3552 Water, music

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend

will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'."

-- Groucho Marx --

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My phone rang during the dance class last night.  It was a township automated red alert call, saying that the water was contaminated, and we should boil water used to wash dishes etc. and drink bottled water or boiled water until further notice.  A few minutes later Daughter called with the same message, with the additional info that several people had been hospitalized.

I bought some bottled water on the way home.  The store was full of people also buying water.

When I got home I found an email from the township with a link to further info.  They suspect that the contamination occurred from damage to a pipe during construction.

Now, here's the good part.  Right there in the township notice, they say that "the contamination was detected in a water sample taken Friday, June 15."  Note that the alert didn't go out until Monday evening.  People were showing up at the ER over the weekend.  I'm surprised that they admitted a delay.  How does someone break a pipe and not know it?  That leaves them open to a lawsuit claiming that "they should have known - why take samples if you're going to be so blasé about them?"

Gee, thanks anyway for eventually letting us know....

At risk are "infants, toddlers, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems". 

Given that the Nugget had been drinking it, and given that I drink at least 3 quarts of the stuff a day, I guess I'm not so very elderly, and our letting Nugget eat mud pies and whatever she finds on the floor is good for her immune system.

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I've been reading through old posts, dating from late 2005 or so, and adding labels so I can find stuff.  I found some posts about some of my musical interests. I do love me some drumline action.

This is an Amy/Navy drum battle.  I'm not positive which is which - I suspect the guys on the right are Navy - but the guys on the left won hands down as far as I'm concerned. (Odd that they are not as precise as college drumlines. The guy on the far left is the only one with "the stoic posture".  And why are the guys in the back masked?  Weird.)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFRikZ2Mwao]

I also love bagpipe, uillean pipe, bodhran, and hammered dulcimer.  The old post at http://thesilkentouch.blogspot.com/2007/07/1349-another-passion.html has videos of them.

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I've been disturbed by people who don't know the difference between "lose" and "loose".  Now there's a new one that I'm seeing more and more often:  "break" and "brake".   Even so-called professional writers are screwing that up.  The mental image I get when someone writes "break the car" is, I suspect, not what the writer intended.  "She slammed on the breaks" is a mind-blanker.  I get no image.
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1349 Another Passion

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

[If you read this on a feed, the embedded video may not show. Click on the post title to see it.]

FW just called. She invited me to join her at Omega Institute tonight for dinner and a concert, and to shop for a djembe (an African hand drum, usually carved wood, with a goatskin head). She's thinking of joining a drum circle. Coincidence?

I seem to be on a theme lately. Here's another passion of mine:



I love bagpipes, and the military drum tattoos. But just hearing a recording doesn't do it. I have to SEE it. I guess it's the attire, and the faces, and the movement I have to experience, too. Also, a recording doesn't make that throb in the chest that you get in person, when the sound becomes part of your body.

Part of my love for bagpipes is that I deeply appreciate skill and craftsmanship wherever I find it (oddly, I don't necessarily have the same respect for talent), and bagpipes require hard work and dedication.

Irish (uillean) pipes require in addition a dose of insanity. Here's some Irish bagpipe playing. Note the bellows under the right elbow. Unlike the Scottish bagpipe, the Irish pipe player can play the drones, too.


I've seen Joe McKenna play Irish bagpipes, at Wolf Trap, in the early 80's (the same festival where I fell in love with zydeco). Joe's had several drones with exposed reeds, lying across his lap, and one hand whipped back and forth from the chanter (I think that's what it's called) to the drones. Fascinating. Here's a picture showing Joe's instrument.

I love bodhran, too. Here's a guy who's really good


And hammered dulcimer, oh, Lordy, hammered dulcimer:

There are so many sounds and sights that will stop me in my tracks.

You know, it's good to have things outside yourself that excite you.
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