Thursday, April 23, 2009
Dream time
A substantial dream for the first time for a while last night. Rather more nonsensical that usual, not even to the extent of being able to pick out a few triggers from yesterday's events. I dream that I wake up to find our shiny new car and another car all smashed up in the road outside our bedroom window, this despite our car having been left in our drive the night before. Strange lady in the house using our upstairs toilet. I go downstairs in dressing gown to find out what is going on, to find that my car has already been carried off by some rather dodgy looking recovery person - possibly of no fixed abode. That is to say one of the odd-jobbing travellers/gypsies that you get around here. Car going rapidly down the road on the back of his scruffy trailer. Other car in the process of being picked up by another dodgy looking recovery person. I start going off about my wrecked car having been stolen. Going to call the police. Person 2 says he will chase after person 1 and get may car back. Exit person 2 with car 2. I go back into the house to find that the strange lady has vanished without leaving her name and address. I start to suspect that she is the perpetrator. We now have no car nothing to take to the insurance people. Cut to next morning when I wake up to find a wrecked car being delivered. Ah good, I think. My car has been brought back and I can start to deal with the accident in the normal way. Then it turns out to belong to the lady over the road. A third smashed up car. What am I going to do about the insurance? Wake up.
Better news on the scales front. Came home yesterday afternoon to ask Mr G. about them. More precisely, to ask him about a Mr Ellis, an English music theorist and researcher from the late 19th century, who invented the unit of musical interval called the cent, which for some reason I now think to be the key to the whole mystery: Mr Ellis being mentioned in the fat music theory book mentioned yesterday. Mr G. does his stuff and I get a completely apposite article from Mr W. which explains in fairly short order all I need to know. Also something which, with my mathematical background, I should have worked out for myself. So the trick is, that he makes musical intervals additive by taking logs. More specifically, his measure of an interval is 1200*log2(a/b) where a and b are the two frequencies of the two tones making up the interval. This gives 1200 cents as the measure of an octave. And it so happens that the traditional carving up of the octave in the west, gives twelve intervals of approximately but not exactly 100 cents apeice. The equal temperament wheeze just says, lets make those intervals exactly 100 cents apeice for the purposes of tuning musical instruments, in particular the piano. So the interval between any two adjacent notes on the piano, taking in both black and white notes, is 100 cents. From which flows the explosion of western music in the 17th century. And a certain loss of harmonic beauty, still known to the practitioners of ethno and folk music, who have not yet adopted equal temperament. The article on Ellis also points to an html rendering of the original article by Ellis, which turns out to be interesting stuff, although not so moved as to read it all the way through. But I do learn that the Scottish bagpipes use a very odd scale, better known in the middle east than in Europe. Ellis speculates that the pipes were brought back during the crusades. Scales, you will be pleased to hear, now off the agenda for the moment.
Yesterday to Kingston to have another go getting the shiny new car around the ramps in the Rose car park (formerly known as the Drapers car park). Getting better in that I managed not to clip the entry to the ramp about 5 times out of 10 going up and perhaps 6 times out of 10 coming down. Getting better at judging how near the corner of the unseen nearside bonnet is to the approaching wall. (Not that I can see the offside corner either. Perhaps I should stick little poles on the corners as navigational aids). Also learn that half the ramps are easier than others, as in the others the turning space has been reduced by the stairs (or something) occupying the corner. Also that going down when the car park is largely empty is easier as one can swing in the space otherwise occupied by cars. Must be doing dreadful things to the offside rear tyre, the only trigger I can see for the dream I started this post out with.
Occupied the time between going up and coming down by going to the Rose Theatre to see the Northern Broadsides theatre company - who did, in the main, sound very regional and which did include someone called Lenny Henry - do Othello. Theatre rather more finished than when we went to see Chekov a few months ago, although whoever made the presumably expensive oak planking for the floors did not bother to sharpen the circular saw blade used to slice them up. Planks covered in saw marks which have not been fully planed out. Very sloppy. Production adequate, about on a par with that seen at the Globe a little while ago (see August 15 2007). Henry clearly lacked stage experience and seemed clumsy at times - but he had both presence and voice. I wonder how much it bugged him that he was playing what might be read as a 16th century caricature of a childish - if large and powerful - black man. A heritage racist stereotype (small prize for anyone who remembers what stereotype is. If stuck, Mr W. will no doubt reveal the answer) if you like. He certainly appeared to be a bit cheesed off when he left the stage at the end of the performance. As with the Globe, Iago was played as someone entirely ordinary who encompasses great evil, almost by accident, but with great good humour. Desdemona was weak and she managed to make her death tawdry - worse than Helen Mirren stripping off as Cleopatra, without having to go that far. Emelia much better - although an unlikely spouse for Iago. Bianca good. Roderigo and Cassio OK, balance of supporting cast a bit weak. But they made an entertaining meal of the drinking song in act 2 scene 3. Stage very noisy with the clattering of feet - sometimes deliberate - rather distracting. Rather a lot of inappropriate tittering from the audience - something which seems to be a feature of going to Shakespeare these days. Audiences are just embarassed by the things that people got steamed up about in his day.
After the play, while working up to part 2 of the car park challenge, wandered down to the mouth of the Hogsmill. Pleased to see that it was well fished up, with some specimens of 18 inches long. First time we have seen fish there this year. Also four very small chicks in charge of dysfunctional parents. That is to say, something frightful had happened to the beak of the mother with the result that the father kept trying to chase her away. All very sad but nothing much to be done about it. Certainly was not going to fish the chicks out and carry them off to the Leatherhead sanctuary for distressed animals.
Better news on the scales front. Came home yesterday afternoon to ask Mr G. about them. More precisely, to ask him about a Mr Ellis, an English music theorist and researcher from the late 19th century, who invented the unit of musical interval called the cent, which for some reason I now think to be the key to the whole mystery: Mr Ellis being mentioned in the fat music theory book mentioned yesterday. Mr G. does his stuff and I get a completely apposite article from Mr W. which explains in fairly short order all I need to know. Also something which, with my mathematical background, I should have worked out for myself. So the trick is, that he makes musical intervals additive by taking logs. More specifically, his measure of an interval is 1200*log2(a/b) where a and b are the two frequencies of the two tones making up the interval. This gives 1200 cents as the measure of an octave. And it so happens that the traditional carving up of the octave in the west, gives twelve intervals of approximately but not exactly 100 cents apeice. The equal temperament wheeze just says, lets make those intervals exactly 100 cents apeice for the purposes of tuning musical instruments, in particular the piano. So the interval between any two adjacent notes on the piano, taking in both black and white notes, is 100 cents. From which flows the explosion of western music in the 17th century. And a certain loss of harmonic beauty, still known to the practitioners of ethno and folk music, who have not yet adopted equal temperament. The article on Ellis also points to an html rendering of the original article by Ellis, which turns out to be interesting stuff, although not so moved as to read it all the way through. But I do learn that the Scottish bagpipes use a very odd scale, better known in the middle east than in Europe. Ellis speculates that the pipes were brought back during the crusades. Scales, you will be pleased to hear, now off the agenda for the moment.
Yesterday to Kingston to have another go getting the shiny new car around the ramps in the Rose car park (formerly known as the Drapers car park). Getting better in that I managed not to clip the entry to the ramp about 5 times out of 10 going up and perhaps 6 times out of 10 coming down. Getting better at judging how near the corner of the unseen nearside bonnet is to the approaching wall. (Not that I can see the offside corner either. Perhaps I should stick little poles on the corners as navigational aids). Also learn that half the ramps are easier than others, as in the others the turning space has been reduced by the stairs (or something) occupying the corner. Also that going down when the car park is largely empty is easier as one can swing in the space otherwise occupied by cars. Must be doing dreadful things to the offside rear tyre, the only trigger I can see for the dream I started this post out with.
Occupied the time between going up and coming down by going to the Rose Theatre to see the Northern Broadsides theatre company - who did, in the main, sound very regional and which did include someone called Lenny Henry - do Othello. Theatre rather more finished than when we went to see Chekov a few months ago, although whoever made the presumably expensive oak planking for the floors did not bother to sharpen the circular saw blade used to slice them up. Planks covered in saw marks which have not been fully planed out. Very sloppy. Production adequate, about on a par with that seen at the Globe a little while ago (see August 15 2007). Henry clearly lacked stage experience and seemed clumsy at times - but he had both presence and voice. I wonder how much it bugged him that he was playing what might be read as a 16th century caricature of a childish - if large and powerful - black man. A heritage racist stereotype (small prize for anyone who remembers what stereotype is. If stuck, Mr W. will no doubt reveal the answer) if you like. He certainly appeared to be a bit cheesed off when he left the stage at the end of the performance. As with the Globe, Iago was played as someone entirely ordinary who encompasses great evil, almost by accident, but with great good humour. Desdemona was weak and she managed to make her death tawdry - worse than Helen Mirren stripping off as Cleopatra, without having to go that far. Emelia much better - although an unlikely spouse for Iago. Bianca good. Roderigo and Cassio OK, balance of supporting cast a bit weak. But they made an entertaining meal of the drinking song in act 2 scene 3. Stage very noisy with the clattering of feet - sometimes deliberate - rather distracting. Rather a lot of inappropriate tittering from the audience - something which seems to be a feature of going to Shakespeare these days. Audiences are just embarassed by the things that people got steamed up about in his day.
After the play, while working up to part 2 of the car park challenge, wandered down to the mouth of the Hogsmill. Pleased to see that it was well fished up, with some specimens of 18 inches long. First time we have seen fish there this year. Also four very small chicks in charge of dysfunctional parents. That is to say, something frightful had happened to the beak of the mother with the result that the father kept trying to chase her away. All very sad but nothing much to be done about it. Certainly was not going to fish the chicks out and carry them off to the Leatherhead sanctuary for distressed animals.
# posted by Jim @ 10:34 PM 
