Hobbits?

So a new human species, Homo floresiensis, has been discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesia.

Apparently related to our ancient relatives, Homo Erectus, these guys were only 3 feet tall and were around recently enough to share the island with modern humans. They lived in caves - much like the partially underground houses of Tolkien's hobbits.

How did they get there? Boats? That would make them a lot smarter we expected Homo Erectus to be.

Counting Past 12...

A while back... last century, Arnold Schoenburg decided that we had run out of possibilities for music based on our 12 tone equal tempered scale. So he invented 12 tone serialism in an attempt to creat an atonal music and move beyond the limitations of harmony.

His system required some very rigid rules to make sure tonality didn't accidentally creep into the music.

There's an easier way. I'm not sure why Schoenburg didn't think of it... all he had to do was change to 13, 14, 15 tones instead of 12. Equally tempered (ET) scales that include a perfect fifth are fairly rare. Technically, no ET scale contains perfect fifths because (3^x)/(2^y)=2^(z/n) only if x,y, and z all equal 0 for integer values of x,y,z regardless of the positive integer value of n. (Don't worry about the math if you didn't get it.)

But some ET scales have an interval close enough to a perfect fifth that you can't really hear the difference. The 12 tone scale is one of these.

So why's that important? Well, the perfect fifth actually exists as an audible physical reality. There are other intervals implied by the sequence of overtones - which is a feature of physics... but we really can't hear them in nature. As a result, scales which ignore all these intervals can sound tonal... but lacking a perfect fifth makes a tonal sound pretty much impossible.

So, if Schoenburg had only used a 13 tone scale, which has no good approximation of a perfect fifth... anything he played would have sounded atonal...

Of course, getting a piano tuned to a 13 tone scale might have been difficult.

On a slighty different tack...

I just finished reading a science fiction book, The World is Round by Tony Rothman. (I highly recommend this book).

How does this tie in? Well, the book is set in a culture that uses a 31 note scale in their music. Rothman doesn't say whether the scale is ET, but it might be. An ET scale of 31 notes has a pretty good fifth: 1.496 vs 1.500 (perfect fifth). Actually when you get a large number of notes, close to perfect fifths start getting common. The 31 note scale also has 1.529 - you could probably hear the difference but it would sound like an out-of-tune fifth.

The music in the book got me thinking about trying some scale other than 12 tone... I don't really want to mess with 31 tones, but maybe something more than 12.

But, I want to stay tonal at least at first... It turns out that 17 tones has a pretty good fifth: 1.503 (For reference, the 12 tone scale fifth is 1.498).

So now I just need an instrument to play it on...

That's what I love about cigar box guitars... for $10 in parts and a few hours of work... I have a perfectly good instrument tuned to a 17 tone ET scale.

It even has a cool looking head stock:

Well this post has gotten pretty long. Next time: 17 tone music theory and maybe a sample mp3.

US Government Murders Innocent Quadraplegic

Excerpted from an email from mpp.org.

On September 27, Jonathan Magbie died while serving a 10-day sentence for marijuana possession in a jail in Washington, D.C.

Magbie, a 27-year-old quadriplegic who used marijuana to treat his chronic pain, was unable to breathe on his own. The jail, unable to meet his medical needs, allowed him to die while in custody. Visit http://www.mpp.org/states/site/quicknews.cgi?key=8319 for the article.

After he was arrested, Magbie was unable to present his medical use of marijuana as a defense in court, despite the fact that 69% of D.C. voters passed a local medical marijuana initiative in November 1998. Why? Because -- every year during its annual budgeting process -- Congress votes to reestablish the federal law that prevents
the local initiative from taking effect.

Every week, we at the Marijuana Policy Project are bruised and shocked by numerous instances of the government arresting, threatening to shoot, seizing the property of, and now killing medical marijuana patients. Our government is out of control, and it is our duty -- it's your duty -- to rein in the government ... our
government.

We absolutely must change more and more state laws until Congress is forced to change federal law to allow the states to determine their own marijuana policies without federal interference.

We can change three state laws simultaneously on November 2 if you would be so kind as to visit http://www.mpp.org/donate1065 to donate $10 or more today.

Do you suppose we're fighting the wrong terrorists?

Nap Time

Well, our dog, Bludger, has a basket full of toys... but to the new kittens, it's a great place for a nap.

David Smith Photo

Left to right, that's Thing Two, Gretchen Wilson, and Fat Louie. Thing One is absent from this picture.

How did we get these kittens? I mean that rhetorically, but I'll give you the answer anyway...

Back in June or so, a gray cat started showing up raiding our cats' left over food. (We had 4 intentional cats - Binky, Meester, Seven, and Eightball - plus a rescued stray - Trouble - at the time). After a while, we noticed she was pregnant... and, not wanting to have more wild cats around the house, we coaxed her into the house to have her kittens there.

I named the new cat Snagglepuss because she reminds me of a cartoon character of the same name.

The kittens were born August 4. We thought one (Gretchen) was going to die - she was so small and not competing effectively for nursing. But Rebekah kept picking her up and putting her on a teat and she thrived. Still, she usually doesn't sleep with the other kittens now - a reaction to always being on the bottom of the pile?

Rachel named the kittens Edgar, Fat Louie, Thing One, and Thing Two... but it appears that they're all female, so Edgar was renamed Gretchen Wilson.

The plan was that Rachel would keep Gretchen and we had homes lined up for the others... but tregedy struck. The little stray, Trouble got sick - turned out to be leukemia, which is contagious in cats. She was so far along that we had to have her put down.

We got all the other adult cats in to the vet to be checked and vaccinated. Everyone else was OK except Meester. He's asymptomatic. He's Rebekah's special pet. So we're keeping him alive for now and trying to keep him separate from the others. (The disease is spread in saliva and urine, so we mainly make sure he doesn't eat out of the same dish as the others).

But, we don't really know if the kittens are disease-free. This has put the plans to send them to their new homes on hold until they get checked and vaccinated in early November. Wish them luck!

For now, we have 10 cats. Yikes!

Vihuela, lagerphone, cigar box preamp, and Gretchen Wilson too

Rebekah Smith Photo

So, here I am trying out my newly fretted 7 string cigar box vihuela. It plays great and with the new preamp it sounds great too. If you look down at my feet, you'll see I'm playing a rhythm instrument - it's actually a small lagerphone designed so that stepping on one end makes the other end jump up and shake. BTW, the lagerphone is an Australian instrument made by attaching beer bottle caps stacked on nails to a piece of wood. This is a very simple one specialized for foot play. The lagerphone tends to migrate while I'm playing it. I need to figure out something to make it stay in place.

To the bottom right is Gretchen Wilson - one of our new kittens. She's named for a country singer that (stepdaughter) Rachel likes. Gretchen is a very odd cat - zebra stripes on her front legs, skunk stripes on her back, leopard spots on her belly. And, if you look at the top of her head from in front there's an image of a cat's face - and from the back there's an image of a woman. I figure she's (Egyptian Cat Goddess) Baset's favored cat :o)

BTW, Gretchen and her 3 siblings just love the lagerphone - the perfect stalking toy.

I mentioned the new preamp above - it's actually a cigar box preamp, mounted in a small Bahia cigar box. The preamp is based on plans by J Donald Tillman with some modification necessitated by the parts available at the local Radio Shack. It sounds great and improves the sound of every instrument I've tried through it so far.

Rebekah Smith Photo

Nation States

I started playing a pretty cool (if slow) game at nationstates.net. In the game, you create a country based on your own answers to a questionnaire of general political philosophy and run it by addressing (or dismissing) daily issues.

There are tens of thousands of countries already set up, a United Nations, and forums where players can role-play international interactions if they choose. (But you can just set your country up and just address your daily issue if you prefer.)

The United Nations is interesting - I read through a bunch of their resolutions. Mostly liberal positions that I completely agree with - universal education, gay rights (including marriage), protection for labor unions, etc.

My country, The Kingdom of Qaos, would have no problems with these UN resolutions... but the real United States would be excluded based on various illiberal positions. I think most real countries would.

I would have to vote against almost everything this game UN does, not because I disagree with liberal principles of the resolutions, but because the resolutions generally interfere with the sovereignty of the member nations way too much.

I haven't decided yet whether to join the UN and fight their interference or just ignore them.

IAC, please come visit The Kingdom of Qaos and be sure to check out our Trout Farming industry.

A Couple of Followups

Well, Mr. White is back - that's the African "Record Distributor" I wrote about a couple of days ago (Musicians Beware!).

Before I told him no MOs for more than the purchase amount, he was bugging me hourly for an answer... after I told him, he just disappeared. I got the feeling that using the over-priced international MO was more important to him than buying the CDs.

Well, this morning, he's back, saying he could send a cheque. I said "OK, send a check for $1184. (The deal on the table now is 150 CDs for $1184 - it turns out that I don't have 190 in stock.) Waiting to see what he says... I'm expecting him to come back and say, "oh, no, the cheque has to be for $5000." What do you suppose his reason for that will be? lol

On a happier note, I just put new strings on the 7 string cigar box vihuela that I fretted over the weekend... it sounds great, plays great... just need to get the pickup working right and it should knock'em out at the upcoming show/CD Release.

While I was at the music store, I also picked up new strings for my 6 string fretless cigar box guitar, a new glass slide, and a used set of "classical" guitar tuners (they're really old-style steel string tuners that look like classical tuners) to put on a future CBG - or maybe 2 CBGs.

Truth in Country Music

My step-daughter, Rachel, listens to a lot of country music, which, of course means I listen to a lot country music - and now days it seems to all be trite jingoist patriotic stuff or mindless religious babbling.

But I heard something new today - a country song that tells the truth: Takin' My Country Back by The Honky Tonkers for Truth.

Until November 2, you can download the song here: Takin' My Country Back

Musicians Beware!

Got an interesting email the other day... some guy in Africa who wanted to buy a bunch of copies of one of my old CDs to distribute in S. Africa and other nearby countries. But he wanted a discount off the retail price... well, yeah, I'd expect to sell for less for wholesale.

The thing that alerted me that he might not be legit, was that he offered to pay $8 wholesale for a CD that retails for $10... how's he gonna make a profit on that?

At first he wanted to buy 12,500 copies - until he found out I would have to do a manufacturing run and needed money up front to do that. Then it was suddenly 100 copies.

We eventually settled on 190 copies for $1500.

Then the strange stuff started... he wanted to send me an international money order for $5000, have me refund $3500 to his US agent who would pick up the CDs in person.

Let me guess... after I send the $3500 I'm going to discover that the international MO is counterfeit, right?

This is actually a well known scam - they first started doing it with high ticket items like cars on Ebay. About a year ago, folks selling expensive musical instruments online started seeing deals like this.

Well, it's gotten down to CD sales.

For now, I'm not going to publish the name and address of the guy who contacted me... it's possible that he's honest but clueless - not likely but possible. If I find out otherwise, I will publish his name.

The original contact came from the "email the artist" link on one of my CDbaby.com pages. Be on the lookout for similar offers from whereever your sell your CDs.

And use good business judgement - don't extend credit to someone you have no recourse against in the event that he defaults.

To fret or not to fret

A while back, I built this seven string vihuela from a Padron cigar box and some pieces of wood. It was my second cigar box instrument and I wasn't confident enough to add frets.

But, recently, I've been building some instruments with frets - made by gluing flat toothpicks to the neck. It's been working well, so I decided to try on it on the vihuela.

While I have the strings off, Rebekah has also touched up the flower art on the top - adding a resin coat to protect it.

Well, the frets are on and sanded. I put the top string on last night - a piece of 20lb test fishing line - and it sounds great - in tune and everything. The rest of the strings will be a set of Augustine red classical guitar strings... as soon as I can get to the music store.

Next step will be to replace the pickup... for some reason, the piezo in this one sounds awful. The new one will be a small speaker glued under the top.

Now, why am I a doing this? (Aside from the fact that it's fun) Well, I need an instrument with frets in open D to play a couple of my songs, Hapless Fool and Slipping in Your Back Door. So I want to retune the fretted six string... but that leaves me needing a fretted instrument for the standard tuning songs - some of them really require frets.

So, if I can get the pickup working, the vihuela will be joining my other instruments on stage at the next show as my standard tuning guitar.

More on my homemade GIT-tars here.

Criminal or Mentally Ill?

Yesterday on NPR's Talk of the Nation, cognitive scientist George Lakoff presented his theory of how conservatives and progressives differ, and, more importantly, why.

According to Lakoff it works like this:

1. We Americans view our country through the metaphor of a family - founding fathers, sending our children to war, etc.

2. Conservatives and Progressives have very different ideas of what a family is... the conservatives have a "strict father" model of the family and the progressives have a "nurturing parent" model of the family.

3. Those two models lead to very different conclussions about the nature of life, the universe and everything.

So far, so good. Lakoff's theory explains an awful lot.

But my immediate reaction was "oh, conservatives can't help it... they were abused as children by their strict fathers. Conservatism is a mental illness and we should offer them help."

Then I thought, "Gee, that's a sure a liberal approach to the problem. Any conservative would realize that conservatives are actually immoral criminals and should be locked up." :o)

OK, so Lakoff's point was really that both sides (and we all are partially on each side) have legitimate moral positions derived from our starting assumptions and, if we realize that and keep it in mind, we should be able to deal with each other in a respectful way.

My thought about that is that that in itself is a liberal viewpoint and conservatives won't be interested in respecting that someone else's morality might be legitimate, but we'll see.