Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, August 13, 2023
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28 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Pole Lives Matter!
I went and looked for more music played with wine glasses. There’s a lot of it on Youtube.
I found that a little goes a long way. It’s different from conventional instruments, but it begins to sound too much alike.
In most videos, the setup is called a glass harp. The sound is more reminiscent, to me, of an organ. Certainly it sounds nothing like a harp. I suppose it looks more like a harp and that’s how the name came to be.
I found an interpretation of Ravel’s Bolero on glass. IMO, the charm of that piece is the many different instruments playing the same melody one after the other, then keeping time in the background as new instruments come up. Playing it all in the same instrument, though, does begin to feel too repetitive. I’ve read Ravel intended the piece to sound mechanical. The glass harp gets far closer to that.
Also, I found the percussion to be quite creative. Though I suspect the man’s fingers must hurt by the time it’s over.
I’ll go look for glass har played alongside other instruments.
So this is why Trump keeps harping on what he calls a “perfect phone call.” He wants to distract from this. Also, obligatory “every Trump accusation is a confession.”
Exclusive: Georgia prosecutors have messages showing Trump’s team is behind voting system breach
@OzarkHillbilly:
????
What am I missing?
Some commenters have asked about Hawai’i residents. My closest family live on O’ahu and have dear friends on Maui who have been displaced. They suggest the following organizations for those looking to donate.
Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement
Hawai’i Community Foundation
Public Schools of Hawai’i Foundation
@CSK: The short video at the link? The cop ran over a light pole. I suspect he was looking at the other cops banging Ueys in his side view mirror and not where he was going. He could have just stopped and waited for them to pass but drove straight into it.
@Mimai: Thanks for posting. I hope your loved ones remain safe!
@CSK: I thought it was the synthesis of a cop joke and a “pole”-ish joke, but I DO go a little bigoted in my interpretation. ☹️
Now you sea me: maritime art made of beach rubbish – in pictures
When life gives you lemons… I like his art.
@just nutha: There’s also the all too common “I don’t need to watch where I’m going, other people need to” attitude that I occasionally hear from drivers of Suburban Assault Vehicles and big pickups combined with a touch of ACAB arrogance on the part of the driver of the waaayyy-too-large-(obviously)-for-the-situation police unit.
(Guess somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. And with a “high-temperatures” alert for the next four days, too. Hmmmm…)
Perfect article for a Sunday.
My Prediction: In 10 years, there will be a online cult worshiping a deity created and propped up by AI. Also pretty sure there already is a science/speculative fiction novel written predicting this.
A new AI app lets users ‘text’ with Jesus. Some call it blasphemy.
@Kathy: We studied glass harps/harmonicas and music written for them while I was in college studying music history. A set up like the one that guy is using is far more “noteworthy” than the other typical glass “organ” where the player is making the sound on mechanically spinning disks in that this guy has to be able to make his finger stroke do the work for each note individually. Getting several dozen individual glasses to “squeak/sing” repeatedly over a protracted period takes some level of talent that I never possessed to be sure.
Still, the tone quality doesn’t vary–even among individual “instruments”–and the novelty wears off for all but a few die-hard souls. I suspect that’s why glass harp never became a serious medium for composers.
@Scott: In terms of literature already running that direction, we have A Canticle for Leibowitz with
But these guys are certainly running a directionally different satire. And yes, wherever there is stupidity available and bidness to be done from it, evangelicals will inevitably follow. Look for this software becoming a feature of somebody’s “ministry” by the end of 2024 at the latest.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
It’s more of a novelty, agreed. We’ll see if i even remember it exists months from now.
As to talent, I took piano lessons long ago. They didn’t take (maybe if I’d practiced ever…). I’m amazed anyone can play any instrument at all and produce actual music on it.
@Mimai:
Thanks. My niece-in-law has already started on this.
@Scott: Heh, puts me in mind of the Doors’
Petition the Lord with prayer
Petition the Lord with prayer
You cannot petition the Lord with prayer!
@OzarkHillbilly:
I didn’t realize they were cop cars.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: My junk drawer of memory wandered to Beneath the Planet of the Apes and the worship of the Alpha-Omega Bomb and to the Holy Hand Grenade.
@CSK: The STL Metro Police at their finest!
Some outfit in Austin, Texas distributes what it calls the American Liberty Awards. The prize for “Most Trusted Print Media” went to The Gateway Pundit.
Among the other nominees were Infowars, ZeroHedge, and Breitbart.
I swear I did not make this up.
@Scott: Ahh, Sunday begins with a Monty Python quote. It’s going to be a fine day.
@Kathy:
You may have missed the Ken Burns Franklin, in which Ben did the obvious thing with musical glass. T’was a big hit, Mozart composed pieces for it.
Not to be pedantic, sure you realize this, but I think the people using InfoWars, Breitbart etc as a news source really do trust them, part of our problem.
Steve
You couldn’t make that up. If you submitted that as a script for a movie short you’d get laughed right out of the building!
@OzarkHillbilly:..pole lives…
I did that one time when I was driving a telephone company van. I was doing a three point turn around and barely tapped it with my bumper and it fell right across a traffic lane of a main drag in town. Fortunately I was able to get out of the van and move it up off the roadway before any vehicles came by. It was a fancy light fixture in the Historical District of town. It looked just like the one in this picture. No damage to the telco van. The phone company paid for the damage and I got a day off without pay.
@CSK:
ZeroHedge is a verified Russian propaganda outlet.
@Mister Bluster: I once caught the side of a van on a fire hydrant while making a u-turn. Didn’t hurt the hydrant at all but it sure did wreak havoc on the van.
@steve:
Oh, I know. The kind of people who hang out at Lucianne.com trust them implicitly.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I can barely believe it myself.
@Mikey:
That’s probably why they like it. They love Russia. ZH tells them what they want to read.