Doctroid's Page of Scientific Mysteries

For those of you who can't figure out whether you're trad or techno, here's a free concertina sound font (scroll down).

( Prologue: 1995 )
( The Plan )
( Precipitation, Presents, Purchases, People, and Priuses )
( Performers )
( Postlude )
( Postscript: Pictures (update) )

A while ago I bought some clarinet pads and used them to bring a clarinet I'd bought for $10.57 on eBay back into playing condition.

I ordered the pads from a guy in Florida. I had occasion to ask him a question about them, and in his response he talked about Albert system vs. Boehm system clarinets. He went on to mention a friend of his in Spain named Oscar Font, who plays mostly trombone but also Albert system clarinet in a pre-swing Fletcher Henderson tribute band called The Fu-Manchu Jazz Servants. Here's their web page, mostly in Spanish. It includes three numbers in mp3 format, which I listened to and enjoyed.

Tonight I was trying to get back to that web site, whose URL I'd misplaced. Google didn't turn it up directly, but it did turn up a page of reviews on the web site of Gillygaloo, a children's music band in NYC. Said page included praise from Oscar Font and the link to the Fu-Manchu page. Having found what I wanted, I then went back to look at Gillygaloo's site. On their front page there's a picture of the band, four people including...

Michael Gorin, of the Bouwerie Boys Morris Men, alumnus of the Binghamton Morris Men; a guy I've known for about 15 years.

I screamed and screamed.

Things I’ve learned from British folk ballads.

Old Songs festival last weekend. There are two kinds of Old Songs festivals: the kind where you wish it'd stop raining, and the kind where you wish it'd start. This one was the latter. I may be indulging in creative memory here, but I think it was the hottest, humidest Old Songs I've ever been to. Mid-90s (F) temperatures. Those of you down south may not be too impressed, but it's a big deal in upstate New York. Especially when you're tent camping and spending the weekend outside or in non air conditioned buildings.

The lineup this year looked particularly good, although as it turned out I didn't see, or hardly saw, several of the performers I'd wanted to. John Roberts, sans Tony Barrand, was there, but apparently ended up being hospitalized due to effects of the heat. I didn't catch John Whelan or Brian McNamara. Tony Trischka I saw only briefly as one of the members of Jawbone.

I did see Lou and Peter Berryman, even heard a new song of theirs, "Lexical Dude", which was up to their usual high standards. They were sharing a stage with Michael Cooney, who did several good songs, not all of which were by the Berrymans.

And I saw two sets by the Arrogant Worms, and that by itself makes for a good weekend. Some of the songs they did were new since I last saw them two years ago; several, in fact, were so new no one but Trevor's cats had heard them, and they (the Worms, not Trevor's cats) were reading the lyrics off a piece of paper because they hadn't memorized them yet. Huge crowds showed up whenever they played, and on some of the older songs they (the huge crowds, not the Worms, nor Trevor's cats) were singing along on the choruses. Between the Worms and the Berrymans, Old Songs may be in danger of becoming known as a comedy songs festival. Which it isn't. But both should be back often.

Despite the heat there was informal morris dancing (black tie, not white) Sunday morning. Kibologist Sean Lasnaymere and I were both there, dancing and squeezing (me: melodeon, Sean: concertina -- no, we didn't play any duets and call ourselves Interrobang Cartel.)

We managed not to spend huge amounts of money on food, having brought along a cooler containing enough for breakfasts, lunches, and some snacks. Heather discovered one of the tops she'd brought didn't fit and a dress needed repair, so she ended up buying clothes to have something to wear, and I bought two CDs, so there went some of our money; and then Heather bought a used Yamaha guitar at the instrument swap. They had no bass clarinets, fortunately. (Apparently the instruments folkies most want to rid themselves of are guitars, fiddles, and piano accordions.)

Kenny barfed his dinner Saturday night and had a low grade fever the next morning; Tylenol took care of that, and he seemed to feel fine, but after the Worms' noontime set it was clear Sunday afternoon's weather would be at least as brutal as Saturday's, and it was time for the better part of valor. So we headed on home, missing the Sunday main stage concert. Still, we had a good time.

Update:
Also! New camera. So I'll post a picture or two later. Also also, I finished making a cheapo homebrew leak light for the instrument work, and I repaired my Casio Digital Horn. Wüüt!