It Ain’t Necessarily So

by

by wj I think we are overdue for an explicitly Open Thread. So here are a couple of totally unrelated items to kick us off. Item The US Stimulus Checks (technically “Economic Impact Payments”) are finally coming out. Ours just arrived. While President Trump’s name is right there on the front, his signature (contrary to … Read more

Something different

by

by liberal japonicus I’m just going to post a few things that pop up for me, these two might be of interest. Humans Created Earliest Modern Artifacts in Europe and New Dates Push Back Arrival of Modern Humans in Europe If there are any regulars who would like to try their hand at posting, now … Read more

the art of playing time

by

by russell

A while back I posted a video of a studio performance of Paul Simon's "The Afterlife", and made some comments about how the different players were all articulating the time feel of the piece in different ways.  I followed up on that in longer form with a couple of folks, and it was suggested that I post the longer version, if nothing else than as a break from epidemics and the SFJ.

So, a post about the art of playing time.

The critical skill in all aspects of music is listening.  Not just listening, but hearing.  Playing in tune, playing in time, blending in an ensemble, playing convincingly as a solo player – they all depend on hearing what is going on.  And, in particular, hearing what you are playing.  That's often the hardest, because you have an idea in your head of what it is you intend to play, and you assume that that is what is coming out of your voice or instrument.

Quite often, it's not.

So you have to train yourself to hear what it is that you are actually doing.

For time playing, there are two aspects of this.  You have to learn to hear the time – the consistent forward march of beat after beat – independently of what you are actually playing.  Because your playing may not be that accurate.  And, you have to hear whether, and how, what you are playing lines up with that – initially, just to be accurate, but also because, at some point, when you advance beyond beginner and play with players who hear stuff like this, you want to be able to deliberately play ahead of the time, or behind the time, exactly on the time, or any combination thereof.

Humans have a natural ability to sense the passage of time, some more accurately than others.  But for almost everyone, it's something that can, and probably must, be fine-tuned through practice.

So – what is the practice that leads to this?  See you after the page break….

Read more

All for one, one for ???

by

by liberal japonicus I usually don’t do this, but I feel I need to throw everyone a bone. From here The same goes for the three companies affiliated with Monty Bennett. Ashford Hospitality Trust, where Bennett is chairman and a large shareholder, was able to treat each individual hotel property as a separate business when … Read more

For hsh

by

by JanieM

5/16: US and UK updated to today. But US numbers are bizarre — Worldometer doesn’t agree with itself, in that today’s total deaths minus yesterday’s (as I copied them each day) gives a value quite a bit higher than the # they show in the daily deaths graph for today. If I dig deeper, I see that for at least the last few days, the #s in the “total deaths” graph don’t agree with the numbers I copied into a spreadsheet every night after they cleared the by-state table for the day. I know they adjust numbers sometimes, but these are big numbers, and I don’t see an explanation as yet. I’m not sure I’m going to bother continuing with this if the data is this murky.

5/14 note: I’m going to keep updating these for the time being, although even the number of deaths is reportedly being manipulated by different states in different ways, so I don’t know how indicative these numbers are. The time when Worldometer cuts off each night varies, but usually the updates are ready by 10:00 p.m. eastern time, and surely by 11:00. If I get time I might see if I can put a link to this post on the front page, and if I really get time I’d like to do some other graphs as well. We’ll see.

2 US graphs 20200516

This didn’t take long, although it would be quicker to make these if I had been collecting daily data in a useful format all along. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Any other countries you’d particularly like to see?

Numbers came from the “Daily New Deaths in the US” graph here.

*****

And for lj’s “yellow peril” collection, from Tom Levenson at BJ: Weaponizing Bullshit, Chattering Classes Edition

*****

Read more

Your medical speculation thread

by

by liberal japonicus Russell posted on a government reset, and I thought that a thread where we just talked about the medicine and the science of CoVID-19 might be nice. Fair warning: you bring politics in here, your comment will be deleted but your name will be left up to be ridiculed. I understand that … Read more

topic for discussion

by

by russell After 9/11, there was a lot of talk about the Constitution "not being a suicide pact".  I agree with that, although probably not in the spirit with which that idea was presented at the time. The fundamental premise of American governance is self-government, by the people, in a republican form.  "In a republican … Read more

Looking for death

by

by liberal japonicus image from this Guardian link. To support the Guardian, go here or here. From Anthony Beevor’s The battle for Spain: the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Soon after the ceremony began, Professor Francisco Maldonado launched a violent attack against Catalan and Basque nationalism, which he described as ‘the cancer of the nation’, which … Read more

Massacre in slow motion

by

by liberal japonicus One thing that we’ve done here is when there has been an event like the 2017 Las Vegas Strip shooting, we’ve taken the time to post links to remembrances of the victims. When I saw that jazz saxaphonist Lee Konitz had died from complications related to CoVID-19, I realized, (really too late), … Read more

I got yer clash of civilizations

by

by liberal japonicus

I’ve mentioned my distaste for the Yellow Peril hot takes that pop up. They are easy enough to do and are often the product of intellectual laziness rather than truly held on to racism. It seems to me that the waves of Chinese tourists proves that they are just like us, parents pulling quasi reluctant teenagers and overly excitable little kids to see some place because it is good for them. Sure, it may look different, with grandma and grandpa squeezing into subway cars and trying to figure out the best yatai in Fukuoka, but I see the same impulse as all of those family trips in the late 60’s/early 70’s that Mad Magazine used to make fun on. But underneath it all, they are just like us and it is simply a lack of imagination to think otherwise.

So what’s it like when the boot is on the other foot? Try this on for size

Read more

Taking a Ride

by

by JanieM On March 11 I took my car to a once-already-delayed appointment to have a factory-ordered repair done. My son and I dropped off the car, then went to the grocery store. That was the last time I was out and about in the world, except that each weekend I’ve been taking a solitary … Read more

What I’m reading and what I’m looking for

by

by liberal japonicus This one about Neaderthals, speculations about cognitive ability and the ability to make fibres. https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/04/archaeology-ancient-string-discovery-sheds-light-on-neanderthal-life/127432 This reminds me of an interesting article pointing out that the naming of ages (bronze, iron) occurs because those are the things that are likely to survive, but we would probably have a better idea of the … Read more

To serve two masters

by

by liberal japonicus I don’t know if the commentariat here has a lot of military experience, my impression is no. (I don’t, but there is one person here who I think does have some experience/insight, but I leave it to them to speak) And I realize there are a lot of things that, if you … Read more

Don’t call it going online, call it ERT

by

by liberal japonicus Perhaps a bit of inside baseball, but here in Japan, things are very unsettled and everyone teaching is talking about going online. I’m the cranky uncle always yelling ‘don’t call it online, call it Emergency Remote Teaching‘! And you kids get off my yard!!!’. I was calling it Crisis Teaching, but ERT … Read more

Makes the world go around

by

by liberal japonicus I’ve heard it tell round these parts, a few are interested in this. NPR present their dissection. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/26/821457551/whats-inside-the-senate-s-2-trillion-coronavirus-aid-package Of course, need to be careful, they are taking money from the public trough and some argue that if we had just spent the money on what was important, we wouldn’t be in this … Read more

A poetry thread

by

by liberal japonicus Time to dig out your faves. Been reading Adrianne Rich and share this one with you. What Kind of Times Are These by Adrienne Rich There’s a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows near a meeting-house abandoned by … Read more

Rumblings

by

by liberal japonicus Well, rumor here in Japan is that Tokyo will go into strict lockdown relatively soon. One of the reasons Japan has taken a slowly slowly approach, according to this chatter, is that Abe doesn’t want to crash the Nikkei and since March is the end of the fiscal year, April will see … Read more

Urbi et Orbi

by

by liberal japonicus Thought I would open another thread, this time centered around Pope Francis’ recent homily, in which he gave the blessing in the title, explained by this wikipedia page. The Urbi et Orbi address and blessing is the most solemn form of blessing in the Catholic Church, and is reserved for the most … Read more

Check please!

by

by liberal japonicus Posted on a friend’s facebook, who said he got it from Popbitch A man in hospital is one of the first to use the new Dyson ventilator. Doctors say he’s picking up nicely. So a thread for jokes. No politics….. unless it’s funny.

The other other stuff (politics)

by

by JanieM In response to Girl from the North Country’s request. I suppose it’s futile, but I’m going to ask anyhow. Can we try to keep it to — reportage and not bloody-minded rants about the facts being reported, and — constructive ideas and links to useful info, actions, etc…. It’s hard enough to fight … Read more

The Other Stuff

by

by JanieM I wrote on the 1192 tsukuro! thread about my mom getting injured in a fall this morning, but I don’t want to have dragged that thread off topic, so here’s another. Sort of an open thread, but no politics, please. If you have practical thoughts on taking action politically, go to the “Returning … Read more

1192 tsukuro!

by

by liberal japonicus This is prompted by my reply to Girl from the North Country concerning the fact that Korea basically has one big urban center and the problems it causes as well as me remember Russell’s observation (I think) about how a particular size of village/town was self selected. I’m too lazy to look … Read more

Returning Fire

by

by JanieM There are times on this blog, one of them just this morning, when people write as if any attempt at moderation is objectively pro-Nazi. I’m not buying it. Maybe certain kinds of venting help the venter somehow, but there’s a tipping point beyond which conversation amongst the rest of us, even rancorous conversation … Read more

Theme, with Variations

by

by JanieM

Thanks to Anne Laurie’s amazing reporting at Balloon-Juice, the novel coronavirus has been on my radar since late January.

Because of Anne’s posts, I started backing up my food and household supplies a few weeks ago – just a little at a time, not trying to prepare for six months or a year in a bunker, but just adding an extra package of toilet paper here, a few extra packages of rice cakes and flour there. Even before this happened I probably could have eaten (boringly) for several weeks on the long untouched pasta and other staples in my cupboards and fridge.

For a couple of weeks I went to the store and bought a little more than usual with each trip. Then other people started to get a clue, and the following week the toilet paper aisle was cleaned out. I haven’t been to town since last Weds., and for the foreseeable future my son will be doing my shopping for me. He’s going today – we’ll see what he has to say about supplies of various things when he gets back.

Read more