KRJ's meandering topics

Aug 8 02:09 UTC 1999

I can't resist grabbing item #200 for my own vanity item.
A couple of years back, mziemba had a good run with a miscellaneous
item:32 , so I'll start a new rambling one.

response 2 of 131:

Aug 8 14:32 UTC 1999

I thought there was a Negativland item in here somewhere, since we've got a
few fans of theirs, but I can't find it anywhere, so... I stopped by the New
Improved Larger Record Exchange the other day (where Disc-go-round used to
be, before I left town for a few weeks and alien being moved all the stores
around), and I ran across "A big 10-8 place".  Um.  Well.  Er....uh...

It's interesting....

response 4 of 131:

Aug 10 19:07 UTC 1999

Well, I'm going to meander in a totally different direction.  I can't 
keep up with the gourmet music recordings you all seem to find; I have 
but MTV, public radio, and college radio to sate my cravings, and I am a 
poor music student :>

My current frustration is not having a classical guitar teacher.  I miss 
lessons horribly.  I studied with a colleague of mine who is a guitar 
major and incidentally, is from my hometown.  We had to be all hush-hush 
about it since the Music Dept. charges students to give private lessons 
in the music building; we were therefore doing lessons under the table.

It is also a temptation not to 'upgrade' my guitar again.  Brazilian 
rosewood for the back and sides is preferred for its exquisite sound, 
however, mine is made simply of walnut.  You may recall if you read 
Spring Agora that I visited Herb David's and had a chance to play a 
Ramirez, a line of guitars named for one of the most fabled family of 
luthiers in Spain.  The 2A model I handled played very easily; I 
marveled at how they could get the action so low without the strings 
buzzing on the frets.

Of course, I have lovely resources where I can get high quality strings 
wholesale (much cheaper than retail), but it would be a better idea if I 
started practicing much more and started playing better.

Poverty sucks.

response 6 of 131:

Aug 11 03:19 UTC 1999

Sorry, that should be Guitar Center, not Guitar World.  Same
difference - they're still assholes.

response 8 of 131:

Aug 12 15:49 UTC 1999

That's the factory where they make the sex chemicals.....
There's no other possibility!

response 10 of 131:

Aug 12 19:15 UTC 1999

I wish that particular stereotype would end.

This whole bullshit notion that girls play the piano started back in the 
Classical and Romantic eras, when upper middle and high class women were 
expected to learn to play the piano as part of social and cultural 
training.  However, they were never expected to play really well; all 
the musical composers were men.  Thus, Mozart wrote fairly simple 
cadenzas that his younger, less experienced female students could 
handle, while he would improvise much flashier and technically brilliant 
ones.

But incidentally, this same social training of women bore out for the 
classical guitar as well.  Many of these same women could be taught to 
play it for social affairs, although this occured much earlier, in the 
Baroque period.  The Anna Magdelena handbook was arranged and compiled 
by J.S. Bach as a method book, a method book for his wife (Anna) to play 
the four-course guitar.  The works are considered masterpieces for the 
beginning guitarist.  (I can almost guarantee that most everyone has at 
least heard the Minuet in G; it's played by almost every piano student, 
and it was arranged as a pop song in the '60s.)  Piano students 
frequently play these pieces, but I have played them both for piano and 
guitar, and I can say confidently they are written more with the guitar 
in mind.

I think the idea of women playing these early guitars never held on for 
long-- I can't remember documentation indicating they played much past 
the Baroque era.  The piano was much more popular.  But, for that 
matter, the guitar was not considered a serious concert instrument until 
the 20th century, thanks to the tireless work of the late Spaniard 
Andres Segovia.

Guitars were considered for the longest time to be an instrument of the 
tavern musicians, and the heritage still plays true for the steel-string 
players, both acoustic and electric, although the acoustical player is 
more likely to be playing the coffee shops these days.  The flamenco 
version of the guitar was considered the most serious of the acoustics 
for the longest time, thanks to the long Inquisition in Spain =P (so the 
guitar was mainly a folk instrument played as accompaniment to folk 
dancing).

Anyway, I'm babbling.  I suppose you should just say that if you don't 
get better service, you're going to get Lita Ford to come over and kick 
their asses.  (Who knows.. she might do it or send them a nasty reply 
about how girls CAN play electrics).  By the by, Natalie, girls do play 
guitars-- they are just all assumed to be folkies playing steel-string 
acoustics.  Sheesh.  Where the hell did the girl rockers in the biz go?

Also, a lot of rocker and metal guys in the biz are sexist.  I think it 
was Lita Ford who said a member of Lynard Skynard or some other group 
said, "You play guitar pretty good..for a woman."  Her reply?  "Yeah, 
you play guitar pretty good too..for a chimpanzee."

response 12 of 131:

Aug 13 00:38 UTC 1999

I was being sarcastic... :)

I think that, since the era of the guitar hero was ushered in by
Hendrix et al., that electric guitars are associated with... er,
how shall I put this?  Male masturbatory-type activity.  The guitar
becomes an extension of the Rawk Gawd's sexuality, is used to attract
groupies, etc.  (Read "The Real Frank Zappa Book" for some of Frank's
commentary on this phenomenon.)

Also, technical prowess in general is associated with men.  Most
cooks are women, but most CHEFS (i.e., gourmet and professional)
are men.

Anyway, the first time I managed to get a strap onto my guitar,
strapped it on and gave myself the obligatory once-over in the mirror,
I thought, "God!  I look like a demure girl folk singer!"  Which
is kind of strange, since my entire repertoire consists of Robyn
Hitchcock and Neutral Milk Hotel songs.

I'm babbling, aren't I?

response 14 of 131:

Aug 13 16:24 UTC 1999

I've actually decided to sell my guitar and take up the singing saw.
Then *nobody* will mess with me 'cos I'm a girl!