Wednesday  26 Jul 2017           2 comments

I liked Martin Landau's work in Mission: Impossible. And I like the misspelling ("disquise") in this still from an episode in the first season. Yes, I am easily amused.

Sunday  23 Jul 2017           comment?



For a larger view, click on the pic of the animal that didn't recently dismiss accusations that he's willing to suppress his ideals for the sake of power.

Saturday  22 Jul 2017           comment?

Program notes for Holst's The Planets often point out that the vocal parts in the last movement (Neptune, the Mystic) are performed by an offstage choir. The score has specific directions:

The Chorus is to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed. The Chorus, the door, and any Sub‑Conductors that may be found necessary, are to be well screened from the audience.

Neptune ends on faintly sung notes. I can see how Holst felt that punctuation was in order. The door‑closing is like a period.

And I like the ritual aspect of the instructions. Even though the audience neither sees nor hears, the closing of the door is a moment to be savored. It's an esoteric touch, an arcanum shared by the composer and the performers (and anyone curious enough to have read the score).

Tuesday  18 Jul 2017           comment?

The laws of mathematics are very commendable but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia.

- Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia

Wednesday  12 Jul 2017           comment?

One channel in my stereo preamp went bad recently. I got around to dealing with it today. Sometimes trying to fix stuff is fun, sometimes it's frustrating, sometimes it's both. The problem was in a stage that I guessed I could just bypass and let another similar stage perform the same function. The good news is, the preamp does work now. The other news is that an IC op‑amp I took out of the signal path was displeased with what portion of the original circuit remained. I'd left the op‑amp on the board because who wants to desolder an 8‑pin DIP, but I ended up having to take it out anyway after the way it went pop when powered up. Smoke came out of the dark spot in the middle of the package. Oh, and I blew the fuse in the preamp while poking around, no big deal except that this one was soldered in. Yeah I could have paid a competent technician to fix it but where's the sport in that.

Tuesday  11 Jul 2017           comment?

We had a couple telescopes around the house when I was a kid. The bigger one had a 6" diameter mirror which, by the time I was a teenager, had turned dull (the silver coating had tarnished). My dad and I took the mirror to an optics supply company to see if there was anything they could recommend for restoring it.

"It's got a fillum on it," the guy behind the counter said. In the spirit of not being contradictory, my dad followed his lead and pronounced film with two syllables for the rest of the discussion.

The old mirror was deemed a lost cause and I bought a new one (aluminized rather than silvered) which I still have.

I wonder if the dude who said fillum was responsible for editing their catalog, which included this: If I start spelling top‑notch with a k, now you know why.

Saturday  08 Jul 2017           1 comment