February 2017 – Page 2

Macular Degeneration and Ereaders

For those elderly folk who suffer from one form of macular degeneration or another, it seems that ereaders offer an ideal solution to their problems with reading.

Macular degeneration is defined as follows:-

Macular degeneration is a silent and painless loss of central vision due to the degeneration or dying of cells in the retina, called the macula.

What is lost is the central portion of your sight – what you see right in front of you like the face of a person or the words in a book.

Obviously this will give tremendous problems when trying to read, as we use the centre of our field of vision to see the letters on the page – try to read a book only looking at the page from the edge of your field of vision – sort of looking off to the left or right and see how easy it is to read the page whilst not actually looking at it properly and you will see what I mean.

In fact there are a whole load of different versions of this particular eye problem, but they all entail the loss of centre field vision to one degree or another, and all, obviously effect how easy and pleasurable it is to read a book.

And this is where ereaders come into their own as opposed to regular printed paper books, which unless you buy yourself large print versions of whatever book you wish to read, the letters (fonts) are way too small for someone with this particular eye problem to see to any degree.

Added to which is the sad fact that not all books are published in a large font version, and generally they also cost more than their standard versions as well. So paper books are really not much use to those suffering from this particular form of eye problem – which is a quite large proportion of people over 65 years of age, sadly. Continue reading “Macular Degeneration and Ereaders”

Dan Raven – Photographer Of Strange Images

About a week ago, I came across the work of Dan Raven who is a photographer with a very special and idiosyncratic view of the world. There is a brooding quality about his photos that is remarkably attractive I found. By this I don’t mean that his photographs are in any sense dark or […]

About a week ago, I came across the work of Dan Raven who is a photographer with a very special and idiosyncratic view of the world. There is a brooding quality about his photos that is remarkably attractive I found. By this I don’t mean that his photographs are in any sense dark or morbid, quite the contrary in fact. They are full of light and space, but still, they make one think of mortality and similar dark thoughts. Odd really how they have that effect, on me at least.

He has taken lots of photos of abandoned places, buildings, constructions, rooms and so on, which obviously do have their own sort of melancholia, but even these, which as I say, do give one intimations of mortality, manage to do that without being all dark and Gothic in the literal sense.

To give you a better idea of what I mean,here are two photos he took of abandoned places.

Whilst both of these rooms are very different, they are also very similar, both in the sense of being abandoned, but not emptied. The people who lived in and used these rooms apparently simply walked away one day, leaving all their bits and pieces behind, in a sort of mute “we were here” cry. Continue reading “Dan Raven – Photographer Of Strange Images”

Max Fleischer, The Father Of Modern Animation

Max Fleischer, The Father Of Modern Animation Generally when people think of cartoons, in the sense of animated films, they assume that all the real pioneering work was done by Walt Disney back in the 20’s of the last century, but this is absolutely not the case. In fact almost all the development of […]

Max Fleischer, The Father Of Modern Animation

Generally when people think of cartoons, in the sense of animated films, they assume that all the real pioneering work was done by Walt Disney back in the 20’s of the last century, but this is absolutely not the case. In fact almost all the development of techniques and styles were the work of a man who is now hardly remembered by people outside the world of animated films, a certain Max Fleischer.

The list of techniques and tools that he invented or developed is enormous, and his influence on what we now see every day on our screens is almost entirely due to the amazing imagination and skill of this remarkable man.

I shan’t bother to give a sort of potted biography of him here. What I shall be looking at here are the main threads of his development as an animator and an inventor of all manner of very significant techniques and aids to making and watching such cartoons.

OK, it is a bit of a give away I suppose, yup, he was the creator of Betty Boop among other famous cartoon characters.

He was also responsible for such famous cartoon characters as Popeye, Koko the Clown and numerous other now forgotten characters who were the result of his work, oh and he was also responsible for the first cartoons of good old Superman as well.

I shall be giving you examples of these various cartoons later in this post, so bear with me as I discuss some of his other major contributions to the art of animated films.

The first, and possibly the most significant was the invention of a gadget called the Rotoscope.

Continue reading “Max Fleischer, The Father Of Modern Animation”

Angola, We Head Off To Luanda

In about 2004 we set about creating yet another new life in Angola. A country that until shortly before our arrival in Luanda (its capital) had been involved in a three way civil war that had been raging for some 30 years. This was basically a war against the Portuguese colonists in the beginning, and […]

In about 2004 we set about creating yet another new life in Angola. A country that until shortly before our arrival in Luanda (its capital) had been involved in a three way civil war that had been raging for some 30 years. This was basically a war against the Portuguese colonists in the beginning, and then later became yet another of Africa’s proxy wars between the USA and the USSR. The USA used the South Africans as their tool for this, and the Russians used Cubans as theirs. This was all about diamonds, oil, uranium and several other valuable resources that Angola has in huge quantities.

What it meant in practice was that three armies – the third being a bunch who owed no allegiance to either the USA or the USSR, but simply wanted to rule the country for their own benefit (money you know) rampaged around the country, killing and destroying anything that got in their way.

We were going to Angola as Lotty (my wife) had landed a job in Luanda International School as the Middle Year Program Coordinator and I was going to be found work upon our arrival.

Anyhow, on leaving France, we went first to London, said goodbye to various family members, and then caught a flight from London to Johannesburg. This flight was a longish one, and owing to some sort of strike with the BA catering department, there was no food on the plane..

This meant real suffering for one such as I.

Then on arrival in South Africa, we were confronted by the reality of what apparently is one of the most violent cities in the world. Razor wire everywhere, signs in several languages on private houses warning of “armed response” to any attempt to enter uninvited, guns galore, newspaper articles about the 20,000 unsolved murders annually in South Africa and a general feeling that this is not a safe or good place to be.

Quite a shock to us after our peaceful lives in rural France I can tell you.

Anyhow, we were met and whisked off to a sort of conference centre/retreat on the edge of Johannesburg for an intensive week of workshops to introduce us to the ideas of our new school, and to get to know our new colleagues, and to be given a lot of background information about living in Angola..

This turned out to be a very pleasant week, friendly interesting people, good food, comfortable accommodation, generally a good experience, one which gave us hope that working in Luanda might be a good experience. Continue reading “Angola, We Head Off To Luanda”

The Ukulele – A Real Instrument Or Not?

If like me, you have probably never taken the ukulele seriously as a musical instrument, you might be surprised by the James Hill video below. I know that many musicians have played the ukulele and obviously regard it as a “real” instrument. But I have always found it somehow to be lacking some quality that […]

If like me, you have probably never taken the ukulele seriously as a musical instrument, you might be surprised by the James Hill video below.

I know that many musicians have played the ukulele and obviously regard it as a “real” instrument. But I have always found it somehow to be lacking some quality that is required for a musical instrument to be taken seriously. I know that musicians as diverse as Tiny Tim, Kate Micucci (in her alter ego of Oates in the duo Garfunkel and Oates) have played the ukulele with total commitment, and obviously consider it to be a very real and worthwhile instrument.

And of course, famously George Formby strummed away on one as well.

But for me, it has always been a sort of pre-pubescent sort of an instrument. With its high, squeaky voice, and the strumming way it is normally played, it seemed to me to be simply a silly thing.

To demonstrate my point, here is good old Kate Micucci strumming away on her ukulele…….

As always with her, this song is of course rather surprising…. But that awful plunky ukulele!. Continue reading “The Ukulele – A Real Instrument Or Not?”

The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain On Satan

As you will know if you are a fan of Mark Twain’s writings, he was very much opposed to the Christian Church and all its works. And as his life went on, this loathing simply became worse and worse (a view I share with him by the way). His views on the Church and […]

His views on the Church and humanity are best summed up in a short book he wrote at the end of his life, and which was not published in the USA until about 1960, as his daughter felt strongly that this book did not really reflect her father’s views, and that it was simply too sacrilegious.

This short book, which I first read in about 1966 is called Letters From Earth, and is supposed to be a series of letters written by Satan to his two good friends, the Archangels Gabriel and Michael. The idea is that he (Satan) has nipped down to earth to see how we are all getting on, and he is appalled by what he finds.

I shan’t go into the storyline here, as you can read the whole thing for yourself on-line if you follow this link (Letters From Earth). This short book gives a very good idea of how Twain regarded organised religion and humanity as well.

He wrote a number of other stories which were basically attacks on the Christian Church, and several of these have been turned into very pleasing claymation films, which I will post below for your viewing pleasure.

I feel that these short films speak perfectly well for themselves (the storylines were written by Mark Twain after all), so I shan’t tediously analyse what it is that they are trying to say, as it is totally obvious and clear enough I feel.

So, without more ado, here are the two films that show very well both his feelings about religion, and also his very misanthropic feelings as well.

So, to start with, here is his take on religion’s ideas about the ultimate reward – Heaven.

And now his views on humanity……………………. Continue reading “The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain On Satan”

Lark In The Morning – Amazing Instruments

I have stumbled upon a company called Lark In The Morning, who make the most amazing and extraordinary musical instruments, which they sell via their website. They make and sell these instruments as if selling a Bullroarer, a Stradivarius Musical Saw or a Walking Stick Fife were the most normal things in the world. […]

I have stumbled upon a company called Lark In The Morning, who make the most amazing and extraordinary musical instruments, which they sell via their website. They make and sell these instruments as if selling a Bullroarer, a Stradivarius Musical Saw or a Walking Stick Fife were the most normal things in the world.

Not only do they make these weird and wonderful instruments, but they also make relatively ¨normal” instruments as well, but it is the odd end of their market that interested me when I came across their website (link at bottom of this post). I love the eccentricity of a company that with a completely straight face offers to sell us a Crum Horn, a Jewish Ram´s Horn or a Dulcimer.

If you visit their website and click on the link that will give you a complete list of the categories of the instruments they make, you will be astounded (as was I) by the amazingly long list of instruments, some of which you may have heard of, but loads of the literally dozens of different types of instrument they make will be totally unknown to you I am sure.

Do you have any idea what a Kalimba or Thumb Piano might be? Nor have i.

Not surprisingly these instruments are not cheap, prices ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars, but given the nature of their products, these prices seem totally reasonable to me. Obviously all of these instruments can be ordered directly from them online, and to help those of you, who like me, are not fully informed about what a Stroh Horn Violin might actually sound like, they kindly have small videos of many of their instruments to allow you to see and hear them on action – So this is what a Stroh Horn Violin both looks and sounds like in action – It will cost you $999 by the way should you fall in love with it and simply have to own one of your own.

Haunting Images Of Abandoned Places

Kenneth Provost is a Belgian photographer of abandoned places. Wandering around his native Belgium with his camera in his hand he discovers all manner of abandoned factories, houses and similar urban detritus, and makes the most wonderful photos of them. Apparently he was given his first serious camera about 4 years ago, and promptly went […]

Kenneth Provost is a Belgian photographer of abandoned places. Wandering around his native Belgium with his camera in his hand he discovers all manner of abandoned factories, houses and similar urban detritus, and makes the most wonderful photos of them.

Apparently he was given his first serious camera about 4 years ago, and promptly went out into his city of Ostend and discovered that he was surrounded by the most wonderful old and abandoned buildings, which he proceeded to explore with the happy results you will see below.

All of his photos have the quality of suggesting that some sort of important and significant events occurred to or in the places he shows us, which he doesn’t feel any need to expand upon, simply leaving it up to us to conjure up an explanation of what we are looking at. They hint at tragic events, terrible loss of life, the breakdown of society and all manner of other equally serious events.

The main reason that I wanted to draw your attention to his work, is that all of his photos would be superb as starting points in any writing classroom. Each of them contains enough emotion and imagery to supply an entire story line for a short story at the very least.

I shall post a few of his images below to give you a taste of his vision of the world, and also his website so that you can go directly to him and buy any images that you feel would be useful to you.

I emphasise the idea of buying his images from him, as this is how the man makes his living, and it would obvioulsy be totally wrong to make use of his vision without paying for it, so if you like what you see below, please go by his online shop and purchase as many as you can use.

Link to his Website: Kenneth Provost, Photographer.

Jazz Kids In Barcelona – Sant Andreu Jazz Band

There has been a quiet musical revolution in Barcelona since 2006 when the Sant Andreu Jazz Band was started as part of The Municipal School of Music in Sant Andreu, Barcelona, which up to that time had been concentrating on teaching kids to play classical music. The idea of the founder of this section of […]

There has been a quiet musical revolution in Barcelona since 2006 when the Sant Andreu Jazz Band was started as part of The Municipal School of Music in Sant Andreu, Barcelona, which up to that time had been concentrating on teaching kids to play classical music.

The idea of the founder of this section of the music school, a well known Catalan Jazz musician, Joan Chomorro ( a man, in spite of his name, which outside of the Spanish speaking world is a womanś name), was to teach kids between the ages of about 7 to 21 to improvise on their instruments, rather than the more normal methods of teaching kids the theory and techniques of playing music.

He puts it much better than I can in these worlds…….

¨Most of what is learnt in music should come from listening. When a child starts out, they should go straight to the music, the sound, not how it is coded through language, because as yet we do not know if the person will need to use it. Music should come before writing. It is not a new methodology, but many people are wary of it because, depending on how you look at it, it may be regarded as anti-dogmatic and anti-conservatoire. There are still many things that appear to be immovable. It is taken for granted that children should be grouped by ages or begin to learn through reading and writing music. However, by doing this we are telling the child that they should wait to have a perfect technique to be able to make music or take to the stage. It is believed that most children, particularly smaller ones, cannot climb onto a stage and give a good performance.”

This theory has produced some astonishingly creative and sensitive musicians, and not only that, but also has given kids as young as 7 years of age, the confidence to get up on a stage and perform intricate improvisations with aplomb, and a good technique, as in this video.

Isn´t that amazing?? That little girl plays that trumpet with such skill and feeling that I am left speechless.

That video demonstrates another important part of the bandś philosophy, namely bringing well known and highly professional jazz musicians into the mix to demonstrate to the kids how it can be done.

Kids and Music – A Documentary.

Continue reading “Jazz Kids In Barcelona – Sant Andreu Jazz Band”

Some Curious Musical Instruments To Amuse You

Aside from all the thousands of established musical instruments, which one would imagine would produce enough different sounds to meet any musician´s needs, there are always odd balls out there who absolutely have to have an instrument that will produce yet another sound, so here are a few that i have come across for your […]

Constance Demby:

This extraordinary woman has invented a whole slew of new instruments as part of her life´s work as a New Age Healer, and her music and instruments have been used by all manner of people and projects beyond her own use of them as an aid to healing.

She has invented quite a few instruments, but I shall simply give you one of them, it is easy enough once you know of her to find much more of her music online or on her own website. So here we go with a wonderful instrument she calls The Sonic Steel Space Bass.

First though, here is her description of the instrument itself, so you know what it is you are watching and listening to.

The Sonic Steel Space Bass is a 10 ft sheet of mirror finish stainless steel with 5 octaves of steel and brass rods. The rods can be bowed, struck percussively, and the metal sheet can be rubbed to create various effects. Several tones can be created by bowing a single rod, resulting in a multi-tiered overtone series. A sound scientist determined that the sound waves on the lowest notes of the instrument are approximately thirty feet long.

The instrument emits deep, primordial, archetypal resonances that put audiences into altered states in which listeners report transdimensional experiences. In healing modality, the ultra low sub-sonic frequencies have been known to break up and dissolve long held encrustrations held in the embodiment, resulting in healings.

I have chosen a short video of her playing this instrument so that you can see what it actually looks like, however there are many full length examples of her music online, but as sound files rather than videos, and I wanted you to see what it actually looks like.

Wonderful sound isnt it? And I have to say it, but she is a very alarming looking woman. So now you know what it sounds and looks like, I suggest you might want to go to her website and listen to much more music. ( http://www.constancedemby.com). She is also well represented on Youtube, of course!.

OK, so that was the first of the odd instruments I wanted to show you.

The Bazantar:

Here we have an instrument that more or less represents the likely outcome of a mating between a double bass and a sitar. There is only one of these monsters in the world, as it was designed and built by Marc Deutsch for his own use. Continue reading “Some Curious Musical Instruments To Amuse You”