The official online Fjord
Archive for Life
June 9, 2010 at 1:55 pm · Filed under Life
Just like everyone else, I like to think that I’m immune to advertising’s influence. But that’s not really the case. The other day, Gmail figured out that I’m interested in music and decided to show me an ad for Musician’s Dice. Those sounded pretty novel, so I decided to take a look. Next thing I knew, I was ordering a copy of Muzundrum, a sort of musical Scrabble/crossword puzzle board game that is played with the Musician’s Dice.
I had a chance to play a few games while visiting my family in Kansas, and I think it’s a pretty great game. Players take turns rolling one of the 12-sided (one side for each note in the chromatic scale) dice and then try to place that die on the board in a way that adds to a scale or a triad. To keep things from getting too complicated, only major scales are allowed and triads must be either major, minor, or diminished. If that’s too simple, they also have a master’s version of the game.
I’ve played only three rounds (and won one!) so far, and I’m still using the cheat sheet quite a bit. But, as I hoped, it has helped improve my understanding of music theory.
Nathan (who is a full-time music minister and really knows his music theory) and Abu (who isn’t half bad at music theory either) were able to be in town one evening, and we all played a game with Grey (who claims not to know music theory, but has successfully applied his mathematical superpowers to the game). We probably spent more time talking about music theory and fiddling around on the piano than we did actually playing the game. It was great! Nathan won. :-)
If you happen to get a copy of the game (or come visit me!), here are the important bits of music theory you’ll need to know. Major scales are made up of whole steps and half steps in this pattern: WWHWWWH. Or, you can think of it as two identical tetrachords separated by a whole step: WWH-W-WWH (thank you, Wikipedia). Major triads are made up of a major third (the second note is two whole steps above the first) and a minor third (the second note is one whole step and one half step above the first). Minor triads are the opposite: a minor third followed by a major third. Diminished triads are made of two minor triads.
I’d learned all that stuff at some point, but playing the game and talking through it all really helped solidify it in my mind.
One potential gripe I have with the game is that there seems to be very little strategy involved. You never know what note you’ll get on your next roll, so there’s usually not much point in planning ahead; just find the best place to put the note you just rolled. For now, just trying to find that best place is sufficiently challenging to keep me interested, but I can see how it might get less interesting once I get better.
I haven’t tried it yet, but it might be fun to try pre-rolling some number of dice for each player and keeping them secret. This could make Scrabble-like strategizing possible. Or, maybe once I get bored with the standard gameplay, I could just move up to the master level.
Anyway, it’s a cool game. You should come visit me so we can play a round!
June 6, 2010 at 1:35 pm · Filed under Life
Fjord’s Last Stand photos
Last weekend was my final weekend in Maryland before moving to California to start my shiny new job (which starts on tomorrow!). So, my totally awesome friends put together a non-stop four-day-long party which Jared titled “Fjord’s Last Stand.” Luckily, things worked out better for me than for Custer.
Friday
The weekend began with an all-you-can-eat crab extravaganza at a little seafood place that Jared found. Zerg had never had crabs before, and I’d only had them once, so we definitely had to experience a true Maryland crab dinner before I left. It was pretty great. The all-you-can-eat aspect certainly made it less stressful–we didn’t have to be worried about extracting all possible meat from every crab.
Then we went back to the Osborn’s (who graciously let me sleep on their couch because I had already vacated my apartment) and watched the last two episodes of Chuck. Zerg and I had watched all the rest of the season while we were still roommates, so it seemed fitting to finish it off at the party. The season had a great finale, but I really wish they would have just ended the show instead of adding another crazy twist at the last moment.
Saturday
The next morning, we got up early and headed to Philadelphia to see (and hear) THE LARGEST PIPE ORGAN IN THE WORLD! Woo! Oddly enough, it’s not in a church or a concert hall, but a Macy’s department store. The Wanamaker Organ did not disappoint. The sound wasn’t overwhelming loud, but amazingly rich, warm, complex, diverse, and yes, powerful. I highly recommend a visit. In addition to a fantastic concert by Peter Conte himself, we also got to go on a tour of the organ.
But, best of all, I got to sit at the console! More photos of the tour and the console are in the gallery.
We also got to see the Liberty Bell, visited a couple yarn shops, and ate at Pat’s, home of the original Philly Cheese Steak. Those were all great, but obviously my favorite was the organ. :-)
Sunday
On Sunday, we had a special outdoor church service under a big tent for the Bishop’s visit. It was actually pretty neat, and we had great weather for it. St. Tim’s gave me a really amazing going away present: an accompanist’s edition of the 1982 Hymnal and Service Music, signed by everyone on the worship team. I hope I can find a good church that will let me use it on their pipe organ!
After the service, we had a big picnic lunch. And after that, Fr. Terry had the crazy idea that we should have a Young Adults vs. The Vestry rope pull over a mud pit. He had told us we’d be doing this earlier, but we really couldn’t tell if he was joking or not until it actually happened. Unfortunately, most of the young adults had left by that time, but the teens joined in with us in our battle against the vestry. We still lost. And got rather muddy. What a way to finish up my time at St. Tim’s! :-)
Then, we went back to the Osborn’s for an excellent Rock Band session (we played a lot of Rock Band that weekend) and watched Hero and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (the greatest movie ever made, ever).
Monday
Thanks to Memorial Day, most people were off work on Monday, so the party continued! In the morning, we went to Jared’s parents’ place to celebrate his dad’s birthday. Then it was back to the Osborn’s for Make-Your-Own-Sushi Night! We had salmon and shark for the meat and cucumber, carrot, avacado, and scrambled eggs for the, uh, non-meat. We mostly did regular rolls but also a few handrolls and even some sashimi. It was pretty tasty.
Then, in continuing our movie theme, we watched Once (one of Rebecca’s favorite movies). It had some pretty great music and made me want to go start a band or something. Brandon and CC even came over, and I got to play with their cat Diotima.
Conclusion
If you were to make a list of Things Fjord Likes, there wouldn’t be very many things on it that didn’t occur that weekend. Thanks to everyone who made it happen! I shall miss you, my east coast buddies. Thanks for being the awesomest friends anyone could ask for!
You can also read Rebecca’s account of the party. The last bit almost brings tears to my eyes. ::sniff::
Fjord’s Last Stand photos
May 1, 2010 at 9:09 pm · Filed under Life
Spence flew in Thursday night for our long-awaited Epic Research Party of Awesometude. Remember that Stockade Case thing we obsessively researched for an entire semester back in college and were going to write a book about? Well, it’s going to happen. It turns out that the National Archives in DC has all of the original copies of everything used in the trial, so we’re going to spend the next week researching and writing like crazy.
It’s pretty exciting to handle original documents from the 1860s. We’ve spent countless hours reading about the people involved in this crazy trial, and now we’re able to handle papers that they actually wrote on! Better yet, the things they wrote are pretty nuts. My advice: don’t mess with a Reconstruction-era disenfranchised Texan.
Bonus: we get to use locker #41 every day to store our stuff. :-)
February 21, 2010 at 2:01 pm · Filed under Life
As of today, I’m actually a real organist! Nearly two years ago (April ‘08), I started piano lessons with the goal of eventually playing the organ in church. Today, I played Old Hundredth (“Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow”) in church. I used all three manuals of the pipe organ at St. Tim’s, both feet on the pedals, and a pretty full registration. The congregation sang and everything! I made a few minor mistakes, but I kept on playing, and I doubt very many people even noticed.
Now, I just need to join the guild. :-)
December 31, 2009 at 7:26 pm · Filed under Life
For Christmas break, I’m back in Kansas with my parents. This last Sunday, I decided to check out the local Episcopal church. I started attending an Episcopal church after college, so I was curious what the one in my hometown was like. Grace Episcopal turned out to be a great little church, and better yet, they’ve got an awesome pipe organ! It’s a little Gabriel Kney tracker organ (entirely mechanical) built in 1989 in Canada. I talked with the rector after the service, and he said I could come by during the week and practice on it if I wanted, so guess where I’ve been the last three afternoons. :-)
It has only 13 stops, but it’s tons of fun to play. It’s small, so I was right next to the pipes and immersed in their sound when playing. And, it’s a tracker organ, so I could literally feel the levers opening the pipes for every note I played.
I’m still trying to figure out a reasonable way to record pipe organ music, so I don’t have any music to post yet, but I’ll get that figured out soon. Next week, it’s back to the much larger pipe organ at St. Tim’s!
More pipe organ pictures
November 7, 2009 at 1:25 pm · Filed under Life
It’s been about a year and a half ago now that I started taking piano lessons, and on Thursday I had my third recital. It was by far the best recital I’ve done, mostly just because I’m less nervous about playing in front of people now. The two pieces I did were ones that I knew pretty well, so I just had a good time instead of being worried about it. As usual, here are some recordings I made at home of the pieces I played:
Chopin – Prelude No. 4 in E minor
Massenet – Élégie
I also started taking organ lessons about a month ago, so hopefully I’ll have some organ music recordings on here soon!
June 6, 2009 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Life
First off, have you heard The Decemberists’ latest album, “The Hazards of Love?” If not, drop what you’re doing, go buy it, listen to it at least 3 times on a good sound system, and read the lyrics while you’re listening. No really, do it now. I’ll wait.
…
Wasn’t it awesome?! It’s this crazy epic rock opera about a shape-shifting forest-dweller who falls in love with a lovely young maiden, their trials with the queen of the forest, a murdering rake, and a wild river. The brand brought in two amazing vocalists from other bands to fill the parts of Margaret (the heroine of the story) and the forest queen.
Naturally, when I found out they were coming to the area, I had to go to the concert. So, last night Lucky, Zerg, Brittany, and I made our way down to Richmond, VA for the show.
I need to finish packing for India (leaving in just a few hours!), so I’ll just list some of the highlights: The Queen absolutely rocked, Margaret did an excellent job of staying in character the entire performance, the band has several ridiculously talented multi-instrumentalists (Hammond organ, Nord synth, and glockenspiel all at the same time? Very yes!), and finally, the Decemberists Players taught me that Evel Knievel’s ability to jump 7 cars with his motorcycle was the real reason that the South didn’t successfully succeed from the North during the Civil War. Brilliant.
More pictures from the concert
June 3, 2009 at 5:16 pm · Filed under Life
On Saturday, I set out to buy some pants. I ended up buying a 6′x4′ abstract art painting on canvas. I really need to work on my pants-purchasing skills. Zerg was less than pleased, but I think it makes our living room look awesome! Bonus points if anyone can figure out the name of the artist; I can’t make out the signature.
Also, as an update, I’m leaving for India for 3 weeks on Saturday. Whee! The first half of the trip will be centered around Minu’s wedding, which I’m sure will be all kinds of awesome. Then, we (Spork, Dex, Eric, and me) fly up north and spend several days at the Makaibari Tea Estate in Darjeeling. And after that, it’s off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and see what there is to see in Delhi. I’ll post lots of pictures and whatnot when I get back.
Oh, and back in April, I finally got to see Neko Case live!! It was an amazing concert, with Will Sheff from Okkervil River opening. If you missed it (and I’m pretty sure everyone but me did), you can still listen to it because NPR taped the whole thing and has it available on their website: Neko Case Concert. I highly recommend it. :-)
March 28, 2009 at 3:38 pm · Filed under Life
Last Thursday was my second piano recital since I started taking lessons last April (wow, nearly a year has gone by!). I was pretty nervous again, but not as bad as last time. I made some mistakes (including completely demolishing the ending to the first piece), but overall it was really pretty good. By the time I got to my last piece, there were a few parts where I felt like I was actually able to play with feeling and convey some emotional meaning instead of concentrating only on the notes.
And for those of you who weren’t able to make it, here are some recordings I made at home of the pieces I played:
Chopin – Prelude in C minor
Bach – Invention 1
Beethoven – Fur Elise
March 22, 2009 at 3:10 pm · Filed under Life
Last month, I went to go visit Spence in Seattle. It was really great to hang out (I hadn’t seen him since graduation) and to finally meet Theresa, his girlfriend. I also really enjoyed the city of Seattle. It’s extremely scenic (mountains and water everywhere you turn!), and the city itself was very clean and inviting.
Spence and Theresa did a fine job of showing me around the city. We visited several parks, including Gas Works Park and Volunteer Park. I really liked how Gas Works incorporated the old industrial elements of the site into the park. Some of the old machinery was even turned into a playground!
After that, we went to the Pike Place Market. I’ve heard that the fish market has some really interesting fish-throwing vendors, but when we were there, they apparently weren’t in a fish-throwing mood. Oh well. We did get to see some pretty cool street musicians. But, the real highlight of the market for me was finding some Romanesco brocolli. It’s a fractal veggie! We enjoyed eating it over the next few days. The taste is very similar to normal broccoli, but maybe not quite as strong. Goes great with a ranch dip.
The next day, we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Those ferries are pretty nice! They’ve got a bar, a cafeteria, tons of indoor and outdoor seating, and even Internet access. I wouldn’t mind having a ferry as a part of my morning commute. Once we arrived at Bainbridge Island, we quickly discovered that it’s mostly a tourist trap. But we did find a nice yarn and tea shop and a trail to walk along the water. The best part was just hanging out. That evening, we returned to Seattle and went to go see Slumdog Millionaire. I really can’t recommend that film enough. But, it’s one of those movies where it’s best if you go in not knowing anything about it. So, I won’t say anything more.
On my final full day there, Theresa, Spence, and I drove a ways out from Seattle and hiked up Rattlesnake Ledge. It was yet another stunning example of Washington’s beauty. I was surprised how many people were on the trail. It wasn’t a particularly easy trail (we were all pretty tired when we got back), but we were constantly passing lots of people, many of them with dogs or kids. I guess Washington folks really like their nature!
On Sunday morning, right before I had to go to the airport, Spence took me to Teacup, a tea shop in Seattle. It was awesome! The atmosphere was perfect (not overly frilly, but still fancy), and the tea was superb. I asked if they had any Darjeeling, and the lady at the counter pulled out canisters from 3 or 4 different estates, as well as a house blend, and then proceeded to tell me the differences between all of them! I chose the Margaret’s Hope estate (mostly just because I’d heard of it before), and it was perfect. I’m not used to other people being as passionate about tea as I am, and the people at this place are even more passionate than I am. Maybe I should move to Seattle and get a job there!
More Seattle Pictures
Hi there. My name is Curtis Hawthorne, but most of my friends call me Fjord.