Those drummers

Although he doesn't post it HERE, Danny has been crazy active in several bands, drumming away.

Here's one of the more recent posts on The Meta Accord's youtube site. Only thing is, you can't really see Mr, hiding behind a cymbal.


So I was intrigued to read about an experiment to see how drummers perceive time. The experiment was a collaboration of music producer Brian Eno and neuroscientist David Eagleman. It drew drummers across a wide variety of genres, including Daniel Maiden-Wood (Anna Calvi), the drummer from Razorlight, and Will Champion (Coldplay).

“The question is: do drummers have different brains from the rest of us?” Eno said. “Everyone who has ever worked in a band is sure that they do.”

So drummers EEG's were tested vs controls in respect to their perception of time.

When asked to keep a steady beat, for instance, the controls wavered by an average of thirty-five milliseconds; the best drummer was off by less than ten. Eno was right: drummers do have different brains from the rest.

Like perfect pitch, which dooms the possessor to hear every false note and flat car horn, perfect timing may just make a drummer more sensitive to the world’s arrhythmias and repeated patterns, Eagleman said— to the flicker of computer screens and fluorescent lights.

Reality, stripped of an extra beat in which the brain orchestrates its signals, isn’t necessarily a livelier place. It’s just filled with badly dubbed television shows.

I always knew there was something unique about how Dan saw the world...

Hodgepodge - dead, beer, and cassettes

Book #1 2012 Dead, She Said by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson. A dark, gritty, and quite twisted graphic novel.

As I clean my study, I come across tidbits from my Forgotten English calendar from last year. October 24 marked the date of the Dalton-in-Furness Fair, where the Lord would pick a few ale-tasters, assigned to visit all of the pubs in the town and taste the beer. They report back and prizes for the best are awarded.

One technique used by European aleconners was to pour a bit of a brewer's ale onto a pub bench. Wearing a pair of leather breeches, the official would sit in the beer for 30 minutes and then rise. If his trousers stuck to the bench, the brewer would be fined for serving inferior "taplash".

My question - does the dude get to change pants between pubs?

We finally got together to exchange gifties with Jenny & Aaron this weekend and the major craft give of 2011 was finally unveiled...

A lamp made from clear cassette tapes.

I had seen a couple of these online. Turns out the one I was trying to recreate actually used a specially molded plastic framework, but I adapted another version to get this.

I used 6 inch pieces of beading wire to hold it together. Here are some in-process shots.

Outside

Inside

Two

Diversion

Here's a curious bit of history that I came across this am and thought I'd post as an aside...

December 1 marks the anniversary of the death of the "Lady of the Haystack"

Lady of the Haystack made her appearance in 1776 at Bourton, near Bristol, UK. She was young and beautiful, graceful, and evidently accustomed to good society. She lived for 4 years in a haystack, but was ultimately kept by Mrs Hannah More in an asylum and died in December 1801. Mrs More called her Louisa, but she was probably a Mademoiselle La Frulen, natural daughter of Francis Joseph 1, emperor of Austria.

- source Ebenezer Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1887.

Fascinating and I want to know more. I found a little. Maybe there isn't more to know. Maybe it's a story waiting to be crafted and told.....

I still need to close out 2011

The holidays were a roller coaster. Wonderful and full of love and good times and stressful and chaotic and illness and a cold right on New Years borking things up. I never got cards done, they're sitting in my living room. I just made sugar cookie dough today. Overall, I'd say the holidays were awesome and glorious, but I felt a bit outside just because so many things were out of whack.

Ah, well. I've set my sights on improving 2012.

Finally, the last 3 books of 2011.
Book #23 - Lincoln on Leadership: Executive strategies for tough times by Donald T Phillips. A quick read, but a good one. First of all, I love the detail related to the storytelling that was infused in Lincoln's leadership. As I look at pages that I have flagged, some are for Lincoln's stories. I have to admit that I approach anything about Lincoln with a slightly skewed perspective after reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. But it is cool to hear of events that occur in both versions of his presidency. I like connections like that.

Book #24 - Weird US: Your travel guide to America's local legends and best kept secrets by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman. A fun romp to weird places across the country. We actually do use it as a travel guide when going on road trips - to help us keep an eye out for freaky places that we might otherwise drive right by.

Book #25 - Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. A romp that gets quite twisted and surreal complete with Colonel Sanders and talking cats, Beethoven's Archduke Trio and a small private library that is a haven for some lost souls. I have a lot of wonderful turns of phrase flagged and there are some bits that made me think about what type of adventure I, myself, might be on. It gets a little convoluted at the end, but overall, I quite enjoyed my first Murakami read.

4 years

My "episode" happened just about 4 years ago. I don't focus on the date, but it was early January, 2007.

I've been bionic for just about 4 years.

There's still a panic and an ache related to the emotion of that night. There are some images you never forget. Some thoughts still bring a tear to my eye, like at this very moment. But it's more a regular part of me now and just how life is.

I've probably passed the halfway point on my battery.
It IS kinda' fun, it's not every girl who can talk in such superhero/comic book terms.

I'm glad there are experts in the field just steps from my front door. They're good people, too.
I'm glad most of all that it got figured out and it hasn't come close to happening again.

Love you, J. Thanks for being there.
- Your bionic wif