Feeling on a bit of a posting roll, my quirky, anonymous, East German, speculative vihuela was recently rebuilt by local luthier Chad Neal. Frankly, this is the first this instrument has ever been a real, playable piece, and I am overjoyed with it. My new userpic is a teaser from the instrument. Chad has a bit of a post regarding it here ( Read more... )

Yeah, believe it or not, I'm still lurking around Livejournal on rare occasions.

I find the concept of being forgiven for sins truly alarming. So you can commit any heinous misdeed you'd like, feel bad, ask to be forgiven, and walk away from your mess happy ( Read more... )

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A few totally random and unconsolidated musings from a guy who definitely is not a philosopher and not prone to esotericism:

Yes, the good of the many outweigh the good of the few: I would sacrifice myself for family and friends, and I would sacrifice family and friends for the good of a greater concept of culture/community.

...And related, ( Read more... )

As too often happens, I have fallen into a state of busy and neglected my blogging duties. I had so much news to write on fieldwork, contracts/grants with various agencies, new responsibilities at my little island lab, wedding gigs, concert gigs, coming concert seasons, etc., but have been distracted by a singular brief event that occurred last ( Read more... )

I picked it up Friday night, 8 February, and Gary delivered a new case for it at Xuefei Yang's concert the following night ( Read more... )

...assuming you plan to eat those species from responsibly managed stocks and/or culture operations ( Read more... )

Last week, I was surprised by a call I made to the insurance company of the driver who struck my son and destroyed my Saturn SL at the beginning of the month. I tend to make fun of gadget-laden phones, but fortunately (in this case) my son is into such junk and took heaps of detailed photos at the scene. My initial e-mail to the team leader on ( Read more... )

Three posts within a month...yet another record ( Read more... )