maurazebra

Yo-Yo Ma tells this joke: Violinist finds a magic lamp. The genie of the lamp announces she can have one wish. She asks for world peace. Genie says, 'That's too hard.' So she asks for perfect intonation. Genie hesitates for a moment, and then asks, 'What was that first wish again?"

Fiddlerman site now includes an intonation test, which I took just because... Med, Hard, Expert, 10/10, 10/10/, 8/10. This is reassuring... My fingers still land in the wrong place, but when I correct them I am likely to be correcting in the right direction.... fiddlerman.com/intonation-t...

Why not?

His administration has people who consult on how to be truly obnoxious and insulting.

These are truly beautiful.

Party party party

It was a mistake on her part, though, to bring a sheaf of notes generated by tracking the documents the Committee members had accessed in the special research room with four computers... Or maybe not... Blondie Bondi is tracking you.

Trumpf's employees must rehearse being aggressively obnoxious, especially the blonde ones. Blondie Bondi got thru an entire meeting on the Epstein files by talking only about how great Trumpf is and what losers the Judiciary committee are.

So I unpacked my Glasser 5-string viola, untouched since I moved here almost 2 years ago, and after playing it for a bit decided it was the perfect Old Time fiddle. The geared pegs make for quick tuning of drones, and it is so loud and resonant it could probably shake the plaster off the ceiling.

Decisions, decisions. My Luis and Clark carbon-fiber fiddle, Ye Hua, does not like being cross-tuned. Not that it cannot be cross-tuned, but I get the feeling it doesn't like it.

I woke up this morning filled with joy because I'm back in NY. No thoughts; just joy. My head and chest felt suffused with it. It's gone now, replaced with political and personal worries, but.. what a lovely feeling.

Inspired.

I'll pick up a used copy then.

I lived in Atlanta, but not in Cabbagetown. Atlanta had so many interesting pockets of communities back then, many of them affordable for young folks. Reasonable cost of living, so Central to the ability to be human at any age!

My children played under mine :)

I started a quilt group here which I really enjoy, but I am the ONLY one who quilts by hand. Everyone else quilts with a machine, which they bring to the meetings to work with. It is enjoyable but just not the same as gathering around a frame.

No disputing this, but as yet unable to do it.

I scarfed it down without realizing how much that butter must have cost her relative to her food budget.... young people, so beautiful and yet so selfish. God bless us everyone.

But they treated me with kindness and tolerance. I didn't even know how to use a thimble! And I bought my fabric instead of using whatever was cheap or free! And every week the director of the Center made a pan of cornbread for me using real butter...

I heard a lot of interesting gossip when quilting face-to-face with the ladies of the Cabbagetown Community Center in Atlanta. They were truly poor; their livelihood working in the cotton mills disappeared when the mills moved overseas when the EPA created regulations for air quality control.

[The picture shows Canadian Red Cross workers making quilts for Europe during WWII.]

I laughed out loud when I saw this. This is the setup that I learned to quilt on in the early 70s; four sticks, four C clamps, and four chairs or saw horses to hold the frame off the floor. Except.. these ladies have basted the quilt lining to tape instead of popping it over headless nails.

It's a pleasure living in the Hudson Valley with snow up to my knees when I am looking out the window.... walking, however, is a bit perilous. This snow is not melting and it will not for another couple of very cold days.

I've been lazy about moving off Facebook, but the time has come.

I decided to learn to do Sashiko properly, which includes using 'real' sashiko thread instead of pearl cotton. It's not like I will NEVER use pearl cotton again, but I learned that one of the goals of Sashiko is to make a garment warmer, and the sashiko thread is constructed to help do this.

'Donald Trump’s administration could rack up a “monumental” bill and is breaking the law by firing government workers on spurious grounds... Officials have cited “poor performance” when terminating thousands of federal workers. In many cases it’s not true...'

Trump administration’s mass firings could leave federal government with ‘monumental’ bill, say experts Lawyer says ‘astounding’ purge will cost government, after workers with positive reviews cut due to ‘poor performance’

'These firings they’re conducting without following the law will result in hundreds of thousands of former federal employees being owed back pay, plus interest, plus benefits, plus attorneys fees,' said Summerlin. 'When the bill comes it will be monumental.'” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

It might make many of the subsequent centuries of 'how to' books redundant. Now that I am both retired and moved up north, I am going to read it carefully and see what I learn and if my opinion changes.

Reading old books.

I own a used (1972) copy of Leopold Mozart's 'A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing' with an introduction by Albert Einstein. I have dipped into it enough times to determine that it is a very sound book.