“No conservative or Republican entertainer could escape outrage and condemnation after issuing such a naked appeal to kill anyone by whom they feel victimized, and Springsteen should know that shooting bankers isn’t the solution to the failed promise of the Obama presidency.”
Heh. Especially not when bankers are among Obamalot’s biggest donors.
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Posted in Music, Obamalot, Scribbles
Tagged kill the bankers, Springsteen
This Maryland gal is a reigning U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champ and she shows you just why that is with a lively number right here.
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Posted in Music, Rule 5, Scribbles
Tagged Elke Baker, fiddlers, Scottish Fiddle
Was tuning up my violin this morning, partly because I enjoy playing in the morning and partly because it helps get Mr. B. out of bed and on the way to school.
Then I launched into the strains of the new Scottish ballad I’m learning
How’d you like waking up to “My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose”?, I asked Mrs. C later.
She replied: “At first, just at first you understand, I thought it was the garbage truck.”
Well, it was garbage pickup day. But still….
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Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Music, Rancho Roly Poly
Tagged early morning violin practice, garbage truck, Red, Red Rose
We start off a new Rule 5 collection of pretty girls with fiddles with Shetland Islands-Celtic darlin’ Jenna Reid. And a link to a mere taste of her work.
I know, I know. But the fiddle is naked. As for the rest you’ll just have to use your imagination.
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Tagged Celtic fiddle, Jenna Reid, Shetland
This Scottish lament, a pretty song which I recently learned to play on the violin, has a curious history to go along with its curious title.
It was composed in 1903 by Scottish fiddler J. Scott Skinner to honor a friend—a Scottish general in the British army who was publically accused of homosexuality with boys. Which is pedophilia rather than homosexuality, but folks weren’t drawing distinctions in those days, and homosexual sex was illegal. You could go to prison for it.
A government commission later exonerated him but it was too late for the general. He had promptly killed himself— either confirming the accusation or simply acknowledging that his name would be forever besmirched.
Scottish Shetland fiddlers Jenna Reid and Aly Bain play a nice version of it here. Needless to say my own version (so far minus their good vibrato and delicate sustained bowing) is rather robotic, but, hey, I’m working on it.
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Posted in Library, Music, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles
Tagged Hector the Hero, J. Scott Skinner, Scottish fiddle laments
One of the guest experts on my violinlab video lessons the other day summed up what I’m discovering about this complex musical instrument after just about eight weeks—something to the effect that, even if you began at about age five, life wouldn’t be long enough to learn everything there is to know about the fiddle.
Which reminded me of another, lighter remark made by one of the other violinlab subscribers—almost all of whom are well over forty and live, literally, all around the world. He (or she) might have been from Argentina, or was it Oz? It was in response to a new forum member’s complaint about something or other of the thousand-and-one things to keep in mind while simultaneously trying to pick out the correct notes and bow with beautiful intonation: “Oh, it gets easier with time. Lots of time.”
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Tagged Blackerby Violin Shop, violin lessons, Violinlab
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 