my ukulele progress

[ripock]

I was devising some puns on being a master baster and being able to hold my own in the kitchen...however, I'll just jump straight into the matter. I bought a silicone brush and am very favorably impressed. I have never basted very much because I have a sauce mop but never use it because it is so wasteful. Most of the sauce gets washed away when you clean the mop. With the silicone brush, you can just dip the tip in something and then spread it. I inaugurated the brush with a roasted chicken that I basted with herbs and butter. But the main reason I bought it was for my egg poacher. The eggs can get a bit sticky and with the brush I can dip the tip in some olive oil and coat the sides of the poaching cups.

I bought some salt pork because I wanted to make a very traditional batch of beans. Around here the basic methodology is salt pork and bacon in the boil. I am going to take it one step further. I am going to carmelize the bacon and salt port before I add them to the bean boil. Then when you reheat them, you're supposed to re-vitalize the beans with a spoon of lard. However all the lard around here is unhealthy. When I render (or I often see it spelled rendure) my own leaf lard, it is very volatile and it will spoil very easily. The lard at the store isn't even refrigerated. It sits on shelves indefinitely--just a little brick on cancer waiting to be purchased. Naturally created lard has numbers similar to butter and can be used accordingly. Since I don't have a source for leaf lard, I'll just use some ghee.

Someone on the forum mentioned Taco Tuesday and I had to google it. I never heard of it maybe because where I live every day is taco day...so to speak. Of course we'd never eat tacos because tacos are to mexican food what mcnuggets are to poultry. In fact, the last time I had a taco was, I think, in the 70's at the school-provided lunch.

Lastly for food, my wife eats a lot of millet which is a very middling grain nutrition-wise. I'm going to try to cycle into her diet some some more nutritionally dense grains like amaranth, rye, buckwheat, and einkorn. I'm going to see if the grains will cotten up to her palate.

Through the walls of my home, I could hear the murmurings and rumblings of something. It either sounded like rap music or domestic violence. I went outside and it happened to be a hobo walking in his socks while holding his shoes, and engaged in a profane soliloquy or maybe it is a dialogue because he thought there was someone else with him.

The the profane minstrel made me think of close relations. As the sound of rap resembles domestic violence, so the F# Lokrian 13 must bleed over into over things. I am going to focus on springing to other modes from the Lokrian 13 and just start building a network.

 

[Voran]

What a polite homeless person lol. I wish the ones in my local town were so polite as to stick to just talking to themselves.

One once cornered me and demanded money then screamed at me calling me a whore. I screamed back 'DRINK MY DIARRHEA'. Funnily enough he never bothered me any more.

 

[ripock]

I have been going thru a job interview process and probably OldScruggs will be my only commiserator. It is through text...and I don't even have a cell phone or smart phone. I had to borrow one and the process has been infantile. The interviewer asked me to tell her about myself and I had to ask her if this was her first time? this is her interview. She makes the questions and I answer them. I told her to get her head together and ask me what she wants to know. This is the first time when I am interviewing an employer. These people are unprofessional and wanting to communicate with me as if I were a 14 year old girl. I am surprised they didn't require me to upload a tiktok dance video. Or a cinnamon challenge. At the end of this process, if I survive, I will probably decline the offer because I cannot possibly work for someone for whom I have so much contempt.

 

[ripock]

What a polite homeless person lol. I wish the ones in my local town were so polite as to stick to just talking to themselves.

One once cornered me and demanded money then screamed at me calling me a whore. I screamed back 'DRINK MY DIARRHEA'. Funnily enough he never bothered me any more.

good for you. It wouldn't exactly pan out that way here. I have a live and let live philosophy, but if one of these addicts accosts me. It is game on. I carry a tactical whip up my sleeve on my peregrinations and if someone assaults me they are going to be beaten to unconsciousness.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

@ripock, please pardon the non-uke-progress digression but Voran's vulgar yet hilariously effective comment reminds me of a Lewis Grizzard story.

Lewis was one of the funniest people to ever walk the earth and a great writer. He wrote for many years for the Atlanta Journal & Constitution.
His also-the-humorist half-brother Ludlow Porch hosted a longstanding and popular talk show on a popular local AM radio station.

When both were on the far side of middle-aged, Lewis and Ludlow attended a radio industry trade show in Vegas. Exiting a certain gaming establishment having consumed copious adult beverages, the siblings encountered a curvaceous young woman in particularly revealing attire.

Lasciviously addressing both men, the young female stated, "For $500.00, I'll do anything you want."

Impressed neither by her attire, her curves nor multiple implied choices, a broad grin crossed Ludlow's face. First pulling up his slightly sagging Sansa-belt slacks, he reached for his wallet, looked the woman straight in the eyes and responded slowly through an alcohol-fueled lisp,

"Paint . . . my . . . house."

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

I have been going thru a job interview process and probably OldScruggs will be my only commiserator. It is through text...and I don't even have a cell phone or smart phone. I had to borrow one and the process has been infantile. The interviewer asked me to tell her about myself and I had to ask her if this was her first time? this is her interview. She makes the questions and I answer them. I told her to get her head together and ask me what she wants to know. This is the first time when I am interviewing an employer. These people are unprofessional and wanting to communicate with me as if I were a 14 year old girl. I am surprised they didn't require me to upload a tiktok dance video. Or a cinnamon challenge. At the end of this process, if I survive, I will probably decline the offer because I cannot possibly work for someone for whom I have so much contempt.

Commiserate I shall. That's a truly ridiculous manner of interviewing. Precisely along the same lines, last night, SWMBO and I went out on a relatively cheap date. For reasons known only to her, her choice of dining establishments was Shake Shack. Upon entering the brightly-lit interior, the first objects one encounters at SS are a row of four computer screens mounted to a counter parallel to one's direction of travel. Ahead and perpendicular is a counter that one traditionally expects to see in a fast food establishment yet unlike other places, no employees were in sight.

Customers are expected to place their orders by fingering the touch screens on the counter. I was immediately on edge. Ever since COVID, I've admittedly become highly conscious of touching things that myriad others have previously touched. My mood worsened when I was able to touch-order the anticipated two cheeseburgers but was not then able to intuitively determine how to proceed to fries. After stumbling into the proper visual-alpha icon for that, neither SWMBO nor I were able to see the proper digital navigation icon to order beverages. Lastly, I couldn't obtain a paper receipt and was not only required to provide my mobile phone number to alert us (via text) when our order was ready, but had to provide my e- address to obtain proof of the $31.00 to be electronically vacuumed from my bank account. If that doesn't bother you, it should.

Here I will undoubtedly offend some folk but my description of last evening's experience would not be complete if omitting the hand-washing scenario. Immediately after enduring the gross, silly, unintuitive, confusingly stressful touch-screen ordering process, I very much needed to wash my hands. At that point I encountered SS's gender-denial bathroom door signage. Tamping down an initial inclination to then cancel our order, largely because I expected at that point to be forced to do so through yet another touch- happy digital device, I ventured with a certain palpable degree of angst into the no-such-thing-as-men room.

Therein, I immediately encountered a faucet whose metal handle I had to physically move to trigger a stream of water and a soap dispenser with similarly antiquated mechanical actuation. To keep this situation in the proper context, the reader should be aware that this specific SS structure was built (ground-up, not simply an interior-only re-tooling of a failed Burger King) in mid-to-late 2020. It is the pinnacle of irony that, at this specific juncture in human history, a large U.S. restaurant chain's owners has consciously chosen not to install decades- available, touch- free bathroom fixtures to prevent me from transmitting reprehensible heterosexual male bacteria to any member of the small but ever-so-vocal, gender- brainwashed segment of the burger- consuming populace, even though that same tiny segment of the same populace is apparently their target market.

We shall date again soon. Never again shall we darken the woke doorway of a Shake Shack. When I enter a burger joint, I expect to hear and see a striving human cashier loudly announce, "Whadda ya have! Whadda ya have!", or even, "Welcome Ta Moe's!". As has been the case for decades, humans heartily greeting customers is among the many details Waffle House does right. Even Wal Mart didn't screw that up.

As to public restroom signage, silhouettes of bird dogs should be sufficient (with captions below for the benefit of cat people, and braille for the blind). Either you’re a Pointer or you’re a Setter. If you don’t know which of those applies to you, it should never be incumbent on a public rest room owner to foster or support gender confusion.

[Self-Edit: Recall that SS was one of the huge, publicly traded U.S. restaurant corporations with easy access to billions of ready capital from non-taxpayer-backed sources that improperly sought and obtained millions in 'forgivable' SBA PPP loans just a couple years ago.]

 

[ripock]

I'm completely aware of Lewis. As well as Jerry Clower. That is funny. I just received a job offer from this company and they told me all the technology I had to provide to work for them. I am working for them but I have to provide the technology and software. I am currently making beans but afterwards I will tell them to forget it. I am not going to pay for the privilege of working for them.

 

[Voran]

good for you. It wouldn't exactly pan out that way here. I have a live and let live philosophy, but if one of these addicts accosts me. It is game on. I carry a tactical whip up my sleeve on my peregrinations and if someone assaults me they are going to be beaten to unconsciousness.

Thankfully it didn't get that far with me. He was so shocked he completely deflated and left me alone. He was so not expecting me to yell something rude right back at him.

 

[ripock]

Thankfully it didn't get that far with me. He was so shocked he completely deflated and left me alone. He was so not expecting me to yell something rude right back at him.

cool. but in my case my wife is crippled; we cannot retreat. so the only option is attack.

 

[Voran]

cool. but in my case my wife is crippled; we cannot retreat. so the only option is attack.

Oh Christ, that sounds stressful to deal with.

I've been stuck in that situation too. Old man twice my size once tried to touch me inappropriately in the back of a damn taxi.

He backed off when I pulled a knife on him. Driver threw him out too. So grateful he took care of me and didn't blame me for defending myself. Most of the time people go waaaah two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[ploverwing]

I have been going thru a job interview process and probably OldScruggs will be my only commiserator. It is through text...and I don't even have a cell phone or smart phone. I had to borrow one and the process has been infantile. The interviewer asked me to tell her about myself and I had to ask her if this was her first time? this is her interview. She makes the questions and I answer them. I told her to get her head together and ask me what she wants to know. This is the first time when I am interviewing an employer. These people are unprofessional and wanting to communicate with me as if I were a 14 year old girl. I am surprised they didn't require me to upload a tiktok dance video. Or a cinnamon challenge. At the end of this process, if I survive, I will probably decline the offer because I cannot possibly work for someone for whom I have so much contempt.

Oh my good lord. Really?? This is what the interview process has descended to?! Uuuunnnnhhhhh

 

[bbkobabe]

I was devising some puns on being a master baster and being able to hold my own in the kitchen...however, I'll just jump straight into the matter. I bought a silicone brush and am very favorably impressed.

I used to call my friend, who was a professional fisherman, a...

No pun intended... or needed. Right.

Yes these silicon basters are such a step up from those olds ones we used to use - that had clearly evolved from cheap paint brushes. And they are cheap, and they last for years. A must have...

I'm feeling lucky after reading all that... That I have a steady job, and that I can avoid most of the homeless problem. Both sound surreal and stressful.

Not going to A Shake Shack anyhow... and I avoid the self check-out lines at grocery and home improvement stores. These are all a part of eliminating jobs from people who are willing and ready to work and replacing them with a touch screen. No thanks!

 

[ripock]

Luckily I have a steady job as well; I'm just looking for a better one because we have a new regional manager and there is every indication that she is going to be a consummate bean-counter and will start to question our bathroom breaks and how it impacts productivity. That kind of micromanagement doesn't sound conducive to my quality of life, so I am just looking around for options.

And the homeless aren't so bad. They're essentially scavengers and litterbugs but not usually criminals. I merely take precautions in case their drug-addled brains in some way identifies me as a threat

My beans turned out gloriously as you may have imagined. What can go wrong with beans and bacon? I had forgotten how rich bacon can make a dish. I usually just make my beans with salt and herbs.

I abraded the knuckle of my thumb on my grater and it has impacted my strumming because I have my own unique method which I believe I derived from the time I was learning clawhammer. I strum with a loose fist and on the down strum my ring finger is the main plectrum and on the up strum I chiefly use my thumb knuckle.

So I just strummed a little. Since I can play a minor 2-5-1 without looking, I played that as incidental music while giving my wife my full attention as she was describing what she was reading.

However most of my time was spent finger picking around my F# Lokrian 13 to expand and disguise it. That applies mainly to the mode rooted on the 6th fret. I already do that very comfortably with the mode rooted on the 9th fret. I will elucidate more once I have a better idea of what I'm doing.

 

[ripock]

Well, I was offered the job but after mulling over it I am going to decline the offer. Although the money is good, it is too risky. As I mentioned above my wife is crippled and relies on my money and benefits. I don't want to commit to this start up company with questionable views on professionalism only to have them fold...with me left holding the bag. If I were younger, I just might "go for it." But these days I have to tread with a more measured step.

I ran across some music by Polyphia and I have to say, "yawn." It was so fast and dense...but that's all it was. It was kind of like dub step. The creators seem to think that quickness equates to excitement. However constant quickness is monotonous. It is a good lesson to remember to put the melody first and rein in the festoonings and ornamentations.

So I am focusing on roots of F#. And for me that means the 6th fret. The roots on the E and A strings are incomplete. The root on the G string is on the 11th fret which is my absolute favorite place to play so that I already know it like the back of my hand. Therefore I am focusing on the 6th fret.

Since that's a re-entrant shape, the obvious answer is to expand to the G string. The easy thing to do is move over to the C# and then play C# Aiolian b5 (which is a mode from the melodic minor whereas the F# Lokrian 13 is mode of the harmonic minor. however we are all enlightened around here and such miscegenation is not a source of scandal). I find myself just using the C# Aiolian b5 as merely a passing mechanism because where I really want to go is down a step to B Mixolydian b6.

Another option is the C Lydian #2 which I tend to resist because the Lydian is the most vanilla of modes. But maybe I should mature up a little bit. Sometimes the thing that is the most anticipated is the thing to provide. After all, Alexander Pope said that if someone is always reacting against the hoi polloi, then that person is controlled by the masses because he cannot be where they are. Even though no self-respecting New Mexican would bring a tomato-based salsa (whether salsa roja or salsa casera) to a picnic, all restaurants serve that very thing both because that's what the tourists from Iowa will want and because that is also the assumption of the rhodesians, the colonists who think of themselves as native at this point even though they cannot conjugate a spanish verb. Culture wars aside, the point is that it is good business to provide the obvious. So I will look to play the obvious: the C Lydian #2 and the straight-up Aiolian contained within it.

Another option is going full Dorian. If you change one note in the F# Lokrian 13, then it becomes the F# Dorian b2. And then there's the A Dorian #11. F# and A are only 3 half steps apart. So they are always reasonably close. I could make a deliberate choice to pair these things up and see if there is any magic when focalizing on two dorian modes.

 

[Tin Ear]

Well, I was offered the job but after mulling over it I am going to decline the offer. Although the money is good, it is too risky. As I mentioned above my wife is crippled and relies on my money and benefits. I don't want to commit to this start up company with questionable views on professionalism only to have them fold...with me left holding the bag. If I were younger, I just might "go for it." But these days I have to tread with a more measured step.

 

[ripock]

I played around with the two dorian modes: A Dorian #11 and F# Dorian b2. I found that the big linkage was the A. The A is the highest note on the string of one of them and the lowest on the other. I don't have any thing more to say on them at this time because it is all rather new and I didn't develop a strategy yet. It was more or less a process of stumbling on noble failures and hidden gems. I did support this effort with the progression that I associate with the Dorian, the i, ii, v. That is obviously just a reordered ii V i, so it sounded good but I don't I found the voicings that would make it work effortlessly with the modes. Something that was a bit interesting was a lack of a root. I think I've jumbled things up sufficiently that nothing really sounds like the ending point. Perhaps that'll change once I start playing with a bit more of a sense of what I'm doing. Inadvertantly a plan will form itself and that plan will have a beginning and end point.

 

[ripock]

In honor of play that uke thread I pulled out my kamaka and I have to admit it is the sweetest, clearest, most resonant instrument ever. And you'd never know it playing some George Formby treacle with 1/32 notes. If you play it softly and slowly and with some intent, you can see why these things cost so much.

I melodized what my wife called the saddest song she's ever heard. And I did with only 3 strings as the high G string is rather dead to me.

The centerpiece was the F# G A sequence of the F# Lorian b2 at the 6th fret. I mainly used the C string but sometimes used the E strings B and C# (or C if I wanted to slip into the F# Lokrian 13).

The two things I was using lower on the fretboard was partial A Dorian #11 (not using the unusable G string) and the partial F# Dorian b2 (only using the E and A strings). On the fretboard above there was the Full A Dorian #11.

So I had plenty of space working between the 2nd and 12th frets. I learned a few things. The best way to end a phrase was the D# and E. That had in inexorable sense of completion which is a no-brainer since that's the leading-tone and root of the scale.

So I played dulcetly, lugubriously, and with musical intent. I played quite some time and it reminded me of some of Daniel Ward's meditations which emphasized wringing the expressiveness and musicality by playing thoughtfully which cannot be duplicated banging out five foot two eyes of blue

 

[ploverwing]

So I played dulcetly, lugubriously, and with musical intent. I played quite some time and it reminded me of some of Daniel Ward's meditations which emphasized wringing the expressiveness and musicality by playing thoughtfully which cannot be duplicated banging out five foot two eyes of blue

I really like those meditations, there is a lot of value in having something like that which encourages that level/type of attention.

 

[ripock]

I really like those meditations, there is a lot of value in having something like that which encourages that level/type of attention.

It is something I picked up from Samantha Muir a few years ago. In the ukulele world everyone's always demanding more: more volume, better bracing for more volume, more projection. It has always struck me as the barking of a terrier: little dog trying to compensate. It just feels better to me to play more intimately. But of course I don't play in an ensemble. I am by conception a soloist, so my way makes more sense for me yet wouldn't operate so well if I were flailing out "stand by me" with a score of other ukes.

 

[bbkobabe]

Do you ever sing while you play?