FOR SALESOLD: Two newly built Hurdy Gurdies
The first two instruments from this winter’s series are now for sale. The new design is an evolution of my previous instruments, aiming to be more compact whilst having a loud, mellow, balanced sound. The instruments fit nicely in Ritter Alto/Tenor sax bags (I’ve flown several times with this model as hand luggage without any problems).
This instrument can be seen played together with a violin in this video from Folk Marathon 2016.
2x melody strings (G and g)
2x drones (C and G)
2x trompettes (C and G)
Fully chromatic two octave keyboard (including F# in the upper octave)
Height-adjustable melody string bridge
Adjustable drone bridges
Fitting capos and/or an amplification system is also possible.
2x melody strings (G and g)
2x drones (C and G)
2x trompettes (C and G)
4x sympathetic strings (C, G, D, A)
4x capos (one for each drone and trompette string)
Three channel active amplification system
Fully chromatic two octave keyboard (including F# in the upper octave)
Height-adjustable melody string bridge
Adjustable drone bridges
Some more photos:
Both instruments are now sold, but I may be available for new builds over the next year, Contact me at barnaby@waterpigs.co.uk if you’re interested.
Interested? Questions? Contact me at barnaby@waterpigs.co.uk for more information.
@aaronpk thanks! Drone and trompette (buzzing) sound are acoustic, the melody is just the synth. Magnets in the keys + hall effect sensors on a board underneath, a magnetic rotary encoder on the shaft controlling noteon/off and expression, and an arduino inside the keybox putting it all together and sending MIDI signal out. The whole thing is built into the instrument, which also works great acoustic or amplified. There are a lot of improvements to make, but I think this is a good start!
@quinnnorton I have observed this too on varying scales, call it the “pendulum effect”. Pushing a society/group/individual really quickly to one extreme of an axis seems to result in it “swinging” to the other extreme, and (in theory?) back and forth. GDR and aftermath is one good example of this. Usual disclaimer: not an expert/historian, someone else probably figured this out in much more detail than me already.
New singing goal: be able to sing all of Moondog 2, which just blew my mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwBGtgoVPLs
I couldn’t find the lyrics for all of the tracks collected together in one place, so here are as many as I can find or figure out.
00:00
Bells are ringing dinga linga linga linga ling-a linga linga linga ling
dinga linga linga linga ling-a linga linga linga ling
dig all the kids who carry bells, merry bells
who are they?
why they're the
hippies
01:21
Voices of spring were in chorus
each voice was singing a song
I could not sing in that chorus until I wrote me a song
I wrote my song and joined the throng (source)
03:10
What’s the most exciting thing about life?
tell me or I’ll tell you
come on come on
I know you know what I know it’s in your eyes
I’ll have to tell you, I can’t wait
it’s L O V E it’s love
and I’m in love; I’m so happy
it’s L O V E it’s love
I’m incoherent my dear
oh happy happiness
in love
in love
in love
oh happy happiness, happiness
Darling the answer is love (source)
05:43
All is loneliness before me
loneliness before me
loneliness
07:12
My tiny butterfly butters my bread
my briny flutterby keeps me well fed
why should I mutter?
08:26
Why spend a dark night with you?
what a fearful price to pay
other nights nights would but be
lonely dark ages for me
09:37
Coffee beans make the finest coffee of all
it’s time to take
a coffee break
to sit a while and savour
the rarest coffee flavor
of bean coffee
I make with bottled spring water
is my day (source)
11:50
Down is up and so up is down because the earth is round
there is no such thing as up or down
12:58
Be a hobo and go with me
from Hoboken to the sea
14:08
Remember, remember, remember, memeber
to vote the way
the way we say
or else
or else what
I won’t
16:03
I love you
for your lovely still small voice
I will love your still small voice
till my voice
is still
17:14
Nero’s expedition up the Nile
failed
because the water hyacinth
had blocked the river
denying Nero’s vessels passage through
the Sud of Nubia
19:08
No, the wheel was never invented.
no, no, no, no
your legs are spokes of a two legged wheel
and your hips are knobbly axles
the world was always on wheels
20:28
With my wealth I wish I had lived when great genius lived
what I would not have done
Fool, the writings of your dying beggar reveal that he is
by far the greatest one
22:05
This student of life
has enrolled
as that student for life
his Alma Mater
is all the world
with father time as mentor
23:31
Some trust all
some trust some, ho
some trust one
I trust none, ho
not even myself
25:01
Wine, woman and song are too, too much for me
I am contented with the latter two
for
woman and my song are simply
wine enough you see
27:25
Sadness was so mixed with gladness
that she wept with joy
she was so sad
tears filled but enhanced the smile on her face
she was so glad
28:48
Maybe, maybe, maybe someday
I’ll be recognised for what I am
before I’m dead and gone
or if not before then after it all
30:53
Each today is yesterday’s tomorrow which is now
now is all I have
now is all I need
now is all I want
now
32:32
Imagine what it's like to have a long suffering
night walker walking on you
I’m standing there barefoot, facing the meadow
oh, oh, something is crawling on my muddy foot
what the, it's a wet worm
I tell you I started walking, too
I mean we parted company
maybe we think it safe enough to say,
we had quite enough of us that night
34:51
You, the vandal
plunder the village as you will
the earthworm will pillage you
the vandal
when you are under
37:01
Trees against the sky
fields of plenty
rivers to the sea
this
and more
spreads before me
38:22
Behold the willow bows before me
but not the oak I’m uprooting
remarked the wind
39:51
Sparrows wake me in the morning in Gotham where I live
except when I’m up to Tioga
other birds wake me there
so fair their singing
Happy 2017! Here’s what Emilyn Stam (fb) and I got up to as the year changed:
Emilyn Stam (5 string fiddle) and Barnaby Walters (hurdy gurdy) playing some tunes in the basement at Folk Marathon 2016 Tübingen. 2016 changed into 2017 half way through the third tune (in our timezone, at least).
High Park Schottisch (John David Williams)
Squat Waltz (Barnaby Walters)
Kathryn’s Yellow Schottisch (Emilyn Stam)
It is now possible to like the fact that someone has liked something on facebook #indieweb #ui #likeception
If you are blessed with high expectations of yourself and others, trust them, stick to them, act on them.
from today’s XKCD “Settling” xkcd.com/1768
@debcha yes yes yes! books which keep on giving; with every re-read, they reflect or highlight something new depending on what’s happening in my life/what I’ve learned since reading them the last time. Rare works which are not only great in themselves, or a great mirror of the reader, but both simultaneously
For those unfamiliar with #puredata, the equivalent in python would be creating a script which, in order to get user input, writes another python script containing a reference to the first, which, when run by the user, sends its output back to the first script. Which then launches another python process (based on the results of the first sub-script), and manages it’s status.
It’s a programming paradigm which makes absolutely no sense in any other environment, but in puredata is surprisingly elegant — a pleasant side-effect of the programming environment and end-user environment being effectively the same.
Btw, this is the first experimental step towards the most exciting project idea I’ve had in quite some time… watch this space!
typical Barnaby 01:00 insanity: implementing a patch browser and window manager in #puredata with weeeird semi-documented metaprogramming
@aaronpk classic case of uneducated, path-of-least-resistance response to time-pressurised tech problem :/ saw key was expired, wanted to fix it, didn’t know only public keys expire not private ones, no obvious public key renewal UI flow in GPGTools UI, so made a new keypair. I suppose I’m stuck with the new one now as I revoked the old one. It’s a pity, as I actually got a few people to sign my old key, not that that seems to have a practical use case…?
New GPG key! Fingerprint: 1C00 430B 19C6 B426 922F E534 BEF8 CE58 118A D524
From “Millennials and the Ruins of Romance” (@ztsamudzi being amazing, as always):
”Romance—as dictated by dominant ideas and driven by the desires to peddle consumer goods like household appliances on carefully constructed family units—is an impossible-to-redeem mode of understanding love and intimacy and human interaction taught to us by capitalism.”
I would respond to
“We generally want to feel lovable, desirable, worthy, and seen, and we are taught that our ability to be any of these things comes, most importantly, from romantic partners. So why wouldn’t young people, in a period of increasingly relentless demands made by late capitalism, use the resources they have at their disposal to feel these intimacies and desirabilities as frequently as possible?”
with: yes, most of us are taught that, constantly, from all directions. That we are taught, however, is the point: it is a learned behaviour which can be unlearned.
Using the resources given to us by late capitalism to fulfill the needs bought about by late capitalism is all well and good, and I agree that for people to complain that the result is “millennials ruining romance” is ridiculous. But at least for me, the beginning of a constructive solution is to step outside of this system. Start to purposefully unlearn these associations, disassociate self-worth from romantic/sexual relationships, and consciously relate in ways not based on insecurity and love scarcity.