hello

@RegDwigнt That's great. No, really. I actually sang in a church choir when I wasn't fluting (they would do instrumental accompaniments and ensembles from time to time). It's really good practice to sight-sing music. Even better than to sight-read it (and not only for the fact that you have to read the words as well as the music). Also, those four-part scores are a good start to reading multiple staves at once if you ever desire to conduct.

The nice thing about it is that if you stop producing sound nobody will notice. They will only notice if you sing the wrong note or off-pitch, or fart or wave your hands or light your shirt front on fire.

But it is definitely fun to produce music with others, whether playing or singing. Being part of a shared musical experience. How I miss that. I'm overstocked on practice-room syndrome these days, playing only for myself. That is better than nothing, but again, it's not the same as being part of a group.

BTW, it seems to be part of the universe's cosmic design for me that everyone attached to my life outside of music—wife, friends, family, etc.—is tone deaf, so nobody can even sing in a car, and if they ever do, and I try to put on a harmony, it fucks them all up. I am cursed.

@Robusto I had a friend who could play the piano but is tone deaf. I thought that was quite strange.

If you're tone-deaf, piano is definitely the instrument to play.

@Cerberus Looks like your town comes in at #2 in cycling score. You must try harder.

I am very happy that my poem has 4 stars on the wall.

@Robusto Is it old, evil Copenhagen again?

So yes.

Today is Friday the thirteenth, spooky...

@RegDwigнt I enjoyed the video. She has some excellent ballet training. I like her camouflage camisole, want one of my own. A cute look! Thank you for sharing.

@RegDwigнt That sounds really cool, actually. I would like to see a Ford Focus manufactured from flat steel to finished product. Engineering awesomeness!

@RegDwigнt My own recollection of German awesomeness was watching Mercedes-Benz's emerge from the factory upon completion. I never had the opportunity to watch from start to finish. At that time, Mercedes produced for German and European customers had the option of being fairly stripped down, sturdy, functional, and no-frills vehicles.

@RegDwigнt For example, many were used as taxicabs in Germany, but not by Uber-esque type owners.

@Robusto I did quite well with playing flute and distinctly lacking in perfect pitch. I was constantly flat but got a music scholarship to college. That was mostly because I had good rhythm. You're correct, piano is an excellent choice for the tone-deaf like myself.

hunger is a big problem at home town.

because you have nobody related to you there.

@Cerberus You guessed it!

@EllieKesselman Playing flat is the flutist's shame. Even when the string section can't bring themselves to go below A=448.

So it's often said that people often use the word "literally" to mean "figuratively."

But does anyone actually do that?

A purported example is: "That movie was so exciting, I was literally glued to my seat!"

Now, in that sentence, the speaker is (presumably) not using the word "literally" to mean literally "literally."

And they're also speaking figuratively.

But that doesn't mean that they're using "literally" to mean "figuratively."

Just like if I say "Luckily, I had accidentally left my wallet at home," I'm not using "luckily" to mean "luckily," and I'm speaking jokingly, but that doesn't mean that I'm using "luckily" to mean "jokingly."

@TannerSwett pfff.. Pedants

I suppose 'luckily' ia related to 'fortunately', whereas literally and figuratively are more like antonyms

I make necklaces out of pedants and hang them around my neck. Luckily.

@M.A.R. sounds a bit grim

Figuratively.

'Literally' + any metaphor is funny though

They became pendantic

@TannerSwett Of course not. The slippage in meaning of literally from 'taking each word in its primary meaning/non-figuratively' is to an intensifier. No one has claimed that it has become 'figuratively=not-literally'. But people who -do- know the difference will make jokes.

@Robusto BTW here's the bit that I found very easy to sing:

@Robusto There's that vague idea on the tip of my tongue, I'm not sure how to even put it.

Here's the thing. It's a spectacularly well-written piece. But duh. That's not something I learned only yesterday. That's something you and I would have always said.

I think what I actually learned is that that's actually not how I would put it now.

Instead I would say: it's a spectacularly well written part. And I would say that about any of the parts. Because it is true.

If you are given the first note, whether by the people around you, or the concertmaster at the piano or whatever. If you are given the first pitch, you can sing the rest.

If you see a leap coming up ahead, you know exactly how far you have to leap. You know it instinctively. Even if you've never leaped before. It is self-evident. That's how good the writing is.

And if there's no leap, you just sing it like it's nothing. You just read it like a book.

It's really quite fascinating.

Like, that's also not really something I learned only yesterday. Voice leading. Horizontal continuity.

I always pay great attention to that in my own writing and arrangements, and I've been preaching it for years to others, too. Because all the kids these days don't give a fuck and don't even know the terms. They just play a couple chords on their midi keyboards, and then split them willy-nilly between whoever happens to have whichever of the notes in their range.

So I can't say that's something I only just discovered yesterday. But I did discover some new quality to it.

It's one thing to have a part make sense and be beautiful if you play the instrument. But it's a different thing altogether to have a part that makes such sense you can play it if you don't play the instrument. All you need is for someone to show where the first note is, then you're golden.

I need to think of a better way to explain this. But it's only been a day.

@Robusto That sucks. I can relate. I think that's why I just started doing this thing, just saying yes to everything and everyone. That's how I'm landing in all these places all of a sudden.

Should we go to France tomorrow? Yes. Will you dress up as Santa Claus for our kids? Yes.

Can I take piano lessons from you? Yes. Can you arrange the Titanic soundtrack for just one violin? Sure. Will you come sing with our choir? Of course.

Because fuck it why not.

I'm not qualified to assess your situation or give you advice. But I do have a hunch that in more ways than one it might actually be easier for you.

I'm only beginning to try and break into the music world. But you've been there before. So you can do it again like a piece of cake.

That, plus you still know a trillion billion people from earlier. Even if they live 300 miles away now. That's no distance by US standards. You don't even need a car, take your bike.

Can we jam tomorrow? Yes. And then just drive the 300 miles. Fuck it.

Fuck it dude, let's go bowling.

@TannerSwett Words don't mean anything. Every word means whatever we want it to mean in that particular moment. I can use "literally" to mean "excavator". And I can use it to mean "figuratively", too.

I can take a word that means "a huge door" and use it to mean "a tiny bit of electronics". And then I can take it again and use it to mean "a scandal".

And everyone will be like, yeah, makes perfect sense.

@RegDwigнt I love the Youtube flash mobs doing Beethoven’s Chorale symphony, part of it anyway. You could record and post your motets.

Someone tried to force the cello on me when I was a kid, but it didn’t take.

I saw YoYoMa play the cello, though, and it was great.

In spite of the Brahms.

@RegDwigнt I think you make a gate point.

@Xanne I don't think you understand. I cannot sing.

Sicheres Auftreten bei völliger Ahnungslosigkeit.

Look it up.

@Xanne I strongly believe every kid should be forced some instrument on. Any instrument at all. That's the perfect age.

When you have to go to school anyway, it's just yet another thing that you do.

When my mom took me to my piano teacher I was like yeah whatever. Maths, language, geography. Now this, too. Shrug. Who cares.

It's only twenty years later that you begin to realize what it actually meant for your development. Even if you dropped out after a couple years.

But you have been vaccinated and you never even knew.

@RegDwigнt You can do some singing on your youtube channel then!

No, you can do some singing on your YouTube channel. Slacker.

I think Brad Pitt has some new movie called Ad Astra or something.

I think Brad Pitt thinks that, too.

Per aspera ad astra!

Maybe I could just sneeze onto the screen and then these words appear. That'd be nifty.

The macro is 'Captain Obvious'.

TL;DR

@Cerberus write me an AHK script.

I am twelve and what is this.

Why is SE showing me ads now. I'm a registered user at 10k like.

Is this a new thing or a bug.

@RegDwigнt Well, duh. Bach was the absolute master of voice leading. And of pretty much everything else as well.

@Robusto yeah I talked to a colleague just earlier today how some composers are impossible to sing even if you're a professional, and how others make it really easy even for complete morons like myself.

Not that one or the other are per se a sign of quality or lack thereof.

I won't be singing Pierrot Lunaire any time soon. Or ever. Doesn't mean it's rubbish.

And everyone can sing along with Taylor Swift on that one note of hers. Doesn't make them Maria Callases.

I picture that typical four-area graph. Where you have "easy-hard" on the one axis, and "good-bad" on the other.

@JaspervanLooij they do have a website with some media files, BTW. And there's some videos floating around on YouTube, though not on a dedicated channel of their own. Maybe I can help with that. In my capacity as the total YouTube pro that I am now. Yo.

bachchor-saarbruecken.de

@RegDwigнt Yeah. We used to call that "grateful" writing, meaning a part lay well under the fingers, etc.

I am very much a fan of that.

Some composers had that gift, others just didn't give a fuck.

I write everything I write such that even I can play it.

Well ... no need to go that far.

^_^

IKR

Sorry, couldn't resist.

But I went once and I liked it. So it stuck.

> Bungling Heathrow protesters get signal JAMMED by police

Fuck everyone else, this is my life, Mr Anderson, my life.

@Robusto NEEDS MOAR CAP'S

What is this all-capsing verbs in headlines now? DO people think CAPITALIZING all verbs will GRAB more eyeballs?

I do NOT know!

See, the mistake you made was you only need to slam the verbs.

WHO IS VERB

I WILL SLAM HIM TWICE

I will VERB your ass.

NOU

Wait.

Something something ELSE.

Don't they HAVE verbs in your country?

They DO but they always DROP them.

Or do they HALVE verbs in your country?

They would DO that if they had ANY verbs.

Haven't you WATCHED my EDUCATIONAL video.

I know YOU have. Don't PRETEND.

This is fucking TIRING.

Speaking of dropping verbs ... I love the way the Coen Bros. have extended dialogue segments where people start sentences and never finish them. It's a form of dramatic tension that they have indulged in and it works.

It's a form of dramatic ...

It's a kind of ...

You make a sentence start and then you ...

What was that one movie Nerdwriter gushed all over. Because of its realistic dialogue. Where people just talked everyone over everyone else.

Dunno this Nerdwriter person.

2.62 million subscribers.

Does give a nice nod to Tarantino where nod is due.

Well, I'd say Tarantino is the least realistic dialogue writer ... and all the better for it.

"Writing great human dialogue as it could be. Finding music in language the same way Shakespeare used to".

There you go.

Is how he puts it in that video.

He's not dumb and the videos aren't rubbish. No idea how he got to 3 mil subs doing that. But you should check out some time on a lazy afternoon.

Haha, he had me at "fuck motorcycle movie".

Well, that's how you write dialogue that doesn't sound like you wrote it.

But yeah that's not what that other movie is about that Nerdwriter talks about.

Not that I'd watch it, thanks very much, it has Adam Sandler in it.

Punch Drunk Love should be enough for my tastes.

But the excerpts he showed were good.

I will not watch anything with Adam Sandler in it.

You do need to watch Punch Drunk Love once.

I do not.

You don't know what you don't know.

Do not watch Jack and Jill, though. Don't even look at the poster. You will die.

People asked me why I don't go on boats. I say, "If I want to be sick in the water I'll watch an Adam Sandler movie on my iPad in the tub."

Note that I take showers, not baths.

There's that wonderful two-part video by RedLetterMedia about Jack and Jill. It's legendary. They took apart how and why that movie cost $20. Basically the conclusion they arrived at is that Adam Sandler is running a giant scam to scam Hollywood out of money.

Tru dat.

All his movies cost like $100 million these days. Production value is like $1.

@RegDwigнt When you've reached my age you just know when you're going to hate something.

@Robusto precisely right. Which is why it becomes so easy to say no to everything. Which is why I'm now saying yes to everything.

Full disclosure: I also don't get why the world seems to love The Shawshank Redemption.

@RegDwigнt Get off my lawn.

@Robusto Kim Kardashian. It's easy to be famous for being famous when you are famous.

You mean "It's easy to be famous when you're well-known."

It's no bad movie. It's just no Heat. Or Grave of the Fireflies.

But then again neither is any other movie except for Heat. Or Grave of the Fireflies.

@Robusto I will make an exception and say no to that. No, that is not what I mean.

You're welcome. Always worthy of an exception for me.

OK, well, whatever.

As an aside, in which part of the world is Kim Kardashian well known? She's just famous, is all.

TBD

But why would I talk about Kim Kardashian?

I would understand Tarantino much better had I actually watched Top Gun.

@Robusto I don't know. Why are you talking about her? I was talking about her. Get your own topic.

@RegDwigнt I gladly cede that topic to you.

Anyway my point earlier was that once you're top 1 on IMDb, that's it. Shut down the site.

Even Dark Knight couldn't dethrone it. And God knows it tried. I was there.

The Shawshank Redemption trivializes evil.

Stephen King.

Yes.

native integration of the It 2 trailer

Also yes.

> Proof Sandler is a great actor when he is written well.

Top youtube comment there.

Not "decent" or "competent" ... "great" ...

I have never once misspelled Sandler a single time. It doesn't seem to be helping.

But anyway, I don't think the unfinished sentences are necessarily realistic or otherwise. Just that they add dramatic tension.

I don't remember the video very well. So I don't recall the part about unfinished sentences. And those are somewhat common anyway. The bit that stuck with me was people actually talking over each other. Unfinished lines or otherwise.

Which, coincidentally, is why this chat is a crap representation of any conversation we might actually have.

There's a bit of that in that clip.

Oh yeah. Which is why everyone involved spent the last 20 years stressing how exactly all of it was scripted and exactly none of it ad-libbed.

Great movie, BTW. Before you watch Punch Drunk Love, make sure to watch that one.

Has nihilists in it.

SO I've heard.

It must be a Friday the 13th full moon where you are right now already.

I don't know.

But that would mean I could get you a movie better than Punch Drunk Love by 3 o'clock this afternoon.

Sweet.

With nail polish on it?

Shut the fuck up, Donnie.

I am the walrus.

Владимир! Ильич! Ульянов!

Спасибо

I just leaned back and wondered when was the last time I had to spell out these words.

The times them is a-changeling.

Do you have the keyboard for it?

Well I'm not copypasting ever letter individually.

I only do that for Katakana. And them carets cuz my caret key fell off ten years ago.

Japanese is complicated but simple to write phonetically on a Western QWERTY keyboard. But Russian must be complicated because you can't write a phonetic transliteration from English, right?

Well that's what they did in the first Bourne movie.

...

I keep bringing that up but you'd be excused for keeping forgetting it.

I do keep forgetting everything Bourne.

Except BASH, the Bourne Again Shell in Unix.

They basically switched the layout to Cyrillic, but then just pressed the same keys as in English.

So they typed KINIAEV, as you'd do on a QWERTY keyboard.

Heh.

But on the ЙЦУКЕНГ layout, they got, fuck I can't even read that much less transliterate it back.

Lshtshfum.

And Foma is Ashch'f.

Gesundheit.

Cgfcbmh.

Which is спасибо.

You're welcome.

I keep mistzping the z as y everz time I switch the lazout one back too few.

That's your German typing coming to the fore?

Wait, German switches the Q and Z, iirc.

@Robusto Zeri matsch so.

@Robusto y and z.

QWERTZ.

Yeah. Been 40 years since I had to honor that.

More like 43.

Or 42. I can't remember.

Then you have the ß on the question mark after the 0 key. And Ü after the P, and then ÖÄ after the KL.

But it can't be 42 because that would be perfect.

I saw that already.

That does surprise me a bit. I didn't know you were a dweeb.

No wait, dork it is.

You look like dorks.

They're your clothes, motherfucker.

And it's not the "mystery of 42" which is a misleading title.

It's actually the x cubed plus y cubed = z cubed thingy.

They did a proper one on Douglas Adams some years ago IIRC.

I will watch after dinner.

Good point. I need to take my coat, too.

If you get a minute some time in between, check the main site for me if you're also getting ads all of a sudden.

You need a coat already?

Unless you're one of them old grumpy kids using AdBlock.

Hold on.

@Robusto I actually do. Temperature dropped like 20 degrees in just a week.

Hmm. No ads on main page.

But I do use the Brave browser.

Well then. Sucks to be me. But we knew that already.

Still, it leaves holes for ads, and there are no holes.

Well then. Must be them trolls. I heard there was trolls in the internet.

BTW, I highly recommend Brave. You can use it for development exactly like Chrom, but without Google's ad-pushing.

If it will run on whatever variety of Linux we happen to be using this week, I will advise my admin accordingly. Thank you.

Now then. Off to lunch, and off to coat. Whoever gets which one first.

Install Brave browser on Linux

And cya later then. And why are you eating lunch at midnight?

I shall bookmark that once I remember how bookmarks work.

@Robusto it's not midnight here, it's full moon or something. Someone told me. I forget.

Them shutters are down I wouldn't know.

But I just ate some tomatoes and that passes for any meal really.

TTYL

You have Full Moon Fever, just like Tom Petty.

Laterz

How petty of you.

Do not speak ill of the dead.