Gentle readers: I apologize for the lack of a post yesterday; I had no lunch break because I was busy being a guinea pig for science. To make it up to you, I will reveal two juicy secrets to you:
1. Although the triathlon is later this month, I have not yet officially registered for it.
2. Although my hatred of reggaeton is world renowned, I do love Pitbull. He's not really reggaeton but crunk, so maybe that's not that juicy a secret. Also, Rockstar Tailor likes him too. I not only enjoy his music but think he's a fine-looking specimen. However, I have no actual desire to meet him in real life.
Wow! Can you believe it? You'll never be able to look at me the same way again!
I am very tired today because last night was practice for the hardcore Mideastern band again, the one that plays in quarter tones. It was so much fun! The oud player would give me instructions like: "On this song, the F# is not as sharp as in Western music, and the Eb is not as flat." I just copied his F# and Eb. I'm flexible - that's what a lack of frets can do for you.
You may be wondering, just how many instruments do you own, Famous Hat? Or you may not, but I will tell you anyway. I have two violins, a good family heirloom one and one I found in a trash can at the music school. The family heirloom is a copy of a Guanarius that was made in Germany early last century. The cheap one was made in China and probably sold at a big discount chain for $69.95, according to the violin repair guy. I have gut strings on the good violin and have removed its chin rest, so I can use it for Renaissance, Baroque, and Mideastern music. The cheap violin has steel strings so I can use it for fiddling, mariachi, etc.
I also have two mandolins. One is a very fine Neapolitan style (also known as taterbug), with a round back like the ones in old paintings and lovely mother-of-pearl inlay. It is a family heirloom as well and was made in Chicago at the end of the nineteenth century. It has such a lovely sound. The other one is an electric Fender A-style mandolin a friend left me when she moved to the East Coast. (She also left me Sylvia the Hedgehog.) She left me an amp too. I use the old mando in my folk group and the electric mando in the plugged-in Mideastern group. (Clearly they do not play in quarter tones, since both the mando and the guitar have frets, and the other instrument in that group is an electric keyboard.)
Then I have a handmade rebec I bought at Early Music Camp one year. That is the only instrument of any value that I ever bought. Tiffy, another friend, and I were going to form an early music group called Pulp Incunabulae, but that never happened, so I had no use for this poor little, expensive rebec until joining the hardcore Mideastern group. If you know anyone who would like to be in an early music group called Pulp Incunabulae, let me know. I am flexible about the name, too - I am also willing to call it Macrame Theorbo.
I also have a mountain dulcimer that a coworker twisted my arm into buying from her for a whopping $17. Her boyfriend in college had made it, and it had been sitting in her basement ever since, so it isn't in stellar shape. I currently have it tuned C-G-G-G and can play some songs on it. Cashmere my girl bunny is fascinated by its buzzy, droning sound. The other instruments don't have names (although I do call the taterbug mando "Mandy"), but my folk group said the mountain dulcimer should have a mountain name, so I dubbed it Bubba Sue.
Otherwise, I have some random small instruments, like an alto recorder from my days in the Medieval reenactment group and a fife my parents gave to me when I was ten, two ocarinas (one is a necklace from my parents and the other, which I bought at Teotihuacan, looks like a statue of a folk dancer), and a set of pan pipes also left to me by the friend who moved to the East Coast. Now and then I mess around on them, but woodwinds are not my thing - strings are.
Oh, and I have a cheap baby toy dumbeck that barely makes any sound when you play it. Oh well, I'm not a drummer either.
Famous Hat
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2 comments:
So Pitbull is not hip hop. I have no idea what crunk is - a mix of punk and something else? And I thought Pitbull was my neighbors friendly and somewhat obnoxious dog. So now that you have given us your instrumental lowdown, I will go next. And for those of you who are curious, the rebec is merely a small violin without a G string.
1 violin, made in 1984 by David Folland, Northfield MN, now a world renowned luthier
1 hardanger fiddle made in Norway in 1913
1 1/2 size violin which I kept for Rockstartailor. I sold the 1/16 and the 1/8 ones
1 old 12 string guitar tuned as a bass
2 classical guitars
1 electric guitar. Not sure if the amp and effects pedals count as separate instruments.
1 spinet piano
1 keyboard
1 half assed drum set in the basement that is missing a cymbal but works overall for kids pretending to have a band.
1 kazoo
remains of a cheap plastic recorder.
3 cats - they count if their tails get stepped on :-)
So everything except the kazoo and recorder parts comes out to 10.
From Wikipedia: Crunk is a style of music that originated from southern hip hop and electronic dance music in the early 1990s. The style was pioneered and commercialized by artists from Memphis, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia
According to Lil Jon, one of the pioneers of the genre (and a collaborator with Pitbull), "Crunk Rock is going to be some next level $h!+."
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