The Clarinet Bulletin Board – a Musician’s Resource

Posted on February 9, 2007 by Gandalfe

One of my favorite musician forums, besides the one I live at the Sax On The Web (SOTW) Forum, is the Clarinet BBoard. If you have questions about the clarinet, be it a vintage metal clarinet or the latest Leblanc Backun Legacy clarinet, this is the place to get your information.

Additionally, there are flute, oboe, and doubler forums to search for answers in. This is one of the largest forums for musicians on the Internet and a place that you can find yourself spending a lot of time perusing. Enjoy!

Posted in Clarinet | Leave a comment

Breaking the Myth of the Megapixels – Pogue

Posted on February 8, 2007 by Gandalfe

David Pogue, self admitted tech geek and staff writer for the New York Times writes,

"But one myth is so deeply ingrained, millions of people waste money on it every year. I’m referring, of course, to the Megapixel Myth. It goes like this: “The more megapixels a camera has, the better the pictures.” It’s a big fat lie. The camera companies and camera stores all know it, but they continue to exploit our misunderstanding. Advertisements declare a camera’s megapixel rating as though it’s a letter grade, implying that a 7-megapixel model is necessarily better than a 5-megapixel model."

Thanks to Eolake for another very interesting post. Most people who are not professional photographers, yours truly included in that category, do not only not need a professional camera with an 8 or more megapixel capability, we are not really going to be able to take advantage of the extra heft associated with the mega picture.

Still, I have a 7.2 megapixel Sony Cybershot camera but I stopped using it except for high def pictures taken on a stand for charity calendars and such. I couldn’t even hope to hold the thing still enough. Most of my pictures came out fuzzy. So I’m back to using my 5 megapixel Panasonic FX8 Lumix which is 2" X 4" by 3/4". It fits on my hip and takes great pics usually at a 2 megapixel setting. And get this, it only cost me around $200. Sometimes I get lucky and find the right thang for the right price. Sometimes…

Posted in Hobbies | 2 Comments

Wonders of the Eppelsheim Contrabass Saxophone

Posted on February 7, 2007 by Gandalfe

As I wait for my Eppelsheim bass sax to be custom made, I visited Jay Easton to try a couple of his very unique saxophones. I was amazed at how well the contrabass sax played. Jay has it on a hydraulic stand that adjusted to my 6’4" height so that I could play it standing. It was provided by Benedict Eppelsheim.

Jay recently published a three contrabass saxophone performance where he dubbed all the parts. The contrabass sax plays to low A and sounds like a massive electronic organ! Check out this composition and many others that use the contrabass sax at http://www.jayeaston.com/galleries/sax_family/contrabass_page/contrabass_sax.html. And take the time to listen to the rendition of Doctor Suess’ "You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" based on an arrangement by Ward Baxter. Enjoy.

Posted in Saxophone | Leave a comment

Musicians’ Resources: Stephen Howard Reviews & Kessler Music

Posted on February 3, 2007 by Gandalfe

One of my favorite places to read about the quality and playability of any particular make of saxophone is Stephen Howard’s Repairs & Restoration site. Here is a serious repair tech and player who doesn’t sugar coat his observations and findings. Hey if you are a serious sax player, have you book marked this yet!

So I was very interested to see what he thought of my new fav axe, the Selmer Ref 54s. Now mine is the Hummingbird Limited Edition but that differs from Stephen’s review in mainly cosmetic ways including this stellar engraving and unique dark vintage finish.

But the funny thing about this review is everything he groused about, I DIDN’T FIND! Maybe it’s because I get most of my horns from Kessler Music in Las Vegas. And they seriously know how to set up an instrument. I’ve probably bought eight saxes and three or more clarinets from them and I have never had sticking keys, shoddy keyworks, or intonation issues. I have sent many friends to Dave and his father Chuck Kessler’s website to buy instruments. And more than a few of us have made the trip to the mecca that is the Kessler Music shop to try out our dream instruments.

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Platonic Site – Beauty in design and execution

Posted on February 1, 2007 by Gandalfe

I thought my readers would appreciate the Platonic site. The music is really wonderfully applied and adds a lot to the experience.

The site is in Korean. Poke around and have fun like I did. Even if you don’t understand the language site is stellar merging music, art, and design in to a very nice experience.

Now having poked around, I suspect this sight is about a music academy or some such. It seems to highlight performances and performers. If it is something else my apologies. But it isn’t a vicious site as far as I can tell.

Nominations for other beautifully designed Web sites would be interesting. I’m sure if I looked I could find a number of sites that award the best and the brightest every year. In fact I used to get an e-mail about that every year from a friend. Cheers everyone.

Posted in Computers and Internet | 6 Comments

PoguesPost – TED, It’s all technology all the time

Posted on January 31, 2007 by Gandalfe

Eolake Stobblehouse is the founding father of the DOMAI site which almost makes looking at women sans clothing acceptable. (Note I don’t link to that site to save those of you at work an embarassing ‘ah ha’ moment.) If not the most popular of such sites, it is probably very close to the most viewed on the Internet. Eolake’s blog however is an eclectic collection of ideas, thoughts, and pointers that are in a more educational vein.

So I took notice when he recommended taking a look at Pogues Post about the TED (television, entertainment, and design) conference which turns out to be a very educational venue. And the scientists, artists, professors, and musicians that frequent the conference remind me of the same kind of people who get up early Sunday morning to watch the venerable (and much antipated by the Gandalfe family) CBS Sunday Morning show, another best-kept secret.

It turns out the New York Times writer David Pogue writes for that show a number of times a year. And you can also see his videos on YouTube. And even though he rips my employer to shreads in a number of posts, he does it with panache and style. And hey, he plays piano. :o)

Posted in Too Spicy for some | 2 Comments

From my sister: Everything has a gender

Posted on January 29, 2007 by Gandalfe

You may not know this but many non-living things have a gender. Here are some examples for you to consider. 

 

    • Ziploc Bags are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
    • Copiers are Female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. It’s an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
    • A Tire is Male, because it goes bald and it’s often over-inflated.
    • A Hot Air Balloon is Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there’s the hot air part.
    • Sponges are Female, because they’re soft, squeezable and retain water.
    • A Web Page is Female, because it’s always getting hit on.
    • A Subway is Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
    • An Hourglass is Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
    • A Hammer is Male , because it hasn’t changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it’s handy to have around.
    • A Remote Control is Female. Ha! You thought it’d be male , didn’t you? But consider this – it gives a man pleasure, he’d be lost without it, and while he doesn’t always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying!

Um, I’m guessing that a woman penned this.  ;o)

Posted in Humor | 1 Comment

A lazy, fun weekend (a la Seinfeld)

Posted on January 27, 2007 by Gandalfe

I am honking on one of my saxes and as is often the case, Theo (Thelonius Monk is my five month old Bengal kitten) wanders in a sits himself down on his favorite chair. I really think he was aptly named as he truly seems to enjoy music.

Amber is playing with Grammie and Nick is on his computer, feeding a virtual pet. (What’s up with that?) Shelby has gone to find a nice couch, not close to the music. She can stand it but doesn’t prefer loud music. And I tend to play loud at times–how could you not.  :o)

The skies are blue in Seattle this weekend and we are expecting a high around 50 degrees F. Maybe later today we will take Shelby and wander down to the lake for a nice walk. My Starbucks ‘tall mocha no whip’ is almost gone. I’ve been nursing it for about an hour. Hey this post must kinda seem like a Seinfeld episode? I’ve been toying with crafting a nice spicy Valentine piece next month. I’ll have to be careful I might get too sensual, "Not that there’s anything wrong with that."

Posted in Health and wellness | 1 Comment

A Freak of Nature

Posted on January 23, 2007 by Gandalfe

From my favorite sister (okay, only sister):

"A very eventful day around here… A once in many lifetimes experience!

Mark saw this lil’ feller run out in front of a car, we thought it was a lost baby goat. We stopped to save it, and WOW. A real Albino Whitetail Deer. Just hours old, but doing fine. No Momma deer around. Another car nearly hit it in front of Mark…

Well,, he is THE neatest thing any of us ever saw. And such a ‘freak of nature’, that only one in more than a million are even born. He took his bottle of food, followed us around the house, doing great. So, we called the Zoo & Fossil Rim, who were both interested, but we’re going to send him to a Rehab farm. Maybe he will make it in captivity somewhere and be appreciated. So rare…

Sure wanted to keep him tho. but, not the thing to do. And not LEGAL either ; But, here are a couple of pix to show ya. He was snow white, pink eyes, ears, nose and hooves. Kids called him POWDER. He was SO small. That is my shoe lying beside him… WOW..how cool is that?"

This BTW is an example of an e-mail that has been around the world. Snopes hasn’t determined if the story is true.

Posted in Pets | 1 Comment

Can Gandalfe make the Soprillo Sax Sexy?

Posted on January 20, 2007 by Gandalfe

Benedikt Eppelsheim is sending my new soprillo to the engraver and I should Have it by the end of February or March. But perhaps the more interesting question is why would anyone, let alone a rookie sax player like me, want to play the soprillo sax, aka piccolo or sopranissimo sax?

My best answer is to point you to Nigel Wood’s Soprillo World. Professor Wood is a very talented player from what I can hear and a teacher as proven by his web site. The clips on his site capture the imagination.

  One of the sample clips that I really like is one by Mandy Grezeszak and the song is called Mandy’s Crazy Rag. Ah, to play like that! It will be a labor of love for Suzy and me. She has a number of CDs out which you can see at her web site. The curved sopranino shown here is one by Orsi of Italy.

The soprillo sax was recently re-invented by Benedikt Eppelsheim. I’ve heard that Adolphe Sax had a design for a soprillo on paper, but no instrument has ever been found. Benedikt, smart man that he is, was able to take the instrument to the next level. It is about 13 inches short and the octave mechanism is actually in the mouthpiece. It probably will be very hard for me to learn how to play this instrument. Suzy and I are on our way to Jay Easton’s house to try one today. He wants to try my Buescher sax. Life is sweet.

Posted in Saxophone, soprillo | 4 Comments