactly what a pompatus was. But Miller was never quit the wordsmith of say, Irving Berlin or Cole Porter. Miller actually tried to rhyme "taxes" with Texas."
But "pompatus" is pretty close, in pronunciation to "pompous." so it's a pretty good launching pad to talk about George Galloway.
George Galloway is a member of the British Parliament. He has been implicated in the UN Food for Oil Scandal and has been accused to funneling money to Saddamite Iraq. As outraged, pompous politicians often do, he blustered his way through it sounding like an old Kawasaki 400 running on one cylinder. He managed to cow the United States Congress because he has a British accent and has a larger vocabulary than your average Congressman. But he was later shown to be a prevaricating weasel
Mr. Galloway likes to make himself out to be a champion of the little guy. As we all know, in the Western world there is usually more sympathy for the little guy than there is for the big guy. In Galloway's case the little guy in the Arab world and various Third World dictatorships. The big guy is the US. It makes good public relations and the press eats it up.
But in this little guyism it is often forgotten that sometimes the little guy is a real jerk and deserves to be be slapped around like Wilmer was by Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon. North Korea is a little guy playing with matches in a dynamite factory. Cuba is a little guy with it's own little gulag. And the Arab world is a little guy ruled by people as crazy and authoritarian as Nazi outhouse rats.
George Galloway recently gave a speech in Syria, part of which follows:
"What your lives would be if from the Atlantic to the Gulf we had one Arab union -- all this land, 300 million people, all this oil and gas and water, occupied by a people who speak the same language, follow the same religions, listen to the same Umm Kulthum.... The Arabs would be a superpower in the world if they had unity, instead of the shameful situation in which Arabs find themselves today.... Hundreds of thousands are ready to fight the Americans in the Middle East, and in Latin America there is revolution everywhere. Fidel Castor is feeling young again. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile are all electing left-wing governments that are challenging American domination. And in Venezuela, the hero Hugo Chavez has stood against them over and over and over again." (Tip o' the lid to Mark Steyn)
So there you have it. Galloway thinks the US is bad. Therefore those who hate the US are good and are his friends. What he doesn't realize is that if the Arab world extended into Great Britain he would find himself out of a job and would be acting as a lickspittle to some mullah sitting in Buckingham Palace. That is if his throat was cut for being an infidel.
But that's the leftist way. It worked for Stalin. Until he found a bunch of Germans parading into Russia.
But "pompatus" is pretty close, in pronunciation to "pompous." so it's a pretty good launching pad to talk about George Galloway.
George Galloway is a member of the British Parliament. He has been implicated in the UN Food for Oil Scandal and has been accused to funneling money to Saddamite Iraq. As outraged, pompous politicians often do, he blustered his way through it sounding like an old Kawasaki 400 running on one cylinder. He managed to cow the United States Congress because he has a British accent and has a larger vocabulary than your average Congressman. But he was later shown to be a prevaricating weasel
Mr. Galloway likes to make himself out to be a champion of the little guy. As we all know, in the Western world there is usually more sympathy for the little guy than there is for the big guy. In Galloway's case the little guy in the Arab world and various Third World dictatorships. The big guy is the US. It makes good public relations and the press eats it up.
But in this little guyism it is often forgotten that sometimes the little guy is a real jerk and deserves to be be slapped around like Wilmer was by Sam Spade in the Maltese Falcon. North Korea is a little guy playing with matches in a dynamite factory. Cuba is a little guy with it's own little gulag. And the Arab world is a little guy ruled by people as crazy and authoritarian as Nazi outhouse rats.
George Galloway recently gave a speech in Syria, part of which follows:
"What your lives would be if from the Atlantic to the Gulf we had one Arab union -- all this land, 300 million people, all this oil and gas and water, occupied by a people who speak the same language, follow the same religions, listen to the same Umm Kulthum.... The Arabs would be a superpower in the world if they had unity, instead of the shameful situation in which Arabs find themselves today.... Hundreds of thousands are ready to fight the Americans in the Middle East, and in Latin America there is revolution everywhere. Fidel Castor is feeling young again. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile are all electing left-wing governments that are challenging American domination. And in Venezuela, the hero Hugo Chavez has stood against them over and over and over again." (Tip o' the lid to Mark Steyn)
So there you have it. Galloway thinks the US is bad. Therefore those who hate the US are good and are his friends. What he doesn't realize is that if the Arab world extended into Great Britain he would find himself out of a job and would be acting as a lickspittle to some mullah sitting in Buckingham Palace. That is if his throat was cut for being an infidel.
But that's the leftist way. It worked for Stalin. Until he found a bunch of Germans parading into Russia.
The Integrity of the Academy
Soon after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC the Saudi Prince, Alwaleed bin Talal offered to make a donation of 10 million dollars to be used for the rebuilding effort of NYC. In his offer he made several unwise, from the American viewpoint, comments about the need for the US be more sympathetic to the Arab world and quit worrying so much about the security of Israel. Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the prince to keep his money partially because of the prince's remarks.
Giuliani, not running for office at the time, showed some integrity that several universities have not. Talal has made contributions of 20 million dollars each to Harvard and Georgetown University for the establishment of departments, of centers, for Islamic/Western understanding: OpinionJournal - Taste
In other words, the presidents of these universities have sold their souls for filthy lucre. Harvard was originally founded as a training college for Presbyterian ministers. Georgetown was founded as a Jesuit college. In years past the purpose of the universitie's studying other religions was to understand how best to present the Gospel to members of those religions. Now it's all a big ecumenical love-in and the race for the long green, no matter where it comes from.
Giuliani, not running for office at the time, showed some integrity that several universities have not. Talal has made contributions of 20 million dollars each to Harvard and Georgetown University for the establishment of departments, of centers, for Islamic/Western understanding: OpinionJournal - Taste
In other words, the presidents of these universities have sold their souls for filthy lucre. Harvard was originally founded as a training college for Presbyterian ministers. Georgetown was founded as a Jesuit college. In years past the purpose of the universitie's studying other religions was to understand how best to present the Gospel to members of those religions. Now it's all a big ecumenical love-in and the race for the long green, no matter where it comes from.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Some Guys Are Just Made For Killin'
If you don;t live in California you may not have heard of a man named Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
Williams (I refuse to refer to him as "Tookie" or Mr. Williams) is on California's Death Row at San Quentin prison. He has been there for 24 years. He was found guilty of the murders of four people. One was a clerk at a mini-mart. The other three were a father, mother and adult daughter at a motel. The goal of the murders was robbery. All four people were shotgunned.
Williams is also often "credited" with helping to found the Crips street gang. Actually, he was not one of the founders. He was a guest of the California Youth Authority (read youth prison) during that time. But the claim, made by his supporters seem to think that his being a founder of this band of hyenas seems to give him a street "cred" that he would not otherwise have.
If all goes according to schedule, Williams will be walking the last mile this coming Tuesday and will be breathing his last for killing four people. I celebrate the death of no man, but there are some people without whom the world is a better place. Williams is one of those. He did bad things and, for his own justice as well as ours, he deserves to be executed. To deny him the death penalty would be to deny him his justice. He knew the rules when he pulled the trigger and there's no reason for society to cheat him out of his reward.
But there has been a movement afoot among the local glitterati, race hustlers, bleeding hearts and dimbulbs to demand that the state give clemency to Williams because, in prison, about ten years ago, he made a turn around and was, to quote one supporter, "redempted." What did he do to get "redempted?" He said that his involvement in the Crips was a bad thing and "wrote" books for young people telling them that gangs are bad. The word "wrote" is used in the preceding sentence because it is suspected that the books were actually ghostwritten. This despite the fact that prison officials say that Williams is still a "shot-caller" for the Crips.
What's interesting is that Williams has never apologized for, or even admitted to, the murders for which he is in prison.
As I write the governor of the state of California is pondering the giving clemency to this beast. What I want to know is, why? Williams cannot, no matter how "redempted" cannot bring back the lives of those he murdered. "Writing" kids' books about how bad gangs are just doesn't make it. 99.9% of the people on Williams old turf could tell a kid that gangs are bad.
Williams (I refuse to refer to him as "Tookie" or Mr. Williams) is on California's Death Row at San Quentin prison. He has been there for 24 years. He was found guilty of the murders of four people. One was a clerk at a mini-mart. The other three were a father, mother and adult daughter at a motel. The goal of the murders was robbery. All four people were shotgunned.
Williams is also often "credited" with helping to found the Crips street gang. Actually, he was not one of the founders. He was a guest of the California Youth Authority (read youth prison) during that time. But the claim, made by his supporters seem to think that his being a founder of this band of hyenas seems to give him a street "cred" that he would not otherwise have.
If all goes according to schedule, Williams will be walking the last mile this coming Tuesday and will be breathing his last for killing four people. I celebrate the death of no man, but there are some people without whom the world is a better place. Williams is one of those. He did bad things and, for his own justice as well as ours, he deserves to be executed. To deny him the death penalty would be to deny him his justice. He knew the rules when he pulled the trigger and there's no reason for society to cheat him out of his reward.
But there has been a movement afoot among the local glitterati, race hustlers, bleeding hearts and dimbulbs to demand that the state give clemency to Williams because, in prison, about ten years ago, he made a turn around and was, to quote one supporter, "redempted." What did he do to get "redempted?" He said that his involvement in the Crips was a bad thing and "wrote" books for young people telling them that gangs are bad. The word "wrote" is used in the preceding sentence because it is suspected that the books were actually ghostwritten. This despite the fact that prison officials say that Williams is still a "shot-caller" for the Crips.
What's interesting is that Williams has never apologized for, or even admitted to, the murders for which he is in prison.
As I write the governor of the state of California is pondering the giving clemency to this beast. What I want to know is, why? Williams cannot, no matter how "redempted" cannot bring back the lives of those he murdered. "Writing" kids' books about how bad gangs are just doesn't make it. 99.9% of the people on Williams old turf could tell a kid that gangs are bad.
I Didn't Mean Go This Far!
Last week I posted a piece about the value of modesty among young women. In doing so I didn't mean that I condoned the going of this far: International News Article Reuters.com But once again, our Muslim brothers have shown themselves more enlightened than we in the West. Or is it because a burqua covers a woman's bruises inflicted by her husband than does say, a nice pillbox hat?
Round Up O'Links
Christopher Hitchens, apparently, is an ironman. He's survived a long sojourn with the hard Left, has imbibed countless gallons of Scotch and has smoked enough ciggies to supply a small country. But he keeps going on. Even when I disagreed with his formerly hard Left politics I enjoyed reading and listening to him. Red-eyed with a hangover he is able to speak or write better than 99.9% of politicians.
Hitch weighs in on the Saddam Hussein trial and Ramey Clark's place in it:FrontPage magazine.com :: Saddam's Chief Apologist by Christopher Hitchens .
We here at Bloody Nib Manor are not Christmas freaks. We long ago abandoned draping the manse with fairy lights, wearing holiday sweaters in 80 degree Southern California winters or expecting everyone to smile and say Merry Christmas as they hand over a Big Mac. Nowadays we use a dandelion sprinkled with glitter as a Christmas tree, hide under the blankets until Jan. 2 and growl and anyone saying anything to us as we force ourselves out if the local Wal-Mart.
That being said, the leveling of Christmas is amazing to behold. By leveling your faithful correspondent means that a minor Jewish holiday (Hanukkah, Chanaka, or whatever) that used to be celebrated by spinning a top and handing our gold foil chocolates for the kiddies has been elevated to an excuse to go out and shop, the Muslim holiday, Eid, has it's own postage stamp, the fraudulent Kwannza is now honored by greeting card manufacturers and we're forced, while listening to or watching the news, to listen to neo-pagans whine about how Christmas was ripped off from them when, in fact, if Christ had never been born said neo-pagans would probably be sacrificing their first born on December 21 to make the sun return. Never mind the village atheists whining about the "establishment of religion" in the Great Republic while happily accepting Christmas (opps! I meant "holiday") bonuses from their employers. It's all Happy Holidays and Holiday Trees and Holiday Shopping and the Midnight Holiday Mass from the Vatican. And if you don't like it you are the Scrooge for reminding the great unchurched that the reason all this goes on is because of the birth of Jesus. The "holiday" season is supposed to be a bacchanal of buying, partying, groping and regretting the morning after.
Meanwhile, some Jewish thinkers are coming to the defense of Christmas as Christmas and as a celebration of the birth of Christ:FrontPage magazine.com :: Jews for Christmas by Sharon Hughes. And while you read it I'll be singing "Unthinking Physics of the Universe Bless Ye Merry Gentlepersons."
Hitch weighs in on the Saddam Hussein trial and Ramey Clark's place in it:FrontPage magazine.com :: Saddam's Chief Apologist by Christopher Hitchens .
We here at Bloody Nib Manor are not Christmas freaks. We long ago abandoned draping the manse with fairy lights, wearing holiday sweaters in 80 degree Southern California winters or expecting everyone to smile and say Merry Christmas as they hand over a Big Mac. Nowadays we use a dandelion sprinkled with glitter as a Christmas tree, hide under the blankets until Jan. 2 and growl and anyone saying anything to us as we force ourselves out if the local Wal-Mart.
That being said, the leveling of Christmas is amazing to behold. By leveling your faithful correspondent means that a minor Jewish holiday (Hanukkah, Chanaka, or whatever) that used to be celebrated by spinning a top and handing our gold foil chocolates for the kiddies has been elevated to an excuse to go out and shop, the Muslim holiday, Eid, has it's own postage stamp, the fraudulent Kwannza is now honored by greeting card manufacturers and we're forced, while listening to or watching the news, to listen to neo-pagans whine about how Christmas was ripped off from them when, in fact, if Christ had never been born said neo-pagans would probably be sacrificing their first born on December 21 to make the sun return. Never mind the village atheists whining about the "establishment of religion" in the Great Republic while happily accepting Christmas (opps! I meant "holiday") bonuses from their employers. It's all Happy Holidays and Holiday Trees and Holiday Shopping and the Midnight Holiday Mass from the Vatican. And if you don't like it you are the Scrooge for reminding the great unchurched that the reason all this goes on is because of the birth of Jesus. The "holiday" season is supposed to be a bacchanal of buying, partying, groping and regretting the morning after.
Meanwhile, some Jewish thinkers are coming to the defense of Christmas as Christmas and as a celebration of the birth of Christ:FrontPage magazine.com :: Jews for Christmas by Sharon Hughes. And while you read it I'll be singing "Unthinking Physics of the Universe Bless Ye Merry Gentlepersons."
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Screen Queen Makes Sense
The television program "Dynasty" was never a favorite of those here at Bloody Nib Manor. It was just too soap opera-like and damn silly. It was "Dallas" without the cowboy hats.
And Joan Collins, despite the fact that she was at one time a real "babe", was never one of our favorite actresses. This may be due to the fact that she never appeared in a demanding role since she appeared in "Samson and Delilah" with Victor Mature and Angela Landsbury, and the fact that she always put herself forward as a Glamour Puss.
But even a thinking a Glamour Puss is sometimes able to see the light:Britain Destroying Itself From Within
I may have posted this link before. It's just too bad that I wasn't able to link a French thinker saying the same thing.
And Joan Collins, despite the fact that she was at one time a real "babe", was never one of our favorite actresses. This may be due to the fact that she never appeared in a demanding role since she appeared in "Samson and Delilah" with Victor Mature and Angela Landsbury, and the fact that she always put herself forward as a Glamour Puss.
But even a thinking a Glamour Puss is sometimes able to see the light:Britain Destroying Itself From Within
I may have posted this link before. It's just too bad that I wasn't able to link a French thinker saying the same thing.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Don't Let It All Hang Out
Bloody Nib Manor is in a metropolitan area. We're not in the back of beyond or the far side of the desert. And we're not prudes. We can remember when young women wore bell-bottom pants and fringed bikini tops. But that wear was worn at such places as Grateful Dead concerts, Love-Ins and parties. Daily life was usually much more modest consisting of bell-bottom pants and t-shirts with inane saying printed on the front.
Contemporary life has given us what we call "hootchie-mama chic." For those not in the know, a hootchie-mama is a woman who dresses like a slut. These young women seem to have woken up one morning, looked down at their chests and suddenly discovered that they have breasts and have had the thought, "Wow! I've got boobs! I have to go out and show everyone these things!" Consider the various Brittaneys, Christinas, Jessicas and Parises, or whoever graces the cover of the latest People/Us/Star/ National Enquirer. The current crop of Pop Tarts has inspired little girls to dress in a manner that would have made a Saigon whore blush back when a bar of soap could buy a Yank dogface out of his virginity.
Finally someone has come to the conclusion that looking like Madonna (not the Madonna) in her early career is not such a good thing for women or girls. Check out this site:Modesty Zone ,and make sure to check out the store.
On a personal note, a few years ago while looking for a new church, I attended a fellowship that was of the Dutch Reformed tradition. In fact, the preacher was a Dutchman. But the way the young women dressed would have made Abraham Kuyper drive them out with a stick. One Sunday a woman in front of me was wearing a skirt so short, with a slit up the back, that if I had wanted to I would have seen more of the woman's inner thigh than I've ever seen of the same of the ever young Lady Nib. The woman in question was in her late twenties or early thirties with two young children. There's a place for such attire. Church isn't the place.
Let's face it: most people look better with clothes than without clothes. There's no point in ruining one's image before intimacy. And why is it that Brad Pitt or whoever never showed up at the Academy Awards wearing only a tux jacket with no shirt when any female actor could do it an not turn an eyebrow?
Contemporary life has given us what we call "hootchie-mama chic." For those not in the know, a hootchie-mama is a woman who dresses like a slut. These young women seem to have woken up one morning, looked down at their chests and suddenly discovered that they have breasts and have had the thought, "Wow! I've got boobs! I have to go out and show everyone these things!" Consider the various Brittaneys, Christinas, Jessicas and Parises, or whoever graces the cover of the latest People/Us/Star/ National Enquirer. The current crop of Pop Tarts has inspired little girls to dress in a manner that would have made a Saigon whore blush back when a bar of soap could buy a Yank dogface out of his virginity.
Finally someone has come to the conclusion that looking like Madonna (not the Madonna) in her early career is not such a good thing for women or girls. Check out this site:Modesty Zone ,and make sure to check out the store.
On a personal note, a few years ago while looking for a new church, I attended a fellowship that was of the Dutch Reformed tradition. In fact, the preacher was a Dutchman. But the way the young women dressed would have made Abraham Kuyper drive them out with a stick. One Sunday a woman in front of me was wearing a skirt so short, with a slit up the back, that if I had wanted to I would have seen more of the woman's inner thigh than I've ever seen of the same of the ever young Lady Nib. The woman in question was in her late twenties or early thirties with two young children. There's a place for such attire. Church isn't the place.
Let's face it: most people look better with clothes than without clothes. There's no point in ruining one's image before intimacy. And why is it that Brad Pitt or whoever never showed up at the Academy Awards wearing only a tux jacket with no shirt when any female actor could do it an not turn an eyebrow?
On the Front
Having called a cease to the Bloody Nib Bardot versus Deneueve controversy, it's time to get back to things that matter.
The French, having not so much ignored the problems that the recent riots raise as much as they have downplayed the problem (It's not cancer. It's just a plum sized bleeding cyst on the inside of my stomach), have decided to try to pay off the rioters with promises of a better life in the land of Roland. So once again, those who hate filthy lucre but believe that all problems can be solved by an exchange of the long green, believe that they can buy peace and love from those who hate them. Meanwhile the Mohammedans in La Belle France continue their march to overtake the nation that was once called the Catholic Church's first daughter:Fundamentalism in French Workplace - Los Angeles Times . We here at Bloody Nib seriously doubt that if there were an underground of Huegenots at EuroDisney or Renault that had unofficially set aside broom closets as "Prayer Rooms" the employers would have been so inclusive. After all, there's nothing so militant and offensive to the body politic as old fashioned Protestantism.
Oriana Fallaci was in the U.S. this past week and had some interesting things to say:Jihad Watch: Spencer: Fallaci: Warrior in the Cause of Human Freedom . Meanwhile those women who don't seem to care much about Islamic women being beaten and treated pretty much like slaves because they want to be allowed to pee standing up at a men's urinal say that Fallaci is being intolerant because of her stand against the Islamic invasion.
It's rather too bad that Gloria Steinem didn't marry a Saudi and tell us all of the joys of being a woman in an Islamic country and how it would be good for Europe and the Americas to embrace the Koran.
The French, having not so much ignored the problems that the recent riots raise as much as they have downplayed the problem (It's not cancer. It's just a plum sized bleeding cyst on the inside of my stomach), have decided to try to pay off the rioters with promises of a better life in the land of Roland. So once again, those who hate filthy lucre but believe that all problems can be solved by an exchange of the long green, believe that they can buy peace and love from those who hate them. Meanwhile the Mohammedans in La Belle France continue their march to overtake the nation that was once called the Catholic Church's first daughter:Fundamentalism in French Workplace - Los Angeles Times . We here at Bloody Nib seriously doubt that if there were an underground of Huegenots at EuroDisney or Renault that had unofficially set aside broom closets as "Prayer Rooms" the employers would have been so inclusive. After all, there's nothing so militant and offensive to the body politic as old fashioned Protestantism.
Oriana Fallaci was in the U.S. this past week and had some interesting things to say:Jihad Watch: Spencer: Fallaci: Warrior in the Cause of Human Freedom . Meanwhile those women who don't seem to care much about Islamic women being beaten and treated pretty much like slaves because they want to be allowed to pee standing up at a men's urinal say that Fallaci is being intolerant because of her stand against the Islamic invasion.
It's rather too bad that Gloria Steinem didn't marry a Saudi and tell us all of the joys of being a woman in an Islamic country and how it would be good for Europe and the Americas to embrace the Koran.
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