A cure for the common cold?
I assume you are all on tenterhooks wondering about my head cold.
(If you are, tell me what the heck a tenterhook is)
Well, in spite of a 22.5 mile bike trip around Lake Sammamish* and a Saturday full of cutting and pasting small pieces of wood for irritating details of the cabinet project, (and all the sawdust inhalation that entails) I still have a stuffed head and a runny nose.
The salon show at Good Shepard, was a good one with a wide range of musical endeavors.
Top of my list was Hope Wechkins piece for violin and voice. Her violin and her voice. At the same time!
No "tapes" as CD's are sometimes still referred to.
I wouldn't have thought that was possible.
Unfortunately for me, the acoustics of the chapel and my deteriorating hearing kept me from hearing the words clearly. The music, however was striking in it's blending of drama and beauty.
On the other end of that scale was a piece for (three?) recorded and electronically modified pianos plus one live one. The whole thing would have been ten hours long.
Thankfully, the composer, presented an excerpt.
Whew!
Not that I'm not intrigued by the concept.
An accordion solo that went a long way toward relieving that instrument's undeserved reputation as an infra dig noisemaker. Some beautiful sounds can be made with that arm-powered harmonica. A bit like Jerry(?) Murad's "Harmonicats" (I'm guessing on those names) It's not all Lawerence Welk and "Lady of Spain"
Although...I wouldn't be surprised to see "The New Lawrence Welk Orchestra" playing a major gig at the ever artistically declining Benaroya Hall.
And a soft sweet guitar solo.
So....Saturday meant aforementioned woodworking followed by a steak dinner at The Whistlestop in Renton, where we finished our meal and left just as the Polka band was setting up. I would have liked to stay and listen but the chemical equation that I added up to at the time was encouraging belligerence, something I prefer experiencing in the abstract.
Besides there was an accordion.
*22.3 miles, 1:47:46 time, 12.4 average speed, 33.1 maximum speed.
(If you are, tell me what the heck a tenterhook is)
Well, in spite of a 22.5 mile bike trip around Lake Sammamish* and a Saturday full of cutting and pasting small pieces of wood for irritating details of the cabinet project, (and all the sawdust inhalation that entails) I still have a stuffed head and a runny nose.
The salon show at Good Shepard, was a good one with a wide range of musical endeavors.
Top of my list was Hope Wechkins piece for violin and voice. Her violin and her voice. At the same time!
No "tapes" as CD's are sometimes still referred to.
I wouldn't have thought that was possible.
Unfortunately for me, the acoustics of the chapel and my deteriorating hearing kept me from hearing the words clearly. The music, however was striking in it's blending of drama and beauty.
On the other end of that scale was a piece for (three?) recorded and electronically modified pianos plus one live one. The whole thing would have been ten hours long.
Thankfully, the composer, presented an excerpt.
Whew!
Not that I'm not intrigued by the concept.
An accordion solo that went a long way toward relieving that instrument's undeserved reputation as an infra dig noisemaker. Some beautiful sounds can be made with that arm-powered harmonica. A bit like Jerry(?) Murad's "Harmonicats" (I'm guessing on those names) It's not all Lawerence Welk and "Lady of Spain"
Although...I wouldn't be surprised to see "The New Lawrence Welk Orchestra" playing a major gig at the ever artistically declining Benaroya Hall.
And a soft sweet guitar solo.
So....Saturday meant aforementioned woodworking followed by a steak dinner at The Whistlestop in Renton, where we finished our meal and left just as the Polka band was setting up. I would have liked to stay and listen but the chemical equation that I added up to at the time was encouraging belligerence, something I prefer experiencing in the abstract.
Besides there was an accordion.
*22.3 miles, 1:47:46 time, 12.4 average speed, 33.1 maximum speed.
Labels: Accordion
posted by Lane Savant at 11:50 AM
7 Comments:
http://www.onelook.com/
Main Entry: ten·ter·hook
Pronunciation: 'ten-t&r-"huk
Function: noun
: a sharp hooked nail used especially for fastening cloth on a tenter
- on tenterhooks : in a state of uneasiness, strain, or suspense - the waiting kept us on tenterhooks -
Main Entry: 1ten·ter
Pronunciation: 'ten-t&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English teyntur, probably from Medieval Latin tentura, from tenta tent frame, tent
1 : a frame or endless track with hooks or clips along two sides that is used for drying and stretching cloth
2 archaic : TENTERHOOK
tenterhook
• noun (in phrase on tenterhooks) in a state of agitated suspense.
— ORIGIN originally denoting a hook used to fasten cloth on a tenter (from Latin tendere ‘to stretch’), a
framework on which fabric was held taut during manufacture.
Well, let's see:
tenter: A frame or endless track with hooks or clips along two sides that is used for drying or stretching cloth.
tenterhook: A sharped hooked nail for fastening cloth on a tenter.
Your sinuses must not be too painful or you never would have been able to bike 22.5 miles. Great times too, 12.5 average speed, and on a downhill up to 33mph. Jesus, you could have scraped the hell out of yourself dumping it at that speed.
Hope Wechkins sounds fantastic. I could not dig up any internet data on her, so she must be a well kept Salon secret. And she had no CD's to sell either. What's up with that? I thought the acoustics at the chapel were supposed to be pretty good. Maybe just your ears plugged up with the cold business.
Was that three recorded pianos and one live one, or two recorded pianos and one live one? It isn't clear to me. What did it sound like, Ferrante and Teisher? Will it be long before Doug Palmer presents his violin piece at the Salon?
Mama's got a squeezebox, and Daddy don't sleep at night! I love it, calling an accordian a ,"arm-powered harmonica". Hey, I liked Dick Contino's LADY OF SPAIN old record. As to Lawrence Welk, he can just turn off the bubble machine. I thought the Harmonicats were that midget group that used to show up on the Spike Jones show, and a couple times on Ed Sullivan?
You never did comment on the Sci-Fi gig that they did with John Williams scores at Benaroya.
While at the Whistle Stop, chewing up your steak, did you wash it down with another glass of the jalapeno lemonade? I didn't know you had a thing for Polka music.
Are the cabinets all stained now? And are some of them up on the wall? What kind of irritating details will be done with small pieces of wood? Considering the huge amounts of scrap wood you have in racks in the basement, it is a damned good thing you are not a smoker.
For some reason when I think of an accordian, I think of gypsies.
Melva and I took our youngest daughter, Andrea to see the new David Cronenberg film, EASTERN PROMISES, with Viggo Mortensen. It was powerful and intriguing. We tried to get into the Grand to see the new Paul Haggis film, THE VALLEY OF THE ELAH, with Tommy Lee Jones, but it was sold out both days, all performances. Have to catch it later. We ended up getting together with some friends and attending a wienie roast at some other friends in Gig Harbor; still pisses me off to pay three bucks to cross the bridge.
Glenn
To look even further beyond the barb of your wit, sir:
Tenterhooks were used as far back as the fourteenth century in the process of making woollen cloth. After the cloth had been woven it still contained oil from the fleece and some dirt. It was cleaned in a fulling mill and then had to be dried carefully as wool shrinks. To prevent this shrinkage, the wet cloth would be placed on a large wooden frame, a "tenter", and left to dry outside. The lengths of wet cloth were stretched on the tenter (from the Latin "tendere", to stretch) using hooks (nails driven through the wood) all around the perimeter of the frame to which the cloth's edges (selvages) were fixed so that as it dried the cloth would retain its shape and size. At one time it would have been common in manufacturing areas to see tenter-fields full of these frames.
By the mid-eighteenth century the phrase "on tenterhooks" came into use to mean being in a state of uneasiness, anxiety, or suspense, stretched like the cloth on the tenter.
And I guess that's what you get for throwing such a wonderful and archaic word at your readership.
Pronunciation: tent-êr-hUk • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: One of many pointed pins or hooks fitted around tenter, a frame for stretching skins, cloth, or similar materials to prevent shrinkage.
Notes: Even though being stretched on tenterhooks would make your skin tender, tenterhooks are not tender hooks. A tenter is a frame for stretching thin sheets of material. Tenters were used widely by hunters who stretched animal skins on them and housewives who stretched curtains and drapes on them before the advent of non-shrinking materials. In fact, this Good Word survives today almost exclusively in the phrase "to be on tenterhooks", the equivalent of being on pins and needles—in a highly anticipatory state of awareness.
In Play: "On pins and needles" is probably replacing "on tenterhooks" as more and more of us forget what tenterhooks are. However, at this point we still have our choice: "Wally's chemistry exam has him on tenterhooks: whether he goes to med school depends on his grade in that course." This word and tenter itself are also available in metaphors of stretching: "All of Izzy's tales about his fishing exploits come from the tenter (or tenterhooks) of his fertile imagination."
Word History: Tenter comes from Latin tentorium "shelter made of stretched skins," from tendere "to stretch," also the origin of tent as you probably have already guessed. The root of this verb underlies many other English borrowings, such as extend, portend, and intend. The original Proto-Indo-European root came to English through its proto-Germanic ancestors as thin. When you stretch a skin it becomes hard, which explains why tetanus was borrowed from Greek tetanus "stiff, rigid". In Persian the N in this word was replaced by R, producing tar "string," now a part of Hindi sitar, a stringed instrument. (We've kept you on tenterhooks long enough: Alan Janesch is the one we must thank for today's curiously Good Word.)
And, I guess that's all I have to say about that; for now.
Butch/Glenn/Slash
Hallo, Lane and Other-Anonymous:
Thanks, Other-Anon, for your detailed explanation of the etynmology of "tenterhooks"; I've often wonderd, but have never had enough wonderment to look it up.
Lane, you write: "In spite of ... all the sawdust inhaled ... I still have a stuffed head ... ." Could the stuffed head now be more a result of the sawdust than of germs mailed you by the SSO along with another fundraising letter??
Yes, the SSO is using a fundraising company in Las Vegas, I heard a while back, so such lethal tactics may be part of the deal; a Mafia partnership would not be beyond the machinations of the Cuckucks' Nest, would it??
-- Anonomann
Hallo, Lane, again!:
If you are "hard of hearing" like I am and Beethoven and Smetana (among others were), why not get hbearing aids like I have. They are uncomfortable, but need not be worn constantly, only when you want tohear what is being said (you can turn them off or take them out when in hearing distance of the Cuckucks' Nest).
My superb audiologist if Jeff Williamson at Puget Sound Hearing Aid a few blocks north of 65th on Roosevelt. I'd strongly recommend him and it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He/they also make free adjustments later (i.e. regularly, ad infinitum) on when needed. Jeff will probably be willing to give you a free hearing test (you can blame me for saying free; mine was) when you stop by (make an appointment; he's regularly fully-booked, as his competence would suggest).
And don't get an "inferiority complex" as a composer when you use hearing aids; Beethoven wrote some of his best music when he couldn't really hear much of it!!!
Now, "I wouldn't leave home without it" (my hearing aids, not an American Excuse card).
--Anonomann
Hallo, Lane, again!:
If you are "hard of hearing" like I am and Beethoven and Smetana (among others were), why not get hbearing aids like I have. They are uncomfortable, but need not be worn constantly, only when you want tohear what is being said (you can turn them off or take them out when in hearing distance of the Cuckucks' Nest).
My superb audiologist if Jeff Williamson at Puget Sound Hearing Aid a few blocks north of 65th on Roosevelt. I'd strongly recommend him and it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He/they also make free adjustments later (i.e. regularly, ad infinitum) on when needed. Jeff will probably be willing to give you a free hearing test (you can blame me for saying free; mine was) when you stop by (make an appointment; he's regularly fully-booked, as his competence would suggest).
And don't get an "inferiority complex" as a composer when you use hearing aids; Beethoven wrote some of his best music when he couldn't really hear much of it!!!
Now, "I wouldn't leave home without it" (my hearing aids, not an American Excuse card).
--Anonomann
It's I again, Lane & Butch & other Happy Readers:
This blog site once mentioned a book about three generations of Chinese women, "Wild Swans", by Jung Chang. Amazon.com is now offering it (new) for $10.88 (list price $16.00). It is a very interesting and informative book (autobiography of Ms. Chang and biography of her mother and grandmother, all in one book).
I'd recommend it to anyone who has not yet read it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
--Anonomann
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