Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2005-01-10:

"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

(submitted to the mailing list by Kathleen Magone)

Perrine slept too close to the edge of the bed. This was fine when she was lying there looking adorable. But a little ... undignified ... when she started to wake up, stretched, and rolled over. (I am not laughing at the look on her face as she crawled back onto the bed I am not laughing at the look on her face as she crawled back onto the bed I am not laughi ... yeah, right)

Today was as tiring as yesterday. And kind of dusty. Things mostly went well, and unlike yesterday I didn't sleep through one repetition of "Woodycock" while playing it. (Really, I do not remember one repetition of that from yesterday, just noticing that my eyes were closed and everyone else was switching to "Whirligig"[1]. I think I hit all the notes though.) I wanted to make a circuit of the encampments with my cameras, but I realized that I had nearly enough energy to either do that or eat lunch, and I needed the food more. So most of what I shot, both days, was in the all-groups pass and review after our second set at the end of the day. I did not manage to catch the fellow in armour riding a golf cart with my camera, dammit.

I think I need to practice reading at concert pitch, too-many-low-ledger-lines and all, so that I can play bass guitar and double bass parts off of piano (and tuba) music without slowing down so much to think.[2] I can cope just fine with transposing on the fly (especially such a trivial transposition), but I really hate ledger lines. I'd rather just move the clef. But I can see why they don't do that on piano scores. I mean beyond the mere "it frightens the moderns unless they read C-clef" reason.

I've realized that my car isn't actually the right size/shape for my body. I think that in terms of ergonomics, I should probably be driving a pickup truck (possibly a minivan) or a Volvo sports car (if my memory of the interior of the P1800 is correct). You see, I can adjust the seat so that my legs don't feel cramped and I can still reach the wheel comfortably, but in order to have the amount of fine control I want with my right ankle, I wind up tipping my foot way over, twisting my leg. I'm compensating for my foot approaching the pedal at the wrong angle. So I think what I want is either to sit way up on a seat with decent height to it and reach down to the pedals, or drive something really low-slung (not just with a sortakindasporty...-ish seat) that has a really long distance between the seat and the pedals when the wheel is at a comfortable distance, and pedals oriented as though the designers honestly expected the driver's foot to be at that angle. Of course, a car a lot like what I've got (Honda Accord) but with a longer seat track and an adjustable steering column might do. I'm trying to remember what position my leg wound up in when I drove the Ford Tempo, which I remember finding surprisingly comfortable for multiple-hour trips for a car of that size. But I think I can live with the Honda for quite a while. It's not like some car's I've sat in, where there was no seat position that would allow me to control the car safely, or the ones I could drive safely but found painful, or the ones that I fit into but didn't feel safe in for power / sturdiness reasons.

[1] For the dance, "Whirligig", we play the tune "Woodycock" three and a half times (ABBABBABBA), then the tune "Whirligig" three and a half times (AABBAABBAABBAA), then return to "Woodycock" for three and a half times. I play bass recorder for those tunes. I've lost count before (like, who hasn't?) but this felt different.

[2] The guitar, bass guitar, and double bass are played an octave lower than written. So the first time I found a tuba part in a bass book in an orchestra pit, I was startled. "Wait, my instrument doesn't go anywhere near that low!" ... then I noticed the word "Tuba" at the top of the page and asked the music director whether tuba was written at pitch (it is). Of course, the guitar has such a wide range that it winds up having a few ledger lines below the staff and waytoomany ledger lines above the staff, all at the same time. I consider it a kindness when a transcriber puts that little dotted line and "8va" over a high section.