Too many mind.. Viols, Tunings, Books, Traveling & Science (every now & then)...

Right!

So many things took place over the last weeks (or rather months) that I constantly wanted to write about but honestly found no time to. I'll try to describe a few while doing some chores on another window/screen (what? you didn't know I have two monitors connected to my PC?).

Μουσική... or Music:

Alot have taken place concerning music in my life. I finally went after my intentions of studying music properly (with a teacher & everything) that I had decided upon in the summer... with a twist. Instead of studying guitar (classical or otherwise) I chose to go after what I originally (& should say always) wanted to learn as early as 1992-3, the Viola da Gamba!

The Bass Viol (or Viola da Gamba) I am studying with.

But where can someone learn this instrument? It is difficult to locate a teacher, I'll admit, especially in Athens (although there is a good one). Intrinsically, it suits my lifestyle better to take up lessons in the UK rather than Greece, so I started collaborating with Wendy Hancock near Nottingham. The first experience with the viol is amazing - it's so different from a guitar. The left hand seems common in both instruments so the transition was more easy, but the right hand (the bow) is extremely difficult & awkward to me. On the same time it is marvelously intriguing & it's difference is so, I don't know how to put it. Plucking notes with the right hand on guitar-like instruments seems fragmented contrary to arched instruments in general (& the Viol in particular) where you have a more fluent sound. Or at least that's the feeling I got. Plus I approach bowing as something closely related to breathing which is just breathtaking.

The whole lesson experience was quite nice - it has been maybe a decade since my last classical guitar lesson - and Wendy is a fantastic teacher. I can't wait to get back to Nittngham in a ocuple of months to continue. Yes in a couple of months as that's the only possible way for me to study - condensed lessons every couple of months. Now I am studying over here all the things Wendy tought me plus the next series of easy pieces.

The bass clef (fa) is a bit difficult to get used to as I still think in terms of the Sol clef. But I am happy to study towards that & I so much enjoy playing even the simplest tunes.I guess it's the sound of the Bass Viol that intrigues me the most.


Indirectly (or directly) connected to that is the tamperament issue...

I was always fasinated by different than standar tunings heard in baroque and preclassical recordings, & I did have a vague perception of what it is all about, but recently I started looking into it more systematically. I think this played a role in choosing the Viol over the guitar, as the Viol has movable frets & has an "old" repertoire - ideal for using an older tuning (e.g. we are using Vallotti tuning with La or A at 415Hz). So I went looking for some literature on tunings & tamperaments, & I stamlbed upon the following blog:
http://panadam.wordpress.com/
I remember mr. Adam from my early guitar days as I had attended a couple of his baroque music & interpretation workshops - so I asked some questions about books on tamperament. Have a look here for some suggested reading: http://panadam.wordpress.com/comments-questions-2010/#comment-146

I bought the book "How equal tamperament ruined harmony: and why you should care" from Ross Duffin & I got some interesting review from mr. Adam (look here) and a reference to the review from a journal (look here). To sum it up, that book has a more historical/ simplistic approach to the subject & probably contains some errors. Still it is a good read, especially for travelling (I read it during flights between Athens, Franfurt, Amsterdam, Munich and Manchester).

The next step towards understanding the Temperament issue is Mark Lindley's book "Lutes, Viols & Temperaments", which I also begun reading on airplanes (this time including Thessaloniki as a destination), although I have to say it's less easy than the previous one and is not the ideal companion for flights.

Just a quick note, to deal with tuning I use my iPhone (yes, it's true) and specifically the Cleartune application. It is cheaper than a chromatic tuner & I test it against one only to find it as accurate as expected (& it does include the Vallotti tuning) .

One cool feature is that you can switch from A B C notation to what I am accustomed to, i.e. La Si Do etc. Unfortunately not all music related iPhone apps have that feature.

So that's pretty much it about music, trying to study it that is in between flights as the last two months have been full of flights. I went to Manchester, Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, always connecting through Germany, for business & study related issues (like handing in my MSc dissertation & planning my future PhD). I always used Lufthansa or a Star Alliance affiliated company taking advantage of miles. The good thing is I will be eligible for the Lufthansa 2010 Silver Promotion that gives you frequent flyer status after you make 30 flight segments within this year, which I just completed the day before yesterday returning from Amsterdam. Hurray for me but it was a difficult flight as our plane was stuck on a runway in Paris & it took something close to 5 hours to get back to Munich... so we were marooned over there... everything in the Airport was already closed by the time the plane arrived. You can imagine how the crew was when the plane arrived, after being stuck with passengers inside the airplane on the tarmak for 5 hours! Oh anyway, I am safely back right now & that's all that matters. I am getting tired of travelling but the frequent flyer thing will definetly help.

So yes, I finished the MSc & you would imagine that I have more time on my hands, but it is quite the opposite actually. Apart from paving the way towards the PhD, there are several research projects that have been waiting for the MSc to finsih to start, & I am trying to organise an international workshop in the UK which is a nightmare on its own.

I also started reading a book concerning biometrics and the new world order. In Greece there's alot of discussions going on due to the fact that from 2011 an new digital ID will be distributed (initially on a voluntary basis) and there are discussions on RFID & the such. This book approaches this issue from a religious point of view with a very informed & pragmatistic view - as far as I've read I really like it. You can find some links here & here. Also a good book to read on a plane.

Now I really need to get back to work - will try to find time to write more later on (hopefully within this calendar year!).

Καλά Χριστούγεννα.

Coutoo by Andreas, the Serpent Crown & a general note on comics...

I recently decided to move the complete of my comic collection from my parents' house. I originally made a selection when I got married & tooke the best ones & the graphic novels etc to have in the big "σκαλιέρα" of the living room... but now I guess it's the time to (buy a new set of shelves for the bedroom &) take care of all those issues.

During that transport I bumped into several titles & I started reading again, but the first one I read was in my house all along, it was "COUTOO" by Andreas. Streight after that was the "AVENGERS: SERPENT CROWN" TPB by marvel.

I can't help but write about the big differences of these so different types of comics. 

Although German in origin I perceive Andreas as a "french school" artist, mainly because when I got aquainted with his work (back in the early ninties) it was through the french big comic houses (Lombard, Dargaud etc), digging up on the first flour of Librairie Kaufmann in Athens. All those "french" comics are so well treated by the publishers, large sizes, hard covers, excellent quality of print... the downside is that they are in french! Thank good for my french-speaking school for that, I was able to read them.

On the other hand the old marvel comics are so familiar as I literally grew up in the eighties reading them & collecting them from a few (counted on the fingers of one hand) kiosks scattered allover Athens & Glyfada who brought "imported comics"... I think that's why I bought the Serpent Crown, I actually had (from Monastiraki) one of the original 70s issues & wanted to read the whole story. That's pretty much my situation nowadays. In my 32 years of age I every now & then find something original to read (which usually is something like Rutu Modan's "Exit Wounds") or dig up some new TPB that collect all the issues I was missing from a certain arc.

So I ended up reading those two comics within a week's time. I so much enjoyed the Andreas' one! The feeling was so nice, so "noir" I couldn't stop reading (& happily french language was not a serious obstacle). The serpent crown on the other hand was... well... boring is not exactly the word for it but...

This difference in the storyline, in the quality of the drawings, in the language etc made me wonder how on earth did these comics (the french school) never made it big time!

After reading Coutoo I went to mycomicshop to see which albums of Andreas were printed in english. I was shocked! I mean almost nothing made it to english print!!! On the other hand if you check amazon.fr you will be dazzled with the many different titles available. I don't understand this.

Coutoo is a detective story in a typical noir atmosphere where the main hero hunts down a serial killer, coutoo (which if freely translated from french means knife), who was also hunted down & killed (?) by his father (also a detective). Very nice plot & classic pictures drawn here & there. Works like that in my mind transform the whole comic media from child/adolescent oriented to adult oriented.

The seprent crown on the other hand deals with the ever complicated adventures of the Avengers streight after the Scarlet Which's & Vision's marriage, involving time travel to the wild west, voyage to a parallel dimension & stuff like that, ending up to the infamous "serpent crown"... The storyline has several weak points (even for a marvel comic book).

My interest to the Serpent Crown started back in (1990 or was it 1991?) during the Atlantis Attacks arc among the Marvel Annuals. That's why I hunted down comicbooks involving that serpent crown... oh, well I was let down that's for sure. But this brings me to another issue alltogether. I see how Marvel collects & prints TPB with "omnibus" pritned on or how they collect storylines like "Inferno" or "Acts of Vengence" & I am puzzled... should I get the TPB or should I buy the original comics from interent sellers??? I honestly do not know what I would enjoy the most. On one hand a TPB looks far better on a shelf & is easy to carry everything bound together on one book. On the other hand with the original comics you get all the non comic content which can strike a note of nostalgia if you were reading stuff like that when young. Also the paper on printed comics was not glossy. Now, is that a good thing? I do not know! Reading the serpent crown on glossy paper made me feel strange. I think it was made & coloured for that cheap non-glossy paper & when printed in gloss it looked somehow "cheap"? I don't know. I am sceptical about that.

So anyways, Coutoo was placed back in the "σκαλιέρα" in the living room and Serpent Crown is waiting to be placed with the rest of the comics & issues on the new IKEA shelves I have my eye on...

Now next to my bed is found Andreas' "RORK Tome I Fragments"... I think Rork is his masterpiece... which means I need to save money to start buying th "Capricorne" series...

 By the way, I hade some meetings in athens last week & I managed to get earlier than expected with the Metro, so I stopped by Public to have a lok at their comic book section. I was impressed alright, too many titles to choose from (although no Andreas!). But one thing really annoyed me!

As soon as I bought my iPhone I loaded the free app "Price Check". This is one of those apps which scan the barcode of products & then can look online on stores for a price check or create a library or wishlist. Now, I am not the guy who will check the price of a book on amazon before I buy it from a bookstore, but I was looking forward into scanning things I intend to buy in the future so that I can look them up back home.. unfortunately Public has replaces all the barcodes with its own ones!!! So scanning was not possible. I was so let down as I actually bumped into a graphic novel that looked quite interesting.

It was a Sherlock Holmes graphic Novel, the  "A STUDY SCARLET"... hmmm, I flipped the pages & it looked interesting, it did remind me a bit the "LOGICOMIX" one, but maybe that's just me.

Oh anyway.

IMG_1104

IMG_1104
Originally uploaded by Dr. K Miller

On the balcony...

D.I.Y. Tin & Paper iPhone Cradle

I like my iPhone 3GS & I love having the FlipTime app on when I work - helps me keep track of time. But I need to be able to see it so a cradle for the iPhone is needed.

There are several that are available here & there so one can obviously buy one, but I have no money for that right now so -while trying to avoid work- I decided to make one.

My first (easiest) choice was paper, so I took a paper box (from a glass paperweight bought from the Tokyo National Museum some 6 years ago) & I stapled the bottom inside the top with 4 staples (for stability) creating a 90 degree corner as shown in the pictures.

To hide the staples I put some Hazard tape on it & voila! The cradle is ready! It will hold the iphone & will display the whole screen.

The next move was to create a tin one (for the other desk) using a fisherman's friend tin box (although you can use any kind of box).

Initially I thought of making 4 small holes & using wire to keep the lid open at a 90 degree angle but it seemed a bit messy to do that. So instead I used some velcro I had.

I used 2 pieces of velcro sticker on the inside of the box and then I use a strip of double sided velcro to stick on those pieces & hold the thing together.

As you can see it also works perfectly fine holding the iPhone to it's place.

Nothing fancy but it came in handy & saved me some money. I think these cradles are compatible with iPhone 4 as well :P

iPhone photos (August 2010)

Canon G11 August shots...

Couldn't help myself & bought the new Canon G11 camera last month. It is so simple & amazing I can't stop playing with it (although I bought it for work...).

The main thing that intriges me is the SLR feel... for those of us who grew on SLR cameras it's so weird to have a digital one that has the controls & everything just like it's supossed to!

So I decided to upload every now & then photos taken with the G11 just to show its capabilities.

Haven't mastered it yet though. I am still playing it & slowly figuring out stuff.

Hope you enjoy the pics...