Stub Mandrel

I get very confused by the 'main source of income' makes you a professional. I'm a Chartered Environmentalist, but in some years less than 50% of my income comes from what I would class as environmental work. Does that mean in those years I'm not doing it professionally? Equally a few percent of my income comes from writing books, is that amateur writing?

I always thought of the Dead as a sort of 'American Hawkwind' but looking back that applies more to the deadheads than the band. Musically I suspect they are more of an American Fairport Convention. I have Live Dead, Dylan and the Dead and Terrapin Station. I'd agree the live ones are much more engaging. Not sure I could handle about 5,000 hours of them though 🙂

The Spondz made me do it! That's your favourite bit, isn't it?

Have no fear!

Tackle a kit, it's much less challenging but still really satisfying!

It's a sort of more tasteful version of an Alembic.

Not much seller feedback for Shelob_666...

It's getting sinister. Amazon sent me a £34.60 gift voucher as my affiliate fees built up over several years! I went searching and looked at bluetooth speakers in the range £15-50. Each page of 10 examples had about 6-9 sponsored links sprinkled through teh list, all priced £32-35. Do you think they know exactly what I have to spend?

The obvious response is something like: "Will you play for free?" "No, but we'll play if you cover our costs." "How much is that?" "About twice what you normally pay."

A 'stan' is an obsessive fan as in the Eminem song..

It's the heat.

I'm going to organise a horde of K-pop stans to flood the system with bogus orders so Ped ends up selling us vast quantities for peanuts 😉 <edit> Then I'm gonna learn to spell...

The number of distinct sounds available to you exceed both the number of stars in the known universe and trying them all out would take longer than the age of the Earth...

I love music and listen to it every day. I try and play every day, these days. I'll listen to almost anything. I sometimes listen to Radio 1, and I'm sometimes surprised by something really good, usually disappointed how nearly good most of it is. I struggle with Radio 2. When I was a kid they played the 'pop' music your parents used to listen to and gave a home to obscure folk/jazz. Today, they seem to focus on playing the music that no-one wants to hear. I say put Lisa Tarbuck, Steve Wright and Elaine Page on top of a Falcon Heavy and accidentally send them to Venus instead of Mars... ... and they can take their prosecco with them...

A few weeks ago, after several decades of havering, I finally bought a copy of rumours (I realise it's effectively a completely different band). I was surprised to discover 2 or 3 songs I didn't recognise.

Watch it drummers, you are like boyfriends. Easily replaced by a plastic object a few inches long with batteries.

This is one thing I read a couple of months ago, there was something on Classic FM website as well, I think. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/06/why-classical-musicians-need-to-learn-how-to-improvise

A more interesting debate is the one currently bubbling away on the classical music scene. Up to about 120 years ago, improvisation was the norm, so your 'classical' musicians at the level of soloists would be expected to be able to extemporise and innovate on the hoof. It was only during the 20th century that playing by the score became de rigeur; rather like the standardisation of all the variations of Shakespeare's plays (many of which had been cut and pasted with each other or had large chunks by other writers inserted by 1900). Just as theatres like the Globe try and recapture an 'authentic' Tudor performance, the debate is now should improvisational skills be taught as part of a classical music education and brought back into performance. The mere existence of this debate suggest that, at present, formal musical training does, at least discourage experimentation - at least among performers, if not composers.

THCPKTLC But I think thisis going spare now, so you could use it?

Cheers Blue, but I don't want you out of pocket on my account.

Can you export Maple Road T's at a sensible price?

TOTP always felt slightly embarrassed to have any band that performed with that sort of gusto.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you... Oh, actually as a little star you're almost certainly a white dwarf comprised almost entirely of carbon and oygen... but why am I singing to you? You haven't got ears.