Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress

9 February 2023
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Has He Improved?

The BBC reports that Boris Johnson has made not far off £5m in public speaking gigs since leaving office not much over six months ago. That’s not a bad rate of earning. What makes me astounded is that people are willing to pay for someone who comes across as such a bumbling public speaker.

My impression, from numerous examples that have been broadcast over the last few years, is that he does a lot of blathering, throws in plenty of Latin and references to classical stories and has a tendency to wander entirely off piste. For example, the autumn 2021 speech where, in his role as Prime Minister, he lost his place in his notes, couldn’t find his way back and spent several minutes regaling business leaders about how much he had enjoyed a visit to Peppa Pig World, a long way from where the speech was being delivered.

I guess people can spend their money to listen to who they want but his is the kind of name that would put me off attending an event. However, I hope he is being careful to pay all due tax on his income – it wouldn’t do for someone of his influence to be careless about that.

8 February 2023
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3D real-time design and realisation…

That is really just a fancy way of saying that I build another wood store today from my collection of old pallet wood. The speed with which that new chainsaw lets me process my collection of logs into cut and split pieces for drying has added a new incentive to increase my storage capacity.

The problem with pallets is that they are very inconsistent. There are multiple designs out there and in all sorts of conditions. Sometimes they come apart easily and sometimes they need extra persuasion (eg. sawing through nails and screws) and / or splinter and crack. I have the archetype of a design in my head (base, two sides, shelf half way up, roof and suitable bracing to keep it rigid) but the details of how to get there has to be improvised each time, assessing, probing and creating with the available materials.

It would be a lot easier and vastly more expensive to buy lumber cut to standardised proportions but I have to confess that I rather enjoy the ‘jazziness’ of creating each one afresh. Of course, tomorrow, I will need to load it up with the processed firewood and see it if stands up to that critical test but I am quietly confident.

7 February 2023
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Rabkeys and Goigs

There are downsides to having “bright ideas”, particularly the time it takes to turn them into reality. Tomorrow, the toddler’s group is continuing it’s animal theme by looking at behemoth and leviathan (bright idea #1). Those are beasts mentioned towards the end of the book of Job. Many commentators suggest they might be a hippo and a crocodile but neither of the descriptions particularly match. For example, hippos don’t have tails like a cedar tree and crocodiles don’t breathe out smoke and fire. I’d say that a brontosaurus and a dragon fit at least as well although, yes, I am aware that raises other questions. The core lesson is wonder at the sheer variety of beasts, birds and fish to be found across the world.

Bright idea #2 was an activity involving beasts that could be cut out in various sections and joined together to make animals no-one has seen before. I’m sure I’ve seen it illustrated with 19th century line drawings (surely out of copyright) but I couldn’t find them. I ended up adapting some images of domestic animals, resizing them so that they can be folded in half and roughly joined up.

What is a rabkey? The combination of a rabbit and a donkey of course. Even the stage of adding labels turned out to be time consuming. With a random selection of animals, based on the source images I could find, some were hard to pronounce and others not entirely suitable. I had to take some time to avoid inappropriate pairings, like certain combinations that are possible between cow and duck!

It has been an interesting exercise but a lot more time consuming than I thought. I hope some of the children, or at least their parents and guardians, appreciate the fun of things like the goig (goose and pig, if you were wondering).

6 February 2023
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What if Zacchaeus had stayed home?

I’m doing some Bible reading in big chunks at the moment. I’m going through the New Testament in traditional order and, just under a week in, am already just about to get into John’s gospel. Most of the time, I’m reading fast: the big picture, not tiny details. Every now and then, though, a familiar story snags on my imagination. Here’s the poem that came out of the Sunday school favourite found at the start of chapter 19 of Luke’s gospel.

What if Zacchaeus had stayed home?
They said Jesus was coming to Jericho
But they also said
He was heading
To Jerusalem.
Not that far away
Surely he’ll come again
Smaller crowds for a regular visit
That would be the sensible decision.

Just a few days later
Things turned ugly
And then mysterious.
Jesus never trod Jericho’s streets again
As he had that day.

Older Zacchaeus
Much-loved ‘Uncle Zac’
Poorer and eternally richer
Looked back with a peaceful heart.
He’d given dignity and self-preservation the slip
Shimmied up a sycamore-fig
A moment’s madness the making of him.

5 February 2023
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Deep Talkin’

I’m very pleased with the La Bella Deep Talkin’ flatwound strings I put on my Jaguar bass on Thursday. I didn’t get round to doing further set up work but took them on their first outing tonight, a rehearsal with the Charnwood Symphonic Wind Orchestra. Through the small amp I sometimes use for practise at home they had sounded okay but, as soon as I plugged into my combo amp for the rehearsal, I had a smile on my face. That was the sound I had anticipated when I bought them – warm and, of course, deep.

I’d venture to say that, compared to the previous (factory-installed) roundwound set, it took me a bit closer to the rounded warmth of a well-played tuba, perfect for the setting. Most of the time I’m playing tuba parts. I think I’ll be able to conjure up more of the typical electric bass vibe when needed but, the rest of the time, I can blend in with whatever tuba section we have or stand in for it when it is just me holding the bottom line.

I had wondered about whether I’d find my hands slipping past where they should go but that really wasn’t much of a problem. There were a couple of points where I overshot a move but, to be fair, that isn’t unprecedented. Meanwhile, I loved the polished feel of the strings, silky and luxurious. I’m quite tempted to upgrade the flatwounds on my fretless six string. I’m presently using Status Graphite flats but I find them quite hard on the hands although, at very close to £100 for a set, I’ll have to consider if I’m ready to do more fretless playing to justify that!

All in all, very impressive and I’m looking forward to getting a lot more playing hours on them over the coming weeks.

4 February 2023
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QUO

I saw QUO tonight. Not old rockers Status Quo but the Quorn Ukulele Orchestra, who came to our church do a gig.

I was accompanied by one of the young lads from church who is keen to learn. I suggested he ought to go to the concert and pick out the songs he liked and then, realising his mum might not want to spend her Saturday evening on that, offered to look after him for the evening. I’ve now got my list of songs to pull together – some I know well and one or that I’ll need to look up.

One of those was Shotgun by George Ezra – far too 21st century for me (released in 2018)! There’s a cool bassline on the recorded version but the basic chords look pretty simple – just I IV vi V… like numerous songs from the contemporary church repertoire.

3 February 2023
by wpAdmin
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Chainsaw!

As of today, I am now the proud owner of a chainsaw. As a bonus, I still have all my limbs attached!

Jane and I were talking about getting a chainsaw earlier this week. We’ve got quite a backlog of wood to process and the main challenge is getting it sawn up into suitable lengths to split, season and burn. For years, I’ve been doing this by hand but the time and effort required go up exponentially as branches get wider and turn into full-on logs. I did some research and settled on a battery operated model from DeWalt. It is small (and light) with a bar only 12″ long but I’ve already got some DeWalt batteries for another tool.

It arrived today and, suitably togged up with leather chaps, hearing protection, goggles, gloves and steel toe-capped boots, I got to work on some of the bits I have been putting off. Suffice it to say that I’m very happy with the results. I’ve still got a fair few hours work ahead of me but it is going to be significantly quicker, even with all the dressing up and other safety precautions that need to be taken.

2 February 2023
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Slinky

When I got my Squier Affinity Jaguar bass about a year and a half ago, I knew that I wanted to get flatwound strings on it to replace the factory-supplied round wounds. I can do the modern active bass thing with my Sei six-string but I was deliberately aiming for a more vintage sound. After a few months, I picked up a set of LaBella ‘Deep Talking’ flats. My choice was a bit limited because the Jag is a medium (32″) scale bass but reviews and videos suggested this was the ideal option for what I was after.

Today, after (erm) several more months, I finally got them fitted. First impressions were good for the sound and, gosh, aren’t they smooth! They are actually the same gauge as the factory strings (105-85-65-45) and they feel perhaps a little tighter but a whole lot slicker. I think I need to put in a decent amount of playing time tomorrow and then fine tune the setup (truss rod and intonation).

I’m particularly interested to see how I get on with the wind orchestra on Sunday evening, which will be their first public outing. First guess is that they should be great but I might end up sliding past some notes if I’m not careful.

1 February 2023
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Locusts

I hadn’t realised, before I did some research ready to introduce today’s toddlers session (on John the Baptist, who ate locusts and wild honey… hence our link to a creature from the natural world) that locusts are just grasshoppers. However, what gives them their feared name is that, under certain conditions, the normally solitary creatures start to gather in vast, sky-darkening numbers. They fly long distances and, when they land, they strip whatever greenery they find, making them a veritable plague.

It works both ways though and, as John knew, they are also edible. I also got to try crispy locusts for the first time today. I don’t know how they were cooked but there was nothing icky left – just a crunchy texture, like various types of corn or potato snacks, and a fairly non-descript taste.

Anyway, I now know much more than I did about locusts last week both in my head and in my belly.

31 January 2023
by wpAdmin
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Walking a Line

I’m trying to remember the last time I saw a ‘Hollywood history’ that didn’t leave me feeling at least a little uneasy on the history side of things. Are the lives of the rich and famous (such are most of the subjects) so boring that they need embellishment? When the subject is a musician, would I be entirely wrong to suspect that is as much about the desire to sell a few more records as about the quest to tell true and meaningful stories?

The most recent biopic I’ve watched was Walk the Line (2005) about the early career of Johnny Cash. I enjoyed the music and appreciated the acting and cinematography. However, it definitely fell short on the history front. I’d say it depicted Cash as both more and less than he was: more of an Adonis and less, as he certainly later became, as a man of deep convictions and compassion. I felt a lot less sympathetic to the character portrayed in the film than to what I’ve heard about him elsewhere.

The thought that came to mind was that, if Hollywood made a film about King David, they would have a few flashbacks to the adventures and perils of his childhood (shepherd boy), a big scene about facing Goliath (probably with ‘hidden doubts’ exposed and lots of gore when the giant’s head is hacked off) and then spend most of the movie watching David watching Bathsheba from his roof top, ending with the love story of how, despite the odds, he persuades her to marry him. Bible students will know just how much of the true (warts and all) story that misses out but that’s Hollywood history for you.

I’d be inclined to say that the best film I’ve seen with the story centred around modern music was Yesterday (2019) which, of course, made no pretence about being a flight of fancy (a world in which the Beatles never formed up and wrote their songs). There are some good documentaries too but I think I’d rather listen to an album or two than watch Walk the Line again.