Minor Wisdom

Fat man in the bathtub

If you’re reading this blog but not reading A Scale Canadian, then you’re missing stuff you’d love. Jim, the proprietor of ASC, posted this Little Feat video more than a week ago. The song is “Fat Man in the Bathtub.” Enjoy.

“St. James Infirmary”: First animated video for Saturday Evening Blues

I spotted this gem on Liprap’s Lament: St. James Infirmary, animated. The tune is classic blues, and the toon is full of references to New Orleans landmarks. You can read more about this video at NO Notes, and even more on YouTube. (Go there and click on “more info.”)

Amazing Grace: You asked for it (well, some of you did)

Last Sunday, I did a solo at church of “Amazing Grace” a la Blind Boys of Alabama — that is, to the same tune as “House of the Rising Sun.” On hearing of this, some people were foolish enough to mention that they would like to hear it. So here it is. I recorded it this evening with the help of my guitar teacher, Vincent, who (I learned) is a pretty good sound engineer. The recording includes two takes of the vocal track. Hence, some accidental harmony here and there. No errors on the guitar part. As for the vocals, though there’s a rough note near the end, otherwise I managed to stay on pitch. Let me tell you, hearing yourself recorded is a humbling experience for a musician. This is most humbling.

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

When I was a freshman in college seminary back in the 1970s, I got the chance one morning to sing the psalm after the first reading. Many things conspired against me that day. First, this particular psalm was written for a tenor, while I was (and am) a baritone. The first and second verse started with a high E note that I could just barely reach on a good day. Second, I had a bit of a cold, and my throat was a little raw. Third, this Mass was first thing in the morning. Fourth, I didn’t understand then that vocal chords are muscles, and like any other muscles, they need to be warmed up before peak performance. So I decided that my best strategy for hitting that high E was to do as little singing as possible immediately before.

If you know anything about vocals, you’re thinking “Oh, no!” When the moment came to hit that high E, my voice broke — while singing solo into a microphone, amplifying the break for everyone in the church. Fortunately I was among friends — my brother seminarians. I felt bad mainly because my terrible performance probably distracted them from their prayer.

Fast-forward to October 18, 2009. Since the 1970s, I’ve had some experience leading the congregation in singing. But this was a lifetime first: sing a solo while accompanying myself on an instrument (guitar) that I just started relearning eight months ago. The song was “Amazing Grace,” sung to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun” (a la Blind Boys of Alabama). The audience was not a couple dozen brother seminarians, but a couple hundred or so churchgoers, who would either love the song or hate it.

So how did it turn out? Okay. I nailed the vocals. And though my hands were sweaty and shaking, I didn’t make any major mistakes on guitar.

So, next time I’m standing at a podium talking to three appellate judges or seven Louisiana Supreme Court justices, I may be nervous, but I won’t worry. I’ll remember that I’ve done harder things than just talking to a bunch of judges.

Free show by Buddy Guy

Today in New Orleans, the weather is perfect, and there’s free music in Lafayette Square: the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival. Today’s finale belongs to Buddy Guy. For those who can’t make it out there, here’s a taste.

Buddy Guy - Five long years
by howlong

You call this “blight”?

If you haven’t already done it, please check out Inside the Footprint. There, Brad V and Curtis P parade the lovely homes in the Mid-City neighborhood that would be destroyed if the LSU-VA Medical Center is built where currently planned.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I watched a DVD of the documentary Faubourg Treme. It’s the story of a vital neighborhood that, for about 150 years, has been hit with one mortal blow after another. Please, let’s learn from our mistakes. Let’s not repeat them.

Getting by with some help from friends for S.E.B.

I don’t have a video lined up for today’s edition of Saturday Evening Blues. Fortunately, two of my blogging buddies have come through with some good ones. So if you’re looking for a blues fix, please visit Adrastos for some Robert Cray, or What About Clients? for some Johnny Winter.

Science marches on: The Ig Nobel Prize winners for 2009

Everyone’s talking today about President Obama’s receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and wondering what he did to earn it. They should be talking about the Ig Nobel Prizes, awarded a mere eight days ago. For instance:

• The Peace Prize went to Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland, for conducting experiments to determine whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.
• The Medicine Prize went to Donald L. Unger, of Thousand Oaks, California. Unger wanted to know whether knuckle cracking causes arthritis. To find out, he spent 60 years cracking his left-hand knuckles daily, while not cracking his right-hand knuckles.
• The Physics Prize went to Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, for their analysis of why pregnant women don’t tip over.
• The Biology Prize went to Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu, and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan, for proving that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from giant pandas’ poop.

For the run-down of all winners’ accomplishments, you know where to click.

Horse: Maravich v. Paul

As far as I know, no one in the NBA ever beat Pete Maravich in a game of horse. But had they been contemporaries, Chris Paul might have (hat tip Adrastos):

Pistol Pete didn’t do anything quite that dramatic 30 years ago. But I’d enjoy seeing Chris Paul do what the Pistol does between 1:18 and 1:59.

That’s Ashley’s line, damn it.

Yesterday a blogging friend from out of town was passing through New Orleans. We had lunch, and I told him about the late, great Ashley Morris and Ashley’s greatest hit, dated 27 Nov. 2005 and referred to locally as FYYFF. Today my out-of-town friend was wandering around the Quarter and spotted this T. If Hana and family are getting royalties, then good. If not, then ...