Forum Activity for @dulcinina

She's a cutie, David. I remember when you got her. Nina

It appears Sally Ann is interested in what's in that cool mug. 

Sally Ann checking things out

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By my generation, popeye and similar cartoons didnt even play on boomerang. The full collection of betty boop, woody woodpecker, sailor mickey, wile e coyote, popeye, etc were DVDs at the dollar store.

So let me make sure I understand this...Popeye was once a Saturday cartoon?!  So there really is something to this "55 and older crowd"?  I am 52 and I only remember watching Popeye on weekday afternoons with many of the other cartoon show reruns.  I am too old for Nate's crowd, too young for the 55 and older crowd....where do I belong?

I am very glad to hear about this development.  When I was originally starting learning to play dulcimer, I was researching over the internet and found DPN, I was completely bummed to learn that I couldn't subscribe and it was ending.  Now that this phoenix is rising from the ashes, I have already subscribed. 

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

Put mine in some spanakopita, a quiche, or veggie lasagna, or just cook it with a lil' ham or bacon!  Yum - o!

Lol john it does in fact make you strong to the finish. I was told once that the decimal point was misplaced on a study about the iron content of spinach, thus it was considered a miracle food with 100x the iron it actually had. Personally, I like it with some ricotta, or in a buttered curry with some squash and chicken!

So, Strumelia, are you, by reason of consuming so much spinach, now able to repeatedly punch big galoots into submission, bust loose from being tied to a chair by heavy ropes, and generally wreak havoc, trying to make the world a more just and equitable place?  There was a feller in the Saturday cartoons a long time ago that answers that description.  The carnage was always preceded by the playing of a jaunty hornpipe.

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....

Haha, Gordon, we ate a lot of spinach and poke in Arkansas, but never without sweating it down in some lard or bacon grease. They dont call it soul food cause it's good for the body!

Strumelia, this has been such a good discussion so I thought I'd throw in a wee bit of humor Gordon style:  I don't understand your point regarding spinach and I quote:

"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."

How disappointing it would be for a young person to go through the trouble of planting, growing, harvesting and cooking spinach only to find out it tastes as horrible as baby food creamed spinach, any way you cook it. As children, my siblings and I were forced to eat lots of spinach, one of the vegetables that grows well in northern Alberta, because "it was good for us" and the garden was full of it. My dear Mother even tried to hide it in lasagna. I firmly believe it was a preparation for us to be able to endure further ordeals as we grew up and left the nest.

I have really enjoyed this discussion even the spinach part.

Strumelia, the strange thing I've noticed is that my generation will gladly watch a 5 hour video as long as its divided into 20 parts.

In truth I definitely did imagine a tiktok style video telling three minutes of dulcimer history, with a part 2 and 3 and an endless stream of new minutes, since as you said, there is a LOT to cover.

Short condensed videos could help to reach a much broader audience, the way a magazine once could. I know it has been said a lot of times, but I think a dulcimer could easily replace the ukulele as the definitive beginner-friendly instrument for folk music/singer-songwriter music.

I value DPN as it is quite a lot. It is a deep, deep well of information at this point. I wouldn't want to lose that just to make the content more digestible, but if there were a high quality source of digestible excerpts about dulcimer content a la an Instagram video, I suspect that would really help dulcimer to become more culturally relevant. Again, I feel the instrument has so much potential that it blows my mind it's not more popular. 

PS, I hope you are right that people who value self subsistence and traditional skills will help to revive the dulcimer, the typewriter and vinyl people I could take or leave. Lol

Nate

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.

Wow Ken, I'm envious! Sounds like you've put them to about every use under the sun. My grandfather had a few mango trees on his farm and they always seemed to grow more than the whole family plus the neighbors could use!

Our mango tree started dropping ripe fruit the first week of April, and is finally winding down.  We'll probably get fruit for another couple weeks.  I have been harvesting 10-20 per day.  I've made Mango Salsa, Mango Jam, Mango Lassi, Mango smoothies with backyard bananas, Mango bread, Mango Frozen Yogurt, Mango Shrimp dinner,  Mango-topped oatmeal for Sally every day, chilled mango by the bowl, and dribbling over the sink.  No to mention I've frozen 20 quarts of mango filets for once a month mango treats until next season, and given away at least a hundred to friends who love mango but don't have a tree,

@nate, I think your observation is correct, reflecting current reality..  

I wish DPN all the best and will continue to support.  When the 55 and older crowd is no longer around to purchase, the publication may evolve further and thrive-- I hope so!

To the conversation about getting young people to engage, I myself am a young person (just turned 24) and I think it would be a huge challenge to get the broader audience of young people to read any sort of printed magazine, digital or physical. Most young people prefer short videos to written text. If dulcimer had an ambassador who could output short vlog style videos showing techniques, styles, tips, history, design, players etc, that would probably be the best bet. It would be a massive undertaking for DPN or anyone else, and probably wouldn't end up worth the time.

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! 

I'm glad the plans for the transfer of DPN ownership is finalized. Ashley shared this news with me about a week ago and it has been hard keeping the secret. I've been waiting for her to make It public. Best wishes to Fiona and Bill as they take over the reins at DPN.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Wow, that's unexpected!  How nice!

This is the breaking news from Ashley Ernst on Facebook (a posting which included a photo of Fiona Potts and Fiona's father) regarding DPN: 

I have been busting with excitement to share this news! Dulcimer Players News is under new stewardship! Meet Fiona Potts publisher/editor of DPN and her father, Bill Wake, tech guru. Subscriptions for the print magazine are again open, so visit dpnews.com to subscribe or renew today!!

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.

I wondered about that too Ken.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

I dunno Ken...  I check there every day and have noticed it Unavailable for at least the last week and more.  No notice...nada.

I wondered if the nominal owners had neglected to pay the periodic name license fee.  

NOT GOOD.  The "revived" ED has never been busy.  The owner never identified him/herself.  Never been welcoming or active.  Only 3 or 4 people every posted regularly -- Ken & I and someone named "Carolina Rockman" who I've never run into anywhere else in dulcimer media.  

Yes, and when Bruce went out on sea duty he had a few us looking after the site.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

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.

This website has been offline for a couple of weeks now. Does anyone know what happened? There was no warning that it was closing down. I know it wasn't having much traffic.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

😃 I'll try to do so, Dusty!

Glad you enjoyed the Wallowas and are returning this year.  Tell Heidi and Bob I say hello.

I haven’t checked in for awhile, but I wanted to express some gratitude again for someone in this group suggesting Dulcimer Camp in the Wallowas (Oregon) when I asked about west coast camps last year. I had such a great time, and I’m all set to pack up and go again in a few days. Anyone in the group also going to this camp? 

Lorilee - I like that a lot!  I have said for many years that I can be having a bad day, and a little time with one of my dulcimers just makes it better!

Stable.  Horses.  All good 😀

My stable. They help keep me "stable," Also I'll use a horse reference whenever I can!

I was going to say the same thing, Ken...

Mine, mine, all mine!

Mine!  Mine!  That's Mine.  That too!  Mine. Mine!

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Whenever I clean up, the couch becomes the temporary home of what I affectionately refer to as "the hoarde" as they are a horde I've hoarded. haha

@ 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.

Welcome Buckeye67 and Student!  I'm a primarily Celtic music (Child Ballads) player on the MD, although I also play a little tin whistle and mirliton flute.  

I'll recommend to you both the booklet I wrote years ago for new dulcimer players, called   I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?  It's an illustrated glossary of dulcimer terms (so we all speak the same jargon) plus answers to many beginner questions about the tuning, playing, care and feeding of your new friend.  You can find it here:

Ken Hulme's "I Just Got A Dulcimer, Now What?" Article - Strumelia | fotmd.com    

part way down the discussion.  Thanks to Lisa and Dusty for fixing the link...