Forum Activity for @charles-thomas

Bobby, that is a fine specimen of Lepus antilocapra. Dusty, jackrabbits are hares and the antelope in question is a pronghorn, but jackalopes are real!  

That's the only taxidermy I have in our house.  We don't kill animals, just enjoy watching them where we live.  Someone gave me the "jackalope."  It gets lots of attention when folks come by!  BTW, I like your quote by Woody Guthrie.  I also have some "jackalope sausage" which no one will eat!

Cool, Bobby. If I had any kind of taxidermy mount in my house I would want it to be a jackalope.  I was just explaining to my daughter what jackalopes are . . . uh . . . or aren't.

Someone told me that jackrabbits are not rabbits and antelopes are not antelopes.  Sounds crazy to me.

I don't have anything as spectacular as most of you, but this jackalope in my picking parlor gets lots of raised eyebrows!

 IMAG0039.jpg - 45KB

i loved the "milagro beanfield war" filmed in and around taos new mexico.  spending a few days in the area should be on everyone's list

I love the color and design on the scorpion head, Charles.   All I could think about hearing of your Milgro charm was the "charming"  film the Milagro Beanfield War .

Here is something different.  This is a document, probably about 20" x 14" that I have in a frame. The printed part reads "On the part of the King and of Monsieur the Intendant of Bordeaux" and goes on to explain that a nobleman wanted to start a weekly market every Monday and a fair the third Monday of every month. It asks whether anyone opposed those actions. OK, it's interesting enough that the French King would ask for public comment, since he could have simply granted or denied the request, but what I find interesting is the ceremony of information. In an age before newspapers or television, how did this news get out?  The handwritten part is a testimony dated "the year one thousand seven hundred fifty six and the 28th day of the month of March" and reads, "I, Pierre Dutil . . . testify to having read, cried, and published this announcement at the beginning of parish mass in the town of Julliac, on the main doors of whose church I posted this announcement so that no one can claim ignorance of it." And of course, the fact that the document dates from 1756 is pretty cool, too.  Maybe you'll see me on Antiques Road Show someday.

This is a Milagro, a religious folk charm that is traditionally used for healing purposes in Mexico and Central America. Milagro means miracle in Spanish.

This is another Huichol Indian work. This jaguar head features scorpions (on the nose),an iguana (on the forehead),and peyote buttons (round symbols throughout) 

Wayne. I think you made a good choice in going with the Mike Clemmer ban jammer. I bought one from him this year and am very happy with it. I also bought a 5 string fiddle side dulcimer that I am also happy with.

Superglue is a good skin coat while developing callus.  Also Liquid-Skin and similar products which are acetone based.

No rababas (or dulcimers) on my sailboat cabin walls.  Not much wall, either.  I do have my repel boarders arsenal (crossbow and BIG knife) within easy reach, copies of a couple articles about me, and the Heel-o-Meter clinometer. 

Thanks, Bob. That's a funny video and much better rababa playing than the video I found (I suggest jumping to about 0:52):

D, I used to have calluses from playing bowed dulcimer and look forward to developing them again when life allows.  :)

That was really great! Thanks for sharing.

Robin,

I'll have to watch. I'm figuring it's from sliding. I love to use my thumb on a slide. :)

Also, I think my fingers and/or thumb are shorter and I have to do some odd hand/finger configurations to reach chords. My thumb has been invaluable for this! :)

This video is about changing the sound of the clapper:

1 just one finger between the clappers

2 two finger between;

3 the bell hitting the bell-hammer way up.

The lower sound is made by an almost complete 'resonator', the air inside the clapper. The 'room' is made by the two clappers, the palm of the hand and the fingers in front. When opened, the sound is higher and sharp as always. A difficult technique, which I can't master myself, is closing and opening the 'fingers'-door while playing. I try it in the end. Anyway, the lower sound is made by the resonator (kind of a soundbox made of wood and flesh :-)

What an interesting video, with all its scene changes, etc.  I really liked the piano playing of the invisible pianist at the beginning (whose touch was so light you couldn't even see the keys moving up and down!), but then was really surprised as the scene changed.

I also have a similar instrument, but haven't hung it on the wall.

yet.

Dusty, I think you could figure it out!  

When my daughter was in pre-school I used to visit with a cart filled with instruments and entertain the kids. I played the ukulele, guitar, autoharp, mandolin, and dulcimer.  Her teacher was so taken with my ability to play these stringed instruments, that when my daughter "graduated" to kindergarten, she gave me this rababa as a present.  Her husband works building huge hotels in the Middle East, and he brought it back from there.  Somewhere along the trip he lost the bridge, so I just stuck on the bridge for a banjo mandolin. I have no idea how to play it, for you bow across a single string the tone of which you can change either by twisting a nob at the top or by pushing down on it with your finger. But I think it would be pretty hard to play Bile Dem Cabbage on this thing!  So instead of getting played, this piece just hangs on the wall in the living room.

I don't know if I speak English well...

But like a friend of mine says 'the Dutch speak better English than the English speak Dutch' :-)

It's the same with 'the journey London to Stradford-apon-Avon has more miles than Stradford-apon-Avon to London'.

I'm surprised more people haven't posted on here, although, as I look around my house, I only have pictures and mirrors hanging on the walls.  Very boring!

In my college days, everything we would find on the floor we would tape to our wall near the door--now THAT was kind of interesting!

Yep--In my toddler years I learned to sing "Frosty the Snowman" from a cracked 45rpm--and would sing it all over the house, crack and all!

Wout, ik heb genoten van je video's van u het spelen van de botten. Je spreekt erg goed Engels. Bedankt voor het delen. 

Woot, I enjoyed all of those videos, thank you for making and posting them.  

It's funny how one can get some good deeper tones when the 'thumb-side' bone is held a lot more UP than the far bone....but it seems the result is always poor when the thumb-side bone is held a lot lower than the other bone.

I couldn't understand a lot of your words in the videos though, because your voice was too soft and low.  Can you tell me more about those very dark and flat ones you were demonstrating?

P.S. it was nice to see you!

BTW the sighing I do is what I always do when I am concentrating myself. :-)

Here some more information about the bamboo clappers:

Here's a video about Dutch clappers:

Hi Strumelia, you asked me to demonstrate the Yin-Yang sculptured bones made by Adam Klein. See

Two configurations wouildn't work because the energy wasn't able to make to right swing.

This is the first time I create a video on YoyTube and I used a photocamera...

The holiday season is fast approaching!  Here's a timely reminder with a link to some common holiday songs that are copyrighted or public domain: common-christmas-carols-are-they-copyrighted-or-public-domain

Well, my goodness.  I still have a landline (not the rotary phone though).  But before 8-Tracks and even cassette tapes, there were 45 rpms that had these inserts and when a record began to skip a penny or two (maybe even a nickle) would to make the record not stutter.  And there was the Western Flyer, the little red wagon, and red ball jets.

Well, for goodness sakes--what did y'all DO with your rotary phones???  Throw them away?

Lovely to have at least one older phone in the house that will still work when the electricity goes out and the cell phones die and can't be recharged!

This mask is from Guatemala, it was probably made for the tourist trade-the "patination"seems to be applied and on the inside there are no shiny spots were the nose or forehead would have rubbed.When she was a child my step daughter called it the "Bad Bunny".   

I remember that you guys did that...don't think I ever saw or heard it though...as you say,not in the public domain.

Jan, Carrie Barnes and I wrote up some silly lyrics for Where O Where Are You Tonight, Hee Haw, song. That was

fun. Unfortunately the tune is not public domain but we still had a blast writing up crazy lyrics....at the expense of the Keanes, LOL. Remember that John? 

Ah, the Green Stamp book...How far we have come!

I've been less than successful finding anyone (group?) here in Derby City that has the passion for ND play as we do. Do you know of anyone?

Actually, as I think about it, several years ago at the Kentucky Music Festival I ran across a lady who played ND "BEAUTIFULLY" (she also teaches dulcimer & clawhammer banjo), maybe I should try to find her. She's a teacher (JCPS - Jefferson County Public Schools) which just happens to be my employer as well. I remember her stating thet ND is "HER" style of choice as well. DUH ME

Call me old fashion, I just like to hold on to "some things" traditional. Besides, you can create some "AWESOME SOUNDS" with ND play - I DO (not to sound like a brag)  ND can be 'simple' OR VERY COMPLICATED !!!

The LDS took me as a N&D player back when I lived in KY for a year.  Always loved the "clash" of a group with the initials LDS meeting in a Presbyterian church

Jan,

CATS

I grew up listening to noter/drone style play and I am "Attempting" to keep that tradition alive - it's the style I prefer - it's who my wife and I are. Actually we have a sign (in the room we practice in) that a friend gave me a few years ago that simply reads Keep It Simple Stupid - KISS for short.

That's who we are  It has only been recently (past several months) that I have ventured into chords, finger dancing etc ...  Sometimes (in regards to your question about the LDS) I get the feeling they don't take to N/D players. Nothing has ever been said but it's just a feeling we get. Nonetheless, that's okay. I don't get upset about stuff like that - that's the Pastor in me AND life is too short. My wife and I do what we do (she plays autoharp along with me) at Church, nursing homes & such and we have a GREAT time - not to mention the folks we play for LOVE our music. Again, we are just husband/wife team that do what's in our hearts. 

I've been having a difficult time getting ahold of Mike that past few days, to order my Ban-Jammer. It's good-ole Time Warner I suppose. Looks like I won't be getting it by Christmas as I had hoped. He needed Christmas orders turned in by the end of September. No BIG deal. I've waited this long I guess I can wait a little longer. I "DO" want to get one ASAP though. We do many of Stephen Fosters songs and I can almost hear them BANJO SOUNDING style.

Have a blessed evening.

Wayne

I've heard you can since any Emily Dickinson poem to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas:

THEY say that “time assuages”,—

  Time never did assuage;

An actual suffering strengthens,

  As sinews do, with age.

Time is a test of trouble,  

  But not a remedy.

If such it prove, it prove too

  There was no malady.

Now that's a cheerful little ditty. 

Jan is really onto something. If you can whistle a tune, it means your brain has learned to associate different sizes in the opening of your lips to get different pitches. When you hum or sing, your brain has learned exactly how much to stretch or relax your vocal chord to get a certain pitch.

When you learn an instrument, your brain can also learn how high up a string you have to move to get a pitch. It's just a matter of doing it enough that you can train your brain in that manner.

When you first learned to whistle, you couldn't do "I've Been Working on the Railroad" right away; your brain how to learn to associate the opening of your mouth with different pitches. It took some practice.  The dulcimer takes practice, too.  One reason I don't like to look at tab is that I want to see where on the fretboard I am getting different tones, so that my brain can learn those distances. Sometimes I sing the fret numbers while I play to reinforce the connection between the fretboard and the notes that are in my brain. And I spend a lot of time just trying to find simple melodies on the dulcimer.  Not to learn the songs, but to practice letting my brain figure out where to find the right pitch. The more you do it, the better you get.