Last night I went to a local session. I took my melodeon (a Saltarelle Connemara) out of its case, put the latter down flat across the top of a cauldron thingy sitting in a false fireplace, and got myself a beer or whatever.
When I next looked in the direction of the case, I saw something like E.T. :- the rectangular top of the case was a face, the two opening-and-shutting clasps were glinting eyes, the handle hanging down was a nose, and the gap between the underside of the box and the rim of the cauldron's near side was definitely a mouth; the cauldron itself was the top of a body. The incidental light and shadow effects abetted these illusions, which I naturally pointed out to others present.
This sort of thing I think happens quite often. Any other stories? No, I wasn't on anything except caffeine and a bit of nicotine when I came to this session.
We once had a bodhran player who opened his case so that the lid was on top of a candle on the table. It ended up looking like a bodhran case with smoke rising from it. Pretty incredible, huh?????
I think we are genetically predisposed to see patterns and configurations that look like faces. Or at least it's imprinted early as our parents gaze down on us in our cribs. It explains appearances of Jesus in burnt toast -- and why don't people assume it's a supernatural manifestation of Jim Morrison (of the Doors, not the fiddler). Maybe that's the glory of human consciousness, the abiltiy to create patterns from randomness. I wonder, is there any difference between a series of random notes, and a tune, except in our perceptions?
Probably a vision of the Black Madonna. You are saved!...or could be She's dissapointed with you for some reason. Fast in the snow for three days and nights, and she will tell you.
None of alcohol, but about 3 pints of strong coffee in various cafes. This is true! I found the intellectual challenge of Christmas shopping a bit too much to face this time round, so I spent most of the afternoon avoiding reality by reading the papers in my favourite lairs.
Mix, I thought it was piano players who were supposed to be blind.
As for how we perceive patterns and configurations, fidkid, one man's reality is another man's science fiction or one man's poisson is another man's fish or one man's essence is another man's gasoline.
Nicholas, if I saw something like that, I would wonder whether or not I had taken too much of my legal drugs and/or taken the wrong drugs or made the mistake of mixing my medicines with too many bottles of beer.
I would like to drink a beer or two to fortify myself so I can face the challenge of having to attend a Christmas Eve church service today with my sister-in-law and her significant other but my wife won't allow to drink any beer until after we get home.
Ever seen a Highland piper playing outside on a cold night? If the light is just right (and you can bear to get close enough) there is a noticeable effluvium coming from the pipes. One I get alot is the illusion from certain angles that, amid the flurry of flying fidde bows, rocking accordions,strumming bouzoukis, the uilleann pipers and concertinas look as if they're just sitting there doing nothing hehheh
cheers,pipewatcher
Thank you gentlemen (SWFL Fiddler and nicholas) for your vote and your advice. Fortunately, the Christmas Eve service wasn't that difficult to endure because it was mostly music with just a few minutes of preaching.
Although my sister-in-law lives a mile or two from this church and we live much farther away (maybe ten to fifteen miles or further), she still insisted that we had to drive all of the way to her apartment to pick up her and her companion before the service. My sister-in-law is cheap and miserly. Although gas prices here have gone all of the way down to $1.47 per gallon, she still insisted that we had to play chauffeur.
After the service, we had supper with her and her significant other at her apartment and then we went home because we were tired although she wanted us to stay and watch a movie with her. Either that, or play some board game such as Monopoly.
$1.47 a gallon!!..Even if the American gallon is smaller than the UK gallon, you lot really don't know you're born, it's bloody true!
That is, unless lots of you have to drive much bigger distances than we do on a regular basis for work or necessities, and thus get through a lot more gallons in a week.
Maybe the sister-in-law wanted to be chauffeured to church not out of indolence when it comes to walking but because she did not want to be eaten by cougars, dismembered by homicidal chainsaw-wielding maniacs, squirted at by skunks, bitten by ninja turtles, howled at by Democrats, kidnapped by the police, induced by billboards to buy lurid products, or simply run over. I've heard things about America...
I wonder if the happy-juice goes flat quicker when you put it on a banjo skin, due to ongoing vibrations of the skin when there's a session going on, or something...
You'd think, on the subject of effects on drink, the particular genius of the Anglosphere could have come up with the following discovery: apparently, a cheap plonko red wine can be turned into the equivalent of a classy vintage one simply by zapping it with electricity. But it took a Chinese scientist to discover this, quite recently. They are obviously Top Nation.
The godless scalp-hunting savages are probably Democrats, so I counted them in. But I forgot bush fires, lightning balls and stampedes of maddened buffalo.
Yup, it's just not quiet enough here for art, even accidental art, or its appreciation. Perhaps someday in the future, after the hubub...when the dust has settled...
All that stuff dosen't trouble me much, you learn to take it in stride, really. The Paiutes don't want your hair. It's winter, and they're hungry. Cut lose two, maybe three, of your stock as you pass through Truckee, and they'll leave you alone.
Thank you, Nicholas. I am very much aware that here we are more lucky than we deserve to be when it comes to paying for gasoline for our cars. If I remember correctly, do you call gasoline "petrol" where you live?
As for my sister-in-law.....she really is cheap and miserly and very tight with her money. If you want some examples of her somewhat pathological attitude towards spending money, I will be glad to send them to you in a separate e-mail message.
Nicholas, That is a widely-held misconception about the Democrats. In fact, a few decades ago, many of them began to settle near the towns. They gave up their crude stone implements and barbaric customs, and have (for the most part) been assimilated into modern, civilised society...
Assimilation isn't the big advantage that it is promoted as being. My stone implements will do nicely, thanks all the same. Could use an intact dictionary, though. Now, while it would be flattering if the Black Madonna appeared in a vision, as she is reputed to do for some others of us near-humans, our unsightlyness isn't going to magically vanish. I won't suddenly be blessed with an upright posture so as to be tall enough to get on the rides at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.
Atahualpa- if you have any pretty blue stones or shiny, hard yellow rocks from the riverbed, take them to the nearest trading post.This and a few buffalo hides should be enough to trade for a brand-new dictionary and a nice electric blanket. Our people have much to offer you...
How successful has your program been in Iraq? I wonder. Are you offering us the same model of civilization? Speaking as one who is half devil, half child, and proud of it: thanks, but no thanks for the offer. Even if you imposed a different model on us, the period of leniency and accomodation would be over before very long; and then you'd start your assault, inocently enough, by making us all go to the mission school, and wear shoes, ferchrissakes!
If you're visually challenged and walk like a crab, could it be because you've been over-indulging in traditional native medicines on your ramblings through their territory? And I hope you're not a cactus rustler - I mean that's heavy, man...
@fauxcelt:
I absolve you from communicating a list of your sister-in-law's delinquencies. I hear enough epics of that kind from people I know here!
Nope, no connection between the Paiutes and peyote, that I know of. They work the obsidian consession. Reasonable prices. Before the coming of the whiteman, the Paiutes were effectively the keepers of the country's strategic reserve of obsidian. Only the really bad ones would winter in the mountains.
Cacti are grown for decoration in these parts, and therefor are somewhat expensive; we're talking arm-loads of obsidian here. We shoot cactus rustlers.
I only know obsidian as a stone used for tools or arrowheads by prehistoric people. In Britain it was used in the North, acquired from sources here and there in the mountains, while in the South they used flint, which I imagine is more easy to shape.
Wait till the gun factories go bust and their products go rusty, and with a monopoly of obsidian arrowheads you and the Payutes will be able to rule America..!
Thank you for the absolution, Nicholas.
Now that I am absolved from talking about my crazy sister-in-law, does that mean I can go and sin some more?
There are other places (besides The Session) where I can tell stories about her to amuse people.
Accidental art and sessions
Accidental art and sessions
Last night I went to a local session. I took my melodeon (a Saltarelle Connemara) out of its case, put the latter down flat across the top of a cauldron thingy sitting in a false fireplace, and got myself a beer or whatever.
When I next looked in the direction of the case, I saw something like E.T. :- the rectangular top of the case was a face, the two opening-and-shutting clasps were glinting eyes, the handle hanging down was a nose, and the gap between the underside of the box and the rim of the cauldron's near side was definitely a mouth; the cauldron itself was the top of a body. The incidental light and shadow effects abetted these illusions, which I naturally pointed out to others present.
This sort of thing I think happens quite often. Any other stories? No, I wasn't on anything except caffeine and a bit of nicotine when I came to this session.
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Accidental art and sessions
That's what you get if you go to places with false fireplaces. Now had there been a good blaze...
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by Here Lyeth
Re: Accidental art and sessions
I thought the mushroom season was over?
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by ...
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Reminds me of the joke about the bodhran player who decides he needs to learn to play some "real" instruments.
So he goes into a music shop, and says to the assistant: "Hey, I'll have the red trumpet and the melodeon".
The assistant replies: "OK, I can sell you the fire extinguisher, but the radiator has to stay!"
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Good one, Mix! - tho' I thought bodhran players were supposed to be deaf, not blind?
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by Here Lyeth
Re: Accidental art and sessions
We once had a bodhran player who opened his case so that the lid was on top of a candle on the table. It ended up looking like a bodhran case with smoke rising from it. Pretty incredible, huh?????
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by AlBrown
Re: Accidental art and sessions
I think we are genetically predisposed to see patterns and configurations that look like faces. Or at least it's imprinted early as our parents gaze down on us in our cribs. It explains appearances of Jesus in burnt toast -- and why don't people assume it's a supernatural manifestation of Jim Morrison (of the Doors, not the fiddler). Maybe that's the glory of human consciousness, the abiltiy to create patterns from randomness. I wonder, is there any difference between a series of random notes, and a tune, except in our perceptions?
Gimme summoradat eggnog...
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by fidkid
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Wow! Way far out! Normally when I see stuff like that, I ask them to take me back to the bog and teach me some tunes.
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Probably a vision of the Black Madonna. You are saved!...or could be She's dissapointed with you for some reason. Fast in the snow for three days and nights, and she will tell you.
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
I thought the Black Madonna was Leona Lewis.
Her presence at a session would not be likely to be ambiguous or misconstrued.
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Accidental art and sessions
How many pints had you had at this stage?
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by amhrán
Re: Accidental art and sessions
None of alcohol, but about 3 pints of strong coffee in various cafes. This is true! I found the intellectual challenge of Christmas shopping a bit too much to face this time round, so I spent most of the afternoon avoiding reality by reading the papers in my favourite lairs.
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Mix, I thought it was piano players who were supposed to be blind.
As for how we perceive patterns and configurations, fidkid, one man's reality is another man's science fiction or one man's poisson is another man's fish or one man's essence is another man's gasoline.
Nicholas, if I saw something like that, I would wonder whether or not I had taken too much of my legal drugs and/or taken the wrong drugs or made the mistake of mixing my medicines with too many bottles of beer.
I would like to drink a beer or two to fortify myself so I can face the challenge of having to attend a Christmas Eve church service today with my sister-in-law and her significant other but my wife won't allow to drink any beer until after we get home.
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Ever seen a Highland piper playing outside on a cold night? If the light is just right (and you can bear to get close enough) there is a noticeable effluvium coming from the pipes. One I get alot is the illusion from certain angles that, amid the flurry of flying fidde bows, rocking accordions,strumming bouzoukis, the uilleann pipers and concertinas look as if they're just sitting there doing nothing hehheh
cheers,pipewatcher
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Who votes for fauxcelt's wife to let him have a beer before he goes? [raises hand]
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Best not to, he'll be wanting to have a pee half an hour into the service and won't be able to, unless he takes an empty hot water bottle in with him.
# Posted on December 24th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Hey, Nicholas, that's called "P-Mobile." Great idea!
# Posted on December 25th 2008 by Leendah
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Thank you gentlemen (SWFL Fiddler and nicholas) for your vote and your advice. Fortunately, the Christmas Eve service wasn't that difficult to endure because it was mostly music with just a few minutes of preaching.
Although my sister-in-law lives a mile or two from this church and we live much farther away (maybe ten to fifteen miles or further), she still insisted that we had to drive all of the way to her apartment to pick up her and her companion before the service. My sister-in-law is cheap and miserly. Although gas prices here have gone all of the way down to $1.47 per gallon, she still insisted that we had to play chauffeur.
After the service, we had supper with her and her significant other at her apartment and then we went home because we were tired although she wanted us to stay and watch a movie with her. Either that, or play some board game such as Monopoly.
# Posted on December 25th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Accidental art and sessions
$1.47 a gallon!!..Even if the American gallon is smaller than the UK gallon, you lot really don't know you're born, it's bloody true!
That is, unless lots of you have to drive much bigger distances than we do on a regular basis for work or necessities, and thus get through a lot more gallons in a week.
Maybe the sister-in-law wanted to be chauffeured to church not out of indolence when it comes to walking but because she did not want to be eaten by cougars, dismembered by homicidal chainsaw-wielding maniacs, squirted at by skunks, bitten by ninja turtles, howled at by Democrats, kidnapped by the police, induced by billboards to buy lurid products, or simply run over. I've heard things about America...
# Posted on December 25th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Nicholas, you forgot about the hordes of godless, scalp-hunting savages!! And you say we have it easy here!
# Posted on December 25th 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: Accidental art and sessions
I've yet to see a more inspirational accidental confluence of Truth and Beauty at a session than this little masterpiece:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0bGsgrjrAIg_FEnO1V6FuQ?feat=directlink
# Posted on December 25th 2008 by Bren
Re: Accidental art and sessions
I wonder if the happy-juice goes flat quicker when you put it on a banjo skin, due to ongoing vibrations of the skin when there's a session going on, or something...
You'd think, on the subject of effects on drink, the particular genius of the Anglosphere could have come up with the following discovery: apparently, a cheap plonko red wine can be turned into the equivalent of a classy vintage one simply by zapping it with electricity. But it took a Chinese scientist to discover this, quite recently. They are obviously Top Nation.
The godless scalp-hunting savages are probably Democrats, so I counted them in. But I forgot bush fires, lightning balls and stampedes of maddened buffalo.
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Yup, it's just not quiet enough here for art, even accidental art, or its appreciation. Perhaps someday in the future, after the hubub...when the dust has settled...
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
All that stuff dosen't trouble me much, you learn to take it in stride, really. The Paiutes don't want your hair. It's winter, and they're hungry. Cut lose two, maybe three, of your stock as you pass through Truckee, and they'll leave you alone.
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
I'd love to find a complete and intact replacement for my partially shot-away dictionary. It was in my breast pocket, right over my heart.
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Nichoas, I was microwaving wine over twenty years ago. Does that put me on top of Top Nation?
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by Bren
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Thank you, Nicholas. I am very much aware that here we are more lucky than we deserve to be when it comes to paying for gasoline for our cars. If I remember correctly, do you call gasoline "petrol" where you live?
As for my sister-in-law.....she really is cheap and miserly and very tight with her money. If you want some examples of her somewhat pathological attitude towards spending money, I will be glad to send them to you in a separate e-mail message.
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Nicholas, That is a widely-held misconception about the Democrats. In fact, a few decades ago, many of them began to settle near the towns. They gave up their crude stone implements and barbaric customs, and have (for the most part) been assimilated into modern, civilised society...
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Assimilation isn't the big advantage that it is promoted as being. My stone implements will do nicely, thanks all the same. Could use an intact dictionary, though. Now, while it would be flattering if the Black Madonna appeared in a vision, as she is reputed to do for some others of us near-humans, our unsightlyness isn't going to magically vanish. I won't suddenly be blessed with an upright posture so as to be tall enough to get on the rides at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
I know, I know her message is that we too will be wecome in Heaven; if not exactly here on earth.
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
WELCOME in Heaven
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Atahualpa- if you have any pretty blue stones or shiny, hard yellow rocks from the riverbed, take them to the nearest trading post.This and a few buffalo hides should be enough to trade for a brand-new dictionary and a nice electric blanket. Our people have much to offer you...
# Posted on December 26th 2008 by pipewatcher
Re: Accidental art and sessions
How successful has your program been in Iraq? I wonder. Are you offering us the same model of civilization? Speaking as one who is half devil, half child, and proud of it: thanks, but no thanks for the offer. Even if you imposed a different model on us, the period of leniency and accomodation would be over before very long; and then you'd start your assault, inocently enough, by making us all go to the mission school, and wear shoes, ferchrissakes!
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
There is a jackrabbit nearby.... dumb enough to come within slingshot range. We'll discuss all this later. Dinner beckons.......
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
@atahualpa:
Paiutes?
Anything to do with Peyote, by any chance?
If you're visually challenged and walk like a crab, could it be because you've been over-indulging in traditional native medicines on your ramblings through their territory? And I hope you're not a cactus rustler - I mean that's heavy, man...
@fauxcelt:
I absolve you from communicating a list of your sister-in-law's delinquencies. I hear enough epics of that kind from people I know here!
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Nope, no connection between the Paiutes and peyote, that I know of. They work the obsidian consession. Reasonable prices. Before the coming of the whiteman, the Paiutes were effectively the keepers of the country's strategic reserve of obsidian. Only the really bad ones would winter in the mountains.
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Cacti are grown for decoration in these parts, and therefor are somewhat expensive; we're talking arm-loads of obsidian here. We shoot cactus rustlers.
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Accidental art and sessions
I only know obsidian as a stone used for tools or arrowheads by prehistoric people. In Britain it was used in the North, acquired from sources here and there in the mountains, while in the South they used flint, which I imagine is more easy to shape.
Wait till the gun factories go bust and their products go rusty, and with a monopoly of obsidian arrowheads you and the Payutes will be able to rule America..!
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Accidental art and sessions
Thank you for the absolution, Nicholas.
Now that I am absolved from talking about my crazy sister-in-law, does that mean I can go and sin some more?
There are other places (besides The Session) where I can tell stories about her to amuse people.
# Posted on December 29th 2008 by fauxcelt