Strung Up
Why is the violin so hard to play? That’s the name of the linked article which was posted on my absolute favorite method of entertainment while waiting for DNA to break in the optics lab, reddit.com. The article has maths in it, which may or may not be appealing to you. I’m pretty sure it’s pretty entertaining and/or interesting. A much huger source of distraction value, however, can be found in the comments:
“Are you joking? Are you really comparing the skill required to play an electric guitar (a $1000 toy) with the violin?”
I love the internet.
Mostly unrelated, except that it was another violin-type post on reddit and hence I feel oddly and extravagantly compelled to stick it up here, was this violin/deck combo piece:
It’s fairly awesome. Watch out kids, we’re lulling you in with violins.
Sort Of Away For Labor Day
Wow, I’m completely, totally dead in the legs. Me and my girlfriend climbed up Snowy Mountain in the Adirondacks this morning. Since graduate students are obliged not to believe in the holiday nature of Labor day, we decided to scoot off just for one night. That was last night. Now my legs are aching and I am very much looking forward to sleeping in a real bed which does not spontaneously deflate at three in the morning.
And more importantly, I get to satisfy another desire. All the way back, past the scenic overlooks and plethoras (yeah plural, each town had their own personal plethora) of yard sales the last two Shostakovich Op. 127 Alex Blok songs were in my head. They’re so mournfully, beautifully, ominous. Sort of like the threat of the huge numbers of experiments and data analysis I need to have done yesterday looming over the horizon of the mountains. A dark dream weighs down upon my breast indeed…
Oh how sombre we are tonight.
The last few dissonant notes on the piano at the end of “music” are amazing. Have a listen to the last minute and a half or so below:
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