Juggling Smorgasbord

"a juggling smorgasbord"

pogentertainment, YouTube (November 14, 2006)
video, 3:36

"A selection of some of our juggling takeouts and passing.

"For bookings or more info about circus performances and workshops, please visit http://www.circusentertainment.com.au"

Three - and, once, four - folks juggling Indian clubs. No food. Also no sound.

These folks definitely practiced before shooting the video: an impressive, if impassive, display.

Enjoy.

Circular Breathing, Human Qualities, and Not Bugging Your Listeners

"CIRCULAR BREATHING FOR OBOE: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE"
Martin Schuring, Associate Professor of Music, Arizona State University (2007)

"Circular breathing is an essential part of oboe technique. Everyone who has learned the technique will never give it up. However, circular breathing is regarded with suspicion by some, who regard it as a virtuoso party trick that distorts the natural human qualities of music. So, it is important not to use it in that way. Circular breathing is not really intended to increase the distance between breathing points. Rather, it is a wonderful technique that can enhance playing and increase comfort. Increased comfort gives increased endurance, more stability, better tone quality, and less tension.

"There are two elements to the technique. You must be able to "spit" air through the reed rather than blowing. And, you must be able to breathe in and out through your nose while spitting the air in your mouth...."

I see circular breathing - sustaining a note with air stored in the cheeks rather than direct from the lungs - as a difficult-to-master technique which enhances a performance.

I'll admit to a bias. I've sat through a fair number of recitals with a whole lot of "natural human qualities." Like the pianist who grunted on roughly every third note: loudly enough to be heard ten rows back. The fellow with a woodwind who vocalized each time he inhaled. Not so loudly - but imagine Ravel's "Pavane for a Dead Princess" punctuated by an inhaled "AAAAH!" every few measures.

I'll take my music without quite so many "human" elements, thank you.

Still, Schuring has a point: any technique can be misused. Including keeping time and playing on-key, I suppose.

Here's another page on circular breathing, from the same institution, but by a different person:

• "How Can I Learn Circular Breathing"
  Dr. Robert S. Spring, DMA, Professor of Music, Arizona State University (1993)

Coffee Art Video

"kahve sanatı.."

designerbb, YouTube (November 10, 2007)
video, 3:06

For those of you who don't read Turkish, the title of this video is "coffee art.."

The video has ambient sound, but no narration - and none is needed, in my opinion. You'll see over a half-dozen examples of coffee art, along with the steps taken to make several of them.

Some are abstract patterns - or flowers, I'm not sure. Pretty, though.

Some are faces. Whoever was doing the coffee art seems to like doing cute cartoon rabbits.

The steps are shown in enough detail for viewers to have a shot at making coffee art on their own, but I'd say that you'd have to go through a lot of cups of coffee (latte?) and creamer(?) to get these results.

Theoretical Skills are Practical, Too

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox post of February 26, 2007, identifies "Life-Long Computer Skills" as generalized skills like search strategies, how to tell if information is credible, and basic debugging techniques (the digital equivalent of "is the unit plugged in?).

This would be a good read for parents or educators. Learning specific button-pushing skills for this year's software can be handy, but such skills get obsolete very fast.

Learning how to think about problems, how to evaluate information, and how to search for data are getting more important as the Internet is becoming as important as the telephone.

My own experience relates here: Back in the early 1970s, I developed a search/evaluate/collect system for gathering information and quotes for term papers.

Later, in library science classes, I learned how hierarchal indexing systems worked: not just what codes applied to which subjects in one system, but why information was organized the way it was.

Much later, in computer science classes, I learned how information is stored, transmitted, and processed in computers: again, not just the 'flange A goes in slot B' stuff, but how and why data is handled.

Today, I believe I use Google and other search resources more effectively because I apply the essence of that term-paper research process to online research.

Understanding how hierarchal systems work, and the how-and-why of how computers and other information systems handle data has been a huge help at work, and at home.

If you're still reading, and agree with me, check out "Life-Long Computer Skills" - it might be useful.