Forum Activity for @strumelia

I could actually change everything about this site... how it is structured, how it looks, and how it functions.

i think people have gotten more used to mobile-favoring 'endless scroll feed' social software like twitter, YT, tiktok, and facebook. I myself find it very frustrating to try and navigate websites on my phone when a website encompasses multiple different areas such as forums, videos, profile pages, photos, events, and home feeds. For most websites that are not feed-scroll based, I'm way more comfortable navigating from a laptop or tablet. The original ED site was really just a PHP forum (no multimedia sections), which was pretty easy to navigate as well.

I'm sorry I can't realistically make FOTMD more intuitive and simple for everyone to figure out. Maybe if I simplified fotmd by removing the Groups feature altogether (leaving just the Forums area instead), it would remove some of the periodic confusion that people seem to have about Groups and how to participate in them?

Kendra, are you referring to within the Galax Group?  If so... you made a Comment on the group's comment wall, which is simply a feed, not a discussion with formal 'replies'. Also, you created a new discussion a few hours ago in the group, about the Galax festival, but it has not had any replies yet from others, so there are no replies to see yet in that discussion.

If you are referring to a different discussion you made in a different group, please say so here.

Also, it helps us if you say what kind of device you are looking at/working from... a phone, laptop, tablet, or desktop?  And if possible, give a LINK to the place or discussion you are having trouble in.

Our backyard blueberries are winding down, while the tomatoes are now gearing up. Yet another cobbler!

This concept puts me in mind a bit of past blog posts i made long ago, like these two:

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-is-it-taking-so-long-for-me-to.html

https://dulcimer-noter-drone.blogspot.com/2011/01/down-with-tyrant-carrot-or-dont-punch.html

I read that Kurt Vonnegut said this. Not sure how accurate that is, but i love the message!:

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of ‘getting to know you’ questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

“And he went wow. That’s amazing! And I said, ‘Oh no, but I’m not any good at any of them.’

“And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: ‘I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.’

“And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could ‘win’ at them.”

There is some info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wonder_as_I_Wander

I read what JJ Niles wrote about it in one of his books... that he 'fleshed out' the tune after hearing a girl singing it. He claimed he heard only a brief 'crude snippet' and that he composed the rest, but i suspect the girl sang more than just a snippet. From my readings years ago, I concluded that Niles had a tendency to take credit for composing stuff that already existed. I do feel he likely added chords to embellish the unaccompanied ballad.

Hi @john-w-mckinstry and @ken-longfield , I think this issue is now fixed.

Please post again if the problem reappears.  Thanks!

Another thunderstorm coming, so I picked a load of green beans before everything got drenched...

Thanks Ken, this is helpful in showing the issue is occurring both on windows and mac.

I am seeing the problem as well, and will try to get it corrected this coming week. Thanks!

Hi Linda!  Hopefully @debbie-kopp-simpkins will see your post and reply here.
If not, perhaps you can call the church and check that the group is still meeting there, and maybe they can also help you get in touch with one of the group members as well. Have fun with your dulcimer! 

Try doing a hard refresh while actually on that error page:  hold down Control key and press F5. Again, try shutting down your laptop completely, and then start it again. (Don’t just hit ‘restart’)

John, can you please post links here of two videos that are giving you this error?

And... have you tried restarting your computer or device? Have you also tried closing and then re-opening your browser?

Is the problem happening on a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer for you? Have you checked if it happens on one of your other devices as well?

thanks!

Great info- thanks so much, Editor! (and best of luck for DPN!)

Thanks Leslie!

Cool to note the link on that page to Bruce Ford's heartfelt letter to members when he decided to close the original everythingdulcimer site in 2018 (not the later copycat site created by an anonymous person). I'm glad someone chose to preserve Bruce's letter of intent.

I'm going to my favorite monthly contra dance tonight! I usually attend 2-3 dances per month, in various nearby towns. I'd go every weekend if there were dances every weekend. Tonight I'm giving a ride to two neighbor twins who'll soon be headed to college.. they are wonderful dancers, very enthusiastic and upbeat to talk to. Usually there are people of all ages at contra dances, from age 5 to 85. Tonight's dance is in a very large old community center building with a wood-floored Hall with a stage, like a typical Grange Hall. This dance usually has anywhere between 60-120 people. Fun tonight! 😊

Chances are there is a monthly contra dance within an hour's drive of where you live, closer if you live in an urban area.

Barb, Please create a new thread in our For Sale forum for selling your dulcimer. This location is not for selling items. Thanks!

Here are Boo-Boo and Teddy chillaxin' on the couch. (with Teddy's little mini-me 'tiny teddy' stuffed cat peeking out from the cushions)

Bubba looks so comfy!!

I remember Sally Ann's little kitten pix.

Well here's hoping the people running DPN are eating their spinach!

omg what is wrong with you people??  I luuuuuuuv spinach!!!  😂 😎

I grew up only tasting CANNED spinach in school lunches, and it was truly horrible.  BUT as an adult i was amazed to discover how tasty fresh and steamed spinach is... so completely different, and so yummy!!

This morning for breakfast i had a giant bowl of steamed radish greens with fresh picked snow peas.... and one pat of butter to rule them all.  mmmmm....

Hi Nate. You have some great points!

The way i see it, it's almost impossible to condense such rich and in depth subjects and material into "short vlog style videos showing techniques, styles, tips, history, design, players etc" in a satisfactory or actually valuable way.  Even if done, it would present pre-digested info which the particular vlogger felt was relevant or important. In my humble opinion, there is no satisfactory shortcut for the accumulated knowledge gained through actual reading, researching, listening, looking, hands-on, and discussion. The closest thing that approaches what you describe is browsing through youtube videos about the subjects you were interested in. Goodness knows there are thousands of YT vids out there on every dulcimer subject you can imagine, presented by a multitude of players and perspectives both great and not-so-great. It's all out there free for the browsing already. And if one prefers info that is curated or condensed by a particular source, then there is nothing really better than reading some of the books out there or watching/listening to some of your favorite players. Or by talking to people directly.

I see the DPN magazine as a venue for allowing for the examination and 'expanding upon' of all interesting things dulcimer, rather than as a media whose purpose it is to condense concepts and information about dulcimers and music.

I'm aware that young people now prefer to get all their information (even their world news) in ultra short videos such as we see on tiktok. They don't like to read all that much. However, such an instant vlogging medium has very real limitations. In my admittedly 'old' mind, I see it as the difference between handing a young person a baby food jar of creamed spinach and saying "here, this is what spinach is"... and giving that young person some spinach seeds and showing them how to plant, grow, harvest, and cook it in various ways. If a person is actually interested for more than one hour of their life, perhaps they will want to investigate something in a more active way rather than being spoon fed quick information. You've been here for almost 3 1/2 years now yourself, Nate. I've seen how you positively devour information, innovate, and add to your knowledge!

I hear there might be some talented young folk out there who enjoy 'discovering' typewriters, fountain pens and script, reading bound paper books, spinning wool, making sourdough bread, collecting vinyl records, and crafting obscure musical instruments out of old bundt cake pans!  😁  They will lead the way forward when us older ones are gone.

Our blueberries are due to start getting ripe soon... ooooh boy!

Right now I am picking lots of fresh snow peas... love them!

What a crazy week.

The everythingdulcimer.com goes down in flames while DPN magazine rises again from the ashes! 

Wow, that's unexpected!  How nice!

But even if they accidentally let the domain expire... If they knew their stuff, they would have had some sort of backup of the email addresses of all their members. They could have then emailed everyone to at least let them know they were ending the site. If they cared.

A couple of weeks?  Doesn't sound good.

You gotta show up and commit for the long haul, like Bruce Ford did with the real/original Everything Dulcimer.

@ StudentofRhythm it's so wonderful that you gave your little daughter a penny whistle. I hope she figures out a simple couple of tunes on it and that it sparks the joy of making music in her!   
Maybe the two of you will work out a simple tune duet on whistle and dulcimer!  (I found "Bear Dance" to be a great choice of tune for total beginners of various instruments to work on. You almost 'can't go wrong' with that tune.)

Welcome @Buckeye67 !  My very first mtn dulcimer was a new walnut hourglass McSpadden exactly like yours, which I think i got somewhere around 1995-96... so it may be a sister/sibling to yours. 😸  It has a voice like an angel, i gave it to my younger daughter years ago. Enjoy it!  McSpaddens are a great choice, and they retain their value over time.

I agree with Ken and Dwain that this looks to be more likely from the 1960s or early 70s. Definitely not from the 1940s.

It's a cool dulcimer!- and seems like it'd be worth restoring.

I recall going to several different dulcimer festivals at a time when George was the ONLY staff teacher there who included noter style playing in his workshops, among maybe 20 mtn dulcimer teachers. I do remember how like-able George was during his presentations. His teaching style was always fun and accessible.

I read that George Haggerty has passed away. He encouraged and inspired so many hundreds of new dulcimer players over the decades.
Anyone want to share their experiences with George?

Here is a nice little article I came across.

Have been getting nice fresh leaf lettuce from our veggie garden for the past 3 weeks, and giving some to my good friends.

Today I cut the first big leaves of Swiss chard and stir fried it to eat with leftover stuffed shells. It was yummy!  I'm glad i planted some scallions this year, since they will come in handy for stir frying as well. I'm on a stir fry kick this year! 

My tomato plants are about 10" high and are making flowers already.  

It's always fun to think about how to spend other people's money. 

Not much has changed in contra dancing since this 1964 film:

Very beautiful!  And I love the natural brown pegs against the black.

Dusty, you expressed it so well. I agree about your coffee table comment, and thank you for the input about tablet size- very helpful!  KenL, I'm glad you posted your timely final tribute to a great publication that enriched all our lives for many years.

It does still feel odd and somehow 'not right' that now both the original (Bruce Ford's) EverythingDulcimer site and DPN magazine are both gone. They were together the very backbone of the dulcimer community. I realize that there is now an entire new generation (or two!) of dulcimer players who never even experienced DPN or the 'real' ED in their heydays. Perhaps we sound like old geezers lamenting the past.

To me, facebook groups are rather pale replacements, since 1) they are not conducive to in depth discussion, 2) they tend to consist largely of ads and self promotions, and 3) the info posted on them just kinda disappears after a day or two and it's almost impossible to search for any past content. Not to mention you have to join FB  ( lolol)

Nice to read about you David!  Welcome to FOTMD. 

Thanks friends!  Yep, it went well and I do notice things are definitely faster.
There will be some software updates coming up in the near future, and those may not be quite as smooth.  🚧 🚒

The deed is done. All seems fine to me. Please report any noticed problems here.
If you notice any initial loading glitches, first just refresh your page, OR restart your browser.
All should be fine after the cache catches up to the latest state. Thanks!