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For about two years now, my husband has been doing these South Indian rhythm exercises called Konnakol. They involve some unusual clapping and repeating of various syllables. This post is named after a few Konnakol syllables.
He loves to tell me about how much Konnakol exercises have helped him develop his sense of time. He’s not talking about time of day. He doesn’t wear a watch and is never late so I guess he does have a good sense of that too, but for this purpose we are referring to musical time. This is a really important sense for a bass player to have and apparently he used to worry about his quite a bit…but then came Konnakol.
The other day at dinner, my husband told me that Konnakol has also helped him in other aspects of thought–I’m not sure what that means–and he thinks I would benefit from learning it. Konnakol hasn’t helped his thinking process very much because he knows that I can’t even clap and sing at the same time. How could I possibly learn some complicated rhythm exercise.
I think he wants us to start having Konnakol conversations like these guys.
Sunday was Pioneer Day. It usually goes completely unnoticed by me, but I decided to post something in honor of it today. It’s a little late, but late is better than never.
Doves and Serpents put up a post about the hymn Come, Come Ye Saints. The authors of the blog posted their favorite versions of the hymn. That’s how I discovered this version by David Johansen and Brian Koonin of the New York Dolls. Apparently the bassist from the New York Dolls, Arthur “Killer” Kane, joined the LDS church in 1989. Someone made a documentary called New York Doll about him reuniting with the band. I haven’t seen it, but it looks fascinating. Arthur Kane died of cancer on July 13, 2004 and his band mates did a version of this song as a tribute to him. Anyway, I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy!
…but I thought it was so funny that I just had to post it. Don’t worry this is not becoming a dog-themed blog–unless of course you would prefer a dog-themed blog–I just happen to be thinking about dogs these days. It’s much like my prior obsession with foxes.
Though my husband isn’t very handy, he certainly does come up with some interesting projects around the house. The latest one involved purchasing a large square piece of plywood. After doing a bunch of measuring he determined that the piece of wood he needed would easily fit into our car.
We went to B&Q so my husband could buy this piece of wood that he needed right that instant. When he got the board cut I thought it looked big, but I didn’t say anything. I stood in the parking lot watching him try to wedge it into the car and I kept my mouth shut. Sometimes I’m good at restraining myself.
I waited in the parking lot patiently with the board while he went inside to buy rope to tie it to the roof of the car. But, when he started tying the doors closed as he tied the board to the roof, I had to speak up. “How are we going to get into the car?” I asked. “What are we the Dukes of Hazzard?” While I loved watching the Duke boys outrun Boss Hog just as much as anyone else as a kid, my legs were sore from interval training and I wasn’t going to climb into a car window in a busy parking lot.
We tied the board onto the car by wrapping the rope around and around and around until we could tie the ends together. We didn’t have any scissors, of course. Then I prayed the whole way home that the board wouldn’t fly off and cause a major accident. We made it home in one piece. It’s a good thing we made that trip too, because today my husband told me that he doesn’t think he’ll use the board after all.
Our flat is too small to have a stray board laying around. We’ll have to tie it to our roof again and take it too the dump.
Many of you are probably familiar with the Expert Village videos you can watch online to learn how to do things. They have videos on everything from how to wash windows to how to start dreadlocks. The clips are usually about a minute long and sometimes give you useful information and sometimes they just don’t.
Demand Studios owns Expert Village and I used to work for them many years ago writing articles. Demand Studios is a content mill that in my opinion is partially responsible for ruining the World Wide Web by posting tons of useless articles that clog up internet searches. I really don’t like the company at all and am so glad I don’t have to work for them any more. It’s my personal theory that they are owned by the same person that owns Monsanto, THE DEVIL.
Since I’m talking about my personal theories and THE DEVIL, I might as well let you in on another theory. I believe that THE DEVIL is actually two people on this Earth today. Those people are Dick Cheney and Kenny G. I think they are working together to ruin the world with bad music and bad badness. If Dick Cheney is your father or you’re listening to Kenny G as you read this, I would just like to say that I’m very very sorry.
When I was working for Demand Studios I looked into making videos for them, but didn’t have the appropriate equipment to make the quality videos they needed at the time. I know that they pay between $200 and $600 for videos.
Anyway, I’m sharing this information with you because my husband found these Expert Village videos today made by someone who is obviously not taking this whole making videos for Expert Village thing seriously. Either that, or he really has no idea what he’s talking about. I love how in this first video he suggests doing a human beat box while playing the piano.
The Super Bowl was yesterday and of course my husband was up all night watching the game. I opted to stay home and sleep. The only athletic event I’m every interested in watching is power breaking. There’s something thrilling in that moment before a person strikes a stack of fifteen boards when you’re wondering if he will break the boards or his hand. Now that’s a sport.
Anyway, I found this video and thought it was pretty funny.
Remember when I wondered if I brought extremely cold temperatures with me everywhere I go? If you don’t here’s a reminder. Well my current experience here in Florida is confirming my suspicions. The other night when I went out I swore I could see my breath. I’ve brought the English weather here with me. Here’s a news report from the other day.
