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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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My apologies for staying out of touch for so long - I was on a weekend away with the inlaws.
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Weekend away was fun but exhausting - I'm not used to little tykes running around while you're trying to get some sleep.
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punknaynowned
Frank Zappa Status
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Registered: 29-8-2006
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Quote: Originally posted by polydigm  | | Anyone set themselves new year resolutions? I've just taken up regular swimming as exercise and aim to keep it up three times a week. I'm still
formulating other resolutions. |
I had set myself to read more of the 'French experience' last year. This means more history and literature in English translation. Some looking at
maps. The period I've studied in general over the last ten years is Euro Renaissance and one of the first things I read (and it was online) were
memoirs of Philippe de Commines. He attended and acted as sometimes ambassador to Louis XI who died 1483. A bio of him I finished some ten years ago
too.
Anyway this time I go around this circle of topical study it gets wider and deeper.
Today I read a Social and Cultural History of Early Modern France ~1450-1789, from Cambridge Uni Press
I should get thru this year a bio of Francis I taht is on the shelf
I should finish the last ten stories of Balzac's 'Droll Stories' (published 1842, translated 1874) this month or next - and which has been
hilarious
and, later, I will continue to read various stories of his, the famous ones, lots of the early ones, and I have also been reading
a bunch of Inspector Maigret stories of George Simenon from the 1930's - '50's.\
The 20th c. mystery stories are so easy to pick and speed through 
I like all of it.
If any one has recommendations, I'm all ears and eyes today 
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BBP
Super Administrator
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Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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You could try François Villon or Guillaume Apollinaire...
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polydigm
King Kong Status
Posts: 2166
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Location: Horse Tray Ya
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Not a lot to say really, except I hope everyone's doing okay.
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
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Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Puney andsick, and solving a jigsaw.
One of those fashion things out here is tiny jigsaws - they take about a quarter of the space your regular jigsaw does. My sister-in-law has taken a
shine to them. I found three at the second-hand shop, but before I give them to her I need to make sure they are complete.
So now I'm doing one of the island of Terschelling - and let me tell you I am not impressed with these tiny things. It's very hard to make out what's
on them.
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aquagoat
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Registered: 15-3-2006
Location: France
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This week-end I helped my ex-girlfriend move in her new flat. There was my ex-step brothe, his husband, my ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend and my
ex-nephew. We all had a great time, ate good food, drank good wine and whisky, and laughed a lot.
Today, I'm not working cause of the weather, everything is frozen around here, so working on the roofs is out of the question.
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BBP
Super Administrator
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Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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That's a nice thing to do Aqua!
Learned that one of my favorite colleagues won't get a contract renewal, which saddens me greatly.
Also saw a kingfisher, which was odd because they don't typically hang out in the city.
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punknaynowned
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Thank You Bonny!
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
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Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Zola too, of course... Camus... Sartre... I'll look for my French literature book to see what I enjoyed...
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punknaynowned
Frank Zappa Status
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hey! this plopped in my email box today: an ad w/ Don Pardo for the Xmas 1976 run at the Palladium in NY w/ a cruising for Burgers guitar solo. And
Alex says it's not the one on the upcoming box...
can you get to hear this?:
https://soundcloud.com/user-625498788/cruisin-for-burgers-solo_12-27...
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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Had my contract today, and I organized "Hot Chocolate Friday" at work (which basically meant I bought some and put it there).
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polydigm
King Kong Status
Posts: 2166
Registered: 1-4-2006
Location: Horse Tray Ya
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Mood: Inspired
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Things are going well with me. Just plowing on with my new full time composing life. I tend to have many projects on the go rather than woking on one
composition at a time, which I find overall way more productive, but one has to be very patient. It keeps my inspiration running almost constantly.
Every now and then one comes to completion and that's very satisfying. I'm currently working on thirty eight projects.
Keeping in mind that I'm also the house chef, network/entertainment/utilities/vehicle maintenance manager/engineer, supplies manager, accountant and
gardener.
Thirty are all original band projects which involve a lot of instrumental practicing on guitars, drums, piano and saxes (I'm leaving the brass
instruments out at the moment because it was just too taxing on top of everything else I do and was holding me back - I'll get back to them in good
time). Of those, three tracks for two guitars, bass and drums composed as short phone tone type pieces and one longer composition are produced
completely. Another is finished bar the drums and I'm very happy with the track when played with a fairly ordinary drum arrangement played by sampled
drums, but the trouble there is not so much the difficulty of the drum parts, but getting the inspiration to write them in the first place. Sometimes
the drum parts flow really naturally out of a composition other times I have to really coax them out.
One of them is a band project covering a Shankar/FZ thing. That has been a monumental enterprise, with various guitars, bass, drums, piano and sax
parts to practice, sampling various sounds for percussive effects and building sampled instruments and voice sampling. That is now at the polishing
stage and still has a month or two to go.
Two of them are videos of solo FZ covers on guitar, Uncle Meat on steel string and Echidna's Arf on classical guitar. Redoing Uncle Meat was inspired
by a comment on my previous YouTube video that had a crack at my lack of rigid rhythm and I'm enjoying playing that now to a rigid beat.
The remaining five projects are videos of five of my solo piano pieces. It's taken me a while to get to the level of playing ability required and with
these five I'm finally on the verge - the light at the end of that tunnel has only a few small patches of darkness remaining. The two piano pieces I
already have on YouTube are much simpler compositions and I've come a long way since then.
This may seem indulgent, harping on like this, but it can get a bit lonely from time to time not sharing with anyone outside my family. I'm still on
my first year with this as a full time pursuit, which is not just a hobby - but as publishable material starts to appear and employable skills start
reaching an appropriate level, I will be able to start sharing more publicly. Some income would be good, but I'm particularly looking forward to the
stage when I'm ready to involve other performers.
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
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Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Good of you to take it on as a full pursuit! Can't wait to hear your stuff!
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polydigm
King Kong Status
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Thanks, Bonny. I've just uploaded the first of those piano compositions: Moonlight Mingle.
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BBP
Super Administrator
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Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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Nice,I like the jazzy feel.
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polydigm
King Kong Status
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Thanks, Bonny. I've just uploaded one of my guitar compositions, which wasn't on that list above.
That's the way it works with me. No sooner have I given myself a schedule (if you can call how I work a schedule), I get side-tracked on something
else.
It's all part of my schedule in the end, I guess.
A Dime A Dozen
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polydigm
King Kong Status
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Location: Horse Tray Ya
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Mood: Inspired
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And another one:
The Lap Of Luxury
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punknaynowned
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clapclapclap
I like the melody!
And your processs of having lots of simultaneous projects going is the same as mine. Lots going on satisfies the multiple aspects/facets of my
interests... I never get bored and and exercise / work at improving multiple skillsets. At least that's how I rationalise my perambulations and
procrastinations and such. 
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punknaynowned
Frank Zappa Status
Posts: 1283
Registered: 29-8-2006
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Mood: No Mood
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| Quote: Originally posted by BBP | | Had my contract today, and I organized "Hot Chocolate Friday" at work (which basically meant I bought some and put it there). |
New arrangements at work? Tell us how it goes.
After many tumbles and much uncertainty at my work, at last things look like they might fall into a semblance of a cohering mass rolling forward. We
will see and I might stick around long enough to see how they get...
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